The Tools panel and Control bar in Layout explained

Toolbars in a page layout app do two different jobs, and Layout by Zaweba splits them sensibly. The Tools panel on the left holds the tools you pick up to work on the page. The Control bar across the top shows settings for whatever you're doing right now. Learning to glance between the two is most of what it takes to feel at home.

The Tools panel on the left

The Tools panel can be shown in one column or two. One column is tall and narrow, which leaves more width for the page on a smaller laptop screen. Two columns are shorter, which suits a wide monitor or a screen turned on its side where height is precious.

Whichever you choose, it's the place you start most actions: selecting, drawing frames, typing, drawing paths and moving around the page. Keep it docked on the left where your hand and eye expect it, and the rest of the window becomes predictable.

The Control bar changes with the selection

The Control bar is context sensitive. It shows different controls depending on what you have selected, which is why it never feels crowded.

Select a frame and it shows the frame's X and Y position, its width and height, rotate, shear and scale, and the reference point. The reference point decides which part of the frame the numbers refer to and which point stays fixed when you change them. Set it to the top left corner and a new width grows the frame to the right; set it to the centre and the frame grows evenly both ways.

Start typing and the Control bar switches to character and paragraph controls, so the font, size and paragraph settings are right there without opening a panel.

Placing frames by numbers

Dragging is fine for rough work. For anything that has to line up, type the numbers into the Control bar instead. A picture frame that should sit exactly on the top margin and run the full width between the margins can be placed in seconds this way, and it will be right on every page you repeat it on.

The same goes for rotation and shear. A small rotate on a photo for a scrapbook style page is quicker to type than to drag, and you can match it exactly on the next page.

Scale is useful for resizing a frame by a percentage rather than to a fixed size, for example when a whole group needs to come down a little to fit.

Control bar slips that waste time

The most common one is forgetting the reference point. If a frame jumps somewhere you didn't expect after typing a width, check which point is set. It stays as you left it, so a change made for one frame carries on to the next.

Another is editing text settings when you meant frame settings, or the other way round. Look at which set of controls the Control bar is showing before you type. If it shows character controls, you're inside the text, not on the frame.

Finally, don't ignore the panels entirely. The Control bar covers the settings you change most; the Character, Paragraph and Transform panels go further when you need to.

Between the Tools panel and the Control bar, most everyday work in Layout by Zaweba can be done without opening a single dialog, which keeps your attention on the page.