Writer Guide

8

Chapter
Working with Graphics

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separately.)CopyrightThis document is Copyright © 2008–2010 by its contributors as listed
in the section titled Authors. You may distribute it and/or modify it
under the terms of either the GNU General Public License, version 3 orlater, or the Creative Commons Attribution License, version 3.0 or
later.
All trademarks within this guide belong to their legitimate owners.

Authors
Agnes Belzunce
John Kane
Vincenzo Ponzi
Gary Schnabl
Barbara M. Tobias
Jean Hollis Weber
Michele Zarri

Feedback
Please direct any comments or suggestions about this document to:authors@documentation.openoffice.org

Publication date and software version
Published 25 March 2010. Based on OpenOffice.org 3.2.

You can download
an editable version of this document fromhttp://oooauthors.org/english/userguide3/published/

Contents
Copyright............................................................................................... 2
Graphics (images) in Writer...................................................................5
Creating and editing images..................................................................5
Preparing images for black-and-white printing...................................6
Adding images to a document................................................................7
Inserting an image file........................................................................7
Drag and drop.................................................................................. 7
Insert Picture dialog........................................................................7
Linking an image file..........................................................................8
Embedding linked images................................................................9
Inserting an image from the clipboard.............................................10
Inserting an image using a scanner..................................................10
Inserting an image from the Gallery.................................................10
Modifying an image.............................................................................. 12
Using the Picture toolbar..................................................................12
Graphics mode............................................................................... 12
Flip vertically or horizontally .......................................................13
Filters............................................................................................ 13
Color.............................................................................................. 13
Transparency................................................................................. 14
Using the formatting toolbar and Picture dialog..............................14
Cropping images............................................................................... 15
Resizing an image............................................................................. 16
Rotating a picture.............................................................................18
Other settings................................................................................... 18
Deleting a picture.............................................................................19
Using Writer’s drawing tools...............................................................19
Creating drawing objects..................................................................20
Set or change properties for drawing objects...................................20
Resizing a drawing object.................................................................21
Grouping drawing objects.................................................................22
Working with Graphics

3Positioning graphics within the text.....................................................22
Arranging graphics...........................................................................23
Anchoring graphics........................................................................... 24
Aligning graphics.............................................................................. 25
Wrapping text around graphics........................................................26
Editing the contour........................................................................ 28
Example 1: page wrapping............................................................29
Example 2: simple contour wrapping in action..............................30
Example 3: Wrap Through and In Background..............................31
Adding captions to graphics.................................................................32
Adding captions automatically..........................................................32
Using the Caption dialog box............................................................33
Overriding the default positioning of captions..................................34
Adding captions manually.................................................................35
Place the graphic and its caption in separate paragraphs.............35
Use a table..................................................................................... 36
Creating an image map........................................................................36
Adding an image to the Gallery............................................................38

4

Working with Graphics

Graphics (images) in Writer
When you create a text document using OpenOffice.org (OOo) Writer,
you may want to include some illustrations. Illustrations (graphics) areadded to documents for a wide variety of reasons: from supporting thedescription provided in the text—as used in this Guide—to providing an
immediate visual representation of the contents, as is often found in a
newspaper.
Graphics in Writer are of three basic types:• Image files, such as photos, drawings, and scanned images• Diagrams created using OOo’s drawing tools• Charts created using OOo’s Chart facility
This chapter covers images and diagrams.
More detailed descriptions on working with drawing tools can be foundin the Draw Guide and Impress Guide. Instructions on how to create
charts are given in the Calc Guide.

Creating and editing images
You might create images (also called ‘pictures’ in OpenOffice.org)
using a graphics program, scan them, or download them from theInternet (make sure you have permission to use them), or use photos
taken with a digital camera. Writer can import various vector (linedrawing) and raster (bitmap) file formats. The most common are GIF,
JPG, PNG, and BMP. See the Help for a full list.
Some things to consider when choosing or creating pictures include
image quality and whether the picture will be printed in color or black
and white (grayscale).
To edit photos and other bitmap images, use a bitmap editor. To edit
line drawings, use a vector drawing program. You do not need to buy
expensive programs. Open-source (and usually no-cost) tools such as
Gimp (bitmap editor) and Inkscape (vector drawing program) are
excellent. For many graphics, OOo Draw is sufficient. These and manyother programs work on Windows, Macintosh OS X, and Linux.
For best results:• Create images that have the exact dimensions required for the

document, or use an appropriate graphics package to scale
photographs and large drawings to the required dimensions. Do
not scale images with Writer, even though Writer has tools for
Creating and editing images

5doing this, because the results might not be as clear as you would
like.
• Do any other required image manipulation (brightness andcontrast, color balance, cropping, conversion to grayscale, and soon) in a graphics package, not in Writer, even though Writer has
the tools to do a lot of these things too.
• If the document is meant for screen use only, there is no need touse high resolution images of 300 or more dpi (dots per inch).
Most computer monitors work at between 72 and 96 dpi, reducing
the resolution (and the file size) has no negative impact on what isdisplayed but does make Writer more responsive.

Preparing images for black-and-white printing
If color images are to be printed in grayscale, check that any adjacentcolors have good contrast and print dark enough. Test by printing on a
black-and-white printer using a grayscale setting. Better still: change
the “mode” of the image to grayscale, either in a photo editor or inWriter itself (see “Graphics mode” on page 12).
For example, the following diagram looks good in color. The circle isdark red and the square is dark blue. In grayscale, the difference
between the two is not so clear. A third element in the diagram is ayellow arrow, which is almost invisible in grayscale.

Original drawing in color

Drawing printed in grayscale

Changing the colors of the circle and the arrow improves the contrast
and visibility of the resulting grayscale image.

Original drawing in color

6

Drawing printed in grayscale

Working with Graphics

If the document will be available in black-and-white print only, a better
result can often be obtained by choosing grayscale fills, not color fills—
and you don’t have to guess and test to see if you’ve made good
choices.

