125Break The Break function is used to separate every path, every curve, and every line into its own individual shape. After selecting a combined shape, the Break function can be accessed in any of the following ways: Click on the Break icon on the Magic Toolbar Press Ctrl+B Right click on the screen and choose Shape Magic>Break from the menu Go to Edit>Shape Magic>Break. If the Break function is applied to the “Bob” example used in the earlier section on Split, the child shapesthen have individual bounding boxes and they fill will color. This indicates that the child shapes are nolonger joined to their parent shapes: Once you apply Break, you have complete editing control over every individual shape within a design. Butbe careful! It’s also easy to inadvertently move an individual shape (especially the tiny ones) and you canrisk messing up the design. So, only use Break when needed and then, most importantly, know how torejoin your shapes, which is covered in the next section.Join The Join function is used to combine individual paths, curves, and lines into a single shape. This isbasically the opposite function to Break. After selecting two or more shapes, the Join function can be accessed in any of the following ways: Click on the Join icon on the Magic Toolbar Press Ctrl+J Right click on the screen and choose Shape Magic>Join from the menu Go to Edit>Shape Magic>Join. If the Join function is applied to the “Bob” example in the above section on Break, the word will nowbecome all one shape and even the individual letters can no longer be selected:There are now bounding boxesaround each inner path.The inner paths arenow filled with color.Bounding boxes nowindicate a total of 8different shapes.
