114 Create a New Shape

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You can create your own shapes in Draw. Although you cannot add those shapes to the Main toolbar's shape toolbars , you can reuse a shape that you create and resize and modify the shape just as you would resize and format any of Draw's built-in shapes.

Before You Begin

111 Place Shapes on the Drawing Area

113 About Perfecting Shapes


To create new shapes from two or more existing shapes, you first place different shapes on the drawing area, overlapping in some way. The first object you place becomes the shape that determines the combined shape's properties. In other words, if the first shape you place on the drawing area is red, your newly created shape (after you place several more objects on that one and merge them) will also be red. You can apply any fill and hatching patterns to your new shape, just as you can apply them to any built-in shape.

See Also

117 About Grouping Objects


NOTE

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You can only use two or more two-dimensional shapes such as the rectangles and ellipses to create new shapes. Draw does not support the construction of new shapes based on three-dimensional shapes.


  1. Place Two Shapes to Merge

    Select and place two shapes on your drawing. They don't have to be the same shape, but make sure they overlap. (You can use more than two shapes to create a new shape if you want to.)

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  2. Select Both

    Hold your Shift key and click both objects to select both of them. Select Modify, Shapes from the menu.

  3. Create the New Shape

    Select Merge from the Shapes menu to create a new shape from the selected shapes. All the selected shapes take on the properties (such as color , line thickness , and so on) of the first shape you placed on the drawing area. If somewhere inside the shape the drawing area shows through, that hole will be left unfilled.

    NOTE

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    116 About Manipulating Objects describes the selection and grouping of multiple shapes.

  4. Add More Shapes

    Draw also supports the subtraction of certain shapes. To see this in action, add two more shapes to your newly created shape. Keep in mind that your created shape is the earliest of the three shapes you applied to the drawing area, so it takes precedence when you subtract out the other objects.

    TIP

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    Once you've created the new shape, you can copy, move, and duplicate that shape elsewhere on your drawing without having to re-create it.

  5. Subtract a Shape

    Press Ctrl+A to select all the shapes on your drawing area, including the newly created shape. Select Modify, Shapes, Subtract to remove all shapes that intersect your first shape (in this case, the shape you created). The two new shapes and any overlapping portions of your created shape disappear. You can use the Subtract menu command to pick away pieces of a shape or a drawing that you don't wish to show. (If you'd selected the Modify, Shapes, Intersect command instead of the Modify, Shapes, Subtract command, Draw would have kept only those parts of the shapes that overlap each other ”that is, the intersecting pieces ”and removed the rest.)

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Sams Teach Yourself OpenOffice.org All In One
Sams Teach Yourself OpenOffice.org All In One
ISBN: 0672326183
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 205
Authors: Greg Perry

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