Adding images to a document
Images can be added to a document in several ways: by inserting animage file, directly from a graphics program or a scanner, or from theOOo Gallery.

Inserting an image file
When the image is in a file stored on the computer, you can insert it
into an OOo document using either of the following methods.

Drag and drop1) Open a file browser window and locate the image you want toinsert.
2) Drag the image into the Writer document and drop it where youwant it to appear. A faint vertical line marks where the image will
be dropped.
This method embeds (saves a copy of) the image file in the Writer
document. To link the file instead of embedding it, hold down theControl+Shift keys while dragging the image.

Insert Picture dialog
1) Click in the OOo document where you want the image to appear.
2) Choose Insert > Picture > From File from the menu bar.
3) On the Insert Picture dialog, navigate to the file to be inserted,
select it, and click Open.
At the bottom of the dialog are two options, Preview and Link. SelectPreview to view a thumbnail of the selected image on the right, so you
can verify that you have the correct file. See below for the use of Link.

Adding images to a document

7

Figure 1. Insert picture dialog

Linking an image file
If the Link option in the Insert picture dialog is selected, OOo createsa link to the file containing the image instead of saving a copy of theimage in the document. The result is that the image is displayed in the
document, but when the document is saved, it contains only areference to the image file—not the image itself. The document and theimage remain as two separate files, and they are merged together only
when you open the document again.
Linking an image has two advantages and one disadvantage:• Advantage – Linking can reduce the size of the document when it
is saved, because the image file itself is not included. File size isusually not a problem on a modern computer with a reasonableamount of memory, unless the document includes many large
graphics files; OOo can handle quite large files.
• Advantage – You can modify the image file separately withoutchanging the document because the link to the file remains valid,
and the modified image will appear when you next open the
document. This can be a big advantage if you (or someone else,
perhaps a graphic artist) is updating images.
• Disadvantage – If you send the document to someone else, ormove it to a different computer, you must also send the image
files, or the receiver will not be able to see the linked images. You
need to keep track of the location of the images and make sure
the recipient knows where to put them on another machine, so
the document can find them. For example, you might keep images
8

Working with Graphics

in a subfolder named Images (under the folder containing the
document); the recipient of the file needs to put the images in a
subfolder with the same name (under the folder containing the
document).

Note

When inserting the same image several times in the document
it would appear beneficial to create links; however, this is notnecessary as OOo embeds in the document only one copy of
the image file.

Embedding linked images
If you originally linked the images, you can easily embed one or moreof them later if you wish. To do so:1) Open the document in OpenOffice.org and choose Edit > Links.
2) The Edit Links dialog shows all the linked files. In the Source file
list, select the files you want to change from linked to embedded.
3) Click the Break Link button.
4) Save the document.
Note

Going the other way, from embedded to linked, is not so easy—
you must delete and reinsert each image, one at a time,
selecting the Link option when you do so.

Figure 2: The Edit Links dialog

Adding images to a document

9

Inserting an image from the clipboard
Using the clipboard, you can copy images into an OOo document fromanother OOo document and from other programs. To do this:1) Open both the source document and the target document.
2) In the source document, select the image to be copied.
3) Move the mouse pointer over the selected image and press
Control+C to copy the image to the clipboard.
4) Switch to the target document.
5) Click to place the cursor where the graphic is to be inserted.
6) Press Control+V to insert the image.
CautionIf the application from which the graphic was copied is closed
before the graphic is pasted into the target, the image stored on
the clipboard could be lost.

Inserting an image using a scanner
If a scanner is connected to your computer, OOo can call the scanningapplication and inserted the scanned item into the OOo document as
an image. To start this procedure, click where you want the graphic to
be inserted and select Insert > Picture > Scan > Select Source.
Although this practice is quick and easy, it is unlikely to result in ahigh-quality image of the correct size. You may get better results byscanned material into a graphics program and cleaning it up there
before inserting the resulting image into OOo.

Inserting an image from the Gallery
The Gallery provides a convenient way to group reusable objects suchas graphics and sounds that you can insert into your documents. The
Gallery is available in all components of OOo. It does not come withmany graphics, but you can add your own pictures or find extensions
containing more graphics. The Gallery is explained in more detail in
Chapter 11 (Graphics, the Gallery, and Fontwork) in the Getting
Started guide. For more about extensions, see Chapter 17(Customizing Writer) in this book.

10

Working with Graphics

This section explains the basics of inserting a Gallery image into a
Writer document:
1) To open the Gallery, click on the Gallery icon
(located in theright side of the Standard toolbar) or choose Tools > Gallery
from the menu bar.
2) Navigate through the Gallery to find the desired picture.
3) To insert the picture, click and drag it from the Gallery into theWriter document. You can also right-click on the picture andchoose Insert > Copy.
Figure 3 shows an example of an image dragged from the Gallery.

Figure 3. Inserting an image from the Gallery
By default, the Gallery is docked above the Writer workspace. To
expand the Gallery, position the pointer over the line that divides itfrom the top of the workspace. When the pointer changes to parallellines with arrows, click and drag downward. The workspace resizes in
response.
To expand the Gallery without affecting the workspace, undock it so it
floats over the workspace. To do so, hold down the Control key anddouble-click on the upper part of the Gallery next to the View icons.
Double-click in the same area while holding down the Control key todock it again (restore it to its position over the workspace).
Adding images to a document

11

When the Gallery is docked, to hide it and view the full Writer
workspace, click the Hide/Show button in the middle of the thin bar
separating the Gallery from the workspace.
To close the Gallery, choose Tools > Gallery to uncheck the Gallery
entry, or click on the Gallery icon again.

Modifying an image
When you insert a new image, you may need to modify it to suit the
document. The placement of the picture relative to the text is
discussed in “Positioning graphics within the text” on page 22. Thissection describes the use of the Picture toolbar, resizing, cropping, anda workaround to rotate a picture.
Writer provides many tools for working with images. These tools are
sufficient for most people’s everyday requirements. However, forprofessional results it is generally better to use an image manipulation
program such as GIMP to modify images (for example, to crop, resize,
rotate, and change color values) and then insert the result into OOo.
GIMP is an open-source graphics program that can be downloaded
from http://www.gimp.org/downloads/.

