Adobe InDesign CS4 - Manual (Page 328)

320 USING INDESIGN CS4
Drawing
Drawing with the line or shape tools
Draw basic lines and shapes
1 In the toolbox, do one of the following:
• To draw a line or shape, select the Line tool , the Ellipse tool , the Rectangle tool , or the Polygon tool .
(Click and hold the Rectangle tool to select either the Ellipse or Polygon tool.)
• To draw a placeholder (empty) graphics frame, select the Ellipse Frame tool , the Rectangle Frame tool , or the
Polygon Frame tool .
2 Drag in the document window to create the path or frame. To draw from the center out, hold down Alt (Windows)
or Option (Mac OS).
To constrain a line to 45° angles, or to constrain the width and height of a path or frame to the same proportions, hold
down Shift as you drag.
Dragging to create a basic circle
Note: The result shown above displays a bounding box around the path. If the Selection tool was recently active, you’ll
see this bounding box. If the Direct Selection tool
was more recently active, the path appears with anchor points
instead.
See also
“ Selecting objects ” on page 378
“ Gallery of drawing and type tools ” on page 30
Draw a placeholder shape
A placeholder shape is an ellipse, rectangle, or polygon that appears in the document window with an X, indicating
that it should be replaced by text or an image later.
1 In the toolbox, select the Ellipse Frame tool , the Rectangle Frame tool , or the Polygon Frame tool .
2 Drag in the document window to create the path or frame. Hold down Shift to constrain the width and height of
the frame.
You can change the crop amount, reference point, and other fitting options for a placeholder frame by choosing
Object > Fitting > Frame Fitting Options.
Specify polygon settings
1 If you want the polygon settings to apply to existing shapes, select the polygons.
Updated 18 June 2009