Chapter 1: The SmartDraw Window

In this chapter, you will learn to open SmartDraw; turn off the Welcome screen, the Advisors, and the Hint windows; open a blank document; examine the Library Explorer window; and also learn the functions of each menu item.

What Are the Parts of the SmartDraw Window and What Do They Do.

Exercise 1-1: Opening SmartDraw

Go to the Start menu.
Expand the Programs pop out menu.
Go to the SmartDraw folder and expand the pop out menu.
Choose SmartDraw.

When you first open SmartDraw, you see a colorful splash screen. This screen displays for a short time then the Welcome screen displays.

Each part of the Welcome screen has information for you and places where you can change the way the program opens or what you are going to do when it opens. At the top of the screen are three To start… choices: Open a new drawing, Open an existing SmartDraw drawing, and Open a recently used SmartDraw drawing. Open a new drawing takes you to the next screen, the Create a new drawing dialog. Open an existing SmartDraw opens the Browse dialog at the location where you last saved a SmartDraw file. The Open a recently used SmartDraw drawing allows you to choose one of the files from the drop-down list. Once you have chosen one of these, you must click the OK button.

While working in this hands-on-workshop, you will turn off the Hints and the Welcome Dialog. Once you become more familiar with the operation of the program, you can decide whether or not you wish to have these windows open. Your instructor believes they can be very helpful when you are creating a new type of drawing.

Exercise 1-2: The Welcome Screen options

Go to the Welcome Screen and clear the box at the bottom next to the words Show Welcome Dialog.
Go to the Beginning Users section of the dialog and clear the check mark from the show hints box.
The Hints can be very helpful or just annoying. For this class, you will turn them off.
Depress the Create a new Drawing box if it is not depressed.
Click on the OK button.

The Create a New Drawing dialog displays. Here you can see the many types of drawings you can create with SmartDraw. Each type has its own default settings, examples, libraries, and templates.

For the first set of exercises in Chapter 2, you will create a software design chart. This will allow you to learn most of the tools and procedures SmartDraw provides. Each type of drawing has many examples available that you can use as a base for your drawing. For the purposes of this chapter you will create a blank Flow Chart drawing so you can learn the various parts of the screen.

Exercise 1-3: The Parts of the SmartDraw Screen

Go to the Create New Drawing dialog box. (Shown in the illustration above.)
Depress the Flow Charts button if it is not depressed.
You can also double click on the button to create a new, blank document of that type.
Click on the Create Blank Drawing button.
The screen below displays.

Part of the screen
Title Bar	Gives the name of the program and the document you are working on. Notice here the document is Untitled Flowchart 1. The buttons in the right corner allow you to minimize SmartDraw to your Windows Start Bar, maximize it to fill the whole screen, or close the program.
Menu Bar	Gives the names of the drop down lists where most functions of the program are accessed. You will learn the function of most of these menu choices during this workshop. At the end of this chapter, there is a chart listing each menu and the function of each option on that menu.
Program Toolbar	Gives button access to the standard windows tools and to special tools unique to SmartDraw. You can also connect directly to other programs from this Toolbar. Using these buttons, you can place your drawings directly into Word, Excel, or other document.
Document Toolbar	SmartDraw provides you with many collections of drawing ready shapes to speed your work. You can dock one of these above your work area.
SmartDraw Explorer	Opens to the Library collection most used with the type of drawing you choose. Allows you access to all the libraries possible.
Cursor Position Indicator	Shows the location of the cursor on the Main drawing area. It is expressed in whatever measuring system you have chosen, for example, inches, pixels, or metric measurements.
Rulers	Provides a reference for you on the screen. The measuring system displayed on the ruler changes according to which system you have selected. The visual accuracy of the measurement is relative to the size of your screen and the resolution of your monitor. While something may not look exact, SmartDraw will send the exact measurements to your printer.
Scroll bars	These standard Windows features allow you to move around the Main drawing area.
Main work area	This drawing area is 50 inches by 50 inches. It is divided with a dotted line grid into page size areas. SmartDraw suggests you create only one drawing per file or drawing area but you can place as many as the working area will allow. When a drawing is printed that is larger than the paper in your printer, SmartDraw divides the image to fit your paper so you can reassemble the drawing at the size you drew it.

