Full Circle Magazine FR

When working with physical blocks, you sometimes need to change the shape of a block, customizing it for a special purpose. You may use a plane or sandpaper to make a side slant or to round an edge. You might use a saw to whack off a corner. All to create a special custom block unlike any other block in your collection. Sometimes, we need to do the same with our digital blocks. The editing tools built into LibreOffice Draw become our digital plane, sandpaper, and saw. In fact, you can do things I never dreamed of doing to my blocks as a child. The Line Dialog The Line dialog lets you edit the look of the lines in your object. To access the Line dialog, right-click your object and select Line. From here, you can change the style of the line (solid, dashed, dash-dot, etc.), the color, width, and transparency. You can also add arrow styles to the start and end of your line. Keep in mind that for enclosed objects (triangles, squares, circles, etc.), arrows are not drawn on the lines. Underneath the arrow styles, you can adjust the width of the arrow. Center places the center of the arrowhead(s) on the endpoint(s) of the selected line. Synchronize ends automatically updates both arrow heads when you change the style, width, or center of one of the ends. Corner style controls how the corner of your object is drawn. Cap style controls how the endpoints of lines without arrows will look. If you are working with an open object, you get a shadow tab. This allows you to create a shadow for the line by defining the position, distance, color, and transparency of the shadow. The Line Styles and Arrow Styles tabs allow you to add, modify, delete, and save different line and arrow styles. You can play around with these, but usually you can find what you need in the predefined styles. If not, feel free to create your own.

Lorsque vous travaillez avec des blocs physiques, vous devez parfois modifier la forme d'un bloc, le personnalisant pour un usage spécifique. Vous pouvez utiliser un rabot ou un papier de verre pour faire un côté incliné ou un bord arrondi. Vous pouvez utiliser une scie pour virer (! frangi : 'virer' me semble un peu faible, pas assez argotique) un coin. Tout cela pour créer un bloc spécial personnalisé différent des autres blocs de votre collection (! frangi : collection n'est pas approprié ici).

Parfois, nous devons faire la même chose avec nos blocs numériques. Les outils d'édition intégrés à LibreOffice Draw deviennent nos rabot numérique, papier de verre et scie. En fait, vous pouvez faire des choses dont je n'ai jamais rêvé de faire à mes blocs étant enfant.

La boîte de dialogue Ligne

La boîte de dialogue Ligne vous permet de modifier l'apparence des lignes de votre objet. Pour accéder à la boîte de dialogue Ligne, faites un clic droit sur votre objet, puis sélectionnez Ligne (Line). De là, vous pouvez modifier le style de la ligne (continue, en pointillé, tiret-point, etc.), la couleur, la largeur et la transparence. Vous pouvez également ajouter des styles de flèches pour le début et la fin de votre ligne. N'oubliez pas que pour les objets fermés (triangles, carrés, cercles, etc.), les flèches ne sont pas dessinées sur les lignes. En dessous des styles de flèches, vous pouvez ajuster la largeur de la flèche. «Centre» (Center) place le centre de la pointe de flèche sur le point de terminaison de la ligne sélectionnée. «Synchroniser les extrémités» (Synchronize ends) change automatiquement les deux pointes de flèche lorsque vous modifiez le style, la largeur ou le centre d'une des extrémités. «Style de coin» (Corner style) contrôle la façon dont l'angle de votre objet est dessiné. «Style de fin» (Cap style) contrôle à quoi ressembleront les points de terminaison des lignes sans flèches.

Si vous travaillez avec un objet ouvert, vous obtenez un onglet ombre (shadow). Cela vous permet de créer une ombre pour la ligne en définissant la position, la distance, la couleur et la transparence de l'ombre.

Les onglets «styles de ligne» et «style de flèche» vous permettent d'ajouter, de modifier, de supprimer, puis d'enregistrer différents styles de lignes et de flèches. Vous pouvez jouer avec ceux-ci, mais généralement vous trouverez ce dont vous avez besoin dans les styles prédéfinis. Si ce n'est pas le cas, n'hésitez pas à créer les vôtres.

