Editing Drawn Objects

Unlike drawings in paint programs the actual lines describing the vector objects created using these tools can be edited after they have been drawn.

The object is made up of a series of points (called nodes) with a straight or curved line connecting them. You can move the nodes to different positions, you can add or remove nodes and you can change the shape of the lines between the nodes and whether they can turn sharp corners at the nodes or whether they are smooth.

To edit an object in this way you must select it and then click on it again. The nodes of the object will now appear as small squares along the lines of the object and the cursor will change to an arrowhead.

$image\Example_Vector_1.jpg$

A node-editing toolbar will also appear allowing you to change the properties of the nodes.

$image\Toolbar_Vector.jpg$

You can now select individual nodes by clicking on them or select a series of nodes by holding down the Shift key while you click on them.

You can also draw a box to surround a group of nodes to select them all by clicking inside the dashed outline around the object and dragging with the mouse button. A second dotted line box will be drawn temporarily on the screen and any nodes that fall within that box will become selected.

$image\Example_Vector_2.jpg$

A selected node will turn into a circle; in multiple selections the most recent node is a circle while others in the selection become small diamonds.

Once you have selected the node(s) you can click and drag the mouse cursor to move the nodes wherever you wish or you can use the following toolbar options:

$image\Icon_Vector_Add.jpg$

Add a Node – this is only active when you have two nodes selected and it will add a third node between the two nodes. If you have more than two nodes selected it will add an extra node between each pair.

$image\Icon_Vector_Delete.jpg$

Delete a Node – clicking on this button removes any selected nodes. Alternatively you can simply press the Delete key.

$image\Icon_Vector_Break.jpg$

Break Apart – this option will break open the shape at the point you have selected. You cannot have more than one break in a shape.

$image\Icon_Vector_Close.jpg$

Close Shape – this allows you to close a shape. If the two end nodes are close to each other they will be joined together, otherwise drawing a connecting line between them will join them. You must have the two end nodes of a line selected.

$image\Icon_Vector_Smooth.jpg$

Smooth Curve – requires the line to move through the point smoothly. Thus any editing of the curve you do will also affect the curve on the other side of the node as it tries to keep the curve smooth.

$image\Icon_Vector_Sharp.jpg$

Sharp Curve – this allows the curve of the line coming into the node to be edited independently of the line leaving the node thus allowing you to create sharp changes of direction. In drawing programs this is often referred to as a cusp node.

$image\Icon_Vector_To_Curve.jpg$

To Curve – changes a straight line into a curve.

$image\Icon_Vector_To_Line.jpg$

To Line – changes a curved line into a straight line.

Editing Curves

In addition to editing the position of nodes or changing the way the lines pass through them you can also edit the shape of the curves themselves. When you select a node attached to a curve you will notice two small editing controls appear attached to the node by a dotted line.

$image\Example_Vector_3.jpg$

If you click and drag on these editing handles the shape of the curve will change and you can edit it to the required shape.

$image\Example_Vector_4.jpg$

The way in which the editing handles affect the curves will be affected by whether the node is set to require Smooth Curves or Sharp Curves as detailed above.

Advanced Note:

When editing nodes it may be useful to magnify the page using the Zoom tool $image\Icon_Tool_Zoom.jpg$ on the Tools toolbar. You should note that when moving the node in an expanded view, the node will snap to the nearest pixel space on the page. Because a pixel is so small, it is unlikely the snap feature will make a difference to the shape you want to create.

Polygon Edit

As well as editing individual nodes, you can use the Edit Vector toolbar to edit the Polygon, by clicking on the Polygon Edit button $image\Icon_Tool_Polygon_Edit.jpg$ . A Polygon is any shape you can draw with the Vector tool and fill with a colour e.g. a square, a circle or an AutoShape. You can join two or more objects together using the Connect Contours option, as described below.

Connecting two polygons together:

Use the Vector tool to draw two polygons on a page that intersect with each other. For example, draw a large circle and a smaller circle inside the large circle – see Example 1.
Hold the Shift key down and select both polygon objects – see Example 2.

Note:
If each polygon selected contains a different fill colour, the fill colour of the last object selected will be the fill colour for the new polygon created.

Right-click over the selected objects to open the right-click menu.
Select Connect Contours from the right-click menu – the two objects will become one new Polygon – areas that intersect will be cut out (i.e. you will be able to see through the hole created) – see Example 3.

This option is very useful if you want to make holes in your polygon so that you can see other objects beneath the polygon.

Note:
At any time you can revert a polygon created with the Connect Contours option back to the individual polygons by selecting Disconnect Contours from the right-click menu. This option will work even when a publication has been saved, closed and then re-opened.