Text Box in Writer

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Foreword

The video shows how to create and edit a "Text Box in Writer" and links to this page here for more information and details. Text boxes are well suited for labeling and formatting small sketches or diagrams within the document. Frames, on the other hand, are primarily suitable for layouting the document itself.

Link to the Video

Link to the Video (in German [DE]): Ein Textfeld erstellen und bearbeiten - LibreOffice

Text Box

Text Boxes (in German: Textfelder) belong to the group of drawing objects. You have the following options for inserting a Text Box in Writer.

Choose Insert ▸ Text Box from the menu.
Click the "Insert Text Box" icon in the "Drawing" toolbar.
In the "Standard" toolbar, click the "Insert Text Box" icon.

After you select Text Box, the cursor appears as a .

Note:
For Text Boxes in Writer, all property settings are to be done as direct formatting. If you select the Text Box or the text in it, you will see in the sidebar at Styles that the icons of the various styles are grayed out.

Toolbars

"Standard" toolbar

"Drawing" toolbar

"Drawing Object Properties" toolbar

Creating a Text box in Writer

Click on the "Insert Text Box" icon and drag open a Text Box. The term "draw up" means after you select the icon, the cursor appears as a sight cross . Select the point in the document where you want to start drawing the Text Box. Click-hold-drag the cursor to draw the Text Box. The dragging goes in any direction. When the Text Box has the size you want, release the mouse button. You will now see the Text Box with the Cursor blinking. The expanded Text Box expects you to enter text immediately. Enter your text. If you deselect the Text Box before you have entered text, the text box disappears again.

Deselect Text Box

You can deselect a Text Box by clicking next to it or pressing the ESC key.

Customize Text Box

You can resize a Text Box afterwards. You can change Font, Font size and Font color. You can also customize the Background color of the Text Box and the Character highlighting. And you have other options for customizing the Text Box, see below.

Where are the customizations made for a Text Box =

Right-click on a Text Box and a Context menu appears, where you can select the most common functions.

You have more advanced options in the Sidebar at Properties. The Sidebar can be reached via the menu View ▸ Sidebar ( Ctrl + F5 ). Or you can select Format ▸ Text box and Shape ▸ Command from the menu to get the Command Position and Size, Line, Area, Text Attributes and Text along Path.

Rotate Text Box

Text boxes can also be rotated to any angle. After selecting the Text Box, click it a second time. The handles will now be colored and rounded, and are called rotation handles. Hover your mouse over one of these handles, and the cursor will change to a three-quarter circle with arrowheads. Click and hold a rotation handle at its four corners. Now, drag in a rotating motion to rotate the Text Box Release the mouse button when the text box is at the desired angle. Alternatively, you can specify the angle in the sidebar under Properties/Position and Size or via the context menu. Click and hold the pointer of the rotation wheel to change the angle with a rotating motion. Release the mouse button at the desired angle. Alternatively, you can also enter the angle as a value in ° (degrees) in the input field.

Change Text Box Position and Size

To change the Position of the Text Box, right-click on the Text Box and select Position and Size from the Context menu. In the "Position and Size" dialog, select the "Position and Size" tab and enter the desired values for Size/Width/Height. Then click OK. Adjust the size of a text box by clicking on the text box to select it. You can see the marking by the frame, which now shows 8 small squares. When you hover your mouse over one of these squares, the cursor changes shape as a Double arrow. You can click on it and drag the Text Box in the shown directions of the cursor, i.e. bigger or smaller. Or go to the Sidebar ▸ Position and Size and specify the desired width and height. Make sure to check the box for "Keep aspect ratio".

Note:
The cursor shown here is set to yellow in Windows. The cursor may look different depending on the operating system and settings.

Text Box - Line

You can define a Line around the Text Box. With the text box selected, click in the sidebar Line|Line/Width/Colour and select the desired values.

Text Box - change Colour for Area (Background)

Text Box - Anchoring

Anchoring

The Text Box can be anchoredn(Image: Anchoring). See also: Anchoring of Objects

Text Box - Wrap

You can set the Wrap for the Text Box (Image: Wrap Text Box).

Text Boxes - Align

Alignment means in relation to the anchor and to other objects or to the page edge. You can Align Text Boxes just like any other Objects (Image: Align Objects).

Text Boxes - Arrange

The arrange refers to thought levels, so "in front" or "behind". You can arrange Text Boxes just like any other Objects (Image: Arrange).

Text Box - Insert Caption

You can also assign a Caption to Text Boxes (Image: Caption). Right-click and choose Insert Caption from the Context menu. In the "Insert Caption" dialog you can make your specifications. A Frame has then been inserted around the Text Box containing the Caption.

Text Box - Round off corners

You can also round the corners of a Text Box. Select the Text Box. Choose Format ▸ Text Box and Shape ▸ Position and Size from the menu. In the "Position and Size" dialog click on the "Slant & Corner Radius" tab. Enter the desired value for "Radius", for example 0.8 cm and click on the OK.

Edit text in Text Box

Text formatting

You cannot format text in the Text Box with Styles. You can only apply Direct formatting to this text.

Menus

For Direct formatting it is best to use the sidebar ( Ctrl + F5 ) and select Properties right in the register ( Alt ). When the cursor is in the text of a line, right-click for the Context menu.

Paragraphs

There are no Paragraphs that have a Paragraph mark at the end in Text Boxes. However, a single line is considered a Paragraph. Therefore, single lines that have been terminated with the Enter key can be treated differently as Paragraphs.

Change font and size

For the further descriptions here, we will work uniformly with the Sidebar, or refer to it. In the Sidebar ▸ Properties ▸ Characters there are two fields for selecting the Font and Font size. Click on the downward pointing arrow next to each field and select the Font and Font size.

Change Colour for text and highlight

Below the fields for Font and Font size, there are icons for Character colour and Highlighting (Image: Icons). You can now select these for the text or highlighting with the existing color palettes. Click on the small downward-pointing arrow next to each icon to view the color palette.

Text Along Path

Text along path means that you can wrap the text around the object. However, to create a closed text outline, the ratio of font length/size to object size must be correct. Click the Text Box to select it. From the menu, select Format ▸ Text Box and Shape ▸ Text Along Path. The "Text Along Path" dialog appears. In the dialog, select Style/Rotated. The text will now be wrapped around the outer edge of the Text Box.

Further Informations

Work files

The content of this wiki page as a quick guide (In German [DE]):
"Ein Textfeld erstellen und bearbeiten.odt"

Fill Areas in Writer

Fill_Areas

Use Colors

Documentation / Manuals

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

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