Setting size and position exactly

OpenOffice.org 2.x Draw Guide

Chapter 3: Working with Objects and Object Points

< Previous Section

Next Section >

• Selection modes
• Selecting objects
• Moving and adjusting an object’s size
• Rotating and shearing an object
• Setting size and position exactly
• Editing object points
• Editing object points: examples

< Previous Page

Next Page >

You can position and resize objects with the mouse, but this method is not very exact. If you need accurate positioning of objects, you should use the Position and Size menu on the Format tab of the menu bar, by right-clicking the object and selecting Position and Size from the context menu, or by pressing F4.

Setting position and size

Open the Position and Size menu (see Figure 8) and click on the first tab to set the appropriate values.

Position is defined as an X,Y coordinate relative to a fixed point (the Base Point), typically located at the upper left of the drawing area. If desired you can temporarily change this Base Point to make positioning or dimensioning simpler (click on the radio button corresponding to the location of the base point in either of the two selection windows on the right side of the menu – upper for positioning or lower for dimensioning). The possible Base Point positions correspond to the handles on the selection frame plus a central point. The change in position lasts only as long as you have the menu open; when you close this menu, Draw resets the Base Point to the standard position.

The Keep Ratio checkbox is very useful . Click it to keep the ratio of width to height fixed while you change the size of an object.

Either or both of size and position can be protected so that they cannot be inadvertently changed. Check the appropriate boxes to achieve this.

You cannot move an object? Check whether the position is not "protected"!

Figure 8: Position and size of objects.

Rotating objects

Click on the Rotation tab of the Position and Size dialog (see Figure 9). Here you can define the rotation angle as well as the location of the pivot point.

Figure 9: Rotating an object.

Setting the slant and corner radius

With some Draw objects the slant angle (inclination or shearing) and corner radius can be set in this dialog (Figure 10).

Figure 10: Setting rounded corners and slant angle

Corner radius

You can use this dialog to round the corners of the usual Draw objects – text boxes, legends, rectangles, and squares as shown in Figure 11. The same effect can be achieved, when you are in point mode (by clicking the Points icon on the Draw toolbar), by dragging the large handle with the mouse.

Figure 11: Example of setting rounded corners

The larger the value of the corner radius the more round will be the object.

Slant

You can shear the classic Draw objects, but not the newer Shape objects. Enter the slant angle in the box marked Shear Angle.