Word Processing using OpenOffice.org Writer
Copyright © 2004 ICDL Foundation
2004
Table of Contents
- 1. Using the Application
- First Steps with Word Processing
- Open (and close) a word processing application
- Open one, several documents
- Open multiple documents
- Create a new document (based on default, other available template)
- Save a document to a location on a drive
- Save a document under another name
- Save a document in another file type such as: text file, Rich Text Format, HTML, template, software specific file extension, version number
- Switch between open documents
- Use available Help functions
- Close a document
- Adjust Settings
- 2. Main Operations
- 3. Formatting
- Text Formatting
- Change text appearance: font sizes, font types
- Apply text formatting such as: bold, italic, underline
- Apply subscript, superscript to text
- Apply case changes to text
- Apply different colours to text
- Copy formatting from a piece of text to another piece of text
- Apply an existing style to a word, a line, a paragraph
- Paragraph styles
- Use automatic hyphenation
- Apply hyphenation using styles: Modify the style
- Apply the style
- Apply styles using the object bar
- Paragraph Formatting
- Insert, remove paragraph marks
- Insert a paragraph mark
- Remove paragraph marks
- Insert, remove soft carriage return (line break) marks
- Align text left, centre, right, justified
- Set paragraph alignment
- Set alignment in styles
- Indent paragraphs: left, right, first line, hanging
- Apply single, double line spacing within paragraphs
- Apply spacing above, below paragraphs
- Set, remove and use tabs: left, centre, right, decimal
- Apply bullets, numbers to a single level list. Remove bullets, numbers from a single level list
- Bullet an existing list: Quick method
- Bullet an existing list using Format
- Bullet a list using the Stylist
- Create a new bullet list
- Turn bullets off
- Create a numbered list: Quick method
- Number a list: Format method
- Number a list using the Stylist
- Create a numbered list
- Change between the style of bullets, numbers in a single level list from built-in standard options
- Add a top and bottom border, box border and shading to a paragraph
- Document Formatting
- Change paper size
- Change orientation and paper size of current page layout
- Change the page orientation and paper size in a style
- Change margins of entire document, top, bottom, left, right
- Insert, delete a page break in a document
- Add, modify text in Headers, Footers
- Add fields in Headers, Footers: date, page number information, file location
- Apply automatic page numbering to a document
- 4. Objects
- Tables
- Create a table ready for text insertion
- Insert, edit data in a table
- Select rows, columns, cells, entire table
- Insert, delete, rows and columns
- Modify column width, row height
- Modify cell border width, style, colour
- Set the border of individual cells or blocks of cells
- Add shading to cells
- Put a shadow on the table
- Some other important table functions
- Pictures, Images, Charts
- 5. Mail Merge
- 6. Prepare Outputs
- Preparation
- Understand the importance of proofing your document such as: checking the layout, presentation (margins, appropriate font sizes and formats) and spelling
- Spell-check a document and make changes such as correcting spelling errors, deleting repeated words
- Check spelling as you type
- Check spelling of document
- Spellcheck selected text or a single word
- Thesaurus
- Add words to a built-in custom dictionary
- Preview a document
- Printing
For the most part, using Writer in either Windows or Linux is the same. The major difference occurs in open and closing the application. The other variation is in opening and saving files as the file system is quite different in Windows and Linux.
As there are many variations in the way Linux may be installed on computers, it is possible that there will be some variation. The above method is the default when OpenOffice.org 1.1.0 is installed as part of the Mandrake 9.2 distribution and KDE 3.1 is used as the desktop. Mandrake 9.2 is in turn based largely on the Red Hat distribution.
The Writer screen will now display. The components of the screen are shown below.
![[Note]](../images/admon/note.png) | |
Because we will be making extensive use of the Menu bar, we will make use of the following convention in using the functions of the menu bar.
Will mean exactly the same as
| |
Close Writer
->.
This will close all open documents and exit Writer. If you have made any modifications to open documents, Writer will ask you whether you wish to save or discard the changes you have made. It will also give you the option of canceling the Exit operation.
 |
One of the advantages that word processors such as Writer provides for us is the facility to save our work and recall it at a later time. We can then print our work or make further changes (edit). In addition, we are able to create many versions of the same document, each of which can be saved on our hard drive under an appropriate name.
To open a document
->.
At this stage there is a difference between what will happen in Linux and Windows.
The Open dialogue will appear. In general, this will point to your home directory.
In this case, the Open dialogue is pointing to the directory /home/david.
If necessary, navigate to the desired directory.
Highlight the file you wish to open.
Click Open.
 |
If you wish to open a file contained on your floppy, navigate to the directory /mnt/floppy.
| |
On the top right of the Open dialogue, there are three important icons:
| |
If you are running Writer under Windows, the Windows Open dialogue will be displayed.
If you click in the Look in window, a drop down box will display your current directory and available drives. You can switch to another drive by double clicking on it in this window. You can also use the navigation icons to move around your directory structure.
If necessary, navigate to the desired directory.
Highlight the file you wish to open.
Click Open.
If you wish to open a file on your floppy disk, first double click on Floppy A: in the Look in window.
 |
The first two icons in the Open dialogue are the same as under Linux.
The third icon allows you to display the contents of the Open dialogue in a number of ways as shown on the following screen.
The Details option displays important information such as file type, size, created or last edited and attributes.
 |
| Terminology |
|---|---|
We will use the terms document and file interchangeably. Document is the more commonly used term when working with Windows while file tends to be used more commonly when working with Linux. | |
You may open several documents at the same time. Simply repeat the process described above.
Although the files will all be open, only one will be displayed on your screen for editing. We will refer to this as the active document. In the section called “Switch between open documents”, you will learn how to switch between open documents.
To create a new document from scratch
->->
This will display a blank screen in which you can create a document. This document will be based on default settings. Default settings are ones which Writer sets up for you automatically.
Templates are predefined layouts for creating documents. Writer has a number of templates. It also allows you to create your own templates.
When you select ->, a number of Writer templates are displayed.
For example, to create business cards:
->->
This will then display a dialogue which will make the process of creating business cards much simpler than it would have been without the use of a template.
To create a document based on a template you have created you would use:
->->
This will bring up a dialogue which will allow you to select either a predefined Writer template or one that you have created. This template will provide you with the basic format of your new document. There is more information on templates in the section called “Save a document in another file type such as: text file, Rich Text Format, HTML, template, software specific file extension, version number”.
When you work with a document on your computer, the working form resides in the computer's RAM. This is temporary memory used for your current activities. Since RAM is volatile, when the computer is switched off, everything that is in RAM is automatically lost. In order to keep your work you will need to transfer the contents of RAM to your hard disk. This process is called saving.
When you save a document, you give it a name and you specify where it is to be stored.
If you have opened a document and made some changes, the process of saving it is very simple:
->
This will change the contents of the stored version so that it is identical to the version that is displayed on your screen. In this case, the previous version on disk is overwritten.
If you use -> in a newly created document, Writer will automatically assume that you wish to use -> .
When you create a document from scratch, there is no version stored on disk. To save the file to disk:
->.
Now depending on whether you are using Linux or Windows, slightly different dialogue windows will be displayed.
The Save as dialogue will appear. In general, this will point to your home directory. It is very similar in appearance and functionality to the Open dialogue.
If necessary, navigate to the directory in which you wish to save the file.
Enter a name into the File name window.
Click Save.
For the moment we will not be concerned with all the options in the Save as dialogue.
 |
The Save as dialogue window has a very similar structure to the Open window.
If you click the Save in window, your position within your drive and directory structure will be displayed.
If necessary, navigate to the directory in which you wish to save the file.
Enter a name into the File name window.
Click Save.
For the moment we will not be concerned with all the options in the Save as dialogue.
When you use the -> function, the contents on disk are overwritten by the contents on your screen. It often happens that we don not want to do so. In other words, we might wish to keep copies of different versions of the file under different names.
Another possibility is that we wish to keep copies of the same document, but in different places.
In both cases use the -> function.
Suppose, for example, you are writing a difficult letter to someone. Suppose you initially call the letter LetterToJo. After having made some changes you could use Save as, but this time call the document LetterToJo1. The following version could be LetterToJo2, and so on.
There are many different word processors and applications that can read text documents. One of the very important aspects of working with information technology is the ability to exchange documents between different systems.
Each application has its own way of storing information in electronic form. This is known as the format of the application. For example, Microsoft Word stores documents is a different electronic format to OpenOffice.org Writer.
Another issue we need to contend with is that as software develops in sophistication, the format of the documents will change to cater for the increased sophistication. We also need to be able to store a document in a format that could be read by an earlier version of an application package.
There are also a number of generic formats that can be used. These are formats that are not specific to a particular application but which have been designed by the information technology industry to form a common basis for all documents.
Each format has its own file extension. Sometimes we refer to the format by its extension. For example, Writer creates sxw files while Microsoft Word creates doc files. Rich text format, a generic format, uses the rtf extension.
Web browsers can only read documents created in Hypertext Markup Language or html.
