[Ipe-discuss] A couple of questions from a new user

[Otfried Cheong]

Rich Shepard wrote:
>   No, unfortunately. The interior squares _are_ "void", but the effect is
> that they are transparent rather than uncolored. I was surprised to see 
> this
> because other vector drawing programs will fill the surrounding object but
> leave the interior ones unfilled. That's why I asked.

Well, if what you want is a gray rectangle that has two square "holes",
you have two options:

(1) Either make the small squares filled with white, and make sure they
are in front of the gray rectangle, but behind any text that needs to
show up over them.

(2) Or, if you need actual "look-through" holes (so that you can see the
whatever is behind the gray rectangle), you'll need to make an actual
rectangle-with-holes.  Select the rectangle and the two squares, and use
  "Compose paths" from the edit menu.  Then fill the resulting object
with gray.

Cheers,
   Otfried

ps. As for selecting, Ipe gives you the choice between "standard"
left-button operation (use the toolbar to choose "select" mode) or the
"expert" shortcuts (right for selecting, middle for moving, etc.)  Do a
"What's This" on the canvas to see the list of shortcuts.