OpenOffice.org 2, Firefox, and Thunderbird for Windows All in One [Electronic resources]

1.

Open the Drawing Toolbar

To add a drawing to your Writer document, you must display the Drawing toolbar (choose

View, Toolbar, Drawing to display it). Twelve tools appear on the

Drawing toolbarplus the pointer (for when you want to select within a drawing instead of drawing new elements), a

Points tool for modifying

polygons , a

Fontworks Gallery button for creating specially formatted text, a

From File button for inserting a picture, and an

Extrusion On/Off button for working with 3D effects.

2.

Draw Shapes

Open a new document to practice drawing shapes.

Click one of the

Drawing toolbar's buttons, such as the Line button, to draw a shape in your document. Writer displays the

Drawing Objects toolbar in place of the

Standard toolbar whenever a drawing shape is selected. If you begin typing text, the

Formatting toolbar again replaces the

Drawing Objects toolbar. In this way, Writer makes it easy to modify whichever element you're working on at the time, be it text or graphics.

To create any of the

Drawing Toolbar shapes, click where you want the shape to begin. For example, if you've selected the

Line shape, click once on your document to anchor the line's starting point. Drag your mouse in the direction you want the shape to go, and when you release your mouse, the shape will appear in your document. The shape will have resizing handles around it. You may click any handle to resize the shape. For example, you can extend or shorten a line by dragging one of its resizing handles in or out. You can also move a shape to a different location by moving the mouse pointer over the shape until it changes to show four arrows pointing in the compass directions. Drag the shape to where you want it to go.

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A right-click menu is always available when you right-click over a shape to adjust various attributes, such as the line thickness, fill color, size, and location.

3.

Click Again to Draw Again

If you want to draw the same shape, click the shape's button on the

Drawing toolbar and continue drawing. If you ever draw a shape that you don't want, click to highlight that shape's resizing handles and press the

Delete key to remove the shape.

4.

Create a Freeform Shape

Click to select a different shape, such as the

Freeform drawing tool. You can drag the

Freeform drawing shape to any position, and a line will follow your movement, drawing as you drag your mouse.

NOTE

No negative critique of the author's extremely poor drawing talent will be tolerated!

5.

Remove a Selected Drawing

If you decide you don't want a drawing or shape you've created, simply click to select it and then press the

Delete key. If you have drawings that overlap one another, determining exactly what is selected can be tricky; study the resizing handles closely to make sure that you've selected the item you want to delete.

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If you change your mind about a deletion, choose

Edit, Undo from the menu bar or press

Ctrl +

Z to restore the deleted item.

6.

Add Text

Callouts are often useful to add to some drawings. You can use a callout as a text balloon showing that someone on your drawing is speaking. For more traditional technical and business drawings, callouts are useful for labeling items on a drawing. To add a callout, select the

Callout drawing tool, add the callout, and resize and move the callout so it hovers exactly where you want it to land on your drawing. Click inside the callout and type whatever text you wish to use for the callout. All the usual formatting tools work on the callout's text, such as italics and boldface. If the callout is too large for the text you type, resize the callout box.

The

Callout tool isn't the only way to add text to your drawing. Click the

Text tool to draw a text box where you can type text inside the box. The primary difference between a text box and a callout is that a callout has a line pointing to another item the text refers to. If you want to get really fancy, you can add animated text to your drawing by selecting the

Fontwork Gallery tool on the

Drawing toolbar. When you add animated text to a text box, the text might scroll across the text box area as a marquee does. Right-click animated text that you place and select

Text ; then click the

Text Animation tab to change the way the text animates.