Using the Picture toolbar
When you insert an image or select one already present in the
document, the Picture toolbar appears. You can set it to always bepresent (View > Toolbars > Picture). Picture control buttons fromthe Picture toolbar can also be added to the Standard Toolbar. See
Chapter 17 (Customizing Writer) for more information.
This toolbar can be either floating or docked. Figure 4 shows what thePicture toolbar looks like when it is floating.
Two other toolbars can be opened from this one: the Graphic Filter
toolbar, which can be torn off and placed elsewhere on the window,
and the Color toolbar, which opens as a separate floating toolbar.
From these three toolbars, you can apply small corrections to thegraphic or obtain special effects.

Graphics mode
You can change color images to grayscale by selecting the image andthen selecting Grayscale from the Graphics mode list

12.

Working with Graphics

Flip vertically or horizontally
To flip an image vertically or horizontally, select the image, and thenclick the relevant icon.

Filters
Table 1provides a short description of the available filters, however thebest way to understand them is to see them in action. Feel free toexperiment with the different filters and filters settings, rememberingthat you can undo all the changes by pressing Ctrl+Z or
Alt+Backspace or by selecting Edit > Undo.
1

2

3

4

5

6

9

19

10

18

20

17

21

11
12

7

8

22
13

14 15

16

23
24
25

Note: Graphics mode (3) can be Default, Grayscale,Black/White, or Watermark.

Figure 4. Picture toolbar plus tear-off Graphic
Filter toolbar and floating Color toolbar

1 From File
2 Filter
3 Graphics mode
4 Color
5 Transparency
6 Flip Horizontally
7 Flip Vertically
8 Graphics Properties
9 Invert
10 Smooth
11 Solarization
12 Aging
13 Charcoal Sketch
14 Relief
15 Mosaic
16 Posterize
17 Pop Art
18 Sharpen
19 Remove Noise
20 Red21 Green
22 Blue
23 Brightness
24 Contrast
25 Gamma

Color
Use this toolbar to modify the individual RGB color components of theimage (red, green, blue) as well as the brightness, contrast, andgamma of the image. If the result is not satisfactory, you can press
Control+Z to restore the default values.

Modifying an image

13

Table 1: Graphic filters and their effects
Icon

Name

EffectInvertInverts the color values of a color image or thebrightness values of a grayscale image.

SmoothSoftens the contrast of an image.

SharpenIncreases the contrast of an image.

Remove noise

Removes single pixels from an image.

Solarization

Mimics the effects of too much light in a picture.
A further dialog box opens to adjust theparameters.

Aging

Simulates the effects of time on a picture. Can beapplied several times. A further dialog box opens
to adjust the aging level.

Posterize

Makes a picture appear like a painting by
reducing the number of colors used.

Pop ArtModifies the picture dramatically.

Charcoal

Displays the image as a charcoal sketch.

Relief

A dialog box is displayed to adjust the lightsource that will create the shadow and, hence,
the relief effect.

MosaicJoins groups of pixels into a single area of one
color.

Transparency
Modify the percentage value in the Transparency box
on thePicture toolbar to make the image more transparent. This isparticularly useful when creating a watermark or when wrapping theimage in the background.

Using the formatting toolbar and Picture dialog
When an image is selected, you can customize some aspects of its
appearance using the tools available on the Formatting toolbar (shownin Figure 9) as well as in the dialog that is shown by right-clicking on
the image and selecting Picture. You can, for example, create a borderaround the image, selecting style and color; or you can (in the Borders
page of the Picture dialog) add a shadow to the image.
14

Working with Graphics

Cropping images
When you are only interested in a section of the image for the purposeof your document, you may wish to crop (cut off) parts of it. The userinterface offered in Writer for cropping an image is not very friendly, so
it may be a better choice to use a graphics package.
Note

If you crop an image in Writer, the picture itself is not changed.
If you export the document to HTML, the original image isexported, not the cropped image.

To start cropping the image, right-click on it and select Picture fromthe pop-up menu. In the Picture dialog box, select the Crop page.

Figure 5: The options available when cropping a picture
In the Crop page, you can control the following parameters:
Keep scale / Keep image size
When Keep scale is selected (default), cropping the image does notchange the scale of the picture.
When Keep image size is selected, cropping produces enlargement(for positive cropping values), shrinking (for negative cropping
values), or distortion of the image so that the image size remains
constant.

Modifying an image

15

Left, Right, Top, and Bottom
The image is cropped by the amount entered in these boxes. For
example, a value of 3cm in the Left box cuts 3 cm from the left sideof the picture.
• When Keep scale is selected, the size of the image also changes,

so in this example the width will be reduced by 3 cm.
• When Keep image size is selected, the remaining part of theimage is enlarged (when you enter positive values for cropping)or shrunk (when you enter negative values for cropping) so thatthe width and height of the image remains unchanged.
Width and Height
The Width and Height fields under either Scale or Image sizechange as you enter values in the Left, Right, Top, and Bottom
fields. Use the thumbnail next to these fields to determine thecorrect amount by which to crop.

Resizing an image
The inserted image might not fit perfectly into the document if it is too
big or too small. In these cases you can use Writer to resize the image.
1) Click the picture, if necessary, to show the green resizing handles.
2) Position the pointer over one of the green resizing handles. The
pointer changes shape giving a graphical representation of thedirection of the resizing.
3) Click and drag to resize the picture.
4) Release the mouse button when satisfied with the new size.
The corner handles resize both the width and the height of the graphic
object simultaneously, while the other four handles only resize one
dimension at a time.
Tip

To retain the original proportions of the graphic, Shift+click
one of the corner handles, then drag. Be sure to release themouse button before releasing the Shift key.

