Text boxing / layering?

[anahuj]

(Newbie to any word processor.)

I'm writing CV. The top contains address at the left and title/date at
center, or so.
Traditionally this is typed by separating the entities with spaces and tabs;
if I add to
address, I must re-edit the title/date as well.

Is there a way to do this in modern way by having boxes (like in TeX) or
layers (like
in GIMP)?

I tried tables already. I created 1x1 tables, but I could not move them in
anyway.
I could create 2x1 table but then I don't get the title to center.

If this turns out to be a feature request. I'm putting this to bigger
context: famous
mathematician wrote a text book in two weeks (check!) by technique what I
call
now a scrapbook technique; he had text pieces in cards which he then
arranged to
form the final book, more or less.

So, I want write text to small boxes which I can later grab and drag to
correct positions.

I have written a scrapbook software of this kind, but I started from the
image processor
context.

[Steve_Edmonds]

Hi.
If you go Insert>Frame you can enter a frame that can contain the text. I use this for the address on my letters and also for my document revision number that must be fixed in location.
Steve

[Brian_Barker]

I'm writing CV. The top contains address at the left and title/date at center, or so. Traditionally this is typed by separating the entities with spaces and tabs; if I add to
address, I must re-edit the title/date as well.

In that case you have yet to discover how to do this properly! You shouldn't use spaces to achieve something like this: that's typewriter thinking. And I wonder what you mean by the plural "tabs": I hope you mean that you need one per line, but I fear you might be typing repeated tabs to move across the page. Writer, along with most word processors, provides default tab stops across the page at regular intervals, but relying on these is a recipe for the sort of problem you describe.

Instead, after each line of your address, enter *one* tab character and then the text of the corresponding line of the centred material. To place the centred material appropriately, set a suitable tab stop either in the paragraphs or in their paragraph style. You can do this by clicking the ruler at the top of the page display. This could be a (default) Left tab if you want the centre material to be left-aligned to some position or a Centre tab if you want each line truly centred. This technique may well be easier than any of the more complicated ways that you may imagine.

But there are indeed other techniques.

I tried tables already. I created 1x1 tables, but I could not move them in anyway.

By default, tables span the full width of the document between the margins - and you clearly cannot move them in that configuration. But if you go to Table | Table Properties... | Table (or right-click | Table... | Table) and select something other than Automatic for Alignment, you can indeed reduce Width and move the table around. But, since you want material paralleled in columns, a one-cell table is little use to you.

I could create 2x1 table but then I don't get the title to center.

No, you *can* do this. One way would be to create a two-column, one-row table, setting its alignment to Left and selecting Width and then column widths to place the right column centrally on the page. But a simpler way to do this is probably to create a three-column (one-row) table with three equal columns and simply to use the first two cells, leaving the right column empty. Tables do not need to have printable borders, of course. Within each cell, you have separate control over alignment of the text, so you can choose Left, Centred, or whatever.

Is there a way to do this in modern way by having boxes (like in TeX) or layers (like in GIMP)?

There are indeed other techniques, but I'm not sure that they are "modern" or more useful in your situation. As someone has already suggested, you can create a frame (Insert | Frame...). This gives you the facility to drag the frame and its contents around the page, but your need seems to be the opposite: to have some material at the top and properly centred.

Another possibility is a text box. Go to View | Toolbars > | Drawing to display the Drawing toolbar (at the foot of the window). Click the "T" (Text) icon and drag a rectangular text box in your page. You can drag this around in much the same way as a frame.

If this turns out to be a feature request...

I strongly suspect you don't need any more than you have.

I'm putting this to bigger context: famous mathematician wrote a text book in two weeks (check!) by technique what I call now a scrapbook technique; he had text pieces in cards which he then arranged to form the final book, more or less.

In a word processor, you do not need to have boxes to contain blocks of text that you may need to move around: you can simply select any contiguous text and cut and paste in elsewhere in the document. That's a *more* flexible facility, not less.

So, I want write text to small boxes which I can later grab and drag to correct positions.

If you do this, you will limit yourself into thinking in typewriter and paper-scrap techniques and never make the best use of a word processor. My later suggestions - what you actually asked for - are almost certainly worse techniques that the simple three-cell table solution.

I trust this helps.

Brian Barker

[Tom_Davies1]

Hi
I do this sort of thing by creating a 1 row, 3 column table. Even though
the 1st column is likely to be empty it's still useful. It makes it easier
to grab that line between the 1st and 2nd columns to adjust the widths of
the first 2 columns and that quickly repositions the stuff you want
centred.

Btw, on a side issue, with html and wiki-markup i sometimes use even more
columns with several of them being purely for creating empty spaces between
the columns that do have contents. There are "properties" such as "cell
padding" which are good for tiny spacing but i tend to need much more space
between items.

Brian Barker's answer was probably the best but tl;dr (mine has same
problem). Steve Edmonds' suggestion to use Frames was excellent for most
documents but possibly not for CVs.

I think that for CVs you really need to keep it all as simple as possible.
HR departments, agencies and potential employers tend to have an extremely
abysmally low level of understanding wrt IT (although there are always
exceptions to such 'rules'). So they will tend to use programs that ensure
whatever you (or anyone else too) send will get as garbled as possible.

I've been told that many have trouble opening Pdfs. Nowadays even Pdfs get
warped if read on a system that doesn't have the same font so it's best to
stick to Arial or some other very basic Microsoft Font. While it's best to
keep your original in Odf format (Odt for Writer) the one you send is
probably best in Doc (NOT DocX which displays very differently in each
different version of MS Office). However it's wise to keep plenty of
white-space at the bottom. Many people outside of the US have their
printers set to print to US Letter size even though they actually use A4.
This often means that a couple of lines from your page 1 appear at the top
of page 2. So make sure you have enough space at the bottom of each page.
You might use Ctrl Enter to force the new page to start where you want but
that risks them printing out 3 pages with the middle one being completely
blank.

I've also been told that many employers or HR departments or agencies don't
have time to open attachments so you might need to be able to copy&paste
your CV directly into the email. However i have also been told that some
hurriedly print all attachments and ignore the email so i was told to make
sure i attach my CV AND a covering letter. So i'm tempted to send Pdfs and
Docs and copy&paste into the body of an email effectively giving them 3
sets of the 2 documents!!

I'm not sure how well email systems cope with frames. Tables are more
likely to work better!
Good luck!!
Regards from
Tom