Draw Guide

2

ChapterDrawing Basic Shapes
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separately.)CopyrightThis document is Copyright © 2005–2010 by its contributors as listed
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under the terms of either the GNU General Public License, version 3 orlater, or the Creative Commons Attribution License, version 3.0 or
later.
All trademarks within this guide belong to their legitimate owners.

Authors
Agnes Belzunce
Martin Fox
Gary Schnabl
Jean Hollis Weber

Linda Worthington
Hazel Russman
Wolfgang Uhlig
Claire Wood

Feedback
Please direct any comments or suggestions about this document to:authors@documentation.openoffice.org

Acknowledgments
This chapter is based on an original French document written for
OpenOffice.org 1.x by Michel Pinquier (translated to English by Alex
Thurgood) and previous content revised by Jim Taylor. The chapter
was revised for OpenOffice 2.0 by Linda, Daniel, Jean, and Agnes andlater translated into German by Wolfgang Uhlig; the German revisions
were then translated into English and revised for OpenOffice 3.2 byMartin Fox.

Publication date and software version
Published 28 July 2010. Based on OpenOffice.org 3.2.

You can download
an editable version of this document fromhttp://oooauthors.org/english/userguide3/published/

Contents
Copyright.................................................................................................2
Creating simple drawings........................................................................4
Custom shapes.........................................................................................4
Drawing basic shapes..............................................................................4
Drawing a straight line.........................................................................5
Drawing an arrow.................................................................................7
Drawing lines and arrows.....................................................................7
Drawing a rectangle or square.............................................................7
Drawing ellipses (ovals) and circles.....................................................8
Adding ellipse and arc tools to the Drawing toolbar...........................9
Drawing elliptical and circular arcs...................................................10
Curves.................................................................................................10
Gluepoints and connectors (basics).......................................................11
Gluepoints...........................................................................................11
Connectors..........................................................................................12
Drawing geometric shapes....................................................................13
Basic shapes.......................................................................................14
Symbol shapes....................................................................................14
Block arrows.......................................................................................14
Flowcharts..........................................................................................14
Callouts...............................................................................................15
Stars and banners...............................................................................15
Adding text to objects............................................................................15
Using dynamic text frames.................................................................15
Using text elements in Draw objects..................................................17

Drawing Basic Shapes

3Creating simple drawings
You can create 2D and 3D objects in Draw. This chapter shows how todraw simple 2D objects. The following chapters describe how to workwith and edit such objects.
All shapes, whether they are lines, rectangles, or more complicatedshapes, are called objects. This is common notation in vector drawing
software.
The drawing tools are found on the Drawing toolbar. Figures 1 and 14
show parts of the standard form of the toolbar, as installed with Draw.
As described in Chapter 1 (Introducing Draw), the Drawing toolbar isnormally located at the bottom of the window. If you do not see it, you
can activate it from the View > Toolbars menu. As in all componentsof OpenOffice.org, you can place the toolbar on the Draw window
wherever you wish, and you can configure toolbars as you wish byadding, moving, hiding, or deleting toolbar icons.

Custom shapes
Draw 3 offers the ability to create custom shapes. These correspond toautoshapes in Microsoft Office. The shape elements used in version 1of Draw are still available, but their use is now deprecated and support
for them may be dropped in some future version of OOo.
The two types of shapes differ in their properties and are dealt withseparately in the relevant chapter of this guide. The main differences
relate to the behavior of 3D objects and text handling. Beginners cansafely ignore both for the present.
Text frames in Draw 3 have their own geometric format.

Drawing basic shapes
Basic shapes include:• Lines• Arrows• Rectangles and squares• Ellipses and circles• Curves and polygons• Connectors• Lines and arrows
4

Drawing Basic Shapes

Note

When you draw a basic shape or select one for editing, theInformation field in the status bar changes to reflect the action
taken or in progress: Line created, Text frame xxyy selected,
TextEdit: Paragraph 1, Row 1, Column 8 and so on.

Figure 1 shows part of the Drawing toolbar with the icons needed in
the following sections. The Text icon is also included.

Figure 1: Part of the Drawing toolbar

Drawing a straight line
We begin with the drawing of the simplest element—a straight line.
Click on the Line iconon the Drawing toolbar and place the mousepointer at the point where you want to start the line (see Figure 2).
Drag the mouse while keeping the mouse button pressed. Release themouse button at the point where you want to end the line. A blue
selection handle appears at each end of the line, showing that this is
the currently selected object.
Holding down the Shift key while you draw a line restricts the angle ofthe line to a multiple of 45 degrees (0, 45, 90, 135, and so on).
CautionThis is the default behaviour of the Shift key. However, if you
have used Tools > Options > OpenOffice.org Draw > Gridto set Snap position to When creating or moving objects, theaction of the Shift key is the opposite: lines will always be at a
multiple of 45 degrees unless the Shift key is pressed.

