OpenOffice 3.0 User Manual

Getting Started

with

OpenOffice.org 3

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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

Thomas Astleitner Richard Barnes
Agnes Belzunce Daniel Carrera
Richard Detwiler Spencer E. Harpe
Regina Henschel Peter Hillier-Brook
John Kane Stefan A. Keel
Michael Kotsarinis Peter Kupfer
Ian Laurenson Dan Lewis
Alan Madden Michel Pinquier
Andrew Pitonyak Carol Roberts
Iain Roberts Gary Schnabl
Robert Scott Janet M. Swisher
Barbara M. Tobias Jean Hollis Weber
Linda Worthington Michele Zarri

Feedback

Please direct any comments or suggestions about this document to:

[e-mail]

Publication date and software version

Published 26 October 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 OpenOffice.org.......................................................9

What is OpenOffice.org?...................................................................10

The advantages of OpenOffice.org....................................................12

Minimum requirements....................................................................13

How to get the software....................................................................13

How to install the software...............................................................14

How to get help.................................................................................14

Extensions and add-ons....................................................................16

Starting OpenOffice.org....................................................................16

Parts of the main window..................................................................20

Starting a new document..................................................................24

Opening an existing document..........................................................25

Saving documents.............................................................................25

Renaming and deleting files..............................................................26

Using the Open and Save As dialogs.................................................27

Using the Navigator..........................................................................28

Closing a document..........................................................................30

Closing OpenOffice.org.....................................................................30

Chapter 2

Setting up OpenOffice.org........................................................31

Choosing options for all of OOo........................................................32

Choosing options for loading and saving documents........................47

Choosing language settings..............................................................52

Choosing Internet options.................................................................55

Controlling OOo’s AutoCorrect functions.........................................55

Chapter 3

Using Styles and Templates......................................................57

What is a template?..........................................................................58

What are styles?................................................................................58

Applying styles..................................................................................60

Modifying styles................................................................................62

Creating new (custom) styles............................................................64

Copying and moving styles...............................................................65

Getting Started with OpenOffice.org 3 3

Deleting styles..................................................................................68

Using a template to create a document............................................68

Creating a template..........................................................................69

Editing a template.............................................................................72

Adding templates using the Extension Manager...............................73

Setting a default template................................................................74

Associating a document with a different template............................75

Organizing templates........................................................................76

Examples of style use........................................................................79

Chapter 4

Getting Started with Writer......................................................81

What is Writer?.................................................................................82

The Writer interface..........................................................................82

Working with documents..................................................................86

Working with text..............................................................................87

Formatting text.................................................................................97

Undoing and redoing changes........................................................102

Formatting pages............................................................................103

Adding notes to a document...........................................................108

Creating a table of contents............................................................110

Creating indexes and bibliographies...............................................111

Working with graphics....................................................................111

Printing from Writer.......................................................................111

Sending a fax using Writer..............................................................120

Tracking changes to a document....................................................121

Using mail merge............................................................................121

Using master documents................................................................122

Creating fill-in forms.......................................................................122

Using fields.....................................................................................122

Using cross-references...................................................................123

Using bookmarks............................................................................124

Chapter 5

Getting Started with Calc.......................................................125

What is Calc?..................................................................................126

Spreadsheets, sheets and cells.......................................................126

Parts of the main Calc window........................................................126

4 Getting Started with OpenOffice.org 3

Starting new spreadsheets.............................................................130

Opening existing spreadsheets.......................................................131

Saving spreadsheets.......................................................................131

Navigating within spreadsheets......................................................132

Selecting items in a sheet or spreadsheet......................................135

Working with columns and rows.....................................................138

Working with sheets........................................................................140

Viewing Calc...................................................................................141

Entering data using the keyboard...................................................145

Speeding up data entry...................................................................146

Editing data....................................................................................150

Formatting data..............................................................................151

Autoformatting cells and sheets......................................................156

Formatting spreadsheets using themes..........................................157

Hiding and showing data................................................................157

Sorting records...............................................................................160

Printing...........................................................................................161

Chapter 6

Getting Started with Impress.................................................170

What is Impress?.............................................................................171

Parts of the main Impress window..................................................171

Working with views.........................................................................175

Creating a new presentation...........................................................180

Formatting a presentation..............................................................185

Slide masters and styles.................................................................189

Working with slide masters.............................................................190

Adding and formatting text.............................................................194

Creating tables...............................................................................199

Adding graphics, spreadsheets, charts, and other objects..............200

Setting up the slide show................................................................201

Running the slide show...................................................................202

Chapter 7

Getting Started with Draw......................................................203

What is Draw?.................................................................................204

The Draw workspace......................................................................204

Positioning objects with snap functions..........................................211

Getting Started with OpenOffice.org 3 5

Positioning objects with helper lines...............................................214

The basic drawing shapes...............................................................214

Drawing geometric shapes.............................................................220

Selection modes..............................................................................222

Selecting objects.............................................................................223

Moving and dynamically adjusting an object’s size.........................225

Editing objects................................................................................227

Using styles.....................................................................................230

Special effects.................................................................................230

Combining multiple objects............................................................233

Aids for positioning objects.............................................................234

Editing pictures..............................................................................235

Working with 3D objects.................................................................235

Inserting pictures from other sources.............................................235

Exchanging objects with other programs.......................................236

Chapter 8

Getting Started with Base.......................................................237

Introduction....................................................................................238

Planning a database........................................................................239

Creating a new database................................................................241

Creating database tables................................................................242

Defining relationships.....................................................................253

Creating a database form...............................................................256

Accessing other data sources..........................................................277

Using data sources in OpenOffice.org............................................279

Entering data in a form...................................................................285

Creating queries.............................................................................288

Creating reports..............................................................................298

Chapter 9

Getting Started with Math.....................................................309

What is Math?.................................................................................310

Entering a formula..........................................................................311

Customizations................................................................................316

Formula layout................................................................................319

Common problem areas..................................................................320

6 Getting Started with OpenOffice.org 3

Chapter 10

Printing, Exporting, and E-mailing........................................323

Introduction....................................................................................324

Quick printing.................................................................................324

Controlling printing........................................................................324

Exporting to PDF............................................................................325

Exporting to other formats.............................................................331

E-mailing documents......................................................................332

Digital signing of documents..........................................................335

Chapter 11

Graphics, the Gallery, and Fontwork......................................337

Introduction....................................................................................338

Inserting an image from a file.........................................................338

Inserting images from a graphics program.....................................340

Inserting images using a scanner...................................................341

Modifying and positioning graphics................................................341

Using the OpenOffice.org Gallery...................................................341

Managing the Gallery.....................................................................343

What is Fontwork?..........................................................................346

The Fontwork toolbars....................................................................346

Creating a Fontwork object.............................................................346

Editing a Fontwork object...............................................................348

Moving and resizing Fontwork objects...........................................353

Chapter 12

Creating Web Pages................................................................354

Introduction....................................................................................355

Inserting hyperlinks........................................................................355

Saving Writer documents as web pages..........................................357

Saving Calc spreadsheets as web pages.........................................362

Saving Impress presentations as web pages...................................362

Saving Draw documents as web pages...........................................366

Chapter 13

Getting Started with Macros..................................................367

Your first macro..............................................................................368

Creating a macro............................................................................373

Sometimes the macro recorder fails...............................................377

Getting Started with OpenOffice.org 3 7

Macro organization.........................................................................379

How to run a macro........................................................................384

Extensions.......................................................................................389

Writing macros without the recorder..............................................390

Finding more information...............................................................391

Chapter 14

Customizing OpenOffice.org..................................................393

Introduction....................................................................................394

Customizing menu content.............................................................394

Customizing toolbars......................................................................398

Assigning shortcut keys..................................................................402

Assigning macros to events.............................................................405

Adding functionality with extensions..............................................405

Using extensions.............................................................................406

Appendix A

Keyboard Shortcuts................................................................409

Introduction....................................................................................410

Function key shortcuts....................................................................411

General shortcut keys for OpenOffice.org......................................411

Shortcut keys in the Gallery............................................................413

Selecting rows and columns in a database table (opened by F4)....414

Shortcut keys for drawing objects..................................................414

Appendix B

Background Information.......................................................416

Introduction....................................................................................417

A short history of OpenOffice.org...................................................417

The OpenOffice.org community......................................................417

How is OpenOffice.org licensed?....................................................418

What is “open source”?...................................................................418

What is OpenDocument?.................................................................419

File formats OOo can open.............................................................419

File formats OOo can save to..........................................................421

Frequently asked questions............................................................423

Index.........................................................................................426

8 Getting Started with OpenOffice.org 3

Chapter 1

Introducing OpenOffice.org

What is OpenOffice.org?

OpenOffice.org (OOo) is both a

volunteers

Note

The OpenOffice.org software is a freely available, full-featured office
suite.

OOo 3 is a major upgrade of an already feature-rich office suite. If you
have used previous versions of OOo, please look over the new features

list on the OOo wiki.

OOo’s native file format is OpenDocument, an open standard format
that is being adopted by governments worldwide as a required file
format for publishing and accepting documents. OOo can also open
and save documents in many other formats, including those used by
several versions of Microsoft Office.

who produce and support the software.

Because someone else owns the trademark
correct name for both the open-source project and its software is

OpenOffice.org

.

software product

and a

OpenOffice

community of

, the

OOo includes the following components.

Writer (word processor)

Writer is a feature-rich tool for creating letters, books, reports,
newsletters, brochures, and other documents. You can insert graphics
and objects from other components into Writer documents. Writer can
export files to HTML, XHTML, XML, Adobe’s Portable Document
Format (PDF), and several versions of Microsoft Word files. It also
connects to your email client.

