OpenOffice 3.3 Writer Guide

OpenOffice.org 3.3

Writer Guide

Word Processing with OpenOffice.org 3.3

Copyright

This document is Copyright © 2005–2010 by its contributors as listed below. You may
distribute it and/or modify it under the terms of either the GNU General Public
License (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html), version 3 or later, or the Creative
Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/), version

3.0 or later.

Contributors

Jean Hollis Weber Michele Zarri Gary Schnabl
Magnus Adielsson Agnes Belzunce Ken Byars
Bruce Byfield Daniel Carrera Dick Detwiler
Alexander Noël Dunne Laurent Duperval Martin Fox
Katharina Greif Tara Hess Peter Hillier-Brook
Lou Iorio John Kane Rachel Kartch
Stefan A. Keel Jared Kobos Michael Kotsarinis
Sigrid Kronenberger Peter Kupfer Ian Laurenson
Alan Madden Paul Miller Vincenzo Ponzi
Scott Rhoades Carol Roberts Iain Roberts
Joe Sellman Robert Scott Janet M. Swisher
Barbara M. Tobias Catherine Waterman Sharon Whiston
Bob Wickham Claire Wood Linda Worthington

Feedback

Please direct any comments or suggestions about this document to:

[e-mail]

Publication date and software version

Published 27 December 2010. Based on OpenOffice.org 3.3.

Note for Mac users

Some keystrokes and menu items are different on a Mac from those used in Windows
and Linux. The table below gives some common substitutions for the instructions in
this chapter. For a more detailed list, see the application Help.

Windows/Linux Mac equivalent Effect

Tools > Options

menu selection

OpenOffice.org >
Preferences

Access setup options

Right-click Control+click Open context menu

Ctrl (Control) z (Command) Used with other keys

F5 Shift+z+F5 Open the Navigator

F11 z+T Open Styles & Formatting window

You can download

an editable version of this document from

http://oooauthors.org/english/userguide3/published/

Contents

Copyright................................................................................................................... 2

Note for Mac users....................................................................................................2

Chapter 1

Introducing Writer....................................................................................................... 9

What is Writer?........................................................................................................ 10

Parts of the main Writer window............................................................................. 10

Changing document views....................................................................................... 17

Starting a new document......................................................................................... 17

Opening an existing document................................................................................19

Saving a document................................................................................................... 20

Password protection.................................................................................................22

Closing a document..................................................................................................23

Closing OpenOffice.org............................................................................................ 23

Using the Navigator................................................................................................. 24

Getting help............................................................................................................. 28

What are all these things called?............................................................................. 28

Undoing and redoing changes.................................................................................29

Using Writer on a Mac............................................................................................. 30

Chapter 2

Setting up Writer....................................................................................................... 31

Choosing options that affect all of OOo...................................................................32

Choosing options for loading and saving documents...............................................43

Choosing options for Writer..................................................................................... 48

Choosing options for HTML documents..................................................................57

Choosing language settings.....................................................................................58

Controlling Writer’s AutoCorrect functions.............................................................60

Chapter 3

Working with Text...................................................................................................... 62

Introduction............................................................................................................. 63

Selecting text........................................................................................................... 63

Cutting, copying, and pasting text........................................................................... 64

Finding and replacing text.......................................................................................65

Inserting special characters.................................................................................... 68

Formatting paragraphs............................................................................................ 70

Formatting characters.............................................................................................73

Autoformatting.........................................................................................................74

Creating numbered or bulleted lists........................................................................75

Using footnotes and endnotes..................................................................................78

Checking spelling and grammar..............................................................................80

Using built-in language tools................................................................................... 82

Using synonyms and the thesaurus......................................................................... 84

Hyphenating words.................................................................................................. 85

OpenOffice.org 3.3 Writer Guide 3

Using AutoCorrect................................................................................................... 87

Using word completion............................................................................................ 88

Using AutoText......................................................................................................... 89

Line numbering........................................................................................................ 91

Tracking changes to a document.............................................................................92

Adding other comments........................................................................................... 96

Linking to another part of a document....................................................................97

Switching between insert and overwrite mode.....................................................100

Counting the words in a selection......................................................................... 100

Changing the case of selected text........................................................................ 101

Chapter 4

Formatting Pages..................................................................................................... 102

Introduction........................................................................................................... 103

Choosing a layout method......................................................................................103

Setting up basic page layout using styles.............................................................. 105

Changing page margins......................................................................................... 109

Using columns to define the page layout...............................................................110

Using frames for page layout.................................................................................114

Using tables for page layout.................................................................................. 119

Using sections for page layout............................................................................... 122

Updating links........................................................................................................ 129

Creating headers and footers................................................................................130

Numbering pages................................................................................................... 135

Defining borders and backgrounds........................................................................144

Chapter 5

Printing, Exporting, Faxing, and E-Mailing.............................................................148

Introduction........................................................................................................... 149

Quick printing........................................................................................................ 149

Controlling printing............................................................................................... 149

Printing envelopes................................................................................................. 156

Printing labels........................................................................................................ 158

Sending a fax......................................................................................................... 160

Exporting to PDF................................................................................................... 160

Exporting to XHTML.............................................................................................. 166

E-mailing Writer documents.................................................................................. 166

Digital signing of documents................................................................................. 169

Removing personal data........................................................................................ 170

Chapter 6

Introduction to Styles.............................................................................................. 171

What are styles?..................................................................................................... 172

The Styles and Formatting window....................................................................... 173

Applying styles....................................................................................................... 177

Modifying styles..................................................................................................... 183

Creating custom paragraph styles: examples........................................................187

4 OpenOffice.org 3.3 Writer Guide

Copying and moving styles.................................................................................... 191

Deleting styles....................................................................................................... 192

Assigning styles to shortcut keys...........................................................................193

Defining a hierarchy of headings........................................................................... 193

Chapter 7

Working with Styles................................................................................................. 201

Introduction........................................................................................................... 202

Creating custom (new) styles.................................................................................202

Working with paragraph styles..............................................................................205

Working with conditional paragraph styles...........................................................215

Working with character styles............................................................................... 217

Working with frame styles..................................................................................... 219

Working with page styles.......................................................................................221

Working with list styles.......................................................................................... 228

Chapter 8

Working with Graphics............................................................................................. 236

Graphics (images) in Writer................................................................................... 237

Creating and editing images..................................................................................237

Adding images to a document................................................................................ 238

Modifying an image............................................................................................... 242

Using Writer’s drawing tools................................................................................. 248

Positioning graphics within the text......................................................................251

Adding captions to graphics..................................................................................259

Creating an image map.......................................................................................... 262

Adding an image to the Gallery.............................................................................263

Chapter 9

Working with Tables................................................................................................. 265

Introduction........................................................................................................... 266

Creating a table..................................................................................................... 266

Formatting the table layout...................................................................................269

Formatting the table text....................................................................................... 277

Data entry and manipulation in tables................................................................... 280

Additional table operations.................................................................................... 282

The Table menu and toolbar.................................................................................. 287

Chapter 10

Working with Templates...........................................................................................290

Introduction........................................................................................................... 291

Using a template to create a document.................................................................291

Creating a template............................................................................................... 292

Editing a template.................................................................................................. 294

Adding templates with Extension Manager...........................................................296

Setting a default template.....................................................................................297

Associating a document with a different template................................................ 298

Organizing templates.............................................................................................299

OpenOffice.org 3.3 Writer Guide 5

Chapter 11

Using Mail Merge....................................................................................................301

What is mail merge?..............................................................................................302

Creating the data source.......................................................................................302

Registering a data source...................................................................................... 303

Creating a form letter............................................................................................ 305

Printing mailing labels...........................................................................................310

Printing envelopes................................................................................................. 314

Using the Mail Merge Wizard to create a form letter...........................................318

Chapter 12

Tables of Contents, Indexes, and Bibliographies.....................................................330

Introduction........................................................................................................... 331

Tables of contents..................................................................................................331

Alphabetic indexes.................................................................................................341

Other types of indexes........................................................................................... 349

Bibliographies........................................................................................................ 351

Tools for working with bibliographies................................................................... 361

Chapter 13

Working with Master Documents............................................................................. 362

Why use a master document?................................................................................363

Styles in master documents and subdocuments....................................................363

Creating a master document: scenarios................................................................364

Splitting a document into master and subdocuments...........................................364

Combining several documents into a master document........................................365

Starting with no existing documents.....................................................................366

Restarting page numbering...................................................................................371

Editing a master document....................................................................................373

Cross-referencing between subdocuments............................................................374

Using the Navigator............................................................................................... 378

Creating one file from a master document and its subdocuments........................379

Problem solving..................................................................................................... 381

Chapter 14

Working with Fields................................................................................................ 383

Introduction to fields............................................................................................. 384

Quick and easy field entry.....................................................................................384

Using document properties to hold metadata and information that changes.......384

Using other fields to hold information that changes.............................................386

Using AutoText to insert often-used fields.............................................................388

Defining your own numbering sequences..............................................................388

Using automatic cross-references......................................................................... 390

Using fields in headers and footers.......................................................................394

Using fields instead of outline numbering for appendix numbering.....................396

Tricks for working with fields................................................................................ 397

Developing conditional content.............................................................................397

Using placeholder fields........................................................................................404

6 OpenOffice.org 3.3 Writer Guide

Using input fields and input lists...........................................................................405

Chapter 15

Using Forms in Writer.............................................................................................. 409

Introduction to forms.............................................................................................410

When to use forms................................................................................................. 410

Creating a simple form.......................................................................................... 411

Form controls reference........................................................................................ 413

Example: a simple form......................................................................................... 418

Accessing data sources..........................................................................................423

Advanced form customization................................................................................429

XForms................................................................................................................... 432

Chapter 16

Customizing Writer.................................................................................................. 433

Introduction........................................................................................................... 434

Customizing menu content.................................................................................... 434

Customizing toolbars............................................................................................. 437

Assigning shortcut keys......................................................................................... 441

Assigning macros to events...................................................................................446

Adding functionality with extensions..................................................................... 446

Appendix A

Keyboard Shortcuts..................................................................................................449

Introduction........................................................................................................... 450

Opening menus and menu items............................................................................ 450

Controlling dialogs................................................................................................. 451

Stopping macros....................................................................................................451

Function keys for Writer........................................................................................ 452

Shortcut keys for Writer........................................................................................ 453

Shortcut keys for tables in Writer..........................................................................455

Shortcut keys for paragraphs and heading levels.................................................456

Shortcut keys for moving and resizing frames, graphics and objects...................457

Index.......................................................................................................................... 458

OpenOffice.org 3.3 Writer Guide 7

8 OpenOffice.org 3.3 Writer Guide

Chapter 1

Introducing Writer

9

What is Writer?

Writer is the word processor component of OpenOffice.org (OOo). It provides the
usual features of a word processor: enter and edit text, spelling check, thesaurus,
hyphenation, autocorrect, find and replace, automatic generation of tables of
contents and indexes, mail merge, and others.

In addition, Writer provides these important features:

• Templates and styles

• Page-layout methods, including frames, columns, and tables

• Embedding or linking of graphics, spreadsheets, and other objects

• Built-in drawing tools

• Master documents—to group a collection of documents into a single document

• Change tracking during revisions

• Database integration, including a bibliography database

• Export to PDF, including bookmarks

• And many more

Styles are central to using Writer. Using styles, you can easily format your document
consistently and change the format with minimal effort. A style is a named set of
formatting options. Writer defines several types of styles, for different types of
elements: characters, paragraphs, pages, frames, and lists. Often, you are using
styles whether you realize it or not. The use of styles is described in more detail in
Chapter 6 (Introduction to Styles) and Chapter 7 (Working with Styles).

