Toolbars
The various Draw toolbars can be displayed or hidden according to your needs.
To display or hide the toolbars, click View > Toolbars. On the menu that appears, choose which toolbars you want to display.
You can also select the buttons that you wish to appear on the corresponding toolbar. On the View > Toolbars menu, select Customize, click on the Toolbars tab, select the toolbar you want to change, and then select the desired buttons for that toolbar.
Many toolbar buttons are marked with a small arrow beside the button. The arrow indicates that this button has additional functions. Click the arrow and a submenu or toolbar appears, showing its additional functions. Most buttons marked with the small arrow can become floating toolbars.
An arrow next to an icon indicates additional functions
To make a submenu into a floating toolbar, click the area at the top of the submenu, drag it across the screen, and then release the mouse button. Floating toolbars can be docked on an edge of the screen or within one of the existing toolbar areas at the top of the screen, as described in Chapter 1.
Click the arrow on the title bar of a floating toolbar to display additional functions.
An arrow on a floating toolbar indicates additional functions
The tools available in the various toolbars are explained in the following sections.
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 a drawing object.
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 Bar
To 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 your drawing. The first box in the panel corresponds to transparency (no color).
You can access several specialized color palettes in Draw, as well as change 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.
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 OOo palettes (files bearing the file extension *.soc). For example, web.soc is a color palette that is adapted to creating drawings that are going to appear 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 by modifying the numerical values in the fields provided to the right of the color palette. You can use the color schemes known as CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black), RGB (Red, Green, Blue) or HSB (Hue, Saturation, Brightness).
Clicking on the Edit button opens a special dialog to allow setting individual colors. Many more input possibilities are available in this dialog.
Defining color schemes
In the lower area you can enter values in the RGB and CMYK models as well as 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 currently set value from the 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.
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 most important options to learn when starting to work in Draw are enclosed in red. The functions of the various icons are described in Table 1.
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
|
| Allow quick editing
|
| Select Text Area Only
|
| Double-click to edit text
|
| Simple handles
|
| Large handles
|
| Create object with attributes
|
| Picture placeholders
|
| Contour mode
|
| Text placeholders
|
| Line contour only
|
| Exit all groups
|