Apart from its own format, Writer allows you store documents in a wide range of formats.
To save a file in a particular format (the method is the same in both Linux and Windows):
->.
Click on the Save as type drop down window.
Select the type.
Click Save.
Notice that the Save as type window lists both formats and versions of formats.
 |
The following table provides a reference to some common file types.
|
Format |
Extension |
Details |
|---|---|---|
|
Writer |
sxw |
This is the natural format in which Writer saves its documents |
|
MS Word |
doc |
Writer enables you to save documents in the formats of the different versions of MS Word |
|
HTML |
htm html |
Documents that are meant to be read by web browsers such as Internet Explorer and Netscape must be saved in HTML format. This is an abbreviation for HyperText Markup Language. |
|
Template |
stw |
A template is an outline of a document that can be used for future documents. Templates will be covered in more detail in a subsequent chapter. |
|
Rich text format |
rtf |
This is a format designed for the exchange of formatted text files. The main disadvantage is that the format creates fairly large files. |
|
Text |
txt |
Text files containing unformatted text |
|
Versions |
As applications develop they include new features. Many of these relate to format. | |
|
Portable document format |
|
This is a particularly important format. If you create a file in pdf format, you can send this to other users who can view it with the free Adobe Acrobat Reader. They are, however, unable to edit it. |
Since MS Word is very widely used, you may regularly need to save documents in doc format. This will allow MS Word users to read your documents.
Once you have worked with Writer for a while you will want to create your own templates on which to base your documents. Often these templates only contain formatting features such as margin settings, page orientation, fonts similar features. They can, however, also contain text.
You may for example have to create invoices on a regular basis. Invoices have certain formatting features, but they also contain a lot of text which is the same on each.
Create the document you wish to use as a template. This may consist only of formatting or formatting and text.
->.
Enter the name of the template into the File name window.
Click on the Save as type window and select Text Document Template as shown in the following window.
Select the directory in which you wish to store the template.
Click Save.
This will save the contents of your workspace in template format with an stw extension.
Although the method of creating templates is the same, you need to take care of where you save them so that you can access the templates when you need them. The following are some suggestions.
 |
In Linux, save your templates in the subdirectory called Documents in your home directory.
You may open several documents using the -> function. You will, however, only be able to edit the active document, the one that is displayed on your screen. To make another document active, you need to switch to that document.
Click Window on the menu bar.
A list of open documents is displayed in the lower half of the window. The active document is marked with a dot.
Click on the document you wish to switch to.
The help system of OpenOffice.org provides a complete reference to the system.
->.
This accesses the help system of OpenOffice.org, not just Writer.
Click on the Contents tab.
Each book represents a major section.
Double click on any book icon, for example Text documents. This will display the contents which may be further subsections or actual entries.
Double click on a subsection, for example Creating text documents.
Double click on a entry, for example Selecting and navigating with the keyboard. The right hand pane will contain a detailed description of the topic.
The Contents tab is the same as the table of contents at the front of the book. This organises entries by function.
The Index tab functions in the same way as the index at the back of the book. This provides an alphabetic listing of topics.
Click on the Index tab.
Begin typing a term that you are interested in into the Search term window. Type for example the word template.
OpenOffice.org will attempt to anticipate what you are searching for. As you type in the Search term window, the alphabetic listing of topics will change. The entries are divided into headings and actual topics. The headings are flush against the left hand side of the pane while the actual topics are slightly indented.
Double click on an entry.
The right hand pane contains the details of the topic you have selected.
Within the details of the entry you will also see a number of hyperlinks. These are underlined in blue. These are references to related topics. To jump to one of these entries, double click the hyperlink.
OpenOffice.org provides yet another method of searching for information. Whereas both Contents and Index are based on an alphabetic listing of topics, Find allows you to search within the text of the entries for topics using a keyword.
Suppose you did not find the previous description of the term hyperlink adequate and you wish to find all topics in OpenOffice.org that make reference to this term.
Click on the Find tab.
Type the work hyperlink into the Search term window.
Click Find.
A list of entries that contain the word hyperlink are displayed.
Double click on the entry that you wish to read.
 |
The occurrences of the search word are highlighted in the details window.
When you read a book you may sometimes turn the corner of a page to mark important pages for easy later reference. A bookmark is the electronic equivalent.
Click the create bookmark icon,
, to mark an entry.Enter a name for your entry in the Add to bookmarks dialogue.
Click OK.
Although you can have several documents open at a time, it is not a good idea to have unnecessary documents open as these use up system resources and can slow your machine down. Just as important is the fact that it is just simply very confusing to have to many documents open at once. This is similar to working with a cluttered desk and not putting things away when you have finished with them
To close a document:
->.
If the version in the work area corresponds to what is saved on disk, Writer will close the document immediately. If you have edited the document since it was last saved, Writer will check whether or not you wish to save or discard the changes before closing.
If you wish to work with a document without having the object bar, toolbar, menu bar or scrollbars displayed, use Full screen mode. In this mode, the document will be displayed as it will be printed.
Switch off the ruler using ->. If you wish to see the ruler in full screen mode, leave this step out.
-> or press Shift-Ctrl-J (Hold down both the Shift and Ctrl keys and press J.)
To return to normal viewing:
Press the Full screen on/off icon or press Shift-Ctrl-J .
Switch on the ruler using -> if necessary.
An alternative method of viewing the document as it will appear in printed form is to use Page preview.
->.
The default display is two pages side by side as on the following screen.
In Page preview mode, a context sensitive toolbar is displayed.
If you let the cursor hover over the icons, a bubble will be displayed indicating the function of each.
Press the
button on the toolbar to return to normal
mode.To navigate through the document in Page preview mode, click one of the navigation icons.
The navigation icons are
. These represent previous page, next page,
start of document and end of document.Select the number of pages you wish to view using
.The first icon selects two pages side by side while the second allows the display of multiple pages.
To enter full screen mode, press
.
| |
You cannot edit a document in Page preview mode, but you can print it
by clicking on the print icon, | |
In Page preview mode, you can change the
magnification of the display, by clicking on the zoom icons or changing the zoom
factor on the toolbar, 
.
To change the zoom in Normal mode:
->.
Set the zoom factor or select Variable and enter a % value.
Click OK.
To view or hide toolbars:
->
This will display a list of toolbars. The toolbars that are ticked are those that are currently displayed. Each of the options in the submenu functions as a toggle.
To display a hidden toolbar or hide a displayed toolbar, click the appropriate item.
| |
A toggle is a menu item or icon that reverses the current status. For example, if the Function bar is displayed, ->-> will hide it. One the other hand, if it is hidden then the same sequence will cause it to be displayed. | |
When you Press Enter to mark the end of a paragraph or Tab to jump to a new tab position, Writer marks these with a special character. These characters are usually hidden and do not print when you print the document. They can be thought of as control characters.
It is often useful to display non-printing characters, particularly when it is not clear why the document is displaying in a particular format. To do so:
-> or press Ctrl+F10.
This function acts as a toggle, so it is also used to hide the display of non-printing characters.
The following screen shows how the above paragraphs appear on screen when this function is active.
When you start Writer, it makes certain assumptions as to who is creating the documents, where you wish to save documents, the language you wish to use. These are the default conditions.
The basic options are set using:
->
This will display the Options dialogue. Since OpenOffice.org is a highly integrated application, many of the options will apply to all the programs in the suite while others are more specific. Which type of option is found in which section is clear from their names.
When Writer creates a document, it stores the name of the creator of the document. It also stores other information along with this. To set the default user name:
->
Click the + symbol next to OpenOffice.org to expand the options.
Click User data.
Fill in which ever options you wish.
Click OK.
When you open or save a file, Writer will use the location you set in Options as a starting point. This will be the path that will be displayed in the Open and Save as dialogues.
To set the default file locations:
->
Click the + symbol next to OpenOffice.org to expand the options.
Click Paths.
This will display the default paths Writer will use for a wide range of options. The following screen shows the display when you are using Linux.
The following screen shows the display under Windows.
Double click My documents.
Navigate to the desired directory / folder in the usual way.
Click Select when done.
| Terminology |
|---|---|
The terms directory and folder can be used interchangeably. Linux prefers the term directory whereas Windows prefers the term folder. | |
It is assumed that the reader has some basic keyboard skills. The following section summarises some of the important points above enter and editing text via the keyboard. As there is some variation in the position of keys on different keyboards, the position of the keys is not shown.
To end a paragraph and begin a new line, press the Enter key. Pressing the Enter key a second time inserts a blank line following the end of the paragraph.
If you press Shift+Enter, you will create a new line but not a new paragraph. Sometimes this is referred to as a soft break. The effect appears to be the same as that of pressing Enter, but there is a subtle difference. If you were to use the -> command, Writer would treat all text on either side of the soft break as part of the same paragraph.
The technical meaning of a paragraph in Writer's terminology is therefore slightly different to that of ordinary usage.
