Draw Guide

9Chapter
Organization Charts, Flow
Diagrams, and MoreThis PDF is designed to be read onscreen, two pages at atime. If you want to print a cop y, your PDF viewer shouldhave an option for printing two pages on one sheet ofpape r, but you may need to start with page 2 to get it toprint facing pages correctl y. (Print this cover pageseparatel y.)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 orlater.
All trademarks within this guide belong to their legitimate owners.

Authors
Agnes Belzunce
Martin Fox
Bernd Schukat
Jean Hollis Weber
Linda Worthington

Daniel Carrera
Regina HenschelWolfgang Uhlig
Claire Wood
Hazel Russman

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

Acknowledgments
The part of this chapter on gluepoints 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 information was revised for OpenOffice 2.0 byLinda, Daniel, Jean, and Agnes, and later translated into German byBernd, Regina and Wolfgang; the German revisions were thentranslated into English and revised for version 3.2 by Martin Fox.
Claire Wood and Hazel Russman edited the result.

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/

ContentsCopyright.................................................................................................2
Drawing an organization chart................................................................4
Drawing a flow diagram..........................................................................7Glue points and connectors.....................................................................8The Connector toolbar..........................................................................9
Drawing connectors—basics..............................................................10
Editing glue points..............................................................................11
Adding text to connectors......................................................................13
Adjusting text to suit the connecting line..........................................15

Organization Charts, Flow Diagrams, and More3

Drawing an organization chart
Even though Draw does not have an organization chart toolbar, youcan draw these charts by drawing rectangles and connector lines (seeFigure 1). You can indicate hierarchies by using a color progression
from dark to light tones. Be sure your color choices maintain a good
contrast between text color and background so that you can easily readthe printed diagram.

Figure 1: Example of an Organization Chart
Before you begin, prepare a setup page or draft, with snap lines, toassist in drawing the various hierarchies, responsibility paths, andtypical boxes that you will use in drawing the chart.

Figure 2: Draft with snap lines
Place and dimension the individual boxes according to the size of theoverall chart. The exact size (particularly width), position, and color
will be fixed later. It is sometimes easier to draw only one box perlevel; later you can copy and paste this box and then move the copies
to the desired positions. Using styles can also be helpful; see therelevant section in Chapter 4 (Changing Object Attributes).

4

Organization Charts, Flow Diagrams, and MoreYou can also select one or more boxes and use Edit > Duplicate to
make copies (see Figure 3). The spacing of the duplicated objects
relative to the original can be controlled using the placement fields for
the X and Y axes. Note that positive values for X and Y are to the rightand downwards from the original object.

Figure 3: Duplicating an object
Which replication technique you use is up to you. The draft for theexample in this chapter should look similar to that in Figure 4.

Figure 4: The finished draft
The next step is to add text to the boxes. It is easiest to insert it as atext element within the box as described in Chapter 2 (Drawing BasicShapes). Activate theicon on the Options toolbar and then doubleclick the box to enter text into it. Alternatively, select the box andpress F2. You should then see a blinking cursor in the box and the Text
Formatting toolbar should be visible.
Drawing an organization chart5Set the text formatting and type the text. Depending on the length andformat of the text, you may need to adjust the size of the box and thespacing to neighboring boxes or else change the formatting of the text
to fit the box. Adjustments can be made initially with the mouse andthen fine-tuned with the Position and Size dialog.
Now set up the fill colors and save the drawing. The connections
between the boxes are not drawn with ordinary lines but with Draw’sconnectors. How to draw these connectors and add text to them is
described in “Glue points and connectors” starting on page 8.
You can use dynamic text frames instead of boxes. These have theadvantage of automatic line breaks. Figure 5 shows the sequence oftext input into a frame, adding borders, and setting the backgroundcolor.

