Verified on 3.5.0 beta 2

*** Bug 37127 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

See also https://issues.apache.org/ooo/show_bug.cgi?id=22309,
https://issues.apache.org/ooo/show_bug.cgi?id=29989
https://issues.apache.org/ooo/show_bug.cgi?id=88185
and probably more.  Just for historic reference, tracking this enhancement request back to openoffice and to 2003 and to be able to follow if there is AOO activity on this front.

Still waiting for this to be fixed. Otherwise Impress can not be used for scientific/engineering presentations!

By curiosity...
can this enhancement be implemented in ODF1.2 or does it require extending the standard? In case, would it be worth from LibO to propose it for ODF1.3?

I care about getting this fixed, so I'm offering USD 20.00 via FreedomSponsors to the first person who fix it.

Offer link: http://www.freedomsponsors.org/core/issue/473/allow-inline-graphics-formulas-in-impress-and-draw

You can also join me and throw in a few bucks there and we'll get it fixed faster :) Let me underline this. The amount I can offer is little, but many little amounts can make a reasonable sum. If you are interested, please consider co-sponsoring this issue.
					
If you fix this issue (see my acceptance criteria there) please use that site to request your payment.

Please, in case the opendocument format itself does not support this functionality, please assure that a suitable bug/wishlist is opened against ODF1.3/Next.

Please do not underestimate the impact of this enhancement request. In the scientific academic world, which is a big user of presentation software (conferences, teaching), LibO is simply ruled out by most of my collegues just for the inconvenience related to the impossibility to embed figures/formulas in the presentation text.

Removing patch as there isn't an attached patch on the bug.

Hi,

I just offered an extra 50$ to try and obtain this essential evolution. Let's hope for more!

Jean

Thanks for that information and for your support!


Just to make sure that expectations are realistic here. This enhancement will likely take tens of hours of time - professional developers make in the range of $60-$120/hr - so we're talking about thousands of dollars (at market rate). So - perhaps (and hopefully) the $80 motivates someone, but I want to be sure to keep realistic expectations in the community.

Thanks Jean for participating and to Joel for the due comments.

What I hope is that even if so far the amount is by far too little for fully payed development, it can still have some 'information' value. The fact that there are users willing to economically support work on this may already be a hint on the level of desire for this particular enhancement. And let's hope that other supporters can join in.

Wished feature is still missing from LibO 5.1.2.

Bounty has reached 100$.

See https://freedomsponsors.org/issue/473/allow-inline-graphics-formulas-in-impress-and-draw#sponsors

(In reply to Joel Madero from comment #11)
> Just to make sure that expectations are realistic here. This enhancement
> will likely take tens of hours of time - professional developers make in the
> range of $60-$120/hr - so we're talking about thousands of dollars (at
> market rate). So - perhaps (and hopefully) the $80 motivates someone, but I
> want to be sure to keep realistic expectations in the community.

I am really not so sure: the wanted feature exists in the Write. What we want is then just the implementation of this possibility in Impress Text Areas, which must be not be that different from a page in Write.

I think that sponsorships are advertised not because of the expectation that $120 can pay the work, rather to try getting more and to give a clear indication of how the feature can be important to some users. Even bug reporters can be realistic ;-)

Issue is still present in all LibO versions, since this is a kind request for a feature that still has not been implemented.

A small bounty, currently USD 135 is still available for solving the issue

@Regina:
Is this a problem of the ODF specification or only a LibO implementation issue?

As images and frames have an own style in Writer but not in Draw and Impress, it's not possible to use the Writer properties. Is it necessary to add these styles to Draw and Impress to have this enhancement request to be implemented?

(In reply to Thomas Lendo from comment #19)
> @Regina:
> Is this a problem of the ODF specification or only a LibO implementation
> issue?

You would need a construction <draw:frame><draw:text-box><draw:frame><draw:object>
The schema would allow it directly. The description is not really clear, but I see no principle problem in file format. For Draw it is simple a missing feature. For Impress you have the additional task to define, how such enhanced text-box reacts on animation.
 

> 
> As images and frames have an own style in Writer but not in Draw and
> Impress, it's not possible to use the Writer properties. Is it necessary to
> add these styles to Draw and Impress to have this enhancement request to be
> implemented?

No, styles are not the problem here. The problem is, that the text rendering engine is not able to handle other child elements than <text:span> elements (=character formatting). The styles in Writer contain additional properties, which describe the relationship of the -essentially graphic- objects to the surrounding text. These are not necessary in Draw/Impress because no running text exists. The normal graphic properties are sufficient for the outer frame. Only if the nesting <draw:frame><draw:text-box><draw:frame><draw:object> is implemented additional properties would be necessary for describing the relationship between inner frame and text-box.

