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The StarOffice
Draw vector-based drawing module sports some of the best drawing
tools available in an office suite, including 3-D modeling
that enables you to fuse basic shapes together to create complex
ones, Bézier curves, a range of connectors that draw lines
between objects, and even the elusive "text on a curve." New
and improved 3-D sizing handles make it a snap to rotate drawing
objects and manipulate their invisible bounding boxes. When
it comes to creating impressive illustrations or professional
drawings with photorealistic texture rendering, you can rely
on the StarOffice Draw application and its 3-D engine. (Note:
Unless otherwise noted, all features and enhancements are
also available in StarOffice Impress 5.2 software).
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New and
improved features include:
- Improved behavior
of grouped objects:
Make it easier to interact with grouped StarOffice Draw objects,
for example:
* While you are editing a group, all objects outside the current
group are shown at a 50-percent transparency (Ghosted-Mode) to
give you optical feedback for the entered group
* To improve navigation between the objects of a group, several
shortcut keys and key combinations are available. The Tab and
Shift+Tab keys enable you to move to the next or previous object.
To select the first or last object inside a group, use the Home
and End keys
- Graphic object
toolbar: Assign attributes to selected objects easily with
these controls:
* Filter (Invert, Smooth, Sharpen, Remove Noise)
* Graphics mode (Default, Grayscale, Black/White, Watermark)
* Red-value
* Green-value
* Blue-value
* Brightness
* Contrast
* Gamma-value
* Transparency
- Conversion options:
Now you can convert any vector graphic (or drawing object) to
a bitmap or metafile object and vice versa; simply select Convert
from the object's context menu or the Modify menu.
- Graphics effects:
Enhance your options when working with selected polygons. Effects
include:
* Merge: Create cutouts of text or shapes on a picture
or polygram
* Subtract: Remove all other selected polygons from the
polygon that was selected first
* Intersect: Create new polygons from the intersection
area of two or more polygons
To take advantage of
these options, select Modify > Shape.
- NEW
distribution option: Evenly distribute three or more selected
objects by modifying their horizontal and vertical alignment.
You must select at least three objects in Draw or Impress before
this function is available, then select Modify > Distribution
(Draw) or Distribution from the Context menu (Impress).
- NEW
options on the Effects toolbar: Use the mouse to interactively
define color gradients and transparency definitions for a selected
object. Just click the Gradient icon on the Effects toolbar (which
can be accessed by clicking the Effects icon on the vertical Main
toolbar), then make the desired changes using the mouse. You can
also interactively modify the transparency gradient of the selected
object by clicking the Transparency icon on the Effects toolbar,
then dragging the tip (or tail) of the vector to make the desired
changes. To help you define the transparency mode, a new Transparency
tab has been added to the Area dialog. (Note: The interactive
transparency mode is currently only available for 2-D objects.)
- NEW
EPS export format: A platform-independent, preview format
called EPSI produces a monochrome ASCII preview that is embedded
in the EPS file. The advantage of EPSI compared to the old TIFF
preview is that the file can be edited. Also, you don't have to
extract the preview before printing, because you can simply send
it to the printer as is.
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