Use the right mouse button on the paper to add a new element with its top left corner at that point. You will find that as you move the mouse you are stretching a line (or rectangle) over the paper which shows you the extent of your new object. Click again to fix the other corner.

When you add the object, it is given a default caption (such as ‘Rule1’) and the properties are set to those defined in its class table. It will also be selected automatically, so you can overtype the caption and tab round to the other properties quickly.

Setting the sizing grid
The Designer has three alternative settings for the underlying grid, accessed with the right-mouse menu on the paper. As all measurements are held to the nearest point, a 1-point snap is effectively ‘no grid’ and objects will move smoothly and stay exactly where you put them. However it is often easier to work with a small degree of ‘snap’ so that objects can be aligned with the mouse more easily. A 6-point snap (1/12”) works well in practice and is acceptable for most normal layouts. If you set this (or even a 12-point snap to make the effect very obvious) you will notice that as you drag the sizing handles the dotted rectangle stretches in jumps to show you exactly how the object will look when you place it. If you want this behaviour temporarily disabled, hold down Ctrl while dragging and you will find that smooth movement is restored.

Note that the same applies to the spinning behaviour of the position and size fields – these spin by default in grid units, but you can hold Ctrl down and use the arrows to nudge objects in 1-point increments.

Using the Object Sorter
Objects are saved in the order you define them, which can be a nuisance if you have several frames and want a sensible flow between them. You can always use leaf.FlowList to set the order explicitly, but a better option is to arrange the frames so that the natural sequence takes the text flow around them in the correct order.

If you use the right-mouse menu to bring up the ‘Object Sorter’ window, you can move any object up/down the list so that frames are created in a convenient order. This may also help to make the PgUp/PgDn buttons walk around the objects in a more reasonable way, so it is probably worth arranging all the objects on a complex page into a ‘top-down’ sequence just to make editing a little easier.