Be aware that re-sizing a bit-mapped (raster) image will adversely
affect the resolution, causing some degree of blurring. It is better toexternally size your picture correctly before insertion into yourpresentation, if possible.
Figure 6 shows three examples of an image inserted into a document
and resized.

16

Working with Graphics

Figure 6. Three examples of resized images, plus theoriginal image
For more accurate resizing, use either the Crop page of the Picture
dialog box (Figure 5) or, for images, the Type page of the Picture
dialog box. On the Crop page you can either adjust the following
settings or use the settings in the Crop section as described on page15.
• Scale Width and Height: specify in percentages the scaling of
the picture. The size of the image changes accordingly. For ascaled resizing, both values should be identical.
• Image size: specify the size of the image in your preferred unit ofmeasurement. The image enlarges or shrinks accordingly.
• Original size button: when clicked, restores the image to its
original size.
In the Type page of the Picture dialog box, select the Relative option
to toggle between percentage and actual dimension. For a scaled
resizing, select the Keep ratio option. As for the Crop page, clicking
on the Original Size button restores the original image size.

Modifying an image

17

Rotating a picture
Writer does not provide a tool for rotating a picture; however, there isa simple workaround:1) Open a new Draw or Impress document (File > New > Drawing
or File > New > Presentation).
2) Insert the image you want to rotate. You can use any of themechanisms described in “Adding images to a document” on page7, although there are some slight variations in the position of themenu entries and icons.
3) Select the image, then in the Drawing toolbar (shown by default
at the bottom of the window in Impress and Draw), select the
Rotate iconfrom the Effects tear-off toolbar.
4) Rotate the image as desired. Use the red handles at the corners of
the picture and move the mouse in the direction you wish torotate. By default the picture rotates around its center (indicatedby a black crosshair), but you can change the pivot point bymoving the black crosshair to the desired rotation center.
Tip

To restrict the rotation angle to multiples of 15 degrees keep
the Shift key pressed while rotating the image.

5) Select the rotated picture by pressing Ctrl+A, then copy theimage to the clipboard with Ctrl+C.
6) Finish by going back to the location of the Writer document
where the image is to be inserted and pressing Ctrl+V.

Other settings
The Picture dialog box (Figure 5) consists of eight pages. The Crop
page was described on page 15, while the use of the Type and the
Wrap pages is explained in “Positioning graphics within the text” onpage 22. The other pages serve the following purposes:• Options: use this page to give the picture a descriptive name (asyou want it to appear in the Navigator), display alternative text
when the mouse hovers over the picture, and protect some of thepicture settings from accidental changes. You can also preventthe picture from being printed by deselecting the corresponding
option.
• Borders: use this page to create borders around the picture. The
Borders dialog box is the same as the one used for defining tableor paragraph borders. You can also add a shadow to the image if
so desired.
18

Working with Graphics

• Background: use this page to change the background color of

the picture. This setting produces the desired results only forimages with a transparent color.
• Hyperlink: use this page to associate a hyperlink to the picture.
you can also create an image map so that only certain areas of thepicture respond to a mouse click by opening the associated URI(Uniform Resource Identifier) in the default browser. Moreinformation on image maps can be found in the Impress Guide.
• Picture: use this page to flip the picture as well as to display theoriginal location of the file in case the image is linked rather thanembedded.
• Macro: allows you to associate a macro to the picture. You canchoose among the predefined macros or write your own.

Deleting a picture
To delete a picture:1) Click on the picture, to show the green resizing handles.
2) Press Delete.

Using Writer’s drawing tools
You can use Writer’s drawing tools to create graphics, such as simple
diagrams using rectangles, circles, lines, text, and other predefined
shapes. You can also group several drawing objects to make sure they
maintain their relative position and proportion.
You can place the drawing objects directly on a page in your document,or you can insert them into a frame.
You can also use the drawing tools to annotate photographs, screen
captures, or other illustrations produced by other programs, but this is
not recommended because:• You cannot include images in a group with drawing objects, sothey may get out of alignment in your document.
• If you convert a Writer document to another format, such asHTML, the drawing objects and the graphics will not remain
associated; they are saved separately.
In general, if you need to create complex drawings, it is recommended
to use OpenOffice.org Draw, which includes many more features suchas layers, styles, and so on.

Using Writer’s drawing tools

19Creating drawing objects
To begin using the drawing tools, display the Drawing toolbar (Figure7), by clicking View > Toolbars > Drawing.
If you are planning to use the drawing tools repeatedly, you can tear off
this toolbar and move it to a convenient place on the window.

1 Select
2 Line3 Rectangle
4 Ellipse

5 Freeform Line
6 Text7 Callouts
8 Basic Shapes

9 Symbol Shapes
10 Block arrows
11 Flowcharts
12 Callouts

13 Stars
14 Points
15 Fontwork Gallery
16 From File
17 Extrusion On/Off

Figure 7. The Drawing toolbar
To use a drawing tool:
1) Click in the document where you want the drawing to beanchored. You can change the anchor later, if necessary.
2) Select the tool from the Drawing toolbar (Figure 7). The mousepointer changes to a drawing-functions pointer.
3) Move the cross-hair pointer to the place in the document where
you want the graphic to appear and then click-and-drag to create
the drawing object. Release the mouse button. The selecteddrawing function remains active, so you can draw another objectof the same type.
4) To cancel the selected drawing function, press the Esc key orclick on the Select icon (the arrow) on the Drawing toolbar.
5) You can now change the properties (fill color, line type andweight, anchoring, and others) of the drawing object using either
the Drawing Object Properties toolbar (Figure 8) or the choices
and dialog boxes reached by right-clicking on the drawing object.

Set or change properties for drawing objects
To set the properties for a drawing object before you draw it:1) On the Drawing toolbar (Figure 7), click the Select tool.
2) On the Drawing Object Properties toolbar (Figure 8), click on theicon for each property and select the value you want for thatproperty.

20

Working with Graphics

3) For more control, or to define new attributes, you can click on the
Area or Line icons on the toolbar to display detailed dialog boxes.
The default you set applies to the current document and session. It is
not retained when you close the document or close Writer, and it does
not apply to any other document you open. The defaults apply to all thedrawing objects except text objects.