Figure 2: Drawing a straight line
Keeping the Ctrl key pressed while drawing a line enables the end of
the line to snap to the nearest grid point.

Drawing basic shapes

5Caution

The effect of the Ctrl key depends on the settings of the Snap to
Grid option on the View->Grid menu:
Snap to Grid on: Ctrl deactivates the snap option for thisactivity.
Snap to Grid off: Ctrl activates the snap option for this activity.

The spacing (resolution) of the grid points can be adjusted under Tools> Options > OpenOffice.org-Draw > Grid. See also Chapter 8 (Tips
and Tricks).
Holding down the Alt key while drawing a line results in the line
extending outwards symmetrically in both directions from the startpoint. This lets you draw lines by starting from the middle of the line.
The line just drawn has all the standard line attributes, such as colorand line style. To change any of these properties, select the line byclicking on it, then right-click and select Line.
While you are working with a line (or any other element), you can use
the information field on the status bar to monitor the activity. A
description of the current activity or selection is shown when you areworking with elements. Figure 3 shows two examples.

Figure 3: The information area in the status bar

6

Drawing Basic Shapes

Drawing an arrow
Arrows are drawn like lines. Draw classifies arrows as a subgroup oflines: lines with arrowheads. The information field on the status bar
shows them only as lines. Click on the Line Ends with Arrow icon
to draw an arrow.

Drawing lines and arrows
Click on the small black triangle on the Lines and Arrows
icon onthe Drawing toolbar to open a toolbar with ten tools for drawing lines
and arrows (Figure 4). (View > Toolbars > Arrows opens the toolbar
as a floating toolbar.) In both cases, the last-used command will be
stored on the toolbar to make it quicker to call it up again: click
directly on the symbol to repeat the last used command chosen fromthis toolbar.
After drawing the line, you can change the arrow style by clicking on
the Arrow button in the Line and Filling toolbar and choose from 13
arrow start and end options.

Figure 4: Lines and Arrows toolbar

Drawing a rectangle or square
Drawing a rectangle is similar to drawing a straight line, except thatyou click on the Rectangle iconon the Drawing toolbar, and the(imaginary) line drawn by the mouse corresponds to a diagonal of therectangle. In addition, the outline of the future rectangle changes
shape as you drag the mouse around. The outline may be shown as adashed line until you release the mouse button.

Drawing basic shapes

7

Starting point

Figure 5: Drawing a rectangle
Draw considers squares to be rectangles with sides of equal length.
Hold down the Shift key to draw a square. Hold down the Alt key whiledragging with the mouse to create a rectangle with its center (rather
than a corner) at the start point (where you first clicked the mouse).

Note

Blue or green selection handles appear around an object madeup of more than 2 points, showing that this is the currently
selected object. The colors depend on the standard selection
mode—green with a normal selection or blue if you are in the
point edit mode. This effect is easily seen if both Simple
Handles and Large Handles are switched on in the Options
toolbar. See Chapter 3 for more details on points.

Drawing ellipses (ovals) and circles
To draw an ellipse (also called an oval) or a circle, click on the Ellipse
icon
on the main Drawing toolbar. (A circle is simply an ellipse withboth axes the same length.) The ellipse drawn is the largest ellipse thatfits within the (imaginary) rectangle drawn by the mouse (Figure 6).
Starting point

Figure 6: Drawing an ellipse
There are three ways to draw an ellipse or a circle:• Holding down the Shift key while dragging with the mouse draws

a circle.
• Holding down the Alt key (together with the Shift key) draws asymmetrical ellipse (a circle) with the starting point at the center.
• Holding down the Ctrl key while dragging with the mouse draws
an ellipse or circle that snaps to the nearest grid points.
8

Drawing Basic Shapes

Note

If you first press and hold the Ctrl key down and then click on
one of the icons for Line, Rectangle, Ellipse or Text, a standard
sized object is drawn automatically in the work area: the size,
shape, and color are all standard values. These attributes canbe changed later, if desired. This only works if the icon has no
associated toolbar—no arrow on right side of icon—for example,.

Adding ellipse and arc tools to the Drawing toolbar
In previous versions of Draw, a long-click on the ellipse button openeda new toolbar that contained tools for drawing elliptical and circulararcs. This function is not directly available in Version 3.
If you really need this tool, you can add an Ellipse toolbar to the
Drawing toolbar:
1) Click on the arrow on the right-hand end of the Drawing toolbar
and select Customize Toolbar.
2) On the Toolbars page of the Customize dialog, select Drawing in
the Toolbar field and click Add.
3) In the Add Commands dialog (Figure 7), select Drawing in theCategory list, select the first Ellipse command in the Commands
list, click Add, and then click Close.

