accessopen generic andor non-generic files 1048633

save files in appropriate format 1048633 1048633

protect file(s) 1048633

print a range of business documents 1048633

produce a screen printout to evidence file protection 1048633

archive files 1048633

create a mail merge master Penalised under 1d

insert merge codes in main document 1048633 1048633

format mail merge documents 1048633

create mail merge query 1048633

perform mail merge 1048633 1048633

import a text file 1048633

import a data file 1048633

Import an image 1048633

import a graph 1048633 1048633

insert table 1048633

set column widths 1048633

set columncell alignment 1048633

apply gridlines and bordersshading 1048633

enter textnumeric data in specified format 1048633 1048633

make amendments to document(s) 1048633

use advanced search and replaceaccessopen generic andor non-generic files 1048633

save files in appropriate format 1048633 1048633

protect file(s) 1048633

print a range of business documents 1048633

produce a screen printout to evidence file protection 1048633

archive files 1048633

create a mail merge master Penalised under 1d

insert merge codes in main document 1048633 1048633

format mail merge documents 1048633

create mail merge query 1048633

perform mail merge 1048633 1048633

import a text file 1048633

import a data file 1048633

Import an image 1048633

import a graph 1048633 1048633

insert table 1048633

set column widths 1048633

set columncell alignment 1048633

apply gridlines and bordersshading 1048633

enter textnumeric data in specified format 1048633 1048633

make amendments to document(s) 1048633

use advanced search and replace

Creating the data sourceA data source is a database containing the name and address records(and optionally other information) from which a mailing list may bederived Although you can create and print mailing labels andenvelopes without using a data source in most cases using one is thebest approach This chapter assumes that you are using a data sourceOOo can access a wide variety of data sources including spreadsheetstext files and databases such as MySQL Adabas and ODBC If theinformation to be used in the mail merge is currently in a format thatOOo cannot access directly you need to convert it for example byexporting it to a comma-separated values (CSV) fileFor the following example we use a spreadsheet with the followingcolumn (field) headers Title First name Last name AddressStateCounty Country Post Code Sex Points

Registering a data sourceFor a data source to be directly accessible from within an OOodocument it must first be registered as described below

1) Click File gt Wizards gt Address Data Source

2) Select the appropriate type of external address bookmdashin thiscase Other external data source (The choices on this page of

the wizard vary with your operating system) Click Next

3) On the next page of the Wizard click Settings

4) In the Data Source Properties dialog select theDatabase type (in this case Spreadsheet) Click Next

5) In the next dialog click Browse and navigate to thespreadsheet that contains the address information Select thespreadsheet and click Open to return to this dialog At this timeyou may wish to test that the connection has been correctlyestablished by clicking on the Test Connection button (not

shown in illustration)

6) Click Finish7) In the following dialog click Next (Do not click Field Assignment)

8) Name the file in the Location field The default isAddressesodb but you may replace Addresses with anothername if you wish You may also change the name in the ldquoAddressbook namerdquo field In our example the name ldquoPointsrdquo was used forboth

9) Click Finish The data source is now registered

Creating a form letterYou can create a form letter manually which is the simplest and mostcomprehensive method and is described here If you elect to use the wizard pay close attention to its current limitations as identified within itsdescription1) Create a new text document File gt New gt Text Document oropen a pre-existing form letter with File gt Open2) Display the registered data sources View gt Data sources (orpress F4)3) Find the data source that you wish to use for the form letter inthis case Points Expand the Points and Tables folders andselect Sheet1 The address data file is displayed

4) Now create or modify the form letter by typing in textpunctuation line breaks and so on that will be present in all ofthe letters and adding fields where needed by clicking in the fieldheading and dragging to the appropriate point in the letter Note that address lines should be in individual paragraphs notseparated by line breaks as might seem preferable The reasonfor this will be made clear in the next step

5) Continue until you have composed the entire document At this time you may wish to considersuppressing any blank lines that may appear in the resultingletters If not skip ahead to Step 7

6) To suppress blank linesp) Click at the end of the first paragraph to be suppressed

andthen select Insert gt Fields gt Otherq) Select the Functions tab and then click on HiddenParagraph in the Type columnr) Now click in the Condition box and enter the details of

thecondition that defines a blank address field It has the

generalform of[DatabaseTableDatabase field]where the lsquorsquo (NOT) character indicates the negative case

and

the square brackets indicate the conditionFor example in our Points database the condition to test if theCompany field is empty would be[PointsSheet1Company] as illustrated

To test for multiple conditions use the operators AND andorOR between the conditional statements for example[PointsSheet1Title]AND[PointsSheet1Last Name]s) Click Insert but do not close the dialog until you haveamended all the lines that should be suppressed

The document is now ready to be printed1) Click File gt Print and respond with Yes in the message box2) In the Mail Merge dialog (Figure 302) you can choose to print allrecords or selected records To select records to be printed use

Ctrl+click to select individual records To select a block ofrecords select the first record in the block scroll to the lastrecord in the block and Shift+click on the last record

3) Click OK to send the letters directly to the printerIf you prefer to save the letters to a file perhaps to allowproofreading or some later formatting select File in the outputsection of the Mail Merge dialog instead of using the defaultPrinter selection This changes the dialog to display the Savemerged document section where Save as single document ispre-selected You can choose to save each letter as a singleindividual document if preferredIn this case clicking OK brings up the Save as dialog Enter a filename for the saved letters They will be saved consecutively in thesingle document or numbered consecutively in individual files ifsaved as single documents

4) If you have not saved the original prototype form letter document(template) previously then you should do so now Having a formletter template could greatly simplify the creation of other formletters in the future and is highly recommended

Graphics in WriterWhen you create a text document using OpenOfficeorg (OOo) Writeryou may need to include some graphic illustrations Graphics areadded to textual documents for a wide variety of reasons fromsupporting the description provided in the textmdashsuch as that used inthis Guidemdashto providing an immediate visual impact of the contentssuch as what is often found in a newspaperGraphics in Writer are of three basic typesbull Image files including photos drawings scanned images andothersbull Diagrams created using OOorsquos drawing toolsbull Charts created using OOorsquos Chart facilityThis chapter covers the first two types of graphic illustrations

Inserting an image from a fileIn the case where the image is already available in a file stored on thecomputer it can be immediately inserted in the Writer document OOocan import various vector (line drawing) and raster (bitmap) fileformats The most common are GIF JPEG or JPG PNG and BMP SeeldquoGraphic file types supportedrdquo for a full list of supportedgraphic file typesTo insert an image from a file proceed as follows1) Determine the destination for the image Place the cursor at ornear the appropriate location in the document2) On the main menu select Insert gt Picture gt From File 3) Navigate to the file to be inserted select it and click Open

Inserting images from other sourcesYou can insert images from sources other than a filebull Graphics programbull Scannerbull OOo GalleryGraphics programYou can use many different graphics programs to edit a graphic fileFrom these programs you can select copy and paste an image or partof a graphic into an OOo document Figure 251 shows an example ofthis procedure which can be recreated with these steps1) In the graphic program window select an area of the image to becopied2) Move the cursor over the selected area and press Control+C tocopy

3) Switch to the OOo Writer window4) Click to place the cursor where the graphic is to be inserted5) Press Control+V to paste the image

ScannerIf a scanner is connected to your computer OOo can call the scanningapplication and insert the scanned item into the Writer document pageas an image To start this procedure place the cursor where thegraphic is to be inserted and select Insert gt Picture gt Scan gt SelectSourceAlthough this practice is quick and easy it is unlikely to result in ahigh-quality image of the correct size You may get better results byscanning material into a graphics program and cleaning it up therebefore inserting the resulting image into WriterOpenOfficeorg GalleryThe Gallery contains objects (graphics and sounds) that you can insert

into your documents The Gallery is available in all components of OOoFor an introduction to the Gallery (Graphics theGallery and Fontwork) in the Getting Started guideTo select a graphic from the Gallery and drag it into the document1) Click on the Gallery icon (located in the right side of theStandard toolbar) or choose Tools gt Gallery2) Select the theme containing the image you want to insert3) Click on the image with the left mouse button then drag and dropthe image into the document You can also right-click on theobject and select Insert gt Copy

Using the picture toolbarWhen you insert a suitable graphic image or select one already presentin the document the Picture toolbar appears This toolbar can beeither floating or docked Figure below shows what the Picture toolbarlooks like when it is floating Two other toolbars can be opened from

this one the Graphic Filter toolbar which can be torn off and placedelsewhere on the window and the Color toolbar which opens as aseparate floating toolbarFrom these toolbars you can apply small corrections to the graphic orobtain special effectsFiltersTable 5provides 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 orAlt+Backspace or by selecting Edit gt Undo

Graphic filters and their effects

ColorUse this dialog box to modify the individual RGB color components ofthe image (red green blue) as well as the brightness contrast andgamma of the image If the result is not satisfactory you can pressControl+Z to restore the default valuesSetting the object transparencyModify 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 dialogWhen an image is selected you can customize some aspects of itsappearance using the tools available on the Formatting toolbar as well as in the dialog that is shown by right-clickingon the image and selecting Picture You can forexample create a border around the image selecting style and coloror you can (in the Borders page of the Picture dialog) add a shadow tothe imageCropping imagesWhen 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 To startcropping the image right-click on it and select Picture from the popupmenu In the Picture dialog box select the Crop page

In the Crop dialog box you can control the following parametersbull Keep scale Keep image size options when Keep scale isselected (default) cropping the image does not change the scaleof the picture When Keep image size is selected croppingproduces enlargement (for positive cropping values) shrinking (for negative cropping values) or distortion of the image so thatthe image size remains constantbull Left Right Top and Bottom the function of these boxeschanges according to the choice made between Keep scale andKeep image size In both cases when a value is entered in one ofthese boxes the image is cropped by that amount For example avalue of 3cm in the Left box will cut 3 cm from the left side of thepictureWhen Keep scale is selected the size of the image also changesso in this example the width will be reduced by 3 cm If Keepimage size is selected instead the remaining part of the image isenlarged (positive values for cropping) or shrunk (negative values

for cropping) so that the width and height of the image remainsunchanged

Note that the Width and Height fields change as you enter thevalues when in this mode Use the thumbnail next to these fieldsto determine the correct amount by which to crop

Resizing an imageIt is possible and quite likely that the inserted image will not fitperfectly into the document because it is too big or too small In thesecases you will need to resize the image1) Click the picture if necessary to show the green resizing handles2) Position the pointer over one of the green resizing handles Thepointer changes shape giving a graphical representation of thedirection of the resizing3) Click and drag to resize the picture4) Release the mouse button when satisfied with the new sizeThe corner handles resize both the width and the height of the graphicobject simultaneously while the other four handles only resize onedimension at a time

Rotating a pictureWriter does not provide a tool for rotating a picture however there isa very simple workaround1) Open a new Draw or Impress document2) Insert the image you want to rotate You can use any of themechanisms described in ldquoAdding images to a documentrdquo on page264 although there are some slight variations in the position ofthe menu entries and icons3) Select the image then in the drawing toolbar (shown by default atthe bottom of the window in Impress and Draw) select theRotate icon

4) Rotate the image as desired Use the red handles at the corners ofthe 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

Using Writerrsquos drawing toolsYou can use Writerrsquos drawing tools to create graphics such as simplediagrams using rectangles circles lines text and other predefinedshapes You can also group several drawing objects to make sure theymaintain their relative position and proportionYou can place the drawing objects directly on a page in your documentor you can insert them into a frameYou can also use the drawing tools to annotate photographs screencaptures or other illustrations produced by other programs but this isnot recommended becausebull You cannot include images in a group with drawing objects sothey may get out of alignment in your documentbull If you convert a Writer document to another format such asHTML the drawing objects and the graphics will not remainassociated they are saved separately

In general if you need to create complex drawings it is recommendedto use OpenOfficeorg Draw which includes many more features suchas layers styles and so onCreating drawing objectsTo begin using the drawing tools display the Drawing toolbar by clicking View gt Toolbars gt DrawingIf you are planning to use the drawing tools repeatedly you can tear offthis toolbar and move it to a convenient place on the window

To use a drawing tool1) Click in the document where you want the drawing to beanchored You can change the anchor later if necessary2) Select the tool from the Drawing toolbar The mousepointer changes to a drawing-functions pointer 3) Move the cross-hair pointer to the place in the document whereyou want the graphic to appear and then click-and-drag to createthe drawing object Release the mouse button The selecteddrawing function remains active so you can draw another objectof the same type4) To cancel the selected drawing function press the Esc key orclick on the Select icon (the arrow) on the Drawing toolbar5) You can now change the properties (fill color line type andweight anchoring and others) of the drawing object using eitherthe Drawing Object Properties toolbar or the choicesand dialog boxes reached by right-clicking on the drawing object

Positioning graphics within the textWhen you add a graphic to a text document you need to choose how toposition the graphic with respect to the text and other graphics Thepositioning of graphics is often rather time-consuming and may be veryfrustrating for both inexperienced and experienced users As Writer isa word processor rather than a desktop publishing program there aresome limitations to the flexibility in positioning images and it takestime to get things exactly as you would like them Starting fromOpenOfficeorg 30 this task is considerably improved by the inclusionof a new option that allows a ldquoloose anchoringrdquoPositioning of a graphic is controlled by working on four areasbull Arrangement refers to the placement of a graphic on animaginary vertical axis Arrangement controls how graphics arestacked upon each other or relative to the textbull Alignment refers to the vertical or horizontal placement of a

graphic in relation to the chosen anchoring pointbull Anchoring refers to the reference point for the graphics Thispoint could be the page or frame where the object is aparagraph or even a character

bull Text wrapping refers to the relation of graphics to surroundingtext which may wrap around the graphic on one or both sides beoverprinted behind or in front of the graphic or treat the graphicas a separate paragraph or characterThe settings for each of the four control areas above can be accessedin a number of different ways depending on the nature of the graphics1) From the Format menu where you can find AlignmentArrange Wrap and Anchor (both for images and drawingobjects)2) By the pop-up menu displayed when right-clicking on thegraphics3) From the Frame toolbar shown in Figure 259 for images with theGraphics frame style applied4) From the Type and Wrapping pages of the Picture dialog box forimages Note that you cannot control the arrangement using thedialog box To open the Picture dialog box click on the image toselect it and then choose Format gt Picture or right-click on thegraphic and choose Picture on the pop-up menu5) From the Position and Size page of the Position and Size dialogbox for drawing objects To open the Position and Size dialog boxclick on the drawing object to select it and then choose Format gtObject gt Position and Size or right-click on the graphic andchoose Position and Size on the pop-up menu Note that you canonly control the alignment and anchoring

Arranging graphicsArranging a graphic object means to determine its vertical positionrelative to other graphic objects or text Arranging is only relevantwhen objects are overlapping You can choose between four settingsplus a special setting for drawing objects

Bring to Front draws the graphic on top of any other graphicsor textbull Bring Forward brings the object one level up in the stack (zaxis)Depending on the number of overlapping objects you mayneed to apply this option several times to obtain the desiredresultbull Bring Backward the opposite of Bring Forward sends theselected object one level down in the object stackbull Send to Back sends the selected graphic to the bottom of thestack so that other graphics and text cover itbull To Background To Foreground only available for drawingobjects moves the drawing object behind or in front of the textrespectively

produce a screen printout to evidence file protection 1048633

archive files 1048633

create a mail merge master Penalised under 1d

insert merge codes in main document 1048633 1048633

format mail merge documents 1048633

create mail merge query 1048633

perform mail merge 1048633 1048633

import a text file 1048633

import a data file 1048633

Import an image 1048633

import a graph 1048633 1048633

insert table 1048633

set column widths 1048633

set columncell alignment 1048633

apply gridlines and bordersshading 1048633

enter textnumeric data in specified format 1048633 1048633

make amendments to document(s) 1048633

use advanced search and replace

Creating the data sourceA data source is a database containing the name and address records(and optionally other information) from which a mailing list may bederived Although you can create and print mailing labels andenvelopes without using a data source in most cases using one is thebest approach This chapter assumes that you are using a data sourceOOo can access a wide variety of data sources including spreadsheetstext files and databases such as MySQL Adabas and ODBC If theinformation to be used in the mail merge is currently in a format thatOOo cannot access directly you need to convert it for example byexporting it to a comma-separated values (CSV) fileFor the following example we use a spreadsheet with the followingcolumn (field) headers Title First name Last name AddressStateCounty Country Post Code Sex Points

Registering a data sourceFor a data source to be directly accessible from within an OOodocument it must first be registered as described below

1) Click File gt Wizards gt Address Data Source

2) Select the appropriate type of external address bookmdashin thiscase Other external data source (The choices on this page of

the wizard vary with your operating system) Click Next

3) On the next page of the Wizard click Settings

4) In the Data Source Properties dialog select theDatabase type (in this case Spreadsheet) Click Next

5) In the next dialog click Browse and navigate to thespreadsheet that contains the address information Select thespreadsheet and click Open to return to this dialog At this timeyou may wish to test that the connection has been correctlyestablished by clicking on the Test Connection button (not

shown in illustration)

6) Click Finish7) In the following dialog click Next (Do not click Field Assignment)

8) Name the file in the Location field The default isAddressesodb but you may replace Addresses with anothername if you wish You may also change the name in the ldquoAddressbook namerdquo field In our example the name ldquoPointsrdquo was used forboth

9) Click Finish The data source is now registered

Creating a form letterYou can create a form letter manually which is the simplest and mostcomprehensive method and is described here If you elect to use the wizard pay close attention to its current limitations as identified within itsdescription1) Create a new text document File gt New gt Text Document oropen a pre-existing form letter with File gt Open2) Display the registered data sources View gt Data sources (orpress F4)3) Find the data source that you wish to use for the form letter inthis case Points Expand the Points and Tables folders andselect Sheet1 The address data file is displayed

4) Now create or modify the form letter by typing in textpunctuation line breaks and so on that will be present in all ofthe letters and adding fields where needed by clicking in the fieldheading and dragging to the appropriate point in the letter Note that address lines should be in individual paragraphs notseparated by line breaks as might seem preferable The reasonfor this will be made clear in the next step

5) Continue until you have composed the entire document At this time you may wish to considersuppressing any blank lines that may appear in the resultingletters If not skip ahead to Step 7

6) To suppress blank linesp) Click at the end of the first paragraph to be suppressed

andthen select Insert gt Fields gt Otherq) Select the Functions tab and then click on HiddenParagraph in the Type columnr) Now click in the Condition box and enter the details of

thecondition that defines a blank address field It has the

generalform of[DatabaseTableDatabase field]where the lsquorsquo (NOT) character indicates the negative case

and

the square brackets indicate the conditionFor example in our Points database the condition to test if theCompany field is empty would be[PointsSheet1Company] as illustrated

To test for multiple conditions use the operators AND andorOR between the conditional statements for example[PointsSheet1Title]AND[PointsSheet1Last Name]s) Click Insert but do not close the dialog until you haveamended all the lines that should be suppressed

The document is now ready to be printed1) Click File gt Print and respond with Yes in the message box2) In the Mail Merge dialog (Figure 302) you can choose to print allrecords or selected records To select records to be printed use

Ctrl+click to select individual records To select a block ofrecords select the first record in the block scroll to the lastrecord in the block and Shift+click on the last record

3) Click OK to send the letters directly to the printerIf you prefer to save the letters to a file perhaps to allowproofreading or some later formatting select File in the outputsection of the Mail Merge dialog instead of using the defaultPrinter selection This changes the dialog to display the Savemerged document section where Save as single document ispre-selected You can choose to save each letter as a singleindividual document if preferredIn this case clicking OK brings up the Save as dialog Enter a filename for the saved letters They will be saved consecutively in thesingle document or numbered consecutively in individual files ifsaved as single documents

4) If you have not saved the original prototype form letter document(template) previously then you should do so now Having a formletter template could greatly simplify the creation of other formletters in the future and is highly recommended

Graphics in WriterWhen you create a text document using OpenOfficeorg (OOo) Writeryou may need to include some graphic illustrations Graphics areadded to textual documents for a wide variety of reasons fromsupporting the description provided in the textmdashsuch as that used inthis Guidemdashto providing an immediate visual impact of the contentssuch as what is often found in a newspaperGraphics in Writer are of three basic typesbull Image files including photos drawings scanned images andothersbull Diagrams created using OOorsquos drawing toolsbull Charts created using OOorsquos Chart facilityThis chapter covers the first two types of graphic illustrations

Inserting an image from a fileIn the case where the image is already available in a file stored on thecomputer it can be immediately inserted in the Writer document OOocan import various vector (line drawing) and raster (bitmap) fileformats The most common are GIF JPEG or JPG PNG and BMP SeeldquoGraphic file types supportedrdquo for a full list of supportedgraphic file typesTo insert an image from a file proceed as follows1) Determine the destination for the image Place the cursor at ornear the appropriate location in the document2) On the main menu select Insert gt Picture gt From File 3) Navigate to the file to be inserted select it and click Open

Inserting images from other sourcesYou can insert images from sources other than a filebull Graphics programbull Scannerbull OOo GalleryGraphics programYou can use many different graphics programs to edit a graphic fileFrom these programs you can select copy and paste an image or partof a graphic into an OOo document Figure 251 shows an example ofthis procedure which can be recreated with these steps1) In the graphic program window select an area of the image to becopied2) Move the cursor over the selected area and press Control+C tocopy

3) Switch to the OOo Writer window4) Click to place the cursor where the graphic is to be inserted5) Press Control+V to paste the image

ScannerIf a scanner is connected to your computer OOo can call the scanningapplication and insert the scanned item into the Writer document pageas an image To start this procedure place the cursor where thegraphic is to be inserted and select Insert gt Picture gt Scan gt SelectSourceAlthough this practice is quick and easy it is unlikely to result in ahigh-quality image of the correct size You may get better results byscanning material into a graphics program and cleaning it up therebefore inserting the resulting image into WriterOpenOfficeorg GalleryThe Gallery contains objects (graphics and sounds) that you can insert

into your documents The Gallery is available in all components of OOoFor an introduction to the Gallery (Graphics theGallery and Fontwork) in the Getting Started guideTo select a graphic from the Gallery and drag it into the document1) Click on the Gallery icon (located in the right side of theStandard toolbar) or choose Tools gt Gallery2) Select the theme containing the image you want to insert3) Click on the image with the left mouse button then drag and dropthe image into the document You can also right-click on theobject and select Insert gt Copy

Using the picture toolbarWhen you insert a suitable graphic image or select one already presentin the document the Picture toolbar appears This toolbar can beeither floating or docked Figure below shows what the Picture toolbarlooks like when it is floating Two other toolbars can be opened from

this one the Graphic Filter toolbar which can be torn off and placedelsewhere on the window and the Color toolbar which opens as aseparate floating toolbarFrom these toolbars you can apply small corrections to the graphic orobtain special effectsFiltersTable 5provides 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 orAlt+Backspace or by selecting Edit gt Undo

Graphic filters and their effects

ColorUse this dialog box to modify the individual RGB color components ofthe image (red green blue) as well as the brightness contrast andgamma of the image If the result is not satisfactory you can pressControl+Z to restore the default valuesSetting the object transparencyModify 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 dialogWhen an image is selected you can customize some aspects of itsappearance using the tools available on the Formatting toolbar as well as in the dialog that is shown by right-clickingon the image and selecting Picture You can forexample create a border around the image selecting style and coloror you can (in the Borders page of the Picture dialog) add a shadow tothe imageCropping imagesWhen 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 To startcropping the image right-click on it and select Picture from the popupmenu In the Picture dialog box select the Crop page

In the Crop dialog box you can control the following parametersbull Keep scale Keep image size options when Keep scale isselected (default) cropping the image does not change the scaleof the picture When Keep image size is selected croppingproduces enlargement (for positive cropping values) shrinking (for negative cropping values) or distortion of the image so thatthe image size remains constantbull Left Right Top and Bottom the function of these boxeschanges according to the choice made between Keep scale andKeep image size In both cases when a value is entered in one ofthese boxes the image is cropped by that amount For example avalue of 3cm in the Left box will cut 3 cm from the left side of thepictureWhen Keep scale is selected the size of the image also changesso in this example the width will be reduced by 3 cm If Keepimage size is selected instead the remaining part of the image isenlarged (positive values for cropping) or shrunk (negative values

for cropping) so that the width and height of the image remainsunchanged

Note that the Width and Height fields change as you enter thevalues when in this mode Use the thumbnail next to these fieldsto determine the correct amount by which to crop

Resizing an imageIt is possible and quite likely that the inserted image will not fitperfectly into the document because it is too big or too small In thesecases you will need to resize the image1) Click the picture if necessary to show the green resizing handles2) Position the pointer over one of the green resizing handles Thepointer changes shape giving a graphical representation of thedirection of the resizing3) Click and drag to resize the picture4) Release the mouse button when satisfied with the new sizeThe corner handles resize both the width and the height of the graphicobject simultaneously while the other four handles only resize onedimension at a time

Rotating a pictureWriter does not provide a tool for rotating a picture however there isa very simple workaround1) Open a new Draw or Impress document2) Insert the image you want to rotate You can use any of themechanisms described in ldquoAdding images to a documentrdquo on page264 although there are some slight variations in the position ofthe menu entries and icons3) Select the image then in the drawing toolbar (shown by default atthe bottom of the window in Impress and Draw) select theRotate icon

4) Rotate the image as desired Use the red handles at the corners ofthe 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

Using Writerrsquos drawing toolsYou can use Writerrsquos drawing tools to create graphics such as simplediagrams using rectangles circles lines text and other predefinedshapes You can also group several drawing objects to make sure theymaintain their relative position and proportionYou can place the drawing objects directly on a page in your documentor you can insert them into a frameYou can also use the drawing tools to annotate photographs screencaptures or other illustrations produced by other programs but this isnot recommended becausebull You cannot include images in a group with drawing objects sothey may get out of alignment in your documentbull If you convert a Writer document to another format such asHTML the drawing objects and the graphics will not remainassociated they are saved separately

In general if you need to create complex drawings it is recommendedto use OpenOfficeorg Draw which includes many more features suchas layers styles and so onCreating drawing objectsTo begin using the drawing tools display the Drawing toolbar by clicking View gt Toolbars gt DrawingIf you are planning to use the drawing tools repeatedly you can tear offthis toolbar and move it to a convenient place on the window

To use a drawing tool1) Click in the document where you want the drawing to beanchored You can change the anchor later if necessary2) Select the tool from the Drawing toolbar The mousepointer changes to a drawing-functions pointer 3) Move the cross-hair pointer to the place in the document whereyou want the graphic to appear and then click-and-drag to createthe drawing object Release the mouse button The selecteddrawing function remains active so you can draw another objectof the same type4) To cancel the selected drawing function press the Esc key orclick on the Select icon (the arrow) on the Drawing toolbar5) You can now change the properties (fill color line type andweight anchoring and others) of the drawing object using eitherthe Drawing Object Properties toolbar or the choicesand dialog boxes reached by right-clicking on the drawing object

Positioning graphics within the textWhen you add a graphic to a text document you need to choose how toposition the graphic with respect to the text and other graphics Thepositioning of graphics is often rather time-consuming and may be veryfrustrating for both inexperienced and experienced users As Writer isa word processor rather than a desktop publishing program there aresome limitations to the flexibility in positioning images and it takestime to get things exactly as you would like them Starting fromOpenOfficeorg 30 this task is considerably improved by the inclusionof a new option that allows a ldquoloose anchoringrdquoPositioning of a graphic is controlled by working on four areasbull Arrangement refers to the placement of a graphic on animaginary vertical axis Arrangement controls how graphics arestacked upon each other or relative to the textbull Alignment refers to the vertical or horizontal placement of a

graphic in relation to the chosen anchoring pointbull Anchoring refers to the reference point for the graphics Thispoint could be the page or frame where the object is aparagraph or even a character

bull Text wrapping refers to the relation of graphics to surroundingtext which may wrap around the graphic on one or both sides beoverprinted behind or in front of the graphic or treat the graphicas a separate paragraph or characterThe settings for each of the four control areas above can be accessedin a number of different ways depending on the nature of the graphics1) From the Format menu where you can find AlignmentArrange Wrap and Anchor (both for images and drawingobjects)2) By the pop-up menu displayed when right-clicking on thegraphics3) From the Frame toolbar shown in Figure 259 for images with theGraphics frame style applied4) From the Type and Wrapping pages of the Picture dialog box forimages Note that you cannot control the arrangement using thedialog box To open the Picture dialog box click on the image toselect it and then choose Format gt Picture or right-click on thegraphic and choose Picture on the pop-up menu5) From the Position and Size page of the Position and Size dialogbox for drawing objects To open the Position and Size dialog boxclick on the drawing object to select it and then choose Format gtObject gt Position and Size or right-click on the graphic andchoose Position and Size on the pop-up menu Note that you canonly control the alignment and anchoring

