In this lesson we'll start with a brief overview of vector graphics and what they are. After a short discussion on opening and saving documents in Expression 3, we'll move on to create simple objects using the shape tools and learn to apply strokes and fills to these objects. This lessons assumes that you are either familiar with Expression 3's interface or that you have become familiar with the interface by reading the Expression 3 Interface Primer.

What are vector graphics?

Vector graphics are lines and curves defined as mathematical objects. Each path or shape that you create in Expression is an individual object which can be manipulated by editing the nodes attached to the path or shape. These objects can be moved, reshaped and resized without losing quality. Graphics software which create vector graphics are referred to as vector-based or object-oriented drawing or illustration programs. In this lesson we well work with shapes. We'll discuss paths in a future lesson when we explore Expression drawing tools. Let's get busy and find out why Expression, in my humble opinion, is the best drawing program on the market today.

Opening and Saving Documents

Expression is primarily a vector drawing program with bitmap capabilities. Vector graphics are opened in Expression using the File > Open item on the menu bar. Expression 3 supports all previous versions of Expression, Illustrator 9 and earlier (.ai files), EPS, WMF (windows only), and EMF (windows only). Bitmap graphics, on the other hand, are imported into an opened Expression document using the File > Insert Bitmap option. Bitmap file formats that can be imported are PSD, TIFF, JPEG, GIF, PNG and BMP (windows only). You can also open recently opened documents using the list of recently opened documents at the bottom of the File menu (Expression saves a list of 10 recently opened documents for easy access).

Expression 3 will only save vector graphic files in it's own .xpr file format. For crash recovery purposes, Expression periodically saves modified documents into rescue files. Thus, in the event of a crash, the next time you open Expression 3, it will open with a copy of the document you worked on before the crash. When saving documents you have a choice of File > Save to save changes to an existing document, File > Save As for saving new documents or File > Save a Copy to save a previously saved document under a new file name. In the event that you've saved a document but were unhappy with the changes you've made, you can revert back to the previously saved document using File > Revert to Saved. To save bitmap documents, use File > Save as Bitmap and choose from one of the available file formats.

If you haven't done so already, open a new document by choosing File > New from the menu bar or by using the Ctrl-N shortcut. Set your view preference. I like the 'actual size' option which you can choose by using the shortcut Home key on your keyboard or by choosing View > Actual Size from the menu bar. You may prefer 'center view' in which case you would use the Shift-Home shortcut key. Expression 3 does not remember your preference so you'll have to do this each time you open a new document.

Let's take a quick look at the ToolBox palette before moving on to creating simple shapes.

The ToolBox

Expression sports an impressive arsenal of tools for creating vector objects. As you'd suspect, these tools live in the ToolBox which should be the top palette on the left side of the Expression interface unless you've move it to a new location. The tools you'll use most often are the Object Select tool (first tool in the top row) and the Node tool (first tool in the bottom row). The Object Select tool allows you to move objects without disturbing the object's shape. The Node tool, which can also be used as an object selection tool, allows you to edit individual nodes on a path.

Hold your mouse pointer over any tool and a tool tip will appear to tell you the name of the tool, followed by the letter of the keyboard shortcut for that tool.

The tools you see on the ToolBox are only a few of the tools available. A slash in the corner of a tool button means that other tools are available below the displayed tool. As you can see from the graphic above, only the Hand, Zoom and Text tools occupy a space by themselves. To access hidden tools, press on a tool button and hold momentarily until the drop down list of available tools appear, and then scroll down to the desired tool and release the mouse when you've reached the tool you want. For this lesson we will work primarily with the shape tools, all of which live under the Rectangle tool (5th tool in the top row).

Creating Simple Shapes

In addition to a few new shape tools, Expression 3 now supports the ability to create shapes in precise dimensions. Clicking on the document window with any shape tool brings up that tool's specification box, unless you choose to disable this feature in Preferences (discussed a little later in this lesson). Each specification box will display input boxes appropriate to the tool chosen. Figure 1 below shows the Rectangle Specification box.

Figure 1 - Rectangle Specification Box.

