|
Using Image Tools
You can use image tools directly on the images on your page or on text objects to create effects such as drop shadows. This chapter will focus on the unique aspects of using image tools in print projects vs. using them in the Image Archive.
Similar to the Image Archive, you can open the image toolbox by choosing "Image Toolbox" from the "Image" menu, or by clicking the "Image Tools" button on the toolbar and then choosing "Image Toolbox" form the drop-down list.
The image tools are organized in three categories. The Image Archive "Preprocessing" category has been replaced with the category "Orientation and Size". It offers tools to rotate, scale and crop your images.
The category "Effects" has the added tool "Buttonize and Shadow", which would not be useful in the Image Archive.
More details for each image tool are available by accessing the tool's panel and then pressing "F1" for help.
When placing images from the Image Archive onto the page, StudioLine will incorporate any image tools that you may have applied in the Image Archive mode to create a new "working copy" of the image. You cannot access or change these tools settings from within the page editor. You can, however, switch back to Image Archive mode to make your changes, which will then update the working copy that's used on your page. Conversely, any image tools that you apply in page editor mode can not be accessed from the Image Archive.
Working with Text – General
Must of your print projects will require some text, e.g., for banners, labels or annotations.
Create a new text object by choosing "New Text Object" from the "Text Processing" menu. You can also click the right mouse button on the page background and then choose "Insert" and "New Text Object" from the context menu.
The mouse pointer changes to an "I-Beam" insertion mark. Click the mouse at whatever position you would like to start your text. A new text object is created.
You can start typing text or paste it from the Windows clipboard. To copy from another text editor to the Windows clipboard, highlight any text in the other application, then use its "Edit" menu to copy the selected text (or use the Ctrl+C key combination). To paste the text into StudioLine, use "Edit" menu or the Ctrl+V key combination.
Click a text object once, and you can move it with the mouse or the arrow keys on your keyboard. You can also use the sizing handles on either side to change the width. A second click on the text object will let you edit the content with the StudioLine text editor.
The StudioLine text editor offers a wide variety of text formatting options, including typeface, font size and color. The usage of the StudioLine text editor is equivalent to other word processing tools. This chapter will concentrate on functions may be less familiar or that are unique to StudioLine.
Working with Text – Using Descriptors
Any titles, captions and other descriptors that you added to your images can be used to dynamically generate content in text objects.
The first step is to place at least one image with descriptors on your page. Next, open or create a text object. In the text editor, click the button "Insert Descriptor". 
The panel "Insert Descriptor" offers the available descriptors organized in the familiar groupings.
Choose a descriptor and StudioLine will insert a place holder (e.g., "%%Name%%") into the text object. Once you deselect the text object by clicking outside of it, you'll be able to view the dynamically generated text.
If there is more than one image on a page, you need to associate a text object with a particular image. Click the right mouse button on a deselected text object and choose "Descriptor Association" from the context menu. Drag the circular association icon from the "Descriptor Association" panel to the image that holds the descriptors you'd like to use in this text object.
A single text object can refer to any number of descriptors, but only from one specific image.
Working with Text – Spell Check
StudioLine comes complete with a multi-lingual spell check engine.
Every text passage must have the proper language setting. To verify the language, select a text passage in the text editor and note which flag is displayed. To change the language, select a text passage, click on the flag and pick the appropriate flag.
The spell check can be performed against all text objects on a page or be limited to the currently selected one. To start the spell check, choose "Spell Checker" from the "Text Processing" menu or click the "Spell Checker" button in the text editor toolbar.
Click "Start" to commence the spell check. For suspect words the spell checker will stop and display a list of suggested spellings in the panel.
- To accept a suggestion, select it and then click either "Change" or "Change Always" to affect either just the current occurrence of that word or to affect all occurrences.
- If the list has no acceptable suggestions for a misspelled word, then you can manually correct the spelling in the text editor.
- If the suspect word is spelled correctly as is (e.g., a name or trademark), then you can click "Add" to insert the word into the spell checker's dictionary.
- If a suspect word originates from a different language, click the "Dictionary" button and choose the appropriate language.
Working with Guidelines
Guides enable you to perfectly align various objects along a line. Guides are not design elements, they will not appear in the printed output.
To create a new guide, click the mouse on the horizontal or vertical ruler and drag it to the workspace.
You can move your guides at any time by clicking and dragging them. To remove a guide, simply drag it back to its ruler. Arrange multiple guides on the place to create a general layout pattern for your page.
To space guides evenly or to keep pixel-perfect distances, move the mouse pointer over a guide. The current position of the guide and its distance to either neighbor will display.
By default, guides act "magnetic". Objects that you bring near a guide will automatically snap to the guide's exact position. To change the behavior of guidelines and related settings, click the right mouse button on the page background and choose "Guides" from the context menu.
In the panel "Guides" you can control the "magnetic" property of guides as well as their position and appearance. With the "Save Settings" button, you can add a pattern of guidelines to the list of stored settings for possible later reuse on another page.
If too many guides are starting to become a distraction, you can use the "Clear Guides" button to remove all guides instantly.
Output on Printer
Once your page design is complete, click "Print" on the QuickStep bar to open the panel "Standard Print".
Choose the target printer (if more than one is connected to your computer). If you need to change the printer's defaults, such as paper size and orientation, click the "Settings" button. Click "Continue" to commence printing.
You can now switch back to the Image Archive by pressing that button in the QuickStep bar. You can also click on the mode selector above the top left corner of your page, which currently states "Page Editor" and choose "Image Archive" from the list of StudioLine modes.
Email and Export
Rather than printing, you can also email your page or export it. Click the appropriate button on the QuickStep bar.
- For email use, StudioLine renders your print project into a graphics file. You control the file format and size. For more information about email settings, refer to the earlier chapter "Sending Images via Email".
- For export, StudioLine renders your print project as a high resolution graphics file. You control the file format and pick a target location on our disks.
«
| 
