Pen tool modifier wrong?

[papamumin]

I'm learning Designer, using the official Serif workbook. On p. 95, I've had the devil of a trouble introducing a sharp corner at the intersection of the body and guitar neck. The text says: "without releasing the mouse button, hold down the option key (Mac) or alt key (Win) and drag the leading control handle along the guitar neck's outline to the guitar head, then ...". It also has the Alt key in the Designer's Help system under pen tool modifier keys. However, looking at the Status bar in the Designer interface, it says to hold down the Ctrl key to click/drag the node to draw a straight line.

How has such an important thing not been picked up? Designer isn't new, so I guess its users are mostly seasoned pros who have no need to do these simple exercises! Can you please confirm this?

Thanks.

William

[dutchshader]

are you sure it says ctrl, because pressing ctrl should temp. switch to the node tool.

pressing alt while drawing creates a cusp node.

on windows pressing left and right mouse button creates a straight line, on a mac i think this is cmd and left mouse button.

[papamumin]

Well, it says Ctrl (not Alt) in the status bar of my version of Designer. I cannot get Alt to do anything at all - but I'm only a rookie. (I have used Illustrator before, but that was years ago). The problem is that I don't use a mouse, just a Magic Trackpad. You have to use 3 fingers to drag for creating curves, which I now find pretty easy. I've also found that Command on the Mac switches to the node tool. (What on earth would they use on Windows?)

The Workbook is already 2 years old ... perhaps the latest version of Designer, 1.7.1 has changed things on the Mac. Who knows? Who cares? Perhaps this will all come clear with the fullness of time!