Irregular shapes like Trapezoids

John,

I had never tried this until I saw your post. As it turns out, the solution is surprisingly easy: select your object, then click on Format > Shape > Make Editable. You'll see little red handles, which you can click on and use to shape your object.

-Dennis

You can use the Pen tool (the last item in the Objects -> Shapes dropdown toolbar menu). Just click once to create a vertex, click again to create another connected by a line to the first, and continue until you want to close the shape, which you do by clicking again on the first point.

Alternatively, you can create a regular polygon, and in the Format -> Shape flyout menu, choose "Make Editable". You will then see the control points for the shape, which you can move and delete. You can also add control points by holding down the Option key and clicking on the border of the object.

DennisG wrote:
John,

I had never tried this until I saw your post. As it turns out, the solution is surprisingly easy: select your object, then click on Format > Shape > Make Editable. You'll see little red handles, which you can click on and use to shape your object.

-Dennis

And thereby you can edit the bezier curves of the shapes! I never saw that before. A program full of nice surprises. Thanks!

Magnus,

I'm constantly surprised by Pages. And, to be honest, I had no idea what a bezier curve was. But I'm glad someone does. Thanks.

-Dennis

John,

I was very disappointed that iWork '08 was released without a database app -- until I tried Bento. In case you haven't used it or heard of it, Bento (from FileMaker) is a consumer-level DB app that comes with a bunch of templates, like Pages. It's incredibly easy to use and very intuitive.

You can download Bento here.

-Dennis