1 Line5 Line Color

9 To Foreground

13 Alignment

2 Arrow Style

6 Area10 To Background

14 Change Anchor

3 Line Style

7 Area Style / Filling 11 Bring to Front

15 Ungroup

4 Line Width

8 Rotate

16 Group

12 Send to Back

Figure 8. Drawing Object Properties toolbar
To change the properties for an existing drawing object:
1) Select the object.
2) Continue as described above.
You can also specify the position and size, rotation, and slant andcorner radius properties of the drawing object:
1) Right-click on the drawing object and then click Position and Sizefrom the pop-up menu. The Position and Size dialog box isdisplayed.
2) Choose any properties, as required.

Resizing a drawing object
The same considerations for resizing an image apply also to resizing an
object. Select the object, click on one of the eight handles around it
and drag it to its new position. For a scaled resizing, select one of thecorner handles and keep the Shift key pressed while dragging thehandle to its new position.
For more sophisticated control of the size of the object, select Format> Object > Position and Size from the menu bar. Use the Position
and Size dialog box to set the width and height independently. If the
Keep ratio option is selected, then the two dimensions change so thatthe proportion is maintained, allowing for a scaled resizing.

Using Writer’s drawing tools

21

Grouping drawing objects
To group drawing objects:
1) Select one object, then hold down the Shift key and select theothers you want to include in the group. The bounding box
expands to include all the selected objects.
2) With the objects selected, hover the mouse pointer over one ofthe objects and choose Format > Group > Group from the menu
bar or right-click and choose Group > Group from the pop-up
menu.
Note

You cannot include an embedded or linked graphic in a groupwith drawing objects.

Positioning graphics within the text
When you add a graphic to a text document, you need to choose how toposition it with respect to the text and other graphics. The positioningof graphics is often rather time-consuming and may be very frustrating
for both inexperienced and experienced users. As Writer is a word
processor rather than a desktop publishing program, there are some
limitations to the flexibility in positioning images and it takes time to
get things exactly as you would like them.
Positioning of a graphic is controlled by four settings:• Arrangement refers to the placement of a graphic on an
imaginary vertical axis. Arrangement controls how graphics arestacked upon each other or relative to the text.
• Alignment refers to the vertical or horizontal placement of agraphic in relation to the chosen anchor point.
• Anchoring refers to the reference point for the graphics. This
point could be the page, or frame where the object is, aparagraph, or even a character. An image always has an anchor
point.
• Text wrapping refers to the relation of graphics to thesurrounding text, which may wrap around the graphic on one orboth sides, be overprinted behind or in front of the graphic, or
treat the graphic as a separate paragraph or character.

22

Working with Graphics

The settings can be accessed in a number of ways, depending on thenature of the graphics:
1) From the Format menu, where you can find Alignment,
Arrange, Wrap, and Anchor (both for images and drawing
objects).
2) From the pop-up menu displayed when you right-click on thegraphic.
3) From the Object toolbar shown in Figure 9.
4) For images, from the Type and Wrapping pages of the Picture
dialog box. Note that you cannot control the arrangement using
the dialog box. To open the Picture dialog box, click on the image
to select it and then choose Format > Picture or right-click on
the graphic and choose Picture on the pop-up menu.
5) For drawing objects, from the Position and Size page of the
Position and Size dialog box. To open the Position and Size dialog
box, click on the drawing object to select it and then choose
Format > Object > Position and Size or right-click on thegraphic and choose Position and Size on the pop-up menu. Notethat you can only control the alignment and anchoring.

1 Apply Style

6 Center Horizontal

11 Borders

16 Bring to Front

2 Wrap Off

7 Align Right

12 Line Style

17 Send to Back

3 Page Wrap

8 Top

13 Line Color (of theborder)18 Change Anchor

4 Wrap Through9 Center

14 Background Color

19 Link Frames

5 Align Left

10 Bottom

15 Frame Properties

20 Unlink Frames

Figure 9. Object toolbar (graphical control of positioning for images)

Arranging graphics
Arranging a graphic object means to determine its vertical position
relative to other graphic objects or text. Arranging is only relevant
when objects are overlapping. You can choose between four settings,
plus a special setting for drawing objects:
Bring to Front
Places the graphic on top of any other graphics or text.

Positioning graphics within the text23

Bring Forward
Brings the graphic one level up in the stack (z-axis). Depending on
the number of overlapping objects, you may need to apply thisoption several times to obtain the desired result.
Send Backward
The opposite of Bring Forward; sends the selected graphic one level
down in the object stack.
Send to Back
Sends the selected graphic to the bottom of the stack, so that othergraphics and text cover it.
To Background / To Foreground
Only available for drawing objects; moves the drawing object behindor in front of the text respectively.

Anchoring graphics
You can anchor graphics as a character or to a page, paragraph, orcharacter. You can also place graphics in a frame and anchor the frame
to a page, paragraph, or character. Which method you choose depends
on what you are trying to achieve.
Here are the ways you can anchor graphics or drawing objects:
To Page
The graphic keeps the same position in relation to the page margins.
It does not move as you add or delete text or other graphics. Thismethod is useful when the graphic does not need to be visuallyassociated with a particular piece of text. It is often used when
producing newsletters or other documents that are very layout
intensive, or for placing logos in letterheads.
CautionIf you plan to use a document within a master document, do
not anchor graphics To Page because the graphics will
disappear from the master document. See Chapter 13(Working with Master Documents) for more information.

To Paragraph
The graphic is associated with a paragraph and moves with theparagraph. It may be placed in the margin or another location. Thismethod is useful as an alternative to a table for placing icons besideparagraphs.

