Adobe Photoshop CS4 - Manual (Page 386)

379 USING PHOTOSHOP CS4
Drawing
Last updated 1/10/2010
• To select a path segment, select the Direct Selection tool , and click one of the segment’s anchor points, or drag
a marquee over part of the segment.
Drag a marquee to select segments.
2 To select additional path components or segments, select the Path Selection tool or the Direct Selection tool, and
then hold down Shift while selecting additional paths or segments.
When the Direct Selection tool is selected, you can select the entire path or path component by Alt-clicking (Windows)
or Option-clicking (Mac OS) inside the path. To activate the Direct Selection tool when most other tools are selected,
position the pointer over an anchor point, and press Ctrl (Windows) or Command (Mac OS).
More Help topics
“ Path segments, components, and points ” on page 377
Adjust path segments
You can edit a path segment at any time, but editing existing segments is slightly different from drawing them. Keep
the following tips in mind when editing segments:
• If an anchor point connects two segments, moving that anchor point always changes both segments.
• When drawing with the Pen tool, you can temporarily activate the Direct Selection tool (InDesign and Photoshop)
so that you can adjust segments you’ve already drawn; press Ctrl (Windows) or Command (Mac
OS) while
drawing. In Illustrator, pressing Ctrl or Command while drawing activates the last-used selection tool.
• When you initially draw a smooth point with the Pen tool, dragging the direction point changes the length of the
direction line on both sides of the point. However, when you edit an existing smooth point with the Direct Selection
tool, you
change the length of the direction line only on the side you’re dragging.
Move straight segments
1 With the Direct Selection tool , select the segment you want to adjust.
2 Drag the segment to its new position.
Adjust the length or angle of straight segments
1 With the Direct Selection tool , select an anchor point on the segment you want to adjust.
2 Drag the anchor point to the desired position. Shift-drag to constrain the adjustment to multiples of 45°.
In Illustrator or InDesign, if you’re simply trying to make a rectangle wider or narrower, it’s easier to select it with the
Selection tool and resize it using one of the handles on the sides of its bounding box.