Subtitles of the Movie

Underneath the Rectangle, Ellipse, and Polygon tools here in the Vector tools section of the Tools panel, you have Auto Shapes starting with the Arrow tool and ending with the Star tool. Auto Shapes are intelligent vector object groups that adhere to specialized rules to simplify the creation and editing of common visual elements. Auto Shape tools all draw object groups, but unlike other object groups, selected Auto Shapes have diamond-shaped control points. In addition to the four blue object group handles which are usually used to modify the size and proportion of these shapes, this particular object Auto Shape here has six of these diamond-shaped control points. Each control point is associated with a particular property, or visual property of this shape. Dragging a control point alters only the associated visual property. For example, this control point here controls the arrow tip for how sharp or blunt the arrow tip is. This one here is for the height, thickness, and this last one is for the roundness of this junction right there. I can make that less round. Actually there's one more here for the arrow height, or size of that arrowhead. Notice that when you move over one of these control points, there's a tool tip that will tell you which property of the shape that control point will modify. Each Auto Shape tool creates a shape in a pre-set orientation. For example, this arrow tool will create an arrow in a horizontal direction, but you can transform Auto Shapes to change their orientation, although each Auto Shape tool in the Tools panel, uses the same easy drawing method. The editable attributes for each Auto Shape are different, so let me now review in order each of the Auto Shape tools here underneath the Polygon tool. Let me start with the Arrow tool that I've been demonstrating here. It's the first one in the list. This tool draws object groups that appear as simple arrows of any proportion. As I demonstrated, you can use control points to adjust the arrowhead flare, tail length, and width, and the tip length. Next we have the Beveled Rectangle. This draws object groups that appear as rectangles with beveled corners. The control points in this tool allow you to edit the amount of bevel for all corners together. Or you can change the bevel of individual corners, and what's really nice about these tools is that when you roll over the control points, you'll get a tool tip that will tell you how to modify them, so I can click to switch the corners, like so. This adjustment point here will resize the beveled rectangle. To control the bevel of individual corners, if you roll over the tool tip, it'll tell you to hold down the Alt key or the Option key on the Macintosh, notice that I can just control one corner bevel there. Next we get to the Chamfer rectangle underneath the Beveled rectangle. This draws object groups that appear as rectangles with Chamfers, which are corners that are rounded to the inside of the rectangle. You can edit the chamfer radius of all corners together, or, again, change the radius of individual corners, and you'll do that by holding down the Alt or Option key for that control point to adjust that single corner. Without the Alt or Option key held down you'll change all the corners. Let me go ahead and clean up my canvas here and delete all this. Next we get to the Connector Line. The Connector Line draws object groups that appear as three-segment connector lines, such as those used to connect elements of a flow chart, or organizational chart. Use the control points to edit the end-points for the first and third sections of the connector line, as well as the location of the second section which connects the first and last section, so again, you have a series of control points for adjusting various aspects of the connector line. Perhaps the most unique one here is the one in the middle. It allows you to change the curvature of that line. Also, if you click the middle control point you can change the orientation like so. Again, you can roll your mouse pointer over the control points to get tool tips for what each does, including the Alt Option combinations. Holding down the Alt or Option key allows you to adjust one end of this middle section there. Again, some practice and experimentation with these Auto Shapes will teach you most of what you need to know to use them. Let me now move on to the next movie and cover the rest of the Auto Shapes here in the Auto Shapes section, including the donut, L-shape, pie, smart polygon, spiral, and star.