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Working with the Symbol Library palette

The Symbol Library palette comes stocked with a range of symbols you can use in your Canvas 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.

Preview Size

You can preview the symbols in one of three sizes:

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.

Replace Options

Select the options for replacing an element with a symbol:

  • Preserve source object size: Preserves the size of the object you are replacing with a symbol.
  • Preserve aspect ratio of placed symbol: Preserves the aspect ratio of the symbol, regardless of the size of the object you are replacing.

Directory Paths of My Symbols

This section lists the directory paths of the folders in the Symbol Library palette, including the default path to the folder where your My Symbols are located.

  • Add Path: Click this button to add a directory path to symbols located on your computer.
  • Delete Path: Click this button to delete a selected directory path.

Symbol properties

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

X and Y

Displays the X and Y coordinates where the symbol will be placed by default.

Reference point

Displays the reference point for the symbol. This is the point on the selected object (or its bounding box) that position data is based on.The reference point is also the fixed point used in an object’s transformation.

Width and Height

Displays the height and width of the object.

Original size

Uses the symbol's original size.

Use original color

Uses the symbol's original color. If you do not select this check box, the symbol uses the default attributes from the Toolbox.

Preserve original proportions

Uses the symbol's original proportions.

Create

Click Create to place the selected symbol in the document.

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 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 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.

Managing and organizing symbols and categories

To create a new category:

  1. Select an existing category in the My Symbols section of the Symbol Library palette.
  2. Right-click the category and select Create Category.
  3. In the Add Category dialog box, type a name for the category, then click OK.

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 Windows Explorer.

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 OK.

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

    Canvas 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 the Preview area to the name of the new category.

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