Q: How to make stereotype icons appear in images?

[austin_hastings]

I've created a class diagram with a <<table>> element in it.

When I CTRL+B to copy an image of the diagram to the clipboard, then CTRL+V to paste that image into OpenOffice Write, the diagram appears, but the stereotype icon for the <<table>> element is not present. The table is a plain box, with the name, etc. in the right places.

How can I make the stereotype icon appear in the exported image?

Thanks,

=Austin

[«Midnight»]

Hi Austin,

The icon (at least) is certainly in the exported image. I've just done a quick test with MS Word, and the table icon came out just fine.

I don't think the <<table>> stereotype shows up no matter what you do, at least if you choose the Table item from the toolbox.

[I just tested this, and stereotyping a class as <<table>> causes the icon to appear without showing the stereotype. Other stereotypes show up as expected, both on the EA diagram and in images pasted into Word via the clipboard.]

I suggest looking into the OOO documentation.

BTW, are you using OO 2.0?

David

[austin_hastings]

Midnight,

I've done a little more looking.

1. The icon is NOT in the clipboard image for OO/Write. It IS present for MS/Word.

Here's what I did:

Draw a diagram. Press CTRL+B.

Alt+Tab to OO/Write. Press CTRL+V.
Alt+Tab to MS/Word. Press CTRL+V.

I see the diagram, but no icon, in OO/Write. I see the diagram with icon in MS/Word. Then I tried "save to file" instead.

Same diagram. Press CTRL+T. Save as .PNG file.
Alt+Tab to OO/Write. Insert->Picture->From File.

I see the diagram, but the icon IS THERE.

Apparently, the "Save to clipboard" doesn't work, but "Save to file" does.

So I have a viable, but incredibly annoying, work-around. I don't know what the difference is between OO/Write and MS/Word. Perhaps some kind of advanced clipboard voodoo?

2. It's the icon, not the "<<table>>" text, that I want. There's an option to switch back and forth between the two, I think.

4. I'm using OOo 2.0, yes.

=Austin

[austin_hastings]

Okay, more research:

1. Icon appears for:

MS/Word
MS/Powerpoint
Paint Accessory
Wordpad Accessory

Journal 4


2. Does not appear for:

OO/Write
OO/Draw
OO/Impress

The fact that it works for J4 suggests that someone is doing a better job of implementing clipboard stuff than OpenOffice. (As opposed to this being a purely microsoft thing.)

[«Midnight»]

Hi again Austin,

What I meant about the clipboard was, if Word (regardless of whether it is from MS, just that it's not associated with EA) can 'see' the icon in the clipboard it is there. EA has already put everything it is going to provide into the clipboard before you switch to the receiving application.

It would not surprise me if the clipboard format were rather convoluted. There are several (dozen) formats, and applications often do a minor conversion on the fly. The one chosen by OO may not catch graphics within graphics, as it were.

Try changing the format for images in the Options/XML Specifications dialog. I was using metafile, which is not the default, when I did my test.

Sadly, I don't have OO on my workstation here. I did download it for use on a test system, but then the monitor died - probably not as a direct consequence. Until I replace the monitor (it was a nice one, so I'm resisting the cost) I won't be able to bring OO up. You'll have to do the footwork on that side.

If the behavior persists, it is worth writing a bug report to the OO folks. First you'll want to write a short add-in program to get the graphics format of whatever ends up in the clipboard, so the OO developers will have some hard information to work with.

Good luck,
David