Balloonist Frequently Asked Questions

1. Do I have to purchase a license before I can use the sofware?

Balloonist can be evaluated extensively without purchasing a license. The only limitation will come in the form of a reminder written on any printed or exported artwork.

2. How do I purchase a license to operate Balloonist?

You can initiate the purchase of a license from the software. You will need a PayPal account to complete this process.

After downloading and installing the software, start the application, pull down the Help Menu, and select the License menu item. Then press the Continue on Website button.

3. I've noticed that when I drag selected balloons in the Artwork Pane, associated stems remain fixed to the same focal points. Is there any way to move focal points along with their balloons?

Yes. If you are using Mac OS X, hold down the Command key while you drag the balloon. On other platforms, use the second mouse button.

4. I prefer to draw my own balloons, but I'd appreciate help with text layout. Can Balloonist help me?

Yes. The gouache tool can create balloons with invisible borders.

5. Occasionally, I will ask Balloonist to Bring an artwork element forwards or backwards, but nothing appears to happen. Why not?

The Arrange Menu commands reorganize artwork elements within their immediate containers. If a balloon is located inside a Crowd — and most of them are — the Arrange Menu will re-organize the balloon within that Crowd.

If you want to move such a balloon in front of an image, first select its crowd and then use the Arrange Menu. Or alternately, select the image and use the Arrange Menu to send it backwards.

6. Sometimes my artwork elements vanish when I drag them from one panel to another using the Object Hierarchy. What's going on?

An artwork element's location is specified in coordinates that are relative to the panel that contains it. So when moving artwork elements from large to small panels, they may seem to become lost. In fact, they are located beyond the boundaries of the destination panel, and therefore clipped from view.

Keep in mind that you can always select an element from the Object Hiearchy, and then observe and control its properties from the Properties Pane, whether it happens to be currently visible in the Artwork Pane or not.

7. How can I produce a document with more than one page?

Save each page as a separate Balloonist document. You can keep all the documents together in the same folder or directory.

8. How can I vary line thickness?

Select the balloon, starburst, narration or panel your would like to change the thickness of. Then, enter a new point value into the thickness field of the Properties Pane.

9. Can starbursts be attributed?

Yes. Select one and use the Add Stem command under the Item Menu. If you select the new stem in the Object Hiearchy, you can change its style from the type dropdown box in the Properties Pane.

10. I just purchased an operating license for my software, but never received a confirmation email.

Confirmation emails should generally be sent out within an hour of purchase.

Since our confirmation emails are generated automatically, your email client may have incorrectly identified one as spam and filtered it into a bulk mail folder.

If this doesn't help you find your confirmation email, please feel free to contact customer service at support-at-smithandtinkers-period-com.

11. Can I use Balloonist in languages other than English?

Balloonist can optionally align text in vertical strips to support Chinese and Japanese writing. To activate this feature, select a balloon and toggle on its Vertical checkbox in the Properties Pane.

Balloonist menus and dialogs should be provided in Spanish to users in Spanish-speaking locales.

Currently, customer support and product manuals are available only in English.

12. Will my license continue to work across product updates?

Registered licenses will continue to work across ordinary updates. This would include, for example, the update from 1.0.2 to 1.0.3.