Objects Toolbar

We have the “Objects toolbar” to the left of the application window.

At the top of the toolbar, we find a few circles, and when we move the mouse pointer over them, they change to a four-headed arrow. By clicking and dragging on this arrow, we can move this toolbar.
This also works for all the other toolbars in “Publisher”.

We’re going to go through the different object buttons systematically.

The first button is the white arrow, denoting the “Select Objects” tool, with which we select objects present in our publication.

Below this we have the “Text Box” button.
If you want to add a text box to your publication, click on this button, and drag it to the place in your publication where the text box is to be created.

Below this, we have the “Table” button.
This will be elaborated later, when I dicuss tables.

Below this button, we have the “WordArt” button. For all those of you who work with “Microsoft Word” or “PowerPoint”, this isn’t new.
Next, we have the “Picture Frame” button.
After that, we have the “Line”, “Arrow”, “Oval”, “Rectangle” and “AutoShape” buttons.
I suppose, when you work with “Publisher”, all these buttons and their features are already familiar to you since they are present in other Office applications.

The other three buttons have little to do with objects, but here is a word of explanation:
The “Bookmark” method allows us to use a selected portion of text, as a link in an Internet page.
The “Design Gallery” opens a dialog box with a number of useful, pre-designed elements that can be added to your publication.
And finally we have the “Item from Content Library” button. The Content Library is a repository of text boxes, shapes, images and other such components. We place items in this library so that we can easily find and use them, later. A logo in the library is, perhaps, quite useful.
If, for some reason the “Objects toolbar” is not visible, click on the “View” tab in the “Menu bar”, select “Toolbars” and then click “Objects”.

Ellipse

I will explain this, step by step, with the help of an example.
If you want the files, send me a mail.

First I select the “Oval” tool from the “Objects toolbar” and click and drag in the publication to reach the desired size.
I then click on the “Fill” button in the “Formatting toolbar”, and select “Fill Effects”.
In the “Fill Effects” I choose “Two colors”, color 1= black, color 2 = dark gray. For other colors, click on the arrow pointing downwards, next to the appropriate box.
In the “Shading styles” section, I select “Vertical”, and the first variant on the second row of the four styles displayed.
So, the shading goes from dark to light, and back to dark.
I click OK , and the oval is colored.

If you want to change the size of the oval, or any other object in your publication, click and drag it to the required size, with the help of the dots at the edges of the object. But, I think I have already mentioned that.
In the next lesson we are going to see how a rectangle is drawn.

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