I million possible arrow properties and few are useful

[sdcinvan]

Hello all,

I am trying to create drag-n-drop symbolism in an image but I can't figure out how to manipulate these Capture arrows.

I picked an arrow style that depicts a curve but it defaults to straight (and unsightly). The arrow properties are equally confusing and most of those properties only appear to manipulate the arrow head in an infinite number of possibilities. What? Was this a summer intern project or something.

I am at a loss!
Even the Arrow symbol for selecting Arrow mode is close to what I need...huh

Capture_drag_drop_arrow_2.png

yet, I see no clear way of actually creating a curved arrow.

This is essentially what I am trying to create:

Capture_drag_drop_arrow.png

Is this even possible?

Thank you.

[sdcinvan]

Even the documentation doesn't go into any details on how to curve an arrow.

I can't be the only person that requires this type of arrow shape change. Even Snagit appears to have far more complex arrow shape options.

[sdcinvan]

So, I made an arrow in Snagit (not idea but just to test) and found that I can insert it into Capture by clicking the Insert Image option. Still, it would be nice if this could be done directly in Capture.

[atomdocs]

Hi Shawn.

I am also amazed at Capture's amazing green arrow. I managed to make one:

arrow.jpg

It's not quite as nice as your example, and you have to put up with Capture's non-dithered drop shadow. But at least you should be able to bend the arrow to your will

To set the arrow up, use the arrow tool starting at the tail point going straight to your head point: those two points won't move when you configure the bend (unless you drag and reshape the arrow directly in Capture).

Here are the settings that I used, with the key settings highlighted (yeah, in Snagit )

arrow_config.jpg

However, as we well know, Capture gives with one hand and takes away with the other. All that white space at the top of my image? The arrow did that automatically, it seems to want a lot of extra space for itself. I don't know why. So if you use an arrow near to the edge of your screenshot, you might get this side-effect.

BTW, when you created an arrow in Snagit and then pulled it into Capture - that's a really useful feature to boost Capture's disappointing range of objects. You can create your own objects in another editor, pull them into Capture, and save them to a palette for future use.

[sdcinvan]

Hi Shawn.

I am also amazed at Capture's amazing green arrow. I managed to make one:
...

¡Ay, caramba! You did it!

Obviously, I gave up too soon. Did you just guess or did you learn this somewhere... because I had no luck finding any satisfactory learning material.

Wow! Thank you!

Re: white space... did you attempt a picture crop? I'll check that out.

[atomdocs]

Did you just guess or did you learn this somewhere...

Good old guessing and trial and error I've played around with the arrow before though, so I had an idea of what it can do. It is not intuitive though, and I still don't really know what some of the controls do. I test a setting by putting in a big number so the effect is magnified. Then I try and work out what is happening.

Re: white space... did you attempt a picture crop? I'll check that out.

Yes. It doesn't work. If you crop in Capture, you can only crop your background screenshot. Capture manages the canvas automatically (expanding and contracting as needed) - 99% of the time this feature is tremendous (and so much better than Snagit). However, this is a 1% moment. You can of course save the image out and crop it in another app, but then your Capture <> Flare workflow breaks (I think, haven't tested that yet).

[yonatanlehman]

Anyone work out how to scale it ? I need a much small arrow

[EileenP]

I'm finding it impossible to create a normal-looking curved arrow. Even with the exact same properties shown in the previous image, I get an abomination. I've tried everything except extensive googling -- which I guess is my next step. Sigh.