Drawing an Organization Chart
Drawing an Organization Chart
Even though Draw does not have an organization chart toolbar, you can draw these charts by drawing rectangles and connector lines (see Figure 203). You can indicate hierarchies by using a color progression, from dark to light tones or vice versa. Your color choices should maintain a good contrast between text color and background so you can easily read the printed diagram.
Before you begin, prepare a setup page or draft with snap lines (shown in Figure 204) to assist in drawing the various hierarchies, responsibility paths, and typical boxes you will use in drawing the chart.
Place and dimension the individual boxes according to the size of the overall chart. The exact size, and particularly the width, position, and color, will be fixed later. It is sometimes easier to draw only one box per level. That way, you can copy and paste this box and move the copies to the desired positions. Using styles can also be helpful; see the relevant section in Chapter 4 (Changing Object Attributes).
You can also select one or more boxes and use Edit → Duplicate to make copies (see Figure 205). The spacing of the duplicated objects relative to the original can be controlled using the placement fields for the X and Y axes. Note that positive values for X and Y are to the right and downwards from the original object.
The replication technique to use is up to you. The draft for the example in this chapter should look similar to that in Figure 206.
The next step is to add text to the boxes, most easily by inserting it as a text element within the box. Activate the 
icon on the Options toolbar, then double-click the box to enter text into it. Alternatively, select the box and press F2 . You should then see a blinking cursor in the box, and the Text Formatting toolbar should be visible.
Set the text formatting and type the text. Depending on the length and format of the text, you may need to adjust the size of the box and the spacing to neighboring boxes, or change the formatting of the text to fit the box. Adjustments can be made initially with the mouse and fine-tuned with the Position and Size dialog.
Now set up the fill colors and save the drawing. The connections between the boxes are not drawn with ordinary lines, but rather with Draw’s connectors. How to draw these connectors and add text to them is described in “Glue Points and Connectors”.
In addition, you can use dynamic text frames instead of boxes. These frames offer the advantage of automatic line breaks. Figure 207 shows the sequence of text input into a frame, adding borders, and setting the background color. The Line and Filling toolbar may not be visible until you have set a line type for the frame. Set the line type using Format → Line, or right-click the text frame and select Line. All of the tools for setting the text properties, line type, and background color are also available in the Sidebar once the text frame object is selected.
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