The Fill Style Editor creates
or modifies fill styles. Open the Fill
Style Editor by clicking the button in the
fill Style field in the Property
Manager or Scheme Editor
or by clicking the New Style or
Modify Style buttons in
the Fill Style Manager. Fill styles created
with the Fill Style Editor can
incorporate multiple Solid, Stock, Image,
Gradient, Vector,
and Line layers.
Create and modify fill styles with the Fill Style Editor.
The Fill Style Editor includes a preview image of the fill style. The preview is created from the visible fill style layers in the Layers section.
The Layers section displays all the layers in the fill style. Click a layer to edit the layer's appearance.
Click the to add a new layer to the fill style.
The selected layer is duplicated when the
is clicked.
The new layer appears at the top of the Layers
list. Click the
to remove the selected layer from
the fill style. Deleting a layer cannot be undone.
Layers are drawn in order from bottom to top of the Layers
list. Therefore the top layer in the Layers
list will be drawn on top of all the other layers. Click the to move the selected layer
up one position in the list. Click the
to move the
selected layer down one position in the list.
The right side of the Fill Style Editor contains the layer properties. The displayed properties are determined by the layer's Fill type. Select Solid, Stock, Image, Gradient, Vector, or Line from the Fill type list to specify the layer type. Fill styles can include multiple layers of any fill type.
Nearly all of the properties in the Fill Style Editor are displayed in the Property Manager Fill page. The explanation for these properties are located in the Fill Properties help topic. The Image layer Load from property is only available in the Fill Style Editor. The Vector layer drawing area is only available in the Fill Style Editor. These properties that are not located in the Property Manager are explained below.
Click the File or Clipboard buttons in the Load from field to load an image file to the fill layer. Click File to select the image file in the Import dialog. Click Clipboard to load the image file that is currently on the clipboard. An error message is displayed if the clipboard is empty or does not contain image data.
Select Vector to apply a custom vector fill layer to the fill style. The Vector layer type includes a drawing area in addition to the layer properties. Draw a pattern in the drawing area to create a vector fill layer.
The drawing area is in draw mode and the cursor is a crosshair by default. Click once in the draw area to begin drawing a line. A line is displayed in black as it is being drawn. Move the cursor to the desired endpoint for the line and click once to finish drawing the line. The line is added to the fill layer and displayed in blue. Continue drawing lines until the desired pattern is created.
Quickly erase a single line by double-clicking the line with the drawing
mode cursor (crosshair). If you wish to select the line to ensure you
are deleting the correct line, first click the button
to enable the select tool. Next click on the desired line. The selected
line is displayed in red. If you wish to remove the selected line, click
the
button. The delete button is disabled when no
lines are selected.
Click the button to clear all lines from the drawing
area.
Click the button to undo changes to the drawing
area. There are 10 undo levels in Fill
Style Editor.
Depending on how the Fill Style Editor was accessed, the bottom of the Fill Style Editor may contain a Name property or a Save to Style List button.
When the Fill Style Editor is opened via the Fill Style Manager New Style or Modify Style button, enter a name for the custom fill style in the Name field.
When the Fill Style Editor is
opened by clicking the button
in the Property Manager
or Scheme Editor, click the
Save to Style List button to
save the custom fill style. Enter a name for the fill style in the Style Name dialog. Click OK
to save the fill style. Click Cancel
to close the Style Name dialog
without saving the fill style. The default name for the new fill style
is the original fill style name with a number appended to the end. For
example, if the Solid fill style
is modified, Solid 1 is the default
name in the Style Name dialog.
When the Fill Style Editor is opened via the Fill Style Manager, click the OK button to save the new or modified fill style with the current Name. Click Cancel to close the Fill Style Editor without making changes to the new or modified fill style. The OK button is disabled if the Name field is empty or contains only spaces.
When the Fill Style Editor is opened via the Property Manager, click the OK button to make the changes to the fill style for the selected object. These changes are NOT saved to the fill style, and only apply to the selected object. To save the changes, click Save to Style List in the Fill Style Editor and give the style a new name in the Style Name dialog. You cannot overwrite existing styles with this method. To make changes to existing fill styles, use the Fill Style Manager. Click Cancel to close the Fill Style Editor without making any changes to the selected object's fill.
See Also