There are two keys on the keyboard that allow you to delete text. The Del key deletes text under the cursor while the Backspace key deletes text to the left of the cursor.
|
Key |
Function |
+Ctrl key |
|---|---|---|
|
Right/left arrow keys |
Moves the cursor one character to the left or to the right. |
Moves the cursor one word to the left or to the right. |
|
Up/down arrow keys |
Moves the cursor up or down one line. |
(Ctrl+Alt) Moves the current paragraph up or down. |
|
Home |
Moves the cursor to the beginning of the current line. |
Moves the cursor to the beginning of the document. |
|
Home in a Table |
Moves the cursor to the beginning of the contents in the current cell. |
Moves the cursor to the beginning of the contents of the current cell. Press again to move the cursor to the first cell in the table. Press again to move the cursor to the beginning of the document. |
|
End |
Moves the cursor to the end of the current line. |
Moves the cursor to the end of the document |
|
End in a Table |
Moves to the end of the contents in the current cell. |
Moves the cursor to the end of the contents of the current cell. Press again to move the cursor to the last cell in the table. Press again to move the cursor to the end of the document. |
|
PgUp |
Scrolls up one page. |
Moves the cursor to the header. |
|
PgDn |
Scroll down one page. |
Moves the cursor to the footer. |
The keyboard allows you to enter most of the text you require. Further, there are numerous keyboards available for different languages that allow you to enter the characters that are commonly used in those languages. When the operating system is installed, whether Linux or Windows, one of the things that has to be defined is the language of the keyboard.
Whatever keyboard you are using, Writer allows you to enter hundreds of other characters and special symbols not available on the keyboard.
Enter a special character or symbol
Position the cursor at the point where you wish to insert the special character or symbol.
->.
Select the Subset to locate the character you wish to insert.
Highlight the character and press OK.
We are able to perform operations such as copying, deleting and formatting on entire blocks of text. However, before we can do so we need to select the text we wish to operate on. Usually we refer to this as highlighting the text.
One way of highlighting text, is to position the cursor at the start or end of the text you wish to highlight and, while holding down the Shift key, use the navigation keys to move to the other end of the text you wish to highlight.
Another related method is to position the cursor at the start or end of the text you wish to highlight and, while holding down the left mouse button, use the mouse to position the cursor at the other end of the block of text.
Writer uses certain keyboard combinations and mouse actions to select clearly defined blocks of text such as words and paragraphs. These are shown in the following table.
|
To select |
Action |
|---|---|
|
A word |
Double click on the word |
|
To the end of the current line |
Shift + End |
|
To the start of the current line |
Shift + Home |
|
Current line |
Triple click on any word in the line |
|
Paragraph |
Click at the start of the paragraph, hold down the Shift key and click at the end of the paragraph. |
|
Any block of text |
Click at the start of the block, hold down the Shift key and click at the end of the block. |
|
Sentence |
Click at the start of the sentence, hold down the Shift key and click at the end of the sentence. |
|
To the end of the document |
Shift + Ctrl + End |
|
To the start of the document |
Shift + Ctrl + Home |
|
Entire document |
Ctrl+A |
When working with Writer there are two different modes of text entry, insert and overwrite mode. When you are in insert mode and you begin typing, text is inserted at the current position. All text ahead of the cursor is simply pushed further to the right to make way for the new text. In overwrite mode text you type replaces existing text.
The Insert key on the keyboard acts as a toggle switching Writer between the two modes. The current mode is indicated on the status bar at the bottom of the screen.
The status bar below indicates that Writer is in Insert mode.
If we press the Insert or INS key, the status bar will change to indicate that you are now in overwrite mode.
When we execute a command on some text, for example delete the text, we are able to reverse what we have done. This is known as the undo function. It is also possible after having undone the change, get it back. This is called the redo function.
Writer actually keeps a history of recent changes you have made.
Pressing Ctrl+Z undoes the last change you made. Pressing it a second time, undoes the one before that, and so on.
An alternative method is to use ->. When you use this method, the menu will indicate what type of operation you will be undoing.
For example, the following screen segment shows that the last operation was the creation of a new paragraph. The undo will remove this new paragraph.
 |
Yet another way of carrying out undo is to press the undo icon on the
function bar, 
.
To duplicate text either within the same document or between two different documents is a two stage process, copy then paste. This is accomplished as follows:
Highlight the text you wish to duplicate.
->.
Position the cursor at the point you wish to duplicate the text.
->.
If you wish to make another copy of the text, you only need to perform the last two steps since Writer remembers the text that you copied.
The process is basically the same when copying between documents.
Highlight the text you wish to duplicate in the first document.
->.
Open the second document if it is not yet open or switch to it using the Window menu item.
Position the cursor at the point you wish to duplicate the text in the second.
->.
To move text either within the same document or between two different documents is a two stage process, cut then paste. This is accomplished as follows:
Highlight the text you wish to duplicate.
->.
Position the cursor at the point you wish to insert the text.
->.
The process is basically the same when moving between documents.
Highlight the text you wish to duplicate in the first document.
->.
Open the second document if it is not yet open or switch to it using the Window menu item.
Position the cursor at the point you wish to insert the text in the second.
->.
Complex documents can become very large. Often we need to find text within a document but do not know where it is located. Hence the ordinary navigation features are not suitable. Writer provides a very important feature for the purpose, namely the search or find feature.
->-> or Ctrl+F.
This will display the following dialogue window:
Enter the text you wish to search for in the Search for window. This can be a part of a word, a whole word or a phrase.
If you are looking for this word specifically and not as part of other words, tick the Whole words only check box. Otherwise leave it blank.
If you wish to find only occurrences that are not only the same letters but the same letters and case, tick the Match case check box. Otherwise leave it blank.
You may search backwards from your current cursor position by ticking the Backwards check box.
You now have two options:
Find all
Click Find all to highlight all occurrences of the search text.
Click Close. All the occurrences will be highlighted.
Scroll through the document.
Press Esc when you are done.
Find
Click Find to locate the next occurrence.
Writer will jump to the next occurrence of the search text.
Click Find again to jump to the next occurrence.
You may change any Options you as work.
Click Close when you are done.
The last occurrence will remain highlighted.
Press Esc when done to remove the highlighting.
The same dialogue allows us to change either all or specific occurrences of a word, phrase or text to something else.
Suppose we have some text in which the word “show” occurs a number of times. We wish to replace this with the word “exhibit”.
->->or Ctrl+F.
Enter the word you wish to replace in the Search for window.
Tick Backwards if you wish to replace text from the current position backwards. Leave it blank to replace in a forward direction.
Click Replace all. This will replace all occurrences without any further interaction. A window will be displayed indicating how many changes were made.
->. If you execute this command immediately after the replacement, Writer will indicate that the last operation was a replacement in the menu. The action of the command will be to restore the workspace to its state prior to the replacement.
The term font refers to the style of the type face. Here are some examples:
The size of fonts is measured in points. A point is 1/72”. The size is determined by the distance from the bottom of the descender to the top of the ascender.
 |
The central part of the letter is called the body. Fonts vary in the relative sizes of their ascenders, descenders and body as well as their thickness.
Another difference between fonts are those which have small tails or feet attached to the vertical strokes. These are called serif fonts. Examples are Times New Roman and Bookman Old Style. The fonts without these are called sans serif fonts. Examples are Arial, Tahoma and Verdana.
The default font is the font that Writer chooses for you unless you specify otherwise. To set the default font:
->
Expand Text document
Double click on Basic fonts.
Click on Default.
Select the font from the drop down window.
Click OK.
This is shown in the following screen. If you click Default in this dialogue, the fonts will be set to the original Writer defaults.
The current font style and size are shown on the object bar as in the following example where the font is Arial 11 point.
 |
Any text you type will automatically assume this font.
You may change the font type and size of existing text as follows:
Highlight the text you wish to change.
Click on the font drop down window to display the available fonts and select a font.
Click on the size drop down window to select a font size. As you complete these operations the text in your document will assume the new font immediately.
Changes we make to fonts are called attribute changes. Examples include bold, underlining and italics. Further, we can add combinations of these as shown in the following table.
Attributes can be set before new text is typed or they can be added to
existing text. The 
object bar contains icons for setting bold, italic and
underlined.
When an attribute is set, the corresponding icon on the object bar will have a border around it. In the above illustration, bold is on but italic and underline are off.
Each of the attribute icons on the object bar acts as a toggle. If the attribute is on, clicking the icon will switch it off. If the attribute is off, clicking the icon will switch it on.
Before typing new text, set each of the attribute settings using the object bar icons as described above. These settings will hold for further text until you change them.
| |
If you now move to another part of your document where the settings were set previously, the icons on the object bar will change to reflect the settings of this text. | |
Highlight the text whose attributes you wish to change.
Click on the appropriate icons on the object bar to change the attributes.
| |
| |
Superscript and subscript refers to text, usually in a small font, slightly above or below the body of existing text. The following table illustrates superscript and subscript.
|
a2 – 2ab + b2 = (a – b)2 Area of house is 129 m2 H2SO4 + Cu => CuSO4 + H2 |
The term position is used to describe the three options of subscript, superscript and normal.
