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Position and Size

Resizes or moves the selected object.

To access this command...

Click on textbox or shape to select, then...

Choose Format - Text Box and Shape - Object - Object and Shape - Position and Size - Position and Size tab.

Open context menu for selected object - choose Position and Size - Position and Size tab.

Position and Size menu icon

Press F4 after selection to open the tab directly.

Position

Specify the location of the selected object on the page.

Coordinate axes start at column A - row 1.

X-coordinates are negative in a "right-to-left" table.

Coordinates are relative to the origin. Left/top corner of the page content area is the initial default.

Position X

Enter the horizontal coordinate where the selected base point should be placed.

Position Y

Enter the vertical coordinate where the selected base point should be placed.

Base point

The selected base point will be moved to the specified Position Y and Position X.

The base point always returns to the left/top corner on reopening the dialogue box.

Size

Specify the size of the selected object.

Resize the selected object to the chosen width and height relative to the selected base point.

Width

Enter a width for the selected object.

Height

Enter a height for the selected object.

Keep ratio

Maintains the width and height ratio when changing the width or height setting in the dialogue box.

Only for shapes.

Anchor

Specify the anchoring options for the selected object or frame. The anchor options are not available when you open the dialogue box from the Styles window.

To page

Anchors the selection to the current page.

To paragraph

Anchors the selection to the current paragraph.

To character

Anchors the selection to a character.

As character

Anchors the selection as character. The height of the current line is resized to match the height of the selection.

To frame

Anchors the selection to the surrounding frame.

Base point

Click a base point in the grid, and then enter the new size dimensions for the selected object in the Width and Height boxes.

The selected base point remains fixed in the grid. The object is resized relative to that point.

Protect

Position

Prevents changes to the position and size of the selected object.

Size

Prevents you from resizing the object.

Position

Specify the location of the selected object on the current page.

Horizontal

Select the horizontal alignment option for the object. This option is not available if you chose "anchor as character".

by

Enter the amount of space to leave between the left edge of the selected object and the reference point that you select in the To box. This option is only available if you select "From Left" in the Horizontal box.

to

Select the reference point for the selected horizontal alignment option. The following options are available:

  • Paragraph area: the object is positioned considering the whole width available for the paragraph, including indent spaces.

  • Paragraph text area: the object is positioned considering the whole width available for text in the paragraph, excluding indent spaces.

  • Left of paragraph text area: the object is positioned in the region from the left text boundary to the first character on the left edge of the anchored paragraph text. For multicolumn paragraphs, the region is defined in relation to the column where the anchor is located. When the anchor is not located in the first column, then the region starts at the left column margin.

  • Right of paragraph text area: the object is positioned in the region from the last character on the right edge of anchored paragraph text to the right text boundary. For multicolumn paragraphs, the region is defined in relation to the column where the anchor is located. When the anchor is not located in the last column then the region ends at the right column margin.

  • Left of page text area: the object is positioned in the region between the left edge of the page and the left margin plus any left page padding.

  • Right of page text area: the object is positioned in the region between the right edge of the page and the right margin plus any right page padding.

  • Entire page: the object is positioned considering the whole width of the page, from the left to the right page borders.

  • Page text area: the object is positioned considering the whole width available for text in the page, from the left to the right page margins.

  • Character: the object is positioned considering the horizontal space used by the character.

Beware that the set of options available depend on the Anchor settings. Therefore, not all options listed above may be shown due to the current Anchor choice.

You can see the result of the alignments options that you select in the Preview box.

Mirror on even pages

Reverses the current horizontal alignment settings on even pages.

Vertical

Select the vertical alignment option for the object. The selection specifies the position of the object relative to the region or reference line selected in the to dropdown list.

You can see the result of the alignments options that you select in the Preview box.

by

Enter the amount of space to leave from the top edge of the object to the region or reference line selected in the to dropdown list. This option is active only when the following combinations of Vertical and Anchor are selected. For these combinations, you can specify the amount of space to leave from:

Vertical

with Anchor

From top

Top edge of selected region. Positive values move the object down, negative values up.

To page, To paragraph, To character or To frame

From bottom

Selected reference line. Positive values move the object up, negative values down.

To character or As character

to

Select the region or reference line for the vertical alignment. The object can be positioned in relation to the following regions or reference lines:

  • Margin: Depending on the anchoring type, the object is positioned considering the space between the top margin and the character ("To character" anchoring) or bottom edge of the paragraph ("To paragraph" anchoring) where the anchor is placed.

  • Paragraph text area: the object is positioned considering the height of the paragraph where the anchor is placed.

  • Entire page: the object is positioned considering the full page height, from top to bottom page borders.

  • Page text area: the object is positioned considering the full height available for text, from top to bottom margins.

  • Below page text area: the bottom edge of the page text area to the bottom edge of the page.

  • Above page text area: the top edge of the page to the top of the page text area.

  • Character: available only for "To character" or "As character" anchoring, the object is positioned relative to the region between the top border and bottom border of the character immediately before where the anchor is placed. A character formatted with a common border with other characters or objects uses the region for the highest character or object in the common border.

  • Line of text: available only for "To character" anchoring, the object is positioned considering the height of the line of text where the anchor is placed.

  • Baseline: available only for "As character" anchoring, this option will position the object considering the text baseline over which all characters are placed.

  • Row: available only for "As character" anchoring, this option will position the object considering the height of the row where the anchor is placed.

  • Entire frame: available only for "To frame" anchoring, the outer edges of the frame.

  • Frame text area: available only for "To frame" anchoring, the text area of the frame.

Beware that the set of options available depend on the Anchor settings. Therefore, not all options listed above may be shown due to the current Anchor choice.

If you anchor an object to a frame with a fixed height, only the "Bottom" and "Centre" alignment options are available.

Keep inside text boundaries

Keeps the selected object within the layout boundaries of the text that the object is anchored to. To place the selected object anywhere in your document, do not select this option.

By default, the Keep inside text boundaries option is selected when you open a document that was created in a version of Writer older than OpenOffice.org 2.0. However, this option is not selected when you create a document or when you open a document in Microsoft Word format (*.doc).

Adapt

Specifies, if the size of a drawing object should be adjusted to fit the size of entered text.

Fit width to text

Expands the width of the object to the width of the text, if the object is smaller than the text.

Fit height to text

Expands the height of the object to the height of the text, if the object is smaller than the text.

Adapt is only available for Text Boxes. To adapt Shapes to text, use Format - Object - Text.

Adapt is only available for Text Boxes. To adapt Shapes to text, use Format - Text.