I just tried drawing lots of lines with Libre Office Draw (forked from OOo with a different license). So I double click the line tool, draw some lines, double click the rectangle tool, draws some rectangles. Ok, do something else I take it you mean apart from selecting another drawing tool. Ok back to the line tool. So now I try changing paragraph and font formatting - still keeps the line tool. I can paste text - still keeps the line tool so long as I don't click the text. Actually if I just click the page and don't draw anything, it loses the tool.
Line tool is staying on whatever kind of ending I set. I can change a line I've drawn and the tool is still on what I was just using.
Ok Ron, it does exactly what I think it should and what I think you mean you think it should. Maybe you should try Libre Office...
With Visio, I got into the habit of clicking out in empty space to de-select the current line segment. It is that habit that is causing the problem. When you do that with Visio, the tool selection does not revert to anything else. I think I got into this habit because my method was to draw a line or two and then select them and adjust them. My memory is a bit hazy on this.
I just loaded LibreOffice and tried it. On first glance, it behaves exactly as OO Draw does, so still a bit irritating. But for others, it would not be unless they have the same habit that I do. Thanks for suggesting Libre Office, I like the layout of it better than Open Office and will make it my main office tool.
edit: Perhaps we need a separate thread for this, but....now I've played with LibreOffice a bit and I see why it bugs me. I often want to draw shapes with multiple line segments. These are not closed polygons, just random stuff. Let's say I put down the first line by double clicking the line tool and drawing it. The line is displayed with little squares at the ends. Now, if I try to begin my next line at the end of the first line I can't do it because as long as those little squares are there, the program only lets me move the end point of the first line, not to add to it. To draw another line, I have to click out in empty space and then double click the line tool again. How do I add my next line segment without doing all this clicking. In Visio, I can draw my first line, then immediately draw my second line starting at the end of the first. I can't do that in Draw.
second edit: I decided to seek help from the OpenOffice forum about this problem that I have, and got a quick resolution. The way to do what I want to do turns out to be not difficult. I have to start with the polygon tool instead of the line tool, draw my lines one after the other, and then with the polygon selected, right click and then select "Break". This turns all the line segments into individual objects, which is what I want. Not quite as intuitive as visio, but better than what I was doing up till now.
In summary, it seems that OpenOffice Draw or Libre Office Draw probably give you the functionality of Visio, but you will have to relearn a few things, as did I .