Apache OpenOffice Community Forum

Hi,
I am trying to set a background image for a official corporate letter. I am using OO writer 3.4.1 and in the Writer's Guide, it is stated (p 144):

To extend the background color or graphic into the margins, you need to define a frame of appropriate size and position, anchor it to the page or a paragraph, and send it to the background. For more about anchoring frames, see Chapter 8 (Working with Graphics).

I am sorry, but I couldn't find anything in chap 8 that helps me understand the use of frames. In fact, I ended up only more confused.

• My frame is on the foreground, hiding the text, area. This behavior remains no matter if I set the frame in the background
• I created the image for the background at the exact same size as the page to ease positioning yet I cannot make it cover the whole page , even if I set the size to 100% relative

So I guess you can see that I am very confused.

I'm not sure why the guide says to use a frame--it's adequate just to use Insert > Picture > From File. That path results in a "framed" image; maybe that's what is meant?

This works for me:
1) Insert > Picture > From File
2) right-click > Picture >
. > Wrap > Settings: Through; Options: In background
. > Type > Size (match page size)
. > Type > Position > Horizontal: Left, entire page
. > Type > Position > Vertical: Top, entire page
. > Type > Anchor: To page
Ok.

You may want to set the protection options as well, just to avoid moving the image by accident.

The other approach is to use the image as the page background, but then it only fills to the page margins. You can set the margins to zero and adjust the page border to provide the necessary margins.

Thank you for your reply.

I did all the steps you gave but the result is a background in "the foreground": the image hides the "text" layer and no matter what I do, doesn't move to the back.

Can you upload a sample file (see How to attach a document here)?
Are you sure that you've checked the option "In background"?

frepie wrote:...I did all the steps you gave but the result is a background in "the foreground": the image hides the "text" layer and no matter what I do, doesn't move to the back.

It could be a problem with the way your computer performs graphics display--that is, the document may be correct but the display is wrong.

What happens if you use File > Page Preview?

How about exporting to PDF (toolbar or File > Export as PDF)?

Do you still see the same problem?

Hagar Delest wrote:Can you upload a sample file (see How to attach a document here)?
Are you sure that you've checked the option "In background"?

Thank you for your replies and sorry for the late reply. I had not set my profile to receive the notification email.

Yes I did. However, when I check the background option in the wrap tab, it is never checked. I checked background, saved the file and then verified the background again and somehow, the background unselects itself. I tried "send to back" without any success either.

I uploaded the page with the intended background incorrectly set.

I don't see the problem. The only trick is that you've to click in the text area, where there is already some text to get the focus on the text. So click the first line for example. Once text has been inserted, you can click wherever in the page if there is text behind. If you click in the margins however, the background is selected.

This is indeed a minor annoyance. Since there is already the Ctrl+Click to select the background (even in the text area), a simple click should not select the background, even if there is no text. You can report it: [Tutorial] Reporting bugs or suggestions.

frepie wrote:... when I check the background option in the wrap tab, it is never checked. ...

Strange. With your document, the "In background" flag shows as set for me. The document seems to work fine.

I'm not sure what might cause yours to display as not set.

Sometimes a reset of the OOo settings profile can fix mysterious problems, although I would be surprised if it helped in this case.

Hi frepie,

Just wondering if you ever figured this out? I'm having the same problem and it's so frustrating because I've done a whole picture book this way before and I know what I'm supposed to do, but suddenly something's not working! (Image attached - that picture is supposed to be full page with the text on top, I just made it smaller to show the text stuck behind it.)

Thanks!

Can you upload a sample file (just one page)?

Hrm... I just opened the file to resave the single page and it was showing up correctly! Must be something weird going on with my computer then, although I did open and close it a few times earlier and couldn't make it work. Strange. Sorry to have wasted your time!

trying to make my company letter template. In the template I suggest the images just need to be in there once and not for each and every page again.

So I was hoping the background image did the trick - but alas. there is the thing with the margins playing up.

then I tried to glue in the images for logo, style etc in the page header and footer. This works for a single page, but appearantly then the header and footer do not duplicate on successive following pages?

can anybody help me out? are there templates that I can download and amend?

fighting with the similar thing; trying to make a company letter template, with the company logo and footing in style, made up as images that should sit snug in the corners and side of the paper.

now appearantly this does not work as background image in Oo-writer, because you then have the margins issue, disabling you from using the page margins through the rest of the document

I know that in "another famous desktop program" a similar result can be obtained by placing the images in the header and footer text. Hence, I activated header and footer, placed the images there, anchor to page, wrap to background.
so far, so good... but... then the images only show on that single page.
not on the next!

do headers and footers not repeat every page? - for text they do. but appearantly now the images are not handled as being in the header or footer, but just on the page.


