Objects in a Document
Senior 2 · ICT
Objects in a Document
Lesson 3 of 5
16 min
Let's begin
The S2 class magazine needs a cover: a bold, curved title and a photo of the class planting trees. Ordinary text looks flat for a title, and a photo that is too big, badly placed or stretched spoils the page. This lesson shows how to add decorative text and pictures and make them fit.
WordArt is decorative text treated as an object: it can be curved, stretched, shaded or made to look 3D. Microsoft Word calls it WordArt. LibreOffice calls it Fontwork.
When Fontwork is selected, the Fontwork toolbar lets you change its shape (for example an arch), make all letters the same height, change the alignment and character spacing, and turn on extrusion, which makes it 3D. (Word: Shape Format > Text Effects > Transform.) Use it for titles only: a whole paragraph of WordArt is hard to read.
By default, a picture is embedded: a copy is stored inside the document, so it travels with the file. If you tick Link in the Insert Image dialog, the picture is only linked: the document stores the file's location. The document stays smaller, but the picture disappears if the file is moved or the document is copied to another computer.
| Task | How |
|---|---|
| Resize without stretching | Drag a corner handle. In Writer, hold Shift to keep the proportions. In Word, corner handles keep them automatically. |
| Crop | Right-click > Crop and drag the edges inwards. (Word: Picture Format > Crop.) Cropping only hides the outer parts: the original picture is kept. |
| Rotate or flip | Format > Rotate, or right-click > Flip > Horizontally or Vertically. |
| Wrap text around it | Right-click > Wrap (Word: Wrap Text). |
| Add a caption | Right-click > Insert Caption. |
Use only pictures you took yourself or pictures whose licence allows reuse, and credit the creator in the caption, as the images in these lessons do.
Tip
Corners, not sides. Resize pictures from a corner (with Shift in Writer). A side handle stretches faces and buildings out of shape.
What does LibreOffice call Word's WordArt, and where do you insert it?
Solution: Fontwork. Insert > Fontwork, or the Insert Fontwork Text button on the Drawing toolbar.
Ishimwe's pictures show as empty frames when her teacher opens the document. What probably happened?
Solution: The pictures were linked, not embedded. The document only stored where the files were on Ishimwe's computer. She should insert them again without ticking Link.
Gatete drags the right-hand side handle of a photo of a friend, and the friend looks too wide. What should he have done?
Solution: Dragged a corner handle, holding Shift in Writer, so the width and height change in the same proportion.
After cropping, can you get the hidden part of a picture back?
Solution: Yes. Cropping only hides the edges, so you can crop again and drag the edges back out.
Remember
Sources and credits
