Creating Bézier boxes

The Bézier Pen tool lets you draw multi-sided Bézier boxes and lines that can have straight and curved line segments (see "Understanding Bézier shapes").

To draw a Bézier box:

Select the Bézier Pen tool from the Tools palette. Move the Crosshair pointer to any position on the page and click to establish the first point.
Move the pointer to where you want the next point positioned. To constrain pointer movement to a 45-degree angle relative to the page, press Shift.
Click to create points and line segments.
- Clicking a point without dragging creates a straight line and corner point. To create a curved line segment and smooth point, click and drag wherever you want the next point positioned. A point with two curve handles displays. You can control the curve's size and shape by dragging a curve handle. Press Option/Alt while dragging a smooth point to create a curved segment and corner point.
If desired, edit the Bézier shape while you are still drawing it.
- To add a point to an existing segment of the shape, click the line segment where you want the point to be.
- To delete a point from the active shape while you are drawing it, click the point.
To close the box, close the path by positioning the mouse pointer over the beginning of the line and then click when the Close Box pointer displays.
Note: When any of the drawing tools are active, you can press Command/Ctrl to temporarily switch to the Point Selection tool. When the Point Selection tool is active, you can press Command+Option/Ctrl+Alt to temporarily switch to the Item tool.