I am trying and failing to simply put two images one after the other into a writer document. This is a joke! it can’t be this hard. Seriously!!! They keep reordering themselves and i can’t control them as hitting enter underneith actually moves the image DOWN which is completely stupid. This should be easier. I am not trying to do anything complicated just insert one image after another. Instead i have lost control of my document!
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Your posting makes no sense and uses offensive language. Besides, it is not a question. So, get a downvote, cool down, read these guidelines and ask a good question.
I’m currently struggling like hell to put pictures in a document and I totally agree with your frustration… It should “just work” without having to read dozens of manual pages with abstract concepts. Software must just work.
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You’re out of line and have gone blind because you detected what you call bad language, so that makes you into a joke.
I have to agree with this posting, because several times I have had my work completely ruined just because Ive tried to post images into the llibre office word document and insert captions, I have been devastated, the document becomes a mess of overlayered images that cannot be moved without some disappearing, captions flying around on their own , it really truly is a sad joke!
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Yes, for those who are not familiar with how to do it properly.
Admittedly, it’s not easy because there are a few things to consider.
- Anchor
- Wrap
- Position and Size
Try to improve your knowledge:
Insert and edit images in Writer Part 1
English documentation
If you wish, you can also upload a sample file here.
And you describe the problem exactly and how you think it should look.
I think it’s pretty unfair to just generally put apps down without telling what the problems are and then ask for help in a debate.
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@anon98233039 Do you want to insert a picture or create a drawing in your document? Give more context if you really are looking for help.
Document processors are primarily intended to handle text. They do accept non-text (pictures and other decoration) in a limited way. And the fewer non-text objects, the better (this is why in case of drawing, it is recommended to create it in Draw so that you have a single object in the end).
There is no unique relationship between a “decoration” and text. There are as many requirements as users (because of aesthetic tastes and preferred choices).
The only way to avoid jumpy behaviour is to constraint your objects with frame styles. Any other approach is direct formatting (such as moving a picture with the mouse) which is liable to unexpected changes (because there is no strictly specified constraint).
Unfortunately, frame styles is the most difficult feature to master. Partly because these styles are not as rock-solid as the others. Mostly because the concept does not exist in M$ Word and this suite is considered THE model to follow (sigh!).
Describe what you want to achieve so that I can suggest a viable solution. Note also that any solution proposed here is valid only if you save .odt. Saving in any other format reverts to direct formatting when you save and you lose all benefits of LO Writer features.
PS: it is probably better to ask your own question because this one has become rather cluttered.
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Please remove your “like” from my comment above. I do not consent with likes from people calling me (among others) too lazy, incompetent and stubborn.
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Hi. I commented on this particular question because I have the same problem. I also remember abandoning this software some years ago for the same reason.
Allow me to not aggree with you on “…Document processors are primarily intended to handle ‘text’”. This idea is probably the one that led to this situation in the first place. If I needed to handle “text”, I would have used notepad, Vim, nano… or any other “text” editor. But we are talking about DOCUMENT editing. A document is not only “text”. In a document, images or other graphical objects have equal importance as the text. And it’s not me inventing stuff. As I commented before, even since MS Word 97, you could easily insert an image (or more) within the text, you could select multiple images, align them (top, left, etc), distribute (vertically, horizontally), group them, make them floating or inline with the text, etc. I am not asking to invent something that hasn’t been done or reinvent the wheel!!! I was just hoping to see in LibreOffice Writer a BASIC functionality that existed in MS Word since 30 years ago. Hell, even the rudimentary (and now defunct) Wordpad knew how to do this!
Just click the like icon again. Or you may have some site limitation because you only registered recently - it could be an antispam measure of the site.
LOL, I know it should be done by clicking on the “like” again. But I am not allowed to click it. As soon as my mouse cursor hovers above the “heart”, the cursor changes to the 
“prohibited” symbol.
