OpenOffice Writer
OpenOffice Writer is the wordprocessing application of
the office suite OpenOffice. It
includes many, if not all, of the same functions as Microsoft Word or
Corel WordPerfect and extends them with free functionality that you
would normally pay to use. Here are the basics of how to use
OpenOffice Writer.
The Writer Toolbar
The standard Writer toolbars are shown below. From it, you can access
many of OpenOffice's basic functions.
In the following, you can learn more about each of the icons on each
of the two toolbars shown.
The Standard OpenOffice toolbar is the top row of icons in the above image. The icons shown are, in order:
- New: Create a new document. Clicking on the arrow to the right of the icon will open a drop-down menu that allows you to choose the kind of new document you want to create.
- Open: Open a previously saved document. This will open a dialogue box showing your local file system. If you want to open a file on removable media like a USB drive or a CD-ROM or open files from a networked location, you will need to navigate to that place in the dialogue presented by OpenOffice Writer.
- Save: Save the document you are currently working on. This does not save all open files. You must save each one separately. However, trying to close a document with unsaved changes will cause OpenOffice to prompt you to save it.
- Document as E-mail: Send the current document using the default email client for your system. For email systems, see "Email Solutions". Note that OpenOffice does not interface with any web-based email systems.
- Edit File: Edit the current file if it is original read-only.
- Export Directly as PDF: Print the document to file using the OpenOffice PDF maker.
- Print File Directly: Print the file to a printer or other printer-like service.
- Page Preview: Preview the document.
- Spelling and Grammar: Check spelling and grammar using the configured dictionary and grammar. These can be changed in the OpenOffice options.
- AutoSpellcheck: Underscore spelling errors with red squiggles as you type.
- Cut: Cut the highlighted text from the document.
- Copy: Copy the highlighted text from the document.
- Paste: Paste the text that you previously cut or copied.
- Format Paintbrush: Change the color and other aspects of the paintbrush.
- Undo: Undo the last action.
- Restore: Redo an action you just undid.
- Hyperlink: Hyperlink highlighted text.
- Table: Insert a table. Clicking this icon will open a dialogue in which you choose the number of rows and columns you want in a table.
- Show Draw Functions: Show the functions of OpenOffice's built-in drawing program.
- Find and Replace: Open a search and replace dialogue.
- Navigator: Open OpenOffice's document Navigator.
- Gallery: Open OpenOffice's image gallery of clipart and other graphics.
- Nonprinting Characters: Show the non-printing characters like carriage returns and end of line markers.
- Zoom: Choose the zoom level at which you want to view the document.
- OpenOffice.org Help: Open OpenOffice's built-in help documentation.
The second row of the toolbar image above is the Formatting toolbar. It contains icons and dialogues:
- Styles and Formatting: Open the style library of OpenOffice. This is a separate window from the one in which you type your document. If you click on a style different from the one highlighted, OpenOffice will apply that new style to all text you type from that point forward.
- Apply Style: This does the same thing as the Styles and Formatting button but does it through a dialogue on the toolbar instead of a separate window.
- Font Name: Choose the font you want to use. If you click on the arrow to the right of the dialogue, a drop-down menu will give you previews of each font.
- Font Size: Choose the size of the font you would like to use.
- Bold: Start to use boldface text. If text is highlighted and you click this button, the text will be set in bold. If you are writing in bold or highlight bold text and then click this button, the bold typeface will be switched off. Typing Control-B does the same thing.
- Italic: Start to use italic text. If text is highlighted and you click this button, the text will be set in italics. If you are writing in italics or highlight italic text and then click this button, the italic typeface will be switched off. Typing Control-I does the same thing.
- Underline: Start to use underscored text. If text is highlighted and you click this button, the text will be underscored. If you are writing in underscored text or highlight underscored text and then click this button, the underscored typeface will be switched off. Typing Control-U does the same thing.
- Align Left: Left justify the text. If you highlight text and click this button, OpenOffice will left-justify it. Control-L does the same thing.
- Centered: Center the text. If you highlight text and click this button, OpenOffice will center it. Control-E does the same thing.
- Align Right: Right justify the text. If you highlight text and click this button, OpenOffice will right-justify it. Control-R does the same thing.
- Justified: Full-justify the text. If you highlight text and click this button, OpenOffice will full-justify it. Control-J does the same thing.
- Numbering On/Off: Start or stop an enumerated list. If clicked when text is highlighted, new line after a carriage return (as opposed to line wrap) will be treated as a new item and receive an incremented number.
- Bullets On/Off: Start or stop an unenumerated/bulleted list. If clicked when text is highlighted, new line after a carriage return (as opposed to line wrap) will be treated as a new item and receive a bullet.
- Decrease Indent: Shift the affected lines to the left by the space of the relevant indentation. Usually this is about 5 space. If text is highlighted, it will shift the entire block(s). If no text is highlighted, the affected text is the block in which the text cursor is located. This is determined first by carriage return/new lines (e.g., paragraph) and then by full style block (e.g., heading).
- Increase Indent: Shift the affected lines to the right by the space of the relevant indentation. Usually this is about 5 space. If text is highlighted, it will shift the entire block(s). If no text is highlighted, the affected text is the block in which the text cursor is located. This is determined first by carriage return/new lines (e.g., paragraph) and then by full style block (e.g., heading).
- Font Color: Choose the color you would like to use for the font.
- Highlighting: This is different from text highlighted using the cursor or with the shift-and-arrow method. Highlighting text with one of those methods and then clicking on the highlight pen will cause the text to be shown against a bright yellow background. This is helpful for drawing your readers' attention to it.
Other toolbars are available under View => Toolbars, but these are the
two standard toolbars that you will see when you open OpenOffice
Writer the first time. Read more about the
many office suites available for
Ubuntu.
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