When you add a graphic to a text document, you need to choose how to position the graphic 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. Starting from OpenOffice.org 3.0, this task is considerably improved by the inclusion of a new option that allows a “loose anchoring”.

Positioning of a graphic is controlled by working on four areas:

• 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.
• Alignment refers to the vertical or horizontal placement of a graphic in relation to the chosen anchoring point.
• 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.
• Text wrapping refers to the relation of graphics to 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 for each of the four control areas above can be accessed in a number of different 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. By the pop-up menu displayed when right-clicking on the graphics.
3. From the Frame toolbar shown in Figure 11, for images with the Graphics frame style applied.
4. From the Type and Wrapping pages of the Picture dialog box for images. 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. From the Position and Size page of the Position and Size dialog box for drawing objects. 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 Apply Style | 2 Wrap Off | 3 Page Wrap | 4 Wrap Through | 5 Align Left | 6 Center Horizontal | 7 Align Right | 8 Top | 9 Center | 10 Bottom | 11 Borders | 12 Line Style | 13 Line Color (of the border) | 14 Background Color | 15 Frame Properties | 16 Bring to Front | 17 Send to Back | 18 Change Anchor | 19 Link Frames | 20 Unlink Frames

Frame toolbar (graphical control of positioning for images)