The quick way of creating superscripts or subscripts is to use the keyboard shortcuts:
Type your normal text.
When you wish to start text in superscript, press Shift+Ctrl+P and type the superscript.
Press Shift+Ctrl+P a second time to revert to normal text.
Type your normal text, then press Shift+Ctrl+B and type the subscript.
Press Shift+Ctrl+B a second time to revert to normal text.
Highlight the text you wish to convert to superscript or subscript.
Press Shift+Ctrl+P to covert the highlighted text to superscript or Shift+Ctrl+B to convert the text to subscript.
Highlight the text you wish to convert to superscript or subscript.
->
Click the Position tab.
Under Position, select either Normal, Superscript or Subscript.
If you use superscript and subscript frequently, you might like to add appropriate icons to the object bar.
The object bar can be customised as follows:
->
Click the Toolbars tab.
Click Customize.
Click on the Toolbars drop down window and select Text ObjectBar.
In the Buttons in use window, tick the Superscript and subscript check boxes as shown on the following screen.
Press OK.
The superscript and subscript icons will be added to the object bar as shown below. Instead of using the keyboard combinations, you can now use these icons in the same way that you use bold, italic and underline icons.
Once you have typed a block of text you are able to change its case. You may, for example, wish to convert a block of text to upper case (capital letters).
Highlight the text you wish to convert.
->
Select either Uppercase or Lowercase as needed.
 |
The colour of text can be changed just like the other attributes.
->
Click the Font effects tab.
Click on the Font color drop down window to display the available colours.
Select the colour you wish to apply to the text.
Click OK.
As in the case of the other text attributes, you can set the colour of new text before you type it or change the colour of existing text. In the latter case, first highlight the text and then use this procedure.
You may also change the font colour by using a long click on the Font colour icon on the object bar (Hold the left mouse button down until the colour palette is displayed).
 |
Suppose you have written quite a long document. During a final editing you decide to change the formatting of certain key paragraphs. This could involve, font type, size, colour and other attributes. The long method would be to repeat the formatting procedure manually on each paragraph.
The more elegant and efficient method would be to format one paragraph very carefully and then copy the formatting to other paragraphs. In order to achieve this, Writer makes use of styles. A style is a set of attributes that can be applied to characters, paragraphs and pages. Each style is given a name.
Writer has styles for characters, paragraphs or pages. The next section will look at styles in more detail. This section will consider the basic use of the character style to copy formatting from one block of text to another.
A character style is a set of attributes that can be applied to individual letters, numeric digits and symbols. The attributes could include font style, size and colour, and bold, italic or underlining.
Format the block of text that will serve as the model.
Highlight this text.
-> or press F11.
Click the character styles icon, (the second icon)
.Click Default in the list of styles.
Click the New style from selection icon (the second from the end),
.Give the new style a name and click OK.
Click the Update style icon (the last icon),
.Click on the Fill format mode icon (the paint can).
Drag this over the text whose format you wish to change.
Click on the Fill format mode icon or press Esc to stop copying the formatting.
Writer offers the user a number of different styles. The following table provides a brief description of the different styles and functions associated with the stylist. This summary is derived from the Writer help system.
|
|
Paragraph styles: Displays formatting styles for paragraphs. Use paragraph styles to apply the same formatting, such as font, numbering, and layout to the paragraphs in your document. |
|
|
Character styles: Displays formatting styles for characters. Use character styles to apply font styles to selected text in a paragraph. |
|
|
Frame styles: Displays formatting styles for frames. Use frame styles to format frame layouts and position. |
|
|
Page styles: Displays formatting styles for pages. Use page styles to determine page layouts, including the presence of headers and footers. |
|
|
Numbering styles: Displays formatting styles for numbered and bulleted lists. Use numbering styles to format number and bullet characters and to specify indents. |
|
|
Fill format mode: Applies the selected style to the object or text that you select in the document. Click this icon, and then drag a selection in the document to apply the style. To exit this mode, click the icon again, or press Esc. |
|
|
New style from selection: Creates a new style based on the formatting of the current paragraph, page, or selection. |
|
|
Update style |
Once the new style has been created, you can open the Stylist at any stage use the Fill format mode to change the format of text. The following method can be applied to a character, a word, a line of text or a much larger block of text.
-> or F11.
Click the Character style icon.
Click the style you wish to apply.
Click the Fill format mode icon,
.Move the mouse pointer to the starting point of the text you wish to format. The mouse pointer will have the form of the paint can,
.Click and drag (hold down the left mouse button) over the text you wish to change.
Release the left mouse button and repeat on other text you wish to change.
Press Esc when done.
An alternative method is as follows:
Highlight the text to which you wish to apply the style. You can use the shortcuts described in the section called “Insert text” to select the text.
-> or F11.
Click the Character style icon.
Double click the style you wish to apply.
Paragraph styles have additional features associated with them. These features, which include margins, justification and line spacing, will be covered in detail in the following sections.
Suppose you regularly create a heading which is centred on the page and uses 14 point bold red Franklin Gothic Medium. The centring on a page is a feature which applies to paragraphs and not to characters. The following example illustrates how to create a paragraph style called Gothic Heading.
Format one of the headings according to your specification.
Highlight the heading.
-> or F11.
Click Paragraph styles,
.Click New style from selection,
.Enter a Style name.
Click OK.
You can modify the attributes of a paragraph style using the Paragraph styles dialogue.
-> or F11.
Click Paragraph styles,
.This will display the dialogue.
Make the changes.
Click OK.
Where a word will not fit at the end of a line, by default it will be moved to the next line. It is possible to break longer words up between lines. This can be done using either automatic or manual hyphenation. Hyphenation splits words between syllables based on OpenOffice.org's internal dictionary.
When you make use of automatic hyphenation, Writer does all the work for you. This option can be applied to individual paragraphs or to paragraph styles.
->
Select Paragraph styles.
Right click on the paragraph style you wish to modify.
Select Modify in the context sensitive menu that is displayed to display the Paragraph styles dialogue.
Click on the Text flow tab. This is the same as in the Paragraph dialogue shown above.
Tick the Automatically check box in the Hyphenation area.
Click OK.
Whenever you apply a style which has been modify to include automatic hyphenation, Writer will automatically hyphenate the paragraph.
As you insert text into or delete text from a paragraph that has automatic hyphenation, Writer will adjust the hyphenation to the changes.
There is a slight technical distinction between the ordinary use of the term paragraph and the term as is commonly used.
Technically, a paragraph is a block if text that is terminated by a carriage return, that is by pressing the Enter key. Technically we say that Enter inserts a hard carriage return.
If you press Shift+Enter you can create a new line. This creates a new paragraph in the usual sense it is used in everyday language. Technically we say that Shift+Enter inserts a soft carriage return. Writer, however, will treat the new text as part of the existing paragraph. This means that if you apply a paragraph style to the first part of the paragraph, Writer will apply it to the part after the soft return as well.
Sometimes the hard carriage return is referred to simply as a paragraph break and the soft carriage return as a line break.
These two keys insert different hidden control characters into the text.
Press the non-printing characters icon,
, on the main
toolbar to make these and other hidden characters
visible.
Once hidden control characters are visible, they can be edited like any other text.
The following paragraph illustrates some text in which non-printing characters have been made visible.
 |
The 
symbol indicates a paragraph break while 
indicates a line break.
In this example, the heading is separated from the first paragraph by two paragraph breaks. The first and second paragraphs are technically a single paragraph as they are separated by two line breaks.
Display non-printing characters by pressing the non-printing characters icon,
on the main toolbar.To delete a paragraph break either position the cursor in front of the paragraph mark break and press Del or to the right of the mark and press Backspace.
Press
to hide non-printing characters.
When you Press Enter, a new paragraph is created beginning with the new line. It can happen that you wish to insert a new line without actually creating a new paragraph. In this case you can insert a line break. This has the same appearance as a new paragraph, but for formatting purposes the text is treated as a single paragraph. To insert a line break:
Press Shift+Enter.
OR
->
Click the Line break radio button and click OK.
Display non-printing characters by pressing the non-printing characters icon,
, on the main toolbar.To delete a line break either position the cursor in front of the line break mark break and press Del or to the right of the mark and press Backspace.
Press
to hide non-printing characters.
When copying text from another source, it sometimes happens that line breaks are inserted into a paragraph. This happens in particular when you copy text from an email client into a word processor.
->
On the Options tab, ensure that Combine single line paragraphs if length greater than 50% is selected. (To change the minimum percentage for the line length, double-click the option in the list, and then enter a new percentage.)
Click OK.
Select the text from which you wish to remove the line breaks.
->->.
