Xara X. The Rectangle Tool

The Rectangle Tool is used to draw rectangles and squares. (No surprises here!) Rectangles can also have rounded corners.

To draw a rectangle, select the Rectangle Tool by clicking the rectangle tool icon with the Selector Tool.

Click where you want the rectangle to start, hold down the mouse button and drag to where you want the rectangle to end and release the mouse button.

Not much to it really!

To draw a square, hold down then Ctrl key while dragging.

To draw from the center outwards, hold down the Shift key while dragging.

To draw a square from the center outward, hold down the Ctrl and Shift keys while dragging.

As with most Xara functions, many options for rectangles are available on the Infobar.

After you create a rectangle or square, the Infobar options shown (top left) appear.

The default is Width and Height. You can use the triangle-shaped arrow keys (to the right of the text entry windows) to change the width and/or the height, or you can key in new values. Press Enter to apply the changes.

Any selected object or objects can be resized, skewed and rotated.

When selected, 8 small black boxes appear around the selected object. This is called the bounding box. Dragging any of these black boxes will resize the selection. The four corner bounding box handles, resize the selected object proportionately. (The relationship of height and width remains the same). Dragging the top or bottom center handles resizes the selection vertically while the left and right center handles resize the selection horizontally.

To switch into Rotate/Skew mode, click twice on the selected object or objects. (Click again to return to Resize mode. Click away from the selection to deselect it).

The bounding box handles change to arrows. Drag the corner handles to free rotate, drag the middle handles to skew.

Hold down the Ctrl key to constrain the rotation or skewing to the angles specified in the Page Options dialog.

There are three modes of rectangle creation available on the Infobar, the first is Radius Creation. Selecting this mode draws and free rotates from the center of the rectangle.

Holding down the Ctrl key restrains the angle of rotation to the amount specified in the Page Options dialog (Utilities > Page Options).

NOTE: While holding down the Shift key causes a rectangle to be drawn from the center, only Radius Creation permits the object to be drawn and rotated at the same time.

The second mode is Diameter Creation , which draws and free rotates from the point where the mouse is clicked.

Holding down the Ctrl key restrains the angle of rotation to the amount specified in the Page Options dialog (Utilities > Page Options).

The third mode is Bounds Creation which also draws from the corner where the mouse is clicked on the screen, but it does not have the capability of rotation.

By default, the Editable Items (in the drop down list) is set to Width and Height. Clicking the arrow keys, or entering an amount in the text entry boxes to the right of the drop down list, alters the dimensions of the rectangle.

Selecting Center from the drop down list moves the selected rectangle horizontally and vertically from the rectangle's center.

Rotation rotates the selected rectangle from the center the number of degrees entered either by pressing the arrow keys or by entering the amount in the text entry window and pressing Enter.

You can round the corners on a rectangle by pressing the Corner Roundness button on the Infobar with the rectangle and the Rectangle Tool selected. There are two ways to adjust the amount of roundness: enter a number in the text entry window or press the arrow keys, or drag any (except the corner handles) of the bounding box handles.

NOTE: The corner roundness will not be round if the rectangle or square has been resized. If you plan to use the Corner Roundness option, make sure the rectangle or square has not been resized. If necessary, resize the rectangle to the desired size, then create a new rectangle to the exact size and then apply the corner roundness setting.