The Shapes, Text and Picture and Cursors tools can add a wide variety of different elements to your images. In static images you can use them to modify your images and add elements to them to make a composite image.
You can translate your text automatically!
Note that HelpXplain includes the amazingly powerful and accurate DeepL machine translation with which you can translate all the text in your Xplain between 30 international languages. See Translation Support for details.
You need to select a slide to add elements
Elements can only be added to a slide. If you are working on a single picture it is always contained in its own slide. To edit it you just need to select the slide in the Slides list on the left, then the image will automatically zoom into the editing window.
If you are editing a project with multiple slides, first select the slide you want to add to in the Slides list.
General manipulation for all elements:
Drag the handles around the element to scale and resize it. Use the Arrange tool in the Home tab or the right-click context menu for the element to change its position above or below other elements.
Additional pointers:
The blue (+) node for adding pointers can add up to a total of 10 pointers in shapes that support this. The only exception are the teardrop-shaped numbering tags, which only have 1 pointer. To delete a pointer drag it back into the body of the shape.
Drag in increments and snap to grid
•Hold CTRL or SHIFT to drag the pointer in fixed increments or to snap it to the grid, if snap to grid is activated in the View menu.
Change the curve of the corners
Some shapes have curved corners that you can adjust. These corners have two small yellow handles at one corner. Moving these handles along the border from the corner changes the curve of the corner:
Choose a theme before inserting elements
If you want a uniform theme for all the elements in your project, choose it first in the Design tab.
Then all the elements you insert will use the theme. Applying a theme when elements are already present will only format elements that have not been formatted.
Hot tip: Copy theme settings from an existing Xplain!
Each Xplain stores its own theme settings. Once you have set up one with the configuration you like you can import it to another Xplain. Just select Customize Theme in the Design tab, select the Copy From... button and select the .xplain file with the customized theme you want to use.
The Shapes tool provides a wide selection of shapes, callouts and lines you can add to or use in your images. Callouts (text bubbles) and text objects have some additional editing features described further below.  1.Select a slide in the Slides list. 2.Select an element from the Shapes menu. 3.Click in the slide to insert the shape. You can then move and manipulate the element by dragging it and its handles with the mouse. Tools in the Properties pane This pane on the right automatically shows the editable properties of a shape, callout or line when it is selected. If the pane isn't visible click on the little icon in the top right corner above the editing window to show it. The available options can vary depending on the element type (you can't fill a line, for example).
Fill  Fill the selected element with: Solid color: Gradient Fill: Picture Fill: Note: Filling a shape with an image makes the image part of the shape and physically removes all parts of the image that are not visible. If you then change the aspect ratio of the shape the image will be distorted together with the shape. Crop-to-Shape: Outline/border: Edit in the Outline menu in the Properties pane on the right. If you have selected a theme you can choose the outline setting defined in the theme.  Change Shape changes the shape of the current element, including pictures, which then fill the chosen shape. Press CTRL+Z or click the Undo tool in the program title bar (left end) a couple of times to back out and remove the shape. Transparency/opacity and shadows The Opacity & Shadow menu in the Properties pane adjusts the transparency of the selected element and allows you to apply a drop shadow.  You can adjust the direction, width, softness and color of the shadows. Colors other than black or gray will usually look a little strange. Shadows in animated Xplains: Displaying and animating shadows in web browsers is very processor intensive. It's generally best to disable them when publishing unless you are sure your intended audience will be using modern hardware. (You can disable shadow export when publishing.) |
Callouts and shapes both have very similar editing controls. Callouts are only different in that they have one or more "pointers". All shapes have an embedded text editor, however – see the next section on this page for details on that. Editing callouts and shapes: Callout shape: Callouts are normal shapes. Just drag the resize handles to change the size and relative dimensions and the rotate handle at the bottom to rotate. Shadow and opacity, fill, outline etc. all work in the same way as for other shapes Callout pointer direction: You can drag the yellow tip handle of the callout pointer around to change its length and position it on any side of the callout. Adding and deleting pointers: Every shape that supports pointers except the teardrop numbering tags can have up to 10 pointers. To create an additional pointer just drag out on the blue (+) control. To delete a pointer drag its yellow handle into the body of the callout. Enter and edit text: Click on the edit icon or double-click on the text part to edit. Once text is selected you can use the formatting tools in the Home tab to format it. Click on the X icon to close the editing box. See the next section on this page for full details on text editing. Regular shapes  The graphical properties and controls of regular shapes are exactly the same as callouts, except that they don't have pointers. Change the curve of the corners Some shapes have curved corners that you can adjust. These corners have two small yellow handles at one corner. Moving these handles along the border from the corner changes the curve of the corner:
