Today we will add some other shapes, continue with fills and outlines, and change the stacking order of the objects.
Every time you create a shape in cd, you have added an OBJECT. The object has certain properties - dimensions, a defining path (the outline), colors, width of the outline. You've been creating, sizing, filling and moving rectangles and circles.
Below the ellipse icon on the toolbox, there is a button with a five-sided shape. Its name is Polygon Tool. The icon has a black triangle on it. Click and hold on the icon and it will open out to display two more shapes. The spiral and the grid.
Notice the left edge of this little flyout icon. If you click and drag on the little ridges, you will detach the entire palette from the toolbox, and it will remain open on your screen. Do this for now. (To get rid of it, click its X. You can always bring it back out of the Polygon icon.)
Select the polygon. Then click and draw a shape on the page. Look up at the toolbar/property bar (it's the lower of the two toolbars), and you will find a slightly elongated button with a star and a number, and a pair of up-down arrows. The number represents the number of sides your polygon has. It probably says 5. Change it to 8. Change it to 3. Change it to 7. Your polygon will gain and lose sides.
Select the spiral from the palette. The property bar changes to show things you can do with the spiral. Notice that there is now an elongated button with a spiral, a number, and up-down arrows. But changing the number doesn't affect the spiral you have already drawn. The new number of spirals will appear in the next spiral you draw.
There are two spiral buttons next on the property bar. The first one creates a spiral with all the lines the same distance from each other. The second one uncoils more loosely as it goes. The slider bar beside the loose spiral changes how fast it uncurls. Experiment with these.
The third button on the polygon palette is a grid. Experiment with it. Again, you must set the number of squares before you draw the grid. (A grid is really a collection of squares.)
Now let's go back to the polygon tool. Draw a five-sided polygon. Look at the Property bar, and you will see a button with a star on it. Click it and your polygon changes to a star. Now the button has a polygon on it. Click it again, and your star changes back to a polygon.
Make a six pointed star and fill with green. Outline in black.
Make a six-twist spiral. This shape is open, so it can't be filled. Look at the Property bar and you will see a button called "Auto Close." Click it, and now you can fill the spiral.
Draw another spiral. Leave it open (don't click Auto-Close.) Notice the next button to the right on the property bar has a little pen nib drawn on it. It probably says "hairline." This means the outline on your spiral is very thin. Change it to an 8 point outline, and right-click Red.
When you are comfortable with the polygon/star, spirals and grids, create the image shown here. You can make yours more beautiful, but be sure to use all the features.
Note: windows and fence are grids. Spiral and Stars are rotated - click the object a second time to display the rotation handles, and rotate. Change the outline to a heavier number (4 points, maybe.) You can bring a shape forward or send it backward with Arrange > Order.
If you don't see the Auto-Close button, there are two likely reasons:
1.) You don't have an open path selected.
2.) The button is really there, but it's placed at the far right end of the property bar and the bar is too long, so the button IS OFF THE SCREEN! I run into this at the school, where the monitors are too small to display the entire property bar.
You can fix it by customizing the bar, and removing something you don't need, or moving the auto-close button closer to the center. Leave the help button at the end. You don't need it.
To customize a toolbar, right-click the toolbar. Click Customize. Click the button you want to move, drag it to its new location, (you will see a heavy bar where it will appear) drop it there.
If you drag the button off the toolbar, you will see an X attached to your mouse pointer. If you drop the icon, it will be removed from yout toolbar. (Don't worry, you can always put it back.)
If you mess up, click Cancel and start over.