NewDeal Hot Tip 1210
NewDraw
NewDraw, Text on a Curve
One easy way to paste text around a curve or circle in NewDeal
is to use the custom duplicate function. You can duplicate one
letter and rotate it around the number of times you need it
to create the curved text, and then go back and edit each
letter to spell out the words. If you add enough carriage
returns after the original letter (before duplicating), you
won't even need to drag the rotated letters around. Just
put the letter at the top of the text frame, hit CR enough
times to make the text box height equal to the diameter of the
circle you want to wrap it around, and duplicate with
rotation. The rotation angle must approximate the angle needed
between each of the letters.
Write around a circle in 10 easy steps:
User level 4 is required.
- Create a straight horizontal line (hold the SHIFT key
while drawing a line). The length should be about the
diameter of the desired circle (you'll see below).
- Select the line and set the Advanced Graphics Attribute PRINT.
Now the line won't show up on your printout.
--OR--
Set the annotation to Editable in the Options, Annotations menu.
- Use the graphics Text Tool
to create a ONE (1) character text object. It's best to use
the font in the point size you'll later want. Place this text
object exactly above the line you created in step #1.
- Duplicate the text object and place the second one at the other
end of the line, "mirrored." For example, use the Transform - Mirror
function in the Graphics menu. Then move the second, mirrored
object to the other end of the line. Or Group the line and the
text object together, then copy and paste and rotate the second
object 180 degrees, then ungroup both objects. The second
line can be deleted.
- Now, select both text objects and the line and Group them.
- Activate the Custom Duplicate dialog box from the Graphics,
Edit, Duplicate menu, or the Edit, Duplicate menu.
- Define the number of Duplicates as the desired number of
characters in your final text. Define a value for rotating.
This value depends on the circle diameter (size) and the number
of characters. You may need a few tries to get a perfect result,
but with some experience you'll develop a feeling for it.
- Click Apply and, after a few seconds, the defined object will
appear on screen. If something is not correct, use the Undo
function and try it again after changing the settings in the
Custom Duplicate dialog box.
- Select all the objects and Ungroup them (remember that each
line with the two characters at each end are grouped). Don't
forget to Save the document often during your work.
- Finally, replace each character with the correct one for
your message.
Many variations of the above instructions are possible. For
example, we didn't use the Scale and Move settings. You could also
create text lines in a wave form.
Remember that the length of the starting line is the diameter
of the circle. A small circle doesn't have room for very much text.
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Last Modified 2 Mar 1999