Getting Started Guide

7

Chapter
Getting Started with
Draw
Vector Drawing in OpenOffice.org

This PDF is designed to be read onscreen, two pages at atime. If you want to print a copy, your PDF viewer shouldhave an option for printing two pages on one sheet ofpaper, but you may need to start with page 2 to get it toprint facing pages correctly. (Print this cover page
separately.)CopyrightThis document is Copyright © 2005–2010 by its contributors as listed
in the section titled Authors. You may distribute it and/or modify it
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
Chris Bonde
Daniel Carrera
Regina HenschelMichel Pinquier
Iain Roberts
Gary Schnabl
Alex Thurgood
Jim Taylor
Jean Hollis Weber
Linda Worthington

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

Publication date and software version
Published 31 January 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
What is Draw?........................................................................................ 5
The Draw workspace.............................................................................. 5
Rulers.................................................................................................. 6
Status bar........................................................................................... 7
Toolbars.............................................................................................. 7
Positioning objects with snap functions...............................................12
Snap to grid...................................................................................... 12
Showing the grid............................................................................... 13
Configuring the grid.........................................................................13
Changing the color of the grid points...............................................14
Positioning objects with helper lines....................................................14
The basic drawing shapes....................................................................15
Drawing a straight line.....................................................................15
Drawing an arrow.............................................................................16
Drawing lines and arrows.................................................................16
Drawing a rectangle or square.........................................................17
Drawing a circle or ellipse................................................................17
Drawing curves................................................................................. 18
Writing text....................................................................................... 19
Gluepoints and connectors................................................................20
Drawing geometric shapes................................................................... 21
Selection modes................................................................................... 23
Changing the selection mode............................................................23
Selecting objects.................................................................................. 24
Direct selection................................................................................. 24
Selection by framing.........................................................................24
Selecting hidden objects...................................................................24
Arranging objects.............................................................................25
Selecting several objects..................................................................25
Moving and dynamically adjusting an object’s size..............................25
Getting Started with Draw

3

Dynamic movement of objects..........................................................26
Dynamic size modification of objects................................................26
Rotation............................................................................................ 26
Inclination and perspective...............................................................27
Editing objects..................................................................................... 28
The context menu.............................................................................28
Editing lines and borders..................................................................28
Common line properties.................................................................... 29
Drawing arrows................................................................................29
Customizing line and arrow styles....................................................29
Editing the inside (fill) of an object...................................................30
Adding a shadow............................................................................... 30
Adding transparency......................................................................... 30
Using styles.......................................................................................... 30
Special effects...................................................................................... 31
Flip an object.................................................................................... 31
Mirror copies.................................................................................... 31
Distorting an image..........................................................................32
Dynamic gradients............................................................................32
Duplication........................................................................................ 32
Cross-fading...................................................................................... 33
Combining multiple objects.................................................................. 33
Grouping by common selection.........................................................34
Maintaining groups and undoing groups..........................................34
Combining objects............................................................................34
Aids for positioning objects..................................................................35
Inserting and editing pictures..............................................................35
Working with 3D objects......................................................................35
Exporting graphics............................................................................... 36
Adding comments to a drawing............................................................36

4

Getting Started with Draw

What is Draw?
Draw is a vector graphics drawing program. It offers a series ofpowerful tools that enable you to quickly create all sorts of graphics.
Vector graphics store and display an image as vectors (two points anda line) rather than a collections of pixels (dots on the screen). Vector
graphics allow for easier storage and scaling of the image.
Draw is perfectly integrated into the OpenOffice.org suite, and thismakes exchanging graphics with all components of the suite very easy.
For example, if you create an image in Draw, reusing it in a Writer
document is as simple as copying and pasting. You can also work withdrawings directly from within Writer and Impress, using a subset of thefunctions and tools from Draw.
Draw’s functionalities are very extensive and complete. Although it
was not designed to rival high-end graphics applications, Draw
possesses more functions than the majority of drawing tools that are
integrated into office productivity suites.
A few examples of drawing functions might whet your appetite: layer
management, magnetic grid point system, dimensions andmeasurement display, connectors for making organization charts, 3D
functions enabling small three-dimensional drawings to be created(with texture and lighting effects), drawing and page style integration,
and Bézier curves, to name a few.
This chapter introduces some of Draw’s features, but it does not
attempt to cover all of them. See the Draw Guide and the application
Help for more information.

The Draw workspace
The main components of the Draw workspace are shown in Figure 1.
You can surround the drawing area with toolbars and information
areas. The number and position of the visible tools vary with the task
at hand or user preferences. Therefore, your setup may appear a little
different. For example, many people put the main Drawing toolbar on
the left-hand side of the workspace, not at the bottom as shown here.
You can split drawings in Draw over several pages. Multipage drawings
are used mainly for presentations. The Pages pane, on the left side of
the Draw window in Figure 1 gives an overview of the pages that you
create. If the Pages pane is not visible on your setup,you can enable itfrom the View menu (View > Page Pane).
The Draw workspace5Figure 1. Initial Draw window

Rulers
You should see rulers (bars withnumbers) on the upper and left-handside of the workspace. These show
the size of a selected object on thepage (see the gray double lines,
highlighted in Figure 2). When no
object is selected, they show thelocation of the mouse pointer, whichhelps to accurately position drawing Figure 2: Rulers show the sizeof the selected object
objects. You can also use the rulers
to manage object handles and guide lines, making it easier to position
objects. The page margins in the drawing area are also represented on
the rulers. You can change the margins directly on the rulers by
dragging them with the mouse.