The other features of Writer listed above are covered in other chapters of this guide.

Parts of the main Writer window

The main Writer workspace is shown in Figure 1. Its features are described in this
section.

Title bar

The Title bar is located at the top of the Writer window, shows the file name of the
current document. When the document is newly created, the document name will
appear as Untitled X, where X is a number.

Menus

The Menu bar is located just below the Title bar. When you choose one of the menus
listed below, a submenu drops down to show commands.

• File contains commands that apply to the entire document such as Open,

Save, Print, and Export as PDF.

• Edit contains commands for editing the document such as Undo: xxx (where

xxx is the command to undo) and Find & Replace. It also contains
commands to cut, copy, and paste selected parts of your document.

• View contains commands for controlling the display of the document such as

Zoom and Web Layout.

10 OpenOffice.org 3.3 Writer Guide

Figure 1: The main Writer workspace in Print Layout view

• Insert contains commands for inserting elements into your document such as

headers, footers, and pictures.

• Format contains commands, such as Styles and Formatting, Paragraph,

and Bullets and Numbering, 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 OpenOffice.org Help file, What’s This?, and

information about the program. See “Getting help” on page 28.

Toolbars

Writer has several types of toolbars: docked (fixed in place), floating, and tear-off.
Docked toolbars can be moved to different locations or made to float, and floating
toolbars can be docked.

The top toolbar, just under the Menu bar, is called the Standard toolbar. It is
consistent across the OpenOffice.org applications (Writer, Calc, Draw, Impress).

The second toolbar at the top is the Formatting bar. It is a context-sensitive; that is, it
shows the tools relevant 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 check mark beside its name. Tear-off
toolbars are not listed in the View menu.

Chapter 1 Introducing Writer 11

Submenus and tear-off toolbars

Toolbar icons with a small triangle to the right will display submenus, tear-off
toolbars, and other ways of selecting things, depending on the icon.

An example of a tear-off toolbar is shown in Figure 2. 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 tear-off toolbar, drag it by the title bar, as shown in Figure 4.

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.

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

12 OpenOffice.org 3.3 Writer Guide

Figure 2: Example of a tear-off toolbar

Figure 3: Moving a docked toolbar

Figure 4: Moving a floating toolbar

Floating toolbars

Writer includes several additional context-sensitive toolbars, whose defaults appear
as floating toolbars in response to the cursor’s current position or selection. For
example, when the cursor is in a table, a floating Table toolbar appears, and when the
cursor is in a numbered or bullet list, the 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 12).

Docking/floating windows and toolbars

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

To dock a window or toolbar, hold down the Control key and double-click on the
frame of the floating window (or in a vacant area near the icons at the top of the
floating window) to dock it in its last position.

To undock a window, hold down the Control key and double-click on the frame (or a
vacant area near the icons at the top) of the docked window.

Customizing toolbars

You can customize toolbars in several ways, including choosing which icons are
visible and locking the position of a docked toolbar.

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

To show or hide icons defined for the selected toolbar, choose Visible Buttons from
the drop-down menu. Visible icons are indicated by a border around the icon (Figure

7). Click on icons to hide or show them on the toolbar.

You can also add icons and create new toolbars, as described in Chapter 16.

Chapter 1 Introducing Writer 13

Figure 5: Control+click to dock or undock

Figure 6: Customizing toolbars

Figure 7: Selection of visible toolbar icons

Right-click (context) menus

Right-click on a paragraph, graphic, or other object to open a context menu. Often
the context menu is the fastest and easiest way to reach a function. If you’re not sure
where in the menus or toolbars a function is located, you can often find it by right­clicking.

Rulers

To show or hide rulers, choose View > Ruler. To enable the vertical ruler, choose
Tools > Options > OpenOffice.org Writer > View and select Vertical ruler.

Status bar

The Writer status bar is located at the bottom of the workspace. It provides
information about the document and convenient ways to quickly change some
document features.

14 OpenOffice.org 3.3 Writer Guide

Figure 8. Turning on the vertical ruler

Figure 9: Left end of status bar

Figure 10: Right end of status bar

Page number

Shows the current page number, the sequence number of the current page (if
different from the page number), and the total number of pages in the document.
For example, if a document has 14 pages and you restarted page numbering at 1
on the third page, its page number is 1, its sequence number is 3, and the total
number of pages is 14; this field would show 1 3/14.

If any bookmarks have been defined in the document, a right-click on this field
pops up a list of bookmarks; click on the required one to go to the bookmark.

To jump to a specific page in the document, double-click on this field. The
Navigator opens (see page 24). Click in the Page Number field in the Navigator
and type the sequence number of the required page. After a brief delay, the
display jumps to the selected page.

Page style

Shows the style of the current page. To change the page style, right-click on this
field. A list of page styles pops up; choose a different style by clicking on it.

To edit the current page style, double-click on this field. The Page Style dialog box
opens. See Chapter 6 and 7 in this book for more information about styles.

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 (Do
not check spelling) to exclude the text from a spelling check or choose More to
open the Character dialog box. See Chapter 3 (Working with Text) for more
information.

Insert mode

Click to toggle between Insert and Overwrite modes when typing. In Insert mode,
any text after the cursor position moves forward to make room for the text you
type; in Overwrite mode, text after the cursor position is replaced by the text you
type.

Selection mode

Click to toggle between STD (Standard), EXT (Extend), ADD (Add) and BLK
(Block) selection. EXT is an alternative to Shift+click when selecting text. See
Chapter 3 (Working with Text) for more information about these modes.

Unsaved changes

An asterisk (*) appears here if changes to the document have not been saved.

Digital signature

If the document has been digitally signed, an icon shows here. To view the
certificate, double-click the icon.

Chapter 1 Introducing Writer 15

Section or object information

When the cursor is in a section, heading, or list item, or when an object (such as a
picture or table) is selected, information about that item appears in this field.
Double-clicking in this area opens a relevant dialog box.

Object Information shown Dialog box opened

Picture Size and position Format Picture

List item Level and list style Bullets and Numbering

1

Heading Outline numbering level Bullets and Numbering

1

Table Name or number and cell

reference of cursor

Table Format

Section Name of section Edit Sections

Other (Blank) Fields (Cross References page)

View layout

Click an icon to change between single page, side-by-side, and book layout views.
You can edit the document in any view. Zoom settings (see below and next page)
interact with the selected view layout to determine how many pages are visible in
the document window.

Zoom

To change the view magnification, drag the Zoom slider, or click on the + and –
signs, or right-click on the zoom level percent to pop up a list of magnification
values from which to choose.

1 If a list style was used with a list item or heading, no dialog box appears.

16 OpenOffice.org 3.3 Writer Guide

Figure 11. View layouts: single, side-by-side, book

Changing document views

Writer has three ways to view a document: Print Layout, Web Layout, and Full
Screen. To change the view, go to the View menu and click on the required view.

Print Layout is the default view in Writer. In this view, you can use the Zoom slider
and the View Layout icons on the Status bar to change the magnification.

You can also choose View > Zoom from the menu bar to display the Zoom & View
Layout dialog box (see Figure 12), where you can set the same options as on the
Status bar.

In Web Layout view, you can use the Zoom slider; the View Layout buttons on the
Status bar are disabled, and most of the choices on the Zoom & View Layout dialog
box are not available.

In Full Screen view, the document is displayed using the zoom and layout settings
previously selected. To exit Full Screen view and return to either Print or Web Layout
view, press the Esc key or click the Full Screen icon in the top left-hand corner. You
can also use Ctrl+Shift+J to enter or exit Full Screen view.

Starting a new document

You can start a new, blank document in Writer in several ways.

• From the operating system menu, in the same way that you start other

programs. 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, you should see the OpenOffice.org icon in the Applications folder. When
you double-click this icon, OOo opens at the Start Center (Figure 14).

• From the Quickstarter, which is found in Windows, some Linux distributions,

and (in a slightly different form) in Mac OS X. The Quickstarter is an icon that
is placed in the system tray or the dock during system startup. It indicates that
OpenOffice.org has been loaded and is ready to use.

Right-click the Quickstarter icon (Figure 13) in the system tray to open a pop­up menu from which you can open a new document, open the Templates and
Documents dialog box, or choose an existing document to open. You can also
double-click the Quickstarter icon to display the Templates and Documents
dialog box.

Chapter 1 Introducing Writer 17

Figure 12. Choosing Zoom and View Layout options

See Chapter 1 (Introducing OpenOffice.org) in the Getting Started guide for
more information about starting Writer and using the Quickstarter.

• From the Start Center. When OOo is open but no document is open (for

example, if you close all the open documents but leave the program running),
the Start Center 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. If a document is already open in OOo, the new document opens in a
new window.

When OOo is open, you can also start a new document in one of the following ways.

• Press the Control+N keys.

• Use File > New > Text Document.

• Click the New button on the main toolbar.

18 OpenOffice.org 3.3 Writer Guide

Figure 13: Quickstarter pop-up menu on Windows XP

Figure 14: OpenOffice.org Start Center

Starting a new document from a template

You can use templates to create new documents in Writer. A template is a set of
predefined styles and formatting. Templates serve as the foundation of a set of
documents, to make sure they all have a similar layout. For example, all the
documents of the Writer Guide are based on the same template. As a result, all the
documents look alike; they have the same headers and footers, use the same fonts,
and so on.

A new OpenOffice.org installation does not contain many templates. It is possible for
you to add new templates to your installation and use them for new documents. This
is explained in Chapter 10 (Working with Templates). Many more templates can be
downloaded from http://extensions.services.openoffice.org/ and other websites.

Once you have templates on your system, you can create new documents based on
them by using File > New > Templates and Documents. This opens a window
where you can choose the template you want to use for your document.

The example shown in Figure 15 uses a template called “OOo3_3_chapter_template”
in the My Templates folder. Select it, then click the Open button. A new document is
created based on the styles and formats defined in the template.

Opening an existing document

When no document is open, the Start Center (Figure 14) provides an icon for opening
an existing document or choosing from a list of recently-edited documents.

Chapter 1 Introducing Writer 19

Figure 15. Creating a document from a template

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.

• Choose File > Open....

• Click the Open button on the main toolbar.

• Press Control+O on the keyboard.

• Use the Open Document or Recent Documents selections on the

Quickstarter.

In each case, the Open dialog box appears. Select the file you want, and then click
Open. If a document is already open in OOo, the second document opens in a new
window.

In the Open dialog box, you can reduce the list of files by selecting the type of file you
are looking for. For example, if you choose Text documents as the file type, you will
only see documents Writer can open (including *.odt, *.doc, *.txt). This method opens
Word (*.doc) files as well as OOo files and other formats.

You can also open an existing Writer document using the same methods you would
use to open any document in your operating system.

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

Saving a document

To save a new document in Writer, do one of the following:

• Press Control+S.

• Choose File > Save.

• Click the Save button on the main toolbar.

When the Save As dialog box appears, enter the file name, verify the file type (if
applicable), and click Save.

To save an open document with the current file name, choose File > Save. This will
overwrite the last saved state of the file.

Saving a document automatically

You can choose to have Writer save your document automatically at regular intervals.
Automatic saving, like manual saving, overwrites the last saved state of the file. To
set up automatic file saving:

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

2) Click on Save AutoRecovery information every and set the time interval.
The default value is 15 minutes. Enter the value you want by typing it or by
pressing the up or down arrow keys.

