Home
Username:
Password:
Adobe InDesign CS4 Tutorials

Working with Objects / Pathfinder pt. 2




Visitors to VTC.com will be able to view all introductory videos for each training course.
Free Trial Members will gain access to first three chapters for each training course.
Full Access Members have full access to VTC.com’s entire library of video tutorials.


Learn More

Subtitles of the Movie

So, create a New Page here, blank page, and we'll take a look at some of these other options up here. First of all let me just draw a rectangle here. I'll give it a fill, let's just make it red, and we'll zoom in on it like this and close up our Palette. And here we can convert Ð I didn't mean to do that; I'll undo it Ð select the Selection Tool, and here we can convert one shape to some preset shapes and this is pretty straightforward. We can create it with the rounded corner option. We don't have any option to change the corners, which we could do through the Object Menu, which we've already seen. We can have Bevel Corners, we can have Fancy Corners, and we can create an Ellipse, like that. Any time we want to go back to the rectangle you can click, like that. We can create a Triangle or we can come over and create a Polygon. Now how do we decide how many stars and what the inset is, well, if we double-click on the Polygon Tool, here the settings are here, I'll set it to 12 and the Inset to 25, click on OK and I'll just Edit, Undo Polygon Settings there because it automatically affected that because I had it selected, but if I click here now then it takes on whatever settings are built into that. Let me go back, just do a rectangle here, and a couple of options. You can Convert the Shape into a Line here; I'll undo that, or you can Convert it to Horizontal or Vertical Line. Subtle differences here: if you can convert it to a line, like this, where it's really at an angle you can go back and convert it to any shape, like that. However, if you convert it to a Horizontal or Vertical Line like that you can't go back and change it again. Kind of strange, that, but that's the way they've done it. Up here at the top we have the option for Paths and I'm just going to select the Pen Tool here and draw a simple Path like that and release. Go back to the Pen Tool. If I select it, and we'll choose this option, we can Close Paths. Conversely we can Open a Path. Now you may not be able to see where the Path opens but if you look carefully Ð and let me zoom in for this Ð you can see that these points are white, but this one here isn't so we can come over here, just move it apart, and there it's white. Next option here, the one of the front, is Connects to End Points. So if I select these End Points and connect them like that it connects and puts a line between them. I'll zoom out a little bit here, and we'll look at the last option. Let me select this and let me just draw a quick line, like this and what I'm going to do is I'm going to make this pretty thick, 10 point, and I'm going to end it with an arrow, and let's just put a square bar at the end. Oops. I moved it, but that's okay. I'll select it like this, come over and you just reverse the direction of the curve. It leaves a bit of screen dirt there, it looks as if there are two objects, but there aren't really. Select it like that, mov it, and zoom in and you can see how it's changed.

Tutorial Information

Course: Adobe InDesign CS4
Author: Brian White
SKU: 33978
ISBN: 1-935320-36-X
Release Date: 2009-03-31
Duration: 16.5 hrs / 222 lessons
Work Files: Yes
Captions: Available on CD and Online University
Compatibility: Vista/XP/2000, OS X, Linux
QuickTime 7, Flash 8

VTC Sign up & Benefits

  • Unlimited Access
  • 98,729 Video Tutorials (23,265 free)
  • Video Available as Flash or QuickTime
  • Over 1026 Courses
  • $30 for One Month Access
  • Multi-User Discounts Available