6

Getting Started with Draw

To modify the units of measurement of
the rulers, right-click on one of therulers (Figure 3). The two rulers canhave different units.

Figure 3. Ruler units

Status bar
The Status bar (Figures 4 and 5) is located at the bottom of theworkspace. In addition to fields common to several OOo components, it
includes several Draw-specific fields. For details on the contents anduse of these fields, see Chapter 1 (Introducing OpenOffice.org) in thisbook and Chapter 1 (Introducing Draw) in the Draw Guide.
The sizes are given in the current measurement unit (not to be
confused with the ruler units). This unit is defined in Tools >Options > OpenOffice.org Draw > General, where you canalso change the scale of the page. Another way to change thescale is to double-click on the number shown in the status bar.

Note

Figure 4: Left end of the Draw status bar

Figure 5: Right end of Draw status bar

Toolbars
You can display or hide the various Draw toolbars according to yourneeds.
To display or hide a toolbar, click View > Toolbars. On the menu thatappears, choose which toolbars you want to display.

The Draw workspace

7You can also select the icons that you wish to appear on thecorresponding toolbar. On the View > Toolbars menu, choose
Customize, click on the Toolbars tab, select the toolbar you want tochange, and then select the desired icons for that toolbar.
Many toolbar icons are marked with a small arrow. The arrow indicatesthat this icon has additional functions. Click this arrow and a submenu
or a toolbar appears, showing its additional functions (see Figure 6).
Most icons marked with a small arrow can become floating toolbars. To
make a submenu into a floating toolbar, click the area at the top of thesubmenu, drag it across the screen, and then release the mousebutton. Floating toolbars can be docked on an edge of the screen orwithin one of the existing toolbar areas at the top of the screen, as
described in Chapter 1.

Figure 6. An arrow next to a button
indicates additional functions
Click the arrow on the title bar of a floating toolbar to display
additional functions (see Figure 7).

Figure 7. An arrow on a floating toolbar indicates
additional functions

8

Getting Started with Draw

The tools available in the various toolbars are explained in thefollowing sections. The appearance of the toolbar icons may vary withyour operating system and the selection of icon size and style in Tools> Options > OpenOffice.org > View.
Standard toolbar
The Standard toolbar looks like this:

It is the same for all parts of OpenOffice.org.
Line and Filling toolbar
The Line and Filling toolbar lets you modify the main properties of adrawing object. See page 28 for details.

If the selected object is text, the toolbar changes to the one shown
below, which is similar to the Formatting toolbar in Writer.

Drawing toolbar
The Drawing toolbar is the most important toolbar in Draw. It contains
all the necessary functions for drawing various geometric and freehand
shapes and organizing them on the page.

Color BarTo display the Color Bar, use View > Toolbars > Color Bar. The
toolbar then appears at the bottom of the workspace.

This toolbar lets you rapidly choose the color of the objects in yourdrawing. The first box in the panel corresponds to transparency (nocolor).
You can access several specialized color palettes in Draw, as well aschange individual colors to your own taste. This is done using the Area
dialog, reached by choosing Format > Area or the pouring can icon on
the Line and Filling toolbar.
On the Area dialog, choose the tab marked Colors (Figure 8).

The Draw workspace

9Figure 8. Changing the color palette
To load another palette, click on the Load Color List button (circled).
The file selector dialog asks you to choose one of the standard OOopalettes (files bearing the file extension *.soc). For example, web.soc
is a color palette that is adapted to creating drawings that are going toappear in Web pages. The colors will correctly display on workstations
with screens displaying at least 256 colors.
The color selection box also lets you individually change any color bymodifying the numerical values in the fields provided to the right of thecolor palette. You can use the color schemes known as CMYK (Cyan,
Magenta, Yellow, Black), and RGB (Red, Green, Blue).
Clicking on the Edit button opens a special dialog to allow setting
individual colors (see Figure 9). Many more input possibilities areavailable in this dialog.
In the lower area you can enter values in the RGB and CMYK models
as well as in the HSB (Hue, Saturation and Brightness) model.
The two color fields at lower right show the value of the color as
selected (left) and the new value from the chosen color value fields(right).
For a more detailed description of color palettes and their options, see
Chapter 8 (Tips and Tricks) in the Draw Guide.

10

Getting Started with Draw

ColorschemesFigure 9. Defining color schemes
Options toolbar
The Options toolbar lets you activate or deactivate various drawing
aids. The Options toolbar is not displayed by default. To display it,
select View > Toolbars > Options. The functions of the various icons
are described in Table 1.