Of course. My statement only emphasises that there is an already complicated task to flow and layout text with all its adornments (face changes, size, weight, spacing, …). All non-text is put in “holes” punched in the text “composition”. Relationship between these “holes” and text must be very precisely specified if you want reliable, stable and predictable results. This is not a simple task at all. Positioning these elements with the mouse (à la Word) does not guarantee stability by lack of formal specification of the result. I don’t blame you for your rant. It is a natural reaction when you leave the "quick’n’dirty’ insertion for more elaborate ones. It then becomes extremely hard to drive built-in features to achieve your expectations. It took me years to figure out the whereabouts of present frames. It is indeed imperfect (I still meet issues) but it really solves many common problems.
So, once again, describe exactly what you want to see in your document, preferentially in a separate question for cleaner advice. There are never exactly the “same problem”. Give as much details as possible and attach a sample file for better analysis.
You can do so in Draw, but not in Writer as far as positioning “objects” relative to text is concerned. “Objects” in Writer are managed as frames (anonymous absolutely independent frames in the case of drawing objects). Frames as implemented are stand-alone: they can’t be associated or “grouped”. Their only relationship is vis-à-vis text. This is a big difficulty for captioning. The command simulates nesting behind the scene but this is fake: it anchors the “inner” frame to some text (the caption) in the “outer” frame whose size is computed in order to visually “enclose” the inner one. Change something in the “inner” frame and the nesting is completely lost.
But if you want to insert automatically images side by side, this can be done with a smartly configured frame style. But this works only if you don’t manipulate the pictures with the mouse. Absolutely no manual action. All positioning constraints must be expressed in the common frame style. This is a stricter rule than on text where a few direct formatting here and there can be tolerated (provided you fully understand the consequences). Direct formatting is not intuitive at all (it is a legacy of Word-induced workflow by lack of adequate concepts); it is a real killer poison on document layout.
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Just to remind you: MS also asks for money, and usually you are not free to say “No.”
It is indeed strange and disappointing that libreoffice still has no good default anchoring of images in writer. It is very difficult to move them, they tend to get overlayed one on the other or to go in the margin, … Caption are often lost when moving them too.
I can relate to the frustration of the users and the one of the developers…
It is indeed very difficult to tame images and order them to stay where you initially put them.
The only solution is to practice frame styles and refrain from moving or resizing the images with the mouse. As soon as you do so, direct formatting takes precedences and causes an unmanageable mess on your pictures.
The really hard point is to be able to abstract the notion of image position. Instead of thinking “I get image A 3cm×5xm and I put it there in the page”, you must sort your images into various categories, like “image at top”, “image at left of its commenting paragraph” independent from size (this means you must prepare your images outside Writer so that you use them “as is”). Then you apply a corresponding frame style.
An important neglected factor is: anchor is independent from position ! The anchor is used to associate the image with an element of your text, so that when this element is moved as a consequence of edits, the image will move with it (= stay in the same page as the anchor). The position defines a position within the page of the anchor. This position can be relative to the anchor (character or paragraph) or free within the page.
As a side remark: never use Anchor to page (until you fully understand the consequences) because it does not do what you think. It detached the image from text and this case is even less manageable than the direct formatting mess.
I never understood why developers enabled overlay by default several releases ago. Users rarely want to overlay images.
Inserting images is very easy and not a joke. The problem is you haven’t bothered to learn.
Read the chapter in the manual about images in Writer and make sure you understand Anchor and Wrap options.
Do not anchor two images to one anchor.
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Reading the manual should only be done to execute complex operations. The basic ones should work out-of-the-box without having to integrate complicated concepts. Inserting a picture in a document is a basic one and unfortunately the behavior is kind of fuzzy.
That’s basically what makes the difference between a software designed for general public and software designed for experts.
And that’s the sad story about why people continue to pay for Microsoft Office instead using a 100% free software developed by the community…
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I learned about Wrap and Anchor, still my work was completely ruined and I missed a deadline. Please don’t belittle people who have come here to highlight issues just because they might not be using the software the same way you do.