CorelDRAW X5 The Official Guide part 30 ppsx

Changing the object order lets you rearrange overlapping objects without changing their position on the page.. Here’s how each of the object order commands works: ● To Front Of Page CTR

option is not selected, new values you set for absolute, nonrelative position move an object

to the absolute location shown on your current ruler position

Rotating Objects

With Rotate, you can make multiple copies, and enter exact angles of rotation based on degrees and in default increments of 5 using the spin boxes Figure 9-10 shows two very different results when using relative and absolute positioning and making two copies of the teakettle

Entering negative values rotates an object clockwise, while positive values cause

counterclockwise rotation Selecting the Relative Center option allows either Vertical or Horizontal to rotate objects, according to the object’s center marker position, and the position of that is specified as either V or H You can specify a new center origin position for your object’s rotation by changing the existing value in the H and V boxes When Relative Center is not selected, your object is rotated according to the page center.

Scale and Mirror Objects

The Scale and Mirror transformation has features for entering precise changes in object size

You can also cause the object to be flipped either V or H, and/or simultaneously, by clicking

one of the two mirror buttons, as shown in Figure 9-11

When the Proportional option is unchecked, your object’s new horizontal and vertical scale values are unlinked, meaning you can apply scaling commands to either the width

or height, independent of each other While the Proportional option is checked, width and

height scaling operations are locked to each other This means that scaling the width

or height by a given percentage value causes the adjacent value to be calculated automatically

to preserve your selected object’s original proportions

FIGURE 9-9 This object was precisely moved by applying a Position transformation

Original position New position

Object moved 2 inches

FIGURE 9-10 The Rotation transformation features an offset option when you choose Relative

positioning for duplicates of the original object

FIGURE 9-11 Both Scale and Mirror changes were applied to the drawing

Original object shape New object scaled 50 percentand mirrored horizontally

Sizing Objects

This transformation type gives you the option to change either the V and/or H measure of an object selection based on the values entered For example, entering 2 inches in the H box

and clicking the Apply button causes the selected object to be scaled to a width of 2 inches When the Proportional option is unchecked, the width and height values can be changed independently While the Proportional option is selected, width and height values are linked and calculated automatically to alter the size of the object proportionally

Precision Skewing

The term skew means to change the position of two sides of a shape in a parallel fashion while leaving the other two sides alone; slanting is a more common term for “skew.” The

Skew transformation also gives you the chance to apply both vertical and horizontal skew independently or simultaneously by entering degree measures, in turn, transforming the

object either V or H As with rotation commands, negative degree values cause clockwise

skews, while positive values cause counterclockwise skews Choosing the Use Anchor Point option enables you to specify left, center, right, top, bottom, sides, or corner points as the point around which your objects are skewed, as shown in Figure 9-12 The skewed copy more or less looks like a cast shadow of the original symbol, doesn’t it?

FIGURE 9-12 A precision Skew changes both the angle and the size of this object in a single

command

Object horizontally skewed 45 degrees using bottom-right origin

Original object

Controlling the Order of Things

How your objects are ordered is another consideration when organizing drawing objects in a

composition The order of objects determines whether an object appears in front of—or

behind—another object Your page and the pasteboard (the area surrounding your document

page) are always the backmost point, while your screen is always the frontmost point All

objects are layered between these two points

When overlapping objects are ordered, they appear in front of or behind each other,

according to their order As you create each new object, it is put in front of all existing

objects on the current document layer Changing the object order lets you rearrange

overlapping objects without changing their position on the page To do this, CorelDRAW

has a series of order commands that let you shuffle the order of objects in various ways

You’ll find them in the Arrange | Order submenu, but you can also apply them using shortcut

keys; a list follows

The hierarchy of object ordering on a layer is very different from object layers.

Although layers each have their own collections of objects that can be ordered in a

sequence, the layers themselves can also be ordered This means that if you’re

trying to control the ordering of two or more objects, check the status bar to make

sure they’re on the same layer If you skipped over Chapter 4, that chapter explains

layers and provides some fun working examples of layers and the Object Manager.

Here’s how each of the object order commands works:

● To Front Of Page ( CTRL+HOME ) This command puts objects on top of all

objects on the uppermost layer If your composition has only one layer, these two

page commands simply do what To Front and To Back Of Layer do You will

receive an attention box concerning moving objects to different layers—you can

permanently dismiss this box by checking the Don’t Show Warning Again check

box

● To Back Of Page ( CTRL+END ) The converse of To Front Of Page, this command

puts the selected objects on the back of the object order on the bottom layer of the

page

● To Front Of Layer This command shuffles your selected object(s) to the very

front of the current layer PressSHIFT+PAGE UPor choose Arrange | Order | To Front

to apply it The To Front command is also available as a property bar button when an

object is selected

● To Back Of Layer This command shuffles your selected object(s) to the very back

of the current layer PressSHIFT+PAGE DOWNor choose Arrange | Order | To Back

to apply it The To Back command is also available as a property bar button while an

object is selected

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● Forward One This command shuffles your selected object(s) forward by one in the object order of the current layer PressCTRL+PAGE UPor choose Arrange | Order

| Forward One to apply it

● Back One This command shuffles your selected object(s) backward by one in the object order of the current layer PressCTRL+PAGE DOWNor choose Arrange | Order

| Back One to apply it

● In Front Of This command is interactive and puts your selected object directly in front of any object you specify in the current layer order A targeting cursor will appear, and you use it to choose which object to shuffle your selection in front of Choose Arrange | Order | In Front Of to apply it

● Behind This command also causes a targeting cursor to appear, enabling you to specify which object you want your object selection to be shuffled behind in the object order on the current layer Choose Arrange | Order | Behind to apply it

● Reverse Order This command effectively shuffles the order of your selected object so that it’s in the reverse of its current order on the layer Front objects become back objects and vice versa, as shown in Figure 9-13 For example, if your objects were numbered 1, 2, 3, and 4 from front to back, applying this command would cause them to become reordered to 4, 3, 2, and 1 Choose Arrange | Order | Reverse Order to apply it

FIGURE 9-13 You can quickly change the order of objects within a layer by using

Reverse Order

Original order Order after using ReverseOrder command

When changing object order using the Reverse Order command, grouped objects

are considered a single object, so their relative order in the group will be preserved.

To reorder objects within a group, you’ll need to Ungroup ( CTRL+U ) the objects

before applying the command.

Hopefully this chapter has shown you not only how to transform objects, but also your

skill level with CorelDRAW You now know how to move, scale, rotate, and perform other

operations on page objects and their duplicates You also know how to both manually

transform and use the dockers and other features for precise moving and alignment of the

elements you need for a terrific design Chapter 10 takes you into creating these shapes that

you now know how to move Put Chapters 9 and 10 together, and your family’s going to

start missing you, because you’ll be having too much fun designing to sit down for regular

dinners!

9

Working with Object Tools

Drawing and Editing

Objects

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