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Draw Guide

Chapter 9,
Adding and Formatting Text

Copyright

This document is Copyright © 2021 by the LibreOffice Documentation Team. Contributors are listed below. This document maybe distributed and/or modified under the terms of either the GNU General Public License (https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html), version 3 or later, or the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), version 4.0 or later.

All trademarks within this guide belong to their legitimate owners.

Contributors

To this edition

Peter Schofield

Jean Hollis Weber

 

To previous editions

Martin Saffron

Michele Zarri

T. Elliot Turner

Jean Hollis Weber

Low Song Chuan

Peter Schofield

Regina Henschel

 

 

Feedback

Please direct any comments or suggestions about this document to the Documentation Team’s mailing list: documentation@global.libreoffice.org

Note

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Publication date and software version

Published July 2021. Based on LibreOffice 7.1 Community. Other versions of LibreOffice may differ in appearance and functionality.

Using LibreOffice on macOS

Some keystrokes and menu items are different on macOS from those used in Windows and Linux. The table below gives some common substitutions for the instructions in this document. For a detailed list, see the application Help.

Windows or Linux

macOS equivalent

Effect

Tools > Options

LibreOffice > Preferences

Access setup options

Right-click

Control+click or right-click depending on computer setup

Open a context menu

Ctrl (Control)

(Command)

Used with other keys

F11

+T

Open the Styles deck in the Sidebar

Introduction

When text is used in drawings, it is placed inside an object or inside a text box. This chapter describes how to create, format, use, and delete text. It also discusses the various types of text that can be inserted into a drawing. Finally, it provides information on how to insert special forms of text such as numbered or bulleted lists, tables, fields, hyperlinks, and Fontwork.

Text mode

Before any text can be typed in a drawing, text mode has to be activated using one of the following methods. The Text Formatting toolbar (Figure 1) automatically opens replacing the Line and Filling toolbar.

If Insert Vertical Text is not visible on the Standard or Drawing toolbars, it can be added to the toolbar as follows:

1)  Go to Tools > Options > Language Settings > Languages on the Menu bar to open the Languages page in the Options dialog.

Figure 1: Text Formatting toolbar

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Figure 2: Standard toolbar with Insert Vertical Text added

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Figure 3: Drawing toolbar with Insert Vertical Text added

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2)  In Default Languages for Documents, select the option Asian. Accept the default settings for this option.

3)  Click OK to close the Options dialog and save the changes.

4)  Right-click in an empty area on the Standard or Drawing toolbar and select Visible Buttons from the context menu.

5)  Select Vertical Text from the drop-down list of options to add Insert Vertical Text to the Standard or Drawing toolbar.

Text boxes

Creating text boxes

When text is added to a drawing, a text box is automatically created to contain the text. By default, the text box expands horizontally to accommodate a single line of horizontal text, or expands vertically to accommodate a single line of vertical text.

1)  Activate text mode, see “Text mode” above.

2)  Click at the approximate position in the drawing where the text box is to be placed. A text box is created containing a flashing text cursor.

3)  Type or paste the text into the text box and the text box expands either horizontally or vertically to accommodate a single line of text. Also, the left corner of the Status Bar indicates text edit mode and the position of the text cursor (Figure 4).

4)  To create multiple lines in the text box, use one of the following methods:

5)  When creating or pasting text is complete, click outside the text box to exit text mode. The Text Formatting toolbar automatically closes.

6)  Move, resize, rotate or format the text box as required. For more information, see the following sections and Chapter 3, Working with Objects.

7)  If necessary, format the text using the various tools on the Text Formatting toolbar or in the various sections on the Sidebar. For more information on text formatting, see “Formatting text”  below.

Figure 4: Text information in Status Bar

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Note

Text boxes cannot contain illustrations, inline pictures, formulas, tables or shapes.

Moving text boxes

1)  Click on the text in a text box to activate the text mode and the text box border is displayed.

