OpenOffice 3.0 Writer Guide
OpenOffice.org 3
Writer Guide
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Copyright
This document is Copyright © 2005–2008 by its contributors as listed
in the section titled Authors. You may distribute it and/or modify it
under the terms of either the GNU General Public License, version 3 or
later, or the Creative Commons Attribution License, version 3.0 or
later. All trademarks within this guide belong to their legitimate
owners.
Authors
Magnus Adielsson Agnes Belzunce
Bruce Byfield Daniel Carrera
Dick Detwiler Laurent Duperval
Martin Fox Katharina Greif
Tara Hess Peter Hillier-Brook
Lou Iorio John Kane
Stefan A. Keel Michael Kotsarinis
Sigrid Kronenberger Peter Kupfer
Ian Laurenson Alan Madden
Paul Miller Vincenzo Ponzi
Scott Rhoades Carol Roberts
Iain Roberts Gary Schnabl
Robert Scott Janet M. Swisher
Barbara M. Tobias Jean Hollis Weber
Catherine Waterman Bob Wickham
Linda Worthington Michele Zarri
Feedback
Please direct any comments or suggestions about this document to:
authors@user-faq.openoffice.org
Publication date and software version
Published 27 December 2008. Based on OpenOffice.org 3.0.
You can download
an editable version of this document from
http://oooauthors.org/en/authors/userguide3/published/
Contents
Chapter 1
Introducing Writer.....................................................................9
What is Writer?.................................................................................10
Starting Writer..................................................................................10
The Writer interface..........................................................................14
Changing document views................................................................21
Using the Navigator..........................................................................22
Starting a new document..................................................................27
Opening an existing document..........................................................28
Saving a document............................................................................29
Getting help......................................................................................31
Closing a document..........................................................................31
Closing Writer...................................................................................32
Chapter 2
Setting up Writer......................................................................33
Choosing options that affect all of OOo............................................34
Choosing options for loading and saving documents........................46
Choosing options for Writer..............................................................51
Choosing options for HTML documents............................................61
Choosing language settings..............................................................62
Controlling Writer’s AutoCorrect functions......................................65
Chapter 3
Working with Text.....................................................................66
Introduction......................................................................................67
Selecting text....................................................................................67
Cutting, copying, and pasting text....................................................69
Moving paragraphs quickly...............................................................70
Finding and replacing text................................................................71
Inserting special characters..............................................................75
Formatting paragraphs.....................................................................77
Formatting characters......................................................................81
Autoformatting..................................................................................82
Creating numbered or bulleted lists.................................................83
Using footnotes and endnotes...........................................................87
OpenOffice.org 3 Writer Guide 3
Checking spelling..............................................................................89
Using language tools........................................................................90
Using the thesaurus..........................................................................92
Hyphenating words...........................................................................92
Using AutoCorrect............................................................................94
Using word completion.....................................................................95
Using AutoText..................................................................................96
Line numbering.................................................................................96
Undoing and redoing changes..........................................................97
Tracking changes to a document......................................................98
Inserting notes................................................................................102
Linking to another part of a document...........................................104
Working with hyperlinks.................................................................105
Switching between insert and overwrite mode...............................108
Counting the words in a selection...................................................108
Chapter 4
Formatting Pages...................................................................109
Introduction....................................................................................110
Choosing a layout method...............................................................110
Setting up basic page layout using styles.......................................112
Changing page margins..................................................................117
Using columns to define the page layout........................................118
Using frames for page layout..........................................................122
Using tables for page layout...........................................................129
Using sections for page layout........................................................132
Creating headers and footers..........................................................142
Numbering pages............................................................................147
Chapter 5
Printing, Exporting, Faxing, and E-Mailing...........................159
Introduction....................................................................................160
Quick printing.................................................................................160
Controlling printing........................................................................160
Printing a brochure.........................................................................164
Printing envelopes..........................................................................165
Printing labels.................................................................................167
Sending a fax..................................................................................169
4 OpenOffice.org 3 Writer Guide
Exporting to PDF............................................................................172
Exporting to other formats.............................................................179
E-mailing Writer documents...........................................................179
Digital signing of documents..........................................................182
Chapter 6
Introduction to Styles.............................................................184
What are styles?..............................................................................185
The Styles and Formatting window.................................................186
Applying styles................................................................................191
Modifying styles..............................................................................200
Creating custom paragraph styles: examples.................................205
Copying and moving styles.............................................................209
Deleting styles................................................................................211
Assigning styles to shortcut keys....................................................212
Defining a hierarchy of headings....................................................212
Chapter 7
Working with Styles................................................................220
Introduction....................................................................................221
Creating custom (new) styles..........................................................221
Working with paragraph styles.......................................................225
Working with conditional paragraph styles.....................................237
Working with character styles........................................................239
Working with frame styles..............................................................242
Working with page styles................................................................245
Working with list styles...................................................................254
Chapter 8
Working with Graphics............................................................263
Graphics in Writer...........................................................................264
Adding images to a document.........................................................264
Modifying an image........................................................................269
Using Writer’s drawing tools..........................................................276
Positioning graphics within the text................................................279
Adding captions to graphics............................................................290
Adding an image to the Gallery.......................................................293
Graphic file types supported...........................................................295
OpenOffice.org 3 Writer Guide 5
Chapter 9
Working with Tables...............................................................297
Introduction....................................................................................298
Creating a table..............................................................................298
Formatting the table layout............................................................302
Formatting the table text................................................................312
Data entry and manipulation in tables............................................315
Additional table operations.............................................................318
The Table menu and toolbar...........................................................325
Chapter 10
Working with Templates.........................................................328
Introduction....................................................................................329
Using a template to create a document..........................................329
Creating a template........................................................................330
Editing a template...........................................................................332
Adding templates with Extension Manager....................................334
Setting a default template..............................................................335
Associating a document with a different template..........................335
Organizing templates......................................................................337
Chapter 11
Using Mail Merge...................................................................340
What is mail merge?.......................................................................341
Creating the data source................................................................341
Registering a data source...............................................................342
Creating a form letter.....................................................................345
Printing mailing labels....................................................................350
Printing envelopes..........................................................................355
Using the Mail Merge Wizard to create a form letter.....................360
Chapter 12
Tables of Contents, Indexes, and Bibliographies...................373
Introduction....................................................................................374
Tables of contents...........................................................................374
Alphabetic indexes..........................................................................389
Other types of indexes....................................................................398
Bibliographies.................................................................................399
Tools for working with bibliographies.............................................411
6 OpenOffice.org 3 Writer Guide
Chapter 13
Working with Master Documents...........................................412
Why use a master document?.........................................................413
Styles and master documents.........................................................413
Using the Navigator........................................................................414
Creating a master document...........................................................415
Recommended method for creating master documents..................417
Editing a master document.............................................................426
Cross-referencing between subdocuments.....................................426
Creating one file from a master document and its subdocuments. .431
Problem solving..............................................................................432
Chapter 14
Working with Fields................................................................437
Introduction to fields......................................................................438
Quick and easy field entry..............................................................438
Using document properties to hold information that changes........439
Using other fields to hold information that changes.......................440
Using AutoText to insert often-used fields......................................442
Defining your own numbering sequences.......................................443
Using automatic cross-references...................................................445
Using fields in headers and footers.................................................449
Using fields instead of outline numbering for appendix numbering
........................................................................................................451
Tricks for working with fields.........................................................452
Developing conditional content.......................................................453
Using placeholder fields.................................................................461
Using input fields and input lists....................................................462
Chapter 15
Using Forms in Writer............................................................466
Introduction....................................................................................467
When to use forms..........................................................................467
Creating a simple form...................................................................468
Example: a simple form..................................................................476
Accessing data sources...................................................................479
Advanced form customization.........................................................486
XForms............................................................................................489
OpenOffice.org 3 Writer Guide 7
Chapter 16
Math Objects..........................................................................490
What is Math?.................................................................................491
Entering a formula..........................................................................492
Customizations................................................................................497
Formula layout................................................................................500
Common problem areas..................................................................501
Math commands - Reference..........................................................504
Chapter 17
Customizing Writer................................................................515
Introduction....................................................................................516
Customizing menu content.............................................................516
Customizing toolbars......................................................................520
Assigning shortcut keys..................................................................524
Assigning macros to events.............................................................529
Adding functionality with extensions..............................................529
Appendix A
Keyboard Shortcuts................................................................533
Introduction....................................................................................534
Function keys for Writer.................................................................535
Shortcut keys for Writer.................................................................535
Shortcut keys for tables in Writer...................................................538
Shortcut keys for paragraphs and heading levels...........................539
Shortcut keys for moving and resizing frames, graphics and objects
........................................................................................................540
Index.........................................................................................541
8 OpenOffice.org 3 Writer Guide
Chapter 1
Introducing Writer
What is Writer?
Writer is the word processor component of OpenOffice.org (OOo). In
addition to the usual features of a word processor (spelling check,
thesaurus, hyphenation, autocorrect, find and replace, automatic
generation of tables of contents and indexes, mail merge, and others),
Writer provides these important features:
• Templates and styles
• Page-layout methods, including frames, columns, and tables
• Embedding or linking of graphics, spreadsheets, and other
objects
• Built-in drawing tools
• Master documents—to group a collection of documents into a
single document
• Change tracking during revisions
• Database integration, including a bibliography database
• Export to PDF, including bookmarks
• And many more
Styles are central to using Writer. Using styles, you can easily format
your document consistently and change the format with minimal effort.
A style is a named set of formatting options. Writer defines several
types of styles, for different types of elements: characters, paragraphs,
pages, frames, and lists. Often, you are using styles whether you
realize it or not. The use of styles is described in more detail in
Chapter 6 (Introduction to Styles) and Chapter 7 (Working with Styles).
The other features of Writer listed above are also covered in detail in
other chapters of this guide.
Starting Writer
If you are reading this document in OpenOffice.org, you already know
how to start Writer. However, if this is a printed version or a PDF
version, you may not know how to start Writer. So let’s look at three
ways to do that:
• From the system menu
• From an existing document
• From the command line
10 OpenOffice.org 3 Writer Guide
Starting from the system menu
The most common way to start Writer is by using the system menu,
the standard menu from which most applications are started. On
Windows, it is called the Start menu. On GNOME, it is called the
Applications menu. On KDE, it is identified by the KDE logo. On Mac
OS X, it is the Applications menu.
When OpenOffice.org was installed on your computer, in most cases a
menu entry for each component was added to your system menu. (If
you are using a Mac, see note below.) The exact name and location of
these menu entries depends on the operating system and graphical
environment.
Note for Mac users
You should see the OpenOffice.org icon in the Applications folder.
When you double-click this icon, a text document opens in Writer. To
open the other components (Draw, Calc, Impress, Base), go to the File
menu of the Writer window and select the component you want.
OOo does not automatically put a shortcut icon on the desktop, but you
can add one if you wish. If you don’t know how to add shortcut icons
for launching programs, please consult the help for your operating
system.
Starting from an existing document
All Writer documents are associated with the Writer application. This
means that you can start OpenOffice.org automatically, simply by
double-clicking a Writer document in a file manager such as Windows
Explorer.
You can spot an OpenOffice.org Writer document by its icon: .
Note for Windows users
If you have associated Microsoft Office file types with OOo, then when
you double-click on a *.doc (Word) file, it opens in OOo Writer.
If you did not associate the file types, then when you double-click on a
Microsoft Word document, it opens in Microsoft Word (if Word is
installed on your computer).
You can use another method to open *.doc files in OOo and save in the
*.doc format from OOo. See “Opening an existing document” on page
28 for more information.
Chapter 1 Introducing Writer 11
Using the Quickstarter under Windows
The Quickstarter is an icon that is placed in the Windows system tray
during system startup. It indicates that OpenOffice.org has been
loaded and is ready to use. (The Quickstarter loads library *.DLL files
required by OOo, thus shortening the startup time for OOo components
by about half.) If the Quickstarter is disabled, see “Reactivating the
Quickstarter” on page 13 if you want to enable it.
Using the Quickstarter icon
Right-click the Quickstarter icon in the system tray to open a pop-up
menu from which you can open a new document, open the Templates
and Documents dialog box, or choose an existing document to open.
You can also double-click the Quickstarter icon to display the
Templates and Documents dialog box.
Figure 1: Quickstarter pop-up menu
Disabling the Quickstarter
To close the Quickstarter, right-click on the icon in the system tray and
then click Exit Quickstarter on the pop-up menu. The next time the
computer is restarted, the Quickstarter will be loaded again.
To prevent OpenOffice.org from loading during system startup,
deselect the Load OpenOffice.org During System Start-Up item on
the pop-up menu. You might want to do this if your computer has
insufficient memory, for example.
12 OpenOffice.org 3 Writer Guide
Reactivating the Quickstarter
If the Quickstarter has been disabled, you can reactivate it by selecting
the Load OpenOffice.org during system start-up option in Tools >
Options > OpenOffice.org > Memory.
Using the Quickstarter under Linux
Some installations of OpenOffice.org under Linux have a Quickstarter
that looks and acts like the one described above for Windows (the
option on the Memory page is labeled Enable systray quickstarter).
Preloading OOo under Linux/KDE
In Linux/KDE, you can use KDocker to have OOo loaded and ready for
use at startup. KDocker is not part of OOo; it is a generic “systray app
docker” that is helpful if you open OOo often.
Starting from the command line
You may want to start Writer from the command line (using the
keyboard instead of the mouse). Why? Well, by using the command
line, you have more control over what happens when Writer is started.
For example, using the command line, you can tell Writer to load a
document and print it immediately, or to start without showing the
splash screen.
Note
There is more than one way to start Writer from the command line,
depending on whether you have installed a customized version or the
standard download from the OOo web site.
If you installed using the download on the OOo web site, you can start
Writer by typing at the command line:
soffice -writer
or
swriter
Most users will never need to do this.
Writer will start and create a new document.
To see a list of options you can use when starting Writer at the
command line, type:
soffice -?
Below is a list of some of the more popular options.
Chapter 1 Introducing Writer 13
Option Description
-help
-nologo
-show <odp-file>
-view <documents ...>
-minimized
-norestore
-invisible
Get a complete list of options.
Do not show the startup screen.
Start presentation immediately.
Open documents in viewer (read-only) mode.
Start OOo minimized.
Suppress restart/restore after fatal errors.
No startup screen, no default document and
no UI. This is useful for third-party
applications that use functionality provided
by OOo.
If you have a customized version of OOo (such as the one provided by
Linux Mandrake or Gentoo), you can start Writer by typing at the
command line:
oowriter
Note
Although the command syntax differs, the effect is identical: it
starts OOo with an empty Writer document.
The Writer interface
The main Writer workspace is shown in Figure 2.
Figure 2: The main Writer workspace in Print Layout view
14 OpenOffice.org 3 Writer Guide
Menus
The
Menu bar
is located across the top of the Writer window, just
below the Title bar. When you choose one of the menus, a submenu
drops down to show commands.
• File contains commands that apply to the entire document such
as Open, Save, and Export as PDF.
• Edit contains commands for editing the document such as Undo
and Find & Replace.
• View contains commands for controlling the display of the
document such as Zoom and Web Layout.
• Insert contains commands for inserting elements into your
document such as headers, footers, and pictures.
• Format contains commands for formatting the layout of your
document, such as Styles and Formatting, Paragraph, and
Bullets and Numbering.
• Table shows all commands to insert and edit a table in a text
document.
• Tools contains functions such as Spellcheck, Customize, and
Options.
• Window contains commands for the display window.
• Help contains links to the Help file, What’s This?, and information
about the program. See “Getting help” on page 31.
Toolbars
Writer has several types of toolbars: docked, floating, and tear-off.
Docked toolbars can be moved to different locations or made to float,
and floating toolbars can be docked.
The top docked toolbar (default position) is called the
toolbar. The Standard toolbar is consistent across the OpenOffice.org
applications.
The second toolbar across the top (default location) is the
toolbar. It is a context-sensitive bar that shows the relevant tools in
response to the cursor’s current position or selection. For example,
when the cursor is on a graphic, the Formatting bar provides tools for
formatting graphics; when the cursor is in text, the tools are for
formatting text.
Standard
Formatting
Chapter 1 Introducing Writer 15
Displaying or hiding toolbars
To display or hide toolbars, choose View > Toolbars, then click on the
name of a toolbar in the list. An active toolbar shows a check mark
beside its name. Tear-off toolbars are not listed in the View menu.
Submenus and tear-off toolbars
Toolbar icons with a small triangle to the right will display
tear-off toolbars
icon.
Figure 3 shows the Paste submenu.
Figure 4 shows a tear-off toolbar from the Drawing toolbar.
, and other ways of selecting things, depending on the
submenus
Figure 3. Example of a submenu
The tear-off toolbars can be floating or docked along an edge of the
screen or in one of the existing toolbar areas. To move a floating tearoff toolbar, drag it by the title bar. See “Moving toolbars” below.
,
Click here and drag Toolbar tears off and floats
Figure 4: Example of a tear-off toolbar
16 OpenOffice.org 3 Writer Guide
Moving toolbars
To move a docked toolbar, place the mouse pointer over the toolbar
handle, hold down the left mouse button, drag the toolbar to the new
location, and then release the mouse button (Figure 5).
To move a floating toolbar, click on its title bar and drag it to a new
location (Figure 6).
Handle of docked toolbar
Figure 5: Moving a docked toolbar
Title bar of floating toolbar
Figure 6: Moving a floating toolbar
Floating toolbars
Writer includes several additional context-sensitive toolbars, whose
defaults appear as floating toolbars in response to the cursor’s current
position or selection. For example, when the cursor is in a table, a
floating
or bullet list, the
these toolbars to the top, bottom, or side of the window, if you wish
(see “Moving toolbars” on page 17).
Table
toolbar appears, and when the cursor is in a numbered
Bullets and Numbering
toolbar appears. You can dock
Docking/floating windows and toolbars
Toolbars and some windows, such as the Navigator and the Styles and
Formatting window, are dockable. You can move, resize, or dock them
to an edge.
Chapter 1 Introducing Writer 17
To dock a window, do one of the
following:
• Click on the title bar of the floating
window and drag it to the side until
you see the outline of a box appear
in the main window (see Figure 7)
and then release the window. This
method depends on your system’s
window manager settings, so it may
not work for you.
• Hold down the
Control
key and
double-click on a vacant part of the
floating window to dock it in its last
position. If that does not work, try
double-clicking without using the
Control
key.
To undock a window, hold down the
Control
part of the docked window.
Note
key and double-click on a vacant
Figure 7: Docking a window
The Styles and Formatting window can also be docked or
undocked by using
the icons at the top of the window.
Control+double-click
on the gray area next to
Customizing toolbars
You can customize toolbars in several ways, including choosing which
icons are visible and locking the position of a docked toolbar. You can
also add icons and create new toolbars, as described in Appendix B.
To access a toolbar’s customization options, use the down-arrow at the
end of the toolbar or on its title bar (see Figure 8).
Toolbar customization icons
Figure 8: Customizing toolbars
To show or hide icons defined for the selected toolbar, choose Visible
Buttons from the drop-down menu. Visible icons have a checkmark
next to them. Click on icons to select or deselect them.
18 OpenOffice.org 3 Writer Guide
Right-click (context) menus
You can quickly access many menu functions by right-clicking on a
paragraph, graphic, or other object. A context menu will pop up. Often
the context menu is the fastest and easiest way to reach a function. If
you’re not sure where in the menus or toolbars a function is located,
you can often find it by right-clicking.
Rulers
To show or hide rulers, choose View > Ruler. To enable the vertical
ruler, choose Tools > Options > OpenOffice.org Writer > View and
select Vertical ruler.
Figure 9. Turning on the vertical ruler
Status bar
The Writer status bar provides information about the document and
convenient ways to quickly change some document features. From left
to right, the fields are as follows.
Page number
Shows the current page number, the sequence number of the
current page (if different), and the total number of pages in the
document. For example, if you restarted page numbering at 1 on the
third page, its page number is 1 and its sequence number is 3.
If any bookmarks have been defined in the document, a right-click
on this field pops up a list of bookmarks; click on the required one.
To jump to a specific page in the document, double-click in this field.
The Navigator opens (see page 22). Click in the Page Number field
and type the required page number.
Chapter 1 Introducing Writer 19
Page style
Shows the style of the current page. To change the page style, rightclick on this field. A list of page styles pops up; choose a different
style by clicking on it.
To edit the page style, double-click on this field. The Page Style
dialog box opens.
Language
Shows the language for the selected text.
Click to open a menu where you can choose another language for
the selected text or for the paragraph where the cursor is located.
You can also choose None to exclude the text from spellchecking or
choose More... to open the Character dialog box.
Insert mode
Click to toggle between
Insert
and
Overwrite
modes when typing.
Selection mode
Click to toggle between STD (
and BLK (
Block
) selection. EXT is an alternative to
Standard
), EXT (
Extend
Shift+click
), ADD (
Add
when
selecting text. See Chapter 3 (Working with Text) for more
information about ADD and BLK.
)
Digital signature
If the document has been digitally signed, an icon shows in this
part of the Status bar. You can double-click the icon to view the
certificate.
Section or object information
When the cursor is on a section or object (such as a picture),
information about that item appears in this field. Double-clicking in
this area opens a relevant dialog box.
Object Information shown Dialog box opened
Picture Size and position Format Picture
List item Level and list style Bullets and Numbering
Heading Outline numbering level Bullets and Numbering
Table Name or number and cell
reference of cursor
Other (Blank) Fields (Cross References page)
Table Format
1
1
1 If a
20 OpenOffice.org 3 Writer Guide
list style
was used with a list item or heading, no dialog box appears.
View layout
Click the appropriate icon to change between single page, side-byside, and book layout views (Figure 10). You can edit the document
in any view.
Figure 10. View layouts: single, side-by-side, book
Zoom
To change the view magnification, drag the Zoom slider or click on
the + and – signs. You can also right-click on the zoom level
percentage to select a magnification value. Zoom interacts with the
selected view layout to determine how many pages are visible in the
document window.
Changing document views
Writer has several ways to view a document: Print Layout, Web Layout,
and Full Screen. To access these and other choices, go to the View
menu and click on the required view. (When in Full Screen view, press
the
Esc
key to return to either Print or Web Layout view.)
When in Web Layout, you can use the Zoom slider on the Status bar, as
described above. In Print Layout, you can use both the Zoom slider and
the View Layout icons on the Status bar.
Chapter 1 Introducing Writer 21
You can also choose View > Zoom from the menu bar to display the
Zoom & View Layout dialog box (see Figure 11), where you can set the
same options as on the Status bar. In Web Layout view, most of the
choices are not available.
Figure 11. Choosing Zoom and View Layout options
Using the Navigator
In addition to the Page Number field on the Status bar (described on
page 19), Writer provides other ways to move quickly through a
document and find specific items by using the many features of the
Navigator, the Navigation toolbar, and related icons.
To open the Navigator, click its icon on the Standard toolbar, or press
F5
, or choose Edit > Navigator on the menu bar. You can dock the
Navigator to either side of the main Writer window or leave it floating
(see “Docking/floating windows and toolbars” on page 17).
The Navigator displays lists of all the headings, tables, text frames,
graphics, bookmarks, and other objects contained in a document.
To hide the list of categories and show only the icons at the top, click
the List Box On/Off icon . Click this icon again to show the list.
Click the + sign by any of the lists to display the contents of the list.
Table 1 summarizes the functions of the icons at the top of the
Navigator.
Note
22 OpenOffice.org 3 Writer Guide
The Navigator has different functions in a master document. See
Chapter 13 (Working with Master Documents).
Figure 12. The Navigator
Table 1: Function of icons in the Navigator
Not active in ordinary documents. In a master document, switches
between the master document file and its subdocuments.
Opens the Navigation toolbar (see page 24).
Jumps to the previous or next item in the document. To select the
category of items, see “Using the Navigation toolbar“ on page 24.
Jumps to the page number in the box. Type the page number or
select it using the up and down arrows.
Drag Mode. Select hyperlink, link, or copy. See “Choosing drag
mode” on page 26 for details.
List Box On/Off. Shows or hides the list of categories.
Content View. Switches between showing all categories and
showing only the selected category.
Inserts a reminder (see page 26).
Jumps between the text area and the header or footer area (if the
page has them).
Jumps between a footnote anchor and the corresponding footnote
text.
Choose the number of heading levels to be shown.
Chapter 1 Introducing Writer 23
Moving quickly through a document
The Navigator provides several convenient ways to move around a
document and find items in it:
• To jump to a specific page in the document, type its page number
in the box at the top of the Navigator.
• When a category is showing the list of objects in it, double-click
on an object to jump directly to that object’s location in the
document.
To see the content in only one category, highlight that category
and click the Content View icon. Click the icon again to display
all the categories. You can also change the number of heading
levels shown when viewing Headings.
• Use the Previous and Next icons to jump to other objects of the
type selected in the Navigation toolbar. (See below for details.)
Objects are much easier to find if you have given them names
Tip
when creating them, instead of keeping OOo’s default graphics1,
graphics2, Table1, Table2, and so on—which may not correspond
to the position of the object in the document.
A hidden section (or other hidden object) in a document appears
Note
gray in the Navigator, and displays the word “hidden” as a
tooltip.
Using the Navigation toolbar
To display the Navigation toolbar, click the Navigation icon in the
Navigator (Figure 12)or the small Navigation icon near the lower righthand corner of the window below the vertical scroll bar (Figure 13).
Figure 13: Previous, Navigation, and Next icons
24 OpenOffice.org 3 Writer Guide
Figure 14: Navigation toolbar
The Navigation toolbar (Figure 14) shows icons for all the object types
shown in the Navigator, plus some extras (for example, the results of a
Find command).
Click an icon to select that object type. Now all the Previous and Next
icons (in the Navigator itself, in the Navigation Toolbar, and on the
scroll bar) will jump to the next object of the selected type. This is
particularly helpful for finding items like index entries, which can be
difficult to see in the text. The names of the icons (shown in the
tooltips) change to match the selected category; for example, Next
Graphic or Next Bookmark.
Rearranging chapters using the Navigator
You can arrange chapters and move headings in the document by using
the Navigator.
1) Click the Content View icon to expand the headings, if necessary.
2) (Optional) If you have several subheading levels, you can more
easily find the headings you want, by changing the Heading
Levels Shown selection to show only 1 or 2 levels of headings.
3) Click on the heading of the block of text that you want to move
and drag the heading to a new location on the Navigator, or click
the heading in the Navigator list, and then click either the
Promote Chapter or Demote Chapter icon. All of the text and
subsections under the selected heading move with it.
To move only the selected heading and not the text associated
with the heading, hold down
Tip
The tooltips (Promote Chapter and Demote Chapter) are
misleading; all headings defined in Tools > Outline
Numbering can be rearranged using this function.
Control
, and then click the icon.
4) To quickly change the outline level of a heading and its associated
subheadings, select the heading in the Navigator, and then click
either the Promote Level or Demote Level icon. This action
does not change the location of the heading, only its level.
Chapter 1 Introducing Writer 25
To increase the outline level of only the selected heading, but not
its associated subheadings, hold down
icon.
Control
, and then click the
Figure 15. Reorganizing with the Navigator
Note
Users of MS Office Word will note the similarity between this
functionality and Word's Outline View.
Setting reminders
One of the little known features of Writer which you may find quite
useful is the possibility of jumping between reminders.
not highlighted in any way in the document, so you cannot see where
they are, but they are a handy tool.
To set a reminder at the cursor's current location, click on the
icon in the Navigator. You can set up to 5 reminders in a document
(setting another causes the first to be deleted). To jump between
reminders, first select the same icon on the Navigation toolbar. Now
the Previous and Next icons are active for reminders.
Reminders
are
Choosing drag mode
Sets the drag and drop options for inserting items into a document
using the Navigator.
Insert As Hyperlink
Creates a hyperlink when you drag and drop an item into the
current document.
Insert As Link
Inserts the selected item as a link where you drag and drop in the
current document. Text is inserted as protected sections. However,
you cannot create links for graphics, OLE objects, references, or
indexes using this method.
26 OpenOffice.org 3 Writer Guide
Insert As Copy
Inserts a copy of the selected item where you drag and drop in the
current document. You cannot drag and drop copies of graphics,
OLE objects, or indexes.
Starting a new document
Creating a blank document
You can create a new, blank document in Writer in several ways.
When OOo is open but no document is open (for example, if you close
all the open documents but leave the program running), a Welcome
screen is shown. Click one of the icons to open a new document of that
type, or click the Templates icon to start a new document using a
template.
You can also start a new document in one of the following ways. If a
document is already open in OOo, the new document opens in a new
window.
• Press the
already have a document open, the new document appears in a
new window.
• Use File > New > Text Document. The result is the same as
pressing the
• Click the New button on the main toolbar .
