ProfessorB

RC-R, that was effective. I now have a big black permanent line. Problem is, I was pretty sure I did all that before, but I probably missed something. Thanks, and many thanks also to Alex and Alfred.

Oh, PS - when I draw the line, another layer appears in the Layer panel.

Thanks, Alfred, I did miss that question - my apologies. I want to confirm: The Layers panel is normally on the extreme right, right? There was one layer with a triangle on the left side, which when pressed, opened up a bunch of rectangles below the original one that appear to be the ones I tried to draw earlier. Some of these rectangles show a little icon of the line, and some of those are thick and red, so clearly the attributes are attached. But when I click on the layer, the drawing appears on the screen but still as only thin blue lines. It looks like if I click on a layer that has a red, thick line icon, then that line with its attributes should appear on the screen (it doesn't) . Does that help?

Okay, if there is no “very next action” then the line is already permanent, right? So the problem is not after I draw the line, but before I draw the line. If I have already chosen a line style, color and width, then a line with those attributes should appear, right? It doesn’t. I can never get anything on the screen except thin blue lines. Which disappear when I do anything. Does that help you? Thanks

No one is understanding this problem. It is very simple. Using the pen tool, click on the screen, then move to a different location and click again. A line will appear between the two points. The line will have a node on each end. What is the VERY NEXT ACTION that will convert this into a permanent straight line? It isn't selecting the MOVE tool. It isn't pressing the ESC key. It isn't pressing the RETURN key. What is it? I really can't make the question any simpler. Anyone have an answer?

Before you answer the question, please read it. Let me rephrase the question (it is much simpler than all of you are making it): Choose the pen tool. Click on the canvas/page/drawing space and drag to create a line. The line will have a node at each end and a larger node in the center. Now, what does one do? If one clicks on another tool the line disappears. If one clicks within the canvas area the line disappears. If one does ANYTHING other than the secret action (must be, because I have spent hours trying to discover the secret action), the line disappears. This is an incredibly non-intuitive action! Please help... PS - I could probably find the answer somewhere online if I knew how to phrase the question properly. One would think that just reading about the Pen tool would do the trick, but I cannot find this issue addressed anywhere.

I have an object that is a grouping of several graphic and text components. When I grab a corner and resize by dragging in or out, some components scale and some do not. For instance, text does not scale and lines scale for length but not for width. So I end up with a drawing whose text remains the original size and lines that adjust to the correct length but with much broader width than they should be. I know that I have similar objects that I have re-scaled successfully in the past but now I can't seem to get a grouped object to rescale correctly. Any help (since there is no manual)?

Once I draw a line with the pen tool, how do I release it? No matter what I click on, the line instantly disappears. Any help?

When I draw a line using the Pen tool I can't maintain it on the screen, because any action I have tried deletes the line. I have scoured forums and videos but apparently this is not a major problem for most. However, I have spent well over an hour just trying to solve this simple problem which should be extremely intuitive since it is the second most simple act one can perform, a point being (possibly) simpler. This is very frustrating because it is apparently TOO simple to include in any discussion or video I have yet encountered. It is astonishing to me that such a simple and basic task such as drawing a straight, horizontal line can have such a non-intuitive component as how to release it. I have used many vector drawing programs in the 37 years I have been computing and have never encountered such a frustrating process to simply draw a straight line. Can anyone please inform me of the solution to this issue? Thanks...

Okay, one can create a line with the pen tool, but how does one keep the line? Every time I create a line then if I do anything else the line disappears. Extremely frustrating and I have tried to figure this out for about an hour now to no avail. Please help!