Figure 5: Working with text frames

6

Organization Charts, Flow Diagrams, and MoreDrawing a flow diagram
For drawing flow diagrams (also known as flowcharts), Draw offers aseparate toolbar; click the flowchart icontoolbar.

on the main Drawing

Figure 6: The Flowchart toolbar
The easiest way to draw a flowchart is to follow the same setup
procedure as for organization charts. Select the symbols from thetoolbar and drag them into position as described in Chapter 2(Drawing Basic Shapes). See Figure 7 for an example of a typicalflowchart.
The individual symbols must be exactly positioned if the connectors
joining them are to form a vertical line. The midpoints of all thesymbols that lie in a vertical straight line should have the same X
coordinate and those on the same level on a horizontal line should havethe same Y coordinate.
Select the shapes that are to lie in a vertical straight line and center
them with Modify > Alignment > Centered. For those on ahorizontal line, select the shapes and center them with Modify >Alignment > Center. You can also set snap lines if you need several
vertical lines.
After adding text and setting the fill color, you can join individual
symbols together and add text to the connectors. This technique isdescribed in the next section.

Drawing a flow diagram

7

Figure 7: Example of a flow diagram

Glue points and connectors
These elements were briefly introduced in Chapter 2 (Drawing BasicShapes). This section describes how to use them.
Connectors are lines or arrows whose ends automatically dock to aconnection or glue point on an object. Connectors are particularly
useful when drawing organization charts, flow diagrams, andmindmaps. The connecting lines between the symbols remain intact
even when the latter are moved or rearranged.

8

Organization Charts, Flow Diagrams, and MoreThe Connector toolbar
Click thebutton on the Draw toolbar to open the Connectors
toolbar (Figure 8).
If the type of connector you want is not shown, click on thein theConnectors toolbar. In the list that appears, click on Visible buttons(Figure 9) to open a menu from which you can activate additional typesof connector.

Figure 8: The Connectors toolbar

Figure 9: Activating additional connectors

Glue points and connectors

9Connector types fall into four groups:• Standard connectors – the line segments run vertically andhorizontally. All angles are right angles. The connector does notbend around the objects it binds.
• Line connectors – consist of a line segment and two smaller

horizontal or vertical segments at the ends.
• Straight connectors – consist of a single line.
• Curved connectors – are based on Bézier curves, as described in

Chapter 10 (Advanced Draw Techniques).
You can modify all the connector types from the context menu. SelectConnector to change from one connector type to another (as well assome other properties). With the Line dialog you can change theappearance of the line (color, arrow style, and line style) but not theconnector type.

Drawing connectors—basics
When you choose a connector from the toolbar, the mouse pointerchanges to. As you move the cursor over an object, the available
connection points (also referred to as glue points) become visible. To
connect two shapes, move the mouse cursor over a glue point, clickand hold down the left mouse button to establish the first point, andthen drag the mouse cursor (left button still pressed) to the other gluepoint and release the mouse button. The ends of the line are now
docked and the connection is established (see Figure 10).

Figure 10: Gluing aconnector to a shape
You can also attach the beginning or the end of a connector to themiddle of an object. This is useful when the final position of the object
is not yet determined. When you move the object, Draw automaticallyselects the optimal location for the connector ends (see Figure 11).
10

Organization Charts, Flow Diagrams, and More

Figure 11: Connector attached to the middle of an object
As with all other objects, connectors have one or more control points tosimplify the construction of the drawing. You can use these points tochange the shape, length, and proportions of the connector line (seeFigure 12).

Figure 12: Control pointsof a connector
To remove a connector from an object, either move the end of theconnector away from the glue point of the object or simply delete theconnector entirely.

Editing glue points
Glue points can be edited using a separate toolbar (see Figure 13).
This toolbar appears when you click on the Glue Points iconorselect Edit > Glue Points from the main menu.

Figure 13: The Glue points toolbar
The following briefly describes the function of each button on thistoolbar.

Glue points and connectors

11Use this button to insert a new glue point. Draw a new object.
If the object is filled, you can place a glue point anywhere
inside the object or on its frame. With unfilled objects you canplace a glue point only on the outside frame but, after insertingit, you can then drag it inside the object. Activate the Glue
Points icon on the Drawing toolbar.
The glue points that you add remain visible aslong as the Glue Points icon is active. They
appear as small blue crosses. A selected glue
point has a gray square behind the cross. Youcan move a selected glue point with the mouseor delete it with the Del key.
Use these four buttons to choose one or more directions
permitted for a connector to join to a particular glue point.
Activate Glue Points and then choose the direction. If, forexample, you activate only thebutton, every connector will
be forced to come to that glue point from the left side.
In the left-hand drawing below is a glue point in the circle witha left entry and one in the square with a right entry. The effectof this when adding a connector between the two glue points isshown in the right-hand drawing..

