Positioning images in text: arrangement, anchoring, alignment, text wrapping

Hello students, welcome to Kwickprep. You add a photo to your school project, then type one more line, and the photo jumps to the next page. Why does that happen? Today we will learn how to position images in LibreOffice Writer. We will cover text wrapping, anchoring, alignment and arrangement.

First, let us place a picture in a document. Go to the Insert menu, choose Image, and pick the picture file. Click the image once to select it, and small square handles appear around it. Now right-click the image, and you will see the menus that control its position. There are four tools, called wrap, anchor, align and arrange, and we will learn each one.

Let us start with text wrapping. Text wrapping decides how the lines of text flow around a picture. Think of water in a stream flowing around a rock. To set it, right-click the image and point to Wrap. You can also find the same choices under the Format menu.

Here are the main wrap options in Writer. With None, text stays only above and below the image, never beside it. With Parallel, also called Page Wrap, text flows on both sides of the image. Optimal is like Parallel, but Writer skips a side that is too narrow for words. Before puts text only on the left side of the image. After puts text only on the right side of the image.

There are three more options. With Through, the image sits on top of the text, and the text runs straight across behind it. In Background puts the image behind the text, like a faint watermark on a certificate. Contour makes the text follow the real outline of the picture, such as a round school logo, instead of its square box.

Now the second tool, the anchor. An anchor is a reference point that ties the image to one place in the document. A ship's anchor keeps a ship in one spot, even when water moves around it. When you select an image, Writer shows a small anchor symbol at its reference point. To change it, right-click the image and point to Anchor.

Writer gives four anchor types. To Page fixes the image on its page, so typing never moves it, which suits a logo on a letterhead. To Paragraph ties it to a paragraph, so the image moves when that paragraph moves. To Character ties it to one character, so it follows that exact letter. As Character treats the image like one big letter inside the line of text.

Now pause and predict. Your photo is anchored To Page, on page one. Then you type ten new lines at the top of the page. Where does the photo go? It stays in the same place on page one, and the text flows around it. If it was anchored To Paragraph, it would move down with its paragraph instead, which solves the jumping photo from the start.

The third tool is alignment. Horizontal alignment places the image on the left, in the centre, or on the right. Vertical alignment places it at the top, in the centre, or at the bottom, measured from its anchor. Right-click the image and choose Align Objects to use them.

The fourth tool is arrangement, which matters when images and shapes overlap. Think of photos lying on a table, one partly covering another. Bring to Front moves the selected image to the very top of the pile. Bring Forward moves it up by just one level. Send Backward moves it down by one level. Send to Back puts it at the very bottom of the pile.

Writer has two more arrange choices for images and text. To Foreground brings the image in front of the text. To Background sends the image behind the text, like a watermark. Both are in the same Arrange menu that you open with a right-click.

Here is a simple order to follow for any picture. First, insert the image. Next, set the anchor, so it stays where you want it. Then set the wrap, so the text flows neatly around it. Then align it left, centre or right. If it overlaps another object, use Arrange to decide which one is on top. Then your page is done.

Let us revise what we learned today. Text wrapping decides how text flows around an image, such as parallel, optimal or in background. The anchor ties the image to the page, a paragraph, a character, or makes it act as a character. Alignment moves it left, centre or right, and top, centre or bottom. Arrangement decides which overlapping object is on top. Right-click any image to find all four tools.