Saving as a Microsoft Word document

If you need to exchange files with users of Microsoft Word, they may not know how to
open and save .odt files. Microsoft Word 2007 with Service Pack 2 (SP2) can do this.
Users of Word 2007, 2003, XP, and 2000 can also download and install a free
OpenDocument Format (ODF) plugin from Sun Microsystems, available from

20 OpenOffice.org 3.3 Writer Guide

Softpedia, http://www.softpedia.com/get/Office-tools/Other-Office-Tools/Sun-ODF-

Plugin-for-Microsoft-Office.shtml.

Some users of Microsoft Word may be unwilling or unable to receive *.odt files.
(Perhaps their employer won’t allow them to install the plug-in.) In this case, you can
save a document as a Microsoft Word file.

1) Important—First save your document in the file format used by OOo Writer,
*.odt. If you do not, any changes you made since the last time you saved will
only appear in the Microsoft Word version of the document.

2) Then click File > Save As.

3) On the Save As dialog box, in the File type (or Save as type) drop-down
menu, select the type of Word format you need.

4) Click Save.

From this point on, all changes you make to the document will occur only in the
Microsoft Word document. You have changed the name and file type of your
document. If you want to go back to working with the *.odt version of your document,
you must open it again.

Tip

To have Writer save documents by default in the Microsoft Word file
format, go to Tools > Options > Load/Save > General. In the section
named Default file format, under Document type, select Text document,
then under Always save as, select your preferred file format.

Chapter 1 Introducing Writer 21

Figure 16. Saving a file in Microsoft Word format

Password protection

Writer provides two levels of document protection: read-protect (file cannot be
viewed without a password) and write-protect (file can be viewed in read-only mode
but cannot be changed without a password). Thus you can make the content available
for reading by a selected group of people and for reading and editing by a different
group. This behavior is compatible with Microsoft Word file protection.

1) Use File > Save As when saving the document. (You can also use File > Save
the first time you save a new document.)

2) On the Save As dialog box, select the Save with password option, and then
click Save.

3) The Set Password dialog box opens.

22 OpenOffice.org 3.3 Writer Guide

Figure 17: Two levels of password protection

Here you have several choices:

• To read-protect the document, type a password in the two fields at the top

of the dialog box.

• To write-protect the document, click the More Options button and select

the Open file read-only checkbox.

• To write-protect the document but allow selected people to edit it, select

the Open file read-only checkbox and type a password in the two boxes at
the bottom of the dialog box.

4) Click OK to save the file. If either pair of passwords do not match, you receive
an error message. Close the message box to return to the Set Password dialog
box and enter the password again.

Caution

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

Closing a document

To close a document, choose File > Close or click the Close icon on the document
window. In Windows XP, this icon looks like the X in the red box shown in Figure 18.

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

If only one OOo window is open, it looks like the sample shown on the right in Figure

18. Notice the small black X below the larger X in the red box. Clicking the small
black X closes the document but leaves OOo open. Clicking the larger X closes OOo
completely.

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.

Closing OpenOffice.org

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

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

Chapter 1 Introducing Writer 23

Figure 18. Close icons

Using the Navigator

In addition to the Page Number field on the Status bar (described on page 14), Writer
provides other ways to move quickly through a document and find specific items by
using the many features of the Navigator, the Navigation toolbar, and related icons.

The Navigator lists all of the headings, tables, text frames, graphics, bookmarks, and
other objects contained in a document.

To open the Navigator, click its icon on the Standard toolbar, or press F5, or
choose View > Navigator on the menu bar, or double-click on the Page number field
on the status bar. You can dock the Navigator to either side of the main Writer
window or leave it floating (see “Docking/floating windows and toolbars” on page 13).

To hide the list of categories and show only the icons at the top, click the List Box

On/Off icon . Click this icon again to show the list. Click the + sign by any of the
lists to display the contents of the list.

Table 1 summarizes the functions of the icons at the top of the Navigator.

Note

The Navigator has different functions in a master document. See Chapter
13 (Working with Master Documents).

24 OpenOffice.org 3.3 Writer Guide

Figure 19. The Navigator

Table 1: Function of icons in the Navigator

Toggle: Not active in ordinary documents (left image). In a master
document (right image), switches between the master document file and
its subdocuments.

Navigation: Opens the Navigation toolbar (see page 26).

Previous, Next: Jumps to the previous or next item in the selected
category (page, graphic, hyperlink, comment, and so on). To select the
category of items, see “Using the Navigation toolbar“ on page 26.

Page number: Jumps to the page sequence number showing in the box.
Type the required page number or select it using the up and down
arrows.

Drag Mode: Select Hyperlink, Link, or Copy. See “Choosing drag mode”
on page 28 for details.

List Box On/Off: Shows or hides the list of categories.

Content View: Switches between showing all categories and showing only
the selected category.

Set Reminder: Inserts a reminder (see page 27).

Header/Footer: Jumps between the text area and the header or footer
area (if the page has them).

Anchor <–> Text: Jumps between a footnote anchor and the
corresponding footnote text.

Heading Levels Shown: Choose the number of heading levels to be
shown.

Moving quickly through a document

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

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

box at the top of the Navigator.

• When a category is showing the list of items in it, double-click on an item to

jump directly to that item’s location in the document. For example, you can
jump directly to a selected heading, graphic, or comment by using this method.

To see the content in only one category, highlight that category and click the
Content View icon. Click the icon again to display all the categories. You can
also change the number of heading levels shown when viewing Headings.

• Use the Previous and Next icons to jump to other objects of the type selected

in the Navigation toolbar. (See below for details.)

Chapter 1 Introducing Writer 25

Tip

Objects are much easier to find if you have given them names when
creating them, instead of keeping OOo’s default names of graphics1,
graphics2, Table1, Table2, and so on—which may not correspond to the
position of the object in the document.

To rename an image, right-click on the image, select Picture > Options,
and then edit the name in the dialog box. Similarly, to rename a table,
right-click on the table, select Table > Table, and then edit the name.

Note

A hidden section (or other hidden object) in a document appears gray in
the Navigator, and displays the word “hidden” as a tooltip. For more
about hidden sections, see Chapter 4 (Formatting Pages).

Using the Navigation toolbar

To display the Navigation toolbar (Figure 20), click the Navigation icon
(second icon from the left at the top of the Navigator, Figure 19) or the small
Navigation icon near the lower right-hand corner of the window below the vertical
scroll bar (Figure 21).

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

Click an icon to select that object type. Now all the Previous and Next icons (in the
Navigator itself, in the Navigation Toolbar, and on the scroll bar) will jump to the
previous or next object of the selected type. This is particularly helpful for finding
items like index entries, which can be difficult to see in the text. The names of the
icons (shown in the tooltips) change to match the selected category; for example,
Next Graphic or Next Bookmark.

26 OpenOffice.org 3.3 Writer Guide

Figure 20: Navigation toolbar

Figure 21: Previous, Navigation, and Next icons

Rearranging chapters using the Navigator

You can rearrange chapters and move headings in the document by using the
Navigator.

1) Click the Content View icon to expand the headings, if necessary.

2) (Optional) If you have several subheading levels, you can more easily find the
headings you want, by changing the Heading Levels Shown selection to show
only 1 or 2 levels of headings.

3) Click on the heading of the block of text that you want to move and drag the
heading to a new location on the Navigator, or click the heading in the
Navigator list, and then click either the Promote Chapter or Demote
Chapter icon. All of the text and subsections under the selected heading move
with it.

To move only the selected heading and not the text associated with the
heading, hold down Control, and then click the Promote or Demote icon.

Tip

The tooltips Promote Chapter and Demote Chapter can be misleading; all
headings—whether at Level 1 (chapter) or lower—can be rearranged
using this function; and the feature might be better described as Move
Up or Move Down (within the document, without changing the heading
level) to distinguish it more clearly from Promote Level and Demote
Level, which change the heading level within the document (see below).

4) To quickly change the outline level of a heading and its associated
subheadings, select the heading in the Navigator, and then click either the
Promote Level or Demote Level icon. This action does not change the
location of the heading, only its level.

To increase the outline level of only the selected heading, but not its associated
subheadings, hold down Control, and then click the icon.

Note

Users of MS Office Word will note the similarity between this
functionality and Word's Outline View.

Setting reminders

One of the little-known features of Writer that you may find quite useful is the
possibility of jumping between reminders. Reminders let you mark places in your
document that you want to return to later on, to add or correct information, make
some other change, or simply mark where you finished editing. The possible uses of
reminders are limited only by your imagination.

Chapter 1 Introducing Writer 27

Figure 22. Reorganizing with the Navigator

To set a reminder at the cursor's current location, click on the icon in the
Navigator. You can set up to 5 reminders in a document; setting another causes the
first to be deleted.

Reminders are not highlighted in any way in the document, so you cannot see where
they are, except when you jump from one to the next—the location of the cursor then
shows the location of the reminder.

To jump between reminders, first select the Reminder icon on the Navigation
toolbar. Then click the Previous and Next icons.

Choosing drag mode

To select the drag and drop options for inserting items such as other documents and
images, into a document using the Navigator, choose one of the following from the

drop-down menu of the Drag Mode icon .

Insert As Hyperlink

Creates a hyperlink when you drag and drop an item into the current document.

Insert As Link

Inserts the selected item as a link where you drag and drop in the current
document. Text is inserted as protected sections. However, you cannot create links
for graphics, OLE objects, references, or indexes using this method.

Insert As Copy

Inserts a copy of the selected item where you drag and drop in the current
document. You cannot drag and drop copies of graphics, OLE objects, or indexes.

Getting help

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

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

What are all these things called?

The terms used in OpenOffice.org for most parts of the user interface (the parts of
the program you see and use, in contrast to the behind-the-scenes code that actually
makes it work) are the same as for most other programs.

A dialog box is a special type of window. Its purpose is to inform you of something, or
request input from you, or both. It provides controls for you to use to specify how to
carry out an action. The technical names for common controls are shown in Figure
23; not shown is the list box (from which you select an item). In most cases we do not

28 OpenOffice.org 3.3 Writer Guide

use the technical terms in this book, but it is useful to know them because the Help
and other sources of information often use them.

In most cases, you can interact only with the dialog box (not the document itself) as
long as the dialog box remains open. When you close the dialog box after use (usually,
clicking OK or another button saves your changes and closes the dialog box), then
you can again work with your document.

Some dialog boxes can be left open as you work, so you can switch back and forth
between the dialog boxand your document. An example of this type is the Find &
Replace dialog box.

Undoing and redoing changes

When a document is open, you can undo the most recent change by pressing

Control+Z, or clicking the Undo icon on the Standard toolbar, or choosing Edit
> Undo from the menu bar.

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

Chapter 1 Introducing Writer 29

Figure 23: Dialog box (not from Writer) showing common controls:
1=Tabbed page (not strictly speaking a control)

2=Radio buttons (only one can be selected at a time)
3=Checkbox (more than one can be selected at a time)
4=Spin box (click the up and down arrows to change the number
shown in the text box next to it, or type in the text box)
5=Thumbnail or preview
6=Drop-down list from which to select an item
7=Push buttons

Figure 24: Edit > Undo last action

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

After changes have been undone, Redo becomes active. To redo a change, select

Edit > Redo, or press Control+Y or click on the Redo icon . As with Undo, click
on the triangle to the right of the arrow to get a list of the changes that can be
reapplied. rabbit

Using Writer on a Mac

Some keystrokes and menu items are different on a Mac from those used in Windows
and Linux. The following table gives some common substitutions for the instructions
in this book. For a more detailed list, see the application Help.