2)  Move the cursor over the border. The cursor changes shape to the move symbol for the computer setup (for example, a clenched hand).

3)  Click on the border and drag the text box to a new position in the drawing. A ghosted outline of the text box shows where it will be placed (Figure 5).

4)  Release the mouse button when the text box is in the required position.

5)  To accurately position a text box, use the Position and Size dialog or the Position and Size section on the Sidebar. See Chapter 3, Working with Objects for more information.

Figure 5: Moving a text box

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Resizing text boxes

1)  Click on the text in a text box to activate text mode and a text box border is displayed.

2)  Move the cursor over one of the selection handles. The cursor changes shape to the resizing symbol for the computer setup (for example, a double-headed arrow). The selection handles are used to resize the text box as follows:

3)  Click and drag the border to a new position to resize the text box. A ghosted outline of the text box shows is displayed as the text box is resized (Figure 6).

4)  Release the mouse button when the text box reaches the desired size.

Figure 6: Rotating a text box

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5)  To accurately resize a text box, use the Position and Size dialog or the Position and Size section on the Sidebar. See Chapter 3, Working with Objects for more information.

Note

To maintain the proportions of a text box while resizing, press and hold the Shift key, then click and drag a selection handle. Make sure to release the mouse button before releasing the Shift key.

Rotating text boxes

1)  Click on the text in a text box to activate text mode and a text box border is displayed.

2)  Click on the text box border so that the selection handles are visible indicating that the text box is now in edit mode.

3)  Click again on the text border and the selection handles change shape and color.

4)  Click on a corner selection handle and drag to rotate the text box. A ghosted outline of the text box being rotated appears and the current angle of rotation is shown in the status bar (Figure 7).

5)  Release the mouse button when the text box is at the desired rotation angle.

6)  To accurately rotate a text box, use the Rotation page in Position and Size dialog or the Position and Size section on the Sidebar. See Chapter 3, Working with Objects for more information.

Figure 7: Rotating text box

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Note

When in rotation mode, the top, bottom, and side selection handles, though visible, are not available for use for rotating a text box. Also, text boxes cannot be sheared, slanted, flipped vertically, or flipped horizontally.

Formatting text boxes

Text boxes can be treated just like other basic shapes in a drawing when formatting the area fill or borders of a box. See Chapter 3, Working with Objects for more information on formatting the area fill or borders of a text box.

To format how text appears inside a text box:

1)  Select a text box and use one of the following methods to open the Text dialog (Figure 9).

Figure 8: Text dialog - Text page

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2)  Click on Text in the Text dialog to open the Text page and access to the formatting options:

3)  If required, click on Text Animation to open the Text Animation page (Figure 11) to access options for animating the text. However, this is not recommended unless the drawing is going to be displayed as part of a presentation. See the Impress Guide for more information on text animation.

Figure 9: Text dialog - Text Animation page

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4)  Click OK to save the changes to text attributes and close the Text dialog.

5)  Move the cursor away from the text box, then click to end the text mode.

Deleting text boxes

1)  Click on the text box so that the selection handles are visible indicating that the text box is in edit mode.

2)  Press the Delete or Backspace key. The text box is deleted without any warning.

Text in Draw objects

Text can be added to most Draw objects. The exceptions are control elements, for example buttons, polygons, curves, or 3D objects.

By default, an object is not dynamic when it is first created in Draw and does not behave like a text box. Text does not word wrap inside an object. To keep text within the borders of an object, use paragraphs, line breaks, smaller text size, increasing object size, or a combination of all four methods.

An example of adding text into a Draw object (Figure 10) and then using word wrap on the text is as follows:

1)  Create an object in a drawing and make sure the object is selected with the selection handles displayed.

2)  Enter text mode on the selected object using one of the following methods:

3)  Start typing the text into the selected object. If the text goes outside the object borders, use paragraphs, line breaks, smaller text size, increasing the object size, or a combination of all four methods to keep the text within the object borders.