*** Bug 113671 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Just a quick reminder to those who might get here being interested in the feature that there is a small bounty at https://freedomsponsors.org/issue/473/allow-inline-graphics-formulas-in-impress-and-draw#sponsors

Sorry for the noise, but those who got redirected here through the "duplicate" bug mechanism may have missed this.

I also regularly use LibreOffice with TexMaths and also would like to have perfectly inlined formulas in Impress and Draw as in Writer. I would like to share my personal workarounds which are not perfect, but at least do a pretty well job, at least for my needs. Even though I'm referring to TexMaths formulas, they also work well for LO's own formulas.

The first option is to create the Text directly as part of the forumla using the LaTeX \text{...} command. This works pretty well but can be a hassle if you want to setup the fonts accordingly. The same workaround can also be used with LO's formula editor.

Next, it is also possible to select the LaTeX fonts directly in Impress/Writer and to create the formula as part of the text. This works pretty well as long as the formula only contains some basic stuff. A drawback is that the font spacing between lines can be slightly messed up by Impress if different fonts are selected.

Finally, if really a LaTeX formula needs to be inlined in text, I create some whitespace in the line and place the formula at this location (moving the formula with Alt or Shift is quite useful here to correctly vertically aling it). This looks pretty perfect on the slide but is rather annoying as soon as you change the text: You will always have to manually adjust the formula's position. But as long as there is no direct way to inline the formula, this is still possible.

6.3.1 is out, still no progress.

Bounty reached 150$: how high should it be to attract a taker?

(See https://freedomsponsors.org/issue/473/allow-inline-graphics-formulas-in-impress-and-draw#sponsors)

Should we make some campaign to attract more donors?

Note that lack of this functionality also makes it impossible to have formulas in the "presenter screen" slide comments.

This is because currently the presenter screen only seems to pick up the content of the slide comments text box and not images or formulas that may get placed in the slide comments zone.

See also Bug 118033 wrt previous comment.

I can't solve it, but maybe by inserting writter OLE could be done. Good look, I'm also looking forward for this feature.

It is unbelievable that this issue still persists in 2020. It is a major feature that prevents many users from adopting Impress.

I teach mathematical programming and I simply cannot prepare my classes using Impress, because I often have to mix text and mathematical notation in the same sentence.

The funny thing is that in Writer it is possible to deal with this problem, since one can add mathematical formulas "inline", i.e. along with the text.

Wouldn't it be easier to allow users to add a "Writer" text object into the presentation?

@rafael lima, @dante19031999@gmail.com

> Wouldn't it be easier to allow users to add a "Writer" text object into the presentation?

As a matter of fact, it is possible to insert OLEs from other LibO applications including writer:
Insert -> Object -> OLE Object -> Libreoffice 6.4 Text

Yet this is impractical and this kind of text elements end up lacking functionalities that you expect from impress, like animation and text fitting to given sizes.

This is why I think that providing /real/ support directly inside impress is fundamental. If you need this functionality, please consider contributing to the bounty described above.

> @rafael lima, @dante19031999@gmail.com
> 
> > Wouldn't it be easier to allow users to add a "Writer" text object into the presentation?

It won't work. You can't insert an OLE inside an OLE. It won't let you. Even inserting symbols doesn't work in OLE mode (at least until 7, have no checked after).

This demand is from 2011. We are now in 2021, in ten years, this work would have been initiated/done/funded if necessary. Is there any realistic path/pointers to start it ?

(In reply to Regis Perdreau from comment #31)
> This demand is from 2011. We are now in 2021, in ten years, this work would
> have been initiated/done/funded if necessary. Is there any realistic
> path/pointers to start it ?

It has been done on writer. So it is possible.
The only thing missing is someone with the knowledge willing to do it.

2022 and still nothing.
It seems that Writer is better for scientific presentations, than Impress.

Slightly following up on

> This means that by not allowing formulas to be inlined 
> in impress, Libreoffice both misses a killer feature of 
> powerpoint and cannot allow good import of powerpoint 
> documents.

I come across this issue frequently in my current work environment.

 - We use OpenSuse on our work machines.
 - The industry partner uses a mixture of Linux and Windows.
 - Microsoft Office is the norm, and for project internal presentations
   we are expected to provide PPT[X] files.

The presentations typically require at least *some* inline formulas, and when opening presentations obtained *from* the industry partner, equations are completely missing, since they cannot be imported.

As a result, we are unable to ditch a setup, where we are running Microsoft Office in a virtual machine. Not a major issue in terms of license costs for a project environment, but a major disadvantage in terms of workflows.

On the Writer side of things, the issue is much smaller, as Math OLEs can be configured to very well emulate true inline equations, except for being a hassle to get consistent formatting across the document (especially in contexts with deviating font size, like footnotes and captions.)

*** Bug 162567 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***