OpenOffice.org Training, Tips, and Ideas: Very nice features in the gallery for putting graphics in the background on OpenOffice Writer

August 20, 2007

Very nice features in the gallery for putting graphics in the background on OpenOffice Writer

I learned this while training the fine folks at the Bainbridge Island School District. And man, it just goes to show that I should listen more to my own advice, which is:

When in doubt, right-click.

Here's the Gallery. It's a wonderfully customizable convenient area for storing images or video. (OR VIDEO.) There's not much in it but you can add whatever you like, using whatever legal clipart you can find anywhere. One excellent site is http://www.teacherfiles.com/clip_art.htm

(Click any of these graphics to see them bigger.)

Click the Gallery icon or choose Tools > Gallery to add or show. It looks like a little framed picture, five from the left below.

Here are directions for using the gallery, including adding to it.

To add a graphic from the gallery to your document, just drag it in.

Now, a seemingly different topic. It's ever so slightly complicated, not really but not wildly obvious, to add graphics to the background of a document.

To put just one graphic in the background of whatever text it's by, you right-click on it and choose Wrap > In Background.

Now it's in the background.

To fade it, you click on the graphic, and in the Picture toolbar that appears, type 50% or more in the Transparency field and press Enter.

In another approach, to put a graphic in the background of the paragraph, or in the background of the entire document or at least all pages in the document with the current page style applied, you choose Format > Page or Format > Paragraph, click Background, select Graphic, browse for the graphic, specify Tile Position or Size, and click OK.

To add it to the background of the header or footer, just click the Header or Footer tab of that same page style window, and click More.

Hey. There's an easier way, with the gallery. THERE IS A CATCH WHICH I EXPLAIN AT THE END OF THIS BLOG. NOT A BIG CATCH FOR MOST PEOPLE, BUT THERE IS A CATCH.

Show the gallery. Choose Tools > Gallery or click the little gallery icon.

Find the theme you want, the category at the left.

Find the picture you want.

Right-click on the graphic and choose Insert > Background> Page, Background or Header/Footer. NOTE THAT THE DEFAULT FOR THIS IS FOR THE GRAPHIC TO APPEAR REPEATEDLY TO FILL THE AREA YOU SPECIFY.

To get the Header or Footer option, you need to have clicked in the header or the footer.

(To turn on a header or footer, choose Insert > Footer > Default or Insert > Header > Default.)

And there you are. It appears as it should based on your choice.

Background of page

Background of paragraph (sometimes it doesn't fit that well, so the first approach I mentioned earlier is better.)

Background of a header or footer. Note that if the graphic is big as shown the graphic won't all show at first.

So just click in the header or footer and press Enter to add space til the graphic shows sufficiently.

Undoing

If you want to undo it, then either press Ctrl Z or click Undo as many times as necessary, or

1. Choose Format > Page or Format > Paragraph, and click the Background tab.

2. Select Color instead of Graphic in the list at the top.

3. Select No Fill and click OK.

Issues
Now, the only thing is that:

- You can't fade it using this approach; you need to make the graphic file itself lighter.

- It repeats, it tiles, by default. To modify it:

Choose Format > Page, Background tab and choose Position or Area instead. Position just puts it in one place, Area changes the size and aspect ratio of the graphic to fill the area.

Choose Format > Page, Header tab or Footer tab, then click More and ditto above.

Choose Format > Paragraph, Background tab, and ditto above.

Pretty dandy, eh?

ONE BIG FAT WARNING ABOUT THIS.

This does not STAY in the document if you save it in .doc format. You MUST save it in .odt format. Otherwise it will go away.

If you add graphics to the background of the header, footer, paragraph, or page, you have the exact same problem. Somehow Word format doesn't like background graphics.