Alignment or justification of text refers to the position of the text with regard to the margins. Centred text lies midway between the margins, whereas right justified text is aligned against the right hand margin but jagged on the left. The following table illustrates the different forms of alignment of text.
|
Left aligned |
The international airport, Bole, at Addis Ababa (Addis to aficionados) is modern and boasts several duty free shops. The drive into Addis reveals a few modern five storey structures, but also, it is strikingly free of litter. Buildings range from the palace ruins, the Queen of Sheba’s bath, square wattle and daub homes, two supermarkets to the sprawling Merkato market – the largest market in East Africa. |
|
Right aligned |
The international airport, Bole, at Addis Ababa (Addis to aficionados) is modern and boasts several duty free shops. The drive into Addis reveals a few modern five storey structures, but also, it is strikingly free of litter. Buildings range from the palace ruins, the Queen of Sheba’s bath, square wattle and daub homes, two supermarkets to the sprawling Merkato market – the largest market in East Africa. |
|
Centre aligned |
The international airport, Bole, at Addis Ababa (Addis to aficionados) is modern and boasts several duty free shops. The drive into Addis reveals a few modern five storey structures, but also, it is strikingly free of litter. Buildings range from the palace ruins, the Queen of Sheba’s bath, square wattle and daub homes, two supermarkets to the sprawling Merkato market – the largest market in East Africa. |
|
Justified |
The international airport, Bole, at Addis Ababa (Addis to aficionados) is modern and boasts several duty free shops. The drive into Addis reveals a few modern five storey structures, but also, it is strikingly free of litter. Buildings range from the palace ruins, the Queen of Sheba’s bath, square wattle and daub homes, two supermarkets to the sprawling Merkato market – the largest market in East Africa. |
Click anywhere in the paragraph.
Press the appropriate alignment icon on the object bar.
The alignment icons are shown in the following table.
 |
Left |
 |
Right |
 |
Centre |
 |
Justify |
When creating or modifying a paragraph style, you may set a default associated with that style. For example, the default style can be set to include justification as follows:
->.
Select paragraph styles.
Right click on Default.
Click Modify.
Click the Alignment tab.
Click Justified in the Options area.
Click OK.
All paragraphs that use the default style will now automatically be justified.
Indents refer to the amount of space inserted between the text and the left and right hand margins. In the case of a first line indent,the first line is indented but not the subsequent lines. In the case of a hanging indent, the first line is not indented while subsequent lines are. Indents may be set up before a paragraph is created or applied to existing paragraphs.
The following table illustrates the different types of indent.
Indents are set as follows:
->.
Click the Indents & Spacing tab.
Set the Before text, After text and First line in the Indent area to achieve the desired effect.
The following table illustrates how the previous indents were achieved.
|
Left indent |
Settings: Before text = 1.00 cm
| |
|
Right indent |
Settings: After text = 1.00cm
| |
|
First line indent |
Settings: First line = 1.00 cm
| |
|
Hanging indent |
Settings: Before text = 1.00 cm First line = -1.00cm
|
| |
The effect of the negative value is to move the first line back to the margin and so create a hanging indent. | |
If the Automatic check box is ticked, the first line of the paragraph is indented according to the size of the font and the line spacing. The setting in the First Line box is ignored.
->.
Select paragraph styles.
Right click on the style you wish to modify.
Click Modify.
Click the Indents & Spacing tab.
Make adjustments as above.
Click OK.
All paragraphs based on the style you have modified will change to reflect the new values.
Indents are indicated on the ruler as shown in the next screen.
The normal spacing between lines of a paragraph is single line. The paragraphs of this book are all in single line spacing. In some cases we need to leave more space between lines. Examples would include contracts and legal documents.
->.
Click on the Indents & Spacing tab.
Click the Spacing drop drop down window.
Select the line spacing.
Click OK.
Usually Writer does not insert an space above or below a paragraph. Usually users insert a blank line at the end of the paragraph to set the paragraph off from other text. This involves pressing the Enter key twice. You may, however, let Writer insert this space for you automatically. You could also insert space automatically before a paragraph.
->.
Click on the Indents & Spacing tab.
Adjust the values in the Above paragraph and Below paragraph windows.
Click OK.
Tabs are used for aligning columns of text and numbers. Consider the columns shown on the following screen.
 |
The second to fifth columns are left, right, centre and decimal aligned on the tabs respectively.
Notice the different icons on the ruler for the different tab stops.
 |
Left tab |
 |
Right tab |
 |
Centre tab |
 |
Decimal tab |
Tab stops are set for a paragraph or group of paragraphs. They may also be set in a style
Default tab stops are set in the Default paragraph style.
->
Select Paragraph styles.
Right click on Default.
Select Modify.
Click on the Tabs tab.
Click Delete all to clear existing tab stops.
Enter a Position and click on a tab Type.
Click New.
Repeat the process for all the default tabs you wish to set.
Click OK when done.
You may change the positions of the tab stops on the ruler by dragging them. The change will, however, only apply to the current paragraph.
When users create columns of data as in the earlier screen, a common mistake is to press the Enter key at the end of each line. This means that when you drag a tab stop icon, it will only have an effect on one line. A better idea is to press Shift+Enter at the end of each line until all the data has been entered. In this way, Writer can treat the entire block of data as a single paragraph. The tab stop icons can then be dragged and change the positions of entire columns at once.
->.
Click the Tabs tab of the dialogue.
If only the default tabs are set, the tab stops will not be shown. If custom tabs have been set, these will be displayed as shown in the screen.
Press the Delete all button. This will clear all default and custom tab stops for the current paragraph.
Highlighted the tab stop you wish to delete and press the Delete button.
Enter a value into the Position window.
Select Left, Right, Centered or Justified under Type.
Press New. The new tab stop will be added to the list of existing tab stops.
| |
A quick way of setting tab stops is to right click on the paragraph, select Paragraph in the context sensitive menu and then press the Tabs tab. | |
Bullets are useful in emphasising lists of items. The following two screens illustrate the use of bullets to emphasise points.
|
No bullets |
Bulleted | ||
|
|
Highlight the list of items to be bulleted.
Click the Bullets icon on the Object bar,
. This will bullet the list using the default bullet
symbol.
Highlight the list of items to be bulleted.
->
Click the Bullets tab.
Click on the bullet style you wish to insert and click OK or simply double click on the bullet.
| |
If you Press Enter in a bulleted line, Writer will automatically insert a bullet at the start of the new line. | |
Highlight the list to be bulleted.
-> or press F11.
Click Numbering styles.
Double click on one of List 1 to List 5.
| |
Sometimes clicking on the bullet icon on the Object bar produces an undesired spacing with the bullet. In such a case, use the Stylist. | |
Insert a bullet at the start of the first line using any of the methods above.
Press Enter at the end of each line to insert a new bulleted item on the next line.
Press Enter twice at the end of the final item.
The bullet icon on the Object bar acts as a toggle.
Select the list from which you wish to remove bullets.
Click the Bullet icon,
, on the Tool
bar.
A numbered list is similar to a bulleted list, except that the items are numbered in sequence. If a new item is inserted within the list or at the list, the numbering adjusts automatically.
Select the list of items to be numbered.
Click the Numbering icon,
, on the Tool
bar.
Select the list of items to be numbered.
->
Click the Numbering type tab.
Double click on the style of numbering you wish to apply.
The next screens illustrate two styles of numbered list.
 |
 |
Highlight the list to be bulleted.
-> or press F11.
Click Numbering styles.
Double click on one of Numbering 1 to Numbering 5.
The method is exactly the same as creating a bulleted list.
The style of either numbering or bullets can be changed using the Format menu.
Select the list to be changed.
->
Click the Bullets or Numbering type tab.
Double click on the new style. The selected bullets or numbering will change immediately.
| |
This same method can be used to convert bullets to numbering or numbering to bullets. | |
To emphasise points you can add borders to paragraphs. You are able to choose the thickness of the border and whether you wish it to have a shadow or not.
To apply a border to a paragraph:
Highlight the paragraph.
->.
Click the Borders tab.
Select a line thickness.
Select a border colour.
Select a shadow style. (The first icon is no shadow.)
Select a shadow colour.
Select a line arrangement.
Click OK.
This paragraph has a 1.00 pt black border with a grey shadow to the lower left.
Notice there are five options for line arrangement.
The first one, no border, is the default which means that unless otherwise specified all paragraphs will appear with no border.
The second one is a box border which will draw four lines around the paragraph, ie top, bottom, left and right.
The third one is a left and right border only with no top and bottom.
The fourth one is a top and bottom border only with no left and right border.
The last one is a left border with no others at all.
Abstract
Change document orientation to portrait or landscape.
Normally we print across the short side of a page as, for example, on the page you are reading. This orientation of the page is called portrait. We can alter the page layout so that we print across the long side of the paper. This is called landscape. The next screen illustrates the two orientations.
 |
Writer also has to have information about the size of the paper you will be using for printing in order to be able to format the document correctly. Usually we use A4 size. There might be times when you use smaller paper, such as A5, or larger paper, such as A3. The printer you use will impose restrictions on the size of paper. Paper size can be set at the same time as orientation.
->.
Click the Page tab.