The X and Y Base Point, the first two input boxes in all specification boxes, will always contain the x and y coordinates of the location where you clicked in the document window. You can change these coordinates when you want the lower left corner of the shape to be in a different location than where you clicked, assuming the 'Based at' specification in the last item in the specification box is set to 'Corner.' Otherwise, if the 'Based at' item is set to center, the x and y base point will be the center of the rectangle instead. Let's do an exercise so you fully understand this concept.

The next two input boxes on the specification box allow you to enter the width and height of an object, and each specification box will contain the default width and height dimensions for the particular shape tool you choose. All dimensions are stated according to your ruler settings. Because your rulers are set to inches, the dimensions in your specification dialog box are stated in inches. Setting your rulers to points would cause the specification box to display values in points. You can enter different units of measure than what is displayed, however. For example, if your rulers are set to inches, you can still type '400pt' as a value in a value text box and Expression will create the rectangle in points.

The specification boxes take a little getting used to. If you want to disable the specification boxes, go to Preferences > Tools and uncheck the item labeled 'Obj. tools click shows input dialog' in the General options section. Disabling the specification box feature simply means that you will create objects by dragging with the shape tools instead of entering dimensions in the specification box. By the end of this lesson you'll know which method works best for you. Let's move on to examine the shape tools available to us.

From top to bottom, the shape tools include the Rectangle tool, the Ellipse tool, the Star tool and the Line tool. If you use the shape tools often, you'll want to learn the shortcut keys for selecting other tools and we'll practice this in the next exercise. Let's examine each of the shape tools.

Ellipse Tool: With the Ellipse tool you have the ability to choose whether to draw an ellipse from the bounding box (the upper left hand corner of the object), or from the center. Choose the Ellipse and notice the two buttons at the end of the top row of the ToolBox, which was previous occupied by the slider when the Rectangle tool was selected. The first button, labeled 'From Bounding Box' draws from the point at which you click on the document window to where you drag and release the mouse. The second button draws from the point at which you click outward from the center. If you choose to use the specification box, these options are available as the last item in that box. Notice also the button below the two buttons just mentioned. This button gives you easy access to the Arc Modes which were previously only available from the Objects menu on the menu bar. We'll discuss Arc Modes a little later. First, another exercise is in order and I promise not to overload you with information this time!

Arc modes are a little hard to explain. Basically, it's a feature that allows you to alter the shape of an oval or circle by cutting sections from them. If you click on the Arc mode button on the right end of the ToolBox and hold for a second you'll see three options; With Chord, Pie Mode and Open Arc. These modes are only available to the Ellipse tool. Play along with me as I explain the different modes.

The 'With Chord' option allows you to create a straight edge along one side of a circle or oval shape. To create any of the Arc mode options requires the use of the Node tool. Below is an example of the With Chord option.

Figure 2 - With Chord option applied a to circle.

The 'With Chord' option is the default option for the Ellipse tool so I will assume that it is the active Mode for you. Hold your mouse over the Arc Mode tools and look at the tool tip. If it doesn't say 'With Chord,' hold and drag on the Arc Mode button and choose the top button is the resulting list of Arc Mode buttons. With the Ellipse tool, drag out a circle shape. It doesn't have to be a perfectly round circle. Look closely at the circle and notice the red arrow at the top. This arrow is the only point from which you can create a straight edge. Click the letter A key on your keyboard to activate the Node tool. With the Node tool, click the red arrow on the circle shape and drag along the edge of the circle, either clockwise or counter clockwise. Notice the line that follows your mouse as you drag. Release the mouse and the portion of the circle between the red arrow and point at which you released the mouse disappears. This is the 'With Chord' option.

The 'Pie Mode' cuts pie shaped wedges from a circle. Press the R key to return to the Ellipse tool and drag another circle. Notice the line from the red circle to the center of the circle this time. Go back to the Node tool (letter A shortcut key), click on the red arrow at the top of the circle and drag as you did before. If you drag clockwise, a pie shape piece is cut from the circle. If you drag counter clockwise, everything but the pie shape disappears. Below is an example of Pie Mode:

Figure 3 - Pie Mode option applied a to circle.

