Computer Tips

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Make It Perfect

Have you ever found yourself trying to make a perfect square or circle using the drawing tools for a rectangle or oval? Or maybe you're trying to draw a perfectly horizontal or vertical line?

Did you know that it's possible for you to use the drawing tools to make these perfect shapes without all the guesswork?

The answer is a lot easier than you might think. It's all in the Shift and Ctrl keys.

To make a perfect square, circle or line, you'll need to click on the proper tool in the Drawing Toolbar.

Your cursor will then turn into a plus sign, indicating that you're ready to draw.

But, before you do, hold down the Shift key.

Normally, you would be drawing an oval, rectangle or a line at any angle, but with the Shift key, you're now drawing only perfect squares, circles or lines at very specific angles.

Oops! Did you forget to hold down the Shift key before you started to draw?

Simply press the Shift key anytime and the drawing will change into the perfect square, circle or line immediately.

Release the Shift key and you're back to the ovals, rectangles and lines at any angle imaginable.

As you were drawing, you probably noticed that each picture started from its upper left corner. In other words, wherever you clicked, that became the upper left corner of the shape.

Now, it is possible to draw the figures from the center out (as opposed to the upper left corner).

This is accomplished with our other favorite key, the Ctrl key.

Simply activate the drawing button for the shape you need and then hold down the Ctrl key and draw.

You should find that your shape starts in the center. In some cases, this can make it easier to position your drawing correctly from the beginning, cutting down on the time you spend moving things around later on.

You can use these two keys in combination to draw perfect squares and circles from the center out.

I've experimented using these keys with clip art and have found that they work well. They can help when you resize a piece of clip art so your picture doesn't become too fat or too tall.