24

Working with Graphics

To Character
The graphic is associated with a character but is not in the text
sequence. It moves with the paragraph but may be placed in themargin or another location. This method is similar to anchoring to aparagraph but cannot be used with drawing objects.
As Character
The graphic is placed in the document like any other character and,
therefore, affects the height of the text line and the line break. The
graphic moves with the paragraph as you add or delete text before
the paragraph. This method is useful for keeping screenshots insequence in a procedure (by anchoring them as a character in ablank paragraph) or for adding a small (inline) icon in sequence in a
sentence.
To Frame
If the graphic has been placed in a frame, you can anchor thegraphic in a fixed position inside the frame. The frame can then be
anchored to the page, a paragraph, or a character, as required.

Aligning graphics
Once you have established the anchor point of the graphic, you candecide the position of the graphic relative to this anchor: this is calledaligning the graphics. Choose from six options: three for aligning thegraphic horizontally (left, center, right) and three for aligning thegraphic vertically (top, center, bottom). Horizontal alignment is notavailable for images anchored as character.
For finer control of the alignment, use the Position options on the Typepage of the Picture dialog box, shown in Figure 10.

Figure 10: Fine tuning the alignment
For both the horizontal and vertical position, start by picking thereference point in the right hand side drop down menu, then select in
the first drop down menu among Left, Right or Center. If you selectthe value From left (or From top for the vertical positioning) you canspecify the amount in your selected unit of measurement. In the
Positioning graphics within the text25

example in Figure 10, the upper-left corner of the image will be placed
at 3 cm from the left margin of the page horizontally and on the top
margin vertically.

Wrapping text around graphics
The Wrap setting determines the relation between the text and thegraphic. Several possibilities are provided:
No Wrap
With this option the text is placed above and below the image but
not around it. This is the wrapping type used for most of the figuresin this guide.
Page Wrap or Optimal Page Wrap
The text flows around the image. Moving the image around the pagecauses the text to be rearranged to fill the space to the left and rightof it. Optimal Page Wrap prevents text from being placed to theside of the image if the spacing between the image and the margin
is less than 2 cm.
Wrap ThroughSuperimposes the image on the text. That is, the image is above thetext. This option must be used in conjunction with the imagetransparency setting in order to make the text under the picture
visible.
In Background
Similar to Wrap Through, but the image is placed below the text sothere may be no need to change the transparency to make the text
visible.
Note

The No Wrap option found in the pop-up menu of a picture isequivalent to the Wrap Off menu item in the Format > Wrapmenu.

The wrap format is normally selected after the anchoring and thealignment of the picture have been decided. To set the position of animage to the the desired wrap format, follow these steps:
1) Select a graphic by clicking on it.
2) Right-click to display the pop-up menu and move the mousepointer to Wrap to display the available wrap formats.
Alternatively you can select Format > Wrap from the main
menu.
26

Working with Graphics

3) Select the desired wrap format.
Note

When anchoring a graphic as character, you can only adjust
the distance between the image and the text, but no wrapping
option is displayed.

To fine tune the wrapping options, open the Picture dialog box andselect the Wrap page shown in Figure 11. For images you can open this
dialog box by selecting Format > Picture from the main menu orright-click and select Picture from the pop-up menu. For drawing
objects, you can access the Wrap page by selecting Format > Wrap >Edit in the main menu or right-click and select Wrap > Edit from the
pop-up menu.

Figure 11: The advanced wrap format options
This page is divided into three sections. In the top part you can selectamong the wrap types mentioned above, plus two additional wrap
formats that prevent the text from filling the area to the left (After) or
to the right (Before) of the picture. Use the Spacing section of thepage to adjust the spacing between the image and the text. The
contents of the Options section of the page may change depending on
the selected wrap format.
First paragraph
Check this box if you want OOo to start a new paragraph after theimage even if it could still wrap around the image.

Positioning graphics within the text27

In background
This option becomes available if Through Wrap is selected; itmoves the image in the background.
Contour
Wraps the text around a custom contour rather than around theedge of the picture. This option is only available for Page or Optimal
Page Wrap.
Outside only
Forces the text to wrap on the outside of the image, even if thecontour contains open areas within the shape.

Editing the contour
This option is only available for image wrapping. If you select wrapping
around a drawing object, OOo automatically creates a contour. You canaccess the Contour Editor by selecting Format > Wrap > Edit
Contour or from the right-click menu
The dialog box of Figure 12 opens with the image loaded in the main
window. Use the tools to draw the region of the image you do not want
to be covered by the text—such area will be shaded.
Some familiarity with drawing tools is required to create complex
contours; however, in most circumstances there is no need for highaccuracy. Figure 12 shows the actual contour used for “Example 2:
simple contour wrapping in action” and as you can see the shape of theline around the edge of the sphere is far from perfect.
When you are done, click on the Apply button to save the contour. If
you are not satisfied with the result, you can select the contour line
and press the Delete key to restart. You can also undo the previous
steps or you can select the Edit Points button and adjust the contour
shape point by point.
For simple images, the AutoContour button does a decent job. If thecontour has to be drawn around an area with the same or a similarcolor, you can select this region using the eyedropper. Select this tool,
then click on a point in the image having the desired color. OOoautomatically selects all the points which have the same or a similarcolor. The similarity level can be changed by modifying the value in thetolerance box (100% = perfect match).
Note

28

While all the positioning techniques discussed in this section
apply equally to frames, contour wrapping is not possible.

Working with Graphics

Figure 12: The Contour Editor in action

Example 1: page wrapping
Figure 13 shows an example of page wrapping in action.

Image anchor
Spacing image to text

Margin to image distance
Figure 13: Example of image with Page Wrap formatting

Positioning graphics within the text

29

The process to obtain this is the following:1) Insert the image into the document, then anchor it to the firstparagraph. To move the anchor, select the image and move it until
the anchor symbol is at the beginning of the paragraph. Do notworry about the position as that will be fixed in the next step.
2) Align the image so that the left margin of the image is in line withthe paragraph indentation. This can be done with the mouse or
using the advanced settings. In the example, the image is placed
1 cm from the left margin.
3) Change the wrap to Page Wrap. It starts out OK; however, there is
still too little space between the image and the text. To correct it,
access the Wrap page of the Picture dialog box and set the gap
between the image and text to 0.2 cm in the Right and Bottom
boxes.
4) The last touch is to change the position so that the image is below
the first line of the paragraph. Again, you can use the mouse to
drag the image or use the advanced settings, which require a bitof trial and error. The line height used in this guide—0.75 cm
from the top margin of the paragraph—is a good value.

