To set the Knife tool options in Macromedia

To set the Knife tool options:

Double-click the Knife tool and select from the following options.

v  Select Freehand to make a freehand cut or straight to make a straight cut. If you are using the freehand operation, you can hold down Alt as you drag to cut a straight line. Hold down Shift to constrain it.

v  Enter a value from 0 to 72 points in the Width text box or set the Width with the slider control. A width of 0 gives a single, thin cut. Higher values will make two cuts spaced according to the Width value.

v  Select Close Cut Paths to close the resulting paths and to display the stroke and fill of the original path. Deselect the option to keep the resulting paths open and to display only the stroke.

v  Select Tight Fit to make a cut that closely follows the path of your hand movements.

To split a selected path with the Knife tool:

1.      Drag the Knife tool across the path.

To split paths using the Split command:

1.      Select one or more paths.

2.      Select one or more points on each path. The path will be split at each point you select.

3.      Choose Modify > Split.

Using the Swatches panel

The Swatches panel lets you store colors, edit and rename them, convert process colors to spot colors and vice versa, change the color mode (RGB and CMYK), and import and export custom color libraries.

To show or hide the Swatches panel, do one of the following:

v  Click the Swatches button in the Main toolbar.

v  Choose Window > Panels > Swatches.

            Swatches panel
 

The Swatches panel displays the color list for the active document. It also has three selectors: the Fill (left), Stroke (center), and both for the combined Fill and Stroke (right). The active selector is pressed. The selectors show the colors for a selected object. The colors also appear in the color boxes in the Tools panel.

Active Fill selector, no stroke; differing fill and stroke

 

The default colors in a new document are None, White, Black, and Registration. These colors cannot be deleted or renamed. Black is a spot black that prints on the process black plate. The registration color used for crop marks or trim marks, prints solid on all color separations.

The Swatches panel displays process color names in italics, spot color names in plain type, with a triple-dot icon next to RGB colors, no symbol for CMYK colors, and a black hexagon for Hexachrome colors. RGB colors include those created in HLS view, the Apple Color Picker, and the Windows Color dialog box.

CMYK colors (top two): process in italics and spot color in plain type; RGB colors with icon: process (italics) and spot (plain) colors