Turning off the Advisor dialog windows

SmartDraw provides you with many resources as you are using the program. In this hands-on-workshop, we will turn off most of these helper dialogs.

Exercise 1-4: Turning off the Advisor

Go to the Tools menu and choose Options….
Notice that we have already turned off the Welcome dialog and the Hints.
Click on the box next to Do Not Open Advisors Automatically.
When you are more familiar with the program, these Advisors can be extremely helpful especially when you are creating a new type of drawing. You can also minimize the Advisors and they will stay in the lower part of your screen above the Start bar.
Click OK.

Opening a Library

SmartDraw provides you with an extensive collection of symbols and shapes for your drawings. On the SmartDraw web site you can purchase and download other sets to augment your current collection. These symbols and images are stored in Libraries. These Libraries are accessed through the SmartDraw Explorer. Click here to see a video of how to change the size of the Explorer and open a Library.

Exercise 1-6: Changing the size of the Explorer

If you have closed the SmartDraw Explorer, go to the View menu and choose Show Explorer.
All the Libraries, Template collections, and Examples available to you will be listed in the window at the left of the drawing area. Remember you can purchase more libraries from SmartDraw.
Move the cursor over the right side of the Explorer window until the cursor icon changes to a line with arrows heads pointing to the left and right.
Hold down the left mouse button and drag the side of the window to the left to make the window smaller and to the right to make it larger.
This works in most Windows programs. Move your cursor slowly over the edge of the window and when it changes, hold down the mouse button to drag.

Exercise 1-7: Exploring the Libraries

Go to the SmartDraw Explorer.
Click on plus sign by the Business & Charting folder.
Click on the plus sign by Flowchart folder.
Click on the plus sign by the Libraries folder
Click on the name of the Library you want and hold down the left mouse button as you drag it to the Drawing area. Release the mouse button over the Drawing area.
You can also double click on the name with the yellow icon to open the dialog window with the symbols. The dialog will float over the SmartDraw screen.
Click and drag the symbol you want to use from that dialog window to the Drawing area and drop it in place.
Notice the tip tag tells you the name usually associated with each symbol.

The Libraries provided with SmartDraw include collections of clip art, web objects, backgrounds for presentations and full sets of engineering and architectural symbols. You are encouraged to explore these collections. You will have an exercise on transferring images and drawings in a later chapter of this workshop.

The menus and their options

Microsoft has established certain conventions that are followed by all Windows programs. When a menu option is followed by an ellipsis (three small dots …), it means that when you choose that option, you will get a dialog window where you will have choices to make. A submenu will expand with additional options when you click on the arrowhead (4) that follows the options. The text following some menu options, such as Ctrl+S after Save, is a keyboard short cut to that option. If the option has an ellipsis after it, the shortcut keys will open the dialog, if no ellipses, the action of that option will occur. If an option is grayed out, you cannot use that option on the drawing at this stage of your drawing. That feature is dynamic and depends on what you are doing.

You may want to print this section and keep it on hand as a reference.