Example 2: simple contour wrapping in action
In this example we again apply page wrapping as in example 1,enabling this time the contour option. We will work on an image and on
a drawing object as the contour option works slightly differently in thetwo cases.
The example of Figure 14 has been built following the steps below,
which you can use to practice.
1) Create some text (a very quick way to do that is to use the dummy
text AutoText. That is, type DT and then press the F3 key).
2) Insert an image of your choice and anchor it to the firstparagraph. Adjust the alignment as desired then change the wrap
type to Page Wrap.
3) Right-click on the picture to select the option Wrap > Contour,
then right-click again and select Wrap > Edit Contour from the
pop-up menu.
4) Use the technique discussed in “Editing the contour” on page 28
to create a custom contour and click Apply. If needed, adjust the
spacing between the edge of the image and the text.
5) Insert an AutoShape of your choice (a rotated triangle in theexample) and proceed as in step 2 above.

30

Working with Graphics

6) Enable the contour wrap by selecting Format > Wrap >Contour from the main menu. As discussed previously, OOoautomatically generates the contour. You may need to adjust the
distance between the drawing object and the text.

Figure 14: Image and drawing object with contour wrapping

Example 3: Wrap Through and In Background
This example shows how to use an image as a watermark by wrapping
it through the text and adjusting the transparency. This is not the best
way to create watermarks and it is presented here only for its
illustration purposes. If you need to create a watermark, it is best to
use a Fontworks object wrapped in the background.
The Wrap Through option inserts an image overlapping the text which
as a result will be hidden. To make the text appear, change thetransparency of the picture; although the words under the image
become visible, they may be difficult to read and will appear lighter
than the rest of the text.
To reproduce the example of Figure 15 create some dummy text, theninsert the image of your choice. Anchor the image (to the page in theexample) and select the wrap through option from the Format > Wrapmenu or right-clicking on the image and selecting Wrap > Wrap
Through from the pop-up menu. Move the image into the desired
position. The Picture toolbar should be displayed when the image is
Positioning graphics within the text31

selected. Change the transparency to a suitable value (in the example
this is 40%) so that the text can be read. In the example, a shadow
effect is applied to the text (Format > Character then select Shadow
in the Font Effects page).

Figure 15: Transparent image added over the text
You can obtain a better result if you set a graphic’s wrap to In
Background. In this case all the text will be clearly readable, withcharacters that have the same intensity as long as the background is
not too dark. Also in this case you may want to adjust the transparencyof the image.

Adding captions to graphics
You can add captions to graphics in three ways: automatically, by using
the Caption dialog box, or manually.

Adding captions automatically
You can set up OOo to add captions automatically whenever you insert
a graphic, a table, or other objects into a document. You can choose
which objects are captioned automatically, what the sequence name isfor each caption (for example, “Table” or “Illustration”), and theposition of the caption.
To set up automatic captions:
1) Click Tools > Options. On the Options dialog box, click on the +sign next to OpenOffice.org Writer to show a list of options.

32

Working with Graphics

2) Select AutoCaption. Now you can see several choices at theright of the dialog box for adding captions automatically.
3) Choose which objects you want to be automatically captioned andspecify the characteristics of the captions.
For more information, see “AutoCaption options” in Chapter 2 (Setting
up Writer).
When you insert a graphic, if automatic captioning is enabled, thegraphic is placed in a frame along with a caption containing the default
sequence name for graphics―Illustration. Position the cursor in thecaption area and type the text for the caption. You can change thesequence name by selecting one from the drop-down Category list.

Note

You can specify where to place an automatic caption for any
object except a picture; picture captions can only be
automatically placed below the picture. If you need a caption
above the picture (for example, for data plots in scientificpublications), you must add the captions manually, as
described in “Adding captions manually” on page 35.

Tip

A common sequence name—Figure—is not one of the names
provided: <None>, Drawing, Illustration, Table, and Text.
If you want the name “Figure” or any other custom name foryour graphics, do the following:1) Open the Options – OpenOffice.org Writer –AutoCaption dialog box, as described above.
2) In the Add captions automatically when inserting section,
select OpenOffice.org Writer Picture. This activates the
Caption area in the dialog box for pictures (graphics).
3) Under the Category drop-down list, enter the name thatyou want added (say, Figure), by overwriting any sequencename in the list. (Overwriting a term does not delete itfrom the drop-down list.) You can also set some options forthe number style and for a separator between the nameand the number, if desired. Click OK to save the changes.

Using the Caption dialog box
To add captions using the Caption dialog box:
1) Insert the graphic, then select it and click Insert > Caption.
2) Under Properties on the Caption dialog box (Figure 20), makeyour selections for the Category, Numbering, and Separator fields(Illustration, Arabic (1 2 3), and a colon (:), respectively, for the
Adding captions to graphics

33

example in Figure 16 and type your caption text in the Caption
text box at the top. Whatever text you enter for the caption
appears in the box at the bottom, after the sequence name,number, and separator.
3) Click OK. The graphic and its caption are placed in a frame, as
shown in Figure 17.
Tip

In the Category box, you can type any name you want, forexample, Figure. OOo will create a numbering sequence usingthat name.

Figure 16. Defining the caption for an illustration

Illustration 1. An example

Figure 17. An example of a graphic and its caption contained in aframe. The outer box shows the edge of the frame; this border isnormally set to be invisible.