Figure 10: Options toolbar
Table 1: Functions on the Options toolbar
Icon

Function
Rotation mode after clicking object
Display (or hide) the grid
Display (or hide) the guides
Display (or hide) guides when moving
Snap to grid
Snap to guides
Snap to page margins
Snap to object borders
Snap to object points

The Draw workspace

11

Icon

Function
Allow quick editing
Select text area only
Double-click to edit text
Simple handles
Large handles

Positioning objects with snap functions
In Draw, objects can be positioned to grid points, to special snap points
and lines, to object frames, to single object points, or to page edges.
This function is known as Snap. In this manner objects can be very
accurately positioned in a drawing.
If you want to use the snap function, it is much easier to work with thehighest practical zoom value. It is possible to use two different snap
functions at the same time, for example snap to a guide line and to thepage edge. It is best, however, to activate only those functions that you
really need.
This section describes the snap-to-grid function. For more information
about this and the other snap functions, see Chapter 8 (Tips andTricks) and Chapter 10 (Advanced Draw Techniques) in the Draw
Guide.

Snap to gridUse this function to move an object exactly to a grid point (see Figure11). This function can be switched on and off with View > Grid >Snap to Grid and on the Options toolbar with the icon.

Figure 11: With snap to grid, objects align to the grid precisely.
12

Getting Started with Draw

Showing the grid
Make the grid visible under View > Grid > Display Grid.
Alternatively turn the grid on and off with the icon on the Options
toolbar.

Configuring the grid
The color, spacing, and resolution of the grid points can be individuallychosen for each axis. The spacing between the lines is defined in the
Grid options dialog under the Drawing area of the OOo options (Tools> Options > OpenOffice.org Draw > Grid).

Figure 12. Setting grid options
In the dialog shown in Figure 12, you can set the following parameters:• Vertical and horizontal spacing of the dots in the grid. You canalso change the unit of measurement used in the general Draw
options (Tools > Options > OpenOffice.org Draw > General).
• The resolution is the size of the squares or rectangles in the grid.
If the resolution is Horizontal 1 cm, Vertical 2 cm, the gridconsists of rectangles 2 cm high and 1 cm wide.
• Subdivisions are additional points that appear along the sides ofeach rectangle or square in the grid. Objects snap to subdivisions
as well as to the corners of the grid.

Positioning objects with snap functions13• The pixel (pix element) size of the snap area defines how close

you need to bring an object to a snap point or line before it will
snap to it.

Changing the color of the grid points
The default grid dots are light gray, which can be hard to see. To
improve visibility, go to Tools > Options, then OpenOffice.org >Appearance (Figure 13).

Figure 13: Changing the grid color
In the Drawing / Presentation section, you can change the color of thegrid points. On the Color Settings pulldown menu, select a moresuitable/visible color, for example black.

Positioning objects with helper lines
To simplify the positioning of objects it is possible to make visible
guiding lines—extensions of the edges of the object—while it is being
moved. These guiding lines have no snap function.
The guiding lines can be activated or deactivated under Tools >Options > OpenOffice.org Draw > View > Guides when moving,or by clicking on the14

icon on the Options toolbar.

Getting Started with Draw

The basic drawing shapes
Draw provides a wide range of shapes, located in palettes accessedfrom the Drawing Toolbar. This chapter describes only a few of thebasic shapes; see the Draw Guide for a complete description of the
shapes available. These shapes include rectangles and squares; circles,
ellipses, and arcs; 3D objects; curves; lines and arrows; text; andconnectors.
When you draw a basic shape or select one for editing, the Info field at
the left side in the status bar changes to reflect the present action:Line created, Text frame xxyy selected, and so on.
Figure 14 shows part of the Drawing toolbar with the icons needed in
the following sections. The Text icon is also included.

Figure 14: Part of the Drawing toolbar

Drawing a straight line
Let’s start by drawing the simplest of shapes: a straight line. Click on
the Line iconon the Drawing Toolbar and place the mouse pointerwhere you want to start the line. Drag the mouse while keeping the
button pressed. Release the mouse button when you want to end theline.
A blue or green selection handle appears at each end of the line,
showing that this is the currently selected object. The colors depend on
the selection mode (green for simple selection and blue when in point
edit mode). This effect is easily apparent if on the Options toolbar both
Simple Handles and Large Handles are switched on.

Figure 15: Drawing a straight line

The basic drawing shapes

15

Hold down the Shift key while drawing the line to restrict the angle ofthe line to a multiple of 45 degrees (0, 45, 90, 135, and so on).
Hold down the Control key (Ctrl in PCs) to snap the end of the line to
the nearest grid point.

Note

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) in the Draw Guide.
Hold down the Alt key to extend the line symmetrically outward fromthe start point (the line extends to each side of the start point equally).
This lets you draw straight lines by starting from the middle of the line.
The line just drawn has all the default attributes, such as color and line
type. To change the line attributes, click on the line to select it andthen use the tools in the Line and Filling toolbar; or for more control,
right-click on the line and choose Line to open the Line dialog.

