Moving pages
If you want to change page order, the easiest way is to turn on Show Grid and Snap to Grid, so the pages align to the grid. Then zoom out so you can see all the pages and use the Page Tool to drag pages into position on the pasteboard.
Text on white
Some Mac users find that their text block has a white background as they type, making it difficult to type and design at the same time. This happens only on some machines, but when it happens it appears to be consistent. The correct function for type boxes is to be always transparent. It seems that when text is converted to paths, the background disappears. No known fix.
Select the whole layer
To select everything on a layer, Option/Alt+click on the layer name. To select everything on the next layer down use Edit>Select>Invert Selection.
Ungroup to select
If you create a rectangle or an ellipse, the points are automatically grouped. You must ungroup to select individual points, unlike objects drawn with other tools, where you can use the Subselect tool to modify points. When objects are drawn with the Pen tool, they are not automatically grouped, as they are with the ellipse and the rectangle tools.
Fewer colors, faster FreeHand
If you load too many color libraries into Freehand, it will slow down some of your operations. Try to keep colors to defaults and those needed for a specific file.
To mask or to crop
When hiding part of an object with a mask or cropping, remember that cropping will p erma nently delete the portions of the image outside the cropped area. The Mask control will just hide these. If there is never going to be a reason to access the hidden areas, it is best to crop and delete these portions of the image, instead of masking, as the mask will only hide the information, which will still be part of the file, making it larger and more complex to print and save.
Holy smudges
Holding down the Option/Alt key while using the Smudge tool will make halos instead of smudges.
FreeHand resources
There are hundreds of fonts and over over 10,000 pieces of clipart that come with the FreeHand MX CD. These are not installed with the application. Be careful about installing too many of these items, when they are uncompressed they can take up a lot of disk space. the fonts alone will take about 25 MB and having that many fonts available to your system will slow even the fastest computer to a near standstill. So pick carefully, and only load fonts and images that are imminently useful and remove them as soon as possible. |
