SCALING YOUR WORK IN GEODRAW:

Whether you import a graphic, text, or even create something in GeoDraw, Murphy's Law almost insists that it's not where you want it to be in your document and it's not the right size. Here are some tips on sizing and placing in GeoDraw that popped into the Beginner's room message board this week:

THE BASICS: MOVING AND SIZING
Once you have created or imported a graphic or a piece of clipart into GeoDraw, you can move, scale, and modify it in a number of ways. Here's just one example:
From the toolbox, pick the pointer tool, point at your object and click your left mouse button to "select" that object. You can tell when an object is selected because small square dots called "handles" appear as a rectangle surrounding the object. These "handles" can be used to move or resize your object.

Notice the handle in the very center is diamond shaped. Try pointing at it. Click and hold your left mouse button then drag your mouse. Notice the object moves as you move the mouse. When you let up on the left botton, the object is placed where you left it. 

Next, try pointing at one of the outer handles. Again click and hold your left mouse button and drag your mouse. This time the whole object doesn't move. As you move your mouse toward the center of the object it gets smaller. As you move it away from the center, it gets larger. When you release the left mouse button, it remains the size you left it.  In this way, you can resize or scale your object to meet your needs.

There are a variety of other programs that will let you scale and manipulate graphics. One such program is called Graphics Workshop. It's shareware and is available here online. To find it just use Keyword: QUICKFIND then type GRAFWK52 <enter>.

FINE TUNING.. SCALING WITH PRECISION: (this idea comes to us from GWRepSteve)
When I need to resize an item in GeoDraw, and I want to maintain the original height to width proportions, here's what I do.

For a quick and dirty job, I select the object, then I place a ruler or straight-edge against my monitor screen diagonally across the object, from the upper-left resize handle to the lower-right resize handle. Next I drag the lower-right resize handle and drop it anywhere along the edge of the ruler to resize the the object either larger or smaller.

For a more precise job, instead of using the ruler, 
1. I use the right mouse button to position the object in the upper left corner of the geoDraw page, carefully aligning its "edges"  with the default dotted "guidelines."
2. I select the object 
3. I select 200% or 400% in the View menu.
4. I select the thinnest line size in the "Line properties" item in the "Modify menu.
5. I position the screen so I can see the lower right handle of the object, then I hold a ball point pen against the monitor aimed at the exact center of the resize handle.
6. I click on the line tool and move the horsehair cursor to the exact spot my ballpoint pen is aimed at.
7. I press the left mouse button and begin drawing a line. The line goes from that point (where the lower right resize handle was) up to the upper left corner of the object.. which was aligned with the default guidelines in step 1 above.
8. I now have a thin diagonal line that is positioned in the same way, but is more precise, than the ruler in the quick and dirty method above.
9. All that is left is to drag the lower right resize handle to any position along the diagonal line. If I need to enlarge the object, I draw another, longer diagonal line using the first one as a guide. When all done, I delete the diagonal lines.
10. If I need a specific size in inches for either height or width, I simply paste one of the many GeoDraw rulers available in the libraries here online along the edge of the object, to guide me in resizing.

A REAL RULER: (idea from GWRepJohn)
To keep those lines straight and give you a reference point during scaling, download a file called RULER.ZIP (6178 bytes , 1 min at 2400 baud) which can be found in the GeoWorks Library/User Files/Shareware & Utilities folder under the description REAL RULER.