The Wrap setting determines the relation between the text and the graphic. Several possibilities are provided:

No Wrap

With this option the text is placed above and below the image but not around it. This is the wrapping type used for most of the figures in this guide.

Page Wrap or Optimal Page Wrap

The text flows around the image. Moving the image around the page causes the text to be rearranged to fill the space to the left and right of it. Optimal Page Wrap prevents text from being placed to the side of the image if the spacing between the image and the margin is less than 2 cm.

Wrap Through

Superimposes the image on the text. That is, the image is above the text. This option must be used in conjunction with the image-transparency setting in order to make the text under the picture visible.

In Background

Similar to Wrap Through, but the image is placed below the text so there may be no need to change the transparency to make the text visible.

The No Wrap option found in the pop-up menu of a picture is equivalent to the Wrap Off menu item in the Format > Wrap menu.

The wrap format is normally selected after the anchoring and the alignment of the picture have been decided. To set the position of an image to the the desired wrap format, follow these steps:

1. Select a graphic by clicking on it.
2. Right-click to display the pop-up menu and move the mouse pointer to Wrap to display the available wrap formats. Alternatively you can select Format > Wrap from the main menu.
3. Select the desired wrap format.

When anchoring a graphic as character, you can only adjust the distance between the image and the text, but no wrapping option is displayed.

To fine tune the wrapping options, open the Picture dialog box and select the Wrap page, shown below.

The advanced wrap format options dialog box (shown for an image).

For images you can open this dialog box by selecting Format > Picture from the main menu or right-click and select Picture from the pop-up menu. For drawing objects, you can access the Wrap page by selecting Format > Wrap > Edit in the main menu or right-click and select Wrap > Edit from the pop-up menu . This dialog box is divided into three sections.

In the top part you can select among the wrap types mentioned above, plus two additional wrap formats that prevent the text from filling the area to the left (After) or to the right (Before) of the picture. Use the Spacing section of the page to adjust the spacing between the image and the text. The contents of the Options section of the page may change depending on the selected wrap format.

New Paragraph

Check this box if you want OOo to start a new paragraph after the image even if it could still wrap around the image.

In background

This option becomes available if Through Wrap is selected; it moves the image in the background.

Contour

Wraps the text around a custom contour rather than around the edge of the picture. This option is only available for Page or Optimal Page Wrap.

Outside only

Forces the text to wrap on the outside of the image, even if the contour contains open areas within the shape.

Editing the contour

This option is only available for image wrapping. If you select wrapping around a drawing object, OOo automatically creates a contour. You can access the Contour Editor by selecting Format > Wrap > Edit Contour or from the right-click menu

The dialog box below opens with the image loaded in the main window. Use the tools to draw the region of the image you do not want to be covered by the text—such area will be shaded.

Some familiarity with drawing tools is required to create complex contours; however, in most circumstances there is no need for high accuracy. The figure below shows the actual contour used for Example 2: simple contour wrapping in action and as you can see the shape of the line around the edge of the sphere is far from perfect.

The Contour Editor in action.

When you are done, click on the Apply button to save the contour. If you are not satisfied with the result, you can select the contour line and press the Delete key to restart. You can also undo the previous steps or you can select the Edit Points button and adjust the contour shape point by point.

For simple images, the AutoContour button does a decent job. If the contour has to be drawn around an area with the same or a similar color, you can select this region using the eyedropper. Select this tool, then click on a point in the image having the desired color. OOo automatically selects all the points which have the same or a similar color. The similarity level can be changed by modifying the value in the tolerance box (100% = perfect match).

While all the positioning techniques discussed in this section apply equally to frames, contour wrapping is not possible.