Creating and Editing Paths

Macromedia FreeHand MXa:

Macromedia gives you several tools to use to draw paths.  The tools are located in the tools window on the left side of the screen.  The tool options for drawing paths are the pen, bezigon, pencil, line, rectangle, polygon, ellipse and spiral. 

Once you have selected your tool, you may draw a path on the document.  The shape tools draw paths with either straight or curved sides, depending on the shape.  The pen may be used to draw a straight or a curved path while the pencil draws only curved and the bezigon tool draws only straight paths.  Double click on the last point of the path to make it an endpoint. 

Adding/deleting points on a path

You may add points to a path already draw by using the pen tool and clicking directly on the path.  You may remove points from a path by choosing the white Subselect arrow from the tools window, selecting a point on a path and hitting the delete button on your keyboard.  You may also delete a segment of your path by clicking on the segment with the Subselect arrow and hitting the delete button. 

Editing paths

You may use the Freeform tool to change a path that is already drawn.  Simply click on a point already on the path and move it, or click on a line segment of the path to move it.  You may also change the type of specific points.  To do this, select the white Subselect arrow from the tools window.  Click on the point on the path you wish to edit and choose Windows –› Inspector –› Object from the menu bar.  The object window will now appear.  On the right side of the window you will see buttons labeled Point type.  Click on the choice of point you would like.  You may now edit the point on your path.  The shape of a path can be changed by editing its anchor points.  You can control curves by dragging the direction points at the end of the direction lines that appear at anchor points. 

Adding text to paths

Using the black pointer arrow, select the path you wish to add text to.  From the menu bar, choose Text –› Attach to path.  A blinking cursor will appear on your path and you may begin typing.