Adding Charts, Pictures, and Objects

The Insert icon lets you access a variety of features. There isn't much that you can't include in a slide. Most of these capabilities are documented in other parts of this book; references are included on this page.

Figure 26-21 shows the Insert tearoff menu.

Figure 26-21. Items you can add to presentations

Inserting Other Objects and Files

These features are covered in Adding Objects and Links to Documents on page 271.

You can insert pretty much any kind of file, whether Impress or other types, in any document.

The most flexible way to insert files is to use the OLE object icon in Figure 26-21 or to choose Insert > Object > OLE Object. ("OLE object" is an unnecessarily techy way of putting itOLE is the technology that lets you edit the file once you've inserted it in another file. For example, you can insert an "OLE object," a Draw file, in a Writer file, and edit the drawing right in Writer.

Think Before You Link

When you insert an object, you'll frequently be prompted to choose whether to just link to where the object currently is, or not. ( "Not" is to embed the object in the file, increasing the file size). An example is shown in Figure 26-23).

Figure 26-23. Inserting an ASCII or HTML text file

Figure 26-22. Inserting an ASCII or HTML text file

We strongly recommend that you not link inserted objects if there's ever a possibility you'll pass the file around as is, without printing to PDF. Just insert it and take the hit of the increased file size. While it reduces file size, it will cause Armageddon-like chaos if you pass the file around to other people in your organization. You'll forget at least once to include a ZIP or JAR of the images or objects, the people receiving them will forget at least once to do one small thing to get the images in the right location, etc.

For more on the relationship between linked objects and relative or absolute paths, see Absolute and Relative Paths, and Fixing Broken Links on page 138.

Inserting Applets and Plug-ins

These features are covered in Adding Applets and Plugins on page 485.

Inserting Text and HTML Files

You can insert HTML and text (ASCII, not Writer) files into the current slide. The contents are inserted in a Text icon text frame; if your slide layout contains a preset text frame, it will be ignored and a Text icon text frame will appear over it, with the contents of the imported file.

Formatting for HTML files is retained as are URLs, which remain functional. Importing an HTML file containing URLs can be a very useful technique in some presentations. When you click a link while you're editing a presentation, the Impress file closes and Web opens the file the URL linked to.

For text files, you might want to paste the contents into a preset Impress text frame, instead of importing.

1. Click the Insert icon on the toolbar at the left of the work area, and display the Insert tearoff menu. Click the Insert File icon on that menu.

   

2. Select the file you want.

3. The file will be listed in the Insert Text window (Figure 26-23). Select Link if appropriate, then click OK.

Note

If you select Link and the file is on a Web page or other location you don't own, you could be left hanging during a presentation if the Web server goes down, or the file becomes otherwise unavailable. See Absolute and Relative Paths, and Fixing Broken Links on page 138.

Inserting Pictures (Images and Drawings)

You can add empty graphics frames or existing graphics files.

Inserting an Existing Graphics File

You can insert any raster file, such as a GIF or JPG, into the current slide.

1. Click the Insert icon on the toolbar and display the Insert tearoff menu, then click the Graphics icon.

   You also can choose Insert > Graphics.

2. Select the file you want, as shown in Figure 26-24. Select Preview if you want to check what the graphic looks like before importing; select Link if you want to link to where the graphic is now instead of pulling it into the document.

   Figure 26-24. Inserting a GIF or other raster

   

   Note

   Be careful about selecting Link. See Absolute and Relative Paths, and Fixing Broken Links on page 138.

3. Click Open .

Inserting a Drawing Into the Current Slide

To add a new drawing or existing drawing to the slide, use the Insert OLE object feature.

Note

To insert a drawing as a new separate slide, see Inserting Existing Slides from Impress or Draw on page 674.

1. Move to Drawing view.

2. Choose Insert > Object > OLE object.

3. In the Insert OLE Object window, select Create new or Create from file (Figure 26-25).

   • If you select Create new, select a file type and click OK. A new empty Draw frame will appear in the slide.

   • If you select Create from file, click Search and select the file, then click OK.

   Figure 26-25. Inserting a Draw graphic in the current slide

   

Inserting Spreadsheets and Other Objects on page 479 illustrates inserting an OLE spreadsheet.

Inserting Page, Date, Time, and Filename Fields

Choose Insert > Field to add a page, date, time, or filename field. Add the field in Slide view if you want it on only one slide, or in Background view if you want it on all slides.

If you're going to be creating handouts with several slides on each page, you can add page numbers to each handout page. See Creating Slide Handouts on page 727.

Inserting Buttons , and Other Controls

Figure 26-26 shows form options.

Figure 26-26. Forms and form components

The Form Functions bar lets you insert buttons, drop-down lists, etc., and attach them to data or events. For example, you could create a button that would open a particular file whenever you clicked on it.

It's beyond the scope of this book to cover them in detail, but some aspects of these features are covered in Chapter 36, Creating and Using Forms, Controls, and Events , on page 921.