Drawing an arrow
Arrows are drawn like lines. Draw classifies arrows as a subgroup oflines: Lines with arrowheads. They are shown in the information fieldon the status bar only as lines. Click on the Line Ends with Arrowicon
to draw an arrow.

Drawing lines and arrows
Click on the small black triangle on the Lines and Arrows
icon toopen a floating toolbar with ten tools for drawing lines and arrows(Figure 16). Alternatively, you can click directly on the symbol torepeat the last-used command chosen from this toolbar. In both cases,
the last-used command will be stored on the toolbar to make it quicker
to call it up again.

16

Getting Started with Draw

Figure 16: Lines and Arrows toolbar

Drawing a rectangle or square
Drawing rectangles is similar to drawing straight lines, except that you
use the Rectangle iconfrom the Drawing Toolbar. The (imaginary)line drawn with the mouse corresponds to the diagonal of therectangle. In addition, the outline of the future rectangle changes
shape as you drag the mouse around. The outline is shown as a dashedline until you release the mouse button, when the rectangle is drawn.
Starting point

Figure 17: Drawing a rectangle
Hold down the Shift key to draw a square. Hold down the Alt key todraw a rectangle starting from its center. To combine the effects, holddown both the Shift and Alt keys simultaneously.

Drawing a circle or ellipse
To draw an ellipse (also called an oval) or a circle, use the Ellipse iconfrom the Drawing Toolbar. (A circle is simply an ellipse where thetwo axes are the same length.) The ellipse drawn is the largest ellipsethat would fit inside the (imaginary) rectangle drawn with the mouse.

The basic drawing shapes

17

Starting point

Figure 18: Drawing an ellipse
There are three other ways to draw an ellipse or circle:• Hold down the Shift key while drawing to force the ellipse to be acircle.
• Hold down the Alt key to draw a symmetrical ellipse or circle
from the center instead of dragging corner to corner.
• Hold down the Control key while drawing to snap the ellipse orcircle to grid lines.

Note

If you first press and hold the Control key and then click on oneof the icons (Line, Rectangle, Ellipse, or Text), an object isdrawn automatically in the work area; the size, shape, and color
are all standard values. These attributes can be changed later,
if desired.

Drawing 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 19).
Note

Hovering the mouse over this icon gives a tooltip of Curve. If
you convert the icon to a floating toolbar, however, the title isLines, as shown in Figure 19.
Polygon, Filled

Polygon (45°), Filled
Freeform Line, Filled

Curve, Filled

Freeform Line

Curve
PolygonPolygon (45°)

Figure 19: Floating Curves toolbar (incorrectly titled “Lines”)
18

Getting Started with Draw

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) in the Draw Guide.
Polygons
Draw the first line from the start point with the left mouse button
held down. As soon as you release the mouse button, a first corner
point is drawn, and you can move the mouse to see how the secondline will look. Every mouse click sets another corner point. A doubleclick ends the drawing. A filled polygon automatically joins the lastpoint to the first point to close off the figure and fills it with thecurrent standard fill color. A polygon without filling will not be
closed at the end of the drawing.
Polygon 45°
Just as with ordinary polygons, these will be formed from lines butwith angles of 45 or 90 degrees between them.
Freeform Line
With this tool you can draw just like with a pencil. Press and holdthe left mouse button and move the mouse. It is not necessary to end
the drawing with a double-click. Just release the mouse button andthe drawing is completed. If you have selected Freeform Line, Filled,
the end point is joined automatically to the start point and the object
is filled with the appropriate color.

Writing text
Use the Text tool
to write text and select the font, color, size, andother attributes. Click on an empty space in the workspace to write thetext at that spot or drag an area to write inside the dragged frame.
Press Enter to drop to the next line.
When you have finished typing text, click outside the text frame.
Double-click on the text at any time to edit it.
When you type text, the upper toolbar includes the usual paragraphattributes: indents, first line, and tab stops.
You can change the style of all or part of the text. The Styles andFormatting window also works here (select Format > Styles andFormatting or press F11 to launch), so you can create Graphics styles
that you can reuse for other text frames. Graphics styles affect all of
the text within a text frame. To style parts of the text, use direct
formating with the toolbar.
The basic drawing shapes

19Text frames can also have fill colors, shadows, and other attributes,
just like any other Draw object. You can rotate the frame and write thetext at any angle. These options are available by right-clicking on theobject.
Use the Callout tool, located on the Drawing toolbar, to create callouts(also known as captions or figure labels).
If you double-click on an object or press F2 (or the Text icon in the
Drawing toolbar) when an object is selected, text is written in thecenter of the object and remains within the object. Nearly any kind of
object contains such an additional text element. These texts have slightdifferences to those in text frames concerning position andhyphenation.
For more about text, see Chapter 2 (Drawing Basic Shapes) and
Chapter 10 (Advanced Draw Techniques) in the Draw Guide.

