Copyright

This document is Copyright © 2021 by the LibreOffice Documentation Team. Contributors are listed below. You may distribute it and/or modify it under the terms of either the GNU General Public License (https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html), version 3 or later, or the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), version 4.0 or later.

All trademarks within this guide belong to their legitimate owners.

Contributors

To this edition

Jean Hollis Weber	Kees Kriek

To previous editions

Jean Hollis Weber	Toni Blackwelder	Kees Kriek
Rafael Lima	Randolph Gamo	Jenna Sargent
Dante Legaspi	Felipe Viggiano	Pulkit Krishna
Colleen Hayes	John A Smith	Peter Schofield
Bruce Byfield	Gillian Polack	Cathy Crumbley
Hazel Russman	Leo Moons	David Blymire
Jeremy Cartwright	John M. Długosz	Barbara Duprey
Jamie Eby	Ron Faile Jr.	Gary Schnabl
Klaus-Jürgen Weghorn	Rafael Atias	Shravani Bellapukonda

Feedback

Please direct any comments or suggestions about this document to the Documentation Team’s mailing list: documentation@global.libreoffice.org

Note

Everything you send to a mailing list, including your email address and any other personal information that is written in the message, is publicly archived and cannot be deleted.

Publication date and software version

Published August 2021. Based on LibreOffice 7.2 Community.
Other versions of LibreOffice may differ in appearance and functionality.

Contents

Copyright	2

Preface	9

Who is this book for?	10

What’s in this book?	10

Minimum requirements for using LibreOffice	10

How to get LibreOffice	10

Installing LibreOffice	10

Setting up and customizing LibreOffice	10

Extensions and add-ons	11

Where to get more help	11

What you see may be different	13

Using LibreOffice on macOS	13

Frequently asked questions	14

What’s new in this user guide?	14

Chapter 1 Introducing Writer	16

Introduction – What is Writer?	17

Parts of the main Writer window	17

Context (right-click) menus	26

Dialogs	26

Document views	27

Creating a new document	27

Opening an existing document	29

Saving a document	30

Opening and saving files on remote servers	33

Moving quickly through a document	33

Undoing and redoing changes	37

Reloading a document	37

Closing a document	37

Chapter 2 Working with Text: Basics	38

Introduction	39

Selecting text	39

Cutting, copying, and pasting text	41

Finding and replacing text	41

Inserting special characters	43

Checking spelling and grammar	47

Using synonyms and the thesaurus	52

Hyphenating words	53

Using AutoCorrect	54

Using Word Completion	56

Using AutoText	57

Changing the case of selected text	59

Chapter 3 Working with Text: Advanced	60

Introduction	61

Using built-in language tools	61

Advanced find and replace techniques	64

Tracking changes to a document	67

Adding other comments	71

Using footnotes and endnotes	73

Linking to another part of a document	74

Rearranging headings and text using the Navigator	75

Inserting material from other documents	76

Line numbering	77

Chapter 4 Formatting Text	79

Introduction	80

Formatting paragraphs using styles	81

Formatting paragraphs directly	81

Formatting characters using styles	90

Formatting characters directly	90

Formatting lists using styles	95

Formatting lists directly	95

Autoformatting	98

Chapter 5 Formatting Pages: Basics	100

Introduction	101

Setting up basic page layout using styles	101

Changing page margins	102

Inserting page breaks	104

Creating headers and footers	105

Numbering pages	108

Defining a different first page for a document	113

Formatting footnotes and endnotes	116

Chapter 6 Formatting Pages: Advanced	117

Introduction	118

Choosing a layout method	118

Using columns to define the page layout	119

Using frames for page layout	120

Using tables for page layout	125

Using sections for page layout	127

Changing page orientation within a document	134

Defining borders and backgrounds	139

Chapter 7 Printing, Exporting, Emailing, Signing	143

Quick printing	144

Controlling printing	144

Printing envelopes	149

Printing labels	151

Exporting to PDF	152

Exporting to EPUB format	158

Exporting to other formats	160

Emailing Writer documents	160

Digital signing of documents	161

Removing personal data	163

Redaction	164

Chapter 8 Introduction to Styles	166

What are styles?	167

The Styles deck in the Sidebar	167

Applying styles	168

Creating and modifying styles	179

Deleting styles	182

Example: creating and modifying paragraph styles	182

Using paragraph styles to define a hierarchy of headings	185

Chapter 9 Working with Styles	191

Introduction	192

Creating custom (new) styles	192

Working with paragraph styles	194

Working with character styles	205

Working with frame styles	205

Working with page styles	207

Working with list styles	209

Using the Style Inspector	212

Chapter 10 Working with Templates	214

Introduction	215

Creating a document from a template	215

Creating a template	217

Adding templates obtained from other sources	218

Editing a template	219

Changing the template assigned to a document	220

Setting a default template	221

Organizing templates	222

Other ways to manage templates	224

Chapter 11 Images and Graphics	226

Introduction	227

Creating and editing images	227

Adding images to a document	228

Positioning images within the text	232

Adding captions to images	237

Modifying images	240

Using Writer’s drawing tools	247

Creating an image map	250

Managing the LibreOffice Gallery	252

Using Fontwork	254

Generating a QR code	257

Chapter 12 Lists: Tips and Tricks	259

Introduction	260

Types of list	260

Combining list and paragraph styles	263

Outlining with paragraph styles	264

Applying list styles	265

Naming list styles	267

Formatting list styles	267

Chapter 13 Tables of Data	281

Introduction	282

Tools for working with tables	282

Creating a table	284

Formatting the table layout	288

Creating and applying table styles	297

Formatting the table text	298

Data entry and manipulation in tables	300

Additional table operations	303

Chapter 14 Mail Merge	306

What is mail merge?	307

Creating and registering an address data source	307

Creating a form letter	309

Printing mailing labels	313

Printing envelopes	316

Using the Mail Merge Wizard to create a form letter	317

Chapter 15 Tables of Contents, Indexes, Bibiographies	326

Introduction	327

Tables of contents	327

Alphabetic indexes	335

Other types of indexes	343

Bibliographies	345

Chapter 16 Master Documents	356

Why use a master document?	357

Using the master document Navigator	357

Styles in master documents and subdocuments	358

Creating a master document: scenarios	358

Starting with no existing documents	359

Combining several documents into a master document	364

Splitting a document into master and subdocuments	365

Restarting page numbering	366

Editing a master document	368

Cross-referencing between subdocuments	369

Creating a master document template	372

Creating one file from a master document and its subdocuments	373

Anchoring images	373

Chapter 17 Fields	375

Introduction	376

Quick and easy field entry	376

Using document properties to hold metadata and information that changes	376

Using other fields to hold information that changes	378

Using AutoText to insert often-used fields	379

Defining your own numbering sequences	380

Using automatic cross-references	381

Using fields in headers and footers	384

Developing conditional content	385

Using placeholder fields	392

Using other fields	393

Classifying document contents	393

Chapter 18 Forms	394

Introduction	395

When to use forms	395

Creating a simple form	395

Form controls reference	397

Example: a simple form	401

Accessing data sources	407

Advanced form customization	410

Chapter 19 Spreadsheets, Charts, Other Objects	413

Introduction: OLE and DDE objects	414

Spreadsheets	416

Charts and graphs	421

Audio and video	426

Formulas (equations)	427

Chapter 20 Customizing Writer	428

Introduction	429

Choosing options for all of LibreOffice	429

Choosing options for loading and saving documents	432

Choosing Writer-specific options	434

Choosing language settings	443

Selecting the user interface	446

Customizing menus	447

Customizing toolbars	449

Customizing the Tabbed user interface	451

Assigning shortcut keys	452

Assigning macros to events	454

Adding functionality with extensions	454

Adding fonts	455

Adding custom colors	456

Using experimental features	457

Chapter 21 User Interface Variants	458

Introduction	459

Selecting the user interface	459

Standard interfaces	459

Tabbed interface	460

Tabbed Compact interface	472

Groupedbar Compact interface	472

Contextual Single interface	473

Writer Guide 7.2

Preface

Who is this book for?

LibreOffice is a feature-rich, free, and open source office suite. It includes several powerful applications for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics, databases, and formula editing. Writer is the word-processing application. It is compatible with a wide range of document formats including Microsoft Word (.doc, .docx), and you can export your work in several formats including PDF.

Anyone who wants to get up to speed quickly with Writer will find this book valuable. You may be new to word processing software, or you may be familiar with another office suite.

What’s in this book?

This book introduces the main features of Writer, the word processor component of LibreOffice, and provides instructions for their use.

Minimum requirements for using LibreOffice

For a detailed list of requirements and operating systems supported, see the LibreOffice website, https://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/system-requirements/.

How to get LibreOffice

Versions of LibreOffice Community for Windows, Linux, and macOS are freely available and can be downloaded from https://www.libreoffice.org/download. Linux users will also find a version of LibreOffice included by default in the majority of Linux distributions. Portable and other versions of LibreOffice are listed on the download page. Linux, Enterprise, Online, and other versions may differ in appearance and functionality from the descriptions in this book.

Installing LibreOffice

Information on installing and setting up LibreOffice on the various supported operating systems is given here: https://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/install-howto/.

Setting up and customizing LibreOffice

You can change the default settings (options) in LibreOffice to suit your preferences. To change settings, go to Tools > Options on the Menu bar (LibreOffice > Preferences on macOS). Settings are described in the Help and in Chapter 2, Setting up LibreOffice, in the Getting Started Guide. Some settings of particular interest to users of Writer are covered in Chapter 20, Setting up Writer, in this book.

Tip

Many settings are intended for power users and programmers. If you do not understand what an option does, we recommend leaving it on the default setting unless instructions in this book recommend changing the setting.

You can customize menus, toolbars, and keyboard shortcuts in LibreOffice, add new menus and toolbars, and assign macros to events. See Chapter 20, Customizing Writer, for details.

Extensions and add-ons

You can add functionality to LibreOffice with extensions and add-ons. Several extensions are installed with the program and you can get others from the official extensions repository, https://extensions.libreoffice.org/ and from other sources. See Chapter 20, Customizing Writer, for more information on installing extensions and add-ons.

Where to get more help

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

Help system

LibreOffice comes with an extensive online Help system. This is your first line of support. Windows and Linux users can choose to download and install the offline Help for use when not connected to the Internet; the offline Help is installed with the program on macOS.

To display the Help system, press F1 or select Help > LibreOffice Help on the Menu bar. If you do not have the offline help installed on your computer and you are connected to the Internet, your default browser will open the online Help pages on the LibreOffice website.

The Help menu includes links to other LibreOffice information and support resources. Notice that options marked with a ‡ sign are only accessible if your computer is connected to the Internet.

What's This? For quick tips when a toolbar is visible, place the mouse pointer over any of the icons to see a small box (“tooltip”) with a brief explanation of the icon’s function. For a more detailed explanation, select Help > What's This? and hold the pointer over the icon. In addition, you can choose whether to activate Extended Tips using Tools > Options > LibreOffice > General.

User Guides ‡ Opens your default browser at the Documentation page of the LibreOffice website https://documentation.libreoffice.org/en/. There you will find user guides (to download as free PDFs or buy as printed copies) and other useful information.

Show Tip of the Day Opens a small window with a random tip on how to use LibreOffice.

Search Commands Opens a window where you can type a few letters or the name of a Menu bar command, to quickly find where the command is located. Clicking on a command in the resulting list may open a relevant dialog or have other effects.

Get Help Online ‡ Opens your default browser at the Ask LibreOffice forum of questions and answers from the LibreOffice community https://ask.libreoffice.org/en/questions/.

Send Feedback ‡ Opens your default browser at the Feedback page of the LibreOffice website https://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/feedback/. From there you can report bugs, suggest new features and communicate with others in the LibreOffice community.

Restart in Safe Mode Opens a dialog where you can restart LibreOffice and reset the software to its default settings.

Get Involved ‡ Opens your default browser at the Get Involved page of the LibreOffice website, https://www.libreoffice.org/community/get-involved/. There you can choose a topic of interest to help improve the program.

Donate to LibreOffice ‡ Opens your default browser at the Donation page of the LibreOffice website https://donate.libreoffice.org/.

License Information Outlines the licenses under which LibreOffice is made available.

Check for Updates ‡ Opens a dialog and checks the LibreOffice website for updates to your version of the software.

About LibreOffice Opens a dialog and displays information about the version of LibreOffice and the operating system you are using. This information will often be requested if you ask the community for help or assistance with the software. (On macOS, this option is found under LibreOffice on the Menu bar.)

Other free online support

The LibreOffice community not only develops software, but provides free, volunteer-based support. See Table 1 and this web page: https://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/.

For comprehensive online support from the community, look at mailing lists and the Ask LibreOffice website, https://ask.libreoffice.org/en/questions/. Other websites run by users also offer free tips and tutorials.

Table 1: Free support for LibreOffice users

Free LibreOffice support
FAQs	Answers to frequently asked questions https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Faq
Mailing lists	Free community support is provided by a network of experienced users https://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/mailing-lists/
Questions & Answers and Knowledge Base	Free community assistance is provided in a question & answer format. Search similar topics or ask a new question in https://ask.libreoffice.org/en/questions The service is available in several other languages; just replace /en/ with de, es, fr, ja, ko, nl, pt, tr, and many others in the web address above.
Native language support	The LibreOffice website in various languages https://www.libreoffice.org/community/nlc/ Mailing lists for native languages https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Local_Mailing_Lists Information about social networking https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Website/Web_Sites_services
Accessibility options	Information about available accessibility options. https://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/accessibility/

Paid support and training

You can also pay for support through service contracts from a vendor or consulting firm specializing in LibreOffice. For information about certified professional support, see The Document Foundation’s website: https://www.documentfoundation.org/gethelp/support/.

For schools, educational and research institutions, and large organizations, see https://www.libreoffice.org/download/libreoffice-in-business/.

What you see may be different

Illustrations

LibreOffice runs on Windows, Linux, and macOS operating systems, each of which has several versions and can be customized by users (fonts, colors, themes, window managers). The illustrations in this guide were taken from a variety of computers and operating systems. Therefore, some illustrations will not look exactly like what you see on your computer display.

Also, some of the dialogs may be different because of the settings selected in LibreOffice. You can either use dialogs from your computer’s operating system or from LibreOffice. The differences affect mainly Open, Save, and Print dialogs. To change which dialogs are used, go to Tools > Options > LibreOffice > General and select or deselect the option Use LibreOffice dialogs.

Icons

The LibreOffice community has created icons for several icon sets: Breeze, Colibre, Elementary, Karasa Jaga, Sifr, and Sukapura; some are also available in a dark version. As a user, you can can select your preferred set. The icons in this guide have been taken from a variety of LibreOffice installations that use different sets of icons. The icons for some of the many tools available in LibreOffice may differ from the ones used in this guide.

To change the icon set used, go to Tools > Options > LibreOffice > View. In the Icon Style section, choose from the drop-down list.

Notes

Some Linux distributions include LibreOffice as part of the installation and may not include all the icon sets mentioned above. You should be able to download other icon sets from the software repository for your Linux distribution.

The Galaxy, Oxygen, and Tango icon sets are no longer included as part of the standard installation package for Windows, macOS, or Linux. You can download and install them as extensions from https://extensions.libreoffice.org/en/extensions/.

In addition, some of the previously included gallery sets are now available only as extensions; see https://extensions.libreoffice.org/?Tags%5B%5D=49 or search for specific ones. For example, the People Gallery is available from https://extensions.libreoffice.org/en/extensions/show/people-gallery

Using LibreOffice on macOS

Some keystrokes and menu items are different on macOS 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 or Linux	macOS equivalent	Effect
Tools > Options menu selection	LibreOffice > Preferences	Access setup options
Right-click	Control+click and/or right-click depending on computer setup	Opens a context menu
Ctrl (Control)	⌘ (Command)	Used with other keys
F11	⌘+T	Open the sidebar Styles deck

Frequently asked questions

How is LibreOffice licensed?

LibreOffice is distributed under the Open Source Initiative (OSI) approved Mozilla Public License (MPL). See https://www.libreoffice.org/about-us/licenses/

It is based on code from Apache OpenOffice made available under the Apache License 2.0 but also includes software that differs from version to version under a variety of other Open Source licenses. New code is available under LGPL 3.0 and MPL 2.0.

May I distribute LibreOffice to anyone? May I sell it? May I use it in my business?

Yes.

How many computers may I install it on?

As many as you like.

Why do I need Java to run LibreOffice? Is it written in Java?

LibreOffice is not written in Java; it is written in the C++ language. Java is one of several languages that can be used to extend the software. The Java JDK/JRE is only required for some features. The most notable one is the HSQLDB relational database engine.

Java is available at no cost. More information and download links to the appropriate edition for your operating system can be found at: https://java.com/en/download/manual.jsp

Note

If you want to use LibreOffice features that require Java, it is important that the correct 32-bit or 64-bit edition matches the installed version of LibreOffice. See the Advanced Options in Chapter 2 of this guide. If you do not want to use Java, you can still use nearly all of the LibreOffice features.

How can I contribute to LibreOffice?

You can help with the development and user support of LibreOffice in many ways, and you do not need to be a programmer. To start, check out this web page: https://www.libreoffice.org/community/get-involved/.

May I distribute the PDF of this book, or print and sell copies?

Yes, as long as you meet the requirements of one of the licenses in the copyright statement at the beginning of this book. You do not have to request special permission. We request that you share with the project some of the profits you make from sales of books, in consideration of all the work we have put into producing them. Visit https://www.libreoffice.org/donate/ for instructions on how to donate to LibreOffice.

What’s new in this user guide?

LibreOffice 7.2 Community includes many changes not visible in the user interface. These changes include improved interoperability with Microsoft’s proprietary file formats and performance improvements in handling large files, opening certain .docx and .xlsx files, managing font caching, and opening presentations and drawings that contain large images.

More information is in the announcement:
https://blog.documentfoundation.org/blog/2021/08/19/libreoffice-7-2-community/.
Release Notes are here: https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/ReleaseNotes/7.2.

This user guide has been updated from Writer Guide 7.1. It covers changes that are visible in the user interface, including:

Added a note about icon sets and Gallery sets in this Preface.

Added details about the Insert > Formatting Mark submenu (Chapter 2).

Updated list terminology and changed screenshots in Chapters 4, 8, 9, 11, and anywhere else lists are mentioned.

Added new gutter margins and choices for page background fills (Chapters 5, 6, and 9).

Updated details about some options on tabs of the PDF Options dialog (Chapter 7).

Added new, advanced features of the Style Inspector (Chapter 9)

Updated details about Templates dialog (Chapter 10).

Added “no registered database” error message in Mail Merge Wizard (Chapter 14).

Added information on classifying document contents (Chapter 17).

Added Basic Fonts options and custom dictionaries (Chapter 20).

New Chapter 21 on user interface variants.

Minor rewording, updates to terminology, and replacement figures in many chapters.

Writer Guide 7.2

Chapter 1
Introducing Writer

Introduction – What is Writer?

Writer is the word processor component of LibreOffice, a freely available, fully-featured office productivity suite. In addition to the usual features of a word processor (text entry, editing, and formatting; spelling checker, thesaurus, hyphenation, and autocorrect; find and replace; and others), Writer provides these important features:

Change tracking during revisions (Chapter 4)

Page layout methods, including styles, frames, columns, and tables (Chapters 5 and 6)

Export to PDF and ePub (Chapter 7)

Document digital signatures (Chapter 7)

Templates and styles (Chapters 8, 9, and 10)

Built-in drawing tools (Chapter 11)

Lists (Chapter 12)

Tables of data (Chapter 13)

Mail merge (Chapter 14)

Automated tables of contents and indexes (Chapter 15)

Master documents, to group a collection of documents into a single document (Chapter 16)

Fields and forms (Chapters 17 and 18)

Database integration, including a bibliography database (Chapters 14, 15, and 18)

Embedding or linking of spreadsheets, equations, and other objects (Chapter 19)

And many more

Parts of the main Writer window

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

Note

By default, LibreOffice Writer’s commands are grouped in menus and toolbars, as described in this section. In addition, Writer provides other user interface variations, displaying contextual groups of commands and contents. For more information, see “Notebook bar” in the Help and Chapter 20, Customizing Writer.

Title bar

The Title bar is located at the top of the Writer window. It shows the file name of the current document. When the document is not yet named, the document name will appear as Untitled X, where X is a number. Untitled documents are numbered in the order in which they are created.

Menu bar

The Menu bar is located just below the Title bar in Windows and Linux and at the top of the screen in macOS. When you select one of the menus, a submenu drops down to show further options, including:

Commands that directly cause an action, such as Close or Save, in the File menu.

Commands that open dialogs. These are indicated by three dots following a command, such as Find... in the Edit menu.

Commands that open further submenus. These are indicated by a right-pointing arrow following a command, such as Toolbars and Zoom, in the View menu. Moving the cursor onto one of these items causes its submenu to open.

Figure 1: Parts of the main Writer window

Sidebar

The Sidebar is normally open by default on the right side of the Writer window, as shown in Figure 1. If necessary, select View > Sidebar on the Menu bar to display it. The Sidebar also has a Hide/Show icon, as shown in Figure 2. When the Sidebar is closed, it can be opened by clicking this icon, which will be on the far right side of the window.

The Writer Sidebar contains six decks by default: Properties, Page, Styles (also shown as Styles and Formatting in some installations), Gallery, Navigator, and Style Inspector. Each deck can be opened by clicking its corresponding icon on the Tab bar to the right of the sidebar.

Two additional decks are available when Experimental Features is enabled in Tools > Options > LibreOffice > Advanced: Manage Changes and Design. These decks are not covered in this book.

Each deck consists of a title bar and one or more content panels. A panel is like a combination of toolbar and dialog. Toolbars and Sidebar panels share many functions. For example, the icons for making text bold or italic exist in both the Formatting toolbar in the main Writer window and the Character panel of the Properties deck.

Some panels contain a More Options button, which opens a dialog with additional editing controls. When the dialog is open, the document is locked for other editing.

To adjust the width of the Sidebar, place the cursor on its left edge. When a double-headed arrow appears, click and drag to right or left. When the Properties deck is open, you cannot make the Sidebar smaller than a certain width. When any other deck is open, the Sidebar can be collapsed to the width of its Tab bar.

To undock the Sidebar and make it floating, and to dock a floating Sidebar, use the drop-down list in the Sidebar Settings above the Tab bar (see Figure 3). From the same list, you can use the Customization menu to choose which tabs you want to include in the Sidebar.

Figure 2: Properties deck of Sidebar

Figure 3: Sidebar Settings menu

Sidebar decks

The decks contained in the Sidebar are described below.

Properties deck: Contains tools for directly formatting content.

When text is selected, these panels appear:

Style: Apply, create, or update a paragraph style.

Character: Modify text properties such as the font name, size, color, weight, or character spacing.

Paragraph: Modify a paragraph’s alignment, background color, indent, and spacing, and toggle numbered or bulleted lists.

When the cursor is in a table, this panel appears in addition to the panels for text.

Table: Modify table properties such as insert or delete rows, merge or split cells, define row height and column width, background color, and borders.

When a graphic or image is selected, these panels appear:

Area: Modify the fill mode and transparency of the background.

Image: Modify the graphic's brightness, contrast, color mode, or transparency.

Wrap: Modify the position of the graphic relative to surrounding text, where these modifications are available.

Position and Size: Modify width, height, rotation, or flip.

When a drawing object is selected, these panels appear:

Area: Modify the fill mode and transparency of the background.

Effect: Add and adjust a Glow or Soft Edge effect to the object.

Line: Modify arrows, line style, width, color, or transparency.

Position and Size: Modify width, height, rotation, or flip.

When a frame is selected, these panels appear:

Area: Modify the fill mode and transparency of the background.

Wrap: Modify the position of the graphic relative to surrounding text, where these modifications are available.

When a video or audio clip is selected, these panels appear:

Media Playback: Control for play, pause, stop, seek, loop, and volume.

Position and Size: Modify width and height.

Styles deck: Manage the styles used in the document, apply existing styles, create new styles, or modify them. For more information, see Chapter 8, Introduction to Styles, and Chapter 9, Working with Styles.

Gallery deck: Shows images and diagrams included in the Gallery themes. The Gallery has two sections: the first lists the themes by name (Arrows, Bullets, Diagrams, and so on) and the second displays the images in the selected theme. For more information on using the Gallery to add images to a document, create new themes and add your own images, see Chapter 11, Images and Graphics.

Navigator deck: Browse the document and reorganize its content by selecting content categories, such as headings, tables, frames, images, and so on. For more information, see “Using the Navigator” on page 34.

Page deck: Contains tools for directly formatting the page style. It has four panels:

Format: Modify the size, width, height, orientation, and margins of the page.

Styles: Modify the page numbering style, background, layout, and number of columns.

Header: Activate/deactivate the header and modify its margins, spacing, and contents.

Footer: Activate/deactivate the footer and modify its margins, spacing, and contents.

Caution

Be aware that by changing the options on the Page deck, you will change the page style in use, modifying not only the current page but all pages using the same page style in this document.

Style Inspector deck: Displays all the attributes of paragraph styles, character styles, and manual (direct) formatting for selected text. For more information, see Chapter 7, Working with Styles.

Toolbars

LibreOffice has two types of toolbar locations: docked (fixed in place) or floating. Docked toolbars can be moved to different locations (for example, top, bottom, or side of the workspace) or made to float. Floating toolbars can be docked.

Displaying or hiding toolbars

To display or hide toolbars, go to View > Toolbars on the Menu bar, then click the name of a toolbar in the drop-down list. An active toolbar shows a check mark beside its name. Note that toolbars created from tool palettes are not listed in the View menu.

To hide a toolbar, go to View > Toolbars on the Menu bar and deselect the toolbar, or right-click in an empty space between the icons on a toolbar and select Close toolbar in the context menu.

Most-used toolbars

In a default LibreOffice installation (Figure 1), the top toolbar, just under the Menu bar, is called the Standard toolbar.

The second toolbar at the top is the Formatting toolbar. It is context-sensitive; that is, it shows the tools relevant to the current position of the cursor or the selected object. For example, when the cursor is in text, the Formatting toolbar provides tools for formatting text. When the cursor is on a graphic (image), the tools are for formatting images.

To free more space for the document, you can choose a single-toolbar alternative containing the most-used commands. To activate it, select View > User Interface > Single Toolbar.

Other toolbars are available at View > Toolbars. They are discussed in the relevant chapters of this book.

Sub-menus and tool palettes

Toolbar icons with a small triangle to their right will display sub-menus, tool palettes, or other methods of selecting items, depending on the icon.

A tool palette is a pop-up collection of tools attached to a single tool in a toolbar. The palette can be made into a floating toolbar, as shown in Figure 4. Once removed from the parent toolbar, it displays a Title bar. Tool palettes can be floating or docked along an edge of the screen or in one of the existing toolbar areas.

Figure 4: Example of tearing off a tool palette

Moving toolbars

Docked toolbars can be undocked and either moved to a new docked position or left as a floating toolbar.

To undock a toolbar:

Move the mouse cursor over the toolbar handle, which is the small vertical bar to the left of a docked toolbar, as shown in Figure 5.

Hold down the left mouse button and drag the toolbar to a new location.

Release the mouse button.

Figure 5: Toolbar handles

To move a floating toolbar, click its title bar and drag it to a new floating location or dock the toolbar at the top or bottom of the main window.

Note

You can also dock a floating toolbar by holding down the Ctrl key and double-clicking in the title bar of the toolbar.

Tip

If the toolbar handle is not displayed, its position is locked. To unlock the toolbar, right-click it and then deselect the option Lock Toolbar Position.

Floating toolbars

Writer includes several toolbars, whose default settings correspond to the current position of the cursor or selection (when toolbars are made active). For example, when the cursor is in a table, the Table toolbar appears, and when the cursor is in a numbered or bulleted list, the Bullets and Numbering toolbar appears. You can reposition or dock these toolbars as described in “Moving toolbars” above.

Customizing toolbars

You can customize toolbars in several ways, including choosing which icons are visible and locking the position of a docked toolbar. You can also add icons and create new toolbars, as described in Chapter 20, Customizing Writer.

To position the toolbar:

Right-click somewhere in the floating toolbar and click Dock Toolbar, in the context menu, to dock the selected floating toolbar. By default, a toolbar will dock at the top of the workspace. You can reposition the toolbar to a different docked position. See “Moving toolbars” on page 22.

Click Dock All Toolbars to dock all floating toolbars.

Click Lock Toolbar Position to lock a docked toolbar into its docked position. Locking maintains the toolbar’s position even when other toolbars on the same bar change location.

Click Close Toolbar to close the selected toolbar.

You can access a toolbar’s customization options by right-clicking in an empty space between the icons on the toolbar to open a context menu. Then choose among the following options:

To show or hide icons defined for the selected toolbar, click Visible Buttons on the context menu. Visible icons on a toolbar are indicated by an outline around the icon (Figure 6) or by a check mark beside the icon, depending on your operating system. Select or deselect icons to hide or show them on the toolbar.

Click Customize Toolbar to open the Customize dialog. See Chapter 20, Customizing Writer, for more information.

Figure 6: Toolbar context menu and selection of visible toolbar icons

Rulers

The horizontal ruler across the top of the workspace is visible by default but the vertical ruler on the left is hidden by default. To enable the vertical ruler, choose View > Rulers > Vertical Ruler on the Menu bar, or choose Tools > Options > LibreOffice Writer > View. To quickly show or hide both rulers, use the key combination Ctrl+Shift+R.

Tip

The horizontal ruler has a comments button on its right end; click this to quickly show or hide any comments.

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. It can be hidden by deselecting it in the View menu.

Figure 7: Writer Status bar

Document changes status

This icon changes when the document has been modified but not saved. Clicking this icon saves the document.

Page number

Shows the sequence number of the current page, the total number of pages in the document, and the current page number (if different from the sequence number). For example, if page numbering is restarted at 1 on the third page of a 6-page document, the sequence number is 3, the total number of pages is 6, and page number is 1, as shown in Figure 7.

If any bookmarks have been defined in the document, right-clicking this field will show a list of bookmarks. Click a bookmark to move the cursor to that location in the document.

To jump to a specific page in the document, left-click this field to open the Go to Page dialog (Figure 8). Type the desired page number and click OK.

Figure 8: Go to Page dialog

Word and character count

The word and character counts of the document are shown in the Status bar, and are updated as you edit. If you select a portion of text, the count for that selection will temporarily replace the document total count.

By default, the character count includes spaces. To display the character count excluding spaces, click on the word count in the Status bar, or choose Tools > Word Count.

You can also see the number of words and characters (and other information including the number of pages, tables, and images) in the entire document in File > Properties > Statistics.

Page style

Shows the page style of the current page. To select a different page style, right-click on this field. A list of page styles pops up; click on one to select it. To edit the attributes of the current page style, left-click on this field. The Page Style dialog opens.

Caution

Changing the page style here may affect the styles of other pages, depending on how the page styles are set up. See Chapters 8 and 9 for details about styles.

Text Language

Shows the language and localization used for spelling, hyphenation, and the thesaurus. It is based on the position of the cursor or the selected text.

Click to open a menu where you can choose another language/localization 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 Reset to default language. Choosing More... opens the Character dialog. See Chapter 3, Working with Text: Basics, for more information.

Insert mode

This area is blank when in Insert mode. Click to change to Overwrite mode; click again to return to 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. This feature is disabled when Edit > Track Changes > Record is activated.

Selection mode

Click to cycle between the selection modes (Standard, Extending, Adding, and Block). The icon does not change, but when you hover the mouse pointer over this field, a tooltip indicates which mode is active.

When you right-click this field, a context menu displays the available options. See Chapter 3, Working with text: Basic, for details.

Digital signature

If the document has been digitally signed, an icon is displayed here; otherwise, it is blank. Click here to sign the document or to view the existing certificate. See Chapter 8, Printing, Exporting, Emailing, for more information.

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. Clicking in this area opens a relevant dialog.

Object	Information shown	Dialog opened
Image	Size and position	Image
List item	Level and list style	Bullets and Numbering1 If a list style was used with a list item or heading, no dialog appears.
Heading	Outline numbering level	Bullets and Numbering1
Table	Name or number and cell reference of cursor	Table Format
Section	Name of section	Edit Sections
Other	(Blank)	Fields

View layout

Click the corresponding icon to change between single-page, multiple-page, and book layout views (Figure 9). You can edit the document in any view. Zoom settings interact with the selected view layout and the window width to determine how many pages are visible in the document window.

Figure 9: View layouts: single-page, multiple-page, book

Zoom

To change the view magnification, drag the Zoom slider, or click the + and − signs, or right-click the zoom level percent to pop up a list of magnification values from which to choose. Zoom interacts with the selected view layout to determine how many pages are visible in the document window.

Context (right-click) menus

Context menus provide quick access to many menu functions. They are opened by right-clicking on a paragraph, graphic, or other object. When a context menu opens, the functions or options available will depend on the object that has been selected. This can be the easiest way to reach a function, especially if you are not sure where the function is located in the menus or toolbars.

Dialogs

A dialog 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 specify how to carry out an action.

In most cases, you can interact only with the dialog (not the document itself) as long as the dialog remains open. When you close the dialog (usually, clicking OK or a similar button saves your changes and closes the dialog; clicking Cancel closes the dialog without saving any changes), then you can again work with the document.

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

Document views

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

You can also choose View > Zoom > Zoom on the Menu bar to display the Zoom & View Layout dialog, where you can set the same options as on the Status bar.

You can also use File > Print Preview, or press Ctrl+Shift+O, to view the document, but this view does not allow editing. See “Previewing pages before printing” in Chapter 7, Printing, Exporting, Emailing.

Normal view

Normal view is the default view in Writer. It shows how the document will look when you print it or create a PDF. In this view, you can use the Zoom slider and the View Layout icons on the Status bar to change the magnification.

In Normal view, you can hide or show the headers and footers and the gap between pages. To hide them, uncheck View > Show Whitespace on the Menu bar. A check mark beside this option indicates that whitespace will be shown. When this option is unchecked, white space, headers, and footers are also hidden in Full Screen view.

Web view

Web view shows how the document will look if viewed in a Web browser; this is useful when you create HTML documents. In Web view, you can use only the Zoom slider. The View Layout icons on the Status bar are disabled, and most of the choices on the Zoom & View Layout dialog are not available.

Full Screen view

In this view, no toolbars or sidebar are displayed; the document takes up the full area available, using the zoom and layout settings previously selected. To exit Full Screen view and return to either Normal or Web view, press the Esc key or click the Full Screen icon on the floating toolbar in the top left-hand corner. You can also use Ctrl+Shift+J to enter or exit Full Screen view.

Creating a new document

You can create a new, blank document in Writer in several ways. If a document is already open in LibreOffice, the new document is created in a new window.

From the operating system menu

You can open the LibreOffice Start Center or the Writer component from the operating system menu in the same way that you start other programs. When LibreOffice was installed on your computer, in most cases a menu entry for each component was added to the system menu. On macOS, the LibreOffice icon will be in the Applications folder. When you double-click this icon, LibreOffice opens at the Start Center (Figure 10).

From the Start Center

When LibreOffice is open but no document is open, the Start Center (Figure 10) is shown. Click Create: Writer Document to create a new text document, or click Templates and choose a template to start a new document using a template other than the default template.

From the Menu bar, toolbar, or keyboard

When Writer is open, you can also start a new Writer document in one of these ways:

Press the Ctrl+N keys.

Choose File > New > Text Document on the Menu bar.

Click the New icon on the Standard toolbar.

Figure 10: LibreOffice Start Center

From a template

A template is a set of predefined styles and settings that is used to create a new document. Templates enable the easy creation of multiple documents with the same default settings. For example, all the chapters of the Writer Guide are based on the same template. As a result, all the chapters look alike; they have the same headers and footers, use the same fonts, and so on.

A new LibreOffice installation may contain only a few templates, but you can create your own or download more from https://extensions.libreoffice.org/ and other websites. See Chapter 10, Working with Templates.

To open the Template dialog, where you can choose the template you want to use for creating your document, do one of the following:

Press the Ctrl+Shift+N keys.

Choose File > Templates > Manage Templates on the Menu bar.

Choose File > New > Templates on the Menu bar.

Click the arrow next to the New icon on the Standard toolbar and select Templates in the drop-down list.

The example shown in Figure 11 highlights a template in the Documents folder. Double-click the desired template to create a new document based on the that template. You can also right-click one of the templates and then click Open. For more about the Templates dialog, see Chapter 10, Working with Templates.

Figure 11: Creating a document from a template

Opening an existing document

You can open an existing document in several ways.

When no document is open:

Click Open File or Remote files in the Start Center.

Choose File > Open or File > Open Remote on the Menu bar.

Press Ctrl+O on the keyboard.

Click the Open icon on the Standard toolbar.

Double-click a thumbnail of recently opened documents displayed in the Start Center. You can scroll up or down in the Start Center to locate a recently opened document.

If a document is already open:

Click the Open icon on the Standard toolbar and select the additional document to be opened in the Open dialog.

Click the small triangle to the right of the Open icon and select from a list of recently opened documents.

Use File > Recent Documents to make a selection.

Choose Open Document on the Quickstarter.

When using the Open dialog, navigate to the folder you want, select the file you want, then click Open. If a document is already open in LibreOffice, the second document opens in a new window.

You can reduce the list of files in the Open dialog 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. This method opens Word (.doc and .docx) files and other formats as well as OpenDocument (.odt).

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 LibreOffice, you can also open these files by double-clicking on them in the file explorer. See the LibreOffice Help for more about file associations.

Saving a document

You can save a document using either the Save commands or the Save as command.

Save commands

Save a new file or a previously-saved file

Do one of the following:

Press Ctrl+S.

Choose File > Save on the Menu bar.

Click the Save icon on the Standard toolbar.

If the file has not been saved previously, a Save As dialog appears after selecting one of the above options. Enter the file name, verify the file type and location, and click Save.

If a previously-saved file is being saved with the same file name, file type, and location, nothing else needs to be done.

Save to a remote server

Use this command if your document is already stored on a remote server or you want to store it on a remote server. Choose File > Save Remote. When the Save As dialog appears, enter or verify the name, type, and location, then click Save.

See “Opening and saving files on remote servers” on page 33 for more information.

Save a copy

Use this command if you want to keep the document open for more editing and also save a separate copy of the current version.

Choose File > Save a Copy. When the Save As dialog appears, enter or verify the name, type, and location, then click Save. The copy is not opened and the original file remains open and active.

Save all

Use this command to save all files open in the current session.

Choose File > Save All. All open files will be saved without changes to name, type, or location.

Save As

Use this command if you want to save the current version as a new document by changing the file name or file type, or by saving the file in a different location on your computer.

Choose File > Save As, or use Ctrl+Shift+S to open a Save As dialog where you can change the file name, type, or location, and click Save.

If you want to preserve the original file, first save a copy as described above.

Note

LibreOffice uses the term “export” for some file operations involving a change of file type, such as PDF and ePub. See Chapter 7, Printing, Exporting, E-mailing, for more information.

Saving a document automatically

You can choose to have Writer save your document automatically in a temporary file at regular intervals. To set up automatic file saving:

Select Tools > Options > Load/Save > General. (See also Chapter 20, Setting Up Writer.)

Click Save AutoRecovery information every and set the time interval. The default value is 10 minutes. Enter the value you want by typing it or by pressing the up or down arrow keys.

You may also wish to select Always create backup copy.

Click OK to save the changes.

Saving as a Microsoft Word document

To exchange files with users of Microsoft Word, you can save a document in a format such as .docx.

Important: First save your document in the file format used by LibreOffice 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.

Then click File > Save As.

On the Save As dialog, in the File type (or Save as type) drop-down menu, select the type of Microsoft Word format you need. You may also choose to change the file name.

Click Save.

From this point on, all changes you make to the document will occur only in the new (Microsoft Word) document. If you want to go back to working with the .odt version of your document, you must open it again.

Tip

To set the default file format used by LibreOffice Writer to save files, go to Tools > Options > Load/Save > General. In the section named Default File Format and ODF Settings, next to Document type, select Text document, then next to Always save as, select your preferred file format.

Using password protection and OpenPGP encryption

LibreOffice provides two types of document protection: password protection and OpenPGP encryption. Files encrypted with the Save password cannot be decrypted without the password, which must be sent to each user who needs to decrypt the document. With OpenPGP encryption, the document is encrypted using an algorithm, which requires a key. Each key is used only once and is sent to the recipient along with the document.

Password protection

Writer provides two levels of password 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 one group of people and for reading and editing by a different group. This behavior is compatible with Microsoft Word file protection.

To protect a document with passwords:

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

On the Save As dialog, select the Save with password option in the lower left corner (Figure 12), and then click Save.

Figure 12: Save with password and Encrypt with GPG key options

The Set Password dialog opens (Figure 13). Here you have several choices:

To read-protect the document, type a password in the two fields at the top of the dialog.

To write-protect the document, click the Options button and select Open file read-only in the File Sharing Password section.

To write-protect the document but allow selected people to edit it, select Open file read-only and type a password in the two boxes at the bottom of the dialog.

Figure 13: Two levels of password protection

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

Caution

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

Changing or removing the password for a document

When a document is password-protected, you can change or remove the password while the document is open. Choose File > Properties > General and click the Change Password button.

OpenPGP encryption

LibreOffice uses the OpenPGP software installed on your computer. If no OpenPGP software is available, you must download and install one suitable for your operating system before you can use this option.

You must define a personal pair of cryptography keys with the OpenPGP application. Refer to the OpenPGP software installed on how to create a pair of keys. For more information on using this form of encryption, see the supplied Help.

OpenPGP encryption requires the use of the public key of the recipient; this key must be available in the OpenPGP key chain stored in your computer. To encrypt a document:

Choose File > Save As,

In the Save As dialog, enter a name for the file.

Select the Encrypt with GPG key option (see Figure 12).

Click Save. The OpenPGP public key selection dialog opens.

Choose the public key of the recipient. You can select multiple keys.

Click OK to close the dialog and save the file encrypted with the selected public keys.

Opening and saving files on remote servers

LibreOffice can open and save files stored on remote servers (that is, not on your computer or local area network). This feature enables you to work on a document in the office and still have access to it from home or elsewhere. Storing files on a remote server also backs up documents, saving data from computer loss or hard disk failure. Some servers are also able to check files in and out, thus controlling their usage and access.

LibreOffice supports many document servers that use well-known network protocols such as FTP, WebDav, Windows share, and SSH. It also supports popular services like Google Drive and Microsoft OneNote, as well as commercial and open source servers that implement the OASIS CMIS standard. For more information, see the Getting Started Guide.

Moving quickly through a document

Writer provides ways to move quickly through a document and find specific items by using the Navigator and other tools.

Using Go to Page

You can jump to a specific page in the document in these ways:

Use the Go to Page field on the top right of the Navigator (see below).

Use the Go to Page dialog (Figure 8 on page 24), which shows the current page number and the number of pages in the document. Type the number of the destination page in the text box and click OK. To open this dialog, do any of the following:

Click on the page number field on the Status Bar.

Choose Edit > Go to Page on the Menu bar.

Press Ctrl+G on the keyboard.

Using the Navigator

In a default installation of LibreOffice, the Navigator is part of the Sidebar. It lists all of the headings, tables, text frames, graphics, bookmarks, and other objects contained in a document.

To open the Navigator (Figure 14), do one of the following:

Click the Navigator tab in the Tab bar on the right of the Sidebar.

Click the Navigator icon (if visible) on the Standard toolbar.

Press F5.

Choose View > Navigator on the Menu bar.

Click the + sign or triangle to the left of a category or subcategory to display its contents.

Table 2 summarizes the functions of the icons at the top of the Navigator.

Note

In a master document, the Navigator has different functions. See Chapter 16, Master Documents.

Figure 14: The Navigator in the Sidebar

Table 2: Function of icons in the Navigator

1	Navigate By	Opens a drop-down list where you can select the type of element by which you want to navigate.
2	Header/Footer	Jumps between the text area and the header or footer area (if the page has them).
3	Anchor <–> Text	Jumps between a footnote anchor and the corresponding footnote text.
4	Set Reminder	Inserts a reminder. See “Setting reminders” on page 36.
5	Previous/Next	Jumps to the previous/next element of the type selected in the Navigate By drop-down list.
6	Go to Page	Jumps to the page number shown in the box. Type a page number or select it using the + and – signs.
7	Content Navigation View	Switches between showing all categories and showing only the selected category.
8	List Box On/Off	Toggles between having the list box shown or hidden.
9	Heading Levels Shown	Choose the number of heading levels to be shown.
10	Drag Mode	Select Insert as Hyperlink, Link, or Copy. See Chapter 3, Working with Text: Advanced.
11	Promote/Demote Level	Quickly change the level of the selected heading in the document. See Chapter 3, Working with Text: Advanced..
12	Promote/Demote Chapter	Move headings and text in the document. See Chapter 3, Working with Text: Advanced..

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 and press Enter. The sequence number may be different from the page number if you have restarted numbering at any point.

When a category is opened to show the list of items in it, double-click 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 contents in only one category, highlight that category and click the Content Navigation 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 Navigate By drop-down list.

In the top left of the Navigator is a Navigate By drop-down list. You can pick a type of object (such as a bookmark, table, or index entry) and then use the Previous (^) and Next (v) buttons to jump from one to the next. See Figure 15.

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 6, Formatting Pages: Advanced.

Figure 15: Navigate By list on Navigator

Tip

Objects are much easier to find if you give them identifying names when creating them. By default, LibreOffice gives objects names such as Image1, Image2, Table1, Table2, and so on. These names are assigned in the order in which the objects were added to the document, which may not correspond to the location of the object in the document.

You can rename objects after inserting them. For example, to rename an image, right-click its name in the Navigator, choose Image in the context menu, then choose Image > Rename. The view jumps to the image (to show which one it is) and a small dialog pops up. Type a new name for the image and click OK to save.

You can also right-click the image and select Properties. In the Image dialog, go to the Options page, edit the name, and click OK.

Setting reminders

Reminders let you mark places in your document that you want to return to later on, for example to add or correct information or simply mark where you finished editing. The possible uses of reminders are limited only by your imagination.

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

Reminders are not highlighted in any way in the document, nor are they listed in the Navigator, so you cannot see where they are, except that when you jump from one to the next, the location of the cursor shows the location of the reminder.

To jump between reminders, first select the Reminder option in the Navigate By drop-down list. Then click the Previous and Next icons.

Reminders are not saved with the document.

Undoing and redoing changes

To undo the most recent change in a document, press Ctrl+Z, choose Edit > Undo on the Menu bar, or click the Undo icon on the Standard toolbar. To get a list of all the changes that can be undone, click the small triangle to the right of the Undo icon on the Standard toolbar. You can select several sequential changes on the list and undo them at the same time.

Figure 16: List of actions that can be undone

After changes have been undone, Redo becomes active. To redo a change, select Edit > Redo, or press Ctrl+Y or click the Redo icon on the Standard toolbar. As with Undo, click the down arrow icon of the combination icon to get a list of the changes that can be restored.

Reloading a document

You may want to discard all the changes made in an editing session since the last time you saved it. Undoing each change or remembering where the changes took place can be difficult. If you are sure you do not want to keep the changes made since last time the document was saved, you can reload the document.

