Office Windows Hacker: Cut Filled Polygon

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Now, you can cut the filled polygon into two pieces with the Knife tool.

Click here to preview how the polygon should look.
Click the Pick tool.
Click the polygon to select it.
Open the Shape Edit flyout, and select the Knife tool. Opens the Shape Edit flyout, which contains the Shape tool, Knife tool, Eraser tool, and Free Transform tool. Lets you split an object in two, reshape an object by redrawing its path, or create subpaths in an object.
Position the Knife tool over the center node on the left edge of the polygon.
When the cursor changes to an upright position, click and drag the knife across the polygon to the opposite node, making a wavy line. Click here to see how to make the knife cut.
Click the Pick tool.
Marquee-select both pieces of the polygon.
On the Property Bar, click the Group button.

Next, you can use the Interactive Distortion tool to swirl the polygon.

Open the Interactive Tools flyout, and click the Interactive Distortion tool.
Opens the Interactive Tool flyout, which contains the Blend tool, Distortion tool, Envelope tool, Extrude tool, Drop Shadow tool, and Contour tool. Lets you apply a distortion to an object by dragging over it. The distortion types are Push and Pull, Zipper, and Twister.
On the Property Bar, click the Twister Distortion button. Lets you apply a Twister distortion to an object by dragging over it.
Click the top of the polygon and drag clockwise one full circle.
On the Property Bar, click the Center Distortion button. Lets you position a selected object's distortion effect at the exact center of the object.