Windows/Linux Mac equivalent Effect

Tools > Options

menu selection

OpenOffice.org >
Preferences

Access setup options

Right-click Control+click Open context menu

Ctrl (Control) z (Command) Used with other keys

F5 Shift+z+F5 Open the Navigator

F11 z+T Open the Styles and Formatting

window

30 OpenOffice.org 3.3 Writer Guide

Figure 25: List of actions that can be undone

Chapter 2

Setting up Writer

Choosing options to suit the way you work

31

Choosing options that affect all of OOo

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

Click Tools > Options. The list on the left-hand side of the Options – OpenOffice.org
dialog 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 expansion symbol (+ sign or triangle) by OpenOffice.org on the left-hand
side. A list of pages drops down. Selecting an item in the list causes the right-hand

side of the dialog box to display the relevant page.

Note

The Back button has the same effect on all pages of the Options dialog
box. It resets options to the values that were in place when you opened
OOo.

User Data options

Because Writer uses the name or initials stored in the OpenOffice.org – User Data
page for several things, including document properties (created by and last edited by
information) and the name of the author of notes and changes, you will want to
ensure that the correct information appears here.

Fill in the form (shown in Figure 27) or amend or delete any existing incorrect
information.

32 OpenOffice.org 3.3 Writer Guide

Figure 26: OpenOffice.org options

Figure 27: Filling in user data

General options

The options on the OpenOffice.org – General page are described below.

Help - Tips

When Tips is active, one or two words will appear when you hold the mouse
pointer over an icon or field, without clicking.

Help - Extended tips

When Extended tips is active, a brief description of the function of a particular
icon or menu command or a field on a dialog box appears when you hold the
mouse pointer over that item.

Help Agent

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

Chapter 2 Setting up Writer 33

Figure 28: Setting general options for OpenOffice.org

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.

High-contrast style Visual effect

Default Black text on white background

High Contrast #1 Yellow text on black background

High Contrast #2 Green text on black background

High Contrast Black White text on black background

High Contrast White Black text on white background

Open/Save dialogs

To use the standard Open and Save dialog boxes for your operating system,
deselect the Use OpenOffice.org dialogs option. When this option is selected,
the Open and Save dialog boxes supplied with OpenOffice.org will be used. This
book uses the OOo Open and Save dialog boxes in illustrations.

Document status

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.

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.

• If your documents contain a lot of objects such as images, or the objects are

large, OOo’s performance may improve if you increase the memory for OOo or
the memory per object. If you find that objects seem to disappear from a
document that contains a lot of them, increase the number of objects in the
cache. (The objects are still in the file even if you cannot see them on screen.)

• 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 that OOo uses some memory
even when not being used. This option (sometimes called Enable systray
quickstarter) is not available on all operating systems.

34 OpenOffice.org 3.3 Writer Guide

Figure 29: Choosing Memory options for the OpenOffice.org applications

View options

The options on the OpenOffice.org – View page affect the way the document window
looks and behaves. Some of these options are described below. Set them to suit your
personal preferences.

User Interface – Scaling

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

User Interface – Icon size and style

The first box specifies the display size of toolbar icons (Automatic, Small, or
Large); the Automatic icon size option uses the setting for your operating
system. The second box specifies the icon style (theme); here the Automatic

Chapter 2 Setting up Writer 35

Figure 30: Choosing View options for OpenOffice.org applications

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 Anti-Aliasing

(Not available in Windows; not shown in Figure 30.) Smooths the screen
appearance of text. Enter the smallest font size to apply anti-aliasing.

Menu – Show icons in menus

Causes icons as well as words to be visible in menus.

Font Lists - Show preview of fonts

Causes the font list to look like Figure 31, Left, with the font names shown as an
example of the font; with the option deselected, the font list shows only the font
names, not their formatting (Figure 31, Right). The fonts you will see listed are
those that are installed on your system.

Figure 31: Font list (Left) showing preview; (Right) without preview

Font Lists - Show font history

Causes the last five fonts you have assigned to the current document are
displayed at the top of the font list.

Graphics output – Use hardware acceleration

Directly accesses hardware features of the graphical display adapter to improve
the screen display. Not supported on all operating systems and OOo distributions.

Graphics output – Use Anti-Aliasing

Enables and disables anti-aliasing, which makes the display of most graphical
objects look smoother and with fewer artifacts. Not supported on all operating
systems and OOo distributions.

Tip

Press Shift+Control+R to restore or refresh the view of the current
document.

Mouse positioning

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

Middle mouse button

Defines the function of the middle mouse button.

36 OpenOffice.org 3.3 Writer Guide

• Automatic scrolling – dragging while pressing the middle mouse button

shifts the view.

• Paste clipboard – pressing the middle mouse button inserts the contents of

the “Selection clipboard” at the cursor position.

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

Function Clipboard Selection clipboard

Copy content

Edit > Copy Control+C

Select text, table, or object.

Paste content

Edit > Paste Control+V
pastes at the cursor
position.

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

Pasting into another
document

No effect on the
clipboard contents.

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

Print options

On the OpenOffice.org – Print page, set the print options to suit your default printer
and your most common printing method.

In the Printer warnings section near the bottom of the page, 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.

Chapter 2 Setting up Writer 37

Figure 32: Choosing general printing options to apply to all OOo
components

Tip

If your printouts are incorrectly placed on the page 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

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

To make changes, select an item in the list shown in Figure 33 and click Edit. On the
Select Paths dialog (not shown), add or delete folders as required, and then click OK
to return to the Options dialog. Note that many items can have at least two paths
listed: one to a shared folder (which might be on a network) and one to a user­specific folder (normally on the user’s personal computer).

Tip

You can use the entries in the OpenOffice.org – Paths dialog to compile
a list of files, such as those containing AutoText, that you need to back
up or copy to another computer.

Color options

On the OpenOffice.org – Colors page, you can specify 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.

38 OpenOffice.org 3.3 Writer Guide

Figure 33: Viewing the paths of files used by OOo

Figure 34: Defining colors to use in color palettes in OOo

To modify a color:

1) Select the color to modify from the list or the color table.

2) Enter the new values that define the color. If necessary, change the settings
from RGB (Red, Green, Blue) to CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black) or vice
versa. The changed color appears in the lower of the two color preview boxes
at the top.

3) Modify the Name as required.

4) Click the Modify button. The newly defined color is now listed in the Color
table.

Alternatively, click the Edit button to open the Color dialog, shown in Figure 35.
Here you can select a color from one of the color windows in the upper area, or you
can enter values in the lower area using your choice of RGB, CMYK, or HSB (Hue,
Saturation and Brightness) values.

The upper right color window is linked directly with the color input fields in the lower
area; as you choose a color in the upper window, the numbers change accordingly.
The two color fields at the lower right show the value of the selected color on the left
and the currently set value from the color value fields on the right.

Modify the color components as required and click OK to exit the dialog. The newly
defined color now appears in the lower of the color preview boxes shown in Figure

34. Type a name for this color in the Name box, then click the Add button. A small
box showing the new color is added to the Color table.

Chapter 2 Setting up Writer 39

Figure 35: Editing colors

Another way to define or alter colors is through the Colors page of the Area dialog,
where you can also save and load palettes, a feature that is not possible here. In
Writer, draw a temporary draw object and use the context menu of this object to open
the Area dialog.

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, OOo 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 OpenOffice.org – Fonts page:

1) Select Apply Replacement Table option.

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

3) In the Replace With box, select a suitable font from the drop-down list of
fonts installed on your computer.

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

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

40 OpenOffice.org 3.3 Writer Guide

Figure 36: Defining a font to be substituted for another font

Security options

Use the OpenOffice.org – Security page to choose security options for saving
documents and for opening documents that contain macros.

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 it, or you can have
OOo remove some of it 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.

Chapter 2 Setting up Writer 41

Figure 37: Choosing security options for opening and saving documents

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

38).

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

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

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

Macro security

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

Appearance options

Writing, editing, and (especially) page layout are often easier when you can see the
page margins (text boundaries), the boundaries of tables and sections, grid lines, and
other features. In addition, you might prefer to use colors that are different from
OOo’s defaults for such items as note indicators or field shadings.

On the OpenOffice.org – Appearance page, you can specify which items are visible
and the colors used to display various items.

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

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

setting column by the name of the item and select a color from the pop-up box.

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

and click Save.

42 OpenOffice.org 3.3 Writer Guide

Figure 38: Security options and warnings dialog box

Figure 39: Showing or hiding text, object, and table boundaries

Choosing options for loading and saving documents

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

If the Options dialog is not already open, click Tools > Options. Click the expansion
symbol (+ sign or triangle) to the left of Load/Save.

General Load/Save options

Most of the choices on the Load/Save – General page (Figure 41) are familiar to users
of other office suites. Some items of interest are described below.

Load user-specific settings with the document

When you save a document, certain settings are saved with it. 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. For example, your choice (in the options for OOo
Writer) of how to update links is affected by the Load user-specific settings
option.

Chapter 2 Setting up Writer 43

Figure 40: Load/Save options

Figure 41: Choosing Load and Save options

Load printer settings with the document

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

Edit document properties before saving

If this option is selected, 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 __ Minutes

Choose whether to enable AutoRecovery and how often to save the information
used by the AutoRecovery process.

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

Save URLs relative to file system / internet

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

Default file format and ODF settings

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

44 OpenOffice.org 3.3 Writer Guide

headings and the formatting of numbered lists. If you plan to share documents
with people who are still using older versions of OpenOffice.org, save the
document using ODF version 1.0/1.1.

Size optimization for ODF format. OpenOffice.org documents are XML files.
When you select this option, OOo writes the XML data without indents and line
breaks. If you want to be able to read the XML files in a text editor in a structured
form, deselect this option.

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

Note

Although Writer can open files in the .docx format produced by Word
2007, it cannot save in .docx format. This capability is planned for a
future release.

VBA Properties Load/Save options

On the Load/Save – VBA Properties page, you can choose whether to keep any
macros in Microsoft Office documents that are opened in OpenOffice.org. These
macros are disabled in OOo.

If you choose Load Basic code, you can edit the macros in OOo. The changed code is
saved in an OOo document but is not retained if you save into a Microsoft Office
format.

If you choose Save original Basic code, the macros are retained unchanged if you
save the file into Microsoft Office format.

Save original Basic code takes precedence over Load Basic code. If both options
are seleted and you edit the disabled code in OOo, the original Microsoft Basic code
will be saved when saving in a Microsoft Office format.

To remove any possible macro viruses from the Microsoft Office document, deselect
Save original Basic code. The document will be saved without the Microsoft Basic
code.

Chapter 2 Setting up Writer 45

Figure 42: Choosing Load/Save VBA
Properties

Microsoft Office Load/Save options

On the Load/Save – Microsoft Office page, you can choose what to do when importing
and exporting Microsoft Office OLE objects (linked or embedded objects or
documents such as spreadsheets or equations).

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

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

HTML compatibility Load/Save options

Choices made on the Load/Save – HTML Compatibility page affect HTML pages
imported into OpenOffice.org and those exported from OOo. See HTML documents;
importing/exporting in the 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.)

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 58). If this
option is selected, numbers will be interpreted as for the English (USA) locale.

46 OpenOffice.org 3.3 Writer Guide

Figure 43: Choosing Load/Save Microsoft Office options

Figure 44: Choosing HTML compatibility options

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 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) in the Getting Started guide for more information.

Export - Display warning

When the OpenOffice.org Basic option (see above) is not selected, 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.

