Frequently asked questions - Writer

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How do I select several pictures?

It is not possible to select several pictures in a Writer document.

The Drawing toolbar (View ▸ Toolbars ▸ Drawing) allows you to select several drawn objects, but not images, while holding down the ⇧ Shift key.

One workaround is to anticipate the need for “grouped” work and insert images directly into a temporary document in LibreOffice Draw. Then you only need to copy and paste the pictures from the Draw document into the Writer document.

There are some further possibilities in Writer.

Anchoring to the same paragraph

• when more than one picture is anchored to the same paragraph, you only need to select the paragraph, then copy it. The pictures will follow when you paste the paragraph; and
• when you click on an image that is Wrapped inside of a paragraph, if Anchor ▸ To Paragraph option in the image toolbar is selected, the anchor of the image is displayed at the beginning of the paragraph. It is therefore necessary to copy from the beginning of the paragraph to make sure the anchor will be copied, to the next paragraph mark.

Inserting in a frame or a table

A table or a frame can be copied regardless of their contents. Whenever possible, one can insert the pictures into this type of object to manipulate (copy, move, ...) the picture via the parent object.

Inserting by filling of a drawn object

The selection tool of the Drawing toolbar (View ▸ Toolbars ▸ Drawing) allows several drawn objects, not images, to be selected while holding down the ⇧ Shift key.

It is also possible to use pictures as filling for these objects. The more flexible solution for manipulating several pictures is to insert them as filling for drawn objects.

This is how to do it:

1. display the Drawing toolbar (View ▸ Toolbars ▸ Drawing);
2. choose the Rectangle tool;
3. draw a rectangle and then right-click on it;
4. in the context menu, choose Area.... A new dialogbox will pup up; and
5. under the Area tab, click on Bitmap, choose an image from the existing list or click on the Import button to retrieve a picture on the desktop, then click on OK.

Note: In the Bitmap section under the Area tab, the options related to Style of the fill is set to Tiled by default. You might want to come back to this setting for adjustments.