Drawing a Circle or Ellipse

Getting Started with OpenOffice 4

Chapter 6: Getting Started with Draw

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• What is Draw?
• Parts of the main Draw window
• Choosing and defining colors
• Positioning objects with Snap functions
• Positioning objects with guiding lines
• The basic drawing shapes
  • Drawing a straight line
  • Drawing an arrow
  • Choosing line endings
  • Drawing a rectangle or square
  • Drawing a circle or ellipse
  • Drawing curves
  • Writing text
  • Gluepoints and connectors
• Drawing geometric shapes
• Selecting objects
• Moving and dynamically adjusting an object’s size
• Editing objects
• Using styles
• Special effects
• Combining multiple objects
• Aids for positioning objects
• Inserting and editing pictures
• Working with 3D objects
• Exporting graphics
• Adding comments to a drawing

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Drawing a Circle or Ellipse

To draw an ellipse (also called an oval) or a circle, use the Ellipse icon . (A circle is simply an ellipse with both axes the same length.) The ellipse drawn is the largest ellipse that fits inside the (imaginary) rectangle drawn with the mouse.

Figure 148: Drawing an ellipse

Here are some other ways to draw an ellipse or circle:

• To draw a circle, hold down the  ⇧ Shift  key while dragging the mouse.
• To draw an ellipse with the starting point at the center (instead of the corner), hold down the  Alt  key while dragging the mouse.
• To draw a circle with the starting point at the center, hold down both the  Alt  and  ⇧ Shift  keys while dragging the mouse.
• To draw an ellipse or circle that snaps to the nearest grid points, hold down the  Ctrl  key while dragging the mouse.

If you first press and hold down the  Ctrl  key and then click on one of the icons for Line, Rectangle, Ellipse, or Text, a standard sized object is drawn automatically in the work area; the size, shape, and color are all standard values. These attributes can be changed later, if desired.