Mathematics and Drawing Toolbars for Microsoft Word: Drawing Toolbar Manual

Introduction

The Drawing Toolbar

The Drawing Toolbar consists in a Microsoft Word template document (files with extension « .dot ») displaying a special command bar to the user. With the various buttons offered, the user can then create simple mathematical figures and choose a proper layout on the page.

The Drawing Toolbar exports many commands that already exist in Microsoft Word but are most of the time not easily accessible to the average user. Other functions have also been implemented for mathematical purposes, such as creating a grid, triangles or graduated lines.

I don't have access to an English version of Microsoft Word. Hence every word in this document may not be accurate, but the meaning should help you find the right feature. Don't hesitate to help me translate this document by telling me the right words used in Microsoft Word. Thanks in advance.

Getting started

Installation

In order to be able to use the Drawing Toolbar, you need to proceed to the following:

You must allow the execution of macros. In menu Tools, then Macros, then Security, go to the second tab and make sure to check the box Trust Visual Basic Project (or something similar)
You first need to install it to a special location so that it will be automatically loaded by Microsoft Word on its startup. Usually, this location is C:\Documents and Settings\UserName\Application Data\Microsoft\Word\Startup. To be sure, just open the template document, it should tell you where to copy it.
Verify that the template is a global template. To do so, in the « Tools » menu, click on « Templates and add-ons » (or something similar, I don't have Word in English), then verify that the checkbox for the template is effectively checked.
You must then restart Microsoft Word. If everything went right, you should have a new button called Drawing in the standard command bar.

In case you decide to customize some features, such as changing the language, Microsoft Word will popup a window saying that the project is signed and hence the project signature will get invalidated. Just ignore this message (this message comes from the fact that the Mathematics Toolbar saves the user preference in its file directly and hence breaks the signature used when I created the document).

Built-in Microsoft Word functions

Grouping and Ungrouping

Regrouping graphical objects enables to handle them as a single entity, so that this entity can be easily positioned on the document. I remarked that only few people use the grouping functions when drawing figures, causing terrible loss of productivity when things have to get moved inside the document or between documents.

I recommend grouping the objects of a figure into a single entity once the figure is complete, this enables easy positioning on the document and a great gain in productivity.

Button	Description of the button
	Groups selected objects into a single entity.
	Ungroups the entity (needed in case you want to modify the entity).

Simple objects

When drawing an object (such as a rectangle, a triangle, etc.) while leaving the Shift key down, this forces the object to have the same height and width (hence the rectangle becomes a square). This is really useful!

Button

Description of the button

Draws a line "hand-free". When wanting to emulate a hand-free drawing, first draw it using lines, rectangles, etc, then redraw on your existing figure with this tool.

Click here to popup an example of this functionality (you need to have Javascript active).

Drawing with the hand-free tool

The Hand-Free Tool is the most powerful drawing tool of Microsoft Word. It enables drawing lines, broken lines, really hand-free parts, closed and opened curves and many other things. The first step consists in the drawing of the control points of the curve.

In order to draw a straight line, you just need to click, then release the mouse. In order to draws a curve, you just need to click, then maintain the mouse button down.

In order to finish the curve, you just need to click twice at the same place (this will create an opened curve), or to click twice where you started drawing the curse (this will create a closed curve).

	Standard control point. Initially all control points are of this type.
	Flat control point. This control point has its half-tangent lines of same direction and same length.
	Symetric control point. This control point has its half-tangent lines of same direction but not same length.
	Angle control point. This point has its half-tangent lines independant one from the other.

Example of closed curve

In this example we will create a curve in four steps:

The finished curve

	Create a triangle as a skeleton with the hand-free tool.
	Click with the right mouse button on the figure and select "Modify control points". Click on the top left control point with the right mouse button and select "Angle control point".
	Adjust the half-tangents (in blue).
	Click on the bottom right control point with the right mouse button and select "Angle control point" and adjust the half-tangents.

Creates an opened or closed curve with linear, curved or hand-free borders.

Creates a rectangular triangle.

Creates an arc of an ellipse (or of a circle if the "Shift" key is down). Useful for noting angles between segments.

Creates an ellipse (or a circle if the "Shift" key is down).

Rotational or symetrical transformations

It is not possible to rotate an object containing text areas, you hence must first rotate the figure before adding text areas.

Button	Description of the button
	Rotates the object of a quarter to the left.
	Rotates the object of a quarter to the right.
	Rotates the object to as wanted. You may also change the angle by viewing the properties for the object (see the "Size" tab).
	Does a symetry with the vertical as reference.
	Does a symetry with the horizontal as reference.

Positioning in the document

These tools enable to choose the position of the figure on the document.

By default, the figure is placed over the text. Because of that, many users add newlines in the document in order for the figure to not be over the text, but this is not a nice solution. One should better use the figure positioning capabilities of Microsoft Word.

