Apache OpenOffice Community Forum

Can the draw program draw a straight line, or even a crooked one? I've been trying to use this program and have had zero luck. What's the secret?

Edit: Changed the title (was "please help a beginner - draw program"), tagged it as Solved and moved it to the Draw forum Hagar

Please read the Survival guide for the forum first. People can often only help you if you tell what version of OOo and what OS you use. You also need to be more specific. Drawing lines in OOo is very easy, so what exactly have you tried?

Hmm, reading the Survival Guide is still a good idea, but I don't think the answer to this question will depend on what OS or version is being used

Here's a first step:
1) File > New > Drawing (get a blank-paper window: OpenOffice.org Draw)
2) Click on the "Line tool" icon (bottom of the Draw window, second from left; looks like a diagonal straight line)
On the "paper", the mouse pointer will look like a "+".
3) Click anywhere on the paper, hold the mouse button and drag.
4) Release the mouse button: a straight line will be added to the drawing.

I don't think the Draw Guide is on the web yet, but you can get a PDF here: OOo Guides

Thanks, Acknak. That helps a lot. off and running now.......

Step 4 states: "A straight line will be added to the drawing"
Question:
This line is of another length than I want !! How do I enter the measurements when I start creating the line?

Do you have the "snap to grid" turned on?

View > Grid > Snap to Grid.

What do you mean by "measurements"? Are you trying to create a line with an exact length? If so, you can either turn "snap to grid on" (if your grid spacing is an exact multiple of the desired line length), or you can just draw the line and then set the length using the Format > Position and Size dialog (F4).

Of course, those methods will only work for horizontal or vertical lines, unless you want to do a little math :-O

Yeah, indeed I want to do "exact length" lines.
Example first line: 255 feet long, 25 degrees North
Second line: starts at end of first line, then 40 feet long, 35 degrees North.
So how do I enter those lengths and angles?

If you have the angles, you can just use the Position and Size dialog to first set the length (at whatever scale you're using), then rotate the line to the desired angle. You can then move the line to the position you need.

I downloaded the Draw PDF file. There is no explanation on what a scale is.

Is the ruler on the left and the top page the same as a scale?
In other words; if a line according to the ruler is 12 units, by how many units does a scale modify or multiply it?
If the scale is 1 is length than 12 units?
If scale is 0.1 is length than 1.2 units?
Can scale be too large to show the entire line?

Sorry, I wasn't very clear.

The scale of a drawing is just a reduction factor--a ratio--from the real-world objects represented in the drawing, to the actual printed size of the drawing.

E.g. you might create your drawing in Draw at 1/12 scale. In that case, your 255-foot line would be 255 inches long. That's still too long for a normal printout, so you might go to 1/120 scale. Then the line would be 25.5 inches long. You set the scale to whatever works for your situation. You'd need something like 1/300 scale to fit a 255' line on 11" paper.

If you want, you can set a scale factor in Draw, under Tools > Options > OOo Draw > General. If you do that, you can enter 255' in the Position and Size dialog, and Draw will do the scale conversion for you.

The rulers on the top and left sides of the Draw window are labeled according to whatever "Measurement Unit" you set on that same ... OOo Draw > General tab. If you set that to feet, then the rulers will show feet, according to whatever scale you have set.

I would appreciate some help along the same lines.

I can draw a line without any problem, but for some reason can't get the arrow on the end of it.

Any suggestions will be tried.

Many Thanks.

When the line is selected, you should have a toolbar at the top of the window that controls the line's properties. At the left of that toolbar is an icon showing little arrow shapes. Click that and you'll find a list of different line ends.

If that's not sufficient, click the little pen-nib icon at the very left of that toolbar. That will pop up the Line properties window, and you can have full control over all the line end styles.

Is that what you needed?

Many Thanks for the reply.

I think what was causing me problems was selecting the wrong icon on the toolbar at the bottom of the screen.

After experimenting with the various items I managed to accomplish what I wanted.