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3.2.2 Ellipse

Apart from ellipses, the ellipse shape is also used for circles, arcs and wedges.

To create an ellipse:
1)Press the Ellipse button in the toolbar.
2)Move the cursor in the drawing area to a corner of an imaginary rectangle that would enclose the desired ellipse.
3)Press and hold down the left mouse button, drag the cursor until the ellipse has reached the required size, and release the mouse button.

Setting line, fill, location and size properties of an ellipse is the same as for a rectangle, so please see Section 3.2.1 for more information.

It is possible to make an ellipse into an arc or wedge by adjusting its start and stop angles. There are two ways to do this. The first way is to drag the yellow handles that appear to the right of the ellipse when it is selected (they are initially on top of each other, as a full ellipse starts and stops at the same point). Moving them around the perimeter of the ellipse will change the start and stop angles. The other way is to open the Format Dialog and change the values in the Arc properties tab (Figure 3–11). Enter new values in the Start and Stop fields or use the spin buttons. Please note that angle values are presented as degrees, so the proper values are between 0 and 360. 0 degrees is to the right, and the ellipse is drawn anti-clockwise from the start to the stop angle.

Figure 3–11. Arc properties.

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