Arranging graphicsArranging a graphic object means to determine its vertical positionrelative to other graphic objects or text Arranging is only relevantwhen objects are overlapping You can choose between four settingsplus a special setting for drawing objects

Bring to Front draws the graphic on top of any other graphicsor textbull Bring Forward brings the object one level up in the stack (zaxis)Depending on the number of overlapping objects you mayneed to apply this option several times to obtain the desiredresultbull Bring Backward the opposite of Bring Forward sends theselected object one level down in the object stackbull Send to Back sends the selected graphic to the bottom of thestack so that other graphics and text cover itbull To Background To Foreground only available for drawingobjects moves the drawing object behind or in front of the textrespectively

Creating the data sourceA data source is a database containing the name and address records(and optionally other information) from which a mailing list may bederived Although you can create and print mailing labels andenvelopes without using a data source in most cases using one is thebest approach This chapter assumes that you are using a data sourceOOo can access a wide variety of data sources including spreadsheetstext files and databases such as MySQL Adabas and ODBC If theinformation to be used in the mail merge is currently in a format thatOOo cannot access directly you need to convert it for example byexporting it to a comma-separated values (CSV) fileFor the following example we use a spreadsheet with the followingcolumn (field) headers Title First name Last name AddressStateCounty Country Post Code Sex Points

Registering a data sourceFor a data source to be directly accessible from within an OOodocument it must first be registered as described below

1) Click File gt Wizards gt Address Data Source

2) Select the appropriate type of external address bookmdashin thiscase Other external data source (The choices on this page of

the wizard vary with your operating system) Click Next

3) On the next page of the Wizard click Settings

4) In the Data Source Properties dialog select theDatabase type (in this case Spreadsheet) Click Next

5) In the next dialog click Browse and navigate to thespreadsheet that contains the address information Select thespreadsheet and click Open to return to this dialog At this timeyou may wish to test that the connection has been correctlyestablished by clicking on the Test Connection button (not

shown in illustration)

6) Click Finish7) In the following dialog click Next (Do not click Field Assignment)

8) Name the file in the Location field The default isAddressesodb but you may replace Addresses with anothername if you wish You may also change the name in the ldquoAddressbook namerdquo field In our example the name ldquoPointsrdquo was used forboth

9) Click Finish The data source is now registered

Creating a form letterYou can create a form letter manually which is the simplest and mostcomprehensive method and is described here If you elect to use the wizard pay close attention to its current limitations as identified within itsdescription1) Create a new text document File gt New gt Text Document oropen a pre-existing form letter with File gt Open2) Display the registered data sources View gt Data sources (orpress F4)3) Find the data source that you wish to use for the form letter inthis case Points Expand the Points and Tables folders andselect Sheet1 The address data file is displayed

4) Now create or modify the form letter by typing in textpunctuation line breaks and so on that will be present in all ofthe letters and adding fields where needed by clicking in the fieldheading and dragging to the appropriate point in the letter Note that address lines should be in individual paragraphs notseparated by line breaks as might seem preferable The reasonfor this will be made clear in the next step

5) Continue until you have composed the entire document At this time you may wish to considersuppressing any blank lines that may appear in the resultingletters If not skip ahead to Step 7

6) To suppress blank linesp) Click at the end of the first paragraph to be suppressed

andthen select Insert gt Fields gt Otherq) Select the Functions tab and then click on HiddenParagraph in the Type columnr) Now click in the Condition box and enter the details of

thecondition that defines a blank address field It has the

generalform of[DatabaseTableDatabase field]where the lsquorsquo (NOT) character indicates the negative case

and

the square brackets indicate the conditionFor example in our Points database the condition to test if theCompany field is empty would be[PointsSheet1Company] as illustrated

To test for multiple conditions use the operators AND andorOR between the conditional statements for example[PointsSheet1Title]AND[PointsSheet1Last Name]s) Click Insert but do not close the dialog until you haveamended all the lines that should be suppressed

The document is now ready to be printed1) Click File gt Print and respond with Yes in the message box2) In the Mail Merge dialog (Figure 302) you can choose to print allrecords or selected records To select records to be printed use

Ctrl+click to select individual records To select a block ofrecords select the first record in the block scroll to the lastrecord in the block and Shift+click on the last record

3) Click OK to send the letters directly to the printerIf you prefer to save the letters to a file perhaps to allowproofreading or some later formatting select File in the outputsection of the Mail Merge dialog instead of using the defaultPrinter selection This changes the dialog to display the Savemerged document section where Save as single document ispre-selected You can choose to save each letter as a singleindividual document if preferredIn this case clicking OK brings up the Save as dialog Enter a filename for the saved letters They will be saved consecutively in thesingle document or numbered consecutively in individual files ifsaved as single documents

4) If you have not saved the original prototype form letter document(template) previously then you should do so now Having a formletter template could greatly simplify the creation of other formletters in the future and is highly recommended

Graphics in WriterWhen you create a text document using OpenOfficeorg (OOo) Writeryou may need to include some graphic illustrations Graphics areadded to textual documents for a wide variety of reasons fromsupporting the description provided in the textmdashsuch as that used inthis Guidemdashto providing an immediate visual impact of the contentssuch as what is often found in a newspaperGraphics in Writer are of three basic typesbull Image files including photos drawings scanned images andothersbull Diagrams created using OOorsquos drawing toolsbull Charts created using OOorsquos Chart facilityThis chapter covers the first two types of graphic illustrations

Inserting an image from a fileIn the case where the image is already available in a file stored on thecomputer it can be immediately inserted in the Writer document OOocan import various vector (line drawing) and raster (bitmap) fileformats The most common are GIF JPEG or JPG PNG and BMP SeeldquoGraphic file types supportedrdquo for a full list of supportedgraphic file typesTo insert an image from a file proceed as follows1) Determine the destination for the image Place the cursor at ornear the appropriate location in the document2) On the main menu select Insert gt Picture gt From File 3) Navigate to the file to be inserted select it and click Open

Inserting images from other sourcesYou can insert images from sources other than a filebull Graphics programbull Scannerbull OOo GalleryGraphics programYou can use many different graphics programs to edit a graphic fileFrom these programs you can select copy and paste an image or partof a graphic into an OOo document Figure 251 shows an example ofthis procedure which can be recreated with these steps1) In the graphic program window select an area of the image to becopied2) Move the cursor over the selected area and press Control+C tocopy

3) Switch to the OOo Writer window4) Click to place the cursor where the graphic is to be inserted5) Press Control+V to paste the image

ScannerIf a scanner is connected to your computer OOo can call the scanningapplication and insert the scanned item into the Writer document pageas an image To start this procedure place the cursor where thegraphic is to be inserted and select Insert gt Picture gt Scan gt SelectSourceAlthough this practice is quick and easy it is unlikely to result in ahigh-quality image of the correct size You may get better results byscanning material into a graphics program and cleaning it up therebefore inserting the resulting image into WriterOpenOfficeorg GalleryThe Gallery contains objects (graphics and sounds) that you can insert

into your documents The Gallery is available in all components of OOoFor an introduction to the Gallery (Graphics theGallery and Fontwork) in the Getting Started guideTo select a graphic from the Gallery and drag it into the document1) Click on the Gallery icon (located in the right side of theStandard toolbar) or choose Tools gt Gallery2) Select the theme containing the image you want to insert3) Click on the image with the left mouse button then drag and dropthe image into the document You can also right-click on theobject and select Insert gt Copy

Using the picture toolbarWhen you insert a suitable graphic image or select one already presentin the document the Picture toolbar appears This toolbar can beeither floating or docked Figure below shows what the Picture toolbarlooks like when it is floating Two other toolbars can be opened from

this one the Graphic Filter toolbar which can be torn off and placedelsewhere on the window and the Color toolbar which opens as aseparate floating toolbarFrom these toolbars you can apply small corrections to the graphic orobtain special effectsFiltersTable 5provides 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 orAlt+Backspace or by selecting Edit gt Undo

Graphic filters and their effects

ColorUse this dialog box to modify the individual RGB color components ofthe image (red green blue) as well as the brightness contrast andgamma of the image If the result is not satisfactory you can pressControl+Z to restore the default valuesSetting the object transparencyModify 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 dialogWhen an image is selected you can customize some aspects of itsappearance using the tools available on the Formatting toolbar as well as in the dialog that is shown by right-clickingon the image and selecting Picture You can forexample create a border around the image selecting style and coloror you can (in the Borders page of the Picture dialog) add a shadow tothe imageCropping imagesWhen 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 To startcropping the image right-click on it and select Picture from the popupmenu In the Picture dialog box select the Crop page

In the Crop dialog box you can control the following parametersbull Keep scale Keep image size options when Keep scale isselected (default) cropping the image does not change the scaleof the picture When Keep image size is selected croppingproduces enlargement (for positive cropping values) shrinking (for negative cropping values) or distortion of the image so thatthe image size remains constantbull Left Right Top and Bottom the function of these boxeschanges according to the choice made between Keep scale andKeep image size In both cases when a value is entered in one ofthese boxes the image is cropped by that amount For example avalue of 3cm in the Left box will cut 3 cm from the left side of thepictureWhen Keep scale is selected the size of the image also changesso in this example the width will be reduced by 3 cm If Keepimage size is selected instead the remaining part of the image isenlarged (positive values for cropping) or shrunk (negative values

for cropping) so that the width and height of the image remainsunchanged

Note that the Width and Height fields change as you enter thevalues when in this mode Use the thumbnail next to these fieldsto determine the correct amount by which to crop

Resizing an imageIt is possible and quite likely that the inserted image will not fitperfectly into the document because it is too big or too small In thesecases you will need to resize the image1) Click the picture if necessary to show the green resizing handles2) Position the pointer over one of the green resizing handles Thepointer changes shape giving a graphical representation of thedirection of the resizing3) Click and drag to resize the picture4) Release the mouse button when satisfied with the new sizeThe corner handles resize both the width and the height of the graphicobject simultaneously while the other four handles only resize onedimension at a time

Rotating a pictureWriter does not provide a tool for rotating a picture however there isa very simple workaround1) Open a new Draw or Impress document2) Insert the image you want to rotate You can use any of themechanisms described in ldquoAdding images to a documentrdquo on page264 although there are some slight variations in the position ofthe menu entries and icons3) Select the image then in the drawing toolbar (shown by default atthe bottom of the window in Impress and Draw) select theRotate icon

4) Rotate the image as desired Use the red handles at the corners ofthe 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

Using Writerrsquos drawing toolsYou can use Writerrsquos drawing tools to create graphics such as simplediagrams using rectangles circles lines text and other predefinedshapes You can also group several drawing objects to make sure theymaintain their relative position and proportionYou can place the drawing objects directly on a page in your documentor you can insert them into a frameYou can also use the drawing tools to annotate photographs screencaptures or other illustrations produced by other programs but this isnot recommended becausebull You cannot include images in a group with drawing objects sothey may get out of alignment in your documentbull If you convert a Writer document to another format such asHTML the drawing objects and the graphics will not remainassociated they are saved separately

In general if you need to create complex drawings it is recommendedto use OpenOfficeorg Draw which includes many more features suchas layers styles and so onCreating drawing objectsTo begin using the drawing tools display the Drawing toolbar by clicking View gt Toolbars gt DrawingIf you are planning to use the drawing tools repeatedly you can tear offthis toolbar and move it to a convenient place on the window

To use a drawing tool1) Click in the document where you want the drawing to beanchored You can change the anchor later if necessary2) Select the tool from the Drawing toolbar The mousepointer changes to a drawing-functions pointer 3) Move the cross-hair pointer to the place in the document whereyou want the graphic to appear and then click-and-drag to createthe drawing object Release the mouse button The selecteddrawing function remains active so you can draw another objectof the same type4) To cancel the selected drawing function press the Esc key orclick on the Select icon (the arrow) on the Drawing toolbar5) You can now change the properties (fill color line type andweight anchoring and others) of the drawing object using eitherthe Drawing Object Properties toolbar or the choicesand dialog boxes reached by right-clicking on the drawing object

Positioning graphics within the textWhen you add a graphic to a text document you need to choose how toposition the graphic with respect to the text and other graphics Thepositioning of graphics is often rather time-consuming and may be veryfrustrating for both inexperienced and experienced users As Writer isa word processor rather than a desktop publishing program there aresome limitations to the flexibility in positioning images and it takestime to get things exactly as you would like them Starting fromOpenOfficeorg 30 this task is considerably improved by the inclusionof a new option that allows a ldquoloose anchoringrdquoPositioning of a graphic is controlled by working on four areasbull Arrangement refers to the placement of a graphic on animaginary vertical axis Arrangement controls how graphics arestacked upon each other or relative to the textbull Alignment refers to the vertical or horizontal placement of a

graphic in relation to the chosen anchoring pointbull Anchoring refers to the reference point for the graphics Thispoint could be the page or frame where the object is aparagraph or even a character

bull Text wrapping refers to the relation of graphics to surroundingtext which may wrap around the graphic on one or both sides beoverprinted behind or in front of the graphic or treat the graphicas a separate paragraph or characterThe settings for each of the four control areas above can be accessedin a number of different ways depending on the nature of the graphics1) From the Format menu where you can find AlignmentArrange Wrap and Anchor (both for images and drawingobjects)2) By the pop-up menu displayed when right-clicking on thegraphics3) From the Frame toolbar shown in Figure 259 for images with theGraphics frame style applied4) From the Type and Wrapping pages of the Picture dialog box forimages Note that you cannot control the arrangement using thedialog box To open the Picture dialog box click on the image toselect it and then choose Format gt Picture or right-click on thegraphic and choose Picture on the pop-up menu5) From the Position and Size page of the Position and Size dialogbox for drawing objects To open the Position and Size dialog boxclick on the drawing object to select it and then choose Format gtObject gt Position and Size or right-click on the graphic andchoose Position and Size on the pop-up menu Note that you canonly control the alignment and anchoring

Arranging graphicsArranging a graphic object means to determine its vertical positionrelative to other graphic objects or text Arranging is only relevantwhen objects are overlapping You can choose between four settingsplus a special setting for drawing objects

Bring to Front draws the graphic on top of any other graphicsor textbull Bring Forward brings the object one level up in the stack (zaxis)Depending on the number of overlapping objects you mayneed to apply this option several times to obtain the desiredresultbull Bring Backward the opposite of Bring Forward sends theselected object one level down in the object stackbull Send to Back sends the selected graphic to the bottom of thestack so that other graphics and text cover itbull To Background To Foreground only available for drawingobjects moves the drawing object behind or in front of the textrespectively

1) Click File gt Wizards gt Address Data Source

2) Select the appropriate type of external address bookmdashin thiscase Other external data source (The choices on this page of

the wizard vary with your operating system) Click Next

3) On the next page of the Wizard click Settings

4) In the Data Source Properties dialog select theDatabase type (in this case Spreadsheet) Click Next

5) In the next dialog click Browse and navigate to thespreadsheet that contains the address information Select thespreadsheet and click Open to return to this dialog At this timeyou may wish to test that the connection has been correctlyestablished by clicking on the Test Connection button (not

shown in illustration)

6) Click Finish7) In the following dialog click Next (Do not click Field Assignment)

8) Name the file in the Location field The default isAddressesodb but you may replace Addresses with anothername if you wish You may also change the name in the ldquoAddressbook namerdquo field In our example the name ldquoPointsrdquo was used forboth

9) Click Finish The data source is now registered

Creating a form letterYou can create a form letter manually which is the simplest and mostcomprehensive method and is described here If you elect to use the wizard pay close attention to its current limitations as identified within itsdescription1) Create a new text document File gt New gt Text Document oropen a pre-existing form letter with File gt Open2) Display the registered data sources View gt Data sources (orpress F4)3) Find the data source that you wish to use for the form letter inthis case Points Expand the Points and Tables folders andselect Sheet1 The address data file is displayed

4) Now create or modify the form letter by typing in textpunctuation line breaks and so on that will be present in all ofthe letters and adding fields where needed by clicking in the fieldheading and dragging to the appropriate point in the letter Note that address lines should be in individual paragraphs notseparated by line breaks as might seem preferable The reasonfor this will be made clear in the next step

5) Continue until you have composed the entire document At this time you may wish to considersuppressing any blank lines that may appear in the resultingletters If not skip ahead to Step 7

6) To suppress blank linesp) Click at the end of the first paragraph to be suppressed

andthen select Insert gt Fields gt Otherq) Select the Functions tab and then click on HiddenParagraph in the Type columnr) Now click in the Condition box and enter the details of

thecondition that defines a blank address field It has the

generalform of[DatabaseTableDatabase field]where the lsquorsquo (NOT) character indicates the negative case

and

the square brackets indicate the conditionFor example in our Points database the condition to test if theCompany field is empty would be[PointsSheet1Company] as illustrated

To test for multiple conditions use the operators AND andorOR between the conditional statements for example[PointsSheet1Title]AND[PointsSheet1Last Name]s) Click Insert but do not close the dialog until you haveamended all the lines that should be suppressed

The document is now ready to be printed1) Click File gt Print and respond with Yes in the message box2) In the Mail Merge dialog (Figure 302) you can choose to print allrecords or selected records To select records to be printed use

Ctrl+click to select individual records To select a block ofrecords select the first record in the block scroll to the lastrecord in the block and Shift+click on the last record

3) Click OK to send the letters directly to the printerIf you prefer to save the letters to a file perhaps to allowproofreading or some later formatting select File in the outputsection of the Mail Merge dialog instead of using the defaultPrinter selection This changes the dialog to display the Savemerged document section where Save as single document ispre-selected You can choose to save each letter as a singleindividual document if preferredIn this case clicking OK brings up the Save as dialog Enter a filename for the saved letters They will be saved consecutively in thesingle document or numbered consecutively in individual files ifsaved as single documents

4) If you have not saved the original prototype form letter document(template) previously then you should do so now Having a formletter template could greatly simplify the creation of other formletters in the future and is highly recommended

Graphics in WriterWhen you create a text document using OpenOfficeorg (OOo) Writeryou may need to include some graphic illustrations Graphics areadded to textual documents for a wide variety of reasons fromsupporting the description provided in the textmdashsuch as that used inthis Guidemdashto providing an immediate visual impact of the contentssuch as what is often found in a newspaperGraphics in Writer are of three basic typesbull Image files including photos drawings scanned images andothersbull Diagrams created using OOorsquos drawing toolsbull Charts created using OOorsquos Chart facilityThis chapter covers the first two types of graphic illustrations

Inserting an image from a fileIn the case where the image is already available in a file stored on thecomputer it can be immediately inserted in the Writer document OOocan import various vector (line drawing) and raster (bitmap) fileformats The most common are GIF JPEG or JPG PNG and BMP SeeldquoGraphic file types supportedrdquo for a full list of supportedgraphic file typesTo insert an image from a file proceed as follows1) Determine the destination for the image Place the cursor at ornear the appropriate location in the document2) On the main menu select Insert gt Picture gt From File 3) Navigate to the file to be inserted select it and click Open

Inserting images from other sourcesYou can insert images from sources other than a filebull Graphics programbull Scannerbull OOo GalleryGraphics programYou can use many different graphics programs to edit a graphic fileFrom these programs you can select copy and paste an image or partof a graphic into an OOo document Figure 251 shows an example ofthis procedure which can be recreated with these steps1) In the graphic program window select an area of the image to becopied2) Move the cursor over the selected area and press Control+C tocopy

3) Switch to the OOo Writer window4) Click to place the cursor where the graphic is to be inserted5) Press Control+V to paste the image

ScannerIf a scanner is connected to your computer OOo can call the scanningapplication and insert the scanned item into the Writer document pageas an image To start this procedure place the cursor where thegraphic is to be inserted and select Insert gt Picture gt Scan gt SelectSourceAlthough this practice is quick and easy it is unlikely to result in ahigh-quality image of the correct size You may get better results byscanning material into a graphics program and cleaning it up therebefore inserting the resulting image into WriterOpenOfficeorg GalleryThe Gallery contains objects (graphics and sounds) that you can insert

into your documents The Gallery is available in all components of OOoFor an introduction to the Gallery (Graphics theGallery and Fontwork) in the Getting Started guideTo select a graphic from the Gallery and drag it into the document1) Click on the Gallery icon (located in the right side of theStandard toolbar) or choose Tools gt Gallery2) Select the theme containing the image you want to insert3) Click on the image with the left mouse button then drag and dropthe image into the document You can also right-click on theobject and select Insert gt Copy

Using the picture toolbarWhen you insert a suitable graphic image or select one already presentin the document the Picture toolbar appears This toolbar can beeither floating or docked Figure below shows what the Picture toolbarlooks like when it is floating Two other toolbars can be opened from

this one the Graphic Filter toolbar which can be torn off and placedelsewhere on the window and the Color toolbar which opens as aseparate floating toolbarFrom these toolbars you can apply small corrections to the graphic orobtain special effectsFiltersTable 5provides 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 orAlt+Backspace or by selecting Edit gt Undo

Graphic filters and their effects

ColorUse this dialog box to modify the individual RGB color components ofthe image (red green blue) as well as the brightness contrast andgamma of the image If the result is not satisfactory you can pressControl+Z to restore the default valuesSetting the object transparencyModify 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 dialogWhen an image is selected you can customize some aspects of itsappearance using the tools available on the Formatting toolbar as well as in the dialog that is shown by right-clickingon the image and selecting Picture You can forexample create a border around the image selecting style and coloror you can (in the Borders page of the Picture dialog) add a shadow tothe imageCropping imagesWhen 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 To startcropping the image right-click on it and select Picture from the popupmenu In the Picture dialog box select the Crop page

In the Crop dialog box you can control the following parametersbull Keep scale Keep image size options when Keep scale isselected (default) cropping the image does not change the scaleof the picture When Keep image size is selected croppingproduces enlargement (for positive cropping values) shrinking (for negative cropping values) or distortion of the image so thatthe image size remains constantbull Left Right Top and Bottom the function of these boxeschanges according to the choice made between Keep scale andKeep image size In both cases when a value is entered in one ofthese boxes the image is cropped by that amount For example avalue of 3cm in the Left box will cut 3 cm from the left side of thepictureWhen Keep scale is selected the size of the image also changesso in this example the width will be reduced by 3 cm If Keepimage size is selected instead the remaining part of the image isenlarged (positive values for cropping) or shrunk (negative values

for cropping) so that the width and height of the image remainsunchanged

Note that the Width and Height fields change as you enter thevalues when in this mode Use the thumbnail next to these fieldsto determine the correct amount by which to crop

Resizing an imageIt is possible and quite likely that the inserted image will not fitperfectly into the document because it is too big or too small In thesecases you will need to resize the image1) Click the picture if necessary to show the green resizing handles2) Position the pointer over one of the green resizing handles Thepointer changes shape giving a graphical representation of thedirection of the resizing3) Click and drag to resize the picture4) Release the mouse button when satisfied with the new sizeThe corner handles resize both the width and the height of the graphicobject simultaneously while the other four handles only resize onedimension at a time

Rotating a pictureWriter does not provide a tool for rotating a picture however there isa very simple workaround1) Open a new Draw or Impress document2) Insert the image you want to rotate You can use any of themechanisms described in ldquoAdding images to a documentrdquo on page264 although there are some slight variations in the position ofthe menu entries and icons3) Select the image then in the drawing toolbar (shown by default atthe bottom of the window in Impress and Draw) select theRotate icon

4) Rotate the image as desired Use the red handles at the corners ofthe 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

Using Writerrsquos drawing toolsYou can use Writerrsquos drawing tools to create graphics such as simplediagrams using rectangles circles lines text and other predefinedshapes You can also group several drawing objects to make sure theymaintain their relative position and proportionYou can place the drawing objects directly on a page in your documentor you can insert them into a frameYou can also use the drawing tools to annotate photographs screencaptures or other illustrations produced by other programs but this isnot recommended becausebull You cannot include images in a group with drawing objects sothey may get out of alignment in your documentbull If you convert a Writer document to another format such asHTML the drawing objects and the graphics will not remainassociated they are saved separately

In general if you need to create complex drawings it is recommendedto use OpenOfficeorg Draw which includes many more features suchas layers styles and so onCreating drawing objectsTo begin using the drawing tools display the Drawing toolbar by clicking View gt Toolbars gt DrawingIf you are planning to use the drawing tools repeatedly you can tear offthis toolbar and move it to a convenient place on the window

To use a drawing tool1) Click in the document where you want the drawing to beanchored You can change the anchor later if necessary2) Select the tool from the Drawing toolbar The mousepointer changes to a drawing-functions pointer 3) Move the cross-hair pointer to the place in the document whereyou want the graphic to appear and then click-and-drag to createthe drawing object Release the mouse button The selecteddrawing function remains active so you can draw another objectof the same type4) To cancel the selected drawing function press the Esc key orclick on the Select icon (the arrow) on the Drawing toolbar5) You can now change the properties (fill color line type andweight anchoring and others) of the drawing object using eitherthe Drawing Object Properties toolbar or the choicesand dialog boxes reached by right-clicking on the drawing object

Positioning graphics within the textWhen you add a graphic to a text document you need to choose how toposition the graphic with respect to the text and other graphics Thepositioning of graphics is often rather time-consuming and may be veryfrustrating for both inexperienced and experienced users As Writer isa word processor rather than a desktop publishing program there aresome limitations to the flexibility in positioning images and it takestime to get things exactly as you would like them Starting fromOpenOfficeorg 30 this task is considerably improved by the inclusionof a new option that allows a ldquoloose anchoringrdquoPositioning of a graphic is controlled by working on four areasbull Arrangement refers to the placement of a graphic on animaginary vertical axis Arrangement controls how graphics arestacked upon each other or relative to the textbull Alignment refers to the vertical or horizontal placement of a

graphic in relation to the chosen anchoring pointbull Anchoring refers to the reference point for the graphics Thispoint could be the page or frame where the object is aparagraph or even a character

bull Text wrapping refers to the relation of graphics to surroundingtext which may wrap around the graphic on one or both sides beoverprinted behind or in front of the graphic or treat the graphicas a separate paragraph or characterThe settings for each of the four control areas above can be accessedin a number of different ways depending on the nature of the graphics1) From the Format menu where you can find AlignmentArrange Wrap and Anchor (both for images and drawingobjects)2) By the pop-up menu displayed when right-clicking on thegraphics3) From the Frame toolbar shown in Figure 259 for images with theGraphics frame style applied4) From the Type and Wrapping pages of the Picture dialog box forimages Note that you cannot control the arrangement using thedialog box To open the Picture dialog box click on the image toselect it and then choose Format gt Picture or right-click on thegraphic and choose Picture on the pop-up menu5) From the Position and Size page of the Position and Size dialogbox for drawing objects To open the Position and Size dialog boxclick on the drawing object to select it and then choose Format gtObject gt Position and Size or right-click on the graphic andchoose Position and Size on the pop-up menu Note that you canonly control the alignment and anchoring

Arranging graphicsArranging a graphic object means to determine its vertical positionrelative to other graphic objects or text Arranging is only relevantwhen objects are overlapping You can choose between four settingsplus a special setting for drawing objects

Bring to Front draws the graphic on top of any other graphicsor textbull Bring Forward brings the object one level up in the stack (zaxis)Depending on the number of overlapping objects you mayneed to apply this option several times to obtain the desiredresultbull Bring Backward the opposite of Bring Forward sends theselected object one level down in the object stackbull Send to Back sends the selected graphic to the bottom of thestack so that other graphics and text cover itbull To Background To Foreground only available for drawingobjects moves the drawing object behind or in front of the textrespectively

3) On the next page of the Wizard click Settings

4) In the Data Source Properties dialog select theDatabase type (in this case Spreadsheet) Click Next

5) In the next dialog click Browse and navigate to thespreadsheet that contains the address information Select thespreadsheet and click Open to return to this dialog At this timeyou may wish to test that the connection has been correctlyestablished by clicking on the Test Connection button (not

shown in illustration)

6) Click Finish7) In the following dialog click Next (Do not click Field Assignment)

8) Name the file in the Location field The default isAddressesodb but you may replace Addresses with anothername if you wish You may also change the name in the ldquoAddressbook namerdquo field In our example the name ldquoPointsrdquo was used forboth

9) Click Finish The data source is now registered

Creating a form letterYou can create a form letter manually which is the simplest and mostcomprehensive method and is described here If you elect to use the wizard pay close attention to its current limitations as identified within itsdescription1) Create a new text document File gt New gt Text Document oropen a pre-existing form letter with File gt Open2) Display the registered data sources View gt Data sources (orpress F4)3) Find the data source that you wish to use for the form letter inthis case Points Expand the Points and Tables folders andselect Sheet1 The address data file is displayed

4) Now create or modify the form letter by typing in textpunctuation line breaks and so on that will be present in all ofthe letters and adding fields where needed by clicking in the fieldheading and dragging to the appropriate point in the letter Note that address lines should be in individual paragraphs notseparated by line breaks as might seem preferable The reasonfor this will be made clear in the next step