To reload a document, go to File > Reload on the Menu bar. A confirmation dialog asks if you want to cancel all changes; choose Yes to return the document to the version that was last saved.

Closing a document

If only one document is open and you want to close that document, go to File > Close on the Menu bar or click the X on the Title bar. The X may be located on either the right or left end of the Title bar. In Windows and Linux, when you close the last document, then LibreOffice will close completely. In macOS, you need to use LibreOffice > Quit LibreOffice.

If more than one document is open and you want to close one of them, go to File > Close on the Menu bar or click the X on the Menu bar of that document’s window. When only the last document is open, the X on the Menu bar disappears. The X on the Title bar remains.

If the document has not been saved since the last change, a message box is displayed. Choose whether to save or discard changes.

Writer Guide 7.2

Chapter 2
Working with Text: Basics

Introduction

This chapter covers the basics of working with text in Writer. 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 display formatting aids, such as end-of-paragraph marks, tabs, breaks, and other items in Tools > Options > LibreOffice Writer > Formatting Aids. You can hide or display these markers by going to View > Formatting Marks. See Chapter 20, Setting up Writer, for more information.

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.

Check spelling and grammar, use the thesaurus, and choose hyphenation options.

Use the AutoCorrect, Word Completion, AutoText, and case-changing features.

See also Chapter 3, Working with Text: Advanced, and Chapter 4, Formatting Text.

Selecting text

Selecting text in Writer is similar to selecting text in other applications. You can swipe the mouse cursor over text or use multiple clicks to select a word (double-click), sentence (triple-click), or paragraph (quadruple-click).

You can also click in the text, press F8 to enter Extending selection mode, and then use the arrow keys on your keyboard to select a contiguous block of text. Press F8 again after you have finished selecting the block of text.

In addition, you can select non-contiguous items and vertical blocks of text.

One way to change the selection mode is to use the icon on the Status bar (see Figure 17). When you right-click the icon, a context menu displays the available options: Standard selection, Extending selection (F8), Adding selection (Shift+F8), and Block selection (Ctrl+Shift+F8). Left-clicking cycles through these selections.

Figure 17: Changing the selection mode using the status bar

Selecting items that are not contiguous

To select non-contiguous items (as shown in Figure 18) using the mouse in Standard selection mode:

Select the first piece of text.

Hold down the Ctrl key and use the mouse to select the next piece of text.

Repeat as often as needed.

To select non-contiguous items using the keyboard in Adding selection mode:

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 LibreOffice Help (F1).)

Press Shift+F8 to enable Adding selection mode.

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.

Repeat as often as required.

Now you can work with the selected text. After finishing your work with the selected text, press Esc to exit Adding selection mode.

Figure 18: Selecting non-consecutive pieces of text

Selecting a vertical block of text

You can select a block text that spans through multiple rows using Writer’s Block selection mode. To change to Block selection mode, use Edit > Selection Mode > Block Area, or press Ctrl+F8, or click the Selection icon in the status bar and select Block selection in the list. Now you can highlight the selection, using mouse or keyboard, as shown in Figure 19.

Figure 19: Selecting a block of text

Cutting, copying, and pasting text

Cutting and copying text in Writer is similar to cutting and copying text in other applications. You can 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 (drag and drop) selected text using the mouse, drag it to the new location and release it; the cursor changes shape while dragging.

To copy selected text, hold down the Ctrl key while dragging. The text retains the formatting it had before dragging.

To move (cut and paste) selected text, use Ctrl+X to cut the text, insert the cursor at the paste-in point and use Ctrl+V to paste. Alternatively, use the Copy/Paste buttons on the Standard toolbar.

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

To make the pasted text inherit the paragraph style at the insertion point:

Choose Edit > Paste Special, or

Click the arrow on the combination Paste button, or

Double-click the Paste button without releasing the left mouse button, or

Press Ctrl+Shift+V

Then select Unformatted text in the resulting menu.

You can also press Ctrl+Alt+Shift+V, which pastes unformatted text directly.

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 20 for an example with text on the clipboard.

Figure 20: Paste Special menu

Finding and replacing text

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

Find and replace words and phrases.

Use wildcards and regular expressions to fine-tune a search (see Chapter 3).

Find and replace specific attributes or formatting (see Chapter 3).

Find and replace paragraph styles (see Chapter 3).

Using the Find toolbar

By default, the Find toolbar is shown docked at the bottom of the LibreOffice window (just above the Status Bar) in Figure 21, but you can float it or dock it in another location. For more information on floating and docking toolbars, see Chapter 1, Introducing Writer. If the Find toolbar is not visible, you can display it by choosing View > Toolbars > Find on the Menu bar or by pressing Ctrl+F.

Figure 21: Docked position of Find toolbar

To use the Find toolbar, click in the text input box and type your search text, then press Enter to find the next occurrence of that term from the current cursor position. Click the Find Next or Find Previous buttons as needed.

Click the Find All button to select all instances of the search term within the document. Select Match Case to find only the instances that exactly match the use of upper and lower case letters in the search term. Click the icon next to Match Case to open the Find and Replace dialog.

To close the Find toolbar, click the X button on the left, or press Esc on the keyboard when the text cursor is in the search box.

Using the Find and Replace dialog

To display the Find and Replace dialog (Figure 22), use any of the following methods:

Use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+H.

Choose Edit > Find and Replace on the Menu bar.

Click the Find and Replace button on the Find toolbar.

Figure 22: Expanded Find & Replace dialog

When the dialog is open, click Other options to expand it.

To use the Find and Replace dialog:

Type the text you want to find in the Find box.

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

You can select various options, such as matching the case or matching whole words only.

The other options include searching only in selected text, searching from the current cursor position backwards toward the beginning of the document, searching for similar words, searching in comments, and using regular expressions (wildcards). The use of other options is described in Chapter 3, Working with Text: Advanced.

Additional options are shown when CTL or Asian languages have been selected in Tools > Options > Language Settings > Languages.

When you have set up the search, click Find Next. As the document view moves to each found instance, you can replace the text by clicking Replace or skip that instance by clicking Find Next again.

Tip

If you click Find All, Writer selects all instances of the search text in the document. Similarly, if you click Replace All, Writer replaces all matches, without stopping for you to accept each instance.

Caution

Use Replace All with caution; otherwise, you may end up with mistakes that you won’t be able to undo later if you save and close the file. (Ctrl+Z works only before the file is saved.) A mistake with Replace All might require a manual, word-by-word, search to fix.

Inserting special characters

A special character is one not found on a basic English keyboard. For example, © ¾ æ ç Ł ñ ö ø ¢ are all special characters.

To insert one or more special characters, place the cursor in the position where you want the characters to appear. Then do one of the following:

Click the Special Character icon on the Standard toolbar to open a list of favorite and recently used characters and click on one to insert it (Figure 23). You can also open the Special Characters dialog (Figure 24) by clicking the More Characters button in this list.

Figure 23: Insert Special Characters in the standard toolbar

Click Insert > Special Character to open the Special Characters dialog (Figure 24). Double-click the characters (from any font or mixture of fonts) you wish to insert, in order; they appear in the document as you select them. The selected characters are also added to the Recent Characters list on the lower left of the dialog.

Figure 24: The Special Characters dialog

Tips

To view details of a character, single-click it; details are shown on the right, along with its numerical code.

To insert a character and leave the dialog open, double-click the character. To insert a character and close the dialog, click it and then click the Insert button.

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, hyphens, and more

You can insert a variety of formatting marks while typing or later. Most of these marks can be inserted using a keyboard shortcut; all are available in Insert > Formatting Mark on the Menu bar (Figure 25).

Non-breaking space

To prevent two words from being separated at the end of a line, press Ctrl+Shift when you type the space between the two words.

Non-breaking hyphen

You can use a non-breaking hyphen (also called a hard hyphen) in cases where you do not want the hyphen to appear at the end of a line, for example in the following text “123‑4567”. To insert a non-breaking hyphen, press Shift+Ctrl+hyphen.

Figure 25: Insert > Formatting Mark submenu

Soft Hyphen

Soft hyphens (also called custom, discretionary, or optional hyphens) specify where words should be divided at the end of a line. If the word does not occur at the end of a line, the hyphen does not appear. To insert a soft hyphen, press Ctrl+hyphen.

Narrow No-break Space

If you want a non-breaking space that is not as wide as a normal space, press Alt+Shift while you type the space.

When complex text layout (CTL) is enabled, these additional formatting marks are active:

No-width Optional Break

Use Ctrl+/ to insert an invisible space in a word that will cause a line break if it is the last character in the line. Available when complex text layout (CTL) is enabled.

Word Joiner

Inserts an invisible space in a word that will keep the word together at the end of a line. In earlier versions of Writer, this mark was called No-width no break.

Left-to right Mark

Inserts an invisible mark that affects the text direction of any text following the mark.

Right-to-Left Mark

Inserts an invisible mark that affects the text direction of any text following the mark.

Inserting en and em dashes

To enter en and em dashes as you type, you can use the Replace dashes option on the Options tab under Tools > AutoCorrect > AutoCorrect Options. This option replaces one or two hyphens, under certain conditions, with the corresponding dash.

–	An en-dash is a dash the width of the letter “n” in the font you are using.

—	An em-dash is a dash the width of the letter “m” in the font you are using.

In Table 3, the A and B represent text consisting of letters A to Z or digits 0 to 9.

Table 3: Inserting dashes

Text that you type	Result
A - B (A, space, hyphen, space, B)	A – B (A, space, en dash, space, B)
A -- B (A, space, hyphen, hyphen, space, B)	A – B (A, space, en dash, space, B)
A--B (A, hyphen, hyphen, B)	A—B (A, em dash, B)
1--2 (number, hyphen, hyphen, number)	1–2 (number, en dash, number)
A-B (A, hyphen, B)	A-B (unchanged)
A -B (A, space, hyphen, B)	A -B (unchanged)
A --B (A, space, hyphen, hyphen, B)	A –B (A, space, en dash, B)

Another means of inserting en and em dashes is through the Insert > Special Characters menu. Select the U+2013 or U+2014 character (found in the General punctuation subset), respectively.

A third method uses keyboard shortcuts. These shortcuts vary depending on your operating system, as described below.

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 about key combinations, see Chapter 20, Customizing Writer.

macOS

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

Windows

On most non-Asian installations of Windows, hold down the left Alt key 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 next 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.

Checking spelling and grammar

Writer provides a spelling checker, which checks to see if each word in the document is in the installed dictionary. Also provided is a grammar checker within the Spelling dialog, which can be enabled or disabled in the Spelling dialog.

Writer can check spelling and grammar as you type, depending on settings you choose. You can also choose to check them at any time,

Spelling

To enable automatic checking of spelling, go to Tools on the Menu bar and select Automatic Spell Checking, or click the Automatic Spell Checking icon (which may not be displayed by default) on the Standard Toolbar, or go to Tools > Options > Language Settings > Writing Aids and select Check spelling as you type in the Options list.

Automatic Spell Checking checks each word as it is typed and displays a wavy red line under any unrecognized words. Right-click an unrecognized word to open a context menu (Figure 26). You can click one of the suggested words to replace the underlined word with the one selected. If the list does not contain the word you want, click Spelling to open a dialog. When the word is corrected, the line disappears. If the word is correct but not in the dictionary, you can chose Add to dictionary to add it.

Figure 26: Spelling context menu

If the document has change tracking enabled, then the context menu contains extra options relating to changes in the text.

The choices in the second and third sections of the menu are:

Ignore

This one instance of the underlined word will be ignored while the document is open. Other instances, if they exist, will still be underlined. This setting is not stored with the document.

Ignore All

All instances of the word in the document will be ignored, and the word will be added to the IgnoreAllList user-defined dictionary.

Add to Dictionary

The word is added by default to the Standard dictionary.

Spelling

This choice opens the Spelling dialog, which is explained in the next section.

Always correct to

Selecting this opens the submenu, which repeats the suggestions for the word from the top section listing. Selecting a replacement word here stores the word pair in the replacement table under Tools > AutoCorrect > AutoCorrect Options > Replace. The underlined word is replaced with the selected word.

AutoCorrect Options

Opens the AutoCorrect Options dialog (see page 54), where you can add your own corrections or change those supplied with LibreOffice.

In the fourth section of the context menu, you can set language settings for the text. These settings can be applied to the selection or to the paragraph containing the selection.

Spelling and grammar

To perform a combined spelling and grammar check on the document (or a text selection), select Tools > Spelling or click the Spelling button on the Standard toolbar, or press F7. In order to use this feature, the appropriate dictionaries must be installed.

The Spelling tool checks either the document from the cursor point onwards, or the text selection. It opens the Spelling dialog (Figure 27) if any unrecognized words are found or if any of the built-in grammar rules are broken. You can choose to restart from the beginning of the document when the check reaches the end of the document.

If you have selected the Check grammar option in the lower left of the dialog, any grammar errors detected will also be shown. See Figure 29 for an example.

Figure 27: Spelling alert using the Spelling dialog

Text language

The language to be used for checking spelling can be selected from this drop-down list.

Not in dictionary

The sentence containing the error is displayed in the pane. If an unrecognized word is found, it is highlighted. If the error is grammatical, it is indicated in a pale colored bar below the Text language setting (Figure 29). The sentence or the word can be edited in the pane.

Suggestions

The box contains suggested replacements for the highlighted word. Select a word and then select Correct or Correct All to replace it.

For grammatical errors there is a single choice. Select Change to accept the suggestion.

Ignore Once, Ignore All, and Add to Dictionary

Clicking one of these buttons has the same effect as the item in the context menu described above.

Ignore Rule

When checking grammar, you can choose to ignore the suggested change.

Correct

Replaces the unknown word with the suggested word. If the sentence was edited, the whole sentence is changed.

For grammar, the suggested replacement is used to correct the text.

Correct All

This replaces all instances of the word with the selected replacement word. Not available for grammar checking.

Always Correct

This behaves in a similar fashion to AutoCorrect.

Undo

This button is enabled when a change has been made to the sentence, so you can reverse the change. The button is not available if you use a Correct button to replace a word.

Options

Click this button to open the Options dialog where you can select user-defined dictionaries and set the spell checking rules.

Grammar

By default, Check grammar as you type is enabled in Tools > Options > Language Settings > Writing Aids > Options. Automatic Spell Checking must be enabled for this to work. You can also check grammar at any time using the Spelling tool, and you can disable grammar checking as you type.

When grammar checking as you type is enabled, any errors detected are shown underlined by a wavy blue line. Right-clicking on this line opens a context menu (Figure 28).

The first entry in the menu describes the suspected broken grammatical rule.

The second menu item in the left example is Explanations, which opens your browser to a web page offering more information about the error. This entry is not always present in the context menu, as seen in the second example in Figure 28.

Figure 28: Context menu for grammar errors

In the second section of the menu is the suggested correction. Clicking this changes the text to the suggestion. The example to the right appears blank, but clicking here removes the extra space causing the error.

In the third section of the menu you can choose to ignore the indicated error, or to open the Spelling dialog, shown in Figure 29. The example displays the URL that will take you to more information on the error indicated.

In the final section of the menu, you can set the language for the selection or the paragraph.

Figure 29: Spelling dialog showing the URL for expanded explanation

English sentence checking

Additional grammar checking rules can be selected through Tools > Options > Language Settings > English sentence checking, or through Tools > Extension Manager > English spelling dictionaries > Options.

Figure 30: Additional grammar checking options

On the English Sentence Checking page (Figure 30), choose which items are checked for, reported to you, or converted automatically. After selecting the additional grammar checks, you must restart LibreOffice, or reload the document, for them to take effect.

Grammar checking

Possible mistakes

Checks for errors such as with it's, he don't, this things and so on.

Capitalization

Checks for the capitalization of sentences.

Word duplication

Checks for all word duplication, rather than just the default words 'and', 'or', 'for' and 'the'.

Parentheses

Checks for correct pairing of parentheses and quotation marks.

Punctuation

Word spacing

This option is selected by default. It checks for single spaces between words, indicating instances of double or triple spaces. To find and correct longer groups of spaces, you need to run the checker more than once.

Quotation marks

This checks that double quotation marks are typographically correct, that is, beginning [“] and ending [”] quotation marks curve in the correct directions.

Sentence spacing

Checks for a single space between sentences, indicating when one or two extra spaces are found.

Apostrophe

Replaces an apostrophe with the correct (curved) typographical character.

More spaces

Checks word and sentence spacing for more than two extra spaces.

Em dash; En dash

These options force a non-spaced em dash to replace a spaced en dash, or force a spaced en dash to replace a non-spaced em dash, respectively. This feature provides for different punctuation conventions.

Multiplication sign

This option is selected by default. It replaces an 'x' used as a multiplication symbol with the correct typographical symbol.

Ellipsis

Replaces three consecutive periods (full stops) with the correct typographical symbol.

Minus sign

Replaces a hyphen with the correct minus typographical character.

Others

Convert to metric; Convert to non-metric

Converts quantities in a given type of unit to quantities in the other type of unit.

Thousands separation of large numbers

Depending on the locale setting for the document, converts a number with five or more significant digits to either use a comma as a thousands separator or the ISO format, which uses a narrow space as a separator.

Using synonyms and the thesaurus

You can access a short list of synonyms from a context menu (Figure 31).

Right-click a word and point to Synonyms on the context menu. A submenu of alternative words and phrases is displayed.

Click a word or phrase in the submenu to have it replace the highlighted word or phrase in the document.

Figure 31: Synonyms on the context menu

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

Right-click on a word, point to Synonyms in the context menu, then click Thesaurus in the Synonyms submenu. See Figure 31.

In the Thesaurus dialog (shown in Figure 32), click a word or phrase in the list of meanings to select it.

Click Replace to make the substitution.

For example, when given the word house, the thesaurus offers several meanings, including dwelling, legislature, sign of the zodiac, and others. Select a replacement word from the list under the relevant meaning, so for dwelling, you will see dwelling, home, domicile, abode, and other alternatives.

Note

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

Figure 32: The thesaurus offers alternatives to words

Hyphenating words

You can hyphenate words at the end of a line in two ways: let Writer do it automatically (using styles and its hyphenation dictionaries), or insert conditional (soft) hyphens manually where needed. Or, you can choose to not hyphenate at all. Each choice has its pros and cons.

Automatic hyphenation

This option uses styles and over-rides the Tools > Options choices described on the next page.

To turn automatic hyphenation of words on or off:

Click the Styles tab on the Sidebar to open the Styles deck. On the Paragraph Styles list, right-click Default Paragraph Style and select Modify.

On the Paragraph Style dialog (Figure 33), go to the Text Flow tab.

Under Hyphenation, select or deselect Automatically. When automatic hyphenation is on, you can also set the criteria for when it should occur.

Click OK to save.

Note

Turning on hyphenation for the Default Style paragraph style affects all other paragraph styles that are based on Default Style. 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 Style are not affected. For more on paragraph styles, see Chapters 8 and 9 in this book.

Figure 33: Turning on automatic hyphenation

You can set hyphenation settings in Tools > Options > Language Settings > Writing Aids. These choices apply when there is no specific setting in a paragraph style. Hyphenation options set in Writing Aids are effective only if hyphenation is turned on through paragraph styles.

In Options, near the bottom of the dialog, scroll down to find the hyphenation settings.

Figure 34: Setting hyphenation options

To change the minimum number of characters for hyphenation, or the minimum number of characters before or 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 will open where you can manually enter hyphens.

Hyphenate special regions

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

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 soft hyphen, which is visible only when required.

To insert a soft hyphen inside a word, click where you want the hyphen to appear and press Ctrl+hyphen (minus sign) or use Insert > Formatting Mark > Insert soft 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 includes a long list of common misspellings and typing errors, which it corrects automatically. It also includes codes for inserting special characters, emojis, and other symbols. You can add your own special characters.

AutoCorrect is turned on by default when Writer is installed. You may wish to disable some of its features, modify others, or turn it off completely. To turn AutoCorrect off, uncheck Tools > AutoCorrect > While Typing.

You can add your own corrections or special characters or change those supplied with LibreOffice. Select Tools > AutoCorrect > AutoCorrect Options to open the AutoCorrect dialog. On the Replace tab, you can define what strings of text are corrected and how.

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.

Figure 35: Replace tab of AutoCorrect dialog

Tip

LibreOffice has an extensive list of special characters accessible with AutoCorrect. For example, type :smiling: and AutoCorrect will replace it with ☺. Or, (c) will be changed to ©. You also can add your own special characters.

See “AutoFormatting” in Chapter 4, Formatting Text, for discussion of the Options and Localized Options tabs of the dialog.

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 > AutoCorrect Options > Word Completion and deselect Enable word completion.

Figure 36: Customizing word completion

You can customize word completion on the Word Completion page of the AutoCorrect dialog (Figure 36):

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 key that accepts a suggested entry; the options are right arrow, End key, Enter (Return), Space bar, and Tab.

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.

Note

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

Using AutoText

Use AutoText to store text, tables, fields, graphics, 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 assigned to fields. See Chapter 17, Fields.

Creating AutoText

To store some text as AutoText:

Type the text into your document.

Select the text.

Go to Tools > AutoText (or press Ctrl+F3).

In the AutoText dialog (Figure 37), type a name for the AutoText in the Name box. Writer will suggest a one-letter shortcut, which you can change.

Figure 37: Defining a new AutoText entry

Choose the category for the AutoText entry, for example My AutoText.

Click the AutoText button at the bottom of the dialog and select from the menu either New (to have the AutoText retain specific formatting, no matter where it is inserted) or New (text only) (to have the AutoText take on the formatting around the insertion point).

Click Close to return to your document.

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 as AutoText:

Create a table and format it the way you want.

Select the table.

Go to Tools > AutoText (or press Ctrl+F3).

Type a name for the AutoText (or amend the suggested shortcut and choose the category for the AutoText entry).

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

Click Close to return to your document.

Inserting AutoText

To insert AutoText, type the shortcut and press F3.

Printing a list of AutoText entries

To print a list of AutoText entries:

Choose Tools > Macros > Organize Macros > Basic.

In the Macro From list, find and expand Gimmicks.

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.

Figure 38: Basic Macros dialog

Changing the case of selected text

To quickly change the case of text, select it, choose Format > Text on the Menu bar, and then choose one of the following:

UPPERCASE, where all letters are capitalized.

lowercase, where no words (except proper nouns) are capitalized.

Cycle Case, which cycles the selected words through uppercase, lowercase, and capitalize every word.

Sentence case, where only the first word is capitalized (together with any proper nouns).

Capitalize Every Word, where every word is capitalized.

tOGGLE cASE, which changes every letter to the opposite case.

Small capitals, which capitalizes all letters in a reduced font size.

Writer does not have an automated way to do Title Case, where all words are capitalized except for certain subsets defined by rules that are not universally standardized. However, you can use Capitalize Every Word and then restore those words that you do not want capitalized.

The Format > Text menu also includes several manual formatting options, including bold, italic, and superscript. If Asian language support has been enabled, there are also several options that are used with Asian text: half-width, full-width, Hiragana, and Katakana.

You can also change the case of text using the Character dialog or a character style. Choose Format > Character, click the Font Effects tab (Figure 39), then select the type of capitalization in the Effects – Case: box.

Figure 39: Changing the case using the Character dialog

Writer Guide 7.2

Chapter 3
Working with Text: Advanced

Introduction

This chapter covers the more advanced tools for working with text in Writer:

The built-in language tools

Advanced find-and-replace techniques, including wildcards

Track changes and insert comments

Footnotes and endnotes

Linking to other parts of a document

Line numbering

This chapter assumes that you are familiar with the basic text techniques described in Chapter 2, Working with Text: Basics. We recommend that you also display formatting aids, such as end-of-paragraph marks, tabs, breaks, and other items in Tools > Options > LibreOffice Writer > Formatting Aids. For information on formatting text, see Chapter 4.

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:

The functions in Tools > Language

Language settings in Options

Paragraph and character styles

The functions available on 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. A grammar checking dictionary may also be available for the selected language.

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 Tools > Language

You can set the language for the whole document, for individual paragraphs, or even for individual words and characters, from Tools > Language on the Menu bar (Figure 40):

For Selection applies a specified language to the selected text. If the language you wish to apply is not listed in the submenu, choose More... to open the Character dialog.

For Paragraph applies the specified language to the paragraph where the cursor is located. If the language you wish to apply is not listed in the submenu, choose More... to open the Character dialog.

For All Text applies the specified language to all of the document, including text inserted after making the change. If the language you wish to apply is not listed in the submenu, choose More... to open the Tools > Language Settings > Languages dialog.

The Reset to Default Language option on the submenu is the fastest way to return a selection, paragraph, or all text to the default language set in Tools > Options (described below).

The Tools > Language menu options include two that are activated when Asian is selected in Tools > Options > Language Settings > Languages > Default languages for documents: Chinese Conversion and Hangul/Hanja Conversion. These options are not covered in this book.

Figure 40: Options available through Tools > Language on the Menu bar

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 41), you can choose a different language for all the text that is not explicitly marked as a different language.

Caution

A change in the default language from the Options dialog is a general change of settings of LibreOffice 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 (Figure 41).

Figure 41: Options available in the Languages settings

Note

The spelling checker works only for those languages in the list that have a checkmark symbol next to them. If you do not see this symbol next to your preferred language, you can install the dictionary using Tools > Language > More Dictionaries Online.

Using paragraph and character styles

Changing the language on the Font tab of the Paragraph Styles dialog (Figure 42) will change the language for all paragraphs that use that paragraph style. If you will have whole paragraphs in different languages in a single document, you can use a different paragraph style for each language. For example, you might define Text Body-EN and Text Body-FR in a document containing paragraphs in both English and French.

See Chapter 9, Working with Styles, for information on how to manage the language settings of a style.

Figure 42: Setting the language for a paragraph style

Using the Status bar

You can set paragraphs to be checked in a language that is different from the language of the rest of the document by putting the cursor in the paragraph (or selecting more than one paragraph) and changing the language on the Status bar (Figure 43). This change affects only the selected paragraphs.

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 the language in the Status bar to pop up a menu of choices.

Figure 43: Language choices on the Status bar

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

Advanced find and replace techniques

In addition to finding and replacing words and phrases (described in Chapter 2), you can use Writer’s Find and Replace dialog to find and replace paragraph styles and text formatting.

Find and replace paragraph styles

Combining material from several sources may result in unwanted paragraph styles in your document. To quickly change all the paragraphs from one style to another (preferred) style:

On the Find and Replace dialog with Other Options displayed, select Paragraph Styles. The Find and Replace boxes now contain a list of paragraph styles in use in the document.

If you have text formats or attributes specified, this option is labeled Including Styles. Select No Format to remove any attributes and return the option to Paragraph Styles.

Select the styles you want to search for and replace.

Click Find, Find All, Replace, or Replace All.

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

Find and replace text formatting

Unlike Find and Replace for paragraph styles described above, the formats or attributes to be searched for do not appear inside the Find or Replace box. Instead, the formats or attributes to be found or replaced appear below the Find and Replace boxes (Figure 44). Clicking on the down-arrow to the right does not bring up options.

Figure 44: Find and replace text formatting

To find a type of formatting in the document, follow this procedure:

Open the Find and Replace dialog (Figure 44) and select Other options.

To clear any previous format criteria, place the cursor in the Find box and then click the No Format button. To clear the selected Replace options, place the cursor in the Replace box and click the No Format button.

Click the Format button to open the Search for Formatting dialog, which looks much like the Character dialog. Select a format from any of the tabs (for example: bold, 14 pt, Spacing above paragraph).

To find this format that has been applied only by direct formatting, leave the Including Styles box unchecked. To find this format also applied inside a character or paragraph style, select the Including Styles box.

Choose Find All to have all formats found highlighted. Choose Find Previous or Find Next to find one format instance at a time.

To replace the chosen format, click inside the Replace box, then choose Format and choose a replacement from the tabbed options.

Replace the formats one at a time using Find Previous > Replace or Find Next > Replace. Use Replace All to change all formats at once.

To avoid errors the next time you use this dialog, it is a good idea to repeat Step 2 and clear all the formatting criteria selected.

To change the formatting for a specific word or phrase in a document:

Type the word or phrase in the Find box.

In the Replace box, type in the new text you want to use and choose the formats you would like to change. However, if you want to keep the same word or phrase and only change its format, ensure you also type the word or phrase in the Replace box. Otherwise, Writer will remove the word or phrase from the document.

Replace the words and formats one at a time using Find Previous > Replace or Find Next > Replace. Use Replace All to change all words and formats at once.

Similarity search

This option finds terms that are similar to the Find: text. For example, a similarity search can find words that differ by two characters.

Select Similarity search and click the Similarities button to open a dialog where you can modify the text search by length and number of characters different from the search term (Figure 45).

Figure 45: Similarity search dialog

Exchange characters

Enter the number of characters in the search term that can be exchanged. For example, if you specify 2 exchanged characters, "black" and "crack" are considered similar.

Add characters

Enter the maximum number of characters by which a word can exceed the number of characters in the search term.

Remove characters

Enter the number of characters by which a word can be shorter than the search term.

Combine

Searches for a term that matches any combination of the similarity search settings.

Search with wildcards and regular expressions

A wildcard is a special character that represents one or more unspecified characters. Wildcards make text searches more powerful but often less specific. LibreOffice enables you to use combinations of characters known as regular expressions which are more specific than simple wildcards but less so than a literal string. Regular expressions are very powerful but not very intuitive. They can save time and effort by combining multiple finds into one.

Table 4 shows a few of the regular expressions used by LibreOffice. The Help describes many more regular expressions and their uses.

To use wildcards and regular expressions when searching and replacing:

On the Find and Replace dialog, click Other Options to see more choices. On this expanded dialog, select the Regular expressions option.

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.

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

Table 4: Examples of search wildcards (regular expressions)

To find	Use this expression	Examples and comments
Any single character	. (a period or full stop)	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.

Note

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

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 compare the two files and show the changes. 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 large or complex documents, 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 added or deleted material or changed formatting. Later, you or another person can review and accept or reject each change.

Note

Not all changes are recorded. For example, changing a tab stop from align left to align right, changing a paragraph style, 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 subsequent user must enter the correct password in order to turn off protection or accept or reject changes.

Open the document. Check whether it contains multiple versions by clicking File > Versions. If multiple versions are listed, save the current version as a separate document with a different name and use this new document as the review copy.

With the review copy open, make sure that change recording is turned on. The Edit > Track Changes > Record menu item is highlighted when recording is turned on.

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

Tip

An alternative to steps 2 and 3 above is to choose File > Properties > Security tab, select the Record changes option, then click Protect and enter the password.

Track Changes menu and toolbar

In addition to the Track Changes menu (Figure 46), Writer provides a convenient toolbar (Figure 47) that includes buttons for the same functions.

Figure 46: Track Changes menu

Figure 47: Track Changes toolbar

1 Show Changes	5 Accept Change	9 Accept & go to Next	13 Insert Change Comment
2 Record Changes	6 Reject Change	10 Reject & go to Next	14 Protect Changes
3 Previous Change	7 Accept All Changes	11 Manage Changes	15 Compare Documents
4 Next Change	8 Reject All Changes	12 Insert Comment	16 Merge Documents

Recording changes

To modify the default settings, see Chapter 20, Customizing Writer, for instructions on setting up how changes will be displayed.

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

Tip

Hold the mouse pointer over a tracked 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.

To enter a comment on a tracked change, place the cursor in the area of the change and then click Edit > Track Changes > Comment or click the Insert Track Change Comment button on the Track Changes toolbar.

In addition to being displayed as an extended tip, the comment is also shown in the list in the Manage Changes dialog (Figure 48).

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

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

Tip

See also “Adding other comments” on page 71 for a way to annotate text that is not associated with a tracked change.

Accepting or rejecting changes

To accept or reject recorded changes, use any of these tools:

Track Changes toolbar (Figure 47)

Items on the Track Changes menu (Figure 46)

Right-click (context) menu

Manage Changes dialog

The results of accepting or rejecting a change are as follows:

Accept: incorporates the change into the document and removes the change indicator.

Reject: reverts the change to its original state and removes the change indicator.

Track Changes menu and toolbar

For quick and easy accepting and rejecting of changes, you can use the Track Changes toolbar (Figure 47), which includes buttons for the same functions as appear on the Edit > Track Changes submenu (Figure 46). To enable the Track Changes toolbar, click View > Toolbars > Track Changes on the Menu bar. You can dock this toolbar in a convenient place or leave it floating.

Right-click (context) menu

If tracked changes are not showing, click Edit > Track Changes > Show.

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.

Right-click the changed text. In the context menu, choose Accept Change or Reject Change.

Manage Changes dialog

Click Edit > Track Changes > Manage. The Manage Changes dialog (Figure 48) opens, showing changes that have not yet been accepted or rejected.

When you select a change in the dialog, the change itself is highlighted in the document, so you can see what the editor changed.

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.

To show only the changes of certain people or only the changes on specific days or various other restrictions, use the Filter tab (Figure 49) on the Manage Changes dialog. After specifying the filter criteria, return to the List tab to see those changes that meet your criteria.

Figure 48: The List tab of the Manage Changes dialog

Figure 49: The Filter page of the Manage Changes dialog

Comparing documents

Sometimes reviewers may forget to track the changes they make. You can find the changes if you compare the original document and the one that is edited. To compare them:

Open the edited document. Select Edit > Track Changes > Compare Document.

A file browser dialog opens. Select the original document and click Open.

Writer finds and marks the changes and displays the Manage Changes dialog. From this point, you can go through and accept or reject changes as described earlier.

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 copies of a document. Writer provides a facility to merge documents containing tracked changes into the original document, but the condition for making this work is very specific: the edited documents may differ only and exclusively in the recorded changes – all other original text must be identical.

To merge documents, all of the edited documents (but not the original document) need to have recorded changes in them.

Open the original document into which you want to merge all copies.

Click Edit > Track Changes > Merge Document. A file selection dialog opens.

Select the edited copy of the document to be merged with the first. If there have been no subsequent changes to the original document, the copy is merged into the original.

If any changes have been made to the original document, an error dialog appears that informs you that the merge is unsuccessful.

After the documents merge, you will see the recorded changes from the copy in the original document.

Repeat until all copies are merged.

All recorded changes are now included in the open copy. Save this file under another name.

Adding other comments

Writer provides another type of comment, which authors and reviewers can use to exchange ideas, ask for suggestions, or mark items needing attention.

You can select a block of text, including multiple paragraphs, to be highlighted for a comment, or you can insert a comment at a single point. To insert a comment, select the text, or place the cursor in the place the comment refers to. Right-click and choose Insert > Comment or press Ctrl+Alt+C or click the Insert Comment button (not the same as the Insert Track Change Comment button) on the Track Changes toolbar.

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. A Comments button is also added to the right of the horizontal ruler (Figure 50); you can click this button to toggle the display of the comments on and off.

Writer automatically adds the author’s name and a time stamp indicating when the comment was created. Select Tools > Options > LibreOffice > User Data to enter or change the name you want to appear in the Author field of the comment.

When you are finished typing the comment, click somewhere else on a page of the document. Otherwise, you will not be able to move away from the comment box.

If more than one person edits the document, each author is automatically allocated a different background color. Figure 50 shows an example of text with comments from two different authors. If an author selects text that overlaps another author’s comments, then the comments from the second author are nested with those of the first author.

Right-click a comment to open a context 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 choose Format all comments to open a dialog to apply some basic formatting to the text of the comment. You can also change font type, size, and alignment from the Menu bar.

When the document has been reviewed and commented and requires your action, you can mark each comment Resolved or Unresolved, using options on the comment’s context menu. When you mark a comment resolved, the word Resolved is inserted under the date in the comment box. You can toggle the display of all resolved comments in the document by using View > Resolved Comments on the Menu bar.

Figure 50: Comments in LibreOffice

To navigate from one comment to another, open the Navigator (F5), scroll to find and expand the Comments section. Double-click the comment text to move the cursor to the anchor point of the comment in the document.

You can also navigate the comments by selecting Comment in the Navigate By box at the top of the Navigator and clicking the Up and Down arrows next to it, to move to the next or previous comment. You can also navigate use the keyboard: Ctrl+Alt+Page Down moves to the next comment and Ctrl+Alt+Page Up moves to the previous comment.

To print the comments in a document, choose one of the options from the Comments drop-down list in the Print dialog (File > Print > LibreOffice Writer tab): Comments only, Place at end of document, Place at end of page, Place in margins (Figure 51).

Figure 51: Options for printing comments

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 and define their format, if the default values do not meet your needs; see below.

Define the location of footnotes on the page, and the color and line style for separator lines, if the defaults to not meet your needs. See Chapter 5, Formatting Pages: Basics.

Inserting footnotes and endnotes

To insert a footnote or an endnote:

Position the cursor where you want the footnote or endnote marker to appear.

Select Insert > Footnote and Endnote on the Menu bar and choose Footnote or Endnote, or click the Insert Footnote or Insert Endnote button on the Standard 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.

To change the default Footnote/Endnote settings, go to Tools > Footnotes and Endnotes on the Menu bar.

To choose whether to use the automatic numbering sequence specified in the footnote settings or specify a custom number, go to Insert > Footnote and Endnote > Footnote or Endnote on the Menu bar to open the Insert Footnote/Endnote dialog (Figure 52).

You can edit an existing footnote or endnote in 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.

Figure 52: Inserting a footnote/endnote

Formatting footnotes and endnotes

To format the footnotes themselves, click Tools > Footnotes and Endnotes. On the Footnotes/Endnotes Settings dialog (Figure 53), choose preferred settings.

Figure 53: Defining footnote formatting

Linking to another part of a document

Typed cross-references to other parts of a document 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 references are up to date: hyperlinks and automatic cross-references. Both methods can be used to link to other parts of the same document or to another document.

Both methods have the same result: if you Ctrl+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.

To hyperlink to an object such as an image, and have the hyperlink show useful text such as Figure 6, either give such an object a useful name instead of leaving it as the default name (“Image12”), which may not correspond to the object’s position in the document, or use the Hyperlink dialog to modify the visible text. In contrast, cross-references to figures with captions can be set to 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 the text of cross-references update if you reword a heading, caption, or other linked item, use automatic cross-references. For details, see Chapter 17, Fields.

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. You can also cross-reference to a bookmark. For more information, see Chapter 17, 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 > AutoCorrect Options. On the Options tab, select the URL Recognition option.

If you do not want LibreOffice to convert a specific URL to a hyperlink, you can go to Edit > Undo on the Menu bar, or press Ctrl+Z immediately after the formatting has been applied, or place the cursor in the hyperlink, right-click, and select Remove Hyperlink in the context menu.

You can also insert hyperlinks to other parts of your document, to other documents or parts of documents, and to email addresses, using the Navigator and the Hyperlink dialog, and you can modify all hyperlinks using the Hyperlink dialog. For details, see Chapter 12, Creating HTML Files, in the Getting Started Guide.

The standard (default) behavior for activating hyperlinks within LibreOffice is to use Ctrl+click. To change this behavior, go to Tools > Options > LibreOffice > Security, click the Options button next to Security Options and Warnings, and deselect Ctrl-click required to open hyperlinks. If clicking in your links activates them, check that page to see if the option has been deselected.

Editing hyperlinks

To edit a hyperlink, click anywhere in the link text and then open the Hyperlink dialog by right-clicking and choosing Edit Hyperlink in the context menu, or 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 open until you have edited all of them. Be sure to click Apply after each one. When you are finished, click Close.

To change the color of hyperlinks, go to Tools > Options > LibreOffice > Application Colors, scroll to Unvisited links and/or Visited links in the General section, select those options, pick the new colors, and click OK. This will change the color for all hyperlinks in all components of LibreOffice, which may not be what you want.

Rearranging headings and text using the Navigator

You can use the Navigator (Figure 54) to move headings and their associated text to another location in a document by doing the following:

If necessary, click the expansion symbol (+ sign or arrow) to the left of a heading to expand the list of subheadings.

(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.

Click 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 with it move up or down in the document.

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

Figure 54: Promote/Demote in Navigator

1 Promote Level	3 Promote Chapter	5 Heading Levels Shown
2 Demote Level	4 Demote Chapter

Tip

The names Promote Chapter and Demote Chapter might be better described as Move Up or Move Down (within the document, without changing the heading level) to distinguish them more clearly from Promote Level and Demote Level, which change the heading level—from Level 1 to Level 2, for example.

To quickly change the outline level of a heading:

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

To change the outline level of only the selected heading, but not its associated subheadings, hold down Ctrl, and then click the Promote Level or Demote Level icon.

Inserting material from other documents

You may wish to reuse material from other files in the document you are writing. For example, you might be writing a set of instructions that include some common paragraphs. You could, of course, retype or copy and paste the common paragraphs into each document. However, if the common paragraphs are edited, you may need to update that information in every document where it occurs.

Writer provides some tools for making these tasks easier:

The Section dialog, described in Chapter 6, Formatting Pages: Advanced.

Two items in the Navigator’s drag modes, described below.

To use the Navigator tools, first select the item you want to insert from the source document, then choose Insert as Link or Insert as Copy. You cannot create links or copies of graphics, OLE objects, references, or indexes using this method.

Insert as Link

Inserts the selected item as a link where you drag and drop in the current document. Text is inserted as a protected section, marked as linked to the source document. The contents of the link are automatically updated when the source is changed. To manually update the links in a document, choose Tools > Update > Links.

Insert as Copy

Inserts an independent copy of the selected item where you drag and drop in the current document. Text is in a section, but it is not protected. Copied items are not updated when the source is changed. You can remove the section, leaving the contents as normal text.

Line numbering

Line numbers in the margin are often used in legal documents, poetry, and lists of programming code. Writer can insert line numbers in an entire document or for selected paragraphs. Line numbers are included when you print the document. You can also add a separator between line numbers. Figure 55 shows an example with numbering on every line.

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).

To add line numbers to an entire document, click Tools > Line Numbering and select the Show numbering option in the top left corner of the Line Numbering dialog (Figure 56). Then select any options you want and click OK.

Figure 55: Line numbering example

Figure 56: Line Numbering dialog

To disable line numbering for the entire document, you can edit the Default Paragraph Style (because all paragraph styles are based on the Default Paragraph Style):

In the Sidebar, go to the Styles pane and click the Paragraph Styles icon.

Right-click on the Default Paragraph Style and choose Modify.

Click the Outline & List tab (see Figure 57).

In the Line Numbering area, deselect the Include this paragraph in line numbering box.

Click OK.

Figure 57: Disabling line numbering for a document

To enable line numbering for specific paragraphs:

First disable the feature for the document (as above), then select the paragraphs where you want to add the line numbers.

Choose Format > Paragraph, or right-click and choose Paragraph > Paragraph on the context menu.

On the Outline & List tab of the Paragraph dialog, select Include this paragraph in line numbering.

Click OK.

Alternatively, you can disable line numbering for specific paragraphs (while leaving most of them enabled) by selecting the paragraphs, choosing Format > Paragraph or right-clicking and choosing Paragraph > Paragraph on the context menu, then going to the Outline & List tab and deselecting Include this paragraph in line numbering.

You can also create a paragraph style that includes line numbering, and apply it to the paragraphs that you want to add line numbers to. For example, to number the lines of example code in a document, you will probably want to use a font or indentation that is different from normal text.

To specify the starting line number:

Click in the paragraph and choose Format > Paragraph or right-click and choose Paragraph > Paragraph on the context menu.

On the Outline & List tab, make sure Include this paragraph in line numbering is selected.

Select Restart at this paragraph and enter a line number in the Start with box.

Click OK.

Writer Guide 7.2

Chapter 4
Formatting Text

Introduction

This chapter covers the basics of formatting text in Writer, the word-processing component of LibreOffice:

Formatting paragraphs and characters

Using autoformatting

Creating bulleted, numbered, and outline lists

It assumes that you are familiar with the text techniques described in Chapter 2, Working with Text: Basics and Chapter 3, Working with Text: Advanced.

We recommend that you also follow the suggestions in Chapter 20, Customizing Writer, about displaying formatting aids, such as end-of-paragraph marks, and selecting other setup options.

Page formatting is covered in Chapters 5 and 6.

Formatting: direct (manual) or styles

There are two basic ways to format text:

Direct (or Manual) formatting

Applies formatting directly to specific paragraphs, characters, pages, frames, lists, or tables. For example, you can select a word, then click on a button on the Formatting toolbar to format the text as bold or italics.

Styles

Bundles formatting options under one name. For example, a paragraph style defines numerous settings for options such as font type and size, whether paragraphs should be indented, the space between lines, how paragraphs should be aligned on the page, and many others.

Using styles is recommended

Writer is a style-based program. Because styles apply whole groups of formats at the same time, they enable you to easily format a document consistently and to change the formatting of an entire document with minimal effort. Therefore, the use of paragraph and character styles is highly recommended.

In addition, styles are used by LibreOffice for many processes, even if you are not aware of them. For example, Writer relies on heading styles (or other styles you specify) when it compiles a table of contents.

For information on styles and how to use them, see Chapters 8 and 9 in this book.

Applying styles is quick and easy using the Styles deck of the Sidebar.

Caution

Manual formatting (also called direct formatting) overrides styles, and you cannot get rid of the manual formatting by applying a style to it.

Removing manual formatting

To remove manual formatting, select the text and choose Format > Clear Direct Formatting on the Menu bar, or right-click and choose Clear Direct Formatting on the context menu, or click the Clear Direct Formatting icon on the Formatting toolbar, or press Ctrl+M on the keyboard.

Formatting paragraphs using styles

Styles can be applied to paragraphs in several ways; see Chapter 8, Introduction to Styles:

Set Paragraph Style drop-down list at the left end of the Formatting toolbar and the Formatting (Styles) toolbar

Set Paragraph Style drop-down list at the top of the Properties deck of the Sidebar

Paragraph tab of the Styles deck on the Sidebar

Styles menu on the Menu Bar (limited to common styles)

Keyboard shortcuts Ctrl+1 to Ctrl+5 (paragraph styles Heading 1 to Heading 5)

Formatting (Styles) toolbar using View > Toolbars > Formatting (Styles); see Figure 58.

Figure 58: Formatting (Styles) toolbar

Formatting paragraphs directly

You can apply many formats to paragraphs using the icons on the Formatting toolbar and on the Paragraph panel of the Sidebar’s Properties deck (View > Sidebar) or commands on the Format menu on the Menu bar. Other formatting options are provided in the Paragraph dialog (page 86).

Formatting toolbar

On the Formatting toolbar, the icons and formats include:

Set Paragraph Style (drop-down list)

Align Left, Align Center, Align Right, Justified

Align Top, Center Vertically, Align Bottom

Toggle Bulleted List (with a palette of bullet types)

Toggle Numbered List (with a palette of numbering types)

Set Outline List Style (with a palette of outline types)

Set Line Spacing (choose from 1, 1.15, 1.5, 2, or custom spacing)

Increase Paragraph Spacing, Decrease Paragraph Spacing

Increase Indent, Decrease Indent, Hanging Indent

Paragraph (to open the Paragraph dialog)

Set Line Spacing

Not all toolbar icons are visible in a standard installation, but you can customize the toolbar to include those you use regularly; see Chapter 1, Introducing Writer.

