Insert shapes, textboxes, and diagrams in Writer documents

Working with Shapes and Textboxes

Overview

Represent your ideas and concepts visually in your documents using drawings, shapes, symbols and text boxes. Fill your drawings with vibrant colors or patterns, group or combine shapes together, stack them in layers, add shadows and reflections and insert text boxes and hyperlinks wherever required.

Steps

Insert a shape

  1. Click Insert tab --> Drawings, to open the Drawings dialog. 

  2. You will be able to see three tabs: Text (different types of textboxes and symbols), Shape (different types of shapes), and Diagrams (different types of list, process, pyramid, and cycle charts/diagrams). To insert a shape, click the Shape tab.

  3. Select the desired shape (basic shapes, flow charts, action buttons, callouts, line connectors and more), apply the desired formatting styles, and click Insert. 

Draw with pen

Draw straight, curved lines, free-form figures and open or closed shapes with scribble just like how you'd draw them on a piece of paper.




Continuous draw mode 

Have continuous draw mode turned on to draw more than one drawing at a time.


IdeaDraw any shape with your free hand and watch it transform into a solid shape by enabling shape recognition.

Inserting textboxes and symbols

In the Drawings dialog, go to the Text tab, and click Textbox or Symbol, insert the desired style or symbol, and click Insert. 
Info
You can insert text boxes, arrows, punctuation, currencies, mathematical and scientific symbols along with shapes and drawings.


Inserting diagrams

In the Drawings dialog, go to the Diagram tab, select the desired category (from list, process, pyramid, or cycle), select the desired diagram type, and click Insert.

Format a drawing 

Format these custom shapes by adding colors, shadows, gradients, patterns and also arrange them as you desire.


Edit a drawing

  1. Click on the inserted shape to see the drawing options on the left panel.

  2. Click Edit Drawing, and the pop-up opens within which you can make the necessary changes to the drawings and shapes you have already inserted.

Delete a drawing

  1. To delete a single shape, select it and press the Delete key.

  2. To delete multiple shapes, click to select the first shape, press and hold the Shift key while selecting the other shapes, and then press the Delete key.

Insert a text box

  1. Place the cursor where you want to insert the text box in your document and click the Insert tab.
  2. Click Text Box.
The text box is now inserted in the desired place and you can also move it around wherever you want it to be.

Format a text box and the text inside it

  1. As soon as you insert a Text Box, the 'Text Box Options' panel opens on the right side.
  2. Use the Align and Padding option to arrange the text inside the textbox.
  3. Use the other options such as Style, Arrange, and Positioning to adjust the textbox placement.