Using the Symbols Pane

Using the Symbols Pane

Using the Symbols Pane

The Symbol pane is the depository of various shapes, Smart Shapes, symbols, and cliparts. You can create your own illustrations and save them as symbols which can be reused in your future projects or can be shared with your co-workers.

To Open the Symbols Pane

Do one of the following:

  • Click Symbols from the Place & Draw panel in the Home tab of the Ribbon.

  • Select the Symbols checkbox from the Panes panel in the View tab of the Ribbon.

     

The Symbols pane will appear in the default position that you last used it.

 

The following categories are listed by default. But you can add categories.

My Symbols

will be empty until you save your illustrations as symbols here.

Basic Shapes

contains basic shapes such as lines, rectangles, ovals, arcs and so on.

Smart Shapes

contains Smart Shapes that can be morphed by adjusting available edit handles.

Flowchart Symbols

contains flowchart symbols which can be used along with the Flowchart pane.

 

To Add More Symbol Categories to the Symbols Pane

  1. Click Manage Shapes.

  2. Expand the Categories list in the left pane.

  3. Click a category name that you want to see its thumbnails in the right pane. The category name will be highlighted.

Parent categories like “Cliparts” or “Workflow Icon” may not display any thumbnails when they do not contain any symbols.

  1. Click the checkbox at the left side of the category name to add the category in the Symbol pane.

Parent categories that do not contain any symbols cannot be selected.

  1. Repeat step 3 and 4 if necessary.

  2. Click OK.

It is recommended to add only categories that you actually need for the current project.

 

To Find Symbols in the Manage Shapes dialog box

  1. Type a keyword such as “network” in the Search field.

  2. Press Enter.

It may take some time to display the result.

 

  1. Click the thumbnail that you are looking for.

    The category that contains the symbol of the clicked thumbnail will be selected in the Category list.

“Peripherals” category is selected in this example.

  1. Click OK to close the Manage Shapes dialog box and add the new category.

To Change the Thumbnail Preview Size in the Manage Shapes Dialog Box

  1. Right-click in the thumbnails area.

  2. Select one of the thumbnail sizes from the context menu.

To Change the Order of Thumbnail List in the Manage Shapes Dialog Box

  1. Right-click in the thumbnails area.

  2. Select one of the thumbnail orders from the context menu.


To Remove Symbol Categories Added to the Symbols Pane

  1. Click Manage Shapes.

  2. Deselect the checkbox of the category that you want to remove.

  3. Click OK.

To Delete Symbols from My Symbols

  1. Select My Symbols from the Categories list in the Symbols pane.

  2. Right-click the symbol that you want to delete.

  3. Select Delete.

You cannot delete symbols in other categories that belong to the application.

To Change the Thumbnail Preview Size in the Symbol Pane

  1. Right-click in the symbol thumbnails area.

  2. Select one of the thumbnail sizes.

To Change the Thumbnail Order in the Symbol Pane

  1. Right-click in the symbol thumbnails area.

  2. Select one of the thumbnail orders.

To Adjust the Height of the Categories List in the Symbol Pane

Do one of the following:

  • Drag the bar, which is located between the Categories list and the Thumbnails List, up or down.

 

  • Click the Up arrow icon to minimize the Categories list.

  • Click the Down arrow icon to restore the height of the Categories list.

 

To Add a New Symbol to My Symbols

  1. Create an illustration or a shape.

  2. Select My Symbols from the Categories list.

  3. Select all objects of the illustration or the shape.

  4. Drag it to the Thumbnails list.

  5. Type a name of the symbol in the Save As dialog box.

Don’t change the folder where the symbol will be saved. Otherwise, you will not see the saved symbol in the My Symbols.

  1. Click Save.

The thumbnail of the added symbol will appear in the Thumbnails list. In case it does not, click Refresh that is located at the top section of the Symbols pane.

You can also save your symbols in another way. Please refer to: Saving Vector Objects as Symbols.

 

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