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OpenOffice Impress User Guide
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Working with connectors

Connectors are lines that can be anchored to particular places, called glue points, on the graphic object. The advantage of connectors is that when the graphic object to which the connector is attached is moved or resized, the connector automatically adjusts to the change. When creating a flowchart, org chart, schematics or diagrams, it is highly recommended to use connectors instead of simple lines.

Impress offers a wide variety of predefined connectors, which differ in the termination shape (none, arrow, custom) and in the way the connector is drawn (straight, line, curved). See Figure 65: Connectors options.

Unlike normal lines, when a connector is drawn or selected Impress displays red handles; in particular, the termination points are identified by red circles, while square handles are used to modify the routing of a connector (where applicable).

Draw a connector in a similar way to drawing any object. First select the connector style from the Connector toolbar (Figure 65), then move the mouse cursor over one of the objects to be connected. When the cursor is brought near an object, small black crosses appear around the object; these represent the glue points to which the connector can be attached. Click on the required glue point to attach one end of the connector, then hold the mouse button down and drag the connector to the second object and click on a glue point on that object to connect the other end.

For instructions on how to format a connector, refer to the corresponding section in Chapter 6 (Formatting Graphic Objects).

    1. Managing glue points

As described above, a glue point is the point of attachment for a connector to a shape or graphic object. Each shape has a number of predefined glue points, but it is possible to define new ones as well as edit them, using the Gluepoints toolbar, shown in Figure 69.

Frame51

Use the first tool to insert a new glue point. The next four tools determine the exit direction of the connector terminating at the glue point. To maintain the relative position of the glue point when resizing the object, make sure that the Glue point relative icon (highlighted in Figure 69) is selected. Deselecting the Glue point relative icon enables the next six icons of the toolbar; use these to fix the position of the gluepoint during the resizing of the object. Hover the mouse over the buttons to obtain a tooltip giving a short description of its function.

To delete a custom glue point, select it with the mouse and press the Delete key.

Setting custom glue points is particularly useful where multiple connectors terminate on the same side of a shape or where the default glue point position is not satisfactory.

To move a predefined or newly inserted glue point:

  1. Select the glue point tool from the drawing toolbar (see Figure 67).

  2. Click on the glue point you want to move. The glue point should now be highlighted.

  3. Keep the mouse button pressed and drag the glue point to the desired position. Release the mouse button.

Tip

Glue points are placed by default on the grid (see the section “Alignment using the grid and snap guides“ on page 105 for information), however it is sometimes required to fine tune the position of the glue point depending on the shape. To do this, keep the Control key pressed while dragging the glue point to the new position.

OpenOffice Impress User Guide
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  Published under the terms of the GNU General Public License Design by Interspire