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:

[e-mail]

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

Figure 17. Saving a file in Microsoft Word format

Getting help

Writer provides several forms of help. In addition to a full Help file
(reached by pressing F1 or choosing Help > OpenOffice.org Help
from the menu bar), you can choose whether to activate tooltips,
extended tips, and the Help Agent from Tools > Options >
OpenOffice.org > General.

Placing the mouse pointer over any of the icons displays a small box,
called a
more detailed explanation, select Help > What’s This? and hold the
mouse pointer over the icon you need more help with.

tooltip

. It gives a brief explanation of the icon’s function. For a

Closing a document

To close a document, click File > Close.

You can also close a document by clicking on the Close icon on the
document window. In Windows XP, this button looks like the X in the
red box shown in Figure 1.

Chapter 1 Introducing Writer 31

If more than one OOo window is open, each window looks like the
sample shown on the left in Figure 18. Closing this window leaves the
other OOo windows open.

If only one OOo window is open, it looks like the sample shown on the
right in Figure 18. Notice the small black X below the larger X in the
red box. Clicking the small black X closes the document but leaves
OOo open. Clicking the larger X closes OOo completely.

Figure 18. Close icons

If the document has not been saved since the last change, a message
box is displayed. Choose whether to save or discard your changes.

• Save: The document is saved and then closed.

• Discard: The document is closed, and all modifications since the

last save are lost.

• Cancel: Nothing happens, and you return to the document.

Caution

Not saving your document could result in the loss of recently
made changes, or worse still, your entire file.

Closing Writer

To close Writer completely, click File > Exit, or close the last open
document as described in “Closing a document” on page 31.

If all the documents have been saved, Writer closes immediately. If any
documents have been modified but not saved, a warning message
appears. Follow the procedure in “Closing a document” to save or
discard your changes.

32 OpenOffice.org 3 Writer Guide

Chapter 2

Setting up Writer

Choosing options to suit the way you work

Choosing options that affect all of OOo

This section covers some of the settings that apply to all the
components of OOo and are particularly important when using Writer.
Other general options are discussed in Chapter 2 (Setting Up
OpenOffice.org) in the

Click Tools > Options. The list in the left-hand box varies depending
on which component of OOo is open. The illustrations in this chapter
show the list as it appears when the category OpenOffice.org or
OpenOffice.org Writer are expanded by clicking on the + symbol.

Click the + sign by OpenOffice.org in the left-hand section of the
Options – OpenOffice.org dialog box. A list of subsections drops down.
Selecting an item of the subsection causes the right-hand side of the
dialog box to display the relevant options.

Getting Started

guide.

Figure 19: OpenOffice.org options

The Back button has the same effect on all pages of the

Note

Options dialog box. It resets options to the values that were in
place when you opened OOo.

User Data options

Because Writer’s revision features mark your changes and comments
with the name or initials stored in the User Data page, you will want to
ensure that your name and initials appear there.

In the Options dialog box, click OpenOffice.org > User Data.
Fill in the form (shown in Figure 20) or amend or delete any existing

incorrect information.

34 OpenOffice.org 3 Writer Guide

Figure 20. Filling in user data

General options

In the Options dialog box, click OpenOffice.org > General. The
options available on this page are described below.

Figure 21. Setting general options for OpenOffice.org

Help - Tips

When
hold the cursor over an icon or field on the main OOo window,
without clicking.

Help - Extended tips

When
a particular icon or menu command or a field on a dialog box
appears when you hold the cursor over that item.

Chapter 2 Setting up Writer 35

Help: Tips

are active, one or two words will appear when you

Extended tips

are active, a brief description of the function of

Help Agent

To turn off the

Help Agent

(similar to Microsoft’s Office Assistant),
deselect this option. To restore the default Help Agent behavior,
click Reset Help Agent.

Help formatting

High contrast

is an operating system setting that changes the
system color scheme to improve readability. To display Help in high
contrast (if your computer’s operating system supports this), choose
one of the high-contrast style sheets from the pull-down list. For
Windows XP, the high-contrast style options are as described below.

High-contrast style Visual effect

Default Black text on white background

High Contrast #1 Yellow text on black background

High Contrast #2 Green text on black background

High Contrast Black White text on black background

High Contrast White Black text on white background

Open/Save dialogs

To use the standard Open and Save dialog boxes for your operating
system, deselect the Use OpenOffice.org dialogs option. When
this option is selected, the Open and Save dialog boxes supplied with
OpenOffice.org will be used. See Chapter 1 (Introducing
OpenOffice.org) in the

Getting Started

guide for more about the

OOo Open and Save dialog boxes.

Document status

Choose whether printing a document counts as changing the
document. If this option is selected, then the next time you close the
document after printing, the print date is recorded in the document
properties as a change and you will be prompted to save the
document again, even if you did not make any other changes.

Year (two digits)

Specifies how two-digit years are interpreted. For example, if the
two-digit year is set to 1930, and you enter a date of 1/1/30 or later
into your document, the date is interpreted as 1/1/1930 or later. An
“earlier” date is interpreted as being in the following century; that
is, 1/1/20 is interpreted as 1/1/2020.

36 OpenOffice.org 3 Writer Guide

View options

The choices of View options affect the way the document window looks
and behaves.

In the Options dialog box, click OpenOffice.org > View. On the page
displayed, set the options to suit your personal preferences. Some of
them are described below.

Figure 22: Choosing View options for OpenOffice.org applications

User Interface – Scaling

If the text in the help files or on the menus of the OOo user interface
is too small or too large, you can change it by specifying a scaling
factor. Sometimes a change here can have unexpected results,
depending on the screen fonts available on your system. However, it
does not affect the font size of the text in your documents.

User Interface – Icon size and style

The first box specifies the display size of toolbar icons (Automatic,
Small, or Large); the Automatic icon size option uses the setting

for your operating system. The second box specifies the icon style
(theme); here the Automatic option uses an icon set compatible
with your operating system and choice of desktop: for example, KDE
or Gnome on Linux.

Chapter 2 Setting up Writer 37

User Interface – Use system font for user interface

If you prefer to use the system font (the default font for your
computer and operating system) instead of the font provided by OOo
for the user interface, select this option.

User interface – Screen font antialiasing

(Not available in Windows.) Select this option to smooth the screen
appearance of text. Enter the smallest font size to apply antialiasing.

Menu – Show icons in menus

Select this option if you want icons as well as words to be visible in
menus.

Font Lists - Show preview of fonts

When you select this option, the font list looks like Figure 21, Left,
with the font names shown as an example of the font; with the
option deselected, the font list shows only the font names, not their
formatting (Figure 21, Right). The fonts you will see listed are those
that are installed on your system.

Figure 23. Font list (Left) showing preview; (Right) without preview

Font Lists - Show font history

When you select this option, the last five fonts you have assigned to
the current document are displayed at the top of the font list.

3D view – Use OpenGL

Specifies that all 3D graphics from Draw and Impress will be
displayed in your system using OpenGL-capable hardware. If your
system does not have OpenGL-capable hardware, this setting will be
ignored.

3D view – Use OpenGL – Optimized output

Select this option for optimized OpenGL output. Disable the
optimization in case of graphical errors of 3D output.

3D view – Use dithering

The Use dithering option uses dithering to display additional colors
when the computer’s graphics system offers less than the optimal 16
million (24-bit) colors. Dithering creates the illusion of new colors

38 OpenOffice.org 3 Writer Guide

and shades by varying the pattern of color pixels. Varying the
patterns of black and white dots, for instance, produces different
shades of gray.

Internally, 3-D graphics are always created with 16 million
colors (24-bit color depth) and dithering can be used to

Note

compensate when fewer actual colors are available. Without
dithering, several bits of color information would be omitted,
leading to significantly reduced image quality.

3D view – Object refresh during interaction

Specifies that if you rotate or move a 3-D object, the full display is
rotated or moved and not a grid frame.

Tip

Press
current document.

Shift+Control+R

to restore or refresh the view of the

Mouse positioning

Specifies if and how the mouse pointer will be positioned in newly
opened dialog boxes.

Middle mouse button

Defines the function of the middle mouse button.

• Automatic scrolling – dragging while pressing the middle

mouse button shifts the view.

• Paste clipboard – pressing the middle mouse button inserts the

contents of the “Selection clipboard” at the cursor position.

The “Selection clipboard” is independent of the normal clipboard
that you use by Edit > Copy/Cut/Paste or their respective
keyboard shortcuts. Clipboard and “Selection clipboard” can contain
different contents at the same time.

Function Clipboard Selection clipboard

Copy content

Paste content

Pasting into
another document

Chapter 2 Setting up Writer 39

Edit > Copy

Control+C

Edit > Paste

Control+V

the cursor position.

No effect on the
clipboard contents.

pastes at

Select text, table, or object.

Clicking the middle mouse
button pastes at the mouse
pointer position.

The last marked selection is
the content of the selection
clipboard.

Print options

Set the print options to suit your default printer and your most
common printing method.

In the Options dialog box, click OpenOffice.org > Print.
The print-related options are shown in Figure 24. Look at the

warnings

section near the bottom. Here you can choose whether to be

Printer

warned if the paper size or orientation specified in your document does
not match the paper size or orientation available for your printer.
Having these warnings turned on can be quite helpful, particularly if
you work with documents produced by people in other countries where
the standard paper size is different from yours.

