In LibreOffice Draw, I have some connectors connecting boxes, and I have put text on the connectors. The connector line goes through the text. Is there any way to have the connector line disappear around the text, so that the text looks nicer/legible?
Also, the text is in the center of the connector. Is there any way to move the text to a different position on the connector?
Add Text to connector
Select and right click on connector -> click Edit Style
Click on tab "Text"
If text is required to be on TOP of connector line change Spacing to borders -> Bottom (increase the number) 0.30 works for me. You can play with these numbers and Text anchor for required result
Result should look good :)
As an alternative to this procedure: You can as well use generic Text (F2 key) block and put text anywhere in drawing.
I usually just enter the text and press return, to add an extra empty line of text below, this makes the text go right on top of the line.
Right click on arrow and select Edit styles -> Highlighting
Pick color same as background - or any other color of choosing. This will appear as the text's background color
Also you can "rotate" the text, adding the tooldbar "Txt formatting" and selecting the connector text and clicking on button on the screenshot
Screenshot: toolbar button: text direction top to bottom
When I edit text at a connector, the "Paragraph" panel appears in the right side bar. If the text is at the horizontal part of a connector and I just click "Align Bottom" in the top right corner of the "Paragraph" panel, the text appears above the connector. I find this approach faster than in the wisemonkey's answer. Using "Align Top" to make the text appear below the line is also possible, but with some letters (e.g. "i"), the text appear touching the line for some reason, so it might be not the best option.
If the line is not horizontal, the above approach does not work. Instead, I found most easy increasing "Before Text Indent" in the same "Paragraph" panel. This moves the text to the right and away from the connector line. Having several lines of text, it is possible to Shift+Enter to insert line break, so that to have only one paragraph to format.
To rotate the text to position it along the connector line, whatever the shape of the connector line is, it is possible to use "Insert Fontwork Text" button to get the "Fontwork" dialog box. To add it to the toolbar, go "View" → "Toolbars" → "Customize", type "Fontwork" in the search box, and add the "Fontwork" ("Ефекти" with Ukrainian display language) button to a target toolbar. When editing text, click this new button (with "Insert Fontwork Text" tooltip, which is "Вставити текстовий ефект" with Ukrainian interface language) and click "Rotate" to make the text rotate along the connector line. If the text appears on the wrong side, click "Orientation". (See video.)
Working in LibreOffice 6.1.5.2.
Personally, I would prefer the part of the line under the text to disappear automatically, but maybe it is just my Visio background speaking.
I'm new to LibreOffice as of v7.5 (2023) and it turns out there are now TWO Fontwork commands that do very different things. "Insert Fontwork Text" is an imitation of WordArt in MS Word. It has an outline of an F for an icon. Unfortunately, perhaps in its attempt to compete with MS Word, LO makes this one much easier to find, it has its own menu item.
But the older Fontwork, as described above and in various older sources for adding label text to connectors, is still there and will align the connector label along the length and curve of the connector. It has an icon of a T inside a keystone shape. It is not findable through the menus or with the Help command. I was able to find it by searching through the All Commands in Customizing a Toolbar. The different icon was a clue. I added it to my Drawing Toolbar and discovered that it still works the same, although the dialog is layed out a little different.
