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Corel ConceptsShaping Paragraph TextBy way of review, two articles ago weembarked on the task of "shaping upyour text." We've now covered the toptwo examples shown in Figure 1:applying envelopes and the perspectiveeffect to artistic text. This month, Iembark upon the third example: placingparagraph text inside a path.

Text Inside a PathSound familiar? It should. Many moonsago, we explored Text on a path.(Ooh, close-but no cigar.) If you recallthe 'on' version, you'll have no problemwith the 'inside' version. Let's begin witha little screen gestalt. Open up yourCorelDRAW and follow along.

1. On a new document, draw a healthyellipse. Make the ellipse approximately4 inches wide and 2 inches tal l .(Precision is not important.)

2. Select the Text tool. As a first step,simply watch the text cursor as you slow-ly move it from outside the ellipse toinside the ellipse. Note the following:

• When the cursor is completely off theellipse (Figure 2-left), it's a plain ole'text cursor ready to place Artistic text(click the mouse) or Paragraph text(drag the mouse) on the page.

• When it is directly on the outline ofthe ellipse, it changes (Figure 2-leftcentre). Click now and you create Texton a path.

• When the cursor is just inside theellipse, it changes again (Figure 2-right centre). Click now and you createText inside a path.

• Finally, when the cursor is well insidethe ellipse (Figure 2-right), it returns toits normal version.

3. Okay, now bring the cursor back tothe Text inside a path version andsimply click the mouse. You'll immedi-ately note a path is created inside theellipse that serves as the frame for theparagraph text. Note also that there is ablinking text cursor inside, ready for youto…

4. Type away! The text flows in with thedefault attributes of Paragraph text.When placing Text inside a path, beconscious of formatting the text appro-priately. For example, the ellipse lendsitself to centre alignment. Rememberalso that you can always force a linebreak using Shift-Enter.

The ellipse and Paragraph text aredynamically linked. Should you changethe shape of the ellipse (or whatever thecontainer), the contained Paragraph textwill reshape itself. In Figure 3, I select-ed the ellipse (officially a Controlellipse), converted it to curves, andedited the control handles to make itbulge. The contained Paragraph textadjusted itself automatically to the newshape.

As with any dynamically linked objects,you can separate the text from its con-trol object by choosingARRANGE/Break.

Wrapping Text Inside a ShapeAfter the FactAlthough wrapping text on the fly isclever, in the real world it presents animpracticality-editing. A more likely sce-nario is that you will create your text,then edit it and finally, shape it. It ismuch easier to edit text shaped as anormal paragraph as opposed to somepolygon, or whatever! Fortunately, plac-ing Text inside a path after the fact isreally quite simple. Simply drag the textusing the right mouse button over theshape.

1. Using a curve drawing tool of yourchoice, draw a closed curve.

2. Using the Text tool, key in someParagraph text. You should now havesomething like Figure 4.

3. Using the Pick tool, with the rightmouse button, drag the text over thecurve. When the cursor changes to a'target' cursor, as shown in Figure 5,release the mouse. You will be present-ed with a pop-up. Simply choose PlaceText Inside (Figure 6) and the text isplaced inside (Figure 7).

Obviously, this example requires a bit ofediting because the container is prettyradical.

Text Flow ManiaJust to show you how much freedomCorel provides with text flow, performthis little exercise.

1. Using the curve drawing tool of yourchoice, draw a nice curve approximately4 inches long. Then, create an ellipse,again approximately 2 inches high and3 inches wide. Accuracy is not importantat all.

2. Using the Text tool, drag out a para-graph frame approximately 4 inchessquare. Again, accuracy isn' t veryimportant here. Fill the frame with textset in any 10-point font of your choice.The text itself can be gibberish. Theintention here is to get plenty ofParagraph text for you to use.

3. Using the Pick tool, select the frameand reduce its size using the bottom-centre handle so that there is now textthat can be reflowed. Recall that thebottom handle on the frame changes toan arrow to indicate that there is addi-tional text present. Your documentshould now look somewhat like Figure 8.

4. With the pick tool, click on the arrowto reflow the text. Then, bring the cursordirectly over the curve. The cursorchanges to an arrow as shown inFigure 9.

5. Click the arrow cursor on the curve.The text now flows from the frame to thecurve, but it is Paragraph text flowing onthe curve! Note that it has a frame on itdenoting there is more text to reflow.

6. Using the Pick tool, select the text sothat the text alone appears in the StatusBar (i.e., not Text on a Path). Nowrepeat the process of text reflow, that is,click on the lower reflow arrow andbring the cursor just inside the ellipse(Figure 10).

7. Click again and the text flows into theellipse (Figure 11).

Although it is wildly flexible and prettycool, would you ever flow text this way?Probably not. More likely is that youwould break it into pieces. But Corelalways makes a point of showing off thisfeature in all their demos, so we threw itin as well.

Next month, the final installment in thisseries-wrapping text around objects.

Please send your comments and ques-tions to questions@retlabgraphics.com.Pradhan Balter has taught CorelDRAWsince it was invented. He lectures fre-quently at the regional and national ARAshows. His training manuals are avail-able through ARA at www.ara.org/products.

This article is reprinted with permissionfrom Recognition Review, the official mag-azine of the The Awards and RecognitionAssociation (ARA), based in Glenview,Ill inois, U.S.A. ARA is a membershiporganisation of 3,400 retailer and suppliercompanies dedicated to increasing theprofessionalism of recognition specialists,and advancing the awards and engravingindustry. For more information, visit thewebsite: www.ara.org.

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EURO TEN veröffentlicht in regelmäßigerFolge Artikel von Pradhan Balter überCorelDRAW. In dieser Ausgabe beschäftigt ersich mit der visuellen Gestaltung vonTextabschnitten.

EURO TEN pubblica regolarmente articoli diPradhan Balter su CorelDRAW. In questa edizione, Pradhan si occupa del cambiamentodi forma del testo in paragrafi.

EURO TEN publie régulièrement des articles de Pradhan Balter sur CorelDRAW.Dans cette édition, il s'intéresse à la miseen forme du texte de paragraphe.

EURO TEN publica regularmente artículos de Pradhan Balter sobreCorelDRAW. En esta edición contempla elformateado de párrafos.