1 <page xmlns="http://projectmallard.org/1.0/"
2 xmlns:e="http://projectmallard.org/experimental/"
7 <link type="guide" xref="index#usage"/>
8 <revision pkgversion="3.0" version="0.1" date="2010-05-04" status="incomplete"/>
10 Change the properties of objects.
12 <credit type="author">
13 <name>Jim Evins</name>
14 <email>evins@snaught.com</email>
16 <credit type="author">
17 <name>Mario Blättermann</name>
18 <email>mariobl@gnome.org</email>
21 <p>Creative Commons Share Alike 3.0</p>
25 <title>To edit object properties</title>
27 <section id="glabels-object-properties">
29 <p>Most object properties can be modified through the object
30 editor sidebar, illustrated below. To use the object editor,
31 a single object must first be selected. See
32 <link xref="select" />.</p>
34 <!-- ==== Figure ==== -->
35 <media type="image" src="figures/object-editor-sidebar.png" mime="image/png" style="right">
36 <p>Print Copy Controls</p>
38 <!-- ==== End of Figure ==== -->
40 <p>The object editor will contain a subset of the following
41 tabbed sections, depending on object type:</p>
43 <section id="object-editor-text">
44 <title>Text Tabbed Section (Text objects)</title>
46 <p>This section contains a small editor for changing the content
47 of a text object. It also contains a dropdown menu of available
48 document merge keys, that can be inserted into text.</p>
52 <section id="object-editor-image">
53 <title>Image Tabbed Section (Image objecs)</title>
55 <p>This section contains a file entry with preview to select
56 image files. The browse button can be used to easily locate
57 image files. Alternatively, a document merge key can be used
58 instead to provide a filename at print time.</p>
62 <section id="object-editor-data">
63 <title>Data Tabbed Section (Barcode objecs)</title>
65 <p>This section contains a text entry to enter literal barcode
66 data. Alternatively, a document merge key can be used to
67 provide this data at print time.</p>
71 <section id="object-editor-style">
72 <title>Style Tabbed Section (Text objects)</title>
74 <p>This section contains controls to select text properties,
75 including font family, font size, font weight, color, and
76 text justification.</p>
80 <section id="object-editor-barcode">
81 <title>Style Tabbed Section (Barcode objecs)</title>
83 <p>This section contains controls to select barcode properties,
84 including barcode style, color, whether to print text, and whether
85 to include a checksum digit.</p>
89 <section id="object-editor-line">
90 <title>Line Tabbed Section</title>
92 <p>This section contains controls to select properties of lines
93 and outlines. These properties include line width and color.</p>
97 <section id="object-editor-fill">
98 <title>Fill Tabbed Section</title>
100 <p>This section contains controls to select fill properties of box
101 and ellipse objects. Currently the only fill property is fill
106 <section id="object-editor-size">
107 <title>Size Tabbed Section (All except line objects)</title>
109 <p>This section contains controls to select the width and height
110 of an object. A checkbox is provided, so that the current aspect
111 ratio can be locked while manipulating the width and height controls.
112 Image objects also provide a button to reset the size to the
113 image's natural size (Assumes 72DPI).</p>
117 <section id="object-editor-size-line">
118 <title>Size Tabbed Section (Line objects)</title>
120 <p>This section contains controls to select the length and angle
121 of a line object.</p>
125 <section id="object-editor-position">
126 <title>Position Tabbed Section</title>
128 <p>This section contains controls to change the position of an
134 <section id="object-editor-shadow">
135 <title>Shadow Tabbed Section (All except image and barcode objects)</title>
137 <p>This section contains controls to add a shadow to an object.</p>
144 <!-- ============= Other Manipulations of Objects ========= -->
145 <section id="glabels-object-manipulation">
146 <title>Other Manipulations of Objects</title>
148 <p>Objects can also be manipulated in the following ways.</p>
150 <section id="other-moving-resizing">
151 <title>Moving and Resizing Objects</title>
153 <p>Objects can be moved by simply clicking on a selected
154 object and dragging the object to its new location. If the object
155 is part of an aggregate selection, all objects in the selection
156 will move with the object being dragged, maintaining their relative
157 positions to one another. If no object is selected, clicking on
158 an object will create a new selection containing that object.
159 See <link xref="select" />.</p>
161 <p>A selected object can be resized by clicking one of its resize
162 handle and dragging it to obtain the new size.</p>
166 <section id="other-stacking-order">
167 <title>Changing Stacking Order</title>
169 <p>Stacking order refers to relative position in the z-axis of
170 objects. That is when objects overlap, which object will appear
171 on top of the other. By default, newer objects will appear above
172 older objects. To change this order, select one or more objects
173 and choose <guiseq> <gui>Objects</gui>
175 <gui>Bring to Front</gui> </guiseq>
176 to raise the selection to the top of the stacking
177 order, or choose <guiseq> <gui>Objects</gui>
179 <gui>Send to Back</gui> </guiseq>
180 to lower the selection to the bottom of the
181 stacking order. These menuitems are also available by right-clicking
182 the display area when there is a non-empty selection.</p>
186 <section id="other-rotating-flipping">
187 <title>Rotating and Flipping Objects</title>
189 <p>Objects can be rotated 90 degrees in either direction, or flipped
190 horizontally or vertically, by choosing the appropriate menuitem
191 in the <guiseq> <gui>Objects</gui>
192 <gui>Rotate/Flip</gui> </guiseq> sub-menu. These
193 menuitems are also available by right-clicking
194 the display area when there is a non-empty selection.</p>
198 This feature could be useful when you are designing CD box inlays. For
199 the spine caption, you need vertical aligned text. After you have created
200 a basic text box, choose <guiseq> <gui>Objects</gui><gui>Rotate/Flip</gui> </guiseq>
201 to rotate the text box according to your needs.
207 <section id="other-alignment">
208 <title>Aligning Objects</title>
210 <p>Objects can be aligned horizontally or vertically, relative to
211 one another, or relative to the center line of the label, by
212 choosing the appropriate menuitem from the <guiseq>
214 <gui>Align Horizontal</gui>
215 </guiseq> or <guiseq> <gui>Objects</gui>
216 <gui>Align Horizontal</gui> </guiseq> sub-menus.
217 These menuitems are also available by right-clicking
218 the display area when there is a non-empty selection.</p>
222 <section id="other-property-bar">
223 <title>Using the Property Bar</title>
225 <p>The property bar can be used to change some common properties
226 of objects en-masse. These properties include font family, font
227 size, font weight, text alignment, text color, fill color, line
228 or outline color, and line width. The property bar also controls
229 the defaults for these properties for any newly created objects.