The only way I could find was to copy/paste all your objects in a Draw document.
Then, in Draw, select all. Go to the Modify menu and check Group. Copy/Paste in your Writer document. Afterwards yu'll be able to enter into the group or to ungroup the objects by choosing Format > Group > Ungroup or Enter Group.
It seems a bit strange to have to go from Writer to Draw then to come back from Draw to Writer.
Posted: Tue Mar 25, 2008 5:43 pm Post subject: How to group a text box to an image in Writer (not Draw)
Hi all,
I have a similar problem. I want to group a text box to an image (so that the box with the descriptive text stays together with the image when it is moved).
In Writer, I can group different text boxes together without problems, but I can't group a text box (or several text boxes or, actually, any object such as a line, arrow, ...) to an image.
I have tried all menus, context menus and buttons and the procedure described above, but can't get satisfying results. I think I can summarise the bug/problem as follows:
* In Writer, one cannot group an image with any other object.
* In Draw, one can group an image with other objects (such as text boxes).
* One can create a group consisting of an image and another object (text box) in Draw, then select the group, copy it to the clipboard and paste it into a Writer document. One can then enter the group there and make changes to the textbox, but one cannot edit the image anymore (i.e. one cannot get the context menu for images anymore that one normally gets when right-clicking onto an image; this menu however is needed, e.g., for resizing the image, altering the link reference etc.).
*I.e. one has to choose between having
*an image and a textbox ungrouped (created in Writer), with the ability to modify the image, or
* an image and a textbox grouped (created with Draw), without the ability to modify the image.
I'd say this is a bug, right? Should I report it? How?
Or is there any way to group a text box to an image in Writer?
What do you do when you want to label something in a picture and want to fix the label to the image so you can move the image and the label together?
Thanks for your thoughts!
P.S.: Sorry for the poor layout, my BBCode skills are rusty and I can't get a list to look properly anymore...
Posted: Tue Mar 25, 2008 11:47 pm Post subject: Re: How to group a text box to an image in Writer (not Draw)
kabelmeister wrote:
Or is there any way to group a text box to an image in Writer?
One option: "you can right-click (ctrl-click) on the image object and choose Caption. If you need more information, just ask, but the Help file also describes captions (and any "Figure" or other automatic setting you might always use with it)." Credit to this thread.
The reference to "Figure" etc, refers to the special styles associated with this technique, I believe. Modify the "Caption" style in Styles & Formatting to get the basic caption style you want to apply in these cases across the document.
I know it is not a complete solution to your situation but trust this helps. _________________ Ray Saunders
World Scout Bureau
Posted: Wed Mar 26, 2008 1:41 am Post subject: text boxes vs. captions
Quote:
you can right-click (ctrl-click) on the image object and choose Caption.
Thanks for your hint regarding captions, Ray.
I am already using captions to put the general description of the figure below it. I'm also using the cross-reference and auto-numbering feature, so I'm taking advantage of all those neat functions.
I am interested in grouping text boxes to the image because I want to label certain objects on the image itself. In my case, I have several photos, each with many people on them. I use a general caption such as "Wedding of X and Y", but want to point out just a few of the many people by writing their name above their heads (works better than putting "Person seventh from the left and between fifth and sixth row from above, with the umbrella, is Mr. X").
Unfortunately, as described, this text box (when created in Writer) cannot be grouped to the image. Currently I anchor both the image and the text box to the frame created by the caption funtion, to keep things together, but this is still more fragile than a group of objects.
Any other ideas?
I am thinking about submitting this as a bug / feature request report.
Joined: Jun 20, 2006 Posts: 2051 Location: Midwest, USA
Posted: Wed Mar 26, 2008 4:51 am Post subject:
It might work better in a Draw document. I don't know if that works for what you are doing or not.
If I wanted to annotate a picture, I would probably use the free program Imagewell to add the labels. The catch with that is that you can't go back and edit the labels later. If one of the labels needed to change you would have to redo the entire image. (So be sure to keep a copy that hasn't been edited in Imagewell).
Posted: Wed Mar 26, 2008 5:08 am Post subject: editing image directly
Yes, thank you, that is the other option I was thinking about, to add the text to the image in another program.
I don't want to use rastered (bitmap) fonts, though, for best quality and to keep the text editable and searchable in the final PDF output (vector fonts). So basically the only option would be to use formats such as Adobe Photoshop's PSD format with layers, or an EPS or PDF. (But then I am not sure if PSD can be imported into NeoOffice. EPS is OK, but PDF, e.g., didn't work for me.)
But actually it would be really the best and easiest option to do it directly in NeoOffice! :-)
So, as it seems, I'll have to decide between doing it in Draw (losing the editability of the image, but having a nice group) or in Writer (without the group, but with the ability to edit the image later on).
I think this is something that could be improved...
Joined: Jun 20, 2006 Posts: 2051 Location: Midwest, USA
Posted: Wed Mar 26, 2008 8:16 am Post subject:
Are you wanting to be able to search and edit the text labels on the image, or only the other text of the document?
In your other thread on this issue, I suggested the possibility of an OLE object. If this issue of rastered vs. vector and searching is primarily about the other text, you might want to use a Draw document to label/manipulate the image, and then use an OLE object which links to that Draw document to insert it into your Writer document.
My comment on speed in the other post presumes creating an OLE that is not linked to an external document, but is "simply" embedded in the current Writer doc. My (albeit brief) testing with using and OLE linked to an existing external Draw document incates less of a speed issue: double clicking on the object in Writer opens the Draw file for editing it.
Posted: Wed Mar 26, 2008 2:44 pm Post subject: Will probably group objects in Draw, then copy to Writer
I want all text in the document, including the one I use in the pictures, to be searchable (ideally at least), that is why I prefer to add the text in NeoOffice using the text boxes.
Your idea with the OLE is good, I will try. The switching in the UI between Draw and Calc which takes some time is probably not ideal, but I will have to see for myself.
I think in the end I will go for the option to just create the image with the text boxes in Draw and group them there, then copy the group over to Writer. I believe losing the image property is a drawback I can tolerate most easily (compared to those of the other options), while still having a nice workflow.
Anyway, thank you for all your help and good suggestions!
I have read some more in the OpenOffice.org forums, and this seems to have been a known problem/feature for some time. I'll see if I can add this as a feature request to OpenOffice.org. I think in this case Microsoft Word really does a better job regarding usability and logic. The behaviour in OpenOffice.org, especially the differences between Writer and Draw, is not very logical and unexpected for many users.
You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum You cannot attach files in this forum You cannot download files in this forum