Click either the Portrait or Landscape radio button to set the desired orientation.
Set the paper size to a standard size by clicking on the Format drop down window or enter a custom size using the Width and Height windows.
Click OK.
| |
This will set all the pages of the document up to the point where a page break with a new style has been inserted. If you wish to use different page orientations within the same document, you will need to make use of page styles. | |
->
Select Page styles.
Right click on the style you wish to change and click Modify in the context menu.
Click the Page tab.
Set the paper size to a standard size by clicking on the Format drop down window or enter a custom size using the Width and Height windows.
Click either Portrait or Landscape and click OK.
The margins refer to the space at the top, bottom and sides between the printed area and the edge of the paper. There is actually a small area around the edge of the paper that cannot be printed on. The margins are actually the distance between the printing and the edge of the non-printable area.
The margins can be set at the same time as the paper orientation.
->.
Click the Page tab.
Set the Left, Right, Top and Bottom margins (see the previous screen capture of the dialogue window).
Click OK.
The margins can be set in a style in exactly the same way as the paper orientation.
When you reach the end of a page, Writer automatically inserts a page break and puts additional text on the following page. This is called an automatic or soft page break. If you insert text on a page, Writer will automatically adjust the position of the soft page break.
You may also insert a manual or hard page break at any point where you wish to force Writer to end a page. This is done by pressing Ctrl+Enter.
When you insert a hard page break using Ctrl+Enter, Writer will automatically use the current page style on the next page.
Display hidden characters by pressing , on the Main toolbar.
Delete the page break by deleting the
character at the end of the paragraph.
You will often need to change certain features of new pages such as headers, footers, margins and orientation. In order to do this you need to make use of styles. You will first need to create a style for each set of pages. Once you have your styles defined, you can insert a page break and change to a new page style at the same time.
->. This will display the following dialogue.
Click the Page break radio button.
Click on the Style drop down window and select a style for the new page.
Click OK.
You will see how to change headers and footers within a document using styles in the next section.
Headers and footers are text that is displayed at the top and bottom of each page. Once the header or footer has been defined, Writer will automatically insert it on every page of the current style.
->
Depending on the existing styles, you will see different menus. The one on the left is what you will see in the case of a simple document where there are no styles. The second will be displayed where the document contains a number of page styles.
For the time being, we will assume a situation as on the left.
Click Default.
This will display a header region. In this you can type and format your heading. You will only need to do this once. Writer will automatically insert this header at the top of each page.
Enter and format the text of the header as shown, for example, on the next screen.
Click on the body of the page when done.
Suppose you are writing a book. At the top of each page you wish to insert the chapter number and title.
First you need to create a style for chapter 1.
->
Select Page styles.
Click Default.
Click New from Selection.
Call the style Chapter 1.
Double click on the Chapter 1 style.
->->.
Create your header.
Click Update style and close the Stylist dialogue.
At this point you would type up the text of chapter 1. When you are ready to start the next chapter:
Make sure the cursor is in Chapter 1. (This will ensure that Chapter 1 is the current style.)
->
Select Page styles.
Click New from Selection.
Call the style Chapter 2.
At this stage you have created a new style called Chapter 2 which is identical to the Chapter 1 style.
At the end of chapter 1: ->.
Click the Page radio button.
Click the Style drop down window and select Chapter 2.
Click OK.
This will insert a hard page break with the new page having the Chapter 2 page style.
Edit the header in chapter 2.This will automatically change the Chapter 2 style.
Certain information such as the current page number, date and file information can be added to the headers or footers.
Position the cursor at the point in the header or footer where you wish to insert the page number.
->->
Other information such as date, time and number of pages can be inserted in exactly the same way as shown on the screen capture.
| |
Note that the date and time inserted will be fixed and will reflect the date and time the header or footer was created. | |
To enter a date or time that will reflect the current date or time in a header, the process is slightly longer.
Position the cursor at the point in the header or footer where you wish to insert the page number.
->->
Click the Document tab.
Click Date in Type.
Click Date in Format.
Select an appropriate date format in Format.
Click Insert.
A variable time can be inserted in exactly the same way.
Position the cursor at the point in the header or footer where you wish to insert the page number.
->->
Click the Document tab.
Click File name under Type.
Select the appropriate Format.
Click Insert.
Normally the first page of the current document starts at 1. You can however add to or subtract from this number. The value you add to the page numbering is called the offset. Suppose you wish the first page of the current document to start at 10 rather than 1. This means the offset must be 9.
Position the cursor at the point in the header or footer where you wish to insert the page number.
->->
Click the Document tab.
Click Page under Type.
Click Page numbers under Select.
Enter the appropriate value in Offset , for example 9.
Click Insert.
This is a very useful feature of Headers and Footers as it allows you to insert the path of the document so that if it is necessary for another person to edit it they will be able to easily locate the file.
Position the cursor at the point in the header or footer where you wish to insert the file location.
->->
Click the Document tab.
Click Filename under Type.
Click Path/File name under Format.
Click Insert.
A table is a grid comprising a number of rows and columns. These may or may not have borders. Each cell of the table may contain text or objects such as graphic images and may be formatted independently of the other cells.
Click on the position in the document where you wish to insert the table.
->
Writer will call the tables Table 1, Table 2, and so on. You may give the tables a name of your own choice. Enter this in the Name window.
Adjust the Columns spin box to set the number of columns and the Rows spin box to set the number of rows.
Tick the Border check box if you wish to include borders around the cells. Otherwise clear this box.
If you wish to keep the entire table on one page, tick the Don't split table check box. Writer will then move the entire table to the following page if it will not fit on the current page.
Click OK.
The following table was created using three columns and two rows.
Click in the cell in which you wish to enter text and enter and format the text as usual.
Click Tab to jump to the next cell or click on another cell to reposition the cursor.
Data can be entered into a cell by clicking on the cell and typing in the text in the usual way. Formatting is performed as with ordinary text.
If a cell already contains text, you may click anywhere in the cell and insert, delete, edit or reformat the text as in the rest of a document.
At times we may wish to perform operations on entire rows or columns or the whole table. For example, we may wish to change the current font for the entire table. To do this we need to select the appropriate row(s) or column(s) or the table itself.
Position the cursor anywhere in the table.
If the current cell is empty, press Ctrl+A. Otherwise press Ctrl+A a second time.
| |
The action of Ctrl-A is somewhat complex. If the cell is not empty, pressing this combination selects the current cell. In this case, pressing it a second time selects the entire table. Once the table has been selected, pressing Ctrl-A once more causes the entire document to be selected. | |
Writer does not have a single step method for selecting rows or columns. To select a number of rows, proceed as follows:
Go the the start of the first cell of the first row.
Press Shift+Right arrow repeatedly until all the cells of the first row have been selected.
Press Shift+Down arrow repeatedly until all the rows have been selected.
Position the cursor anywhere in the row to be deleted.
->-> or press the Delete row icon on the Table object bar,
.
When the cursor is inside a table, the Table object bar will show table functions.
 |
Position the cursor anywhere in the column to be deleted.
->-> or press the Delete column icon,
.
Position the cursor anywhere in the row adjacent to the new row.
->-> or press the Insert row icon,
.Adjust the Amount spin window to the number of rows you wish to insert.
Click either the Before or After radio button to select whether you wish the new rows to be inserted before or after the current row.
Click OK.
Position the cursor anywhere in the column adjacent to the new column.
->-> or press the Insert column icon,
.Adjust the Amount spin window to the number of columns you wish to insert.
Click either the Before or After radio button to select whether you wish the new columns to be inserted before or after the current column.
Click OK.
When you create a table, Writer uses the default row heights and column widths. The row height will be based on the default font and the columns widths will be adjusted to fit equally across the page. This is shown on the following screen.
 |
If you change a font, the row height for all the cells will adjust to accommodate the largest font on the row as shown on the next screen.
 |
You may set custom row heights manually as follows:
Select cells in each of the rows you wish to adjust.
->->, or right click on the table.
Adjust the value using the Height spin window or typing a value in.
 |
Optimal row height is the most appropriate row height based on the size of the fonts used in the row.
Select cells in each of the rows you wish to adjust.
->->.
The Format menu option lets you set the width of a single column.
Click in the table.
->->.
Select the column using the Column spin window.
Adjust the width of the column using the Width spin window.
Click OK.
Select cells in the columns you wish to change.
->-> or press the
icon on the Table
object bar.
This will adjust the column widths based on the text inside the cells of the selected columns.
Select cells in each of the rows you wish to adjust.
->->.
Move the cursor over the border of the cell to display the separator icon.
Hold down the left mouse button. A dotted vertical line will be displayed.
Hold down the left mouse button and drag the vertical line.
Release the left mouse button at the desired position.
Position the cursor in any cell in the column. Hold down the Alt key and press the Left or Right arrows. This will also adjust the overall width of the table.
OR
Position the cursor in any cell in the column. Hold down the Alt+Ctrl keys and press the Left or Right arrows. This will not change the overall width of the table.
