Lesson 6 Adding Graphics

Transcription

1 Lesson 6 Adding Graphics Inserting Graphics Images Graphics files (pictures, drawings, and other images) can be inserted into documents, or into frames within documents. They can either be embedded or linked. It is not possible to tell the difference between embedded and linked graphics by simply looking at a document. Embedded graphics become an integral part of the document and increase the size of the file. Linked graphics are not added directly to a document. Instead, the document contains a pointer, or file address, that the system uses to fetch the file whenever it is needed. An advantage of linked files is that if the original graphic is changed, the document will automatically include the changed graphic. Also, by embedding graphics, the document size is smaller than it would be if the graphic was embedded. A disadvantage of linked graphics is that if the document is moved from one computer to another, the linked files must also be moved. The trick to solving this problem is to create a special folder for the document with a graphics sub-folder. If the document folder is copied to a different computer, the linked files folder will follow along. If your Lesson 5 Class News document is not on the display, Open it. Select File, Save As and enter the name Lesson 6 Class News. Select File, Properties, Description and edit the Title to Class News Lesson 6. From the Menu Bar, select Tools, Update, Update All. The last step should have updated the title of the document in the header. The process of saving a document file with a new name is a good trick to keep in mind. There will be many times when you want to create a new variation of a document while preserving the original version. Insert the following paragraphs at the end of the Lesson 6 Class News document. Graphics can enhance documents. Including graphic images in documents can improve the appearance and clarity of the document text message. Most people believe that a picture is worth a thousand words. Many times a picture can improve the reader's understanding of the document content. Graphic images that are inserted in a document can be anchored to a paragraph, or can be anchored to the page itself. Images anchored to a paragraph will float with the paragraph, or follow the location of the paragraph when editing changes the location of the paragraph. However, there may be times when it is desirable to have a graphic image maintain a constant location on a page. Place the text cursor in the Graphics can enhance documents paragraph, then set the Paragraph Style to Heading 1. Page 1 of 6

2 Lesson 6 - Adding Graphics Place the text cursor somewhere in the last paragraph and from the Menu Bar select Insert, Image. This will open the Insert Image dialog box. This dialog box is similar to the Windows File, Open dialog box in that it has a Directory Path for selecting the folder where the desired file is located. Near the bottom center of the Insert picture dialog box is a Link toggle box. If there is a check mark in this box, the graphic file will be linked. If it is not checked, the graphic will be embedded in the document. Uncheck the Link toggle. Figure 6-1: The Insert Image dialog box. Any picture can be substituted in the next step. Different versions of Windows usually have one or more sample pictures in the My Pictures, Sample Pictures folder. Nearly all Windows computers have some graphics files that are used for desktop wallpaper. Adjust the Directory path to show the folder containing your desired picture (in this example the Users, Public Pictures folder was used), then select a picture file. Select the desired graphic file in the Insert Image dialog box and select Open. Once a graphic is inserted you have to decide how and where it should appear. If you have inserted a large picture, you should re-size it for this exercise. Left click on the picture to select it. When a picture is selected, grab points will appear at the corners and mid points of the picture edge. These grab points can be used to re-size the picture. When a picture is selected and you move the cursor into the picture area, the cursor will change to a four way arrow. When the four way arrow cursor is active, you can drag the picture to a new location. Double click on the image. Page 2 of 6 Figure 6-2: Inserting an image.

3 Lesson 6 Adding Graphics This opens the Image dialog box as shown Figure 6-3. With the Type tab selected in the Image dialog box, toggle the Keep ratio option ON, set the Width to 1.50 and set the Anchor To paragraph. (If the dialog box shows a percentage, toggle the Relative option off.) Set the Horizontal Position to Right. Select the Wrap tab in the Image dialog box and set Wrap to Before. With the Borders tab selected in the Image dialog box, select the Set All Four Borders option. Then select the Cast Shadow to Bottom Right option. In the Figure 6-3: The Image dialog box. Spacing to contents area, set the spacing to 0.12 for all sides. With the Area tab selected in the Image dialog box, select a background color for the picture. Select OK to close the dialog box. Figure 6-2 shows a screen capture from the Class News document after an image has been inserted. The grab points at the corners and mid points of the image show that the image is selected. This example has the Wrap set to Before and the alignment to Right. Graphic images are similar to frames in that they can have borders and shadows. Images can also have captions. Captions are added by right clicking on a picture and selecting the Insert Caption option. Observe that when an image is selected, the anchor point will be shown by a little anchor icon (see Figure 6-2). Don't forget that you can move a picture around by selecting the picture and then dragging it to a new location. Inserting drawn graphics LibreOffice Writer includes a set of drawing tools that can be used to enhance your documents without having to buy, and learn how to use, a paint program. A complete book could be written about the LibreOffice Writer drawing functions, In this exercise, a brief sample will be provided. Use Ctrl+End to position the text cursor at the end of your document. Press the Enter key a couple of times to add some blank paragraphs at the end of the text. Page 3 of 6

