If you have ever previously inserted an image or some other object into an OpenOffice document, then you have already used frames and will have a basic idea of how they work. The picture or the object is automatically going to appear inside a frame. Inside of these frames you can have tables, text, images like logos and pictures and numerous columns as well.
1. Frames are capable of positioning an object in a certain place on your document page, such as when you are trying to produce a newsletter or a bulletin with multiple columns.
2. Linked frames make it possible for text to continue in another place in a document, allowing the content to flow in between these linked frames as you continue to edit your text. These linked frames are capable of appearing on multiple different pages.
3. You can use frames to wrap text around objects like photographs and clip art.
Opening a New Document
Click on File, New, Text Document and an “Untitled1″ document will appear on the screen.
Creating a Frame and Adding Text
1. Select the location where you would like to insert your frame by using the Enter key, the Spacebar, the Arrow keys, the Page Up key or the Page down key.
2. For the sake of this tutorial, click the Enter key two times and then press the Spacebar key three times.
3. Click on Insert, Frame. Now the Frame Window is going to appear. Click on “OK” and an empty frame is going to appear with a little anchor icon. There are eight small green squares surrounding the frame known as handles. These are responsible for helping you resize or reshape your frame.
4. Right mouse click any place within your frame and a menu will appear. Now click on “Anchor” and click on “To Page” so that the frame will move up to the top of your page with a centered alignment.
5. When you anchor your frame to the “To page,” this makes sure that your frame is positioned properly in relation to the margins on the page. It is not going to move when you add or delete text on your page. There are other ways that you can anchor your frame as well, such as “to paragraph,” “to character,” “as character” and so on. With “to paragraph” the frame is going to move when the paragraph does. With “As character” the frame will be placed as a character. You can make further selections under “Position.”
6. Click outside of the frame on the page so the handles disappear.
7. Click inside of the frame, then type “Click inside this frame and type in order to insert some text into the frame.”
8. Once completed, click outside of the frame on the page.
Inserting a Frame Around Text
1. Type in: “Frames can be useful when you are creating a newsletter. Frames are capable of containing tables, text, multiple columns, images and many other objects.” Highlight this text.
2. Click on Insert, Frame. In the dialog box, go to Size, Width, Automatic. Now go to Size, Height, AutoSize, OK. Now a frame is going to appear around your text with the little green handles.
3. Click inside of your frame, then type “When you type, the frame is going to adjust in order to fit whatever you type.” The frame is going to adjust the height and width dynamically as you are typing.
4. Once finished, simply click outside of the frame on your document page.
Resizing or Altering the Location of Your Frame with the Mouse
1. Using the above frame, place your pointer on a handle. The pointer becomes a diagonal arrow. Drag the handle to resize the frame, then let go of the mouse button to complete it. You can move or resize the frame any time with the handles.
2. Click on the frame, then place the pointer inside of the frame to move it elsewhere in the document. The pointer will become a four way arrow. Click the mouse and drag it until the frame is in the desired location.
3. After changing the Frame to the specific location and size that you desire, simply click outside of the frame anywhere else in the document. The cursor will return to the document outside of the frame and the frame will no longer be selected.
Resizing or Moving the Frame with the Frame Window
While using the mouse can sometimes be faster, it is not as accurate as using the frame window to resize or move your frame. You might choose to use the mouse for basic layout, but the Frame window is going to help you with fine-tuning.
1. Put your pointer in the place where you want to place the frame. Click on Insert, Frame. Your Frame window is going to appear. Now click on OK, and the frame will appear with the small green handles attached. If you click outside of the frame, then the handles are going to disappear.
2. Open your frame window simply by right mouse clicking your frame. The handles should be visible. A menu will open up at this point, so click on “Frame.”
3. Under Size, change the Width to 1.99 and the height to Relative.
4. Under Position, change Horizontal to Center.
5. Under Position, change Vertical to Bottom, then click OK.
6. The frame will change according to the options that you customized.
7. When you are finished, simply click outside of the frame.
Creating a Customized Frame
1. Put your pointer in the place where you want to place the frame. Click on Insert, Frame. Your Frame window is going to appear.
2. Under Size, change the Width to 4.09″ and change the Height to AutoSize and Click OK. Now a frame will appear that will be approximately 4 inches in width and 1/2 inches in height.
3. Click on OK.
4. Click anywhere outside of the frame on your page.
Linking Your Frames
You can also link these frames to one another, even when they are not on the same page in your document. The contents are going to flow automatically from one of the frames to the next frame. This can be especially useful when you are putting together brochures, newsletters and similar documents where the articles can continue on different pages or sections of the document.
1. Click inside your frame, then type in “First frame.”
2. Click anywhere outside of your frame, then continue to hit Enter until the point where you reach a different page.
3. Place the pointer and click on this page anywhere where you would like to place your second frame. Click on Insert, Frame. Select “Automatic” under Size, Width and select “AutoSize” under Size, height. A second frame will now appear.
4. Scroll up to your first frame, clicking on the border. Click on “Link Frames” in your Frame Toolbar.
5. Scroll down to your other frame. Place your pointer on your scroll bar and move the pointer until you reach your second frame. Click inside of this second frame until a line is displayed connecting the frames. In order to make this line disappear, simply click anywhere outside of the frame on the page. If you click on the frame edge, then this line is going to reappear.
6. Type in: “Each of these frames can have a single frame linked back to it.” For example, if you have three frames in a document and the second is linked to the first, then the third frame may be linked to your second frame but not to your first frame since it already has a connection to it.
7. Note that you can resize any of the linked frames by clicking the edge to bring back the handles, or you can use the box for “Frame Dialog.”
8. If you decide to resize your friends, then your typing may move over from one of your frames to the other.
9. Only the last linked frame is going to be able to adapt its height to suit your content.
10. You will not be able to link from one frame to more than a single other frame, but you will be able to link a third to a second, a fourth to a third and so on. Your frames can be linked all throughout your document in following this type of procedure. Click on the border of one of your frames and the lines will show you what frames are connected to it.
11. To unlink your frames, click on the frame edge in order to reveal your small green handles. The Frame Toolbar will also appear. Click on the unlink icon on the Frame Toolbar.
12. If you want to unlink your frames, click on the master linked frame. For example, in a series of three linked frames, click on the first in order to release the second, or the second in order to release the third and so on.
Deleting a Frame
1. Click on the frame border in order to select it. When it is selected, the green handles appear.
2. Press delete to remove the frame.
Deleting a Frame Without Losing Text
1. Click inside of the frame and select or highlight all of the text.
2. Click “Cut” in your Menu. The “Cut” icon appears as a pair of scissors. This copies the text to your clipboard making it is available to be pasted elsewhere.
3. Press “Delete” to delete your frame.
4. Go to the Menu and click on “Paste” and the text will be pasted into the document.
Things to Remember
When you are working with OpenOffice Suite Frames:
1. You can click on the frame’s outside edge in order to make the green handles appear.
2. You can click outside of the frame on any part of the page in order to make the green handles disappear.
3. You can click on the frame’s inside in order to type inside of it.