You can switch the tab from Effect or Action to Shape tab quickly by double clicking on the shape object in the Preview or Timeline window.
You can hide/show this object by checking/unchecking the checkbox next to Name. This is useful to hide a large object temporarily during editing which covers a large movie area so that you can gain access to other objects underneath it.
Stroke
To enable/disable stroke/edges
Stroke color
To change the stroke color. Not all shape has a fill color.
Fill
To enable/disable fill
Fill color
To change the shape fill color. Not all shape has a fill color.
Transparency
To set the object transparency.
To show/hide Transform panel
Transform panel allows you to manually change the object position, rotation and size by typing on the text box.
Lock aspect ratio
When checked, you can only change the horizontal scale. The vertical scale will automatically set to be the same as horizontal scale.
Reset scale
To reset the scale to 100%
Flip horizontal
To flip the object horizontal
Flip vertical
To flip the object vertical
Reset rotation
To reset the rotation to 0
Rotate anticlockwise
To rotate the text 90 degree anticlockwise
Rotate clockwise
To rotate the text 90 degree clockwise