5) Continue until you have composed the entire document At this time you may wish to considersuppressing any blank lines that may appear in the resultingletters If not skip ahead to Step 7

6) To suppress blank linesp) Click at the end of the first paragraph to be suppressed

andthen select Insert gt Fields gt Otherq) Select the Functions tab and then click on HiddenParagraph in the Type columnr) Now click in the Condition box and enter the details of

thecondition that defines a blank address field It has the

generalform of[DatabaseTableDatabase field]where the lsquorsquo (NOT) character indicates the negative case

and

the square brackets indicate the conditionFor example in our Points database the condition to test if theCompany field is empty would be[PointsSheet1Company] as illustrated

To test for multiple conditions use the operators AND andorOR between the conditional statements for example[PointsSheet1Title]AND[PointsSheet1Last Name]s) Click Insert but do not close the dialog until you haveamended all the lines that should be suppressed

The document is now ready to be printed1) Click File gt Print and respond with Yes in the message box2) In the Mail Merge dialog (Figure 302) you can choose to print allrecords or selected records To select records to be printed use

Ctrl+click to select individual records To select a block ofrecords select the first record in the block scroll to the lastrecord in the block and Shift+click on the last record

3) Click OK to send the letters directly to the printerIf you prefer to save the letters to a file perhaps to allowproofreading or some later formatting select File in the outputsection of the Mail Merge dialog instead of using the defaultPrinter selection This changes the dialog to display the Savemerged document section where Save as single document ispre-selected You can choose to save each letter as a singleindividual document if preferredIn this case clicking OK brings up the Save as dialog Enter a filename for the saved letters They will be saved consecutively in thesingle document or numbered consecutively in individual files ifsaved as single documents

4) If you have not saved the original prototype form letter document(template) previously then you should do so now Having a formletter template could greatly simplify the creation of other formletters in the future and is highly recommended

Graphics in WriterWhen you create a text document using OpenOfficeorg (OOo) Writeryou may need to include some graphic illustrations Graphics areadded to textual documents for a wide variety of reasons fromsupporting the description provided in the textmdashsuch as that used inthis Guidemdashto providing an immediate visual impact of the contentssuch as what is often found in a newspaperGraphics in Writer are of three basic typesbull Image files including photos drawings scanned images andothersbull Diagrams created using OOorsquos drawing toolsbull Charts created using OOorsquos Chart facilityThis chapter covers the first two types of graphic illustrations

Inserting an image from a fileIn the case where the image is already available in a file stored on thecomputer it can be immediately inserted in the Writer document OOocan import various vector (line drawing) and raster (bitmap) fileformats The most common are GIF JPEG or JPG PNG and BMP SeeldquoGraphic file types supportedrdquo for a full list of supportedgraphic file typesTo insert an image from a file proceed as follows1) Determine the destination for the image Place the cursor at ornear the appropriate location in the document2) On the main menu select Insert gt Picture gt From File 3) Navigate to the file to be inserted select it and click Open

Inserting images from other sourcesYou can insert images from sources other than a filebull Graphics programbull Scannerbull OOo GalleryGraphics programYou can use many different graphics programs to edit a graphic fileFrom these programs you can select copy and paste an image or partof a graphic into an OOo document Figure 251 shows an example ofthis procedure which can be recreated with these steps1) In the graphic program window select an area of the image to becopied2) Move the cursor over the selected area and press Control+C tocopy

3) Switch to the OOo Writer window4) Click to place the cursor where the graphic is to be inserted5) Press Control+V to paste the image

ScannerIf a scanner is connected to your computer OOo can call the scanningapplication and insert the scanned item into the Writer document pageas an image To start this procedure place the cursor where thegraphic is to be inserted and select Insert gt Picture gt Scan gt SelectSourceAlthough this practice is quick and easy it is unlikely to result in ahigh-quality image of the correct size You may get better results byscanning material into a graphics program and cleaning it up therebefore inserting the resulting image into WriterOpenOfficeorg GalleryThe Gallery contains objects (graphics and sounds) that you can insert

into your documents The Gallery is available in all components of OOoFor an introduction to the Gallery (Graphics theGallery and Fontwork) in the Getting Started guideTo select a graphic from the Gallery and drag it into the document1) Click on the Gallery icon (located in the right side of theStandard toolbar) or choose Tools gt Gallery2) Select the theme containing the image you want to insert3) Click on the image with the left mouse button then drag and dropthe image into the document You can also right-click on theobject and select Insert gt Copy

Using the picture toolbarWhen you insert a suitable graphic image or select one already presentin the document the Picture toolbar appears This toolbar can beeither floating or docked Figure below shows what the Picture toolbarlooks like when it is floating Two other toolbars can be opened from

this one the Graphic Filter toolbar which can be torn off and placedelsewhere on the window and the Color toolbar which opens as aseparate floating toolbarFrom these toolbars you can apply small corrections to the graphic orobtain special effectsFiltersTable 5provides 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 orAlt+Backspace or by selecting Edit gt Undo

Graphic filters and their effects

ColorUse this dialog box to modify the individual RGB color components ofthe image (red green blue) as well as the brightness contrast andgamma of the image If the result is not satisfactory you can pressControl+Z to restore the default valuesSetting the object transparencyModify 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 dialogWhen an image is selected you can customize some aspects of itsappearance using the tools available on the Formatting toolbar as well as in the dialog that is shown by right-clickingon the image and selecting Picture You can forexample create a border around the image selecting style and coloror you can (in the Borders page of the Picture dialog) add a shadow tothe imageCropping imagesWhen 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 To startcropping the image right-click on it and select Picture from the popupmenu In the Picture dialog box select the Crop page

In the Crop dialog box you can control the following parametersbull Keep scale Keep image size options when Keep scale isselected (default) cropping the image does not change the scaleof the picture When Keep image size is selected croppingproduces enlargement (for positive cropping values) shrinking (for negative cropping values) or distortion of the image so thatthe image size remains constantbull Left Right Top and Bottom the function of these boxeschanges according to the choice made between Keep scale andKeep image size In both cases when a value is entered in one ofthese boxes the image is cropped by that amount For example avalue of 3cm in the Left box will cut 3 cm from the left side of thepictureWhen Keep scale is selected the size of the image also changesso in this example the width will be reduced by 3 cm If Keepimage size is selected instead the remaining part of the image isenlarged (positive values for cropping) or shrunk (negative values

for cropping) so that the width and height of the image remainsunchanged

Note that the Width and Height fields change as you enter thevalues when in this mode Use the thumbnail next to these fieldsto determine the correct amount by which to crop

Resizing an imageIt is possible and quite likely that the inserted image will not fitperfectly into the document because it is too big or too small In thesecases you will need to resize the image1) Click the picture if necessary to show the green resizing handles2) Position the pointer over one of the green resizing handles Thepointer changes shape giving a graphical representation of thedirection of the resizing3) Click and drag to resize the picture4) Release the mouse button when satisfied with the new sizeThe corner handles resize both the width and the height of the graphicobject simultaneously while the other four handles only resize onedimension at a time

Rotating a pictureWriter does not provide a tool for rotating a picture however there isa very simple workaround1) Open a new Draw or Impress document2) Insert the image you want to rotate You can use any of themechanisms described in ldquoAdding images to a documentrdquo on page264 although there are some slight variations in the position ofthe menu entries and icons3) Select the image then in the drawing toolbar (shown by default atthe bottom of the window in Impress and Draw) select theRotate icon

4) Rotate the image as desired Use the red handles at the corners ofthe 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

Using Writerrsquos drawing toolsYou can use Writerrsquos drawing tools to create graphics such as simplediagrams using rectangles circles lines text and other predefinedshapes You can also group several drawing objects to make sure theymaintain their relative position and proportionYou can place the drawing objects directly on a page in your documentor you can insert them into a frameYou can also use the drawing tools to annotate photographs screencaptures or other illustrations produced by other programs but this isnot recommended becausebull You cannot include images in a group with drawing objects sothey may get out of alignment in your documentbull If you convert a Writer document to another format such asHTML the drawing objects and the graphics will not remainassociated they are saved separately

In general if you need to create complex drawings it is recommendedto use OpenOfficeorg Draw which includes many more features suchas layers styles and so onCreating drawing objectsTo begin using the drawing tools display the Drawing toolbar by clicking View gt Toolbars gt DrawingIf you are planning to use the drawing tools repeatedly you can tear offthis toolbar and move it to a convenient place on the window

To use a drawing tool1) Click in the document where you want the drawing to beanchored You can change the anchor later if necessary2) Select the tool from the Drawing toolbar The mousepointer changes to a drawing-functions pointer 3) Move the cross-hair pointer to the place in the document whereyou want the graphic to appear and then click-and-drag to createthe drawing object Release the mouse button The selecteddrawing function remains active so you can draw another objectof the same type4) To cancel the selected drawing function press the Esc key orclick on the Select icon (the arrow) on the Drawing toolbar5) You can now change the properties (fill color line type andweight anchoring and others) of the drawing object using eitherthe Drawing Object Properties toolbar or the choicesand dialog boxes reached by right-clicking on the drawing object

Positioning graphics within the textWhen you add a graphic to a text document you need to choose how toposition the graphic with respect to the text and other graphics Thepositioning of graphics is often rather time-consuming and may be veryfrustrating for both inexperienced and experienced users As Writer isa word processor rather than a desktop publishing program there aresome limitations to the flexibility in positioning images and it takestime to get things exactly as you would like them Starting fromOpenOfficeorg 30 this task is considerably improved by the inclusionof a new option that allows a ldquoloose anchoringrdquoPositioning of a graphic is controlled by working on four areasbull Arrangement refers to the placement of a graphic on animaginary vertical axis Arrangement controls how graphics arestacked upon each other or relative to the textbull Alignment refers to the vertical or horizontal placement of a

graphic in relation to the chosen anchoring pointbull Anchoring refers to the reference point for the graphics Thispoint could be the page or frame where the object is aparagraph or even a character

bull Text wrapping refers to the relation of graphics to surroundingtext which may wrap around the graphic on one or both sides beoverprinted behind or in front of the graphic or treat the graphicas a separate paragraph or characterThe settings for each of the four control areas above can be accessedin a number of different ways depending on the nature of the graphics1) From the Format menu where you can find AlignmentArrange Wrap and Anchor (both for images and drawingobjects)2) By the pop-up menu displayed when right-clicking on thegraphics3) From the Frame toolbar shown in Figure 259 for images with theGraphics frame style applied4) From the Type and Wrapping pages of the Picture dialog box forimages Note that you cannot control the arrangement using thedialog box To open the Picture dialog box click on the image toselect it and then choose Format gt Picture or right-click on thegraphic and choose Picture on the pop-up menu5) From the Position and Size page of the Position and Size dialogbox for drawing objects To open the Position and Size dialog boxclick on the drawing object to select it and then choose Format gtObject gt Position and Size or right-click on the graphic andchoose Position and Size on the pop-up menu Note that you canonly control the alignment and anchoring

Arranging graphicsArranging a graphic object means to determine its vertical positionrelative to other graphic objects or text Arranging is only relevantwhen objects are overlapping You can choose between four settingsplus a special setting for drawing objects

Bring to Front draws the graphic on top of any other graphicsor textbull Bring Forward brings the object one level up in the stack (zaxis)Depending on the number of overlapping objects you mayneed to apply this option several times to obtain the desiredresultbull Bring Backward the opposite of Bring Forward sends theselected object one level down in the object stackbull Send to Back sends the selected graphic to the bottom of thestack so that other graphics and text cover itbull To Background To Foreground only available for drawingobjects moves the drawing object behind or in front of the textrespectively

5) In the next dialog click Browse and navigate to thespreadsheet that contains the address information Select thespreadsheet and click Open to return to this dialog At this timeyou may wish to test that the connection has been correctlyestablished by clicking on the Test Connection button (not

shown in illustration)

6) Click Finish7) In the following dialog click Next (Do not click Field Assignment)

8) Name the file in the Location field The default isAddressesodb but you may replace Addresses with anothername if you wish You may also change the name in the ldquoAddressbook namerdquo field In our example the name ldquoPointsrdquo was used forboth

9) Click Finish The data source is now registered

Creating a form letterYou can create a form letter manually which is the simplest and mostcomprehensive method and is described here If you elect to use the wizard pay close attention to its current limitations as identified within itsdescription1) Create a new text document File gt New gt Text Document oropen a pre-existing form letter with File gt Open2) Display the registered data sources View gt Data sources (orpress F4)3) Find the data source that you wish to use for the form letter inthis case Points Expand the Points and Tables folders andselect Sheet1 The address data file is displayed

4) Now create or modify the form letter by typing in textpunctuation line breaks and so on that will be present in all ofthe letters and adding fields where needed by clicking in the fieldheading and dragging to the appropriate point in the letter Note that address lines should be in individual paragraphs notseparated by line breaks as might seem preferable The reasonfor this will be made clear in the next step

5) Continue until you have composed the entire document At this time you may wish to considersuppressing any blank lines that may appear in the resultingletters If not skip ahead to Step 7

6) To suppress blank linesp) Click at the end of the first paragraph to be suppressed

andthen select Insert gt Fields gt Otherq) Select the Functions tab and then click on HiddenParagraph in the Type columnr) Now click in the Condition box and enter the details of

thecondition that defines a blank address field It has the

generalform of[DatabaseTableDatabase field]where the lsquorsquo (NOT) character indicates the negative case

and

the square brackets indicate the conditionFor example in our Points database the condition to test if theCompany field is empty would be[PointsSheet1Company] as illustrated

To test for multiple conditions use the operators AND andorOR between the conditional statements for example[PointsSheet1Title]AND[PointsSheet1Last Name]s) Click Insert but do not close the dialog until you haveamended all the lines that should be suppressed

The document is now ready to be printed1) Click File gt Print and respond with Yes in the message box2) In the Mail Merge dialog (Figure 302) you can choose to print allrecords or selected records To select records to be printed use

Ctrl+click to select individual records To select a block ofrecords select the first record in the block scroll to the lastrecord in the block and Shift+click on the last record

3) Click OK to send the letters directly to the printerIf you prefer to save the letters to a file perhaps to allowproofreading or some later formatting select File in the outputsection of the Mail Merge dialog instead of using the defaultPrinter selection This changes the dialog to display the Savemerged document section where Save as single document ispre-selected You can choose to save each letter as a singleindividual document if preferredIn this case clicking OK brings up the Save as dialog Enter a filename for the saved letters They will be saved consecutively in thesingle document or numbered consecutively in individual files ifsaved as single documents

4) If you have not saved the original prototype form letter document(template) previously then you should do so now Having a formletter template could greatly simplify the creation of other formletters in the future and is highly recommended

Graphics in WriterWhen you create a text document using OpenOfficeorg (OOo) Writeryou may need to include some graphic illustrations Graphics areadded to textual documents for a wide variety of reasons fromsupporting the description provided in the textmdashsuch as that used inthis Guidemdashto providing an immediate visual impact of the contentssuch as what is often found in a newspaperGraphics in Writer are of three basic typesbull Image files including photos drawings scanned images andothersbull Diagrams created using OOorsquos drawing toolsbull Charts created using OOorsquos Chart facilityThis chapter covers the first two types of graphic illustrations

Inserting an image from a fileIn the case where the image is already available in a file stored on thecomputer it can be immediately inserted in the Writer document OOocan import various vector (line drawing) and raster (bitmap) fileformats The most common are GIF JPEG or JPG PNG and BMP SeeldquoGraphic file types supportedrdquo for a full list of supportedgraphic file typesTo insert an image from a file proceed as follows1) Determine the destination for the image Place the cursor at ornear the appropriate location in the document2) On the main menu select Insert gt Picture gt From File 3) Navigate to the file to be inserted select it and click Open

Inserting images from other sourcesYou can insert images from sources other than a filebull Graphics programbull Scannerbull OOo GalleryGraphics programYou can use many different graphics programs to edit a graphic fileFrom these programs you can select copy and paste an image or partof a graphic into an OOo document Figure 251 shows an example ofthis procedure which can be recreated with these steps1) In the graphic program window select an area of the image to becopied2) Move the cursor over the selected area and press Control+C tocopy

3) Switch to the OOo Writer window4) Click to place the cursor where the graphic is to be inserted5) Press Control+V to paste the image

ScannerIf a scanner is connected to your computer OOo can call the scanningapplication and insert the scanned item into the Writer document pageas an image To start this procedure place the cursor where thegraphic is to be inserted and select Insert gt Picture gt Scan gt SelectSourceAlthough this practice is quick and easy it is unlikely to result in ahigh-quality image of the correct size You may get better results byscanning material into a graphics program and cleaning it up therebefore inserting the resulting image into WriterOpenOfficeorg GalleryThe Gallery contains objects (graphics and sounds) that you can insert

into your documents The Gallery is available in all components of OOoFor an introduction to the Gallery (Graphics theGallery and Fontwork) in the Getting Started guideTo select a graphic from the Gallery and drag it into the document1) Click on the Gallery icon (located in the right side of theStandard toolbar) or choose Tools gt Gallery2) Select the theme containing the image you want to insert3) Click on the image with the left mouse button then drag and dropthe image into the document You can also right-click on theobject and select Insert gt Copy

Using the picture toolbarWhen you insert a suitable graphic image or select one already presentin the document the Picture toolbar appears This toolbar can beeither floating or docked Figure below shows what the Picture toolbarlooks like when it is floating Two other toolbars can be opened from

this one the Graphic Filter toolbar which can be torn off and placedelsewhere on the window and the Color toolbar which opens as aseparate floating toolbarFrom these toolbars you can apply small corrections to the graphic orobtain special effectsFiltersTable 5provides 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 orAlt+Backspace or by selecting Edit gt Undo

Graphic filters and their effects

ColorUse this dialog box to modify the individual RGB color components ofthe image (red green blue) as well as the brightness contrast andgamma of the image If the result is not satisfactory you can pressControl+Z to restore the default valuesSetting the object transparencyModify 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 dialogWhen an image is selected you can customize some aspects of itsappearance using the tools available on the Formatting toolbar as well as in the dialog that is shown by right-clickingon the image and selecting Picture You can forexample create a border around the image selecting style and coloror you can (in the Borders page of the Picture dialog) add a shadow tothe imageCropping imagesWhen 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 To startcropping the image right-click on it and select Picture from the popupmenu In the Picture dialog box select the Crop page

In the Crop dialog box you can control the following parametersbull Keep scale Keep image size options when Keep scale isselected (default) cropping the image does not change the scaleof the picture When Keep image size is selected croppingproduces enlargement (for positive cropping values) shrinking (for negative cropping values) or distortion of the image so thatthe image size remains constantbull Left Right Top and Bottom the function of these boxeschanges according to the choice made between Keep scale andKeep image size In both cases when a value is entered in one ofthese boxes the image is cropped by that amount For example avalue of 3cm in the Left box will cut 3 cm from the left side of thepictureWhen Keep scale is selected the size of the image also changesso in this example the width will be reduced by 3 cm If Keepimage size is selected instead the remaining part of the image isenlarged (positive values for cropping) or shrunk (negative values

for cropping) so that the width and height of the image remainsunchanged

Note that the Width and Height fields change as you enter thevalues when in this mode Use the thumbnail next to these fieldsto determine the correct amount by which to crop

Resizing an imageIt is possible and quite likely that the inserted image will not fitperfectly into the document because it is too big or too small In thesecases you will need to resize the image1) Click the picture if necessary to show the green resizing handles2) Position the pointer over one of the green resizing handles Thepointer changes shape giving a graphical representation of thedirection of the resizing3) Click and drag to resize the picture4) Release the mouse button when satisfied with the new sizeThe corner handles resize both the width and the height of the graphicobject simultaneously while the other four handles only resize onedimension at a time

Rotating a pictureWriter does not provide a tool for rotating a picture however there isa very simple workaround1) Open a new Draw or Impress document2) Insert the image you want to rotate You can use any of themechanisms described in ldquoAdding images to a documentrdquo on page264 although there are some slight variations in the position ofthe menu entries and icons3) Select the image then in the drawing toolbar (shown by default atthe bottom of the window in Impress and Draw) select theRotate icon

4) Rotate the image as desired Use the red handles at the corners ofthe 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

Using Writerrsquos drawing toolsYou can use Writerrsquos drawing tools to create graphics such as simplediagrams using rectangles circles lines text and other predefinedshapes You can also group several drawing objects to make sure theymaintain their relative position and proportionYou can place the drawing objects directly on a page in your documentor you can insert them into a frameYou can also use the drawing tools to annotate photographs screencaptures or other illustrations produced by other programs but this isnot recommended becausebull You cannot include images in a group with drawing objects sothey may get out of alignment in your documentbull If you convert a Writer document to another format such asHTML the drawing objects and the graphics will not remainassociated they are saved separately

In general if you need to create complex drawings it is recommendedto use OpenOfficeorg Draw which includes many more features suchas layers styles and so onCreating drawing objectsTo begin using the drawing tools display the Drawing toolbar by clicking View gt Toolbars gt DrawingIf you are planning to use the drawing tools repeatedly you can tear offthis toolbar and move it to a convenient place on the window

To use a drawing tool1) Click in the document where you want the drawing to beanchored You can change the anchor later if necessary2) Select the tool from the Drawing toolbar The mousepointer changes to a drawing-functions pointer 3) Move the cross-hair pointer to the place in the document whereyou want the graphic to appear and then click-and-drag to createthe drawing object Release the mouse button The selecteddrawing function remains active so you can draw another objectof the same type4) To cancel the selected drawing function press the Esc key orclick on the Select icon (the arrow) on the Drawing toolbar5) You can now change the properties (fill color line type andweight anchoring and others) of the drawing object using eitherthe Drawing Object Properties toolbar or the choicesand dialog boxes reached by right-clicking on the drawing object

Positioning graphics within the textWhen you add a graphic to a text document you need to choose how toposition the graphic with respect to the text and other graphics Thepositioning of graphics is often rather time-consuming and may be veryfrustrating for both inexperienced and experienced users As Writer isa word processor rather than a desktop publishing program there aresome limitations to the flexibility in positioning images and it takestime to get things exactly as you would like them Starting fromOpenOfficeorg 30 this task is considerably improved by the inclusionof a new option that allows a ldquoloose anchoringrdquoPositioning of a graphic is controlled by working on four areasbull Arrangement refers to the placement of a graphic on animaginary vertical axis Arrangement controls how graphics arestacked upon each other or relative to the textbull Alignment refers to the vertical or horizontal placement of a

graphic in relation to the chosen anchoring pointbull Anchoring refers to the reference point for the graphics Thispoint could be the page or frame where the object is aparagraph or even a character

bull Text wrapping refers to the relation of graphics to surroundingtext which may wrap around the graphic on one or both sides beoverprinted behind or in front of the graphic or treat the graphicas a separate paragraph or characterThe settings for each of the four control areas above can be accessedin a number of different ways depending on the nature of the graphics1) From the Format menu where you can find AlignmentArrange Wrap and Anchor (both for images and drawingobjects)2) By the pop-up menu displayed when right-clicking on thegraphics3) From the Frame toolbar shown in Figure 259 for images with theGraphics frame style applied4) From the Type and Wrapping pages of the Picture dialog box forimages Note that you cannot control the arrangement using thedialog box To open the Picture dialog box click on the image toselect it and then choose Format gt Picture or right-click on thegraphic and choose Picture on the pop-up menu5) From the Position and Size page of the Position and Size dialogbox for drawing objects To open the Position and Size dialog boxclick on the drawing object to select it and then choose Format gtObject gt Position and Size or right-click on the graphic andchoose Position and Size on the pop-up menu Note that you canonly control the alignment and anchoring

Arranging graphicsArranging a graphic object means to determine its vertical positionrelative to other graphic objects or text Arranging is only relevantwhen objects are overlapping You can choose between four settingsplus a special setting for drawing objects

Bring to Front draws the graphic on top of any other graphicsor textbull Bring Forward brings the object one level up in the stack (zaxis)Depending on the number of overlapping objects you mayneed to apply this option several times to obtain the desiredresultbull Bring Backward the opposite of Bring Forward sends theselected object one level down in the object stackbull Send to Back sends the selected graphic to the bottom of thestack so that other graphics and text cover itbull To Background To Foreground only available for drawingobjects moves the drawing object behind or in front of the textrespectively

8) Name the file in the Location field The default isAddressesodb but you may replace Addresses with anothername if you wish You may also change the name in the ldquoAddressbook namerdquo field In our example the name ldquoPointsrdquo was used forboth

9) Click Finish The data source is now registered

Creating a form letterYou can create a form letter manually which is the simplest and mostcomprehensive method and is described here If you elect to use the wizard pay close attention to its current limitations as identified within itsdescription1) Create a new text document File gt New gt Text Document oropen a pre-existing form letter with File gt Open2) Display the registered data sources View gt Data sources (orpress F4)3) Find the data source that you wish to use for the form letter inthis case Points Expand the Points and Tables folders andselect Sheet1 The address data file is displayed

4) Now create or modify the form letter by typing in textpunctuation line breaks and so on that will be present in all ofthe letters and adding fields where needed by clicking in the fieldheading and dragging to the appropriate point in the letter Note that address lines should be in individual paragraphs notseparated by line breaks as might seem preferable The reasonfor this will be made clear in the next step

5) Continue until you have composed the entire document At this time you may wish to considersuppressing any blank lines that may appear in the resultingletters If not skip ahead to Step 7

6) To suppress blank linesp) Click at the end of the first paragraph to be suppressed

andthen select Insert gt Fields gt Otherq) Select the Functions tab and then click on HiddenParagraph in the Type columnr) Now click in the Condition box and enter the details of

thecondition that defines a blank address field It has the

generalform of[DatabaseTableDatabase field]where the lsquorsquo (NOT) character indicates the negative case

and

the square brackets indicate the conditionFor example in our Points database the condition to test if theCompany field is empty would be[PointsSheet1Company] as illustrated

To test for multiple conditions use the operators AND andorOR between the conditional statements for example[PointsSheet1Title]AND[PointsSheet1Last Name]s) Click Insert but do not close the dialog until you haveamended all the lines that should be suppressed

The document is now ready to be printed1) Click File gt Print and respond with Yes in the message box2) In the Mail Merge dialog (Figure 302) you can choose to print allrecords or selected records To select records to be printed use

Ctrl+click to select individual records To select a block ofrecords select the first record in the block scroll to the lastrecord in the block and Shift+click on the last record

3) Click OK to send the letters directly to the printerIf you prefer to save the letters to a file perhaps to allowproofreading or some later formatting select File in the outputsection of the Mail Merge dialog instead of using the defaultPrinter selection This changes the dialog to display the Savemerged document section where Save as single document ispre-selected You can choose to save each letter as a singleindividual document if preferredIn this case clicking OK brings up the Save as dialog Enter a filename for the saved letters They will be saved consecutively in thesingle document or numbered consecutively in individual files ifsaved as single documents

4) If you have not saved the original prototype form letter document(template) previously then you should do so now Having a formletter template could greatly simplify the creation of other formletters in the future and is highly recommended

Graphics in WriterWhen you create a text document using OpenOfficeorg (OOo) Writeryou may need to include some graphic illustrations Graphics areadded to textual documents for a wide variety of reasons fromsupporting the description provided in the textmdashsuch as that used inthis Guidemdashto providing an immediate visual impact of the contentssuch as what is often found in a newspaperGraphics in Writer are of three basic typesbull Image files including photos drawings scanned images andothersbull Diagrams created using OOorsquos drawing toolsbull Charts created using OOorsquos Chart facilityThis chapter covers the first two types of graphic illustrations

Inserting an image from a fileIn the case where the image is already available in a file stored on thecomputer it can be immediately inserted in the Writer document OOocan import various vector (line drawing) and raster (bitmap) fileformats The most common are GIF JPEG or JPG PNG and BMP SeeldquoGraphic file types supportedrdquo for a full list of supportedgraphic file typesTo insert an image from a file proceed as follows1) Determine the destination for the image Place the cursor at ornear the appropriate location in the document2) On the main menu select Insert gt Picture gt From File 3) Navigate to the file to be inserted select it and click Open

Inserting images from other sourcesYou can insert images from sources other than a filebull Graphics programbull Scannerbull OOo GalleryGraphics programYou can use many different graphics programs to edit a graphic fileFrom these programs you can select copy and paste an image or partof a graphic into an OOo document Figure 251 shows an example ofthis procedure which can be recreated with these steps1) In the graphic program window select an area of the image to becopied2) Move the cursor over the selected area and press Control+C tocopy

3) Switch to the OOo Writer window4) Click to place the cursor where the graphic is to be inserted5) Press Control+V to paste the image