Chapter 2 Setting up Writer 47

Export - Print layout

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

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

Export - Copy local graphics to Internet

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

Export - Character set

Select the appropriate character set for the export.

Choosing options for Writer

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

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

Click the expansion symbol (+ sign or triangle) by OpenOffice.org Writer on the left­hand side of the Options – OpenOffice.org dialog box. A list of pages drops down.

General options

The choices on the OpenOffice.org Writer – General page affect the updating of links
and fields, the units used for rulers and other measurements, and the default tab stop
positions.

Update links when loading

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

48 OpenOffice.org 3.3 Writer Guide

Figure 45: OpenOffice.org Writer options

Figure 46: Choosing general options for Writer

Update fields and charts automatically

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

Settings – Tab stops

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

Using the default tab stops to space out or indent material on a page is not
recommended. If you use the default tab interval and then send the document to
someone who uses a different default tab interval, then your tabbed material will
be displayed using the other person’s default tab settings. In addition, any
changes to the default tab stops will change the existing default tab stops in any
document you open afterward, as well as tab stops you insert after making the
change.

To avoid these unwanted changes, define your own tabs in paragraph styles or
individual paragraphs (see “Defining your own tab stops and indents” in Chapter
3, Working with Text).

View options

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

If the items on the OpenOffice.org Writer - View page are not self-explanatory, you
can easily test their effects in a blank document.

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

Chapter 2 Setting up Writer 49

Figure 47: Choosing View options for Writer

Formatting Aids options

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

On the OpenOffice.org Writer – Formatting Aids page, select the required options.

Note

Direct cursor lets you enter text, images, tables, frames, and other
objects in any blank area in your document. Writer inserts blank
paragraphs and tabs to position the text or objects.

This feature is incompatible with rigorous use of styles and can lead to
many formatting oddities, so it should be avoided by professional
writers.

50 OpenOffice.org 3.3 Writer Guide

Figure 48: Choosing Formatting Aids options

Grid options

Specifying “snap to grid” can be very helpful when you are trying to align several
objects such as graphics or tables.

On the OpenOffice.org Writer – Grid page, you can choose whether to enable this
feature and what grid intervals to use. If the grid intervals (subdivisions) are too
large, you may find that you do not have enough control in placing the objects.

Default fonts

The default fonts specified on the OpenOffice.org Writer – Basic Fonts (Western) page
apply to both Writer documents and HTML (Web) documents.

• If you want to change the defaults, do so on this page. You can, of course,

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

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

ones shown in the drop-down list. You can specify a “font family”as a

Chapter 2 Setting up Writer 51

Figure 49: Choosing Grid options

Figure 50: Choosing default fonts

comma-separated set of fonts that includes those suitable for Windows,
Macintosh, Linux, and other operating systems. These choices are particularly
important in HTML documents.

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

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

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

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

Print options

On the OpenOffice.org Writer – Print page (Figure 51), you can choose which items
are printed with the document by default. These options are in addition to those on
the OpenOffice.org – Print page (Figure 32).

Some considerations:

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

might want to deselect some of the items in the Contents section.

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

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

• The Print text in black option has a different effect than the Convert colors

to greyscale on the Options – OpenOffice.org – Print page (Figure 32), which
prints all graphics as greyscale on color printers. (On black-and-white printers,
color in graphics normally prints as greyscale.)

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

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

52 OpenOffice.org 3.3 Writer Guide

Figure 51: Choosing Print options for Writer

• Depending on how your printer ejects pages (face up or face down), you might

need to print the pages in reverse order so they stack in the correct order as
they are printed.

Tip

You can override any of these defaults when printing a document. Click
File > Print, then click the Options button on the Print dialog box.
The Printer Options dialog box that appears is similar to the one shown
in Figure 51.

Default table options

On the OpenOffice.org Writer – Table page, you can specify the default behavior of
tables.

Some considerations:

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

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

• Number recognition can be very useful if most of your tables contain

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

• The Keyboard handling section specifies the distances that cells move when

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

• The choices in the Behavior of rows/columns section determine the effects that

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

Chapter 2 Setting up Writer 53

Figure 52: Choosing default Table options

Change tracking options

If you plan to use the change-tracking feature of Writer, use the OpenOffice.org
Writer – Changes page to choose the way inserted and deleted material is marked,
whether and how attribute changes are marked, and whether and how change bars
are marked in the margins.

Compatibility options

Do you need to import Microsoft Word documents into OOo Writer? If so, you might
want to select some or all of the settings on the OpenOffice.org Writer – Compatibility
page. If you are not sure about the effects of these settings, leave them as the
defaults provided by OOo. For information about the settings not described below,
see the Help.

Use printer metrics for document formatting

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

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

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

54 OpenOffice.org 3.3 Writer Guide

Figure 53: Choosing options for tracking changes

Figure 54: Choosing compatibility options

Add spacing between paragraphs and tables (in current document)

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

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

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

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

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

Add paragraph and table spacing at bottom of table cells

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

Use as Default

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

Chapter 2 Setting up Writer 55

AutoCaption options

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

Note

You may not always want captions for every table, for example, if you
use tables for layout as well as for tables of data. You can always add
captions to individual tables, graphics, or other objects (right-click >
Caption).

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

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

2) On the OpenOffice.org Writer – AutoCaption page, select the check box next to
an object you want to be automatically captioned (Picture in the example
shown).

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

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

Writer Guide.

56 OpenOffice.org 3.3 Writer Guide

Figure 55: Setting up a new category for automatic captions on graphics

Mail Merge E-mail options

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

Use the OpenOffice.org Writer – Mail Merge E-mail page to set up the user and
server information for sending form letters by e-mail. If you are not sure what
information to put in any of the fields, consult your e-mail program or your Internet
service provider.

Choosing options for HTML documents

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

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

2) Click the expansion symbol (+ sign or triangle) by OpenOffice.org Writer/Web
on the left-hand side of the Options – OpenOffice.org dialog box. A list of pages
drops down.

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

Note

Many of the options available under Options – OpenOffice.org
Writer/Web are identical to the settings under Options – OpenOffice.org
Writer but will only affect HTML documents opened in Writer. The
previous sections contain detailed discussion on these options.

Chapter 2 Setting up Writer 57

Figure 56: Specifying settings for use when e-mailing mail-merged
form letters

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, be sure you are connected to the Internet, and then 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 select and install the ones you want.

Change some locale and language settings

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

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

On the right-hand side of the Language Settings – Languages page (Figure 58),
change the User interface, Locale setting, Default currency, and Default languages
for documents as required. In the example, English (USA) 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 For the current
document only.

If necessary, select the options to enable support for Asian languages (Chinese,
Japanese, Korean) and support for CTL (complex text layout) languages such as
Hindi, Thai, Hebrew, and Arabic. If you choose either of these options, the next time
you open this page, you will see some extra pages under Language Settings, as
shown in Figure 59. These pages (Searching in Japanese, Asian Layout, and Complex
Text Layout) are not discussed here.

58 OpenOffice.org 3.3 Writer Guide

Figure 57: OpenOffice.org language options

Figure 58: Choosing language options

Choose spelling options

To choose the options for checking spelling, choose Language Settings > Writing
Aids. In the Options section of the page, choose 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.

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

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

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

checking spelling.

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

Chapter 2 Setting up Writer 59

Figure 59: Extra pages available when enhanced language support
options are selected

Figure 60: Choosing languages, dictionaries, and options for checking spelling

Note

OpenOffice.org does not have a grammar checker, but you can install a
grammar checker extension such as Language Tool and access that tool
from Tools > Spelling and Grammar. See Chapter 14 for more about
installing extensions.

Controlling Writer’s AutoCorrect functions

Some people find some or all of the items in Writer’s AutoCorrect feature annoying
because Writer changes 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 box, choose Tools > AutoCorrect Options. (You
need to have a document open for this menu item to appear.) In Writer, this dialog
box has five tabs. Many of the options are described in Chapter 3 (Working with Text)
in this book.

60 OpenOffice.org 3.3 Writer Guide

Figure 61: The AutoCorrect dialog box in Writer, showing the five tabs and

Chapter 2 Setting up Writer 61

some of the choices on the Options tab

Chapter 3

Working with Text

62

Introduction

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

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

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

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

• Find and replace text

• Insert special characters

• Format paragraphs and characters

• Create numbered or bulleted lists

• Check spelling, use the thesaurus, and choose hyphenation options

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

features

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

• Link to other parts of a document

Selecting text

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

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

Selecting items that are not consecutive

To select nonconsecutive items (as shown in Figure 62) using the mouse:

1) Select the first piece of text.

2) Hold down the Control (Ctrl) key and use the mouse to select the next piece of
text.

3) Repeat as often as needed.

Now you can work with the selected text (copy it, delete it, change the style, and so
on).

To select nonconsecutive items using the keyboard:

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

2) Press Shift+F8. This puts Writer in “ADD” mode. The word ADD appears on the
Status Bar.

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

4) Repeat as often as required.

Chapter 3 Working with Text 63

Now you can work with the selected text.

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 you can highlight the selection, using mouse or keyboard, as shown in Figure

63.

Cutting, copying, and pasting text

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

To move (cut and paste) selected text using the mouse, drag it to the new location
and release it. To copy selected text, hold down the Control key while dragging. The
text retains the formatting it had before dragging.

When you paste text, the result depends on the source of the text and how you paste
it. If you click on the Paste icon, then the pasted text keeps its original formatting
(such as bold or italics). Text pasted from Web sites and other sources may also be
placed into frames or tables. If you do not like the results, click the Undo icon or
press Control+Z.

64 OpenOffice.org 3.3 Writer Guide

Figure 62: Selecting items that are not next to each other

Figure 63: Selecting a vertical block of text

To make the pasted text take on the formatting of the text surrounding where it is
pasted, you can:

• Edit > Paste Special, or

• Click the triangle to the right of the Paste icon, or

• Click the Paste icon without releasing the left mouse button.

Then select Unformatted text from the resulting menu.

The range of choices on the Paste Special menu varies depending on the origin and
formatting of the text (or other object) to be pasted. See Figure 64 for an example
with text on the clipboard.

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

Finding and replacing text

Writer has two ways to find text within a document: the Find toolbar for fast
searching and the Find & Replace dialog box. In the dialog box, you can:

• Find and replace words and phrases

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

• Find and replace specific formatting

• Find and replace paragraph styles

If the Find toolbar is not visible, you can display it using View > Toolbars > Find.

To display the Find & Replace dialog box, use the keyboard shortcut Control+F or
choose Edit > Find & Replace from the menu bar.

Chapter 3 Working with Text 65

Figure 64: Paste Special menu

Figure 65: Expanded Find & Replace dialog box

1) Type the text you want to find in the Search for box.

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

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

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

Tip

If you click Find All, Writer selects all instances of the search text in
the document. Similarly, if you click Replace All button, Writer
replaces all matches.

Caution

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

66 OpenOffice.org 3.3 Writer Guide

Find and replace specific formatting

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

On the Find & Replace dialog box (with More Options displayed, as in Figure 65):

1) To search for text with specific formatting, enter the text in the Search for box.
To search for specific formatting only, delete any text in the Search for box.

2) Click Format to display the Text Format (Search) dialog box. The tabs on this
dialog box are similar to those on the Paragraph format and Paragraph Style
dialog boxes.

3) Choose the formats you want to search for and then click OK. The names of
selected formats appear under the Search for box. For example, you might
search for all text in 14-point bold Times New Roman.

4) To replace text as well as formatting, type the replacement text in the Replace
with box.