Gluepoints and connectors
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 pointer over
the object.
Most objects have four gluepoints, as shown in Figure 20. You can add
more gluepoints, and customize gluepoints, using the toolbar under the
Gluepoint iconon the Drawing toolbar.

Figure 20: Four gluepoints
Gluepoints are different from handles (the small blue or green squares
around an object). Use the handles to move or resize an object; use thegluepoints to attach connectors to an object.
Connectors are a type of line or arrow whose ends dock to glue points
on other objects. When you move the other object, the connector
moves with it. Connectors are particularly useful for making
organizational charts. You can reorganize the blocks of your chart andall the connected objects stay connected.

20

Getting Started with Draw

Figure 21 shows two Draw objects and a connector.

Figure 21: A connector between two objects
Draw has a range of advanced connector functions. You can change
connector types by opening the floating Connectors toolbar (click on
the Connector icon
) and modify various attributes of a selectedconnector by right-clicking and choosing Connector from the pop-up
menu. For more about connectors and gluepoints, see Chapter 9(Organization Charts, Flow Diagrams, and More) in the Draw Guide.

Drawing geometric shapes
Geometric shapes include basic shapes, symbol shapes, block arrows,
flowcharts, callouts, and stars.
Figure 22 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. The use of all thesetools is similar to that of the Rectangle tool, even though they produce
different geometric shapes.

Figure 22: Part of the main Drawing toolbar
Basic shapes
The Basic Shapes icon
makes available therange of tools for drawing basic shapes.
If you choose the rectangle tool from thistoolbar, it looks the same as a rectangle drawn
using the Rectangle tool on the Drawing
toolbar. The only differences you will see are in
the information field in the status bar (forexample: shape selected).
Drawing geometric shapes

21Symbol shapes
The Symbol Shapes iconbrings you to anarray of tools for drawing the various symbol
shapes.

Block arrows
The Block Arrows icon
toolbar.

opens the Block Arrows

Flowcharts
The tools for drawing flowcharts are accessed byclicking on the Flowcharts icon.
The creation of flowcharts, organization charts, andsimilar planning tools are described in Chapter 9(Organization Charts, Flow Diagrams, and More) in
the Draw Guide.

Callouts
Use the Callouts icon
toolbar.

to open the Callouts

Stars and banners
These tools are associated with the Stars icon.

You can add text to all these shapes. See Chapter 2 (Drawing Basic
Shapes) and Chapter 10 (Advanced Draw Techniques) in the Draw
Guide for details.

22

Getting Started with Draw

Selection modes
There are three selection modes: moving and changing size, rotating,and editing points.
The default mode for selecting objects depends on whether the Points
button on the Drawing toolbar is active (appears lit)
(appears dark or dimmed) .

or not inactive

In standard mode (when you begin a new drawing),
the Points button is not active, and the default modeis for selections to be moved or changed in size; theseselections are indicated by small green squares.
When the Points button is active, the default mode isfor selections to be edited; these selections areindicated by blue squares. Some objects will have one
or more extra handles, which are larger or coloreddifferently. This is explained in more detail in the
Draw Guide.
Selections for rotating objects are indicated by small
red circles and a symbol representing the center ofrotation. To choose these selections, click on the
Effects drop-down button
from the Drawing
toolbar.

Changing the selection mode
To go from one mode to another, you can do one of the following:• Toggle the Points button on the Drawing toolbar to switch fromthe simple selection mode to the Points mode
. You can also use
the keyboard shortcut F8 (Points).
• Choose the Effects drop-down button from the Drawing toolbar
to activate the Rotation mode for a selected object.
• If you often work in Rotation mode, you can choose the Rotation
Mode after Clicking Object button
from the Options bar, you
can cycle through normal and rotation modes just by clicking on
the object. This can be more convenient than clicking the object,then clicking the Rotate button from the Drawing Toolbar.
• To stop working in Rotation mode, click the Rotation Mode after
Clicking Object button
again.

Selection modes

23

Selecting objects
Direct selection
To select an object, the easiest way is to click directly on it. For objects
that are not filled, click directly on the object's outline to select it.

Selection by framing
You can select several objects by using the mouse to
drag a large rectangle around the objects, as shown.
For this to work, the Selecticon on the Drawing
toolbar must be active. Only objects that lie entirely
within the rectangle are selected.

Selecting hidden objects
Even if objects are located behind others and not visible, they can still
be selected. To select an object that is covered by another object, holddown the Alt key and click the object. To select an object that iscovered by several objects, hold down the Alt key and click through theobjects until you reach the required underlying object. To cycle
through the objects in reverse order, hold down the Alt+Shift keys
when you click. To help in making accurate selections, you can checkthe number and type of the selected objects, shown at the left of thestatus bar.

Note

There may be some variation in the use of the Alt key on
different operating systems. If the Alt key on your system does
not operate as described above, use the Tab key method
described below.

