InDesign CS5 For Dummies
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Adobe Creative Cloud's InDesign allows you to create basic shapes in a document. You can easily create a basic shape by following these steps:

  1. Create a new document by choosing File→New.

  2. When the New Document dialog box appears, click OK.

    A new document opens.

  3. Select the Rectangle tool in the Tools panel.

  4. Click anywhere on the page and drag the mouse diagonally.

    When the rectangle is the dimension you want, release the mouse button. You’ve created a rectangle.

That’s all you need to do to create a basic shape. You can also use these steps with the other basic shape tools (the Line, Ellipse, and Polygon tools) to create other basic shapes. To access the other basic shapes from the Tools panel, follow these steps:

  1. Click the Rectangle tool and hold down the mouse button.

    A menu that contains all the basic shapes opens.

  2. Release the mouse button.

    The menu remains open, and you can mouse over the menu items. Each menu item becomes highlighted when the mouse pointer is placed over it.

  3. Select a basic shape tool by clicking a highlighted menu item.

    The new basic shape tool is now active. Follow the preceding set of steps to create basic shapes by using any of these tools.

To draw a square shape, use the Rectangle tool and press the Shift key while you drag the mouse on the page. The sides of the shape are all drawn at the same length, so you create a perfect square.

You can also use the Shift key with the Ellipse tool if you want a perfect circle — just hold down Shift while you’re using the Ellipse tool. Release the mouse before the Shift key to ensure that this constrain shape trick works!

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