# Arrange Tails

Position balloon tails near faces and heads to associate them with the person speaking or thinking.

1. Click on the balloon whose tails you want to adjust.

   Two handles, one blue and one white with a red outline, will appear on the tail.

2. To adjust the tail, do any of the following:
   - Adjust the endpoint: Click on the blue handle and drag it to the new position.

     The balloon tail grows or shrinks to maintain the connection with the bubble.

   - Adjust the curvature: Click on the red handle and drag it to a new position.

     The tail curves around the red handle.

   - Adjust the kink in the curvature: Click and drag the associated curve control handles beside the red handle.

     These control the shape of the curve passing through the red handle.

3. Click outside the element to finish your edits.

Tip: When positioning balloon tails it is good practice to not have the tail go right up to the character's mouth. Think of the tail as a curved arrow pointing to the source of the words. Let the curvature of the tail indicate the right person.

To re-enable automatic tail curving:

1. Open the Format sidebar, and click on the Balloon tab.
2. In the Tail section, check the auto-curve box.

   Note: This will reset any special curving you might have done for this balloon.

1. Click on the balloon to select it.
2. In the Format sidebar, click on the Balloon tab.
3. In the Tail section of the sidebar, do any of the following:
   - Adjust the shape of the tail: Choose a different type from the popup menu in the Tail section:
     - Curved: the tail curves as it extends from the balloon body to the tail tip.
     - Straight: the tail extends directly to the tail tip. Useful when making callouts.
     - Jagged: the tail jags as it extends from the balloon body to the tail tip. Great when used with exclamations for increased drama.
   - Adjust the kind of tail: Choose a kind from the popup menu:
     - Taper: the standard balloon tail where it tapers to a point.
     - Bubbles: thought balloon tail of growing bubbles.
     - Arrow: the tail tip is an arrow shape.
     - Burst: the tail tip has a burst shape. Perfect for off-panel or radio speech.
     - Stroke: the tail is drawn as a simple line. Click on the adjacent options button to adjust the thickness, color and stroke style.
   - Adjust the thickness of the tail: choose a different size from the popup menu:
     - Auto: the tail thickness is derived from the size of the balloon.
     - Thin: a very thin tail.
     - Medium: a medium thickness tail.
     - Thick: a thick tail.

     Static tail thickness settings are still governed by the size of the balloon to ensure they are not too thick so you may not see any difference between medium and thick for small balloon.

1. Click on the balloon to select it.
2. Choose Insert > Balloon Tail (from the Insert menu at the top of your screen).

   A new tail is added to the balloon.

Sometimes the tails are coming from the wrong end of the balloon assembly and you need to them to emerge from the other end.

1. Click on the balloon to select it.
2. Choose Format > Balloon > Reverse Tail Connection (from the Format menu at the top of your screen.

   The balloon tails are moved to the bubble at the other end of the assembly.

1. Click on the balloon to select it.
2. Click on the tail tip you want to delete.
3. Press the Delete key or choose Edit > Delete (from the Edit menu at the top of your screen).

## See also

Undo or redo changes

Arrange Bubbles