The 'Open Arc' option allows you to remove a section of the circle without altering the overall shape of the circle. Choose the Ellipse tool (by now you know which shortcut key you need), choose the 'Open Arc' option and once again drag out a circle shape. Use the letter A shortcut key (for the Node tool) and drag from the red arrow either clockwise or counter clockwise. Again, if you drag clockwise, a section of the circle from the red arrow to the point at which you release the mouse disappears. Drag counter clockwise and only the section from the red arrow to the point at which you released the mouse remains. Below is an example of Open Arc:

Figure 4 - Open Arc option applied a to circle.

The only real difference between the 'With Chord' option and the 'Open Arc' option is the 'Chord,' or the visible line, as you probably guessed (compare figures 2 and 4). Also, think of dragging in a counter clockwise direction as sort of a shortcut. If you drag counter clockwise, you are obtaining the same shape as you would if you had dragged clockwise and released the mouse at the same point along the edge of the circle. Try this if it will help you to understand what's happening here. Create a circle and drag counter clockwise, releasing the mouse about 1/3 the overall distance of the circle. Create another circle and drag clockwise, releasing the mouse at the same point. The resulting shapes are identical. This is true for all Arc Modes.

Before we move on to the Star tool, switch back to the Node tool (letter A shortcut key). Click and drag from the upper left corner to the lower right corner of the document window and release the mouse to select all objects. I had you do this to show you that the Node tool is also a selection tool, in addition to a node editing tool, so when the Node tool is active you don't have to go after the Object Select tool (shortcut letter S key) to select objects.

Star Tool: The Star tool creates stars and polygon shapes. The Star tool gives you several setting options at the right end of the Toolbox. Using the shortcut key which you've memorized by now, switch to the Star tool to see the option buttons. The first button on the top row of the Toolbox is the Break at Joints button (mislabeled 'Break at joins'). With this button depressed, a stroke is applied from point to point on a star shape instead of being stretched along the entire outside edge of the star. I know we haven't discussed strokes yet, but we will soon so bear with me. This button must be pressed before dragging the shape; it will have no effect after the shape is created.

To the right of the Break at Joints button is the Number of Points meter. This lets you set the number of points for the star shape, but again you must set a value before creating the star. Star shapes can have from 3 to 99 points.

The sliders below the Break at Joints button and Number of Points meter are the Inner Depth/Star Variation sliders. The top slider determines the distance from the outer points of the star toward the center. With a low setting (moving the slider all the way to the left) you can create polygon shapes. All the say to the right will give you spikes. In figure 5 below, the first star is drawn with a 20% setting in the top slider and the second star was drawn with an 80% setting:

Figure 5 - Star shape with 20% and 50% Inner Depth settings.

A 50% setting in the top slider, and a 0% setting in the bottom slider, is the setting for a perfect star shape.

The bottom slider is hard to describe. It gives you random inner depth shapes, meaning that the inner distance from each point in a star will be different. What in the world would you use this feature for, you might be asking. I suspect that Creature House had cartooning in mind when they added this feature. In Figure 6 below, I have created a 15 point star with both sliders set at 50%, creating a cartoon speech balloon effect:

Figure 6 - Speech balloon effect.

Another, less obvious star tool feature is the twirl feature. Like the rectangle tool, holding down the Ctrl key at the end of a drag anchors the star and allows you to twirl the points. Try this: give the star tool a 15 point setting, with a 50% inner depth and 0% variation and drag a star shape without releasing the mouse when you've reached the desired size. Press and hold the Ctrl key and drag the star shape in a clockwise direction. Notice that the points begin to twirl. You can twirl in either direction. Figure 7 is a 15 point star with a counter-clockwise twirl.

Figure 7 - Star twirled counter-clockwise.

Like the other shape tools, each settings available on the ToolBox for the Star tool is also available from the Star Specification box. The Rotation input box twirls a star counter-clockwise with a positive value and clockwise with a negative value.

