I am a little surprised I couldn’t find this topic raised , but again trying to use Layout for documents I struggle to do things in it that are so simple in PowerPoint… Yes… PowerPoint… and before you laugh I find I can produce presentations dramatically faster, more flexibly and universally available for further processing by my clients [everyone has PowerPoint].
So here is another example of the seemingly torturous interface in LO…
I wanted to change this symbol from black to red in layout.
It is a group, containing a text entity, some lines an a fill.
In most software I would just select the group and then select a colour from a dialogue box and bingo it would change to that colour…
In LO unless someone can enlighten me I have to
1 select the group
2 double click to enter the group
3 select the text object
4 open the TEXT STYLE tray
5 click on the color selection box in the TEXT STYLE tray
6 click on the desired color swatch in the COLORS tray
7 select the symbol object [linework + fill]
8 select the stroke color swatch on the SHAPES STYLE tray
9 click on the desired color swatch in the COLORS tray [ the linework only changes to red]
10 select the fill colour swatch in the SHAPE STYLES tray
11 click on the desired color swatch in the COLORS tray [ the fill only changes to red]
12 click to leave the group selection
Now, I know there are a lot of very smart people here… does anyone know a faster way of doing this?
Powerpoint 2 clicks
Layout 11 clicks [at a minimum, assuming you don’t make an easily made sequence error in the 11 steps]
and SKETCHUP TEAM, can I suggest you have a look at Powerpoint , I am no big MS fan but it has become a surprising very capable and efficient presentation package and as it has such a huge user base the UI operations are very familiar to most people. some key aspects I use are
Slide Masters + layouts
URL linking
Drop Shadows
Image effects
PNG , SVG import
example 1: A3 Sketchup Plan [in a slide master] with traffic flows over [much quicker than in LO and better looking]
PS the SU underlay plan can be linked to image file for automatic updating [just like Indesign]
Example 2
Signage design draft [to scale] with notation
Now if LO was this simple, versatile, universal I would use it…