If your printouts are coming out incorrectly placed on the page

Tip

or chopped off at the top, bottom, or sides or the printer is
refusing to print, the most likely cause is page-size
incompatibility.

Figure 24. Choosing general printing options to apply to
all OOo components

40 OpenOffice.org 3 Writer Guide

Path options

You can change the location of files associated with, or used by,
OpenOffice.org to suit your working situation. In a Windows system,
for example, you might want to store documents by default somewhere
other than My Documents.

In the Options dialog, click OpenOffice.org > Paths.
To make changes, select an item in the list shown in Figure 25 and

click Edit. On the Select Paths dialog (not shown), add or delete
folders as required, and then click OK to return to the Options dialog.
Note that many items have at least two paths listed: one to a shared
folder (which might be on a network) and one to a user-specific folder
(normally on the user’s personal computer).

You can use the entries in the OpenOffice.org – Paths dialog to

Tip

compile a list of files, such as those containing AutoText, that
you need to back up or copy to another computer.

Figure 25. Viewing the paths of files used by OOo

Chapter 2 Setting up Writer 41

Color options

On the
colors to use in OOo documents. You can select a color from a color
table, edit an existing color, or define new colors. These colors will
then be available in color selection palettes in OOo.

OpenOffice.org – Colors

page (Figure 26), you can specify

Figure 26. Defining colors to use in color palettes in OOo

Font options

You can define replacements for any fonts that might appear in your
documents. If you receive from someone else a document containing
fonts that you do not have on your system, OpenOffice.org will
substitute fonts for those it does not find. You might prefer to specify a
different font from the one the program chooses.

On the

1) Select Apply Replacement Table option.

2) Select or type the name of the font to be replaced in the Font box.

3) In the Replace With box, select a suitable font from the drop-

4) The check mark to the right of the Replace with box turns green.

OpenOffice.org > Fonts

(If you do not have this font on your system, it will not appear in
the drop-down list in this box, so you need to type it in.)

down list of fonts installed on your computer.

Click on this check mark. A row of information now appears in the
larger box below the input boxes. Select the boxes under Always
and Screen.

page (Figure 27):

42 OpenOffice.org 3 Writer Guide

5) In the bottom section of the page, you can change the typeface
and size of the font used to display source code such as HTML
and Basic (in macros).

Figure 27. Defining a font to be substituted for another font

Security options

Use the
options for saving documents and for opening documents that contain
macros.

OpenOffice.org – Security

page (Figure 28) to choose security

Figure 28. Choosing security options for opening and
saving documents

Chapter 2 Setting up Writer 43

Security Options and warnings

If you record changes, save multiple versions, or include hidden
information or notes in your documents, and you do not want some
of the recipients to see that information, you can set warnings to
remind you to remove this information, or you can have OOo remove
some information automatically. Note that (unless removed) much of
this information is retained in a file whether the file is in
OpenOffice.org’s default OpenDocument format, or has been saved
to other formats, including PDF.

Click the Options button to open a separate dialog with specific
choices (Figure 29).

Figure 29: Security options and warnings dialog box

Remove personal information on saving. Select this option to
always remove user data from the file properties when saving the
file. To manually remove personal information from specific
documents, deselect this option and then use the Delete button
under File > Properties > General.

Ctrl-click required to follow hyperlinks. In older versions of
OOo, clicking on a hyperlink in a document opened the linked
document. Now you can choose whether to keep this behavior (by
unchecking this box). Many people find creation and editing of
documents easier when accidental clicks on links do not activate the
links.

The other options on this dialog should be self-explanatory.

44 OpenOffice.org 3 Writer Guide

Macro security

Click the Macro Security button to open the Macro Security dialog,
where you can adjust the security level for executing macros and
specify trusted sources.

File sharing options for this document

Select the Open this document in read-only mode option to
restrict this document to be opened in read-only mode only. This
option protects the document against accidental changes. It is still
possible to edit a copy of the document and save that copy with the
same name as the original.

Select the Record changes option to enable recording changes.
This is the same as Edit > Changes > Record. To allow other users
of this document to apply changes, but prevent them from disabling
change recording, click the Protect button and enter a password.

Appearance options

Writing, editing, and page layout are often easier to do when you can
see as much as possible of what's going on in your document. You may
wish to make visible such items as text, table, and section boundaries,
and grid lines (see “Grid options” on page 54). In addition, you might
prefer different colors (from OOo’s defaults) for such items as note
indicators or field shadings.

On the
are visible and the colors used to display various items.

OpenOffice.org – Appearance

page, you can specify which items

Figure 30. Showing or hiding text, object, and table
boundaries

Chapter 2 Setting up Writer 45

• To show or hide items such as text boundaries, select or deselect

the items.

• To change the default colors for items, click the down-arrow in

the

Color setting

color from the pop-up box.

• To save your color changes as a color scheme, type a name in the

Scheme

box and click Save.

column by the name of the item and select a

Choosing options for loading and saving documents

You can set the Load/Save options to suit the way you work.

If the Options dialog is not already open, click Tools > Options. Click
the + sign to the left of Load/Save.

Figure 31: Load/Save options

General Load/Save options

Most of the choices on the
familiar to users of other office suites. Some items of interest are
described below.

Load user-specific settings with the document

When you save a document, certain settings are saved with it. For
example, your choice (in the options for OOo Writer) of how to
update links is affected by the Load user-specific settings option.
Some settings (printer name, data source linked to the document)
are always loaded with a document, whether or not this option is
selected.

If you select this option, these document settings are overruled by
the user-specific settings of the person who opens it. If you deselect
this option, the user's personal settings do not overrule the settings
in the document.

Load/Save – General

page (Figure 22) are

46 OpenOffice.org 3 Writer Guide

Figure 32. Choosing Load and Save options

Load printer settings with the document

If this option is not selected, the printer settings that are stored
with the document are ignored when you print it using the Print
File Directly icon. The default printer in your system will be used
instead.

Edit document properties before saving

If you select this option, the Document Properties dialog pops up to
prompt you to enter relevant information the first time you save a
new document (or whenever you use Save As).

Save AutoRecovery information every

Note that AutoRecovery in OpenOffice.org overwrites the original
file. If you have also chosen Always create backup copy, the
original file then overwrites the backup copy. If you have this set,
recovering your document after a system crash will be easier; but
recovering an earlier version of the document may be harder.

Save URLs relative to file system / internet

Relative addressing to a file system is only possible if the source
document and the referenced document are both on the same drive.
A relative address always starts from the directory in which the
current document is located. It is recommended to save relatively if
you want to create a directory structure on an Internet server.

Default file format and ODF settings

ODF format version. OpenOffice.org by default saves documents in
Open Document Format (ODF) version 1.2. While this allows for
improved functionality, there may be backwards compatibility issues.

Chapter 2 Setting up Writer 47

When a file saved in ODF 1.2 is opened in an earlier version of
OpenOffice.org (using ODF 1.0/1.1), some of the advanced features
may be lost. Two notable examples are cross-references to headings
and the formatting of numbered lists. If you plan to share documents
with people who are still using older versions of OpenOffice.org, it is
recommended that you save the document using ODF version

1.0/1.1.
Size optimization for ODF format. OpenOffice.org documents are

XML files. When you select this option, OOo writes the XML data
without indents and line breaks. If you want to be able to read the
XML files in a text editor in a structured form, deselect this option.

Document type. If you routinely share documents with users of
Microsoft Word, you might want to change the Always save as
attribute for text documents to one of the Word formats.

VBA Properties Load/Save options

On the

Load/Save – VBA Properties

page (Figure 33), you can choose
whether to keep any macros in Microsoft Office documents that are
opened in OpenOffice.org.

Figure 33: Choosing
Load/Save VBA Properties

• If you choose Save original Basic code, the macros will not

work in OOo but are retained if you save the file into Microsoft
Office format.

• If you choose Load Basic code to edit, the changed code is

saved in an OOo document but is not retained if you save into an
MSOffice format.

• If you are importing a Microsoft Excel file containing VBA code,

you can select the option Executable code. Whereas normally
the code is preserved but rendered inactive (if you inspect it with

48 OpenOffice.org 3 Writer Guide

the StarBasic IDE you will notice that it is all commented), with
this option the code is ready to be executed.

Microsoft Office Load/Save options

On the
what to do when importing and exporting Microsoft Office OLE objects
(linked or embedded objects or documents such as spreadsheets or
equations).

Select the [L] check boxes to convert Microsoft OLE objects into the
corresponding OpenOffice.org OLE objects when a Microsoft document
is loaded into OOo (mnemonic: “L” for “load”).

Select the [S] check boxes to convert OpenOffice.org OLE objects into
the corresponding Microsoft OLE objects when a document is saved in
a Microsoft format (mnemonic: “S” for “save”).

Load/Save – Microsoft Office

page (Figure 34), you can choose

Figure 34. Choosing Load/Save Microsoft Office options

HTML compatibility Load/Save options

Choices made on the
(Figure 35) affect HTML pages imported into OpenOffice.org and those
exported from OOo. See
Help for more information.

Chapter 2 Setting up Writer 49

Load/Save – HTML Compatibility

page

HTML documents; importing/exporting

in the

Figure 35. Choosing HTML compatibility options

Font sizes

Use these fields to define the respective font sizes for the HTML
<font size=1> to <font size=7> tags, if they are used in the HTML
pages. (Many pages no longer use these tags.)