Sidebar Properties deck

The Sidebar Properties deck (Figure 59) includes panels for applying styles, manually formatting characters, and manually formatting paragraphs. click the expansion symbol (+ or triangle) to open the panels if necessary.

Style panel

Includes the Set Paragraph Style drop-down list and icons for Clone Formatting, Update Selected Style, and New Style from Selection. These tools are described in Chapter 8, Introduction to Styles.

Character panel

See Figure 73 on page 91 and the description starting on page 90.

Paragraph panel

Contains most of the formatting controls, including several that are not found on the Formatting toolbar. Clicking the down-arrow by a button opens the control for further choices, such as fixed line spacing or color palette.

Each panel’s title bar has a More Options button on the right, which opens the relevant dialog (Paragraph Style, Character, or Paragraph) containing additional settings. Changing the values of any of these settings affects only the paragraph where the cursor is located, or several paragraphs if more than one are selected. If you wish to change the values for many paragraphs of that type, you should use a paragraph style.

1	Align Left	8	Increase Spacing	15	Indent From Left
2	Align Center	9	Decrease Spacing	16	Indent From Right
3	Align Right	10	Increase Indent	17	Indent First Line
4	Align Justified	11	Decrease Indent	18	Line Spacing
5	Bullets	12	Hanging Indent	19	More Options – opens relevant dialog
6	Numbering	13	Above Paragraph Spacing
7	Background Color	14	Below Paragraph Spacing
Figure 59: Style and Paragraph panels of the Properties deck in the Sidebar

Alignment options

You can use the buttons labelled 1–4 in Figure 59 to choose the alignment of a paragraph: Left, Right, Centered, or Justified. Figure 60 shows examples of the alignment options applied to text.

Left aligned text. Center aligned text. Right aligned text. Justified text inserts spacing between words to force the text to reach from margin to margin, if the text is longer than a single line. Figure 60: Text alignment options

When using justified text, the last line is by default aligned to the left. However, you can also align the last line to the center of the paragraph area or justify it so that spaces are increased between the words in order to fill the whole line. If you select the Expand single word option, then whenever the last line of a justified paragraph consists of a single word, this word is stretched by inserting spaces between characters so that it occupies the full length of the line.

Figure 61 shows an example of the effect obtained when choosing each of these options for a typical text font. In most cases, leave the setting on the default (left-aligned); but for some dramatic purposes (such as a very large font on a poster), you might prefer one of the other choices.

Three options are available for the alignment of the last line of a justified paragraph. This is an example of a left-aligned last line. Three options are available for the alignment of the last line of a justified paragraph. This is an example of a centered last line. Three options are available for the alignment of the last line of a justified paragraph. This is an example of a justified last line. When the last line of a justified paragraph contains a single word, you can stretch the word to fill the entire line. This is an example with the Expand single word option selected.

Figure 61: Examples of choices for the last line of a justified paragraph

These options are controlled in the Alignment tab of the Paragraph dialog (Figure 62), reached by choosing Format > Paragraph on the Menu bar, or by right-clicking in the paragraph and selecting Paragraph in the context menu, or by clicking the More Options button on the Paragraph panel in the Properties deck of the Sidebar.

Figure 62: Options for the last line of a justified paragraph

Line and paragraph spacing

Line spacing (button 18, Figure 59) refers to the distance from one baseline (the imaginary line at the bottom of a letter like “n” or “m”) to the next baseline. It is determined by the size of the font, as illustrated in Figure 63.

The Line Spacing submenu is shown in Figure 64. Here you can choose among standard spacings or define a custom value: Proportional (for example, 110%), At least (the amount specified in the Value box), Leading, or Fixed. To see the differences between these choices, do a few sample paragraphs and change the selections.

Figure 63: Line spacing is the distance between two baselines

Note

All options except Fixed or At Least use the font’s default. These two options allow you to set your own spacing, which is especially useful at small font sizes to increase readability.

Figure 64: Line spacing submenu

Paragraph spacing refers to the vertical spacing between one paragraph and the paragraphs above and below it. As shown in Figure 59, the current values are shown in the Above Paragraph Spacing box (13) and the Below Paragraph Spacing box (14). You can change either or both of these settings independently.

Tip

Paragraph spacing is often used in computer documentation, such as this book. Paragraph indentation (see next topic) is more commonly used in other documents. For good design, use paragraph spacing or paragraph indentation, never both.

Paragraph indentation

You can use the buttons labelled 10, 11, and 12 in Figure 59 to increase the amount of space to leave between the left and right page margins and the paragraph.

The distances are determined by settings 15 (Before Text Indent; that is, from the left margin), 16 (After Text Indent; that is, from the right margin), and 17 (First Line Indent, which indents the first line from the left margin, or from the specified indentation from the margin).

Button 12, Switch to Hanging Indent, leaves the first line at the left margin (or the specified indentation from the margin) and indents all the other lines of the paragraph by the amount specified by button 17 or in the Paragraph dialog.

This paragraph is an example of a paragraph with a first line indent. It is typical of paragraphs in books. This paragraph is an example of a paragraph with a hanging indent. It is often used for numbered paragraphs or those with an icon or other image on the left.

Note

In right-to-left languages, the behavior of the Before Text and After Text indents is the opposite: “before” is on the right margin; “after” is on the left margin.

Paragraph background color

Click the button labelled 7 in Figure 59 to open a palette from which you can choose a color for the background of the paragraph. From this palette (Figure 65), you can also click Custom Color to open the Pick a Color dialog, where you can define new colors to be added to the palette.

Note

If the paragraph has been indented from the right or left margin, the background color is not applied to the area of the indent. To extend the color to the margin, use a frame, table, or other method; see Chapter 6, Formatting Pages: Advanced.

Figure 65: Selecting a background color for a paragraph

Settings on the Paragraph dialog

The paragraph dialog includes several more tabs: Tabs (covered in “Setting tab stops and indents” on page 88), Borders, Drop Caps, Area (more choices than just color), Transparency, Text Flow, and Outline & Numbering. For more information, see Chapter 8, Introduction to Styles, and Chapter 9, Working with Styles.

Borders

Borders are useful for setting a paragraph off from the surrounding text, to include digressions from the main topic. For example, the Tips, Notes, and Cautions in this book use a border below the text.

Figure 66: Options for paragraph borders

You can add borders to any combination of top, bottom, and sides of paragraphs. You can choose the style (solid, dotted, dashed, doubled), width, and color of the lines; these choices apply to all borders on a paragraph. The spacing from each line to the paragraph’s contents can be set individually for the top, bottom, left, and right.

On the Borders tab of the Paragraph dialog (Figure 66), you can also choose to apply a shadow to a paragraph; “distance” refers to the width of the shadow.

Select the Merge with next paragraph option to suppress top or bottom lines when the indent, border, and shadow styles of the next paragraph are the same as the current paragraph.

Drop caps

Drop capitals are enlarged letters that mark the start of a new chapter or section. To improve consistency, they are best set up in a paragraph style that you apply to the relevant paragraphs. See Chapter 9, Working with Styles, for details.

Area

Area (also called “fill” and “background” in some parts of LibreOffice) includes five types of fill (background): color, gradient, bitmap, pattern, and hatching. Select a fill type to display the choices available for that type. These choices are covered in more detail in Chapter 5, Formatting Pages: Basics. You can also create your own fills.

Figure 67: Types of fill for paragraph backgrounds

Transparency

Transparency affects the paragraph’s background. It is useful for creating watermarks and making colors or images more pale (for more contrast with the text). The available choices are shown in Chapter 5, Formatting Pages: Basics, and are covered in detail in the Draw Guide.

Text Flow

The Text Flow tab (Figure 68) has several sections. Hyphenation is covered in Chapter 2, Working with Text: Basics, and breaks are covered in Chapter 5, Formatting Pages: Basics.

Figure 68: Options for text flow: hyphenation, breaks, and keeping text together

In the Options section, you can specify how paragraphs are treated at the bottom of a page. Do not split paragraph and Keep with next paragraph should be self-explanatory. The other options allow you to avoid a single line at the bottom of a page (called an orphan) or a single line at the top of a page (a widow).

Outline & List

The Outline & List tab on the Paragraph dialog provides options for choosing the outline level of the paragraph and its list style (if any). If the paragraph is part of a numbered list, you can specify that list numbering restarts at the paragraph, and what number to restart with.

This tab does not cover the same functions as the Chapter Numbering dialog (Tools > Chapter Numbering), but the Outline level selected here is related to the outline defined there. See Chapter 8, Introduction to Styles, and Chapter 9, Working with Styles, for a discussion of these features. Line numbering is discussed in Chapter 3, Working with Text: Advanced.

Figure 69: Selecting outline level, paragraph numbering, and line numbering

Setting tab stops and indents

The horizontal ruler shows the tab stops. Any tab stops that you have defined will overwrite the default tab stops. Tab settings affect indentation of full paragraphs (using the Increase Indent and Decrease Indent buttons on the Formatting toolbar or the Paragraph panel of the Properties deck in the Sidebar) as well as indentation of parts of a paragraph (by pressing the Tab key on the keyboard).

Tip

Many indents, for example at the beginning of a paragraph, can be set in the paragraph style, so you don’t need to use the Tab key to activate them.

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, right-click a paragraph and choose Paragraph to open the Paragraph dialog; then select either the Tabs tab (Figure 70) or the Indents & Spacing tab of the dialog. Alternatively, you can double-click the horizontal ruler to open the Indents & Spacing tab of the Paragraph dialog. A better strategy is to define tabs for the paragraph style. Refer to Chapters 8 and 9 for more about paragraph styles.

Figure 70: Specifying tab stops and fill characters

Tip

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

Changing the default tab stop interval

Caution

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 > LibreOffice Writer > General.

Figure 71: Selecting a default tab stop interval

Changing measurement units for tab stops and rulers

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 72 for the horizontal ruler. Click one of them to change the ruler to that unit. The selected setting applies only to that ruler.

Figure 72: Changing the measurement unit for a ruler

Formatting characters using styles

To apply a character style, highlight the characters or words and apply the selected character style from any of the following:

Character Styles tab of the Styles deck on the Sidebar

Styles menu on the Menu bar (limited)

Right-click context menu (limited)

Formatting (Styles) toolbar (Figure 58)

For more about character styles, refer to Chapter 8, Introduction to Styles, and Chapter 9, Working with Styles.

Formatting characters directly

You can apply many formats to characters using the buttons on the Formatting toolbar and by using the Characters panel of the Properties deck of the Sidebar. Not all toolbar buttons are visible in a standard installation, but you can customize the toolbar to include those you use regularly; see Chapter 1, Introducing Writer. These formats include:

Font Name, Font Size

Bold, Italic, Underline, Double Underline, Overline, Strikethrough, Outline

Superscript, Subscript

Uppercase, Lowercase

Increase Font Size, Decrease Font Size

Font Color (with a palette of colors)

Background Color (with a palette of colors)

Highlighting (with a palette of colors)

To change the characteristics of an entire paragraph (for example the font name, size, or color), and for many other purposes, it is highly recommended that you use styles rather than manually formatting characters. For information on styles and how to use them, see Chapters 8 and 9. Applying styles is quick and easy using the Styles deck of the Sidebar.

Figure 73 shows the Character panel in the Properties deck of the Sidebar. Clicking the down-arrow next to a button opens the control for further choices, such as font color or character spacing. The appearance of the buttons may vary with your operating system and the selection of icon size and style in Tools > Options > LibreOffice > View.

Click the More Options button (15) to open the Character dialog, which includes more choices than are available through the Formatting toolbar or the Sidebar.

Note

Just as direct paragraph formatting overrides the current paragraph style, applying direct character formatting to characters overrides the current character style formatting.

Font name, size, and effects

To change the font name and size used for selected characters, you can use the drop-down menus on the Formatting toolbar, the Character panel in the Sidebar, or the Character dialog.

Similarly, you can apply bold, italics, underline, strikethrough, or shadow effects to selected characters on the Formatting toolbar, the Character panel in the Sidebar, or the Character dialog. The Underline effect has a drop-down menu of line types (Figure 74). The Formatting toolbar includes other effects that are not in the Sidebar: overline and double underline; these buttons may not be visible in a default installation.

To choose the color of the font or its highlighting, open the appropriate color palette (10 or 11; similar to the one shown in Figure 65). The highlighting selection over-rides any background color that has been applied to the paragraph.

To increase or decrease the font size of selected characters, you can click the relevant buttons on the Formatting toolbar or the Character panel in the Sidebar; however, you have no control over the amount of the increase or decrease, which is usually 2 points. For finer control, use the Font Size drop-down list instead.

1	Font Name	6	Strikethrough	11	Highlight Color
2	Font Size	7	Toggle Shadow	12	Clear Direct Formatting
3	Bold	8	Increase Font Size	13	Set Character Spacing
4	Italic	9	Decrease Font Size	14	Superscript
5	Underline	10	Font Color	15	Subscript
16	More Options – opens Character dialog
Figure 73: Character panel in the Properties deck of the Sidebar

Figure 74: Selecting the line style for the Underline effect

To change characters into subscripts or superscripts (using the default values for size and position), select them and click the relevant buttons on the Formatting toolbar or the Character panel in the Sidebar. For more control, use the Character dialog.

To quickly change the spacing between characters, select them and choose from the Character Spacing drop-down menu in the Sidebar (Figure 75).

Figure 75: Changing character spacing

Settings on the Character dialog

The Character dialog has six tabs, described in this section. Most of these tabs are the same as the tabs on the Character Style dialog (see Chapter 9, Working with Styles).

Font and Font Effects

On the Font tab (Figure 76), you can specify the font’s family, style (choices vary with the font, but typically include regular, bold, and italic), and size; and the language for the paragraph, if it differs from the language for the document. The box at the bottom shows a preview of the selections.

Figure 76: Font tab of the Character dialog

On the Font Effects tab (Figure 77), you can choose the color of the font and a range of effects, many of which are not suitable for formal documents. Figures 78 and 79 show the choices in some of the drop-down lists.

Figure 77: Font Effects tab of the Character dialog

Figure 78: Choices for Case effect

Figure 79:Choices for strikethrough and relief

Position

The Position tab (Figure 80) collects the options that affect the position of text on the page. This tab is divided into three sections: Position, Rotation/Scaling, and Spacing.

The Position section controls the appearance of superscripts and subscripts.

The Rotation/Scaling section controls the rotation of the characters. The Scale width box controls the percentage of the font width by which to compress or stretch the rotated text.

The Spacing section controls the spacing between individual characters. The Pair Kerning option (selected by default) automatically adjusts the character spacing for specific letter combinations. Kerning is only available for certain font types and, for printed documents, works only if your printer supports it.

Figure 80: Position tab of the Character dialog

Hyperlink

The Hyperlink tab of the Character dialog is an alternative to using the Hyperlink dialog (Insert > Hyperlink). It includes fewer choices and is specifically for text (not button) links. Hyperlinks can be to other parts of the same document, to other documents, or to web pages.

Figure 81: Hyperlink tab of the Character dialog

When LibreOffice recognizes a string of characters that may be a URL (internet address), it replaces the characters with a hyperlink and formats the hyperlink as specified in the Internet Link character style. On this dialog you can choose a different character style (if the style has been defined previously) or replace the URL with other text. To turn off this feature, choose Tools > AutoCorrect > AutoCorrect Options, go to the Options tab and deselect URL Recognition.

For more about creating and editing hyperlinks, see the Help system or Chapter 12 in the Getting Started Guide.

Highlighting

The Highlighting tab controls the background color for selected characters. It is similar to the Highlighting drop-down palette.

Borders

The Borders tab is the same as the Borders tab on the Paragraph dialog; see page 86.

Formatting lists using styles

Whenever possible, use paragraph styles for creating unordered (bulleted) and ordered (numbered) lists. Writer comes with two sets of paragraph styles for this purpose. However, these styles do not include options for settings such as the type of bullet or position of numbers. Those settings come from list styles, which are intended to be attached to paragraph styles. It is recommended to use them together in these ways:

Use paragraph styles List 1, List 2, List 3, and so on for creating unordered lists. These styles use Bullet list styles.

Use paragraph styles Numbering 1, Numbering 2, Numbering 3, etc, for creating ordered lists. These styles use the list styles called Numbering 1, Numbering 2, etc.

With paragraph styles, you can easily create nested lists, in which list items have sub-items under them, as in an outline. This requires specifying the settings for the additional levels. Once you have set up nested lists, you can readily change the hierarchy of an item. To demote an item one level, position the cursor at the beginning of the line (after the bullet or number) and press the Tab key. To promote an item one level, press Shift+Tab.

For more about creating lists using styles, see Chapters 8 (Introduction to Styles), 9 (Working with Styles) and 12 (Lists: Tips and Tricks).

Formatting lists directly

You can directly format numbered or bulleted lists in several ways:

Use the Bullets and Numbering toolbar (Figure 82).

Use the Toggle Unordered List and Toggle Ordered List buttons on the Formatting toolbar, the Formatting (Styles) toolbar, or the Paragraph panel of the Properties deck of the Sidebar (Figure 83).

Use the Bullets and Numbering dialog (Figures 84 and 85).

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

Tip

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

Note

Bullets and numbering applied in these ways cannot be removed with Format > Clear Direct Formatting on the Menu bar, or with the Clear Direct Formatting icon on the Formatting toolbar, or with Clear Direct Formatting in the context menu, or by using Ctrl+M. Rather, they are turned off or removed from selected text by toggling the relevant buttons on the Formatting toolbar, or on the Sidebar Properties deck.

Using the Bullets and Numbering toolbar

You can create a nested list (where one or more list items has a sub-list under it, as in an outline) by using the buttons on the Bullets and Numbering toolbar (Figure 82). You can move items up or down the list, create subpoints, change the style of bullets, add paragraphs without numbers or bullets (for list items that include more than one paragraph), and access the Bullets and Numbering dialog, which contains more detailed controls.

Use View > Toolbars > Bullets and Numbering to display the toolbar.

1	Demote One Level	5	Move Down	9	Insert Unnumbered Entry
2	Promote One Level	6	Move Up	10	Restart Numbering
3	Demote One Level with Subpoints	7	Move Down with Subpoints	11	Open the Bullets and Numbering dialog
4	Promote One Level with Subpoints	8	Move Up with Subpoints
Figure 82: Bullets and Numbering toolbar

Tip

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 Ctrl+Tab.

If you create a nested list using the buttons on the Bullets and Numbering toolbar, all the levels of the list (up to 10) initially apply the same numbering (or bullet) format. If you want to use a combination of numbering formats and bullets when creating nested lists, you can use these ways:

Click in each list item and then select one of the choices in the drop-down palettes under the Toggle Unordered List and Toggle Ordered List buttons on the Formatting toolbar or the Properties deck of the Sidebar, as described in “Using the Bullets and Numbering palettes on the Sidebar” below.

Use the Bullets and Numbering dialog, as described in “Using the Bullets and Numbering dialog” on page 97.

However, a much better strategy is to define and apply a list style, as discussed in Chapter 12, Lists: Tips and Tricks.

Using the Bullets and Numbering palettes on the Sidebar

The Bullets and Numbering palettes on the Paragraph panel on the Properties deck of the Sidebar can be used to create nested lists and access the Bullets and Numbering dialog. The Sidebar does not include tools for promoting and demoting items in the list, as found on the Bullets and Numbering toolbar.

Figure 83: Bullets and Numbering choices on the Properties deck of the Sidebar

Using the Bullets and Numbering dialog

The Bullets and Numbering dialog has six tabs. Four tabs provide pre-defined symbols and sequences to choose from: Unordered, Ordered, Outline (choose from eight standard outline sequences), and Image (choose a bullet image). Two tabs provide detailed options for defining your own lists: Position (Figure 84) and Customize (Figure 85). These are the same as the tabs provided for list styles, discussed in Chapter 12, Lists: Tips and Tricks.

Figure 84: Position tab of the Bullets and Numbering dialog

Figure 85: Customize tab of the Bullets and Numbering dialog

Autoformatting

You can set Writer to automatically format parts of a document according to the choices made on the Options and Localized Options tabs of the AutoCorrect dialog (Tools > AutoCorrect > AutoCorrect Options). The Help describes each of these choices and how to activate the autoformats.

Tip

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

To automatically format the file according to the options you have set, choose Tools > 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 where you can accept or reject the changes.

AutoCorrect Options

Opens the AutoCorrect dialog (Figures 86 and 87), where you can choose the autoformatting you want.

The Localized Options tab (Figure 86) controls the formatting of quotation marks and apostrophes (which look like a closing single quote). Most fonts include curly quotation marks (also known as “smart quotes”), but for some purposes (such as marking minutes and seconds of latitude and longitude) you may wish to format them as straight quotes.

Straight quotes	Smart quotes
' ' " "	‘ ’ “ ”

Tip

Most people keep the AutoCorrect setting for smart quotes and use the Special Characters dialog to insert straight quotes when needed. See Chapter 2, Working with Text: Basics.

Figure 86: Autoformatting quotation marks

Figure 87: Autoformatting choices on the Options tab

Writer Guide

Chapter 5
Formatting Pages: Basics

Page styles and related features

Introduction

Writer provides several ways for you to control page layouts. This chapter describes the use of page styles and some associated functions:

Margins

Page breaks

Headers and footers

Page numbering

Title pages

Footnotes and endnotes

Chapter 6, Formatting Pages: Advanced covers the use of columns, frames, tables, and sections; changing page orientation within a document; and the use of borders and backgrounds. Some other uses of page styles are discussed in Chapter 8, Introduction to Styles. The Page Style dialog is covered in detail in Chapter 9, Working with Styles.

Note

All pages in a Writer document are based on page styles. The other layout methods (described in Chapter 6) build upon the underlying page style.

Tip

Page layout is usually easier if you select the options to show text, object, table, and section boundaries in Tools > Options > LibreOffice > Application Colors and the options for paragraph ends, tabs, breaks, and other items in Tools > Options > LibreOffice Writer > Formatting Aids.

Setting up basic page layout using styles

In Writer, page styles define the basic layout of all pages, including page size, margins, the placement of headers and footers, borders and backgrounds, number of columns, page numbers, and so on.

Writer comes with several page styles, which you can build on or modify, and you can define new (custom) page styles. You can have one or many page styles in a single document. If you do not specify a page style, Writer uses the Default Page Style.

To change the layout of individual pages, either define a new page style or use one of the techniques (sections, frames, or tables) described in Chapter 6, Formatting Pages: Advanced.

Note

For some documents, all layout changes (such as the position of page numbers and other elements in a header or footer on facing pages) can be defined in a single page style.

Tip

Any modifications of page styles, including the Default Page Style, apply only to the document you are working on. If you want the changes to be the default for all documents, you need to put the changes into a template and make that template the default template. See Chapter 10, Working with Templates, for details.

Changing page margins

You can change page margins in these ways:

Using the page rulers—quick and easy, but does not have fine control.

Using the Page Style dialog—can specify margins to two decimal places.

Using the Page deck in the Sidebar—changes all margins to the same value.

Note

If you change the margins using any of these methods, the new margins are recorded in the page style and affect all pages that use that style. The new margins will be shown in the Page Style dialog the next time you open it.

If you want to change the margins on some pages, but not others, you must use different page styles and switch between them; see “Inserting page breaks” on page 104.

To change margins using the rulers:

The shaded sections of the rulers are the margins (Figure 88). Put the mouse cursor over the line between the gray and white sections. The pointer turns into a double-headed arrow and displays the current setting in a tooltip.

Hold down the left mouse button and drag the mouse to move the margin.

Figure 88: Moving the margins

Caution

The small arrows on the ruler are used for indenting paragraphs. They are often in the same place as the page margins, so you need to be careful to move the margin marker, not the arrows. The double-headed arrows shown in Figure 88 are the mouse cursors placed in the correct position.

Tip

After making a change, passing the mouse cursor over the new margin will show its new measurement.

To change margins using the Page Style dialog:

Right-click anywhere on the page and select Page Style in the context menu.

On the Page tab of the dialog (Figure 89), type the required distances in the Margins boxes. The Gutter margin is the extra space to leave between the left (or inner) edge of the page and the left (or inner) margin. Alternatively, you can leave the Gutter set to zero and add the gutter margin amount to the left or inner margin value.

Click OK to save.

Figure 89: Page tab of Page Style dialog

To change margins using the Page deck in the Sidebar, choose one of the preset margins in the drop-down list (Figure 90). You can also access the Page Style dialog from the symbol at the top right of the Format section’s title bar.

Figure 90: Changing margins using the Sidebar

Note

Changing the margin on the Sidebar changes all four margins to the same dimension. Use another method if you want margins of different sizes.

Inserting page breaks

In many documents (for example, a multi-page report), you want the text to flow from one page to the next as you add or delete information. Writer does this automatically, unless you override the text flow using one of the techniques described in this section.

Controlling automatic page breaks

You can control some of the automatic text flow in several ways, including:

Use the Keep with next paragraph option, for example to prevent the lead-in sentence to a list from being separated from the list. This option is found on the Text Flow tab of the Paragraph dialog (right-click and choose Paragraph > Paragraph in the context menu to open the dialog).

Figure 91: Keep with next paragraph and Do not split paragraph options on Paragraph dialog

Use the Do not split paragraph option on the Text Flow tab of the Paragraph dialog (for individual paragraphs) or the Paragraph Style dialog (for all paragraphs with that style).

Use a paragraph style to require a paragraph to start on a new page. A typical use is for chapter titles to always start on a new right-hand (odd-numbered) page; use the Paragraph Style dialog to define this (see “Text flow options for paragraph styles” in Chapter 9, Working with Styles, for more information).

Inserting a page break without changing the page style

If you want a page break in a particular place—for example, to put a heading at the top of a new page—you can position the cursor at the point where you want to start the new page and select Insert > Page Break on the Menu bar.

Inserting a page break and changing to a new page style

If you want the new page to have a different page style—for example, to change from a First Page style to a Left Page style—use either of these methods.

Caution

Do not try to change a page style for a single page without inserting a page break. If you do, the page style of some or all of the other pages may also change.

Method 1

Position the cursor at the point you want to start the next page. Select Insert > More Breaks > Manual Break.

In the Type section of the Insert Break dialog (Figure 92), Page break is preselected, and Style is set at [None]. In the Style drop-down list, select the page style for the next page. Do not select the Change page number option. Click OK.

Figure 92: Inserting a manual page break and changing the page style

Method 2

Position the cursor in the paragraph you want to be at the start of the next page. Right-click and choose Paragraph > Paragraph in the context menu.

On the Text Flow page of the Paragraph dialog (Figure 93), in the Breaks section, select Insert and With page style. In the Style drop-down list, select the page style for the next page. Do not select the Page number option. Click OK to insert the page break.

Figure 93: Inserting a manual page break using the Paragraph dialog

Tip

See “Numbering the first page something other than 1“ on page 111 for information on the use of the page number field in these dialogs.

Creating headers and footers

Headers are portions of a document that appear at the top of every page; footers appear at the bottom of a page. They typically include a page number and sometimes document information such as the title. In Writer, headers and footers are specified in page styles; therefore, all the pages with the same page style will display the same header and footer, although the contents of the header/footer may vary. For example, the header/footer on the first page of a section, chapter, or document may contain different information than the rest of the headers and footers in the document, even though the page style is the same. See “Using one page style” on page 114.

Chapter 9 describes how to format a header as part of the page style formatting. The example below shows how to insert a header in the Default pages using manual formatting.

Terminology

A heading is a paragraph that introduces a chapter or section of a document; for example, “Creating headers and footers” above. A header (also known as a running header) appears on each page and typically displays information about the document.

There are two ways to insert a header. The simplest method is to click above the top of the text area, then when the Header marker appears, click the +. (To insert a footer, click below the bottom of the text area to display the Footer marker, and then click the +.)

Figure 94: Header marker at top of text area

You can also select Insert > Header and Footer > Header > [Page Style] on the Menu bar. The submenu lists the page styles used in your document. In addition, the submenu includes the entry All, which activates headers on all the pages of the document regardless of their page style. Similarly, to insert a footer, choose Insert > Header and Footer > Footer > [Page Style].

For our example, select Default Style to activate the headers or footers only on the pages that use the Default Page Style. An area will appear at the top or bottom of the page (Figure 95).

Figure 95: A page with a page header

Formatting headers and footers

In Writer, headers and footers are paragraphs; therefore, you can format the header or footer text using the same techniques you use for formatting text in the main body of the document. See Chapter 4, Formatting Text.

You can also add images to headers and footers using any of the techniques described in Chapter 11, Images and Graphics, and you can line up information using tables as described in Chapter 6, Formatting Pages: Advanced.

Tip

Writer provides paragraph styles for headers and footers, which you can modify and use in the same way as other paragraph styles. See Chapter 8, Introduction to Styles, and Chapter 9, Working with Styles.

To format the layout of headers and footers manually:

Use any of these methods to open the relevant page style dialog:

Click anywhere on the page and choose Format > Page Style on the Menu bar.

Right-click anywhere on the page and choose Page Style in the context menu.

If the page has a header, click in the header area. When the Header marker appears, click the down arrow and select Format Header.

If the page has a footer, click in the footer area. When the Footer marker appears, click the down arrow and select Format Footer.

On the Header or Footer tab of the Page Style dialog (Figure 96), you can change the margins, spacing, and height.

Click More to open the Border/Background dialog (Figure 97), where you can add borders, background colors, and background images to the header or footer.

Figure 96: Footer tab of Page Style dialog

Figure 97: Border / Background page for header or footer

Using fields in headers and footers

You can type information into headers and footers, but some items such as document titles and chapter titles are best added as fields. That way, if something changes, the headers and footers are all updated automatically.

Fields are covered in Chapter 17, Fields, but one example here may be useful. To insert the document title into the header on a Default page style:

Select File > Properties > Description on the Menu bar, enter a title for the document in the Title area, and click OK to close the dialog.

Add a header (Insert > Header and Footer > Header > [Page Style]).

Place the cursor in the header part of the page.

Select Insert > Field > Title on the Menu bar. The title should appear on a gray background (which does not show when printed and can be turned off).

To change the title of the document, select File > Properties > Description again and edit.

Note

You must use a field for the page number so it changes from one page to the next. See “Numbering pages” below.

Numbering pages

When you place a page number field in a header or footer, the number appears on every page and changes automatically from one page to the next. The page number appears with a gray background. This gray background denotes a field; although it is visible on screen, it is not printed.

Tip

If you wish to turn off the gray background, choose View > Field Shadings (or press Ctrl+F8). If you see the words “Page number” instead of a number, press Ctrl+F9. This toggles Writer between displaying the field name and the contents of the field.

This section describes some techniques to insert page numbers and related information in headers or footers of a document:

Simple page numbering

Defining the number format

Restarting page numbering and changing numbering format

Numbering the first page something other than 1

Combining header text and page number

Numbering pages by chapter

Simple page numbering

The simplest case is to have the page number at the top or bottom of every page and nothing more (Figure 98). To do this, put the cursor on the header or footer and choose Insert > Page Number or Insert > Field > Page Number on the Menu bar.

Figure 98: Page number inserted in the header

You can align the page number to the left, right, or center. Click in the footer paragraph and then use one of these methods:

Click on one of the alignment icons on the Formatting toolbar.

Open the Properties deck in the Sidebar. In the Paragraph section, click on one of the alignment icons (Figure 99).

Figure 99: Alignment icons in Properties deck of Sidebar

Right-click and choose Paragraph > Paragraph in the context menu. On the Paragraph dialog, go to the Alignment tab and choose an alignment option, then click OK.

Figure 100: Alignment tab of the Paragraph dialog

Defining the number format

Many more variations are possible. For example, you can set the page number to display in Roman numerals. One way to do that is to double-click the page number and select the desired format; a better choice is to specify the format of numbers in the page style as explained here.

Right-click in the text area of the page and select Page Style in the context menu.

On the Page tab of the Page Style dialog, in the Layout Settings section on the right, select i, ii, iii, …. in the Page numbers: drop-down list to use lowercase Roman numerals (Figure 101).

Figure 101: Changing format of page numbers

Caution

Any change in the number format affects the page numbers on all pages using that page style, regardless of the method used to change the format. To change the format of page numbers on some pages but not all, you need to use different page styles; see “Restarting page numbering and changing numbering format” below.

Restarting page numbering and changing numbering format

You may want to restart the page numbering at 1, for example, on the page following a title page or a table of contents. In addition, many documents have the front matter (such as the table of contents) numbered with Roman numerals and the main body of the document numbered in Arabic numerals, restarting at 1.

First, you need to define the numbering format for two page styles: Front Matter and Default. See “Using different page styles” on page 114 and “Defining the number format’ above.

Next, in the front matter, insert a page number (see “Simple page numbering” on page 108).

Then, you can restart page numbering as follows:

Place the cursor in the first paragraph of the page to have the Default page style. (A heading is a paragraph.)

Choose Format > Paragraph on the Menu bar, or right-click and choose Paragraph > Paragraph, to display the Paragraph dialog.

On the Text Flow page of the Paragraph dialog, in the Breaks area (Figure 102):

Select Insert.

In the Type drop-down list, select Page.

In the Position drop-down list, select Before.

Select With page style and choose from the drop-down list the page style for the next page.

Select Page number to make the field active. Type 1. Click OK.

Figure 102: The Breaks section of the Text Flow page of the Paragraph Style dialog

Numbering the first page something other than 1

Sometimes you may want to start a document with a page number greater than 1. The instructions are similar to Step 3 in the previous section.

Insert a page number in the header or footer (Insert > Page Number).

Click in the first paragraph in the text area. Choose Format > Paragraph (or right-click and choose Paragraph > Paragraph in the context menu).

In the Text Flow page of the Paragraph dialog, in the Breaks section (Figure 102), select Insert and select Page in the Type drop-down list. Select With page style and the page style you are using for the first page of the document.

Select Page number to make the field active. Type the page number you want to start with. Click OK.

Note

If you set a starting page number that is an even number, you will end up with a blank page before the first page. LibreOffice adheres to the convention that odd page numbers go on right-hand pages and even page numbers on left-hand pages. However, you can suppress this blank page when you print the file or export it as a PDF. See Chapter 7, Printing, Exporting, Emailing, Signing for more information.

Combining header text and page number

You can apply a lot of interesting variations without further knowledge of page styles. Here are some suggestions:

Right-align the header to make the page number appear on the top-right.

Type the word Page (and a space) before the page number field so the header reads Page 1, Page 2, and so on.

Add the document title so the header includes, for example: Peter’s Favourite Poems (left aligned) and Page x (right aligned), where x is the value of the Page Number field. Use a right-aligned tab to separate the title from the page number.

Writer also has a Page Count field (Insert > Field > Page Count). Using it and the page number field, you could, for example, have a header that reads Page 2 of 12.

These variations are all illustrated in Figure 103.

Figure 103: Variations on the simple page numbering method

Numbering pages by chapter

Technical documents often include the chapter number with the page number in the header or footer. For example, 1-1, 1-2, 1-3, ...; 2-1, 2-2, 2-3, ... To set up this type of page numbering in Writer, you need to do three things:

Ensure that your chapter titles are all identified by the same paragraph style, for example, the Heading 1 style.

Use Tools > Chapter Numbering to tell Writer what paragraph style you are using for Level 1, and specify “1,2,3” in the Number box.

Figure 104: Specifying paragraph style and numbering for chapter titles

Insert the chapter number in the document:

Place the cursor in the header or footer just before the page number you inserted earlier, and choose Insert > Field > More Fields on the Menu bar.

On the Fields dialog (Figure 105), go to the Document tab. Select Chapter in the Type list, Chapter number in the Format list, and 1 in the Level box. Click Insert.

Type a hyphen or other punctuation between the chapter number and the page number.

Figure 105: Inserting a chapter number field

Defining a different first page for a document

Many documents, such as letters and memos, have a first page that is different from the other pages in the document. For example, the first page of a letterhead typically has a different header, as shown in Figure 106, or the first page of a report might have no header or footer, while the other pages do.

Figure 106: Letterhead with different headers for first and following pages

You can do this in several ways:

Use the Default (or any other) page style for your document. Deselect the Same content on first page option on the header/footer tabs in the Page Style dialog, and then add different headers/footers to the first page and to the other pages of the document. See “Using one page style” on page 114.

Use different page styles for the first page and for the following pages. Set the Next Page attribute for the first page so the next page automatically becomes the style for following pages. See “Using different page styles” on page 114.

Add a title page at the beginning of the document. See “Adding title pages” on page 115.

Using one page style

This example uses the Default page style.

Right-click anywhere on the page and choose Page Style in the context menu. On the relevant tab (Header or Footer) of the Page Style dialog, select Header/Footer on and deselect Same content on first page (Figure 107). Optionally select Same content on left and right pages.

Figure 107: Setting up footers to have different content on different pages

Insert a header or footer on any page using the Default page style. See “Creating headers and footers” on page 103.

Add different header and footer content to the first page and to the other pages of the document. For example, leave the header/footer blank on the first page.

Using different page styles

As an example, we can use the First Page and Default Style page styles that come with LibreOffice. Figure 108 shows what we want to happen: the first page is to be followed by the default page, and all the following pages are to be in the default page style.

To do this, open the Page Style dialog for the First Page style, go to the Organizer tab, and choose Default Style in the Next Style list (Figure 109).

Figure 108: Flow of page styles

Figure 109: Setting the next style for a page style

Adding title pages

Writer provides a fast and convenient way to add one or more title pages to a document and optionally to restart the page number at 1 for the body of the document.

To begin, choose Format > Title Page on the Menu bar to display the Title Page dialog (Figure 110).

Figure 110: Adding title pages to a document

On the Title Page dialog, you can make the following choices:

Convert existing pages to title pages, or insert new title pages.

How many pages to convert or insert.

Where those pages are located.

If and where to restart page numbering, and what number to start with.

What page style to use for the title page.

Using this technique, you can insert several “title pages” at different points in your document, for example to add decorative pages between chapters as well as title, copyright, and other pages at the beginning of a book.

Formatting 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 and define their format, if the default does not meet your needs (see Chapter 3, Working with Text: Advanced).

Define the location of footnotes on the page, and the color and line styles for separator lines, if the defaults do not meet your needs.

Defining footnote location and separator line

The location of footnotes on the page, and the color and style of the line that separates the footnotes from the text, are defined in the page style. If you are using several page styles, and may have footnotes on any of them, you need to define the footnote location and separator line on each of the page styles.

Choose Format > Page on the Menu bar or right-click a page and choose Page in the context menu, to display the Page Style dialog. Go to the Footnote tab (Figure 111) and make your selections, then click OK to save the changes.

Figure 111: Defining footnote location and separator line

Keeping the default setting Not larger than page area, the footnotes area is calculated automatically on the basis of the number of footnotes. If you prefer to control manually the maximum space that footnotes can take, select the Maximum footnote height option and enter the value in the preferred unit of measurement. A footnote higher than the maximum height will spill over on to the next page. Use the second section of the page to customize the separator between the footnotes and the main text area.

Writer Guide 7.2

Chapter 6
Formatting Pages: Advanced

Using columns, frames, tables, and sections

Introduction

Writer provides several ways to control page layouts. Chapter 5, Formatting Pages: Basics, described the use of page styles and some associated functions. This chapter covers the use of:

Columns

Frames

Tables

Sections

Changing page orientation within a document

Borders and backgrounds

Note

All pages in a Writer document are based on page styles. The other layout methods described in this chapter build upon the underlying page style.

Tip

Page layout is usually easier if you select the options to show text, object, table, and section boundaries in Tools > Options > LibreOffice > Application Colors and the options for paragraph ends, tabs, breaks, and other items in Tools > Options > LibreOffice Writer > Formatting Aids.

Choosing a layout method

The best layout method depends on what the final document should look like, what sort of information will be in the document, and whether the document will be published in a fixed format (print, PDF) or a variable format (HTML, ePub) or more than one format. Here are some examples. The techniques mentioned are all described in this chapter.

For a book similar to this user guide with one column of text, some figures without text beside them, and some other figures with descriptive text, use page styles for basic layout, and use tables to place figures beside descriptive text, where necessary.

Use sections (with two or more columns) for an index or other document with two columns of text where the text continues from the left-hand column to the right-hand column and then to the next page, all in sequence. If the title of the document (on the first page) is full-page width, put it in a single-column section.

For a newsletter with a complex layout, two or three columns on the page, and some articles that continue from one page to some place several pages later, use page styles for basic layout, then place articles in linked frames. If necessary, anchor graphics to fixed positions on the page.

Tip

For a document to be published in HTML, EPUB, or another format that is not fixed, use minimal layout techniques. Some methods (columns, frames, wide tables) often do not export well to those formats.

Using columns to define the page layout

It is a good idea to define your basic page style (such as Default Page Style) with the most common layout to be used in your document, either single-column or multiple-column. You can then define extra page styles for pages with different numbers of columns.

Note

If you wish to combine different numbers of columns on a single page, you must use sections, as described in “Using sections for page layout” starting on page 127.

To define the number of columns for a page style:

Choose Format > Page Style on the Menu bar, or right-click on the page and choose Page Style in the context menu, or click the More Options button in the Format section of the Page deck on the Sidebar, to open the Page Style dialog. Go to the Columns tab (see Figure 112).

In the Settings section, choose the number of columns and specify any spacing between them and whether you want a vertical separator line to appear between the columns. You can use one of Writer’s predefined column layouts, or you can create a customized column layout. The preview on the right shows how the column layout will look.

Click OK to save the changes.

Figure 112: Defining the number of columns on a page

Formatting column width and spacing

Select AutoWidth in the Width and Spacing section to create columns of equal or preset width. To customize the width and spacing of the columns:

In the Width and Spacing section, deselect the AutoWidth option.

In the Width selection boxes, enter a width for each column.

On the Spacing line, enter the amount of space between each pair of columns.

If you specify more than three columns, use the arrow buttons on the Column line to scroll among the columns.

Formatting separator lines

Usually white space is all that is needed between columns, but if you prefer separator lines:

Using the Style drop-down list, select the line style from the three styles available.

Using the Width control, select the width of line to use, settable from 0.25pt to 9.0pt.
(1 point = 1/12 pica = 1/72 inch = 127/360 mm = 0.3527 mm.)

Using the Height control, select the height of line required, as a percentage of the column height. You can choose from the supplied values or type in measurements.

If you entered a height of less than 100%, use the Position drop-down list to select a vertical alignment for the separator lines. The vertical-positioning options are Top, Centered, or Bottom.

Select the line color from the Color drop-down list.

Distributing text across columns

As you add text to a column, the text flows from one column to the next. The last column may be shorter than the others.

To distribute text evenly, so that all the columns are approximately the same height, use a multi-column section instead; see “Formatting a section into columns” on page 130.

Tip

Choose View > Formatting Marks (or press Ctrl+F10) to display end of paragraph markers (¶). Often, unexpected behavior of columns is due to extra paragraphs that are normally invisible but are taking up space.

Using frames for page layout

Frames can be very useful when producing newsletters or other layout-intensive documents. Frames can contain text, tables, multiple columns, pictures, and other objects. Use frames to:

Position something in a particular place on a page, for example, a logo or a “stop press” news box in one corner of a page.

Allow text on one page to continue on another page, somewhere more distant than the next one, by linking the content of one frame to another so the contents flow between them as you edit the text.

Wrap text around an object, such as a photograph.

Because LibreOffice does not allow you to define page styles with recurring frames (unless anchored in a header or footer), consider doing some quick sketches of the basic page layouts you need, indicating the approximate positions of different frames and their purposes. Keep the number of different page layouts as low as possible to avoid chaos in your design.

Pay special attention to the positioning of frames. A visually effective way to position a frame is to align its left margin with that of the paragraph above it. To do this, insert the frame in a blank paragraph of the same style as the paragraph above. Select Insert > Frame > Frame; in the Position section of the Type page of the Frame dialog (Figure 113 on page 121), select From Left in the Horizontal selection box to position the frame exactly where you want it.

Also, think about the type of wrap and the spacing between the frame and text. Instead of placing a frame close to the text, use the Wrap page to place some white space between them.

You can format frames individually or define and apply frame styles; see Chapter 9, Working with Styles.

Creating a frame

You can create a frame in several ways:

Choose Insert > Frame > Frame to create an empty frame. The Frame dialog (Figure 113) opens. You can set the frame’s characteristics at this stage or click OK and come back to customize it later.

Select text and choose Insert > Frame > Frame to open the Frame dialog. Customize the frame (for example, to add space between the frame and the text) and click OK. The selected text is removed from the normal text flow and inserted into the frame.

Choose Insert > Frame > Frame Interactively to quickly draw an empty frame. The mouse cursor changes shape. Click and drag the mouse to draw an empty frame. To customize the frame, right-click it and choose Properties in the context menu.

Insert a formula or OLE object by selecting Insert > Object > [type of object]. The item is inserted and appears in a frame. To customize the frame, right-click it and choose Properties in the context menu.

To add content to a frame, first deselect the frame by clicking in an empty space somewhere else on the page. Then, click inside the frame to place the text cursor there. Now add content as you would on the main page. When you are done, deselect the frame.

Note

The menu item Insert > Frame > Floating Frame is for use with HTML documents.

Figure 113: Frame dialog

Frame toolbar

When you create or select a frame, the Frame toolbar (Figure 114) is displayed. By default, it replaces the Formatting toolbar. You can also display it by using View > Toolbars > Frame.

1 Anchor	6 Wrap Right	11 Back One	16 Border Style
2 Wrap Off	7 Wrap Through	12 Send to Back	17 Border Color
3 Page Wrap	8 Align	13 To Foreground	18 Background Color
4 Optimal Page Wrap	9 Bring to Front	14 To Background	19 Link Frames
5 Wrap Left	10 Forward One	15 Borders	20 Unlink Frames

Figure 114: Buttons on the Frame toolbar

Moving, resizing, and changing frame attributes

When an object is added to Writer, it is automatically enclosed in a frame of a predetermined type. The frame sets how the object is placed on the page, as well as how it interacts with other elements in the document. You can edit the frame by modifying the frame style it uses or by manually formatting it when you add it to the document. Frame styles are discussed in Chapter 9, Working with Styles.

To change the size or location of a frame, first select the frame, then use either the mouse or the Frame dialog (Figure 113). Using the mouse is faster but less accurate.

Tip

You might want to use the mouse for gross layout and the dialog for fine-tuning.

You can re-size the frame manually in these ways:

Click on the green squares (sizing handles) and drag to the appropriate size.

Add content to it (the frame will re-size automatically if, for example, you add a large picture to it).

Go back to the Frame dialog and set the size and other characteristics.

To change the location of the frame using the mouse, drag and drop one of the edges or put the cursor anywhere within the frame. The cursor changes to a four-headed arrow when properly positioned for a drag-and-drop move.

To change the size of the frame, drag one of the sizing handles. Drag a handle on one of the sides to enlarge or reduce the text frame in one dimension only; drag a corner handle to enlarge or reduce it in both dimensions.

These resizing actions distort the proportions of the frame. Holding down the Shift key while dragging one of the handles makes the frame keep the same proportions.

To open the Frame dialog, select the frame, right-click, and choose Properties in the context menu.

