Documentation/OOoAuthors User Manual/Getting Started/Working with the Gallery

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This is Chapter 14 of Getting Started with OpenOffice.org 2.x (Third edition), produced by the OOoAuthors group. A PDF of this chapter is available from the OOoAuthors Guides page at OpenOffice.org.

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What is the Gallery?

The Gallery contains objects (graphics and sounds) that you can insert into your documents. The Gallery is available in all components of OpenOffice.org.

To open the Gallery, choose Tools > Gallery, or click the Gallery icon inline:Gallery Icon.png . If the Gallery is open, these choices close it.

Graphics in the Gallery are grouped by themes, such as Bullets, Rulers, and 3D Effects. You can create other groups or “themes" as you wish.

The box on the left of the gallery window lists the available themes. Click on a theme to see its graphics displayed in the Gallery window.

Figures 1 and 2 show two views of themes supplied with OpenOffice.org.

You have the option of Icon View or Detailed View for the Gallery, and you can hide or show the Gallery by clicking on the Hide button (circled in Figure 1).

Figure 1
Figure 1: Icon view of one theme in the Gallery, with Hide button circled.

Figure 2
Figure 2: Detailed view of a theme in the Gallery.

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Inserting objects into a document

You can copy or link an object from the Gallery into a document. The difference is that a linked object can be updated in your document if the object is changed in the Gallery, simply by updating the link.

To insert an object:

  1. Choose Tools > Gallery and select a theme.
  2. Select an object with a single click, then drag and drop the object into the document. (See Figure 3.)

Figure 3
Figure 3: Copying a graphic object from the Gallery into a document.

You also can right-click on the object to open the context menu and select Insert > Copy.

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Inserting objects as links

To insert an object as a link:

  1. Choose Tools > Gallery and select a theme.
  2. Select an object with a single click, then while pressing the Shift and Ctrl keys, drag and drop the object into the document.

Inserting an object as a background

To insert an object as the background to a page or paragraph:

  1. Choose Tools > Gallery and select a theme.
  2. Select an object with a single click, right-click on the object and choose Insert > Background > Page or Paragraph.

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Managing the Gallery

The default themes are locked; no items can be added or deleted from these themes. The locked themes are easily recognizable by right-clicking on them; the only available option in the pop-up menu is Properties.

In a default installation, only the My themes theme is customizable, although new themes can be added as explained in Adding a new theme to the Gallery.


Adding objects to the Gallery

Method 1 (selecting a file):

  1. Right-click on the theme name in the list of themes and choose Properties from the pop-up menu.
  2. Click the Files tab, if necessary.
  3. Click Add.
  4. Select a file and click Open. The image is added to the theme.

Method 2 (drag and drop):

  1. Open the document containing an image you want to add to the Gallery, and display the Gallery theme to which you want to add it.
  2. Position the mouse pointer above the image, without clicking.
  3. If the mouse pointer changes to a hand symbol, the image refers to a hyperlink. In this case, press the Alt key while you click the image, to select it without executing the respective link. If the mouse pointer does not change to a hand symbol, you can simply click the image to select it.
  4. Once the image is selected, evident from the green selection handles around it, release the mouse button. Click again on the image, keeping the mouse button pressed for more than two seconds. Without releasing the mouse button, drag the image into the document.
  5. Release the mouse button.

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Deleting objects from the Gallery

To delete an object from a theme:

  1. Right-click on the name of the graphics file or its thumbnail in the Gallery.
  2. Click Delete on the pop-up menu. A message appears, asking if you want to delete this object. Click Yes.

Note: Deleting the name of a file from the list in the Gallery does not delete the file from the hard disk or other location.

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Adding a new theme to the Gallery

  1. Click the New Theme button above the list of themes (see Figure 1).
  2. Click the General tab and type a name for the new theme.
  3. Click the Files tab.
  4. Click Find Files. The Select Path dialog opens (Figure 4). Browse to the folder that contains the image files for the new theme and click OK.
  5. Back on the Files tab, either click on Add All to install all of the files in the selected folder, or use File Type and/or select one or more files from the displayed list, and click on Add to install a selection of files to the new theme.
  6. Click OK when finished.

Figure 4
Figure 4: Setting up a new theme in the Gallery.

Note: The files do not show in the large box under the File Type box; and under the General tab, the Contents will display as “0 Objects," but the chosen files will be inserted into the new theme. Remember, you can always add or delete image files later.

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Deleting a theme from the Gallery

To delete a theme from the Gallery:

  1. Go to Tools > Gallery.
  2. In the left part of the Gallery, select in the list the theme you wish to delete.
  3. Right-click on the theme, then click Delete on the pop-up menu.

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Location of the Gallery and the objects in it

Graphics and other objects shown in the Gallery can be located anywhere on your computer's hard disk, on a network drive, or on a CD-ROM. Listings in the Gallery refer to the location of each object. When you add graphics to the Gallery, the files are not moved or copied; only the location of each new object is added as a reference.

In a workgroup situation, you may have access to a shared Gallery (where you cannot change the contents unless authorized to do so) and a user Gallery, where you can add, change, or delete objects.

The location of the user Gallery is specified in Tools > Options > OpenOffice.org > Paths. Typically it is something like \openoffice\user\gallery, although the exact location depends on your operating system. You can change this location, and you can copy your gallery files (*.sdv) to other computers.

Gallery contents provided with OOo are stored in a location like openoffice\share\gallery. You cannot change this location.

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