Arranging and Organizing Objects in Software

Making QR-Code in Software Arranging and Organizing Objects

orelDRAW offers plenty of arrangement functions; once you ve designed scads of objects, the need to group, distribute, and align them becomes obvious This chapter takes you through all the commands to keep things from accidentally moving apart, to lock objects to a page (and to unlock them!), to use layers so you can hide objects and print only those you want visible, and more Additionally, one of the exclusive features of CorelDRAW is a function to search on the specific property of an object You ll soon see that if you ve drawn a needle in a drawing of a haystack, finding it later is child s play

You ve seen a group of kids, perhaps playing a sport or hanging out at the mall They tend to follow each other when they travel, and it takes nothing less than a dinner bell to separate them CorelDRAW objects can be arranged similarly, except the objects don t hit you up for movie money The Group command in CorelDRAW creates an association for multiple object selections; the command is available when two or more objects are selected A group behaves as if it were a single unit; any changes made to a group affect all objects in the group For example, if you have three objects, each with different fills and outline widths, and you select the group, click a new color on the color palette, and then define a new outline width on the Property Bar all objects in the group take on the new color and outline property Call it peer pressure CorelDRAW X4 indicates on the Status Bar that a group is selected Grouping is a convenient and simple way to organize a collection of objects at a very basic level in CorelDRAW (more complex methods are demonstrated later in this chapter) Each object in a group is called a child Groups of objects can also include other groups; it s very easy and sometimes a desired thing to create groups of groups To group objects together:

Select them using the Pick Tool, and then click the Group button in the Property Bar, shown here Alternatively, you can use the CTRL+G shortcut The command is also available on the pop-up menu when you right-click a multiple selection of objects However, you need to make certain that your cursor is over one of the several selected shapes to get the Group command on the pop-up menu

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Selecting several objects in the workspace can be accomplished by SHIFT-clicking with the Pick Tool, but it s often more convenient to marquee-select objects Marqueeselection is performed by click-diagonal dragging on the page to create an imaginary rectangle that completely surrounds the objects you want to select and then group Ungrouping a group returns the objects to their original, isolated state It s also one of the most frequently used CorelDRAW commands, so you can Ungroup a selected group in several ways:

Click the Ungroup button in the Property Bar Or use the CTRL+U shortcut Alternatively, choose Ungroup from the pop-up menu after right-clicking a selected group of objects

Ungroup works with a single group and also with several groups you might select at one time Because a group is treated as a single entity in CorelDRAW, you can easily make groups of groups Groups within groups are called nested groups To Ungroup a group and any groups it already contains in a single command, you can use the Ungroup All command Choosing Ungroup All undoes the group relationship for all grouped, nested items in the group However, be cautious using this command; if you ve nested groups within groups with some planning, all the planning goes to waste when you use Ungroup All Think of nuts, bolts, and washers, each category grouped in a little drawer, and all the drawers grouped in a cabinet Ungroup All performs the equivalent of pouring all the nuts, bolts, and washers onto the table You can edit and make changes to the properties of a grouped object; the trick is to temporarily pick out the member of the group while the group is still together You choose the Pick Tool, hold CTRL as a modifier key, and then click a specific object in the group to specify that child object as a selection If the child object is part of a nested group itself, holding the CTRL key and clicking a second time selects a child in the group While a child object is selected, the selection handles surrounding it are circular instead of square, as shown at right:

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