Import - Use 'English (USA)' locale for numbers

When importing numbers from an HTML page, the decimal and
thousands separator characters differ according to the locale of the
HTML page. The clipboard, however, contains no information about
the locale. If this option is not selected, numbers will be interpreted
according to the

Language - Locale

setting in Tools > Options >

Language Settings > Languages (see page 62). If this option is

selected, numbers will be interpreted as for the English (USA)
locale.

Import - Import unknown HTML tags as fields

Select this option if you want tags that are not recognized by OOo to
be imported as fields. For an opening tag, an HTML_ON field will be
created with the value of the tag name. For a closing tag, an
HTML_OFF will be created. These fields will be converted to tags in
the HTML export.

Import - Ignore font settings

Select this option to have OOo ignore all font settings when
importing. The fonts that were defined in the HTML Page Style will
be used.

Export

To optimize the HTML export, select a browser or HTML standard
from the Export box. If OpenOffice.org Writer is selected, specific
OpenOffice.org Writer instructions are exported.

50 OpenOffice.org 3 Writer Guide

Export - OpenOffice.org Basic

Select this option to include OOo Basic macros (scripts) when
exporting to HTML format. You must activate this option
create the OpenOffice.org Basic macro; otherwise the script will not
be inserted. OpenOffice.org Basic macros must be located in the
header of the HTML document. Once you have created the macro in
the OpenOffice.org Basic IDE, it appears in the source text of the
HTML document in the header.

If you want the macro to run automatically when the HTML
document is opened, choose Tools > Customize > Events. See
Chapter 13 (Getting Started with Macros) in the
guide for more information.

Export - Display warning

When the OpenOffice.org Basic option (see above) is
the Display warning option becomes available. If the Display
warning option is selected, then when exporting to HTML a
warning is shown that OpenOffice.org Basic macros will be lost.

Getting Started

before

not

selected,

you

Export - Print layout

Select this option to export the print layout of the current document
as well.

The HTML filter supports CSS2 (Cascading Style Sheets Level 2) for
printing documents. These capabilities are only effective if print
layout export is activated.

Export - Copy local graphics to Internet

Select this option to automatically upload the embedded pictures to
the Internet server when uploading using FTP.

Export - Character set

Select the appropriate character set for the export.

Choosing options for Writer

Settings chosen on the pages in the OpenOffice.org Writer section of
the Options dialog box determine how your Writer documents look and
behave while you are working on them.

If the Options dialog box is not already open, click Tools > Options.
Click the + sign by OpenOffice.org Writer in the left-hand section of

the Options – OpenOffice.org dialog box. A list of subsections drops
down.

Chapter 2 Setting up Writer 51

Figure 36: OpenOffice.org Writer options

General options

Choose OpenOffice.org Writer > General on the Options dialog box
to display the page shown in Figure 37.

The choices on this page affect the updating of links and fields, the
units used for rulers and other measurements, and the default tab stop
positions.

Update links when loading

Depending on your work patterns, you may not want links to be
updated when you load a document. For example, if your file links to
other files on a network, you won’t want those links to update when
you are not connected to the network.

Update fields and charts automatically

You may not want fields or charts to update automatically when you
are working, because that slows down performance.

Figure 37. Choosing general options for Writer

52 OpenOffice.org 3 Writer Guide

Settings – Tab stops

The
each press of the Tab key. This setting is also used for the indent
distance applied by the Increase Indent and Decrease Indent
buttons on the Formatting Bar, which affect the indentation of
entire paragraphs.

Tab stops

setting specifies the distance the cursor travels for

View options

Two pages of options set the defaults for viewing Writer documents:
View (described here) and Formatting Aids (described in the next
section).

If the items on the
not self-explanatory, you can easily test their effects in a blank
document.

This is a good page to check if, for example, you cannot see graphics
on the screen or you see field codes instead of the text or numbers you
are expecting.

OpenOffice.org Writer - View

page (Figure 38) are

Figure 38. Choosing View options for Writer

Formatting Aids options

The display of symbols such as paragraph ends and tabs help you when
writing, editing, and doing page layout. For example, you might want
to know if any blank paragraphs or tabs are included or if any tables or
graphics are too wide and intrude into the margins of the page.

On the
select the required options.

Chapter 2 Setting up Writer 53

OpenOffice.org Writer – Formatting Aids

page (Figure 39),

Figure 39. Choosing Formatting Aids options

Direct cursor lets you enter text, images, tables, frames, and
other objects in any blank area in your document. OOo inserts

Note

blank paragraphs and tabs to position the text or objects.
This feature is incompatible with rigorous use of styles and can

lead to many formatting oddities, so it should be avoided by
professional writers.

Grid options

Specifying “snap to grid” can be very helpful when you are trying to
align several objects such as graphics or tables. If the grid intervals
(subdivisions) are too large, you may find that you do not have enough
control in placing the objects.

On the

OpenOffice.org Writer – Grid

page (Figure 40), you can choose

whether to enable this feature and what grid intervals to use.

Figure 40. Choosing Grid options

54 OpenOffice.org 3 Writer Guide

Default fonts

The default fonts specified on the

(Western)

page apply to both Writer documents and HTML (Web)

OpenOffice.org Writer – Basic Fonts

documents.

• If you want to change the defaults, do so on the

Writer – Basic Fonts (Western)

page (Figure 41). You can, of

OpenOffice.org

course, choose other fonts for use in specific documents, either by
applying direct formatting or by defining and applying styles in
those documents.

• When choosing fonts on this page you are not limited to single

fonts or to the ones shown in the drop-down list. You can specify a
“font family”as a comma-separated set of fonts that includes those
suitable for Windows, Macintosh, Linux, and other operating
systems. These choices are particularly important in HTML
documents.

• If the document is viewed on a system that does not have the first

font specified, it will use one of the other fonts if that one is
available. Otherwise, it will substitute a font that is available on
the system.

• Type the list of fonts, separated by commas, in the boxes. If you

want these defaults to apply to the current document only, select
that option. The Default button resets the values on this page to
the defaults installed with OpenOffice.org.

Figure 41. Choosing default fonts

Chapter 2 Setting up Writer 55

Print options

On the

OpenOffice.org Writer – Print

page (Figure 42), you can choose
which items are printed with the document by default. These options
are in addition to those on the

OpenOffice.org – Print

page (Figure 24).

Some considerations:

• When you are working on drafts and you want to save printer ink

or toner, you might want to deselect some of the items in the

Contents

• The Print black selection causes color text (but not graphics) to

section.

print as black on a color printer; on a black-and-white printer, this
option causes color text to print as solid black instead of shades
of grey (dithered).

• Contrast Print black with Convert colors to greyscale on the

Options – OpenOffice.org – Print

page (Figure 24), which prints
all graphics as greyscale on color printers. (On black-and-white
printers, color in graphics normally prints as greyscale.)

• If you are printing double-sided on a non-duplexing printer, you

might choose to print only left or right pages, then turn the stack
over and print the other pages.

• Depending on how your printer ejects pages (face up or face

down), you might need to print the pages in reverse order so they
stack in the correct order as they are printed.

You can override any of these defaults when printing a

Tip

document. Click File > Print, then click the Options button
on the Print dialog box. The Printer Options dialog box that
appears is similar to the one shown in Figure 42.

Figure 42. Choosing Print options for Writer

56 OpenOffice.org 3 Writer Guide

Default table options

On the
the default table behavior.

OpenOffice.org Writer – Table

Figure 43. Choosing default Table options

page (Figure 43), you can specify

Some considerations:

• If most of your tables will require borders or headings, select

those options. If most of your tables are used for page layout,
deselect borders and headings.

•

Number recognition

contain numerical data; Writer will recognize dates or currency,
for example, and format the numbers appropriately. However, if
you want the numbers to remain as ordinary text, this feature can
be quite irritating, so you will want to deselect it.

• The

move when you use keyboard shortcuts to move them and the size
of rows and columns inserted using keyboard shortcuts.

• The choices in the

the effects that changes to rows or columns have on adjacent
rows or columns and the entire table. You might need to test
these selections to fully understand the effects.

Keyboard handling

can be very useful if most of your tables

section specifies the distances that cells

Behavior of rows/columns

section determine

Change tracking options

If you plan to use the change-tracking feature of Writer, use the

OpenOffice.org Writer – Changes

inserted and deleted material is marked, whether and how attribute

Chapter 2 Setting up Writer 57

page (Figure 44) to choose the way

changes are marked, and whether and how change bars are marked in
the margins.

Figure 44. Choosing options for tracking changes

Compatibility options

Do you need to import Microsoft Word documents into OOo Writer? If
so, you might want to select some or all of the settings on the

OpenOffice.org Writer – Compatibility

sure about the effects of these settings, leave them as the defaults
provided by OOo. For information about the settings not described
below, see the Help.

page (Figure 45). If you are not

Figure 45. Choosing compatibility options

58 OpenOffice.org 3 Writer Guide

Use printer metrics for document formatting

If this option is selected, the printer specified for the document
determines how the document is formatted for viewing on screen.
The line breaks and paragraph breaks you see on screen match
those that apply when the document is printed on that printer.

This setting can be useful when several people are reviewing a
document that will eventually be printed on a specific printer or
when the document is exported to PDF (a process that uses “Adobe
PDF” as the printer).

