LibreOffice, Microsoft Office can share package graphics

Modern office suites allow you to add graphics to any type of document. This includes pre-packaged graphics that comes with the suite.

LibreOffice and Microsoft Office have a series of graphics that are available to any document, regardless of whether it is a text document, spreadsheet, or presentation. Both suites have dialogs that allow for easy insertion of a desired graphic.

LibreOffice has 13 categories by default, and it allows you to create new categories as well as add more graphics. The section is called the Gallery.

In Microsoft Office, the dialog is called Icons. The graphics in this collection are all black and divided into 26 categories. No more can be added to the library, however. The icons are available in the Windows and Mac versions of Office.

LibreOffice

The Gallery in LibreOffice is located in the Media sub-menu, in the Insert menu. There is also an icon in the sidebar for the Gallery it is the fourth one from the top. Clicking it opens the same Gallery as is available in the Media sub-menu.

Gallery item in LibreOffice
The Gallery is also available in the sidebar. It is the middle icon in it.

It is available to four of the applications: Writer, Calc, Impress, and Draw. These are the applications with a sidebar.

Here are the themes:

LibreOffice Gallery

  1. Arrows
  2. Backgrounds
  3. Bullets
  4. Computers
  5. Diagrams
  6. Environment
  7. Finance
  8. People
  9. School & University
  10. Sounds
  11. Symbols
  12. Text Shapes
  13. Transportation

Each theme has several graphics. To insert a graphic into a document:
Click on the desired image and hold down the left-mouse button.
Drag the graphic onto the page.

An image can be resized by clicking on it. The dragging one of the eight squares that appears on the edges of the images.

There are also other options for images in these categories. These can be accessed through a context menu that appears when you right-click on the desired image. Here are the items in the menu:

  • Context menu for LibreOffice GalleryInsert
  • Insert as Background: This is a sub-menu that has two choices: Paragraph and Page.
  • Preview
  • Title
  • Delete: Images that come with the installation of LibreOffice, can be deleted. The images can not be easily recovered.
  • Copy
  • Insert

In addition to the 13 themes and their graphics, new themes and graphics can be added to the Gallery. Click the New Theme button to launch a Properties of New Theme dialog.

The dialog allows you to create a new theme and add graphics to it.

Microsoft Office

Microsoft Office Icons item

The Icons item is in the Insert ribbon under the Illustrations section. Clicking it opens an Insert Icons dialog that contains hundred of black icons in different categories. There are 26 categories.

  1. People
  2. Technology and electronics
  3. Communication
  4. Business
  5. Analytics
  6. Icons dialog Microsoft OfficeCommerce
  7. Education
  8. Arts
  9. Celebration
  10. Faces
  11. Signs and symbols
  12. Arrows
  13. Interface
  14. Nature and outdoors
  15. Animals
  16. Food and drinks
  17. Weather and seasons
  18. Location
  19. Vehicles
  20. Buildings
  21. Sports
  22. Security and justice
  23. Medical
  24. Tools and building
  25. Home
  26. Apparel

The first step is to select a desired image. Click on a desired category, then choose an image. The image will be inserted into the document where the cursor is located.

Step two is inserting the image. Either double-click it or click the Insert button.

The image can be resized. Click and drag one of the eight dots around the edge of the image. You also can rotate the image with the circle arrow or change the layout by clicking the layout options thumbnail to the right of it. The choices are as follows:Microsoft Office graphics layout

  • Inline with Text
  • Square
  • Tight
  • Through
  • Top and Bottom
  • Behind Text
  • In Front of Text

These Icons are only available to Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.

Conclusion

LibreOffice and Microsoft Office both have numerous graphics that come pre-installed. The suites do not make them available to all of their applications. In LibreOffice, Writer, Calc, Impress, and Draw have the Gallery, while it is absent from Base and Math. For Microsoft, the Icons are available to Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. Neither Publisher nor Access have the Icons.

Microsoft has more images than LibreOffice and more categories, but they are only black. LibreOffice doesn’t have as many categories or images, but the images are in color.

Icons and Gallery have some categories in common, and they also have similar graphics. Most of the graphics are different, however.

This means that the two office suites can be used together. If a Gallery graphic is inserted into a LibreOffice document, it will look the same in an Office application. All the features and tools for editing a graphic in Office also can be applied.

The same is true of graphics inserted from Icons in an Office document. The graphics will look the same when they are open in a LibreOffice application. All of the application’s features and tools can be used to edit the graphic.

Most people use Office. Those that don’t yet use LibreOffice can download and use it for free. The price may be worth it just to have the Gallery. More choices may allow users to make better documents.