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CorelDraw 101: Basic Toolbox
Object Overview
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What is an object?
In CorelDraw, an object is any item you create or import into your
document. It may be a rectangle, a circle, text, a photograph. All
work in CorelDraw is done through selecting an object. Various effects
can be applied to an object depending on the type of object and the
tool you have selected. For this tutorial, choose the Rectangle Tool
and create a rectangle. (See Rectangle Tool tutorial in this series.)
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Pick Tool Selection
Choose the Pick Tool from the Toolbox and click on the rectangle.
Note the 8 square "handles" that surround the square. These
handles indicate that the object is active. You can resize the rectangle
proportionately by clicking and dragging on the corner handles. The
side handles resize only in one direction.
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Move Object
Click and drag anywhere on a filled object, or on the outline of an
object that has no fill to move. Release mouse button when object is
in desired position. Click anywhere off the rectangle to deselect.
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Rotate Object
Double click on the rectangle. Note how the handles change to double-ended
arrows. This indicates that the object can be rotated or skewed. Click
and drag on corner handles to rotate. Press the CTRL key while you rotate
to constrain the rotation to 15 degree increments. Note the target-like
icon in the middle of the rectangle when the rotate selection is active.
Click and drag this icon to change the point of rotation. Click off
the rectangle to deselect.
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Skew Object
Double click on the rectangle and the double-ended selection arrows
will appear. Click and drag on one of the side handles to skew the rectangle.
Release mouse button when desired effect is created.
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Shape Tool Selection
Delete the distorted rectangle. Draw a new rectangle. Choose the Shape
Tool from the Toolbox and click on the rectangle. Note the selection
now appears as four corner handles and dotted lines. This indicates
that the object is active with the Shape Tool. Click and drag on one
of the corner handles. Note how the corners become round. The Shape
Tool and Pick Tool have very different functions with objects.
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Node Selection
Choose the Freehand Tool from the Toolbox. Click and drag to create
a curved line. (See Freehand Tool tutorial.) Release the mouse button.
Choose the Shape Tool. There should be three or four blank squares
along the line. These are nodes, and can be moved individually. Click
on a node. Note how it becomes black, indicating that this node is
active. The dotted lines coming from the node control the shape of
the line (see next step). Drag the selected node a short way. Note
how the line shape changes.
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Controlling Curves
Click and drag the handle at the end of the dotted line coming from
the node. This is a control point. As you drag the control point,
note how the shape of the line changes. The blue line in the sample
above shows the progression of the line shape as you drag the control
point. Release the mouse when you have the shape you desire.
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 Wendy
Peck is a working Web designer and writer living in NW Ontario, Canada.
http://wpeck.com
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Next page
CorelDraw 101: Basic Toolbox Tutorial Index
Object Overview
Pick Tool Overview
Shape Tool Overview
Zoom Tool Overview
Freehand Tool Overview
Rectangle Tool Overview
Ellipse Tool Overview
Spiral Tool Overview
Polygon Tool Overview
Graph Paper Tool Overview
 
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