PSP 6's new vector capability opens up whole new graphics possibilities.You can now create perfectly antialiased shapes, deform text to createincredible logos, and reshape and resize your work with no loss of definition.But to get the most out of this capability, you need to know about nodeediting. The help file in PSP 6 defines a node as: "A control point ona vector object." . The file goes on to say: "The type of each node dictatesthe shape of the line segment on either side of it." A little dry, butpretty much to the point. Nodes are control points situated at the edgesof vector objects. In Node Editing mode they appear as small blue boxesconnected by blue lines. Usually you'll find them situated at corners orplaces where curves change direction. You can move them around to changethe shape of an object, or change their Node Type to effect how the linesbefore and after them behave.

To edit vector shapes , you must go into node editing mode.  Thisis done by selecting a particular shape with the vector selection tooland then clicking on the large Node Edit button that appears on the ToolOptions palette To begin, every vector object has certain features, whetherit's a simple line or a closed shape of some kind. They have a Start point,a Close point (for shapes) or End point (for lines), and a Path direction.The Start and End/Close points an be found by moving your cursor over thosenodes.
 
 

The direction of the path always goes from the Start point to the Endpoint.  For Circles, Squares, Ellipses and Rectangles created withthe Shapes tool, the direction of the path is clockwise by default.For lines, the path starts where you first clicked and goes to the endof the line.For curves you can find the specific direction at a particularnode by clicking on it while in Edit mode. An arrow with a point at oneend and a circle at the other will appear over the node showing the directionthe curve or line is going at that point. When you first start Node editing,you are in Edit mode. In this mode you can move points around and makechanges to the shapes of curves. Points are moved by left clicking on themand dragging. Curve shapes can be changed by left clicking on either endof the arrow that appears when you click on a node and pulling or rotatingthe arrow.
 
 
 

If you right click anywhere on your window where there isn't a node,it will bring up a menu. At the top of the menu is the heading DrawingMode. Actually, this heading switches to reading Edit Mode when you gointo Drawing Mode. <Control> E allows you to toggle between the twomodes without using the menu.
 
 

While in Drawing Mode you can add points by hand to your vector shapes.Simply click to add a node. if you wish to draw a closed shape, add allof the nodes, then right click the last node to bring up the menu, andselect Edit: Close. This will connect your start point to your end point. Closed shapes that you draw outside of your original vector object willalways appear as though you had added another vector shape. How closedshapes drawn inside of your original shape will appear, however, depends on how you drew them. These "Inner" shapes you can think of asContours (you remember contour maps, don't you?) If you put down the pointsin a counterclockwise manner then they will appear as cutouts.  Acounter clockwise drawing that overlaps the edge of your original shapewill have positive and negative areas.
 
 
 

If you put down points in a clockwise manner inside your original shape,then when you leave Node Edit mode you won't see anything of your addeddrawing if the shape is filled. If it is stroked you'll see the lines youcreated, and if it's stroked and filled you'll see lines inside your filledvector shape.
 
 
 
 

Overlapping the two (clockwise) shapes gives no cutout areas. This canbe a good way to build up shapes when you want to have sharp edges andcorners. If you actually want your inner shape to act as a cutout, andyou don't want to have to redraw it, there is a way to fix things. Selectone of the nodes of your contour (inner) shape. Right click anywhere andyou will bring up the menu. Scroll down to Edit: Reverse Contour. Yourshape will now act as a cutout.
 
 
 

Below the entry for Drawing/Edit Mode in the menu is an entry calledEdit. If you move your cursor down to that entry an new menu expands out.This contains a number of useful tools and commands for node editing
 
 
 

Undo: Undoes the last edit you made, whether it was moving anode, deleting one, or deleting a selection. Multiple undo's are possible

Redo: Redoes whatever you last undid. Multiple redo's are possible.

Copy: Copies whatever nodes or collection of nodes you have currentlyselected. Nodes turn black when selected with the cursor. You can selectmultiple nodes either by left clicking your mouse and dragging to makea rectangular selection, or by clicking on a node with your mouse and thenclicking on additional nodes while holding down the shift key. One importantthing to remember: if you select one node of a shape or line to copy, youwill also copy all of the other nodes connected to it.
 
 

Paste: Pastes whatever nodes you most recently copied. It ispossible to paste nodes into a vector shape that have been copied fromanother vector shape. The nodes you paste will be selected when you firstpaste them and may be moved as a unit by left clicking on one of the nodesand dragging them to where you want them. In the figure directly aboveI selected only two nodes of the circle, but by doing so I copied the wholecircle, so that's what I got when I pasted.
 
 

Delete: Deletes whatever nodes are currently selected. All linesconnecting that node or nodes to other nodes will also be deleted
 
 

Select All / Select None: Select All makes all of the nodes inyour object selected. They should all turn black and you should be ableto move or copy them as a unit. Select none releases all current node selections.

Join Selection: Draws a line connecting two selected points.There are limits to this: each node in a drawing can only be connectedto two other points because there must always be a clear path from startto end. This command can be used to close shapes or for joining separatecurved sections together into a closed shape. The type of join you getis going to depend on the types of nodes your joining. Here I got a smoothjoining curve. If I had started with a square or point-to-point shape Iprobably would have gotten a straight line joining my chosen points.
 
 
 

Merge:  Merge can be used on a selected node or nodes toessentially remove the control points. The nodes on either side of themerge node become connected together. This has a similar effect to deletinga node and then using Join to connect the nodes that were on either side.
 
 

Break:This  command takes a selected node and breaks a curveor line in two at that point. Where one node was, there are now two unconnectednodes. The nodes can now be moved independently of one another.
 
 
 

Close: This command is similar to the Join command. The differenceis that you don't get to select the two points to join. You select oneend point of a line or curve and the command connects it to the node atthe opposite end. Again, the type of connecting line you get depends onthe type of nodes you're connecting.
 
 

Reverse Contour: Reverse Contour reverses the direction of thepath on an inner shape (Contour). This command can be useful for makinginner shapes into cutouts if they haven't been drawn in a counter-clockwisemanner.

Reverse Path: This command reverses the direction of all of thenodes in a shape or line, effectively reversing the path direction fortext or other purposes.