Visual Thought User's Guide
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Chapter 18

Page Layout and Printing

This chapter explains how to layout your pages as well as print a diagram from within Visual Thought.

FilePage Layout allows you to define the characteristics of the individual pages of your diagram. You can set the size of the pages, the orientation, the margins, etc. You can also set the number of pages you want in the diagram as a whole and view the sequence in which those pages will be printed.
FilePrint allows you to print your document. You can also save your document out as a PostScript file.

Page Layout

Define the layout of your Visual Thought pages. The File

Page Layout command pops up the Page Layout dialog, with which you can perform the following:

Select paper size options
Set units of measurement for the rulers
Enter the scale for viewing the diagram
Set the orientation of the page
Enter custom widths and heights for the page
Enter custom margins for the page
Set the number of pages that comprise your diagram

Page Layout Dialog

The Page Layout dialog allows you to define the parameters of pages in which you draw your diagrams.

Paper Type

Press Tab to move between numerical fields. Press Return to apply all the changes and close the Page Layout dialog.

Select the size of paper. Options are: Letter, Legal, Statement, Tabloid, Ledger, Executive, Comm10 Envelope, Monarch Envelope, A3, A4, A5, JIS B4, JIS B5, ISO B4, ISO B5, C4 Envelope, C5 Envelope, C6 Envelope, DL Envelope, Custom.

Units

Determine the unit of measurement for all measurable files in the drawing. This field determines what unit the rulers display, for example, as well as what the dimensions of the page will be measured in. Options are Inches, Centimeters, Picas or Points.

Scale

Select at what scale you want to display your drawing. For example, 50% scale means that your entire drawing is scaled down by 50%, so that four times as much drawing area fits in a page.

Orientation

Determine if the page is taller than wide (Portrait) or wider than tall (Landscape).

Dimensions

Specify the exact dimensions of the entire page.

Margins

Specify the dimensions of the margins.

Number of Pages

Specify the number of pages in the entire diagram. You can enter numbers in the numeric fields or you can click-and-drag in the dark gray area to set the number of pages. The gray numbers in the boxes specify the page sequence for printing.

Use the Apply Button

The Page Layout dialog has an Apply button. You can make changes to your page layout and keep the dialog on the screen. You can add several pages to the diagram as a whole, for example, and see the effects directly. If they are not to your satisfaction, you can make other changes immediately.

Printing

Visual Thought does not require you to tell it which printers are available-it queries your system for that information.

To print a diagram:

Choose FilePrint (Ctrl-P).
Click on one of the available printers to select which printer you want to use.
Choose which pages you want to print, if you wish, by setting the page range.

Click the Print button or just press Return.

For further information on how to save a diagram as a PostScript file, see "Save a File as PostScript" on page 170.

For further information on how to export a file, see "Export..." on page 168.
Instead of printing directly, you can save the document as a PostScript file. This PostScript file is exactly the same as the output that would have gone to the printer; it is scaled, it has margins, and it has page breaks.
If you wish to save the document or part of the document for inclusion into other applications (such as document processors), export the document as Encapsulated PostScript instead, using the FileExport menu item.

Visual Thought User's Guide
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