To search for specific text with specific formatting (for example, the word
hello in bold), specify the formatting, type the text in the Search for box and
leave the Replace with box blank.

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

5) Click Find, Find All, Replace, or Replace All

Tip

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

Find and replace paragraph styles

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

1) On the expanded Find & Replace dialog box (Figure 65), select Search for

Styles. (If you have attributes specified, this option is labeled Including
Styles.) The Search for and Replace with boxes now contain a list of styles.

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

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

Repeat steps 2 and 3 for each style that you want to replace.

Use wildcards (regular expressions)

Wildcards (also known as regular expressions) are combinations of characters that
instruct OOo how to search for something. Regular expressions are very powerful but
not very intuitive. They can save time and effort by combining multiple finds into one.

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

Tip

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

Chapter 3 Working with Text 67

Note

To search for a character that is defined as a wildcard, type a backslash
(\) before the character. For example, to find the text $5.00, you would
conduct a search using \$5\.00.

To use wildcards and regular expressions when searching and replacing:

1) On the Find & Replace dialog box, click More Options to see more choices.
On this expanded dialog box (Figure 65), select the Regular expressions
option.

2) Type the search text, including the wildcards, in the Search for box and the
replacement text (if any) in the Replace with box. Not all regular expressions
work as replacement characters; the line break (\n) is one that does work.

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

Table 2. Examples of search wildcards (regular expressions)

To find

Use this
expression

Examples and comments

Any single character .

b.d finds bad, bud, bid, and bed.

One of the specified
characters

[xyz] b[iu]n finds bin and bun.

Any single character
in this range

[x-y] [r-t]eed finds reed, seed, and teed; ranges

must be in alphabetically ascending order.

Any single character
except the characters
inside the brackets

[^x] p[^a]st finds post and pest, but not past.

The beginning of a
word

\<start \<log finds logbook and logistics, but not

catalog.

The end of a word end\> log\> finds catalog, but not logistics.

A paragraph marker $ Does not work as a replacement character.

Use \n instead.

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

Shift+Enter. When used as a replacement
character, it inserts a paragraph marker.

Inserting special characters

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

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

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

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

68 OpenOffice.org 3.3 Writer Guide

Figure 66: The Special Characters dialog box, where you can insert special

Tip

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

Note

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

Inserting non-breaking spaces and hyphens

Non-breaking spaces

To prevent two words from being separated at the end of a line, press
Control+spacebar after the first word.

Non-breaking hyphen

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

Inserting en and em dashes

To enter en and em dashes, you can use the Replace dashes option under Tools >
AutoCorrect Options (Figure 75). This option replaces two hyphens, under certain

conditions, with the corresponding dash.

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

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

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

Chapter 3 Working with Text 69

characters

Text that you type: Result

A - B (A, space, minus, space, B) A – B (A, space, en-dash, space, B)

A -- B (A, space, minus, minus, space, B) A – B (A, space, en-dash, space, B)

A--B (A, minus, minus, B) A—B (A, em-dash, B)

A-B (A, minus, B) A-B (unchanged)

A -B (A, space, minus, B) A -B (unchanged)

A --B (A, space, minus, minus, B) A –B (A, space, en-dash, B)

Tip

You can also record macros to insert en and em dashes and assign
those macros to unused key combinations, for example Ctrl+Shift+N
and Ctrl+Shift+M. For more information, see Chapter 17 (Customizing
Writer).

Windows

Hold down one of the Alt keys and type on the numeric keypad: 0150 for an en
dash or 0151 for an em dash. The dash appears when you release the Alt key.

Tip

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

For example, on a US keyboard layout, the combination for an en dash
should be Alt+Fn+mjim and for an em dash it should be Alt+Fn+mjij.

Linux

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

Tip

The key that operates as a Compose key varies with the Linux
distribution. It is usually one of the Alt or Win keys, but may be another
key, and should be user-selectable.

Mac OS X

Hold down the Option (Alt) key and type a hyphen for an en dash. For an em dash,
the combination is Shift+Option+Hyphen.

Formatting paragraphs

You can apply many formats to paragraphs using the buttons on the Formatting
toolbar. Figure 67 shows the Formatting toolbar as a floating toolbar, customized to
show only the buttons for paragraph formatting.

Tip

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

70 OpenOffice.org 3.3 Writer Guide

Open Styles and

Figure 68 shows examples of the text alignment options.

When using justified text, the last line is by default aligned to the left; however, if so
desired, you can also align the last line to the center of the paragraph area or justify
it so that spaces are inserted between the words in order to fill the whole line. In the
case where the last line consists of a single word, you can also have this word
stretched to cover the whole line. Figure 69 shows an example of the effect obtained
when setting each of these options.

These options are controlled in the Alignment page of the Format > Paragraph
dialog box.

Chapter 3 Working with Text 71

1

Formatting Window
Apply Style

2

Align Left

3

Centered

4

Align Right

5

Justified

6

Line Spacing: 1

7

Line Spacing: 1.5

8

Line Spacing: 2

9

Numbering On/Off

10

Bullets On/Off

11

Decrease Indent

12

Increase Indent

13

Paragraph format dialog box

14

Figure 67: Formatting toolbar, showing icons for paragraph formatting

Figure 68: Text alignment options

Figure 69: Four choices for the last line of a justified paragraph

Figure 70: Options for the last line of a justified paragraph

Setting tab stops and indents

The horizontal ruler shows both the default tab stops and any tab stops that you have
defined. Tab settings affect indentation of full paragraphs (using the Increase
Indent and Decrease Indent icons on the Formatting toolbar) as well as indentation
of parts of a paragraph (by pressing the Tab key on the keyboard).

Using the default tab spacing can cause formatting problems if you share documents
with other people. If you use the default tab spacing and then send the document to
someone else who has chosen a different default tab spacing, tabbed material will
change to use the other person’s settings. Instead of using the defaults, define your
own tab settings, as described in this section.

To define indents and tab settings for one or more selected paragraphs, double-click
on a part of the ruler that is not between the left and right indent icons to open the
Indents & Spacing page of the Paragraph dialog box. Double-click anywhere between
the left and right indent icons on the ruler to open the Tabs page of the Paragraph
dialog box.

72 OpenOffice.org 3.3 Writer Guide

Figure 71: Specifying tab stops and fill characters

A better strategy is to define tabs for the paragraph style. Refer to Chapters 6 and 7
for more about paragraph styles.

Tip

Using tabs to space out material on a page is not recommended.
Depending on what you are trying to accomplish, a table is usually a
better choice.

Changing the default tab stop interval

Note

Any changes to the default tab setting will affect the existing default
tab stops in any document you open afterward, as well as tab stops you
insert after making the change.

To set the measurement unit and the spacing of default tab stop intervals, go to Tools
> Options > OpenOffice.org Writer > General.

You can also set or change the measurement unit for rulers in the current document
by right-clicking on the ruler to open a list of units, as shown in Figure 73. Click on
one of them to change the ruler to that unit. The selected setting applies only to that
ruler.

Formatting characters

You can apply many formats to characters using the buttons on the Formatting
toolbar. Figure 74 shows the Formatting toolbar as a floating toolbar, customized to
show only the buttons for character formatting.

It is highly recommended that you use character styles rather than manually
formatting characters. For information on styles and how to use them, see Chapters 6
and 7.

Chapter 3 Working with Text 73

Figure 72: Selecting a default tab stop interval

Figure 73: Changing the measurement unit for a ruler

1 Open Styles and

Tip

To remove manual formatting, select the text and choose Format >
Default Formatting from the main menu bar, or right-click and choose
Default Formatting from the pop-up menu.

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 box (Tools >
AutoCorrect Options).

74 OpenOffice.org 3.3 Writer Guide

Formatting Window

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

Figure 74: Formatting toolbar, showing icons for character formatting

6 Italic 12 Font Color
7 Underline 13 Highlighting

dialog box

Figure 75: Autoformat choices on the Options page of the AutoCorrect
dialog box

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

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

equal signs (===) on a line and then press Enter the 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

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

Tip

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

To automatically format the file according to the options you have set, choose Format
> AutoCorrect and select or deselect the items on the submenu.

While Typing

Automatically formats the document while you type.

Apply

Automatically formats the document.

Apply and Edit Changes

Automatically formats the file and then opens a dialog box where you can accept
or reject the changes.

AutoCorrect Options

Opens the AutoCorrect dialog (Figure 75).

Creating numbered or bulleted lists

There are several ways to create numbered or bulleted lists:

• Use autoformatting, as described above.

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

• Use the Numbering and Bullets icons on the paragraph formatting toolbar

(see Figure 67). This method is described here.

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

Note

It is a matter of personal preference whether you type your information
first, then apply Numbering/Bullets or apply these as you type.

Using the Bullets and Numbering toolbar

You can create a nested list (where one or more list items has a sublist under it, as in
an outline) by using the buttons on the Bullets and Numbering toolbar (Figure 76).

Chapter 3 Working with Text 75

You can move items up or down the list, create subpoints, and even change the style
of bullets.

Tip

It is possible to move a list entry up, together with all of its sub-entries.
Do this by clicking the Promote One Level With Subpoints button.

If you create a nested list using the predefined styles, all the levels of the list (up to

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

Tip

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

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

Tab Down a level
Shift+Tab Up a level

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

Example: configuring a nested list

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

A. Level-2 list item

i. Level-3 list item

a) Level-4 list item

This example uses one of the supplied styles, Numbering 1, however if you intend to
reuse this type of nested list you can also create a new style as illustrated in Chapter
7 (Working with Styles).

76 OpenOffice.org 3.3 Writer Guide

1 Bullets On/Off 6 Promote One Level with
2 Numbering On/Off 11 Move Up with Subpoints
3 Numbering Off 7 Demote One Level with

10 Move Down

Subpoints

12 Move Down with Subpoints

Subpoints

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

Figure 76: Bullets and Numbering toolbar

1) Open the Styles and Formatting window and click the List Styles icon at the
top. Right-click on the Numbering 1 style and choose Modify from the pop-up
menu.

2) On the Numbering Style dialog box, go to the Outline page, where you will find
that one style matches our requirements. Click once on that style.

3) To modify the layout of the list, use the Options tab (Figures 79 and 80). Notice
that the preview on the right shows the outline selected. In the Level box on
the left, select 1, then 2, 3, and 4 and see how the information in the
Numbering and After boxes changes.

Use the Options page to set different punctuation; for example, a period (full
stop) after “a” on level 4 instead of a parenthesis.

Chapter 3 Working with Text 77

Figure 77: Modifying a list style

Figure 78: Choosing a predefined outline-numbering style

Figure 79: Checking the outline numbering for level-1 list items

To make the indentation at each level greater or less than the default, change
it on the Position page. Select the level, then make any changes in the
indentation, spacing, or numbering alignment.

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

Tip

With outline numbering you can define different bullet styles for the
different levels of a bullet list. Use the Bullets tab of the Bullets and
Numbering dialog box (not shown) to select the basic style. Return to
the Options tab to customize the bullet for each indent level. Here you
can set bullets to any character. See the Graphics tab for more bullets.

Using footnotes and endnotes

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

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

• Insert footnotes.

• Define the format of footnotes.

• Define the location of footnotes on the page, as described in Chapter 4

(Formatting Pages).

Inserting footnotes/endnotes

To insert a footnote or an endnote, put the cursor where you want the
footnote/endnote marker to appear. Then select Insert > Footnote/Endnote from

78 OpenOffice.org 3.3 Writer Guide

Figure 80: Numbering style for level-2 list items

the menu bar or click the Insert Footnote/Endnote Directly or Insert Endnote
Directly icon on the Insert toolbar.

