Right-Click ‘til You Drop

Drag-and-dupe is one of many important uses for the second button on your mouse, track ball, or tablet. In normal use (i.e., not in the middle of a transformation), pressing Button 2 (or “right-clicking”) activates a context-sensitive menu of functions and commands. If you have selected a rectangle, the context menu will be different than if you have selected a string of text.

Our advice to you is simple: right-click on everything! Corel has done a pretty good job of providing pop-up menus that include the important operations connected with each type of object or screen element. Just don’t try to remember all the details. Instead, right-click on every possible screen element, every object, tool, and icon, and take note of the various options that appear.

	NOTE When we give instructions throughout the book, most of the time we’ll refer you to the traditional methods of invoking commands or clicking icons, and we’ll let you know when a hotkey is available. You can take other routes as you like, such as using the context menu, going to a custom toolbar, or using a script.

Step by Step: Spyrograph Revisited

We’re just starting out with DRAW, yet you already know enough to work the program and produce a simple piece of art. Try this:

1.  Click the Ellipse tool in the toolbox and move out to the page.

2.  Create an ellipse of any size or shape. Notice that when you finish drawing the ellipse, the Ellipse tool is still active, enabling you to continue drawing ellipses.

3.  Create a second ellipse, this time holding Ctrl while you drag. The result is a perfect circle.

4.  Create another ellipse, this time holding Shift. Shift forces the ellipse to draw from the center out in all directions.

5.  Create an ellipse while holding both Ctrl and Shift. The result is a perfect circle drawn from the center out in all directions. These two keys behave the same for rectangles and polygons.

6.  Select all objects on the page (Edit Ø Select All Ø Objects, Ctrl+A, or double-click the Pick tool) and delete them.

7.  Now draw one thin ellipse, as shown below.

8.  Color it blue, or some dark color other than black (the outline is black and it will look better if the interior is a different color).

9.  Change to the Pick tool (use the toolbox or just press the spacebar), and click once on the ellipse to get the rotation handles.

10.  Click on one of the corner rotation handles, and rotate the ellipse approximately 10 degrees. The property bar above the page will show you the degree of rotation as you move the handle. Don’t release Button 1 yet...

11.  While still holding down Button 1, tap Button 2. That creates a copy, as shown below.

12.  With the second ellipse still selected, press Delete to delete it.

13.  Select the original ellipse, click again for the rotation handles, and begin rotating again.

14.  This time, however, press and hold Ctrl while you rotate. As discussed earlier, this constrains the rotation to 15-degree increments. You’ll get immediate confirmation of this as the ellipse snaps from one position to the next (the property bar will also confirm the constraint).

15.  While still holding Ctrl and while still holding Button 1 (this is like an aerobic workout for your hands), tap Button 2 to make a copy.

Take your hand off the mouse for a moment to review (and rest your fingers!). In steps 12 through 15, you selected an object, began rotating it, constrained its rotation, and made a copy. DRAW sees all of those things as one maneuver. That means that it can be repeated easily. Watch:

16.  Go to Edit Ø Repeat Rotate (and note its shortcut of Ctrl+R). Suddenly, another ellipse appears.

17.  Press Ctrl+R to make another one.

18.  Keep pressing Ctrl+R as the ellipses make their way around the pattern. Stop when your screen looks like the one below.

Now for the pièce de résistance.

19.  Select all the ellipses, using any of the Select All commands noted in step 6, or just by drawing a marquee around them.

20.  Choose Arrange Ø Combine (or press Ctrl+L).

21.  Press F4 to get a closer look and press Esc to remove all selection handles.

22.  Save your drawing if you would like to keep it.

Remember the discussion earlier about how Combine turns many objects into one and cuts holes from overlapping areas? This is merely a dramatic example of that—each time an ellipse was on top of another, a hole was created.

Because this is all one object, you can easily experiment with different fill patterns, and the place to go for that would be the Interactive Fill tool from the toolbox (the one that looks like a paint bucket with paint pouring out). It provides access to each fill type that DRAW offers and all of the common controls. Going from a flat color to a gradient color (one that gradually changes from one to the next) is easy, as shown below.

And applying a more exotic fill from Corel’s Texture or Bitmap libraries is also easy.

In all cases, the fill pattern displays where a closed shape is present, but disappears in the hollow areas where the Combine command cut holes in the shapes. You’ll find this 30-second masterpiece as Cool Circles.cdr on the companion Web page for this book on the Sybex Web site, www.sybex.com.