Operation Manual

To load another palette, click on the Load Color List icon . The file selector dialog asks you to
choose one of the standard LibreOffice palettes (files with the file extension *.soc). For example,
web.soc is a color palette that is adapted to creating drawings for placing in web pages. These
colors will display correctly on workstations with screens capable of 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) or RGB (Red, Green, Blue).
Click on the Pick button to open the Pick a Color dialog, where you can set individual colors. See
“Color options” in Chapter 2 Setting Up LibreOffice in this guide.
For a more detailed description of color palettes and their options, see the Draw Guide Chapter 10
Advanced Draw Techniques.
Drawing basic shapes
Draw provides a wide range of shapes, located in palettes accessed from the Drawing toolbar.
This section describes only a few of the basic shapes, including text, which are treated as objects
in Draw. See the Draw Guide for a complete description of the shapes available.
Some of the icons on the Drawing toolbar will change according to the shape that has been
selected from the choices available. Icons with tool palettes available are indicated by a small
triangle to the right of the icon.
Note
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: for example Line created, Text
frame xxyy selected, and so on.
Drawing a straight line
Click on the Line icon and place the cursor at the point where you want to start the line (Figure
169). Drag the mouse while keeping the mouse button pressed. Release the mouse button at the
point where you want to end the line. A selection handle appears at each end of the line, showing
that this object is the currently selected object. The selection handle at the starting point of the line
is slightly larger than the other selection handle.
Keep the Ctrl key pressed while drawing a line to enable the end of the line to snap to the nearest
grid point.
Note
This is the default behavior of the Ctrl key. However, if the Snap to Grid option on the
View > Grid menu has been selected, the Ctrl key deactivates the snap to grid activity.
Keep the Shift key pressed while you draw a line to restrict the drawing angle of the line to a
multiple of 45 degrees (0, 45, 90, 135, and so on).
Note
This is the default behavior of the Shift key. However, if the option When creating or
moving objects in the Snap position section of Tools > Options > LibreOffice Draw >
Grid has been selected, the action of the Shift key is the opposite. Lines will
automatically be drawn at a multiple of 45 degrees unless the Shift key is pressed.
Chapter 7 Getting Started with Draw | 195