Line Tool: The Line tool is straight forward and it too has a specification box. From the specification box you can set the beginning and ending x and y coordinates. To drag a line, simply click on the document where you want your line to begin, drag to the position where you want the line to end, and release the mouse.

Notice I left you alone to experiment with the Star and Line tools. By now you know the shortcut keys and how to create shapes. Now, create a rectangle shape on your document and select it so we can give it some strokes and fills. An object must be selected before you can apply a stroke or fill to it.

The Paint Style Palette

The Paint Style palette is where much of the fun lives. It houses all sorts of features, some of which are not readily apparent. Like all other palettes, running your mouse along various parts of the palette displays tool tips to identify each feature. Run your mouse over the very top row of buttons and you will see that these buttons are "stroke" buttons. From left to right, the buttons are as follows:

Make sure your shape object is selected and click each of the stroke buttons to see how it affects the object. (Remember that an object must be selected before a stroke or fill can be applied to it.) Click on the No Stroke button and the stroke around your object disappears. Try the Gradient button and notice that not only did the stroke change to a colored gradient, but that the color section of the Paint Style palette is replaced with a list of gradients. We'll discuss the color section shortly.

Under the stroke buttons you'll find the stroke width meter. This meter determines the width of your stroke for every type of stroke except the No Stroke attribute, obviously. There are several ways to change the stroke width value. Consult the meters section of the Expression 3 Interface Primer for the various ways to change meter values and enter a value of 3 using the method you prefer. The new value is applied to your object and your shape is now surrounded by a 3 point stroke width.

Under the stroke buttons you'll find the Fill buttons. Run your mouse over these buttons and notice that once again the tool tips tell you the name of each button. By default, the No Fill button is the active fill attribute for a new document. The Fill buttons are identified as follows:

With your object still selected, click on each of the Fill buttons to see how it affects the object. When you click on the Solid Fill button your object is filled with a solid black color. Notice that when you clicked on the Pattern Fill button that the color section of the Paint Style palette is replaced with a list of patterns to choose from. Click on the pattern names in the pattern list to choose them and notice that the object updates immediately to reflect the new pattern. The Image Fill is similar to patterns and we'll discuss the difference in more detail in lesson 2. Let's take a look at the color section of the Paint Style palette and see how to change the fill color of the selected object. Make sure the Solid Fill button is the active button in the fill section to display the color wheel in the color section. A button becomes 'active' when you click on it. You can tell when a button is active because it appears depressed.

The color section of the Paint Style palette is where you change the color of both strokes and fills. The default color model in Expression is the HSL value picker which is the model displayed in the snapshot of the Paint Style palette at the beginning of this section. Other color models are available and you access them using the small button to the left of the eye dropper icon in the bottom row of the Paint Style palette. If the HSL color model isn't currently the active color model, change it now.

The HSL color model displays a draggable triangle and color wheel much like the ones in other graphics programs. Place your mouse over the color wheel (to the right of the triangle) and your cursor changes to a hand cursor. At this point you can click and drag up or down on the wheel to change colors. Notice when you drag on the color wheel how the colors in the triangle change also. The triangle is the area where you select the exact color you want by clicking or dragging within it. Let's change the color of the selected object in the document.

If your object is not currently selected, select it with the Object Select tool. Make sure that the Solid Fill button is active. Drag down on the color wheel until the colors in the triangle display various shades of green. Click inside the triangle and watch how the fill color of your circle changes to your newly selected color. The triangle is draggable. Click and drag on the triangle and watch how the colors in your object change to the new color after you release your mouse. Notice also the oblong box to the right of the color wheel and that as you drag on the triangle, the colors are immediately reflected in the box. This rectangle is referred to as the Color Box.

I should mention an important note about selecting objects with or without fills at this point. Earlier I mentioned that to select an object with the Object Select tool, you had you click on the edge of the object to move it. This was because the objects we worked with at that point only had a stroke applied to it. When a shape, or any other object for that matter, has only a stroke applied to it, the center of the shape is considered empty and, consequently, has nothing within the shape to 'grab onto' and drag. When the object is filled with any of the fill attributes, you can click anywhere within the object to move it.

Now we know how to change fill colors but what if we want to change the color of the stroke? A common problem people have with changing colors is knowing when a color will be applied to the stroke and when it will be applied to the fill. Let's take a closer look at the Paint Style palette and see how to make that determination.

Notice in the snapshot below, the Stroke Preview box to the left of the stroke buttons and the Fill Preview box to the left of the fill buttons:

Figure 8 - Paint Style palette with fill option active.

In the image above, the Fill Preview appears depressed and has a checkered background. This means that the fill option is the active option and any color change will apply to the fill. To change the color of the stroke, either click on the Stroke Preview, or on either the Solid Stroke or Skeletal Stroke button, depending on which type of stroke you're using. Try it now. With your object still selected, click on the Stroke Preview and notice that the color section changes to black, the current color applied to the stroke on the object. Choose another color and notice that this time the color change is applied to the stroke instead of the fill. Well great. Mystery solved. Let's move on to find out what the meter below the fill buttons is for.

Notice the little black button on the Paint Style palette to the left of the meter under the row of Fill buttons. Mousing over this button reveals the tool tip 'Choose Fringe Texture.' This is the Soft Edge/Emboss button. To the right of this button is the Soft Edge/Emboss meter with a value of zero. Entering a positive number in this meter applies a soft edge to an object. Entering a negative number applies an Emboss effect. Let's experiment with the Soft Edge/Emboss button in another exercise.

Exercise 3: You should have a rectangle object on your document filled with a green color and a black stroke. Enter a positive value of 16 in the Soft Edge/Emboss meter and notice how the rectangle object now has a blurred appearance which extends beyond the edges of the rectangle, like this: Now enter a negative value of -16 in the Soft Edge/Emboss meter and notice how the rectangle object now appears beveled. Another thing that happens when we type in a negative number is that the Soft Edge/Emboss button turns blue, indicating that the active effect for the currently selected object is the embossed effect. Notice that only the fill is embossed, not the stroke. The stroke isn't very attractive anyway so let's remove it by clicking the No Stroke button: The red outline you see in the image above is the 'path' which is what a stroke attaches to. A path is only visible on a selected object. Deselect the object to see that the path is no longer visible. Select the rectangle again and enter a positive value in the Soft Edge/Emboss meter and let's see what hidden treasures lie beneath the Soft Edge/Emboss button.

With a positive value in the Soft Edge/Emboss meter, you have the ability to add a fringed edge to an object instead of a soft edge and you do this by clicking on the little black button displaying the 'Choose Fringe Texture' tool tip. Click on it now to get a new dialog box with a list of fringed edges to choose from. This dialog box is displayed below:

Exercise 4: With the rectangle object selected, click on the Soft Edge/Emboss button and choose a fringe by clicking on either the name of the fringe file of the graphic display of the file to the left of the fringe file name. I chose the 'bumpy,tif' file. In the Fringe Options drop down box, choose the 'Repeating' option and click the OK button. Mine looks like this: Click the Soft Edge/Emboss button again you'll see that the current fringe on your selected object is highlighted. Leave the current fringe but change the Fringe Option to 'Stretch to fit' and click the OK button to dismiss the dialog box. Notice that the fringe now stretches around the object instead of repeating: To return to a soft edge instead of a fringe, click the Soft Edge/Emboss button again and choose the 'No Fringe' item at the top of the list and, once again, click the OK button.

Fringed edges are graphic files stored in Expression 3/Textures/Fringes sub-folder on your hard drive. You can add more fringed edges to Expression 3 by simply creating more graphic files and dropping them in this sub-folder. You might want to open some of the files already in this sub-folder for ideas on creating new images. This is a subject not covered in this beginning class.

When you enter a negative value in the Soft Edge/Emboss meter, clicking on the Soft Edge/Emboss button (which is now blue) reveals a list of Reflection maps to choose from. This calls for another exercise.

