Skewing

You can skew (also called "shear") selected objects by using either the resize and rotation handles or the Action Bar.

To skew a selected object (or group of objects or nodes) with the handles, position the cursor near but outside one of the side handles. To skew horizontally, drag the top or bottom side handle of the object to the left or right. To skew vertically, drag either the left or right side handle. Hold down the ALT key if you want to skew the object around its center point.

A shape (blue) being skewed with the top handle.

Tip: You can skew and duplicate your selection at the same time by holding down CTRL+ALT while dragging.

Skewing objects with the Action Bar

To use the Action Bar to skew a selected object (or objects):

1. Select the reference point by clicking the icon on the left side of the Action Bar . For example, if you want the upper-right corner of your object to remain in place while the rest of the object skews, click the upper-right corner of the reference point icon.
2. Adjust the Skew Angle  slider value by dragging it, or, if you want to type a numeric value, by clicking it.

To skew vertically (shear) instead of horizontally, set the Rotation Angle  and Skew Angle   fields to the same value.