Figure 10: Example of using word wrap

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Figure 11: Text dialog for text attributes in an object

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4)  Alternatively, to make sure the text word wraps and stays within the borders of an object, proceed as follows:

a)  Right-click on the text inside the object and select Text Attributes from the context menu to open the Text dialog for text attributes (Figure 11).

b)  Click on Text to open the Text page.

c)  In Custom Shape Text, select the option Word wrap text in shape.

d)  Click OK to close the Text dialog and save the changes.

e)  When finished typing text, click outside the object to cancel text mode and save the changes. The text inside the object now word wraps, as shown in Figure 10.

5)  If necessary, format the text inside the object using the various formatting tools that are available. For more information, see “Formatting text below.

Pasting text

Text may be inserted into a text box or object by copying text from another document and pasting into a drawing. However, pasted text retains the formatting from the source document and may not match the formatting of the text that has already been used on a drawing. This may match the text format in a drawing on some occasions, but, in most cases, it is better to make sure that text format is consistent throughout a drawing.

Note

If copied text is pasted directly into a drawing and not into an object using Format > Paste on the Menu bar or the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+V, the text is pasted as an OLE object and not as a Draw object. It is recommended to paste text into Draw as unformatted text to create a text object in Draw.

It is good practice to paste text without formatting and apply the formatting later so it matches the text already in a drawing.

Figure 12: Paste Special dialog

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1)  Copy the text and paste it as unformatted text into a drawing using one of the following methods:

2)  The unformatted text is pasted into a text box at the cursor position or inside a selected object and formatted to the default drawing style. Format the pasted text to the drawing requirements or apply a drawing style. For more information, see “Formatting textbelow.

Formatting text

Text formatting can give a drawing a more consistent and professional look without any distracting elements. Text formatting tools are available on the Text Formatting toolbar and the drop-down menus in Format on the Menu bar. For more information on text formatting, see the Writer Guide.

If there are several text boxes and/or objects in a drawing that require the same text formatting, then it is recommended to use drawing styles. For more information on using and creating styles, see Chapter 4, Changing Object Attributes.

Quick font resizing

After selecting text, the font size can be quickly increased or decreased using the tools Increase Font Size (Ctrl+]) and Decrease Font Size (Ctrl+[) on the Text Formatting toolbar. The amount by which the font size changes depends on the standard sizes available for the font in use.

Selecting text

Text must be selected before it can be formatted using one of the following methods. Any formatting changes apply only to the selected text.

Text formatting

Direct or manual text formatting can be applied directly to characters, words, sentences, and paragraphs. Direct formatting overrides any formatting that has been applied to text when using styles.

1)  Select the text for formatting.

2)  Format the selected text using one of the following methods:

3)  Click outside the text box or object to deselect the text.

Paragraph dialog

The Paragraph dialog (Figure 14) is used to format paragraphs of text.

1)  Click anywhere in the paragraph that is to be formatted.

2)  Use one of the following methods to open the Paragraph dialog.

3)  Use the various options on the tabbed pages of the Paragraph dialog to format the text.

4)  Click OK to save the changes and close the Paragraph dialog.

5)  Click outside the text box or object to deselect the text.

Figure 13: Paragraph dialog - Indents & Spacing page

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Indents and spacing options

The Indents & Spacing page (Figure 14) in the Paragraph dialog has three main sections:

Tip

Setting the line spacing to less than 100% is a good method to place a lot of text into a text box or object when space is limited. However, care must be taken as too small a value will make the text hard to read.

Tip

Change the default unit of measurement in Tools > Options > LibreOffice Impress > General on the Menu bar.

Figure 14: Paragraph dialog - Asian Typography page

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Asian Typography options

The Asian Typography page (Figure 14) is only available when Asian options are enabled in Tools > Options > Language Settings > Languages on the Menu bar. The Line Change options are as follows:

Tab options

Use the Tabs page (Figure 16) to create, edit, or delete the tab stops in a text box or object. The options are as follow:

Figure 15: Paragraph dialog - Tabs page

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Creating tabs

1)  Select the text box so that the selection handles on the text box border or object are displayed.

