Writer

Prepared by Colin Charles

byte@aeon.com.my

http://www.bytebot.net/

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If you alter, transform, or build upon this work, you may distribute the resulting

work only under a license identical to this one.

Full legal license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/1.0/legalcode

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/1.0/

If you would like to use this for commercial purposes, please write to Colin Charles, at

byte@aeon.com.my or at PO BOX 8188, Monash University LPO, Clayton, Victoria, 3168, Australia.

Quick Start

File -> New -> Text Document

Tools -> Options

configure Text Document & HTML Document options

measurement units, formatting aids, fonts, print options, tables, and more

Tools -> Configure

what's viewable on function/status bars

Creating & Inserting AutoText

Allows composition of whole texts via pre-defined shortcuts

Works via typing a shortcut, then hitting the F3 key (eg. “yt”+F3)

Edit and add new AutoText entries by:

Edit -> AutoText

Control + F3

Counts

Word Counts: File -> Properties

Refer to the Statistics tab. Keeps information on page, character, line counts and more

Tools -> Line Numbering

Adds visible line numbers to each and every line or at line intervals

Search & Replace

Edit -> Find & Replace (Ctrl+F)

Basic

search

& replace

Character

formatting

Within search text,

you can also be

specific via attribute

of the item you're

looking for

When searching for styles,

notice the Search/Replace field

changes accordingly

Character Formatting

Format -> Character

Font position

relative to the

line (shows

the current

font in use)

Preferred language

used

Change lots of other

character properties

Paragraph Formatting

Format -> Paragraph

Indents & Spacing (of lines)

Text Alignment

Text Flow

Numbering

Tabs

Borders & Background

Will update and display a

preview automatically

Page Formatting

Format -> Page (changes Page Styles)

Page – change the paper format (default is Letter); specify page orientation properties

Dividing the page into columns

Similar to Format -> Columns

Backgrounds, page borders and footnote styles are set here

Creation of headers & footers

Headers (and Footers)

Toggle to

turn on/off

Borders

& background

Changes margin

& spacing

Note: Header

settings are the

same as settings

for the Footer

Styles

Hit F11 to get the Stylist

Each style controls every aspect of its flow

Provides instant formatting, automation, consistency, and provides for table of contents generation

Welcome to the Stylist!

Templates

Used for documents with a repetitive nature to them (which includes formatting, graphics, etc...)

File -> Templates -> Save – saves the current document as a template

Default templates can be set, and organized (File ->Templates -> Organize)

Hyperlinking

Insert -> Hyperlink

Works for

documents

on the WWW

Link to a

local file

on disk

Enter link

name here

Path to the document to link

Drawing in Writer

Click the Draw Functions icon

A pop-up appears:

Moving the mouse above any of the above will present its tool tip

Draw Functions

Inserting Graphics

Insert -> Graphics

From File

Imports all the “usual” graphics formats

Enable previews by ticking Preview option

Scan

Can be a front-end to scanners

Request an image from the scanner, and as long as the scanner is detected, it will scan

Cropping & Resizing

Double-click the picture

Boundaries

for cropping

Selected area

to crop

Actual cropped

image

Tables

Quick Tables: Using the Insert Main Toolbar

Insert -> Table (Control+F12)

Provides more control initially

Insert – at the

Main Toolbar

Table can be

inserted rather

quickly just

by selecting its

boundaries.

Spreadsheets

Insert -> Object -> OLE Object

Create a new; use existing

Allows conversion of a spreadsheet to a Writer table

Getting Math Sorted

Can insert & build formulas

Using MathML

Formula

Editor

The Navigator

Good for books and longer documents

Hit F5 or Edit -> Navigator

Notice the highlighted object? The equation within the document is one of the OLE Objects picked up by the Navigator.

Master Documents

Basically any Writer file

Made up of several files collated together

File -> New -> Master Document

Insert new items

into t he document

More than one

document listed

here now

Change position within

the Master Document

Bookmarks

For larger documents...

e-book reading

Insert -> Bookmark

Jump to a

bookmark using

the Navigator

Insert new bookmark

Go to the bookmark created

Table of Contents

Insert -> Index and Tables -> Indexes and Tables

Bibliographies

Tools -> Bibliography Database

Insert -> Record (create a new entry)

Enter to the next blank record and entry is saved

Insert -> Indexes and Tables -> Bibliographic Entry

Mail Merge

For newsletters, mailing address, etc...

Set up the data

Create the document to print and bring the data into it

Print, then possibly mail it

File -> AutoPilot -> Letter

Revision Control

Save “snapshots” during creation

File -> Version

Click to

save a

new version

Insert comments with regards

to why this version was saved,

what the changes were, and so

on.