File

New… Ctrl+N	Opens the Create New Drawing dialog
Open… Ctrl+O	Opens a browse dialog at the last location you saved a file.
Close Ctrl+W	Closes the current drawing. If you have not saved the drawing, SmartDraw will ask you if you want to save before you close.
Save Ctrl+S	Saves the current drawing. The file extension for SmartDraw files is .sdr. Save your drawing each time you add or change a major part of the drawing. You never know when the power will go off or Windows will crash. It is not a matter of if but a matter of when.
Save As…	Opens a dialog that allows you to save a copy of the drawing as a different type of file without changing the document you are working on. It is very similar to Exporting the file but you can save the document as a SmartDraw file but with a different name. This is handy if you need to have incremental steps shown in a design.
Save As Template…	Allows you to save the current drawing as a base or pattern for additional drawings.
Page Setup…	Opens a dialog window that contains the settings for the default printer on your machine. This allows you to change how the printer will handle the drawing.
Change to Landscape/Portrait	The default page orientation for SmartDraw is Portrait, or the page being taller than it is wide. This command allows you to change the page orientation. When your page is in the Landscape orientation, it will say Change to Portrait.
Print Preview	Opens a window to show you what your drawing will look like when it is printed. Shows all pages of the document that will print with the objects on them.
Print… Ctrl+P	Opens the Print dialog associated with your default printer. This dialog also allows you to choose to print only one page of your drawing when the drawing is too large for the paper in your printer, print without color when you need interim copies, print informational footers on the page, or print the grid you see on your screen.
Export…	Creates a copy of your drawing as a new type of file. In a later chapter of this workshop, you will learn when it is best to export and when it is best to do a Save As.
Import…	Brings a copy of a file into the currently open drawing. Several types of files can be imported. In a later chapter, you will learn when it is best to import and when to use the File Conversion Wizard.
Publish to the Web 4	Allows you to send your drawing to the SmartDraw Net or create an HTML document for use on the Web.
File Conversion Wizard…	A utility provided by SmartDraw to convert certain types of file into a format SmartDraw can manipulate.
Send 4	Allows you to e-mail your drawing to someone. You can include the SmartDraw Viewer so they can open the file even if they don’t have SmartDraw. The expanded menu allows you to choose which file to e-mail when more than one drawing is open.
Exit Alt+F4	Closes the program. If you have not saved the drawing recently, SmartDraw will prompt you to save it before you close it so you don’t lose all your changes.

Edit

Undo Ctrl+Z	Reverses the last action.
Cut Ctrl+X	Removes the selected object or objects and places it on the Windows Clipboard
Copy Ctrl+C	Makes a copy of the selected object or objects and places in on the Windows Clipboard.
Paste Ctrl+V	Places a copy of an object on the Clipboard into the drawing.
Paste Special…	Inserts a copy of an object into the drawing but links that object to the program that created the object. When you want to edit the object such as a spreadsheet or chart from MS Excel, you double click on the object and the creating program opens. You will cover this function in more detail in a later chapter.
Clear Del	Deletes all selected objects.
Select All Ctrl+A	Selects all objects in the drawing.
Find… Ctrl+F	Locates a word or number within the drawing.
Find Next… F3	Finds the next occurrence of the word or number you looked for with the Find command.
Replace… Ctrl+H	Uses the Find function to allow you to substitute a word or number for the one that you designate.
Duplicate Ctrl+D	Makes a copy of the selected object. The duplicate is placed to the right and below the original.
Colors and Shadows…	Accesses a dialog box where you can change the colors and apply a shadow to an object.
Insert Object…	Accesses a dialog box that allows you to place a copy of a file object from another program such as Excel in your document. This creates a Windows OLE (Object Linking and Editing) object.
Links…	Accesses a dialog box that allows you to maintain the links created with the Insert Object and Paste Special functions.
Object	This is a dynamic area that shows the name of a linked object when it is selected.

View

Fit to Window	Shows you the entire 50 inch square drawing area
Fit to Page	Shows you just the section of the drawing area where you are working. Usually an 8.5x11 inch area.
50%	Shows object you have drawn at half their size.
75%	Shows objects you have drawn at three quarters their size.
100%	Shows objects you have drawn at their full size.
150%	Shows objects you have drawn half again larger than full size.
200%	Shows object you have drawn at twice their original size.
Custom…	Allows you to choose a level of enlargement or reduction.
Background Color 4	Accesses a dialog to add a background color to your drawing. The color will be applied to the entire 50x50 drawing area.
Define Rulers and Grid…	Accesses a dialog where you can change the measuring system of your drawing as well as the way the rulers look. You will cover this function in detail in a later chapter.
Show Toolbar	Allows you to hide or display the toolbars.
Show Grid	Allows you to hide or display the grid on the drawing area.
Show Explorer	Allows you to hide or display the Library Explorer.

Shapes
(Options on this menu will be grayed out unless an object is selected.)

