Extension for cropping in OpenOffice Draw, and more

You can crop pictures by selecting them, then clicking the Crop icon.

You then get this window where you must type how much off the top, bottom, and sides you want.

If you'd rather draw where the crop goes, you can use this extension.

Note, before you begin, that there is no undo.

1. Install the extension. To do this, download it from the link above, then choose Tools > Extension Manager. Click Add and select the extension file. Then restart OpenOffice.org.

2. Create a new drawing file and insert a picture, or go to a Draw file with a picture in it.

3. Select the picture and choose Tools > Addons > CropOOo. 

4. You'll see a dashed line with handles appear around the picture.

5. Use the handles to resize the dashed line to the area you want to crop.

6. Press Enter (or Return) and the picture will be cropped.

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Comments

[Ken]

SUPER.... the funky way OpenOffice forced one to crop a picture was my single biggest reason for sticking with MS-Office. I do alot of technical illustrations, and I absolutely hated the manner in which OpenOffice functioned in this area. Thanks

[bh]

Hi. Thanks for the tip on where it installed and how it works, things the extension authors often omit.

I did initially get an error but after closing OOo and the quickstarter, the second time was perfect. In addition to Draw and Impress which the author mentions, I see it also made a Writer toolbar called "oooCrop" and seems to work. But I'd like to pass along my experiences with OOo cropping in general:

*WARNING* - OOo cropping does *NOT* remove the unwanted areas from the picture. It is not scissors.

OOo only stops presenting the unwanted information until someone says different.

If a picture previously cropped in OOo is selected and OOo's crop tool is opened, the entire original picture is shown in the viewer. There are bars at the current crop limits. The crop limits can easily be moved back to the original borders. Or with the ooocrop extension, the handles yanked outward and Enter pressed.

The ORIGINAL PICTURE, uncropped, is always in the XML ODF file and would be sent to any recipients (easily seen using any zip program, too).

So, consider OOo cropping like folding back the unwanted edge of a photo, rather than tearing it off. Anyone who peeks can see it.

This "unexpected disclosure of information" is not uncommon. I recall large headline embarassments with other brands of software over the years where "redacted" info was easily revealed. OOo has the "delete user data info" button on the File/Properties menu, so maybe they do mention how the crop feature works but maybe I missed it. Many folks expect crop is always like "cut."

Thanks again
Bh

[Solveig]

Hi bh,

Thanks for the tip! Good point, very good point. (Gimp can be used for true cropping.) That's how the regular crop function works so I guess it makes sense that this crop would work the same way.

Solveig

[reiner]

I tried for hours to get crop ooo to work. Thanks for your support - now it works perfect: Great job!

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[kui]

thanks.. it works..

is there any way open office for next version will embed this function just like ms word did?

[Joyce]

I do a lot of cropping to make pictures fit into my bulletins and fliers. When I got OpenOffice with my new computer, I thought that this was great. I don't have to purchase MS Office. Was I surprised when I could not crop a picture. After searching the internet, I discovered a tutorial that demonstrated how to crop in Open Office Draw. All the extra steps makes it a little unfeasible to use Open Office on a regular basis. Then I learned that the picture was not truly cut off but only similar to folding back the picture and anyone getting the file would get the whole picture. Another reason for not using Open Office regularly. Then I tried to crop a graphic I pulled from one of my MS Office files to see if it worked. It did not recognize it as a picture and I could not crop it. I'll have to use one of my other programs to crop my graphics from my files that I transfer over to this computer.

May I suggest that you integrate cropping in Open Office Writer and have it recognize other graphics from other programs.

Other than the issues listed above, I can use Open Office for all my other projects.

Thank you.

[Ibuy]

Why Cropooo not work in OpenOffice.org Calc 3.2 in writer and draw it's work

[craig buckingham]

what the hell does the post above mean?

[jan]

Very practical tool,

I am using a lot of screencaptures and under windows, you can use infranview for that, very practical to crop it and then paste into oo writer. With windows, I would not need the Cropooo, as infranview is very practical.

However, under linux, I had not found the same practical and fast way to work, Gimp needs too many steps.

So this is now the way I do it now under linux: use the practical sreencapture Alt-PrtScrn (which is capturing the active window), 'copy to clipboard' and then paste into writer (or any other program) and finally, if needed, further crop that image with the cropooo. Even better now than with infranview/windows!

absolutely great tool!! Congratulations! Please put it into the openoffice suite, as most people do not start adding these extensions. The native openoffice crop tool is really outdated.

Jan.