●
Select All Text Choosing Edit | Select All | Text instantly selects all text objects
both on and off the current document page. Both artistic and paragraph text objects
become selected after using this command (unless they have been grouped with
other objects, in which case they are ignored). Text objects applied with effects
(such as contour or extrude effects) also become selected using this command.
●
Select All Guidelines Guidelines are actually a class of document page objects,
different from objects you draw, but objects nonetheless. To select all guidelines on
your document page, choose Edit | Select All | Guidelines. Selected guidelines are
indicated by a color change (red, by default). To select guidelines, they must be
visible and cannot be locked; use the Tools | Object Manager to edit the properties of
guidelines before you try to select them. If guidelines you’ve placed aren’t currently
visible on your page, choose View | Guidelines.
Guidelines can be created using a click-drag action from your ruler onto your
document page. Choose View | Rulers to display CorelDRAW’s ruler feature.
244 CorelDRAW X5 The Official Guide
FIGURE 9-4 Select items in your document by using the Select All command.
●
Select All Nodes You must have both the Shape tool and an object selected (closed
or open paths qualify) to use this Select All command. Choose Edit | Select All |
Nodes to select all of the object’s path nodes. For a quicker method in the same
situation, use the
CTRL+A shortcut. Special CorelDRAW objects such as rectangles,
ellipses, and polygons can’t be selected this way because their shapes are defined
dynamically by “control” points instead of nodes.
Shapes are often made up of two or more paths that are combined. To select all the
nodes on a combined path, first select the object, and then double-click the Shape
tool on the toolbox.
Moving Objects
When moving objects, it’s important to lift using your legs and position yourself carefully to

You have eight possible directions in which to nudge your artwork. In addition to
using an arrow key, you can also press two neighboring arrow keys to perform a
diagonal nudge.
Using nudge keys, you can perform moves according to this value, or by larger or
smaller values. These respectively are referred to as super and micro nudges. Like “normal”
nudges, these values are set in the Rulers options page. Here are the techniques for using
super and micro nudges:
●
Super nudge This action moves a selected object in larger increments than a
normal nudge. To use super nudge, hold
SHIFT while pressing the UP, DOWN, LEFT,
or RIGHT arrow key on your keyboard. By default, this causes your selected object to
move by 0.02 inch.
●
Micro nudge The pint-sized version of a typical nudge is the micro nudge, which
moves your object in smaller increments. To use micro nudge, hold
CTRL while
pressing the
UP, DOWN, LEFT, or RIGHT arrow key on your keyboard. By default,
micro nudges cause the selected object to move by 0.005 inch.
Transforming Objects
A transformation is any type of object shape or position change, short of actually editing
the object’s properties. This includes changing its position, size, skew, and/or rotating or
reflecting it. Dragging an object directly in a document is more intuitive than precision
transformations—but both approaches to transformation have their own special advantages.
In this section, you’ll learn how to apply transformations using both techniques.
Transforming Objects Using the Cursor
For the intuitive method, the Pick tool is what you need to transform objects by the simple act of
click-dragging. Depending on the type of transformation you need to apply, you can click-drag
any of the four, black, square selection handles that surround the selected object or group of

duplicate, not the original. When combined with the
CTRL key, this technique is a
quick and easy way to mirror a duplicate and make symmetrical compositions.
You can also rotate or skew an object using Pick tool states that become available after
you click a selected object a second time—you click an object once that is already selected
to display rotation and skew controls around the object. This action causes an object (or
group of objects) to look like Figure 9-7.
You control the point around which objects are rotated or skewed, by moving the center
origin marker (anchor point) of an object or group of objects. Your cursor will change to
display either the rotation or a skew cursor when held over a corner or side handle. A good
248 CorelDRAW X5 The Official Guide
FIGURE 9-6 Dragging these handles changes the size of an object proportionally or otherwise.
Original Proportional scaling Disproportional scaling
creative example of offsetting the original center of an object is shown in the following
illustration. The spade shape is a simple extrusion, and by putting its origin at the crosshairs
in this illustration, holding
CTRL to constrain rotation to CorelDRAW’s default of 15 degrees
while rotating, and then right-clicking to transform a duplicate, a wonderfully intricate
pattern can be made in less than a minute.
To flip a selected object quickly, either vertically or horizontally, use the Mirror
Vertical and Mirror Horizontal buttons in the property bar while using the Pick tool.
Ill 9-6
CHAPTER 9: Moving, Scaling, Rotating: Basic Transformations 249
9
FIGURE 9-7 Clicking a selected object will cause these rotation/skew handles to appear.
Skew handle
Rotation cursor
Skew handle
Rotation handles
Center origin marker

qualify because a PowerClip is seen as a single object.
Object being transformed
New object
shape preview
Free Transform
tool cursor
Reference line
Applying Precise Transformations
The Transformation docker is terrific for applying multiple transformations with a single
command. The docker has five Transformation buttons: Position (Move), Rotate, Scale And
Mirror, Size, and Skew, as shown in Figure 9-8. To open the Transformation docker, choose
252 CorelDRAW X5 The Official Guide
Individual objects can be changed even when they’re grouped. With the
Pick tool, hold
CTRL to select within a group. See Chapter 11 for
details on using PowerClips.
Ill 9-9
3. After an object has been sampled, your cursor becomes an “apply” cursor—a
paint bucket. Click the object you want to apply the transformation to. The
rotation, scale, and/or position is immediately copied to the new object. The
Attributes eyedropper is persistent: you can continue applying attributes to
other objects; click the select (eyedropper) icon on the property bar to redefine
attributes you want to apply and continue; or choose a different tool, and your
transformation work is done.
4. Remember that the knife in a formal table setting always has the cutting edge
facing left; fortunately, this is a simple transformation.
Apply
Select
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