Inserting images near end of page

[sboydlns]

I am having real problems when inserting images near the end of a page. Suppose you have a page full of text that continues onto the next page. If I try to insert an image just prior to the last paragraph on the page and that image is too large to fit onto the page it appears as though the word processor gets confused about where the anchor and the anchored text are supposed to be. The image goes on to the next page as expected, but I would also expect the paragraph that is is anchored to to move to the next page as well. But the text remains on the first page. Even trying to anchor the image 'to character' rather than 'to paragraph' doesn't help. This problem is especially odious if you try to anchor the image 'to character' and wrap the text around it. The text that should be wrapped around the image stays on the first page while the image winds up on the second page.

I can fix this by putting a manual page break just prior to the image's insertion point but this causes problems if the document changes above the image. You end up with blank pages or half empty pages depending on the nature of the change. Then I have to remove the manual break to get the document to paginate correctly.

Is this a bug or is the some other way I should be doing this?

[sboydlns]

I forgot to mention. I am using OpenOffice 2.3.1

[foxcole]

The image goes on to the next page as expected, but I would also expect the paragraph that is is anchored to to move to the next page as well. But the text remains on the first page. Even trying to anchor the image 'to character' rather than 'to paragraph' doesn't help. This problem is especially odious if you try to anchor the image 'to character' and wrap the text around it. The text that should be wrapped around the image stays on the first page while the image winds up on the second page.

That's the way it's supposed to work, the way every word processor and page layout program I've ever used works. The text is not anchored to the image, and an anchor is not a marriage bond between text and image. The text's job is to remain intact as text, not go wandering off chasing images that happen to move around. What a nightmare that could become! How could you keep text in order if you decide you need to put an image somewhere else in the document?

Images are extraneous material. A word processor's primary task is to process text, so text is the foundation of everything else that goes on in a word processor, and everything else happens around the text content. Something has to be stable when you're writing a document, and that must be the written content.

So if you want something other than the natural behavior of text to change, as you've discovered you have to do something to put the text where you want it, such as inserting a manual page break to split the text where it does not naturally split.

I can fix this by putting a manual page break just prior to the image's insertion point but this causes problems if the document changes above the image. You end up with blank pages or half empty pages depending on the nature of the change. Then I have to remove the manual break to get the document to paginate correctly.

You've discovered the difference between authoring and layout. Develop all your content first and adjust pagination and layout as one of your final steps.

But that brings up another issue. What you're describing would leave gaping white spaces at the bottom of some pages, which looks like the end of a chapter. Few documents are easy for the reader to use this way. Software user manuals that use only full-size screenshots are the only kind of document I can think of in which the reader might find this acceptable. What kind of document are you creating?

[sboydlns]

I am creating a software user manual with lots of screen shots. I want the text that describes the screen shot to remain anchored to the image.

[foxcole]

I am creating a software user manual with lots of screen shots. I want the text that describes the screen shot to remain anchored to the image.

As I said, the text does not anchor to the image. The image anchors to the text.

An anchor is just a relative position indicator that the program uses to calculate the position of the image, as nearly as it is able to render that position. Of course the program must allow the image to move to the next page if there isn't room for it on the page where you set the anchor. The anchor calculation has no effect on the text. That's how anchors work.

I am a technical writer as well as an editor by profession, and I've been writing software guides for roughly two decades. Every word processor I've ever used works that way, and I can understand that they work that way out of necessity. To have it any other way would cause nasty problems in controlling the text content, which is the foundation of a document.

You've already discovered what you need to do. Just insert a manual break above the text that needs to move to the next page. And as I said, that should be one of the last things you do, after all your content is written... because as you've also already discovered for yourself, content can change so there's no point in polishing the content until it's complete.

[huw]

As an aside, look what happens when anchors & wrap attributes go bad!