Knowledgebase:
Some of the shortcuts and top tips to get the most from Opus Pro and Opus Creator.
Opus Pro and Creator are packed with shortcuts and features designed to make design and development easier, here are some of the most useful...
For illustrations, the best files are Enhanced Metafile (EMF) vector format files as they will resize better than bitmap images and can be edited within Opus. The Import Vector option on the Draw menu lets you import EMF files exported from programs such as Corel Draw, Adobe Illustrator and Inkscape to provide high quality images. You can then edit the fill, line and form of these images with all the Opus vector drawing tools just like Opus vectors.
For realistic or photographic images you will probably use JPG or PNG format files. If the image looks poor quality in your Opus editor or the Opus publication then make sure you use the Bilinear Resampling option on the Image properties. We also recommend that you use a paint program such as Paint Shop Pro to edit the image to match the dimensions at which you are using it in your Opus publication.
For HTML5 publications which are set to resize be careful to set the option to publish images at original size or Opus will minimise them to try to improve the size and speed of your web material.
You can optimize the size of your PNG and JPG files and check the speed of your web material using some free third-party tool provided on our Additional Tools page.
You can quickly import RTF and TXT files using the Insert from File on the Text menu to content from other soruces.
Alternatively you may prefer to copy and paste sections of text to fit your new layout. Best results can be achieved by using the Paste Unformatted Text option from the right-click menu or the Edit menu when copying and pasting text from Word or PDF files.
If you assign a graphic or sound editor via the option on the Tools menu you can right-click on your Opus image or video and edit it in the chosen software. Then save it in that program and it will be automatically updated in Opus.
You can change the properties of more than one object at a time, even if they are on different pages. Use the Organizer to make all the relevant object accessible and select each in turn using Crtl+Click. Then right click and select Properties to bring up a Properties dialog which will apply to all the objects selected so you can apply a consistent background style, border or even size and position.
For font changes, Opus provides a special feature which allows you to change one font to another or to change the size and weight of one font to another. On the Tools menu, select the Replace Font option and choose the settings you want to locate and those you want to replace them.
If your page has a lot of objects, especially if they are overlapping each other, you can use the View settings to limit the visible objects to those you want to work on. Select the object and use the Conceal in Editor option from the right-click menu or the View menu to hide those you're not currently working with. Use Show in Editor to reinstate them in the workspace.
Alternatively the Show Selected option will hide everything except the object you have currently selected to work on.
If you want different pages sizes in the same publication, put the content into different chapters as you can set the size of the pages in each chapter independently.
This is very useful if you want a certificate page which needs to be larger and or a different proportion to fit the printer better than your main content.
To get a tidy layout quickly use the various options on the Arrange menu to
Why not use the Convert to Vector option from the right-click menu or the Text menu to convert text to a vector object which you can then tween using shape tween to create completely unique text animations.
If you use Opus content on more than one page of your website why not put the opus.js file into a single location to make it easier to update.
Use a text editor (see Additional Tools for our current recommendation) to open the published Opus content or the HTML you use around the Opus content and find "opus.js" for the and insert a sub-directory in front so that it becomes <script src="/js/opus.js"></script>. Then put upload your opus.js file in the directory mentioned (in this case it is "/js").
Do this with all your Opus content and each page will use the file from the same location and you only need to update it once if it changes.