By default, Writer will insert and thin, black solid line as the table border. These can be changed as follows:
Click inside the table.
->. This will display the Table format dialogue.
Click the Borders tab.
Select a border thickness and style in the Style window.
Click on the Color window to display a drop down list of border colours and select a colour.
You may also may also select a shadow for the outer border of the table by selecting the appropriate options in the Shadow style area of the dialogue. This is covered in the next section.
The previous description applied to formatting an entire table. You may use the same method to set the borders of individual cells or blocks of cells.
Select the cells whose borders you wish to set.
->
Click the Borders tab.
Set the borders as you wish.
Click OK.
In this case the settings will only apply to the cells that were selected. The following screen illustrates the effect.
 |
In this case the four cells in the heading were highlighted before the command was executed.
The background colour of a cell is referred to as the fill colour. By default there is no fill. This can be changed.
Click inside the cell you want to change or select a range.
->
Click the Background tab.
Select a Background color from the colour palette.
Click on the For drop down window and select Cell to apply only to the selected cells or Row to apply to the currently selected rows.
Click OK.
You may insert a shadow around the outer border of the table.
Click in the table you wish to format.
->
Click the Borders tab.
Select the position of the shadow from one of the Shadow options in the Shadow style area.
Select the offset of the shadow by using the Distance spin window.
Select the colour of the shadow by clicking on the Color drop down window and selecting a colour.
Click OK.
Suppose we have a situation such as shown on the next screen.
 |
We would like the word TEAM to be centred across the four headings. The solution is to merge the four cells and then centre the heading within this new cell.
Highlight the cells to be merged.
->-> or click the Merge icon on the Table object bar,
.Click the Centre icon on the Object bar.
You may split cells horizontally or vertically.
Select the cells you wish to split.
->-> or click on the Split cells icon
.Select the number of elements you wish to split the cells into.
Select either Horizontally or Vertically.
Click OK.
You may split a table horizontally at the current cursor position.
Click in the table at the point where you wish to split it.
->
Click No heading.
Click OK.
This insert a blank row between the two parts of the table. Each part can now be treated as a separate table
The background colour of a table is referred to as the fill colour. By default there is no fill. This can be changed.
Click inside the table.
->
Click the Background tab.
Select a Background color from the colour palette.
Click on the For drop down window and Table if you wish to apply this background to the entire table.
Click OK.
Although a document consists mostly of ordinary text, you may insert other objects into the text. The most common sources of pictures and images are clipart galleries.
->->.
Browse to the directory / folder contains the graphics.
Linux
Click the Preview check box:
This is generally a good idea as it helps you select an appropriate graphic. Otherwise you may just view long lists of file names which may not be meaningful.
Windows
Thumbails on in the View menu.
Click the graphic you wish to insert and click Open or simply double click on the graphic.
This will insert the graphic into the document at the current cursor position.
Click on the graphic to select it. Notice the handles around the borders of the graphic.
Right click to display the context menu click Anchor.
Click As Character.
OpenOffice.org has a built-in set of graphics called the gallery. You may insert images into a document from the gallery.
Position the cursor at the insertion point.
->
Select a Theme.
Select an item in the theme.
Right click on the item to display a context menu.
Click Insert then Copy.
Resize the image.
Click the close icon in the gallery to close
.
You can create textured backgrounds for pages using the gallery.
Position the cursor at the insertion point.
->
Select a Backgrounds.
Select a background.
Right click on the item to display a context menu.
Click Insert then Background.
Click Page if you wish to use the background for the entire page or Paragraph if you wish to use it only for the current paragraph.
Charts can be created in Writer in the same way that they are created in Calc. Instead of the data being found in the rows and columns of a spreadsheet, they will now be found in the rows and columns of a table. The following is a detailed example of the creation of a chart in Writer.
Select the block of cells containing the data. Check whether the first column and first row contain labels as in the following screen.
->->.
Check the appropriate Caption check boxes.
Click Next.
Select a Chart type.
Select whether the Data series is contained in rows or columns. In this case it is in rows.
Click Next.
Choose a Variant of the basic chart type.
Check the X axis and Y axis check boxes to display grid lines as desired.
Click Next.
Enter Titles for the chart as a whole and for the X and Y axes.
Tick the Legend check box if you wish to display a legend with the chart. This will indicate the meaning of the different colours.
Click Create.
Just as we select text in order to perform actions on it such as delete or copy, we can do the same thing with graphics.
Click anywhere in the graphic to select it.
Notice the handles that are displayed around the graphic. These are illustrated in the screen capture.
Once an image has been selected, we are able to perform various actions on it.
Just as we select text in order to perform actions on it such as delete or copy, we can do the same thing with graphics.
Images, whether clipart or charts, can be manipulated in the same way. Once the image has been selected, it can be duplicated and moved in exactly the same way as ordinary text.
Select the image or chart that must be copied.
-> or click the Copy icon,
, on the Function bar or press Ctrl-C.Position the cursor at the point where you wish to insert the duplicate. This can be within the current document or you can switch to another open document.
-> or click the Paste icon,
, on the Function bar or press Ctrl-V.A duplicate of the original image will be inserted.
This method can be used to copy a chart from a spreadsheet into a document.
Go to the spreadsheet and select the chart you wish to copy into the document.
-> or click the Copy icon,
, on the Function bar or press Ctrl-C.Switch to the document.
Position the cursor at the point where you wish to insert the chart.
-> or click the Paste icon,
, on the Function bar or press Ctrl-V.A duplicate of the original chart will be inserted into the document.
Select the image or chart that must be copied.
-> or click the Cut icon,
, on the Function bar or press Ctrl-X.Position the cursor at the point where you wish to move the image. This can be within the current document or you can switch to another open document.
-> or click the Paste icon,
, on the Function bar or press Ctrl-V.The image will be deleted in its original position and inserted at the new position.
When an image is selected, handles are displayed around the borders. By dragging on these, the image can be resized.
The four corner handles can be dragged in any direction. The handles on the left and right borders can only move horizontally while those on the top and bottom borders can only move vertically.
Click on either of the side handles.
Hold down the left mouse button and drag to the left or right.
Release the mouse button when done.
Click on either the top of bottom handle.
Hold down the left mouse button and drag up or down.
Release the mouse button when done.
Click on a corner handle.
Hold down the left mouse button and drag in any direction.
Release the mouse button when done.
The following screen shot illustrates dragging the bottom corner handles. The image is only resized once the mouse button is released.
 |
Click on the graphic to select it
Click on ->
Click on the first tab Type
Type in the 3 in the box next to Width
Type in the 4.5 in the box next to Height
| |
Notice the checkbox next to Relative. If you click in this box it will force the width and height to be relative to each other, ie the graphic won't distort. | |
Abstract
Understand the term mail merge and the concept of merging a data source with a main document such as a letter or a label document
A common situation that arises is that we need to send out the same letter or information to hundreds of people or organisations. While the text of the letter may be the same, each will contain specific references to the organisation in terms of the address and the person to whom it is being addressed.
Another related situation is where we need to print address labels for envelopes to clients. The client list may vary from time to time. However, when we need to print labels, we do not want to have to type up each one anew.
In situations such as these we can make use of the Mail Merge feature.
Mail merge involves the following:
A template.
A data source.
Merging the data from the data source into the template to create a set of documents.
Printing.
The template document is an outline of the document that you wish to produce. It contains the fixed text which will be the same for all the documents. It also contains place holders for the information that will change. Sometimes these place holders are also referred to as fields. Examples would include, name, first name, title, company and address.
If you were wanting to merge a mailing list with a letter, then the letter would be the template document. You may also want to create labels and then you would use a label layout as your template document.
The data source will contain the data that is inserted into the place holders when the actual merging takes place.
In the data source, the data will be organised into a number of rows and columns. Each row is called a record and contains the data that will be inserted to create a single document. For example, each row would contain a name, first name, title and address.
Each record is divided up into fields corresponding to the columns. These contain the individual items such as name and first name.
Merging involves creating the link between the fields in the template and the fields in the data source and then the actual creation of the set of documents.
![[Tip]](../images/admon/tip.png) | |
A good way to approach the following sections is to actually create the documents yourself and work through the process step by step. | |
Create an example of the letter or document you wish to produce
The first step is to create the document you wish to use.
To illustrate the process you will need to create a simple data source.
->.
Create the data source such as the one shown below.
Ensure there is a single tab between each field and a carriage return at the end of the line.
| |
Note also that the tab is used in this situation as a field separator. It is not used to align columns. As the previous example illustrates, the use of a single tab will often lead to a jagged appearance. You may switch on non-printing characters to check. | |
Save the data as a text document. Writer will automatically attach the .txt extension.
| |
The first line of the data source contains the field names. These will be used as the place holders in the template document. A collection of records such as this is called a table. | |
We must now make OpenOffice.org recognise the file we have just created as a data source.
->
Click the General tab.
Click New Data Source in the top left hand side of the dialogue.
Type the name you wish to give the data source in the Name window. In this case we have used General data.
