Relevant Knowledge
Images can be added to a document in several ways: by inserting an image file, directly from a graphics program or a scanner, or from the Open Office Gallery.
Inserting An Image File
When the image is in a file stored on the computer, you can insert it into an Open Office document using either of the following methods:
Drag and Drop
1. Open a file browser window and locate the image you want to insert.
2. Drag the image into the Writer document and drop it where you want it to appear. A faint vertical line marks where the image will be dropped.
This method embeds (saves a copy of) the image file in the Writer document. To link the file instead of embedding it, hold down the Control+Shift keys while dragging the image.
2. Choose Insert > Picture > From File from the menu bar.
3. On the Insert Picture dialog (see Figure 1.5), navigate to the file to be inserted, select it, and click Open.
At the bottom of the dialog are two options, Preview and Link. Select Preview to view a thumbnail of the selected image on the right, so you can verify that you have the correct file. See below for the use of Link.
Inserting An Image From The Clipboard
Using the clipboard, you can copy images into an Open Office document
from another Open Office
document and from other programs. To do this:
1.
Open both the source document and the target document.
2.
In the source document, select the image to be copied.
3.
Move the mouse pointer over the
selected image and press Control+C to
copy the image to the clipboard.
4.
Switch to the target document.
5.
Click to place the cursor where the graphic is to be inserted.
6. Press Control+V to insert the image.
If the application from which the graphic was copied is closed before the graphic is pasted into the target, the image stored on the clipboard could be lost.
Inserting An Image Using A Scanner
If a scanner is connected to your
computer, Open Office can call the scanning application and inserted the scanned item into the Open Office
document as an image.
To start this procedure, click where you want the graphic to be inserted and
select Insert > Picture > Scan
> Select Source.
Although this practice is quick and easy, it is unlikely
to result in a high-quality image of the correct size. You may get better results by
scanned material into a graphics program and cleaning
it up there before inserting
the resulting image into Open Office.
1. To open the Gallery, click on the Gallery icon (located in the right side of the Standard toolbar) or choose Tools > Gallery from the menu bar.
2.
Navigate through the Gallery to find the desired picture.
3.
To
insert the picture,
click and drag it from the Gallery
into the Writer
document. You can also
right-click on the picture and choose Insert>Copy.
Figure 1.6
shows an example of an image dragged from the Gallery.
By
default, the Gallery
is docked above the Writer
workspace. To expand
the Gallery, position the
pointer over the line that divides it from the top of the workspace. When the
pointer changes to parallel lines with arrows, click and drag downward. The
workspace resizes in response.
To expand the Gallery without affecting
the workspace, undock it so it floats over
the workspace. To do so, hold down the Control key and double-click on the upper part of the Gallery next
to the View icons. Double-click in the same area while holding down the Control key to dock it again (restore it
to its position over the workspace).
When
the Gallery is docked, to hide it and view the full Writer workspace, click the in the middle of the thin bar separating
the Gallery from the workspace.
To close the Gallery, choose Tools > Gallery to uncheck the
Gallery entry, or click on the Gallery icon again.
Modifying An Image
When you insert a new image, you may
need to modify it to suit the document. Here we will discuss the use of the Picture
toolbar, resizing, cropping,
and a workaround to rotate
a picture.
Using The Picture Toolbar
When you insert an image or select one
already present in the document, the Picture toolbar appears. You can set it to
always be present (View > Toolbars
> Picture). Picture control buttons from the Picture toolbar can also be
added to the Standard Toolbar.
Two
other toolbars can be opened
from this one: the Graphic
Filter toolbar, which can
be torn off and placed elsewhere on the window, and the Color toolbar, which
opens as a separate floating toolbar.
From these three toolbars, you can
apply small corrections to the graphic or obtain special effects.
You can change color images to grayscale by selecting the image and
then selecting
Grayscale from the Graphics mode list.
Flip vertically or horizontally
To
flip an image vertically or horizontally, select
the image, and then click the relevant icon.
Filters
Table 1 provides a short description
of the available filters, however the best way to understand them is to see
them in action. Feel free to experiment with the different filters and filters
settings, remembering that you can undo all the changes by pressing Ctrl+Zor Alt+Backspaceor
by selecting Edit > Undo.
Color
Use this toolbar to modify the
individual RGB color components of the image (red, green, blue) as well as the
brightness, contrast, and gamma of the image. If the result is not
satisfactory, you can press Ctrl+Z to
restore the default values.