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The format painter in the tools group at the left of the ribbon menu quickly copies the style of one element to another:  Procedure 1.Select an element, then click on the Format Painter tool to copy the element style. The mouse cursor switches to the painter tool. 2.Click on another element with the painter tool mouse cursor to apply the style. •Single click on the Format Painter to apply the style to a single element. The mouse painter tool then switches off. •Double-click on the Format Painter to apply the style to multiple elements. The mouse painter tool remains on until you click on the tool in the toolbar again. |
Several different elements can contain text, including callouts (text bubbles) and the dedicated text elements. When you select the edit tool in the upper right corner of these elements this opens the text editor, which is the same in all elements: Text in shapes:  The text editor box: The text inside shapes, callouts is actually a nested text object inside the shape or callout element that also provides access to the HTML source code of the text. Formatting tools are available in the main HelpXplain toolbar at the top.  Editing the text in callouts, shapes and text objects Double-click on the text or single-click and then select the Edit icon in the top right corner of the element to activate text editing. You can use the standard keyboard shortcuts:
Text editing context menu and editing the HTML source code of text You can access the basic editing commands in the right-click context menu in all text objects. This also gives access to the HTML source code of the text object, allowing you to edit that directly:  Links in HTML code You can add any regular HTML formatting in the HTML code, including hyperlinks, which will work in both regular exported Xplains and slides saved as dynamic SVG files. Text objects:
Text objects on their own are entered with the separate Text tool in the Home tab. A text object is really just a text box on its own, without any shape or background. It is edited in the same way as text in shapes and callouts. |
These shapes create a moving "spotlight" that can highlight elements in your Xplains. A spotlight fills the current slide with a semi-transparent color with a "hole" in it that emulates a spotlight shining on the area you want to highlight. For more detailed instructions please see the Animated Spotlights topic in the chapter on animated Xplains. Animated spotlight shapes Inserting spotlights You insert a spotlight with the Animated Spotlight Shape option in the Shape menu:  Spotlight size and position The two yellow handles control the size and the position of the spotlight "light" on the page. The center handle controls the position, the side handle controls the size:  Spotlight animation By default, spotlights will zoom in to the preset size when they appear. You can select other animations in the Spotlight section in the Animations tab:  Spotlight animations:
Using other animations on spotlights In theory you can apply any animation to a spotlight, but only the ones in the Spotlight Animations section will actually animate it as a spotlight. All the others will simply treat it as a normal shape with a hole in it, which you can use as a static highlight. |
The Create Shape from Text function in the Shapes menu turns text you enter into a fully-manipulable shape, using any font that you specify. After creating it you can resize it, stretch it, change its color, add a shadow and fill (even image fill) and more. This makes it possible to create really creative and striking text effects that would never be possible with text alone.
Create the shape Select the Create Shape from Text option in the Shapes menu, enter your text and select the font you want to use. Then click on OK to insert. Scaling the shape  You can resize the text shape just like any other shape object. Hold down SHIFT before resizing to keep the original aspect ratio (relationship of width to height). Set the scaling steps used with SHIFT in View > Snap Objects... Format the shape Text shapes are outline shapes with all the properties that normal outline shapes have. You can set fill, outline, opacity, shadow and so on in the Properties tab on the right. |