ScannerIf a scanner is connected to your computer OOo can call the scanningapplication and insert the scanned item into the Writer document pageas an image To start this procedure place the cursor where thegraphic is to be inserted and select Insert gt Picture gt Scan gt SelectSourceAlthough this practice is quick and easy it is unlikely to result in ahigh-quality image of the correct size You may get better results byscanning material into a graphics program and cleaning it up therebefore inserting the resulting image into WriterOpenOfficeorg GalleryThe Gallery contains objects (graphics and sounds) that you can insert

into your documents The Gallery is available in all components of OOoFor an introduction to the Gallery (Graphics theGallery and Fontwork) in the Getting Started guideTo select a graphic from the Gallery and drag it into the document1) Click on the Gallery icon (located in the right side of theStandard toolbar) or choose Tools gt Gallery2) Select the theme containing the image you want to insert3) Click on the image with the left mouse button then drag and dropthe image into the document You can also right-click on theobject and select Insert gt Copy

Using the picture toolbarWhen you insert a suitable graphic image or select one already presentin the document the Picture toolbar appears This toolbar can beeither floating or docked Figure below shows what the Picture toolbarlooks like when it is floating Two other toolbars can be opened from

this one the Graphic Filter toolbar which can be torn off and placedelsewhere on the window and the Color toolbar which opens as aseparate floating toolbarFrom these toolbars you can apply small corrections to the graphic orobtain special effectsFiltersTable 5provides 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 orAlt+Backspace or by selecting Edit gt Undo

Graphic filters and their effects

ColorUse this dialog box to modify the individual RGB color components ofthe image (red green blue) as well as the brightness contrast andgamma of the image If the result is not satisfactory you can pressControl+Z to restore the default valuesSetting the object transparencyModify 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 dialogWhen an image is selected you can customize some aspects of itsappearance using the tools available on the Formatting toolbar as well as in the dialog that is shown by right-clickingon the image and selecting Picture You can forexample create a border around the image selecting style and coloror you can (in the Borders page of the Picture dialog) add a shadow tothe imageCropping imagesWhen 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 To startcropping the image right-click on it and select Picture from the popupmenu In the Picture dialog box select the Crop page

In the Crop dialog box you can control the following parametersbull Keep scale Keep image size options when Keep scale isselected (default) cropping the image does not change the scaleof the picture When Keep image size is selected croppingproduces enlargement (for positive cropping values) shrinking (for negative cropping values) or distortion of the image so thatthe image size remains constantbull Left Right Top and Bottom the function of these boxeschanges according to the choice made between Keep scale andKeep image size In both cases when a value is entered in one ofthese boxes the image is cropped by that amount For example avalue of 3cm in the Left box will cut 3 cm from the left side of thepictureWhen Keep scale is selected the size of the image also changesso in this example the width will be reduced by 3 cm If Keepimage size is selected instead the remaining part of the image isenlarged (positive values for cropping) or shrunk (negative values

for cropping) so that the width and height of the image remainsunchanged

Note that the Width and Height fields change as you enter thevalues when in this mode Use the thumbnail next to these fieldsto determine the correct amount by which to crop

Resizing an imageIt is possible and quite likely that the inserted image will not fitperfectly into the document because it is too big or too small In thesecases you will need to resize the image1) Click the picture if necessary to show the green resizing handles2) Position the pointer over one of the green resizing handles Thepointer changes shape giving a graphical representation of thedirection of the resizing3) Click and drag to resize the picture4) Release the mouse button when satisfied with the new sizeThe corner handles resize both the width and the height of the graphicobject simultaneously while the other four handles only resize onedimension at a time

Rotating a pictureWriter does not provide a tool for rotating a picture however there isa very simple workaround1) Open a new Draw or Impress document2) Insert the image you want to rotate You can use any of themechanisms described in ldquoAdding images to a documentrdquo on page264 although there are some slight variations in the position ofthe menu entries and icons3) Select the image then in the drawing toolbar (shown by default atthe bottom of the window in Impress and Draw) select theRotate icon

4) Rotate the image as desired Use the red handles at the corners ofthe 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

Using Writerrsquos drawing toolsYou can use Writerrsquos drawing tools to create graphics such as simplediagrams using rectangles circles lines text and other predefinedshapes You can also group several drawing objects to make sure theymaintain their relative position and proportionYou can place the drawing objects directly on a page in your documentor you can insert them into a frameYou can also use the drawing tools to annotate photographs screencaptures or other illustrations produced by other programs but this isnot recommended becausebull You cannot include images in a group with drawing objects sothey may get out of alignment in your documentbull If you convert a Writer document to another format such asHTML the drawing objects and the graphics will not remainassociated they are saved separately

In general if you need to create complex drawings it is recommendedto use OpenOfficeorg Draw which includes many more features suchas layers styles and so onCreating drawing objectsTo begin using the drawing tools display the Drawing toolbar by clicking View gt Toolbars gt DrawingIf you are planning to use the drawing tools repeatedly you can tear offthis toolbar and move it to a convenient place on the window

To use a drawing tool1) Click in the document where you want the drawing to beanchored You can change the anchor later if necessary2) Select the tool from the Drawing toolbar The mousepointer changes to a drawing-functions pointer 3) Move the cross-hair pointer to the place in the document whereyou want the graphic to appear and then click-and-drag to createthe drawing object Release the mouse button The selecteddrawing function remains active so you can draw another objectof the same type4) To cancel the selected drawing function press the Esc key orclick on the Select icon (the arrow) on the Drawing toolbar5) You can now change the properties (fill color line type andweight anchoring and others) of the drawing object using eitherthe Drawing Object Properties toolbar or the choicesand dialog boxes reached by right-clicking on the drawing object

Positioning graphics within the textWhen you add a graphic to a text document you need to choose how toposition the graphic with respect to the text and other graphics Thepositioning of graphics is often rather time-consuming and may be veryfrustrating for both inexperienced and experienced users As Writer isa word processor rather than a desktop publishing program there aresome limitations to the flexibility in positioning images and it takestime to get things exactly as you would like them Starting fromOpenOfficeorg 30 this task is considerably improved by the inclusionof a new option that allows a ldquoloose anchoringrdquoPositioning of a graphic is controlled by working on four areasbull Arrangement refers to the placement of a graphic on animaginary vertical axis Arrangement controls how graphics arestacked upon each other or relative to the textbull Alignment refers to the vertical or horizontal placement of a

graphic in relation to the chosen anchoring pointbull Anchoring refers to the reference point for the graphics Thispoint could be the page or frame where the object is aparagraph or even a character

bull Text wrapping refers to the relation of graphics to surroundingtext which may wrap around the graphic on one or both sides beoverprinted behind or in front of the graphic or treat the graphicas a separate paragraph or characterThe settings for each of the four control areas above can be accessedin a number of different ways depending on the nature of the graphics1) From the Format menu where you can find AlignmentArrange Wrap and Anchor (both for images and drawingobjects)2) By the pop-up menu displayed when right-clicking on thegraphics3) From the Frame toolbar shown in Figure 259 for images with theGraphics frame style applied4) From the Type and Wrapping pages of the Picture dialog box forimages Note that you cannot control the arrangement using thedialog box To open the Picture dialog box click on the image toselect it and then choose Format gt Picture or right-click on thegraphic and choose Picture on the pop-up menu5) From the Position and Size page of the Position and Size dialogbox for drawing objects To open the Position and Size dialog boxclick on the drawing object to select it and then choose Format gtObject gt Position and Size or right-click on the graphic andchoose Position and Size on the pop-up menu Note that you canonly control the alignment and anchoring

Arranging graphicsArranging a graphic object means to determine its vertical positionrelative to other graphic objects or text Arranging is only relevantwhen objects are overlapping You can choose between four settingsplus a special setting for drawing objects

Bring to Front draws the graphic on top of any other graphicsor textbull Bring Forward brings the object one level up in the stack (zaxis)Depending on the number of overlapping objects you mayneed to apply this option several times to obtain the desiredresultbull Bring Backward the opposite of Bring Forward sends theselected object one level down in the object stackbull Send to Back sends the selected graphic to the bottom of thestack so that other graphics and text cover itbull To Background To Foreground only available for drawingobjects moves the drawing object behind or in front of the textrespectively

9) Click Finish The data source is now registered

Creating a form letterYou can create a form letter manually which is the simplest and mostcomprehensive method and is described here If you elect to use the wizard pay close attention to its current limitations as identified within itsdescription1) Create a new text document File gt New gt Text Document oropen a pre-existing form letter with File gt Open2) Display the registered data sources View gt Data sources (orpress F4)3) Find the data source that you wish to use for the form letter inthis case Points Expand the Points and Tables folders andselect Sheet1 The address data file is displayed

4) Now create or modify the form letter by typing in textpunctuation line breaks and so on that will be present in all ofthe letters and adding fields where needed by clicking in the fieldheading and dragging to the appropriate point in the letter Note that address lines should be in individual paragraphs notseparated by line breaks as might seem preferable The reasonfor this will be made clear in the next step

5) Continue until you have composed the entire document At this time you may wish to considersuppressing any blank lines that may appear in the resultingletters If not skip ahead to Step 7

6) To suppress blank linesp) Click at the end of the first paragraph to be suppressed

andthen select Insert gt Fields gt Otherq) Select the Functions tab and then click on HiddenParagraph in the Type columnr) Now click in the Condition box and enter the details of

thecondition that defines a blank address field It has the

generalform of[DatabaseTableDatabase field]where the lsquorsquo (NOT) character indicates the negative case

and

the square brackets indicate the conditionFor example in our Points database the condition to test if theCompany field is empty would be[PointsSheet1Company] as illustrated

To test for multiple conditions use the operators AND andorOR between the conditional statements for example[PointsSheet1Title]AND[PointsSheet1Last Name]s) Click Insert but do not close the dialog until you haveamended all the lines that should be suppressed

The document is now ready to be printed1) Click File gt Print and respond with Yes in the message box2) In the Mail Merge dialog (Figure 302) you can choose to print allrecords or selected records To select records to be printed use

Ctrl+click to select individual records To select a block ofrecords select the first record in the block scroll to the lastrecord in the block and Shift+click on the last record

3) Click OK to send the letters directly to the printerIf you prefer to save the letters to a file perhaps to allowproofreading or some later formatting select File in the outputsection of the Mail Merge dialog instead of using the defaultPrinter selection This changes the dialog to display the Savemerged document section where Save as single document ispre-selected You can choose to save each letter as a singleindividual document if preferredIn this case clicking OK brings up the Save as dialog Enter a filename for the saved letters They will be saved consecutively in thesingle document or numbered consecutively in individual files ifsaved as single documents

4) If you have not saved the original prototype form letter document(template) previously then you should do so now Having a formletter template could greatly simplify the creation of other formletters in the future and is highly recommended

Graphics in WriterWhen you create a text document using OpenOfficeorg (OOo) Writeryou may need to include some graphic illustrations Graphics areadded to textual documents for a wide variety of reasons fromsupporting the description provided in the textmdashsuch as that used inthis Guidemdashto providing an immediate visual impact of the contentssuch as what is often found in a newspaperGraphics in Writer are of three basic typesbull Image files including photos drawings scanned images andothersbull Diagrams created using OOorsquos drawing toolsbull Charts created using OOorsquos Chart facilityThis chapter covers the first two types of graphic illustrations

Inserting an image from a fileIn the case where the image is already available in a file stored on thecomputer it can be immediately inserted in the Writer document OOocan import various vector (line drawing) and raster (bitmap) fileformats The most common are GIF JPEG or JPG PNG and BMP SeeldquoGraphic file types supportedrdquo for a full list of supportedgraphic file typesTo insert an image from a file proceed as follows1) Determine the destination for the image Place the cursor at ornear the appropriate location in the document2) On the main menu select Insert gt Picture gt From File 3) Navigate to the file to be inserted select it and click Open

Inserting images from other sourcesYou can insert images from sources other than a filebull Graphics programbull Scannerbull OOo GalleryGraphics programYou can use many different graphics programs to edit a graphic fileFrom these programs you can select copy and paste an image or partof a graphic into an OOo document Figure 251 shows an example ofthis procedure which can be recreated with these steps1) In the graphic program window select an area of the image to becopied2) Move the cursor over the selected area and press Control+C tocopy

3) Switch to the OOo Writer window4) Click to place the cursor where the graphic is to be inserted5) Press Control+V to paste the image

ScannerIf a scanner is connected to your computer OOo can call the scanningapplication and insert the scanned item into the Writer document pageas an image To start this procedure place the cursor where thegraphic is to be inserted and select Insert gt Picture gt Scan gt SelectSourceAlthough this practice is quick and easy it is unlikely to result in ahigh-quality image of the correct size You may get better results byscanning material into a graphics program and cleaning it up therebefore inserting the resulting image into WriterOpenOfficeorg GalleryThe Gallery contains objects (graphics and sounds) that you can insert

into your documents The Gallery is available in all components of OOoFor an introduction to the Gallery (Graphics theGallery and Fontwork) in the Getting Started guideTo select a graphic from the Gallery and drag it into the document1) Click on the Gallery icon (located in the right side of theStandard toolbar) or choose Tools gt Gallery2) Select the theme containing the image you want to insert3) Click on the image with the left mouse button then drag and dropthe image into the document You can also right-click on theobject and select Insert gt Copy

Using the picture toolbarWhen you insert a suitable graphic image or select one already presentin the document the Picture toolbar appears This toolbar can beeither floating or docked Figure below shows what the Picture toolbarlooks like when it is floating Two other toolbars can be opened from

this one the Graphic Filter toolbar which can be torn off and placedelsewhere on the window and the Color toolbar which opens as aseparate floating toolbarFrom these toolbars you can apply small corrections to the graphic orobtain special effectsFiltersTable 5provides 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 orAlt+Backspace or by selecting Edit gt Undo

Graphic filters and their effects

ColorUse this dialog box to modify the individual RGB color components ofthe image (red green blue) as well as the brightness contrast andgamma of the image If the result is not satisfactory you can pressControl+Z to restore the default valuesSetting the object transparencyModify 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 dialogWhen an image is selected you can customize some aspects of itsappearance using the tools available on the Formatting toolbar as well as in the dialog that is shown by right-clickingon the image and selecting Picture You can forexample create a border around the image selecting style and coloror you can (in the Borders page of the Picture dialog) add a shadow tothe imageCropping imagesWhen 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 To startcropping the image right-click on it and select Picture from the popupmenu In the Picture dialog box select the Crop page

In the Crop dialog box you can control the following parametersbull Keep scale Keep image size options when Keep scale isselected (default) cropping the image does not change the scaleof the picture When Keep image size is selected croppingproduces enlargement (for positive cropping values) shrinking (for negative cropping values) or distortion of the image so thatthe image size remains constantbull Left Right Top and Bottom the function of these boxeschanges according to the choice made between Keep scale andKeep image size In both cases when a value is entered in one ofthese boxes the image is cropped by that amount For example avalue of 3cm in the Left box will cut 3 cm from the left side of thepictureWhen Keep scale is selected the size of the image also changesso in this example the width will be reduced by 3 cm If Keepimage size is selected instead the remaining part of the image isenlarged (positive values for cropping) or shrunk (negative values

for cropping) so that the width and height of the image remainsunchanged

Note that the Width and Height fields change as you enter thevalues when in this mode Use the thumbnail next to these fieldsto determine the correct amount by which to crop

Resizing an imageIt is possible and quite likely that the inserted image will not fitperfectly into the document because it is too big or too small In thesecases you will need to resize the image1) Click the picture if necessary to show the green resizing handles2) Position the pointer over one of the green resizing handles Thepointer changes shape giving a graphical representation of thedirection of the resizing3) Click and drag to resize the picture4) Release the mouse button when satisfied with the new sizeThe corner handles resize both the width and the height of the graphicobject simultaneously while the other four handles only resize onedimension at a time

Rotating a pictureWriter does not provide a tool for rotating a picture however there isa very simple workaround1) Open a new Draw or Impress document2) Insert the image you want to rotate You can use any of themechanisms described in ldquoAdding images to a documentrdquo on page264 although there are some slight variations in the position ofthe menu entries and icons3) Select the image then in the drawing toolbar (shown by default atthe bottom of the window in Impress and Draw) select theRotate icon

4) Rotate the image as desired Use the red handles at the corners ofthe 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

Using Writerrsquos drawing toolsYou can use Writerrsquos drawing tools to create graphics such as simplediagrams using rectangles circles lines text and other predefinedshapes You can also group several drawing objects to make sure theymaintain their relative position and proportionYou can place the drawing objects directly on a page in your documentor you can insert them into a frameYou can also use the drawing tools to annotate photographs screencaptures or other illustrations produced by other programs but this isnot recommended becausebull You cannot include images in a group with drawing objects sothey may get out of alignment in your documentbull If you convert a Writer document to another format such asHTML the drawing objects and the graphics will not remainassociated they are saved separately

In general if you need to create complex drawings it is recommendedto use OpenOfficeorg Draw which includes many more features suchas layers styles and so onCreating drawing objectsTo begin using the drawing tools display the Drawing toolbar by clicking View gt Toolbars gt DrawingIf you are planning to use the drawing tools repeatedly you can tear offthis toolbar and move it to a convenient place on the window

To use a drawing tool1) Click in the document where you want the drawing to beanchored You can change the anchor later if necessary2) Select the tool from the Drawing toolbar The mousepointer changes to a drawing-functions pointer 3) Move the cross-hair pointer to the place in the document whereyou want the graphic to appear and then click-and-drag to createthe drawing object Release the mouse button The selecteddrawing function remains active so you can draw another objectof the same type4) To cancel the selected drawing function press the Esc key orclick on the Select icon (the arrow) on the Drawing toolbar5) You can now change the properties (fill color line type andweight anchoring and others) of the drawing object using eitherthe Drawing Object Properties toolbar or the choicesand dialog boxes reached by right-clicking on the drawing object

Positioning graphics within the textWhen you add a graphic to a text document you need to choose how toposition the graphic with respect to the text and other graphics Thepositioning of graphics is often rather time-consuming and may be veryfrustrating for both inexperienced and experienced users As Writer isa word processor rather than a desktop publishing program there aresome limitations to the flexibility in positioning images and it takestime to get things exactly as you would like them Starting fromOpenOfficeorg 30 this task is considerably improved by the inclusionof a new option that allows a ldquoloose anchoringrdquoPositioning of a graphic is controlled by working on four areasbull Arrangement refers to the placement of a graphic on animaginary vertical axis Arrangement controls how graphics arestacked upon each other or relative to the textbull Alignment refers to the vertical or horizontal placement of a

graphic in relation to the chosen anchoring pointbull Anchoring refers to the reference point for the graphics Thispoint could be the page or frame where the object is aparagraph or even a character

bull Text wrapping refers to the relation of graphics to surroundingtext which may wrap around the graphic on one or both sides beoverprinted behind or in front of the graphic or treat the graphicas a separate paragraph or characterThe settings for each of the four control areas above can be accessedin a number of different ways depending on the nature of the graphics1) From the Format menu where you can find AlignmentArrange Wrap and Anchor (both for images and drawingobjects)2) By the pop-up menu displayed when right-clicking on thegraphics3) From the Frame toolbar shown in Figure 259 for images with theGraphics frame style applied4) From the Type and Wrapping pages of the Picture dialog box forimages Note that you cannot control the arrangement using thedialog box To open the Picture dialog box click on the image toselect it and then choose Format gt Picture or right-click on thegraphic and choose Picture on the pop-up menu5) From the Position and Size page of the Position and Size dialogbox for drawing objects To open the Position and Size dialog boxclick on the drawing object to select it and then choose Format gtObject gt Position and Size or right-click on the graphic andchoose Position and Size on the pop-up menu Note that you canonly control the alignment and anchoring

Arranging graphicsArranging a graphic object means to determine its vertical positionrelative to other graphic objects or text Arranging is only relevantwhen objects are overlapping You can choose between four settingsplus a special setting for drawing objects

Bring to Front draws the graphic on top of any other graphicsor textbull Bring Forward brings the object one level up in the stack (zaxis)Depending on the number of overlapping objects you mayneed to apply this option several times to obtain the desiredresultbull Bring Backward the opposite of Bring Forward sends theselected object one level down in the object stackbull Send to Back sends the selected graphic to the bottom of thestack so that other graphics and text cover itbull To Background To Foreground only available for drawingobjects moves the drawing object behind or in front of the textrespectively

4) Now create or modify the form letter by typing in textpunctuation line breaks and so on that will be present in all ofthe letters and adding fields where needed by clicking in the fieldheading and dragging to the appropriate point in the letter Note that address lines should be in individual paragraphs notseparated by line breaks as might seem preferable The reasonfor this will be made clear in the next step

5) Continue until you have composed the entire document At this time you may wish to considersuppressing any blank lines that may appear in the resultingletters If not skip ahead to Step 7

6) To suppress blank linesp) Click at the end of the first paragraph to be suppressed

andthen select Insert gt Fields gt Otherq) Select the Functions tab and then click on HiddenParagraph in the Type columnr) Now click in the Condition box and enter the details of

thecondition that defines a blank address field It has the

generalform of[DatabaseTableDatabase field]where the lsquorsquo (NOT) character indicates the negative case

and

the square brackets indicate the conditionFor example in our Points database the condition to test if theCompany field is empty would be[PointsSheet1Company] as illustrated

To test for multiple conditions use the operators AND andorOR between the conditional statements for example[PointsSheet1Title]AND[PointsSheet1Last Name]s) Click Insert but do not close the dialog until you haveamended all the lines that should be suppressed

The document is now ready to be printed1) Click File gt Print and respond with Yes in the message box2) In the Mail Merge dialog (Figure 302) you can choose to print allrecords or selected records To select records to be printed use

Ctrl+click to select individual records To select a block ofrecords select the first record in the block scroll to the lastrecord in the block and Shift+click on the last record

3) Click OK to send the letters directly to the printerIf you prefer to save the letters to a file perhaps to allowproofreading or some later formatting select File in the outputsection of the Mail Merge dialog instead of using the defaultPrinter selection This changes the dialog to display the Savemerged document section where Save as single document ispre-selected You can choose to save each letter as a singleindividual document if preferredIn this case clicking OK brings up the Save as dialog Enter a filename for the saved letters They will be saved consecutively in thesingle document or numbered consecutively in individual files ifsaved as single documents

4) If you have not saved the original prototype form letter document(template) previously then you should do so now Having a formletter template could greatly simplify the creation of other formletters in the future and is highly recommended

Graphics in WriterWhen you create a text document using OpenOfficeorg (OOo) Writeryou may need to include some graphic illustrations Graphics areadded to textual documents for a wide variety of reasons fromsupporting the description provided in the textmdashsuch as that used inthis Guidemdashto providing an immediate visual impact of the contentssuch as what is often found in a newspaperGraphics in Writer are of three basic typesbull Image files including photos drawings scanned images andothersbull Diagrams created using OOorsquos drawing toolsbull Charts created using OOorsquos Chart facilityThis chapter covers the first two types of graphic illustrations

Inserting an image from a fileIn the case where the image is already available in a file stored on thecomputer it can be immediately inserted in the Writer document OOocan import various vector (line drawing) and raster (bitmap) fileformats The most common are GIF JPEG or JPG PNG and BMP SeeldquoGraphic file types supportedrdquo for a full list of supportedgraphic file typesTo insert an image from a file proceed as follows1) Determine the destination for the image Place the cursor at ornear the appropriate location in the document2) On the main menu select Insert gt Picture gt From File 3) Navigate to the file to be inserted select it and click Open

Inserting images from other sourcesYou can insert images from sources other than a filebull Graphics programbull Scannerbull OOo GalleryGraphics programYou can use many different graphics programs to edit a graphic fileFrom these programs you can select copy and paste an image or partof a graphic into an OOo document Figure 251 shows an example ofthis procedure which can be recreated with these steps1) In the graphic program window select an area of the image to becopied2) Move the cursor over the selected area and press Control+C tocopy

3) Switch to the OOo Writer window4) Click to place the cursor where the graphic is to be inserted5) Press Control+V to paste the image

ScannerIf a scanner is connected to your computer OOo can call the scanningapplication and insert the scanned item into the Writer document pageas an image To start this procedure place the cursor where thegraphic is to be inserted and select Insert gt Picture gt Scan gt SelectSourceAlthough this practice is quick and easy it is unlikely to result in ahigh-quality image of the correct size You may get better results byscanning material into a graphics program and cleaning it up therebefore inserting the resulting image into WriterOpenOfficeorg GalleryThe Gallery contains objects (graphics and sounds) that you can insert

into your documents The Gallery is available in all components of OOoFor an introduction to the Gallery (Graphics theGallery and Fontwork) in the Getting Started guideTo select a graphic from the Gallery and drag it into the document1) Click on the Gallery icon (located in the right side of theStandard toolbar) or choose Tools gt Gallery2) Select the theme containing the image you want to insert3) Click on the image with the left mouse button then drag and dropthe image into the document You can also right-click on theobject and select Insert gt Copy

Using the picture toolbarWhen you insert a suitable graphic image or select one already presentin the document the Picture toolbar appears This toolbar can beeither floating or docked Figure below shows what the Picture toolbarlooks like when it is floating Two other toolbars can be opened from

this one the Graphic Filter toolbar which can be torn off and placedelsewhere on the window and the Color toolbar which opens as aseparate floating toolbarFrom these toolbars you can apply small corrections to the graphic orobtain special effectsFiltersTable 5provides 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 orAlt+Backspace or by selecting Edit gt Undo

Graphic filters and their effects

ColorUse this dialog box to modify the individual RGB color components ofthe image (red green blue) as well as the brightness contrast andgamma of the image If the result is not satisfactory you can pressControl+Z to restore the default valuesSetting the object transparencyModify 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 dialogWhen an image is selected you can customize some aspects of itsappearance using the tools available on the Formatting toolbar as well as in the dialog that is shown by right-clickingon the image and selecting Picture You can forexample create a border around the image selecting style and coloror you can (in the Borders page of the Picture dialog) add a shadow tothe imageCropping imagesWhen 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 To startcropping the image right-click on it and select Picture from the popupmenu In the Picture dialog box select the Crop page

In the Crop dialog box you can control the following parametersbull Keep scale Keep image size options when Keep scale isselected (default) cropping the image does not change the scaleof the picture When Keep image size is selected croppingproduces enlargement (for positive cropping values) shrinking (for negative cropping values) or distortion of the image so thatthe image size remains constantbull Left Right Top and Bottom the function of these boxeschanges according to the choice made between Keep scale andKeep image size In both cases when a value is entered in one ofthese boxes the image is cropped by that amount For example avalue of 3cm in the Left box will cut 3 cm from the left side of thepictureWhen Keep scale is selected the size of the image also changesso in this example the width will be reduced by 3 cm If Keepimage size is selected instead the remaining part of the image isenlarged (positive values for cropping) or shrunk (negative values

for cropping) so that the width and height of the image remainsunchanged

Note that the Width and Height fields change as you enter thevalues when in this mode Use the thumbnail next to these fieldsto determine the correct amount by which to crop

Resizing an imageIt is possible and quite likely that the inserted image will not fitperfectly into the document because it is too big or too small In thesecases you will need to resize the image1) Click the picture if necessary to show the green resizing handles2) Position the pointer over one of the green resizing handles Thepointer changes shape giving a graphical representation of thedirection of the resizing3) Click and drag to resize the picture4) Release the mouse button when satisfied with the new sizeThe corner handles resize both the width and the height of the graphicobject simultaneously while the other four handles only resize onedimension at a time

Rotating a pictureWriter does not provide a tool for rotating a picture however there isa very simple workaround1) Open a new Draw or Impress document2) Insert the image you want to rotate You can use any of themechanisms described in ldquoAdding images to a documentrdquo on page264 although there are some slight variations in the position ofthe menu entries and icons3) Select the image then in the drawing toolbar (shown by default atthe bottom of the window in Impress and Draw) select theRotate icon

4) Rotate the image as desired Use the red handles at the corners ofthe 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

Using Writerrsquos drawing toolsYou can use Writerrsquos drawing tools to create graphics such as simplediagrams using rectangles circles lines text and other predefinedshapes You can also group several drawing objects to make sure theymaintain their relative position and proportionYou can place the drawing objects directly on a page in your documentor you can insert them into a frameYou can also use the drawing tools to annotate photographs screencaptures or other illustrations produced by other programs but this isnot recommended becausebull You cannot include images in a group with drawing objects sothey may get out of alignment in your documentbull If you convert a Writer document to another format such asHTML the drawing objects and the graphics will not remainassociated they are saved separately

In general if you need to create complex drawings it is recommendedto use OpenOfficeorg Draw which includes many more features suchas layers styles and so onCreating drawing objectsTo begin using the drawing tools display the Drawing toolbar by clicking View gt Toolbars gt DrawingIf you are planning to use the drawing tools repeatedly you can tear offthis toolbar and move it to a convenient place on the window