Exercise 5: Enter a negative value in the Soft Edge/Emboss meter once more. As before, the button changed to a blue button and if you mouse over it when it's in the Emboss state, you will see a new tool tip displaying the message 'Choose Reflection Map.' Click on this button and you'll get a dialog box similar to the fringed edge dialog box only this time you get a list of Reflection maps and an option to change the angle at which the reflection map is applied. Choose a reflection map from the list and click the OK button to dismiss the dialog box. I chose the 'handpainted.tif' reflection map: Notice that the Soft Edge/Emboss button is now a silver ball instead of a blue button. When you click on objects, the Soft Edge/Emboss button serves to tell you type of Soft Edge/Emboss fill is applied to the object. To change reflection maps, click the Soft Edge/Emboss button and choose a different reflection map. Experiment with entering values in the 'Reflection map rotation' box. To remove a reflection map and return to a simple emboss, click the Soft Edge/Emboss again and choose the 'No Map' item at the top of the list and click the OK button.

Reflection maps are graphic files stored in Expression 3/Images/Envmaps sub-folder on your hard drive. You can add more reflection maps by simply creating more graphic files and dropping them in this sub-folder. Sources for additional reflection maps include Environment Maps by Ann-S-Thesia and Sara's Reflection Maps. You can, of course, create your own reflection maps but this is an advanced subject not covered in this beginning Expression 3 course. However, Sara has written an excellent Reflection Map Tutorial and a tutorial for making your own reflection maps that you'll undoubtedly want to explore if this subject is of interest to you.

A final word on reflection maps: At times you will notice that the edges of an object with a reflection map applied with appear to have jagged edges. Correcting this flaw would have a dramatic effect on the performance of the program so Creature House suggests that you rasterize the object to eliminate the jagged edges. We will discuss rasterizing objects in another lesson.

Transparency: There's a double slider between the Stroke Preview and Fill Preview that allows you to change the transparency of strokes and fills. Moving the bottom slider toward the left affects the transparency of a fill and moving the top slider to the left affects the transparency of a stroke. With your rectangle object selected, use the shortcut key combination Ctrl-D to make a copy of the object. The copy should overlap the original. Move the bottom transparency slider to approximately 50% and notice that the top, active object now allows the object under it show through:

Click on the PS Stroke button to give the top object a stroke. Move the top slider to the left, about 50%, and notice that the stroke now become transparent as well:

To move both transparency sliders at the some time (assuming they are both at 50%) click in the center where the two slider buttons meet and move them all the way to the right to remove the transparency. Let's take a look at textures.

Textures: See the button to the right of the transparency sliders? (It's faint so look close.) Click that button for a list of textures. Choose a texture from the list by clicking on it and then press the OK button to dismiss the texture dialog box and apply the texture to the active rectangle object. Notice that texture is applied to both the stroke and fill attributes of the object.

Once you apply a texture to an object, the name of the texture is listed to the left of the texture button on the Paint Style palette. If you decide to change the texture, click on the texture name and choose another texture. With textures, there is no item in the list to remove a texture like there in the Fringed Edge and Reflection Map dialog boxes. To remove a texture, click the texture button.

Notice, in the image above, that the top rectangle is transparent once the texture is applied. In the texture dialog box you have a choice of choosing opaque or transparent. You also have the option to scale the texture by choosing a predefined value in the 'Texture Scaling' drop down box or by entering a custom value. Below is my rectangle with texture scaling at 33% and texture mode set to opaque:

What if you want texture on the fill but not on the stroke? My solution is to do this:

Exercise 6: First, delete the bottom rectangle; we don't need it any more. Make a copy of the remaining rectangle, which should be the rectangle with the texture applied. On the copy, click the Texture button to remove the texture and click the Fill button to remove the fill. On the original rectangle, click the No Stroke button to remove the stroke. Finally, position the copy over the original rectangle. With the copy still selected, adjust the stroke size using the Stroke Width meter on the Paint Style palette. If you want to change the color, texture or emboss of the original rectangle, select the original with either the Node tool or the Object select tool and make the adjustments. Here's mine: My rectangle uses the Paper 4.bmp texture file with 'Texture Scaling' at 200% and texture 'Mode' set to opaque. If you have problems aligning the two rectangles, do this: select both rectangles by dragging a marquee that captures at least part of both rectangle objects. Choose Arrange > Align > V. Centers and then Arrange > Align > H. Centers from the menu bar.

