Vectorizing a Bitmap | Moving an Object

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Selecting and Editing Objects

In order to edit an
, you must be in select mode. To do this either click on the select button or use the menu item Tools->Select (`Ctrl-P`). An object can be selected using any of the following methods:

- Click on it with the left mouse button.

- Double-click the left mouse button to select the object behind the current object.

- Use Control-click (i.e. click whilst holding down the control key) if you want to add an object to the current selection.

- Click on an empty part of the
  and drag. A dashed rectangle will appear. When you release the mouse button, any objects within that region will be selected. (If you have the shift key depressed, only those objects which are completely inside the dashed rectangle will be selected, but make sure you release the mouse button before releasing the shift key.)

- Use Navigate->Select (`Shift-`F5``) to select the next object in the
  . (Starting from the
  and heading towards the
  .) This will cycle back to the start when it reaches the end of the stack.

- Use Navigate->Skip (`F6`) to deselect the selected object closest to the
  , and select the next object in the
  (heading towards the
  ). This will cycle back to the start when it reaches the end of the stack.

- Use Navigate->Add Next (`Shift-`F6``) to add the next object in the
  to the selection (starting from the
  and heading towards the
  ). This will cycle back to the start when it reaches the end of the stack.

- Use Navigate->Find By Description... or Navigate->Add By Description... to select an object by its |
  |. (If an object hasn't been given a description, a generic description will be supplied instead.) The former will deselect all other objects, the latter will add the object to the current selection.

- Use Edit->Select All (`Ctrl-A`) to select all
  .

When an
is selected, a dashed red/gray rectangle will be displayed around it. (This rectangle may optionally have |
| regions.) Note that individual elements of a
can not be selected independently of the group. When you select a group, you will only see a dashed red/gray rectangle around the
of the group, not around the individual elements of the group.

To deselect an individual object, click on that object whilst depressing the shift key. To deselect all objects, click on an empty part of the
, or use Edit->Deselect All (`Ctrl+Shift-A`). Selecting another tool will also deselect all objects.

In select mode, you can also use the select
. (This is usually done with a right mouse click, but depends on your system. The function key `F3` has the same effect.) The contents of this menu vary according to what types of objects have been selected, if any (see Figure 8.1).

| (a) |
| (b) | (c) | (d) | (e) | (f) |
Figure 8.1: Popup menus in select mode depend on what objects have been selected: (a) no objects selected; (b) only text-paths have been selected; (c) only paths have been selected; (d) only text areas have been selected; (e) only bitmaps have been selected; (f) groups or a selection of different object types have been selected.

Subsections

- Moving an Object
- Cut
- Copy
- Paste
- Object Description
- Editing Control Points
- Symmetric Shapes
- Editing Text Areas
- Combining a Text Area and Path to Form a Text-Path
- Reducing to Gray Scale
- Fade
- Moving an Object to the Front
- Moving an Object to the Back
- Rotating Objects
- Scaling Objects
- Shearing Objects
- Grouping and Ungrouping Objects
- Aligning Objects
- Reversing a Path's Direction
- Merging Paths
- Path Union
- Exclusive Or Function
- Path Intersection
- Path Subtraction
- Separating a Text-Path into a Text Area and Path
- Converting a Path or Text-Path into a Pattern
- Converting to a Path
  - Converting a Text Area, Text-Path or Pattern to a Path
  - Converting an Outline to a Path
- Splitting Text Areas

Vectorizing a Bitmap | Moving an Object