The Gallery in LibreOffice

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Foreword

The video shows the application "The Gallery in LibreOffice" and links to this page here, which provides further information and details. Basis of this description and the video. The LibreOffice Online-Help - enter the word "Gallery" in the search bar. Also see: FAQ - The-Gallery

Link to the Video

Link to the Video (in German [DE]): Die Gallery in LibreOffice

What is the Gallery?

The Gallery is a library containing objects (Images, graphics, drawings and sounds), which you can easily insert into your documents. The gallery is available in most components of LibreOffice. To open the Gallery, select View ▸ Gallery menu.
There are differences between Draw and Writer, see: - Differences in Draw and Writer -

Gallery layout in the sidebar

The gallery view in the sidebar is structured as follows:

At the top is the window for the various topics.
In the middle, the content of the currently selected topic is displayed.
At the bottom are the controls.
- If these elements are not fully visible, widen the sidebar.

From left to right, these are:

- Two buttons for the view in the middle window: "Icon View" and "Detail View."
- A search bar where you can search for icons by their names.
- The New button and
- Add more galleries via extensions.

Themes

On the top of the Gallery, all available themes bundled with LibreOffice are listed. Included themes of LibreOffice are:

Arrows

Backgrounds

Backgrounds

BPMN

Bullets (see image "Gallery in the Sidebar with Bullets")
Diagrams

Diagrams

Flowchart

Icons

Network

Network

Shapes

Sounds

Click on a theme to see its content in the main window of the Gallery. You can also create your own themes, as much as you need.

How do I use the Gallery?

Display

The gallery can be displayed in either "Icon View" or "Detailed View" by clicking on one of these buttons . The top selection window for themes can be resized. If you can't see the bottom bar with the buttons and search bar completely, drag the sidebar to the left until it's fully visible.

Add a new theme to the Gallery

Create a new theme with your own files

Click New button at the below of the Gallery.
In the dialog box that appears, "Properties of New Topic", in the "General" tab, enter a name for your topic, for example "My Topic".

Click on the "Files" tab and there on the Find Files button.

The "Select folder" dialog opens.

Browse to directory containing the drawing files you want to add to your theme and then click Select folder.
Click on the arrow of "File type" and select a file type to restrict the selection to this file type and accept this with Yes.
Select files you want to add: click Add All to install all files contained in the list, or Ctrl + Click on specific files you want to add, and then validate with Add button.
Click OK when you have done.

Note:
You can add or remove drawings at any time later, even from different directories (see below).

Context menu of own Themes

With a right click on a own theme the Context menu with the selection appears:

Update in relation to the previously defined source directory, the theme will be updated with the contents from the directory.
Delete the theme is deleted.
Rename the theme can be renamed.
Properties… opens the "Properties of <Theme>" dialog.

Context menu of own Objects

With a right click on a own object the Context menu with the selection appears:

Insert
Insert as Background
Preview
Title
Delete
Copy
Paste

Add an object to the Gallery

You can only add images or objects to your own themes.

By file selection

Right click on theme's name in themes list (e.g. "My Theme") and select Properties in context menu.
Click on "Files" tab.
Click Add.
Select a directory and the desired file and click Open.

The object is added to the theme.

By drag & drop

Select an object in your document. Click-hold the left mouse button on your object for approx. 2 seconds without moving it. The mouse pointer is modified and you can now drag the object to the Gallery and drop it to the right of the bottom last object of the topic. See also "How can I reuse a drawing with the help of the Gallery?"

Remove objects in the Gallery

You can remove images only for your own themes. To remove an object in a theme:

Select the theme where you want to remove an object.
Right click on the object and select Delete.
Confirm you really want to delete this object by clicking Yes.

Note:
The file which object refers to is not deleted, only the object in the Gallery is removed.

Remove a theme in the Gallery

You can remove only for your own themes. To remove a theme from the Gallery:

Click on "Gallery" tab in the sidebar.
Right click on the theme you want to remove.
Select ▸ Delete in context menu.
Confirm you really want to delete this theme by clicking Yes.

How can I reuse a drawing with the help of the Gallery?

The Gallery is a very convenient way to make available to the components (Draw, Impress, Writer, Calc and Base) some customized objects and more particularly drawings made with Draw, such as logos for instance. Once your drawings are created, you will add them to a theme of the Gallery and they will instantaneous be available in all components, to be inserted with a simple drag & drop.

Finalize the drawing

Once the drawing is done:

Select all objects belonging to the drawing, with a click and drag surrounding all these objects, or type Ctrl + A if there is no other objects on this page.
To group these objects, right-click on one of the objects and select Group or select the Form ▸ Grouping ▸ Group menu or press Ctrl + ⇧ Shift + G.

This first step is not compulsory but it will ease handling of the drawing as a whole when it will be inserted.

Add the drawing to the Gallery

You can add images or drawings only for your own themes.

Show the Gallery

Click on the "Gallery" Tab in the sidebar or choose the menu View ▸ Gallery.

Choose a theme where to add the drawing

The Gallery is organized with different themes, which list is displayed at the top of the Gallery. You can:

either click on theme's name where you want to insert your drawing, e.g. My theme
or create a new empty theme by clicking on New Theme button; type its name and validate with OK.

Drag the drawing in the Gallery

You can add normal drawing objects to the Gallery. There is no need to convert them to images. This is obviously the most sensitive step of the whole procedure. To let LibreOffice knows that you do not want to move your drawing on your page, but to copy it in the Gallery, a simple drag and drop does not work. You must proceed as follow:

Click once on the drawing to select it.
Click-hold the left mouse button on your drawing for approx. 2 seconds without moving it.
The mouse pointer is modified, and you can now drag the drawing to the Gallery and drop it to the right of the bottom last object of the topic.

