Draw Basic Shapes Using Open Office Draw

Open Office has its own suite of software that matches the versatility and strength of MS Office and, being open source, it is free. Read this article to learn how to draw basic shapes using Open Office Draw. You can draw both Scribble in 2D With Gloodle and 3D images in Draw.

  • This tutorial was written about Open Office version 2, but most, if not all, should apply to version 3.

Steps

  1. Become familiar with the Drawing tool bar. The Drawing toolbar is normally located at the bottom of the window. If you do not see it, activate it from the View > Toolbars menu. As in all OpenOffice.org components, you can place the toolbar on the Draw window wherever you wish.
  2. Learn about the custom shapes in Draw, below are the basic shapes.
    • Lines Draw Lines in Open Office Draw
    • Arrows Draw an Arrow in Open Office Draw
    • Rectangles and Squares Draw a Rectangle Using Open Office Draw
    • Ellipses and Circles Draw an Ellipse Using Open Office Draw
    • Curves and Polygons Draw Freeform Shapes Using Open Office Draw
    • Gluepoints and Connectors Use Gluepoints and Connectors in Open Office Draw and Connectors
    • Geometric Shapes Draw Geometric Shapes With Open Office Draw
    • Note: If you draw a basic shape or select one for editing, the Info field in the status bar changes to reflect the action taken: Line created, Text frame xxyy selected, and so on.

Flowcharts, Stars and Banners

  1. Get the tools for drawing flowcharts by clicking on the icon.
  2. Use callouts by clicking on this icon . It open the Callouts toolbar.
    • Note: These new callouts replace the old ones in Version 1. If you still need the old ones, you can add them manually to this or another toolbar.
  3. Access the Stars and banners by clicking on this icon.
    • You can add text to all these shapes.

Add Text to Objects

  1. Know that there are two ways to add text to a drawing; 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.
    • Use dynamic text frames
  2. The text tool is activated by clicking on the icon Text for horizontal or for vertical script
    • (to be able use this latter option you must activate support for Asian languages under Tools > Options > Language Settings > Languages).
    • Text frames can be moved and rotated like all draw objects.
  3. After activating the Text command mode, click at the location where you want 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 and you can choose the font type, font size and other text properties and begin to type in your text.
    • The text frame grows with the text. You can insert a line break with the Shift+Enter key combination.
    • The Enter key begins a new paragraph. Neither line breaks nor new paragraphs terminate the text frame.
  4. 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.
  5. After choosing the Text icon, you can also draw a frame with the mouse to contain future text. Line breaks are inserted automatically at the right edge of the frame when the text fills the frame width. You can however—just like when editing other text—insert your own line breaks, begin new paragraphs or change any of the text properties.

Use text elements in Draw objects

  1. Be aware that a text element is associated with most Draw objects. By means of these elements text can be added to an object.
    • The exceptions to this are control elements like buttons or list boxes, as well as 3D scenes and their associated elements and groups.
  2. In the middle of the Draw object you will see a black bar as the text cursor; start typing to input text. The status bar shows at lower 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 the text input, click next to the object or press the Esc key.



Tips

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

Related Articles

Sources and Citations

  • This article was created from this wiki

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