I cannot imagine that there is no solution for this! this drives me back to purchasing this "other famous program"

Letters usually have a very different layout on the first page layout compared to the following pages. In OO Writer, page layout changes are handled through different page styles, so your document template almost certainly uses a different page style for the first page vs. the following pages. You can see the name of the page style in effect for the current page by looking in the status bar below the editing area.

Each separate page style is completely independent and has its own header/footer content. If you want the same image to appear on all pages, you have to add it to each page style in use. Note: OO Writer does not store duplicate copies of the same image, so there's no real inefficiency here, except in time to set it up.

acknak wrote:Letters usually have a very different layout on the first page layout compared to the following pages. In OO Writer, page layout changes are handled through different page styles, so your document template almost certainly uses a different page style for the first page vs. the following pages. You can see the name of the page style in effect for the current page by looking in the status bar below the editing area.

That is right... however I find it weird that you can only define a page style of the NEXT page ? So I edited the first page to my liking, and then the next pages are conform the style "first page"

acknak wrote: Each separate page style is completely independent and has its own header/footer content. If you want the same image to appear on all pages, you have to add it to each page style in use. Note: OO Writer does not store duplicate copies of the same image, so there's no real inefficiency here, except in time to set it up.

Appearantly the images do not appear in the header or footer, but on the page itself. In the STYLE you can only add an image within the margins, so that is of no use...

now i've added the same pictures at each and every page individually, wich is obviously not efficient. see attachment...

Sorry, I'm not sure how best to help you with this. Your document has a number of problems but the forum is not really the best place to learn the basics of using the software.

Here's my take on a simple letter template with your content:

The first page uses the "First Page" style and has the graphics anchored "To page" there is no header or footer enabled with the First Page style.

The First Page style links to "Default" for the following pages, which has both header and footer. The header is where the graphic is anchored (to paragraph) so that the graphic appears automatically on every following page. The footer contains text and page numbers; the document title in the footer is a field, "Chapter", which from the top heading (level 1).

I haven't tried to configure the numbering or the text formatting.

acknak wrote:I'm not sure why the guide says to use a frame--it's adequate just to use Insert > Picture > From File. That path results in a "framed" image; maybe that's what is meant?

This works for me:
1) Insert > Picture > From File
2) right-click > Picture >
. > Wrap > Settings: Through; Options: In background
. > Type > Size (match page size)
. > Type > Position > Horizontal: Left, entire page
. > Type > Position > Vertical: Top, entire page
. > Type > Anchor: To page
Ok.

You may want to set the protection options as well, just to avoid moving the image by accident.

The other approach is to use the image as the page background, but then it only fills to the page margins. You can set the margins to zero and adjust the page border to provide the necessary margins.

Amazing, thanks acknak. I finally got a picture to fill the whole page. Now how do I change the opacity so it looks really faint and barely visible so it doesn't distract from the text too much. Thanks.

Possibly best to do this in an external graphics editing program before you position the page image. Make sure to test a printed output, as the graphic can have a different visual weight on the printed page than on the screen of a monitor.

While I completely agree with Rory, it can also be done in Writer.

1 View > Toolbars > Picture - this brings up the Picture Toolbar
2 Highlight the picture
3 Increase the Transparency value to, say, 50 %

To get rid of the Picture Toolbar, untick View > Toolbars > Picture while the toolbar is still open.

You may find Some useful hints on using images useful for a discussion on how best to handle images in Writer.

Whatever way you do this, be certain to try a sample print before making a final decision.

Also see Watermark based on Paper format not margins which has an example file you can download.

sariegrant wrote:Hi frepie,

Just wondering if you ever figured this out? I'm having the same problem and it's so frustrating because I've done a whole picture book this way before and I know what I'm supposed to do, but suddenly something's not working! (Image attached - that picture is supposed to be full page with the text on top, I just made it smaller to show the text stuck behind it.)

Thanks!

For some reason mine is showing up like this too. I've restarted the program several times but no luck.