To add or remove a frame’s border, click the relevant button on the Frame toolbar (Figure 114) to display some choices; or open the Frame dialog, go to the Borders page (Figure 115), and in the Line Arrangement section, select the first Preset (Set No Borders); or assign a borderless style to the frame; see Chapter 9, Working with Styles, for information on frame styles.

Note

Do not confuse a frame’s border with the text boundaries that are made visible using the View menu (by selecting View > Text Boundaries).

Figure 115: Removing the border from a frame

Anchoring frames

To anchor a frame, click on it, then right-click and point to Anchor, or click the Anchor button on the Frame toolbar and select the type of anchor, or open the Frame dialog to the Type tab.

To Page (available only on Frame dialog, not the toolbar or context menu)

The frame keeps the same position in relation to the page margins. It does not move as you add or delete text. This method is useful when the frame does not need to be visually associated with a particular piece of text. It is often used when producing newsletters or other documents that are very layout-intensive, or to center text vertically on a page.

To Paragraph

The frame is associated with a paragraph and moves with the paragraph. It may be placed in the margin or another location. It is also used to center text on a page in documents which will be used in a master document (frames anchored to pages will disappear from the master document).

To Character

The frame is associated with a character but is not in the text sequence. It moves with the paragraph but may be placed in the margin or another location. This method is similar to anchoring to a paragraph.

As Character

The frame is placed in the document like any other character and, therefore, affects the height of the text line and the line break. The frame moves with the text as you add or delete text. This method is useful for adding a small icon in sequence in a sentence. It is also the best method for anchoring an image to an empty paragraph so it does not move around the page in unexpected ways.

Linking frames

You can link frames to each other even when they are on different pages of a document. The contents will automatically flow from one to the next. This technique is very useful when designing newsletters, where articles may need to be continued on a different page.

Note

Text can only flow into a frame from one other frame, and flow on to one other frame. You can not link from a frame directly to more than one other frame.

To link one frame to another:

Select the frame to be linked from.

Click the Link Frames icon on the Frames toolbar.

Click the next frame in the series (which must be empty).

When a linked frame is selected, any existing links are indicated by a faint connecting line, as shown in Figure 116. Frames can be unlinked by selecting the Unlink Frames icon on the Frames toolbar.

Figure 116: Linked frames

The height of a frame that is being linked from is fixed; you can change this height manually or by using the Frame dialog, but it does not automatically adjust to the size of the contents (that is, the AutoHeight attribute is disabled). Only the last frame of a chain can adapt its height to the content.

The Options page of the Frame dialog (Figure 117) shows the names of the selected frame and any frames it is linked to or from. You can change this information here. On this page, you can also select options to protect the contents, position, and size of the frame.

Figure 117: Options page of the Frame dialog

The Wrap, Borders, Area, Columns, Transparency, and Macro pages of the Frame dialog are the same as those for frame styles. Refer to Chapter 9, Working with Styles, for details.

Using tables for page layout

Writer’s tables can serve several purposes, such as holding data as you might see it in a spreadsheet, lining up material, and creating more complex page layouts. For information about using tables of data, see Chapter 13, Tables of Data.

This topic describes how to achieve some common layouts by using tables.

Positioning information in headers or footers

Instead of using tabs or frames, you can use a table in a header or footer to position different elements such as page number, document title, author, and so on. These elements are often inserted using fields, as described in Chapter 17, Fields.

Creating sideheads using tables

Sideheads and marginal notes are commonly used in documents such as resumes and computer user guides. The main body of the text is offset to leave white space (usually on the left-hand side) in which the sideheads or notes are placed. The first paragraph is aligned beside the sidehead, as in Figure 118.

Example of a sidehead	In some cases you may want to put only one or two paragraphs in the table itself and the rest of the text and graphics in ordinary paragraphs (formatted to line up with the paragraphs in the table) so that text and graphics will flow more easily from one page to another when you add or delete material. In other cases, you might put each paragraph in a separate row of the table and allow the table to break between pages.

Figure 118: Example of a sidehead

Note

Sideheads can also be created by placing text in a frame using the Marginalia frame style, as described in Chapter 9, Working with Styles.

Example

To create a table for use with a sidehead:

Place the cursor where you want the table to appear and choose Table > Insert Table (Ctrl+F12).

In the Insert Table dialog (Figure 119), define a two-column, one-row table with no heading. Choose None under Styles so the table will have no border. Click Insert.

Right-click the table and choose Table Properties in the context menu. On the Columns tab of the Table Properties dialog (Figure 120), set the column widths.

On the Table tab of the Table Properties dialog (Figure 121), in the Spacing section, make the Above and Below values the same as the Top and Bottom spacing you have defined for ordinary paragraphs of text. In the Properties section, optionally give this table a name. Click OK to save your settings.

Tip

To check the top and bottom spacing for a paragraph: position the cursor in the paragraph and open the Properties deck in the Sidebar. In the Paragraph section, look under Spacing for the values.

Figure 119: Defining a two-column borderless table with no heading

Figure 120: Defining a two-column table to line up with text offset at 3.3cm

Figure 121: Defining the space above and below a table

You may also want to turn off number recognition so that Writer will not try to format numbers if you want them to be plain text. To turn number recognition off:

Place the cursor in a table, and then select Table > Number Format on the Menu bar.

On the Format Number dialog (Figure 122), make sure the Category is set to Text.

Click OK.

Figure 122: Setting number format to Text

Tip

If you use this table format often, you may want to save it as a table style, using Table > AutoFormat Styles. See “Creating table styles” in Chapter 13, Tables of Data.

Using sections for page layout

A section is a block of text that has special attributes and formatting. You can use sections to:

Write-protect text.

Hide text.

Dynamically insert the contents of another document.

Add columns, margin indents, a background color, or a background graphic to a portion of your document.

Customize the footnotes and endnotes for a portion of your document.

Creating sections

To create a section:

Place the cursor at the point in your document where you want to insert the new section. Or, select the text that you want to place in the new section.

On the Menu bar, choose Insert > Section. The Insert Section dialog (Figure 123) opens.

Choose settings for each page of the dialog as described below. Click Insert.

The Insert Section dialog has five tabs:

Use the Section tab to set the section’s attributes.

Use the Columns tab to format the section into columns.

Use the Indents tab to set indents from the right and left margins of the section.

Use the Area tab to add color or a graphic to the section’s background.

Use the Footnotes/Endnotes tab to customize the section’s footnotes and endnotes.

Figure 123: Inserting a section using the Insert Section dialog

At any time before closing the dialog, you can reset a tabbed page other than the Section page to its default settings by clicking the Reset button. If you wish to undo changes to the Section page, you must do so manually.

Naming sections

Writer automatically enters a name for the section in the name box of the New Section list. To change the name, select it and type over it. The name is displayed in the Sections category of the Navigator window. Navigation is easier if you give your sections meaningful names.

Linking sections

You can insert the contents of another document into the section and then have Writer update it whenever the other document is updated.

Note

If you want to insert only a part of the other document, be sure that part exists as a section in the document.

To link the section to another document, follow these steps:

In the Link section of the dialog (Figure 124), select the Link option.

Click the Browse button to the right of the File name field. The Insert dialog opens.

Find and select the required document and click the Insert button. The name of the selected document appears in the File name field.

If you want to insert only a section of the selected document, select the desired section from the Section drop-down list.

Figure 124: Linking sections

You can update links automatically or manually. See “Updating links” on page 133.

Write-protecting sections

To write-protect the section so that its contents cannot be edited, select Protect in the Write protection area (Figure 125).

Note

Write-protection protects only the section’s contents, not its attributes or format.

Figure 125: Write-protecting sections

Password-protecting sections

Caution

Be very careful to remember or safely store the password, because it cannot be retrieved without advanced tools.

To prevent others from editing the section’s attributes or format, you can additionally protect the section with a password, as follows:

Select Protect and With password.

On the Enter Password dialog, type a password in the Password field and again in the Confirm field.

Click OK.

Anyone who tries to edit the section’s attributes or format will be prompted to enter the password.

Hiding sections

You can hide the section so that it will not be displayed on the screen or printed. You can also specify conditions for hiding the section. For example, you can hide the section only from certain users. Hiding is very useful for creating a single source document containing students’ and teachers’ copies of a document such as a test.

Note

You cannot hide a section if it is the only content on the page or if the section is in a header, footer, footnote, endnote, frame, or table cell.

To hide a section, select the Hide option in the Hide section of the dialog.

Figure 126: Hiding sections

To hide the section only under certain conditions, enter the desired conditions in the With Condition field. The syntax and operators that you use to enter conditions are the same ones that you use to enter formulas. For syntax and a list of operators, see the Help under Conditions. See also Chapter 17, Fields.

If the section is write-protected with a password, the password must be entered to hide or reveal the text.

Formatting a section into columns

You can give some parts of a page one column and other parts of the page two or more columns. For example, you might have a page-width headline over a three-column news story.

Tip

You cannot select text on a multi-column formatted page and change it to a single column using this method. Instead, you need to define a single-column page style and then select the text you want to be in a two-column section on that page.

Use the Columns tab of the Insert Section dialog (Figure 127) to format the section into columns.

Figure 127: Choosing evenly distributed columns

As you add text to the section, the text flows from one column to the next. You can distribute text across the columns in one of two ways, as shown in Figure 128.

Evenly distribute contents to all columns

When this option is selected, Writer adjusts the length of the columns to the amount of text, so that all the columns are approximately the same length. As you add or delete text, the columns readjust.

When this option is not selected, Writer fills the columns newspaper-style: one column at a time, beginning with the first column. The last column may be shorter than the others.

Figure 128: (Left) Evenly distributed columns; (Right) Newspaper-style columns

Indenting the section from margins

Use the Indents tab (Figure 129), to set indents from the right and left margins of the section.

Enter the desired left-margin indent in the Before section box. Enter the desired right-margin indent in the After section box. The preview box on the right-hand side of the tab shows you how the section will look with the indents applied.

Figure 129: Indenting sections

Changing the background of the section

Use the Area tab to add color or an image to the background of the current section. This page is similar to the Area tabs for paragraphs, frames, tables, and other objects. For more information, refer to “Defining borders and backgrounds” on page 139 and the Draw Guide.

Customizing footnotes and endnotes in a section

Use the Footnotes/Endnotes page of the Insert Section dialog (Figure 130) to customize the current section’s footnotes and endnotes.

Figure 130: Setting footnotes and endnotes for sections

Customizing footnotes

To number the section’s footnotes separately from the other footnotes in the document, and format the numbering, follow these steps:

In the Footnotes section of the page, make sure that Collect at end of text is selected.

Select Restart numbering.

To start the section’s footnotes at a number other than 1, enter the desired starting number in the Start at box.

Select the Custom format option. In the drop-down list, select a numbering format for the footnotes.

To add text to the selected numbering format, use the Before and After boxes. For example, if you want the footnote numbers to be preceded by the word Note and followed by a colon, fill the Before and After boxes as shown in Figure 130.

Customizing endnotes

If you want the section’s endnotes to appear at the end of the section rather than at the end of the document, select the Collect at end of section option in the Endnotes area.

To number the current section’s endnotes separately from the other endnotes in the document, and format the numbering, apply the procedures described above to the Endnotes settings.

Editing and deleting sections

To edit a section, choose Format > Sections on the Menu bar. In the Edit Sections dialog (Figure 131), select the section you want to edit by clicking its name in the Section list.

Editing section attributes

To rename the selected section, type over its name in the Section name box.

On the Edit Sections dialog, you can also edit the selected section’s link, write-protect, and hide attributes. To learn how to edit these attributes, see “Linking sections” on page 128, “Write-protecting sections” on page 129, and “Hiding sections” on page 129.

Figure 131: Edit Sections dialog

Editing the format of a section

To edit the format of the selected section, click the Options button.

The Options dialog has four tabs: Columns, Indents, Background, and Footnotes/Endnotes. These tabs are the same as those in the Insert Section dialog described earlier; the Background tab on the Options dialog corresponds to the Area tab in the Insert Section dialog.

To reset a tab to the conditions in place when the dialog opened, click the Reset button. To save the Options settings, click OK. You are returned to the Edit Sections dialog.

Removing sections

To remove the selected section, click the Remove button. This does not delete the contents of the section; the contents become part of the main document. If the contents were linked, they are now embedded.

Updating links

You can set Writer to update linked sections automatically, and you can also update links manually.

Updating links automatically

To set Writer to update links without prompting you, or to turn off automatic updating, follow these steps:

Choose Tools > Options > LibreOffice Writer > General. The dialog displays general text document settings.

In the Update links when loading section of the dialog, select one of the options:

Always if you want Writer to update links automatically, without prompting you, whenever you open a document that contains links.

On request if you want Writer to prompt you before updating links.

Never if you do not want Writer to update links.

Click OK to save your settings.

Updating links manually

A protected section must first be unprotected before it can be updated.

To update a link manually:

Open the document that contains the link.

Choose Edit > Links to External Files.

The list in the Edit Links dialog (Figure 132) displays the names of all the files that are linked to the current document. Select the file that corresponds to the link that you want to update.

Click the Update button. The most recently saved contents of the linked file appear in the current document. To close the Edit Links dialog, click Close.

Figure 132: Edit Links dialog

Removing links

To remove a link to a file and embed its contents, go to the Edit Links dialog, select the file that corresponds to the link you want to remove, and click the Break Link button. This action does not delete the text in the Section; it just breaks the link. If desired, the text must be removed manually.

Changing page orientation within a document

A document can contain pages in more than one orientation. A common scenario is to have a landscape page in the middle or end of a document, where the other pages are in portrait orientation. Here are the steps to achieve it.

Setting up a landscape page style

If you wish to keep the margins the same as on other pages, then note the margin settings of the current page style. (You can find the margin settings on the Page tab of the Page Style dialog.)

On the Styles deck of the Sidebar, right-click Landscape in the list of page styles and choose Modify.

On the Organizer tab of the Page Style dialog (Figure 133), make sure Next Style is set to Landscape (to allow for having more than one sequential landscape page).

Figure 133: Set the next page style to Landscape

On the Page tab of the Page Style dialog (Figure 134), make sure Orientation is set to Landscape. Change the margins so that they correspond with the margins of the portrait page. That is, the portrait top margin becomes the landscape left margin, and so on.

Click OK to save the changes.

Figure 134: Set orientation and margins for a landscape page

Inserting a landscape page into a portrait document

Now that you have defined the Landscape page style, here is how to apply it:

Position the cursor in the paragraph or table at the start of the page that is to be set to landscape. Right-click and choose Paragraph > Paragraph or Table Properties, respectively, in the context menu.

On the Text Flow page of the Paragraph dialog (Figure 135) or the Table Properties dialog (Figure 136), select Insert (or Break for a table) and With Page Style. Set the Page Style property to Landscape. Click OK to apply the new page style.

Position the cursor in the paragraph or table where the page is to return to portrait orientation and change the paragraph properties or table properties so that With Page Style is the portrait page style that was used before the Landscape page style. Click OK to return to the portrait page style.

Figure 135: Specifying a page break before a paragraph

Figure 136: Specifying a page break before a table

Portrait headers on landscape pages

When you define a header and footer on a landscape page, they will be aligned with the long side of the page. If your landscape pages are inserted between portrait pages, you might want the headers and footers to be on the short sides of the landscape pages, so the final printed product looks like the contents of the landscape pages have been rotated 90 degrees on portrait pages.

You can set up portrait headers and footers on landscape pages by using a trick involving frames. These are a bit tedious to set up, but once you have done so, you can copy and paste them to other landscape pages. This cannot be made part of the landscape page style. In the following example we want to insert a landscape page into our printed document, to have the same header and footer, and margins, as our portrait pages. We will use an A4 page size.

To set up portrait headers and footers on landscape pages:

Note the margin settings for the portrait page which is the same as the landscape page will be, that is to say, for a right landscape page, the settings from a right portrait page (see the table).

We now need to make the landscape left and right margins 1 cm larger than the portrait top and bottom margins, respectively. This difference allows for the extra space used by the portrait header and footer (0.5 cm for the height of the header or footer and a 0.5 cm gap between the header or footer and the main text).

Portrait page (right page)	Landscape page (right page)
Top margin	1.5 cm	Right margin	2.5 cm
Bottom margin	1.5 cm	Left margin	2.5 cm
Left (inner) margin	2.8 cm	Top margin	2.8 cm
Right (outer) margin	1.8 cm	Bottom margin	1.8 cm

Set the frame for the footer in the same way as for the header. Apply these margin settings in the Landscape page style.

Copy and paste the footer from the portrait page into a blank paragraph in the text. Paste or move it into the landscape page. This text will then have the Footer style so the typeface, font size, and tab settings will match.

Figure 137: Copy the footer, paste, and select it

Select the text (including the fields) you just entered. Choose Format > Character. On the Character dialog, choose the Position tab and set Rotation / Scaling to 270 degrees (counterclockwise). Click OK.

Figure 138: Rotating the footer text 270 degrees

With the text still selected, choose Insert > Frame > Frame. In the Frame dialog (Figure 139), select the Type tab and enter the width, height, and horizontal and vertical position for the footer. Deselect the Automatic options in Width and Height if they are selected.

The width is the footer height taken from the Footer page of the portrait page style dialog.

The frame height is obtained by simple arithmetic. The A4 page-width is 21cm, minus the sum of the top and bottom margins of 2.8cm and 1.8cm resulting in a frame height of 16.4cm.

The horizontal position is the portrait page bottom margin.

The vertical position is the landscape page top margin.

If your footer has a line above the text, as in this book, on the Borders tab, select a right border and specify the line width and spacing to the frame’s contents.

Click OK to save these settings. The footer will now appear in the required position and orientation. Any fields will update.

Because tabs have been removed, insert the cursor in the frame, at the end of the text where the tab was, and insert as many spaces using the keyboard space bar, as you require for the layout to match that on the portrait page.

Repeat these steps (using appropriate settings) to set up a portrait header on the landscape page.

Figure 139: Defining the size and position of the footer frame

Figure 140: Footers in place for both page styles

Caution

Make sure to return to the paragraph in the document from which you rotated the text, and return it to 0 degrees, or any text typed in this location will rotate.

Defining borders and backgrounds

You can apply borders and backgrounds to many elements in Writer. Paragraphs, pages, frames, sections, page styles, paragraph styles, character styles, and frame styles can include both borders and backgrounds. The dialog pages for borders and backgrounds are similar in each case. To illustrate their use, we will define a border and background for a frame.

Tip

You can choose to have page backgrounds fill the entire page (sheet of paper) or only the area within the margins; see the section on page styles in Chapter 9, Working with Styles. Page borders surround only the area within the margins, including the header or footer (if any exist).

Tables of data can also have borders and backgrounds, although the choices for background are limited to Color or Bitmap. See Chapter 13, Tables of Data.

Adding a border

To begin, select the frame, right-click, and choose Properties in the context menu. Select the Borders tab (Figure 141).

Figure 141: Frame dialog: Borders page

Borders have three components: where they go, what they look like, and how much space is left around them.

Line Arrangement specifies where the borders go. Writer provides five default arrangements but you can click the line you want to customize in the User-defined area to get exactly what you want. Each line can be individually formatted.

Line specifies what the border looks like: the style, width, and color. Each parameter has a number of attributes to choose from. The attributes selected will apply to those borders highlighted by a pair of black arrows in the User-defined thumbnail on the left side of the dialog.

Padding specifies how much space to leave between the border and the contents of the element. Spaces can be specified to the left, right, top, and bottom. Select Synchronize to have the same spacing for all four sides.

Shadow Style properties always apply to the whole element. A shadow has three components: where it is (Position), how far from the element it is cast (Distance), and what color it is.

Adding a color to the background area

To begin, select the frame, right-click, and choose Properties in the context menu. On the Frame dialog, select the Area tab (Figure 142), then choose Color. Select from the color grid or create a new color to use for this frame, and then click OK to apply it to the background.

Figure 142: Frame dialog: Area page showing color choices

Tip

For selected words or other characters (right-click, Character > Character), the “background” is called highlighting. The only choices are Color or None.

Adding a bitmap (image) to the background

“Bitmap” is a term that covers photos and other images that are made up of pixels of color; the image may be in several formats. To add a bitmap to the background, choose the Area tab, then choose Bitmap. The tab now displays the bitmap options, as shown in Figure 143.

You can choose one of the supplied bitmaps from the list on the left, or you can add your own.

To use an image, select it from the thumbnails on the left.

In the Options area, choose the placement for the image:

Style – custom position/size, tiled, or stretched.

Size – specify the width and height. Select Scale to stretch or shrink the image to fit the selected size.

Position – select where the image is to be displayed.

Click OK to apply the image to the background.

To add an image:

Click the Add/Import button. The Import dialog opens.

Find the file you want and then click Open. The Import dialog closes, and the selected bitmap appears in the list of thumbnails on the left and in the preview box on the right of the Area tab.

Figure 143: Frame dialog: Area page showing bitmap choices

Adding a gradient, pattern, or hatch to the background

To add a gradient, pattern, or hatch to the background, choose the Area tab, then choose the required background type. The dialog now displays the options for that type, with an example in the preview pane to the right. Select the required design from the list or create a new design to use for this frame. Click OK to apply it to the background. See the Draw Guide for more about defining gradients, patterns, and hatching.

Deleting a color, gradient, bitmap, or other background

To delete a background, select None near the top of the Area tab of the Frame dialog.

Adjusting the transparency of the background

Transparency is useful for creating watermarks (a logo or text in the background of a page, typically showing the company name or a statement such as Draft) and making colors or images more pale (for more contrast with the text). Use the Transparency tab (Figure 144) to define the type of transparency. The choices are covered in detail in the Draw Guide.

Figure 144: Transparency options

Writer Guide 7.2

Chapter 7
Printing, Exporting, Emailing, Signing

Quick printing

If the Print Directly icon is visible on the Standard toolbar, you can click it to print the entire document using the current default print settings. If the icon is not visible, you can make it visible by right-clicking on the toolbar, pointing to Visible Buttons, and selecting Print Directly.

You can specify the default printer on the Printer Setup dialog; go to File > Printer Settings on the Menu bar. To access other printing options, click the Options button on the Printer Setup dialog. The same options are available through Tools > Options > LibreOffice Writer > Print, and more general print options through Tools > Options > LibreOffice > Print. See Chapter 20, Customizing Writer, for more information.

Controlling printing

For more control over printing, use the Print dialog (File > Print, Ctrl+P (⌘+P for macOS), or the Print icon on the Standard toolbar). The appearance of the Print dialog is different on macOS and may include extra printer controls not described in this chapter.

Figure 145: The Print dialog in Writer

The Print dialog has two tabs, on which you can choose a range of options, as described in the following sections.

Selecting general printing options

On the General tab of the Print dialog, you can choose:

The printer, from the list of available printers.

Which pages to print, the number of copies to print, and whether to collate multiple copies (Range and copies section).

Paper size and print orientation (Page Layout section).

How many pages to print on one sheet of paper and whether to draw a border around each page (Page Layout section).

Whether to print a brochure (see page 146).

Whether to print in reverse page order (useful on some printers to make the pages come out in page order).

Selecting printer and print job options

In the Printer section of the General tab, click the Properties button to display the selected printer’s properties dialog where you can choose portrait or landscape orientation, which paper tray to use, and the paper size to print on.

Click the More button at the bottom of the Range and Copies section of the General tab to choose whether to create separate print jobs for collated output, instead of one print job containing all the collated pages (not relevant if only one copy of a document is printed).

Printing multiple pages on a single sheet of paper

You can print multiple pages of a document on one sheet of paper. To do this, in the Page Layout section of the General tab, click More and select from the Pages per sheet drop-down list the number of pages to print per sheet of paper. The preview panel on the left of the Print dialog shows how the printed document will look.

When printing more than two pages per sheet, you can choose the order in which they are printed across and down the paper. Figure 146 shows the difference.

Tip

To print two pages per sheet in “facing pages” (book layout) style, print from Print Preview instead. See page 149.

Figure 146: Print order choices

Selecting what to print

In addition to printing a full document, you can choose to print individual pages, a ranges of pages, or a selection from a document.

Printing an individual page:

In the Print dialog, in the Range and Copies section, select the Pages option. The text box shows the current page number.

Enter the page number of the page you want to print. The preview box on the left changes to show the selected page.

Printing a range of pages:

In the Print dialog, in the Range and Copies section, select the Pages option.

Enter the page numbers of the pages to print (for example, 1–4 or 1,3,7,11 or a combination).

Printing a selection of text or graphics:

In the document, select the material to print, then open the Print dialog.

In the Range and Copies section of the Print dialog, the Selection option is now active and selected and the preview box shows the selected material (Figure 147).

Figure 147: Printing a selection of text

Choices on the LibreOffice Writer tab

On the LibreOffice Writer tab (Figure 148) you can choose to print a subset of contents (for example, images or hidden text), print text in black (even if a color is defined for the text), whether to print automatically inserted blank pages, and whether and where to print any comments that are in the document.

Some selections may not be available all the time. For example, if the document contains no comments, the Comments drop-down list is disabled.

Figure 148: LibreOffice Writer tab of Print dialog

Printing a brochure

In Writer, you can print a document with two pages on each side of a sheet of paper, arranged so that when the printed pages are folded in half, the pages are in the correct order to form a booklet or brochure.

Tip

Plan your document so it will look good when printed half size; choose appropriate margins, font sizes, and so on. You may need to experiment.

To print a brochure on a single-sided printer:

In the Page Layout section of the General tab of the Print dialog, click more and select Brochure near the bottom. The preview on the left changes to show the sequence in which the pages will be printed. (Figure 149.)

Depending on your language settings (Tools > Options > Language Settings > Languages), the Print dialog may include a drop-down menu adjacent to the Brochure button (not shown in Figure 149). This provides Left-to-right script and Right-to-left script options. Select the required setting in this menu.

In the Range and Copies section, select Even pages. Click Print.

Take the printed pages out of the printer and put them back into the printer in the correct orientation to print on the blank side. You may need to experiment to find the correct arrangement for your printer.

On the Print dialog, in the Range and Copies section, select Odd pages. Click Print.

Tip

If your printer can print double-sided (duplex) automatically, choose All pages in step 3 and skip steps 4 and 5.

Figure 149: Settings for printing a brochure on a simplex printer

Printing in black and white (on a color printer)

You may wish to print documents in black and white on a color printer. Several choices are available.

Note

Some color printers may print in color regardless of the settings you choose.

For one document, change the printer settings to print in black and white or grayscale:

On the Print dialog, click Properties to open the Properties dialog for the printer. The available choices vary from one printer to another, but you should find options for the color settings. See your printer’s help or user manual for more information.

The choices for color might include black and white or grayscale. Choose grayscale.

Click OK to confirm your choice and return to the Print dialog.

Click Print to print the document.

To print all color text and images as grayscale, change the LibreOffice settings:

Choose Tools > Options > LibreOffice > Print.

Select the Convert colors to grayscale option. Click OK to save the change.

To print all color text as black, and all images as grayscale, change the LibreOffice Writer settings:

Choose Tools > Options > LibreOffice Writer > Print.

Under Contents, select the Print text in black option. Click OK to save the change.

Previewing pages before printing

The normal page view in Writer shows what each page will look like when printed; you can edit the pages in that view. If you are designing a document to be printed double-sided, you may want to see what facing pages look like. Writer provides two ways to do this:

View Layout (editable view): use the Book View button on the status bar and (usually) zoom out.

Print Preview (read-only view).

To use Print Preview:

Choose File > Print Preview on the Menu bar, or click the Toggle Print Preview icon on the Standard toolbar, or press Ctrl+Shift+O. Writer now displays the Print Preview toolbar instead of the Formatting toolbar.

Select the required preview icon: Single Page Preview, Two Pages Preview, Book Preview, or Multiple Pages Preview.

To print the document from this view, click the Print icon to open the Print dialog. Choose the print options and click Print.

Printing envelopes

Printing envelopes involves two steps: setup and printing.

To set up an envelope to be printed by itself or with a document:

Click Insert > Envelope on the Menu bar.

In the Envelope dialog, start with the Envelope tab (Figure 150). Verify, add, or edit the information in the Addressee and Sender (the “from” on the envelope) boxes. The sender information is picked up from the User Data page in Tools > Options > LibreOffice.

You can type information directly into the Addressee and Sender boxes, or use the right-hand drop-down lists to select the database or table from which you can draw the envelope information. See Chapter 14, Mail Merge, for details on how to print envelopes from a database.

On the Format tab (Figure 151), verify or edit the positioning of the addressee and the sender information. The preview area on the lower right illustrates your choices.

To format the text of these blocks, click the Edit button to the right. In the drop-down list you have two choices: Character and Paragraph.

Select Character to open a dialog similar to the standard Character dialog, where you can set the formatting of the text.

Select Paragraph to open a dialog similar to the standard Paragraph dialog, where you can set the paragraph's attributes.

In the lower left of this tab is the Size section. Choose the envelope format in the drop-down list. The width and height of the selected envelope show in the boxes below the selected format. If you chose a pre-existing format, just verify these sizes. If you chose User Defined in the Format list, then you can edit the sizes.

Figure 150: Choosing addressee and sender information for an envelope

Figure 151: Choosing positioning and size of elements for an envelope

After formatting, go to the Printer tab (Figure 152) to choose which printer to use, its setup (for example, specification of the tray holding envelopes), and other printer options such as envelope orientation and shifting. You may need to experiment to see what options work best for your printer, as well as how the envelopes need to be positioned in the printer.

Figure 152: Choosing printer options for an envelope

When you have finished formatting and are ready to print, click either the New Document button or the Insert button to finish. New Document makes only an envelope or starts a new document with the envelope. Insert puts the envelope into your existing document as page 1.

Save this file before you do anything else.

To print the envelope:

Choose File > Print on the Menu bar.

On the Print dialog (Figure 145 on page 144), under Range and Copies, choose Pages and type 1 in the box. Choose the required printer (which may be different from the usual printer). Click Print.

Printing labels

Labels are commonly used for printing address lists (where each label shows a different address), but they can also be used to make multiple copies of one label, for example return-address stickers, labels for CDs/DVDs, or other items.

Printing labels, like printing envelopes, has two steps: setup and printing. This topic is covered in detail in Chapter 14, Mail Merge.

Exporting to PDF

LibreOffice can export documents to PDF (Portable Document Format). This standard file format is ideal for sending the file to someone else to view using Adobe Reader or other PDF viewers.

Warning

A document in PDF format is not protected against contents tampering or editing by default. The PDF document contents can be edited by specialized software tools, including LibreOffice Draw.

Tip

Unlike Save As, the Export command writes a copy of the current document in a new file with the chosen format, but keeps the current document and format open in your session.

Quick export to PDF

Click the Export Directly as PDF icon on the Standard toolbar, or File > Export As > Export Directly as PDF, to export the entire document using the PDF settings you most recently selected in the PDF Options dialog. You are asked to enter the file name and location for the PDF, but you do not get a chance to choose a page range, the image compression, or other options.

Controlling PDF content and quality

For more control over the content and quality of the resulting PDF, use File > Export as > Export as PDF. The PDF Options dialog opens. This dialog has six tabs (General, Initial View, User Interface, Links, Security, and Digital Signatures). Select the appropriate settings, and then click Export. Then you are asked to enter the location and file name of the PDF to be created, and click Save (Windows and Linux) or Export (macOS) to export the file.

Note

You can also export to PDF with File > Export. On the Export dialog, select the PDF file format, the file name and location, and click Save or Export. The PDF Options dialog then opens. Select the appropriate settings and then click Export. The only difference between the two export methods is the sequence in which steps occur.

General tab of PDF Options dialog

On the General tab (Figure 155), you can choose which pages to include in the PDF, the type of compression to use for images (which affects the quality of images in the PDF), and other options.

Range section

All: Exports the entire document to PDF.

Pages: To export a range of pages, use the format 3-6 (pages 3 to 6). To export single pages, use the format 7;9;11 (pages 7, 9 and 11). You can also export a combination of page ranges and single pages, by using a format like 3-6;8;10;12.

Selection: Exports whatever material is selected.

View PDF after export: Your default PDF viewer will open and display the newly exported PDF.

Figure 153: General tab of PDF Options dialog

Images section

Lossless compression: Images are stored without any loss of quality. Tends to make large files when used with photographs. Recommended for other kinds of images or graphics.

JPEG compression: Allows for varying degrees of quality. A setting of 90% works well with photographs (smaller file size, little perceptible loss of quality).

Reduce image resolution: Lower DPI (dots per inch) images have lower quality. Lower resolutions (100 dpi or less) may be sufficient for viewing on a computer screen, but many modern devices have much higher resolutions; and for printing it is generally preferable to use at least 300 or 600 dpi, depending on the capability of the printer. Higher DPI settings increase the size of the exported file.

Note

EPS (Encapsulated PostScript) images with embedded previews are exported only as previews. EPS images without embedded previews are exported as empty placeholders.

Watermark section

Sign with Watermark: When this option is selected, a transparent overlay of the text you enter into the watermark text box will appear on each page of the PDF.

General section

Hybrid PDF (embed ODF file): Use this setting to export the document as a PDF containing two file formats: PDF and ODF. In PDF viewers it behaves like a normal PDF file, and it remains fully editable in LibreOffice.

Archive (PDF/A, ISO 19005): PDF/A is an ISO standard for long-term preservation of documents, by embedding all the information necessary for faithful reproduction (such as fonts) while forbidding other elements (including forms, security, and encryption). PDF tags are written. PDF/A-1b refers to the minimum compliance level with PDF/A-1. PDF/A-2b is recommended for most users, because it allows layers and transparency with shapes and images. It also compresses better, usually producing smaller files. PDF/A-3b is identical to PDF/A-2b, but also accepts embedding of other file formats.

Universal Accessibility (PDF/UA): Creates a universal accessibility-complaint PDF file that follows the requirements of PDF/UA (ISO 14289) specifications. See the Help for more information.

Tagged PDF: Tagged PDF contains information about the structure of the document’s contents. This can help to display the document on devices with different screens, and when using screen reader software. Some tags that are exported are table of contents, hyperlinks, and controls. This option can increase file sizes significantly.

Create PDF form – Submit format: Choose the format of submitting forms from within the PDF file. This setting overrides the control’s URL property that you set in the document. There is only one common setting valid for the whole PDF document: PDF (sends the whole document), FDF (sends the control contents), HTML, and XML. Most often you will choose the PDF format.

Allow duplicate field names: If enabled, the same field name can be used for multiple fields in the generated PDF file. You can enter data in the first occurrence of the named field in the PDF document and all fields with the same name will carry your entry. If disabled, field names will be exported using generated unique names.

Structure section

Export outlines: Exports headings as an outline (table of contents list) displayed by most PDF viewers, including Adobe Reader. In Writer 7.0 and earlier, these were called bookmarks.

Export placeholders: The PDF will include any defined placeholder fields, which can be filled in by users.

Comments as PDF annotations: If selected, comments are included in the PDF as annotations.

Export automatically inserted blank pages: If selected, automatically inserted blank pages are exported to the PDF. This is best if you are printing the PDF double-sided. For example, books usually have chapters set to always start on an odd-numbered (right-hand) page. When the previous chapter ends on an odd page, Writer inserts a blank page between the two odd pages. This option controls whether to export that blank page.

Use reference XObjects: Reference XObjects enable one PDF file to import content from another. More information can be found in section 8.10.4 of the PDF specification, ISO 32000-2:2017 (https://www.iso.org/standard/63534.html). If you are not familiar with referenceXObjects, leave this box unchecked.

Initial View tab of PDF Options dialog

On the Initial View tab (Figure 154), you can choose how the PDF opens by default in a PDF viewer. The selections should be self-explanatory.

If you have Complex Text Layout enabled (in Tools > Options > Language settings > Languages), an additional selection is available under the Continuous facing option: First page is left (normally, the first page is on the right when using the Continuous facing option).

Figure 154: Initial View tab of PDF Options dialog

User Interface tab of PDF Options dialog

On the User Interface tab (Figure 155), you can choose more settings to control how a PDF viewer displays the file. Some of these choices are particularly useful when you are creating a PDF to be used as a presentation or a kiosk-type display.

Figure 155: User Interface tab of PDF Options dialog

Window options section

Resize window to initial page. The PDF viewer window will resize to fit the first page of the PDF.

Center window on screen. The PDF viewer window will be centered on the computer screen.

Open in full screen mode. The PDF viewer will open full-screen instead of in a smaller window.

Display document title. The PDF viewer will display the document’s title in the title bar.

User interface options section

Hide menubar. The PDF viewer will hide the Menu bar.

Hide toolbar. The PDF viewer will hide the toolbar.

Hide window controls. The PDF viewer will hide other window controls.

Transitions

Not available in Writer.

Collapse Outlines

Select how many heading levels are displayed in the outline, if Export Outlines is selected on the General tab.

Links tab of PDF Options dialog

On the Links tab (Figure 156), you can choose how links in documents are exported to PDF.

Export outlines as named destinations

Paragraphs defined in Writer’s outline levels are exported as “named destinations” to which Web pages and PDF documents can link.

Convert document references to PDF targets

If you have defined links to other documents with OpenDocument extensions (such as .odt, .ods, and .odp), the file extensions are converted to .pdf in the exported PDF document.

Export URLs relative to file system

If you have defined relative links in a document, this option exports those links to the PDF.

Cross-document links

Defines the behavior of links clicked in PDF files. Select one of the alternatives:

Default mode: The PDF links will be handled as specified in your operating system.

Open with PDF reader application: Use the same application used to display the PDF document to open linked PDF documents.

Open with Internet browser: Use the default Internet browser to display linked PDF documents.

Figure 156: Links tab of PDF Options dialog

Security tab of PDF Options dialog

PDF export includes options to encrypt the PDF (so it cannot be opened without a password) and apply some digital rights management (DRM) features.

With an open password set, the PDF can only be opened with the password. Once opened, there are no restrictions on what the user can do with the document (for example, print, copy, or change it).

With a permissions password set, the PDF can be opened by anyone, but its permissions can be restricted. See Figure 157. After you set a password for permissions, the other choices on the Security page become available.

With both the open password and permission password set, the PDF can only be opened with the correct password, and its permissions can be restricted.

Note

Permissions settings are effective only if the user’s PDF viewer respects the settings.

Figure 157: Security tab of PDF Options dialog with passwords set

Digital Signatures tab of PDF Options dialog

The Digital Signatures tab (Figure 158) contains the options for exporting a digitally signed PDF.

Figure 158: Digital Signatures tab of PDF Options dialog

Digital signatures are used to ensure that the PDF was really created by the original author (that is, you), and that the document has not been modified since it was signed.

The signed PDF export uses the keys and X.509 certificates already stored in your default key store location or on a smartcard. The key store to be used can be selected under Tools > Options > LibreOffice > Security > Certificate Path (macOS and Linux only). When using a smartcard, it must already be configured for use by your key store. This is usually done during installation of the smartcard software. Details about using these features is outside the scope of this chapter.

Use this certificate to digitally sign PDF documents: Click Select to open the Select Certificate dialog, where all certificates found in your selected key store are displayed. If the key store is protected by a password, you are prompted for it. When using a smartcard that is protected by a PIN, you are also prompted for that.

Select the certificate to use for digitally signing the exported PDF, then click Sign.

All other fields on the Digital Signatures tab are accessible only after a certificate has been selected.

Certificate password: Enter the password used for protecting the private key associated with the selected certificate. Usually this is the key store password. If the key store password has already been entered in the Select Certificate dialog, the key store may already be unlocked and not require the password again.

When using a smartcard, enter the PIN here. Some smartcard software will prompt you for the PIN again before signing.

Location, Contact information, Reason: Optionally enter additional information about the digital signature that will be applied to the PDF. This information will be embedded in the appropriate PDF fields and will be visible to anyone viewing the PDF. Any or all of the three fields may be left blank.

Time Stamp Authority: Optionally select a Time Stamping Authority (TSA) URL. During the PDF signing process, the TSA will be used to obtain a digitally signed timestamp that is then embedded in the signature. Anyone viewing the PDF can use this timestamp to verify when the document was signed.

The list of TSA URLs that can be selected is maintained under Tools > Options > LibreOffice > Security > TSAs. If no TSA URL is selected (the default), the signature will not be timestamped, but will use the current time from your local computer.

Exporting to EPUB format

EPUB format has become popular since mobile devices such as smartphones, tablets, and e‑readers appeared on the market. The EPUB format is implemented as an archive file consisting of HTML files carrying the content, along with images and other supporting files.

Writer can export a file to EPUB. A text-only document generally exports well, but some contents (such as illustrations, tables, and cross-references) may not export correctly.

Tip

Other ways to export to EPUB from Writer (.odt) files include Calibre, an open-source e‑book manager that runs on Windows, macOS, and Linux. Calibre provides many e‑book conversion facilities and allows editing of the result.
https://calibre-ebook.com/

Quick export to EPUB

Choose File > Export As > Export Directly as EPUB to export the entire document using the EPUB settings you most recently selected on the EPUB Export dialog (see below). You are asked to enter the file name and location for the EPUB file, but you do not get a chance to select other options.

Controlling export to EPUB

For more control over the content and quality of the resulting EPUB file, use File > Export As > Export as EPUB. The EPUB Export dialog opens (Figure 159).

Figure 159: EPUB Export dialog

The EPUB Export dialog has the following fields:

Version

Choose the EPUB version for the exported file. Values are EPUB 2.0 and EPUB 3.0. Most new e-readers can read EPUB 3.0.

Split method

Select the method to start a new section. Choose Heading to start the section on a heading, according to the document’s chapter numbering. Choose Page break to start the section on a page break.

Layout method

Choose Reflowable to have the ebook display change to fit the screen size and the user’s preference (so page size and header/footer content is not exported). Choose Fixed to have the ebook layout remain the same under all conditions.

Customize - Cover image

The path to the image file for the cover page. If no image is specified, the EPUB file will automatically use any image with a name like cover.gif, cover.jpg, cover.png, or cover.svg. A custom cover image is embedded in the EPUB file.

Customize - Media directory

The path to the optional directory for the cover image, metadata, and multimedia files. If you do not specify a directory, the exporter looks for custom media and metadata in the current document directory inside a folder with the same name as the document file name.

Metadata

The basic information for the file that provides tags to help searches. These fields provide another chance to edit metadata that is picked up by default from File > Properties in Writer.

Exporting to other formats

LibreOffice uses the term “export” for some file operations involving a change of file type. If you cannot find what you want under File > Save As, look under File > Export as well. Writer can export files to XHTML, EPUB and other formats, as shown in Figure 160.

Choose File > Export. On the Export dialog, specify a file name for the exported document, then select the required file format and click Export.

Figure 160: Export file formats

Emailing Writer documents

LibreOffice provides several ways to quickly and easily send a Writer document as an email attachment in one of three formats: .odt (OpenDocument Text, Writer’s default format), .docx (Microsoft Word format), or .pdf.

To send the current document in .odt format, choose:

File > Send > Email Document, or File > Send > Email as OpenDocument Text. Writer opens your default email program (if installed). The document is attached to a new email.

In your email program, enter the recipient, subject, and any text you want to add, then send the email.

If you choose Email as Microsoft Word, Writer first creates a file in Word format (.docx) and then opens your email program with the Word file attached to a new email. Similarly, if you choose Email as PDF, Writer opens the PDF Options dialog where you can select the settings you want, then creates a PDF, and then opens your email program with the PDF attached to a new email.

Emailing a document to several recipients

To email a document to several recipients, you can use the features in your email program or you can use Writer’s mail merge facilities to extract email addresses from an address book.

You can use Writer’s mail merge to send email in two ways:

Use the Mail Merge Wizard to create the document and send it.

Create the document in Writer without using the Wizard, then use the Wizard to send it.

See Chapter 14, Mail Merge, for details.

Digital signing of documents

To sign a document digitally, you need a personal key, also known as a certificate. A personal key is stored on your computer as a combination of a private key, which must be kept secret, and a public key, which you add to your documents when you sign them. You can get a certificate from a certification authority, which may be a private company or a governmental institution.

When you apply a digital signature to a document, a checksum is computed from the document’s content plus your personal key. The checksum and your public key are stored with the document.

When someone later opens the document on any computer with a recent version of LibreOffice, the program will compute the checksum again and compare it with the stored checksum. If both are the same, the program will signal that you see the original, unchanged document.

In addition, the program can show you the public key information from the certificate. You can compare the public key with the public key that is published on the web site of the certificate authority. Whenever someone changes something in the document, this change breaks the digital signature.

For a more detailed description of how to get and manage a certificate, and signature validation, see “About Digital Signatures” and “Applying Digital Signatures” in the LibreOffice Help.

A signed document shows an icon in the Status bar. You can double-click the icon to view the certificate. More than one signature can be added to a document.

Changing an existing description invalidates the signature. However, multiple signatures from the same author are allowed, because each signature can have a different description.

Applying a digital signature

The following procedure is an example of how to digitally sign a document. The actual procedure depends on how your computer is set up and its operating system.

Choose File > Digital Signatures > Digital Signatures.

If you have set LibreOffice to warn you when the document contains comments or recorded changes (see “Removing personal data” on page 163), you may see a message box asking whether you want to continue signing the document.

If you have not saved the document since the last change, a message box appears. Click Yes twice: once to continue and again to save the file.

The Digital Signatures dialog (Figure 161) opens. It lists existing signatures together with their description (if they have any). Click the Sign Document button to add a new signature to the document.

Figure 161: Signatures of the document

In the Select Certificate dialog (Figure 162), select your certificate, add an optional description, and click Sign to return to the Digital Signatures dialog. The certificate used is displayed in the dialog with an icon next to its name. This icon indicates the status of the digital signature.

Click Close in the Digital Signatures dialog to apply the digital signature.

Figure 162: Signatures can have a description

Including a signature line

You can generate a graphic box representing a signature line using Insert > Signature Line (see Figure 163), and you can optionally sign the signature line using a digital certificate.

Figure 163: Creating a signature line for a document

Figure 164: Signature line example

Removing personal data

You may wish to ensure that personal data, versions, comments, hidden information, or recorded changes are removed from files before you send them to other people or create PDFs from them.

In Tools > Options > LibreOffice > Security, click the Options button to display a dialog (Figure 165) where you can set LibreOffice to warn you when files contain certain information and/or automatically remove personal information on saving.

Figure 165: Set security warnings and options

To remove personal and some other data from a file, go to File > Properties. On the General tab, uncheck Apply user data and click the Reset Properties button. This removes any names in the created and modified fields, deletes the modification and printing dates, and resets the editing time to zero, the creation date to the current date and time, and the version number to 1.

To remove version information, either (a) go to File > Versions, select the versions from the list and click Delete, or (b) use Save As and save the file with a different name.

Redaction

You can redact documents to remove or hide sensitive information, to allow the selective disclosure of information in a document while keeping other parts of the document secret. For example, when a document is subpoenaed in a court case, information not specifically relevant to the case at hand is often redacted.

To redact a document:

Open the document in Writer.

Click Tools > Redact on the Menu bar, and wait for the document to be prepared for redaction and transferred to Draw. The Redaction toolbar (Figure 166) opens.

Figure 166: Redaction toolbar

Do the redaction by using the Rectangle Redaction and Freeform Redaction tools on the Redaction toolbar. The shapes will be transparent and in gray so you can see what you are redacting.