Figure 7: Adding the extended Ellipse toolbar4) On the Customize dialog, ensure that the checkbox by the new
Ellipse command is selected, and then use the up and downarrow buttons to move it to the desired position on the toolbar.
Drawing basic shapes

95) To remove the simple Ellipse icon from the Drawing toolbar,
click to highlight it in the Customize dialog, and press the Deletekey (or click the Modify button and choose Delete from the dropdown menu).
6) Click OK to complete the process.
You should now see this Ellipse iconon the Drawing toolbar. If
you use this icon instead of the standard Ellipse icon, all the extended
ellipse functions are available. Clicking on the black arrow by the icon
opens the floating Circles and Ovals toolbar (Figure 8).

Figure 8: Circles and Ovals toolbar

Drawing elliptical and circular arcs
To draw an arc, choose the appropriate Arc
symbol in the Circles and Ovals toolbar.
Drag with the mouse to create a guide circle
or ellipse.
Release the mouse button and move thecursor to the position where you want the arc
to start. In the status bar, you can measure
the actual angle in degrees. Single-click thispoint; the circle (or ellipse) disappears andmoving the mouse creates the arc. Again, thestatus bar shows the current angle.
When you have drawn the arc to the length
you want, click once more. The drawing of thearc is complete.

Curves
The tools for drawing curves or polygons are on the toolbar thatappears when you click the Curve iconon the Drawing toolbar.
This toolbar contains eight tools (Figure 9).
Note

10

Hovering the mouse pointer over this icon gives a tooltip ofCurve. If you convert the icon to a floating toolbar, however, thetitle is Lines, as shown in Figure 9.

Drawing Basic Shapes

Polygon, Filled

Polygon (45°), Filled
Freeform Line, Filled

Curve, Filled

Freeform Line

Curve
PolygonPolygon (45°)

Figure 9: Floating Curves toolbar (incorrectly titled “Lines”)
If you move the mouse cursor over one of the icons, a tooltip pops up
with a description of the function. For a more detailed description of
the handling of Bézier curves (curves and filled curves), see Chapter
10 (Advanced Draw Techniques).
• Polygons: Draw the first line from the start point with the left

mouse button held down. As soon as you release the mousebutton, a first corner point is drawn; move the mouse to see howsubsequent lines will look. Every mouse click sets another corner
point. A double-click ends the drawing. A filled polygon
automatically joins the last point to the first point to close off the
figure and fills it with the current standard fill color. A polygon
without filling will not be closed at the end of the drawing.
0• Polygon 45 : Like ordinary polygons, these are formed from lines
but with angles of only 45 or 90 degrees between them.
• Freeform Line: With this tool you can draw just like with a pencil.
Press and hold the left mouse button and drag the mouse. It is notnecessary to end the drawing with a double-click. Just release
the mouse button and the drawing is completed. If you haveselected Freeform Line, Filled, the end point is joined
automatically to the start point and the object is filled with theappropriate color.

Gluepoints and connectors (basics)
Gluepoints
All Draw objects have associated invisible gluepoints, which become
visible when you choose any of the connectors under the Connectors
iconon the Drawing toolbar and then move the mouse pointerover the object.

Gluepoints and connectors (basics)

11

Most objects have four gluepoints, as shown in Figure 10. You can add
more gluepoints, and customize gluepoints, using the toolbar of thesame name (Figure 11).

Figure 10: Four gluepoints

Figure 11: Gluepoints toolbar
Gluepoints are not the same as the little blue or green “handles” of an
object. The handles are for moving or changing the shape of an object,
as described in Chapter 3 (Working with Objects and Object Points),
but the gluepoints are used to “glue” a connector to an object.
For a more detailed description of the use of gluepoints, see Chapter 9(Organization Charts, Flow Diagrams, and More).

Connectors
Connectors are lines or arrows whose ends automatically dock to a
gluepoint of an object. Connectors are especially useful in drawing
organization charts, flow diagrams, and mind-maps. Even when objects
are moved or reordered, the connectors remain attached.
Figure 12 shows two Draw objects and a connector.

Figure 12: A connector between two objects

12

Drawing Basic Shapes

Draw offers a range of different connectors and connector functions.
Open the floating Connectors toolbar by clicking on the arrow next to
the Connector icon

(Figure 13).