To select an object that is covered by another object using the
keyboard, press Tab to cycle through the objects, stopping at theobject you wish to select. To cycle through the objects in reverse order,press Shift+Tab. This may not be practical if you have a large numberof objects in your drawing.

24

Getting Started with Draw

When you click on the selected object, its outline
appears briefly through the objects on top of theselected object.
In the illustration to the right, the square locatedbeneath the circle was selected in this way (the circle
was made transparent in order to see the square).

Arranging objects
In a complex drawing, you may have objects stacked up, one on top of
the other, with the result that a particular object is hidden by one ormore other objects above it. You can rearrange the stacking order ofobjects (move an object to the front or to the back of the stack) byselecting the object, clicking Modify > Arrange and selecting theappropriate Bring Forward or Send Backward option, or by rightclicking the object and selecting Arrange from the context menu, thenselecting from the list of Bring Forward or Send Backward options.
On the Drawing toolbar, the Arrange tear-off menu on the
buttoncontains the above options. A keyboard shortcut is Shift+Ctrl++ tobring an object to the top, and Shift+Ctrl+− to send an object to thebottom.
Draw also provides tools for aligning multiple objects; details are givenin the Draw Guide.

Selecting several objects
To select or deselect several objects one by one, press the Shift key
and click on the various objects to be selected or deselected. One clickon an object selects it; a second click deselects it.

Moving and dynamically adjusting an
object’s size
There are several ways of moving or changing the size of an object.
The method described here will be called dynamic in the sense that it
is carried out using the mouse.
When you dynamically change an object, remember to check thecentral area of the status bar at the bottom of your screen. This areashows detailed information about the ongoing manipulation. This
information changes when the mouse is moved.
Moving and dynamically adjusting an object’s size

25

Dynamic movement of objects
To move an object, select it and then click within
the object’s border and hold down the left mousebutton while moving the mouse. To drop theobject at its new location, release the mousebutton.
During movement, the shape of the object
appears as dotted lines to help withrepositioning.
If you have selected Guides when moving in
Tools > Options > OpenOffice.org Draw >View, then during movement, dotted lines
appear, to help with repositioning.

Dynamic size modification of objects
To change the size of an object (or group of
selected objects) with the mouse, you need to move
one of the handles located around the selection. As
shown in the following illustration, the outline of
the resulting new object appears as a dotted line.
The results differ depending on which handle you use. If you choose acorner handle, you will resize the object along two axes at the sametime. If you use a side handle, the objects will only be resized along
one axis.

Note

If you press the Shift key at the same time as you carry out the
resizing operation, the size change will be carried out
symmetrically with respect to the two axes; this enables you tokeep the aspect (height/length) ratio of the object.

Rotation
Rotating an object lets you move the object around an axis. To do thisdynamically, use the red handles, as you do when changing the size ofthe object.
26

Getting Started with Draw

Note

Rotation works in a slightly different way for 3D objects
because the rotation occurs in 3D space and not in one plane.
See Chapter 7 (Working with 3D Objects) in the Draw Guide
regarding rotation when Edit Points mode is active.

To rotate an object (or a group of objects), drag the red corner handle
points of the selection with the mouse. The mouse cursor takes theshape of an arc of a circle with an arrow at each end. A dotted outlineof the object being rotated appears and the current angle of rotation is
dynamically shown in the status bar.
Rotations are made about an axis which is displayed as a small symbol.
You can move the axis of rotation with the mouse, as shown in
Figure 23.
If you hold down the Shift key during the rotation, the operation will be
carried out in increments of 15°.

Figure 23: Rotating an object

Inclination and perspective
To slant or shear objects, use the red handles located at the midpointof an edge of the selected objects. The mouse pointer changes to awhen the pointer hovers over one of these midpoint handles. Not every
object can be slanted. Basic shapes can be rotated but not slanted.
The slant axis is the point directly opposite the midpoint handle to be
used for shearing the object. This point stays fixed in location; theother sides and edges move in relation to it as the mouse is dragged(make sure that thehandle icon is showing before dragging).
As with rotation, you can set the inclination to occur as steps of 15° bypressing the Shift key while moving the handle.

Moving and dynamically adjusting an object’s size

27

Editing objects
To change an object’s attributes (such as color, border width, among
others) you can use the Line and Filling toolbar or the context menu.
If the Line and Filling toolbar (Figure 24) is not visible, you can display
it using View > Toolbars > Line and Filling. From here you can edit
the most common object attributes. You can also open the Line dialog
by clicking on the Lineicon and the Area dialog by clicking on theAreaicon to see more options.

1 Styles and Formatting
2 Line3 Arrow Style

4 Line Style
5 Line Width
6 Line Color

7Area
8–9 Area Style / Filling
10 Shadow

Figure 24: Line and Filling toolbar
When you select text, this toolbar changes to show text formatting
options.

The context menu
When an object is selected, you can right-click on the object to bringup a context menu, which provides additional access to the options
shown above and another way to change an object’s attributes. The
entries with a small arrow on the right-hand side contain a submenu.