Revision Control and others

Edit -> Changes -> Protect Records

Enter a password

Insert -> Note

Scroll between

available notes

Double-click

here to

view/edit

the note

Printing

Not much different from any other package

Interesting options are

Allowing Notes to be printed

Pages option for duplex/single printing

Printer must be fully configured and spadmin has to recognise it

Thank You!

Colin Charles

byte@aeon.com.my

http://www.bytebot.net/

Screenshot © Erwin Tenhumberg, erwin.tenhumberg@Sun.COM

You are free:

to copy, distribute, display, and perform the work

to make derivative works

And...

For any reuse or distribution, you must make clear to others the license terms of this work.

Any of these conditions can be waived if you get permission from the author.

Writer can be started from most menu-based systems (GNOME/KDE have icons for it).

A regular word processor starts up, and it is similar to most other existing packages out there.

Exercise

Change the default measurement unit from inches to centimeters.

File-format Compatibility

Proper interoperability achieved with Rich Text Format (.RTF)

WordPerfect & Lotus WordPro files are incompatible

KWriter files can be opened, if they were saved in their new OASIS XML format

Microsoft Word XP files will import with quite a high success rate

AppleWorks will work with the XML that Writer can save as

Test the AutoText: type “dt” and then hit the F3 key (dt F3) and see it display some text.

Typing “yt” then hitting the F3 key gives the “Yours truly” line, with an appropriate name if OpenOffice.org has been set up correctly.

Exercise: Create some AutoText

Type something into Writer, then select it

Edit -> AutoText

Give it (the newly highlighted AutoText) an appropriate name; at this stage you can use the default shortcut given, or give it your own shortcut.

Click the AutoText tab and select “New”

Now the AutoText is created properly and in the document, you can use it by typing <shortcut_name>+F3.

Now, for some fun: Using the AutoText feature that you've just learnt about, type StarWriterTeam and see the output! That's an Easter Egg :)

Word counts are limited in the sense that they can't actually be counts made for selections of text – something many writers find very useful. To solve this, a macro has been written (as referenced from the OpenOffice.org Unofficial FAQ: file:///home/byte/WWW/openoffice/faq.html#Writer1). Visit http://www.darwinwars.com/lunatic/bugs/oo_macros.html#bwc to enable such a feature.

Exercise: Line Numbering

Get a fairly lengthy document (go surf the Internet, copy and paste some text into your document). Fulfill the requirement where you use uppercase Roman numerals, positioned at the right of the text at every 3 lines.

Realize that counting blank lines (or not) is also an option

The Find & Replace feature in OpenOffice.org is rather advanced, allowing searching in styles, changing font attributes, as well as supporting regular expressions.

Using the “Whole words only” option, searching will make sure the whole word itself matches.

For an understanding of regular expressions, there are a few examples like ? or $ that are used. Doing “man 7 regex” will give a lot of examples that you can use (works on Linux or Mac OS X systems; Windows systems can make use of Google help).

A Similarity Search can add, change or remove sets of characters. It can even combine them.

Styles can be searched for and replaced with another style – for example, searching for Text Body, you can replace it with Text Body Indent. This saves precious time!

Font Effects – allows changing from/to capitals, and so on. Can emboss text, outline or even make text blink.

Position – Superscripting or subscripting text happens here. It controls relatively where on the line the character sits. Characters can be scaled or even rotated.

Hyperlink – documents that are linked to other documents.

Background colors of each character can be changed.

Indents & Spacing – spacing above/below paragraph can be controlled here. Some users of word-processors tend to be used to spacings, except when at break. This is turned on by default – and is enabled in Tools -> Options -> Text Document -> General.

Text Flow controls breaks, as well as options to split paragraphs. Hyphenation of text can be done automatically.

Note that Format -> Page changes the settings for the default page format.

Headers are turned on by default – accessing them usually comes from Insert -> Header.

Clicking the More button allows you to change the background color or even include a graphic.

Using Dynamic spacing allows it to override the spacing settings (so the header expands to size).

In Word, this is known as Page Styles – however, OpenOffice.org really does provide more control over it, making it more FrameMaker like.

Format -> Styles -> Catalog – shows the styles catalog and allows changes to be made here too.

Conditional paragraph formatting can be created through drag & drop – that means you can configure a certain look and feel, highlight the selected text, and drop it into the Stylist window.

Control for many types of styles – Character, numbering & bullet styles, including page and frame styles.

OOo doesn't come with templates in a default install, but more templates are available online for download and use. Currently, the only known templates are two for Impress presentations.

