Mapdiva, LLC | Mac OS X Software

Click the Styles & Clip Art palette icon on the toolbar, or choose Window > Styles & Clip Art palette from the main menu to open the Styles & Clip Art palette.

Artboard ships with an outstanding Library of over 1700 uniques styles and custom clip art! Plus, any styles and graphics you create can be added to the user’s Library.

Artboard delivers with hundreds of Styles and Clip Art items all combined together in the Artboard Collection. Items are organized into categories accessible from the Library drop-down menu. You can tell an item’s type by its appearance in the palette:

• Path styles are shown with a curved stroke
• Fill styles are shown in a square
• Clip art look just like their graphic

Hover your cursor over any item and its name and type (style or clip art) will appear in the tooltip.

HINT: clip art may need ungrouped to edit after you place them in your drawing.

Remember the Basics: Drawing Tool + Style = Draw

• To draw with existing styles, choose a drawing tool, then choose a stroke or fill style from the Styles & Clip Art palette and start drawing.

• To change styles, click onto a different style in the Styles & Clip Art palette and continue drawing.

While styles and clip art are both present in the Styles & Clip Art palette, the palette is smart about the type of tool you have active. Choose your tool, then choose a style to apply to that tool while it is active. Items that can be used with the active tool are enabled and highlighted, disabled items are subtly grayed-out. For example, when you draw a shape the stroke and fill styles are enabled. Clip art are enabled when the Clip Art Stamp tool is being used.

All styles and clip art are enabled while the Select [s] tool is active.

From the Styles & Clip Art palette toolbar, choose the Library icon for a drop-down list of collections and categories. Use the forward and back buttons to navigate through previously visited categories. Search for styles and clip art from the search bar.

NOTE: Search results are returned for the currently selected category. If you want to search the entire Collection, make sure "Artboard Collection" is chosen from the drop-down menu.

To apply an existing style to one or more existing objects, use the Select [s] tool to select the object(s) and double-click a style in the Styles & Clip Art palette to apply. You are asked to confirm this application to prevent accidental changes. This confirmation message is an alert that can be turned on or off and can be reset in the Artboard > Preferences from the main menu.

Alternatively, drag-and-drop a style from Styles & Clip Art palette onto and existing object to apply a new style. (Note, you can also drag styles directly from the Library Manager.)

The Style Dropper tool is another convenient way to to copy (or "pick up") a style from one object and paste it onto other objects. Click onto a first object to pick up its style; clicking onto subsequent objects applies the style. The style dropper cursor shows whether dropper is “full" (will drop) or “empty" (will pick up). Return to the Select [s] tool (or any other tool) to end the Style Dropper. To pick up a new style while the Style Dropper tool is active, press the OPTION/Alt key while clicking an object with the style dropper tool. The dropper can pick up styles from inside a group.

HINT: While you are drawing you can quickly pick-up a style from a previously drawn object and keep drawing using "quick pick-up." Hold the CMND(Apple)-key (you should see the cursor change to an eye-dropper) and click an object that has the style you want to pick up. The "picked up" style becomes active (and shown in the Preview on the Tools palette); release the CMND-key and continue drawing.

Choose the Select [s] tool from the Tools palette then drag-and-drop clip art from the Styles & Clip Art palette directly onto your drawing canvas (note, you can also drag clip art directly from the Library Manager).

Alternatively, use the Clip Art Stamp tool to add clip art from the Styles & Clip Art palette to your drawing. While the Clip Art Stamp tool is active, all clip art is enabled in the palette.

HINT: All clip art in the Mapdiva built-in collection, with the exception of country flags, are fully editable vector objects. Many clip art are made up of groups of objects which need ungrouped one or more times to edit them. To resize any clip art, select it with the Select [s] tool and drag one of the object’s bounding box corners, holding the Shift-ket to maintain the aspect ratio. Alternatively, select the object and enter the object dimensions in the Geometry panel (click the "lock" icon in the Geometry panel to lock the aspect ratio when resizing).

Many of the built-in clip art are complex objects made up of grouped objects. To edit clip art after placing, first ungroup the objects as necessary by choosing Graphic > Ungroup from the main menu, or right-click and choose Ungroup from the context menu. Note, some clip art may have groups within groups. Text may be edited within a group without ungrouping. Styles may by picked up with the Style Dropper tool without ungrouping.

Your graphics can be saved as your own clip art in Artboard. Create your graphic and group the objects as necessary. Choose Edit > Add Clip Art to Library from the main menu, or click the Add Clip Art icon from the toolbar (note, the Add Clip Art icon can be added to the toolbar by customizing the toolbar). The clip art is automatically added to the Library Manager and is available immediately under "My Library" from the Styles & Clip Art Palette.

For more information about organizing your own clip art and styles, see "The Library Manager."