If this option is not selected, a printer-independent layout will be
used for screen display and printing.

Add spacing between paragraphs and tables (in current
document)

In OpenOffice.org Writer, paragraph spacing is defined differently
than it is in MS Word documents. If you have defined spacing
between two paragraphs or tables, spacing is also added in the
corresponding MS Word documents.

If this option is selected, MS Word-compatible spacing is added
between paragraphs and tables in OpenOffice.org Writer documents.

Add paragraph and table spacing at tops of pages (in current
document)

You can define paragraphs to have space appear before (above)
them. If this option is selected, any space above a paragraph will
also appear if the paragraph is at the beginning of a page or column,
if the paragraph is positioned on the first page of the document, or
after a manual page break.

If you import an MS Word document, the spaces are automatically
added during the conversion.

Add paragraph and table spacing at bottom of table cells

Specifies that the bottom spacing is added to a paragraph, even
when it is the last paragraph in a table cell.

Use as Default

Click this button to use the current settings on this page as the
default in OpenOffice.org.

AutoCaption options

Do you want OOo to automatically insert captions for tables, pictures,
frames, and OLE objects that have been inserted in a Writer
document?

Chapter 2 Setting up Writer 59

You may not always want captions for every table, for example,

Note

if you use tables for layout as well as for tables of data. You
can always add captions to individual tables, graphics, or other
objects (right-click > Caption).

If you do want automatic captions on one or more object types:

1) Choose OpenOffice.org Writer > AutoCaption on the Options
dialog box.

2) On the

OpenOffice.org Writer – AutoCaption

page (Figure 46),
select the check box next to an object you want to be
automatically captioned (Picture in the example shown).

3) With the item highlighted, specify the characteristics of the
caption. The supplied categories for captions are Drawing,
Illustration, Table, and Text. However, you are not limited to the
supplied categories. If you want to use another name (for
example, Figure) for the caption label, type the required term in
the box. In the example shown, I have added the category
“Figure” to the list.

Additional information about numbering captions by chapter, character
styles, frame styles, and other items on the AutoCaption page, is given
in later chapters in the

Writer Guide

.

Figure 46. Setting up a new category for automatic
captions on graphics

60 OpenOffice.org 3 Writer Guide

Mail Merge E-mail options

You can produce form letters using Writer and then use the mail merge
function to personalize those letters and send them to a number of
addresses taken from a data source, such as an address book. Mail
merged documents can be printed and mailed, or sent by e-mail.

Use the
(Figure 47) to set up the user and server information for sending form
letters by e-mail. If you are not sure what information to put in any of
the fields, consult your e-mail program or your Internet service
provider.

Options – OpenOffice.org Writer – Mail Merge E-mail

page

Figure 47: Specifying settings for use when e-mailing
mail-merged form letters

Choosing options for HTML documents

You can configure OpenOffice.org to treat HTML documents in Writer
differently than regular documents.

1) If the Options dialog box is not already open, click Tools >
Options.

2) Click the + sign by OpenOffice.org Writer/Web in the left-hand
section of the
subsections drops down.

Here you can customize settings related to printing, formatting aids,
view options, table defaults, the grid, and a default background for
HTML documents you're working with in Writer.

Options – OpenOffice.org

dialog box. A list of

Chapter 2 Setting up Writer 61

Note

Many of the options available under

Writer/Web
OpenOffice.org Writer

opened in Writer. The previous sections contain detailed
discussion on these options.

are identical to the settings under

but will only affect HTML documents

Options – OpenOffice.org

Options –

Choosing language settings

You may need to do several things to set the language settings to what
you want:

• Install the required dictionaries

• Change some locale and language settings

• Choose spelling options

Install the required dictionaries

OOo3 automatically installs several dictionaries with the program. To
add other dictionaries, use Tools > Language > More Dictionaries
Online. OOo will open your default web browser to a page containing
links to additional dictionaries that you can install. Follow the prompts
to install them.

Change some locale and language settings

You can change some details of the locale and language settings that
OOo uses for all documents or for specific documents.

In the Options dialog box, click Language Settings > Languages.

Figure 48: OpenOffice.org Language Options

On the right-hand side of the
(Figure 49), change the

currency

, and

Default languages for documents

User interface, Locale setting, Default

example, English (UK) has been chosen for all the appropriate settings.

Language Settings – Languages

as required. In the

page

62 OpenOffice.org 3 Writer Guide

If you want the language (dictionary) setting to apply to the current
document only, instead of being the default for all new documents,
select For the current document only.

If necessary, select the options to enable support for Asian languages
(Chinese, Japanese, Korean) and support for CTL (complex text layout)
languages such as Hindi, Thai, Hebrew, and Arabic. If you choose
either of these options, the next time you open this page, you will see
some extra pages under
These pages (Searching in Japanese, Asian Layout, and Complex Text
Layout) are not discussed here.

Language Settings

, as shown in Figure 50.

Figure 49. Choosing language options

Figure 50. Extra pages available when enhanced language
support options are selected

Chapter 2 Setting up Writer 63

Choose spelling options

To choose the options for checking spelling, click Language Settings
> Writing Aids. In the

the settings that are useful for you. Some considerations:

• If you do not want spelling checked while you type, deselect

Check spelling as you type and select Do not mark errors. (To

find the second item, scroll down in the

• If you use a custom dictionary that includes words in all

uppercase and words with numbers (for example, AS/400), select
Check uppercase words and Check words with numbers.

• Check special regions includes headers, footers, frames, and

tables when checking spelling.

Here you can also check which of the user-defined (custom)
dictionaries are active, or you can add or remove dictionaries by
clicking the New or Delete buttons.

Options

section of the page (Figure 51), choose

Options

list.)

Figure 51. Choosing languages, dictionaries, and
options for checking spelling

64 OpenOffice.org 3 Writer Guide

Controlling Writer’s AutoCorrect functions

Some people find some or all of the items in Writer’s AutoCorrect
feature annoying because they change what you type when you don’t
want it changed. Many people find some of the AutoCorrect functions
quite helpful; if you do, then select the relevant options. But if you find
unexplained changes appearing in your document, this is a good place
to look to find the cause.

To open the AutoCorrect dialog box, click Tools >
AutoCorrect/AutoFormat. (You need to have a document open for
this menu item to appear.)

In Writer, this dialog box has five tabs, as shown in Figure 52.

Figure 52. The AutoCorrect dialog box in Writer, showing
the five tabs and some of the choices on the Options tab

Chapter 2 Setting up Writer 65

Chapter 3

Working with Text

Introduction

This chapter covers the basics of working with text in Writer, the word­processing component of OpenOffice.org (OOo). It assumes that you
are familiar with the use of a mouse and keyboard and that you have
read about Writer’s menus and toolbars and other topics covered in
Chapter 1 (Introducing Writer).

We recommend that you also follow the suggestions in Chapter 2
(Setting up Writer) about displaying formatting aids, such as end-of­paragraph marks, and selecting other setup options.

When you have read this chapter, you should know how to:

• Select, cut, copy, paste, and move text

• Find and replace text

• Insert special characters

• Format paragraphs and characters

• Create numbered or bulleted lists

• Check spelling, use the thesaurus, and choose hyphenation

options

• Use the autocorrection, word completion, autotext, and line

numbering features

• Track changes, undo and redo changes, and insert notes

• Link to other parts of a document

Selecting text

Before you can do anything with text, you need to select it. Selecting
text in Writer is similar to selecting anything in other applications.

In addition to selecting blocks of text, you can select items that are not
consecutive, and columns (vertical blocks) of text.

Selecting items that are not consecutive

To select nonconsecutive items (as shown in Figure 75) using the
mouse:

1) Select the first piece of text.

2) Hold down the

Control (Ctrl)

key and use the mouse to select the

next piece of text.

3) Repeat as often as needed.

Chapter 3 Working with Text 67

Now you can work with the selected text (copy it, delete it, change the
style, or whatever).

Note

Macintosh users: substitute the
instructions in this chapter say to use the

Command

key when

Control

key.

To select nonconsecutive items using the keyboard:

1) Select the first piece of text. (For more information about
keyboard selection of text, see the topic “Navigating and
Selecting with the Keyboard” in the OpenOffice.org Help (F1).)

2) Press

Shift+F8

. This puts Writer in “ADD” mode. The word ADD

appears on the Status Bar.

3) Use the arrow keys to move to the start of the next piece of text
to be selected. Hold down the

Shift

key and select the next piece

of text.

4) Repeat as often as needed.

Now you can work with the selected text.

Figure 53: Selecting items that are not next to each other

Press

Esc

to exit from this mode.

Selecting a vertical block of text

You can select a vertical block or “column” of text that is separated by
spaces or tabs (as you might see in text pasted from e-mails, program
listings, or other sources), using OOo’s block selection mode. To
change to block selection mode, use Edit > Selection Mode > Block
Area, or click several times in the status bar on STD until it changes to
BLK.

Now highlight the selection, using mouse or keyboard, as shown in
Figure 54.

68 OpenOffice.org 3 Writer Guide

Figure 54: Selecting a vertical block of text

Cutting, copying, and pasting text

Cutting and copying text in Writer is similar to cutting and copying text
in other applications. You can copy or move text within a document, or
between documents, by dragging or by using menu selections, icons, or
keyboard shortcuts. You can also copy text from other sources such as
Web pages and paste it into a Writer document.

To

move

new location and release it. To

Control

before dragging.
After selecting text, you can use the mouse or the keyboard for these

operations.

(cut and paste) selected text using the mouse, drag it to the

copy

key while dragging. The text retains the formatting it had

selected text, hold down the

Cut: Use Edit > Cut or the keyboard shortcut
Cut icon on the toolbar.

Copy: Use Edit > Copy or the keyboard shortcut
Copy icon.

Paste: Use Edit > Paste or the keyboard shortcut
the Paste icon.

The result of a paste operation depends on the source of the text to be
pasted. If you simply click on the Paste icon, any formatting the text
has (such as bold or italics) is retained. Text pasted from Web sites and
other sources may also be placed into frames or tables. If you do not
like the results, click the Undo icon or press

To make the pasted text take on the formatting of the surrounding text
where it is to be pasted, choose:

• Edit > Paste Special

• or click the triangle to the right of the Paste icon

Control+Z

Control+X

Control+C

Control+V

.

or the

or the

or

• or click the Paste icon without releasing the left mouse button

Then select Unformatted text from the resulting menu.

Chapter 3 Working with Text 69

The range of choices on the Paste Special menu varies depending upon
the origin and formatting of the text (or other object) to be pasted. See
Figure 55 for an example with text on the clipboard.

Figure 55: Paste Special menu

This example includes the formatting option
acronym for Dynamic Data Exchange, a mechanism whereby selected
data in document A can be pasted into document B as a linked, ‘live’
copy of the original. It would be used, for example, in a report written
in Writer containing time-varying data, such as sales results sourced
from a Calc spreadsheet. The DDE link ensures that, as the source
spreadsheet is updated so is the report, thus reducing the scope for
error and reducing the work involved in keeping the Writer document
up to date.

DDE link. DDE

is an

Moving paragraphs quickly

With the cursor anywhere in the paragraph:

1) Press and hold the

2) While holding the

down-arrow

The paragraph will move to a new location either before the previous
paragraph or after the next paragraph in your document. To move
more than one paragraph at a time, select at least part of all
paragraphs (including the end of the first paragraph you want to move
and the start of the last) before pressing the

key.

Control+Alt

Control+Alt

keys.

keys down, press the

Control+Alt+arrow

up-arrow

keys.

or

If you are using Solaris, the key combination is
keys.

If your paragraphs suddenly jumped from one place to another,

Tip

70 OpenOffice.org 3 Writer Guide

the most likely reason is that you have accidentally pressed
one of these key combinations.

Control+AltGr+arrow

Note

In some machines the
reserved for screen flipping. You have to deactivate or assign
different key combination for screen flipping (usually through
display / graphics adapter settings in your computer) before
using this feature.

Control+Alt+arrow

key combination is

Finding and replacing text

When looking for certain words in a 3000-word essay, it is inefficient to
go through every word manually. Writer has a Find and Replace
feature that automates the process of searching for text inside a
document.

In addition to finding and replacing words and phrases, you can:

• Use wildcards and regular expressions to fine-tune a search.

• Find and replace specific formatting.

• Find and replace paragraph styles.

To display the Find & Replace dialog box (Error: Reference source not
found), use the keyboard shortcut

Control+F

or select Edit > Find &

Replace.

Figure 56: Expanded Find & Replace dialog box

1) Type the text you want to find in the

Chapter 3 Working with Text 71

Search for

box.

2) To replace the text with different text, type the new text in the

Replace with

box.

3) You can select various options, such as matching the case,
matching whole words only, or doing a search for similar words.
(See below for some other choices.)

4) When you have set up your search, click Find. To replace text,
click Replace instead.

If you click Find All, Writer selects all instances of the search

Tip

text in the document. Similarly, if you click Replace All
button, Writer replaces all matches.

Caution

Use Replace All with caution; otherwise, you may end up with
some hilarious (and highly embarrassing) mistakes. A mistake
with Replace All might require a manual, word-by-word
search to fix, if not discovered in time to undo.

Use wildcards (regular expressions)

Wildcards

characters that instruct OOo how to search for something. Regular
expressions are very powerful but not very intuitive. They can save
time and effort by combining multiple finds into one.

Table 2 shows a few of the regular expressions used by OOo.

Tip

Note

(also known as

The online help describes many more regular expressions and
their uses.

One of the most common mistakes when using regular
expressions is to try to search for a character that is defined as
a wildcard, such as brackets or dots. If you need to search for
such a character, type a backslash (\) before it. This instructs
OOo to treat the character following the backslash as a normal
character. For example, to find the text $5.00 ($ and . are
wildcard characters), you would conduct a search using \

$5\.00.

regular expressions

) are combinations of

To use wildcards and regular expressions when searching and
replacing:

1) On the Find & Replace dialog box, click More Options to see
more choices. On this expanded dialog box (Figure 56), select the
Regular expressions option.

72 OpenOffice.org 3 Writer Guide

2) Type the search text, including the wildcards, in the
box and the replacement text (if any) in the

Replace with

Search for

all regular expressions work as replacement characters; the line
break (\n) is one that does work.

3) Click Find, Find All, Replace, or Replace All (not
recommended).

Table 2. Examples of search wildcards (regular expressions)

box. Not

To find

Any single
character

Characters at the
beginning of a
paragraph

Characters at the
end of a paragraph

One of the specified
characters

Any single
character in this
range

Any single
character except
the characters
inside the brackets

Use this
expression

.

^chars ^term

chars$ term.$

[xyz] b[iu]n finds

[x-y] [r-t]eed finds

[^x] p[^a]st finds

Examples and comments

b.d finds

bad, bud, bid

bin

ranges must be in alphabetically
ascending order.

past.

, and

and

bun

reed, seed

post

and

.

, and

pest

bed

.

teed

;

, but not

The beginning of a
word

The end of a word end\> log\> finds

A paragraph marker $ Does not work as a replacement

An empty paragraph ^$

A tab character \t

A line break \n Finds a line break that was inserted

Chapter 3 Working with Text 73

\<start \<log finds

not

catalog

character. Use \n instead.

with
replacement character, it inserts a
paragraph marker.

Shift+Enter

logbook

.

catalog

. When used as a

and

, but not

logistics

, but

logistics

.

Find and replace specific formatting

A very powerful use of Find & Replace takes advantage of the format
option. For example, you might want to replace underlined words with
italics.

On the Find & Replace dialog box (with More Options displayed, as in
Figure 56):

1) To search for text with specific formatting, enter the text in the

Search for

text in the

2) Click Format to display the Text Format (Search) dialog box. The
tabs on this dialog box are similar to those on the Paragraph
format and Paragraph Style dialog boxes. Choose the formats you
want to search for and then click OK. The names of selected
formats appear under the
search for all text in 14-point bold Helvetica.

box. To search for specific formatting only, delete any

Search for

box.

Search for

box. For example, you might

3) To replace text, enter the replacement text in the
box.

To search for specific text with specific formatting (for example,
the word hello in bold), specify the formatting, put the text in the

Search for

To remove specific character formatting, click Format, select the
Font tab, then select the opposite format (for example, No Bold).
The No Format button on the Find & Replace dialog box clears
all previously selected formats.

4) Click Find, Find All, Replace, or Replace All.

Tip

box and leave the

Unless you plan to search for other text using those same
attributes, click No Format to remove the attributes after
completing your search. If you forget to do this, you may
wonder why your next search fails to find words you know are
in the document.

Replace with

box blank.

Replace with

Find and replace paragraph styles

If you combine material from several sources, you may discover that
lots of unwanted paragraph styles have suddenly shown up in your
document. To quickly change all the paragraphs of one (unwanted)
style to another (preferred) style:

1) On the expanded Find & Replace dialog box (Figure 56), select
Search for Styles. (If you have attributes specified, this option is

74 OpenOffice.org 3 Writer Guide

labeled

Including Styles

.) The

Search for

and

Replace with

boxes

now contain a list of styles.

2) Select the styles you want to search for and replace.

3) Click Find, Find All, Replace, or Replace All.

Inserting special characters

A “special” character is one not found on a standard English keyboard.
For example, © ¾ æ ç ñ ö ø ¢ are all special characters. To insert a
special character:

1) Place the cursor in your document where you want the character
to appear.

2) Click Insert > Special Character to open the Special
Characters dialog box (Figure 57).

3) Select the characters (from any font or mixture of fonts) you wish
to insert, in order; then click OK. The selected characters are
shown in the lower left of the dialog box. As you select each
character, it is shown on the lower right, along with the numerical
code for that character.

Tip

Note

Notice that the characters selected appear in the bottom-left
corner of the dialog box.

Different fonts include different special characters. If you do
not find a particular special character you want, try changing
the

Font

selection.

Figure 57: The Special Characters dialog box, where you can
insert special characters.

Chapter 3 Working with Text 75

Inserting non-breaking spaces and hyphens

Non-breaking spaces

To prevent two words from being separated at the end of a line, press

Control+spacebar

after the first word.

Non-breaking hyphen

You can use a non-breaking hyphen in cases where you do not want the
hyphen to appear at the end of a line, for example in a number such as
123-4567. To insert a non-breaking hyphen, press

Shift+Control+minus sign

.

Inserting dashes

To enter en and em dashes, you can use the

Replace dashes

option
under Tools > AutoCorrect > Options (Figure 66). This option
replaces two hyphens, under certain conditions, with the
corresponding dash.

In the following table, the A and B represent text consisting of letters A
to z or digits 0 to 9.

Text that you type: Result

A - B (A, space, minus, space, B) A – B (A, space, en-dash, space, B)
A -- B (A, space, minus, minus, space, B) A – B (A, space, en-dash, space, B)
A--B (A, minus, minus, B) A—B (A, em-dash, B)
A-B (A, minus, B) A-B (unchanged)
A -B (A, space, minus, B) A -B (unchanged)
A --B (A, space, minus, minus, B) A –B (A, space, en-dash, B)

Another means of inserting en or em dashes is through the Insert >
Special Characters menu. Select the U+2013 or U+2014 character,
respectively.

A third method uses keyboard shortcuts. These shortcuts vary
depending on your operating system.

You can also record macros to insert en and em dashes and

Tip

76 OpenOffice.org 3 Writer Guide

assign those macros to unused key combinations, for example

Ctrl+Shift+N

Chapter 17 (Customizing Writer).

and

Ctrl+Shift+M

. For more information, see

Windows

Hold down one of the

Alt

keys and type on the numeric keypad: 0150
for an en dash or 0151 for an em dash. The dash appears when you
release the

Alt

key.

Tip

On a keyboard with no numeric keypad, use a Fn (
key combination to type the numbers. (The Fn key is usually to
the right of the left-hand

For example, on a US keyboard layout, the combination for an
en dash should be
be

Alt+Fn+mjij

Alt+Fn+mjim

.

Ctrl

key on the keyboard.)

and for an em dash it should

Function

Linux

Hold down the

Compose

key and type two hyphens and a period for
an en dash, or three hyphens for an em dash. The dash appears
when you release the

The key that operates as a

Tip

distribution. It is usually one of the
another key, and should be user-selectable.

Compose

key.

Compose

key varies with the Linux

Alt

or

Win

keys, but may be

Mac OS X

Hold down the
For an em dash, the combination is

Option (Alt

) key and type a hyphen for an en dash.

Shift+Option+Hyphen

)

.

Formatting paragraphs

You can apply many formats to paragraphs using the buttons on the
Formatting toolbar. Figure 58 shows the Formatting toolbar as a
floating toolbar, customized to show only the buttons for paragraph
formatting.

Tip

It is highly recommended that you use
than manually formatting paragraphs, especially for long or
standardized documents. For information on the advantages of
styles and how to use them, see Chapters 6 and 7.

paragraph styles

rather

Chapter 3 Working with Text 77

Open Styles and

1

Formatting Window
Apply Style

2

Align Left

3

Centered

4

Align Right

5

Justified

6

Line Spacing: 1

7

Line Spacing: 1.5

8

Line Spacing: 2

9

Numbering On/Off

10

Bullets On/Off

11

Decrease Indent

12

Increase Indent

13

Paragraph format dialog

14

Figure 58: Formatting toolbar, showing icons for paragraph formatting

Figure 59 shows examples of the text alignment options.

Figure 59: Text alignment options

When using justified text, the last line is by default aligned to the left;
however, if so desired, you can also align the last line to the center of
the paragraph area or justify it so that spaces are inserted between the
words in order to fill the whole line. In the case where the last line
consists of a single word, you can also have this word stretched to
cover the whole line. Figure 60 shows an example of the effect
obtained when setting each of these options.

Figure 60: Four choices for the last line of a justified paragraph

These options are controlled in the

Alignment

page of the Format >

Paragraph dialog box (see Figure 61).

78 OpenOffice.org 3 Writer Guide

Figure 61: Options for the last line of a justified paragraph

Setting tab stops and indents

The default tab stops affect two things: tabs within paragraphs (as
shown in Figure 62) and the indentation of entire paragraphs by using
the Increase Indent button on the Formatting toolbar.

Using the default tab stops to space out material on a page is not
recommended, for two reasons:

• If you use the default tab interval and then send the document to

someone who has chosen a different default tab interval, tabbed
material will change to use the other person’s settings.

• Any changes you make to the default tab stops affect existing

default tab stops (in any document you open afterwards) as well
as tab stops you insert after making the change.

Both cases may cause a major formatting problem, as illustrated in
Figure 62.

Figure 62: Default tab settings might be different

To avoid these unwanted changes, do not use the default tabs. Instead,
define your own tab stops in paragraph styles or individual paragraphs
as described in “Defining your own tab stops and indents” on page 80.

Tip

Chapter 3 Working with Text 79

Depending on what you are trying to accomplish a borderless
table is often a better choice than using tabs.

To set the measurement unit and the spacing of default tab stops, use
Tools > Options > OpenOffice.org Writer > General. On this page,
make any required changes in the
click OK to save.

Settings

section (Figure 63) and

Figure 63: Selecting a measurement unit and
default tab stop spacing.

You can also set or change the measurement unit of the ruler itself by
right-clicking on the ruler to open a list of units, as shown in Figure 64.
Click on one of them to change the ruler to that unit. This change does
not affect the measurement unit chosen in the Options.

Figure 64: Ruler showing default tab stops

The horizontal ruler shows both the default tab stops and any that you
have defined.

Defining your own tab stops and indents

To set your own tab stops for one or more selected paragraphs, use the

Tabs

either:

Similarly, you can change the tabs defined in the paragraph style.
Right-click on the paragraph, choose Edit Paragraph Style from the
pop-up menu, and choose the
Styles) for more information.

page of the Paragraph dialog box. To reach this page, you can

• Double-click anywhere between the left and right indent icons on

the ruler itself to open the
or

• Right-click on the paragraph, choose Paragraph from the pop-up

menu, and choose the

Tabs

Tabs

page.

Tabs

page of the Paragraph dialog box,

page. See Chapter 7 (Working with

80 OpenOffice.org 3 Writer Guide

To change the indentation of one or more selected paragraphs, use the

Indents & Spacing

page of the Paragraph dialog box. To reach this

page, you can either:

• Double-click on a part of the ruler that is not between the left and

right indent icons, or

• Right-click on the paragraph, choose Paragraph from the pop-up

menu, and choose the

Indents & Spacing

page.

Similarly, you can change the indentation defined in the paragraph
style. Right-click on the paragraph, choose Edit Paragraph Style from
the pop-up menu, and choose the

Indents & Spacing

page. See Chapter

7 (Working with Styles) for more information.

Formatting characters

You can apply many formats to characters using the buttons on the
Formatting toolbar. Figure 65 shows the Formatting toolbar as a
floating toolbar, customized to show only the buttons for character
formatting.

It is highly recommended that you use

Tip

1 Open Styles and

Formatting Window

2 Apply Style 8 Superscript 14 Background Color
3 Font Name 9 Subscript 15 Open Character Format
4 Font Size 10 Increase Font
5 Bold 11 Reduce Font

than manually formatting characters. For information on styles
and how to use them, see Chapters 6 and 7.

6 Italic 12 Font Color
7 Underline 13 Highlighting

character styles

Dialog

rather

Figure 65: Formatting toolbar, showing icons for character formatting

To remove manual formatting, select the text and click Format

Tip

> Default Formatting or right-click and select Default
Formatting from the pop-up menu.

Chapter 3 Working with Text 81

Autoformatting

Writer can be set to automatically format parts of a document
according to the choices made on the
dialog box (Tools > AutoCorrect > Options). See Figure 66.

Options

page of the AutoCorrect

Figure 66: Autoformat choices on the Options page of
the AutoCorrect dialog box

The Help describes each of these choices and how to activate the
autoformats. Some common unwanted or unexpected formatting
changes include:

• Horizontal lines. If you type three or more hyphens (---),

underscores (___) or equal signs (===) on a line and then press

Enter

the page minus any indentation of the preceding paragraph of
which the line is the lower border.

• Bulleted and numbered lists. A bulleted list is created when you

type a hyphen (-), asterisk (*), or plus sign (+), followed by a
space or tab at the beginning of a paragraph. A numbered list is
created when you type a number followed by a period (.), followed
by a space or tab at the beginning of a paragraph. Automatic
numbering is only applied to paragraphs formatted with the

Default, Text body

, the paragraph is replaced by a horizontal line as wide as

or

Text body indent

paragraph styles.

82 OpenOffice.org 3 Writer Guide

Tip

If you notice unexpected formatting changes occurring in your
document, this is the first place to look for the cause.

To turn autoformatting on or off, go to Format > AutoFormat (Figure

67) and select or deselect the items on the submenu.

Figure 67: Turning autoformatting on or off

• While Typing automatically formats the document while you

type.

• If While Typing is deselected, you can select Apply to

automatically format the file.

• Apply and Edit Changes automatically formats the file and then

opens a dialog box where you can accept or reject the changes.

Creating numbered or bulleted lists

There are several ways to create numbered or bulleted lists:

• Use autoformatting, as described above.

• Use list styles, as described in Chapter 7 (Working with Styles).

• Use the Numbering and Bullets icons on the paragraph

formatting toolbar (see Figure 58). This last method is described
here.

To produce a numbered or bulleted list, select the paragraphs in the
list and then click on the appropriate icon on the toolbar.

Chapter 3 Working with Text 83

It is a matter of personal preference whether you type your

Note

information first, then apply Numbering/Bullets or apply these
as you type.

Using the Bullets and Numbering toolbar

You can create a nested list (where one or more list items has a sublist
under it, as in an outline) by using the buttons on the

Numbering

toolbar (Figure 68). You can move items up or down the

list, create subpoints, and even change the style of bullets.

Bullets and

1 Bullets On/Off 7 Move Down (One Level)
2 Numbering On/Off
3 Numbering Off 8 Insert Unnumbered Entry 13 Restart Numbering
4 Up One Level 9 Move Up 14 Bullets and Numbering
5 Down One Level 10 Move Down
6 Move Up (One Level)

with Sub-points

with Sub-points

11 Move Up in Sub-points

12 Move Down in Sub-points

Figure 68: Bullets and Numbering toolbar

It is possible to move a list entry up, together with all of its

Tip

sub-entries. Do this by clicking the Promote One Level With
Subpoints button.

If you create a nested list using the predefined styles, all the levels of
the list (up to 10) apply the same numbering (or bullet), however in
many circumstances you will want to use a combination of numbering
formats and bullets when creating nested lists. Such lists with a
mixture of numbering formats and bullets can be easily configured as
described in the following example. Additional information on lists and
in particular the technique to create your own list style is described in
Chapter 7 (Working with Styles).

84 OpenOffice.org 3 Writer Guide

When creating nested lists one option is to enter all the list
paragraphs first and apply the levels afterwards.

You can use keyboard shortcuts to move paragraphs up or
down the outline levels. Place the cursor at the beginning of

Tip

the numbered paragraph and press:

Tab
Shift+Tab

To insert a tab stop at the beginning of a numbered paragraph
(that is, after the number but before the text), press

Control+Tab

Down a level

Up a level

.

Example: configuring a nested list

We will use a numbering style to produce the following effect:
I. Level-1 list item

A. Level-2 list item
i. Level-3 list item
a) Level-4 list item
This example uses one of the supplied styles,

Numbering 1

, however if
you intend to reuse this type of nested list you can also create a new
style as illustrated in Chapter 7 (Working with Styles).

1) Create the first item and apply the Numbering 1 style from the
Styles and Formatting window.

2) Select Format > Bullets and Numbering to open the dialog
that controls the appearance of the list.

3) Go to the

Outline

page (Figure 69), where you will find that one

style matches our requirements. Click once on that style.

4) To modify the layout of the list, use the

Options

tab (Figures 18
and 19). Notice that the preview on the right shows the outline
selected. In the
and see how the information in the

Level

box on the left, select 1, then 2, 3, and 4

Numbering

and

After

boxes

changes.
Use the

Options

page to set different punctuation; for example, a

period (full stop) after “a” on level 4 instead of a parenthesis.
To make the indentation at each level greater or less than the

default, change it on the

Position

page. Select the level, then
make any changes in the indentation, spacing, or numbering
alignment.

5) Repeat for each level as required, then click OK.

Chapter 3 Working with Text 85

Figure 69: Choosing a predefined outline-numbering style

Figure 70: Checking the outline numbering for level-1 list items

Figure 71: Numbering style for level-2 list items

86 OpenOffice.org 3 Writer Guide

With outline numbering you can define different bullet styles

Tip

for the different levels of a bullet list. Use the
Bullets and Numbering dialog box (not shown) to select the
basic style. Return to the
for each indent level. Here you can set bullets to any
character. See the

Graphics

Options

tab for more bullets.

tab to customize the bullet

Bullets

tab of the

Using footnotes and endnotes

Footnotes appear at the bottom of the page on which they are
referenced. Endnotes are collected at the end of a document.

To work effectively with footnotes and endnotes, you need to:

• Insert footnotes.

• Define the format of footnotes.

• Define the location of footnotes on the page; see Chapter 4

(Formatting Pages).

Inserting footnotes/endnotes

To insert a footnote or an endnote, put the cursor where you want the
footnote/endnote marker to appear. Then select Insert > Footnote
from the menu bar or click the Insert Footnote Directly or Insert
Endnote Directly icon on the Insert toolbar (see Figure 72).

Figure 72: Using the Insert Footnote Directly icon on the toolbar

A footnote (or endnote) marker is inserted in the text, and the cursor is
relocated to the footnote area at the bottom of the page (or to the
endnote area at the end of the document). Type the footnote or
endnote content in this area.

If you use Insert > Footnote, the Insert Footnote dialog box (Figure

73) is displayed. Here you can choose whether to use the automatic
numbering sequence specified in the footnote settings and whether to
insert the item as a footnote or an endnote.

Chapter 3 Working with Text 87

Figure 73: Inserting a footnote directly

If you use the Insert Footnote Directly or Insert Endnote Directly
icon, the footnote or endnote automatically takes on the attributes
previously defined in the Footnote Settings dialog box (Figure 74).

You can edit an existing footnote or endnote the same way you edit any
other text.

To delete a footnote or endnote, delete the footnote marker. The
contents of the footnote or endnote are deleted automatically, and the
numbering of other footnotes or endnotes is adjusted automatically.

Defining the format of footnotes/endnotes

To format the footnotes themselves, click Tools > Footnotes. On the
Footnote Settings dialog box (Figure 74), choose settings as required.
The

Endnotes

page has similar choices.

Figure 74: Defining footnote formatting

88 OpenOffice.org 3 Writer Guide

To define the characteristics of the character styles

Footnote characters

, and so on, see Chapter 7 (Working with Styles).

Footnote anchor

Checking spelling

Writer provides a spelling checker, which can be used in two ways.

AutoSpellcheck checks each word as it is typed and displays a
wavy red line under any misspelled words. Once the word is
corrected, the red wavy line disappears.

To perform a separate spelling check on the document (or a text
selection) click the Spelling and Grammar button. This checks
the document or selection and opens the Spelling dialog box
(Figure 75) if any misspelled words are found.

,

Figure 75: The Spelling dialog box

Here are some more features of the spelling checker:

• You can right-click on a word with a wavy underline, to open a

powerful context menu. If you select from the suggested words on
the menu, the selection will replace the misspelled word in your
text. Other menu options are discussed below.

• You can change the dictionary language (for example, Spanish,

French, or German) on the Spelling dialog box.

• You can add a word to a dictionary. Click Add in the Spelling

dialog box and pick the dictionary to add it to.

Chapter 3 Working with Text 89

• The Options dialog box of the Spelling tool has a number of

different options such as whether to check uppercase words and
words with numbers. Here you can also manage custom
dictionaries, that is, add or delete dictionaries and add or delete
words in a dictionary.

Using language tools

OOo provides some tools that make your work easier if you mix
multiple languages within the same document or write documents in
various languages.

You can set the language for the whole document, individual
paragraphs, or even individual words and characters. In versions
earlier than OOo 3.0 it was necessary to use styles in order to insert
within a document paragraphs or individual groups of characters that
use a different language, while now this can be conveniently done from
the main menu.

Using character and paragraph styles is still the preferred
method, as styles allow a greater level of control and make

Tip

changing language much faster. See Chapter 7 (Working with
Styles) for information on how to manage the language
settings of a style.

The main advantage of changing the language is that you can then use
the correct dictionaries to check spelling and apply the localized
versions of Autocorrect replacement tables, thesaurus, and
hyphenation rules.

The language tools can be found in Tools > Languages on the main
menu, as shown in Figure 76.

Figure 76: The Language menu

90 OpenOffice.org 3 Writer Guide

The following options are available:

• For selection: select this option to apply a specified language to

the selected text (the selection can comprise only a few
characters or several paragraphs).

• For paragraph: select this option to apply the specified language

to the paragraph where the cursor is located.

• For all text: select this option to apply the specified language to

all the document.

An alternative way to the menu above that allows you to change the
language of a whole document is the use of Tools > Options >
Language Settings > Languages. In the

documents

section of the options dialog (Figure 77) you can choose a

Default languages for

different language for all the text.

Unlike the menu tool that applies to the individual document,

Caution

a change in the default language from the Options dialog is
a general change of settings of OOo and will therefore apply
to all the documents created in the future. If you want to
change the language for the current document only, be sure
to select the

For the current document only

option.

Spelling checking is available only for those languages in the list which
have the symbol next to them. If you do not see the symbol next to

your preferred language, you can install the additional dictionary using
Tools > Languages > More dictionaries online.

Figure 77: Options available in the Languages settings

The language used for checking spelling is also shown in the status
bar, next to the page style in use.

You can also configure the language for a paragraph or a group of
characters as None. This option is particularly useful in the case
where you insert in the document text that you do not want to
spellcheck, such as web addresses or programming language snippets.

Chapter 3 Working with Text 91

Using the thesaurus

The thesaurus offers alternative words and phrases. Select the word or
phrase you want to find alternatives for and select Tools > Language
> Thesaurus or press
alternative words and phrases for that meaning of the word. For
example, when given the word “house”, the thesaurus offers several
meanings, including “dwelling”, “legislature”, and “sign of the zodiac”.
If you click on “dwelling”, you will see “dwelling”, “home”, “domicile”,
“abode”, and other alternatives, as shown in Figure 78.

Control+F7

. Click on a meaning to show

Note

Figure 78: The thesaurus offers alternatives to words

If the current language does not have a thesaurus installed,
this feature is disabled.

Hyphenating words

To turn automatic hyphenation of words on or off:

1) Press

92 OpenOffice.org 3 Writer Guide

F11

to open the Styles and Formatting window (Figure 79).

Figure 79: Modifying a style

2) On the

Paragraph Styles

page of the Styles and Formatting

window, right-click on Default and select Modify.

3) On the Paragraph Style dialog box, select the Text Flow tab
(Figure 80).

4) Under

Hyphenation

5) Click OK to save.

Figure 80: Turning on automatic hyphenation

Turning on hyphenation for the
all other paragraph styles that are based on
individually change other styles so that hyphenation is not

Note

active; for example, you might not want headings to be
hyphenated. Any styles that are not based on
affected. For more on paragraph styles, see Chapter 6
(Introduction to Styles) and Chapter 7 (Working with Styles).

, select or deselect the Automatically option.

Default

paragraph style affects

Default

Default

. You can

are not

You can also set hyphenation choices through Tools > Options >
Language Settings > Writing Aids. In

Options

, near the bottom of
the dialog box, scroll down to find the hyphenation settings (see
Figure 81).

Figure 81: Setting hyphenation options

To change the minimal number of characters for hyphenation, the
minimum number of characters before a line break, or the minimum
number of characters after a line break, select the item, and then click
Edit.

Chapter 3 Working with Text 93

Hyphenate without inquiry specifies that you will never be asked to
manually hyphenate words that the hyphenation dictionary does not
recognize. If this box is not selected, when a word is not recognized, a
dialog box will open where you can manually enter hyphens.

Hyphenate special regions specifies that hyphenation will also be
carried out in footnotes, headers, and footers.

Hyphenation options set on the Writing Aids dialog box are
effective only if hyphenation is turned on through paragraph
styles.

Note

Choices on the Writing Aids dialog box for “characters before
line break” and “characters after line break” override settings
in paragraph styles for “characters at line end” and
“characters at line begin”.

To enter a conditional hyphen inside a word, press

sign

. The word is hyphenated at this position when it is at the end of

Control+minus

the line, even if automatic hyphenation for this paragraph is switched
off.

Using AutoCorrect

Writer’s AutoCorrect function has a long list of common misspellings
and typing errors, which it corrects automatically. For example, “hte”
will be changed to “the”. Select Tools > AutoCorrect to open the
AutoCorrect dialog box. There you can define what strings of text are
corrected and how. In most cases, the defaults are fine.

Tip

• To stop Writer replacing a specific spelling, use Tools >

AutoCorrect > Replace, highlight the word pair and click
Delete.

AutoCorrect is automatically turned on. To turn it off, uncheck
Format > AutoFormat > While Typing.

• To add a new spelling to correct, type it into the

Replace

and

With

boxes and click New.

• See the different pages of the dialog box for the wide variety of

other options available to fine-tune AutoCorrect.

AutoCorrect can be used as a quick way to insert special

Tip

94 OpenOffice.org 3 Writer Guide

characters. For example, (c) will be autocorrected to ©. You
can add your own special characters.

Using word completion

If Word Completion is enabled, Writer tries to guess which word you
are typing and offers to complete this word for you. To accept the
suggestion, press

Many people prefer not to use Word Completion. If you do not

Tip

want to use it, select Tools > AutoCorrect > Word
Completion and deselect Enable word completion.

You can customize word completion from the Tools > AutoCorrect >
Word Completion page (Figure 82).

Enter

. Otherwise, continue typing.

Figure 82: Customizing word completion

• Add (append) a space automatically after an accepted word.

• Show the suggested word as a tip (hovering over the word) rather

than completing the text as you type.

• Change the maximum number of words remembered for word

completion and the length of the smallest words to be
remembered.

• Delete specific entries from the word completion list.

• Change the key that accepts a suggested entry—the options are

right arrow, End

Chapter 3 Working with Text 95

key,

Return (Enter

),

Space bar

, and

Tab

.

Note

Automatic word completion only occurs after you type a word
for the second time in a document.

Using AutoText

AutoText allows you to assign text, tables, graphics, and other items to
a key combination. For example, rather than typing “Senior
Management”, you just have to type “sm” and press F3. Or you can
save a formatted Tip (like the one on this page) as AutoText and then
insert a copy by typing “tip” and pressing F3.

To assign some text to an AutoText shortcut:

1) Type the text into your document.

2) Select the text.

3) Go to Edit > AutoText (or press

4) Enter a name for your shortcut. Writer will suggest a one-letter
shortcut, which you can change.

5) Click the AutoText button on the right of the AutoText dialog box
and select New (text only) from the menu.

6) Click Close to return to your document.

To insert AutoText, type the shortcut and press F3.

If the only option under the AutoText button is Import, either

Tip

AutoText is especially powerful when assigned to fields. See Chapter
14 (Working with Fields) for more information.

you have not entered a name for your AutoText or there is no
text selected in the document.

Control+F3

).

Line numbering

Line numbering puts line numbers in the margin. The line numbers are
displayed on screen and are printed. Figure 83 shows an example with
numbering on every line.

Click Tools > Line Numbering and select the Show numbering
option in the top left corner. Then click OK.

96 OpenOffice.org 3 Writer Guide

Figure 83: Line numbering example

You can choose how many lines are numbered (for example, every line
or every tenth line), the numbering type and whether numbers restart
on each page. In addition, a text separator (any text you choose) can be
set on a different numbering scheme (one every 12 lines, for example).

Figure 84: The Line Numbering dialog box

Undoing and redoing changes

To undo the most recent change, press

on the Standard toolbar, or select Edit > Undo from the menu bar.

The Edit menu shows the latest change that can be undone.

Figure 85: Edit > Undo last action

Control+Z

, click the Undo icon

Chapter 3 Working with Text 97

Click the small triangle to the right of the Undo icon to get a list of all
the changes that can be undone (Figure 86). You can select multiple
changes and undo them at the same time.

Figure 86: List of actions that can be undone

After changes have been undone, Redo becomes active. To redo a
change, select Edit > Redo, or press

icon . As with Undo, click on the triangle to the right of the arrow to
get a list of the changes that can be reapplied.

Control+Y

or click on the Redo

To modify the number of changes OpenOffice.org remembers, select

Tools > Options > OpenOffice.org > Memory and change
Number of steps. Be aware that asking OOo to remember more

changes makes it consume more memory.

Undo

:

Tracking changes to a document

You can use several methods to keep track of changes made to a
document.

• Make your changes to a copy of the document (stored in a

different folder, under a different name, or both), then use Writer
to combine the two files and show the changes you made. Click
Edit > Compare Document. This technique is particularly
useful if you are the only person working on the document, as it
avoids the increase in file size and complexity caused by the other
methods.

• Save versions that are stored as part of the original file. However,

this method can cause problems with documents of nontrivial size
or complexity, especially if you save a lot of versions. Avoid this
method if you can.

• Use Writer’s change marks (often called “redlines” or “revision

marks”) to show where you have added or deleted material or
changed formatting. Later, you or another person can review and
accept or reject each change.

98 OpenOffice.org 3 Writer Guide

Not all changes are recorded. For example, changing a tab

Tip

stop from align left to align right and changes in formulas
(equations) or linked graphics are not recorded.

Preparing a document for review

When you send a document to someone else to review or edit, you may
want to prepare it first so that the editor or reviewer does not have to
remember to turn on the revision marks. After you have protected the
document, any user must enter the correct password in order to turn
off the function or accept or reject changes.

1) Open the document. To check whether it contains multiple
versions, click File > Versions. If multiple versions are listed,
save the current version as a separate document with a different
name and use this new document as the review copy.

2) With the review copy open, make sure that change recording is
turned on. The Edit > Changes > Record menu item has a
check mark next to it when recording is turned on.

3) Click Edit > Changes > Protect Records. On the Enter
Password dialog box, type a password (twice) and click OK.

Passwords must contain at least five characters. It is not

Note

necessary to password protect the document while preparing it
for review.

Recording changes

See Chapter 2 (Setting up Writer) for instructions on setting up how
your changes will be displayed.

1) To begin tracking (recording) changes, click Edit > Changes >

Record. To show or hide the display of changes, click Edit >
Changes > Show.

Hold the mouse pointer over a marked change; you will see a

Tip

Help Tip

time of day for the change. If
will also see any comments recorded for this change.

showing the type of change, the author, date, and

Extended Tips

are enabled, you

2) To enter a comment on a marked change, place the cursor in the
area of the change and then click Edit > Changes > Comment.
(See Figure 87.) In addition to being displayed as an extended tip,
the comment is also displayed in the list in the Accept or Reject
Changes dialog box.

Chapter 3 Working with Text 99

Figure 87: Inserting a comment during
change recording

To move from one marked change to the next, use the arrow
buttons. If no comment has been recorded for a change, the
field is blank.

Text

Tip

3) To stop recording changes, click Edit > Changes > Record
again.

See also “Inserting notes” on page 102 for a way to annotate
text that is not associated with a recorded change.

Accepting or rejecting changes and comments

1) Click Edit > Changes > Accept or Reject. The Accept or Reject
Changes dialog box (Figure 88) opens.

2) When you select a change in the dialog box, the actual change is
highlighted in the document, so you can see what the editor
changed.

3) Click Accept or Reject to accept or reject the selected change.
You can also click Accept All or Reject All if you do not want to
review the changes individually.

Changes that have not yet been accepted or rejected are displayed in
the list. Accepted changes are removed from the list and appear in the
text without any marking.

100 OpenOffice.org 3 Writer Guide