I am new to LibreOffice. When I try to scribe out a rectangle shape or a text box, and the location is on top of a pasted image, I end up dragging the image instead. On the odd occasion, some weird combination of keys allowed me to draw the desired object on top of the image, but I haven’t been able to figure out the specific key combination that I typed to get this effect. Surely this is something that is simple?
Actually, yes it does. I saw that post, but missed the comment about ensuring that the underlying image is not selected. If the latter is big enough, one does not see the selection handles, and may not be aware that it is selected. Thanks! Did you want to post the answer? It was just a comment buried amongst comments in the page you link to.
Before choosing menu Insert - Shape (or picking a shape from the toolbar),¹ or before choosing menu Insert - Text Box (or pressing F2),¹ it may be helpful to take a look at the Status bar to see if any object remains selected.²
If you try to drag the new Shape or Text box starting over a selected object, you will move the object—instead of dragging to the size you want.
To unselect all, press Esc (twice, if you are editing text).
¹ In both cases it is necessary to drag to the size you want.
² If true, the Status bar will show “n (object class) selected”.
Thanks, Leroy!
You’re welcome.
This is one of the reasons why graphic designers use layers extensively; put your image on a separate layer below the other objects and lock that layer.
Good reading about layers starts here.
I’ve used Gimp, Inkscape, Xfig, various chip layout software, lots of schematic capture software for different applications. None of them require what you say. It would not be tenable to manage different layers simply to assemble a slide, which is what Impress is for. That’s the context of this question.
Remember to press Esc before choosing the shape tool.
Thank, Leroy. “sveinki” cited another page that described this solution, and I asked him/her to post the answer. No response yet. Did you want to post this answer?