Optionally use the Export Directly as PDF tool to make an in-redaction copy of the document in PDF to use as a verbatim copy for review. The redacted items will be in transparent grey.

To finalize the redaction, select the desired option (black or white) on the Redacted Export tool. The transparent grey shapes are converted to opaque black or white shapes and the document is exported as a pixellized PDF. There will be no selectable text in it, and the redacted content will be non-existent.

Auto-redaction

To partially automate the redaction process, you can define certain words (such as names) to be redacted wherever they are found in the document. To do this, choose Tools > Auto-Redact on the Menu bar to open the Automatic Redaction dialog (Figure 167). Here you can load a list of terms (targets), add targets, delete targets, edit targets, and save a list of targets.

Figure 167: Automatic Redaction dialog

Writer Guide 7.2

Chapter 8
Introduction to Styles

What are styles?

Most people are used to writing documents according to physical attributes. For example, you might specify the font family, font size, and weight (for example: Helvetica 12pt, bold). In contrast, styles are logical attributes. For example, you can define a set of font characteristics and call it Title or Heading 1. In other words, styles mean that you shift the emphasis from what the text looks like to what the text is.

Why use styles?

Styles help improve consistency in a document. They also make major formatting changes easy. For example, you might decide to change the indentation of all paragraphs or change the font of all titles. For a long document, this simple task could be prohibitive. Styles make the task easy. In addition, Writer uses styles for other purposes, such as compiling a table of contents; see “Using paragraph styles to define a hierarchy of headings” on page 185.

Style categories

LibreOffice Writer has six style categories:

Paragraph styles affect entire paragraphs and are also used for purposes such as compiling a table of contents.

Character styles affect a block of text inside a paragraph; they provide exceptions to paragraph styles.

Page styles affect page formatting (page size, margin, and the like).

Frame styles affect frames and images.

List styles affect outlines, ordered (numbered) lists, and unordered (bulleted) lists.

Table styles affect the appearance of tables of data.

Paragraphs are the building blocks of every document: headings are paragraphs; headers, footers, and items in numbered lists are also paragraphs. Paragraph styles are, therefore, the most frequently used styles and are the ones treated in most detail in this chapter.

Note

Manual formatting (also called direct formatting) overrides styles. You cannot get rid of manual formatting by applying a style to it.

To remove manual formatting, select the text and choose Format > Clear Direct Formatting on the Menu bar, or right-click and choose Clear Direct Formatting in the context menu, or press Ctrl+M.

The Styles deck in the Sidebar

Styles management is primarily available through the Styles deck in the Sidebar (Figure 168). Here you can apply styles, modify styles, and create new styles.

To begin, do any of the following:

Click the Styles icon on the Sidebar.

Choose Styles > Manage Styles on the Menu bar.

Press F11 (⌘+T on Mac).

The first six icons at the top of the Styles deck select the category of styles. Click one of these icons to display a list of styles in that category, such as paragraph or character styles.

Select the Show previews option at the bottom of the deck to display the style names as examples of their formatting.

Figure 168: The Styles deck, showing paragraph styles and filter

Filtering the visible styles

At the bottom of the Styles deck, use the drop-down menu to select a filter for the list of styles. Normally, you will need only a few styles in any document, so it’s useful to have only these styles shown.

At the beginning of the writing process, you may want to have access to all the available styles (by selecting All Styles), and then hide some of them (Ctrl+click to select each style to be excluded and finally right-click one of these styles and select Hide in the context menu). As the document develops, it is quicker to reduce the list displayed to only the styles already in use (by selecting Applied Styles). If you work on a document where you want to apply custom styles only, select instead Custom Styles. The Hierarchical view is most useful when modifying styles as it reveals which styles are linked together. This topic is discussed in Chapter 9, Working with Styles.

In the Paragraph Styles view, the drop-down menu contains several more filtering options so you can view, for example, only Text Styles, Special Styles, and so on.

Applying styles

Styles can be applied easily using the Styles deck on the Sidebar. In addition, you can apply certain styles using other methods, as explained in this section.

Applying paragraph styles

Paragraph styles can be applied in several ways:

Paragraph Styles tab of the Styles deck on the Sidebar

Styles menu on the Menu Bar (limited to common styles)

Right-click context menu (limited)

Set Paragraph Style drop-down list at the left end of the Formatting toolbar and the Formatting (Styles) toolbar

Set Paragraph Style drop-down list at the top of the Properties deck of the Sidebar

Formatting (Styles) toolbar (Figure 172); limited to common styles

Fill Format Mode icon on the Styles deck on the Sidebar

Keyboard shortcuts Ctrl+1 to Ctrl+5 (Heading 1 to Heading 5)

Using the Styles deck on the Sidebar

Put the cursor in the paragraph and double-click the name of the style in the Paragraph Styles tab of the Styles deck on the Sidebar. You can select more than one paragraph and apply the same style to all of them at the same time.

Using the Styles menu

The Styles menu on the Menu bar (Figure 169) provides the most commonly used paragraph, character, and list styles, plus quick links to create, edit, and manage styles. You can add styles to the Styles menu; see Chapter 20, Customizing Writer. To apply a paragraph style, put the cursor in the paragraph and click Styles > [name of paragraph style] on the Menu bar. The other choices on this menu are described later in this chapter.

Figure 169: The Styles menu

Using the context (right-click) menu

Right-click anywhere in a paragraph to open the context menu. Choose Paragraph. The submenu (Figure 170) includes some commonly used paragraph styles. You can add paragraph styles to this submenu; see Chapter 20, Customizing Writer.

Figure 170: Context menu, Paragraph submenu

Using the Set Paragraph Style list

When a paragraph style is in use in a document, the style name appears on the Set Paragraph Style list near the left end of the Formatting toolbar (see Figure 171), the Formatting (Styles) toolbar, and the top of the Properties deck on the Sidebar.

Figure 171: The Set Paragraph Style list on the Formatting bar

To apply a style from this list, put the cursor in the paragraph to change, and then click the arrow to drop down the list of styles and click the desired style; or drop down the list and use the up or down arrow keys to move through the list, then press Enter to apply the highlighted style.

Tip

If the Sidebar Styles deck is not open, you can select Manage Styles at the bottom of the list to open it.

Using the Formatting (Styles) toolbar

The Formatting (Styles) toolbar (Figure 172) includes common paragraph, character, and list styles. If it not visible, use View > Toolbars > Formatting (Styles) on the Menu bar to display it.

To apply a paragraph style, put the cursor in the paragraph and click the relevant button on the toolbar. You can add styles to the this toolbar; see Chapter 20, Customizing Writer.

Figure 172: Formatting (Styles) toolbar

Using Fill Format Mode

You can use Fill Format Mode to apply a style to many areas quickly without having to go back to the Styles deck and double-click each time. This method is useful for formatting scattered paragraphs, words, or other items with the same style, and it may be easier to use than making multiple selections first and then applying a style to all of them.

Open the Styles deck on the Sidebar (Figure 168) and select a style.

Select a style to copy, and then click the Fill Format Mode icon.

To apply a paragraph, page, or frame style, hover the mouse over the paragraph, page, or frame and click. To apply a character style, hold down the mouse button while selecting the characters. Clicking on a word applies the character style to that word.

Repeat step 3 until you have made all the changes for that style.

To quit Fill Format mode, click the icon again or press the Esc key.

Using keyboard shortcuts

Some keyboard shortcuts for applying styles are predefined. For example, Ctrl+0 applies the Text body style, Ctrl+1 applies the Heading 1 style, and Ctrl+2 applies the Heading 2 style. You can modify these shortcuts and create your own; see Chapter 21, Customizing Writer, for instructions.

Applying character styles

To apply a character style, select the characters or words and apply the character style from any of the following:

Styles menu on the Menu bar (limited)

Character Styles tab of the Styles deck on the Sidebar

Right-click context menu (limited)

Formatting (Styles) toolbar (Figure 172)

Tip

You may need to remove direct formatting before applying character styles. Select the text, then choose Format > Clear Direct Formatting on the Menu bar, or right-click and choose Clear Direct Formatting from the context menu, or press Ctrl+M.

Using the Styles menu

The Styles menu on the Menu bar (Figure 169) provides the most commonly used paragraph, character, and list styles, plus quick links to create and edit styles. To apply a character style, select the characters and click Styles > [name of character style]. You can add styles to the Styles menu; see Chapter 20, Customizing Writer.

Using the Styles deck on the Sidebar

Open the Styles deck and click the Character Styles icon at the top. The list of available character styles is displayed. To apply a character style:

Select the block of text, or put the cursor into the single word, where you wish to apply the style.

Double-click the appropriate character style on the Styles deck.

Note

To apply a character style to more than a single word, you need to select all of the text to be changed. To apply the style to a single word, you only have to place the cursor in the word. In contrast, paragraph styles are applied to the whole of the paragraph in which the cursor is placed.

Using the context (right-click) menu

Select the block of text, or put the cursor into the single word, then right-click to open the context menu. Choose Character. The submenu (Figure 173) includes some commonly used character styles. You can add character styles to this submenu; see Chapter 20, Customizing Writer.

Figure 173: Context menu, Character submenu

Using the Formatting (Styles) toolbar

The Formatting (Styles) toolbar (Figure 172) includes common paragraph, character, and list styles. If it not visible, use View > Toolbars > Formatting (Styles) on the Menu bar to display it.

To apply a character style, select the text or put the cursor in a word and click the relevant icon on the toolbar. You can add styles to the this toolbar; see Chapter 20, Customizing Writer.

Removing or replacing character styles

To remove the character style formatting from some text, or change the character style to a different style, do this:

Select the text.

On the Styles deck in the Sidebar, click the Character Styles icon in the top bar.

Double-click the required character style, or double-click No Character Style to remove the character style.

Applying frame styles

When you insert an object (such as a graphic) into a document, it will automatically have an invisible frame around it. Some designers like to add frame styles to introduce variety. For example, you could have one frame style for photographs and a different frame style for other graphics such as line drawings. The one for photographs might have a border with a drop shadow, while the one for drawings might have only a border.

To apply a style to a frame:

Select the frame.

On the Styles deck in the Sidebar, click the Frame Styles icon in the top bar.

Double-click the required frame style.

Having applied a style to a frame, you can now modify the frame to be just how you want it. Most of a frame’s design can be set in a style, but the following options must be set manually:

Anchoring: how the frame is positioned in relation to the rest of the page’s contents (Format > Anchor). See Chapter 11, Images and Graphics, for details on anchoring images, frames, and other objects.

Arrangement: the frame’s position in a stack of objects (Format > Arrange). See Chapter 11, Images and Graphics, for details on arranging images, frames, and other objects.

Adding a hyperlink: so that a click on the frame opens a web page or another document (Insert > Hyperlink).

When a frame is selected, the Frame toolbar replaces the Formatting toolbar, and the right-click (context) menu has items for anchoring, arrangement, wrap, and alignment.

Applying page styles

Put the cursor anywhere on the page. The applied page style is shown on the Status bar.

Figure 174: The current page style is displayed on the status bar

To apply a different style, either right-click the style on the status bar and select a style from the context menu, or open the Styles deck, select the Page Style icon at the top (fourth icon), and then double-click the desired page style.

Caution

Changing a page style may also cause the style of subsequent pages to change. The results may not be what you want. To change the style of only one page, you may need to insert a manual page break, as described below.

As discussed in Chapter 9, Working with Styles, a correctly set up page style will, in most cases, contain information on what the page style of the next page should be. For example, when you apply a Left Page style to a page, you can indicate in the page style settings that the next page must have a Right Page style; a First Page style could be followed by either a Left Page style or a Default Page Style; or any sequence you prefer.

Another way to change the page style is to insert a manual page break and specify the style of the subsequent page. The idea is simple: you break a sequence of page styles and start a new sequence. To insert a page break, choose Insert > More Breaks > Manual Break. This section illustrates two common scenarios where page breaks are useful.

Example: Chapters

A possible scenario: You are writing a book that is divided into chapters. Each chapter starts with a page style called First Page. The following pages use the Default Page Style. At the end of each (except the last) chapter, we return to the First Page style for the next chapter.

Figure 175 illustrates the flow of page styles when using page breaks.

Figure 175: Dividing a document into chapters using page styles

At some point, you will want to start a new chapter. Follow these steps:

Put the cursor at the end of the chapter, on a blank line (empty paragraph) of its own.

Choose Insert > More Breaks > Manual Break. The Insert Break dialog (Figure 176) opens.

Under Type, choose Page break and under Style, select First Page.

Figure 176: Choose Page break and select the First Page style

Tip

You can automate these breaks by defining the paragraph style of the chapter’s title (usually Heading 1) to include a page break.

Example: Page with special formatting

Sometimes you may need to insert a page with special formatting, for example a landscape page or a page with more columns. This can also be done with page breaks. Suppose that the current page has the Default Page Style.

Choose Insert > More Breaks > Manual Break.

Select the desired page style (say, Special Page) in the Insert Break dialog.

Type something on this page. Then insert another page break, selecting Default Page Style again.

This concept is illustrated in Figure 177.

Figure 177: Inserting a page with special formatting

Example: A book chapter sequence of pages

Book chapters typically start on a right-hand page, with the first page of the chapter having a different layout from the rest of the pages. The other pages in the chapter are “mirrored” for double-sided printing. For example, page numbers in the header or footer may be positioned on the outside edge of pages and in this instance a wider margin (allowing for binding) is placed on the inside edge.

Table 5 shows the properties of two page styles (First Page and Default Page Style) set up for a typical book chapter’s sequence of pages.

Table 5: Properties of customized page styles for a book chapter

Page Style	Desired effect	Property: setting
First Page	First page always on the right (an odd-numbered page)	Page > Page layout > Only right
No header or footer	Header > Header on: Not selected
Top margin of page larger than on other pages	Page > Margins > Top: 6.00cm
Default Page Style	Mirrored margins	Page > Page layout: Mirrored
Header with page number in the center of the page	Header > Header on: Selected Header > Header > Same content left/right: Selected

Figure 178 illustrates the transitions from the First Page to Default Page Style, with the change of header between left and right pages shown by the # symbol.

Figure 178: First Page and then the Default page style with different headers for alternate pages

Step 1. Set up the First Page style.

On the Styles deck, click the Page Styles icon to display a list of page styles.

Right-click First Page and select Modify in the context menu.

On the Organizer tab of the Page Style: First Page dialog, change Next Style to Default Page Style.

Figure 179: Specifying the next style after the first page of a chapter

On the Page tab, specify a larger left margin for binding, and a larger top margin to move the chapter title down the page.

Figure 180: Setting page margins and layout for the First Page style

On the Header and Footer tabs, be sure the Header on and Footer on options are not selected. Click OK to save your changes.

Step 2. Set up the Default Page Style.

On the Styles deck, in the list of page styles, right-click Default Page Style and select Modify in the context menu.

On the Organizer tab of the Page Style: Default Page Style dialog, be sure Next Style is set to Default Page Style.

On the Page tab of the Page Style: Default Page Style dialog, select Mirrored for Page layout and set the Inner and Outer margins to the same width as the Left and Right margins, respectively, on the First Page style.

Figure 181: Setting page margins and layout for the Default page style

On the Header tab of the Page Style: Default Page Style dialog, select the Header on and Same content on left and right pages options. Click OK to save your changes.

Figure 182: Setting up the header properties for the Default page style

Step 3. Set up the Heading 1 paragraph style to start on a new first page.

On the Styles deck, on the Paragraph Styles tab, right-click Heading 1 and select Modify.

On the Text Flow tab of the Paragraph Style dialog, in the Breaks section, select Insert, With Page Style, and First Page. Click OK to save your changes.

Figure 183: Setting a paragraph style to start on a page of a selected style

Step 4. Start a new chapter.

Apply the Heading 1 paragraph style to the first paragraph, which is the title of the chapter.

Note

By default, the Heading 1 paragraph style is assigned to Outline Level 1. The assignment of paragraph styles to outline levels is done through Tools > Chapter Numbering.

Step 5. Set up the page headers.

On any Default Page Style page, put the cursor in the header and insert a page number field (Insert > Page Number).

Applying list styles

List styles define properties such as indentation, numbering style (for example, 1,2,3; a,b,c; or bullets), and punctuation after the number, but they do not by themselves define properties such as font, borders, text flow, and so on. The latter are properties of paragraph styles.

Although you can apply list styles using the Styles menu or the Styles deck in the Sidebar, those methods are not recommended.

Whenever possible, use paragraph styles for creating bulleted and numbered lists. Writer comes with two sets of paragraph styles for this purpose. It is recommended to use list styles and paragraph styles together in these ways:

Use paragraph styles List 1, List 2, List 3, and so on for creating unordered (bulleted) lists. These styles use Bullet list styles.

Use paragraph styles Numbering 1, Numbering 2, Numbering 3, etc, for creating ordered (numbered) lists. These styles use the list styles called Numbering 1, Numbering 2, etc.

Writer has several predefined list styles, which use different bullet symbols or number sequences (123, abc, ABC, and so on). As with any style, you can redefine the properties of these styles, for example the numbering or bullet symbol and the indentation. You can also define other list styles in these series or create your own series. For more information, see Chapter 9, Working with Styles. Much more information about list styles is in Chapter 12, Lists: Tips and Tricks.

Applying table styles

Table styles define properties such as the font, paragraph spacing, number of columns, borders, and background color.

To apply a table style, position the cursor anywhere in the table, go to the Styles deck on the Sidebar, choose Table Styles, then double-click the name of a style on the list.

See Chapter 13, Tables of Data, for information on creating a table style.

Creating and modifying styles

Writer provides many predefined styles, which are useful when sharing a document to another machine, especially one with a different language version of LibreOffice, but you may find that they do not fit your preferences. You can modify the predefined styles or build your own library of custom styles to use in addition to or in place of the predefined ones.

Note

New styles you create or changes you make to an existing style are available only within the document they belong to. Styles always stay with a document.

If you want to reuse modified or new styles in other documents, either save the styles in a template (see Chapter 10, Working with Templates) or copy the styles into the other documents, as described in “Load Styles (from a template or document)” on page 180.

Writer offers these mechanisms to modify both predefined and custom (user-created) styles:

Create or update a style from a selection

Load or copy styles from another document or template

Change a style using the Style dialog

Use AutoUpdate (paragraph and frame styles only)

Use AutoFormat (table styles only); see Chapter 13, Tables of Data

Using the Styles actions menu

The last icon at the top of the Styles deck, Styles actions, gives access to three functions: New Style from Selection, Update Selected Style, and Load Styles from Template.

New Style from Selection

Use New Style from Selection to create a new style from the formatting of an item in the current document. For example, you can change the formatting of a paragraph until it appears as you like, and then you can turn that formatting into a new style. This procedure can save time because you do not have to remember all the formatting settings you want, as is necessary when creating a new style with the Style dialog. In addition, you can immediately see how the item will look when formatted with the style you are creating.

Follow these steps to create a new style from a selection:

In the document, change the formatting of the object (paragraph, frame, and so on) to your liking. Select the item you want to save as a style.

Open the Styles deck in the Sidebar and choose the category of style to create (paragraph, character, and so on) from the tabs at the top.

Click the Styles actions icon, then select New Style from Selection (Figure 184).

The Create Style dialog opens. Type a name for the new style. The list shows the names of existing custom styles of the selected type, if any. Click OK to save the new style.

Figure 184: Styles Actions menu in Sidebar

Update Selected Style

Follow these steps to update a paragraph style from a selection:

Create a new paragraph (or select an existing paragraph) and edit all the properties you want to alter in the style, such as indentation, font properties, alignment, and others.

Caution

Make sure that the properties in this paragraph are uniform. For example, if there are two different font sizes in the paragraph, that property will not be updated.

Click anywhere in the paragraph.

On the Styles deck of the Sidebar, select the style you want to update (single-click, not double-click) and then click the Styles actions icon and select Update Selected Style.

The procedure to update another category of style (character, page, or frame styles) is the same: select the item in question, modify it, select the style you want to update, and choose Update Selected Style from the Styles actions icon.

Load Styles (from a template or document)

The last option under the Styles actions icon is Load Styles from Template, which is used to copy styles into the current document by loading them from a template or another document. Using this method, you can copy all styles, or groups of styles, at one time.

Open the document to copy styles into.

On the Styles deck, click the Styles actions icon and then Load Styles from Template (Figure 184).

On the Load Styles from Template dialog (Figure 185), find and select the template or document to copy styles from.

Click the From File button if the styles you want are contained in a text document rather than a template. This opens a standard file browser, where you can select the desired document.

Select the options for the types of styles to be copied: Text (Paragraph and Character styles), Frame, Pages, Numbering (List styles). If you select Overwrite, the styles being copied will replace any styles of the same names in the target document.

Click OK to copy the styles.

Figure 185: Loading styles from a template

Drag-and-drop a selection to create a style

Another way to create a new style is to drag-and-drop a text selection into the Styles deck.

Open the Styles deck on the Sidebar.

Select the style category you are going to create (for example a character style) using one of the icons near the top of the deck.

Select the object on which you want to base the style and drag it to the Styles deck. The cursor changes to indicate whether the operation is possible.

In the Create Style dialog, type a name for the new style and click OK to save the style.

Note

You cannot use the drag-and-drop method to create a new page style or table style.

Changing a style using the Style dialog

To change a style (but not a table style) using the Style dialog, right-click the style in the Styles deck and select Modify in the context menu.

The dialog displayed depends on the type of style selected. Each style’s dialog has several tabs. The properties on these dialogs are described in Chapter 9, Working with Styles.

See Chapter 13, Tables of Data, for information on changing a table style.

Using AutoUpdate

On the Organizer tab of the Paragraph Style and Frame Style dialogs is an AutoUpdate option (marked in Figure 186). If this option is selected, then LibreOffice will apply to the style any modification made manually to a paragraph formatted with that style.

Caution

If you are in the habit of manually overriding styles in your document, be sure that AutoUpdate is not enabled, or you may suddenly find whole sections of your document reformatting unexpectedly.

Figure 186: The Organizer page of the Paragraph Style dialog

Deleting styles

It is not possible to delete LibreOffice’s predefined styles from a document or template, even if they are not in use. However, custom styles can be deleted.

To delete any unwanted styles using the Styles deck of the Sidebar, select each one to be deleted (hold Ctrl while selecting multiple styles), and then right-click and select Delete in the context menu. If the style is in use, a message appears warning you that the style is in use and asking you to verify that you really want to delete the style.

If the style is not in use, it is deleted immediately without confirmation.

Caution

If you delete a style that is in use, all objects with that style will return to the style it was based on (inherited from) but may retain some of the deleted style’s formatting as manual formatting.

Tip

If an unwanted paragraph style is in use, you can use Find and Replace to replace it with a substitute style before deleting it. See Chapter 3, Working with Text: Advanced, for more information.

Example: creating and modifying paragraph styles

This section provides an example of a typical use of custom paragraph styles. We will create a Poem paragraph style and a Poem Header paragraph style, with the following properties:

Poem: Centered, with a font size of 10pt.

Poem Heading: Centered, bold, with a 12pt font size.

In addition, a Poem Heading style is to be followed by a Poem style. In other words, when you press Enter at the end of a paragraph in the Poem Heading paragraph style, the paragraph style for the next paragraph in the document changes to Poem.

Note

You may have noticed this behavior already. After you enter a heading using a Heading paragraph style and press Enter, the next style switches to Text body.

Creating the Poem paragraph style

We will use the Default Paragraph Style as a starting point.

On the Styles deck, click the Paragraph Styles icon.

Right-click Default Paragraph Style and choose New.

The Paragraph Style dialog opens, with the Organizer tab selected. To create a custom style, you need to configure the top three entries.

Style fields	Description
Name	The name of the style itself, like Heading 1 or Text body. Type the name Poem.
Next Style	The style of a paragraph that follows the paragraph that is in Poem style. When you press Enter while typing text in the Poem style, this style is automatically applied to the new paragraph. Set this value to Poem. When you press Enter, the text of the new paragraph will remain in the Poem style.
Inherit from	If the properties of the Poem style are inherited from another style, say Default Paragraph Style, then any change in Default will affect Poem. For our example, this is not the behavior we want. Set this entry to – None –. This means that Poem is not inherited from any other style.

Select the Custom Styles category for new styles. Do not select the AutoUpdate option.

After making these changes, your dialog should look like Figure 187.

Figure 187: Initial configuration for the Poem style. Set the first three entries as shown.

The next step is to configure the alignment and font properties of this style.

On the Alignment page, select the Center option.

On the Font page, select the 12pt font size.

Click OK to save the new Poem style.

Creating the Poem Heading style

To create a new Poem Heading style, use the same procedure as above, with these changes:

Next Style: Select Poem, not Poem Heading. When you press Enter while typing text in the PoemHeading style, this Poem style is automatically applied to the new paragraph.

Inherit from: Heading.

The dialog should look like Figure 188.

Figure 188: Settings for the PoemHeading style

Now set the settings of the new style:

On the Alignment page, select Center.

On the Font page, select Bold and size 14pt.

Click OK to save the new PoemHeading style.

Sample poem

It is a good idea to test out your new styles and see if you are happy with them. Typing a poem using the styles we have just defined should produce the results in Figure 189.

Figure 189: Sample poem

Changing the formatting of your styles

One of the main advantages of styles is that they allow the document formatting to be changed after the content has been written. For example, suppose you have written a 100-page book of poetry. Then you (or your publisher) decide you don’t like the way the poems look.

To learn about reconfiguring styles, we will add an indentation to the Poem style instead of centering it.

First, set the Poem style to left alignment:

In the Styles deck, right-click Poem and select Modify.

On the Alignment page, select Left.

Set the indentation:

Select the Indents & Spacing tab.

Under Indent, set the indentation before the text to 0.5 in.

Click OK, and you should see the text change. The poem should now look similar to Figure 190. Note in the figure that a third style has been created for the author of the poem.

Figure 190: Final result, using three custom styles

Using paragraph styles to define a hierarchy of headings

Paragraph styles are the key to Writer’s table of contents feature. Tools > Chapter Numbering defines the hierarchy of headings in a document. The default paragraph styles assigned to heading levels are the heading styles supplied with Writer: Heading 1, Heading 2, and so on. However, you can substitute any styles you wish, including custom (user-defined) styles.

The headings defined using the chapter numbering feature can be used for more than the table of contents (described in Chapter 15, Tables of Contents, Indexes, Bibliographies). For example, fields are commonly used to display section headings in headers and footers of pages (see Chapter 17, Fields).

Choosing paragraph styles for heading levels

If you are using the default heading styles for the headings in your outline, and you do not want to use heading numbering, you do not need to do anything on the Chapter Numbering dialog. The default outline numbering scheme uses the default heading styles.

To use custom styles in place of one or more of the default heading styles:

Choose Tools > Chapter Numbering to open the Chapter Numbering dialog (Figure 191).

On the Numbering tab, click the number in the Level box corresponding to the heading for which you want to change the paragraph style.

In the Numbering: Paragraph Style section, choose in the drop-down list the paragraph style you want to assign to that heading level. In this example, you might choose My Heading 1 to replace Heading 1 and for Level 2, My Heading 2 to replace Heading 2.

Repeat for each numbering level that you want to change. Click OK when done.

Figure 191: Choosing paragraph styles for numbering levels

Assigning outline levels to other styles

In Writer, you can assign an outline level to any paragraph style. This feature enables you to create a table of contents that includes those headings along with the headings using styles listed in the Chapter Numbering dialog. For example, you might use a different sequence of styles for appendixes, but you want the appendix headings and subheadings to appear in the table of contents at the same levels as the chapter headings and subheadings.

To assign an outline level to a paragraph style, go to the Outline & List tab for the style, and select the required outline level from the drop-down list. Click OK to save this change.

Figure 192: Specifying an outline level for a paragraph style

Setting up heading numbering

If you want one or more heading levels to be numbered, many choices are available; this example defines a scheme to create headings that look like those in the illustration below.

Figure 193: The numbering scheme to be set up

Use the Numbering tab of the Chapter Numbering dialog to define the numbering scheme and its appearance. Figure 194 shows the default settings.

Figure 194: Default settings on the Chapter Numbering dialog

In the Level list, choose 1. In the Number list, choose 1, 2, 3, …. The result is shown in the preview box on the right in Figure 195.

Figure 195: Specifying numbering of Level 1 headings

In the Level list, choose 2. In the Number list, choose 1, 2, 3, …. The Show sublevels field is now active; it should show 2 (if not, choose 2). The result is shown in Figure 196.

Figure 196: Specifying numbering of Level 2 headings

In the Level list, choose 3. In the Number list, choose 1, 2, 3, …. The Show sublevels field should show 3 (if not, choose 3). The result is shown in Figure 197.

Figure 197: Specifying numbering of Level 3 headings

These choices produce the layout shown in Figure 198.

Figure 198: Results of numbering choices for headings

Setting up the indentation of headings

Whether or not the headings are numbered, you may want to change some of their formatting. For example, you may want the second-level and third-level headings to be indented from the margin. For numbered headings, you may also want the second line of long headings to line up with the first word of the heading, not the number. For these changes, use the Position tab of the Chapter Numbering dialog.

As an example, we will change the position and wrapping of a Heading 2:

In the Level list on the left, choose 2. Change the values for Numbering followed by, Tab stop at and Aligned at, as shown in Figure 199. You may want to use a different value.

Figure 199: Indenting Level 2 headings

This indents the entire heading but does not affect the way long headings wrap around (Figure 200).

Figure 200: Result of changes to indentation of Level 2 headings

To change the wrapping behavior of long headings, change Indent at to a larger value, as shown in Figure 201. The result is shown in Figure 202.

Figure 201: Wrapping long headings

Figure 202: Result of changing Indent at value

Writer Guide 7.2

Chapter 9
Working with Styles

Introduction

Chapter 8, Introduction to Styles, describes the basics of how to use, apply, and manage styles. This chapter gives a more detailed description of how to create or modify some styles, using the many options available on the various tabs of the Style dialog. It explains how these options affect the appearance of the style and how to use them efficiently.

The Style dialogs share many of the same tabs as the manual formatting dialogs, so this chapter can also help you apply manual formatting (though you do not need that if you use styles).

Creating custom (new) styles

In addition to using the predefined styles provided by LibreOffice, you can add new custom (user-defined) styles. In Chapter 8, three methods are given for creating a new style: drag-and-drop, the New Style from Selection icon on the Styles deck, and the Style dialog.

The first two of these methods are convenient because you can check the visual effects that the style produces before creating it. However, for full control over the style (and its relationship to other styles), you need to use the Style dialog, as described in this chapter.

Note

Table styles are created in a different way; see Chapter 13, Tables of Data.

Style dialog

Open the Styles deck on the Sidebar. Select the category of style you want to create by clicking on the appropriate icon on the top part of the Styles deck.

Right-click in the window and select New in the context menu. The dialog that is displayed depends on the type of style you selected.

Tip

The dialogs used to create a new style and to modify an existing style are mostly the same, but with one exception: conditional styles have a different dialog. See “Using conditional paragraph styles” on page 203.

Organizer tab

The Organizer tab, shown in Figure 203, is common to all style categories (except Table styles), with only small differences between them. Therefore, it is described only once.

Depending on the style you are creating, you will find the following fields on this tab:

Name: present on all the categories. Use this field to name the style you are creating.

AutoUpdate: only present for paragraph and frame styles. If this option is selected, then Writer will apply any manual modification to a paragraph or frame formatted with that style to the style itself.

Caution

If you are in the habit of manually overriding styles in your document, be sure that AutoUpdate is not enabled, or you may suddenly find whole sections of your document reformatted unexpectedly.

Figure 203: The Organizer tab displayed when a new Paragraph style is created

Next Style: only available for paragraph and page styles. Use it to specify which style will be applied to the next element of the same type. For example, a left page style is usually followed by a right page style, a first page style followed by a left page style, a heading followed by a text body, and so on.

Inherit from: available for paragraph, character, and frame styles; it determines the position of the style in the hierarchy. All the starting properties of the new style are inherited (copied) from the style specified here; see below for more information.

Category: available for all styles; use it to associate the new style with one of the categories. You cannot change the category of the predefined styles. Setting this field is useful when filtering the contents of the Styles deck.

Contains: shows a summary of the properties of the style.

Style inheritance When creating a new paragraph style or a new character style, you can use an existing style as a starting point for its settings. In this sense, LibreOffice links the styles together. When style settings are inherited, a change in the parent style affects every style inherited from it. To see the connections between styles, switch to the Hierarchical view on the Styles deck filter. For example, every Heading style (such as Heading 1, Heading 2) is inherited from a style called Heading. This relationship is illustrated in Figure 204.	Figure 204: Hierarchical view of inheritance in styles

Inheritance is a method to create “families” of styles in which you can change their properties simultaneously. For example, if you decide that all the headings should be green (such as in this guide), you only need to change the font color of the parent style to achieve the desired result. However, changes made to a parameter of the parent style do not override changes previously made to the same parameter in the child styles. For example, if you change the Heading 2 font color to green, a change of the font color of the Heading style (the parent style) to red will not affect the Heading 2 font color.

You can easily check which properties are specific to a style by looking at the Contains section of the Organizer tab. If you want to reset the properties of a child style to that of the parent style, click the Standard button located at the bottom of each Paragraph and Character style dialog.

Example: Changing a property of a parent style

Suppose that you want to change the font of not only Heading 1 or Heading 2, but all headings.

Open the Styles deck, select the Paragraph Styles category, right-click Heading, then select Modify to open the Paragraph Style dialog for the Heading style.

Select the Font tab, then select a font and click OK. Now the fonts of all the heading styles (Heading 1 through Heading 10) are changed in a single operation.

Figure 205: Select the Heading font

Working with paragraph styles

Although this section describes most of the parameters scattered over the tabbed pages shown in Figure 205, you do not need to configure them all. In most cases, you need to modify only a few attributes, particularly if you link styles or base the new style on a similar one.

Indents & Spacing tab

On the Indents & Spacing tab (Figure 206), you can set up the indentation of the paragraph and the spacing between lines and between one paragraph and the paragraphs above and below.

Figure 206: Settings on the Indents and Spacing tab of a paragraph style dialog

Use the Indent section of the tab to set up the indentation, using these parameters:

Before text: controls the space in the selected unit of measurement between the left margin of the page and the leftmost part of the paragraph area. Entering a negative value results in the text starting on the left of the margin. This may be useful in situations where your left margin is quite wide, but you want the headings to be centered in the page.

After text: controls the space in the selected unit of measurement between the right margin of the page and the rightmost part of the paragraph area. Entering a negative value results in the text extending into the right margin of the page.

First line: enter the offset in this box (either positive or negative) of the first line of the paragraph relative to the paragraph area. A positive value increases the indentation of the first line, while a negative value makes the first line start to the left of the paragraph area.

Automatic: select this box to allow Writer to automatically control the indentation of the first line. The value is calculated by Writer on the basis of the font size and other parameters.

Use the Spacing section of the page to determine the amount of vertical space above and below the paragraph. It is customary to include some “space above” in heading styles so that they are separated from the text body of the previous section without the need to insert empty paragraphs. Spacing between paragraphs is also normal in certain types of documents. The body text style of this guide is configured to leave some space between consecutive paragraphs. You can select the option to remove space between paragraphs of the same style.

Note

An option in Tools > Options > LibreOffice Writer > Compatibility controls whether space above and space below are added together (the default) or if the larger space is the only one that applies. See Chapter 20, Customizing Writer, for more information.

The spacing between paragraphs does not affect the spacing between lines within a paragraph, which is controlled in the Line spacing section. You can select one of the following values:

Single: the default setting—applies a single line spacing to the paragraph. This is calculated automatically based on the font size.

1.15 lines: sets the line spacing to 1.15 lines. This small increase often improves the appearance of text without using a lot of vertical space.

1.5 lines: sets the line spacing to 1.5 lines.

Double: sets the line spacing to 2 lines.

Proportional: activates the edit box next to the drop-down list where you can enter a percentage value. 100% means a single line spacing, 200% double line spacing, and so on.

At least: this choice activates the edit box next to the drop-down list, where you can enter the minimum value (in your selected unit of measurement) to be used for the line spacing.

Leading: if this is selected, you can control the height of the vertical space between the base lines of two successive lines of text, by entering a value, which is summed with the value of single line spacing, into the edit box.

Fixed: this choice activates the edit box next to the drop-down list, where you can enter the exact value of the line spacing.

Tip

When using different font sizes in the same paragraph, the line spacing may be uneven. To obtain evenly spaced lines, select Fixed or At least in the drop-down list and a value that is large enough to create a spacing between the lines sufficient to account for the largest font size used.

The last parameter on this tab is Activate page line-spacing. When Use page line-spacing is activated for a page style (see “General settings for the page style” on page 207), selecting this parameter enables page line-spacing for this paragraph style. To exempt the paragraph style from this feature, deselect this box.

When you enable a paragraph, paragraph style, or page style for page line-spacing, the base lines of the affected characters are aligned to an invisible vertical page grid, regardless of font size or of the presence of graphics. This aligns the baseline of each line of text to a vertical document grid, so that each line is the same height.

Alignment tab

Use the Alignment tab to modify the horizontal alignment of the text, choosing between Left, Right, Center, and Justified. The results of the selection are shown in a preview window on the right-hand side of the page.

When selecting Justified alignment, you can also decide how Writer should treat the last line of the paragraph. By default, Writer aligns the last line to the left (Start), but you can choose to align it to the center or to justify it (meaning that the words on the last line will be spaced in order to occupy it fully). If you have selected to justify the last line and select the Expand single word option, then when the last line of a justified paragraph consists of a single word, this word is stretched by inserting spaces between characters so that it occupies the full length of the line.

The alignment page is also used to control the Text to Text vertical alignment, useful when you have mixed font sizes on the same row. Choose the element of the fonts on the line that will be aligned between Automatic, Base line, Top, Middle, Bottom. Refer to Figure 207 for a visual representation of these reference points.

Figure 207: Text to text vertical alignment: Base line, Top, Middle, Bottom

Text flow options for paragraph styles

The Text Flow tab (Figure 208) has three parts: Hyphenation, Breaks, and Options.

With Automatically selected under Hyphenation, three parameters are available:

Characters at line end: controls the minimum number of characters to be left on a line before inserting a hyphen.

Characters at line begin: controls the minimum number of characters that can be placed at the beginning of a new line following a hyphen.

Maximum number of consecutive hyphens: controls the number of consecutive lines that terminate with a hyphen. The typographical standard is 2.

Figure 208: The options on the Text Flow tab of the Paragraph Style dialog

In the Breaks section, you can require a paragraph to start on a new page or column and specify the position of the break, the style of the new page, and the page number. A typical use for this option is to start the first page of a new chapter on a new (usually right-hand) page.

To always start a new page with a particular style, choose the following settings:

In the Breaks section, select Insert. Make sure that Type is set to Page and Position is set to Before.

Select With Page Style and choose the page style from the list.

To continue page numbering from the previous chapter, do not select the Page number option. To restart each chapter’s page numbering at 1 (a style used in some technical documents), select Page number and set it to 1.

Note

If you want the first page of a new chapter to always start on a right-hand page, make sure that the page style for the first chapter page is set for the right page only by making this selection in the Layout settings field on the Page tab of the Page Style dialog (see Figure 219 on page 208).

The Options section of the Text Flow tab provides settings to control what happens when a paragraph does not fit on the bottom of a page:

Do not split paragraph: If a paragraph does not fit on the bottom of one page, the entire paragraph moves to the top of the next page. This could cause a large blank space at the bottom on the page.

Keep with next paragraph: Use for headings or the lead-in sentence to a list, to ensure that it is not the last paragraph on a page.

Orphan control and Widow control: Widows and orphans are typographic terms. An orphan is the first line of a paragraph alone at the bottom of a page or column. A widow is the last line of a paragraph that appears alone at the top of the next page or column. Use these options to allow paragraphs to split across pages or columns but require at least two or more lines to remain together at the bottom or top of a page or column. You can specify how many lines must remain together.

Font options for the paragraph style

Three tabs of the Paragraph Style dialog are dedicated to settings controlling the appearance of the typeface: the Font, Font Effects, and Position pages. The first two tabs are straightforward. Many of the options are the same as those used when creating a character style, as discussed on page 205. Options that can be used when creating a paragraph style are described here.

Specifying a relative font size

You can specify a fixed font size (in points or other measurement units). In addition, if you are creating a style based on another style (linked style), you can specify a font size relative to that other style either as a percentage or as a plus or minus point value (–2pt or +5pt). Relative font sizes are commonly used for Web pages.

For example, the Heading 1 paragraph style is based on the Heading style. If the font size of the Heading style is 14pt, and the font size of the Heading 1 style is specified as 130%, the resultant font size of text in a paragraph formatted with the Heading 1 style is 14pt times 130% = 18.2pt.

To specify a percentage font size: in the Paragraph Style dialog, select the Font tab. In the Size box, enter the percentage amount followed by the symbol % (Figure 209). Similarly, you can enter a plus or minus sign followed by the number of points to be added to or subtracted from the base font size.

To change from a relative font size back to an absolute font size, enter the desired font size in a specific measurement, such as points (denoted by the letters pt).

Figure 209: Selecting a type size based on a percentage

Selecting a language for a paragraph style

The language selected for a document (on Tools > Options > Language Settings > Languages) determines the dictionary used for spelling, thesaurus, hyphenation, the decimal and thousands delimiter used, and the default currency format. You can only use a language whose dictionary is installed.

Within the document, you can apply a separate language to any paragraph style. This setting has priority over the language of the whole document.

On the Font page of the Paragraph Style dialog, languages with installed dictionaries are marked in the Language list by a small icon (Figure 210). When checking spelling, Writer will use the correct dictionary for paragraphs with this style.

If you write documents in multiple languages, you can use the linked styles to create two paragraph styles that differ only in the language option. If you then want to change some of the other properties of the paragraph style, all you need do is to change the parent style.

To insert occasional words in a different language and avoid their being picked by mistake with the spelling checker, it is more convenient to use a character style, as discussed in “Creating a new character style” on page 205.

Tip

The selection [None] after Language is useful when a paragraph includes text you don’t want checked, like URLs and programming code.

Figure 210: Selecting a language for a paragraph style

Options for positioning text

The Position tab of the Paragraph Style dialog collects all the options that affect the position of the text on the screen or printed page.

Figure 211: The Position tab of the Paragraph Style dialog

Use the Position section to control the appearance of superscripts and subscripts (characters above or below the normal line of type, as in H2O or M2). However, you will normally apply superscript and subscripts to groups of characters rather than to entire paragraphs. Therefore, it is strongly recommended to change these parameters only when defining a character style and, instead, leave the default settings for the paragraph styles.

The second section of the Position tab controls the rotation of the paragraph area. Two common uses for rotated paragraphs are to put portrait headers and footers on a landscape page and to fit headings above narrow table columns (as shown in Figure 212).

Tip

Rotated table headings are usually more readable if they are angled, not vertical. To produce angled text, you need to create a text object from the Drawing toolbar and rotate it to any angle you wish. See Chapter 11, Images and Graphics.

Figure 212: A table with rotated headings

The Scale width box controls the percentage of the font width by which to compress or stretch the rotated text horizontally; that is, from the first character to the last.

Chapter 6, Formatting Pages: Advanced, describes how to create portrait headers and footers on landscape pages by rotating characters. You can achieve the same effect by defining a separate header or footer paragraph style specifically for landscape pages.

Example: Rotating the text in a paragraph style

As an example, we will apply rotated table headings to a pre-existing table.

Create a new paragraph style. Name it Table Heading Rotated.

On the Position tab of the Paragraph Style dialog, in the Rotation / scaling section, select 90 degrees. Click OK to save the new style.

Select the heading row of the table and apply the new style. Any text in the cells of the heading row is now rotated.

If the headings are aligned to the top of the cells, you may want to change the alignment to the bottom of the cells, as shown in Figure 212. To do this, click the Bottom icon on the Table toolbar or select Format > Alignment > Bottom on the Menu bar.

Spacing options

Use the Spacing section of the Position tab to control the spacing between individual characters in the paragraph. When selecting an option other than default in the drop-down menu, use the edit box to enter the value in points by which you want to expand or condense the text.

The Pair kerning option (selected by default) increases or decreases the amount of space between certain pairs of letters to improve the overall appearance of the text (Figure 213). Kerning automatically adjusts the character spacing for specific letter combinations. Kerning is only available for certain font types and, for printed documents, only works if your printer supports it.

Figure 213: Kerning disabled (left) and enabled (right)

Controlling tab stops

Although borderless tables are generally considered a much better solution to space out material across a page, in some situations tabs are sufficient to do what you need, with the added advantages of being simpler to manage and quicker to apply.

Caution

If you need to use tabs, and you will be sending a document to other people, do not use the default tab stops. If the recipients of the document have defined default tab stops that are not the same as the ones you are using, the paragraph may look very different on their machines. Instead, define the tab stops explicitly in the paragraph or the paragraph style; then you can be sure that everyone will see the same layout.

To define tab stops in your paragraph style, use the Tabs page, shown in Figure 214. Here you can choose the type of tab: Left, Right, Centered, or Decimal; the character to be used as a decimal point; and the Fill Character—the characters that appear between the end of the text before the tab and the beginning of the text after the tab. You can also create a custom fill character by entering it in the corresponding box. Common use of a fill character is adding dots between a heading and a page number in a table of contents or underscore character when creating a form to fill in.

Figure 214: Specifying tab stops for a paragraph style

To create a new tab stop, specify its position relative to the left margin, the type of tab, and the fill character and click the New button. The new tab stop is then listed in the Position box on the left. To modify the position of a tab stop, create a new one in the desired position and delete the old one using the buttons on the right-hand side of the page.

It is not possible to define tabs that exceed the page margin. In the rare cases where that may be needed, use a borderless table instead.

Outline & List tab

Use the Outline & List tab to assign an outline level to any paragraph style, as described in “Assigning outline levels to other styles” in Chapter 8, Introduction to Styles. This feature enables you to create a table of contents that includes those paragraphs along with the headings using styles listed in Tools > Chapter Numbering.

You can also use this tab to associate a paragraph style with a list style. Refer to Chapter 12, Lists: Tips and Tricks, for additional information and an example.

Setting up a drop cap

Drop caps (one or more characters in a larger font at the beginning of a paragraph) are generally suitable only for a first paragraph style. You can predefine the properties in the Drop Caps tab of the Paragraph Style dialog. Select the Display drop caps option to enable the other choices: the number of lines occupied, the number of characters to enlarge (if you want the whole first word, check the corresponding box), and the space between the drop caps and the text.

Figure 215: Options for adding a drop cap to the paragraph style

Drop caps use the same font and have the same properties as the rest of the paragraph; however, you can easily modify their appearance by creating a specific character style and using it. For example, you may want the drop caps to be of a different color or apply an outline effect. Select the character style you want to use in the corresponding drop-down menu.

Background (area), highlighting, and transparency

Adding a background color, gradient, pattern, hatching, or bitmap to a paragraph is an alternative to using a frame. You can customize the background using the Area tab of the Paragraph Style dialog. The choices are described in “Defining borders and backgrounds” in Chapter 6, Formatting Pages: Advanced.

Figure 216: Types of fill for paragraph backgrounds

You may want to pay attention to the following points when working with the Area tab:

If you do not find the desired color in the list of predefined ones, you can define your own as described in Chapter 20, Customizing Writer.

You can select different backgrounds for the paragraph area and for the text in the paragraph. Use the Highlighting page for the text. Figure 217 shows the difference.

The area treatment is applied only to the paragraph area. If you have defined an indented paragraph, the space between the paragraph and the margin does not have the paragraph’s background color.

Figure 217: Different Area and Highlighting colors

On the Transparency tab, you can choose the transparency options for the selected background. Values range from 0% (fully opaque) to +100% (fully transparent).

Borders

Borders are often used to set off paragraphs from the text without using a frame, or to separate header and footer areas from the main text area (such as in this guide), and to provide decorative elements in some heading styles. Consider the following points:

Watch out for the effects that the spacing between borders and paragraph area produces on indentations and tabulations.

If you want the border to be drawn around multiple paragraphs, leave the Merge with next paragraph option at the bottom of the page selected.

Often, white space can have the same effect.

See Chapter 4, Formatting Text, for more about the Borders tab.

Using conditional paragraph styles

Making a paragraph style conditional means it changes its formatting depending on where it is used. For example, you may want the style MyTextBody to be black by default but turn white when inside a frame with a blue background.

Probably the most common use for conditional formatting is with single-style outlining. Single-style outlining is a type of outline numbering designed with a Numbering List Style. Instead of using different styles for the various outline levels, it changes the number formatting when you press the Tab key to create a subordinate heading.

The only trouble with single-style outlining is that all levels look the same. This is where a conditional paragraph style comes in handy. Assign the paragraph style to an outline style in the Outline & List tab and then open the Condition tab. There, you can assign the levels of the outline style to other paragraph styles. Then, when you press the Tab key while using the paragraph style, each level of the outline takes on different formatting, making single-style outlining even more convenient than it is on its own.

When you create a conditional style, you are saying “in this condition make this style look like that other style”. For example, “When typing into a footer, make this style look like the my_footer paragraph style; when typing into a table, make this style look like the table_text paragraph style”.

In addition to setting the normal (unconditional) properties of the style, you need to define which other style it will look like in different situations. To do this, use the Condition tab.

Note

Predefined styles (other than Text body) such as Default, Heading 1, and Heading 2 cannot be set to be conditional.

Caution

If you want to create a new style and make it conditional, you have to do it while the Paragraph Style dialog is still open for the first time. After the dialog closes, the Condition tab no longer appears in the dialog when it is reopened.

Figure 218: Condition tab for paragraph styles

To set up a conditional paragraph style:

Define a new paragraph style.

Select all the paragraph properties for the style. Do not click OK!

Click the Condition tab.

Select the first condition in the Context list (left side of the dialog) and select the style you want for this condition in the Paragraph Styles list on the right-hand side.

Click Apply. The name of the paragraph style appears in the middle list.

Repeat steps 5 and 6 for each condition you want to have linked to a different style.

Click OK.

When the style is selected, you will see that the formatting of your text depends on the context.

Working with character styles

Character styles over-ride the formatting in a paragraph style. They are applied to groups of characters, such as words or phrases, rather than whole paragraphs. They are mainly used when you want to change the appearance or attributes of parts of a paragraph without affecting other parts. Examples of effects that can be obtained by means of character styles are bold or italic typeface or colored words.

Other ways of using character styles are described elsewhere in this book. These uses include making chapter numbers, page numbers, or list numbers larger than the surrounding text and formatting hyperlinks. When you do not want some words (for example, names, or words in a different language) to be detected as spelling mistakes, you can define the language (if any) to be applied in the character style’s properties.

Creating a new character style

The tabs of the Character Styles dialog are similar to those for paragraph styles:

Use the Organizer tab to name the new character style and set up its hierarchical level (if needed).

Use the Font tab to choose the font, style, and size for the new character style. You can specify the font size as a percentage or a point increase or decease in the size of the font in the paragraph where the character style is applied. You can also specify the language of the text to which the character style is applied, so you can insert words in a different language and have their spelling checked using the correct dictionary.

Use the Font Effects tab to set up attributes such as font color, underlining, relief, or other effects. If you frequently use hidden text, for example, it may be convenient to define a character style where the Hidden option is marked. Relief effects may be appropriate for a drop cap or to give more emphasis to the chapter number or other parts of the title.

Use the Highlighting tab to apply a colored background to the text. This yields the same effect as using the Highlight Color tool on the Standard toolbar.

Use the Borders tab to apply a border and a shadow to the text, if so desired.

Use the Position tab to create a subscript or superscript in case you are not satisfied with the default ones or even a sub-subscript which may be useful for certain scientific publications. In the same tab, you can create rotated, condensed, or expanded text.

Note

When rotating a group of characters, you also need to specify whether the rotated text should fit in the line or if, instead, it is allowed to expand above and below the line. This property is active only for character styles.

Working with frame styles

Frames are often used as containers for text or graphics. To provide consistency in the appearance of frames used for similar purposes, it is a good idea to define styles for frames. For example, you might want photographs to be enclosed in a frame with a drop-shadowed border, line drawings in a frame with a plain border, marginal notes in a frame without a border but with a shaded background, and so on.

Writer provides several predefined frame styles (see Table 6), which you can modify as needed, and you can define new frame styles. The technique for defining and applying frame styles is similar to that for other styles.

Tip

There is considerable overlap between the uses of frames and sections for some page layout purposes. You may find Chapter 6, Formatting Pages: Advanced, useful for information about the use of frames and sections.

Table 6: Predefined frame styles and their uses

Style	Comments and Use
Formula	The frame style used for formulas. The default includes AutoSize, which adjusts the size of the frame to the formula.
Frame	The default frame style.
Graphics	The default frame style for graphics. The defaults include AutoSize to fit the graphic, no text wrap, and a thin border around the frame.
Labels	The default frame style for use with File > New > Labels. It seems to be used by LibreOffice automatically and is not intended for users.
Marginalia	A frame style for placing a frame beside the left margin. This style is intended for comments added in the margin of text. The style also is useful for creating sideheads—headings against the left margin, which often are used in technical documentation. An example is given in Chapter 8, Introduction to Styles.
OLE	The default frame style for OLE objects and floating frames. The default places the frame at the top and center of a body of text.
Watermark	The default frame style for a watermark, a graphic placed as the background to a body of text. The default is a Through wrap, with text passing over the frame and anything in it. The graphic should be faint enough that text still is readable over top of it.

How frame styles work

When an object is added to Writer, it is automatically enclosed in a frame of a predetermined type. The frame sets how the object is placed on the page, as well as how it interacts with other elements in the document. You can edit the frame by modifying the frame style it uses or by using a manual override when a frame is added to the document.

Because frames and objects are used together, it is sometimes easy to forget they are separate elements. In some cases, such as charts, you can edit the frame and object separately.

Unlike other elements that use styles, frames can be defined only partly by their style because their use can vary so much. Several elements of frames, such as the anchor and protected elements, need to be defined manually for individual frames.

To format a frame manually, select Insert > Frame on the Menu bar. The dialog that opens contains all the settings available when frame styles are set up, as well as some that are only available when the frame is inserted.

Planning the styles

If you are using a mix of graphics, you may want to define two related styles, one with a border line for graphics with white backgrounds and one without a border for all other backgrounds. You also may want to design one or more frames for text only.

Otherwise, the default frame styles (listed in Table 6) cover most users’ needs. The only significant addition that you might need is one or more styles for text frames.

Creating new frame styles

You can access frame settings by selecting New or Modify in the Styles deck for a frame style.

Type tab: sets the size and position of the frame. One of the most useful options here is AutoSize, which automatically adjusts the frame to the object it contains. If the frame style is used automatically, then this option should be selected.

Options tab: sets whether the contents of the frame are printed and able to be edited in a read-only document. This page also sets the text direction, which is useful if you are using the frame for contents in a language that uses right-to-left text direction.

Wrap tab: sets how text is positioned in relation to the frame and how close text comes to a frame. If you want the frame contents to stand out from the paragraphs around it, set the wrap to Wrap Off. This probably is the single most important page for frames.

Area tab: sets the background color, bitmap, hatching, gradient, or pattern. This page is useful mostly for text frames in complex page layouts, in which a text frame has an appearance different from the general background of the page.

Transparency tab: sets the transparency options for the selected background. Values can range from 0% (fully opaque) to +100% (fully transparent).

Borders page: sets the attribute for a line around the frame, if any.

Columns tab: this page can be ignored unless the frame is being used for text. The page is the same as is used to set up a page style, as described in Chapter 6, Formatting Pages: Advanced.

Macro tab: sets a macro to use with the frame in order to trigger an action when the user interacts with the frame. These options are useful for on-line Writer or HTML documents.

Working with page styles

Page styles control page properties (margins, page size, header and footer, among others). However, unlike paragraphs, characters, and frames, pages can not have directly applied properties. If you change the properties of a page, you are actually changing the underlying page style, so those changes are applied to all pages that use that page style. To change the properties of individual pages, you need to create a new page style.

Creating a new page style

To create a new page style, open the Styles deck and click the Page Styles icon. Right-click anywhere in the window and select New. The Page Style dialog contains nine tabs.

Organizer tab

The Organizer tab is described on page 192.

General settings for the page style

The Page tab of the Page Style dialog is where you can control the general settings of the page. The tab consists of three sections, plus a preview area in the top right.

In the Paper Format section, you can specify the size of the paper, choosing from one of the many predefined formats, or select User to define your own paper size using the Width and Height fields. Select the orientation of the paper: Portrait or Landscape. If your printer has more than one tray, you can specify the tray from which to print pages in the new page style.

Figure 219: Page tab of Page Style dialog

In the Margins section, specify the size of the margins in your preferred unit of measurement. If you select Mirrored for Page layout in the Layout settings section, then the names of the margins change from Left and Right to Inner and Outer. The Gutter margin is the extra space to leave between the left (or inner) edge of the page and the left (or inner) margin. (Alternatively, you can leave the Gutter set to zero and add the gutter margin amount to the left or inner margin value.) See also the Gutter position setting, which can be Left (the default) or Top.

In the Layout Settings section, choose the desired Page layout in the drop-down list. Decide whether the page style being defined applies to both left and right pages (default), mirrored pages, or right or left pages only. Some considerations:

If you plan to bind the printed pages using this style like a book, select a mirrored layout.

A common practice in page layouts is to have asymmetrical page margins—both for left and right margins and for top and bottom margins. The most common scheme follows these two general rules for printed page layouts: (a) The outer margin (right margin on a right-hand page) would be wider than the inner margin (left margin on a right-hand page); (b) The bottom margin would be larger than the top margin.

If you want the first page of a new chapter to always start on a right page, make sure that the page style for the first chapter page is set for the right page only in the Layout settings field. The typical procedure for the rest of a chapter is to define a single “mirrored” page style (perhaps, Default Page Style) for both left and right pages. A mirrored page can have different headers and footers. If done this way, every chapter will use two page styles.

You can choose to define separate page styles for left and right pages, if you want the pages to be very different in appearance (for example, different margins or columns; imagine a book with a full-page photograph on the left pages and two columns of text on the right pages). In that case, make sure that the Next Style field for the first page style is set for a left-only page, which, in turn, is set to be followed by a right-only page style. If done this way, every chapter will use three page styles. A hypothetical case might have these page style names: First Page, Left Page, and Right Page.

Use the Page numbers drop-down list to specify the page numbering style to apply to this page style.

If you mark the Use page line-spacing box, Writer will align the base lines of text printed on adjacent columns, opposite pages, and both sides of a sheet of paper to an invisible vertical grid on the page with a spacing between grid points that depends on the selected Reference Style.

By default, page backgrounds (colors, images, and so on) fill the entire page, including the area in the margins. If you want the background to fill only the text area, but not the margin area, then deselect the Background covers margins option in the lower right of the dialog.

Area and Border tabs

The Area and Border tabs are described in detail in Chapter 6, Formatting Pages: Advanced. Use the Area tab to apply a background (covers the entire page, including the margins) or the Border tab to draw a border around the text area of the page (inside the margins). You can also add a shadow to the text area.

Header and Footer tabs

You can associate a different header or footer with each page style. This property makes it easy to have different headers on left and right pages, to avoid headers on pages at the start of a new chapter, and so on. You can also have a different header or footer on the same page style where it is used for the first page of a document.

If you choose a Mirrored or Right and Left page layout on the Page tab, you can specify a different header for left or right pages even if you use a single style for both. This option is not available on the predefined Left Page and Right Page page styles or on any other page style defined to be a left or right page only.

The Header and Footer tabs are described in detail in Chapter 5, Formatting Pages: Basics.

Figure 220: Different content on left and right pages

Columns tab

Use the Columns tab to create the column layout for the page style. It has three sections: Settings, Width and Spacing, and Separator Line. Choose the desired number of columns. If you select more than one column, the Width and Spacing section and the Separator LIne section become active. You can use the predefined settings (equally spaced columns) or deselect the AutoWidth option and enter the parameters manually. When you work with multiple columns per page, you can also fine tune the position and size of a separator line between the columns.

Footnote tab

Use the Footnote tab to adjust the appearance of the footnotes. See Chapter 5, Formatting Pages: Basics, for details.

Working with list styles

List styles work together with paragraph styles. They define indentation, alignment, and the numbering or bullet characters used for list items. You can define many list styles, from simple bulleted lists to complex multi-level (nested) lists.

As with other styles, the main reasons for using list styles are consistency and speeding up your work. Although you can create simple lists quickly by clicking the Toggle Ordered List or Toggle Unordered List icons on the Formatting toolbar, and create quite complex nested lists using the icons on the Bullets and Numbering toolbar, the appearance of the resulting lists may not be what you want, and you might want to have more than one style of list. You can use the Bullets and Numbering choice on the Format menu to manually format the appearance of some or all of the lists, but if you later need to change their appearance, you will have a lot of manual work to do.

See Chapter 12, Lists: Tips and Tricks, for details on how list styles and paragraph styles work together.

Creating a new list style

The dialog to create a new list style includes six tabs in addition to the usual Organizer tab discussed on page 192.

Unordered, Ordered, and Image tabs

The Unordered, Ordered, and Image tabs contain predefined formatting for list item symbols (bullets or numbers). To use one of them for your style, click the image. A thick border indicates the selection. The bullets on the Bullets tab are font characters; those on the Image tab are graphics.

Outline tab

Use the Outline tab to select from eight predefined nested lists. You can also select one and use it as a starting point for your own style, customizing the list using the Position tab and the Customize tab, as described below.

Position tab

Use the Position tab (Figure 221) to fine tune the indentation and spacing of the list item symbol and the text of the list item. This tab is particularly effective when used in combination with the Customize tab.

You can adjust the following settings for each individual level or all levels at once (to make them all the same).

Aligned at: the position of the numbering symbol, measured from the left margin of the page.

Numbering alignment: Select Left to align the numbering symbol to start directly at the Aligned at position. Select Right to align the symbol to end directly before the Aligned at position. Select Centered to center the symbol around the Aligned at position. This option does not set the alignment of the paragraph, only the numbering symbol.

Numbering followed by: the character to follow the numbering symbol (plus any characters—for example a punctuation mark—chosen on the Customize tab to appear after the number). Choose between a tab stop, a space, or nothing.

Tab stop at: If you selected the tab stop above, you can specify the position of the tab.

Indent at: Specify the distance from the left page margin to the start of all lines in the numbered or bullet paragraph that follow the first line.

Tip

To fully appreciate how the Numbering alignment and other parameters work, try to create a numbered list with more than ten elements and make sure that enough room has been made for numbers with two or more digits. You may also wish to right-align numbers 10 or greater.

Figure 221: Position settings for a List style

Customize tab

Use the Customize tab (Figure 222) to define the style of the outline levels. The options available on this tab depend on the type of marker selected for the list. First, on the left side, select the level you want to modify. To modify all ten levels at once, select 1 – 10 as the level. If you started from a predefined outline, some of the levels will already have settings.

Figure 222: The Customize tab for a list style

Depending on the numbering style selected in the Number box (bullet, graphic, numbering), some of the following options become available on the tab (not all are shown in the illustration):

Start at: the first value of the list (for example, to start the list at 4 instead of 1).

Character Style: the style to be used for the number or bullet.

Show sublevels: The number of previous levels to include in the numbering style. For example, if you enter "2" and the previous level uses the "A, B, C..." numbering style, the numbering scheme for the current level becomes: "A.1".

Separator – Before: any text to appear before the number (for example, Step).

Separator – After: any text to appear after the number (for example, a punctuation mark).

Character Select button: click to select the character for the bullet.

Graphics Select button: opens a list of available graphics (Gallery) or allows the selection of a file to be used as the list marker.

Width and Height: the dimensions of the graphic marker.

Keep ratio option: fixes the ratio between the width and the height of the graphic marker.

Alignment: the alignment of the graphic object.

The right-hand side of the dialog shows a preview of the modifications made.

If you choose the Linked graphics option in the Number list, the graphic object is linked rather than embedded in the document. The bullet will not be displayed when the document is opened on a different computer (unless the same graphic file is located in the same location on both computers) or if the graphic file used is moved to a different location on the computer.

To revert to the default values, click the Reset button in the bottom right corner. Finally, if you wish to use consecutive numbers regardless of the outline level, select the Consecutive numbering box at the bottom of the tab.

Using the Style Inspector

The Style Inspector (Figure 223) is located on the Sidebar. It displays all the attributes of the styles (paragraph and character) and any direct formatting present in the paragraph or word where the cursor is located. These details can be useful when you are trying to figure out why some formatting in a document appears to be incorrect or inconsistent.

Figure 223: Style Inspector example

Some features of the Style Inspector are of interest mainly to advanced users:

The Style Inspector can show any hidden RDF (Resource Description Framework, a W3C standard) metatdata at the cursor position associated with text spans, paragraphs, and bookmarks. For annotated text spans, “Nested Text Content” item can show the boundary of the nested annotated text ranges and metadata fields.

Custom color metadata field shadings can be set for an annotated text range or a metadata field, for visualization of metadata categories in the document editor. Use View > Field Shadings or Ctrl+F8 to disable or enable these field shadings.

For more information, see the Release Notes for LibreOffice 7.1 and 7.2 Community:
https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/ReleaseNotes/7.1#Style_inspector
https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/ReleaseNotes/7.2#RDF_metadata_in_Style_Inspector
https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/ReleaseNotes/7.2#Custom_color_metadata_field_shadings

Writer Guide 7.2

Chapter 10
Working with Templates

Introduction

A template is a model document that you use to create other documents. For example, you can create a template for business reports that has your company’s logo on the first page. New documents created from this template will all have your company’s logo on the first page.

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

All documents in LibreOffice are based on templates. You can create, or download and install, as many templates as you wish, and you can set a default template for each type of document (text, spreadsheet, drawing, presentation). If you do not choose a template when you start a new Writer document, then the document is based on the default template for text documents. If you have not specified a default template, Writer uses the built-in blank template for text documents that is installed with LibreOffice. See “Setting a default template” on page 221.

In Writer, you can create templates for master documents as well as for ordinary documents.

This chapter describes the use of LibreOffice’s template management features. You can also use templates in other ways, but the effects are a bit different. See “Other ways to manage templates” on page 224 for more information.

Creating a document from a template

A new installation of LibreOffice may not include many templates, but you can create your own (see “Creating a template” on page 217) or install templates obtained from other sources (see “Adding templates obtained from other sources” on page 218).

To create a document from a template:

Open the Templates dialog (Figure 224) using one of these methods:

Choose File > New > Templates or File > Templates > Manage Templates on the Menu bar.

Press the key combination Ctrl+Shift+N.

Click the arrow next to the New icon on the Standard toolbar and select Templates.

Select Templates > Manage Templates in the Start Center (visible in LibreOffice when no document is open).

In the Filter lists at the top of the Templates dialog, you can select the type and category of template you want to use. The relevant templates are listed on the dialog. Click on the icons to the right of the Categories list to switch between Thumbnail view (Figure 224) and List view (Figure 225).

Find and double-click the required template, or select the template and click Open. A new document based on the selected template opens in Writer. You can then edit and save the new document.

The template the document is based on is listed in File > Properties > General.

Tip

In the Start Center, you can click on the Templates button, or open the drop-down menu and select a type of template, to view the available templates without opening the Templates dialog. Click on the required template to create a new document.

Figure 224: Thumbnail view of Templates dialog, showing context menu for a selected template

Figure 225: List view of Templates dialog

Note

The connection between a template and a document remains until the template is modified and you do not update the document to match the template.

If you copy or move the document to a different computer which does not have a copy of that template installed, the connection is broken even though it continues to be listed in the document’s properties. See “Changing the template assigned to a document” on page 220 for a way to reconnect a template to a document.

Creating a template

You can create templates in two ways: by saving a document as a template or by using a wizard.

Creating a template from a document

In addition to formatting, any settings that can be added to or modified in a document can be saved within a template. For example, printer settings; general behaviors set from Tools > Options, such as paths and colors; menu and toolbar customizations, described in Chapter 20, Customizing Writer.

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

To create a template from a document:

Open a new or existing text (Writer) document.

Add any content that you want to appear in any document you create from the new template, for example company logo or a copyright statement.

Create or modify any styles that you want to use in the new template.

On the Menu bar, choose File > Templates > Save as Template. The Save as Template dialog (Figure 226) opens, displaying the existing categories and a box for the name for the new template.

Select a category, for example My Templates or Business Correspondence. You can also set this template as a default template at this time. Click Save.

Figure 226: Save as Template dialog

Creating a template using a wizard

You can use wizards to create templates for letters, faxes, and agendas. To create a template using a wizard:

On the Menu bar, choose File > Wizards > [type of template required] (Figure 227).

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

Figure 227: Choosing a template wizard

In the last section of the wizard, you can specify the template name that will show in the Templates dialog and the file name and location for saving the template. The two names can be different but this may cause confusion. The default location is your user templates folder but you can choose a different location.

To set the file name or change the folder, click the Path icon (the three dots to the right of the location). On the Save As dialog, make your selections and click Save to return to the wizard.

Finally, you can choose whether to create a new document from the template immediately or manually change the template. Click Finish to save the template.

Adding templates obtained from other sources

LibreOffice refers to sources of templates as repositories. A repository can be local (a directory on your computer to which you have downloaded templates) or remote (a URL from which you can download templates).

To get to the official LibreOffice template repository, type https://extensions.libreoffice.org/ in your web browser’s address bar or click the Get more extensions online... link in the Extension Manager, described in Chapter 14, Customizing Writer. This opens the Extensions web page (Figure 228). In the Search section, click the Templates tag filter. You can narrow your search by also choosing other tag filters. such as Writer. After setting the filters, click the Search button. In the search results, find the required template and click on its name to display a page with details; click the Download button to put the template anywhere on your computer. Proceed to “Installing templates” below.

Figure 228: Searching for templates in the repository

You can also use the Extensions button in the lower left of the Templates dialog, as shown in Figure 229, to open an Extensions: Templates dialog, where you can scroll through a list of extensions. In this version of LibreOffice, there is no easy way to filter this list, so you may prefer to go directly to the web page, as described above.

Figure 229: Getting more templates for LibreOffice

On other websites, you may find collections of templates that have been packaged into extension (.OXT) files.

Installing templates

You can install templates using either the Templates dialog or the Extension Manager.

To install templates using the Templates dialog:

Download the template or package and save it anywhere on your computer.

In the Templates dialog, click the Import button on the bottom right (Figure 224).

On the Select Category dialog, select the category where you want to import the template and click OK. A file browser window opens.

Find and select the template that you want to import and click Open. The file browser window closes and the template is imported and appears in the selected category.

To install templates using the Extension Manager:

Download the template or package and save it anywhere on your computer.

In LibreOffice, select Tools > Extension Manager on the Menu bar. In the Extension Manager dialog, click Add to open a file browser window.

Find and select the template or package of templates you want to install and click Open. The package begins installing. You may be asked to accept a license agreement.

When the package installation is complete, restart LibreOffice. The templates are available for use through the Templates dialog and the extension is listed in the Extension Manager.

See Chapter 20, Customizing Writer, for more about the Extension Manager.

Tip

You can manually copy new templates into the template folders. The location varies with your computer’s operating system. To learn where the template folders are stored on your computer, go to Tools > Options > LibreOffice > Paths.

Editing a template

You cannot edit a template that was supplied with LibreOffice. You can only edit templates that you created or imported.

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

To edit a template:

Open the Templates dialog, as described on page 215.

In the Templates dialog, find the template that you want to edit. Right-click on it to open the context menu (see Figure 224), then click Edit. The template opens in Writer.

Edit the template as you would edit any other document. To save your changes, choose File > Save on the Menu bar.

Updating a document from a changed template

If you make any changes to a template and its styles, a confirmation message is displayed the next time you open a document that was created from the template before the changes.

To update the document:

Select Update Styles to apply the changed styles in the template to the document.

Select Keep Old Styles if you do not want to apply the changed styles in the template to the document (but see the Caution notice below).

Caution

If you choose Keep Old Styles, the document is no longer connected to the template, even though the template is still listed under File > Properties > General. To reconnect the document to the template, use the procedure described in “Changing the template assigned to a document” below.

Changing the template assigned to a document

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

You can change the template assigned to a document, or reconnect a document to a template, in two ways: manually or by using the Template Changer extension to LibreOffice.

To change or reassign a template manually, first create a new, blank document from the required template, as described in “Manually changing the template” below. Then copy the contents of the old document into the new document.

To use the Template Changer extension, first you need to download and install it, then restart LibreOffice to activate it. After that, you can open the document and use File > Templates > Change template (current document) on the Menu bar.

Note

Changing or updating a template affects only the formatting used in styles. It does not affect any content. You may also need to manually update content, for example a logo, copyright notice, or the layout of a copyright page.

Manually changing the template

For best results, the names of styles should be the same in the existing document and the new template. If they are not, you may need to replace old styles with new ones. See Chapter 2, Working with Text: Basics, for more about replacing styles.

To manually associate a document with a different template:

Open the Templates dialog as described on page 215.

In the Templates dialog, double-click the template you want to use. A new document opens, containing any text or graphics that were in the template.

Delete any unwanted text or graphics from this new document. Use File > Save As to save the new document, but leave it open.

Open the document you want to change. (It opens in a new window.)

Use Edit > Select All, or press Ctrl+A, to select everything in the old document.

Use Edit > Copy, or press Ctrl+C, to copy the contents of the old document to the clipboard.

Click in the new document created in step 2. Use Edit > Paste, or press Ctrl+V, to paste the contents of the old document into the new one.

Update the table of contents if there is one. Save the new document using File > Save.

Close the old file without saving.

Caution

Any changes recorded (tracked) in the old document will be lost during this process. The resulting document will contain only the changed text.

Setting a default template

If you create a document by choosing File > New > Text Document on the Menu bar, or by clicking the Text Document button in the Start Center, Writer creates the document from the default template for text documents. You can, however, set a custom template to be the default. You can reset the default later, if you choose.

Setting a template as the default

Many default settings, such as page size and margins, font choices, line spacing, and so on, can be changed, but those changes apply only to the document you are working on. To make the changes the default settings for that document type, you need to replace the default template supplied with LibreOffice with a new one that you create.

You can set any template in the Templates dialog to be the default for that document type:

Open the Templates dialog as described on page 215.

In the Templates dialog, open the category containing the template that you want to set as the default, then select the template.

Right-click the selected template and select Set as Default from the context menu (Figure 224). An icon marks the template as the default (Figure 230).

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

Figure 230: Default template icon

Resetting Writer’s default template as the default

To re-enable Writer’s original default template as the default:

Open the Templates dialog as described on page 215.

In the Templates dialog, click the Settings icon on the bottom left (Figure 231).

Point to Reset Default Template in the drop-down menu, and click Text Document.

This choice does not appear unless a custom template had been set as the default, as described in the previous section.

Figure 231: Resetting the default template for text documents

You can also reset the default template as follows:

Go to the Templates dialog and open the category containing the template you set as default. It is indicated by a green check mark.

Right-click on this template and select Reset Default in the context menu.

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

Organizing templates

LibreOffice can manage only those templates that are in its template categories, although you can create a document from a template that is not in one of these folders. You can create new template categories and use them to organize your templates. For example, you might have one category for report templates and another for letter templates. You can also import and export templates.

To begin, choose File > Templates > Manage Templates to open the Templates dialog.

Creating a template category

To create a template category:

Click the Settings icon on the lower left of the Templates dialog.

Click New category in the context menu (Figure 232).

In the pop-up dialog, type a name for the new category and click OK. The new category now appears in the list of categories.

Figure 232: Creating a new template category

Deleting a template category

You cannot delete template categories supplied with LibreOffice. Nor can you delete categories added by the Extension Manager unless you first remove the extension that installed them.

However, you can delete a category that you created. Open the Templates dialog, click the Settings icon, and select Delete Category in the pop-up menu (Figure 232). On the Delete Category dialog, select the category to be deleted and then click OK. When a message box appears asking you to confirm the deletion, click Yes. If you attempt to delete a supplied category, you will receive an error message and the category will not be deleted.

Renaming a template category

You cannot rename template categories supplied with LibreOffice. You can only rename categories that you created.

Open the Templates dialog, select the category in the Filter list at the top, then click the Settings icon and select Rename Category in the pop-up menu. In the Rename Category dialog, type the new name and click OK. If you attempt to rename a supplied category, you will receive an error message and the category will not be renamed.

Moving a template

To move a template from one template category to another, select it in the Templates dialog, and click the Move icon near the bottom of the dialog (Figure 233). In the Select Category dialog, select the destination category and click OK. The selected template is moved to the folder. You can also create a new category into which to move the template.

Figure 233: Moving templates to another category

Renaming a template

You cannot rename templates supplied with LibreOffice. You can only rename a template that you have created or imported.

Open the Templates dialog, find and select the template you want to rename, then right-click the template and select Rename in the context menu. In the small dialog that opens, type a name in the Enter New Name text box and click OK. If you attempt to rename a supplied template, you will receive an error message and the template will not be renamed.

This action changes the Title on the Description tab of the template’s document properties. It does not change the file name of the template.

Deleting a template

You cannot delete templates supplied with LibreOffice. Nor can you delete any templates installed by the Extension Manager except by removing the extension that installed them.

However, you can delete templates that you have created or imported:

(Optional) In the Filter drop-down lists at the top of the Templates dialog, select the category that contains the template you want to delete.

Select the template to delete.

Right-click to open the context menu of the template and click Delete. A message box appears and asks you to confirm the deletion. Click Yes. If you attempt to delete a supplied template, you will receive an error message and the template will not be deleted.

Tip

You can also press the Delete key on the keyboard to delete the selected template on the Templates dialog.

Exporting a template

To export a template to another location on your computer or network:

In the Templates dialog, select the template that you want to export.

Click the Export icon in the bottom right of the dialog. A file browser window opens.

Find the location where you want to export the template and select Select Folder or OK.

Click OK on the displayed information dialog.

Note

Exporting a template does not remove it from the Templates dialog. The action places a copy of the template in the location you specify.

Other ways to manage templates

You can create and use templates stored anywhere on your computer, without using the Templates dialog. However, some results are different from those described earlier in this chapter.

Creating a document from a template

You can create a document from a template by double-clicking the template in your computer’s file browser window.

The resulting document is not associated with (linked to) the template from which it was created. The template is not listed in the document’s properties and any changes to the template cannot be directly applied to the document. For many purposes, such as writing a letter, this may be what you want.

Creating a template from a document

You can create a template from a document using File > Save As and selecting ODF Text Document Template (.ott) as the file type, then saving it anywhere you want, for example in a project folder.

The resulting template will not be visible in the Templates dialog, unless you import it or add the project folder to the locations shown for templates on the LibreOffice – Paths page of the Tools > Options dialog (see “Paths” in Chapter 2, Setting up LibreOffice, in the Getting Started Guide).

Writer Guide 7.2

Chapter 11
Images and Graphics

Images, Drawing Tools, Gallery, Fontwork

Introduction

You can add graphic and image files, including photos, drawings, and scanned images, to Writer documents. Writer can import various vector (line drawing) and raster (bitmap) file formats.

Images in Writer are of these basic types:

Image files, such as photos, drawings, and scanned images

Diagrams created using LibreOffice’s drawing tools

Artwork created using clip art or Fontwork

Charts created using LibreOffice’s Calc component

This chapter covers images, diagrams, and artwork. Instructions on how to create charts are given in Chapter 19, Spreadsheets, Charts, other Objects. For more detailed descriptions on working with drawing tools, see the Draw Guide. For more about charts, see the Calc Guide.

Creating and editing images

You might create images using a graphics program, scan them, or download them from the Internet (make sure you have permission to use them), or use photos taken with a digital camera. Writer can import various vector (line drawing) images, and can rotate and flip such images. Writer also supports raster (bitmap) file formats, the most common of which are GIF, JPG, PNG, and BMP. See the Help for a full list.

Writer can also import SmartArt images from Microsoft Office files. For example, Writer can open a Microsoft Word file that contains SmartArt, and you can use Writer to edit the images.

Some things to consider when choosing or creating images include image quality and whether the image will be printed in color or black-and-white (grayscale).

To edit photos and other bitmap images, use a bitmap editor. To edit line drawings, use a vector drawing program. You do not need to buy expensive programs. For many graphics, LibreOffice Draw is sufficient. Open-source (and usually no‑cost) tools such as GIMP (bitmap editor) and Inkscape (vector drawing program) are excellent. These and many other programs work on Windows, macOS, and Linux.

For best results:

Create images that have the exact dimensions required for the document, or use an appropriate graphics package to scale photographs and large drawings to the required dimensions. Do not scale images with Writer, even though Writer has tools for doing this, because the results might not be as clear as you would like.

Do any other required image manipulation (brightness and contrast, color balance, cropping, conversion to grayscale, and so on) in a graphics package, not in Writer, even though Writer has the tools to do a lot of these things, too.

If the document is meant for screen use only, there is no need to use high resolution images of 300 or more dpi (dots per inch). Most computer monitors work at between 72 and 96 dpi; reducing the resolution (and the file size) has no negative impact on what is displayed.

Preparing images for black-and-white printing

If color images are to be printed in grayscale, check that any adjacent colors have good contrast and print dark enough. Test by printing on a black-and-white printer using a grayscale setting. Better still: change the “mode” of the image to grayscale, either in a photo editor or in Writer itself (see “Image mode” on page 241).

For example, the following diagram looks good in color. The circle is dark red and the square is dark blue. In grayscale, the difference between the two is not so clear. A third element in the diagram is a yellow arrow, which is almost invisible in grayscale.

Original drawing in color	Drawing printed in grayscale

Changing the colors of the circle and the arrow improves the contrast and visibility of the resulting grayscale image.

Original drawing in color	Drawing printed in grayscale

If the document will be available in black-and-white print only, a better result can often be obtained by choosing grayscale fills, not color fills.

Adding images to a document

Images can be added to a document in several ways: by inserting an image file stored on your computer, directly from a graphics program or a scanner, by dragging them from the clip art internal gallery, or by copying and pasting from a source being viewed on your computer.

Inserting an image file

When the image is in a file stored on the computer, you can insert it into a LibreOffice document using any of the following methods.

Drag and drop

This method embeds (saves a copy of) the image file in the Writer document. To link the file instead of embedding it, hold down the Ctrl+Shift keys while dragging the image.

Open a file browser window and locate the image you want to insert.

Drag the image into the Writer document and drop it where you want it to appear. A faint vertical line marks where the image will be dropped.

Insert Image dialog

Click in the Writer document where you want the image to appear.

Choose Insert > Image on the Menu bar or click the Insert Image icon on the Standard toolbar.

On the Insert Image dialog, navigate to the file to be inserted, and select it.

At the bottom of the dialog (Figure 234) is a Link option; see page 229. Select Preview to show a thumbnail of the selected image on the right, as in the example. Click Open.

Figure 234: Insert Image dialog

Note

If you choose the Link option, a message box appears when you click Open. It asks if you want to embed the image instead. Choose Keep Link if you want the link, or Embed Graphic if you do not. To prevent this message from appearing again, deselect the option Ask when linking a graphic at the bottom of the message.

Copy and paste

Using the clipboard, you can copy images into a LibreOffice document from another LibreOffice document and from other programs. To do this:

Open both the source document or program and the target Writer document.

In the source document, select the image to be copied.

Copy the image to the clipboard.

Switch to the target document.

Click to place the cursor where the image is to be inserted.

Press Ctrl+V (or right-click and select Paste in the context menu, or click the Paste icon on the Standard toolbar) to insert the image.

Caution

If the application from which the image was copied is closed before the image is pasted into the target, the image stored on the clipboard could be lost.

Linking an image file

If the Link option in the Insert Image dialog is selected, Writer creates a link to the file containing the image instead of saving a copy of the image in the document. The result is that the image is displayed in the document, but when the document is saved, it contains only a reference to the image file, not the image itself. The document and the image remain as two separate files, and they are merged together only when you open the document again.

Linking an image has two advantages and one disadvantage:

Advantage – You can modify the image file separately, and the modified image will appear when you next open the document. This can be a big advantage if you (or someone else, perhaps a graphic artist) are updating images.

Advantage – Linking can reduce the size of the document when it is saved, because the image file itself is not included. However, file size is usually not a problem on a modern computer, and LibreOffice can handle quite large files.

Disadvantage – If you send the document to someone else, or move it to a different computer, you must also include the image files, or the recipient will not be able to see the linked images. You need to keep track of the location of the images and make sure the recipient knows where to put them, so the document can find them. For example, you might keep images in a subfolder named Images (under the folder containing the document); the recipient of the file needs to put the images in a subfolder with the same name and in the same place relative to the document.

Note

When inserting the same image several times in a document, LibreOffice embeds only one copy of the image file.

Embedding linked images

If you originally linked the images, you can easily embed one or more of them later if you wish.

Open the document in Writer and choose Edit > Links to External Files on the Menu bar.

The Edit Links dialog (Figure 235) shows all the linked files. In the Source file list, select the files you want to change from linked to embedded.

Click the Break Link button and then click Yes to confirm embedding the image.

Figure 235: The Edit Links dialog

Linking an embedded image

To change an image from embedded to linked, follow this procedure:

In the Writer document, select the image. Right-click and choose Properties in the content menu.

In the Image dialog, go to the Image tab (Figure 236). This field is empty for an embedded image.

Click the Browse button to the right of the Link File name field. A file browser opens. Find and select the file to be linked, and then click Open. The path to the selected file now appears in the File name field.

Click OK in the Image dialog. The embedded file is now linked.

Figure 236: Image tab of Image dialog, showing Link file name

Note

To change an image from linked to embedded is not that easy. You have to remove all linked images and insert them again as embedded.

Inserting an image using a scanner

If a scanner is connected to your computer, Writer can call the scanning application and insert the scanned item into your document as an image. To start this procedure, choose Insert > Media > Scan > Select Source on the Menu bar. Select the scan source from the list of available devices, then click in the document where you want the image to be inserted and choose Insert > Media > Scan > Request to open the imaging software where you can adjust settings for image quality, size, and other attributes.

Although this practice is quick and easy, it is unlikely to result in a high-quality image of the correct size. You may get better results by scanning material into a graphics program and cleaning it up there before inserting the resulting image into Writer.

Inserting an image from the Gallery

The Gallery (Figure 237) provides a convenient way to group reusable objects such as graphics and sounds that you can insert into your documents. The Gallery is available in LibreOffice Writer, Calc, Impress, and Draw. You can copy or link an object from the Gallery into a document.

For more about the Gallery, see Chapter 11, Images and Graphics, in the Getting Started Guide.

Figure 237: The Gallery in the Sidebar

To insert an object from the Gallery into a document:

Click the Gallery icon on the Sidebar.

Select a theme in the list provided.

Select an object with a single click.

Drag and drop the image into the document, or right-click the object and choose Insert in the context menu.

Adjust the size of the image and position and anchor it as needed; see page 232.

Positioning images within the text

When you add an image to a text document, you need to choose how to position it with respect to the text and other images. Positioning is controlled by four settings:

Arrangement refers to the placement of an image on an imaginary vertical axis. Arrangement controls how images are stacked upon each other or relative to the text.

Alignment refers to the vertical or horizontal placement of an image in relation to the chosen anchor point.

Anchoring refers to the reference point for the images. This point could be the page or frame where the object is, a paragraph, or even a character. An image always has an anchor point.

Text wrapping refers to the relation of images to the surrounding text, which may wrap around the image on one or both sides, be overprinted behind or in front of the image, or treat the image as a separate paragraph or character.

The settings can be accessed in several ways, depending on the nature of the graphic:

In the Format menu: Anchor, Wrap, and Arrange (for images and drawing objects).

In the context menu displayed when you right-click the image; this menu also includes an Align submenu.

For images, on the Type and Wrap tabs of the Image dialog. You cannot control the arrangement or alignment using the dialog.

For drawing objects, on the Position and Size tab of the Position and Size dialog. To open the dialog, right-click the drawing object and choose Position and Size in the context menu.

For an embedded object (such as a Calc spreadsheet or Draw document), on the OLE-Object toolbar.

Note

While all the positioning techniques discussed in this section apply equally to frames, contour wrapping is not possible for frames.

Arranging images

Arranging an image means to determine its position relative to other images or text. Arranging is only relevant when objects are overlapping. You can choose between four common settings, plus a fifth special setting for drawing objects:

Bring to Front

Places the image on top of any other images or text.

Forward One

Brings the image one level up in the stack. Depending on the number of overlapping objects, you may need to apply this option several times to obtain the desired result.

Back One

Sends the image one level down in the object stack.

Send to Back

Sends the image to the bottom of the stack.

To Background / To Foreground

Only available for drawing objects; moves the drawing object behind or in front of the text respectively.

Tip

To select an object that is covered by other objects, press the Tab key to move through the objects until you reach the object you want.

Anchoring images

You can anchor images as a character or to a page, paragraph, or character. You can also place images in a frame and anchor the frame to a page, paragraph, or character. Which method you choose depends on what you are trying to achieve.

To Page (available only on Image dialog, not the toolbar or context menu)

The image keeps the same position in relation to the page margins. It does not move as you add or delete text or other images. This method is useful when producing newsletters or other documents that are very layout intensive, or for placing logos in letterheads.

To Paragraph

The image is associated with a paragraph and moves with the paragraph. It may be placed in the margin or another location. This method is useful as an alternative to a table for placing icons beside paragraphs.

To Character

The image is associated with a character but is not in the text sequence. It moves with the paragraph but may be placed in the margin or another location. This method is similar to anchoring to a paragraph.

As Character

The image is placed in the document like any other character and, therefore, affects the height of the text line and the line break. The image moves with the text as you add or delete text before the image. This method is useful for keeping screenshots in sequence in a procedure (by anchoring them as a character in a blank paragraph) or for adding a small (inline) icon in sequence in a sentence.

To Frame

If the image has been placed in a frame, you can anchor the image in a fixed position inside the frame. The frame can then be anchored to page, to paragraph, to character, or as character.

Tip

You can set a default anchor for images in Tools > Options > LibreOffice Writer > Formatting Aids (Figure 238).

Figure 238: Choices for setting a default image anchor

Aligning images

After you have established the anchor point of an image, you can decide the position of the image relative to its anchor: this is called aligning the image. Choose from six options: three for aligning the image horizontally (left, center, right) and three for aligning the image vertically (top, middle, bottom). Horizontal alignment is not available for images anchored As Character.

For finer control of the alignment, use the Position options on the Type page of the Image dialog, shown in Figure 239.

For both the horizontal and vertical position, start by picking the reference point in the right hand side drop-down menu, then select in the first drop-down menu among Left, Right, or Center for Horizontal or Top, Bottom, Center for vertical. If you select From left or From top, you can specify the distance. In the example in Figure 239, the image was anchored To Page; the upper-left corner of the image will be placed at 5 cm from the left edge of the page text area and 10 cm from the top edge of the entire page.

Figure 239: Fine tuning the alignment

Wrapping text around images

The Wrap setting determines the relation between the text and the image. It is normally selected after anchoring and alignment of the image. Several choices are available in the context menu, depending on the anchoring selection, and additional choices (including spacing from text on one or more sides of the image) are on the Wrap tab of the Image dialog (Figure 240).

None

Places the object on a separate line in the document. The text is placed above and below the image but not to either side of it.

Parallel

Wraps text on all four sides of the border frame of the object.

Optimal

The text flows around the image. Moving the image around the page causes the text to be rearranged to fill the space to the left and right of it. Optimal prevents text from being placed to the side of the image if the spacing between the image and the margin is less than 2 cm.

Before

Wraps text on the left side of the object if there is enough space.

After

Wraps text on the right side of the object if there is enough space.

Through

Superimposes the image on the text. That is, the image is in front of the text. This option should be used with an image-transparency setting in order to make the text under the image visible.

In Background

Similar to Through, but the image is placed behind the text so there may be no need to change the transparency to make the text visible. Best used only for images without a lot of contrast or different colors.

Contour

Wraps text around the shape of the object.

Edit Contour

Opens the Contour Editor; see “Editing the contour” on page 236.

First paragraph

Starts a new paragraph after the image even if the text could still wrap around the image.

Note

When anchoring an image as character, you can adjust the distance between the image and the text, but no wrapping option is available.

On the Wrap tab of the Image dialog (Figure 240), you can use the Spacing section to adjust the spacing between the image and the text.

Figure 240: Options on the Wrap tab of the Image dialog

Editing the contour

If you select Through wrapping and the Contour option for an image, LibreOffice automatically creates a contour. To edit the contour, right-click the image and select Wrap > Edit Contour in the context menu, or open the Contour Editor by selecting Format > Wrap > Edit Contour on the Menu bar.

The dialog shown in Figure 241 opens with the image loaded in the main window. Use the tools to draw the region of the image you do not want to be covered by the text; this area will be shaded.

Figure 241: The Contour Editor

The tools available in the Contour Editor include Rectangle, Ellipse, Polygon, and AutoContour. Some familiarity with drawing tools is required to create complex contours; however, in most circumstances there is no need for high accuracy. You can also select the Edit Points button and adjust the contour shape point by point. See the Draw Guide for details.

When you are done, click the Apply button to save the contour.

Figure 242 shows the result of contour wrapping and spacing around an image and a drawing object.

Figure 242: Image and drawing objects with contour wrapping

Adding captions to images

You can add captions to images in three ways: automatically, by using the Caption dialog, or manually.

Adding captions automatically

You can set up LibreOffice to add captions automatically whenever you insert an image, a table, or other objects into a document. You can choose which objects are captioned automatically, what the sequence name is for each caption (for example, Table or Figure), and the position of the caption.

To set up automatic captions, choose Tools > Options > LibreOffice Writer > AutoCaption. At the right of the dialog, choose which objects you want to be automatically captioned and specify the characteristics of the captions.

When you insert an image, if automatic captioning is enabled, the image is placed in a frame along with a caption containing the default sequence name for images. Position the cursor in the caption area and type the text for the caption. You can change the sequence name by selecting one in the drop-down Category list or typing in your own.

If you need a sequence name that is not one of the names provided, you can add any custom name you wish:

Open the AutoCaption dialog, as described above.

In the Add captions automatically when inserting section, select LibreOffice Writer Image. This activates the Caption area in the dialog for images.

Under the Category drop-down list, enter the name that you want added (say, Photo), by typing it in the box. (Overwriting a term in the box does not delete it from the list.) You can also set some options for the number style and for a separator between the name and the number, if desired. Click OK to save the changes.

Adding captions using the Caption dialog

To add captions using the Caption dialog:

Insert the image, then either right-click it and select Insert Caption in the context menu, or select it and choose Insert > Caption on the Menu bar.

Under Properties on the Caption dialog (Figure 243), make your selections for the Category, Numbering, and Separator fields [Illustration, Arabic (1 2 3), and a colon (:), respectively, for the example in Figure 243] and type your caption text in the Caption box at the top. The text you enter for the caption appears in the box at the bottom, after the sequence name, number, and separator.

Click OK. The image and its caption are placed in a frame.

Tip

In the Category box, you can type any name you want (for example, Photo) if the drop-down list does not include it. Writer will create a numbering sequence using that name, as it does when using the AutoCaption feature.

Figure 243: Defining the caption for an illustration

Numbering images by chapter

Additional options for numbering captions are available under the Options button in the Captions dialog (Figure 244). Some of these settings, which refer to the outline level, will have an effect only if you are using outline level paragraph styles on the chapter headings within your document.

When chapter numbering is set up, Writer will restart the caption numbering for each chapter it encounters. For example, if the last figure caption you create in chapter 1 is Figure 1.15, and the next figure caption you create is in chapter 2, the numbering will start over at Figure 2.1.

Options for chapter numbering of captions are:

Use Level to specify the outline level that triggers a restart of the numbering as well as how many levels of outline numbering are shown before the table number. For example, if the document uses Heading 1 style for chapters and Heading 2 style for sub-headings, if you want all the tables in a chapter (that is, between two Heading 1 paragraphs) to be numbered sequentially independently of the sub-heading they are under, select 1 as Level. If instead you want to restart the numbering at each sub-heading, select level 2.

Use the Separator field to establish the separator between the chapter number and figure number.

Use Character style to set a character style for the caption. This is useful if the separator of your choice is not a symbol included in the default font type of your document or if you want the caption to have a special color, size and so on.

The Apply border and shadow option does not apply to table captions. LibreOffice normally wraps the objects you can add a caption to in a frame, but not for tables.

Use Caption order to specify whether you want the category or numbering to appear first in the caption.

Figure 244: Options for numbering figures

Adding captions manually

If you save as or export to other formats, you may find that captions applied as described above (either automatically or using the Caption dialog) are lost during the export.

To avoid export problems, or as another way to put captions above images or below them (the usual case), you can add a caption manually, in either of two ways:

Place the image and its caption in separate paragraphs.

Use a table.

Place the image and its caption in separate paragraphs

Insert the image and anchor it to its paragraph as a character. Press Enter to create a new paragraph for the caption.

In the caption paragraph, type, for example, Figure and add a space.

To insert the figure number automatically, click Insert > Field > More Fields (Ctrl+F2) and select the Variables tab.

Select Number range in the Type list. Select Figure in the Select list and choose (for example) Arabic (1 2 3) in the Format drop-down list. Click the Insert button.

A number will appear after the word “Figure” in the caption. Now, type the text of the caption.

Tip

If you are manually adding captions to a lot of figures using this method, you might want to make an AutoText entry containing, for example, Figure and a space, the figure-number field, and an optional separator and a space after it.

To ensure the image and its caption stay together on the page, create a new paragraph style, for example Figure. If the image is going above the caption, define the text flow of the Figure paragraph style as Keep with next paragraph and the next style as Caption. Conversely, if the caption is going above, define the Caption paragraph style as Keep with next paragraph and the next style as Figure.

Use a table

Create a one-column, two-row table. Place the image in one row and type the caption in the other row—or use two or more rows for the caption and other text. This method can be especially useful for images with numbered legends, such as Figure 253 on page 247.

Modifying images

When you insert a new image, you may need to modify it to suit the document. The placement of the image relative to the text is discussed in “Positioning images within the text” on page 232. This section describes the use of the Image toolbar, resizing, cropping, and rotating an image.

Writer provides many tools for working with images. These tools are sufficient for most people’s everyday requirements. However, for professional results it is generally better to use an image manipulation program such as GIMP to modify images (for example, to crop, resize, rotate, and change color values) and then insert the result into Writer.

1	Filter	10	Color	19	Charcoal Sketch
2	Image Mode	11	Invert	20	Relief
3	Crop Image	12	Smooth	21	Mosaic
4	Flip Vertically	13	Sharpen	22	Color
5	Flip Horizontally	14	Remove Noise	23	Green
6	Rotate 90° Left	15	Solarization	24	Blue
7	Rotate 90° Right	16	Aging	25	Brightness
8	Rotate	17	Posterize	26	Contrast
9	Transparency	18	Pop Art	27	Gamma

Figure 245: Image toolbar plus Color toolbar and Image Filter toolbar

Using the Image toolbar

When you insert an image or select one already present in the document, the Image toolbar (Figure 245) appears. You can set it to always be present (View > Toolbars > Image) and choose whether to float or dock it. Two other toolbars can be opened from this one: the Image Filter toolbar, which can be torn off and placed elsewhere on the window, and the Color toolbar, which opens as a separate floating toolbar.

From these three toolbars, you can apply small corrections to the image or obtain special effects: transparency, color adjustment, flipping and rotating, and applying special-effects filters.

Image filters

Table 7 provides a short description of the available filters. The best way to understand them is to see them in action. Experiment with the different filters and filter settings, remembering that you can undo all the changes by pressing Ctrl+Z or Alt+Backspace or by selecting Edit > Undo. See the Draw Guide for more about image filters.

Table 7: Image filters and their effects

Name	Effect
Invert	Inverts the color values of a color image or the brightness values of a grayscale image.
Smooth	Softens the contrast of an image.
Sharpen	Increases the contrast of an image.
Remove noise	Removes single pixels from an image.
Solarization	Mimics the effects of too much light in an image. A further dialog opens to adjust the parameters.
Aging	Simulates the effects of time on an image. Can be applied several times. A further dialog opens to adjust the aging level.
Posterize	Makes an image appear like a painting by reducing the number of colors used.
Pop Art	Modifies the image dramatically.
Charcoal Sketch	Displays the image as a charcoal sketch.
Relief	A dialog is displayed to adjust the light source that will create the shadow and, hence, the relief effect.
Mosaic	Joins groups of pixels into a single area of one color.

Image mode

You can change color images to grayscale, to black-and-white, or to a watermark by selecting the image and then selecting the relevant item from the Image Mode list.

Flip vertically, horizontally or in 90° rotations

To flip an image vertically, horizontally, or rotate it by ninety degrees, select the image, and then click the relevant button on the image toolbar.

Transparency

Increase the percentage value in the Transparency box on the image toolbar to make the image more transparent. This is particularly useful when creating a watermark or when placing the image in the background.

Color

Use this toolbar to modify the individual RGB color components of the image (red, green, blue) as well as the brightness, contrast, and gamma of the image. If the result is not satisfactory, you can press Ctrl+Z to restore the default values.

Using the Formatting toolbar and Image dialog

When an image is selected, you can customize some aspects of its appearance using the tools available on the Formatting toolbar and in the dialog opened by right-clicking on the image and selecting Properties. You can, for example, create a border around the image, selecting style and color; or you can (on the Borders tab of the Image dialog) add a shadow to the image.

Cropping images

When you are only interested in a section of the image for the purpose of your document, you may wish to crop (cut off) parts of it. Writer provides two ways to crop an image: the Crop tool and the Crop tab of the Image dialog. The Crop tool provides a quick and easy way to crop an image; but for more control, use the Image dialog.

Note

If you crop an image in Writer, the image itself is not changed. Writer hides, not cuts off, part of the image. If you export the document to HTML, the original image is exported, not the cropped image. For exporting individual cropped images, see “Exporting (saving) images” on page 246.

Using the Crop tool

To use the Crop tool, right-click the image and select Crop in the context menu. Cropping handles appear at the corners and mid-points of the sides of the image (Figure 246). Drag a handle to cut off part of the image. Click outside the image to turn off cropping mode.

Figure 246: Cropping handles on an image

Using the Crop page of the Image dialog

To use the Image dialog, right-click the image and select Properties in the context menu, then select the Crop tab of the Image dialog (Figure 247).

Figure 247: Result on image size of cropping using Keep scale option

The units of measurement shown on the Crop tab are those set in Tools > Options > LibreOffice Writer > General.

Two options are available in the Crop section: Keep scale and Keep image size. Keep scale maintains the proportions of the image; Keep image size may result in distortion of the image.

As the values for Left, Right, Top, and Bottom are altered, the boundaries of the image in the preview box change to show the crop area on the image, and the Width and Height fields under either Scale or Image size. This results in either an image size change (Figure 247), or a scale change for a fixed image size (Figure 248).

The original image size is indicated to the left of the Original Size button.

Figure 248: Result using Keep image size option

Resizing an image

To fit the image into the document, you may have to resize it.

A quick and easy way to resize is by dragging the image’s sizing handles:

Click the image, if necessary, to show the sizing handles.

Position the cursor over one of the sizing handles. The pointer changes shape, giving a graphical representation of the direction of the resizing.

Click and drag to resize the image.

Release the mouse button when satisfied with the new size.

Tip

The corner handles resize both the width and the height of the image simultaneously, while the other four handles resize only one dimension at a time. To retain the original proportions of the image, hold down the Shift key while dragging one of these handles.

For more accurate resizing of images, use either the Crop tab (Figure 247) or the Type tab of the Image dialog.

On the Crop tab you can adjust the following settings:

Scale Width and Height: specify in percentages the scaling of the image. The size of the image changes accordingly. For a symmetrical resizing, both values need to be identical.

Image size: specify the size of the image in your preferred unit of measurement. The image enlarges or shrinks accordingly.

Original size button: when clicked, restores the image to its original size. This will be the size resulting after any cropping was carried out.

On the Type tab of the Image dialog (Figure 249), in the Size section, toggle the Relative to option to switch between percentage and actual dimension. For a symmetrical resizing, select the Keep ratio option. Clicking on the Original Size button restores the original image size, but the scale dimensions are altered if the image has been cropped.

Figure 249: Resizing by specifying a size on the Type tab

Rotating or flipping an image

To quickly rotate an image 90 or 180 degrees, or flip it vertically or horizontally, right-click the image and select Rotate or Flip in the context menu, then choose the desired result. You can also use the settings on the Image tab of the Image dialog (Figure 251).

Figure 250: Quickly rotating or flipping an image

Figure 251: Use the Image tab of Image dialog, to flip, link, or rotate an image

You can rotate images at any required angle, using either of these methods:

Interactively. Select the image and click the Rotate icon on the Image toolbar or right-click and select Rotate or Flip > Rotate. Rotation handles appear around the object. Hover the cursor over a handle; when the cursor changes shape, click and drag it to the required angle. This method is quick and easy, but not precise.

Using the Image dialog. For precise rotation angles, right-click the image and select Properties. On the Image dialog (Figure 251), select the Image tab. In the Rotation Angle section, specify the rotation required in the Angle field.

Other settings

The Image dialog (Figure 251) has ten tabs. The Crop page was described on page 243; the Type and Wrap pages are explained in “Positioning images within the text” on page 232. The other pages serve the following purposes:

Options: give the image a descriptive name (as you want it to appear in the Navigator), display alternative text when the cursor hovers over the image in a web browser, protect some of the image settings from accidental changes, and prevent the image from being printed.

Borders: create borders around the image. The Borders dialog is the same as the one used for defining table or paragraph borders. You can also add a shadow to the image.

Area: change the background color of the image. This setting produces the desired results only for images with a transparent color.

Hyperlink: associate a hyperlink to the image, or create an image map (see page 250).

Image: flip or rotate the image, and display the original location of the file in case the image is linked rather than embedded.

Transparency: set the transparency options for the image.

Macro: associate a macro to the image. You can choose among the predefined macros or write your own.

Deleting an image

To delete an image, click it to show the resizing handles, then press the Delete key.

Exporting (saving) images

To make complex adjustments to the image in another program, or to save an image for use in another document, you can export it directly from the document. Right-click the image and choose Save in the context menu to open the Image Export dialog. Writer will let you save the image in several formats. Name the image, select the desired image format in the File type list, and click Save.

Before the image is saved another dialog opens, where you can choose various image size and format options. The content of this dialog depends on the output file type selected. If the image has been modified within Writer, you will see a confirmation dialog where you can choose to save the original version or the modified version of the image.

Compressing images

If you insert a large image in a document and resize it to fit into the layout of the page, the complete original image is stored in the document file to preserve its content, possibly resulting in a large document file to store or send by email.

If you can accept some loss of quality of the image rendering, you can compress or resize the image object to reduce its data volume while preserving its display in the page layout. You probably do not want to compress something that will be professionally printed.

Right-click to select the image and open the context menu. Then choose Compress to open the Compress Image dialog (Figure 252). Use the Calculate New Size button to update the image information on the dialog on each parameter set you change.

Click OK to apply the compression settings. If the resulting image is not acceptable, press Ctrl+Z to undo and choose another compression setting. For more information, see the Help.

Figure 252: Compressing an image

Using Writer’s drawing tools

You can use Writer’s drawing tools to create graphics such as simple diagrams using rectangles, circles, lines, text, and other predefined shapes. You can also group several drawing objects to make sure they maintain their relative position and proportion.

You can place the drawing objects directly on a page in the document or insert them into a frame.

You can also use the drawing tools to annotate photographs, screen captures, or other illustrations produced by other programs, but this is not recommended because:

You cannot include images in a group with drawing objects, so they may get out of alignment in your document.

If you convert a Writer document to another format, such as HTML, the drawing objects and the images will not remain associated; they are saved separately.

In general, if you need to create complex drawings, it is recommended you use LibreOffice Draw, which includes many more features such as layers and styles.

Creating drawing objects

To begin using the drawing tools, display the Drawing toolbar (Figure 253) by clicking View > Toolbars > Drawing or by clicking on the Show Draw Functions icon on the standard toolbar.

1	Select	7	Rectangle	13	Right Triangle	19	Flowchart
2	Insert Line	8	Rectangle, Rounded	14	Basic Shapes	20	Callouts
3	Lines and Arrows	9	Square	15	Symbol Shapes	21	Insert Text Box
4	Curves & Polygons	10	Ellipse	16	Block Arrows	22	Fontwork
5	Curve	11	Circle	17	Stars & Banners	23	Points
6	Polygon	12	Isosceles Triangle	18	Callouts	24	Toggle Extrusion
Figure 253: The Drawing toolbar

The Drawing toolbar may appear at the bottom or left side of the workspace. You can move it to another location and dock it, or float it and move it to a convenient place on the screen.

To use a drawing tool:

Click in the document where you want the drawing to be anchored. You can change the anchor later, if necessary.

Select the tool on the Drawing toolbar (Figure 253). The cursor changes to a drawing-functions pointer and the normal Formatting toolbar changes to the Drawing Object Properties toolbar (Figure 254).

Move the cross-hair pointer to the place in the document where you want the image to appear and then click-and-drag to create the drawing object. Release the mouse button. The selected drawing function remains active, so that you can draw another object of the same type.

To cancel the selected drawing function, press the Esc key or click the Select icon (the arrow) on the Drawing toolbar.

You can now change the properties (fill color, line type and weight, anchoring, and others) of the drawing object using either the Drawing Object Properties toolbar (Figure 254) or the choices and dialogs reached by right-clicking on the drawing object.

1	Line Color	8	Wrap Off	15	Align	22	Group
2	Arrow Style	9	Page Wrap	16	Bring to Front	23	Enter Group
3	Line Style	10	Optimal Page Wrap	17	Forward One	24	Exit Group
4	Line Width	11	Wrap Left	18	Back One	25	Ungroup
5	Area Style/Filling	12	Wrap Right	19	Send to Back	26	Insert Caption
6	Fill Color	13	Wrap Through	20	To Foreground
7	Anchor	14	Rotate	21	To Background
Figure 254: Drawing Object Properties toolbar

Setting or changing properties for drawing objects

To set the properties for a drawing object before you draw it:

On the Drawing toolbar (Figure 253), click the Select tool.

On the Drawing Object Properties toolbar (Figure 254), click the icon for each property and select the value you want for that property.

For more control, or to define new attributes, you can click the Area or Line icons on the toolbar to display detailed dialogs.

The default you set applies to the current document and session. It is not retained when you close the document or close Writer, and it does not apply to any other document you open. The defaults apply to all the drawing objects except text objects.

To change the properties for an existing drawing object, select the object, then continue as described above.

You can also specify the position and size, rotation, and slant and corner radius properties of the drawing object: right-click the drawing object and select Position and Size in the context menu. Choose any properties, as required.

Resizing a drawing object

To resize a drawing object, select the object, click one of the eight handles around it and drag it to its new size. The object will be scaled up or down.

When you grab an edge or corner handle of an object and drag it, LibreOffice will not keep the object’s proportions. If you also press the Shift key, the resizing will keep object proportions.

For more accurate control of the size of the object, right-click on the object and choose Position and Size in the context menu, or choose Format > Text Box and Shape > Position and Size on the Menu bar. Use the Position and Size tab to set the dimensions independently. If the Keep ratio option is selected, then the two dimensions change so that the proportion is maintained, resulting in a scaled resizing.

Grouping drawing objects

Grouping drawing objects makes it easier to handle several objects as a single entity, while preserving their relative sizes and positions. When objects are grouped, any editing operations carried out on that group are applied to all members of the group. If you click on one member of the group, the whole group is selected.

To group drawing objects:

Select one object, then hold down the Shift key and select the others you want to include in the group. The bounding box expands to include all the selected objects.

With the objects selected, hover the cursor over one of the objects and choose Format > Group > Group on the Menu bar, or click the Group icon on the Drawing Object Properties toolbar, or right-click and choose Group in the context menu.

Note

You cannot include an embedded or linked image in a group with drawing objects.

You can edit an individual member of a group without ungrouping or breaking the group. Select the group and go to Format > Group > Enter Group on the Menu bar, or right-click and select Enter Group in the context menu, or click the Enter Group icon on the Drawing Object Properties toolbar.

When you have finished editing an individual member of a group, go to Format > Group > Exit Group on the Menu bar, or right-click and select Exit Group in the context menu, or click the Exit Group icon on the Drawing Object Properties toolbar.

To ungroup or break apart a group of objects, select the group then go to Format > Group > Ungroup on the Menu bar, or right-click and select Ungroup in the context menu, or click the Ungroup icon on the Drawing Object Properties toolbar.

Rotating drawing objects

You can rotate a drawing object in a similar way to rotating images (page 245). To rotate a drawing object to any required angle, use either of these methods:

Interactively. Select the drawing object and click the Rotate icon on the Drawing Object Properties toolbar. Rotation handles appear around the object. Hover the cursor over a handle; when the cursor changes shape, click and drag it to the required angle.

Position and Size dialog. Right-click the object and select Position and Size. On the dialog (Figure 255), select the Rotation tab. In the Rotation Angle field, specify the rotation required. By default, rotation is around the center of the object, but you can choose a different pivot point.

Figure 255: Position and Size dialog, Rotation tab

Tip

Of particular interest to Writer is the Text Box drawing object. Ordinary text can only be rotated to 90, 180, or 270 degrees, as described in Chapter 9, but a Text Box object can be rotated to any desired angle.

Creating an image map

An image map defines areas of an image (called hotspots) with hyperlinks to web addresses, other files on the computer, or parts of the same document. Hotspots are the graphic equivalent of text hyperlinks. Clicking on a hotspot causes LibreOffice to open the linked page in the appropriate program (for example, the default browser for an HTML page; LibreOffice Calc for a ODS file; a PDF viewer for a PDF). You can create hotspots of various shapes and include several hotspots in the same image.

To use the image map editor (Figure 256):

In the Writer document, select the image in which you want to define the hotspots.

Choose Tools > ImageMap on the Menu bar. The ImageMap Editor (Figure 256) opens.

Use the tools and fields in the dialog (described below) to define the hotspots and links.

Click the Apply icon to apply the settings.

When done, click the Save icon to save the image map to a file, then close the dialog.

Figure 256: The dialog to create or edit an image map

The main part of the dialog shows the image on which the hotspots are defined. A hotspot is identified by a line indicating its shape.

The toolbar at the top of the dialog contains the following tools:

Apply: applies the changes.

Open, Save, Close and Select.

Rectangle, Ellipse, Polygon, and Freeform Polygon: tools for drawing a hotspot shape. These tools work in the same way as the tools in the Drawing toolbar.

Edit, Move, Insert, Delete Points: advanced editing tools to manipulate the shape of a polygon hotspot. Select the Edit Points tool to activate the other tools.

Undo and Redo: cancels the previous action or reapplies the previous canceled action.

Active: toggles the status of a selected hotspot between active and inactive.

Macro: associates a macro with the hotspot instead of just associating a hyperlink.

Properties: sets the hyperlink properties and adds the Name attribute to the hyperlink.

Below the toolbar, specify for the selected hotspot:

Address: the address pointed to by the hyperlink. You can also point to an anchor in a document; to do this, write the address in this format: file:///<path>/document_name#anchor_name

Text: type the text that you want to be displayed when the cursor is moved over the hotspot.

Frame: where the target of the hyperlink will open: pick among _blank (opens in a new browser window), _self (opens in the active browser window), _top or _parent.

Tip

The value _self for the target frame will work in the vast majority of occasions. It is therefore not recommended to use the other choices unless absolutely necessary.

Managing the LibreOffice Gallery

By default, the Gallery is opened in the Sidebar. You can let the Gallery float as you can other Sidebar decks. You can display the Gallery in Icon View (Figure 235) or Detailed View (Figure 257), and you can hide or show the Gallery by clicking on the Sidebar’s Hide button.

Figure 257: Gallery in Detailed View

Graphics in the Gallery are grouped by themes, such as Arrows, Diagrams, and People. You can create other groups or themes and add your own images or find extensions containing more graphics. Click a theme to see its contents displayed in the Gallery window.

Note

The default themes supplied with LibreOffice can not be customized, although new themes can be added; see “Adding a new theme to the Gallery” below. The locked themes are easily recognizable by right-clicking on them; the only option in the context menu is Properties.

Adding a new theme to the Gallery

You may wish to add your own theme to the Gallery to hold any images or other objects that you use frequently, for example, a company logo. Or you may wish to add several themes, each holding images for a specific project.

To add a new theme to the Gallery:

Click the New button below the list of themes (Figure 257).

In the Properties of New Theme dialog, click the General tab and type a name for the new theme.

Click the Files tab and add images to the theme, as described below.

Tip

You can also get more gallery themes from the LibreOffice extensions website at https://extensions.libreoffice.org/, including themes from previous versions of LibreOffice that are no longer installed with the program. Themes in extensions install automatically.

Adding objects to the Gallery

To add objects to a theme that you have created:

Right-click the name of the theme and select Properties in the context menu.

In the theme’s Properties dialog, click the Files tab (Figure 258).

Figure 258: Gallery Properties dialog

To add several files at once:

In the Properties dialog, click the Find Files button.

The Select Path dialog (not shown) opens. You can enter the path for the file’s directory in the Path text box, or you can navigate to locate the file’s directory.

Click the Select button to start the search. A list of files is then displayed in the Properties dialog. You can use the file type drop-down list to limit the files displayed.

To add all of the files shown in the list, click Add All. Otherwise, select the files to add and then click Add (hold down either the Shift key or the Ctrl key while clicking on the files).

To add a single file:

In the Properties dialog, click Add to open the Gallery dialog (a file browser).

Use the navigation controls to locate the image to add to the theme. Select it and then click Open to add it to the theme.

Click OK on the Properties dialog to close it.

Deleting images and themes from the Gallery

To delete an image from a theme, right-click on the name of the image file or its thumbnail in the Gallery, then click Delete in the context menu. A message appears, asking if you want to delete this object. Click Yes.

Note

Deleting the name of a file from the list in the Gallery does not delete the file from the hard disk or other location.

To delete a theme from the Gallery, select it from the list of themes, right-click, then click Delete in the context menu. You cannot delete a theme supplied with LibreOffice.

Location of the Gallery and the objects in it

Graphics and other objects shown in the Gallery can be located anywhere on your computer’s hard disk, on a network drive, or other removable media. When you add graphics to the Gallery, the files are not moved or copied; the location of each new object is simply added as a reference.

In a workgroup, you may have access to a shared Gallery (where you cannot change the contents unless authorized to do so) and a user Gallery, where you can add, change, or delete objects.

The location of the user Gallery is specified in Tools > Options > LibreOffice > Paths. You can change this location, and you can copy your gallery files (SDV) to other computers.

Gallery contents provided with LibreOffice are stored in a different location. You cannot change this location.

Note

The locations of Gallery themes distributed through LibreOffice extensions are determined by the extensions’ settings.

Using Fontwork

With Fontwork you can create graphical text art objects to make your work more attractive. There are many different settings for text art objects (line, area, position, size, and more), so you have a large choice.

Creating a Fontwork object

On the Fontwork toolbar (View > Toolbars > Fontwork) or the Drawing toolbar (View > Toolbars > Drawing), click the Insert Fontwork Text icon, or choose Insert > Fontwork on the Menu bar.

Figure 259: The Fontwork Gallery

In the Fontwork Gallery dialog (Figure 259), select a Fontwork style (scroll down to see more choices), then click OK.

The Fontwork object will appear in your document. Notice the squares around the edge (indicating that the object is selected) and the differently colored dot; these are discussed in “Moving and resizing Fontwork objects” on page 257.

Resize the object using one of the corner handles (hold down the Shift key to keep the sides proportional), or right-click and choose Position and Size in the context menu for more precise sizing.

Double-click the object to edit the Fontwork text (Figure 260). Type your own text in place of the black text that appears over the object.

Figure 260: Editing Fontwork text

Click anywhere in a free space or press Esc to apply your changes.

Editing a Fontwork object

Now that the Fontwork object is created, you can edit some of its attributes. To do this, you can use the Fontwork toolbar, the Fontwork panel on the Properties deck in the Sidebar, the Formatting toolbar, or menu options as described in this section. If the selected Fontwork object is a 3D object, you can also use the 3D-Settings toolbar.

Using the Fontwork toolbar

Make sure that the Fontwork toolbar (Figure 261) is visible. If you do not see it, go to View > Toolbars > Fontwork. Click the icons to edit Fontwork objects. Icons 2–6 also appear in the Fontwork panel on the Properties deck in the Sidebar.

Figure 261: The floating Fontwork toolbar

1	Fontwork Gallery: Opens the Fontwork Gallery (Figure 259).
2	Fontwork Shape: Edits the shape of the selected object. You can choose from a palette of shapes.
3	Fontwork Same Letter Heights: Changes the height of characters in the object. Toggles between normal height (some characters taller than others, for example capital letters, d, h, l and others) and all letters the same height.

Figure 262: Left: normal letters; right: same letter heights

4	Fontwork Alignment: Changes the alignment of characters. Choices are Left Align, Center, Right Align, Word Justify, and Stretch Justify. The effects of the text alignment can only be seen if the text spans over two or more lines. Stretch Justify fills all the lines completely.
5	Fontwork Character Spacing: Changes the character spacing and kerning in the object. Choices are Very Tight, Tight, Normal, Loose, Very Loose, and Custom..., which opens a small dialog where you can specify a percentage.
6	Toggle Extrusion: changes a 2D Fontwork object into a 3D object or a 3D object into a 2D object.

Using the Formatting toolbar

You can customize the Fontwork object with several more attributes. Click on the object; the Formatting toolbar changes to show the options for customizing the object. These choices are the same as the ones for other drawing objects, described earlier in this chapter. See also the Draw Guide for details.

Using menu options

You can use some the choices in the Format menu to anchor, align, arrange, and group selected Fontwork objects, wrap text around them, and flip them horizontally and vertically.

You can also right-click a Fontwork object and choose many of the same options in the context menu. The context menu also provides quick access to the Line, Area, and Position and Size dialogs. On the Position and Size dialog, you can enter precise values for size and position. For more information on all of these menu options, see the Draw Guide.

Using the 3D-Settings toolbar

If the selected Fontwork object is a 3D object, you can also use the options on the 3D-Settings toolbar. You can also change a 2D Fontwork object into a 3D object (or change a 3D object into a 2D object) by clicking the Toggle Extrusion icon on the Fontwork toolbar. For more information, see the Draw Guide.

Moving and resizing Fontwork objects

When you select a Fontwork object, eight squares (known as handles) appear around the edge of the object, as shown below. You can drag these handles to resize the object.

A dark or colored dot also appears on the object. This dot may be in the same place as a handle, or it may be somewhere else. If you hover the cursor over this dot, the cursor changes shape. You can drag the dot in different directions to distort the object.

Figure 263: Handles and distortion dot on Fontwork object

Hovering the cursor over other parts of the object turns the cursor into the usual symbol for dragging the object to another part of the page.

For precise control of the location and size of the object, and to rotate the object, use the Position and Size dialog (Figure 255).

Generating a QR code

A QR code (short for Quick Response code) is a type of barcode. QR codes often contain data that points to a website or application. Writer, Calc, Impress, and Draw can generate QR codes.

Choose Insert > Object > QR Code on the Menu bar to open the QR Code Generator dialog (Figure 264).

Figure 264: QR Code Generator dialog

Fill in the URL/Text field, select a correction factor (the complexity of the graphic generated), and the width of the border around it, then click OK. Figure 265 shows the code generated by the input in Figure 264.

Figure 265: QR code example

After the QR code has been generated, you can edit it by right-clicking in the code and selecting Edit QR Code.

Writer Guide 7.2

Chapter 12
Lists: Tips and Tricks

Introduction

This chapter expands on information given in Chapter 9, Working with Styles, and provides some extra examples.

In many word processors, list options are included in paragraph styles, but Writer treats them as a separate type of style that can be linked to paragraph styles for use.

Writer’s separate list styles have two major advantages:

The same list style can be used with multiple paragraph styles, avoiding duplication of design work.

A paragraph’s associated list style can be changed with a single selection.

Tip

You cannot change the style used by the default toolbar icons for lists. You can create new toolbar buttons that apply list styles to paragraphs, but a better strategy is to create paragraph styles for lists and, if you wish, create toolbar icons for them. See Chapter 20, Customizing Writer, for information on creating toolbar buttons.

Types of list

With list styles, you can create three types of list:

Bullet lists: Unordered lists whose items start with a bullet, special character, dingbat, or graphic.

Numbered lists: Ordered lists whose items start with a number, upper or lower case letters, or upper and lower case Roman numerals.

Outline lists: Hierarchical summaries of an argument or piece of writing, in which each level has its own numbering system.

All these types of list are in common use today, especially online.

Each type of list has its own set of conventions about how it is structured and used, as described in this section.

Bullet (unordered) lists

Bullet lists are popular in technical documents, presentations, many web sites, and other online documents. Writer provides several pre-defined bullet list styles (Figure 266), and you can select others in the Gallery or create your own bullets.

Figure 266: Writer’s pre-defined bullet types

Tip

Bullet list styles can be used for other purposes in addition to normal lists, especially if you choose a graphic for the bullet. See “Example: Styling the Tips, Notes, and Cautions in this book” on page 273.

The conventions for bullet lists

The use of bullet lists follows well-defined conventions:

Are used only when the order of the points is irrelevant. You might want to arrange points for rhetorical effect, starting with one fairly important point and ending with your strongest point, but readers do not actually need to know one point before another.

Are introduced in the last sentence in the body text above them, either without any punctuation or with a colon.

Consist of points that are all grammatical completions of the last sentence in the paragraph before them. That means that each point has a similar grammatical structure to the others. In this bullet list, for instance, each point starts with a present tense verb.

May be sentence fragments, but should be consistent with each other. For example, they could be all nouns or participles.

Start with a bullet on, or indented from, the left margin, then indent for the text. If they are lists within lists, then the bullet has the same indent as the text in the top level list.

Can start with either an upper or lower case letter, as long as the convention is consistent throughout the list and the document.

End each point with the same punctuation. Commas, semi-colons, periods, or no punctuation are all valid choices. What matters is the consistency of list items and of all lists within the document.

Are generally no more than 6–8 items long. Much longer, and the ease of reading is lost.

Do not use an “and,” “or,” or any other word to introduce the last point in the list, even though that would be grammatically correct.

Are sometimes considered too informal to use. When in doubt, avoid them.

Numbered (ordered) lists

While people number lists all the time, the convention is that numbered lists should only be used when the order of the information matters. For instance, in a procedure from a technical manual, one step might be impossible – or even dangerous – without doing another one first.

Writer provides several pre-defined numbered list styles (see Figure 267), and you can define others.

Figure 267: Writer’s pre-defined numbered lists

The conventions for numbered lists

Numbered lists have fewer conventions than bullet lists, but they do have a few:

They are used when the order of items is important. If the order is irrelevant, use bullet lists instead.

They are generally introduced in the body text by a summary of the overall task they describe that ends in a colon. For example, To install the software update, follow these steps: or, simply To install:.

Each step can have multiple paragraphs, most of them unnumbered, describing what happens when it is performed or the alternatives.

The steps in a procedure should be less than a dozen (some suggest 6–8).

Tip

If each step has multiple paragraphs or you have more than about a dozen steps, you may need to break down the list into smaller lists or else present the points as ordinary body text.

Outline lists

Outline lists summarize the structure of a much longer, typically unwritten document. In finished technical and legal documents, they are used in headings to make the structure obvious, although this use is becoming less common than it was a few decades ago.

Writer gives several options for outline lists (see Figure 268). List styles create an outline method that uses a single paragraph style. When such a paragraph style is in use, you change the level and the numbering by pressing the Tab key to descend a level, and Shift+Tab to ascend a level. This single style outlining is by far the quickest to apply and learn.

You can choose to use outline lists when writing a document and then, before publication, remove the letters and numbers of the outline by changing or removing the numbering style associated with the paragraph style.

Figure 268: Writer’s pre-defined outline list styles

The conventions for outline lists

The conventions for outline lists are:

Usually, a different numbering system is used for each level to help distinguish them.

Levels can be ordered using Arabic numerals, upper and lower case Roman numerals, and upper and lower case letters.

Upper case Roman numerals are usually reserved for the top level, and upper case letters are used before lower case ones. Another alternative is Arabic numbers followed by lower case letters. However, these rules are not fixed.

In technical manuals, multiple levels used to be common in headings (for instance, I.A.2 or 1.1.1). This style has largely fallen out of practice except in a few specialized cases such as legal documents, for the obvious reason that they are hard to remember. Also, if each heading is indented, after two or three levels almost no space is left for text.

Combining list and paragraph styles

Paragraph styles are essential to lists and outlining. When applying a list style, the underlying paragraph style remains unchanged. If your list must also have a certain font size, indentations, and so on, you might expect to first apply a paragraph style and then a list style (or the other way around). However, you can embed a list style in a paragraph style using the Outline & List tab of the Paragraph Style dialog, and then apply only the paragraph style to the list.

This section gives an example of combining list and paragraph styles:

Create a list style you want to use for the paragraph. For example: MyNumberedList.

Create a new paragraph style.

On the Organizer tab of the Paragraph Style dialog:

Give the new paragraph style a name, say NumberedParagraph.

For the Next Style, choose NumberedParagraph (this will make the following paragraph also be in this style, until you choose a different style).

In Inherited from, choose None.

Set up this paragraph style to your liking. Because the indentation is controlled by the List style, to avoid undesired interactions do not change the indent settings on the Indents & Spacing tab. (You might want to change the spacing above and below the paragraph.)

On the Outline & List tab (Figure 269), choose the MyNumberedList style created in step 1 in the Numbering style list.

Click OK to save this style.

Figure 269: Assigning a Numbering style to a Paragraph style

To have full control, it is common practice to define three base paragraph styles for lists: List Start for the first element of the list, List Continue for the subsequent elements of the list, and List End for the last element of the list. You could also define a paragraph style to be used for unnumbered list items (one for each nested level you intend to use) as well as an introductory style for the paragraph preceding the start of the list, to allow for keeping the introductory paragraph with the first list item or for specifying spacing before the first list item that is different from the spacing between other paragraphs.

Nesting lists

A nested list – a list within a list – is a numbered or bulleted list with subordinate (usually indented) numbered or bulleted lists. Rather than being just a list of numbered items (1, 2, 3...), a nested list may have item 1, then indented items numbered a, b, c or i, ii, iii or some other numbering or bulleted method before the main number 2. With numbering styles, you can achieve any combination of numbering formats you want. A nested list may even combine numbered items with bulleted items.

To nest a list, you have two choices. The first is to create a list style, and set up two or more list levels with different formatting choices on the Position and Customize tabs. The advantage of list levels is that each level can be formatted separately, but all the levels remain connected. You can switch to the next level below by pressing the Tab key, or to the one above by pressing Shift+Tab.

The preview pane can help you set up each list level, and the customized list style is associated with a paragraph style for use. To switch to a lower list level while using the associated paragraph style, press the Tab key before entering content; to switch to a higher list level, press Shift+Tab.

The second choice is to create two list styles, then associate each list style with a separate paragraph style.

Neither choice has any advantage over the other, since you are still dealing with the same options. However, in both cases, each nested list is typically indented more than the list level above it. Typically, too, each list level will use a different bullet style or numbering system.

Style names like Bulleted and Bulleted 2 or Nested will help to remind you of the relation between the two paragraph styles. For convenience, use the same names for both the Paragraph and List styles, since they cannot be mixed up.

Figure 270: Nested lists created using two separate list styles

Outlining with paragraph styles

LibreOffice has several ways to outline using paragraph styles. With Tools > Chapter Numbering, you can choose a numbering style for each paragraph style, making it part of the outline levels. Alternatively, you can associate each Heading style with a separate list style using the Styles deck on the Sidebar.

An easier form of outlining is to create a single list style for outlining. You can manually set up the different levels on the list style’s Customize tab, or you can get much the same result by selecting a pre-defined pattern from the list style’s Outline tab instead.

To use the paragraph style, press Enter+Tab to add a sub-level paragraph. The sub-level paragraph automatically uses the numbering pattern of the list style. To raise the level of a paragraph style, press Enter+Shift+Tab.

Creating outlines with a single paragraph style

To set up a single paragraph style for outlining:

Create a list style and associate it with one of the pre-defined formats on the Outline tab.

Select or make a paragraph style for outlining. You cannot use the Heading 1-10 styles. Presumably, this restriction prevents confusion between a single paragraph style outline and the registered outline levels (see next section).

On the Organizer tab of the paragraph style, set the style to use itself as the Next style.

Assign the list style to the paragraph style using the Numbering field on the paragraph style’s Outline & List tab.

Adding paragraph styles to outline levels

Outline levels are a concept used throughout LibreOffice to automate advanced features. For example, outline levels determine which paragraph styles are displayed by default in the Navigator under Headings, and in a table of contents.

By default, outline levels are mapped to the Heading 1–10 paragraph styles. Outline Level 1 is mapped to Heading 1, and so on. You can change these mappings, or add another paragraph style to an outline level in the Outline level field on the Outline & List tab (Figure 271).

Figure 271: Assigning a paragraph style to an outline level

Tip

You can assign more than one paragraph style to an outline level, but only one paragraph style displays in Tools > Chapter Numbering.

Applying list styles

List styles define properties such as indentation, numbering style (for example, 1,2,3; a,b,c; or bullets), and punctuation after the number, but they do not by themselves define properties such as font, borders, text flow, and so on. The latter are properties of paragraph styles.

Although you can apply list styles using the Styles menu on the Menu bar or the Styles deck on the Sidebar, those methods are not recommended.

Whenever possible, use paragraph styles for creating bulleted and numbered lists. Writer comes with two sets of paragraph styles for this purpose. It is recommended to use list styles and paragraph styles together in these ways:

Use paragraph styles List 1, List 2, List 3, and so on for creating bulleted lists. These styles use Bullet list styles.

Use paragraph styles Numbering 1, Numbering 2, Numbering 3, etc, for creating numbered lists. These styles use the list styles called Numbering 1, Numbering 2, etc.

Writer has several predefined list styles, which use different bullet symbols or number sequences (123, abc, ABC, and so on). As with any style, you can redefine the properties of these styles, for example the numbering or bullet symbol and the indentation. You can also define other list styles in these series or create your own series.

List styles can have up to ten levels, used for nested lists. To switch from one level to another, use the Promote One Level or Demote One Level icons on the Bullets and Numbering toolbar, or press the Tab key (one level down) or Shift+Tab keys (one level up), or right-click on the list element and select List > Promote One Level or Demote One Level in the context menu.

Restarting or continuing the numbering

When creating more than one numbered list of the same type within the same chapter, Writer applies sequential numbering to all the lists. Sometimes this is what you want (for example, when placing illustrations between the numbered paragraphs), while at other times you want to restart the numbering.

To restart the numbering of any numbered list, right-click the paragraph and select List > Restart Numbering in the context menu or use the Restart at this paragraph option in the Numbering section on the Paragraph dialog (Figure 272).

Figure 272: Restarting paragraph numbering

When editing a document, you may want to change from restarting numbering to continuing the numbering from a previous list. To do so, right-click on the list element and choose List > Continue previous numbering in the context menu.

Note

The Restart at this paragraph field in the Line Numbering section of the Outline & Lust tab is for line numbering, not paragraph numbering.

Naming list styles

LibreOffice provides several default names for bullets and numbered lists. You can modify these styles, and you can add your own list styles and give them descriptive names like Arabic Numeral Blue or Lower Case Indented.

If you decide not to use these styles, you can right-click each of them in the Styles deck on the Sidebar and hide them. If you later decide to use them, go to the Hidden view and unhide them.

Tip

Using the same name for both the list style and the paragraph style with which it is linked can make working with different types of styles much easier. If you use a character style to define the bullet or number, give it the same name, too.

Figure 273: Give related styles similar names and you can locate the ones you need more quickly

Formatting list styles

You have two ways of formatting bullets and numbers in list styles.

The quick way is to select a list style from the Unordered, Ordered, Outline, or Image tabs of the List Style dialog (Figure 274). Each of these tabs give a variety of options, although not an exhaustive selection.

Even if the choices on the Image tab look old-fashioned, they can be useful; for instance, see “Example: Styling the Tips, Notes, and Cautions in this book” on page 273.

The second and more practical way is to customize bullets or numbered lists for yourself, using the Customize and Position tabs. Both tabs have ten levels. This setting is mostly useful for creating a single outline numbering style, in which the numbering changes each time you press the Tab key (see “Outline lists” on page 262). For most bulleted and numbered lists, either set the Level to 1, or leave the Level at the default 1-10.

Positioning bullets, numbers, and list items

The Position tab of the List Style dialog (Figure 274) sets up the spacing before bullets or numbers, and between the bullet or number and the text.

When a list style is linked to a paragraph style, editing the fields on the Position tab in the List Style dialog results in changes to the Indent > Before text and Indent > First line settings on the Indents & Spacing tab for the paragraph style.

Figure 274: The Position tab is one of two tabs in the Numbering Style dialog for customizing lists

The reverse is also true. However, to avoid complications, make all the changes on the Position tab for the list style. Not only is that the logical place to look for changes on the list style, but adjusting the paragraph settings usually involves negative entries for the First Line field, which can complicate editing.

Understanding position fields

Figure 275: Fields on the Position tab for list styles and what they refer to

When you are defining a new list style, the important fields on the Position tab are:

Aligned at: The vertical position for numbers, measured from the left margin. In most cases, you can leave this field at 0 (at the left margin). However, if you use any Numbering alignment except Left, numbers set this field to another value.

Numbering alignment: How the bullet or number is aligned. Most of the time, you can leave this field at the default of Left, but if you are having trouble positioning text, changing the alignment to Center or Right can sometimes solve the problem, especially for lists or levels that require two-digit numbers.

Numbering followed by: Sets the space between the number or bullet and the text. Although the choices include space or nothing, the choice that offers the most control is Tab stop at. Set the exact tab in the Tab stop at field directly below the drop-down list.

Indent at: Sets the start of the text. This setting should be equal or greater to the tab stop set for Numbering followed by.

Figure 276: The dotted line is the margin in this example. If the value of the Numbering Alignment is 0, then choosing Center or Right can force the numbers into the left margin.

Formatting numbered lists

To create a numbered list, select a numbering style from the Number field on the Customize tab (Figure 277). The selections in the drop-down list begin with typical choices for Western European languages: Arabic, upper and lower case letters, and upper and lower case Roman numerals. Scroll down, and options for Bulgarian, Russian, Serbian, and Greek are available.

Figure 277: Select a numbering style from the Customize tab

Adding characters before and after numbers

You can set up to 40 characters before or after the actual number using the Before and After fields. These characters are added automatically whenever the list style they are attached to is applied.

Common characters after a number might be a period, a parenthesis, or both. Alternatively, you might put a parenthesis both before or after the number, or text such as Step in the Before field. In a List Cont. style, you might add (Continued) before.

More elaborately, you might set a paragraph style to start at the top of the page, then attach to it a list style with text so that the paragraph style will automatically add text.

In a numbered list, you can choose the number of outline levels in the list by adjusting the Show sublevels field. For example, if you decided to show three sublevels, the first use of the third sublevel would be numbered 1.1.1.

Note

Using the Before, After, and/or Show sublevels fields means that the settings on the Position tab need to be adjusted so there is enough space between the number and the text.

Setting the character style

By default, the Character Style field for numbered lists is set to the Numbering Symbols character style, and for bulleted lists to the Bullets character style.

For most purposes, you probably have no reason to change these defaults. Unless modified, these character styles use the same font and font size as the default character style of the list paragraph, and they apply to both the number and any text in the Before or After fields.

Common modifications include making the numbers or bullets larger, giving them a corporate color, making them bold, or using a condensed version of a font.

Note

You may need to change the text indent if you use a larger font, especially for two or three digit numbers. The line height may also need to be increased.

Example: Formatting large list numbers

To have the numbers in a larger or different font, or a different color, from the text of the list, follow these steps:

Create a new character style for the numbers, or modify an existing character style. For this example, the new style is named Numbers Large.

On the Font tab of the Character Style dialog for Numbers Large, increase the font size. To change the color of the number, go to the Font Effects tab. Click OK to save the new or modified character style.

Create a new list style, or modify an existing list style. On the Customize tab of the List Style dialog (Figure 278), choose the character style you created or modified. For this example, choose Numbers Large. Click OK to save the style.

Create a new paragraph style, or modify an existing paragraph style. On the Outline & List tab of the Paragraph Style dialog, choose the numbering style you created or modified.

Apply the paragraph style in the usual way to the items of the list.

Caution

If you modify an existing character, list, or paragraph style, the changes will affect all lists in the document that use those styles.

Figure 278: Choosing the character style for the numbers of a list

Working with two-digit list numbers

Numbered lists with two digits can displace list items (Figure 279). You can correct this problem in several ways:

Never have a list with more than nine items. Rewrite lists that have more, combining steps or dividing one list into two or more shorter ones. This arrangement may also make your instructions easier to remember.