A footnote or endnote marker is inserted in the text and, depending on your choice,
the cursor is relocated either to the footnote area at the bottom of the page or to the
endnote area at the end of the document. Type the footnote or endnote content in
this area.

If you use Insert > Footnote/Endnote, the Insert Footnote/Endnote dialog box is
displayed. Here you can choose whether to use the automatic numbering sequence
specified in the footnote settings and whether to insert the item as a footnote or an
endnote.

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

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

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

Defining the format of footnotes/endnotes

To format the footnotes themselves, click Tools > Footnotes/Endnotes. On the
Footnote Settings dialog box, choose settings as required. The Endnotes page has
similar choices.

Chapter 3 Working with Text 79

Figure 81: Using the Insert Footnote Directly icon on the toolbar

Figure 82: Inserting a footnote/endnote directly

Figure 83: Defining footnote formatting

Checking spelling and grammar

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 red wavy line
disappears.

To perform a separate spelling check on the document (or a text selection)
click this button. This checks the document or selection and opens the Spelling
and Grammar dialog box (Figure 84) if any misspelled words are found.

Here are some more features of the spelling checker:

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

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

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

German) on the Spelling and Grammar dialog box.

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

dialog box and pick the dictionary to add it to.

• Click the Options button on the Spelling and Grammar dialog box to open a

dialog box similar to the one in Tools > Options > Language Settings >
Writing Aids described in Chapter 2. There you can choose whether to check
uppercase words and words with numbers, and you can manage custom
dictionaries, that is, add or delete dictionaries and add or delete words in a
dictionary.

Writer does not include a grammar checker, but you can install an extension such as
Language Tool and access it from Tools > Spelling and Grammar. (See Chapter 17
for more about installing extensions.)

80 OpenOffice.org 3.3 Writer Guide

Figure 84: Selecting a word from dictionary using the Spelling

Language Tool adds a new menu item and submenu to the Tools menu, from which
you can configure the tool and check or recheck the document. Figure 85 shows an
example of the Language Tool extension in use.

Chapter 3 Working with Text 81

and Grammar dialog box

Figure 85: The Language Tool extension

Using built-in language tools

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

• Paragraph and character styles

• Using Tools > Language

• Using language settings in Options

• Using the status bar

The main advantage of changing the language for a text selection 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.

You can also set the language for a paragraph or a group of characters as None (Do
not check spelling). This option is especially useful when you insert text such as
web addresses or programming language snippets that you do not want to check for
spelling.

Using paragraph and character styles

Specifying the language in character and paragraph styles is the preferred method,
because styles allow a greater level of control and make changing the language much
faster. On the Font tab of the Paragraph Styles dialog box, you can specify that
certain paragraphs be checked in a language that is different from the language of
the rest of the document. See Chapter 7 (Working with Styles) for information on how
to manage the language settings of a style.

Using Tools > Language

You can also set the language for the whole document, for individual paragraphs, or
even for individual words and characters, all from Tools > Language on the menu
bar.

For Selection

Applies a specified language to the selected text (the selection can be as short as
a few characters or as long as 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.

Using language settings in Options

Another way to change the language of a whole document is to use Tools > Options
> Language Settings > Languages. In the Default languages for documents

section (Figure 86), you can choose a different language for all the text.

82 OpenOffice.org 3.3 Writer Guide

Figure 86: Options available in the Languages settings

Caution

Unlike the menu tool that applies to the individual document, a
change in the default language from the Options dialog box 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.

The spelling checker works only for those languages in the list which have the symbol

next to them. If you do not see this symbol next to your preferred language, you

can install the dictionary using Tools > Languages > More dictionaries online.

Using the status bar

The language used for checking spelling is also shown in the status bar, next to the
page style in use. You can change the language for the paragraph or the entire
document; click on the language in the status bar to pop up a menu of choices.

Notice the Reset to Default Language option on the menu and submenu. This is the
fastest way to return a paragraph or the entire document to the default language set
in Tool > Options (described above).

Chapter 3 Working with Text 83

Figure 87: Language choices on the status bar

Using synonyms and the thesaurus

You can access a short list of synonyms from the context menu:

1) Select a word or phrase, right-click, and point to Synonyms on the pop-up
menu. A submenu of alternative words and phrases is displayed.

2) Click on a word or phrase to select it and replace the highlighted word or
phrase in the document.

The thesaurus gives a more extensive list of alternative words and phrases. To use
the thesaurus:

1) Select a word or phrase, and then choose Tools > Language > Thesaurus, or
press Control+F7, or right-click and choose Thesaurus from the pop-up menu.

2) In the dialog box, click on a meaning to show alternative words and phrases
for that meaning of the word.

For example, when given the word house, the thesaurus offers several
meanings, including dwelling, legislature, sign of the zodiac, and others. If you
click on dwelling, you will see dwelling, home, domicile, abode, and other
alternatives, as shown in Figure 89.

Note

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

84 OpenOffice.org 3.3 Writer Guide

Figure 88: Synonyms on the context menu

Figure 89: The thesaurus offers alternatives to words

Hyphenating words

You have several choices regarding hyphenation: let Writer do it automatically (using
its hyphenation dictionaries), insert conditional hyphens manually where necessary,
or don’t hyphenate at all. Each choice has its pros and cons.

Automatic hyphenation

To turn automatic hyphenation of words on or off:

1) Press F11 to open the Styles and Formatting window. On the Paragraph Styles
page, right-click on Default and select Modify.

Chapter 3 Working with Text 85

Figure 90: Modifying a paragraph style

2) On the Paragraph Style dialog box, select the Text Flow tab.

3) Under Hyphenation, select or deselect the Automatically option.

4) Click OK to save.

Note

Turning on hyphenation for the Default paragraph style affects all other
paragraph styles that are based on Default. You can individually change
other styles so that hyphenation is not active; for example, you might
not want headings to be hyphenated. Any styles that are not based on
Default are not affected. For more on paragraph styles, see Chapter 6
(Introduction to Styles) and Chapter 7 (Working with Styles).

You can also set hyphenation choices through Tools > Options > Language
Settings > Writing Aids. In Options, near the bottom of the dialog box, scroll down
to find the hyphenation settings.

86 OpenOffice.org 3.3 Writer Guide

Figure 91: Turning on automatic hyphenation

Figure 92: Setting hyphenation options

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

Hyphenate without inquiry

Specifies that you will never be asked to manually hyphenate words that the
hyphenation dictionary does not recognize. If this box is not selected, when a
word is not recognized, a dialog box will open where you can manually enter
hyphens.

Hyphenate special regions

Specifies that hyphenation will also be carried out in footnotes, headers, and
footers.

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

Choices on the Writing Aids dialog box for Characters before line break and

Characters after line break override settings in paragraph styles for Characters at
line end and Characters at line begin.

Manual hyphenation

To manually hyphenate words, do not use a normal hyphen, which will remain visible
even if the word is no longer at the end of a line when you add or delete text or
change margins or font size. Instead, use a conditional hyphen, which is visible only
when required.

To insert a conditional hyphen inside a word, click where you want the hyphen to
appear and press Control+hyphen. The word will be hyphenated at this position
when it is at the end of the line, even if automatic hyphenation for this paragraph is
switched off.

Using AutoCorrect

Writer’s AutoCorrect function has a long list of common misspellings and typing
errors, which it corrects automatically. For example, “hte” will be changed to “the”.

Select Tools > AutoCorrect Options to open the AutoCorrect dialog box. There you
can define what strings of text are corrected and how. In most cases, the defaults are
fine.

AutoCorrect is turned on when Writer is installed. To turn it off, uncheck Format >
AutoCorrect > While Typing.

To stop Writer replacing a specific spelling, go to the Replace tab, highlight the word
pair, and click Delete.

To add a new spelling to the list, type it into the Replace and With boxes on the
Replace tab, and click New.

See the different pages of the dialog box for the wide variety of other options
available to fine-tune AutoCorrect.

Tip

AutoCorrect can be used as a quick way to insert special characters.
For example, (c) will be autocorrected to ©. You can add your own
special characters.

Chapter 3 Working with Text 87

Figure 93: Replace tab of AutoCorrect dialog box

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.

To turn off Word Completion, select Tools > AutoCorrect Options > Word
Completion and deselect Enable word completion.

You can customize word completion from the Word Completion page of the
AutoCorrect dialog.

• 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.

• Collect words when working on a document, and then either save them for

later use in other documents or select the option to remove them from the list
when closing the document.

• 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, Enter (Return), Space bar, and Tab.

Note

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

88 OpenOffice.org 3.3 Writer Guide

Figure 94: Customizing word completion

Using AutoText

Use AutoText to store text, tables, fields, and other items for reuse and assign them
to a key combination for easy retrieval. For example, rather than typing “Senior
Management” every time you use that phrase, you can set up an AutoText entry to
insert those words when you type “sm” and press F3.

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

Creating AutoText

To store some text as AutoText:

1) Type the text into your document.

2) Select the text.

3) Go to Edit > AutoText (or press Control+F3).

4) In the AutoText dialog box, type a name for the AutoText in the Name box.
Writer will suggest a one-letter shortcut, which you can change.

5) In the large box to the left, choose the category for the AutoText entry, for
example My AutoText.

6) Click the AutoText button on the right of the dialog box and select New (text
only) from the menu (to have the AutoText take on the formatting where it is
inserted into a document) or select New (to have the AutoText retain specific
formatting no matter where it is inserted).

7) Click Close to return to your document.

Chapter 3 Working with Text 89

Figure 95: Defining a new AutoText entry

Tip

If the only option under the AutoText button is Import, either you
have not entered a name for your AutoText or there is no text selected
in the document.

To save a table (such as the formatted Tip on this page) as AutoText:

1) Create a table and format it the way you want.

2) Select the table.

3) Go to Edit > AutoText (or press Control+F3).

4) Type a name for the AutoText, optionally amend the suggested shortcut, and
choose the category for the AutoText entry.

5) Click the AutoText button and select New (because you want the formatting of
the table preserved).

6) Click Close to return to your document.

Inserting AutoText

To insert AutoText, type the shortcut and press F3.

Printing a list of AutoText entries

1) Choose Tools > Macros > Organize Macros > OpenOffice.org Basic.

2) In the Macro from list, choose OpenOffice.org Macros > Gimmicks.

3) Select AutoText and then click Run. A list of the current AutoText entries is
generated in a separate text document. You can then print this document.

90 OpenOffice.org 3.3 Writer Guide

Line numbering

Line numbering puts line numbers in the margin. The line numbers are displayed on
screen and are printed. Figure 96 shows an example with numbering on every line.

Click Tools > Line Numbering and select the Show numbering option in the top
left corner of the Line Numbering dialog box (Figure 97). Then click OK.

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

Chapter 3 Working with Text 91

Figure 96: Line numbering example

Figure 97: The Line Numbering dialog box

Tracking changes to a document

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tip

Not all changes are recorded. For example, changing a tab stop from
align left to align right and changes in formulas (equations) or linked
graphics are not recorded.

Preparing a document for review

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

1) Open the document. To check whether it contains multiple versions, click File
> Versions. If multiple versions are listed, save the current version as a

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separate document with a different name and use this new document as the
review copy.

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

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

Tip

A slightly faster alternative to steps 2 and 3 above is to choose File >
Document Properties > Security tab, click Protect, and enter the

password.

Recording changes

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

1) To begin tracking (recording) changes, click Edit > Changes > Record. To
show or hide the display of changes, click Edit > Changes > Show.