Editing lines and borders
Lines (like arrows) and the borders of an
object are managed through the same dialog.
An object’s border is just another type of line.

28

Getting Started with Draw

You can change some properties from the Line and Filling toolbar. To
see more options, select the object and click on the Lineicon orright-click on the object and choose Line from the context menu. This
opens the Line dialog.

Common line properties
In most cases the property you want to change is the line’s style (solid,
dashed, invisible, and so on), its color, or its width. These options are
all available from the Line and Filling toolbar (Figure 24).
You can also edit these properties from the Line dialog, where you canalso change the line’s transparency. Figure 25 illustrates different
degrees of transparency.

Figure 25: The vertical lines have different
levels of transparency (0%, 25%, and 50%).

Drawing arrows
Arrowheads (and other line endings, usually referred tocollectively as arrows) are a line property. Select a line andclick on the Arrow Style
icon from the Line and Filling
toolbar. This opens the Arrowheads menu.
Several types of arrowheads are available. Each end of theline can have a different arrowhead (or no arrowhead).
Arrowheads are only applicable to lines. They have noeffect on an object’s border.

Customizing line and arrow styles
You can modify the line and arrow styles and create your own. See
Chapter 4 (Changing Object Attributes) in the Draw Guide for details.

Editing objects

29

Editing the inside (fill) of an object
The OpenOffice.org term for the inside of an object is Area fill. The
area fill of an object can be a uniform color, a gradient, a hatching, or apattern from an image. It can be made partly or fully transparent andcan throw a shadow.

In most cases, you will choose one of the standard fill options, which
are all available from the Line and Filling toolbar. You can also define
your own area fills; see Chapter 4 of the Draw Guide for details.

Adding a shadow
In Draw, shadows are considered as an area
property. Click on the Shadow
icon on the Lineand Filling toolbar.
You can customize the position, distance, color,
and transparency of shadows using Format >Area > Shadow or by right-clicking on theselected object and choosing Area > Shadow.

Adding transparency
You can make objects partly or fully transparent, or even with avarying degree of transparency (as a gradient).

Using styles
Suppose that you want to apply the same area fill, line thickness, andborder to a set of objects. This repetitive process can be greatly
simplified by the use of styles. Styles allow you to define a formatting
template (a style) and then to apply that style to multiple objects. For
more information about styles, see Chapter 3 (Using Styles andTemplates).

30

Getting Started with Draw

Special effects
With Draw, you can apply many special effects to objects and groups ofobjects. This section describes a few of these effects. Others include
distorting, shadows, and transparency. See the Draw Guide forexamples of the many effects available.

Flip an object
Select an object and click on the Flip icon . You will
see a dashed line through the middle of the object.
This dashed line is the axis of symmetry. The object
will be reflected about this line. Move one or bothends of the line with your mouse to set the axis.
Then, grab any one of the eight green handles andmove it across to the other side of the dashed line.
The new position of the figure is shown dashed until
the mouse is released.

Note

If you hold down the Shift key while moving the line, the line will
rotate in 45-degree increments.

Mirror copies
Officially, this useful command does not (yet) exist in Draw. It can,however, be easily emulated.
Move the axis of symmetry to the desired location of the mirror axis.
Copy the object to the clipboard. Flip the object, then click on an
empty area of the Draw screen in order to deselect the object. Pastefrom the clipboard to put a copy of the object in its original locationand now you have a mirror copy.

Special effects

31

Distorting an image
There are three tools on the Effects menu that let you drag thecorners and edges of an object to distort the image.
The Distort tool distorts an object in perspective, the Set to Circle(slant) and Set in Circle (perspective) tools both create a pseudo
three-dimensional effect. See Chapter 4 of the Draw Guide for details.

Dynamic gradients
You can control transparency gradients in the same manner as color
gradients. Both types of gradient can be used together. With atransparency gradient, the direction and degree of an object’s fill color
changes from opaque to transparent (in a regular gradient, the fillchanges from one color to another, but the degree of transparency
remains the same). See Chapter 4 of the Draw Guide for details.

Duplication
Duplication makes copies of an object while applying a set of changes(such as color or rotation) to the duplicates. The result of a duplication
is a new group.
To start duplication, click on an object or group and choose Edit >Duplicate. The dialog shown in Figure 26 appears.
The options chosen in
Figure 26 applied to a
blue rectangle produce
the following result.

Figure 26: Duplicating an object

32

Getting Started with Draw

Cross-fading
Cross-fading transforms a shape from one form to another, with
OpenOffice.org handling all of the intermediate transitions. The result
is a new group of objects including the two end points and theintermediate steps.
To carry out a cross-fade, select both objects (hold the Shift key while
selecting each object in turn) and then choose Edit > Cross-fading
On the Cross-fading dialog, choose the number of increments(transition steps). You probably want to have Cross-fade attributes andSame orientation both checked. The end result is shown in Figure 28.