To use a drawing tool1) Click in the document where you want the drawing to beanchored You can change the anchor later if necessary2) Select the tool from the Drawing toolbar The mousepointer changes to a drawing-functions pointer 3) Move the cross-hair pointer to the place in the document whereyou want the graphic to appear and then click-and-drag to createthe drawing object Release the mouse button The selecteddrawing function remains active so you can draw another objectof the same type4) To cancel the selected drawing function press the Esc key orclick on the Select icon (the arrow) on the Drawing toolbar5) You can now change the properties (fill color line type andweight anchoring and others) of the drawing object using eitherthe Drawing Object Properties toolbar or the choicesand dialog boxes reached by right-clicking on the drawing object

Positioning graphics within the textWhen you add a graphic to a text document you need to choose how toposition the graphic with respect to the text and other graphics Thepositioning of graphics is often rather time-consuming and may be veryfrustrating for both inexperienced and experienced users As Writer isa word processor rather than a desktop publishing program there aresome limitations to the flexibility in positioning images and it takestime to get things exactly as you would like them Starting fromOpenOfficeorg 30 this task is considerably improved by the inclusionof a new option that allows a ldquoloose anchoringrdquoPositioning of a graphic is controlled by working on four areasbull Arrangement refers to the placement of a graphic on animaginary vertical axis Arrangement controls how graphics arestacked upon each other or relative to the textbull Alignment refers to the vertical or horizontal placement of a

graphic in relation to the chosen anchoring pointbull Anchoring refers to the reference point for the graphics Thispoint could be the page or frame where the object is aparagraph or even a character

bull Text wrapping refers to the relation of graphics to surroundingtext which may wrap around the graphic on one or both sides beoverprinted behind or in front of the graphic or treat the graphicas a separate paragraph or characterThe settings for each of the four control areas above can be accessedin a number of different ways depending on the nature of the graphics1) From the Format menu where you can find AlignmentArrange Wrap and Anchor (both for images and drawingobjects)2) By the pop-up menu displayed when right-clicking on thegraphics3) From the Frame toolbar shown in Figure 259 for images with theGraphics frame style applied4) From the Type and Wrapping pages of the Picture dialog box forimages Note that you cannot control the arrangement using thedialog box To open the Picture dialog box click on the image toselect it and then choose Format gt Picture or right-click on thegraphic and choose Picture on the pop-up menu5) From the Position and Size page of the Position and Size dialogbox for drawing objects To open the Position and Size dialog boxclick on the drawing object to select it and then choose Format gtObject gt Position and Size or right-click on the graphic andchoose Position and Size on the pop-up menu Note that you canonly control the alignment and anchoring

Arranging graphicsArranging a graphic object means to determine its vertical positionrelative to other graphic objects or text Arranging is only relevantwhen objects are overlapping You can choose between four settingsplus a special setting for drawing objects

Bring to Front draws the graphic on top of any other graphicsor textbull Bring Forward brings the object one level up in the stack (zaxis)Depending on the number of overlapping objects you mayneed to apply this option several times to obtain the desiredresultbull Bring Backward the opposite of Bring Forward sends theselected object one level down in the object stackbull Send to Back sends the selected graphic to the bottom of thestack so that other graphics and text cover itbull To Background To Foreground only available for drawingobjects moves the drawing object behind or in front of the textrespectively

5) Continue until you have composed the entire document At this time you may wish to considersuppressing any blank lines that may appear in the resultingletters If not skip ahead to Step 7

6) To suppress blank linesp) Click at the end of the first paragraph to be suppressed

andthen select Insert gt Fields gt Otherq) Select the Functions tab and then click on HiddenParagraph in the Type columnr) Now click in the Condition box and enter the details of

thecondition that defines a blank address field It has the

generalform of[DatabaseTableDatabase field]where the lsquorsquo (NOT) character indicates the negative case

and

the square brackets indicate the conditionFor example in our Points database the condition to test if theCompany field is empty would be[PointsSheet1Company] as illustrated

To test for multiple conditions use the operators AND andorOR between the conditional statements for example[PointsSheet1Title]AND[PointsSheet1Last Name]s) Click Insert but do not close the dialog until you haveamended all the lines that should be suppressed

The document is now ready to be printed1) Click File gt Print and respond with Yes in the message box2) In the Mail Merge dialog (Figure 302) you can choose to print allrecords or selected records To select records to be printed use

Ctrl+click to select individual records To select a block ofrecords select the first record in the block scroll to the lastrecord in the block and Shift+click on the last record

3) Click OK to send the letters directly to the printerIf you prefer to save the letters to a file perhaps to allowproofreading or some later formatting select File in the outputsection of the Mail Merge dialog instead of using the defaultPrinter selection This changes the dialog to display the Savemerged document section where Save as single document ispre-selected You can choose to save each letter as a singleindividual document if preferredIn this case clicking OK brings up the Save as dialog Enter a filename for the saved letters They will be saved consecutively in thesingle document or numbered consecutively in individual files ifsaved as single documents

4) If you have not saved the original prototype form letter document(template) previously then you should do so now Having a formletter template could greatly simplify the creation of other formletters in the future and is highly recommended

Graphics in WriterWhen you create a text document using OpenOfficeorg (OOo) Writeryou may need to include some graphic illustrations Graphics areadded to textual documents for a wide variety of reasons fromsupporting the description provided in the textmdashsuch as that used inthis Guidemdashto providing an immediate visual impact of the contentssuch as what is often found in a newspaperGraphics in Writer are of three basic typesbull Image files including photos drawings scanned images andothersbull Diagrams created using OOorsquos drawing toolsbull Charts created using OOorsquos Chart facilityThis chapter covers the first two types of graphic illustrations

Inserting an image from a fileIn the case where the image is already available in a file stored on thecomputer it can be immediately inserted in the Writer document OOocan import various vector (line drawing) and raster (bitmap) fileformats The most common are GIF JPEG or JPG PNG and BMP SeeldquoGraphic file types supportedrdquo for a full list of supportedgraphic file typesTo insert an image from a file proceed as follows1) Determine the destination for the image Place the cursor at ornear the appropriate location in the document2) On the main menu select Insert gt Picture gt From File 3) Navigate to the file to be inserted select it and click Open

Inserting images from other sourcesYou can insert images from sources other than a filebull Graphics programbull Scannerbull OOo GalleryGraphics programYou can use many different graphics programs to edit a graphic fileFrom these programs you can select copy and paste an image or partof a graphic into an OOo document Figure 251 shows an example ofthis procedure which can be recreated with these steps1) In the graphic program window select an area of the image to becopied2) Move the cursor over the selected area and press Control+C tocopy

3) Switch to the OOo Writer window4) Click to place the cursor where the graphic is to be inserted5) Press Control+V to paste the image

ScannerIf a scanner is connected to your computer OOo can call the scanningapplication and insert the scanned item into the Writer document pageas an image To start this procedure place the cursor where thegraphic is to be inserted and select Insert gt Picture gt Scan gt SelectSourceAlthough this practice is quick and easy it is unlikely to result in ahigh-quality image of the correct size You may get better results byscanning material into a graphics program and cleaning it up therebefore inserting the resulting image into WriterOpenOfficeorg GalleryThe Gallery contains objects (graphics and sounds) that you can insert

into your documents The Gallery is available in all components of OOoFor an introduction to the Gallery (Graphics theGallery and Fontwork) in the Getting Started guideTo select a graphic from the Gallery and drag it into the document1) Click on the Gallery icon (located in the right side of theStandard toolbar) or choose Tools gt Gallery2) Select the theme containing the image you want to insert3) Click on the image with the left mouse button then drag and dropthe image into the document You can also right-click on theobject and select Insert gt Copy

Using the picture toolbarWhen you insert a suitable graphic image or select one already presentin the document the Picture toolbar appears This toolbar can beeither floating or docked Figure below shows what the Picture toolbarlooks like when it is floating Two other toolbars can be opened from

this one the Graphic Filter toolbar which can be torn off and placedelsewhere on the window and the Color toolbar which opens as aseparate floating toolbarFrom these toolbars you can apply small corrections to the graphic orobtain special effectsFiltersTable 5provides 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 orAlt+Backspace or by selecting Edit gt Undo

Graphic filters and their effects

ColorUse this dialog box to modify the individual RGB color components ofthe image (red green blue) as well as the brightness contrast andgamma of the image If the result is not satisfactory you can pressControl+Z to restore the default valuesSetting the object transparencyModify 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 dialogWhen an image is selected you can customize some aspects of itsappearance using the tools available on the Formatting toolbar as well as in the dialog that is shown by right-clickingon the image and selecting Picture You can forexample create a border around the image selecting style and coloror you can (in the Borders page of the Picture dialog) add a shadow tothe imageCropping imagesWhen 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 To startcropping the image right-click on it and select Picture from the popupmenu In the Picture dialog box select the Crop page

In the Crop dialog box you can control the following parametersbull Keep scale Keep image size options when Keep scale isselected (default) cropping the image does not change the scaleof the picture When Keep image size is selected croppingproduces enlargement (for positive cropping values) shrinking (for negative cropping values) or distortion of the image so thatthe image size remains constantbull Left Right Top and Bottom the function of these boxeschanges according to the choice made between Keep scale andKeep image size In both cases when a value is entered in one ofthese boxes the image is cropped by that amount For example avalue of 3cm in the Left box will cut 3 cm from the left side of thepictureWhen Keep scale is selected the size of the image also changesso in this example the width will be reduced by 3 cm If Keepimage size is selected instead the remaining part of the image isenlarged (positive values for cropping) or shrunk (negative values

for cropping) so that the width and height of the image remainsunchanged

Note that the Width and Height fields change as you enter thevalues when in this mode Use the thumbnail next to these fieldsto determine the correct amount by which to crop

Resizing an imageIt is possible and quite likely that the inserted image will not fitperfectly into the document because it is too big or too small In thesecases you will need to resize the image1) Click the picture if necessary to show the green resizing handles2) Position the pointer over one of the green resizing handles Thepointer changes shape giving a graphical representation of thedirection of the resizing3) Click and drag to resize the picture4) Release the mouse button when satisfied with the new sizeThe corner handles resize both the width and the height of the graphicobject simultaneously while the other four handles only resize onedimension at a time

Rotating a pictureWriter does not provide a tool for rotating a picture however there isa very simple workaround1) Open a new Draw or Impress document2) Insert the image you want to rotate You can use any of themechanisms described in ldquoAdding images to a documentrdquo on page264 although there are some slight variations in the position ofthe menu entries and icons3) Select the image then in the drawing toolbar (shown by default atthe bottom of the window in Impress and Draw) select theRotate icon

4) Rotate the image as desired Use the red handles at the corners ofthe 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

Using Writerrsquos drawing toolsYou can use Writerrsquos drawing tools to create graphics such as simplediagrams using rectangles circles lines text and other predefinedshapes You can also group several drawing objects to make sure theymaintain their relative position and proportionYou can place the drawing objects directly on a page in your documentor you can insert them into a frameYou can also use the drawing tools to annotate photographs screencaptures or other illustrations produced by other programs but this isnot recommended becausebull You cannot include images in a group with drawing objects sothey may get out of alignment in your documentbull If you convert a Writer document to another format such asHTML the drawing objects and the graphics will not remainassociated they are saved separately

In general if you need to create complex drawings it is recommendedto use OpenOfficeorg Draw which includes many more features suchas layers styles and so onCreating drawing objectsTo begin using the drawing tools display the Drawing toolbar by clicking View gt Toolbars gt DrawingIf you are planning to use the drawing tools repeatedly you can tear offthis toolbar and move it to a convenient place on the window

To use a drawing tool1) Click in the document where you want the drawing to beanchored You can change the anchor later if necessary2) Select the tool from the Drawing toolbar The mousepointer changes to a drawing-functions pointer 3) Move the cross-hair pointer to the place in the document whereyou want the graphic to appear and then click-and-drag to createthe drawing object Release the mouse button The selecteddrawing function remains active so you can draw another objectof the same type4) To cancel the selected drawing function press the Esc key orclick on the Select icon (the arrow) on the Drawing toolbar5) You can now change the properties (fill color line type andweight anchoring and others) of the drawing object using eitherthe Drawing Object Properties toolbar or the choicesand dialog boxes reached by right-clicking on the drawing object

Positioning graphics within the textWhen you add a graphic to a text document you need to choose how toposition the graphic with respect to the text and other graphics Thepositioning of graphics is often rather time-consuming and may be veryfrustrating for both inexperienced and experienced users As Writer isa word processor rather than a desktop publishing program there aresome limitations to the flexibility in positioning images and it takestime to get things exactly as you would like them Starting fromOpenOfficeorg 30 this task is considerably improved by the inclusionof a new option that allows a ldquoloose anchoringrdquoPositioning of a graphic is controlled by working on four areasbull Arrangement refers to the placement of a graphic on animaginary vertical axis Arrangement controls how graphics arestacked upon each other or relative to the textbull Alignment refers to the vertical or horizontal placement of a

graphic in relation to the chosen anchoring pointbull Anchoring refers to the reference point for the graphics Thispoint could be the page or frame where the object is aparagraph or even a character

bull Text wrapping refers to the relation of graphics to surroundingtext which may wrap around the graphic on one or both sides beoverprinted behind or in front of the graphic or treat the graphicas a separate paragraph or characterThe settings for each of the four control areas above can be accessedin a number of different ways depending on the nature of the graphics1) From the Format menu where you can find AlignmentArrange Wrap and Anchor (both for images and drawingobjects)2) By the pop-up menu displayed when right-clicking on thegraphics3) From the Frame toolbar shown in Figure 259 for images with theGraphics frame style applied4) From the Type and Wrapping pages of the Picture dialog box forimages Note that you cannot control the arrangement using thedialog box To open the Picture dialog box click on the image toselect it and then choose Format gt Picture or right-click on thegraphic and choose Picture on the pop-up menu5) From the Position and Size page of the Position and Size dialogbox for drawing objects To open the Position and Size dialog boxclick on the drawing object to select it and then choose Format gtObject gt Position and Size or right-click on the graphic andchoose Position and Size on the pop-up menu Note that you canonly control the alignment and anchoring

Arranging graphicsArranging a graphic object means to determine its vertical positionrelative to other graphic objects or text Arranging is only relevantwhen objects are overlapping You can choose between four settingsplus a special setting for drawing objects

Bring to Front draws the graphic on top of any other graphicsor textbull Bring Forward brings the object one level up in the stack (zaxis)Depending on the number of overlapping objects you mayneed to apply this option several times to obtain the desiredresultbull Bring Backward the opposite of Bring Forward sends theselected object one level down in the object stackbull Send to Back sends the selected graphic to the bottom of thestack so that other graphics and text cover itbull To Background To Foreground only available for drawingobjects moves the drawing object behind or in front of the textrespectively

the square brackets indicate the conditionFor example in our Points database the condition to test if theCompany field is empty would be[PointsSheet1Company] as illustrated

To test for multiple conditions use the operators AND andorOR between the conditional statements for example[PointsSheet1Title]AND[PointsSheet1Last Name]s) Click Insert but do not close the dialog until you haveamended all the lines that should be suppressed

The document is now ready to be printed1) Click File gt Print and respond with Yes in the message box2) In the Mail Merge dialog (Figure 302) you can choose to print allrecords or selected records To select records to be printed use

Ctrl+click to select individual records To select a block ofrecords select the first record in the block scroll to the lastrecord in the block and Shift+click on the last record

3) Click OK to send the letters directly to the printerIf you prefer to save the letters to a file perhaps to allowproofreading or some later formatting select File in the outputsection of the Mail Merge dialog instead of using the defaultPrinter selection This changes the dialog to display the Savemerged document section where Save as single document ispre-selected You can choose to save each letter as a singleindividual document if preferredIn this case clicking OK brings up the Save as dialog Enter a filename for the saved letters They will be saved consecutively in thesingle document or numbered consecutively in individual files ifsaved as single documents

4) If you have not saved the original prototype form letter document(template) previously then you should do so now Having a formletter template could greatly simplify the creation of other formletters in the future and is highly recommended

Graphics in WriterWhen you create a text document using OpenOfficeorg (OOo) Writeryou may need to include some graphic illustrations Graphics areadded to textual documents for a wide variety of reasons fromsupporting the description provided in the textmdashsuch as that used inthis Guidemdashto providing an immediate visual impact of the contentssuch as what is often found in a newspaperGraphics in Writer are of three basic typesbull Image files including photos drawings scanned images andothersbull Diagrams created using OOorsquos drawing toolsbull Charts created using OOorsquos Chart facilityThis chapter covers the first two types of graphic illustrations

Inserting an image from a fileIn the case where the image is already available in a file stored on thecomputer it can be immediately inserted in the Writer document OOocan import various vector (line drawing) and raster (bitmap) fileformats The most common are GIF JPEG or JPG PNG and BMP SeeldquoGraphic file types supportedrdquo for a full list of supportedgraphic file typesTo insert an image from a file proceed as follows1) Determine the destination for the image Place the cursor at ornear the appropriate location in the document2) On the main menu select Insert gt Picture gt From File 3) Navigate to the file to be inserted select it and click Open

Inserting images from other sourcesYou can insert images from sources other than a filebull Graphics programbull Scannerbull OOo GalleryGraphics programYou can use many different graphics programs to edit a graphic fileFrom these programs you can select copy and paste an image or partof a graphic into an OOo document Figure 251 shows an example ofthis procedure which can be recreated with these steps1) In the graphic program window select an area of the image to becopied2) Move the cursor over the selected area and press Control+C tocopy

3) Switch to the OOo Writer window4) Click to place the cursor where the graphic is to be inserted5) Press Control+V to paste the image

ScannerIf a scanner is connected to your computer OOo can call the scanningapplication and insert the scanned item into the Writer document pageas an image To start this procedure place the cursor where thegraphic is to be inserted and select Insert gt Picture gt Scan gt SelectSourceAlthough this practice is quick and easy it is unlikely to result in ahigh-quality image of the correct size You may get better results byscanning material into a graphics program and cleaning it up therebefore inserting the resulting image into WriterOpenOfficeorg GalleryThe Gallery contains objects (graphics and sounds) that you can insert

into your documents The Gallery is available in all components of OOoFor an introduction to the Gallery (Graphics theGallery and Fontwork) in the Getting Started guideTo select a graphic from the Gallery and drag it into the document1) Click on the Gallery icon (located in the right side of theStandard toolbar) or choose Tools gt Gallery2) Select the theme containing the image you want to insert3) Click on the image with the left mouse button then drag and dropthe image into the document You can also right-click on theobject and select Insert gt Copy

Using the picture toolbarWhen you insert a suitable graphic image or select one already presentin the document the Picture toolbar appears This toolbar can beeither floating or docked Figure below shows what the Picture toolbarlooks like when it is floating Two other toolbars can be opened from

this one the Graphic Filter toolbar which can be torn off and placedelsewhere on the window and the Color toolbar which opens as aseparate floating toolbarFrom these toolbars you can apply small corrections to the graphic orobtain special effectsFiltersTable 5provides 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 orAlt+Backspace or by selecting Edit gt Undo

Graphic filters and their effects

ColorUse this dialog box to modify the individual RGB color components ofthe image (red green blue) as well as the brightness contrast andgamma of the image If the result is not satisfactory you can pressControl+Z to restore the default valuesSetting the object transparencyModify 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 dialogWhen an image is selected you can customize some aspects of itsappearance using the tools available on the Formatting toolbar as well as in the dialog that is shown by right-clickingon the image and selecting Picture You can forexample create a border around the image selecting style and coloror you can (in the Borders page of the Picture dialog) add a shadow tothe imageCropping imagesWhen 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 To startcropping the image right-click on it and select Picture from the popupmenu In the Picture dialog box select the Crop page

In the Crop dialog box you can control the following parametersbull Keep scale Keep image size options when Keep scale isselected (default) cropping the image does not change the scaleof the picture When Keep image size is selected croppingproduces enlargement (for positive cropping values) shrinking (for negative cropping values) or distortion of the image so thatthe image size remains constantbull Left Right Top and Bottom the function of these boxeschanges according to the choice made between Keep scale andKeep image size In both cases when a value is entered in one ofthese boxes the image is cropped by that amount For example avalue of 3cm in the Left box will cut 3 cm from the left side of thepictureWhen Keep scale is selected the size of the image also changesso in this example the width will be reduced by 3 cm If Keepimage size is selected instead the remaining part of the image isenlarged (positive values for cropping) or shrunk (negative values

for cropping) so that the width and height of the image remainsunchanged

Note that the Width and Height fields change as you enter thevalues when in this mode Use the thumbnail next to these fieldsto determine the correct amount by which to crop

Resizing an imageIt is possible and quite likely that the inserted image will not fitperfectly into the document because it is too big or too small In thesecases you will need to resize the image1) Click the picture if necessary to show the green resizing handles2) Position the pointer over one of the green resizing handles Thepointer changes shape giving a graphical representation of thedirection of the resizing3) Click and drag to resize the picture4) Release the mouse button when satisfied with the new sizeThe corner handles resize both the width and the height of the graphicobject simultaneously while the other four handles only resize onedimension at a time

Rotating a pictureWriter does not provide a tool for rotating a picture however there isa very simple workaround1) Open a new Draw or Impress document2) Insert the image you want to rotate You can use any of themechanisms described in ldquoAdding images to a documentrdquo on page264 although there are some slight variations in the position ofthe menu entries and icons3) Select the image then in the drawing toolbar (shown by default atthe bottom of the window in Impress and Draw) select theRotate icon

4) Rotate the image as desired Use the red handles at the corners ofthe 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

Using Writerrsquos drawing toolsYou can use Writerrsquos drawing tools to create graphics such as simplediagrams using rectangles circles lines text and other predefinedshapes You can also group several drawing objects to make sure theymaintain their relative position and proportionYou can place the drawing objects directly on a page in your documentor you can insert them into a frameYou can also use the drawing tools to annotate photographs screencaptures or other illustrations produced by other programs but this isnot recommended becausebull You cannot include images in a group with drawing objects sothey may get out of alignment in your documentbull If you convert a Writer document to another format such asHTML the drawing objects and the graphics will not remainassociated they are saved separately

In general if you need to create complex drawings it is recommendedto use OpenOfficeorg Draw which includes many more features suchas layers styles and so onCreating drawing objectsTo begin using the drawing tools display the Drawing toolbar by clicking View gt Toolbars gt DrawingIf you are planning to use the drawing tools repeatedly you can tear offthis toolbar and move it to a convenient place on the window

To use a drawing tool1) Click in the document where you want the drawing to beanchored You can change the anchor later if necessary2) Select the tool from the Drawing toolbar The mousepointer changes to a drawing-functions pointer 3) Move the cross-hair pointer to the place in the document whereyou want the graphic to appear and then click-and-drag to createthe drawing object Release the mouse button The selecteddrawing function remains active so you can draw another objectof the same type4) To cancel the selected drawing function press the Esc key orclick on the Select icon (the arrow) on the Drawing toolbar5) You can now change the properties (fill color line type andweight anchoring and others) of the drawing object using eitherthe Drawing Object Properties toolbar or the choicesand dialog boxes reached by right-clicking on the drawing object

Positioning graphics within the textWhen you add a graphic to a text document you need to choose how toposition the graphic with respect to the text and other graphics Thepositioning of graphics is often rather time-consuming and may be veryfrustrating for both inexperienced and experienced users As Writer isa word processor rather than a desktop publishing program there aresome limitations to the flexibility in positioning images and it takestime to get things exactly as you would like them Starting fromOpenOfficeorg 30 this task is considerably improved by the inclusionof a new option that allows a ldquoloose anchoringrdquoPositioning of a graphic is controlled by working on four areasbull Arrangement refers to the placement of a graphic on animaginary vertical axis Arrangement controls how graphics arestacked upon each other or relative to the textbull Alignment refers to the vertical or horizontal placement of a

graphic in relation to the chosen anchoring pointbull Anchoring refers to the reference point for the graphics Thispoint could be the page or frame where the object is aparagraph or even a character

bull Text wrapping refers to the relation of graphics to surroundingtext which may wrap around the graphic on one or both sides beoverprinted behind or in front of the graphic or treat the graphicas a separate paragraph or characterThe settings for each of the four control areas above can be accessedin a number of different ways depending on the nature of the graphics1) From the Format menu where you can find AlignmentArrange Wrap and Anchor (both for images and drawingobjects)2) By the pop-up menu displayed when right-clicking on thegraphics3) From the Frame toolbar shown in Figure 259 for images with theGraphics frame style applied4) From the Type and Wrapping pages of the Picture dialog box forimages Note that you cannot control the arrangement using thedialog box To open the Picture dialog box click on the image toselect it and then choose Format gt Picture or right-click on thegraphic and choose Picture on the pop-up menu5) From the Position and Size page of the Position and Size dialogbox for drawing objects To open the Position and Size dialog boxclick on the drawing object to select it and then choose Format gtObject gt Position and Size or right-click on the graphic andchoose Position and Size on the pop-up menu Note that you canonly control the alignment and anchoring

Arranging graphicsArranging a graphic object means to determine its vertical positionrelative to other graphic objects or text Arranging is only relevantwhen objects are overlapping You can choose between four settingsplus a special setting for drawing objects

Bring to Front draws the graphic on top of any other graphicsor textbull Bring Forward brings the object one level up in the stack (zaxis)Depending on the number of overlapping objects you mayneed to apply this option several times to obtain the desiredresultbull Bring Backward the opposite of Bring Forward sends theselected object one level down in the object stackbull Send to Back sends the selected graphic to the bottom of thestack so that other graphics and text cover itbull To Background To Foreground only available for drawingobjects moves the drawing object behind or in front of the textrespectively

Ctrl+click to select individual records To select a block ofrecords select the first record in the block scroll to the lastrecord in the block and Shift+click on the last record

3) Click OK to send the letters directly to the printerIf you prefer to save the letters to a file perhaps to allowproofreading or some later formatting select File in the outputsection of the Mail Merge dialog instead of using the defaultPrinter selection This changes the dialog to display the Savemerged document section where Save as single document ispre-selected You can choose to save each letter as a singleindividual document if preferredIn this case clicking OK brings up the Save as dialog Enter a filename for the saved letters They will be saved consecutively in thesingle document or numbered consecutively in individual files ifsaved as single documents

4) If you have not saved the original prototype form letter document(template) previously then you should do so now Having a formletter template could greatly simplify the creation of other formletters in the future and is highly recommended

Graphics in WriterWhen you create a text document using OpenOfficeorg (OOo) Writeryou may need to include some graphic illustrations Graphics areadded to textual documents for a wide variety of reasons fromsupporting the description provided in the textmdashsuch as that used inthis Guidemdashto providing an immediate visual impact of the contentssuch as what is often found in a newspaperGraphics in Writer are of three basic typesbull Image files including photos drawings scanned images andothersbull Diagrams created using OOorsquos drawing toolsbull Charts created using OOorsquos Chart facilityThis chapter covers the first two types of graphic illustrations

Inserting an image from a fileIn the case where the image is already available in a file stored on thecomputer it can be immediately inserted in the Writer document OOocan import various vector (line drawing) and raster (bitmap) fileformats The most common are GIF JPEG or JPG PNG and BMP SeeldquoGraphic file types supportedrdquo for a full list of supportedgraphic file typesTo insert an image from a file proceed as follows1) Determine the destination for the image Place the cursor at ornear the appropriate location in the document2) On the main menu select Insert gt Picture gt From File 3) Navigate to the file to be inserted select it and click Open

Inserting images from other sourcesYou can insert images from sources other than a filebull Graphics programbull Scannerbull OOo GalleryGraphics programYou can use many different graphics programs to edit a graphic fileFrom these programs you can select copy and paste an image or partof a graphic into an OOo document Figure 251 shows an example ofthis procedure which can be recreated with these steps1) In the graphic program window select an area of the image to becopied2) Move the cursor over the selected area and press Control+C tocopy

3) Switch to the OOo Writer window4) Click to place the cursor where the graphic is to be inserted5) Press Control+V to paste the image

ScannerIf a scanner is connected to your computer OOo can call the scanningapplication and insert the scanned item into the Writer document pageas an image To start this procedure place the cursor where thegraphic is to be inserted and select Insert gt Picture gt Scan gt SelectSourceAlthough this practice is quick and easy it is unlikely to result in ahigh-quality image of the correct size You may get better results byscanning material into a graphics program and cleaning it up therebefore inserting the resulting image into WriterOpenOfficeorg GalleryThe Gallery contains objects (graphics and sounds) that you can insert

into your documents The Gallery is available in all components of OOoFor an introduction to the Gallery (Graphics theGallery and Fontwork) in the Getting Started guideTo select a graphic from the Gallery and drag it into the document1) Click on the Gallery icon (located in the right side of theStandard toolbar) or choose Tools gt Gallery2) Select the theme containing the image you want to insert3) Click on the image with the left mouse button then drag and dropthe image into the document You can also right-click on theobject and select Insert gt Copy