Tip

Hold the mouse pointer over a marked change; you will see a Help Tip
showing the type of change, the author, date, and time of day for the
change. If Extended Tips are enabled, you will also see any comments
recorded for this change.

2) To enter a comment on a marked change, place the cursor in the area of the
change and then click Edit > Changes > Comment. In addition to being
displayed as an extended tip, the comment is also displayed in the list in the
Accept or Reject Changes dialog box (Figure 99).

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

Tip

See also “Adding other comments” on page 96 for a way to annotate
text that is not associated with a recorded change.

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

Chapter 3 Working with Text 93

Figure 98: Inserting a comment during change recording

Accepting or rejecting changes

To accept or reject recorded changes, use either of these methods:

• Right-click (context) menu

• Accept or Reject Changes dialog box

The results of accepting or rejecting a change are as follows:

• Accepting an insertion removes the change indicator (usually a color) from the

inserted text.

• Rejecting an insertion removes the text from the document.

• Accepting a deletion removes the text from the document.

• Rejecting a deletion removes the change indicator and restores the text to the

document.

Right-click (context) menu

1) If recorded changes are not showing, click Edit > Changes > Show.

2) Hover the mouse pointer over a recorded change. A box appears with
information about the type of change, who made it, and the date and time.

3) Right-click on the changed text. In the pop-up (context) menu, choose Accept
Change or Reject Change.

Accept or Reject Changes dialog box

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

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

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

Changes that have not yet been accepted or rejected are displayed in the list.

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Figure 99: The List tab of the Accept or Reject Changes dialog box

To show only the changes of certain people or only the changes on specific days or
various other restrictions, use the Filter page on the Accept or Reject Changes dialog
box. After specifying the filter criteria, return to the List page to see those changes
that meet your criteria.

Merging modified documents

The processes discussed to this point are effective when you have one reviewer at a
time. Sometimes, however, multiple reviewers all return edited versions of a
document at the same time. In this case, it may be quicker to review all of these
changes at once, rather than one review at a time. For this purpose, you can merge
documents in Writer.

To merge documents, all of the edited documents need to have recorded changes in
them.

1) Open one copy.

2) Click Edit > Changes > Merge Document and select and insert another
copy of the document to be merged with the first.

3) After the documents merge, the Accept or Reject Changes dialog box opens
(Figure 99), showing changes by more than one reviewer. If you want to merge
more documents, close the dialog box and then repeat step 2.

4) Repeat until all copies are merged.

All recorded changes are now included in the open copy. Save this file under another
name.

Comparing documents

Sometimes reviewers may forget to record the changes they make. This is not a
problem with Writer because you can find the changes if you compare documents.

In order to compare documents, you need to have the original document and the one
that is edited. To compare them:

1) Open the edited document. Select Edit > Compare Document.

2) The Insert dialog box appears. Select the original document and click Insert.

Chapter 3 Working with Text 95

Figure 100: The Filter page of the Accept or Reject Changes dialog box

Writer finds and marks the changes and displays the Accept or Reject Changes dialog
box. From this point, you can go through and accept or reject changes procedure as
described earlier.

Adding other comments

Writer provides another type of comments (formerly called “notes”), which authors
and reviewers often use to exchange ideas, ask for suggestions, or brainstorm during
the review process.

To insert a comment in the text, place the cursor in the place the comment refers to
and select Insert > comment or press Ctrl+Alt+N. The anchor point of the
comment is connected by a dotted line to a box on the right-hand side of the page
where you can type the text of the comment. Writer automatically adds at the bottom
of the comment the author’s name and a time stamp indicating when the comment
was created. Figure 101 shows an example of text with comments from two different
authors.

Select Tools > Options > User Data to configure the name you want to appear in
the Author field of the comment, or to change it.

If more than one person edits the document, each author is automatically allocated a
different background color.

Right-clicking on a comment pops up a menu where you can delete the current
comment, all the comments from the same author, or all the comments in the
document. From this menu, you can also apply some basic formatting to the text of
the comment. You can also change font type, size, and alignment from the main
menu.

To navigate from one comment to another, open the Navigator (F5), expand the
Comments section, and click on the comment text to move the cursor to the anchor
point of the comment in the document. Right-click on the comment to quickly edit or
delete it.

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Figure 101: Comments in OOo 3

You can also navigate the comments using the keyboard. Use Ctrl+Alt+Page Down to
move to the next comment and Ctrl+Alt+Page Up to move to the previous comment.

Linking to another part of a document

If you type in references to other parts of the document, those references can easily
get out of date if you reorganize the order of topics, add or remove material, or
reword a heading, Writer provides two ways to ensure that your references are up to
date, by inserting links to other parts of the same document or to a different
document:

• Hyperlinks

• Cross-references

The two methods have the same result if you Control+click the link when the
document is open in Writer: you are taken directly to the cross-referenced item.
However, they also have major differences:

• The text in a hyperlink does not automatically update if you change the text of

the linked item (although you can change it manually), but changed text does
automatically update in a cross-reference.

• When using a hyperlink, you do not have a choice of the content of the link (for

example text or page number), but when using a cross-reference, you have
several choices, including bookmarks.

• To hyperlink to an object such as a graphic, and have the hyperlink show

useful text such as Figure 6, you need to either give such an object a useful
name instead of leaving it as the default name (“Graphics6”), or you need to
use the Hyperlink dialog to modify the visible text. In contrast, cross­references to figures with captions automatically show useful text, and you
have a choice of several variations of the name.

• If you save a Writer document to HTML, hyperlinks remain active but cross-

references do not. (Both remain active when the document is exported to PDF.)

Using cross-references

To ensure that references update if you reword a heading, caption, or other linked
item, use automatic cross-references. See “Using automatic cross-references” in
Chapter 14 (Working with Fields) for details.

Using bookmarks

Bookmarks are listed in the Navigator and can be accessed directly from there with a
single mouse click. In HTML documents, bookmarks are converted to anchors that
you can jump to by hyperlink. For more about bookmarks, see “Using bookmarks” in
Chapter 14 (Working with Fields).

Using hyperlinks

When you type text (such as website addresses or URL) that can be used as a
hyperlink, and then press the spacebar or the Enter key, Writer automatically creates
the hyperlink and applies formatting to the text (usually a color and underlining).

If this does not happen, you can enable this feature using Tools > AutoCorrect >
Options and selecting the URL Recognition option.

Chapter 3 Working with Text 97

If you do not want Writer to convert a specific URL to a hyperlink, choose Edit >
Undo Insert from the menu bar or press Control+Z immediately after the formatting

has been applied.

You can also insert hyperlinks using the Navigator and the Hyperlink dialog, and you
can modify all hyperlinks using the Hyperlink dialog, as described in this section.

Note

Hyperlinks between documents can be set as relative or absolute, using
the Save URLs relative to option in Tools > Options > Load/Save >
General.

Relative linking is only possible when the document you are working on
and the link destination are on the same drive, and you need to create
the same directory structure on your hard disk as will apply on the
destination website.

OOo uses absolute path names internally, so when you move your mouse
cursor over a hyperlink, the tooltip displays the absolute reference even
when it is set to be a relative link.

Inserting hyperlinks using the Navigator

The easiest way to insert a hyperlink to another part of the same document is by
using the Navigator:

1) Open the document containing the items you want to cross-reference.

2) Open the Navigator (by clicking its icon, choosing View > Navigator, or
pressing F5).

3) Click the arrow next to the Drag Mode icon, and select Insert as Hyperlink.

4) In the list at the bottom of the Navigator, select the document containing the
item that you want to cross-reference.

5) In the Navigator list, select the item that you want to insert as a hyperlink.

6) Drag the item to where you want to insert the hyperlink in the document. The
name of the item is inserted in the document as an active hyperlink.

You can also use the Hyperlink dialog to insert and modify hyperlinks within and
between documents (see next page).

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Figure 102: Inserting a hyperlink using the Navigator

Inserting hyperlinks using a dialog box

To display the Hyperlink dialog box, click the Hyperlink icon on the Standard
toolbar or choose Insert > Hyperlink from the menu bar. To turn existing text into a
link, highlight it before opening the dialog box.

On the left hand side, select one of the four types of hyperlink:

• Internet: a web address, normally starting with http://

• Mail & News: for example an email address.

• Document: the hyperlink points to another document or to another place in

the presentation.

• New document: the hyperlink creates a new document.

The top right part of the dialog box changes according to your choice for the
hyperlink type. A full description of all the choices, and their interactions, is beyond
the scope of this chapter. Here is a summary of the most common choices used in
presentations.

For an Internet type hyperlink, choose the type of hyperlink (choose between Web,
FTP or Telnet), and enter the required web address (URL).

For a Mail and News type hyperlink, specify whether it is a mail or news link, the
receiver address and for email, also the subject.

For a Document type hyperlink, specify the document path (the Open File button
opens a file browser); leave this blank if you want to link to a target in the same
presentation. Optionally specify the target in the document (for example a specific
slide). Click on the Target icon to open the Navigator where you can select the
target, or if you know the name of the target, you can type it into the box.

For a New Document type hyperlink, specify whether to edit the newly created
document immediately or just create it (Edit later) and the type of document to
create (text, spreadsheet, etc.). For a presentation, Edit now is the more likely
choice. The Select path button opens a directory picker.

Chapter 3 Working with Text 99

Figure 103. Hyperlink dialog box showing details for Internet links

The Further settings section in the bottom right part of the dialog box is common to
all the hyperlink types, although some choices are more relevant to some types of
links.

• Set the value of Frame to determine how the hyperlink will open. This applies

to documents that open in a Web browser.

• Form specifies if the link is to be presented as text or as a button.

• Text specifies the text that will be visible to the user.

• Name is applicable to HTML documents. It specifies text that will be added as

a NAME attribute in the HTML code behind the hyperlink.

• Event button: this button will be activated to allow OOo to react to events for

which the user has written some code (macro). This function is not covered in
this book.

Editing hyperlinks

To edit a hyperlink, click anywhere in the link text and then open the Hyperlink
dialog box by clicking the Hyperlink icon on the Standard toolbar or choosing Edit
> Hyperlink from the menu bar. Make your changes and click Apply. If you need to
edit several hyperlinks, you can leave the Hyperlink dialog box open until you have
edited all of them. Be sure to click Apply after each one. When you are finished, click
Close.

The standard (default) behavior for activating hyperlinks within OOo is to use

Ctrl+click. This behavior can be changed in Tools > Options > OpenOffice.org >
Security > Options, by deselecting the option Ctrl-click required to follow
hyperlinks. If clicking in your links activates them, check that page to see if the

option has been deselected.

To change the color of hyperlinks, go to Tools > Options > OpenOffice.org >
Appearance, scroll to Unvisited links and/or Visited links, select those options, pick
the new colors and click OK. Caution: this will change the color for all hyperlinks in
all components of OpenOffice.org—this may not be what you want.

In Writer and Calc (but not Draw or Impress), you can also change the Internet link
character style or define and apply new styles to selected links.

Switching between insert and overwrite mode

With the keyboard, press Insert to toggle between overwrite mode and insert mode.
In insert mode, any text after the cursor position moves forward to make room for the
text you type; in overwrite mode, text after the cursor position is replaced by the text
you type. The current mode is displayed on the Status Bar.

With the mouse, click in the area on the Status Bar that indicates the current mode in
order to switch to the other mode.

Counting the words in a selection

Select a block of text and choose Tools > Word Count. OOo displays the number of
words and characters in the selection as well as the number of words in the
document. You can also see the number of words and characters (and other
information) in the entire document in File > Properties > Statistics.

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