Area Dialog The Area dialog applies to objects that are enclosed, and deals with the space inside the object. You can change the color of the fill as well as the manner in which the object is filled. To access the Area dialog, right-click the object and select Area. The Area tab controls what fills the object. You can choose from color, gradient, hatching, and bitmap in the Fill drop-down list. Once you have selected the type of fill, you can select a fill from the list. The preview box shows you the result of your selections. The Shadow tab allows you to add a shadow under your object. Check Use shadow to create a shadow. The position determines the location of the shadow, and the distance how far from the object. Color determines the color of the shadow, and transparency sets the opacity of the shadow.

On the Transparency tab, we determine the opacity of the fill of the object. We have three options for the transparency of the fill. No transparency means the fill is completely opaque. With transparency, you can set a percentage for the whole area. Gradient is the option with the most settings and the chance to create the most interesting effects. You have six choices for the gradient types, linear, axial, radial, ellipsoid, quadratic, and square. For all except the linear and axial, you can control the XY center of the gradient. The XY center is the point where the object is the clearest, or most transparent. Except for the radial, you can also define an angle for the gradient area. The border setting reduces the size of the transparent area. The bigger the percentage, the smaller the transparent area. Use the start and the end values to change the beginning and ending opacity levels. For example, if you don't want any totally clear places on your object, you can start with a value of 10 or 15%. The colors, gradients, hatching, and bitmaps tabs allow you to create new fill styles by defining new colors, gradients, hatchings, and bitmaps.

Position and Size Dialog Besides controlling the position and size of an object, the position and size dialog also allows you to control the rotation, slant, and corner radius of an object. To access the Position and Size dialog, right-click your object and select Position and Size. The Position and Size tab does what you would expect. You can control the XY position on the canvas of the object, and its width and height. The base point for each of the options gives nine points on the object from which position or size is calculated. There is a Keep ratio checkbox under size to help maintain the aspect ratio of the object (any change in height will create a change in width and vice versa). You also have options to protect the position or size to prevent accidentally changing them. The adapt option only relates to text frames and allows you to fit the width and/or height to match the text.

On the Rotation tab, you can control the rotation of the object. This is usually much more accurate than using the rotation tool. You can select the pivot point through the input boxes, or by selecting a pivot point on the Default settings box. Select your angle through the input box or by selecting a point on the angle Default settings compass. Finally, the Slant & Corner Radius tab allows you to control the roundness of the corners and the slant (think italics text). Think of the corner radius as using sandpaper to round off a corner. The more you sand, the rounder the corner. The bigger the number, the rounder the corner. If you set the corner radius high enough on a rectangle, it will become an oval. The slant, given as an angle, skews the object to the right for a positive angle and to the left for a negative angle. Using the corner radius and slant, you can get some interesting shapes. The corner radius is blocked for some objects.

Arrange, Align, Flip, Convert Sometimes, it just becomes necessary to stack objects, make them line up, mirror them, or just convert them into something that you can edit in a different way. All the following commands are found by right-clicking the object. They are also available in the Modify menu. The arrange options allow you to control the stack position of objects. When you have multiple objects which overlap, you may need to change the order in which they are stacked. By default, they stack in the order in which they were created, the last on top. Using the arrange options, you can push objects forward or backward in the stack until you get the results you want. Align allows you to align objects in reference to each other or to the page. If you have only one object selected, the object will align to the current page. If more than one object is selected, they will align according to each other. The larger of the objects usually controls the final location, and the other objects are moved to align to the selected position of that object. The alignment options are left, right, horizontal center, vertical center, top, and bottom. Draw has an align toolbar in addition to the right-click menu and Modify menu.

The flip options are straightforward. You can flip an object vertically (top to bottom) or horizontally (left to right). There are many options under the right-click > Convert option, but one in particular that I want to draw your attention to, Convert > To Curve. By converting any object to a curve, you can edit the points within that object, allowing you to achieve completely original shapes. Once an object is a curve, you can add points, remove points, and use the point transition tools on the points of the object. Turn a rectangle into a curve, then start adding, moving, and manipulating the points, and see what you can create. Conclusion The options in Draw for editing an object are numerous. By applying the right tools to an object, you can create almost any shape you can imagine (maybe a few you never imagined). I encourage you to play with these tools and see what you can come up with. You never know, you might discover that little piece of artist or designer in you.