Overriding the default positioning of captions
The default positioning for picture captions is Below, and that position
cannot be changed using the Caption dialog. However, you canoverride the positioning manually, as follows:
1) Follow the instructions in “Using the Caption dialog box” on page
33 to create the caption.
34

Working with Graphics

2) Right-click on the picture (not the frame surrounding picture andcaption) and make sure that Anchor > To paragraph isselected.
3) Left-click on the picture and drag it below the caption.
Tip

You may wish to adjust the spacing above and below thecaption text, to fine-tune the appearance of the picture and its
caption.

Adding captions manually
If you need to save as *.doc files or export in other formats, you may
find that captions applied as described above (either automatically or
using the Caption dialog box) are lost during the export. To avoid
export problems, or as another way to put captions above pictures or
below them (the usual case), you can add a caption manually, in eitherof two ways:• Place the graphic and its caption in separate paragraphs.
• Use a table.

Place the graphic and its caption in separate paragraphs
Insert the graphic and anchor it to its paragraph as a character. Press
Enter to create a new paragraph for the caption.
1) In the caption paragraph, type, for example, Figure and add aspace.
2) To insert the figure number automatically, click Insert > Fields> Other (Control + F2) and select the Variables tab.
3) Select Number range in the Type list. Select Figure in the
Selection list and choose, for example, Arabic (1 2 3) in theFormat drop-down list. Click the Insert button.
4) A number will appear after the word “Figure” in the caption. Now,
type the text of the caption.

Adding captions to graphics

35

Tips

If you are manually adding captions to a lot of figures using
this method, you might want to make an AutoText entry
containing, for example, Figure and a space, the figurenumber field, and an optional separator and a space after it.
To ensure the picture and its caption stay together on thepage: if the picture is going above the caption, define the text
flow of the Figure paragraph style as Keep with next
paragraph and the next style as Caption. Conversely, if thecaption is going above, define the Caption paragraph style as
Keep with next paragraph and the next style as Figure.

Use a table
Create a one-column, two-row table. Place the picture in one row andtype the caption in the other row—or use two or more rows for thecaption and other text. This method can be especially useful for
pictures with numbered legends, such as Figure 9 in this chapter.

Creating an image map
An image map defines areas of an image (called hotspots) withhyperlinks to web addresses, other files on the computer, or parts ofthe same document. Hotspots are the graphic equivalent of text
hyperlinks (described in Chapter 12). Clicking on a hotspot causes OOo
to open the linked page in the appropriate program (for example, thedefault browser for an HTML page; OOo Calc for a .ODS file; a PDF
viewer for a PDF file). You can create hotspots of various shapes andinclude several hotspots in the same image.
To use the image map editor:
1) In your OOo document, select the picture where you want todefine the hotspots.
2) Choose Edit > ImageMap from the menu bar. The ImageMap
Editor (Figure 18) opens.
3) Use the tools and fields in the dialog (described on the next page)
to define the hotspots and links necessary.
4) Click the Apply icon

to apply the settings.

5) When done, click the Save icon
to save the imagemap to a file,then click the X in the upper right corner to close the dialog.

36

Working with Graphics

Figure 18: The dialog to create or edit an image map
The main part of the dialog shows the image on which the hotspots aredefined. A hotspot is identified by a line indicating its shape.
The toolbar at the top of the dialog contains the following tools:• Apply button: click this button to apply the changes.
• Load, Save, and Select icons.
• Tools for drawing a hotspot shape: these tools work in exactly thesame way as the corresponding tools in the Drawing toolbar.
• Edit, Move, Insert, Delete Points: advanced editing tools tomanipulate the shape of a polygon hotspot. Select the Edit Points
tool to activate the other tools.
• Active icon: toggles the status of a selected hotspot between
active and inactive.
• Macro: associates a macro with the hotspot instead of justassociating an hyperlink.
• Properties: sets the hyperlink properties and adds the Nameattribute to the hyperlink.
Below the toolbar, specify for the selected hotspot:• Address: the address pointed by the hyperlink. You can also point
to an anchor in a document; to do this, write the address in thisformat: file:///<path>/document_name#anchor_name

Creating an image map

37• Text: type the text that you want to be displayed when the mousepointer is moved over the hotspot.
• Frame: where the target of the hyperlink will open: pick among_blank (opens in a new browser window), _self (opens in theactive browser window), _top or _parent.
Tip

The value _self for the target frame will work just fine in the vast
majority of occasions. It is therefore not recommended to use
the other choices unless absolutely necessary.

Adding an image to the Gallery
You may wish to add to the Gallery any images that you use frequently,
for example, a company logo. You can then very easily insert thesegraphics into a document later.
To add images to the Gallery, proceed as follows:
1) Open the Gallery.
2) Select the theme where you want to add images, or you cancreate a new theme. Note that you can add images only to “My
Theme” or to any other theme that you have created; these areindicated by a green icon in the list of themes. You cannot add
images to the built-in themes, indicated by an icon of anothercolor.
To create a new theme:a) Click the New Theme button above the list box of Themes.
The Properties of New Theme dialog box opens, which issimilar to the one shown in Figure 19.
b) Select the General tab (not shown) and type a name for the
new theme in the text box.
c) Select the Files tab, skip step 3, and continue with step 4.
3) Right-click on the desired theme and select Properties in the
pop-up menu. This displays a window from which to select thefiles to be added.

38

Working with Graphics

Figure 19. Gallery properties dialog box4) On the Files page, click the Find Files button. The Select path
dialog box opens.
5) You can enter the path for the file’s directory in the Path text box,
or you can navigate to locate the file’s directory. Use the File typedrop-down list to help limit the search.
6) Click the Select button to start the search. A list of graphic files
is then displayed in the window. You can use the File type filter
again to further limit the search.
7) Select the files to add. To select more than one file, hold theControl key down while you click on each file.
8) Finally, click Add.
9) When you have finished working with the Gallery, you can click on
its iconto close it.

NoteThis procedure assumes that the graphic files for the themes
already exist. You may need to import some graphics or tocreate your own onto your computer if the existing files are
insufficient.

Note

Similar to the file search function on various operating
systems, Find Files searches for graphic files in any
subfolders of the directory selected in step 5.

Adding an image to the Gallery

39