Using the picture toolbarWhen you insert a suitable graphic image or select one already presentin the document the Picture toolbar appears This toolbar can beeither floating or docked Figure below shows what the Picture toolbarlooks like when it is floating Two other toolbars can be opened from

this one the Graphic Filter toolbar which can be torn off and placedelsewhere on the window and the Color toolbar which opens as aseparate floating toolbarFrom these toolbars you can apply small corrections to the graphic orobtain special effectsFiltersTable 5provides 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 orAlt+Backspace or by selecting Edit gt Undo

Graphic filters and their effects

ColorUse this dialog box to modify the individual RGB color components ofthe image (red green blue) as well as the brightness contrast andgamma of the image If the result is not satisfactory you can pressControl+Z to restore the default valuesSetting the object transparencyModify 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 dialogWhen an image is selected you can customize some aspects of itsappearance using the tools available on the Formatting toolbar as well as in the dialog that is shown by right-clickingon the image and selecting Picture You can forexample create a border around the image selecting style and coloror you can (in the Borders page of the Picture dialog) add a shadow tothe imageCropping imagesWhen 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 To startcropping the image right-click on it and select Picture from the popupmenu In the Picture dialog box select the Crop page

In the Crop dialog box you can control the following parametersbull Keep scale Keep image size options when Keep scale isselected (default) cropping the image does not change the scaleof the picture When Keep image size is selected croppingproduces enlargement (for positive cropping values) shrinking (for negative cropping values) or distortion of the image so thatthe image size remains constantbull Left Right Top and Bottom the function of these boxeschanges according to the choice made between Keep scale andKeep image size In both cases when a value is entered in one ofthese boxes the image is cropped by that amount For example avalue of 3cm in the Left box will cut 3 cm from the left side of thepictureWhen Keep scale is selected the size of the image also changesso in this example the width will be reduced by 3 cm If Keepimage size is selected instead the remaining part of the image isenlarged (positive values for cropping) or shrunk (negative values

for cropping) so that the width and height of the image remainsunchanged

Note that the Width and Height fields change as you enter thevalues when in this mode Use the thumbnail next to these fieldsto determine the correct amount by which to crop

Resizing an imageIt is possible and quite likely that the inserted image will not fitperfectly into the document because it is too big or too small In thesecases you will need to resize the image1) Click the picture if necessary to show the green resizing handles2) Position the pointer over one of the green resizing handles Thepointer changes shape giving a graphical representation of thedirection of the resizing3) Click and drag to resize the picture4) Release the mouse button when satisfied with the new sizeThe corner handles resize both the width and the height of the graphicobject simultaneously while the other four handles only resize onedimension at a time

Rotating a pictureWriter does not provide a tool for rotating a picture however there isa very simple workaround1) Open a new Draw or Impress document2) Insert the image you want to rotate You can use any of themechanisms described in ldquoAdding images to a documentrdquo on page264 although there are some slight variations in the position ofthe menu entries and icons3) Select the image then in the drawing toolbar (shown by default atthe bottom of the window in Impress and Draw) select theRotate icon

4) Rotate the image as desired Use the red handles at the corners ofthe 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

Using Writerrsquos drawing toolsYou can use Writerrsquos drawing tools to create graphics such as simplediagrams using rectangles circles lines text and other predefinedshapes You can also group several drawing objects to make sure theymaintain their relative position and proportionYou can place the drawing objects directly on a page in your documentor you can insert them into a frameYou can also use the drawing tools to annotate photographs screencaptures or other illustrations produced by other programs but this isnot recommended becausebull You cannot include images in a group with drawing objects sothey may get out of alignment in your documentbull If you convert a Writer document to another format such asHTML the drawing objects and the graphics will not remainassociated they are saved separately

In general if you need to create complex drawings it is recommendedto use OpenOfficeorg Draw which includes many more features suchas layers styles and so onCreating drawing objectsTo begin using the drawing tools display the Drawing toolbar by clicking View gt Toolbars gt DrawingIf you are planning to use the drawing tools repeatedly you can tear offthis toolbar and move it to a convenient place on the window

To use a drawing tool1) Click in the document where you want the drawing to beanchored You can change the anchor later if necessary2) Select the tool from the Drawing toolbar The mousepointer changes to a drawing-functions pointer 3) Move the cross-hair pointer to the place in the document whereyou want the graphic to appear and then click-and-drag to createthe drawing object Release the mouse button The selecteddrawing function remains active so you can draw another objectof the same type4) To cancel the selected drawing function press the Esc key orclick on the Select icon (the arrow) on the Drawing toolbar5) You can now change the properties (fill color line type andweight anchoring and others) of the drawing object using eitherthe Drawing Object Properties toolbar or the choicesand dialog boxes reached by right-clicking on the drawing object

Positioning graphics within the textWhen you add a graphic to a text document you need to choose how toposition the graphic with respect to the text and other graphics Thepositioning of graphics is often rather time-consuming and may be veryfrustrating for both inexperienced and experienced users As Writer isa word processor rather than a desktop publishing program there aresome limitations to the flexibility in positioning images and it takestime to get things exactly as you would like them Starting fromOpenOfficeorg 30 this task is considerably improved by the inclusionof a new option that allows a ldquoloose anchoringrdquoPositioning of a graphic is controlled by working on four areasbull Arrangement refers to the placement of a graphic on animaginary vertical axis Arrangement controls how graphics arestacked upon each other or relative to the textbull Alignment refers to the vertical or horizontal placement of a

graphic in relation to the chosen anchoring pointbull Anchoring refers to the reference point for the graphics Thispoint could be the page or frame where the object is aparagraph or even a character

bull Text wrapping refers to the relation of graphics to surroundingtext which may wrap around the graphic on one or both sides beoverprinted behind or in front of the graphic or treat the graphicas a separate paragraph or characterThe settings for each of the four control areas above can be accessedin a number of different ways depending on the nature of the graphics1) From the Format menu where you can find AlignmentArrange Wrap and Anchor (both for images and drawingobjects)2) By the pop-up menu displayed when right-clicking on thegraphics3) From the Frame toolbar shown in Figure 259 for images with theGraphics frame style applied4) From the Type and Wrapping pages of the Picture dialog box forimages Note that you cannot control the arrangement using thedialog box To open the Picture dialog box click on the image toselect it and then choose Format gt Picture or right-click on thegraphic and choose Picture on the pop-up menu5) From the Position and Size page of the Position and Size dialogbox for drawing objects To open the Position and Size dialog boxclick on the drawing object to select it and then choose Format gtObject gt Position and Size or right-click on the graphic andchoose Position and Size on the pop-up menu Note that you canonly control the alignment and anchoring

Arranging graphicsArranging a graphic object means to determine its vertical positionrelative to other graphic objects or text Arranging is only relevantwhen objects are overlapping You can choose between four settingsplus a special setting for drawing objects

Bring to Front draws the graphic on top of any other graphicsor textbull Bring Forward brings the object one level up in the stack (zaxis)Depending on the number of overlapping objects you mayneed to apply this option several times to obtain the desiredresultbull Bring Backward the opposite of Bring Forward sends theselected object one level down in the object stackbull Send to Back sends the selected graphic to the bottom of thestack so that other graphics and text cover itbull To Background To Foreground only available for drawingobjects moves the drawing object behind or in front of the textrespectively

Graphics in WriterWhen you create a text document using OpenOfficeorg (OOo) Writeryou may need to include some graphic illustrations Graphics areadded to textual documents for a wide variety of reasons fromsupporting the description provided in the textmdashsuch as that used inthis Guidemdashto providing an immediate visual impact of the contentssuch as what is often found in a newspaperGraphics in Writer are of three basic typesbull Image files including photos drawings scanned images andothersbull Diagrams created using OOorsquos drawing toolsbull Charts created using OOorsquos Chart facilityThis chapter covers the first two types of graphic illustrations

Inserting an image from a fileIn the case where the image is already available in a file stored on thecomputer it can be immediately inserted in the Writer document OOocan import various vector (line drawing) and raster (bitmap) fileformats The most common are GIF JPEG or JPG PNG and BMP SeeldquoGraphic file types supportedrdquo for a full list of supportedgraphic file typesTo insert an image from a file proceed as follows1) Determine the destination for the image Place the cursor at ornear the appropriate location in the document2) On the main menu select Insert gt Picture gt From File 3) Navigate to the file to be inserted select it and click Open

Inserting images from other sourcesYou can insert images from sources other than a filebull Graphics programbull Scannerbull OOo GalleryGraphics programYou can use many different graphics programs to edit a graphic fileFrom these programs you can select copy and paste an image or partof a graphic into an OOo document Figure 251 shows an example ofthis procedure which can be recreated with these steps1) In the graphic program window select an area of the image to becopied2) Move the cursor over the selected area and press Control+C tocopy

3) Switch to the OOo Writer window4) Click to place the cursor where the graphic is to be inserted5) Press Control+V to paste the image

ScannerIf a scanner is connected to your computer OOo can call the scanningapplication and insert the scanned item into the Writer document pageas an image To start this procedure place the cursor where thegraphic is to be inserted and select Insert gt Picture gt Scan gt SelectSourceAlthough this practice is quick and easy it is unlikely to result in ahigh-quality image of the correct size You may get better results byscanning material into a graphics program and cleaning it up therebefore inserting the resulting image into WriterOpenOfficeorg GalleryThe Gallery contains objects (graphics and sounds) that you can insert

into your documents The Gallery is available in all components of OOoFor an introduction to the Gallery (Graphics theGallery and Fontwork) in the Getting Started guideTo select a graphic from the Gallery and drag it into the document1) Click on the Gallery icon (located in the right side of theStandard toolbar) or choose Tools gt Gallery2) Select the theme containing the image you want to insert3) Click on the image with the left mouse button then drag and dropthe image into the document You can also right-click on theobject and select Insert gt Copy

Using the picture toolbarWhen you insert a suitable graphic image or select one already presentin the document the Picture toolbar appears This toolbar can beeither floating or docked Figure below shows what the Picture toolbarlooks like when it is floating Two other toolbars can be opened from

this one the Graphic Filter toolbar which can be torn off and placedelsewhere on the window and the Color toolbar which opens as aseparate floating toolbarFrom these toolbars you can apply small corrections to the graphic orobtain special effectsFiltersTable 5provides 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 orAlt+Backspace or by selecting Edit gt Undo

Graphic filters and their effects

ColorUse this dialog box to modify the individual RGB color components ofthe image (red green blue) as well as the brightness contrast andgamma of the image If the result is not satisfactory you can pressControl+Z to restore the default valuesSetting the object transparencyModify 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 dialogWhen an image is selected you can customize some aspects of itsappearance using the tools available on the Formatting toolbar as well as in the dialog that is shown by right-clickingon the image and selecting Picture You can forexample create a border around the image selecting style and coloror you can (in the Borders page of the Picture dialog) add a shadow tothe imageCropping imagesWhen 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 To startcropping the image right-click on it and select Picture from the popupmenu In the Picture dialog box select the Crop page

In the Crop dialog box you can control the following parametersbull Keep scale Keep image size options when Keep scale isselected (default) cropping the image does not change the scaleof the picture When Keep image size is selected croppingproduces enlargement (for positive cropping values) shrinking (for negative cropping values) or distortion of the image so thatthe image size remains constantbull Left Right Top and Bottom the function of these boxeschanges according to the choice made between Keep scale andKeep image size In both cases when a value is entered in one ofthese boxes the image is cropped by that amount For example avalue of 3cm in the Left box will cut 3 cm from the left side of thepictureWhen Keep scale is selected the size of the image also changesso in this example the width will be reduced by 3 cm If Keepimage size is selected instead the remaining part of the image isenlarged (positive values for cropping) or shrunk (negative values

for cropping) so that the width and height of the image remainsunchanged

Note that the Width and Height fields change as you enter thevalues when in this mode Use the thumbnail next to these fieldsto determine the correct amount by which to crop

Resizing an imageIt is possible and quite likely that the inserted image will not fitperfectly into the document because it is too big or too small In thesecases you will need to resize the image1) Click the picture if necessary to show the green resizing handles2) Position the pointer over one of the green resizing handles Thepointer changes shape giving a graphical representation of thedirection of the resizing3) Click and drag to resize the picture4) Release the mouse button when satisfied with the new sizeThe corner handles resize both the width and the height of the graphicobject simultaneously while the other four handles only resize onedimension at a time

Rotating a pictureWriter does not provide a tool for rotating a picture however there isa very simple workaround1) Open a new Draw or Impress document2) Insert the image you want to rotate You can use any of themechanisms described in ldquoAdding images to a documentrdquo on page264 although there are some slight variations in the position ofthe menu entries and icons3) Select the image then in the drawing toolbar (shown by default atthe bottom of the window in Impress and Draw) select theRotate icon

4) Rotate the image as desired Use the red handles at the corners ofthe 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

Using Writerrsquos drawing toolsYou can use Writerrsquos drawing tools to create graphics such as simplediagrams using rectangles circles lines text and other predefinedshapes You can also group several drawing objects to make sure theymaintain their relative position and proportionYou can place the drawing objects directly on a page in your documentor you can insert them into a frameYou can also use the drawing tools to annotate photographs screencaptures or other illustrations produced by other programs but this isnot recommended becausebull You cannot include images in a group with drawing objects sothey may get out of alignment in your documentbull If you convert a Writer document to another format such asHTML the drawing objects and the graphics will not remainassociated they are saved separately

In general if you need to create complex drawings it is recommendedto use OpenOfficeorg Draw which includes many more features suchas layers styles and so onCreating drawing objectsTo begin using the drawing tools display the Drawing toolbar by clicking View gt Toolbars gt DrawingIf you are planning to use the drawing tools repeatedly you can tear offthis toolbar and move it to a convenient place on the window

To use a drawing tool1) Click in the document where you want the drawing to beanchored You can change the anchor later if necessary2) Select the tool from the Drawing toolbar The mousepointer changes to a drawing-functions pointer 3) Move the cross-hair pointer to the place in the document whereyou want the graphic to appear and then click-and-drag to createthe drawing object Release the mouse button The selecteddrawing function remains active so you can draw another objectof the same type4) To cancel the selected drawing function press the Esc key orclick on the Select icon (the arrow) on the Drawing toolbar5) You can now change the properties (fill color line type andweight anchoring and others) of the drawing object using eitherthe Drawing Object Properties toolbar or the choicesand dialog boxes reached by right-clicking on the drawing object

Positioning graphics within the textWhen you add a graphic to a text document you need to choose how toposition the graphic with respect to the text and other graphics Thepositioning of graphics is often rather time-consuming and may be veryfrustrating for both inexperienced and experienced users As Writer isa word processor rather than a desktop publishing program there aresome limitations to the flexibility in positioning images and it takestime to get things exactly as you would like them Starting fromOpenOfficeorg 30 this task is considerably improved by the inclusionof a new option that allows a ldquoloose anchoringrdquoPositioning of a graphic is controlled by working on four areasbull Arrangement refers to the placement of a graphic on animaginary vertical axis Arrangement controls how graphics arestacked upon each other or relative to the textbull Alignment refers to the vertical or horizontal placement of a

graphic in relation to the chosen anchoring pointbull Anchoring refers to the reference point for the graphics Thispoint could be the page or frame where the object is aparagraph or even a character

bull Text wrapping refers to the relation of graphics to surroundingtext which may wrap around the graphic on one or both sides beoverprinted behind or in front of the graphic or treat the graphicas a separate paragraph or characterThe settings for each of the four control areas above can be accessedin a number of different ways depending on the nature of the graphics1) From the Format menu where you can find AlignmentArrange Wrap and Anchor (both for images and drawingobjects)2) By the pop-up menu displayed when right-clicking on thegraphics3) From the Frame toolbar shown in Figure 259 for images with theGraphics frame style applied4) From the Type and Wrapping pages of the Picture dialog box forimages Note that you cannot control the arrangement using thedialog box To open the Picture dialog box click on the image toselect it and then choose Format gt Picture or right-click on thegraphic and choose Picture on the pop-up menu5) From the Position and Size page of the Position and Size dialogbox for drawing objects To open the Position and Size dialog boxclick on the drawing object to select it and then choose Format gtObject gt Position and Size or right-click on the graphic andchoose Position and Size on the pop-up menu Note that you canonly control the alignment and anchoring

Arranging graphicsArranging a graphic object means to determine its vertical positionrelative to other graphic objects or text Arranging is only relevantwhen objects are overlapping You can choose between four settingsplus a special setting for drawing objects

Bring to Front draws the graphic on top of any other graphicsor textbull Bring Forward brings the object one level up in the stack (zaxis)Depending on the number of overlapping objects you mayneed to apply this option several times to obtain the desiredresultbull Bring Backward the opposite of Bring Forward sends theselected object one level down in the object stackbull Send to Back sends the selected graphic to the bottom of thestack so that other graphics and text cover itbull To Background To Foreground only available for drawingobjects moves the drawing object behind or in front of the textrespectively

Inserting images from other sourcesYou can insert images from sources other than a filebull Graphics programbull Scannerbull OOo GalleryGraphics programYou can use many different graphics programs to edit a graphic fileFrom these programs you can select copy and paste an image or partof a graphic into an OOo document Figure 251 shows an example ofthis procedure which can be recreated with these steps1) In the graphic program window select an area of the image to becopied2) Move the cursor over the selected area and press Control+C tocopy

3) Switch to the OOo Writer window4) Click to place the cursor where the graphic is to be inserted5) Press Control+V to paste the image

ScannerIf a scanner is connected to your computer OOo can call the scanningapplication and insert the scanned item into the Writer document pageas an image To start this procedure place the cursor where thegraphic is to be inserted and select Insert gt Picture gt Scan gt SelectSourceAlthough this practice is quick and easy it is unlikely to result in ahigh-quality image of the correct size You may get better results byscanning material into a graphics program and cleaning it up therebefore inserting the resulting image into WriterOpenOfficeorg GalleryThe Gallery contains objects (graphics and sounds) that you can insert

into your documents The Gallery is available in all components of OOoFor an introduction to the Gallery (Graphics theGallery and Fontwork) in the Getting Started guideTo select a graphic from the Gallery and drag it into the document1) Click on the Gallery icon (located in the right side of theStandard toolbar) or choose Tools gt Gallery2) Select the theme containing the image you want to insert3) Click on the image with the left mouse button then drag and dropthe image into the document You can also right-click on theobject and select Insert gt Copy

Using the picture toolbarWhen you insert a suitable graphic image or select one already presentin the document the Picture toolbar appears This toolbar can beeither floating or docked Figure below shows what the Picture toolbarlooks like when it is floating Two other toolbars can be opened from

this one the Graphic Filter toolbar which can be torn off and placedelsewhere on the window and the Color toolbar which opens as aseparate floating toolbarFrom these toolbars you can apply small corrections to the graphic orobtain special effectsFiltersTable 5provides 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 orAlt+Backspace or by selecting Edit gt Undo

Graphic filters and their effects

ColorUse this dialog box to modify the individual RGB color components ofthe image (red green blue) as well as the brightness contrast andgamma of the image If the result is not satisfactory you can pressControl+Z to restore the default valuesSetting the object transparencyModify 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 dialogWhen an image is selected you can customize some aspects of itsappearance using the tools available on the Formatting toolbar as well as in the dialog that is shown by right-clickingon the image and selecting Picture You can forexample create a border around the image selecting style and coloror you can (in the Borders page of the Picture dialog) add a shadow tothe imageCropping imagesWhen 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 To startcropping the image right-click on it and select Picture from the popupmenu In the Picture dialog box select the Crop page

In the Crop dialog box you can control the following parametersbull Keep scale Keep image size options when Keep scale isselected (default) cropping the image does not change the scaleof the picture When Keep image size is selected croppingproduces enlargement (for positive cropping values) shrinking (for negative cropping values) or distortion of the image so thatthe image size remains constantbull Left Right Top and Bottom the function of these boxeschanges according to the choice made between Keep scale andKeep image size In both cases when a value is entered in one ofthese boxes the image is cropped by that amount For example avalue of 3cm in the Left box will cut 3 cm from the left side of thepictureWhen Keep scale is selected the size of the image also changesso in this example the width will be reduced by 3 cm If Keepimage size is selected instead the remaining part of the image isenlarged (positive values for cropping) or shrunk (negative values

for cropping) so that the width and height of the image remainsunchanged

Note that the Width and Height fields change as you enter thevalues when in this mode Use the thumbnail next to these fieldsto determine the correct amount by which to crop

Resizing an imageIt is possible and quite likely that the inserted image will not fitperfectly into the document because it is too big or too small In thesecases you will need to resize the image1) Click the picture if necessary to show the green resizing handles2) Position the pointer over one of the green resizing handles Thepointer changes shape giving a graphical representation of thedirection of the resizing3) Click and drag to resize the picture4) Release the mouse button when satisfied with the new sizeThe corner handles resize both the width and the height of the graphicobject simultaneously while the other four handles only resize onedimension at a time

Rotating a pictureWriter does not provide a tool for rotating a picture however there isa very simple workaround1) Open a new Draw or Impress document2) Insert the image you want to rotate You can use any of themechanisms described in ldquoAdding images to a documentrdquo on page264 although there are some slight variations in the position ofthe menu entries and icons3) Select the image then in the drawing toolbar (shown by default atthe bottom of the window in Impress and Draw) select theRotate icon

4) Rotate the image as desired Use the red handles at the corners ofthe 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

Using Writerrsquos drawing toolsYou can use Writerrsquos drawing tools to create graphics such as simplediagrams using rectangles circles lines text and other predefinedshapes You can also group several drawing objects to make sure theymaintain their relative position and proportionYou can place the drawing objects directly on a page in your documentor you can insert them into a frameYou can also use the drawing tools to annotate photographs screencaptures or other illustrations produced by other programs but this isnot recommended becausebull You cannot include images in a group with drawing objects sothey may get out of alignment in your documentbull If you convert a Writer document to another format such asHTML the drawing objects and the graphics will not remainassociated they are saved separately

In general if you need to create complex drawings it is recommendedto use OpenOfficeorg Draw which includes many more features suchas layers styles and so onCreating drawing objectsTo begin using the drawing tools display the Drawing toolbar by clicking View gt Toolbars gt DrawingIf you are planning to use the drawing tools repeatedly you can tear offthis toolbar and move it to a convenient place on the window

To use a drawing tool1) Click in the document where you want the drawing to beanchored You can change the anchor later if necessary2) Select the tool from the Drawing toolbar The mousepointer changes to a drawing-functions pointer 3) Move the cross-hair pointer to the place in the document whereyou want the graphic to appear and then click-and-drag to createthe drawing object Release the mouse button The selecteddrawing function remains active so you can draw another objectof the same type4) To cancel the selected drawing function press the Esc key orclick on the Select icon (the arrow) on the Drawing toolbar5) You can now change the properties (fill color line type andweight anchoring and others) of the drawing object using eitherthe Drawing Object Properties toolbar or the choicesand dialog boxes reached by right-clicking on the drawing object

Positioning graphics within the textWhen you add a graphic to a text document you need to choose how toposition the graphic with respect to the text and other graphics Thepositioning of graphics is often rather time-consuming and may be veryfrustrating for both inexperienced and experienced users As Writer isa word processor rather than a desktop publishing program there aresome limitations to the flexibility in positioning images and it takestime to get things exactly as you would like them Starting fromOpenOfficeorg 30 this task is considerably improved by the inclusionof a new option that allows a ldquoloose anchoringrdquoPositioning of a graphic is controlled by working on four areasbull Arrangement refers to the placement of a graphic on animaginary vertical axis Arrangement controls how graphics arestacked upon each other or relative to the textbull Alignment refers to the vertical or horizontal placement of a

graphic in relation to the chosen anchoring pointbull Anchoring refers to the reference point for the graphics Thispoint could be the page or frame where the object is aparagraph or even a character

bull Text wrapping refers to the relation of graphics to surroundingtext which may wrap around the graphic on one or both sides beoverprinted behind or in front of the graphic or treat the graphicas a separate paragraph or characterThe settings for each of the four control areas above can be accessedin a number of different ways depending on the nature of the graphics1) From the Format menu where you can find AlignmentArrange Wrap and Anchor (both for images and drawingobjects)2) By the pop-up menu displayed when right-clicking on thegraphics3) From the Frame toolbar shown in Figure 259 for images with theGraphics frame style applied4) From the Type and Wrapping pages of the Picture dialog box forimages Note that you cannot control the arrangement using thedialog box To open the Picture dialog box click on the image toselect it and then choose Format gt Picture or right-click on thegraphic and choose Picture on the pop-up menu5) From the Position and Size page of the Position and Size dialogbox for drawing objects To open the Position and Size dialog boxclick on the drawing object to select it and then choose Format gtObject gt Position and Size or right-click on the graphic andchoose Position and Size on the pop-up menu Note that you canonly control the alignment and anchoring

Arranging graphicsArranging a graphic object means to determine its vertical positionrelative to other graphic objects or text Arranging is only relevantwhen objects are overlapping You can choose between four settingsplus a special setting for drawing objects

Bring to Front draws the graphic on top of any other graphicsor textbull Bring Forward brings the object one level up in the stack (zaxis)Depending on the number of overlapping objects you mayneed to apply this option several times to obtain the desiredresultbull Bring Backward the opposite of Bring Forward sends theselected object one level down in the object stackbull Send to Back sends the selected graphic to the bottom of thestack so that other graphics and text cover itbull To Background To Foreground only available for drawingobjects moves the drawing object behind or in front of the textrespectively

3) Switch to the OOo Writer window4) Click to place the cursor where the graphic is to be inserted5) Press Control+V to paste the image

ScannerIf a scanner is connected to your computer OOo can call the scanningapplication and insert the scanned item into the Writer document pageas an image To start this procedure place the cursor where thegraphic is to be inserted and select Insert gt Picture gt Scan gt SelectSourceAlthough this practice is quick and easy it is unlikely to result in ahigh-quality image of the correct size You may get better results byscanning material into a graphics program and cleaning it up therebefore inserting the resulting image into WriterOpenOfficeorg GalleryThe Gallery contains objects (graphics and sounds) that you can insert

into your documents The Gallery is available in all components of OOoFor an introduction to the Gallery (Graphics theGallery and Fontwork) in the Getting Started guideTo select a graphic from the Gallery and drag it into the document1) Click on the Gallery icon (located in the right side of theStandard toolbar) or choose Tools gt Gallery2) Select the theme containing the image you want to insert3) Click on the image with the left mouse button then drag and dropthe image into the document You can also right-click on theobject and select Insert gt Copy

Using the picture toolbarWhen you insert a suitable graphic image or select one already presentin the document the Picture toolbar appears This toolbar can beeither floating or docked Figure below shows what the Picture toolbarlooks like when it is floating Two other toolbars can be opened from

this one the Graphic Filter toolbar which can be torn off and placedelsewhere on the window and the Color toolbar which opens as aseparate floating toolbarFrom these toolbars you can apply small corrections to the graphic orobtain special effectsFiltersTable 5provides 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 orAlt+Backspace or by selecting Edit gt Undo

Graphic filters and their effects

ColorUse this dialog box to modify the individual RGB color components ofthe image (red green blue) as well as the brightness contrast andgamma of the image If the result is not satisfactory you can pressControl+Z to restore the default valuesSetting the object transparencyModify 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 dialogWhen an image is selected you can customize some aspects of itsappearance using the tools available on the Formatting toolbar as well as in the dialog that is shown by right-clickingon the image and selecting Picture You can forexample create a border around the image selecting style and coloror you can (in the Borders page of the Picture dialog) add a shadow tothe imageCropping imagesWhen 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 To startcropping the image right-click on it and select Picture from the popupmenu In the Picture dialog box select the Crop page

In the Crop dialog box you can control the following parametersbull Keep scale Keep image size options when Keep scale isselected (default) cropping the image does not change the scaleof the picture When Keep image size is selected croppingproduces enlargement (for positive cropping values) shrinking (for negative cropping values) or distortion of the image so thatthe image size remains constantbull Left Right Top and Bottom the function of these boxeschanges according to the choice made between Keep scale andKeep image size In both cases when a value is entered in one ofthese boxes the image is cropped by that amount For example avalue of 3cm in the Left box will cut 3 cm from the left side of thepictureWhen Keep scale is selected the size of the image also changesso in this example the width will be reduced by 3 cm If Keepimage size is selected instead the remaining part of the image isenlarged (positive values for cropping) or shrunk (negative values

for cropping) so that the width and height of the image remainsunchanged

Note that the Width and Height fields change as you enter thevalues when in this mode Use the thumbnail next to these fieldsto determine the correct amount by which to crop

Resizing an imageIt is possible and quite likely that the inserted image will not fitperfectly into the document because it is too big or too small In thesecases you will need to resize the image1) Click the picture if necessary to show the green resizing handles2) Position the pointer over one of the green resizing handles Thepointer changes shape giving a graphical representation of thedirection of the resizing3) Click and drag to resize the picture4) Release the mouse button when satisfied with the new sizeThe corner handles resize both the width and the height of the graphicobject simultaneously while the other four handles only resize onedimension at a time

