[Solved] Selecting multiple objects in a frame

[ptram]

Hi all,

I have some frames with an image (a screen snapshot) and some smaller frames surrounding it, each one containing the text of a caption/callout. Also, there are connecting lines with arrows pointing to details of the image.

I would like to be able to move several objects at the same time, to reorganize the space inside the frames. But I could not find a way to select several objects. Nor dragging, or Shift-clicking, seems to do the trick. Is there a dedicated command or tool to do it?

Thanks,
Paolo

[Hagar Delest]

Frames can't be multi-selected AFAIK. If you want to group objects, you've to use text boxes.

Thanks to add '[Solved]' at beginning of your first post title (edit button) if your issue has been fixed.

[acknak]

You can select multiple objects in Writer only if all the objects are graphics objects. Writer's text frames (Insert > Frame), or images (Insert > Picture > From File) are not graphics objects, so they cannot be part of a multiple selection.

Such collections are also likely to become misaligned--things have a tendency to shift around as Writer fills pages with the document content.

I prefer to create such figures in Draw, then paste it as one (group) object into Writer, but it is possible to do it all in Writer.

[ptram]

If captions are added as text boxes (instead of frames), the problem is that I cannot apply paragraph styles to the text. So, it seems there is a tradeoff either way.

Even doing the whole group in Draw would prevent applying styles. I'll see if this can be changed in a future version.

Thanks,
Paolo

[acknak]

Right. If you really need to have the text in the figure controlled by Writer styles, you have to use the text frames.

You can get most of what you need if you make a (text) frame to "hold" all the parts and anchor all the parts to that frame.

[ptram]

Acknak, thank you very much for the example. I discovered that I anchored all my callouts to a paragraph. Judging from your example, I see you are suggesting to anchor them to the frame.

Thanks,
Paolo

[acknak]

Right. Anchoring them all to the same frame keeps their relative positions the same, and you can move them all together by selecting and moving the "base" frame. Obviously, that frame can be invisible--I gave it a border & colored background just for the sake of the example.

I also set all the items in the figure to wrap "in background". That prevents Writer from trying to move them to accomodate any text in the frame. It's mainly a precaution, but Writer has a bad habit of moving things around, so I wanted to avoid that sort of problem.

[OOO user]

You can select multiple objects in Writer only if all the objects are graphics objects. Writer's text frames (Insert > Frame), or images (Insert > Picture > From File) are not graphics objects, so they cannot be part of a multiple selection.

Such collections are also likely to become misaligned--things have a tendency to shift around as Writer fills pages with the document content.

I prefer to create such figures in Draw, then paste it as one (group) object into Writer, but it is possible to do it all in Writer.

What a shame. You can not select multiple objects generated by OOO itself? But you can do it in Draw. Why can't they make things easier?

[acknak]

What are you trying to do, exactly? What would you do with the things if you could select them all?

Maybe there is another approach that will do the same job.