What Is Draw?

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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What Is Draw?

Draw is a vector graphics drawing program, although it can also perform some operations on raster graphics (pixels). Using Draw, you can quickly create a wide variety of graphical images.

Vector graphics store and display an image as simple geometric elements such as lines, circles, and polygons rather than a collection of pixels (points on the screen). Vector graphics allow for easier storage and scaling of the image.

Draw is fully integrated into the Apache OpenOffice suite, and this simplifies exchanging graphics with all components of the suite. For example, if you create an image in Draw, reusing it in a Writer document is as simple as copying and pasting the image. You can also work with drawings directly from within Writer or Impress, using a subset of the functions and tools from Draw.

Draw's functionality is extensive; even though it was not designed to rival high-end graphics applications, it possesses more functions than most drawing tools that are integrated with office productivity suites.

A few examples of drawing functions are:

• Layer management
• Magnetic grid point system
• Dimensions and measurement display
• Connectors for making organization charts
• 3D functions that enable small three-dimensional drawings to be created (with texture and lighting effects)
• Drawing and page style integration
• Bèzier curves

This chapter introduces some of Draw's features, but it does not attempt to cover all of them. See the Draw Guide and the application Help for more information.