Drawing curved lines?

[freofan]

I am trying to draw curved lines indicating movements on a map using the pen tool in In-design as instructed in the manuals and online help. This seems to be limited to 's' curves. How can I draw a simple 'c' curve, with one curve in between points?

[Steve Werner]

Sure the "C" shape is a simple smooth curve with just two anchor points:

[freofan]

Thank you, but I just cannot get a 'c' curve with two anchor points. Whenever I click and drag with the pen tool, no matter from where to where in or outside a straight line, I get an 's', or a crazy loop.

Perhaps you could step me through the process? Thanks

[fenjas29325284]

After clicking and dragging the second anchor point don't release the mouse, but turn the anchor point's handle in the opposite directon.

Or:

When you've dragged the first anchor point from right to left (bottom to top), then drag the second one from left to right top to bottom).

Hope this helps.

Fenja

[Steve Werner]

In the illustration, I used Fenja's second method. At the top I dragged to the left, then released. I moved my cursor down and dragged to the right.

[Barb Binder]

Are you trying to learn to draw bezier curves? This is an Ai page, the but Pen tool works the same in InDesign:

How to draw with the Pen, Pencil, or Flare tool in Illustrator

Or do you just need a C? The easiest way to get a C without knowing how to draw curves is to draw a circle (or ellipse):

Select just one anchor point (a selected anchor point is solid, deselect points are hollow) with the Direct Selection tool (the white arrow):

Then tap Delete on the keyboard: