ICDL Module 6

This will close only the active presentation. If it has not yet been saved, Impress will warn you and ask you if you wish to save it.

This command will close all open presentations and exit Impress. If any of the presentations have not been saved to disk, Impress will ask you if you wish to save them before exiting.

At this stage there is a difference between what will happen in Linux and Windows.

Linux

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.

1. If necessary, navigate to the desired directory.

2. Set the File type to Presentations.

3. Highlight the presentation you wish to open.

4. 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: Up one level: Pressing this icon will move you to the parent of the current directory. Create new directory: This option allows you to create a new directory in the current directory. In order to be able to do so, you will need the appropriate user rights. Default directory: Pressing this icon will move you to the default directory. This is useful if you have moved through several directories and wish to return to your starting point in the directory tree. This will be different for each user.

Windows

If you are running Impress 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.

1. If necessary, navigate to the desired directory.

2. Highlight the presentation you wish to open.

3. 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 screen.

The Details option displays important information such as file type, size, created or last edited and attributes.

You may open several presentations 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.

Since OpenOffice.org is a highly integrated application suite, you may open a presentation from within either Writer or Calc. OpenOffice.org will then automatically open Impress.

This will display all files saved in the current directory. Depending on the type of file you select, OpenOffice.org will automatically open the correct program in the application suite.

The process of creating a new presentation is the same whether Impress, Calc or Writer is displayed on the screen.

This will initiate the process described in the section called “First Steps with Presentations”. That section described how to create a presentation manually.

Autopilot is similar to a wizard in Windows. It guides you through the process of accomplishing a task.

The following is meant as a brief outline of the process. The details will be described in Chapter 2, Developing a Presentation.

You would now create your first slide. When you have finished, you would insert a new slides.

When you work with a presentation 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 presentation, you give it a name and you specify where it is to be stored.

Save a new presentation

When you create a presentation from scratch, there is no version stored on disk. To save the file to disk:

• File->Save as.

Now depending on whether you are using Linux or Windows, slightly different dialogue windows will be displayed.

Linux

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.

1. If necessary, navigate to the directory in which you wish to save the file.

2. Enter a name into the File name window.

3. Click Save.

Impress will add the .sxi extension to the file.

Windows

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.

1. If necessary, navigate to the directory in which you wish to save the file.

2. Enter a name into the File name window.

3. Click Save.

For the moment we will not be concerned with all the options in the Save as dialogue.

When you use the File->Save function, the contents on disk are overwritten by the contents on your screen. It often happens that we do 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 presentation, but in different places.

In both cases use the File->Save as function.

Suppose, for example, you are creating a presentation and are not sure of which version you are going to use. Suppose you initially call the presentation Gimmick Sales. After having made some changes you could use Save as, but this time call the document Gimmick Sales1. The following version could be Gimmick Sales2, and so on.

Suppose you have a presentation open on your screen. If you open a second presentation, Impress will move the first presentation to the background without actually closing it. You may repeat the process and open a third presentation. The presentation displayed on your screen is the active one. It is on this one that you may do your editing. You may bring any presentation to the foreground for editing as explained below.

The help system of OpenOffice.org provides a complete reference to the system.

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.

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.

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.

Although you can have several presentations and 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 too 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, Impress will check whether or not you wish to save or discard the changes before closing.

If you wish to work with a presentation 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.

To change the zoom in Drawing mode:

When you start OpenOffice.org, 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.

Slide view is the normal way of working with a slide. Depending on the zoom factor you use, you will see the slide or part of the slide in the way it would appear if viewed as part of a slide show on-screen.

The following two screens illustrate a presentation in slide view with different zoom factors.

	In Slide view, you can navigate between the slides by clicking on the appropriate slide name next to the Horizontal scroll bar at the bottom of the screen.

Layers

Layers are transparent containers for objects that make up a slide.

The following description may seem a bit confusing when you read it for the first time. Treat it as a reference that will make more sense once you become familiar with Impress.

There are three default layers in Impress:

• Layout

• Controls

• Dimension lines

The Layout layer contains the position for the title, text and various objects on a slide. When you make use of an autolayout, you are imposing a different layout layer on the slide.

The Control layer contains buttons that have been assigned an action. For example, if you insert a control on a slide that will close the presentation, this will be stored in the control layer.

	These layers may not be deleted.

You can add your own layers. You could, for example, create a Text layer which contains all the text of the slides. If you add a new layer to a slide, this will automatically be added to all slides.

If you switch to Layer view, you are able to view the different layers of a slide.

In layer view, the different layers will be displayed next to the horizontal scroll bar at the bottom of the screen. You can click on any of these to work with the different layers.