Textures are graphic files stored in the Expression 3/Textures sub-folder on your hard drive. To add more texture, simply place other texture graphics in this sub-directory and they appear immediately in the texture list.

There's still more to learn about the Paint Style palette and we will cover gradients, patterns and image fills in lesson 2 as we work with the Text tool. Until then, we will take a quick look at the bounding box and then I'll give you a homework assignment. Leave your rectangle shapes on the document as we discuss the bounding box.

Bounding Box

I mentioned early on that when you click on an object, the object becomes selected and is surrounded by a bounding box. The bounding box allows you to resize and rotate objects. Our rectangles might make great web buttons, but not at the size they are now. Select both rectangles and notice the bounding box that surrounds them. Below are my rectangle shapes displaying the bounding box:

Notice the triangles in each corner of the bounding box. These are the Resize Handles. As your mouse pointer moves over a Resize Handle, the pointer changes to a pointer with double pointing arrows to indicate that clicking and dragging the handle will resize the object. How objects resize depends on your setting in Preferences. Choose File > Preferences from the menu bar and select 'Tools' in the drop down box at the top of the Preferences dialog box. In the center of the General Options section is an item labeled "Resize Handles: Scale from center." If there is a check mark in that box, remove it by clicking on the check box. Click the OK button to dismiss the dialog box.

On your document, with both rectangles selected, click on the resize handle in the upper right hand corner and drag it up and to the right. Nothing appears to happen and you drag but when you release the mouse, the bounding box become larger and the rectangles expand to fill the new size of the bounding box. Choose Edit > Undo Scale and let's expand the rectangles proportionately in all directions.

The Shift key is also a modifier key for the bounding box. Holding the Shift key and you drag a resize handle causes the bounding box to expand proportionately in all directions. Let's try it. Hold down the Shift key and drag the same resize handle in the same direction as before. Well great, but we want our rectangle smaller, not larger so choose Edit > Undo Scale again and let's make our rectangles smaller. Hold down the Shift key and drag the same resize handle but this time drag it down and to the left, toward the inside of the rectangle shapes and releasing the mouse when you mouse pointer is in about the center of the rectangle shapes. This is a much nicer size for, say, a web page button:

We removed the check mark in the Preferences dialog box that caused the resize handles to not resize from the center. Placing a checkmark in that box will cause an object to scale proportionately in two direction from the center of the object. For example, if you drag the upper right Resize Handle upwards, both the top and bottom of the bounding box will scale proportionately from the center of the object. Try this yourself and determine which method you prefer.

One final note on the Resize Handles. When I mentioned that as you drag a Resize Handle, nothing appears to happen. Normally, when you drag a Resize Handle you should see an outline of the object to show you the position of the object before you release the mouse. On my system (WinXP) I sometimes get the outline, and sometimes I don't. What you get may depend on your operating system. I suspect this is a bug and it has been reported to Creature House.

The little squiggles on each of the four sides of the bounding box are the Rotation Handles. As your mouse pointer moves over a Rotation Handle, the pointer changes to a pointer with rotating double pointing arrows to indicate that clicking and dragging the rotation handle will rotate the object. With both of the rectangle shapes selected, drag on the rotation handle on the right and drag downward. Again, nothing appears to happen until you release the mouse and then the objects rotate, like this:

Choose Edit > Undo Rotate and drag the same resize handle upward this time. Any rotation handle will rotate an object either clockwise or counter clockwise, depending on the direction you drag the resize handle.

Homework Assignment

You didn't really think I was going to let you leave class without a homework assignment, did you? Your assignment is to practice creating simple objects using the methods outlined in this lesson and apply strokes and fills to the objects until you are comfortable with the Paint Style palette and selecting and deselecting objects. These are areas you'll want to master if you intend to use Expression 3 as a drawing tool. The remainder of these lessons will assume that you have learned the techniques in this lesson. When, in a future lesson, I say to apply a green color fill, you'll know how to do that, right? Good deal! See you next week.