OpenOffice Draw

"Slides" is just like traditional use of "page" (but a slide can be 
printed across multiple physical pages, of course).

Selection
    Select multiples by shift-clicking.
    Click anywhere without dragging to break the grouping
    (or right-click / group to lock them together for now on; and ungroup 
    to cancel).

COMBINE
    Makes one object out of multiple.
    Inner objects turn white?

PROPERTIES shown and set (color at least) apply to currently selected 
object OR to default if no object selected.  Therefore, to change
default, just click in background to de-select everything.

Lock creation tool by selecting subtool type then double-click on main tool.
Unlock creation tool by single-clicking in background.

RESIZING
    To preserve aspect ration, Shift-click-and-drag.

TEXT
    Can double-click on any shape to add text to it.
    You can select the text box itself, or some letters(s) to configure.

Z-positioning
    Right-click object and Arrange.

LAYER/VIEW contro
    The Slide and Master View (tiny) buttons toggle between Multi and Master
     mode.  It's one or the other.
    The Layer View (tiny) button is itself a toggle
        In Multi mode it toggles between showing slides and showing layers.
        In Master mode, it shows "Default" (corresp. to slide) and "Backg objs".
SLIDE VIEW:  Use this to see either indivual slides or layers (by toggling
 the Layer button).

SLIDES vs. LAYERS.  Tentative guesses
    By default, you get "slide 1" + global "Default" slide.
    By default, you get layers Layout, Controls, Dimension Lines + global "BgO."
    Stuff on both "Default" g. slide and "Bg. Objs" g. layer appear on every
     single slide x layer.

LAYERS
    LAYER PROPERTIES
        Visible
        Printable
        Locked
    ???Default Layer is "Background objects".  Can't rename this one.
    Right click on any of the layer tabs (at botton) to modify the "current" 
    layer.
    Normally objects added to layers get added to the layer only in current
     slide.  Use Master View to add to all slides at once.
    Move objects among layers by click-and-hold-and-drag-to-layer-tab.
    DOCs say 3 default layers which you can't change.  View / Layers to view.
        Layout.  Shown in Drawing View.  Determines location of title, text, 
         object placeholders.  Change by selecing a different AutoLayout for
         slide.  [NO SUCH VIEW AS "Drawing" VIEW!]  (aka "Master Slide"?)
         (Format / Styles / Slide Design)
        Controls.  Buttons that have been assigned an action.
        Dimension Lines.  Auto-calculate-and-disolay lines.

VIEWS
    Controlled by tiny buttons at far botton left of frame.

ALIGNING
    Select items and use alignment tool.

OPTIONS
    I see all of the options buttons, but they don't do a damned thing.

BITMAPS
    Gamma is like brightness compensated for CRTs.  Goes from about .5 to 5,
    with 1 doing nothing.
    Transparency takes up processing time to render.
    Invert is like a negative.  Solarization is a modified inversion.
    Posterize reduces number of colors to use.
    Relief.  Set light source to off-center then this will make a 3d-like
     grayscale image with some depth.
    You can right-shift-original-size without adding distortion.
    Right-click/Shapes, Intersect will trim image to one or more selected
     shapes that it is on top of.

CURVES
    Basic curve.  Click at start point and drag in original direction a
    distance corresonding to how strongly it goes towards that direction.
    Then double-click the end point.
    Can continue click and dragging additional control points, but each
    one starts a new curve :(.