2)  Right-click on the selected text box or object and select Paragraph from the context menu or go to Format > Paragraph on the Menu bar to open the Paragraph dialog.

3)  Click on Tabs to open the Tabs page in the Paragraph dialog.

4)  Enter the position measurement for the tab stop in the Position text box.

5)  Select the type of tab from the options in Type.

Note

If the type is set to Decimal, the default character used is the character used for decimal points in the computer setup. If required, specify the character to be used as the decimal point In Character box.

6)  Select the type of Fill Character. The fill character is inserted between the tab insertion point and the tab stop.

7)  Click on New to create the new tab stop in the text box. The new tab stop appears in the Position preview box.

8)  Click OK to save the changes and close the dialog.

9)  To use the new tab stop in more than one text paragraph in a text box or object:

Editing tabs

1)  Select the text box so that the selection handles on the text box border or object are displayed.

2)  Right-click on the selected text box or object and select Paragraph from the context menu or go to Format > Paragraph on the Menu bar to open the Paragraph dialog.

3)  Click on Tabs to open the Tabs page in the Paragraph dialog.

4)  Select the tab for editing in the Position preview box.

5)  To change the tab position, delete the selected tab first, then create a new tab with the changes required.

6)  Select the Type and Fill Character required for the selected tab stop.

7)  Click OK to save the changes and close the dialog.

8)  If necessary, update the drawing style used for the text.

Deleting tabs

1)  Select the text box so that the selection handles on the text box border or object are displayed.

2)  Right-click on the selected text box or object and select Paragraph from the context menu or go to Format > Paragraph on the Menu bar to open the Paragraph dialog.

3)  Click on Tabs to open the Tabs page in the Paragraph dialog.

4)  Select the tab for deletion in the Position preview box.

5)  Click on Delete to delete the selected tab, or click Delete All to delete all the tab stops that are set for the selected text box or object.

6)  Click OK to save the changes and close the dialog.

Figure 16: Paragraph dialog - Alignment page

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Alignment options

Use the Alignment page (Figure 17) to determine the text alignment in text boxes or objects:

Sidebar Paragraph section

An alternative method of formatting paragraphs is to use the Paragraph section (Figure 18) in the Properties deck on the Sidebar. The formatting options in the Paragraph section are limited, but are similar in use to the formatting options in the various pages of the Paragraph dialog. Any formatting applied to a paragraph using the Sidebar is immediate.

1)  Click anywhere in the paragraph that is to be formatted.

2)  On the Sidebar, click on Properties to open the Properties deck.

Figure 17: Paragraph section in Properties deck on Sidebar

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3)  If necessary, click on the expansion symbol on the left of the Paragraph title bar to open the Paragraph section.

4)  Format the text using the various tools in the Paragraph section. See “Paragraph dialog”  above for more information on formatting options.

5)  If necessary, click on More Options on the right of the title bar to open the Paragraph dialog to format text.

The text formatting options in the Paragraph section in the Properties deck on the Sidebar are as follows. Most of these tools are also available on the Text Formatting toolbar.

Character formatting

Direct or manual character formatting can be applied to individual characters and words. Direct character formatting overrides any formatting that has been applied using direct text formatting and drawing styles.

1)  Select the characters for formatting, see “Selecting text”  above for more information.

2)  Format characters using one of the following methods.

3)  Click outside the text box or object to deselect the text.

Character dialog

The Character dialog (Figure 19) is used to format individual characters.

1)  Select the characters for formatting and open the Character dialog using one of the following methods:

Figure 18: Character dialog - Fonts page

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2)  Use the options on the tabbed pages of the Character dialog to format the selected characters.

3)  Click OK to apply the formatting changes and close the dialog.

4)  Click outside the text box or object to deselect the text.