Table 1: Graphic filters and their
effects
|
Icon |
Name |
Effect |
|
|
Invert |
Inverts the color values of a color image or the brightness values of a
grayscale image. |
|
Smooth |
Softens the contrast of an
image. |
|
|
Sharpen |
Increases the contrast of
an image. |
|
|
Remove noise |
Removes single pixels from
an image. |
|
|
Solarization |
Mimics the
effects of too much light in a picture. A further dialog box opens to adjust
the parameters. |
|
|
Aging |
Simulates the effects of
time on a picture. Can be applied several
times. A further dialog box opens to adjust the aging level. |
|
|
Posterize |
Makes a picture appear like a painting by reducing the number of colors
used. |
|
|
Pop Art |
Modifies the picture
dramatically. |
|
|
Charcoal |
Displays the image as a
charcoal sketch. |
|
|
Relief |
A dialog box is displayed to adjust the light source that will create
the shadow and, hence, the relief effect. |
|
|
Mosaic |
Joins groups of pixels
into a single area of one color. |
Transparency
Modify the percentage value in the Transparency box on the Picture toolbar
to make the image more transparent. This is particularly useful when creating a
watermark or when wrapping the image in the background.
Using The Formatting Toolbar And Picture Dialog
When an image is selected, you can
customize some aspects of its appearance using the tools available on the
Formatting toolbar as well as in the dialog that is shown by right-clicking on
the image and selecting Picture. You
can, for example, create a border around the image, selecting
style and color;
or you can (in the Borders
page of the Picture
dialog) add a shadow to the image.
Cropping Images
When you are only interested in a section of the image for the purpose of your document, you may wish to crop (cut off) parts of it. To start cropping the image, right click on it and select Picture from the pop-up menu. In the Picture dialog box, select the Crop page (see Figure 1.7).In the Crop page, you can control the following parameters:
Keep scale / Keep image size
When Keep scale is selected (default), cropping the image does not
change the scale of the picture.
When Keep image size is selected, cropping produces enlargement (for positive cropping values), shrinking (for negative cropping values), or distortion of the image so that the image size remains constant.
Left, Right, Top, and Bottom
The image is cropped by the amount entered in these boxes. For
example, a value of
3cm in the Left box cuts 3 cm
from the left side of the picture.
•
When Keep scale is selected, the size of the image also changes,
so in this example the
width will be reduced by 3 cm.
• When Keep image size is selected, the remaining part of the image is enlarged (when you enter positive values for cropping) or shrunk (when you enter negative values for cropping) so that the width and height of the image remains unchanged.
Width and Height
The Width and Height fields under either Scale or Image size change as you enter values in the Left, Right, Top, and Bottom fields. Use the thumbnail next to these fields to determine the correct amount by which to crop.
Resizing an Image
The inserted image might not fit perfectly
into the document
if it is too big or too small.
In these cases, you can use Writer to resize the image.
1.
Click the picture, if necessary, to show the green
resizing handles.
2. Position
the pointer over one of the green resizing handles. The pointer changes shape
giving a graphical representation of the direction of the resizing.
3.
Click and drag to resize the picture.
4.
Release the mouse button when satisfied with the new size.
The corner handles resize both the width and the height
of the graphic object simultaneously, while the other four handles only resize
one dimension at a time.
To retain the original proportions of the graphic,
Shift+click one of the corner handles, then drag. Be sure to release the
mouse button before releasing the Shift key.
Be aware that re-sizing a bit-mapped (raster) image will adversely affect the resolution, causing some degree of blurring. It is better to externally size your picture correctly before insertion into your presentation, if possible.
For more accurate resizing, use either the Crop page of the Picture dialog box (Figure 1.7) or, for images, the Type page of the Picture dialog box. On the Crop page you can adjust the following settings:
- Scale Width and Height: specify in percentages the scaling of the picture. The size of the image changes accordingly. For a scaled resizing, both values should be identical.
- Image size: specify the size of the image in your preferred unit of measurement. The image enlarges or shrinks accordingly.
- Original size button: when clicked, restores the image to its original size.
In the Type page of the Picture dialog box, select the Relative option to toggle between percentage and actual dimension. For a scaled resizing, select the Keep ratio option. As for the Crop page, clicking on the Original Size button restores the original image size.
Rotating a Picture
Writer does not provide a tool for
rotating a picture; however, there is a simple workaround:
1. Open
a new Draw or Impress document (File >
New > Drawing or File > New
> Presentation).
2. Insert
the image you want to rotate. You can use any of the mechanisms described in “Error! Reference source not found.” on page Error! Bookmark not defined., although there are some slight
variations in the position of the menu entries and icons.
3. Select
the image, then in the Drawing toolbar (shown by default at the bottom of the window in Impress
and Draw), select the Rotate icon
from the Effects tear- off toolbar.
4. Rotate
the image as desired. Use the red handles at the corners of the picture and
move the mouse in the direction you wish to rotate. By default the picture
rotates around its center (indicated by a black crosshair), but you can change
the pivot point by moving the black crosshair to the desired rotation center.
To restrict the rotation angle to multiples of 15 degrees keep the Shift key pressed while rotating the
image.
5. Select the rotated picture
by pressing Ctrl+A, then copy the image to the clipboard with Ctrl+C.
6. Finish
by going back to the location of the Writer document where the image is to be
inserted and pressing Ctrl+V.