Button	Description of the button
Text	Menu enabling figure and text positioning. By default, when objects are grouped, the positioning is of the figure is over the text.
	(Text Menu) Forces the text to surround the figure with some margin.
	(Text Menu) Forces the text to surround the figure without any margin.
	(Text Menu) Forces the text to lay before and after the figure.
	(Text Menu) Forces the figure to be under the text.
	(Text Menu) Forces the figure to be over the text. This is the default positioning.
	(Text Menu) Forces the text to lie left and right to the figure.
	(Text Menu) Forces the text to lie left only to the figure.
	(Text Menu) Force the text to lie right only to the figure.
	(Text Menu) Forces the text to lie where there is more space.
Alignment	Menu enabling figure positioning against other figures or the page.
	(Alignment Menu) Bottom-Aligns the objects.
	(Alignment Menu) Top-Aligns the objects.
	(Alignment Menu) Left-Aligns the objects.
	(Alignment Menu) Right-Aligns the objects.
	(Alignment Menu) Horizontally-Aligns the centers of the objects.
	(Alignment Menu) Vertically-Aligns the centers of the objects.
	(Alignment Menu) Rearranges the objects horizontally (horizontal spacing becomes identical between objects).
	(Alignment Menu) Rearranges the objects vertically (vertical spacing becomes identical between objects).
	(Alignment Menu) If this button is pressed, the buttons above act with the document layout as a reference.

Other useful stuff

Button	Description of the button
	Duplicates (clones) the currently selected object. This can also be done by pressing the "Shift" key while dragging the object.
	Shows a panel enabling enforcement of objects positioning on an invisible Microsoft Word grid. Sometimes, it is quite useful to deactivate the grid when you want to draw an object at a very specific place on the document (for example when drawing an arc).
	Anchors or removes the anchor of the currently selected object. Every object has an anchor that helps Microsoft Word to determine where the object lies compared to the current paragraph. When an object becomes anchored to some piece of text, the object will move with the text, but also it is still possible to move the object on the document, however, the object will remain anchored to the text.

New functions

Adding text letters to a figure

Button	Description of the button
	Inserts a borderless text area of 1 square cm with a letter in it.
	Inserts a letter surrounded by a 1 cm diameter circle (useful to number figures).
	Inserts a dot of 1 mm diameter.

Grid and graduates lines

These tools enable the creation of grids and graduated lines with many user-specified parameters.

Button	Description of the button
	Inserts a grid. Click here to popup an example of this functionality (you need to have Javascript active). Warning: This tool is programmed in VBA, hence the creation of the figure takes some time, so be patient. The Grid panel By pressing the Grid button, a preference panel pops up enabling to modify the following parameters: X Size and Y Size are expressed in squares and enable choosing the number of horizontal and vertical squares to draw X Step and Y Step represent the size of the squares in centimeters (for example you can choose a square of 0.5 cm on 1 cm (hence it becomes a rectangle) Dash represent the thickness of the lines Half-graduation enables to draw intermediate lines with dashed lines The following example illustrates this functionality:
	Inserts a XY Axis. Click here to popup an example of this functionality (you need to have Javascript active). Warning: This tool is programmed in VBA, hence the creation of the figure takes some time, so be patient. The XY Axis panel By pressing the XY Axis button, a preference panel pops up enabling to modify the following parameters: Xmin and Xmax are expressed in units. Xmin must be negative and Xmax positive. Ymin and Ymax are expressed in units. Ymin must be negative and Ymax positive X Step and Y Step represent the size of the units in centimeters (for example, the X unit can be of 0.5 cm and the Y unit can be 1 cm X Factor and Y Factor are the multiplicative factors of the legend, respectively for the X and Y axis(for example, if the X factor is 1 and the Y factor is 2, then each graduation for X will be of 1 increment and of 2 increments for the Y axis) Dash represents the thickness of the lines Half-graduation enables to draw intermediate lines with dashed lines The following example illustrates this functionality:
	Inserts a graduated horizontal line (X Axis). Click here to popup an example of this functionality (you need to have Javascript active). Warning: This tool is programmed in VBA, hence the creation of the figure takes some time, so be patient. The Graduated Line panel By pressing the Graduated Line button, a preference panel pops up enabling to modify the following parameters: Xmin and Xmax are expressed in units. Xmin must be negative and Xmax positive. X Step represents the size of the unit in centimeters (for example the unit can be of 0.5 cm) X Factor is the multiplicative factor of the legend (for example, if the factor is 2.5, the legend for each unit will have a step of 2.5) Dash represents the thickness of the lines Half-graduation enables to draw intermediate lines with dashed lines The following example illustrates this functionality:

Geometrical 2D and 3D figures

Button	Description of the button
	Inserts a triangle in real size.
	Inserts an arc of an ellipse (or of a circle) defined by its radiuses and its angle. Click here to popup an example of this functionality (you need to have Javascript active). Warning: This tool is programmed in VBA, hence the creation of the figure takes some time, so be patient. The Arc of Ellipse panel By pressing the Arc of Ellipse button, a preference panel pops up enabling to modify the following parameters: Small Radius is expressed in centimeters ans represents the vertical radius of the ellipse hosting the arc Great Radius is expressed in centimeters ans represents the horizontal radius of the ellipse hosting the arc Angle represents the arc in degrees (for example if the angle is 90°, we get a quarter of an ellipse) Dash represents the thickness of the line The following example illustrates this functionality: the result is an arc of circle of 150° with a radius of 3 cm:
3D Objects	Inserts predefined 3D objects.