Fonts options

Use the Font page (Figure 19) in the Character dialog to select the font family, typeface (Italic, Bold, and so on), size, and language. A sample of the font is displayed in the preview box in the lower part of the dialog.

If support for Asian language or Complex Text Layout (CTL) has been enabled in Tools > Options > Language Settings > Languages, then character formatting options are also available for Asian Text Font or CTL Font.

Note

The number of typefaces available depends on the font family that is selected.

Tip

When creating a drawing in multiple languages, use the language setting to create styles that only differ in the language in formatting attributes. This allows for spelling checks of all of the drawing contents without affecting appearance.

Font Effects options

The options on the Font Effects page (Figure 20) apply font color, text decoration and effects to the selected text or characters. A sample of the font effect is displayed in the preview box in the lower part of the dialog.

Figure 19: Character dialog - Font Effects page

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Position options

The options on the Position page (Figure 21) allows setting of the position, scaling, and spacing of selected text.

Figure 20: Character dialog - Position page

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Highlighting options

The options on the Highlighting page (Figure 22) allows highlighting of text so that the characters are different color to the rest of the text in the text box or object.

Figure 21: Character dialog - Highlighting page

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Sidebar Character section

An alternative method of formatting text is to use the Character section (Figure 23) in the Properties deck on the Sidebar. The formatting options available in the Character section are limited, but are similar in use to the formatting options available in the various pages of the Character dialog. Most of the options are also available on the Text Formatting toolbar.

1)  Select a text box or object so that the selection handles on the border are displayed.

2)  On the Sidebar, click on Properties to open the Properties deck.

3)  Click on the expansion symbol on the left of the Character title bar to open the Character section.

4)  Format the text using the tools in the Character section. See “Character dialog”  above for more information on formatting options.

5)  If necessary, click on More Options on the right of the title bar to open the Character dialog to format text.

The text formatting options available in the Character section in the Properties deck on the Sidebar are as follows:

Figure 22: Character section in Properties deck on sidebar

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Bullet or numbered lists

Bulleted and numbered lists can be created in text boxes and objects. However, when creating lists in objects, please remember that Draw objects are not dynamic and do not automatically expand as a list is created.

Note

Creating bulleted or numbered lists in Draw is similar to LibreOffice Writer, but the functionality in Draw has been reduced.

Creating lists

Bulleted or numbered lists can be created in text boxes or Draw objects as follows:

1)  Select all of the text required for a list. The Text Formatting toolbar automatically opens.

2)  Create a list using one of the following methods and default settings for lists:

Figure 23: More bullet lists

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Figure 24: More numbered lists

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3)  To change the format of the list as the list is created, click on the small triangle on the right of the list icons and select a list style from the options in the pop-up window (Figures Figure 23 and Figure 25).

Adjusting list item level and position

Each item in a bulleted or numbered list can have its level demoted or promoted within a list, or moved up or down in list order as follows:

1)  Click on a list item to demote, promote, or move up or down.

Figure 25: Lists section in Properties deck on Sidebar

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2)  To demote a list item one level at a time, use one of the following methods:

3)  To promote a list item one level at a time, use one of the following methods:

4)  To change the position of a list item in the list order, use one of the following methods:

5)  To change the position of the list item in the list order, use one of the following methods:

Bullets and Numbering dialog

Use the Bullets and Numbering dialog (Figure 28) for more control on the format of a list. Select text in a text box or object and open the dialog using one of the following methods:

The following options are available in the Bullets and Numbering dialog.

Figure 26: Bullets and Numbering dialog

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Figure 27: Table Design section in Properties deck on Sidebar

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Figure 28: Table toolbar

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Using tables

Tables are a powerful mechanism to convey structured information quickly when used in a drawing. Tables can be added directly to a drawing eliminating the need to embed a Calc spreadsheet or a Writer text table. However, in some circumstances, it makes sense to embed a spreadsheet into a drawing, especially when greater functionality is required in the table. The tables provided by Draw do have a limited functionality.

