Making Changes
Many of the changes can be made by directly interacting with the
elements on the page for example moving, resizing and rotating.
Selecting Elements
Elements can be selected by clicking on them. Typically one element at
a time will be selected - when you click on a different element any
other elements will be deselected. To select more than one element hold
down the "command" (the one with the Apple symbol) key while
clicking. You can also select groups of items by dragging a selection
box around the elements. You can toggle the selected state of an
element by holding down the "command" key and clicking on the element.
To select all the elements on a page use the "Edit->Select All" menu
item.
Moving Elements
To move an element or elements select them and click on one of the
selected elements and, while holding the mouse button down, drag the
element(s) to the new location.
Resizing Elements
Only one element at a time can be resized. Select the desired element
and use the handles bordering the element to adjust its size. Note that
different elements have different resize behaviors. See the section on
each element for more information.
Rotating Elements
Two types of elements can be rotated: image elements and lettering
elements. To rotate one of these elements select it and click on the
rotation handle near the center of the element. While holding down the
mouse button drag the mouse in a circular motion to rotate the element
to the desired angle. To limit the rotation to 90° angles hold down
the "shift" key while dragging - the element will snap to the nearest
90° angle. If you release the shift key while dragging the element
will once again freely rotate to the specified angle so make sure you
release the mouse button before releasing the "shift" key to set the
element to the snapped angle.
Deleting Elements
To delete any elements on a page simply select them and hit the "delete" key or choose the "Edit->Delete" menu item.
Reordering Elements
Sometime elements will be behind or in front of other elements on the
page. You can use the Arrange menu to change this ordering. Use "Send
to Back" to move an element to back of the display order. Use "Bring to
Front" to bring an element to the front.
Note: If you are using panels the ordering behavior can be slightly different. See the section on Panels for more information.
Clipping Elements
A common feature of comics is having elements trimmed to the edge of
panels so the panels are clearly distinguishable on the page. By
default Comic Life doesn't clip any lettering elements on a panel or
image (if the image is not on a panel) because many photos you might
first use do not have room for balloons. However you can enable
clipping for new elements by checking the "Clip new non-image elements
to panels" option in the Preferences. New elements dropped on top of a
panel will then be automatically clipped to the edge of the panel. If
you drag an element off of a panel it will no longer be clipped to the
panel edge. If you drag an element on to a panel it will automatically
clip to the edge of the panel. This behavior can be disabled on a
per-element basis by unchecking the "Clip" checkbox in the element
attributes on the "Details" tab. This is useful for times when elements
should "break" the edge of a panel for dramatic effect.
Editing Text
Some elements on the page are containers for text (captions, bubbles
and lettering) - to edit the text in these containers double click on
one of them or hit the "Return" key if the element is selected. For
captions and bubbles the text are in the container becomes editable and
the entire contents are selected. Start typing to replace the selected
text or click at the desired character position to make minor changes.
To save your changes either click outside of the editing area or hit
the "enter" key on your keyboard.
For lettering elements a sheet descends with the editable text -
make the necessary changes in the sheet and click on the "Convert to
graphics" button to update the element on the page.