Exercise: Create a template

Don't you always create similar documents on a regular basis? Maybe its a standard letter with the company letterhead? Maybe its a standard letter for your child's school with regards to leave of absence. We always have repetitive document creation.

The task at hand is to create a memo or a fax template that you use often, and the only thing that changes would be t he name and the address field from letter to letter. Use all your knowledge about template creation, and organization.

This is important, as it will be used for a subsequent exercise.

When a hyperlink is clicked, the document that it is linked to (or the URL of a site), will actually load up in a new window. What this means is that if you click a Calc file, it will open Calc up. Think about how useful this is during presentations – right in the middle of a presentation, loading up a spreadsheet is fine!

Websites tend to open up in a new Web window (which is basically Writer).

Drawing a Line, Rectangle, Ellipse, Polygon, Curve, Freeform Line, Arc, Ellipse Pie, and Circle Segments exist. Inserting Text, animating text, as well as having call-out's (comic-styled) can be performed here.

Exercise: Text Control

Not quite “drawing”, but notice that advertisements placed at community centers tend to have those vertically aligned tear out phone numbers?

By visiting Format -> Character -> Position -> Rotation/Scaling this can be achieved.

Scanning in Microsoft Windows platforms will work as long as the TWAIN drivers are installed. Under GNU/Linux, the SANE drivers need to be working – installing a scanner is definitely out of the scope of this course however.

Scaling the image can also be performed at this screen.

Changing the image size (displayed) is also done here.

While the cropping is rather “primitive”, such a feature does exist – for more control, usage of a graphical manipulation tool like The GIMP (http://www.gimp.org/) would be more helpful.

Table Insertion for Beginners.

AutoFormat is the option used to give your table a pre-formatted form. Adding colors, changing the style the headers would behave in, and many other options are available.

To Format a table, right-click in a cell, then click Table. Or while in the table Format -> Table.

Many options, including that for text flow, column properties, borders and text alignment within a table are set here.

Give the table a name

How many columns and

rows are required?

First row is set to be the “header” row

If table goes across pages, repeat the row

Borders are visible lines separating rows and

columns, and they show the overall table as it is

The Selection dialog allows the insertion of various mathematical symbols.

In the Formula Editor, typing in the Math Markup Language (MathML) is fully allowed. To read up more about MathML, visit the W3C Math Home at http://www.w3.org/Math/.

In a Master Document, creating bookmarks are mighty handy.

This feature works well, as long as Styles are used throughout the document.

It should be noted that exporting to Microsoft Word documents might make the formatting run on occasion.

The Evaluate up to level tells OOo what level styles should be evaluated till.

The Styles tab contains the Levels that are recognized – this can be changed very easily, by moving over from the Paragraph Styles section to the Levels section, when it comes to the Assignment.

Enabling a Preview doesn't show the preview relevant to the current document – its just a general preview.

Read more about the Bibliographic Project at http://bibliographic.openoffice.org/

Keep in mind, there needs to be a “database” for the mail merge to work – you are welcome to extend upon the Bibliography database (which is already pre-installed with OOo), and get more addresses. Creation of databases happens much later into this training course.

To create Envelope labels, Insert -> Envelope is the way. Portrait is the default setting (and you probably don't want to change it), and your printer itself must be set to print envelopes.

File -> New -> Business Cards – design your own (simple) business cards from within OOo.

File -> New -> Labels – great for label printing (has many of the default label brands already available).

Exercise: Practice mail merging

If you've done mail merges before, the method is similar. Just use the bibliography database, and pull some entries out. Integrate this with the template you made earlier, for example.

To start saving versions, the base case of the file has to be saved first. The File -> Version option will be disabled if the document itself has not been saved.

Opening up read-only versions of snapshots is one of the features here.

Comparison – Edit -> Changes -> Show will allow you to compare between two versions.

Tools -> Options -> Text Document -> Changes will allow you to configure how change management ought to work for your usage (the defaults are fine).

You can revert to a prior version! Just select the version, click on Compare, in the Accept or Reject Changes window that pop's up, select Reject All.

When communicating with others, turning on the Protect Changes feature is real handy. When changes do get made, you can check them (by doing exactly the same thing you did to protect them).

To view a Note, double click the little yellow box that is next to a Note. This also allows you to edit a Note.

Remember that Help -> Tips needs to be turned on as well if you would like the on-mouse-over roll pop-up, i.e. when you move your mouse over the yellow box, a pop-up appears.

Sometimes it's not called spadmin, rather than oopadmin – this is dependent on the distribution you've installed OpenOffice.org from.

Colin Charles

2003-11-11T14:06:23

Colin Charles