Several predefined table designs are provided in the Table Design section in the Properties deck on the Sidebar (Figure 27). The Table Design section is only available when a table is selected.

When working with tables in Draw, the Table toolbar (Figure 28) automatically opens providing tools for creating and formatting a table. The default position for the toolbar when it opens is docked at the bottom of the Workspace. If the Table toolbar does not open when a table is selected, go to View > Toolbars > Table on the Menu bar.

Inserting tables

When working with tables, it is useful to know the number of rows and columns required as well as the appearance. Tables are placed at the center of a drawing and cannot be placed into objects or shapes. Also, unlike text boxes and other objects, tables cannot be rotated.

1)  To create and insert a table using the Insert Table dialog (Figure 29):

a)  Go to Insert > Table on the Menu bar to open the Insert Table dialog.

b)  Enter the number of rows and columns required.

c)  Click OK to insert the table into the center of a drawing and close the dialog.

Figure 29: Insert Table dialog

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Figure 30: Table grid

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2)  Alternatively, to create and insert a table using the Table grid (Figure 31):

a)  Click on Table on the Standard toolbar to open the Table grid.

b)  Click and drag the cursor until the required number of columns and rows are selected,

c)  Click again to insert the table into the center of a drawing and close the Table grid.

d)  If necessary, click on More Options to open the Insert Table dialog to select the number of rows and columns required.

3)  Move the table into position by clicking on the border and dragging it to its new position.

Note

When inserting tables into a drawing, the table is created using the default style and settings already applied. Currently these defaults are hard coded in LibreOffice. The table can be formatted after insertion to the drawing requirements.

Formatting tables

Table Design section

To open and use the Table Design section in the Properties deck on the Sidebar:

1)  Insert a table into a drawing) or select a table in a drawing.

2)  Click on Table Design in the Properties deck on the Sidebar to open the Table Design section, or click on Table Design on the Table toolbar.

3)  Select a design for the table and the types of rows and columns from the available options.

The following options for rows and columns are available in the Table Design section:

Table toolbar and Menu bar formatting

When a table is selected, the Table toolbar automatically opens providing the following tools for formatting a table to the drawing requirements. The formatting tools are also available by going to Format > Table on the Menu bar and selecting a formatting option from the submenu.

Alternatively, click on Table Properties, or right-click on the selected cells and select Table Properties from the context menu, or go to Format > Table > Properties on the Menu bar to open the Table Properties dialog and change the line style for table borders.

Alternatively, click on Table Properties, or right-click on the selected cells and select Table Properties from the context menu, or go to Format > Table > Properties on the Menu bar to open the Table Properties dialog and change the border color.

Alternatively, click on Table Properties, or right-click on the selected cells and select Table Properties from the context menu, or go to Format > Table > Properties on the Menu bar to open the Table Properties dialog and change the line style for cell borders.

Alternatively, click on Table Properties, or right-click on the selected cells and select Table Properties from the context menu, or go to Format > Table > Properties on the Menu bar to open the Table Properties dialog and change the background area style/filling.

Alternatively, right-click on selected cells and select Merge Cells from the context menu, or go to Format > Table > Merge Cells on the Menu bar to merge the selected cells.

Alternatively, go to Format > Table > Split Cells on the Menu bar.

Figure 31: Split Cells dialog

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In the Split Cells dialog, select the number of cells required when splitting a cell and whether to split the cell horizontally or vertically. If necessary, when splitting horizontally, select Into equal proportions to create cells of equal size. The contents of the split cell are kept in the original cell (left or top cell).

Figure 32: Optimize toolbar

Image32

Alternatively, go to Format > Align Text on the Menu bar and select the required alignment from the context menu for vertical or horizontal alignment of text in selected cells.

Alternatively, go to Format > Table > Insert Rows or Insert Columns on the Menu bar to open the Insert Row dialog (Figure 33) or Insert Column dialog (Figure 35). Select the number of rows or columns and the insertion position, then click OK to insert and close the dialog.

