In LibreOffice 7.2.4.1 I created a TextBox and filled in some text. I want to have this text box in page 2 of the document, so I grabbed it with the mouse and moved it to page 2 of the document.
However, when I release the mouse button the text box snaps immediately back to page 1 of the document.
Question: How to freely place a text box in Libre Office? Or should I better use some other element?
Now all objects, including text boxes, have an anchor, e.g.
Ctrl+X ) and paste it on another page ( Ctrl+V ).Right-click on the text box to get a context menu where you can select the anchoring.
I do not want to have any anchoring. But you have to select one. That is a strange behavior.
But when I select as anchor “To Frame” (which you only see when you select a different anchor before), then it seems to work.
I have no idea of the logic behind this, if there is a logic. To me that “anchor” behaviour is absolutely user-unfriendly, illogical and completely non-intuitive.
Maybe can someone explain it? Is there an in-depth article trying to explain that strange behavior?
Good, now I know what anchoring means. What I suspected before reading the FAQ.
But how do you create the “anchor-link” between the TextBox and a specific paragraph? Or how do I create the “anchor-link” between the TextBox and a specific character? How does this work? This does not seem to be explained in the FAQ.
In addition, why do I see the “To Frame” option only in some circumstances? And what is a frame in the context of the document?
This option is available when the inserted object is already inside a frame. This allows to “disconnect” the object from entities in the frame. It is roughly equivalent to To page but restricted to the frame.
A frame is a rectangular area defining an independent flow within the document. It is in fact a small sub-document (limited to a page) where you can put text and other objects, just the same as in the “main flow”.
The important word here is independent. Frame contents and main flow have no logical relationship. This means they are scanned by Writer in arbitrary order. Consequently, never use frames to host chapter headings (styled Heading n) while chapter contents is in the main flow or other frames. When you build the TOC, you’ll be surprised by the order in which headings are listed. Remember, frame and main text flow are unordered. By doing so, you create a logical relationship which cannot be translated into scanning order. There are other weird effects caused by the same syndrome but this is the most noticeable one.
Frames are a great feature but don’t abuse it and use it correctly.
When you insert any object, it is anchored at the point where your cursor was. Later, dragging either the object itself, or its anchor, moves the anchoring (which is a pity - see tdf#141160, tdf#141161, tdf#141162); and defining the properties in the dialog, you may control to which object (paragraph, character, etc.) it is anchored.
Basically, today (when the issues mentioned above are unresolved), to control this precisely, you first define the type of the anchoring (in the dialog, or in the menu); then you drag the anchor to the specific object; and then you use the dialog to define precise positioning (and after that, you don’t use any drag-and-drop on the object, to not break it all).
Drag the box, watch the anchor indicator move.
In some cases, moving an object to last page will allow all text on that page to reflow back to previous page, effectively removing that last page, which pulls back the object to the remaining last page, pushing text forward again to flow into new created page. The text box remains where it was pulled back. From your description I suspect that this is your current situation.
If you want to have your text box on a page after the main text flow of your document, you can force a new page by pressing ctrl+enter. This allows you to drag the text box past the page break and have it remain there. A forced page break does interrupt the content flow, so be conscious of where you insert it. If this is certainly the end of your document, I guess you will not experience any trouble.
And as always, dragging objects is not the best way to achieve a reliable and deterministic way of positioning them. As said in FAQ, Writer tries to guess your intent and selects the anchor point deemed to be your target. Unfortunately, this is frequently wrong.
The only way to get exact expected results is to use frame styles. The learning curve is steep. And the key to success is the conscious ability to know what you want. This means you must first think about the abstract properties of your objects relative to position, wrap mode and others. Once you, human author, have decided for a set of properties, you translate this into a frame style. Afterwards, you only need to assign the style to the object. No more manual tweaking.
And, beware, don’t try to “optimize” the object position or behaviour with the various menus. Frame styles are even more vulnerable to direct formatting than other style categories. You quickly end up with an unmanageable mess.
Is there is a course on frame styles? I never heard that before.
There is no course on frame styles per se and it is a shame because the matter is very difficult.
You can get a very superficial introduction in the Writer Guide. Beyond that, I encourage you to experiment a lot until you feel at ease with it. Personally, with a long experience, I still need trial-and-errors to get what I want because there is still a margin of progress with frame styles. I admit the topic is not easy and developers sure have a hard time implementing it.
See also: tdf#141160, tdf#141161, tdf#141162.