NewDeal Hot Tip 1210

[Hot Tips for...] NewDraw

NewDraw, Text on a Curve

One easy way to paste text around a curve or circle in NewDeal is to use the custom duplicate function. You can duplicate one letter and rotate it around the number of times you need it to create the curved text, and then go back and edit each letter to spell out the words. If you add enough carriage returns after the original letter (before duplicating), you won't even need to drag the rotated letters around. Just put the letter at the top of the text frame, hit CR enough times to make the text box height equal to the diameter of the circle you want to wrap it around, and duplicate with rotation. The rotation angle must approximate the angle needed between each of the letters.

Write around a circle in 10 easy steps:

User level 4 is required.
  1. Create a straight horizontal line (hold the SHIFT key while drawing a line). The length should be about the diameter of the desired circle (you'll see below).
  2. Select the line and set the Advanced Graphics Attribute PRINT. Now the line won't show up on your printout. --OR--
    Set the annotation to Editable in the Options, Annotations menu.
  3. Use the graphics Text Tool Text tool image to create a ONE (1) character text object. It's best to use the font in the point size you'll later want. Place this text object exactly above the line you created in step #1.
  4. Duplicate the text object and place the second one at the other end of the line, "mirrored." For example, use the Transform - Mirror function in the Graphics menu. Then move the second, mirrored object to the other end of the line. Or Group the line and the text object together, then copy and paste and rotate the second object 180 degrees, then ungroup both objects. The second line can be deleted.
  5. Now, select both text objects and the line and Group them.
  6. Activate the Custom Duplicate dialog box from the Graphics, Edit, Duplicate menu, or the Edit, Duplicate menu.
  7. Define the number of Duplicates as the desired number of characters in your final text. Define a value for rotating. This value depends on the circle diameter (size) and the number of characters. You may need a few tries to get a perfect result, but with some experience you'll develop a feeling for it.

    Custom Duplicate image

  8. Click Apply and, after a few seconds, the defined object will appear on screen. If something is not correct, use the Undo function and try it again after changing the settings in the Custom Duplicate dialog box.
  9. Select all the objects and Ungroup them (remember that each line with the two characters at each end are grouped). Don't forget to Save the document often during your work.
  10. Finally, replace each character with the correct one for your message.
Many variations of the above instructions are possible. For example, we didn't use the Scale and Move settings. You could also create text lines in a wave form.

Remember that the length of the starting line is the diameter of the circle. A small circle doesn't have room for very much text.


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Last Modified 2 Mar 1999