Figure 33: Insert Rows dialog

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Figure 34: Insert Columns dialog

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Alternatively, right-click in a cell and select Delete > Delete Row or Delete Column or Delete Table from the context menu, or go to Format > Table > Delete Row or Delete Column or Delete Table on the Menu bar.

Alternatively, go to Format > Table > Select Row or Select Column or Select Table on the Menu bar.

Alternatively, right-click on the table and select Table Properties from the context menu, go to Format > Table > Properties on the Menu bar.

Figure 35: Table Properties dialog - Font page

Image35

Table Properties dialog

The Table Properties dialog has five tabbed pages that provide formatting options for Font, Font Effects, Borders, Background, and Shadow. To open the Table Properties dialog use one of the following methods:

The formatting options on each dialog page are as follows:

Figure 36: Table Properties dialog - Font Effects page

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Figure 37: Table Properties dialog - Borders page

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Figure 38: Table Properties dialog - Background page

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Figure 39: Table Properties dialog - Shadow page

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Table position and size

Tables are placed into boxes when created and are treated just like any other object in a drawing. However, only the Position and Size dialog (Figure 41) can be used for tables. Some options are greyed out and are not available for tables. See Chapter 3, Working with Objects for more information on position and size.

After selecting the table, open the Position and Size dialog using one of the following methods:

Table position can be changed by dragging with the cursor and text box size can be changed by dragging one of the selection handles. See “Text boxes”  above for more information.

Note

When the size of a table box is changed, the table and cell contents also increases or decreases in size to match the box size.

Figure 40: Position and Size dialog

Image46

Deleting tables

Whole table

Make sure the table is selected and the selection handles are visible on the table border, then delete the table using one of the following methods:

Row or column

Click in a table cell, then delete the table row or column using one of the following methods. Make sure the table selection handles are not be displayed.

Cell contents

Delete cell contents in a table as follows:

1)  Select the cell or cells.

2)  Press the Delete or Backspace key on the keyboard.

Using fields

Fields allow for the automatic insertion of text into a drawing. Fields are commonly used when creating templates and drawing masters. For more information on templates and master drawings, see Chapter 11, Advanced Drawing Techniques.

Inserting fields

A text box is created when a field is inserted into the center of a drawing and can be repositioned just like any other text box. See “Text boxes”  above for more information.

1)  Go to Insert > Field on the Menu bar and select the type of field.

2)  If necessary, position and resize the field text box. See “Text boxes”  above for more information.

3)  If necessary, format the text used for the field information. See “Formatting text”  above for more information.

Field types

The fields available in Draw are as follows:

Using hyperlinks

When inserting text that can be used as a hyperlink (for example, a website address or URL), Draw formats it automatically, creating the hyperlink and applying color and underlining.

Tip

To prevent LibreOffice from automatically turning website addresses or URLs into hyperlinks, go to Tools > AutoCorrect Options > Options on the Menu bar and deselect URL Recognition.

Tip

To change the color of hyperlinks, go to Tools > Options > LibreOffice > Application Colors, scroll to Unvisited links and/or Visited links, select the checkboxes, then select new colors from the color palettes for the links and click OK. Note this color change changes the color for all hyperlinks across all components of LibreOffice.

Inserting hyperlinks

1)  Click in the text box at the required position for the hyperlink.

2)  Go to Insert > Hyperlink on the Menu bar, or use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+K to open the Hyperlink dialog (Figure 42).

3)  Select the type of hyperlink required and the required options. See “Hyperlink types” below for hyperlink types and the options available for each type.

4)  Click Apply to insert the hyperlink and save your selections. If several hyperlinks are being created, click Apply after inserting each hyperlink.

5)  Click OK to save the changes and close the Hyperlink dialog.

Hyperlink types

On the left side, select one of the four types of hyperlinks. The dialog changes according to the type of hyperlink selected.

