Maptitude Help / Creating and Using Layouts / Placing Freehand Items in a Layout

Placing Freehand Items in a Layout

Freehand items include text, symbols, lines, circles, rectangles, and other graphics. You create freehand items on a layout using the drawing tools in the drop-down on the Standard toolbar, first presented in Using the Drawing Tools. Here is a quick summary of the drawing tools and how they work:

Tool Name How to use it
Text tool button Text Drag a rectangle in the layout, type the text you want and press Enter. Type a vertical bar “|” to skip to another line.
Curved text tool button Curved Text Click on each point along the curve, double-click to end it, type the text you want, and press Enter.
Rectangle tool button Rectangle Drag a rectangle in the layout, or hold the Shift key to drag a square.
Rounded rectangle tool button Rounded Rectangle Drag a rectangle in the layout, or hold the Shift key to drag a square with rounded corners.
Circle tool button Circle Drag a circle in the layout
Ellipse/Oval tool button Oval Drag an oval in the layout, or hold the Shift key to drag a circle
Shape/polygon tool button Shape Click on each corner of the shape, and double-click to close it (the first and last points connect automatically).
Line tool button Line Click on each point along the line, and double-click to end it.
Arrow tool button Arrow Click on each point along the arrow, and double-click to end it.
Curve tool button Curve Click on each point along the curve, and double-click to end it.
Image tool button Image Drag a rectangle on the map, then choose an image file in any of the supported formats.
Symbol tool button Symbol Click on the layout. Hold the Shift key and click on the layout to choose a symbol.

You can also hold the Ctrl key to drag a rectangle, rounded rectangle, or oval from its center.

Note that you cannot use the North Arrow, Radius, or Great Circle tools in a layout, only on a map.

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