Adobe InDesign CS4 - Manual (Page 338)

330 USING INDESIGN CS4
Drawing
2 Press Backspace (Windows) or Delete (Mac OS) to delete the selected segment. Pressing Backspace or Delete again
erases the rest of the path.
Delete the handle of an anchor point
• Using the Convert Anchor Point Tool (Illustrator) or the Convert Direction Point Tool (InDesign), click the
anchor point of the handle.
• Drag the direction point and drop it onto the anchor point.
Extend an open path
1 Using the Pen tool, position the pointer over the endpoint of the open path you want to extend. The pointer changes
when it’s precisely positioned over the endpoint.
2 Click the endpoint.
3 Do one of the following:
• To create a corner point, position the Pen tool where you want to end the new segment, and click. If you are
extending a path that ends at a smooth point, the new segment will be curved by the existing direction line.
Note: In Illustrator, if you extend a path that ends in a smooth point, the new segment will be straight.
• To create a smooth point, position the Pen tool where you want to end the new curved segment, and drag.
Connect two open paths
1 Using the Pen tool, position the pointer over the endpoint of the open path that you want to connect to another
path. The pointer changes when it’s precisely positioned over the endpoint.
2 Click the endpoint.
3 Do one of the following:
• To connect the path to another open path, click an endpoint on the other path. When you precisely position the
Pen tool over the other path’s endpoint, a small merge symbol
appears next to the pointer.
• To connect a new path to an existing path, draw the new path near the existing path, and then move the Pen tool
to the existing path’s (unselected) endpoint. Click that endpoint when you see the small merge symbol that appears
next to the pointer.
In InDesign, you can also use the Pathfinder panel to join paths. To close the path of an open path, use the Selection
tool to select the path and click Close Path in the Pathfinder panel. To close the end points between two paths, select
the paths and click Join Path. You may want to click Join Path a second time to join the second endpoint.
Move or nudge anchor points or segments using the keyboard
1 Select the anchor point or path segment.
Note: In Photoshop, you can move only anchor points in this manner.
2 Click or hold down any of the arrow keys on the keyboard to move 1 pixel at a time in the direction of the arrow.
Hold down the Shift key in addition to the arrow key to move 10 pixels at a time.
Note: In Illustrator and InDesign, you can change the distance of a nudge by changing the Keyboard Increment
preference. When you change the default increment, holding down Shift nudges 10 times the specified distance.
Updated 18 June 2009