Figure 41: Hyperlink dialog

Image40

The Further Settings section in the Hyperlink dialog is common to all the hyperlink types, although some options are more relevant to some types of links.

Editing text hyperlinks

1)  Select the hyperlink.

2)  Go to Edit > Hyperlink on the Menu bar to open the Hyperlink dialog.

3)  Make editing changes using the available options, then click Apply when done. If several hyperlinks are to be edited, click Apply after editing each hyperlink.

4)  Click OK to save the changes and close the dialog.

Figure 42: Image Map Editor dialog

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Image maps

An image map defines areas of the image (called hotspots) associated with a URL (a web address or a file on the computer). Hotspots are the graphic equivalent of text hyperlinks. In Draw, clicking on a hotspot opens the linked page in the appropriate program (for example, default browser for HTML pages; LibreOffice Writer for ODT files; PDF viewer for PDF files).

Hotspots can be created in various shapes, such as rectangles, ellipses, and polygons, and include several hotspots in the same image. When a hotspot is clicked on, the URL opens in a browser window or frame that has been specified. The text that appears when the cursor hovers over a hotspot can also be specified.

Creating image maps

1)  Select an image in a drawing to use as a hotspot.

2)  Go to Tools > ImageMap on the Menu bar to open the Image Map Editor dialog (Figure 43). The main part of the dialog shows the selected image where hotspots will be defined.

3)  Select the type of hotspot area required from the icons at the top of the Image Map Editor dialog – Rectangle, Ellipse, Polygon, Freeform Polygon.

4)  Draw the hotspot area onto the selected image.

5)  Enter the hyperlink address for the hotspot in the Address text box using the address format: file:///<path>/document_name#anchor_name.

6)  Click on Apply to apply the settings.

7)  Click on Save to save the image map to a file, then close the Image Map Editor dialog.

Image map tools

The ImageMap Editor contains the following tools:

Tip

The value _self for the target frame will work on the vast majority of the occasions. It is not recommended to use the other values, if available, unless absolutely necessary.

Figure 43: Fontwork Gallery dialog

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Fontwork

Using Fontwork creates graphical text as objects to make a drawing look more attractive. There are many different settings for Fontwork (line, area, position, size, and more) to match the requirements of a drawing.

Fontwork is also available with the Writer, Calc, and Impress modules of LibreOffice, but there are small differences in the way that each LibreOffice module displays Fontwork.

Creating Fontwork

1)  Open the Fontwork Gallery dialog (Figure 44) using one of the following methods.

2)  Select a Fontwork style from the dialog and click OK. The selected Fontwork object appears in the center of the drawing and the dialog closes.

Figure 44: Fontwork example

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Figure 45: Fontwork toolbar

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Figure 46: Fontwork Shape toolbar

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3)  Double-click on the black text in the Fontwork object to switch on editing mode.

4)  Type the required text which replaces the black text in the Fontwork object as shown in Error: Reference source not found.

5)  Press the Esc key or click outside the selected area to apply the change.

Fontwork toolbar

The Fontwork toolbar (Figure 45) becomes visible and active on the workspace when a Fontwork object is selected. If the toolbar is not visible, go to View > Toolbars > Fontwork on the Menu bar.

The following tools are available for editing a Fontwork object.

Modifying Fontwork

A Fontwork object can be treated like any other object in Draw. It can be resized, rotated, skewed, slanted, flipped, and so on. For more information on modifying a Fontwork object, see Chapter 3, Working With Objects, Chapter 4, Changing Object Attributes and Chapter 5, Combining Multiple Objects.

Fontwork is text and all text formatting that has been described in this chapter can be applied. Assign line properties only to Fontwork that is NOT going to be converted to 3D effect using Toggle Extrusion, otherwise line properties will not be visible.

Some of the Fontwork shapes can be modified. For example, to change the angles of trapezoid or parallelogram basic shapes by moving the dot that is displayed along with the selection handles.

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