Operation Manual

Introduction
You can create 2D and 3D objects in Draw. This chapter shows how to draw simple 2D objects.
The following chapters describe how to work with and edit such objects. For more information on
3D objects, see Chapter 7 Working with 3D Objects.
All shapes, whether they are lines, rectangles, or more complicated shapes, are called objects.
This is common notation in vector drawing software.
The drawing tools are found on the Drawing toolbar (Figure 17). This toolbar is normally located at
the bottom of the workspace. If you do not see it, you can activate it by going toView > Toolbars
on the main menu bar.
Figure 17: Drawing toolbar
As with all the components of LibreOffice, you can undock the Drawing toolbar and place it
wherever you want to on the Draw workspace as a floating toolbar. You can also configure toolbars
by adding, moving, hiding, or deleting toolbar icons. See Chapter 1 Introducing Draw for more
information.
When you draw a shape, select one for editing or add text, the information field in the status bar
(Figure 18) changes to reflect the action taken or in progress. See Chapter 1 Introducing Draw for
more information on the status bar.
Figure 18: Draw status bar
Custom shapes
Draw also offers the ability to create custom shapes, which are the equivalent of AutoShapes in
Microsoft Office. Custom shapes differ in their properties and are dealt with separately in the
relevant chapters of this guide. The main differences relate to the behavior of 3D objects and text
handling. Text frames in Draw have their own geometric format.
Drawing basic shapes
Basic shapes, including text, are treated as objects in Draw. The standard set of tools available for
drawing basic shapes, from left to right on the Drawing toolbar, are shown in Figure 19.
The tools that are already placed on the Drawing toolbar are indicated by a darkened area around
the icon, for example Select, Line and so on. The tools not on the Drawing toolbar do not have this
darkened area around the icon, for example To Curve, To Polygon, and so on.
Please note that some of the icons on the Drawing toolbar will change shape according to the last
tool used from the selection of available tools. The icons that have a small triangle to the right of
the icon indicates that more tools are available. See “Drawing geometric shapes” on page 41 for
information on the available shapes.
30 LibreOffice 4.3 Draw Guide