Drawing with AppleWorks

Tips l Layers l Grouping l Clip Art l Zooming

Drawing and painting programs are similar in purpose but differ in how they accomplish the task. When you use a drawing program, you are placing separate "objects" on page which can be moved, deleted, resized or reshaped, colored, or layered. An object can be a line, circle, square, clip art, etc. A painting program applies the colors directly on the page not as objects but as individual pixels of color. You do not delete painted objects, you erase them part by part.

The new AppleWorks program has a new and different look compared to ClarisWorks. Much of this can be done using Word, but AppleWorks' dedicated drawing program is much easier and better.

 

Layers:

Sometimes it is necessary to place graphics on top of graphics or text on top of graphics. To do this, you need understand "layering of graphics." Graphics can be layered on top of each other, and the order of those layers can be rearranged. To do this:

  1. Click on and select one of the graphics or text items.
  2. Go up to "Arrange" and choose where you want to move it.
  3. Keeping arranging the layers until you obtain the effect you want.

Grouping:

Sometime you may have many objects on your document all arranged in a specific way and you want to keep them as is. (Maybe to cut and paste elsewhere). You can combine all the objects into one object by "Grouping" them.

To group two or more objects (or text) together into one you must first select them all. There are a couple of ways to do this:

  1. Go to "Edit" and choose "Select All" (only if you want everything on the page included)
  2. With your "shift key" depressed, you can click on and select more than one object. Select all the objects you want in your group.

With all objects selected:

  1. Go up to "Arrange" and choose "Group"
  2. You will now have just one object which can be moved, cut and pasted somewhere else, resized, etc. (Note: If you resize a grouped object that contains text, the text will not resize. You need to leave the text out of the group if you wish to resize it later)

Ungrouping:

You can ungroup a grouped object by following the steps in reverse.

  1. Select it
  2. Go to "Arrange" and choose "Ungroup."
  3. Now you can make changes and then regroup it later.

Clip Art:

AppleWorks has its own Clip Art Library called "Clippings" from which to obtain graphics.

  1. Pull down the "File" menu and choose "Show Clippings"
  2. The Clippings Palette will appear.

 

 

See graphics for more info

Drawing from within the Word Processor:

You can also draw from within AppleWorks Word Processor:

  • First bring out your drawing tools by clicking on the "Tools" box in the lower left corner.
  • Make sure the "Pointer" tool is selected if you insert Clip Art

Zooming - In & Out:

You can easily zoom in and out of your AppleWorks pages by clicking at the lower left corner on the small mountains to zoom out and the big mountains to zoom in. Notice that you will see the percentage of magnification to the left of the mountains. (100% is the normal size)

Web Page by Steve Christensen, Rev. 11/08