Fill Color 4	Allows you to choose a color for the inside of your object.
Shading 4	Allows you to choose a crosshatch fill for your object.
Border Style 4	Allows you to change the line style of the objects.
Border Color 4	Allows you to change the color of the outline.
Shape 4	Allows you to access a pop out menu that lists all the shapes on the Program Toolbar. When one of these shapes is selected in your drawing, you can change it to a different shape from the Toolbar; for example, change an oval to a triangle.
Text Entry Properties…	Accesses a dialog where you can control how the text will be displayed when you type text into an object. You will cover this function in detail in a later chapter.
Shape Properties	Accesses a dialog where you can control how the object changes shape when you manipulate its size.
Edit Shape Outline…	Allows you to change a shape using the Right click menu options. You select the shape, choose this menu item, then right click on the shape you wish to change. You will do an exercise later in this class on this powerful tool.
Connection Points…	Allows you to change the point at which lines connect to a shape.

Lines (Options on this menu will be grayed out unless a line is selected.)

Thickness 4	Opens a menu where you can choose the thickness of the line you have drawn.
Style 4	Opens a menu where you can change the line from a full line to a broken line in various patterns.
Color 4	Opens a menu where you can choose another color for the lines.
Change Line Shape	Accesses a dialog where you can alter the type of line.
Arrowheads…	Accesses a dialog where you can add different types of endings to the lines and create your own endings for lines.
Show Length	Adds the line measurement in the middle of the line. The measurement is shown in the measuring system you are currently using.
Align Shapes and Text on the Line 4	Allows you to change the direction of text on a line.

Table

(Most options on this menu will be grayed out unless a table is selected.)

Add New Tables…	Accesses a dialog where you can create a table in your drawing.
Convert To Table…	Creates a table within a shape you have created.
Cell Background Color 4	Accesses a dialog to put color in the selected cell of a table.
Cell Background Shading 4	Accesses a dialog where you can add cross-hatching to a selected cell.
Grid Line Style 4	Accesses a dialog where you can change the appearance of the grid in the Drawing area.
Grid Line Color 4	Accesses a dialog where you can change the color of the Grid lines in the Drawing area.
Do Not Allow Text Editing	Keeps someone else from changing the text in a table you create. Useful for forms.
Inset Cells…	Adds cells to the tables.
Delete Cells…	Removes cells from the table.
Auto Fill…	Adds such text as the days of the week or number sequences to a table.
Join Cells	Merges cells together.
Split Cells	Create additional cells from one cell.
Space Rows Evenly	Makes all rows the same height.
Space Columns Evenly…	Makes all columns the same width.
Convert To Text…	Changes the table to straight text.

Text

Font… Ctrl+T	Accesses a dialog where you can change the font, its size, and other properties.
Color 4	Accesses a dialog where you can change the color of the letters.
Alignment 4	Accesses a dialog to set the placement of the text within the object or on the pages.
Bullets 4	Accesses a dialog to choose the symbol for bulleted text and properties of the bulleted text.
Insert Symbol…	Accesses the standard Windows symbol dialog.
Shadow	Allows you to turn off or on a drop shadow on certain fonts.

Arrange

Align 4	Lines up two or more objects by sides, middle, tops, or bottoms.
Make Same Size 4	Makes all selected objects the same size.
Space Evenly 4	Distributes three or more objects across a given space.
Flip 4	Mirror images an object in the direction chosen.
Rotate 4	Spins an object around its center point. A small circle provides you a grab point.
Nudge 4	Moves an object or group of objects a small distance. Can also be accessed by the arrow keys.
Position and Size…	Gives you the position and size of the object on the page.
Center Drawing on Page	Places an object in the center of the area you have used for your drawing. For example, if you have objects on both the first 8½x11 sheet and at 24˝ vertical and 16˝ horizontal, the objects will be centered as if they were grouped on a 36˝ by 36˝ page.
Group Ctrl+G	Locks all selected object together so they can be moved or affected as one object.
Ungroup Ctrl+Shift+G	Unlocks a group created with the command above.
Bring to the Front	Moves the selected object or objects to the front of the stacking order.
Send to the Back	Moves the selected object or objects to the back of the stacking order.
Layers 4	Separates objects in a drawing into spatially isolated arrangements so they can be hidden when needed, or ordered as in behind and in front of. You will cover this in more detail in Chapter 8.
Create a Combination Object	Causes the selected objects to move together as a group but applies certain effects individually. For example, you can edit the text in each object, but all object move, rotate and flip together.
Separate a Combination Object	Removed the combination effect from selected objects.
Hide Shadow/Show Shadow	If a drop shadow is the default for the object you have drawn, you can turn it off with this command. When object has a hidden shadow the menu line changes.
Lock Object	Makes the object or objects immobile on the drawing area.
Use Snaps	Causes lines and object to connect to a grid point on the work area.
Allow Lines to Link	Allows lines to link to and become part of another line or shape.
Allow Shapes to Link	Allows shapes to link to and become part of another shape.
Allow Shapes to Link to Lines	Allows shapes to link to a line at the middle point of the object, and then be movable like beads on a string.
Enable Freeform Draw	Turns on the Freeform drawing tools so you do not have to enable them for each drawing.