4 Lesson 6 - Adding Graphics From the Menu Bar, select View, Toolbars, and toggle the Drawing toolbar ON. The Drawing toolbar should appear along the bottom of the display. There are far too many drawing tools to discuss here. Observe that some of the tools have a little arrow on the right side of the tool icon. If you click on these arrows, additional drawing tools will appear. If you hover the mouse cursor over a tool, a tool tip will pop up and give a hint of what the tool does. Position the cursor over the Symbols tool and then click the arrow to expand the tool and select the Smiley Face Figure 6-4: The Drawing tools. tool. With the Smiley Face tool selected, move the cursor to an empty area of your document and click and drag a smiley face. When a graphic is selected, the Graphics Formatting Toolbar will appear below the normal Toolbar as shown in Figure 6-5. The Sidebar will also show graphics formatting tools. Take a minute to move the cursor over the drawing format tools to see their tool tip. Use the Area Style/Filling tool to change the smiley face fill color to yellow. Drag the smiley face to near the lower right corner of the page. Right click on the smiley face and select Wrap, Optimal Page Wrap from the pop up context menu. Figure 6-5: The Graphics Formatting tools. When you add text, the text will wrap itself around the smiley face graphic. But first, let's have a little more fun. From the Drawing toolbar, select the Cloud tool from the Callout tools options. Page 4 of 6

5 Lesson 6 Adding Graphics Drag out a Cloud Callout graphic and position it as shown. Right click on the Cloud Callout and select Wrap, Optimal Page Wrap from the pop up context menu. Double click on the Cloud Callout and enter some text. Click in the page and enter the following text. LibreOffice Writer includes a set of drawing tools that can be used to enhance your documents without having to buy, and learn how to use, a paint program. A complete book could be written about the LibreOffice Writer drawing functions, In this exercise, a brief sample will be provided. Copy and paste the text several times to provide example text to demonstrate the Wrap function. Figure 6-6: Graphic images with wrapped text. Figure 6-6 shows a page with graphics and wrapped text. Double clicking in a drawing object allows you to enter text into the text into the graphics object. Save your Lesson 6 Class News document. Press Ctrl+End to jump to the end of your document. Press Ctrl + Enter key to force a page break. The Ctrl+Enter trick forces a page break and places the text cursor at the top of a new page. See Figure 6-7 for examples of the following steps. Try creating an ellipse and then changing the fill color to a gradient fill. To create a circle, use the ellipse tool and hold the shift key down when you drag it out. Try a bitmap or hatching fill pattern. Experiment with mixing text and graphics. (Hint, double click on a filled graphic, such as a rectangle, and add text.) Hover the cursor over the different drawing tools to get an idea of what they do. Click on the small arrows near the different tools to reveal more drawing shape options. Select a graphic object on your page, and then explore the different Drawing Formatting Toolbar [or Sidebar] options. Have fun! Page 5 of 6

6 Lesson 6 - Adding Graphics The drawing tools used in LibreOffice Writer are shared by the LibreOffice Drawing program that is part of the LibreOffice suite. However, LibreOffice Drawing includes additional 3D drawing options. If you want to create a quick sign or other graphics intensive documents, consider LibreOffice Drawing rather than LibreOffice Writer. Points to remember: Graphics can either be embedded or linked. Figure 6-7: Creating Drawing objects. Embedded graphics become part of the document and will increase the document file size considerably. Linked graphics do not increase the file size. Also, if a linked graphic is changed, the next time the document is printed it will use the latest version of the graphic. If a document file is moved to a new computer, the linked graphic files must also be moved. Graphic images can be set to have the text wrap around the image. Graphic objects can be filled with solid colors, gradient (shaded) fills, bitmaps, or hatching. Page 6 of 6