Calc (spreadsheet)

Calc has all of the advanced analysis, charting and decision-making
features expected from a high-end spreadsheet. It includes over 300
functions for financial, statistical, and mathematical operations, among
others. The Scenario Manager provides “what if” analyses. Calc
generates 2-D and 3-D charts, which can be integrated into other OOo
documents. You can also open and work with Microsoft Excel
workbooks and save them in Excel format. Calc can export
spreadsheets to Adobe’s PDF and to HTML.

10 Getting Started with OpenOffice.org 3

Impress (presentations)

Impress provides all the common multimedia presentation tools, such
as special effects, animation, and drawing tools. It is integrated with
the advanced graphics capabilities of OOo’s Draw and Math
components. Slideshows can be further enhanced with Fontwork’s
special effects text, as well as sound and video clips. Impress is
compatible with Microsoft’s PowerPoint file format and can also save
your work in numerous graphics formats, including Macromedia Flash
(SWF).

Draw (vector graphics)

Draw is a vector drawing tool that can produce everything from simple
diagrams or flowcharts to 3-D artwork. Its Smart Connectors feature
allows you to define your own connection points. You can use Draw to
create drawings for use in any of OOo’s other components, and you can
create your own clipart and add it to the Gallery. Draw can import
graphics from many common formats and save them in over 20 formats
including PNG, HTML, PDF, and Flash.

Base (database)

Base provides tools for day-to-day database work within a simple
interface. It can create and edit forms, reports, queries, tables, views,
and relations, so that managing a connected database is much the
same as in other popular database applications. Base provides many
new features, such as the ability to analyze and edit relationships from
a diagram view. Base incorporates HSQLDB as its default relational
database engine. It can also use dBASE, Microsoft Access, MySQL, or
Oracle, or any ODBC- or JDBC-compliant database. Base also provides
support for a subset of ANSI-92 SQL.

Math (formula editor)

Math is OOo’s formula or equation editor. You can use it to create
complex equations that include symbols or characters not available in
standard font sets. While it is most commonly used to create formulas
in other documents, such as Writer and Impress files, Math can also
work as a stand-alone tool. You can save formulas in the standard
Mathematical Markup Language (MathML) format for inclusion in
webpages and other documents not created by OOo.

Chapter 1 Introducing OpenOffice.org 11

The advantages of OpenOffice.org

Here are some of the advantages of OpenOffice.org over other office
suites:

• No licensing fees. OOo is free for anyone to use and distribute at

no cost. Many features that are available as extra cost add-ins in
other office suites (like PDF export) are free with OOo. There are
no hidden charges now or in the future.

• Open source. You can distribute, copy, and modify the software

as much as you wish, in accordance with either of OOo’s Open
Source licenses.

• Cross-platform. OOo3 runs on several hardware architectures

and under multiple operating systems, such as Microsoft
Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, and Sun Solaris.

• Extensive language support. OOo’s user interface is available

in over 40 languages, and the OOo project provides spelling,
hyphenation, and thesaurus dictionaries in over 70 languages and
dialects. OOo also provides support for both Complex Text Layout
(CTL) and Right to Left (RTL) layout languages (such as Hindi,
Hebrew, and Arabic).

• Consistent user interface. All the components have a similar

“look and feel,” making them easy to use and master.

• Integration. The components of OpenOffice.org are well

integrated with one another.

– All the components share a common spelling checker and

other tools, which are used consistently across the suite. For
example, the drawing tools available in Writer are also found
in Calc, with similar but enhanced versions in Impress and
Draw.

– You do not need to know which application was used to create

a particular file (for example, you can open a Draw file from
Writer).

• Granularity. Usually, if you change an option, it affects all

components. However, OOo options can be set at a component
level or even document level.

• File compatibility. In addition to its native OpenDocument

formats, OOo includes PDF and Flash export capabilities, as well
as support for opening and saving files in many common formats
including Microsoft Office, HTML, XML, WordPerfect, and Lotus
123 formats. New in OOo3 (using an extension): the ability to
import and edit some PDF files.

12 Getting Started with OpenOffice.org 3

• No vendor lock-in. OOo3 uses OpenDocument, an XML

(eXtensible Markup Language) file format developed as an
industry standard by OASIS (Organization for the Advancement of
Structured Information Standards). These files can easily be
unzipped and read by any text editor, and their framework is open
and published.

• You have a voice. Enhancements, software fixes, and release

dates are community-driven. You can join the community and
affect the course of the product you use.

You can read more about OpenOffice.org, its mission, history, licensing,
and other organizational information on the OpenOffice.org website.

Minimum requirements

OpenOffice.org 3 requires one of the following operating systems:

• Microsoft Windows 98, Windows ME, Windows 2000 (Service

Pack 2 or higher), Windows XP, Windows 2003, or Windows Vista

• GNU/Linux Kernel version 2.2.13 and glibc 2.2.0 or newer

• Mac OS X 10.4.x, X11 required; Mac OS X 10.5+ without X11

• Solaris version 8 or higher

Some OpenOffice.org features (wizards and the HSQLDB database
engine) require that the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) be installed
on your computer. Although OOo will work fine without Java support,
some features will not be available. You can download OOo with or
without JRE included. If you have a slow machine and do not often
need the features requiring JRE, you can try to disable it to speed up
the loading of the program.

For a more detailed (and up-to-date) listing of requirements, see
http://www.openoffice.org/dev_docs/source/sys_reqs_30.html.

How to get the software

Many new computers come with OpenOffice.org installed. In addition,
most Linux distributions, such as Ubuntu, include OpenOffice.org.

If you need to install it yourself, it’s very easy to do. You can download
the OpenOffice.org installation package from the project’s home page
or by using a Peer to Peer client such as BitTorrent. Instructions for

BitTorrent are here.

The installation package is approximately 150MB. People with slow
Internet connections may prefer to purchase a copy on a CD or DVD

Chapter 1 Introducing OpenOffice.org 13

from a third-party distributor. The project maintains a list of

distributors, but the distributors are not connected with, nor endorsed

by, OpenOffice.org.

How to install the software

Information on installing and setting up OpenOffice.org on the various
supported operating systems is given here:

http://download.openoffice.org/ common/instructions.html

You can also download the more detailed
languages) from http://documentation.

openoffice.org/setup_guide2/index.html

Setup Guide

(in several

How to get help

This book and the other OOo user guides and help and user support
systems assume that you are familiar with your computer and basic
functions such as starting a program, opening and saving files.

Help system

OOo comes with an extensive Help system. This is your first line of
support for using OOo.

To display the full Help system, press F1 or select OpenOffice.org
Help from the Help menu. In addition, you can choose whether to
activate tooltips, extended tips, and the Help Agent (using Tools >
Options > General).

If tooltips are enabled, place the mouse pointer over any of the icons to
see a small box (“tooltip”) with a brief explanation of the icon’s
function. For a more detailed explanation, select Help > What's This?
and hold the pointer over the icon.

Free online support

The OpenOffice.org community not only develops software, but
provides free, volunteer-based support. Users of OOo can get
comprehensive online support from community venues such as
newsgroups, forums, or mailing lists. There are also numerous
websites run by users that offer free tips and tutorials.

14 Getting Started with OpenOffice.org 3

Free OpenOffice.org support

Free community support provided by a network of
hundreds of experienced users. You must be
subscribed to post messages. To subscribe, send a

Users Mailing List

Documentation
Project

blank email to

[e-mail]

List archives are here:

http://www.openoffice.org/servlets/ SummarizeList?
listName=users

Templates, user guides, how-tos, and other
documentation. http://documentation.openoffice.org/

See also the Documentation wiki,

http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/
wiki/Documentation

Native Language
Project

Mac Support

OpenOffice.org
Community Forum

OpenOffice.org
Macro Information

Information, resources, and mail lists in your
language.

http://projects.openoffice.org/native-lang.html

Support for installing and using OOo on Mac OS X.

http://porting.openoffice.org/mac/index.html

Extensive discussion forum for OpenOffice.org issues
from setup to advanced programming features.

http://user.services.openoffice.org/en/forum/

Andrew Pitonyak, the author of

Macros Explained

extensive documentation on OOo's macro capability.
Many good referral links are also provided:

http://www.pitonyak.org/oo.php

, maintains this site which provides

Read more about the support options for OOo at

http://support.openoffice.org/index.html

OpenOffice.org

Paid support and training

Alternatively, you can pay for support services. Service contracts can
be purchased from a vendor or consulting firm specializing in
OpenOffice.org.

OOo is supported by Sun Microsystems, Inc. under the Sun Software

Support program, which includes two levels of support that cover

extended business hours or around-the-clock service for mission­critical deployments.

Chapter 1 Introducing OpenOffice.org 15

A list of independent consultants and the services they offer, listed
alphabetically by region and then by country, is provided on the
OpenOffice.org website.

Extensions and add-ons

Several websites provide extensions and add-ons to enhance
OpenOffice.org. The following table lists a few of these websites. See
Chapter 14 (Customizing OpenOffice.org) for more information.

Free OOo templates, artwork, addons, and other resources

OpenOffice.org
Extensions

OOExtras

OOoMacros

Open Clip Art Library

The official repository for extensions to OOo.
Most are free, but some are not.

http://extensions.services.openoffice.org/

Provides templates, samples, and macros in
several languages.

http://ooextras.sourceforge.net/

A repository for OOo macros and add-ons and
documentation about writing macros or
extending OOo. http://www.ooomacros.org/

An archive of clip art that can be used for free
for any use. http://www.openclipart.org/

Starting OpenOffice.org

The most common way to launch any component of OOo 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 OOo 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 user interface.

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

16 Getting Started with OpenOffice.org 3

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

You can start OOo by double-clicking the filename of an OOo document
in a file manager such as Windows Explorer. The appropriate
component of OOo will start and the document will be loaded.

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 Writer; *.xls (Excel)
files open in Calc, and *.ppt (Powerpoint) files open in Impress.

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), Excel files open in Excel, and Powerpoint
files open in Powerpoint.

You can use another method to open Microsoft Office files in OOo and
save in those formats from OOo. See “Opening an existing document”
on page 25 for more information.

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” 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, or choose an existing document to open. You
can also double-click the Quickstarter icon to display the Templates
and Documents dialog.

Chapter 1 Introducing OpenOffice.org 17

Figure 1: Quickstarter popup 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.

Reactivating the Quickstarter

If the Quickstarter has been disabled, you can reactivate it by selecting
the Load OpenOffice.org during system start-up checkbox in Tools
> Options > OpenOffice.org > Memory.

Using the Quickstarter in Linux

Some installations of OpenOffice.org under Linux have a Quickstarter
that looks and acts like the one described above for Windows (the
checkbox 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.

18 Getting Started with OpenOffice.org 3

Starting from the command line

You may want to start OOo 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 OOo 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

Most users will never need to do this.

There is more than one way to start OOo from the command line,
depending on whether you have installed a customized version or the
standard download from the OOo website.

If you installed using the download on the OOo website, you can start
Writer by typing at the command line:

soffice -writer

or

swriter

Writer will start and create a new document. Likewise, you can start
other OOo components from the command line:

Type of document Component Command-line option

Text Writer

Spreadsheet Calc

Drawing Draw

-writer

-calc

-draw

Presentation Impress

Formula Math

Web page Writer

-impress

-math

-web

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 OpenOffice.org 19

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.

Parts of the main window

The main window is similar in each component of OOo, although some
details vary. See the component chapters in this book for descriptions
of those details.

Common features include the menu bar, standard toolbar, and
formatting toolbar at the top of the window and the status bar at the
bottom.

Menu bar

The
Title bar. When you choose one of the menus, a submenu drops down
to show commands.

Menu bar

is located across the top of the screen, just below the

• 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. It also contains commands to cut, copy and
paste selected parts of your document.

20 Getting Started with OpenOffice.org 3

• 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 Header, Footer, and Picture.

• Format contains commands, such as Styles and Formatting and

AutoFormat, for formatting the layout of your document.

• Table shows all commands to insert and edit a table in a text

document.

• Tools contains functions such as Spelling and Grammar,

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.

Toolbars

OOo 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

Standard

applications.
The second toolbar across the top (default location) is the

toolbar

. It is a context-sensitive bar that shows the relevant tools in

Formatting

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.

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 checkmark
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

, and other ways of selecting things, depending on the

icon.

submenus

,

Figure 2 shows a tear-off toolbar from the Drawing toolbar.

Chapter 1 Introducing OpenOffice.org 21

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 2: Example of a tear-off toolbar

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 3).

To move a floating toolbar, click on its title bar and drag it to a new
location (Figure 4).

Handle of docked toolbar

Figure 3: Moving a docked toolbar

Title bar of floating toolbar

Figure 4: Moving a floating toolbar

22 Getting Started with OpenOffice.org 3

Floating toolbars

OOo 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

Table

toolbar appears, and when the cursor is in a numbered

Bullets and Numbering

toolbar appears. You can dock
these toolbars to the top, bottom, or side of the window, if you wish
(see “Moving toolbars” on page 22).

Docking/floating windows and toolbars

Toolbars and some windows, such as the Navigator and the Styles and
Formatting window, are dockable. You can move, re-size or dock them
to an edge.

To dock a window or toolbar, 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, 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

Contro

l key.

To undock a window, hold down the

Control

key and double-click on a

vacant part of the docked window.

The Styles and Formatting window can also be docked or

Note

undocked by using
to the icons at the top of the window.

Control+double-click

Figure 5: Docking a window

on the gray area next

Chapter 1 Introducing OpenOffice.org 23

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 Chapter 14.

To access a toolbar’s customization options, use the down-arrow at the
end of the toolbar or on its title bar (see Figure 6).

Toolbar customization icons

Figure 6: 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.

Right-click (context) menus

You can quickly access many menu functions by right-clicking on a
paragraph, graphics, or other object. A context menu will pop up.
Often the context menu is the fastest and easier 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.

Starting a new document

You can create a new, blank document in OOo 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.

• Use File > New and choose the type of document.

• Use the arrow next to the New button on the main toolbar. From

the drop-down menu, select the type of document to be created.

• Press

24 Getting Started with OpenOffice.org 3

Control+N

on the keyboard.

• Use File > Wizards for some types of documents.

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 appears. Select the file you want, and
then click Open.

In the Open dialog, 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); if you choose Spreadsheets, you will see .ods, .xsl, and
other files that Calc opens.

You can also open an existing document that is in an OpenDocument
format by double-clicking on the file’s icon on the desktop or in a file
manager such as Windows Explorer.

If you have associated Microsoft Office file formats with OOo, you can
also open these files by double-clicking on them.

Note

Control+O

Under Microsoft Windows you can use either the OOo Open and
Save As dialogs or the ones provided by Microsoft Windows.
See “Using the Open and Save As dialogs” on page 27.

on the keyboard.

Saving documents

To save a new document:

1) Choose File > Save.

2) When the Save As dialog 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.

Chapter 1 Introducing OpenOffice.org 25

Password protection

To protect an entire document from being viewable without a
password, use the option on the Save As dialog 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, select the checkbox beside Save with
password, 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
saved password protected. If the passwords do not match, you
receive the prompt to enter the password again.

Note

OOo uses a very strong encryption mechanism which makes it almost
impossible to recover the contents of a document in case you lose the
password.

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 OpenOffice.org save files for you automatically.
Automatic saving, like manual saving, overwrites the last saved state of
the file. To set up automatic file saving:

1) Choose Tools > Options > Load/Save > General.

2) Mark Save AutoRecovery information every, and set the time
interval.

Renaming and deleting files

You can rename or delete files within the OOo dialogs, just as you can
in your usual file manager. However, you cannot copy or paste files
within the dialogs.

26 Getting Started with OpenOffice.org 3

Using the Open and Save As dialogs

You can choose whether to use the OpenOffice.org Open and Save As
dialogs or the ones provided by your operating system. To view or
change which type of dialog OpenOffice.org uses:

1) Choose Tools > Options > OpenOffice.org > General.

2) Select the Use OpenOffice.org dialogs checkbox.

This section discusses the OpenOffice.org Open and Save As dialogs.
See Figure 7 for an example of the Save As dialog; the Open dialog is
similar.

The three buttons in the top right of the OOo Open and Save As dialogs
are, from left to right:

• Go Up One Level in the folder (directory) hierarchy. This is a

long-click button if you want to go up higher than just one level.

• Create New Folder.

• View Menu.

Figure 7: The OpenOffice.org Save As dialog, showing
some of the Save formats

Chapter 1 Introducing OpenOffice.org 27

For OpenOffice.org documents that have been saved with more than
one version, use the version drop-down to select which version you
wish to open in read-only mode. For Microsoft Office documents, only
the current version can be opened.

Use the File type field to specify the type of file to be opened or the
format of the file to be saved.

The Read-only checkbox opens the file for reading and printing only.
Consequently, most of the toolbars disappear, and most menu options
are disabled. An Edit File button is displayed on the Standard toolbar
to open the file for editing.

It is possible to open files from the Web using URLs.

Using the Navigator

The Navigator displays all objects contained in a document, collected
into categories. For example, in Writer it displays Headings, Tables,
Text frames, Notes, Graphics, Bookmarks, and other items (see
Figure 8.

Figure 8: The Navigator

In Calc it shows Sheets, Range Names, Database Ranges, Graphics,
Drawing Objects, and other items. In Impress and Draw it shows
Slides, Pictures, and other items. Click the + sign by any of the
categories to display the list of objects in that category.

28 Getting Started with OpenOffice.org 3

To open the Navigator, click its icon on the Standard toolbar, or
press F5, or choose Edit > Navigator on the main menu bar. You can
dock the Navigator to either side of the main OOo window or leave it
floating (see “Docking/floating windows and toolbars“ on page 23).

To hide the list of categories and show only the toolbars at the top,

click the List Box On/Off icon ( ). Click this icon again to show the
list box.

The Navigator provides several convenient ways to move around a
document and find items in it:

• 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. Objects are much easier to find if you have given them
names 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.

If you only want to see the content in a certain category, highlight
the category and click the Content View icon. Until you click the
icon again, only the objects of that category will be displayed.

• Click the (second icon from the left at the top of the

Navigator) to display the Navigation toolbar (Figure 9). Here you
can pick one of the categories and use the Previous and Next
icons to move from one item to the next. This is particularly
helpful for finding items like bookmarks and indexes, which can
be difficult to see. The names of the icons (shown in the tooltips)
change to match the selected category; for example, Next
Graphic or Next Bookmark.

Figure 9: Navigation toolbar

• To jump to a specific page in the document, type its page number

in the box at the top of the Navigator.

A bit of experimentation with the other icons will demonstrate their
functions. Some component-specific uses are described in the chapters
on Writer and the other components.

Chapter 1 Introducing OpenOffice.org 29

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. This button looks like the red X shown in Figure 10.

If more than one OOo window is open, each window looks like the
sample shown on the left in Figure 10. 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 10. Notice the small black X below the large red X.
Clicking the small X closes the document but leaves OOo open.
Clicking the large red X closes OOo completely.

Figure 10. 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 OpenOffice.org

To close OOo completely, click File > Exit, or close the last open
document as described in “Closing a document” on page 30.

If all the documents have been saved, OOo 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.

30 Getting Started with OpenOffice.org 3

Chapter 2

Setting up OpenOffice.org

Choosing options to suit the way you work

Choosing options for all of OOo

This section covers some of the settings that apply to all the
components of OpenOffice.org. For information on settings not
discussed here, see the online help.

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 a Writer document is open.

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

OpenOffice.org

in the left-hand section of

Figure 11: OpenOffice.org Options

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

Note

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

User Data options

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

In the Options dialog, click OpenOffice.org > User Data.
Fill in the form (shown in Figure 12), or amend or delete any existing

incorrect information.

32 Getting Started with OpenOffice.org 3

Figure 12: Filling in user data

General options

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

Figure 13: 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 appears
when you hold the cursor over that item.

Chapter 2 Setting up OpenOffice.org 33

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 dialogs for your operating
system, deselect the Use OpenOffice.org dialogs option. When
this option is selected, the Open and Save dialogs supplied with
OpenOffice.org will be used. See Chapter 1 (Introducing
OpenOffice.org) for more about the OOo Open and Save dialogs.

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.

34 Getting Started with OpenOffice.org 3

Memory options

In the Options dialog, click OpenOffice.org > Memory. Some
considerations:

• More memory can make OpenOffice.org faster and more

convenient (for example, more undo steps require more memory);
but the trade-off is less memory available for other applications
and you could run out of memory altogether.

• To load the Quickstarter (an icon on the desktop or in the system

tray) when you start your computer, select the option near the
bottom of the dialog. This makes OpenOffice.org start faster; the
trade-off is OOo uses some memory even when not being used.
This option (called Enable systray quickstarter) is not available
on all operating systems.

Figure 14: Choosing Memory options for the OpenOffice.org
applications

View options

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

In the Options dialog, click OpenOffice.org > View. On the page
displayed (Figure 15), set the options to suit your personal
preferences. Some options are described below.

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,

Chapter 2 Setting up OpenOffice.org 35

depending on the screen fonts available on your system. However, it
does not affect the actual font size of the text in your documents.

Figure 15: Choosing View options for OOo applications

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 set
(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.

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 – 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 16, 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

36 Getting Started with OpenOffice.org 3

formatting (Figure 16, Right). The fonts you will see listed are those
that are installed on your system.

Figure 16. Font list (Left) With 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
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

Chapter 2 Setting up OpenOffice.org 37

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 dialogs.

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 the “Selection clipboard” can
contain different contents at the same time.

Function Clipboard Selection clipboard

Copy content

Paste content

Pasting into
another
document

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, click OpenOffice.org > Print.
In the

17). Here you can choose whether to be 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.

Printer warnings

section near the bottom of the page (Figure

38 Getting Started with OpenOffice.org 3

Figure 17: Choosing general printing options to apply
to all OOo components

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.

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 18 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 some 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

Chapter 2 Setting up OpenOffice.org 39

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

Figure 18: Viewing the paths of files used by OpenOffice.org

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 19), you can specify

Figure 19: Defining colors to use in color palettes in OOo

40 Getting Started with OpenOffice.org 3

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

• Select the Apply Replacement Table option.

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

OpenOffice.org > Fonts

page (Figure 20):

(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.)

• In the Replace with box, select a suitable font from the drop-

down list of fonts installed on your computer.

The checkmark to the right of the Replace with box turns green. Click
on this checkmark. A row of information now appears in the larger box
below the input boxes. Select the options under Always and Screen.

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 20: Defining a font to be substituted for another font

Chapter 2 Setting up OpenOffice.org 41

Security options

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

OpenOffice.org – Security

page (Figure 21) to choose security

Figure 21: Choosing security options for opening and
saving documents

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 22).

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.

42 Getting Started with OpenOffice.org 3

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.

Figure 22: Security options and warnings dialog

Macro security

Click the Macro Security button to open the Macro Security dialog
(not shown here), 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 buton and enter a password.

Chapter 2 Setting up OpenOffice.org 43

Appearance options

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

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

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

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

• To save your color changes as a color scheme, click Save, type a

OpenOffice.org – Appearance

the options next to the names of the items.

the

Color Setting

color from the pop-up box.

name in the

Scheme

column by the name of the item and select a

box; then click OK.

page (Figure 23), you can specify

Figure 23: Showing or hiding text, object, and table
boundaries

Accessibility options

Accessibility options include whether to allow animated graphics or
text, how long help tips remain showing, some options for high
contrast display, and a way to change the font for the user interface of
the OpenOffice.org program (see Figure 24).

44 Getting Started with OpenOffice.org 3

Accessibility support relies on Sun Microsystems Java technology for
communications with assistive technology tools. See “Java options“
below. The
all OOo installations. See
for other requirements and information.

Select or deselect the options as required.

Support assistive technology tools

Assistive Tools in OpenOffice.org

option is not shown on

in the Help

Figure 24: Choosing accessibility options

Java options

If you install or update a Java Runtime Environment (JRE) after you
install OpenOffice.org, or if you have more than one JRE installed on
your computer, you can use the
(Figure 25) to choose the JRE for OOo to use.

OpenOffice.org – Java options

page

Figure 25: Choosing a Java runtime environment

Chapter 2 Setting up OpenOffice.org 45

If you are a system administrator, programmer, or other person who
customizes JRE installations, you can use the Parameters and Class
Path pages (reached from the Java page) to specify this information.

If you do not see anything listed in the middle of the page, wait a few
minutes while OOo searches for JREs on the hard disk.

If OOo finds one or more JREs, it will display them there. You can then
select the Use a Java runtime environment option and (if necessary)
choose one of the JREs listed.

Online Update options

On the
choose whether and how often to have OOo check the OOo website for
program updates. If the Check for updates automatically option is
selected, an icon appears at the right-hand end of the menu bar when
an update is available. Click this icon to open a dialog where you can
choose to download the update.

OpenOffice.org – Online Update

page (Figure 26), you can

Figure 26: Configuring Online Update

If the Download updates automatically option is selected, the
download starts when you click the icon. To change the download
destination, click the Change button and select the required folder in
the file browser window.

46 Getting Started with OpenOffice.org 3

Choosing options for loading and saving documents

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

Figure 27: Load/Save options

General Load/Save options

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

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

Load/Save – General

page (Figure 28) are

Figure 28. Choosing Load and Save options

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

Chapter 2 Setting up OpenOffice.org 47

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 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
OpenDocument Format (ODF) version 1.2. While this allows for
improved functionality, there may be backwards compatibility issues.
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.

48 Getting Started with OpenOffice.org 3

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 29), you can choose
whether to keep any macros in MSOffice documents that are opened in
OOo.

Figure 29: 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
the StarBasic IDE you will notice that it is all commented), with
this option the code is ready to be executed.

Chapter 2 Setting up OpenOffice.org 49

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] options 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] options 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 30), you can choose

Figure 30: Choosing Load/Save Microsoft Office options

HTML compatibility Load/Save options

Choices made on the
(Figure 31) affect HTML pages imported into OpenOffice.org and those
exported from OOo. See
Help for more information.

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.)

50 Getting Started with OpenOffice.org 3

Load/Save – HTML Compatibility

page

HTML documents; importing/exporting

in the

Figure 31. Choosing HTML compatibility options

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 53). 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.

Export - OpenOffice.org Basic

Select this option to include OOo Basic macros (scripts) when
exporting to HTML format. You must activate this option

Chapter 2 Setting up OpenOffice.org 51

before

you

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) 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.

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.

not

selected,

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 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.

52 Getting Started with OpenOffice.org 3

Change 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, click Language Settings > Languages.

Figure 32: Language Setting Options

On the right-hand side of the
(Figure 33), change the

currency

example, English (UK) has been chosen for all the appropriate settings.
If you want the language (dictionary) setting to apply to the current

document only, instead of being the default for all new documents,
select the option labelled

, and

Default languages for documents

User interface, Locale setting, Default

Language Settings – Languages

as required. In the

For the current document only

page

.

Figure 33: Choosing language options

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 dialog, you will see
some extra choices under Language Settings, as shown in Figure 34.
These choices (

Layout

Chapter 2 Setting up OpenOffice.org 53

) are not discussed here.

Searching in Japanese, Asian Layout

, and

Complex Text

Figure 34: Extra pages available when enhanced language
support options are selected

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 Options list.)

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

case 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.

Options

section of the page (Figure 35), choose

Figure 35: Choosing languages, dictionaries, and options
for checking spelling

54 Getting Started with OpenOffice.org 3

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

Choosing Internet options

Use the Internet Options pages to define search engines and save
proxy settings for use with OpenOffice.org.

If you are using a Netscape or Mozilla browser (such as Firefox), you
can enable the Mozilla Plug-in so you can open OOo files in your
browser, print them, save them, and work with them in other ways.

If you are using a Unix- or Linux-based operating system (including
Mac OS X), an additional page of E-mail options is available, where you
can specify the e-mail program to use when you send the current
document as e-mail (Figure 36). Under Windows the operating
system’s default e-mail program is always used.

Figure 36: Internet options, showing E-mail page available
to Linux users.

Controlling OOo’s AutoCorrect functions

Some people find some or all of the items in OOo’s AutoCorrect
function annoying because they change what you type when you do not
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, click Tools > AutoCorrect. (You need
to have a document open for this menu item to appear.)

In Writer, this dialog has five tabs, as shown below. In other
components of OOo, the dialog has only four tabs.

Chapter 2 Setting up OpenOffice.org 55

Figure 37: The AutoCorrect dialog in Writer, showing the
five tabs and some of the choices

56 Getting Started with OpenOffice.org 3

Chapter 3

Using Styles and Templates

What is a template?

A

template

example, you can create a template for business reports that has your
company’s logo on the first page. New documents created from this
template will all have your company’s logo on the first page.

Templates can contain anything that regular documents can contain,
such as text, graphics, a set of styles, and user-specific setup
information such as measurement units, language, the default printer,
and toolbar and menu customization.

All documents in OpenOffice.org (OOo) are based on templates. You
can create a specific template for any document type (text,
spreadsheet, drawing, presentation). If you do not specify a template
when you start a new document, then the document is based on the
default template for that type of document. If you have not specified a
default template, OOo uses the blank template for that type of
document that is installed with OOo. See “Setting a default template”
on page 74 for more information.

is a model that you use to create other documents. For

What are styles?

A

style

frames, and other elements in your document to quickly change their
appearance. When you apply a style, you apply a whole group of
formats at the same time.

Many people manually format paragraphs, words, tables, page layouts,
and other parts of their documents without paying any attention to
styles. They are used to writing documents according to
attributes. For example, you might specify the font family, font size,
and any formatting such as bold or italic.

Styles are
“font size 14pt, Times New Roman, bold, centered”, and you start
saying “Title” because you have defined the “Title” style to have those
characteristics. In other words, styles means that you shift the
emphasis from what the text (or page, or other element) looks like, to
what the text is.

is a set of formats that you can apply to selected pages, text,

physical

logical

attributes. Using styles means that you stop saying

Styles help improve consistency in a document. They also make major
formatting changes easy. For example, you may decide to change the
indentation of all paragraphs, or change the font of all titles. For a long
document, this simple task can be prohibitive. Styles make the task
easy.

58 Getting Started with OpenOffice.org 3

In addition, styles are used by OpenOffice.org for many processes,
even if you are not aware of them. For example, Writer relies on
heading styles (or other styles you specify) when it compiles a table of
contents. Some common examples of style use are given in “Examples
of style use” on page 79.

OpenOffice.org supports the following types of styles:

•

Page styles

include margins, headers and footers, borders and
backgrounds. In Calc, page styles also include the sequence for
printing sheets.

•

Paragraph styles

control all aspects of a paragraph’s appearance,
such as text alignment, tab stops, line spacing, and borders, and
can include character formatting.

•

Character styles

affect selected text within a paragraph, such as

the font and size of text, or bold and italic formats.

•

Frame styles

are used to format graphic and text frames,

including wrapping type, borders, backgrounds, and columns.

•

Numbering styles

apply similar alignment, numbering or bullet

characters, and fonts to numbered or bulleted lists.

•

Cell styles

include fonts, alignment, borders, background, number
formats (for example, currency, date, number), and cell
protection.

•

Graphics styles

in drawings and presentations include line, area,
shadowing, transparency, font, connectors, dimensioning, and
other attributes.

•

Presentation styles

include attributes for font, indents, spacing,

alignment, and tabs.

Different styles are available in the various components of OOo, as
listed in Table 1.

OpenOffice.org comes with many predefined styles. You can use the
styles as provided, modify them, or create new styles, as described in
this chapter.

Chapter 3 Using Styles and Templates 59

Table 1. Styles available in OOo components

Style Type Writer Calc Draw Impress

Page X X

Paragraph X

Character X

Frame X

Numbering X

Cell X

Presentation X X

Graphics (included in

Frame styles)

X X

Applying styles

OpenOffice.org provides several ways for you to select styles to apply.

Using the Styles and Formatting window

1) Click the Styles and Formatting icon located at the left-hand
end of the object bar, or click Format > Styles and Formatting,

or press
of styles available for the OOo component you are using. Figure
38 shows the window for Writer, with Page Styles visible.

You can move this window to a convenient position on the screen
or dock it to an edge (hold down the
title bar to where you want it docked).

F11

. The Styles and Formatting window shows the types

Ctrl

key and drag it by the

2) Click on one of the icons at the top left of the Styles and
Formatting window to display a list of styles in a particular
category.

3) To apply an existing style (except for character styles), position
the insertion point in the paragraph, frame, or page, and then
double-click on the name of the style in one of these lists. To apply
a character style, select the characters first.

At the bottom of the Styles and Formatting window is a
dropdown list. In Figure 38 the window shows

Tip

60 Getting Started with OpenOffice.org 3

meaning the list includes only styles applied automatically by
OOo. You can choose to show all styles or other groups of
styles, for example only custom styles.

Automatic

,

Figure 38: The Styles and Formatting window for
Writer, showing paragraph styles.

Using Fill Format mode

Use Fill Format to apply a style to many different areas quickly without
having to go back to the Styles and Formatting window and double­click every time. This method is quite useful when you need to format
many scattered paragraphs, cells, or other items with the same style.

1) Open the Styles and Formatting window and select the style you
want to apply.

2) Click the Fill Format mode icon .

3) To apply a paragraph, page, or frame style, hover the mouse over
the paragraph, page, or frame and click. To apply a character
style, hold down the mouse button while selecting the characters,
Clicking on a word applies the character style for that word.
Repeat step 3 until you made all the changes for that style.

4) To quit Fill Format mode, click the Fill Format mode icon again
or press the

Caution

When this mode is active, a right-click anywhere in the
document undoes the last Fill Format action. Be careful not to
accidentally right-click and thus undo actions you want to
keep.

Esc

key.

Using the Apply Style list

After you have used a style at least once in a document, the style name
appears on the Apply Style list at the left-hand end of the Formatting
toolbar, next to the Styles and Formatting icon.

Chapter 3 Using Styles and Templates 61

You can open this list and click once on the style you want, or you can
use the up and down arrow keys to move through the list and then
press

Enter

to apply the highlighted style.

Tip

Select More... at the bottom of the list to open the Styles and
Formatting window.

Figure 39: The Apply Style list on
the Formatting toolbar.

Using keyboard shortcuts

Some keyboard shortcuts for applying styles are predefined. For
example, in Writer
applies the

Heading 1

Control+0

style, and

applies the

Control+2

Text body

style,

applies the

Control+1

Heading 2

style. You can modify these shortcuts and create your own; see Chapter
14 (Customizing OpenOffice.org) for instructions.

Modifying styles

OpenOffice.org provides several ways to modify styles (both the
predefined styles and custom styles that you create):

• Changing a style using the Style dialog

• Updating a style from a selection

• Use AutoUpdate (paragraph and frame styles only)

• Load or copy styles from another document or template

Any changes you make to a style are effective only in the

Tip

current document. To change styles in more than one document,
you need to change the template or copy the styles into the
other documents as described on page 65.

62 Getting Started with OpenOffice.org 3

Changing a style using the Style dialog

To change an existing style using the Style dialog, right-click on the
required style in the Styles and Formatting window and select Modify
from the pop-up menu.

The Style dialog displayed depends on the type of style selected. Each
style dialog has several tabs. See the chapters on styles in the user
guides for details.

Updating a style from a selection

To update a style from a selection:

1) Open the Styles and Formatting window.

2) In the document, select an item that has the format you want to
adopt as a style.

Caution

3) In the Styles and Formatting window, select the style you want to
update (single-click, not double-click), then long-click on the
arrow next to the New Style from Selection icon and click on
Update Style.

Make sure that there are unique properties in this paragraph.
For example, if there are two different font sizes or font styles,
that particular property will remain the same as before.

Figure 40: Updating a style from a
selection.

Using AutoUpdate

AutoUpdate applies to paragraph and frame styles only. If the
AutoUpdate option is selected on the Organizer page of the Paragraph
Style or Frame Style dialog, applying direct formatting to a paragraph
or frame using this style in your document automatically updates the
style itself.

Chapter 3 Using Styles and Templates 63

Tip

If you are in the habit of manually overriding styles in your
document, be sure that AutoUpdate is not enabled.

Updating styles from a document or template

You can update styles by copying or loading them from a template or
another document. See “Copying and moving styles” on page 65.

Creating new (custom) styles

You may want to add some new styles. You can do this in two ways:

• Creating a new style using the Style dialog

• Creating a new style from a selection

Creating a new style using the Style dialog

To create a new style using the Style dialog, right-click in the Styles
and Formatting window and select New from the pop-up menu.

If you want your new style to be linked with an existing style, first
select that style and then right-click and select New.

If you link styles, then when you change the base style (for example, by
changing the font from Times to Helvetica), all the linked styles will
change as well. Sometimes this is exactly what you want; other times
you do not want the changes to apply to all the linked styles. It pays to
plan ahead.

The dialogs and choices are the same for defining new styles and for
modifying existing styles. See the chapters on styles in the user guides
for details.

Creating a new style from a selection

You can create a new style by copying an existing style. This new style
applies only to this document; it will not be saved in the template.

1) Open the Styles and Formatting window and choose the type of
style you want to create.

2) In the document, select the item you want to save as a style.

3) In the Styles and Formatting window, click on the New Style
from Selection icon.

64 Getting Started with OpenOffice.org 3

4) In the Create Style dialog, type a name for the new style. The list
shows the names of existing custom styles of the selected type.
Click OK to save the new style.

Figure 41: Naming a new style created
from a selection.

Dragging and dropping to create a style

You can drag and drop a text selection into the Styles and Formatting
window to create a new style.

Writer

Select some text and drag it to the Styles and Formatting window. If
Paragraph Styles are active, the paragraph style will be added to the
list. If Character Styles are active, the character style will be added
to the list.

Calc

Drag a cell selection to the Styles and Formatting window to create
cell styles.

Draw/Impress

Select and drag drawing objects to the Styles and Formatting
window to create graphics styles.

Copying and moving styles

You can copy or move styles from one template or document into
another template or document, in two ways:

• Using the Template Management dialog

• Loading styles from a template or document

Chapter 3 Using Styles and Templates 65

Using the Template Management dialog

To copy or move styles using the Template Management dialog:

1) Click File > Templates > Organize.

2) In the Template Management dialog (Figure 42), set the lists at
the bottom to either Templates or Documents, as needed. The
default is Templates on the left and Documents on the right.

To load styles from a file that is not open, click the File button.

Tip

3) Open the folders and find the templates from and to which you
want to copy. Double-click on the name of the template or
document, and then double-click the Styles icon to show the list of
individual styles (Figure 43).

When you return to this dialog, both lists show the selected file
as well as all the currently open documents.

4) To

copy

a style, hold down the

Ctrl

key and drag the name of the

style from one list to the other.

Caution

If you do not hold down the
style will be moved from one list to the other. The style will
be deleted from the list you are dragging it from.

Control

key when dragging, the

5) Repeat for each style you want to copy. If the receiving template
or document hasmany styles, you may not see any change unless
you scroll down in the list. When you are finished, click Close.

Figure 42: Choosing to copy styles from a document,
not a template.

66 Getting Started with OpenOffice.org 3

Figure 43: Copying a style from one document to another.

Loading styles from a template or document

You can copy styles by loading them from a template or another
document:

1) Open the document you want to copy styles into.

2) In the Styles and Formatting window, long-click on the arrow next
to the New Style from Selection icon, and then click on Load
Styles (see Figure 40).

3) On the Load Styles dialog (Figure 44), find and select the
template you want to copy styles from.

Figure 44. Copying styles from a template into the
open document

4) Select the categories of styles to be copied. Select Overwrite if
you want the styles being copied to replace any styles of the same
names in the document you’re copying them into.

5) Click OK to copy the styles. You will not see any change on
screen.

Chapter 3 Using Styles and Templates 67

To copy the styles from another document, click the From File

Note

Caution

button to open a window from which you can select the
required document.

If your document has a table of contents, and if you have used
custom styles for headings, the heading levels associated with
outline levels (in Tools > Outline Numbering) will revert to
the defaults of Heading 1, Heading 2, and so on when you load
styles this . You will need to change these back to your custom
heading styles. This is a bug.

Deleting styles

You cannot remove (delete) any of OOo’s predefined styles from a
document or template, even if they are not in use.

You can remove any user-defined (custom) styles; but before you do,
you should make sure the styles are not in use. If an unwanted style is
in use, you will want to replace it with a substitute style.

To delete unwanted styles, right-click on them (one at a time) in the
Styles and Formatting window and click Delete on the pop-up menu.

If the style is in use, you receive a warning message.

Caution

Make sure the style is not in use before deletion. Otherwise,
all objects with that style will return to the default style and
retain their formatting as manual formatting. This can be a
problem in a long document.

If the style is not in use, you receive a confirmation message; click Yes.

Using a template to create a document

To use a template to create a document:

1) From the main menu, choose File > New > Templates and
Documents. The Templates and Documents dialog opens. (See
Figure 45.)

2) In the box on the left, click the Templates icon if it is not already
selected. A list of template folders appears in the center box.

3) Double-click the folder that contains the template that you want
to use. A list of all the templates contained in that folder appears
in the center box.

68 Getting Started with OpenOffice.org 3

4) Select the template that you want to use. You can preview the
selected template or view the template’s properties:

• To preview the template, click the Preview icon. A preview of

the template appears in the box on the right.

• To view the template’s properties, click the Document

Properties icon. The template’s properties appear in the box
on the right.

5) Click Open. The Templates and Documents dialog closes and a
new document based on the selected template opens in OOo. You
can then edit and save the new document just as you would any
other document.

Figure 45: Templates and Documents window.

Creating a template

You can create your own templates in two ways: from a document, and
using a wizard.

Creating a template from a document

To create a template from a document:

1) Open a new or existing document of the type you want to make
into a template (text document, spreadsheet, drawing,
presentation).

2) Add the content and styles that you want.

Chapter 3 Using Styles and Templates 69

3) From the main menu, choose File > Templates > Save. The
Templates dialog opens (see Figure 46).

4) In the New template field, type a name for the new template.

5) In the Categories list, click the category to which you want to
assign the template. The category you choose has no effect on the
template itself; it is simply the folder in which you save the
template. Choosing an appropriate category makes it easier to
find the template easily when you want to use it. For example, you
might save Impress templates under the Presentations category.

To learn more about template folders, see “Organizing templates”
on page 76.

6) Click OK to save the new template.

Figure 46: Saving a new template.

Any settings that can be added to or modified in a document can be
saved in a template. For example, below are some of the settings
(although not a full list) that can be included in a Writer document and
then saved as a template for later use:

• Printer settings: which printer, single sided / double sided, and

paper size, and so on

• Styles to be used, including character, page, frame, numbering

and paragraph styles

• Format and settings regarding indexes, tables, bibliographies,

table of contents

Templates can also contain predefined text, saving you from having to
type it every time you create a new document. For example, a letter
template may contain your name, address and salutation.

You can also save menu and toolbar customizations in templates; see
Chapter 14 (Customizing OpenOffice.org) for more information.

70 Getting Started with OpenOffice.org 3

Creating a template using a wizard

You can use wizards to create templates for letters, faxes, agendas,
presentations, and Web pages.

For example, the Fax Wizard guides you through the following choices:

• Type of fax (business or personal)

• Document elements like the date, subject line (business fax),

salutation, and complementary close

• Options for sender and recipient information (business fax)

• Text to include in the footer (business fax)

To create a template using a wizard:

1) From the main menu, choose File > Wizards > [type of template
required].

Figure 47. Creating a template using a wizard

2) Follow the instructions on the pages of the wizard. This process is
slightly different for each type of template, but the format is very
similar.

3) In the last section of the wizard, you can specify the name and
location for saving the template. The default location is your user
templates directory, but you can choose a different location if you
prefer.

4) Finally, you have the option of creating a new document from your
template immediately, or manually changing the template. For
future documents, you can re-use the template created by the
wizard, just as you would use any other template.

Chapter 3 Using Styles and Templates 71

Editing a template

You can edit a template’s styles and content, and then, if you wish, you
can reapply the template’s styles to documents that were created from
that template. (Note that you can only reapply styles. You cannot
reapply content.)

To edit a template:

1) From the main menu, choose File > Templates > Organize. The
Template Management dialog opens (see Figure 48).

Figure 48: Template management dialog

2) In the box on the left, double-click the folder that contains the
template that you want to edit. A list of all the templates
contained in that folder appears underneath the folder name.

3) Select the template that you want to edit.

4) Click the Commands button and choose Edit from the drop­down menu.

5) Edit the template just as you would any other document. To save
your changes, choose File > Save from the main menu.

72 Getting Started with OpenOffice.org 3

Updating a document from a changed template

The next time you open a document that was created from the changed
template, the following message appears.

Figure 49. Apply current styles message

Click Yes to apply the template’s changed styles to the document. Click
No if you do not want to apply the template’s changed styles to the
document. Whichever option you choose, the message box closes and
the document opens in OOo.

Adding templates using the Extension Manager

The Extension Manager provides an easy way to install collections of
templates, graphics, macros, or other add-ins that have been
“packaged” into files with a .OXT extension. See Chapter 14
(Customizing OpenOffice.org) for more about the Extension Manager.

This Web page lists many of the available extensions:

http://extensions.services.openoffice.org/.

To install an extension, follow these steps:

1) Download an extension package and save it anywhere on your
computer.

2) In OOo, select Tools > Extension Manager from the menu bar.
In the Extension Manager dialog, click Add.

3) A file browser window opens. Find and select the package of
templates you want to install and click Open.The package begins
installing. You may be asked to accept a license agreement.

4) When the package installation is complete, the templates are
available for use through File > New > Templates and
Documents and the extension is listed in the Extension Manager.

Chapter 3 Using Styles and Templates 73

Figure 50: Newly-added package of templates.

Setting a default template

If you create a document by choosing File > New > Text Document
(or Spreadsheet, Presentation, or Drawing) from the main menu,
OOo creates the document from the Default template for that type of
document. You can, however, set a custom template to be the default.
You can reset the default later if you choose.

Setting a custom template as the default

You can set any template to be the default, as long as it is in one of the
folders displayed in the Template Management dialog.

To set a custom template as the default:

1) From the main menu, choose File > Templates > Organize. The
Template Management dialog opens.

2) In the box on the left, select the folder containing the template
that you want to set as the default, then select the template.

3) Click the Commands button and choose Set As Default
Template from the drop-down menu.

The next time that you create a document by choosing File > New, the
document will be created from this template.

74 Getting Started with OpenOffice.org 3

Although many important settings can be changed in the Options
dialog (see Chapter 2), for example default fonts and page size, more
advanced settings (such as page margins) can only be changed by
replacing the default template with a new one.

Resetting the default template

To re-enable OOo’s Default template for a document type as the
default:

1) In the Template Management dialog, click any folder in the box on
the left.

2) Click the Commands button and choose Reset Default
Template from the drop-down menu.

The next time that you create a document by choosing File > New, the
document will be created from OOo’s Default template for that
document type.

Associating a document with a different template

At times you might want to associate a document with a different
template, or perhaps you’re working with a document that did not start
from a template.

One of the major advantages of using templates is the ease of updating
styles in more than one document, as described on page 73. If you
update styles by loading a new set of styles from a different template
(as described on page 67), the document has no association with the
template from which the styles were loaded—so you cannot use this
method. What you need to do is associate the document with the
different template.

You can do this in two ways. In both cases, for best results the names
of styles should be the same in the existing document and the new
template. If they are not, you will need to use Search and Replace to
replace old styles with new ones. See Chapter 4 (Getting Started with
Writer) for more about replacing styles using Search and Replace.

Method 1

This method includes any graphics and wording (such as legal notices)
that exists in the new template, as well as including styles. If you don’t
want this material, you need to delete it.

Chapter 3 Using Styles and Templates 75

1) Use File > New > Templates and Documents. Choose the
template you want. If the template has unwanted text or graphics
in it, delete them.

2) Open the document you want to change. (It opens in a new
window.) Press
Paste into the blank document created in step 1.

3) Update the table of contents, if there is one. Save the file.

Method 2

This method does not include any graphics or text from the new
template; it simply includes styles from the new template and
establishes an association between the template and the document.

1) Download the Template Changer extension from

http://extensions.services.openoffice.org/ and install it as

described on page 73.

2) Close and reopen OpenOffice.org. Now the File > Templates
menu has two new choices:
and

Assign Template (folder)

Control+A

to select everything in the document.

Assign Template (current document)

.

3) Open the document whose template you want to change. Choose
File > Templates > Assign Template (current document).

4) In the Select Template window, find and select the required
template and click Open.

5) Save the document. If you now look in File > Properties, you will
see the new template listed at the bottom of the General page.

Organizing templates

OOo can only use templates that are in OOo template folders. You can
create new OOo template folders and use them to organize your
templates, and import templates into those folders. For example, you
might have one template folder for report templates and another for
letter templates. You can also export templates.

To begin, choose File > Templates > Organize from the main menu.
The Template Management dialog opens.

All the actions made by the Commands button in the Template

Note

76 Getting Started with OpenOffice.org 3

Management dialog can be made as well by right-clicking on
the templates or the folders.

Creating a template folder

To create a template folder:

1) In the Template Management dialog, click any folder.

2) Click the Commands button and choose New from the drop­down menu. A new folder called

Untitled

appears.

3) Type a name for the new folder, and then press
the folder with the name that you entered.

Enter

. OOo saves

Deleting a template folder

You cannot delete template folders supplied with OOo or installed
using the Extension Manager; you can only delete template folders that
you have created.

To delete a template folder:

1) In the Template Management dialog, select the folder that you
want to delete.

2) Click the Commands button and choose Delete from the drop­down menu. A message box appears and asks you to confirm the
deletion. Click Yes.

Moving a template

To move a template from one template folder to another template
folder:

1) In the Template Management dialog, double-click the folder that
contains the template you want to move. A list of the templates
contained in that folder appears underneath the folder name.

2) Click the template that you want to move and drag it to the
desired folder. If you do not have the authority to delete templates
from the source folder, this action
moving it.

copies

the template instead of

Deleting a template

You cannot delete templates supplied with OOo or installed using the
Extension Manager; you can only delete templates that you have
created or imported.

Chapter 3 Using Styles and Templates 77

To delete a template:

1) In the Template Management dialog, double-click the folder that
contains the template you want to delete. A list of the templates
contained in that folder appears underneath the folder name.

2) Click the template that you want to delete.

3) Click the Commands button and choose Delete from the drop­down menu. A message box appears and asks you to confirm the
deletion. Click Yes.

Importing a template

If the template that you want to use is in a different location, you must
import it into an OOo template folder.

To import a template into a template folder:

1) In the Template Management dialog, select the folder into which
you want to import the template.

2) Click the Commands button and choose Import Template from
the drop-down menu. A standard file browser window opens.

3) Find and select the template that you want to import and click
Open. The file browser window closes and the template appears
in the selected folder.

4) If you want, type a new name for the template, and then press

Enter

.

Exporting a template

To export a template from a template folder to another location:

1) In the Template Management dialog, double-click the folder that
contains the template you want to export. A list of the templates
contained in that folder appears underneath the folder name.

2) Click the template that you want to export.

3) Click the Commands button and choose Export Template from
the drop-down menu. The Save As window opens.

4) Find the folder into which you want to export the template and
click Save.

78 Getting Started with OpenOffice.org 3

Examples of style use

The following examples of common use of page and paragraph styles
are taken from Writer. There are many other ways to use styles; see
the guides for the various components for details.

Defining a different first page for a document

Many documents, such as letters and reports, have a first page that is
different from the other pages in the document. For example, the first
page of a letterhead typically has a different header, or the first page
of a report might have no header or footer, while the other pages do.
With OOo, you can define the
the style for the following pages to be applied automatically.

page styl

e for the first page and specify

As an example, we can use the
come with OOo. Figure 51 shows what we want to happen: the first
page is to be followed by the default page, and all the following pages
are to be in the
(Formatting Pages) in the

Default

page style. Details are in Chapter 4

Writer Guide

First Page

.

and

Default

page styles that

Figure 51: Flow of page styles

Dividing a document into chapters

In a similar way, you can divide a document into chapters. Each
chapter might start with the
using the
a manual page break and specify the next page to have the
style to start the next chapter, as shown in Figure 52.

Default

page style, as above. At the end of the chapter, insert

First Page

style, with the following pages

First Page

Figure 52: Dividing a document into chapters using page styles

Chapter 3 Using Styles and Templates 79

Changing page orientation within a document

A Writer document can contain pages in more than one orientation. A
common scenario is to have a landscape page in the middle of a
document, whereas the other pages are in a portrait orientation. This
can also be done with page breaks and page styles.

Different headers on right and left pages

Page styles can be set up to have the facing left and right pages

mirrored

right-page only) or only left. When you insert a header on a page style
set up for mirrored pages or right-and-left pages, you can have the
contents of the header be the same on all pages or be different on the
right and left pages. For example, you can put the page number on the
left-hand edge of the left pages and on the right-hand edge of the right
pages, put the document title on the right-hand page only, or make
other changes.

or only right (first pages of chapters are often defined to be

Controlling page breaks automatically

Writer automatically flows text from one page to the next. If you do not
like the default settings, you can change them. For example, you can
require a paragraph to start on a new page or column and specify the
style of the new page. A typical use is for chapter titles to always start
on a new right-hand (odd-numbered) page.

Compiling an automatic table of contents

To compile an automatic table of contents, first apply styles to the
headings you want to appear in the contents list, then use Tools >
Outline Numbering to tell Writer which styles go with which level in
the table of contents. See Chapter 4 for more information.

Defining a sequence of styles

You can set up one paragraph style so that when you press
end of that paragraph, the following paragraph automatically has the
style you wish applied to it. For example, you could define a
paragraph to be followed by a
example would be:
followed by
sequences, you can avoid manually applying styles in most cases.

Heading 1

Title

followed by

followed by

Text Body

Author

Text Body

paragraph. A more complex

followed by

. By setting up these

Enter

Heading 1

Abstract

at the

80 Getting Started with OpenOffice.org 3

Chapter 4

Getting Started with Writer

Word processing with OpenOffice.org

What is Writer?

Writer is the word processor component of OpenOffice.org (OOo). In
addition to the usual features of a word processor (spell checking,
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 (see Chapter 3)

• Powerful 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 (see Chapter 10)

• And many more

These features are covered in detail in the

Writer Guide

.

The Writer interface

The main Writer workspace is shown in Figure 53. The menus and
toolbars are described in Chapter 1 (Introducing OpenOffice.org).

Some other features of the Writer interface are covered in this chapter.

Figure 53: The main Writer workspace in Print
Layout view

82 Getting Started with OpenOffice.org 3

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.

To jump to the location of a bookmark, right-click on this field. A list
of bookmarks pops up; click on the required one.

To jump to a specific page in the document, double-click in this field.
The Navigator opens. Click in the Page Number field and type the
required page number.

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 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.

Insert mode

Click to toggle between

Selection mode

Click to toggle between STD (
and BLK (
selecting text. See “Working with text” on page 87 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.

Block

) selection. EXT is an alternative to

Insert

and

Overwrite

Standard

modes when typing.

), EXT (

Extend

Shift+click

), ADD (

Add

when

)

Chapter 4 Getting Started with Writer 83

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. For details, consult
the Help or the

View layout

Click the appropriate icon to change between single page, side-by­side, and book layout views (Figure 54). You can edit the document
in any view.

Writer Guide

.

Figure 54: View layouts: single, side-by-side,
book.

Zoom

To change the view magnification, drag the Zoom slider or click on
the + and – signs or click on the slider itself. 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.

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.)

84 Getting Started with OpenOffice.org 3

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.

Figure 55: Choosing Zoom and View Layout
options.

You can also choose View > Zoom from the menu bar to display the
Zoom & View Layout dialog (see Figure 55), where you can set the
same options as on the Status bar. In Web Layout view, most of the
choices are not available.

Moving quickly through a document

In addition to the navigation features of the Status bar (described
above), you can use the main Navigator window and the Navigation
toolbar as described in Chapter 1 (Introducing OpenOffice.org).

In Writer, you can also display the Navigation toolbar by clicking on the
small Navigation icon near the lower right-hand corner of the window
below the vertical scroll bar, as shown in Figure 56.

Figure 56: Navigation icons.

The Navigation toolbar (Figure 57) shows icons for all the object types
shown in the Navigator, plus some extras (for example, the results of a
Find command).

Chapter 4 Getting Started with Writer 85

Figure 57: Navigation toolbar

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, Next Bookmark, or Continue search forward.

For more uses of the Navigator in Writer, see the

Writer Guide

.

Working with documents

Chapter 1 (Introducing OpenOffice.org) includes instructions on
starting new documents, opening existing documents, and saving
documents. Chapter 3 (Using Styles and Templates) covers how to
create a document from a template.

Saving as a Microsoft Word file

To save a document as a Microsoft Word file:

1) First save your document in OOo’s format (.odt). If you do not,
any changes you made since the last time you saved will appear
only in the Microsoft Word version of the document.

2) Then click File > Save As. The Save As window (Figure 58)
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

name of your document. If you want to go back to working with the
OOo version of your document, you must open it again.

86 Getting Started with OpenOffice.org 3

all changes you make to the document will occur

. You have actually changed the

Tip

To have OOo save documents by default in the Microsoft Word
file format, go to Tools > Options > Load/Save. See
“Choosing options for loading and saving documents” in
Chapter 2 (Setting up OpenOffice.org).

Figure 58. Saving a file in Microsoft Word format

Working with text

Working with text (selecting, copying, pasting, moving) in Writer is
similar to working with text in any other program. OOo also has some
convenient ways to select items that are not next to each other, select a
vertical block of text, and paste unformatted text.

Selecting items that are not consecutive

To select nonconsecutive items (as shown in Figure 59) using the
mouse:

1) Select the first piece of text.

2) Hold down the
piece of text.

3) Repeat as often as needed.

Control

key and use the mouse to select the next

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

Chapter 4 Getting Started with Writer 87

Note

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

Command

key when

Control

key.

Figure 59: Selecting items that are not next to
each other

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 Help.)

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.

5) Now you can work with the selected text.

6) 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 60.

88 Getting Started with OpenOffice.org 3

Figure 60: 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 use the mouse or the keyboard for these
operations.

Cut: Use Edit > Cut or

Copy: Use Edit > Copy or

Paste: Use Edit > Paste or

If you simply click on the Paste icon, any formatting the text has (such
as bold or italics) is retained. To make the pasted text take on the
formatting of the surrounding text where it is being pasted, click the
triangle to the right of the Paste icon and select Unformatted text
from the menu (Figure 61).