Connector with Arrows

Line Connector

Connector Ends with Arrow

Line Connector Ends with Arrow

Connector

Line Connector with Arrows

Straight Connector

Curved Connector with Arrows

Straight Connector Ends with Arrow
Straight Connector with Arrows

Curved Connector Ends with Arrow
Curved Connector

Figure 13: The Connectors toolbar
For a more detailed description of the use of connectors, see Chapter 9(Organization Charts, Flow Diagrams, and More).

Drawing geometric shapes
Geometric shapes include:• Basic shapes• Symbol shapes• Block arrows• Flowcharts• Callouts• StarsNote

If you select shapes for editing, the information field in the
toolbar shows the type of shape selected and, if more than one
object is selected, the total number.

Figure 14 shows part of the Drawing toolbar with the icons referred toin the following sections. Clicking on the arrow next to the icon opens
a floating toolbar with the relevant work tools.

Figure 14: Part of the main Drawing toolbar

Drawing geometric shapes

13

Tip

The use of all these tools is similar to that of the Rectangle tool,
even though they produce different geometric shapes.

Basic shapes
The Basic Shapes icon
makes available
a range of tools for drawing basic shapes,
including a rectangle tool identical to the oneon the main toolbar.
The only differences you will see are in theinformation field in the status bar (in this case
“Shape selected” rather than “Rectangle
selected”).

Symbol shapes
The Symbol Shapes icon
gives you anarray of tools for drawing various symbols.

Block arrows
The Block Arrows icon
Arrows toolbar.

opens the Block

Flowcharts
The tools for drawing flowcharts are accessedby clicking on the Flowcharts icon.
The creation of flowcharts, organization charts,and similar planning tools are described in
Chapter 9 (Organization Charts, Flow
Diagrams, and More).

14

Drawing Basic Shapes

Callouts
Use the Callouts icon
Callouts toolbar.

, to open theStars and banners
These tools are associated with the Stars icon.
You can add text to all these shapes. See “Using text elements in Draw
objects” on page 17.

Adding text to objects
Draw offers two ways to add text to a drawing: in a dynamic text frame
as an independent Draw object or as text in a previously drawn object.
In the latter case, the text is integrated with the object.

Using dynamic text frames
The text tool is activated by clicking on the Text icon
for horizontal
text or the Vertical Text icon
for vertical script (to be able see theicon and use this latter option, you must check Enabled for Asian
languages under Tools > Options > Language Settings >Languages). If you still do not see the Vertical Text icon, enable it on
the Drawing toolbar by clicking the arrow on the right hand side of thetoolbar, select Visible Buttons, and click on Vertical Text to make thisicon show on the toolbar.
Text frames can be moved and rotated like all draw objects. For moredetails on text input, see Chapter 10 (Advanced Draw Techniques).
Adding text to objects

15After activating Text command mode, click at the location where youwant to position the text. A small text frame appears. It contains only
the cursor. You can move the frame, if desired. The Text Formatting
toolbar appears (Figure 15), and you can choose the font type, fontsize, and other text properties and begin to type in your text.

Figure 15: Text Formatting toolbar
The text frame grows with the text. You can insert a line break with theShift+Enter key combination. The Enter key begins a new paragraph.
Neither line breaks nor new paragraphs terminate the text frame.

Figure 16: Text input in a dynamic text frame
Observe the information field in the status bar: it shows that you are
editing text and also provides details about the current cursor location—paragraph, line, and column numbers.
Text properties can also be changed during text input. Any changes
will be reflected from the cursor position onwards (Figure 17).

Text input – properties

changedFigure 17: Changing text properties
After choosing the Text icon, you can also draw a frame with themouse to contain future text. You can move the frame only after typing
some text in it. Line breaks are inserted automatically at the right edgeof the frame when the text fills the frame width (Figure 18). You can,16

Drawing Basic Shapeshowever,—just like when editing other text—insert your own line
breaks, begin new paragraphs, or change any of the text properties.

Text input
in a fixed frame –the text wraps
automaticallyFigure 18: Text frame

Using text elements in Draw objects
A text element is associated with most Draw objects. By means ofthese elements, text can be added to an object (see Figure 19).
The exceptions to this are control elements like buttons or list boxes,
as well as 3D scenes and their associated elements and groups.
If the Double-click to edit Text iconon the Options toolbar is
active, you can start editing an object by double-clicking on it (or bypressing F2). In the middle of the Draw object, a black bar indicates
the text cursor; start typing to input text. The status bar shows at thelower left “Text Edit” and the position of the cursor within the text.
Text can contain paragraphs, and these can be in the form of bulleted
or numbered lists. For a new line without beginning a new paragraph,use (as in text documents) the key combination Shift+Enter. To end thetext input, click next to the object or press the Esc key.

Figure 19: Adding text to objects

Adding text to objects

17