Preview

In Preview mode, a reduced view of the entire current slide, as it would appear in a presentation, is displayed on-screen. This is useful where you are working with a magnified view of the slide and can see only part of the slide at any one time. This is illustrated on the next screen.

This section will only be concerned with switching between workspace views. Master slides will be covered in the section called “Master Slide” while layers fall outside the scope of these notes.

You can change the layout of a slide.

	Impress will warn you that this could lead to a loss of features. Be very careful when changing the layout of a slide. You can always use Edit->Undo or Ctrl-Z if the result is not what you had expected.

The default background of slides is white. To change this:

Apart from a uniform colour, you can use the same method to apply a Gradient, Hatching or Bitmap to the background. These are illustrated below.

Page 1 of the Autopilot is displayed.

If you wished to create a new presentation from scratch you would click Empty presentation and proceed.

In this case you will use a design template to create a new presentation.

You can also set whether you need to manually move to the next slide or whether this must be automatic. This is the Presentation type. If you select Automatic, you can also set the Duration each slide is displayed.

The Design template comes with a number of pages.

	At any stage in the creation of a presentation using Autopilot you may click Create. Impress will then use its default settings from that point on. The settings you use each time become the default settings for Autopilot.

You may use the design template of another presentation to change the design of the current slide.

In this example, the design of a slide in the Andromeda presentation will be changed to the design used in the NewProduct presentation.

The two following screens show the second slide before and after the application of the new design.

	You have to be in Drawing view in order to use this feature: View->Workspace->Drawing View. You cannot apply the new design to more than one slide at a time.

	If you are unhappy with the result, you can use Edit->Undo: Presentation Layout to revert to the original layout.

In this example, you will insert a graphic and a background on the master slide of the Andromeda presentation.

	Just like any other slide, the Master slide can be opened in a number of views: Drawing, Title, Notes and Handout.

	Clicking in either of the two boxes that are displayed enables you to change the format of the title and outline text. Ignore these.

The Main toolbar contains a number of icons that are relevant in the creation of drawn objects. The following brief introduction is derived from the Help of OpenOffice.org.

The Main toolbar, attached to the left side of the document window, provides access to common editing tools. Tools with multiple options are indicated by a small triangle. Long-click the triangle to open a floating toolbar.

By double-clicking a tool, you can use it for multiple tasks. If you call the tool with a single-click, it reverts back to the last selection after completing the task.

To select an object on the current slide, click the Select tool, , on the Main Toolbar, and then click the object.

To select more than one object, hold down Shift key while you click.

To select an object that is behind another object, hold Alt, and then click the object. To select the next underlying object in the stacking, hold Alt, and then click again. To return the selection to the previously selected object, hold down Shift + Alt, and then click.

To add text to a selected object, double-click the object and type or enter your text.

To remove a selection, click anywhere outside the selected object, or press Esc.

The following is a reference table to the functions of the icons on the Main toolbar.

	Selection: Allows you to select objects in the current document.
	Zoom: Reduces or enlarges the screen display of the current document. Click to select the current tool or long-click to open the Zoom floating toolbar.
	Text: Long-click to open the Text floating toolbar, where you can add and place text anywhere on the current document.
	Rectangles: Long-click to open the Rectangles floating toolbar, where you can add rectangular shapes to the current slide.
	Ellipses: Long-click to open the Ellipses floating toolbar, where you can add ovals and circles to the current slide.
	3D Objects: Long-click to open the 3D Objects floating toolbar, where you can add 3D shapes to the current slide.
	Curves: The Curves floating toolbar contains icons for drawing lines.
	Lines and arrows: Long-click to open the Lines and Arrows floating toolbar, where you can add straight lines, lines with arrows, and dimension lines to the current slide. If you want, you can add an arrow after you draw a line by choosing Format - Line, and then selecting an arrow style from the Style box.
	Connectors: Long-click to open the Connectors floating toolbar, where you can add connectors to objects in the current slide. A connector is a line that joins objects, and remains attached when the objects are moved. If you copy an object with a connector, the connector is also copied. There are four types of connector lines: Standard (90-degree angle bends) Line (two bends) Straight Curved
	Effects: Modifies the shape, orientation or fill of the selected object(s).
	Alignment: Opens the Alignment floating toolbar, with which you can modify the alignment of the drawing. The Alignment icon is only shown when a drawing object is selected.
	Arrange: Changes the stacking order of a selected object.
	Insert
	3D Controller: Specifies the properties of a 3D object or converts a 2D object to 3D.

A footer is an area at the bottom of a slide where you may add text or graphics. A footer may also have a frame or a background fill colour. A header is likewise an area at the top of the slide for inserting text or graphics.