In the Database type drop down window, select Text.
Use the Browse icon to select the directory containing the data source.
Click Apply.
Click the Text tab.
Make sure the Text contains headers check box is ticked.
In the Field separator drop down window, select {Tab}. As you can see you could have used a number of other field separators.
Commas are also commonly used as field separators. This however creates a problem if you wish to use commas within fields.
Click Apply.
Click on Tables to check that Clients is displayed.
Click OK.
| |
OpenOffice.org will treat all text files that are located in the directory as tables of the same database source, General data. | |
Switch to the document you wish to use as a document template.
->.
Click on General data to expand it.
Click on Tables.
Click on Clients.
The Clients table will be displayed as shown on the next screen.
Delete the variable information such as name and address in the document template.
Drag the field titles in the data source into the document template. Remember to insert spaces where needed.
At this point your document template will appear as on the following screen.
Save the Document template.
| |
In this example, we have used a letter as an example of a document template, but we could equally well have used the outline of an address label or any other type of document. | |
The process of preparing a data file was introduced in the previous section. In this section we will look a bit deeper into OpenOffice.org's handling of data sources.
You can also create a data source using a spreadsheet if you wish as illustrated on the following screen.
 |
You may define your data source either from within Calc or Writer.
Define General data as shown on the following screen.
Once you have defined General data in this way, you can use it in exactly the same way as before.
Data is commonly supplied in the form of an ordinary document table as shown in the following screen. Equally, you may find this a convenient way of creating a data source. It cannot, however, be used directly in this format.
Suppose you have a data source such as the following:
|
Title |
First name |
Name |
Address 1 |
Address 2 |
Code |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Ms |
Yvonne |
Chadpuri |
13 Sea Glen Road |
Cape Town |
8001 |
|
Mr |
Jacob |
de Hague |
92 Avon Crescent |
Camps bay |
8005 |
|
Ms |
Celia |
Ntombi |
94 Eastern Road |
Tamboerskloof |
8001 |
Although this is a very clear way of working with data, you will need to convert it before it can be used as an OpenOffice.org data source.
Select the table by clicking Ctrl+A twice.
->->
Click the Tabs radio button.
Click OK.
This will create a data source which is tab delimited.
| |
You might find it useful to work with tables when you are creating and editing data. You could keep this in one file, for example ClientsTable.txt. When you are ready to use it for merging you could concert it to tab delimited form and save this as another file, for example Clients.txt. | |
The final stage is to carry out the actual merge process.
At this point you have the document template and the data source.
To merge to a letter:
Open the document template. This will contain the fields or place holders and any fixed text.
->.
->.
Click From this document.
Click OK.
To merge to labels:
The same as above except the last step.
Click From a template.
Click OK.
Click on New documents.
Click on Labels.
Click on Open.
The Labels dialog appears.
Choose the correct database under the Database option.
Select the Table under Table.
Add the fields by selecting them from Database Field and clicking on the left arrow so that they appear under the Label text box.
Choose the correct label format in the Brand option.
Choose continuous or sheet depending on the labels you are using.
Click New Document.
Set up your placeholders in the new document.
At this point you have the option of printer the output immediately or of saving the output to a file for later use.
Click the Printer radio button in the Output area and click OK.
Select the printer.
Select the Number of copies.
Click OK.
With the large number of features available in Writer, there is no reason all documents should not be finished to a professional standard. In fact, business and industry require all documentation to be of a professional standard. Anything less will usually be viewed as poor and reflect badly on the author.
Here are some of the aspects of documents you should pay attention to.
For most writing use a standard font such as Times New Roman, Bookman, Arial, Tahoma or Verdana. In most cases, a 10 or 11 point font is most appropriate. Be wary of using fancy fonts in business writing.
There is considerable debate as to whether it is better to use serif or sans serif fonts. There has been some research that serif fonts such as Times Roman are easier to read. Serif fonts are commonly used in books. However, this is still a matter of personal taste.
Do not mix too many fonts. Generally it is best to stick to three sizes of the same font. The more a font differs from the font of the body of the text, the less frequently it should be used.
Make a habit of defining and using styles. These can help keep your writing consistent. Inconsistency in style within a document looks unprofessional. An example of where styles are particularly necessary are section headings such as the one at the start of this section. Not only do styles keep your work consistent, they save you the problem of having to define settings from scratch each time.
White space refers to the areas of a document where there is no text. White space is found between paragraphs, after headings and in margins.
For legibility, it is very important to have the correct amount of space. It is impossible to lay down a formula. You will need to develop skill is looking at your finished document and considering a number of points:
Is it pleasing to the eye?
Is it easy to pick up the main sections?
Is the use of white space consistent?
Margins are an example of white space. But they are not concerned purely with appearance. If you intend binding a document, you will need to endure that the left hand margin is wide enough. If you print on the reverse of each page (back to back), you will need to set wide left and right margins on alternate pages.
If you are submitting a document for a specific purpose, such as an academic paper, you might be required to set margins according to a fixed specification. This might well different significantly from the default setting. Check that your margins, and any other aspects, conform to external requirements.
Spelling mistakes are one of the most serious problems, especially since they are easy to deal with. Set Writer up so that spelling is checked as you type. Spelling is dealt with in the next section.
As mentioned a couple of times above, ensure that your document is consistent in style and layout throughout. As you develop experience, your skill at noticing inconsistencies will develop. If you are vigilant from the start, this skill will develop more quickly. There are unfortunately many very experienced users who are very careless in this regard. Sometimes technology can make us lazy.
Writer checks the spelling of words by consulting its dictionaries for the different languages. By default, OpenOffice.org uses American English. The spelling of American English differs from that of English as used in the United Kingdom or South Africa.
You might also create documents in French or German. In all cases you need to be able to set up OpenOffice.org to check spellings in the languages you work with.
->
Expand Language settings and click on Languages.
Click on the Western drop down window and select the default languages you wish to use. This will place a tick next to each language you select.
Now click Writing Aids.
Make sure Check in all languages is ticked.
Click OK.
You can get Writer to check spelling as you type.
->-> or press
on the main toolbar.
| |
This is a toggle function. If the automatic spell check is off, it will switch it on. If it is on, it will switch it off. To check whether the automatic spell check is on or off, -> is on, a tick will be displayed in the menu. | |
As you type, words that Writer cannot find in any of its dictionaries will be underlined with a wavy red line as shown on the next screen
 |
| |
A common comment of users is that words such as colour are shown as incorrectly spelt even though they have selected the English UK dictionary. The reason is usually because they have not performed the second step of the previous section, Check in all languages. | |
You may also check the spelling of a document at any stage.
->-> or press F7 or press
on the Main toolbar.
Spellcheck will start at the current position in the document. When it reaches the end of the document, it will ask you if you wish to continue from the start. When an error is found, the following dialogue is displayed.
You have a number of options:
- Ignore the error
Click Ignore to ignore only this occurrence or click Always ignore to ignore all occurrences of the error.
- Correct the error using a suggestion
Select the alternative in the Suggestions window.
Click Replace to replace only this occurrence or press Always replace to replace all occurrences of the error.
When you select the latter option, the next time Writer encounters the error, it will not prompt you for a reply, but make the change automatically.
- Manually correct the error
You may recognise the spelling is incorrect but there may not be a suitable word in the suggestions.
Edit the contents of the Word window.
Click Replace.
Another very useful writing aid is the thesaurus. This provides you will a list of words related to the current word.
Suppose you have used the word big repeatedly.
Position the cursor on the word.
-> or Ctrl+F7.
Select a word from the synonym window. The selected word will appear in the Replace window.
Click OK to replace the original word in your document.
There are limits to the scope of the built-in dictionaries. In particular, if you use technical terms, it is quite likely that OpenOffice.org will identify these as errors. To deal with the specialist needs of users, OpenOffice.org allows you to add words to the user-defined dictionaries.
When OpenOffice.org finds a spelling error, the Spellcheck dialogue is displayed.
 |
Click Add if you wish the word to be added to the user-defined dictionaries.
The word will be added to all active user-defined dictionaries. In future, if any of these are active, OpenOffice.org will not detect any error when it encounters the word.
Before printing a document, you can view it on-screen as it will appear on the printed page. This feature was covered under Page preview in the section called “Change between page view modes”.
To print a document
->
 |
Select print range
Click the All radio button to print the entire document.
OR
Click the Pages radio button and enter the range of pages to be printed in the form 11-24. Alternatively list the pages you wish to print separated by commas.
OR
Click the Selection radio button to print a highlighted block of text.
Select number of copies
Use the Number of copies spin window.
If you wish the pages to be collated, tick the Collate check box.
This feature is not commonly used anymore, but allows you to direct the output of the printer to a file rather than to paper.
Tick the Print to file check box to enable this feature. In order to complete the operation, you will be prompted for a file name. Writer will add a .prn extension to the name.
Default conditions are the settings that you are offered by OpenOffice.org. To print a document using default settings, you would simply use the sequence:
->
Click OK.
