Working with the Symbol Library Palette

The Symbol Library palette comes stocked with a range of symbols you can use in your Canvas X Draw documents, or you can create your own symbols and add them to the Symbol Library. You can create symbols from any vector, text, group, or paint object. If you change the symbol in the palette, all the copies in the document will also change. For example, if you add a logo to the Symbol Library, and the logo is updated, you can simply replace the logo in the Symbol Library, and all instances of the logo in your document are updated.

To Open the Symbol Library Palette:

Choose Window | Palettes | Symbol Library.

To Change the Symbol Preview Size:

1. Click the Symbol Library palette menu button.
2. Select Toggle Preview Size.

Symbol Library Options

To Set the Symbol Library Options:

1. Click the Symbol Library palette menu button.
2. Select Symbol Library Options.

Symbol Properties

Before you place a symbol from the Symbol Library palette, be sure to review the symbol properties in the Properties bar.

Placing Symbols

To Place Symbols:

1. Select the symbol in the Symbol Library palette.
2. Move the cursor into the layout area. The cursor changes to a place pointer.
3. Do one of the following:
   • To place the symbol at its original size, click in the layout area where you want to place the upper left corner of the symbol.
   • To scale the symbol while you place it, drag the pointer to set the bounding box size. Canvas X Draw scales the symbol to fit the bounding box.

To constrain the proportions as you drag the point to set the bounding box, press Shift while scaling.

Searching for and Replacing Symbols

To Search for a Symbol in the Symbol Library:

1. In the Symbol Library palette, type a search term in the search box.
2. Click the Search icon. 

To Search for a Symbol in Your Document:

1. Right-click the symbol in the Symbol Library palette.

2. Choose Search and Select.

   Canvas X Draw searches your document and selects every instance of the symbol.

To Replace a Symbol:

1. Select the symbol you want to replace in the document.
2. Select the replacement symbol in the Symbol Library palette.
3. Click Replace. The symbol in the document is replaced with the symbol selected in the Symbol Library palette.

Downloading Extra Symbols Online

You can download additional symbols from inside the Symbol Library palette.

To Download Extra Symbols:

1. In the Symbol Library palette, press the Download More Symbols button.
2. The Downloads page will launch in your browser. Follow the instructions on the webpage to download and install the extra symbols.

Managing and Organizing Symbols and Categories

To Create a New Category:

You can create your own sub-categories inside of the My Symbols folder

1. Navigate to ~/Documents/Canvas X Draw/ My Symbols and create a new folder.
2. Click the Symbol Palette menu button and choose Refresh. Your new folder will appear under My Symbols | [Your New Sub-Category].

To Rename a Category:

1. Double-click a category in the My Symbols section of the Symbol Library palette.
2. Type a new name for the category.

To Remove a Category:

1. In the Symbol Library palette, click the Symbol Library palette menu button.
2. Select Symbol Library Options.
3. Select the category you want to remove.
4. Click Delete Path.

5. Click OK.

   The path to the category is removed, so the category will no longer appear in the Symbol Library palette. However the folder and any symbols in it are not deleted. If you want to show this category again, you can re-add the path to the category.If you no longer need the category or symbols, you can delete the folder and symbols in Finder.

To Delete a Symbol:

You can delete symbols from the My Symbols section of the Symbol Library.

1. In the Symbol Library palette, select the symbol you want to delete.
2. Right-click and select Delete.

To select more than one symbol, hold down the Shift key while you click one or more symbols.

To Add a Set of Symbols to the Symbol Library:

If you have an existing set of symbols you want to add to the Symbol Library, you can simply add the directory path to the Symbol Library Options dialog box.

1. In the Symbol Library palette, click the Symbol Library palette menu button.
2. Select Symbol Library Options.
3. Click Add Path, browse for the folder containing your set of symbols, and then click Open.

4. Click OK to close the Symbol Library Options dialog box.

   Canvas X Draw creates a new category corresponding to the folder name of the directory you selected.

To Move a Symbol to Another Category:

Drag the symbol from its location within ~/Documents/Canvas X Draw/ My Symbols/[Your Sub-Category folder] to another folder within the same directory.

To Add Keywords:

1. In the Symbol Library palette, select the symbols you want to add keywords to.
2. Right-click one of the selected symbols, and select Add Keywords.
3. In the Add Keywords dialog box, type the keywords, then click OK.

To Delete Keywords:

1. In the Symbol Library palette, select the symbols you want to delete keywords from.
2. Right-click one of the selected symbols, and select Delete All Keywords.
3. Click Yes.

See Also

• Creating New Symbols
• Modifying Preinstalled Symbols