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Positioning Pictures
After you insert a picture, you can adjust its positioning on the page. This includes the ability to wrap text around an image or float a picture outside the frame holding the regular flow of text.
This can be done through styles or by using local formatting. If you want to position all pictures in the same place on the pages where they appear, use a style. If you want to position each picture so that it is in a unique location on the page where it has been inserted, use local formatting.
How to position pictures using a style
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Open the topic style sheet that you want to modify.
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Make sure the appropriate medium is selected. If you are not using style sheet mediums for your different outputs or if you want all mediums to have the same settings, just leave the medium set to "default" and continue.
Mediums can be used if you want to use one group of settings for online output types (DotNet Help, HTML Help, WebHelp, WebHelp Plus, WebHelp AIR, WebHelp Mobile) and another group of settings for print-based output types (Adobe PDF, XHTML, Microsoft XPS, Microsoft Word, Adobe FrameMaker). For example, you might use the "default" medium for your online outputs and you might use the "print" medium for your print outputs.
See About Style Sheet Mediums.
- In the local toolbar, make sure the first button displays
(which means that the Simplified view is currently shown in the editor). If the button displays 
instead, then click it.
- In the upper-left corner of the editor, click in the Show Styles field
and select Show Image Styles.
- From the area below, select the img tag. If you created classes of the tag, you can click the plus button next to the <img> tag and select the class instead.
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In the local toolbar of the editor, click 
. The Properties dialog opens.
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Select the Position tab.
- In the Position section, you can select a Float and a Clear setting. You can also set the Vertical Alignment of the text box.
Float Use this field to specify where to place the picture on the page.
- None Does not place the picture in a specific location.
- Left Positions the picture on the left side of the page frame, allowing you to type text to the right of the picture.
- Right Positions the picture on the right side of the page frame, allowing you to type text to the left of the picture.
- Center of Column Positions the picture in the center of the column on the page.
- Outside Left Margin Positions the picture beyond the left margin of the topic text.
- Outside Right Margin Positions the picture beyond the right margin of the topic text.
- Outside Frame Positions the picture outside of the page frame.
- Outside Frame, Top Align Positions the picture outside of the page frame, as well as aligning it with the top of the frame.
- Left of Frame Positions the picture to the left of the page frame.
- Right of Frame Positions the picture to the right of the page frame.
- Center of Frame Positions the picture both vertically and horizontally in the middle of the page frame.
Clear Use this field to position a picture so that it is "clear" of an adjacent picture. For example, let's say you have already inserted a picture and applied the float left property to it. If you then insert another picture immediately after the first picture, you want to make sure that the second picture doesn't rest next to the first picture. Instead, you want the second picture to be placed completely below the first picture. Therefore, you can apply a clear property to the second picture.
- None Does not apply the clear property to the picture.
- Left Side The picture will be placed below the bottom outer edge of a previous picture that is floating left.
- Right Side The picture will be placed below the bottom outer edge of a previous picture that is floating right.
- Both Sides The picture will be placed below the a previous picture, whether it is floating left or right.
Vertical Alignment Use this field to adjust where the item is positioned vertically.
- Baseline The baseline of the box will be aligned with the baseline of the parent box.
- Text Top The top of the box will be aligned with the top of the parent element's font.
- Text Bottom The bottom of the box will be aligned with the bottom of the line box.
- Top The top of the box will be aligned with the top of the line box.
- Middle The vertical midpoint of the box will be aligned with the baseline of the parent box, plus half the x-height of the parent.
- Bottom The bottom of the box will be aligned with the bottom of the line box.
- In the Properties dialog, click OK.
- Press CTRL+S or click
to save your work.
- Open the content file (e.g., topic, snippet).
-
Right-click on the picture and from the menu, select Edit Picture.
The Edit Picture dialog opens.
- Select the Position tab.
- In the Position section, you can select a Float and a Clear setting. You can also set the Vertical Alignment of the picture.
Float Use this field to specify where to place the picture on the page.
- None Does not place the picture in a specific location.
- Left Positions the picture on the left side of the page frame, allowing you to type text to the right of the picture.
- Right Positions the picture on the right side of the page frame, allowing you to type text to the left of the picture.
- Center of Column Positions the picture in the center of the column on the page.
- Outside Left Margin Positions the picture beyond the left margin of the topic text.
- Outside Right Margin Positions the picture beyond the right margin of the topic text.
- Outside Frame Positions the picture outside of the page frame.
- Outside Frame, Top Align Positions the picture outside of the page frame, as well as aligning it with the top of the frame.
- Left of Frame Positions the picture to the left of the page frame.
- Right of Frame Positions the picture to the right of the page frame.
- Center of Frame Positions the picture both vertically and horizontally in the middle of the page frame.
Clear Use this field to position a picture so that it is "clear" of an adjacent picture. For example, let's say you have already inserted a picture and applied the float left property to it. If you then insert another picture immediately after the first picture, you want to make sure that the second picture doesn't rest next to the first picture. Instead, you want the second picture to be placed completely below the first picture. Therefore, you can apply a clear property to the second picture.
- None Does not apply the clear property to the picture.
- Left Side The picture will be placed below the bottom outer edge of a previous picture that is floating left.
- Right Side The picture will be placed below the bottom outer edge of a previous picture that is floating right.
- Both Sides The picture will be placed below the a previous picture, whether it is floating left or right.
Vertical Alignment Use this field to adjust where the item is positioned vertically.
- Baseline The baseline of the box will be aligned with the baseline of the parent box.
- Text Top The top of the box will be aligned with the top of the parent element's font.
- Text Bottom The bottom of the box will be aligned with the bottom of the line box.
- Top The top of the box will be aligned with the top of the line box.
- Middle The vertical midpoint of the box will be aligned with the baseline of the parent box, plus half the x-height of the parent.
- Bottom The bottom of the box will be aligned with the bottom of the line box.
- Click OK.
- Press CTRL+S or click to save your work.
Note: If you want to adjust the space between the object and the text that flows next to it, you can modify the margins on the object (using the Borders & Margins tab in the dialog).
Note: For additional details on the rules for floating objects, see http://www.w3c.org.
See Also
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