Image In Text Box?

Dave1 · October 11, 2016, 1:34pm

Hi Folks,

Is there a way of inserting or pasting an image into a Writer text box,
similar to images in an MS Word text box.?

TIA
Dave

Regina · October 11, 2016, 2:40pm

Hi Dave,

Dave schrieb:

Hi Folks,

Is there a way of inserting or pasting an image into a Writer text box,
similar to images in an MS Word text box.?

Is there a special reason why you want to use a text box instead of a frame?

Kind regards
Regina

Tom_Davies1 · October 11, 2016, 3:26pm

Hi
+1
A normal frame works really well. I tend to add a caption and copy&paste
in some text to go with the image.

There is a "Style" specifically for captions so it's quite easy to set it
up so that captions are quite distinct from normal body or default text.
Also the image can then be moved around inside the frame so that the
caption appears above the image instead of just being below as the default
sets it. You can also set a buffer/margin around the image and/or the
frame (i think you can set an internal buffer/margin inside the frame) and
you can change the frame's thickness, or type of line. I think you can set
a background colour or use an image for the background so that the text
appears over the image but i haven't tried that.

Regards from
Tom

Dave1 · October 11, 2016, 7:26pm

Hi Regina,

Hi Dave,

Dave schrieb:

Hi Folks,

Is there a way of inserting or pasting an image into a Writer text box,
similar to images in an MS Word text box.?

Is there a special reason why you want to use a text box instead of a
frame?

Kind regards
Regina

OK! More information. I am in the process of migrating a small
organisation from MSO and have been successfully fielding all the usual
"what about" questions. However, there is one individual (there is
always at least one) who is pushing hard against the migration.

The subject line of this email was a question I was asked and my
response was much the same as yours. The counter argument then was "You
can multiple select and auto-align text boxes in Word, but you cannot do
that with Writer frames."

I never really understood the logic of introducing "Text Boxes" into
Writer, or what purpose they were intended to serve, when frames already
existed. Even saving documents in ODT format from MS Word converts their
text boxes into our frames.

So the short answer to this question is, no. Which is what I already
believed to be the case.

Best Regards
Dave

Regina · October 11, 2016, 8:55pm

Hi Dave,

Dave schrieb:

Hi Regina,

Hi Dave,

Dave schrieb:

Hi Folks,

Is there a way of inserting or pasting an image into a Writer text box,
similar to images in an MS Word text box.?

Is there a special reason why you want to use a text box instead of a
frame?

Kind regards
Regina

OK! More information. I am in the process of migrating a small
organisation from MSO and have been successfully fielding all the usual
"what about" questions. However, there is one individual (there is
always at least one) who is pushing hard against the migration.

I can understand them. For me it is the other way round. When I'm forced to use Word, I'm always searching where to find things.

The subject line of this email was a question I was asked and my
response was much the same as yours. The counter argument then was "You
can multiple select and auto-align text boxes in Word, but you cannot do
that with Writer frames."

Multiple select is indeed only possible with drawing objects.

In regard to auto-align, show them, that the position and wrap properties in LibreOffice have far more possibilities as in Word and therefore an "auto-align" (what ever that is?) makes no sense.
Or tell them that immediately after inserting, the image is still selected and they can use the alignment options from the context menu.
Or teach them how to show/hide grid and enable snap to grid, and then let them drag the images around with the mouse.

I never really understood the logic of introducing "Text Boxes" into
Writer, or what purpose they were intended to serve, when frames already
existed.

The text box (I mean the T icon) is a drawing object and you can select, group and align it as any other drawing object and together with other drawing objects.

Because MS Office has no Draw component, you will need to show that too. And inserting an image first in Draw and then copy&paste it to Writer will turn it into a drawing object. Then you can do all the drawing things like multiple select and grouping and free rotating. There exist currently no way to insert an image directly as drawing object in Writer.

Some suggest to use a rectangle shape and set the image as background of that shape. But then you loose the ability to crop the image.

I've got Word 2010 and for me one heavy argument is, that LibreOffice can view SVG-images. Are newer Word version able to view SVG? If not, that may be a good argument for LibreOffice for your audience.

Even saving documents in ODT format from MS Word converts their

text boxes into our frames.

Only the "text field" from 'Compatible mode' of Word is converted to frame. Those "text fields", which are docx-type only, are converted to shapes and therefore loose the linking of "text fields" (same as our linking of frames). So the import filter still needs improvement.

So the short answer to this question is, no. Which is what I already
believed to be the case.

Kind regards
Regina

Regina · October 12, 2016, 12:58pm

Hi Dave,

Dave schrieb:

Hi Regina,

Hi Dave,

Dave schrieb:

Hi Folks,

Is there a way of inserting or pasting an image into a Writer text box,
similar to images in an MS Word text box.?

Is there a special reason why you want to use a text box instead of a
frame?

Kind regards
Regina

OK! More information. I am in the process of migrating a small
organisation from MSO and have been successfully fielding all the usual
"what about" questions. However, there is one individual (there is
always at least one) who is pushing hard against the migration.

The subject line of this email was a question I was asked and my
response was much the same as yours. The counter argument then was "You
can multiple select and auto-align text boxes in Word, but you cannot do
that with Writer frames."

Which LibreOffice version do you use? LibreOffice is going to get a new feature: A text box in a custom shape. It gets improved over time and in the current build from master (http://dev-builds.libreoffice.org/daily/master/) it is already usable.

You can draw a custom shape rectangle and from the context menu add a "text box". Double click the rectangle to go into the text box. You should be able to enter some text. This text box has features similar to a frame and you can insert an image into it (and table and equation e.g.). Of cause you need to adapt the rectangle size to its content. Set the background color and the line to "none" to make the rectangle itself invisible.

This object is a draw-object and therefore you can multiselect it together with other such objects and align them.

Create a docx document in Word, not in compatibility mode but in OOXML mode, and insert two text fields, which are linked. Fill them and style them. Then open this document in current LibreOffice. You will notice, that the text fields from Word are converted to a shape with text box. And even the flow of the text from the text box in one shape to the text box in the other shape works.

The UI in LO is not finished in regard to this feature, and therefore creating such things from scratch has some quirks. But it shows the direction of the development in LibreOffice and might help you to convince this person.

This is an extension feature of LibreOffice and not available in strict ODF 1.2. But if they don't care about ODF, they can use the feature already.

Kind regards
Regina