Your Idea Pages can look a little bland if you just use the standard black on white scheme:

With a bit of decoration the same Page could look like this:

To jazz up your page, go to the Tools menu and select the Inspector option to fine-tune the appearance of your Idea Pages. The Inspector consists of several tabs:

The Shape Inspector lets you adjust the appearance of shapes on the page: The Background Color paints the shape itself: you can change the color of any shape by clicking on one of the small colored buttons: If you want to mix your own colors, use the Color Wheel to get the precise shades you want.   You can also create a gradient effect, where the top of the shape starts with one color which gradually merges with a second color towards the bottom of the shape. This will give you two color buttons, each of which you can set by using the Color Wheel. The Border Color is for the edges of the shape: this can be set to any color. You can also set the thickness of the border. You can use the Shape Manager to change the shape of any shape except for Project Folders and sticky notes.

The Text Inspector lets you adjust fonts: The Fonts available depend upon how your computer is set up; Macs, for example, typically have some fonts that are not available on Windows PCs and vice versa. If you use a font that's not available to one of your team member's their computer will use Arial by default. The Font Size can be anything you like. The Font Color can be anything you like: you can pick one of the standard colors by clicking on its button or mix your own using the Color Wheel.

The Layout inspector lets you align items on the page: There are three Horizontal alignments you can use: left-align, center-align and right-align. Just click on one of the Horizontal alignment buttons. There are three Vertical alignments you can use: top-align, middle-align and bottom-align. Just click on one of the Vertical alignment buttons. You can distribute items evenly along a horizontal plane or a vertical plane (or both) by clicking on one of the Distribute buttons. By default the spacing between items is 10 pixels; you can distribute them closer or wider apart by entering a different number (e.g. 50 for 50 pixels spacing). Finally, you can use a Grid to help layout items evenly: there are buttons to turn on Snap to Grid, which will automatically help you place objects along the grid, and Show Grid which will show the grid as a wallpaper on your page to help you place objects more precisely. By default the grid lines are 10 pixels apart, but you can set this value as you like.

Some things to remember when you use the Inspector:

• The Inspector focuses on whatever you have selected on the Idea Page: if you want to change the appearance of the Page itself, go up one level and use the Inspector from the parent Page.


• The Inspector floats on top of your Idea Page and stays there until you click on the Close button. Keeping the Inspector open won't interfere with your use of Kerika in any way.


• Once you have adjust the appearance of an item on a Page, Kerika remembers the settings you used and applies them again when you next place any shape to this Page or any other.


• You can select several items and use the Inspector to change the appearance of all of these with a single action.


• Don't turn on Show Grid unless you really need it: it can make Kerika run a lot slower!