Figure 27: Choosing cross-fading settings

Figure 28: Cross-fading example

Combining multiple objects
Using Draw, you can combine drawing objects together in two distinct
ways: grouping and combining. These two methods allow you to treat
multiple objects as one unit, or to merge objects to form a new shape.
Grouping is like putting objects in a container. You can move them as agroup and apply global changes to them. A group can always be
undone and the objects that make up the group can always be
manipulated separately.
A combination is a permanent fusion of objects leading to a new object.
The original objects are no longer available as individual entities andthe operation is not reversible.

Combining multiple objects

33

Grouping by common selection
When several objects are selected, any operations you carry out are
applied to all of the objects. For example, you can rotate a group of
objects in its entirety. Groups obtained through common selection ofseveral objects are undone as soon as you click outside the group.
However, you can group objects and keep those selected objects
grouped together.

Maintaining groups and undoing groups
To group selected objects, right-click and choose Group from the popup menu. You can also use the keyboard shortcut Control+Shift+G or
choose Modify > Group from the menu bar.
When objects are grouped, any editing operations carried out on thatgroup are applied to all members of the group. If you click on one
member of the group, the whole group is selected.
The objects of a group retain their own individual properties. To undo agroup, right-click and choose Ungroup from the pop-up menu, use the
keyboard shortcut Control+Alt+Shift+G or choose Modify >Ungroup from the menu bar.
You can edit a member of a group individually without breaking thegroup. To do this, right-click and choose Enter group or double-clickon the group.

Combining objects
In contrast to grouping functions, combinations create a new object;subsequent “un-combining” in the same manner as ungrouping is notpossible. Select a collection of objects, then right-click and choose
Combine from the pop-up menu.
After you have selected more than one object, the Merge, Subtract,and Intersect functions can be reached in the Modify > Shapes menu
or though the group’s right-click menu under the heading Shapes.

34

Getting Started with Draw

Aids for positioning objects
Draw has various tools to help you arrange the objects with respect toeach other:• Moving an object to the front or to the back• Aligning objects with respect to each other• Distributing the distance and space between objects
See Chapter 5 (Combining Multiple Objects) in the Draw Guide formore information.

Inserting and editing pictures
Draw contains a number of functions for editing raster graphics(bitmaps)—for example, photos and scanned images—including import
and and export as well as conversion from one format to another. Draw
can read in all the usual range of graphic file formats.
You can add pictures from several sources:• The Gallery—see Chapter 11 (Graphics, the Gallery, andFontwork)• Directly from a scanner (Insert > Picture > Scan)• Images created by another program, including photographs froma digitial camera (Insert > Picture > From File)
Draw provides tools for working with bitmap images: the Picture
toolbar and the bitmap image management palette. However, it does
not have the same capabilities as the specialized raster graphics
programs like Adobe Photoshop or The Gimp. See Chapter 6 (Editing
Pictures) in the Draw Guide for details and examples.

Working with 3D objects
Although Draw does not match the functionality of the leading drawing
programs, it does offer a wide array of tools and methods to produce
and edit very good 3D drawings.
Draw offers two types of 3D objects: the ones carried forward from
OOo version 1, 3D bodies, and the ones introduced in version 2, 3D
shapes. Depending on which type you choose, there are different
possibilities for further editing of the object (rotation, illumination,
perspective). Setting up and editing 3D objects is simpler with 3D

Working with 3D objects

35

shapes than with 3D bodies, but 3D bodies currently allow for morecustomizing than 3D shapes.
See Chapter 7 (Working with 3D Objects) in the Draw Guide for details.

Exporting graphics
To save a Draw image in a foreign format, use File > Export. Draw
can save to many graphic file formats, as listed in Appendix B(Background Information). You can export the entire file or selected
objects.
You can also export Draw files to HTML, PDF, or Flash. PDF export isthe same as for any part of OpenOffice.org, as described in Chapter 10(Printing, E-mailing, and Exporting). Flash export creates a .swf file.
HTML export uses a conversion wizard that creates as many web
pages as there are pages in your Draw document. You can optionallychoose to display the pages in frames with a navigator and can set anindex page. For more information, see Chapter 12 (Creating Web
Pages: Saving Documents as HTML Files).

Adding comments to a drawing
Starting with OOo 3.2, Draw supports comments (formerly called
notes) similar to those in Writer and Calc.
Choose Insert > Comment from the menu bar. A small box containing
your initials appears in the upper left-hand corner of the Draw page,
with a larger text box beside it. Draw has automatically added yourname and the date at the bottom of this text box.

36

Getting Started with Draw

Type or paste your comment into the text box. You can optionally apply
some basic formatting to parts of the text by selecting it, right-clicking,and choosing from the pop-up menu. (From this menu, you can alsodelete the current comment, all the comments from the same author,or all the comments in the document.)
You can move the small comment markers to anywhere you wish on the
page. Typically you might place it on or near an object you refer to in
the comment.
To show or hide the comment markers, choose View > Comments.
Select Tools > Options > User Data to configure the name you want
to appear in the Author field of the comment, or to change it.
If more than one person edits the document, each author is
automatically allocated a different background color.

Adding comments to a drawing

37