## Adding speech and thought balloons

Speech and thought balloons let you give your pictures come alive as your characters use the balloons to communicate and provide access to their thoughts.

To add a balloon simply drag the balloon of your choice on to the page and drop it in the appropriate location:

1. 2. 3.

### Editing balloon text

To edit the text in the balloon simply double-click on the balloon and the text will become editable.
Note: When a balloon is selected you can also hit "return" on your keyboard to be editing.
You can change the font, point-size and most every characteristic of the text using the Format->Font menu.

Text in balloons is always center justified. This follows the standard comic convention.

Once you're done editing hit the "Enter" key or use the mouse to click outside the editing area. Your changes will be shown in the balloon.

### Resizing a balloon

To resize a balloon select it and drag any of the green resize handles on the perimeter of the balloon. Holding down the Shift key when resizing constrains the dimensions, preventing accidental warping.

### Rotating a balloon

To rotate a balloon select it and drag the purple rotate handle in the centre of the balloon. Holding down the Shift key when rotating constrains the angle to 90º increments.

### Moving a balloon's body

To move a balloon simply select it and drag from within the balloon. The balloon will follow your mouse.

### Moving the tail

Once the balloon text is appropriately sized and positioned you'll want to position the tail so that balloon is associated with the right person. Mouse over the bubble and you'll see a marker handle show up that indicates the place to click. Click on this handle and drag the tail into place.

### Moving a balloon and its tail/s

A balloon is normally achored by its tail in a Panel. If you want to move the balloon and its tail(s) in a single move, then click and drag the 'move handle' which appears whenever you move over a balloon.

### Adding additional balloons

Sometimes you have more text than can comfortably fit in one balloon and need for the text to span multiple balloons. Perhaps the character is pausing for thought before continuing speaking or you need to make a thought fit a particular space. Comic Life lets you do this by adding additional balloons to the speech or thought.

#### Add an additional balloon

To add another balloon to an existing balloon simply drag the extension balloon from the well and drop it on a balloon that needs extending. The new balloon is automatically connected to the existing balloon and displayed as the same type as the original balloon.

This balloon can be manipulated in the same manner as described above. Note how the balloon smoothly connects to the previous balloon. If the two overlap their outlines are joined cleanly. If they are separate a connecting tail is drawn between automatically maintaining the visual connection for you.

Additional balloons can each have their own style.. for example:
To achieve this, add additional Speech balloon as per above. Then, select each balloon and change it's type (Speech, Television, Thought etc.) in the Balloon Atributes panel (in the Details tab). The only exception; a clump of balloons cannot contain a whispered balloon- this is due to the difference in line styles (dotted for whispered). Setting one balloon to whispered will change all the connectd balloons.

### Changing the tail type

Balloons in Comic Life can have three different types of tail: Curved, Straight, and Jagged. To change this setting, select your balloon, and then choose from the menu in the Details tab

### Adding Additional Tails

Sometimed you may like to have a lot of people saying the same words at the same time, for example a crowd of people singing 'happy birthday'. You can add additiional tails to a single balloon by clicking on the the '+' button attached to the tail of each balloon. You may then move the tails where you need.
1. 2. 3.

### Balloon Details

The balloon details lets you adjust the type of balloon from Speech, Thought, Whisper etc. and the margins between the text and the balloon outline if needed. You can also choose the style for the balloon (you can set different styles for each individual balloon in a group of connected balloons - letting a character switch from speech to an exclamation) or override the style attributes if necessary.

#### Kind

Change the kind of balloon being drawn. Choose between: Speech, Thought, Exclamation 1, Exclamation 2, Whisper, Rough 1, Rough 2, Rounded, Square, Space or TV.

#### Text Margin

If the text is too close to the edges of the balloon (or not close enough) you can adjust the margins by assigning new values to the horizontal (H) and vertical (V) margins.

#### Lock

Prevents the balloon from being moved or resized.

#### Clip

Normally balloons are cut off where they intersect the edges of a panel. Unchecking this option allows the balloon to break the edge of the panel for dramatic effect.

#### Style properties

Use the Style popup menu to pick a different style, or simply experiment until you create a style you like.
If you have made a variation to the selected style, then an asterisk appears next to the style name. Your element is now unique!
If you want to share this new style, then create a New style.
New styles can be created under Style Attributes with the '+ New' button - a sheet appears that lets you name the new style. When you click "OK" the new style is created and the element is set to use the new style. Now you can set other elements to have the same style.
You can also Update the current style - be careful! - this will also change the attributes of every other object (in this style).
The default style cannot be changed, so you will need to create a new style, which you can then use on other elements.

If you don't like your changes, press the Revert button to go back to the original style.

See Balloon Styles for more information on each setting.