Tools, Objects, & Layers Lecture Notes -

Objective #1: Be able to use the Drawing tools

• Line tool - hold down Shift key to constrain to a straight line
• Pen tool
• Text tool
  • click a location of the stage and typing will cause text not to be word wrapped
  • frame out a rectangular area for text and then typing will cause text to wrap around within the bounded area
  • Use the Modify/Break Apart menu command to edit individual letters of a piece of text
• Oval tool - use Shift key to draw a perfect circle
• Rectangle tool - use Shift key to draw a perfect square
• Pencil tool - Straighten, Smooth, & Ink options as well as stroke pattern attributes
• Brush tool - thickness options

Objective #2: Be able to edit drawings

• Arrow tool - many things that look like one object are really treated as separate objects. You must use Modify/Group to join independent objects.
• Subselection tool - anchor points to resize and reshape parts of objects.
• Lasso tool - can be used to break apart objects in addition to selecting objects.
• Free Transform tool - scales, skews, & rotates objects
• Fill Transform tool - modify gradient fills. Gradients are found on the Fill Color tool.
• Ink Bottle - apply a line (stroke) color to objects
• Paint Bucket tool - apply a fill color to an object
• Eyedropper tool - to copy color and other attributes from object to object
• Eraser tool - type & thickness options as well as Faucet option

Objective #3: Be able to work with objects

• use the Modify/Transform menu command to flip, rotate, and scale objects
• use the Modify/Arrange menu command to send objects behind other objects within the same layer
• use the Modify/Align menu command to align objects
• use the Arrow tool's Arc pointer to add or modify curves with an object

Objective #4: Be able to work with layers

• use the Show Outlines icon to show color coded outlines of objects from all layers at once
• using Guide layer - The Modify/Layer menu command allows you to make a layer a guide layer. A guide layer can be used to align and position objects.
• the Distribute to Layers command allows you to break apart a text block
• the Insert/Layer menu command allows you to create folders to organize your layers.
• rename, reorder, hide, lock, & delete layers.