Apache OpenOffice Community Forum

[mods...I hope this is in the right sub-forum. If not I'd would be grateful if it were moved.]

I don't find...and I don't understand why not...an import filter to bring .svg graphics into OpenOffice. If I recall correctly, .svg format is an open source format. It seems almost counter-intuitve that there is no ability to import and embed vector graphics. OODraw itself has some vector capabilities but it is crude by comparison to Inkscape, for instance.

As an example...I have been asking questions here about my stationary for a couple of weeks. It is comprised of four ornamental corner devices each connected by two lines--one thick, one thin. Originally created in CorelDraw. To insert the border into my OO document/template I must convert it to .png. To get the resolution that a vector graphic has natively, it has to be nearly 50 mb. As I understand it, if it were a vector it would be much less...and thus the whole document/template would be smaller.

Is there an extension or a plug-in to import svgs into OpenOffice? Or even plans to incorporate an svg import filter? It seems like OO and Inkscape would be natural partners.

The OOo extensions site is here: http://extensions.services.openoffice.org/

You can easily search there to see what extensions are available.

The SVG import extension is here: http://extensions.services.openoffice.o ... /svgimport

You're right, a vector border will be much smaller. The only problems are that SVG does not always import properly, and once you get it imported, the graphic has to be sized/placed manually for each particular page layout.

Are you sure you can get your border as a vector graphic? Just because Corel will export it as SVG, does not mean that the result will be a vector; SVG will encode image data also.

One other possibility is to print the pages with the borders (I would use Draw for that), then print the text separately. Essentially, print your own custom stationery with the borders.

Thank you again. You're always a stalwart when it comes to answering questions that everybody else ignores. I appreciate it.

I can export my cdr's to svg and Inkscape will open it.

If I can import the svg as a background...as you so kindly suggested a day or so ago (that's working BTW and is the best solution yet even though it is a .png)...will I still need to fiddle with it after the fact?

So...playing with this...

I downloaded the extension. I exported my border from CorelDraw to svg. OpenOffice Draw sees and opens the border just fine. Looks good. I can even save the svg to odg format.

But from there, it's nearly impossible to import/insert the odg into a Writer document. Open Office...or at least the Writer module...does not seem to recognize either .svg nor .odg. So I cannot "insert" the "picture" into an OO doc. Nor is it recognized as a format for setting a background.

If I insert as an ole object the border comes in about half size with huge areas of blank space around the border. No way to eliminate the blank space or resize the border to fit a page.

Opening the odg in OODraw, I can't find a way to transfer it from Draw to Writer. Except...

In Draw, I can copy the border to the clipboard and paste it into a Writer doc. (That seems to work although I am not sure what happens to the vector formatting.) It goes outside the margins (that's good) simply because the border itself is larger than the margins. But it will not reproduce on the second page.

This is another one of those seemingly awkward implementations (maybe I'm missing something?) It appears that Open Office doesn't even recognize its own "native" graphic format--odg. !!

Yes, you have it correct. Getting a graphic made in Draw into a Writer document is just that clunky. The only way that works is to cut/paste into the Writer document. You can use Paste Special to paste the graphic in one of a few different forms, each of which has its own nuances, good and bad points.

It works, and gives a lot of flexibility, it's just not simple or straightforward, and it can take a lot of trial and error to find the best combination of settings for what you need it to do.