This function is a special option for creating outline shapes from any single SVG path. This gives you a fully manipulable HelpXplain outline shape that you can then apply Don't use this for inserting regular SVG files! This is a specialized function for creating HelpXplain shapes from SVG paths, so that you can manipulate them fully in HelpXplain. If you just want to insert an existing SVG image file you can do that directly in the Picture menu in the Home tab. How to get the path from an SVG file An SVG file is really just a text file that tells the computer how to draw something on the screen. The contents of all SVG files look like this: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> The above is a simple example of an icon. Most SVG files will be much larger, but they will all have the same basic structure. To get the path for creating a shape you need to open the SVG file in a text editor and copy only the code between the quotes characters after d= in the <path> tag. So in the above example what you need to copy this, without the quotes: M15.5,14h-0.79l-0.28,-0.27C15.41,12.59,16,11.11,16,9.5,16,5.91,13.09,3,9.5,3S3,5.91,3,9.5,5.91,16,9.5,16c1.61,0,3.09,-0.59,4.23,-1.57l0.27,0.28v0.79l5,4.99L20.49,19l-4.99,-5zm-6,0C7.01,14,5,11.99,5,9.5S7.01,5,9.5,5,14,7.01,14,9.5,11.99,14,9.5,14z Creating the shape from the path 1.Copy the path code from the SVG file to the Windows clipboard (see above). 2.Open the Create from SVG Path function in the Shapes menu. 3.Paste the path code into the edit box and click on OK to insert the shape. Scaling the shape You can resize the SVG path shape just like any other shape object. Hold down SHIFT before resizing to keep the original aspect ratio (relationship of width to height). Format the shape SVG path shapes are outline shapes with all the properties that normal outline shapes have. You can set fill, outline, opacity, shadow and so on in the Properties tab on the right. |
In addition to all the standard editing options, HelpXplain also has a set of additional powerful image editing tools that become available as soon as you select a picture in the editor. Then the Picture Tools tab is shown in the ribbon toolbar.  General brightness, contrast and saturation The Brightness, Contrast and Saturation tools are standard image controls that are applied to the entire selected image.  Effect Lenses Effect lenses are like shapes, but they apply a filter effect to the part of the image below the lens. They can be applied to a part of the image or to the whole image. Select the Effect tool on the left to use them.  Multiple effect lenses: You can stack multiple effect lenses on top of each other. For example, you could create a cartoon effect with one lens and then add a blur lens on top of that to blur the cartoon effect. 1.Select Effect on the left, click on the Effect Lenses tool to open its menu, then select the lens shape or the Entire Picture option. If you select a shape you can move it around and resize it like any other shape, but only inside the current image. You can't move effect lenses outside their image. 2.Choose the effect type and adjust its settings with the controls on the right end of the toolbar. 3.To edit an effect lens later, first choose Effect mode on the left, then select the lens. Lens Types
Crop: When you choose Crop in the Picture Tools it initially activates HelpXplain's normal crop mode for the image. See Cropping Screenshots above. However, when you select the Crop mode you will also see a menu of shapes in the Image Tools toolbar that are used for HelpXplain's powerful Crop-to-Shape feature.  Crop-to-Shape: Select the image you want to edit, select Crop mode and then select one of the shapes in the menu in the Image Tools toolbar. The image will be cropped to the shape you choose. This is also non-destructive. The original image is always there in the background. Difference to image with picture fill: 3D View This mode allows you to "bend" the image to give it a 3D perspective look. You can choose from a number of predefined 3D effects or perform a free transform. If you have applied any effect lenses they will be included in the transformation.  1.Select the image and select 3D View on the left. 2.Choose one of the predefined transforms in the toolbar or just drag the corners of the image. 3D View forces PNG export: Note that images transformed with the 3D effect must be exported as PNGs with alpha transparency. All other formats will be converted to PNG to make this possible. |
Hiding elements: Hiding elements makes it possible to edit the elements underneath them without moving the top elements. You do this in the Objects list on the left.  1.Select the element you want to hide (you can also select it directly in the Objects List). 2.Click in the visibility column (eye icon) next to the element name to hide it. To make the element visible again select it and click again in the visibility column in the Objects List. Locking elements: Locking elements makes it impossible to accidentally move or change them.  1.Select the element you want to lock (you can also select it directly in the Objects List). 2.Click in the lock column in the Objects List, or on the Lock tool in the Home tab. To unlock the element select it and click again in the lock column or on the Lock tool. |
Important: Clipping only applies for nested elements. All elements are nested inside a slide, but they can also be nested inside other elements. See the nesting instructions in Adding Elements for details.  It is quite possible for an element inside a shape or slide to protrude beyond the borders of its parent. Sometimes you may want this, but if you don't you can prevent it with the Clip Children tool in the Home tab. 1.Select the parent element in the Objects list. This can be the slide or an element that contains nested elements (indicated by element names indented beneath the element in the Objects list). 2.Click in the Clipping column so that a check mark appears. All nested elements are clipped off at the borders of the parent. Clipping hides elements outside their parents! If an element is located completely outside its parent it will then be invisible, even if it is not hidden. To be able to manipulate it and move it you need to turn clipping off for the parent, or un-nest it from the parent by dragging it to another position in the Objects list. |