Rotating a pictureWriter does not provide a tool for rotating a picture however there isa very simple workaround1) Open a new Draw or Impress document2) Insert the image you want to rotate You can use any of themechanisms described in ldquoAdding images to a documentrdquo on page264 although there are some slight variations in the position ofthe menu entries and icons3) Select the image then in the drawing toolbar (shown by default atthe bottom of the window in Impress and Draw) select theRotate icon

4) Rotate the image as desired Use the red handles at the corners ofthe 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

Using Writerrsquos drawing toolsYou can use Writerrsquos drawing tools to create graphics such as simplediagrams using rectangles circles lines text and other predefinedshapes You can also group several drawing objects to make sure theymaintain their relative position and proportionYou can place the drawing objects directly on a page in your documentor you can insert them into a frameYou can also use the drawing tools to annotate photographs screencaptures or other illustrations produced by other programs but this isnot recommended becausebull You cannot include images in a group with drawing objects sothey may get out of alignment in your documentbull If you convert a Writer document to another format such asHTML the drawing objects and the graphics will not remainassociated they are saved separately

In general if you need to create complex drawings it is recommendedto use OpenOfficeorg Draw which includes many more features suchas layers styles and so onCreating drawing objectsTo begin using the drawing tools display the Drawing toolbar by clicking View gt Toolbars gt DrawingIf you are planning to use the drawing tools repeatedly you can tear offthis toolbar and move it to a convenient place on the window

To use a drawing tool1) Click in the document where you want the drawing to beanchored You can change the anchor later if necessary2) Select the tool from the Drawing toolbar The mousepointer changes to a drawing-functions pointer 3) Move the cross-hair pointer to the place in the document whereyou want the graphic to appear and then click-and-drag to createthe drawing object Release the mouse button The selecteddrawing function remains active so you can draw another objectof the same type4) To cancel the selected drawing function press the Esc key orclick on the Select icon (the arrow) on the Drawing toolbar5) You can now change the properties (fill color line type andweight anchoring and others) of the drawing object using eitherthe Drawing Object Properties toolbar or the choicesand dialog boxes reached by right-clicking on the drawing object

Positioning graphics within the textWhen you add a graphic to a text document you need to choose how toposition the graphic with respect to the text and other graphics Thepositioning of graphics is often rather time-consuming and may be veryfrustrating for both inexperienced and experienced users As Writer isa word processor rather than a desktop publishing program there aresome limitations to the flexibility in positioning images and it takestime to get things exactly as you would like them Starting fromOpenOfficeorg 30 this task is considerably improved by the inclusionof a new option that allows a ldquoloose anchoringrdquoPositioning of a graphic is controlled by working on four areasbull Arrangement refers to the placement of a graphic on animaginary vertical axis Arrangement controls how graphics arestacked upon each other or relative to the textbull Alignment refers to the vertical or horizontal placement of a

graphic in relation to the chosen anchoring pointbull Anchoring refers to the reference point for the graphics Thispoint could be the page or frame where the object is aparagraph or even a character

bull Text wrapping refers to the relation of graphics to surroundingtext which may wrap around the graphic on one or both sides beoverprinted behind or in front of the graphic or treat the graphicas a separate paragraph or characterThe settings for each of the four control areas above can be accessedin a number of different ways depending on the nature of the graphics1) From the Format menu where you can find AlignmentArrange Wrap and Anchor (both for images and drawingobjects)2) By the pop-up menu displayed when right-clicking on thegraphics3) From the Frame toolbar shown in Figure 259 for images with theGraphics frame style applied4) From the Type and Wrapping pages of the Picture dialog box forimages Note that you cannot control the arrangement using thedialog box To open the Picture dialog box click on the image toselect it and then choose Format gt Picture or right-click on thegraphic and choose Picture on the pop-up menu5) From the Position and Size page of the Position and Size dialogbox for drawing objects To open the Position and Size dialog boxclick on the drawing object to select it and then choose Format gtObject gt Position and Size or right-click on the graphic andchoose Position and Size on the pop-up menu Note that you canonly control the alignment and anchoring

Arranging graphicsArranging a graphic object means to determine its vertical positionrelative to other graphic objects or text Arranging is only relevantwhen objects are overlapping You can choose between four settingsplus a special setting for drawing objects

Bring to Front draws the graphic on top of any other graphicsor textbull Bring Forward brings the object one level up in the stack (zaxis)Depending on the number of overlapping objects you mayneed to apply this option several times to obtain the desiredresultbull Bring Backward the opposite of Bring Forward sends theselected object one level down in the object stackbull Send to Back sends the selected graphic to the bottom of thestack so that other graphics and text cover itbull To Background To Foreground only available for drawingobjects moves the drawing object behind or in front of the textrespectively

into your documents The Gallery is available in all components of OOoFor an introduction to the Gallery (Graphics theGallery and Fontwork) in the Getting Started guideTo select a graphic from the Gallery and drag it into the document1) Click on the Gallery icon (located in the right side of theStandard toolbar) or choose Tools gt Gallery2) Select the theme containing the image you want to insert3) Click on the image with the left mouse button then drag and dropthe image into the document You can also right-click on theobject and select Insert gt Copy

Using the picture toolbarWhen you insert a suitable graphic image or select one already presentin the document the Picture toolbar appears This toolbar can beeither floating or docked Figure below shows what the Picture toolbarlooks like when it is floating Two other toolbars can be opened from

this one the Graphic Filter toolbar which can be torn off and placedelsewhere on the window and the Color toolbar which opens as aseparate floating toolbarFrom these toolbars you can apply small corrections to the graphic orobtain special effectsFiltersTable 5provides 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 orAlt+Backspace or by selecting Edit gt Undo

Graphic filters and their effects

ColorUse this dialog box to modify the individual RGB color components ofthe image (red green blue) as well as the brightness contrast andgamma of the image If the result is not satisfactory you can pressControl+Z to restore the default valuesSetting the object transparencyModify 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 dialogWhen an image is selected you can customize some aspects of itsappearance using the tools available on the Formatting toolbar as well as in the dialog that is shown by right-clickingon the image and selecting Picture You can forexample create a border around the image selecting style and coloror you can (in the Borders page of the Picture dialog) add a shadow tothe imageCropping imagesWhen 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 To startcropping the image right-click on it and select Picture from the popupmenu In the Picture dialog box select the Crop page

In the Crop dialog box you can control the following parametersbull Keep scale Keep image size options when Keep scale isselected (default) cropping the image does not change the scaleof the picture When Keep image size is selected croppingproduces enlargement (for positive cropping values) shrinking (for negative cropping values) or distortion of the image so thatthe image size remains constantbull Left Right Top and Bottom the function of these boxeschanges according to the choice made between Keep scale andKeep image size In both cases when a value is entered in one ofthese boxes the image is cropped by that amount For example avalue of 3cm in the Left box will cut 3 cm from the left side of thepictureWhen Keep scale is selected the size of the image also changesso in this example the width will be reduced by 3 cm If Keepimage size is selected instead the remaining part of the image isenlarged (positive values for cropping) or shrunk (negative values

for cropping) so that the width and height of the image remainsunchanged

Note that the Width and Height fields change as you enter thevalues when in this mode Use the thumbnail next to these fieldsto determine the correct amount by which to crop

Resizing an imageIt is possible and quite likely that the inserted image will not fitperfectly into the document because it is too big or too small In thesecases you will need to resize the image1) Click the picture if necessary to show the green resizing handles2) Position the pointer over one of the green resizing handles Thepointer changes shape giving a graphical representation of thedirection of the resizing3) Click and drag to resize the picture4) Release the mouse button when satisfied with the new sizeThe corner handles resize both the width and the height of the graphicobject simultaneously while the other four handles only resize onedimension at a time

Rotating a pictureWriter does not provide a tool for rotating a picture however there isa very simple workaround1) Open a new Draw or Impress document2) Insert the image you want to rotate You can use any of themechanisms described in ldquoAdding images to a documentrdquo on page264 although there are some slight variations in the position ofthe menu entries and icons3) Select the image then in the drawing toolbar (shown by default atthe bottom of the window in Impress and Draw) select theRotate icon

4) Rotate the image as desired Use the red handles at the corners ofthe 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

Using Writerrsquos drawing toolsYou can use Writerrsquos drawing tools to create graphics such as simplediagrams using rectangles circles lines text and other predefinedshapes You can also group several drawing objects to make sure theymaintain their relative position and proportionYou can place the drawing objects directly on a page in your documentor you can insert them into a frameYou can also use the drawing tools to annotate photographs screencaptures or other illustrations produced by other programs but this isnot recommended becausebull You cannot include images in a group with drawing objects sothey may get out of alignment in your documentbull If you convert a Writer document to another format such asHTML the drawing objects and the graphics will not remainassociated they are saved separately

In general if you need to create complex drawings it is recommendedto use OpenOfficeorg Draw which includes many more features suchas layers styles and so onCreating drawing objectsTo begin using the drawing tools display the Drawing toolbar by clicking View gt Toolbars gt DrawingIf you are planning to use the drawing tools repeatedly you can tear offthis toolbar and move it to a convenient place on the window

To use a drawing tool1) Click in the document where you want the drawing to beanchored You can change the anchor later if necessary2) Select the tool from the Drawing toolbar The mousepointer changes to a drawing-functions pointer 3) Move the cross-hair pointer to the place in the document whereyou want the graphic to appear and then click-and-drag to createthe drawing object Release the mouse button The selecteddrawing function remains active so you can draw another objectof the same type4) To cancel the selected drawing function press the Esc key orclick on the Select icon (the arrow) on the Drawing toolbar5) You can now change the properties (fill color line type andweight anchoring and others) of the drawing object using eitherthe Drawing Object Properties toolbar or the choicesand dialog boxes reached by right-clicking on the drawing object

Positioning graphics within the textWhen you add a graphic to a text document you need to choose how toposition the graphic with respect to the text and other graphics Thepositioning of graphics is often rather time-consuming and may be veryfrustrating for both inexperienced and experienced users As Writer isa word processor rather than a desktop publishing program there aresome limitations to the flexibility in positioning images and it takestime to get things exactly as you would like them Starting fromOpenOfficeorg 30 this task is considerably improved by the inclusionof a new option that allows a ldquoloose anchoringrdquoPositioning of a graphic is controlled by working on four areasbull Arrangement refers to the placement of a graphic on animaginary vertical axis Arrangement controls how graphics arestacked upon each other or relative to the textbull Alignment refers to the vertical or horizontal placement of a

graphic in relation to the chosen anchoring pointbull Anchoring refers to the reference point for the graphics Thispoint could be the page or frame where the object is aparagraph or even a character

bull Text wrapping refers to the relation of graphics to surroundingtext which may wrap around the graphic on one or both sides beoverprinted behind or in front of the graphic or treat the graphicas a separate paragraph or characterThe settings for each of the four control areas above can be accessedin a number of different ways depending on the nature of the graphics1) From the Format menu where you can find AlignmentArrange Wrap and Anchor (both for images and drawingobjects)2) By the pop-up menu displayed when right-clicking on thegraphics3) From the Frame toolbar shown in Figure 259 for images with theGraphics frame style applied4) From the Type and Wrapping pages of the Picture dialog box forimages Note that you cannot control the arrangement using thedialog box To open the Picture dialog box click on the image toselect it and then choose Format gt Picture or right-click on thegraphic and choose Picture on the pop-up menu5) From the Position and Size page of the Position and Size dialogbox for drawing objects To open the Position and Size dialog boxclick on the drawing object to select it and then choose Format gtObject gt Position and Size or right-click on the graphic andchoose Position and Size on the pop-up menu Note that you canonly control the alignment and anchoring

Arranging graphicsArranging a graphic object means to determine its vertical positionrelative to other graphic objects or text Arranging is only relevantwhen objects are overlapping You can choose between four settingsplus a special setting for drawing objects

Bring to Front draws the graphic on top of any other graphicsor textbull Bring Forward brings the object one level up in the stack (zaxis)Depending on the number of overlapping objects you mayneed to apply this option several times to obtain the desiredresultbull Bring Backward the opposite of Bring Forward sends theselected object one level down in the object stackbull Send to Back sends the selected graphic to the bottom of thestack so that other graphics and text cover itbull To Background To Foreground only available for drawingobjects moves the drawing object behind or in front of the textrespectively

this one the Graphic Filter toolbar which can be torn off and placedelsewhere on the window and the Color toolbar which opens as aseparate floating toolbarFrom these toolbars you can apply small corrections to the graphic orobtain special effectsFiltersTable 5provides 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 orAlt+Backspace or by selecting Edit gt Undo

Graphic filters and their effects

ColorUse this dialog box to modify the individual RGB color components ofthe image (red green blue) as well as the brightness contrast andgamma of the image If the result is not satisfactory you can pressControl+Z to restore the default valuesSetting the object transparencyModify 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 dialogWhen an image is selected you can customize some aspects of itsappearance using the tools available on the Formatting toolbar as well as in the dialog that is shown by right-clickingon the image and selecting Picture You can forexample create a border around the image selecting style and coloror you can (in the Borders page of the Picture dialog) add a shadow tothe imageCropping imagesWhen 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 To startcropping the image right-click on it and select Picture from the popupmenu In the Picture dialog box select the Crop page

In the Crop dialog box you can control the following parametersbull Keep scale Keep image size options when Keep scale isselected (default) cropping the image does not change the scaleof the picture When Keep image size is selected croppingproduces enlargement (for positive cropping values) shrinking (for negative cropping values) or distortion of the image so thatthe image size remains constantbull Left Right Top and Bottom the function of these boxeschanges according to the choice made between Keep scale andKeep image size In both cases when a value is entered in one ofthese boxes the image is cropped by that amount For example avalue of 3cm in the Left box will cut 3 cm from the left side of thepictureWhen Keep scale is selected the size of the image also changesso in this example the width will be reduced by 3 cm If Keepimage size is selected instead the remaining part of the image isenlarged (positive values for cropping) or shrunk (negative values

for cropping) so that the width and height of the image remainsunchanged

Note that the Width and Height fields change as you enter thevalues when in this mode Use the thumbnail next to these fieldsto determine the correct amount by which to crop

Resizing an imageIt is possible and quite likely that the inserted image will not fitperfectly into the document because it is too big or too small In thesecases you will need to resize the image1) Click the picture if necessary to show the green resizing handles2) Position the pointer over one of the green resizing handles Thepointer changes shape giving a graphical representation of thedirection of the resizing3) Click and drag to resize the picture4) Release the mouse button when satisfied with the new sizeThe corner handles resize both the width and the height of the graphicobject simultaneously while the other four handles only resize onedimension at a time

Rotating a pictureWriter does not provide a tool for rotating a picture however there isa very simple workaround1) Open a new Draw or Impress document2) Insert the image you want to rotate You can use any of themechanisms described in ldquoAdding images to a documentrdquo on page264 although there are some slight variations in the position ofthe menu entries and icons3) Select the image then in the drawing toolbar (shown by default atthe bottom of the window in Impress and Draw) select theRotate icon

4) Rotate the image as desired Use the red handles at the corners ofthe 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

Using Writerrsquos drawing toolsYou can use Writerrsquos drawing tools to create graphics such as simplediagrams using rectangles circles lines text and other predefinedshapes You can also group several drawing objects to make sure theymaintain their relative position and proportionYou can place the drawing objects directly on a page in your documentor you can insert them into a frameYou can also use the drawing tools to annotate photographs screencaptures or other illustrations produced by other programs but this isnot recommended becausebull You cannot include images in a group with drawing objects sothey may get out of alignment in your documentbull If you convert a Writer document to another format such asHTML the drawing objects and the graphics will not remainassociated they are saved separately

In general if you need to create complex drawings it is recommendedto use OpenOfficeorg Draw which includes many more features suchas layers styles and so onCreating drawing objectsTo begin using the drawing tools display the Drawing toolbar by clicking View gt Toolbars gt DrawingIf you are planning to use the drawing tools repeatedly you can tear offthis toolbar and move it to a convenient place on the window

To use a drawing tool1) Click in the document where you want the drawing to beanchored You can change the anchor later if necessary2) Select the tool from the Drawing toolbar The mousepointer changes to a drawing-functions pointer 3) Move the cross-hair pointer to the place in the document whereyou want the graphic to appear and then click-and-drag to createthe drawing object Release the mouse button The selecteddrawing function remains active so you can draw another objectof the same type4) To cancel the selected drawing function press the Esc key orclick on the Select icon (the arrow) on the Drawing toolbar5) You can now change the properties (fill color line type andweight anchoring and others) of the drawing object using eitherthe Drawing Object Properties toolbar or the choicesand dialog boxes reached by right-clicking on the drawing object

Positioning graphics within the textWhen you add a graphic to a text document you need to choose how toposition the graphic with respect to the text and other graphics Thepositioning of graphics is often rather time-consuming and may be veryfrustrating for both inexperienced and experienced users As Writer isa word processor rather than a desktop publishing program there aresome limitations to the flexibility in positioning images and it takestime to get things exactly as you would like them Starting fromOpenOfficeorg 30 this task is considerably improved by the inclusionof a new option that allows a ldquoloose anchoringrdquoPositioning of a graphic is controlled by working on four areasbull Arrangement refers to the placement of a graphic on animaginary vertical axis Arrangement controls how graphics arestacked upon each other or relative to the textbull Alignment refers to the vertical or horizontal placement of a

graphic in relation to the chosen anchoring pointbull Anchoring refers to the reference point for the graphics Thispoint could be the page or frame where the object is aparagraph or even a character

bull Text wrapping refers to the relation of graphics to surroundingtext which may wrap around the graphic on one or both sides beoverprinted behind or in front of the graphic or treat the graphicas a separate paragraph or characterThe settings for each of the four control areas above can be accessedin a number of different ways depending on the nature of the graphics1) From the Format menu where you can find AlignmentArrange Wrap and Anchor (both for images and drawingobjects)2) By the pop-up menu displayed when right-clicking on thegraphics3) From the Frame toolbar shown in Figure 259 for images with theGraphics frame style applied4) From the Type and Wrapping pages of the Picture dialog box forimages Note that you cannot control the arrangement using thedialog box To open the Picture dialog box click on the image toselect it and then choose Format gt Picture or right-click on thegraphic and choose Picture on the pop-up menu5) From the Position and Size page of the Position and Size dialogbox for drawing objects To open the Position and Size dialog boxclick on the drawing object to select it and then choose Format gtObject gt Position and Size or right-click on the graphic andchoose Position and Size on the pop-up menu Note that you canonly control the alignment and anchoring

Arranging graphicsArranging a graphic object means to determine its vertical positionrelative to other graphic objects or text Arranging is only relevantwhen objects are overlapping You can choose between four settingsplus a special setting for drawing objects

Bring to Front draws the graphic on top of any other graphicsor textbull Bring Forward brings the object one level up in the stack (zaxis)Depending on the number of overlapping objects you mayneed to apply this option several times to obtain the desiredresultbull Bring Backward the opposite of Bring Forward sends theselected object one level down in the object stackbull Send to Back sends the selected graphic to the bottom of thestack so that other graphics and text cover itbull To Background To Foreground only available for drawingobjects moves the drawing object behind or in front of the textrespectively

Graphic filters and their effects

ColorUse this dialog box to modify the individual RGB color components ofthe image (red green blue) as well as the brightness contrast andgamma of the image If the result is not satisfactory you can pressControl+Z to restore the default valuesSetting the object transparencyModify 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 dialogWhen an image is selected you can customize some aspects of itsappearance using the tools available on the Formatting toolbar as well as in the dialog that is shown by right-clickingon the image and selecting Picture You can forexample create a border around the image selecting style and coloror you can (in the Borders page of the Picture dialog) add a shadow tothe imageCropping imagesWhen 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 To startcropping the image right-click on it and select Picture from the popupmenu In the Picture dialog box select the Crop page

In the Crop dialog box you can control the following parametersbull Keep scale Keep image size options when Keep scale isselected (default) cropping the image does not change the scaleof the picture When Keep image size is selected croppingproduces enlargement (for positive cropping values) shrinking (for negative cropping values) or distortion of the image so thatthe image size remains constantbull Left Right Top and Bottom the function of these boxeschanges according to the choice made between Keep scale andKeep image size In both cases when a value is entered in one ofthese boxes the image is cropped by that amount For example avalue of 3cm in the Left box will cut 3 cm from the left side of thepictureWhen Keep scale is selected the size of the image also changesso in this example the width will be reduced by 3 cm If Keepimage size is selected instead the remaining part of the image isenlarged (positive values for cropping) or shrunk (negative values

for cropping) so that the width and height of the image remainsunchanged

Note that the Width and Height fields change as you enter thevalues when in this mode Use the thumbnail next to these fieldsto determine the correct amount by which to crop

Resizing an imageIt is possible and quite likely that the inserted image will not fitperfectly into the document because it is too big or too small In thesecases you will need to resize the image1) Click the picture if necessary to show the green resizing handles2) Position the pointer over one of the green resizing handles Thepointer changes shape giving a graphical representation of thedirection of the resizing3) Click and drag to resize the picture4) Release the mouse button when satisfied with the new sizeThe corner handles resize both the width and the height of the graphicobject simultaneously while the other four handles only resize onedimension at a time

Rotating a pictureWriter does not provide a tool for rotating a picture however there isa very simple workaround1) Open a new Draw or Impress document2) Insert the image you want to rotate You can use any of themechanisms described in ldquoAdding images to a documentrdquo on page264 although there are some slight variations in the position ofthe menu entries and icons3) Select the image then in the drawing toolbar (shown by default atthe bottom of the window in Impress and Draw) select theRotate icon

4) Rotate the image as desired Use the red handles at the corners ofthe 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

Using Writerrsquos drawing toolsYou can use Writerrsquos drawing tools to create graphics such as simplediagrams using rectangles circles lines text and other predefinedshapes You can also group several drawing objects to make sure theymaintain their relative position and proportionYou can place the drawing objects directly on a page in your documentor you can insert them into a frameYou can also use the drawing tools to annotate photographs screencaptures or other illustrations produced by other programs but this isnot recommended becausebull You cannot include images in a group with drawing objects sothey may get out of alignment in your documentbull If you convert a Writer document to another format such asHTML the drawing objects and the graphics will not remainassociated they are saved separately

In general if you need to create complex drawings it is recommendedto use OpenOfficeorg Draw which includes many more features suchas layers styles and so onCreating drawing objectsTo begin using the drawing tools display the Drawing toolbar by clicking View gt Toolbars gt DrawingIf you are planning to use the drawing tools repeatedly you can tear offthis toolbar and move it to a convenient place on the window

To use a drawing tool1) Click in the document where you want the drawing to beanchored You can change the anchor later if necessary2) Select the tool from the Drawing toolbar The mousepointer changes to a drawing-functions pointer 3) Move the cross-hair pointer to the place in the document whereyou want the graphic to appear and then click-and-drag to createthe drawing object Release the mouse button The selecteddrawing function remains active so you can draw another objectof the same type4) To cancel the selected drawing function press the Esc key orclick on the Select icon (the arrow) on the Drawing toolbar5) You can now change the properties (fill color line type andweight anchoring and others) of the drawing object using eitherthe Drawing Object Properties toolbar or the choicesand dialog boxes reached by right-clicking on the drawing object

Positioning graphics within the textWhen you add a graphic to a text document you need to choose how toposition the graphic with respect to the text and other graphics Thepositioning of graphics is often rather time-consuming and may be veryfrustrating for both inexperienced and experienced users As Writer isa word processor rather than a desktop publishing program there aresome limitations to the flexibility in positioning images and it takestime to get things exactly as you would like them Starting fromOpenOfficeorg 30 this task is considerably improved by the inclusionof a new option that allows a ldquoloose anchoringrdquoPositioning of a graphic is controlled by working on four areasbull Arrangement refers to the placement of a graphic on animaginary vertical axis Arrangement controls how graphics arestacked upon each other or relative to the textbull Alignment refers to the vertical or horizontal placement of a

graphic in relation to the chosen anchoring pointbull Anchoring refers to the reference point for the graphics Thispoint could be the page or frame where the object is aparagraph or even a character

bull Text wrapping refers to the relation of graphics to surroundingtext which may wrap around the graphic on one or both sides beoverprinted behind or in front of the graphic or treat the graphicas a separate paragraph or characterThe settings for each of the four control areas above can be accessedin a number of different ways depending on the nature of the graphics1) From the Format menu where you can find AlignmentArrange Wrap and Anchor (both for images and drawingobjects)2) By the pop-up menu displayed when right-clicking on thegraphics3) From the Frame toolbar shown in Figure 259 for images with theGraphics frame style applied4) From the Type and Wrapping pages of the Picture dialog box forimages Note that you cannot control the arrangement using thedialog box To open the Picture dialog box click on the image toselect it and then choose Format gt Picture or right-click on thegraphic and choose Picture on the pop-up menu5) From the Position and Size page of the Position and Size dialogbox for drawing objects To open the Position and Size dialog boxclick on the drawing object to select it and then choose Format gtObject gt Position and Size or right-click on the graphic andchoose Position and Size on the pop-up menu Note that you canonly control the alignment and anchoring

Arranging graphicsArranging a graphic object means to determine its vertical positionrelative to other graphic objects or text Arranging is only relevantwhen objects are overlapping You can choose between four settingsplus a special setting for drawing objects

Bring to Front draws the graphic on top of any other graphicsor textbull Bring Forward brings the object one level up in the stack (zaxis)Depending on the number of overlapping objects you mayneed to apply this option several times to obtain the desiredresultbull Bring Backward the opposite of Bring Forward sends theselected object one level down in the object stackbull Send to Back sends the selected graphic to the bottom of thestack so that other graphics and text cover itbull To Background To Foreground only available for drawingobjects moves the drawing object behind or in front of the textrespectively

ColorUse this dialog box to modify the individual RGB color components ofthe image (red green blue) as well as the brightness contrast andgamma of the image If the result is not satisfactory you can pressControl+Z to restore the default valuesSetting the object transparencyModify 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 dialogWhen an image is selected you can customize some aspects of itsappearance using the tools available on the Formatting toolbar as well as in the dialog that is shown by right-clickingon the image and selecting Picture You can forexample create a border around the image selecting style and coloror you can (in the Borders page of the Picture dialog) add a shadow tothe imageCropping imagesWhen 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 To startcropping the image right-click on it and select Picture from the popupmenu In the Picture dialog box select the Crop page

In the Crop dialog box you can control the following parametersbull Keep scale Keep image size options when Keep scale isselected (default) cropping the image does not change the scaleof the picture When Keep image size is selected croppingproduces enlargement (for positive cropping values) shrinking (for negative cropping values) or distortion of the image so thatthe image size remains constantbull Left Right Top and Bottom the function of these boxeschanges according to the choice made between Keep scale andKeep image size In both cases when a value is entered in one ofthese boxes the image is cropped by that amount For example avalue of 3cm in the Left box will cut 3 cm from the left side of thepictureWhen Keep scale is selected the size of the image also changesso in this example the width will be reduced by 3 cm If Keepimage size is selected instead the remaining part of the image isenlarged (positive values for cropping) or shrunk (negative values

for cropping) so that the width and height of the image remainsunchanged

Note that the Width and Height fields change as you enter thevalues when in this mode Use the thumbnail next to these fieldsto determine the correct amount by which to crop

Resizing an imageIt is possible and quite likely that the inserted image will not fitperfectly into the document because it is too big or too small In thesecases you will need to resize the image1) Click the picture if necessary to show the green resizing handles2) Position the pointer over one of the green resizing handles Thepointer changes shape giving a graphical representation of thedirection of the resizing3) Click and drag to resize the picture4) Release the mouse button when satisfied with the new sizeThe corner handles resize both the width and the height of the graphicobject simultaneously while the other four handles only resize onedimension at a time

Rotating a pictureWriter does not provide a tool for rotating a picture however there isa very simple workaround1) Open a new Draw or Impress document2) Insert the image you want to rotate You can use any of themechanisms described in ldquoAdding images to a documentrdquo on page264 although there are some slight variations in the position ofthe menu entries and icons3) Select the image then in the drawing toolbar (shown by default atthe bottom of the window in Impress and Draw) select theRotate icon

4) Rotate the image as desired Use the red handles at the corners ofthe 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

Using Writerrsquos drawing toolsYou can use Writerrsquos drawing tools to create graphics such as simplediagrams using rectangles circles lines text and other predefinedshapes You can also group several drawing objects to make sure theymaintain their relative position and proportionYou can place the drawing objects directly on a page in your documentor you can insert them into a frameYou can also use the drawing tools to annotate photographs screencaptures or other illustrations produced by other programs but this isnot recommended becausebull You cannot include images in a group with drawing objects sothey may get out of alignment in your documentbull If you convert a Writer document to another format such asHTML the drawing objects and the graphics will not remainassociated they are saved separately