Creating Drawing Objects
To begin using
the drawing tools, display the Drawing toolbar (Figure 1.9), by clicking
View > Toolbars > Drawing.
To use a
drawing tool:
1. Click in the document
where you want the drawing
to be anchored. You can change
the anchor later, if necessary.
2. Select the tool from the Drawing
toolbar (Figure 7). The mouse
pointer changes to a drawing-functions pointer.
3. Move
the cross-hair pointer to the place in the document where you want the graphic to appear and then click-and-drag to create the drawing object.
Release the mouse button. The
selected drawing function remains active, so you can draw another object of the
same type.
4. To
cancel the selected drawing function, press the Esc key or click on the Select
icon (the arrow) on the Drawing toolbar.
5. You can now change the properties (fill color, line type and weight, anchoring, and others) of the drawing object
using either the Drawing Object
Properties toolbar or the choices and dialog boxes reached by
right-clicking on the drawing object.
Set or Change Properties For Drawing Objects
To set the
properties for a drawing object before you draw it:
1.
On the Drawing toolbar (Figure 9), click the Select tool.
2. On
the Drawing Object Properties toolbar (Figure 1.10), click on the icon for each property and select the value you
want for that property.
3. For more control, or to define new attributes, you can click on the Area or Line
icons on the
toolbar to display detailed dialog boxes.
The
default you set applies to the current
document and session.
It is not retained when you close the document or close
Writer, and it does not apply to any other document you open. The defaults
apply to all the drawing objects except text
objects.
To change the
properties for an existing drawing object:
1.
Select the object.
2.
Continue as described above.
You can also specify the position and size, rotation,
and slant and corner radius properties of the drawing object:
1. Right-click
on the drawing object and then click Position and Size from the pop- up menu. The Position and Size dialog box is displayed.
2. Choose any properties, as required.
Resizing a Drawing Object
The same considerations for resizing
an image apply also to resizing an object. Select the object, click on one of
the eight handles around it and drag it to its new position. For a scaled
resizing, select one of the corner handles and keep the Shift key pressed while dragging the handle to its new position.
For more sophisticated control of the size of the object,
- Select Format > Object > Position and Size from the menu bar.
- Use the Position and Size dialog box to set the width and height independently.
- If the Keep ratio option is selected, then the two dimensions change so that the proportion is maintained, allowing for a scaled resizing.
Grouping Drawing Objects
To group
drawing objects:
1. Select
one object, then hold down the Shift key and select the others you want to
include in the group. The bounding box expands to include all the selected
objects.
2. With
the objects selected, hover the mouse pointer over one of the objects and
choose Format > Group > Group from
the menu bar or right-click and choose Group
> Group from the pop-up menu.
You cannot include an embedded or linked graphic in a group with
drawing objects.
Positioning Image/Graphics Within The Text
When you add a graphic to a text
document, you need to choose how to position it with respect to the text and
other graphics. The positioning of graphics is often rather
time consuming and may be very frustrating for both
inexperienced and experienced users. As Writer is a word processor rather than
a desktop publishing program, there are some limitations to the flexibility in
positioning images and it takes time to get things exactly as you would like
them.
Positioning of a graphic is controlled by four settings:
1. Arrangement
refers to the placement of a graphic on an imaginary vertical axis. Arrangement
controls how graphics are stacked upon each other or relative to the text.
2. Alignment
refers to the vertical or horizontal placement of a graphic in relation to the
chosen anchor point.
3. Anchoring
refers to the reference point for the graphics. This point could be the page,
or frame where the object is, a paragraph, or even a character. An image always
has an anchor point.
4. Text wrapping
refers to the relation of graphics to the surrounding text, which may wrap around the graphic on one or both
sides, be overprinted behind or in front of the graphic, or treat the graphic
as a separate paragraph or character.
The settings can be accessed in a
number of ways, depending on the nature of the graphics:
1.
From the Format menu, where you can
find Alignment, Arrange, Wrap, and Anchor (both for images and drawing objects).
2.
From the pop-up menu displayed when you right-click
on the graphic.
3.
From the Object toolbar shown in Figure 1.11.
4.
For images, from the Type and Wrapping pages of the Picture dialog box. Note that you cannot control the
arrangement using the dialog box. To open the Picture dialog box, click on the
image to select it and then choose Format > Picture or right-click on the
graphic and choose Picture on the pop-up menu.
5. For drawing objects, from the Position and Size page of the Position and Size dialog box. To open the Position and Size dialog box, click on the drawing object to select it and then choose Format > Object > Position and Size or right-
click on the graphic and choose Position and Size on the pop-up menu. Note that you can only control the alignment and anchoring.
1.
Create a New Year card using images
2.
Create a Poster on Health and Hygiene
QUESTIONS
1.
Explain any four Graphic filters.
2.
Explain Image Cropping
3.
List any three methods of inserting images in a text document.
4.
What do you understand by the terms:
a.
Text Wrapping
b. Anchoring