Note:

If the drawing is simply moved on the page and cannot be dropped in the Gallery, it probably means that you have not wait long enough before moving the mouse.
If you cannot drop the drawing in the Gallery, it probably means that you are not allowed to modify this theme. Then choose one of your own themes (right click should show several entries if it is a user theme).

Insert a drawing (multiple objects) from the Gallery

To insert a drawing into a document, proceed as follows:

Click on "Gallery" tab in the sidebar or select menu View ▸ Gallery.
Select the theme where the drawing has been added.
Click-hold-drag the drawing and place it on your document.

Note:
You may have to reformat shapes pasted from the Gallery, if they were previously saved with a style, but the new document does not have that style (Draw). If you had used direct formatting, the shape retains the formatting.
"Insert" inserts a metafile and "Drag&drop" inserts a shape object. See also: Libreoffice Draw crashes after inserting certain shape

Differences in Draw and Writer

Notice that the drawing functions in Draw and Impress are identical and can be used equivalently.

Gallery - in Writer

To insert a Gallery object into the document, right-click on it first. For the included objects, you can choose between Insert, Preview and Copy in the context menu. Select the "Process" object in the "Flowchart" theme, so that it is marked.

Context menu - in Writer

If you select Insert, the object will be pasted as an image (texts of objects cannot be edited).
If you choose Preview, the object will be displayed larger in the sidebar.
If you choose Copy and then Ctrl + V, the object will be pasted editable.

You can then double-click on object texts, for example, and then edit the text.

Drag & Drop - in Writer

Drag & Drop = drag and drop An easy way to bring objects from the Gallery onto the sheet is with Drag & Drop. With the left mouse button click-hold-drag an object from the Gallery onto the sheet and then release the mouse button. The texts of the objects are editable.

Gallery - in Draw

To insert a Gallery object into the document, right-click it first. With the suplied themes, you can choose between Insert, Preview and Copy for the objects in the context menu. Select the "Process" object in the "Flowchart" theme.

Context menu - in Draw

If you choose Insert, the object will be inserted as a metafile as a shape (texts of objects cannot be edited immediately). Right click on the object and choose "Break" from the context menu. The metafile is broken up into three shapes. You can now double-click on the text from the object, for example, and then edit the text. If you choose Preview, the object will be displayed larger in the sidebar. Selecting Preview again restores the overview. If you choose Copy and then Ctrl + V, the object will be pasted editable. You can then double-click on object texts, for example, and then edit the text.

Drag & Drop - in Draw

Drag & Drop = drag and drop An easy way to bring objects from the Gallery onto the sheet is with Drag & Drop. With the left mouse button click-hold-drag an object from the Gallery onto the sheet and then release the mouse button. The texts of the objects are editable.

Where are the Gallery files located?

Locating the Gallery

The location of your Gallery is specified in Tools ▸ Options ▸ LibreOffice ▸ Paths. This path obviously depends on your operating system:

On Windows:
- Before Vista: C:\DocumentsandSettings\UserName\Application\Data\libreoffice\4\user\gallery
- Vista: C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Roaming\libreoffice\4\user\gallery
- 7 and 8: C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Roaming\Libreoffice\4\user\gallery
- 10 and 11: C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Roaming\Libreoffice\4\user\gallery
On GNU/Linux:
- /home/UserName/.config/libreoffice/4/user/gallery
On MacOS:
- /Users/UserName/Library/Application Support/libreoffice/4/user/gallery

Note:
These directories are hidden; you must set the option from your operating system to be able to see these hidden directories.

Storage of the objects of the Gallery

All graphical objects and sounds which are present in the Gallery can be located anywhere on your hard disk, or a network system, or an external disk, or an USB key. If you add objects to the Gallery, corresponding files won't be moved nor copied: only the location of each new object will be added as a reference.

Note:
In case of a network workgroup, you can have access to a shared theme on a server, but you cannot modify its contents if you have no administration rights.

How to define a new directory for the Gallery

You may require a new location for the future themes of your Gallery?

Select menu Tools ▸ Options ▸ LibreOffice ▸ Paths, then "Gallery" in "Type" column.
Click Edit.
In dialog "Edit Paths: Gallery", click Add.
Go to a desired directory on your system and click - OK or select folder - depending on your operating system.
Select the option that corresponds to the new path.
Validate with OK.
Close the dialog "Options-LibreOffice-Paths" by clicking again OK.

Note:
A restart of all LibreOffice components is required to take into account these new parameters. (bevore: all Components closed)

Warning:
Choose a directory where you have Read/Write access.

Further Informations

For further use

If you want to share your Gallery's theme, an easy way is to create an extension which will facilitate its installation. Please read these instructions for further information.

Add themes through extensions

On LibreOffice extensions website, you can search for extensions providing themes for the Gallery. Simply install the chosen extension (you can check this entry for details) and restart LibreOffice.

List of keyboard shortcuts for the Gallery

List of keyboard shortcuts in the Gallery

Specials

Hidden Features in Draw

Where are the image galleries from previous LibreOffice versions?

The previous image galleries were moved to extensions.libreoffice.org.

Documentation / Manuals

Here you will find the Documentation / Manuals: Documentation / Manuals

Any questions?

For questions on this topic go to: Ask.LibreOffice

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