Abstract
This section will give you a brief introduction to OpenOffice.org Writer's word processing functions. There are lots of options out there for WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) word processors (KWord, StarOffice's Writer, AbiWord, to name just a few). However this section concentrates on OpenOffice.org Writer.
In order to make the text a little easier to read, we will alternate between the popular OOo acronym and the very long, yet full and correct OpenOffice.org name.
One of the tasks most performed with a computer nowadays is some form of word processing. Word processors are the replacement for your old typewriter machine. This software allows you to write text using many fonts, paragraph alignments, tables, images, lists, etc.
Even though word processors also offer some desktop publishing features, they are very limited ones: limited precision in measurements, limited text flow around images and tables, etc.
OpenOffice.org Writer is the part of the OpenOffice.org suite that provides the word processing functions. OpenOffice.org Writer “understands” popular Office formats, easing the transition from, and ensuring compatibility with, other Office suites.
To launch OpenOffice.org Writer, select -> -> from the main menu.
You can also open it from any other OOo application screen, selecting -> -> , which will open an OOo Writer window with a blank document on it.
The first time you launch OOo, a dialog will propose that you register your software. By filling out a short questionnaire, you will help OpenOffice.org developers know their users better and to get feedback to enhance OpenOffice.org. You are encouraged to fill the poll if you have a working Internet connection but you can skip this step without any consequence on your use of OpenOffice.org.
This is the standard format bar for all OpenOffice.org applications used and is used to change fonts, colors, alignment, etc. of the application's data.
Rulers define the “horizontal” location of the text and format elements. They are extremely useful when you want to establish tabulations and paragraphs indentation.
Where you enter the content of your document: words, numbers, images, tables, hyperlinks, etc.
All characters typed on your keyboard, will be placed at the left of this point. Also called the “cursor”.
Clicking on any of the styles shown on the list will change the current selected text's style or the whole page style if no text is currently selected.
Page size, margins, text-orientation, etc. all define the style. Page style can be changed by choosing -> from the menu. You can use one of the pre-defined styles or define your own.
The current zoom level at which the page is being displayed, 100% by default. You can reduce it to, say 50% to have a “quick glance” at the page's layout. However the page preview feature (more on that later) is the preferred way to do this.
When this shows OVER, the characters you type will overwrite the existing ones (if any) at the Insert Point. When this shows INSRT (the default mode), existing text at the Insert Point will not be overwritten but characters you type will be “inserted”.
Word processor users often waste a lot of time formatting (changing paragraph alignment; font family, weight and size; etc.) their documents instead of using that time to concentrate on document structure and document content writing.
Styles provide some kind of structure-centric-view approach to writing documents with a word processor, while “normalizing” document formatting and layout and easily “automating” Table Of Contents (TOC) generation and maintenance. Under OpenOffice.org Writer, styles are handled using the Stylist.
Clicking on this icon in the tool bar will open the
Stylist. It can also be opened by
choosing -> from the Menu
Bar, or by pressing the F11 key.
If the Stylist is already open, then carrying out any of the above mentioned actions will close it.
Table 11.1. Suggested Styles
Use the styles listed in Table 11.1 as a guide. Select the region of the document to apply the style to, and, in the Stylist window, double-click on the style you want to apply to that region.
You can always adjust margins by hand with the ruler, but if you want to format a long document, this might not be the best solution. This is where the Stylist comes in handy.
By clicking on this icon in the
Stylist, you will access the page
formatting section of the
Stylist. First, make a copy of the
Default style:
Then, right-click on your newly created style item and choose Modify... from the pop-up menu. The Page Styles: Default Copy window will appear. Open the Page tab and modify the margins to your liking.
While looking at the Page Styles: Default Copy window, you probably noticed that you could modify many formatting elements such as the Background, Header, Footer, etc. For example, if 90% of your work with a word processor consists of writing business letters with a predefined format, you could set it up right now, thereby saving lots of time.
Sometimes paragraphs have lists of elements, for example to enumerate the properties of an object (“unordered” or “bullet” list), or the steps to perform in order to accomplish some task (“ordered” or “numbered” list).
Clicking on this button will
“transform” the selected text into an unordered
list. Selecting the list items and choosing
-> from
the menu will let you change the type of the bullets from a
predefined set, feel free to explore all the dialog's
options.
Clicking on this button will
“transform” the selected text into an ordered
list. The same rules as for unordered lists apply regarding to
the numbering format.
Choosing -> in the menu will open the dialog shown in Figure 11.2 allowing you to accommodate the text in the page in more than one column (the default)
The options in the dialog explain themselves. Make your selections and click on the
button to apply the column settings.In order to make your document look professional, you can create tables of contents, or TOC, and index parts of your document. OpenOffice.org lets you do this very easily.
The image in Figure 11.3 shows how the TOC for an example document looks like.
Even if TOC items can be manually inserted and maintained, it is highly recommended that you use styles to make the TOC more consistent and easier to maintain.
Let's say you want to insert a TOC at the beginning of your document and you have followed the styles suggested in Table 11.1. So, make the 1st page an empty one by going to the very top of your document and pressing the Ctrl-Enter keys.
Then, choosing + -> from the menu will bring up the table/index options dialog. Make sure the Type field is set to Table of Contents and the Protected against manual changes check-box is checked. Fill the title and the rest of the options, and once you are satisfied with your settings, click on the button to insert the TOC.
If you continue to add content to your document (whether “structural” or “essential”) you must update the table of contents for the additions and/or modifications to be taken into account. To do so, click on any part of the TOC to put the cursor “inside” of it, then right click on it and choose Update Index/Table from the menu that pops up.
By default page headers and footers are common to all pages of a document. Use them to describe certain aspects about the document's content, for example: page number, total number of pages, chapter, section, document's title, etc.
Choosing -> -> from the menu will add a page header to your document, and choosing -> -> will add a page footer to your document. Just type the header/footer text you want to be shown or use one or more of the -> menu items to compose the header/footer.
If you wish to learn more on the use of OpenOffice.org Writer, you should consult the tutorial available at OpenOffice Support Web site.
Also do not hesitate to refer to the OpenOffice.org Writer inline help accessible through the -> menu. You will find here answer to all your questions. Topics are accessible through a table of contents, there is an index available and even a contextual search tool.
Word processing could be considered as one of the most performed actions with a personal computer. As you have read above, OpenOffice.org Writer is a tool which not only gives you everything you need for creating simple and complex documents, but also is compatible with existing Office file formats. Enjoy creating your documents with OpenOffice.org Writer!