Control+N
Control+N
keys. A new empty document opens. If you
keys.
Creating a document from a template
You can use templates to create new documents in Writer. Templates
serve as the foundation of a set of documents, to make sure they all
have a similar layout. For example, all the documents of the
Guide
look alike; they have the same headers and footers, use the same fonts,
and so on.
A new OpenOffice.org installation does not contain many templates. It
is possible for you to add new templates to your installation and use
them for new documents. This is explained in Chapter 10 (Working
with Templates). Many more templates can be downloaded from
http://extensions.services.openoffice.org/ and other websites.
are based on the same template. As a result, all the documents
Writer
Chapter 1 Introducing Writer 27
Once you do have templates on your system, you can create new
documents based on them by using File > New > Templates and
Documents. This opens a window where you can choose the template
you want to use for your document.
The example shown in Figure 16 uses a template called “Book” in the
My Templates folder. Select it, then click the Open button. A new
document is created based on the formats defined in the template.
Figure 16. Creating a document from a template
Opening an existing document
When no document is open, the Welcome screen provides an icon for
opening an existing document.
You can also open an existing document in one of the following ways. If
a document is already open in OOo, the second document opens in a
new window.
• Click File > Open.
• Click the Open button on the main toolbar.
• Press
In each case, the Open dialog box appears. Select the file you want,
and then click Open.
28 OpenOffice.org 3 Writer Guide
Control+O
on the keyboard.
In the Open dialog box, you can reduce the list of files by selecting the
type of file you are looking for. For example, if you choose Text
documents as the file type, you will only see documents Writer can
open (including *.odt, *.doc, *.txt). This method opens Word (*.doc)
files, as well as OOo files and other formats.
You can also open an existing OOo Writer document using the same
methods you would use to open any document in your operating
system.
If you have associated Microsoft Office file formats with
OpenOffice.org, you can also open these files by double-clicking on
them.
Saving a document
To save a new document in Writer, do one of the following:
• Press
• Select File > Save.
• Click the Save button on the main toolbar.
When the Save As dialog box appears, enter the file name and verify
the file type (if applicable).
To save an open document with the current file name, choose File >
Save. This will overwrite the last saved state of the file.
Control+S
.
Password protection
To protect an entire document from being viewable without a
password, use the option on the Save As dialog box to enter a
password. This option is only available for files saved in
OpenDocument formats or the older OpenOffice.org 1.x formats.
1) On the Save As dialog box, select the Save with password
option, and then click Save. You will receive a prompt:
2) Type the same password in the Password field and the Confirm
field, and then click OK. If the passwords match, the document is
Chapter 1 Introducing Writer 29
saved password protected. If the passwords do not match, you
receive the prompt to enter the password again.
Note
Passwords must contain a minimum of 5 characters. Until you
have entered 5 characters, the OK button remains inactive.
Saving a document automatically
You can choose to have Writer save your document automatically at
regular intervals. Automatic saving, like manual saving, overwrites the
last saved state of the file. To set up automatic file saving:
1) Select Tools > Options > Load/Save > General.
2) Click on Save AutoRecovery information every. This enables
the box to set the interval. The default value is 30 minutes. Enter
the value you want by typing it or by pressing the up or down
arrow keys.
Saving as a Microsoft Word document
You may need to share your documents with other people who do not
use OpenOffice.org, but use Microsoft Word instead. Fortunately,
OpenOffice.org can read and write Word files.
To save a document as a Microsoft Word file:
1) First save your document in OpenOffice.org’s format (*.odt). If
you do not, any changes you made since the last time you saved
will only appear in the Microsoft Word version of the document.
2) Then click File > Save As. The Save As dialog box (Figure 17)
appears.
3) In the Save as type drop-down menu, select the type of Word
format you need.
4) Click Save.
From this point on,
only in the Microsoft Word document
all changes you make to the document will occur
. You have actually changed the
name of your document. If you want to go back to working with the
OpenOffice.org version of your document, you must open it again.
To have OOo save documents by default in the Microsoft Word
file format, go to Tools > Options > Load/Save > General. In
Tip
the section named
select Text document, then under
preferred file format.
Default file format
Always save as
, under
Document type
, select your
,
30 OpenOffice.org 3 Writer Guide
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