[Solved] Drawing in Writer

[andyc]

Most of my WP documents contain a lot of line drawing, so being able to draw in Writer is essential to me. I am new to Writer (checking it out) having always used MS Word for this task in the past. There are three questions especially that I need answers to. These are:

1. How do you move an object with fine control?

Moving an object by selecting and using the mouse is all very well for gross movements but to move an object exactly into position MS Word allows the use of the arrow keys to give fine movement. Use of the arrow keys in Writer is not the same and results in large movements. I don't expect Writer to be the same as Word but I expect there to be a similar mechanism. I just don't know what it is.

2. Why does the select and move of an object sometimes not work?

Sometimes when an object is selected and you left click and hold with the mouse, the cursor changes to an arrow with a rectangle beneath (what does this mean?) and although a dotted copy of the object appears, it cannot be moved. Even worse, the object disappears from the document and I have to press ctrl + z to undo the last operation and get the object back.

3. How do you change the text colour for text objects?

When a text object has been created, I can't find anything that lets me change the colour of the text. Right clicking on it does select it and then display a menu of options. None of the options (even the obvouse Text... one) allows for the text colour to be changed. When creating a text object, the text itself can be selected, but even then I cannot figure out how to change the colour. Even setting the text colour to the one I want (using the button on the standard toolbar) and then creating a new text object does not have any influence, and, of course, when the text object is selected, the standard toolbar isn't shown.

[John_Ha]

See Chapter 8 - Working with Graphics in the Writer Manual.

Check the options for grid and snap etc in Tools > Options > OOWriter > Grid ...

right-click an object (eg a line, rectangle, image etc) to get access to all its controls and positioning data.

You have more control if you draw in Draw and bring the drawing into Writer.

1 My arrow moves an item by about 2 mm.

3. Highlight the text. Format > Character > Font effects ..., allows you to change the colour.

Can you upload a small .odt file showing the problems.

[erbsenzahl]

3. How do you change the text colour for text objects?
When a text object has been created, I can't find anything that lets me change the colour of the text. Right clicking on it does select it and then display a menu of options. None of the options

Choose Character > Font Effects... - You also may use the icon from the format toolbar; it's really effortless.

2. Why does the select and move of an object sometimes not work?

Probably you have pressed too long and with too much power . If you do so, you can copy the object into the gallery. Find information about the gallery here: http://tutorialsforopenoffice.org/tutorial/Gallery.html The above described way to insert a graphic into the gallery is not omitted there, gosh! Only how to insert graphic(s) from folder.

Cheers

[John_Ha]

Also Tools > Options > OOWriter > View ..., and tick Guides while moving.

Note that even if you do not have Snap to grid set, and you move something from a "long way" away to another object, Writer will snap it to the same position making it easy to align things very quickly.

When you select an object its handles get shown and the cursor changes to a " + " sign. This means you are in "move object" mode.

[acknak]

For creating anything more than trivial graphics, I recommend using OO Draw. Working in OO Writer is possible but it has many limitations and missing features. It's quite easy to work in Draw and then copy/paste into Writer.

[andyc]

Thanks to you both for coming to my rescue. I have changed the grid options and finer movement is now possible. Also, I have switched on the guides so that I can see exactly how objects are being moved; I find this very useful. I'm afraid I rather dismissed the manuals because they were for an earlier version (more fool me). They are very detailed so I can feel a heavy spate of reading coming on...
As for changing the text colour of Text objects - you're right, it is easy but you need to know where the option is in the first place. I'm afraid even the manual didn't seem to cover this.