If you are in glue point editing mode and you add anotherdirection to a glue point (for example by activating thebutton), Draw tries to optimize the length of the connector. For
the example above, the connection inside the circle wouldchange as shown below.

12Organization Charts, Flow Diagrams, and More

If the Glue Point Relative button is active (as it is by default)
the glue point will move when you change the size of theobject, as shown below.

If the Glue Point Relative button is deactivated, the remaining
buttons on the toolbar, previously grayed out, become active.
With these buttons you can decide how a glue point will beplaced when the size of the object is changed.
These buttons determine how the horizontal position of a glue
point changes when you resize the object containing the glue
point. You can choose whether the distance of the glue point to
the left edge of the object, to a vertical line through the middle,
or to the right edge of the object remains fixed when you
change the size of the object. If the width of the object
becomes less than that distance, the glue point is attached tothe object frame.
The following example shows what happens when an object’s
width is changed and the glue point is set to be a fixed distanceto the left frame.

These buttons determine in a similar manner the vertical
position of a glue point when the size of the object is changed.

Adding text to connectors
To add text to a connector, double-click the connector. The end andcontrol points become active and the familiar flashing text cursor
appears (the cursor position is determined by the last used setting).
The Text Formatting toolbar also appears (under the menu bar). Use
this toolbar to set the text properties; you can directly input the text.

Adding text to connectors

13

If you draw a connector and then click on it, only the end points andcontrol points become active. In spite of this, a connector has its own
object frame—in this case an invisible one. You can picture it easily byimagining a rectangle enclosing the start and end points of theconnector (Figure 14).
When you add text to a connector, the location of the text is referenced
to this rectangle. The exact position of the text can be set in the Text
dialog (Figure 15). This dialog appears when you double-click on text
and then choose Text from the pop-up menu or when you single-clickon the connector and select Format > Text from the menu bar.

Figure 14: Object frame of a connector

Figure 15: The Text dialog
14

Organization Charts, Flow Diagrams, and More

Take particular note of the Spacing to borders and Text anchor
sections in the Text dialog. In the Text anchor section you can see thepossible locations for the text. In the above example the text isanchored at the top left. In the Spacing to borders section at the lower
left, negative values of spacing will position the text outside the frame.

Adjusting text to suit the connecting line
If you want the text to follow the slope or curve of a line, you need toactivate and use the Fontwork tool.
1) To add it to the Draw toolbar, choose Tools > Customize fromthe menu bar.
2) On the Toolbars tab, in the Toolbars pull-down list selectDrawing. In the Toolbar content section, click Add.
3) On the Add Commands dialog, select Format from the left-handlist and the command Fontwork. Click Add, then Close to returnto the Customize dialog.
4) In the list of commands under Toolbar Content, move theFontwork icon
to the location you want by using the up/downarrows, and then click OK.
To write slanting text, follow these steps:
1) Add the text to the connector as described earlier. The anchor
location of the text is not important at this stage.
2) Select the object with the text (in this case the connector) andclick on the Fontwork icon
to open the Fontwork dialog.
3) To make the text lie along the inclined line, click the Rotate icon
and set the distance to the line you wish.

Figure 16: Adding text to an inclined line, Step 1

Adding text to connectors

15

Figure 17: Adding text to an inclined line, Step 2
The Fontwork dialog opens up many other possibilities to manipulate
the text. You can, for example, turn the text around 180 degrees with
the Orientation
icon (which was done in the example above) or
place the text under the line by assigning a negative value to thespacing between text and line.
In addition, you can use the Fontwork dialog to generate curved textthat follows the shape of a curved line. Experiment a little toinvestigate some of the possibilities.

16Organization Charts, Flow Diagrams, and More