Control+X

Control+C

Control+V

or the Cut icon on the toolbar.

or the Copy icon.

or the Paste icon.

Figure 61: Paste menu

Finding and replacing text and formatting

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 regular expressions (wildcards) to fine-tune a search (see the

Help for details).

• Find and replace specific formatting (see the

• Find and replace paragraph styles (see the

To display the Find & Replace dialog (Figure 62), use the keyboard
shortcut

Chapter 4 Getting Started with Writer 89

Control+F

or select Edit > Find & Replace.

Writer Guide

Writer Guide

).

).

Type the text you want to find in the Search for box.
To replace the text with different text, type the new text in the

Replace with box.
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.)

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

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

Tip

text in the document. Similarly, if you click Replace All, OOo
will replace all matches.

Figure 62: Expanded Find & Replace dialog

Caution

90 Getting Started with OpenOffice.org 3

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-by­word, search to fix.

Inserting special characters

A

special character

For example, © ¾ æ ç ñ ö ø ¢ are all special characters. To insert a
special character:

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

2) Click Insert > Special Character to open the Special
Characters window (Figure 63).

3) Select the characters you wish to insert, in order, then click OK.
The selected characters are shown in the lower left of the dialog.
As you select a character, it is shown on the lower right, along
with its numerical code.

Different fonts include different special characters. If you do

Note

not find a particular special character, try changing the
selection.

is one not found on a standard English keyboard.

Font

Figure 63: The Special Characters window,
where you can insert special characters.

Tip

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

Setting tab stops and indents

The horizontal ruler shows both the default tab stops and any that you
have defined. To set the measurement unit and the spacing of default
tab stops, go to Tools > Options > OpenOffice.org Writer >
General.

You can also set or change the measurement unit 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.

Chapter 4 Getting Started with Writer 91

Figure 64: Ruler showing default tab stops

Double-click on a blank part of the ruler to open the Indents & Spacing
page of the Paragraph dialog. Double-click on the ruler itself to open
the Tabs page of the Paragraph dialog (Figure 65) and fine-tune tab
stop settings.

Figure 65: The Tabs page of the Paragraph dialog

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. When the word is
corrected, the line disappears.

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

92 Getting Started with OpenOffice.org 3

Here are some more features of the spelling checker:

• Right-click on a word with a wavy underline to open a menu. If

you select from the suggested words on the menu, the selection
will replace the misspelled word in your text.

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

French or German) on the Spellcheck dialog.

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

dialog and pick the dictionary to add it to.

• The Options dialog of the Spellcheck tool has a number of

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

• On the Font tab of the Paragraph Styles dialog, you can set

paragraphs to be checked in a specific language (different from
the rest of the document). See Chapter 7 (Working with Styles) in
the

Writer Guide

for more information.

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, selected paragraphs,
or even individual words or 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.

Tip

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.

Using character and paragraph styles is still the preferred
method, as styles allow a greater level of control and make
changing the language much faster. See Chapter 7 (Working
with Styles) in the
manage the language settings of a style.

Writer Guide

for information on how to

The language tools can be found in Tools > Languages on the main
menu, as shown in Figure 66.

Chapter 4 Getting Started with Writer 93

Figure 66: The Language menu

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 change the language of a whole document is to
use Tools > Options > Language Settings > Languages. In the

Default languages for documents

section of the Options dialog (Figure

67), you can choose a 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.

Spell checking is available only for those languages in the list that 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 67: Options available in the Languages settings

94 Getting Started with OpenOffice.org 3

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.

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. There you can define which strings of text are
corrected and how. In most cases, the defaults are fine.

Tip

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

To stop Writer from replacing a specific spelling, use Tools >
AutoCorrect > Replace, highlight the word pair and click Delete.

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

Replace

and

With

boxes and click New.
See the different tabs of the dialog for the wide variety of other options

available to fine-tune AutoCorrect.

AutoCorrect can be used as a quick way to insert special

Tip

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 the word for you. To accept the
suggestion, press

Enter

. Otherwise continue typing.

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

Tip

Chapter 4 Getting Started with Writer 95

want to use it, select Tools > AutoCorrect > Word
Completion and uncheck

Enable Word Completion

.

You can customize word completion from the Tools > AutoCorrect >
Word Completion page:

• 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

key,

Return (Enter

), and

Space bar

.

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” every time you use that phrase, you might just type “sm”
and press F3. Or you can save a formatted Note (like the one on this
page) as AutoText and then insert a copy by typing “note” and pressing

F3

.

To assign some text to an AutoText shortcut:

1) Type the text into your document.

2) Select the text so it is highlighted.

3) Select Edit > AutoText (or press

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

Control+F3

).

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

6) Click Close to return to your document.

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

Tip

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

AutoText is especially powerful when assigned to fields. See Chapter
14 (Working with Fields) in the

96 Getting Started with OpenOffice.org 3

Writer Guide

for more information.

Inserting dashes and non-breaking spaces

You can insert a dash by using the Special Characters window or by
using AutoCorrect. For more about AutoCorrect, see “Controlling
OOO’s AutoCorrect functions” in Chapter 2 (Setting up
OpenOffice.org) and “Using AutoCorrect” on page 95 in this chapter.

– is an en-dash; that is, a dash the width of the letter “n” in the font

you are using. It is U+2013 (scroll down to the

Punctuation

an en-dash using AutoCorrect, type at least one character, a
space, one or two hyphens, another space, and at least one more
letter, then a space. The one or two hyphens will be replaced by
an en-dash.

— is an em-dash; that is, a dash the width of the letter “m” in the

font you are using. It is U+2014. To enter it using AutoCorrect,
type at least one character, two hyphens, and at least one more
character, then a space. The two hyphens will be replaced by an
em-dash.

section in the Special Characters window). To enter

General

To insert a non-breaking space (to keep characters together, for
example in a telephone number), press
keyboard.

Control+Space

on the

Formatting text

Using styles

Styles are central to using Writer. Styles enable you to easily format
your document consistently, and to change the format with minimal
effort. Often, when you format your document in Writer, you are using
styles whether you realize it or not. 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. See
Chapter 3 (Using Styles and Templates).

Formatting paragraphs

You can apply many formats to paragraphs using the buttons on the
Formatting toolbar. Figure 68 shows the Formatting toolbar as a
floating toolbar, customized to show only the buttons for paragraph
formatting. The appearance of the icons may vary with your operating

Chapter 4 Getting Started with Writer 97

system and the selection of icon size and style in Tools > Options >
OpenOffice.org > View.

It is highly recommended that you use
than manually formatting paragraphs, especially for long or

Tip

1 Open Styles and

Formatting Window

2 Apply Style 7 Line Spacing: 1 12 Decrease Indent
3 Align Left 8 Line Spacing: 1.5 13 Increase Indent
4 Centered 9 Line Spacing: 2 14 Paragraph format dialog

standardized documents. For information on the advantages of
styles, and how to use them, see Chapter 13 (Working with
Styles) in this book and Chapters 6 and 7 in the

5 Align Right 10 Numbering On/Off
6 Justified 11 Bullets On/Off

paragraph styles

Writer Guide

Figure 68: The Formatting toolbar, showing icons for
paragraph formatting.

rather

.

Figure 69 shows examples of the different alignment options.

Figure 69: Different text alignment options.

Formatting characters

You can apply many formats to characters using the buttons on the
Formatting toolbar. Figure 70 shows the Formatting toolbar as a
floating toolbar, customized to show only the buttons for character
formatting.

Tip

It is highly recommended that you use
than manually formatting characters. For information on the
advantages of styles, and how to use them, see Chapter 6
(Introduction to Styles) in the

Writer Guide

character styles

.

rather

98 Getting Started with OpenOffice.org 3

The appearance of the icons may vary with your operating system and
the selection of icon size and style in Tools > Options >
OpenOffice.org > View.

1 Open Styles and

Formatting Window

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

6 Italic 12 Font Color
7 Underline 13 Highlighting

Format Dialog

Figure 70: The 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.

Autoformatting

You can set Writer to automatically format parts of a document
according to the choices made on the Options page of the AutoCorrect
dialog (Tools > AutoCorrect > Options).

Tip

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

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 paragraph is replaced by a horizontal line as wide as
the page. The line is actually the lower border of the preceding
paragraph.

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

type a hyphen (-), star (*), 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

Chapter 4 Getting Started with Writer 99

or Text body indent paragraph styles.

To turn autoformatting on or off, go to Format > AutoFormat and
select or delete the items on the sub menu.

Creating numbered or bulleted lists

There are several ways to create numbered or bulleted lists:

• Use autoformatting, as described above.

• Use list (numbering) styles, as described in Chapters 6

(Introduction to Styles) and 7 (Working with Styles) in the

Guide

• Use the Numbering and Bullets icons on the paragraph

.

formatting toolbar (see Figure 68). This method is described here.

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

It is a matter of personal preference whether you type your

Note

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

Writer

Using the Bullets and Numbering toolbar

You can create nested lists (where one or more list items has a sublist
under it, as in an outline) by using the buttons on the Bullets and
Numbering toolbar (Figure 71). You can move items up or down the
list, or create subpoints, and even change the style of bullets. Use
View > Toolbars > Bullets and Numbering to see the toolbar.

The appearance of the icons may vary with your operating system and
the selection of icon size and style in Tools > Options >
OpenOffice.org > View.

1 Bullets On/Off 6 Move Up (One Level) with
2 Numbering On/Off 11 Move Up in Sub-points
3 Numbering Off 7 Move Down (One Level)

4 Up One Level 8 Insert Unnumbered Entry 13 Restart Numbering
5 Up One Level 9 Move Up 14 Bullets and Numbering

Sub-points

with Sub-points

10 Move Down

12 Move Down in Sub-points

Figure 71: Bullets and Numbering toolbar

100 Getting Started with OpenOffice.org 3