In general if you need to create complex drawings it is recommendedto use OpenOfficeorg Draw which includes many more features suchas layers styles and so onCreating drawing objectsTo begin using the drawing tools display the Drawing toolbar by clicking View gt Toolbars gt DrawingIf you are planning to use the drawing tools repeatedly you can tear offthis toolbar and move it to a convenient place on the window

To use a drawing tool1) Click in the document where you want the drawing to beanchored You can change the anchor later if necessary2) Select the tool from the Drawing toolbar The mousepointer changes to a drawing-functions pointer 3) Move the cross-hair pointer to the place in the document whereyou want the graphic to appear and then click-and-drag to createthe drawing object Release the mouse button The selecteddrawing function remains active so you can draw another objectof the same type4) To cancel the selected drawing function press the Esc key orclick on the Select icon (the arrow) on the Drawing toolbar5) You can now change the properties (fill color line type andweight anchoring and others) of the drawing object using eitherthe Drawing Object Properties toolbar or the choicesand dialog boxes reached by right-clicking on the drawing object

Positioning graphics within the textWhen you add a graphic to a text document you need to choose how toposition the graphic with respect to the text and other graphics Thepositioning of graphics is often rather time-consuming and may be veryfrustrating for both inexperienced and experienced users As Writer isa word processor rather than a desktop publishing program there aresome limitations to the flexibility in positioning images and it takestime to get things exactly as you would like them Starting fromOpenOfficeorg 30 this task is considerably improved by the inclusionof a new option that allows a ldquoloose anchoringrdquoPositioning of a graphic is controlled by working on four areasbull Arrangement refers to the placement of a graphic on animaginary vertical axis Arrangement controls how graphics arestacked upon each other or relative to the textbull Alignment refers to the vertical or horizontal placement of a

graphic in relation to the chosen anchoring pointbull Anchoring refers to the reference point for the graphics Thispoint could be the page or frame where the object is aparagraph or even a character

bull Text wrapping refers to the relation of graphics to surroundingtext which may wrap around the graphic on one or both sides beoverprinted behind or in front of the graphic or treat the graphicas a separate paragraph or characterThe settings for each of the four control areas above can be accessedin a number of different ways depending on the nature of the graphics1) From the Format menu where you can find AlignmentArrange Wrap and Anchor (both for images and drawingobjects)2) By the pop-up menu displayed when right-clicking on thegraphics3) From the Frame toolbar shown in Figure 259 for images with theGraphics frame style applied4) From the Type and Wrapping pages of the Picture dialog box forimages Note that you cannot control the arrangement using thedialog box To open the Picture dialog box click on the image toselect it and then choose Format gt Picture or right-click on thegraphic and choose Picture on the pop-up menu5) From the Position and Size page of the Position and Size dialogbox for drawing objects To open the Position and Size dialog boxclick on the drawing object to select it and then choose Format gtObject gt Position and Size or right-click on the graphic andchoose Position and Size on the pop-up menu Note that you canonly control the alignment and anchoring

Arranging graphicsArranging a graphic object means to determine its vertical positionrelative to other graphic objects or text Arranging is only relevantwhen objects are overlapping You can choose between four settingsplus a special setting for drawing objects

Bring to Front draws the graphic on top of any other graphicsor textbull Bring Forward brings the object one level up in the stack (zaxis)Depending on the number of overlapping objects you mayneed to apply this option several times to obtain the desiredresultbull Bring Backward the opposite of Bring Forward sends theselected object one level down in the object stackbull Send to Back sends the selected graphic to the bottom of thestack so that other graphics and text cover itbull To Background To Foreground only available for drawingobjects moves the drawing object behind or in front of the textrespectively

In the Crop dialog box you can control the following parametersbull Keep scale Keep image size options when Keep scale isselected (default) cropping the image does not change the scaleof the picture When Keep image size is selected croppingproduces enlargement (for positive cropping values) shrinking (for negative cropping values) or distortion of the image so thatthe image size remains constantbull Left Right Top and Bottom the function of these boxeschanges according to the choice made between Keep scale andKeep image size In both cases when a value is entered in one ofthese boxes the image is cropped by that amount For example avalue of 3cm in the Left box will cut 3 cm from the left side of thepictureWhen Keep scale is selected the size of the image also changesso in this example the width will be reduced by 3 cm If Keepimage size is selected instead the remaining part of the image isenlarged (positive values for cropping) or shrunk (negative values

for cropping) so that the width and height of the image remainsunchanged

Note that the Width and Height fields change as you enter thevalues when in this mode Use the thumbnail next to these fieldsto determine the correct amount by which to crop

Resizing an imageIt is possible and quite likely that the inserted image will not fitperfectly into the document because it is too big or too small In thesecases you will need to resize the image1) Click the picture if necessary to show the green resizing handles2) Position the pointer over one of the green resizing handles Thepointer changes shape giving a graphical representation of thedirection of the resizing3) Click and drag to resize the picture4) Release the mouse button when satisfied with the new sizeThe corner handles resize both the width and the height of the graphicobject simultaneously while the other four handles only resize onedimension at a time

Rotating a pictureWriter does not provide a tool for rotating a picture however there isa very simple workaround1) Open a new Draw or Impress document2) Insert the image you want to rotate You can use any of themechanisms described in ldquoAdding images to a documentrdquo on page264 although there are some slight variations in the position ofthe menu entries and icons3) Select the image then in the drawing toolbar (shown by default atthe bottom of the window in Impress and Draw) select theRotate icon

4) Rotate the image as desired Use the red handles at the corners ofthe 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

Using Writerrsquos drawing toolsYou can use Writerrsquos drawing tools to create graphics such as simplediagrams using rectangles circles lines text and other predefinedshapes You can also group several drawing objects to make sure theymaintain their relative position and proportionYou can place the drawing objects directly on a page in your documentor you can insert them into a frameYou can also use the drawing tools to annotate photographs screencaptures or other illustrations produced by other programs but this isnot recommended becausebull You cannot include images in a group with drawing objects sothey may get out of alignment in your documentbull If you convert a Writer document to another format such asHTML the drawing objects and the graphics will not remainassociated they are saved separately

In general if you need to create complex drawings it is recommendedto use OpenOfficeorg Draw which includes many more features suchas layers styles and so onCreating drawing objectsTo begin using the drawing tools display the Drawing toolbar by clicking View gt Toolbars gt DrawingIf you are planning to use the drawing tools repeatedly you can tear offthis toolbar and move it to a convenient place on the window

To use a drawing tool1) Click in the document where you want the drawing to beanchored You can change the anchor later if necessary2) Select the tool from the Drawing toolbar The mousepointer changes to a drawing-functions pointer 3) Move the cross-hair pointer to the place in the document whereyou want the graphic to appear and then click-and-drag to createthe drawing object Release the mouse button The selecteddrawing function remains active so you can draw another objectof the same type4) To cancel the selected drawing function press the Esc key orclick on the Select icon (the arrow) on the Drawing toolbar5) You can now change the properties (fill color line type andweight anchoring and others) of the drawing object using eitherthe Drawing Object Properties toolbar or the choicesand dialog boxes reached by right-clicking on the drawing object

Positioning graphics within the textWhen you add a graphic to a text document you need to choose how toposition the graphic with respect to the text and other graphics Thepositioning of graphics is often rather time-consuming and may be veryfrustrating for both inexperienced and experienced users As Writer isa word processor rather than a desktop publishing program there aresome limitations to the flexibility in positioning images and it takestime to get things exactly as you would like them Starting fromOpenOfficeorg 30 this task is considerably improved by the inclusionof a new option that allows a ldquoloose anchoringrdquoPositioning of a graphic is controlled by working on four areasbull Arrangement refers to the placement of a graphic on animaginary vertical axis Arrangement controls how graphics arestacked upon each other or relative to the textbull Alignment refers to the vertical or horizontal placement of a

graphic in relation to the chosen anchoring pointbull Anchoring refers to the reference point for the graphics Thispoint could be the page or frame where the object is aparagraph or even a character

bull Text wrapping refers to the relation of graphics to surroundingtext which may wrap around the graphic on one or both sides beoverprinted behind or in front of the graphic or treat the graphicas a separate paragraph or characterThe settings for each of the four control areas above can be accessedin a number of different ways depending on the nature of the graphics1) From the Format menu where you can find AlignmentArrange Wrap and Anchor (both for images and drawingobjects)2) By the pop-up menu displayed when right-clicking on thegraphics3) From the Frame toolbar shown in Figure 259 for images with theGraphics frame style applied4) From the Type and Wrapping pages of the Picture dialog box forimages Note that you cannot control the arrangement using thedialog box To open the Picture dialog box click on the image toselect it and then choose Format gt Picture or right-click on thegraphic and choose Picture on the pop-up menu5) From the Position and Size page of the Position and Size dialogbox for drawing objects To open the Position and Size dialog boxclick on the drawing object to select it and then choose Format gtObject gt Position and Size or right-click on the graphic andchoose Position and Size on the pop-up menu Note that you canonly control the alignment and anchoring

Arranging graphicsArranging a graphic object means to determine its vertical positionrelative to other graphic objects or text Arranging is only relevantwhen objects are overlapping You can choose between four settingsplus a special setting for drawing objects

Bring to Front draws the graphic on top of any other graphicsor textbull Bring Forward brings the object one level up in the stack (zaxis)Depending on the number of overlapping objects you mayneed to apply this option several times to obtain the desiredresultbull Bring Backward the opposite of Bring Forward sends theselected object one level down in the object stackbull Send to Back sends the selected graphic to the bottom of thestack so that other graphics and text cover itbull To Background To Foreground only available for drawingobjects moves the drawing object behind or in front of the textrespectively

for cropping) so that the width and height of the image remainsunchanged

Note that the Width and Height fields change as you enter thevalues when in this mode Use the thumbnail next to these fieldsto determine the correct amount by which to crop

Resizing an imageIt is possible and quite likely that the inserted image will not fitperfectly into the document because it is too big or too small In thesecases you will need to resize the image1) Click the picture if necessary to show the green resizing handles2) Position the pointer over one of the green resizing handles Thepointer changes shape giving a graphical representation of thedirection of the resizing3) Click and drag to resize the picture4) Release the mouse button when satisfied with the new sizeThe corner handles resize both the width and the height of the graphicobject simultaneously while the other four handles only resize onedimension at a time

Rotating a pictureWriter does not provide a tool for rotating a picture however there isa very simple workaround1) Open a new Draw or Impress document2) Insert the image you want to rotate You can use any of themechanisms described in ldquoAdding images to a documentrdquo on page264 although there are some slight variations in the position ofthe menu entries and icons3) Select the image then in the drawing toolbar (shown by default atthe bottom of the window in Impress and Draw) select theRotate icon

4) Rotate the image as desired Use the red handles at the corners ofthe 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

Using Writerrsquos drawing toolsYou can use Writerrsquos drawing tools to create graphics such as simplediagrams using rectangles circles lines text and other predefinedshapes You can also group several drawing objects to make sure theymaintain their relative position and proportionYou can place the drawing objects directly on a page in your documentor you can insert them into a frameYou can also use the drawing tools to annotate photographs screencaptures or other illustrations produced by other programs but this isnot recommended becausebull You cannot include images in a group with drawing objects sothey may get out of alignment in your documentbull If you convert a Writer document to another format such asHTML the drawing objects and the graphics will not remainassociated they are saved separately

In general if you need to create complex drawings it is recommendedto use OpenOfficeorg Draw which includes many more features suchas layers styles and so onCreating drawing objectsTo begin using the drawing tools display the Drawing toolbar by clicking View gt Toolbars gt DrawingIf you are planning to use the drawing tools repeatedly you can tear offthis toolbar and move it to a convenient place on the window

To use a drawing tool1) Click in the document where you want the drawing to beanchored You can change the anchor later if necessary2) Select the tool from the Drawing toolbar The mousepointer changes to a drawing-functions pointer 3) Move the cross-hair pointer to the place in the document whereyou want the graphic to appear and then click-and-drag to createthe drawing object Release the mouse button The selecteddrawing function remains active so you can draw another objectof the same type4) To cancel the selected drawing function press the Esc key orclick on the Select icon (the arrow) on the Drawing toolbar5) You can now change the properties (fill color line type andweight anchoring and others) of the drawing object using eitherthe Drawing Object Properties toolbar or the choicesand dialog boxes reached by right-clicking on the drawing object

Positioning graphics within the textWhen you add a graphic to a text document you need to choose how toposition the graphic with respect to the text and other graphics Thepositioning of graphics is often rather time-consuming and may be veryfrustrating for both inexperienced and experienced users As Writer isa word processor rather than a desktop publishing program there aresome limitations to the flexibility in positioning images and it takestime to get things exactly as you would like them Starting fromOpenOfficeorg 30 this task is considerably improved by the inclusionof a new option that allows a ldquoloose anchoringrdquoPositioning of a graphic is controlled by working on four areasbull Arrangement refers to the placement of a graphic on animaginary vertical axis Arrangement controls how graphics arestacked upon each other or relative to the textbull Alignment refers to the vertical or horizontal placement of a

graphic in relation to the chosen anchoring pointbull Anchoring refers to the reference point for the graphics Thispoint could be the page or frame where the object is aparagraph or even a character

bull Text wrapping refers to the relation of graphics to surroundingtext which may wrap around the graphic on one or both sides beoverprinted behind or in front of the graphic or treat the graphicas a separate paragraph or characterThe settings for each of the four control areas above can be accessedin a number of different ways depending on the nature of the graphics1) From the Format menu where you can find AlignmentArrange Wrap and Anchor (both for images and drawingobjects)2) By the pop-up menu displayed when right-clicking on thegraphics3) From the Frame toolbar shown in Figure 259 for images with theGraphics frame style applied4) From the Type and Wrapping pages of the Picture dialog box forimages Note that you cannot control the arrangement using thedialog box To open the Picture dialog box click on the image toselect it and then choose Format gt Picture or right-click on thegraphic and choose Picture on the pop-up menu5) From the Position and Size page of the Position and Size dialogbox for drawing objects To open the Position and Size dialog boxclick on the drawing object to select it and then choose Format gtObject gt Position and Size or right-click on the graphic andchoose Position and Size on the pop-up menu Note that you canonly control the alignment and anchoring

Arranging graphicsArranging a graphic object means to determine its vertical positionrelative to other graphic objects or text Arranging is only relevantwhen objects are overlapping You can choose between four settingsplus a special setting for drawing objects

Bring to Front draws the graphic on top of any other graphicsor textbull Bring Forward brings the object one level up in the stack (zaxis)Depending on the number of overlapping objects you mayneed to apply this option several times to obtain the desiredresultbull Bring Backward the opposite of Bring Forward sends theselected object one level down in the object stackbull Send to Back sends the selected graphic to the bottom of thestack so that other graphics and text cover itbull To Background To Foreground only available for drawingobjects moves the drawing object behind or in front of the textrespectively

4) Rotate the image as desired Use the red handles at the corners ofthe 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

Using Writerrsquos drawing toolsYou can use Writerrsquos drawing tools to create graphics such as simplediagrams using rectangles circles lines text and other predefinedshapes You can also group several drawing objects to make sure theymaintain their relative position and proportionYou can place the drawing objects directly on a page in your documentor you can insert them into a frameYou can also use the drawing tools to annotate photographs screencaptures or other illustrations produced by other programs but this isnot recommended becausebull You cannot include images in a group with drawing objects sothey may get out of alignment in your documentbull If you convert a Writer document to another format such asHTML the drawing objects and the graphics will not remainassociated they are saved separately

In general if you need to create complex drawings it is recommendedto use OpenOfficeorg Draw which includes many more features suchas layers styles and so onCreating drawing objectsTo begin using the drawing tools display the Drawing toolbar by clicking View gt Toolbars gt DrawingIf you are planning to use the drawing tools repeatedly you can tear offthis toolbar and move it to a convenient place on the window

To use a drawing tool1) Click in the document where you want the drawing to beanchored You can change the anchor later if necessary2) Select the tool from the Drawing toolbar The mousepointer changes to a drawing-functions pointer 3) Move the cross-hair pointer to the place in the document whereyou want the graphic to appear and then click-and-drag to createthe drawing object Release the mouse button The selecteddrawing function remains active so you can draw another objectof the same type4) To cancel the selected drawing function press the Esc key orclick on the Select icon (the arrow) on the Drawing toolbar5) You can now change the properties (fill color line type andweight anchoring and others) of the drawing object using eitherthe Drawing Object Properties toolbar or the choicesand dialog boxes reached by right-clicking on the drawing object

Positioning graphics within the textWhen you add a graphic to a text document you need to choose how toposition the graphic with respect to the text and other graphics Thepositioning of graphics is often rather time-consuming and may be veryfrustrating for both inexperienced and experienced users As Writer isa word processor rather than a desktop publishing program there aresome limitations to the flexibility in positioning images and it takestime to get things exactly as you would like them Starting fromOpenOfficeorg 30 this task is considerably improved by the inclusionof a new option that allows a ldquoloose anchoringrdquoPositioning of a graphic is controlled by working on four areasbull Arrangement refers to the placement of a graphic on animaginary vertical axis Arrangement controls how graphics arestacked upon each other or relative to the textbull Alignment refers to the vertical or horizontal placement of a

graphic in relation to the chosen anchoring pointbull Anchoring refers to the reference point for the graphics Thispoint could be the page or frame where the object is aparagraph or even a character

bull Text wrapping refers to the relation of graphics to surroundingtext which may wrap around the graphic on one or both sides beoverprinted behind or in front of the graphic or treat the graphicas a separate paragraph or characterThe settings for each of the four control areas above can be accessedin a number of different ways depending on the nature of the graphics1) From the Format menu where you can find AlignmentArrange Wrap and Anchor (both for images and drawingobjects)2) By the pop-up menu displayed when right-clicking on thegraphics3) From the Frame toolbar shown in Figure 259 for images with theGraphics frame style applied4) From the Type and Wrapping pages of the Picture dialog box forimages Note that you cannot control the arrangement using thedialog box To open the Picture dialog box click on the image toselect it and then choose Format gt Picture or right-click on thegraphic and choose Picture on the pop-up menu5) From the Position and Size page of the Position and Size dialogbox for drawing objects To open the Position and Size dialog boxclick on the drawing object to select it and then choose Format gtObject gt Position and Size or right-click on the graphic andchoose Position and Size on the pop-up menu Note that you canonly control the alignment and anchoring

Arranging graphicsArranging a graphic object means to determine its vertical positionrelative to other graphic objects or text Arranging is only relevantwhen objects are overlapping You can choose between four settingsplus a special setting for drawing objects

Bring to Front draws the graphic on top of any other graphicsor textbull Bring Forward brings the object one level up in the stack (zaxis)Depending on the number of overlapping objects you mayneed to apply this option several times to obtain the desiredresultbull Bring Backward the opposite of Bring Forward sends theselected object one level down in the object stackbull Send to Back sends the selected graphic to the bottom of thestack so that other graphics and text cover itbull To Background To Foreground only available for drawingobjects moves the drawing object behind or in front of the textrespectively

Using Writerrsquos drawing toolsYou can use Writerrsquos drawing tools to create graphics such as simplediagrams using rectangles circles lines text and other predefinedshapes You can also group several drawing objects to make sure theymaintain their relative position and proportionYou can place the drawing objects directly on a page in your documentor you can insert them into a frameYou can also use the drawing tools to annotate photographs screencaptures or other illustrations produced by other programs but this isnot recommended becausebull You cannot include images in a group with drawing objects sothey may get out of alignment in your documentbull If you convert a Writer document to another format such asHTML the drawing objects and the graphics will not remainassociated they are saved separately

In general if you need to create complex drawings it is recommendedto use OpenOfficeorg Draw which includes many more features suchas layers styles and so onCreating drawing objectsTo begin using the drawing tools display the Drawing toolbar by clicking View gt Toolbars gt DrawingIf you are planning to use the drawing tools repeatedly you can tear offthis toolbar and move it to a convenient place on the window

To use a drawing tool1) Click in the document where you want the drawing to beanchored You can change the anchor later if necessary2) Select the tool from the Drawing toolbar The mousepointer changes to a drawing-functions pointer 3) Move the cross-hair pointer to the place in the document whereyou want the graphic to appear and then click-and-drag to createthe drawing object Release the mouse button The selecteddrawing function remains active so you can draw another objectof the same type4) To cancel the selected drawing function press the Esc key orclick on the Select icon (the arrow) on the Drawing toolbar5) You can now change the properties (fill color line type andweight anchoring and others) of the drawing object using eitherthe Drawing Object Properties toolbar or the choicesand dialog boxes reached by right-clicking on the drawing object

Positioning graphics within the textWhen you add a graphic to a text document you need to choose how toposition the graphic with respect to the text and other graphics Thepositioning of graphics is often rather time-consuming and may be veryfrustrating for both inexperienced and experienced users As Writer isa word processor rather than a desktop publishing program there aresome limitations to the flexibility in positioning images and it takestime to get things exactly as you would like them Starting fromOpenOfficeorg 30 this task is considerably improved by the inclusionof a new option that allows a ldquoloose anchoringrdquoPositioning of a graphic is controlled by working on four areasbull Arrangement refers to the placement of a graphic on animaginary vertical axis Arrangement controls how graphics arestacked upon each other or relative to the textbull Alignment refers to the vertical or horizontal placement of a

graphic in relation to the chosen anchoring pointbull Anchoring refers to the reference point for the graphics Thispoint could be the page or frame where the object is aparagraph or even a character

bull Text wrapping refers to the relation of graphics to surroundingtext which may wrap around the graphic on one or both sides beoverprinted behind or in front of the graphic or treat the graphicas a separate paragraph or characterThe settings for each of the four control areas above can be accessedin a number of different ways depending on the nature of the graphics1) From the Format menu where you can find AlignmentArrange Wrap and Anchor (both for images and drawingobjects)2) By the pop-up menu displayed when right-clicking on thegraphics3) From the Frame toolbar shown in Figure 259 for images with theGraphics frame style applied4) From the Type and Wrapping pages of the Picture dialog box forimages Note that you cannot control the arrangement using thedialog box To open the Picture dialog box click on the image toselect it and then choose Format gt Picture or right-click on thegraphic and choose Picture on the pop-up menu5) From the Position and Size page of the Position and Size dialogbox for drawing objects To open the Position and Size dialog boxclick on the drawing object to select it and then choose Format gtObject gt Position and Size or right-click on the graphic andchoose Position and Size on the pop-up menu Note that you canonly control the alignment and anchoring

Arranging graphicsArranging a graphic object means to determine its vertical positionrelative to other graphic objects or text Arranging is only relevantwhen objects are overlapping You can choose between four settingsplus a special setting for drawing objects

Bring to Front draws the graphic on top of any other graphicsor textbull Bring Forward brings the object one level up in the stack (zaxis)Depending on the number of overlapping objects you mayneed to apply this option several times to obtain the desiredresultbull Bring Backward the opposite of Bring Forward sends theselected object one level down in the object stackbull Send to Back sends the selected graphic to the bottom of thestack so that other graphics and text cover itbull To Background To Foreground only available for drawingobjects moves the drawing object behind or in front of the textrespectively

To use a drawing tool1) Click in the document where you want the drawing to beanchored You can change the anchor later if necessary2) Select the tool from the Drawing toolbar The mousepointer changes to a drawing-functions pointer 3) Move the cross-hair pointer to the place in the document whereyou want the graphic to appear and then click-and-drag to createthe drawing object Release the mouse button The selecteddrawing function remains active so you can draw another objectof the same type4) To cancel the selected drawing function press the Esc key orclick on the Select icon (the arrow) on the Drawing toolbar5) You can now change the properties (fill color line type andweight anchoring and others) of the drawing object using eitherthe Drawing Object Properties toolbar or the choicesand dialog boxes reached by right-clicking on the drawing object

Positioning graphics within the textWhen you add a graphic to a text document you need to choose how toposition the graphic with respect to the text and other graphics Thepositioning of graphics is often rather time-consuming and may be veryfrustrating for both inexperienced and experienced users As Writer isa word processor rather than a desktop publishing program there aresome limitations to the flexibility in positioning images and it takestime to get things exactly as you would like them Starting fromOpenOfficeorg 30 this task is considerably improved by the inclusionof a new option that allows a ldquoloose anchoringrdquoPositioning of a graphic is controlled by working on four areasbull Arrangement refers to the placement of a graphic on animaginary vertical axis Arrangement controls how graphics arestacked upon each other or relative to the textbull Alignment refers to the vertical or horizontal placement of a

graphic in relation to the chosen anchoring pointbull Anchoring refers to the reference point for the graphics Thispoint could be the page or frame where the object is aparagraph or even a character

bull Text wrapping refers to the relation of graphics to surroundingtext which may wrap around the graphic on one or both sides beoverprinted behind or in front of the graphic or treat the graphicas a separate paragraph or characterThe settings for each of the four control areas above can be accessedin a number of different ways depending on the nature of the graphics1) From the Format menu where you can find AlignmentArrange Wrap and Anchor (both for images and drawingobjects)2) By the pop-up menu displayed when right-clicking on thegraphics3) From the Frame toolbar shown in Figure 259 for images with theGraphics frame style applied4) From the Type and Wrapping pages of the Picture dialog box forimages Note that you cannot control the arrangement using thedialog box To open the Picture dialog box click on the image toselect it and then choose Format gt Picture or right-click on thegraphic and choose Picture on the pop-up menu5) From the Position and Size page of the Position and Size dialogbox for drawing objects To open the Position and Size dialog boxclick on the drawing object to select it and then choose Format gtObject gt Position and Size or right-click on the graphic andchoose Position and Size on the pop-up menu Note that you canonly control the alignment and anchoring

Arranging graphicsArranging a graphic object means to determine its vertical positionrelative to other graphic objects or text Arranging is only relevantwhen objects are overlapping You can choose between four settingsplus a special setting for drawing objects

Bring to Front draws the graphic on top of any other graphicsor textbull Bring Forward brings the object one level up in the stack (zaxis)Depending on the number of overlapping objects you mayneed to apply this option several times to obtain the desiredresultbull Bring Backward the opposite of Bring Forward sends theselected object one level down in the object stackbull Send to Back sends the selected graphic to the bottom of thestack so that other graphics and text cover itbull To Background To Foreground only available for drawingobjects moves the drawing object behind or in front of the textrespectively

graphic in relation to the chosen anchoring pointbull Anchoring refers to the reference point for the graphics Thispoint could be the page or frame where the object is aparagraph or even a character

bull Text wrapping refers to the relation of graphics to surroundingtext which may wrap around the graphic on one or both sides beoverprinted behind or in front of the graphic or treat the graphicas a separate paragraph or characterThe settings for each of the four control areas above can be accessedin a number of different ways depending on the nature of the graphics1) From the Format menu where you can find AlignmentArrange Wrap and Anchor (both for images and drawingobjects)2) By the pop-up menu displayed when right-clicking on thegraphics3) From the Frame toolbar shown in Figure 259 for images with theGraphics frame style applied4) From the Type and Wrapping pages of the Picture dialog box forimages Note that you cannot control the arrangement using thedialog box To open the Picture dialog box click on the image toselect it and then choose Format gt Picture or right-click on thegraphic and choose Picture on the pop-up menu5) From the Position and Size page of the Position and Size dialogbox for drawing objects To open the Position and Size dialog boxclick on the drawing object to select it and then choose Format gtObject gt Position and Size or right-click on the graphic andchoose Position and Size on the pop-up menu Note that you canonly control the alignment and anchoring

Arranging graphicsArranging a graphic object means to determine its vertical positionrelative to other graphic objects or text Arranging is only relevantwhen objects are overlapping You can choose between four settingsplus a special setting for drawing objects

Bring to Front draws the graphic on top of any other graphicsor textbull Bring Forward brings the object one level up in the stack (zaxis)Depending on the number of overlapping objects you mayneed to apply this option several times to obtain the desiredresultbull Bring Backward the opposite of Bring Forward sends theselected object one level down in the object stackbull Send to Back sends the selected graphic to the bottom of thestack so that other graphics and text cover itbull To Background To Foreground only available for drawingobjects moves the drawing object behind or in front of the textrespectively

Arranging graphicsArranging a graphic object means to determine its vertical positionrelative to other graphic objects or text Arranging is only relevantwhen objects are overlapping You can choose between four settingsplus a special setting for drawing objects

Bring to Front draws the graphic on top of any other graphicsor textbull Bring Forward brings the object one level up in the stack (zaxis)Depending on the number of overlapping objects you mayneed to apply this option several times to obtain the desiredresultbull Bring Backward the opposite of Bring Forward sends theselected object one level down in the object stackbull Send to Back sends the selected graphic to the bottom of thestack so that other graphics and text cover itbull To Background To Foreground only available for drawingobjects moves the drawing object behind or in front of the textrespectively