Re: [libreoffice-users] How to round corners of rectangle shape in Draw?

Hi Dave,

it is a longer mail, but hopefully it is clearer then.

Dave Barton schrieb am 10.04.2021 um 18:35:
> Hi Regina,
>
> Thanks for taking the time to reply, but I must be naturally stupid or
> blind, because I cannot locate these "Custom Shapes" and "Legacy
>
> Rectangles" you refer to.
>
> As a member of the documentation team I am working to assist in the
> creation of the Draw User Guide for LO 7.1, but your answer leaves me
> and I am sure other members of the team, unsure how we can explain these
> "Custom Shapes" and "Legacy Rectangles" to our users. Any pointers you
> feel able to offer in this respect would be much appreciated.
>
> In the "Position and Size" Dialog there is no control for the corner
> radius of "Rounded Rectangle" shapes. Yes, it's possible to grab and
> drag the radius handle for the object on the page, but this provides
> zero accuracy for the adjustment.
>
> I have only been a user of this software for 20+ years and an advocate
> of LO for 10+ years and now I feel that I no longer understand it.

Remember back to OpenOffice.org 1.0. At that time none of those shapes 
like "Moon" or "Diamond" exists. They were introduced in OOo2.0. 
OOo1.1.5 had only got the ability to show them, but could not work on them.

This new added type of shapes are written to file as element 
<draw:custom-shape>. They have an own chapter "10.6 Custom Shape" in the 
ODF specification. The term "custom shape" does rarely appear in the UI, 
but I use it as umbrella term, because they are named in file and spec 
that way. The only place were I know "Custom shape" in the UI, is the 
"Text" tab of a Drawing style.
https://docs.oasis-open.org/office/OpenDocument/v1.3/cs02/part3-schema/OpenDocument-v1.3-cs02-part3-schema.html#__RefHeading__1415908_253892949

These 'custom shapes' are grouped in toolboxes e.g. "Basic Shapes", 
"Block Arrows" and "Stars and Banners". Those you should know. If you 
are unsure, whether a shape is a 'custom shape' or not, you can look at 
the icon "Toggle extrusion". It is only enabled for 'custom shapes'.

In the beginning the Drawing toolbar had icons for the rectangle and 
ellipse known from OOo1.0. The toolbox "Basic Shapes" contains 
rectangles and ellipses among others too. That results in lot of 
confusions, like you are confused. Therefore rectangle and ellipse from 
OOo1.0 were removed form the Drawing toolbar, so that they are hidden. 
These shapes from OOo1.0 were collected in two toolbars "Legacy 
Rectangles" and "Legacy Circles and Ovals". The term 'legacy' indicates, 
that these are shapes from OOo1.0. You find these toolbars same as other 
toolbars in menu View > Toolbars.

If you want to integrate these legacy shapes into the Drawing toolbar, 
that is possible via Tools > Customize. Search for "rectangle" and use 
that one, that has command .uno:RectangleToolbox in the description, and 
search for "ellipse" and use that one, that has command 
.uno:EllipseToolbox in the description.

There had been some discussions, what to do with the "rounded corner" 
part of the "Position&Size" dialog, if it is not applicable. It has been 
decided, only to disable it. I would have preferred, that it is hidden.

In the beginning, there exists no UI at all for numerically setting the 
handles of the 'custom shapes'. In the meantime you have a section in 
the lower part of the "Slant and Corner Radius" tab of the 
"Position&Size" dialog. The "Control point" fields can be used in most 
cases to numerically set the position of a custom shape handle. Only 
more than three handles and radial handles (those modify an angle) 
cannot be set with these fields. The values are coordinates relative to 
the left/top corner of the rectangle/parallelogram, which you see, when 
you have selected the shape.

I consider it a deficit in the Draw User Guide, that it does not clearly 
distinguish the different kind of shapes.

And in regard to 'custom shapes', there is so much to say about them for 
advanced users, that it would make an entire book. See for example the 
wiki page 
https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Documentation/Text_in_Custom_Shapes, 
or for example, do you know, that the "Fontwork" shapes are 'custom 
shapes' too, or do you know how to make your own 'custom shape'?

In regard to the Drawing guide: I'm sure you're a better writer than I 
am. But if you need background knowledge on a special topic, I can most 
likely help you.

Kind regards
Regin


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