Tools

Check Spelling…	When the Automatic spelling checker is turned off, you can check the spelling of your drawing here.
Check Spelling As You Type…	Turns on or off the automatic spelling checker.
Spelling Language 4	Allows you to change the dictionary by specifying the language that will be shown.
Spelling Options…	Allows you to change the way the spelling checker works.
Spelling Dictionaries…	Allows you to edit your dictionaries or choose different language dictionaries.
Hyperlink	Creates a link to another file, program, or Web location. Also clears links that you have previously created.
Toolbar…	Allows you to change the shape of an object on the toolbar. A button must be depressed for this function to work.
Options…	Allows you to customize how SmartDraw functions.

Libraries

Open Symbol Library…	Opens a symbol Library.
Create New Library…	Allows you to make your own collections of symbols and objects.
Close Library	Shuts the Library window.
Edit Symbol…	Allows you to change a symbol’s shape or size.
Add New Symbol…	Adds a new symbol to the Library.
Remove Symbol	Deletes a symbol from the Library.
Credits…	Allows you to set up a copyright and drawing credits for each object in your library.
Show Relative Sizes	Controls how the objects are shown on the buttons.
Small Buttons	Shows a small button for each object in the library window.
Medium Buttons	Shows a medium button for each object in the library window. This is the default setting.
Large Buttons	Shows a large button for each object in the library window.
Large Button with Names	Shows large button and the name of each object in the library window.
Names Only	Shows only the name of the symbol in the library window.
Library Builder Wizard	Opens an internal program that guides you in creating your personal library of objects.
(Last used List)	Shows the last few libraries you have accessed.

Window

Close All	Closes all open windows. Prompts you if the drawing has not been saved recently.
Cascade Windows	Arranges the open windows so they overlap and you can see all of them.
Tile Windows	Arranges the open windows so they are all the same size on the screen.
(Currently Open Drawings)	Lists all currently open drawings.

Help

View Tutorial…	Opens the Tutorial window.
Show Advisor	Turn the Advisor windows on or off.
Ordering SmartDraw…	Takes you to the SmartDraw Help file where there is a link to the SmartDraw web site if you have an active Internet connection.
Buy SmartDraw Now On-Line…	Takes you to the SmartDraw web site if you have an active Internet connection so you can purchase additional copies of SmartDraw.
How Do I…	Opens a dialog window with a Frequently Asked Question section.
Contents	Opens the Help dialog window to the Contents tab.
Index F1	Opens the Help dialog window to the Index tab.
Using Help…	Directions on how to use a Windows Help function.
Browse SmartDraw Web Site…	Takes you to the SmartDraw web site if you have an active Internet connection.
Get the Latest Version of SmartDraw…	Takes you to the SmartDraw web site if you have an active Internet connection so you can down load an update to the program.
About…	Open the same splash screen you see when you open the program.
Tips…	Open a Tips dialog window.
Licenses…	Describes which of the available Libraries you have purchased.

Chapter in Review:

If you cannot answer these questions correctly, go back over the exercises in this chapter. Click here for the answers.

How do you turn off the Welcome Dialog?
Which menu would you use to change the color of a line?
What happens if you Cascade the windows?
How would you gather several objects together so they all move together?
How do you get a symbol from the Library to the Drawing area?

Chapter 2

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