Add extra space between the number and the list item using the Indent at field on the Position tab of the dialog. Do not add so much space that the association between numbers and list items is lost.

Adjust the size of the numbers using the Character Style field on the Customize tab.

Set the Numbering Alignment to Right. Watch that this change does not extend numbers into the left margin.

Figure 279: Unless extra spacing is provided, the list items are displaced when the numbering enters two digits.

Tip

People occasionally ask for numbered lists that count down from the starting number, instead of up, presumably for Top 10 lists and other countdowns. Unfortunately, LibreOffice will not automatically generate numbers for reverse order in lists. A reverse order list must be entered manually.

Formatting bullet lists

The default character style for bullets is Bullets. It gives you a standard bullet for the Default Paragraph Style. However, you might want to change the symbol using the Character field on the Customize tab. Selecting the Character field opens a dialog from which you can choose any symbol supported by the current font.

Caution

When you use an unusual character style for bullets, be sure to embed the font used when you share a file.

If your design includes nested bullets – that is, bullet lists within bullet lists – you might want to create an additional list style with a name like Bullets2.

However, if you do use more than one bullet list style, make sure their designs are compatible. In fact, indenting the nested bullets and nothing more is enough to distinguish them from the top level bullets.

Example: Making a checklist

Depending on the characters you choose, bulleted list styles can serve as more than unordered lists. For example, a bullet list can be made into a checklist by selecting the font or character used for the bullet.

Figure 280: Three bullet list styles for checklists

If you want a checklist to be used with a pen, set up the list style in the usual way, using a character style that uses the OpenSymbol font that ships with LibreOffice, and assign the character U+E00B (a shaded open box) as the bullet (that is two zeros, not lower case “o”s). Print the list, and it is immediately ready for use. Add some corporate branding and letterhead, and the To Do list can be used in business.

If you want to use the list on the computer, create two list styles, one that uses the character U+2752, and one that uses the character U+E531 (a box with a check mark). Create the list using the first style, then tick off an item by applying the second style to it.

Depending on the purpose of the list, you can also create a third list style that uses the character U+E532 (an X mark) to indicate items that were not completed.

Using images as bullets

Using an image instead of a standard bullet is a convenient way to add some originality to your document. However, you are limited by the small size at which most bullets display. Mostly, simple images with strong contrast work best as a substitute bullet. Often, a black and white image is most effective.

Images used for bullets are also a way to position an image on a page. In particular, they can be used to create warning signs and indications in a technical manual or an informal text.

In either case, select a graphic to use in Customize > Number in the dialog for the List style.

Choosing Graphics embeds the picture within the document file. By contrast, Linked graphics only adds a link to the graphic. You may need to scroll up in the Number drop-down list to see these choices.

Tip

If the image is cut off, either adjust the image size or else change the line spacing to At Least so the top half of the characters in a line is not chopped off.

Figure 281: The fields for using a graphic as a bullet appear after you have selected Graphics or Linked Graphics

After you choose Graphics or Linked graphics, the dialog displays a set of fields for editing the bullet:

The Select drop-down list has two choices for selecting an image: Gallery, which opens a list of bullets in the Gallery, and From file, which opens a file manager.

The Width and Height fields set the size at which the picture displays. They do not affect the original picture file.

Remember that too large a height requires changing the paragraph Line spacing setting to At Least so that the letters are not cut off at the top.

Keep ratio, when selected, ensures that changing either the Width or Height field changes the other proportionally.

Alignment can usually be ignored, but can help when the height of the graphic is greater than the height of the text, as in the graphics for Tips, Notes, and Cautions in the LibreOffice guides.

Example: Styling the Tips, Notes, and Cautions in this book

List styles can be used for more than lists. For example, the Tips, Notes, and Cautions in the LibreOffice guides use list styles to position the graphics and text. Here is how the Tips are created and used. The others are done in the same way, but with a different logo and text.

Step 1. Create a paragraph style for the body of a tip, note, or caution.

The body of a tip, note, or caution in this book is indented under the heading and has a line under it to set it off from the main text.

On the Sidebar, go to Styles > Paragraph Styles. Right-click and choose New. Name the new style Text Note.

On the Indents & Spacing tab (Figure 282), specify the indentation and spacing for the body of the Tip.

Figure 282: Choosing indentation and spacing for the body of the Tip

On the Borders tab (Figure 283), select a bottom border, increase the thickness, and specify the spacing between the text and the border. Choose Merge with next paragraph to cause the border to appear under only the final paragraph if the Tip includes more than one paragraph.

Figure 283: Defining the bottom border of the Tip body text

Style the paragraph (font and so on) in the usual way.

Click OK to save the paragraph style.

Step 2. Create a list style.

On the Sidebar, go to Styles > List Styles. Right-click and choose New. Name the new style Heading Tip.

On the Image tab (Figure 284), select an appropriate image. (Or, skip this step and select an image on the Customize tab.)

Figure 284: Selecting a bullet image

On the Customize tab (Figure 285), choose Graphics in the Number field. Optionally, click Select in the Graphics field and choose an image from a file or from the Gallery. (For the Tips, Notes, and Cautions in the LibreOffice guides, images were selected from external files.)

If the bullet image selected is too large or too small for your design, specify a width and height. You can use these fields to resize the original image.

In the Alignment field, select where you want the image to line up with the text.

Figure 285: Customizing the size and alignment of the bullet image

On the Position tab (Figure 286), choose settings as described in “Positioning bullets, numbers, and list items” on page 267.

Click OK to save the list style.

Figure 286: Choosing position and spacing settings for the bullet image

Step 3. Create a paragraph style for the Heading Tip and connect it to the list style.

In the Sidebar, go to Styles > Paragraph Styles. Right-click and choose New. Name the new style Heading Tip.

On the Organizer tab (Figure 287), specify the Next Style to be the one you created for the body of the Tip; in this case, Text Note.

Figure 287: Specifying the Next style for the Heading Tip style

Style the paragraph in the usual way, then go to the Outline & List tab (Figure 288). In the Numbering style field, select the list style you created. Click OK to save the style.

Figure 288: Connecting the list style to the paragraph style

Step 4. Apply the paragraph styles to the heading and text of the Tip, Note, or Caution.

Type the word Tip in a new paragraph. (You must enter at least one character or a space, or else the graphic disappears when you press Enter, leaving the indent but no bullet.)

Apply the Heading Tip paragraph style.

Press Enter. The next paragraph should automatically have the Text Note paragraph style. Type the text for the body of the tip. (If you have already typed the text, then apply the style manually.)

Example: Creating and using a simple list style

In this example, we will create a numbered list that is used to number the songs on a CD. The numbers are right-aligned, and some space is left between the number and the title of the track.

As we want to reuse the same numbered list for other CDs, we will define a new list style and a related paragraph style, then apply the paragraph style to the tracks list. (We could directly apply the list style to the items on the list, but using a paragraph style is better practice.)

Creating the CDTrack list style

As for the previous example, start by clicking the List Styles icon on the Styles deck of the Sidebar. Then right-click anywhere in the list box and choose New.

The List Style dialog is displayed. For the CDTracks style, we need to customize fields in the Organizer, Options, and Position tabs.

On the Organizer tab, type CDTrack in the Name box and leave the Category as Custom styles.

On the Customize tab (Figure 289), modify the options as follows:

In the Level box, choose 1.

In the Number list, choose 1, 2, 3,....

Make sure Start at is set to 1.

Leave the Character style field as None.

Show sublevels should be grayed out.

Leave the Before and After boxes empty.

Do not select Consecutive numbering.

Figure 289: Settings for the new numbering style on the Customize tab

As discussed earlier, the numbered list will adopt the settings of the underlying paragraph style. If you want to use a special font, size or color for the numbering symbol, you can create a character style and select it in the Customize tab.

If you want the word Track to appear before the number, add it to the Before field on the Customize tab. Do not forget to add a space to separate the word from the number.

Set up the final parameters of the CDTrack list style on the Position tab (Figure 290).

In the Level box, choose 1.

For Aligned at, choose 1.5cm. (This refers to the alignment of the numbers.)

For Numbering alignment, choose Right.

For Numbering followed by, choose Tab stop.

For Tab stop at, choose 4.0cm.

For Indent at, choose 4.0cm. (This sets the indentation of the list.)

Click OK to finish.

Figure 290: Settings for the new numbering style on the Position tab

Creating the CDTracks paragraph style

Although we could directly apply the list style to the items on the list, using a paragraph style is better practice, so we will do that. We will base our new CDTracks style on the Default Paragraph Style.

Start by clicking the Paragraph Styles icon on the Styles deck of the Sidebar. Then right-click on the Default Paragraph Style in the list box and choose New.

On the Organizer tab of the Paragraph Style tab, type CDTracks in the Name box and optionally set the Next style to be CDTracks.

On the Outline & List tab (Figure 291), choose CDTrack in the Numbering style drop-down list.

Click OK to save the new paragraph style.

Figure 291: Selecting a numbering style for the new paragraph style

Applying the CDTracks paragraph style

Now that the list style and paragraph style are available, they can be quickly applied to any list in the document.

If you are starting a new list, before pressing Enter to start a new line, double-click the desired paragraph style name in the Styles deck on the Sidebar. At the end of the list, press Enter, then double-click the paragraph style (on the Styles deck) you want for the rest of the text.

If you already have a list, select it and then double-click the desired paragraph style name on the Styles deck.

If you have more than one list in a document, the second and subsequent lists with the same paragraph style continue their numbering from the previous list. To restart at 1, place the cursor anywhere in the paragraph you want numbered 1, right-click, and choose List > Restart numbering in the context menu.

Figure 292: A numbered list of CD tracks created from the settings in Figures 290 and 291

Writer Guide 7.2

Chapter 13
Tables of Data

Introduction

Tables are a useful way to organize and present large amounts of information, for example:

Technical, financial, or statistical reports.

Catalogs showing descriptions, prices, characteristics, and photographs of products.

Bills or invoices.

Lists of names with address, age, profession, and other information.

Tables can often be used as an alternative to spreadsheets to organize materials. A well-designed table can help readers understand better what you are saying. While you would normally use tables for text or numbers, you could put other objects, such as pictures, in cells. Writer’s tables provide limited spreadsheet functions; see “Using spreadsheet functions in a table” on page 301.

Tables can also be used as a page-layout tool to position text in areas of a document instead of using several Tab characters. Another example is in headers and footers to support independent positioning of different elements, such as page number, document title, and so on. This use of tables is described in Chapter 6, Formatting Pages: Advanced.

Tools for working with tables

All of the table commands described in this chapter are conveniently located under Table on the Menu bar (Figure 293) and on the Table toolbar (Figure 294). Some are also found in the context menu for a table or in the Table panel of the Properties deck in the Sidebar (Figure 295).

Figure 293: The Table menu

When you create a table or select an existing table, the Table toolbar (Figure 294) is displayed automatically. You can manually display it at any time by clicking View > Toolbars > Table. The toolbar can float over the main Writer window, or it can be docked along any edge of the main window. See Chapter 1, Introducing Writer, for more about docking and floating toolbars, and how to hide and display specific tools on a toolbar.

Figure 294: The Table toolbar

1	Rows Above	12	Split Table	23	Number Format: Percent
2	Rows Below	13	Optimize Size	24	Number Format: Decimal
3	Columns Before	14	Align Top	25	Number Format
4	Columns After	15	Center Vertically	26	Insert Caption
5	Delete selected rows	16	Align Bottom	27	Sort
6	Delete selected columns	17	Table Cell Background Color	28	Protect Cells
7	Delete table	18	AutoFormat Styles	29	Unprotect Cells
8	Select Cell	19	Borders	30	Sum
9	Select Table	20	Border Style	31	Insert Text Formula
10	Merge Cells	21	Border Color	32	Table Properties
11	Split Cells	22	Number Format: Currency

When the cursor is in a table, the Properties deck in the Sidebar (Figure 295) includes table properties.

Figure 295: Table properties in Sidebar

Creating a table

Before you create a table in a Writer document, it helps to have an idea of the visual result you want and an estimate of the number of rows and columns required. Every parameter can be changed at a later stage; however, thinking ahead can save time as changes to fully formatted tables often require a significant effort.

Creating a new table

To quickly create a table with the default properties, click the Insert Table icon

on the Standard toolbar. On the drop-down graphic, choose the size of the table (up to fifteen rows and up to ten columns). To create the table, click the cell that you want to be on the last row of the last column.

To create a new table and specify the properties for the table, position the cursor where you want the table to appear, then use any of the following methods to open the Insert Table dialog:

Choose Table > Insert Table on the Menu bar.

Press Ctrl+F12.

On the Standard toolbar, click the Insert Table icon and select More Options at the bottom of the drop-down graphic.

In the General section of the Insert Table dialog (Figure 296), in the Name box, you can enter a different name from the Writer-generated default for the table. This might come in handy when using the Navigator to jump quickly to a table.

In the Columns and Rows boxes, specify the number of columns and rows for the new table. You can change the size of the table later, if necessary.

Figure 296: Insert Table dialog

Under Options, set up the initial table characteristics:

Heading — Enables a heading to be used in the table and defines the number of rows to be used as headings. A second (and, occasionally, third) heading row can be useful for sub-headings in a complex table.

The default Table Heading paragraph style is applied to the heading rows. You can edit the Table Heading paragraph style to change these default settings.

Repeat heading rows on new pages — Enables the heading rows to be repeated at the top of subsequent pages if the table spans more than one page.

Heading rows — Specifies the number of rows to be used for the heading. Default is 1.

Don’t split table over pages — Prevents the table from spanning more than one page. This can be useful if the table starts near the end of a page, and would look better if it were completely located on the following page. If the table starts earlier on the page but does not all fit, this setting can lead to awkward page breaks. If the table becomes longer than would fit on one page, either deselect this option or manually split the table.

The Styles section lists several predefined table layouts, also known as table styles. See “Creating and applying table styles” on page 297 for more information. You can select and preview the desired table option from the list.

After making your choices, click Insert. Writer creates a table as wide as the text area (from the left page margin to the right page margin), with all columns the same width and all rows the same height. You can adjust the columns and rows later to suit your needs.

Creating nested tables

You can create tables within tables, nested to a depth limited only by imagination and practicality. Nested tables are especially useful for page layout. Figure 297 demonstrates a simple, two-level example. The shaded table is inside a cell of the larger table. To achieve this, simply click in a cell of an existing table and use any of the methods mentioned in “Creating a new table” above.

Figure 297: Nested table example

Using AutoCorrect to create a table

You can also create a table by typing a series of hyphens (-) or tabs separated by plus signs. Use the plus signs to indicate column dividers, while hyphens and tabs are used to indicate the width of a column. When using tabs, the default tab setting determines the width; this setting can be changed in Tools > Options > LibreOffice Writer > General.

For example, this character sequence:

+-----------------+---------------+------+

creates a table like this:

Note

This function can be disabled or enabled in Tools > AutoCorrect > AutoCorrect Options. On the Options page, deselect or select Create table.

Creating a table from formatted text

You can create a table from formatted text by using Table > Convert > Text to Table on the Menu bar. The text to be converted must contain characters to indicate column separators. Paragraph marks indicate an end of a table row.

Tip

Unlike the creation of a table by other methods, conversion from text to table preserves the paragraph style and character style applied to the original text.

Start by editing the text, if necessary, to ensure the column separator character is where you want it. Select the text you want to convert and choose Table > Convert > Text to Table to open the dialog shown in Figure 298.

The Separate text at section has four options for the separator for the columns of text. Select Other to choose the default comma (useful if you are importing a .csv file) or type any character in the box.

The Options are the same as those in the Insert Table dialog (Figure 296).

Click OK to convert the text.

Figure 298: Dialog for text to table conversion

Example

In this example we will convert the following text into a table.

Row 1 Column 1; Row 1 Column 2; Row 1 Column 3

Row 2 Column 1; Row 2 Column 2; Row 2 Column 3

In this case, the separator between elements is a semicolon. Select the text and choose Table > Convert > Text to Table. We obtain the following result.

Row 1 Column 1	Row 1 Column 2	Row 1 Column 3
Row 2 Column 1	Row 2 Column 2	Row 2 Column 3

Tip

You can also perform the opposite operation, to transform a table into plain text. This may be useful when you want to export the table contents into a different program.

To transform a table into text, place the cursor anywhere in the table, choose Table > Convert > Table to Text on the Menu bar, pick the preferred row separator, and click OK to finish.

Inserting a portion of a spreadsheet

To copy a spreadsheet area into a Writer document as a Writer table:

Open both the Writer document and the spreadsheet.

Select the sheet area (cells) that you want to copy.

Right-click and choose Copy in the context menu, or press Ctrl+C; then click in the Writer document and choose Paste in the context menu or press Ctrl+V. Or, drag the area into the Writer document.

See also Chapter 19, Spreadsheets, Charts, Other Objects, for other methods of inserting spreadsheets into Writer documents.

Formatting the table layout

Formatting a table is a two-step process: formatting the table layout (the subject of this section) and formatting the table text (the subject of the next section).

Tip

If you apply similar formatting of table layout and table text to multiple tables, using table styles can speed up your work and provide consistency. See “Creating and applying table styles” on page 297.

Formatting the layout normally involves one or more of the following operations: adjusting the size of the table and its position on the page, adjusting sizes of rows and columns, adding or removing rows or columns, merging and splitting individual cells, changing borders and background.

Default parameters

If you create a table using the Insert Table dialog or the Insert Table icon on the Standard toolbar, the following defaults are set:

The cells use the Table Contents paragraph style. In the default template, this style is identical to the Default Paragraph Style.

The default table occupies all the space from margin to margin (text area).

The default table has thin black borders around each cell (grid).

If you activate the Heading option, the cells in the heading row (or rows) use the Table Heading paragraph style.

Resizing and positioning the table

Using the default settings, any newly created table will occupy the entire width of the text area. This is sometimes what you want, or you may prefer a smaller table. To quickly resize a table, first move the mouse to either the left or right edge. When the cursor changes shape into a double arrow, drag the border to the new position. This operation only changes the size of the first or last column; it does not change the alignment of the table on the page.

For more precise control over the size and position of the table on the page, open the Table Properties dialog (Figure 299) by choosing Table > Properties or by right-clicking anywhere in the table and choosing Table Properties in the context menu.

Figure 299: Table Properties dialog: Table tab

On the Table tab of the dialog (Figure 299), you can set the alignment of the table:

Automatic: the default setting for a table, fills the width of the text area.

Left: aligns the table with the left margin.

Right: aligns the table with the right margin.

From Left: lets you specify under Spacing exactly how far from the left margin the table is placed.

Center: aligns the table in the middle between the left and right margins. If the table width is greater than the margin, the table will extend outside of the margins.

Manual: lets you specify the distances from both left and right margins under Spacing.

Selecting an alignment option other than Automatic activates the Width field in the Properties section, where you can enter the desired size of the table. Select Relative to see the width as percentage of the text area.

In the Spacing section, use the Above and Below boxes to modify the separation between the text and the table.

When the size of the table is less than the size of the text area, Writer will insert some values in the Left and Right boxes. Otherwise these values are not available. You can enter values:

In both the Left and Right boxes if you select Manual alignment.

In the Left box when you select the From left, Right, or Center alignment.

In the Right box if you select Left alignment.

Specifying text flow

On the Text Flow tab of the Table Properties dialog (Figure 300), you can:

Insert a page or column break either before or after the table. Use the Text Flow: Break option, combined with the Page or Column and the Before or After options. If you insert a page break before the table (that is, start the table on a new page), you can also change the page style that will go with it by selecting With Page Style and a new page style. As with any page break, you can also reset the page numbers using the Page number box.

Keep a table on one page by deselecting Allow table to split across pages and columns. If this item is deselected, the next item is not active.

Keep each row on one page by deselecting Allow row to break across pages and columns.

Use Keep with next paragraph to keep the table and an immediately following paragraph together if you insert a page break.

Use Repeat heading, and its associated numbers box, to select the number of table heading rows that will be repeated on each page. A complicated table may need two or three heading rows to be easily read and understood.

Use the Text orientation list to select the direction for the text in the cells. Select from Horizontal, Vertical (top to bottom), Vertical (bottom to top), or Use superordinate object settings (meaning use the default text flow settings for the page).

Select the vertical alignment of the text in the table or the selected cells; the choices are to align with the top of the cell, the center of the cell, or the bottom of the cell. This alignment is in addition to the Left-Right alignment options available on the Table tab of the Table Properties dialog.

Note

A table heading row cannot span two pages, but any other row can. A one-row table (often used for page layout purposes), if set up with the default of including a heading, will not break across pages. The solution is to make sure the table is defined without a heading row.

Figure 300: Table Properties dialog: Text Flow tab

Resizing rows and columns

You can adjust the height of rows and the width of columns in a table in several ways.

Move the mouse next to the edge of the cell and when a double-headed arrow appears, click and hold the left mouse button, drag the border to the desired position, and release the mouse button.

On the horizontal ruler, column dividers are marked by a pair of thin gray lines; the vertical ruler indicates row dividers in the same way. You can resize a row or column by holding the mouse button down on the appropriate divider and dragging it to the desired location.

Use the keyboard as described below.

Selecting Table > Size on the Menu bar also offers some resizing options:

Select Column Width or Row Height to enter a dimension into the size box for each selectable column or row of the table.

The Minimize Column Width or Minimize Row Height options make the selected columns or rows as narrow as possible while still fitting their contents. The rows or columns may not all be the same height or width.

The Optimal Column Width or Optimal Row Height options make the selected columns or rows fit the largest character in any row or the longest entry in any column.

Use Distribute Columns/Rows Evenly to quickly bring them back to all being the same width or height.

For greater control over the width of each column, use the Columns tab of the Table Properties dialog.

Figure 301: Table Properties dialog: Columns tab

Right-click on the table and choose Table Properties in the context menu, or choose Table > Properties on the Menu bar, or click the More Options icon in the Table panel of the Properties deck on the Sidebar. On the Table Properties dialog, select the Columns tab.

Adapt table width: If a table already stretches to the page margins, it cannot stretch any wider and the Adapt table width option can only be used to reduce the column width. If the table is narrower, increasing the width of a column will increase the width of the whole table. This option is not available if Automatic has been selected in the Alignment area of the Table tab.

If the table width already extends past the margins, with the Adapt table width option checked, attempting to change a column width will automatically decrease that column’s size so that the table will now shrink to the page margins while keeping the size of any other column intact.

Adjust columns proportionally results in all columns changing their widths by the same percentage when one is changed. For example, if you reduce by half the size of a column, the sizes of all the other columns will be halved. This option is not available if Automatic has been selected in the Alignment area of the Table tab.

Remaining space shows how much further the table can expand before hitting the limit of the margins. This value cannot be edited and will not be negative in the event that the table width is already larger than the space between the left and right margins.

Under Column width, each individual column can be adjusted. If you have more than six columns, use the arrows at the right and left to view them all. With no options selected, the column to the right of the one being adjusted will automatically change to keep the table width constant. Adjusting the most right hand column causes the first column to change.

Tip

Rather than starting from the Table Properties dialog, it is often more efficient to make rough adjustments to a new table using the mouse, and then fine-tune the layout using the Columns tab and the Table tab of the Table Properties dialog.

You can also resize a table using the keyboard. This is sometimes easier than using the mouse.

Place the cursor in the cell where you want to make changes.

Press and hold the Alt key while using the arrow keys.

The left and right arrow keys adjust the column width by moving the border on the right edge of the cell, but not past the margin.

The up and down arrows adjust the row height (when possible) by moving the border on the lower edge of the cell.

To adjust the resizing parameters and behavior for keyboard handling, choose Tools > Options > LibreOffice Writer > Table (Figure 302).

Figure 302: Choosing keyboard handling of table columns and rows

Use the Row and Column values in the Move cells section to determine the amount of change produced by a single keystroke while resizing. In the Behavior of rows/columns section, you can choose one of three strategies when resizing:

Fixed: the resizing will affect only the adjacent cell and not the entire table. The width of the table does not change when resizing its cells.

Fixed, proportional: when resizing a cell, all the other cells are also resized proportionally, but in the opposite direction so as to maintain the width of the table.

Variable: resizing a cell affects the table size. For example, when you widen a cell, the width of the table increases. This is the default option.

Inserting rows and columns

To quickly insert one row or column, place the cursor in the row or column before or after which you want to add new rows or columns, and then do one of the following:

Click the Rows Above or Rows Below icons on the Table toolbar or the Table panel of the Properties deck on the Sidebar to insert one row above or below the selected one.

Click the Columns Before or Columns After icons on the Table toolbar or the Table panel of the Properties deck on the Sidebar to insert one column before or after the selected one.

Choose Table > Insert > Rows Above/Below or Table > Insert > Columns Before/After on the Menu bar.

Right-click and choose Insert > Rows Above/Below or Insert > Columns Before/After in the context menu.

To insert any number of rows or columns:

Place the cursor in the row or column where you want to add new rows or columns.

Choose Table > Insert > Rows or Table > Insert > Columns on the Menu bar, or right-click and choose Insert > Rows or Insert > Columns in the context menu.

In the small dialog that opens, select the number of rows or columns to add, and whether they appear before or after the one selected. Set Number to the number of rows or columns to insert, and Position to Before or After.

Click OK to close the dialog.

Note

Regardless of how they are inserted, new rows or columns have the same formatting as the row or column where the cursor was located.

Deleting rows and columns

To quickly delete one or more rows or columns, select the rows or columns you want to delete and do one of the following:

Click the Delete selected rows or Delete selected columns icons on the Table toolbar or the Table panel of the Properties deck on the Sidebar.

Right-click and choose Delete > Rows or Delete > Columns.

Choose Table > Delete > Rows or Table > Delete > Columns on the Menu bar.

Merging and splitting cells

A common use for merging cells is to make a heading row that takes up the entire width of the table, or a subheading row over more than one column.

To merge a cell or group of cells into one cell:

Select the cells to merge.

Right-click and choose Merge Cells in the context menu, or choose Table > Merge Cells from the Menu bar, or click the Merge Cells icon on the Table toolbar or the Table panel of the Properties deck on the Sidebar. Any content of the cells appears in the merged cell.

To split a cell into multiple cells:

Position the cursor inside the cell.

Right-click and choose Split Cells in the context menu, or choose Table > Split Cells on the Menu bar, or click the Split Cells icon on the Table toolbar or the Table panel of the Properties deck on the Sidebar.

On the Split Cells dialog, select how to split the cell and how many cells to create. A cell can be split either horizontally (create more rows) or vertically (create more columns).

Figure 303: Split Cells dialog

It is generally best to merge and split cells after completing other layout formatting. This is because some operations such as deleting a column or a row may produce a result difficult to predict when applied to a table with merged or split cells.

Specifying table borders

You can quickly apply some table borders using the palette of options on the Borders, Border Style, and Border color icons in the Table toolbar or the Table panel of the Properties deck on the Sidebar. For more control, use the Borders tab of the Table Properties dialog (Figure 304).

Figure 304: Table Properties dialog: Borders page

Line arrangement specifies where the borders go. If a group of cells is selected, the border will be applied only to those cells. You can specify individually the style of the border for the outside edges of the selected cells and for the cell divisions. Writer provides default arrangements, but you can click the line you want to customize in the User-defined area to get exactly what you want. When multiple cells are selected, you can select the edges of the selection as well as the cell dividers.

Note

When the selected cells have different styles of border, the User-defined area shows the border as a gray line. You can click the gray line to choose a new border style (first click), leave the border as it is (second click) or delete the border (third click).

Line specifies what the border looks like. You can choose from the drop-down lists for Style and Color, and specify a Width. Your selections apply to those borders highlighted by a pair of black arrows in the User-defined area.

Padding specifies how much space to leave between the border and the cell contents. Spacing can be specified individually for thr left, right, top, and bottom borders. Choose Synchronize to have the same spacing on all four sides.

Shadow Style properties always apply to the whole table. A shadow has three components: where it is (position), how far from the table it is cast (distance), and what color it is.

If Merge adjacent line styles (under Properties) is checked, two cells sharing a common border will have their borders merged, rather than being side by side or above/below each other.

Tip

To reset everything if you are having problems with borders, right-click in the table and choose Table Properties or choose Table > Properties on the Menu bar. On the Borders tab, select the Set No Borders icon under Line arrangement Presets (the box on the left).

Selecting background colors and graphics

A table background can greatly improve the readability of data, visually highlight important parts of the table (such as the heading or a specific cell), or just make the table more appealing. You can choose between two types of background: solid color or image. The background can be applied to the whole table, to a single cell, or to a row.

You can quickly apply color cell backgrounds using the palette of options on the Table Cell Background Color icon in the Table toolbar or the Table panel of the Properties deck on the Sidebar. For more control, or to use an image as a background, use the Background tab of the Table Properties dialog (Figure 305).

Figure 305: Table Properties dialog: inserting an image as a background

Tip

You need to consider the color contrast between the background and foreground (usually text). Background colors and images can also have transparency applied to help make the text more readable.

The row background option is quite handy when you want to create alternate color rows or assign a different background to the heading of the table.

Note

The background selected for a cell will be in front of the row background which in turn will be in front of (and hide) the table background.

To set the background for a cell, row, or table:

Place the cursor anywhere inside the cell, row, or table you want to work with. If you want to apply a background to a group of cells, select the group.

Right-click and choose Table Properties in the context menu, or choose Table > Properties on the Menu bar, or click the More Options icon on the Table panel of the Properties deck on the Sidebar.

In the Table Properties dialog, select the Background tab (Figure 305).

Choose whether to apply the settings to cell, row, or table.

Cell: changes apply only to the selected cells, or the cell where the cursor currently resides. Even when a group of cells is selected, the background settings are applied to each cell individually.

Row: changes affect the entire row where the cursor resides.

Table: changes will set the background for the entire table, regardless of the cursor position or selected cells.

To apply a color, click the Color button, select the color, and click OK.

To apply a bitmap (image), click the Bitmap button. Then,

Select from the given bitmaps or use the Add/Import button.

Under Options, select the type of placement for the image.

Style – select the way the image has to appear: custom position/size, tiled, or stretched.

Size – select the required Image aspect ratio or the Scale option.

Position – select where the image is to be displayed.

To apply the image, click OK.

Displaying or hiding table boundaries

A table boundary is a set of pale (usually gray) lines around the cells when viewed on‑screen in LibreOffice with no borders enabled. These boundaries are not printed; their only function is to help you see where the table cells are. They are particularly useful when using tables for page layout.

To display tables the same way on the screen as on the printed page, with no boundary lines, go to Tools > Options > LibreOffice > Application Colors. On that page, you can display or hide boundaries around text, tables, headers and footers, figures, and other parts of a document, and you can choose the color of boundary lines.

Turning boundaries off does not hide any borders that the table may have.

Creating and applying table styles

Using table styles, you can apply an elaborate format to your table with just a few clicks. Like other styles, table styles enable you to produce consistent looking tables in a document.

Applying a table style

To apply a table style, go to the Table Styles tab of the Styles deck on the Sidebar. Then place the cursor anywhere in the table and double-click the name of a style.

For more control, go to Table > AutoFormat Styles on the Menu bar, or click the AutoFormat Styles icon on the Table toolbar. On the AutoFormat dialog (FIgure 306), select a format from the list, choose which features you wish to use in your table (font, alignment, borders, and so on), and then click OK. The table will be reformatted.

Figure 306: Table AutoFormat dialog

Tip

You can rename the formats by selecting one and clicking the Rename button. The name will change in this dialog and in the Table Styles page on the sidebar.

You can delete a format by selecting it and clicking the Delete button. However, you cannot rename or delete the Default Table Style.

Creating a table style

Although the Table Styles tab of the Sidebar’s Styles deck includes a quick way to apply table styles, they are created by using the AutoFormat feature. Follow these steps:

Create a table. Format it as you wish: font, alignment, borders, background, number format.

Put the cursor anywhere in the table. Select Table > AutoFormat Styles on the Menu bar, or click the AutoFormat Styles icon on the Table toolbar.

On the AutoFormat dialog (Figure 306), choose which features you wish to include in the new table style, and then click Add.

In the pop-up dialog, type a name for the new style and click OK. The new style is added to the list of formats in the AutoFormat dialog and to the list of table styles in the Styles deck in the sidebar.

Table styles also include the following table-level properties:

Break

Keep with next paragraph

Repeat heading

Allow table to split across pages

Allow rows to break across pages

Merge adjacent line styles

Table shadow

Tip

These styles do not include table and column widths in the table format. To insert a table with predefined full formatting, save it as AutoText. See “Using AutoText” in Chapter 2, Working with Text: Basics, for instructions.

Formatting the table text

Once the table layout is set, you can move on to formatting the text in the individual cells. You can apply manual formatting as with any other paragraph in the text, but it is highly recommended that you use paragraph and character styles, for consistency and ease of maintenance. Other aspects to consider include text flow, alignment, and orientation.

You can format each cell independently of other cells, or you can simultaneously format a group of cells by selecting them before applying the desired formatting.

Tip

You can apply basic table text formatting by choosing a table style and then modify only those cells that you wish to be different.

Vertical alignment

By default, text entered into a table is aligned to the top-left of the cell. You can change the default for the entire table, as described above, or for individually selected cells.

To vertically align the text in specific cells:

Place the cursor in the cell you wish to change, or select multiple cells.

Click an icon on the Table toolbar: Align Top, Center Vertically, or Align Bottom.

Number formats

The number format can be set for a whole table, a group of cells, or a single cell. For example, cells can be set to display in a particular currency, to four decimal places, or in a particular date format.

Number recognition specifies that numbers in a text table are recognized and formatted as numbers. If Number recognition is not selected, numbers are saved in text format and are automatically left-aligned. To enable Number recognition, go to Tools > Options > LibreOffice Writer > Table and select the option in the Input in Tables section.

To set the number format for one or more cells, select the cells, then either click the icon for one of the popular formats on the Table toolbar, or choose Table > Number Format on the Menu bar. On the Format Number dialog (Figure 307), you can set options for various categories of numerical data.

In the Category list, select the category you want, such as currency, date, or text.

In the Format list, choose a format for the category you just selected.

For some categories, such as Date, you may wish to change the language using the Language list, while for other numerical categories you can use the Options section of the dialog to customize the appearance.

Tip

Writer displays the formatting code for the category and format selected in Format Code section at the bottom of the dialog. For example, if you select a date format such as 31 Dec 1999 the corresponding code is D MMM YYYY. Advanced users can easily customize this formatting code as well as create new user-defined codes.

Figure 307: The Format Number dialog

Rotating text in a table cell

You can rotate text in a table cell by 90 or 270 degrees. Text rotation can be useful when you have long headings for narrow columns.

Select the text to be rotated and then choose Format > Character, or right-click and select Character > Character in the context menu.

On the Position tab, in the Rotation / Scaling section, choose the rotation angle, optionally change the Scale width, and click OK.

Figure 308 shows a sample table with rotated headings.

Note

Text rotation within table cells can also be achieved with the use of paragraph styles, discussed in detail in Chapter 9, Working with Styles.

Figure 308: A table with rotated headings

Data entry and manipulation in tables

Moving between cells

Within a table, you can use the mouse, the arrow keys, or the Tab key to move between cells.

The arrow keys move the cursor one text character left or right at a time. If a cell is empty, pressing the arrow key will move the cursor to the adjacent cell.

The Tab key moves directly to the next cell and, if the cursor is in the last cell in the table, creates a new row. Pressing Shift+Tab moves the cursor back a cell.

Tip

To enter a Tab character as part of the text of the cell, press the Ctrl and Tab keys at the same time.

To move to the beginning of the table, press Ctrl+Home. If the active cell is empty, the move is to the beginning of the table. If the cell has content, the first press goes to the beginning of the cell and the next press goes to the beginning of the table. (Pressing again takes you to the beginning of the document.)

To move to the end of the table, press Ctrl+End. If the active cell is empty, the move is to the end of the table. If the cell has content, the first press goes to the end of the cell and the next press goes to the end of the table. (Pressing again takes you to the end of the document.)

Sorting data in a table

Just as in a spreadsheet, data in a table can be sorted. You can specify up to three levels of sorting (for example, sort first by age numerically, then alphabetically by name within each age).

To sort data in a table:

Select the table (or part of the table) to be sorted.

Choose Table > Sort on the Menu bar, or click the Sort icon on the Table toolbar.

In the Sort dialog (Figure 309):

Decide whether you want to sort in the direction of rows or columns. The default sorting direction is by rows, which results in sorting the data in a column.

Select up to three keys to sort on, in the correct order.

For each key, select which column or row to sort on, whether the sort is Numeric or Alphanumeric and whether it is Ascending or Descending.

Click OK to perform the sort.

Note

You have to select all cells that might be affected by the sorting. For example, if you select only the cells of one column, the sort affects that column only, while the others remain unchanged. In such a case, you risk mixing the data of the rows.

Figure 309: Selecting criteria for sorting

Using spreadsheet functions in a table

For many simple mathematical functions, Writer tables can be used as basic spreadsheets. Just as in a spreadsheet, each table cell is identified by a letter (for the column) and a number (for the row). For example, cell C4 is the cell in the third column from the left and fourth row from the top. When the cursor is in a cell, the table name and this cell reference is displayed on the status bar.

Tip

Basic spreadsheet functions in tables are much the same as in LibreOffice Calc. The main difference is that cell references are formatted differently. Cell A2 (first column, second row) is referred to in Calc as A2 (or $A$2 for an absolute reference). In Writer tables, it is referred to as <A2>.

For example, suppose you had two numbers in cells <B1> and <C2> and wanted to display the sum of the two in cell <A1>, as shown in Figure 310.

Do the following to sum up 4 and 5:

Click in cell <A1> and press the = key, or choose Table > Formula on the Menu bar, or press F2, or click the Sum icon or the Formula icon on the Table toolbar, or click the Formula icon in the Table panel of the Properties deck on the Sidebar.

The Formula bar appears automatically at the top of the workspace. In the leftmost side of the bar, you can see the coordinates of the selected cell.

Click in cell <B1>. The identifiers of this cell are automatically displayed in the Formula bar and inserted into cell <A1>.

Press the + key.

Click in cell <C2>. You can see the final formula = <B1>+<C2> displayed both in the selected cell and on the Object bar.

Press the Enter key, or click the green check mark (may be a different symbol on some installations) on the Formula Bar, to replace the formula in the cell with the result of the calculation.

Figure 310: Using spreadsheet functions in a table

Tip

To display a cell's formula and make it available for editing, choose Table > Formula on the Menu bar, or use one of the other methods above.

To display the list of the mathematical functions available for use in a table, display the Formula toolbar and then click the Formula f(x) icon.

In our example, this gives the result 9 in the top left cell. For summing contiguous cells, you can simply select the cells in the row, column, or the rectangle of rows and columns. Thus, for example, to add a column of numbers, do this:

Type an equals sign = in an empty cell.

Select the cells to be added together, in this case the cells from A2 to A5. The formula should be something like =<A2:A5>.

Press the Enter key or click the green check mark on the Formula Bar.

The result appears in the cell you have selected.

When using a function, you can type the cell references manually or select them. Thus, to add up the four numbers that we added above (A2, A3, A4, A5), do this:

Type an equals sign = in an empty cell.

Type sum or select it from the function list f(x).

Select the contiguous cells to be added together. The formula should be something like =sum<A2:A5>.

Press the Enter key or click the green check mark on the Formula Bar. The answer appears in the cell you have selected.

Caution

Unlike in Calc, formulas are not updated automatically when inserting or deleting rows or columns of the table, although the results do update when you change a value in a cell. If you plan to use complex formulas, consider embedding a Calc spreadsheet in the Writer document. See Chapter 19, Spreadsheets, Charts, Other Objects.

Additional table operations

Protecting cells in a table

You can protect the contents of individual cells of a table from changes. When a cell is protected, most of the menu items and toolbar icons are inactivated.

Note

This protection is not intended for secure protection. It protects the cells against accidental changes.

To turn on cell protection, place the cursor in a cell or select cells, then click the Protect Cells icon on the Table toolbar or choose Table > Protect Cells on the Menu bar.

To tun off cell protection, place the cursor in the cell or select the cells. Then click the Unprotect Cells icon on the Table toolbar or choose Table > Unprotect Cells on the Menu bar.

To remove protection for the entire current table or all selected tables, press Shift+Ctrl+T.

Tip

If you cannot place the cursor in a protected cell, you need to enable the cursor. Choose Tools > Options > LibreOffice Writer > Formatting Aids and in the Protected Areas section mark Enable cursor.

Adding a caption

You can easily add a caption to any table. Writer will keep track of all your captioned tables, automatically number them, and update any links to them. To add a caption to a table:

Right-click anywhere in the table and select Insert Caption in the context menu, or choose Insert > Caption on the Menu bar, or click the Insert Caption icon on the Table toolbar.

Under Properties on the Caption dialog, make your selections for the Category (it defaults to Table, which is usually what you want), Numbering, and Separator fields. The position of the caption defaults to above a table; you can change this if necessary.

Type your caption text in the text box at the top of the dialog.

Click OK.

You can also set up Writer to add captions to tables automatically. The procedure is the same as for adding captions automatically to images, described in Chapter 11.

Cross‑referencing to a table

You can insert a cross‑reference to a captioned table. Clicking on the cross-reference takes the reader directly to the table. For details, see Chapter 17, Fields.

Splitting a table

One table can be split into two tables, and two tables can be merged into a single table. Tables are split horizontally: the rows above the split point are put into one table, and the rows below into another.

To split a table:

Place the cursor in a cell that will be in the top row of the second table after the split (the table splits immediately above the cursor).

Choose Table > Split Table on the Menu bar or click the Split Table icon on the Table toolbar.

A Split Table dialog opens, where you can choose how to handle heading rows.

Click OK. The table is then split into two tables separated by a blank paragraph.

Note

If cells in one table include formulas using data from the other table, those cells will contain an error message: **Expression is faulty**.

Merging tables

To merge two tables:

Delete the blank paragraph between the tables. You must use the Delete key (not the Backspace key) to do this.

Select any cell in one of the tables.

Choose Table > Merge Table from the Menu bar.

Tip

To see clearly where the paragraphs are and to delete them easily, choose View > Formatting Marks (Ctrl+F10) or click the ¶ icon in the Standard toolbar.

Deleting a table

To delete a table, do any of the following:

Right-click anywhere in the table and choose Delete > Table in the context menu.

Click anywhere in the table and choose Table > Delete > Table on the Menu bar.

Select from the end of the paragraph before the table to the start of the paragraph after the table, and then press the Delete key or the Backspace key.

Note

The third method also merges the paragraph after the table with the paragraph before the table, which may not be what you want.

Copying a table

To copy a table from one part of the document and paste it into another part:

Select the table.

Press Ctrl+C or click the Copy icon on the Standard toolbar.

Click where you want the table to be copied.

Press Ctrl+V or click the Paste icon on the Standard toolbar.

Moving a table

To move a table from one part of a document to another part:

Select the table.

Press Ctrl+X or click the Cut icon on the Standard toolbar.

Click where you want the table to be moved.

Press Ctrl+V or click the Paste icon on the Standard toolbar. This pastes the cells and their contents and formatting.

Inserting a paragraph before or after a table

To insert a paragraph before a table, position the cursor before any text or other contents in the first (upper left-hand) cell and press Alt+Enter. To insert a paragraph after a table, position the cursor after any text in the last (lower right-hand) cell and press Alt+Enter.

Using tables as a page layout tool

Tables may be used as a page layout tool to position text in a document instead of using tabs or spaces. For more information and tips about using tables in page layout, see Chapter 6, Formatting Pages: Advanced.

Tip

When inserting a table used for layout, you may wish to deselect the Heading and Border options (see “Creating a new table” on page 284).

Writer Guide 7.2

Chapter 14
Mail Merge

Form Letters, Mailing Labels, and Envelopes

What is mail merge?

Writer’s mail merge provides features to create and print multiple copies of one item (such as return address labels, promotional stickers, or t-shirt transfers) or to produce copies that include variable information (for example names, addresses, and amounts due):

Form letters (a document to send to a list of recipients)

Mailing labels, labels for physical file folders, and similar purposes

Envelopes

Variable data is typically derived from a data source, as discussed below. If all output is to be the same (for example, return address labels), the merge can use manually entered text or images.

This chapter describes the mail merge process. The steps include:

Create and register a data source.

Create and print form letters, mailing labels, and envelopes.

Optionally, save the output in an editable file instead of printing it directly.

Creating and registering an address data source

An address data source is a database containing the name and address records from which mailing labels and envelopes can be derived. LibreOffice can create the database from spreadsheets, text files including Writer documents, and databases such as MySQL. If the information to be used in the mail merge is currently in a format that LibreOffice cannot access directly, you need to convert it, for example by exporting to a comma-separated values (CSV) file.

For a data source to be directly accessible from within a Writer document, it must be registered. You need to do this only once.

From within a Writer document, or from the LibreOffice Start Center, choose File > Wizards > Address Data Source.

The choices on the first page of the wizard (Figure 311) vary with your operating system. Select the appropriate type of external address book. For a spreadsheet, it is Other external data source. Depending on your choice, the list of steps on the left may change. Click Next.

Figure 311: Select type of external address book

On the next page of the Wizard (Figure 312), click on the Settings button.

Figure 312: Starting the Settings part of the Wizard

On the Create Address Data Source page (Figure 313), select the Database type. In our example, it is Spreadsheet. Click Next.

Figure 313: Selecting the database type

On the next page (Figure 314), click Browse and navigate to the spreadsheet that contains the address information. Select the spreadsheet and click Open to return to this dialog.

Figure 314: Selecting the spreadsheet document

To test that the connection has been correctly established, click the Test Connection button in the lower right of the dialog (not shown in Figure 314). You should get the message The connection was established successfully; otherwise, you will get an error message.

Click Finish.

On the next page (Figure 315), click Next. You do not need to click the Field Assignment button. (When you are using the Mail Merge Wizard, you may need to do the Field Assignment step; see page 321.)

Figure 315: For a spreadsheet, do not click the Field Assignment button

On the Data Source Title page (Figure 316), the name and location of the new database (.odb) is shown in the Location field. You can change this name or store the database file in a different location; deselect Embed this address book definition into the current document, then click Browse to choose the location and name the file.

You can also change the name in the Address book name field. This is the registered name, which LibreOffice displays in data source listings. In our example, the name Addresses was used for both.

Figure 316: Name the file and the address book

Click Finish. The data source is now registered.

Creating a form letter

You can create a form letter manually—the simplest and most comprehensive method, which is described here—or you can use the Mail Merge wizard starting on page 317.

Create a new Writer document (File > New > Text Document) or open an existing form letter with File > Open.

Display the registered data sources: View > Data Sources (or press Shift+Ctrl+F4).

Find the data source that you wish to use for the form letter, in this case Addresses. Expand this folder and the Tables folder, and select Sheet1. The address data file is displayed.

Figure 317: Selecting the data source

Now create or modify the form letter by typing in the text, punctuation, line breaks, and so on that will be present in all of the letters.

To add the mail-merge fields where needed (such as names and addresses), click in the field heading and drag it to the appropriate point in the letter. Be sure to add spaces or other punctuation as needed. Press Enter at the end of each line in the address block.

Figure 318: Dragging fields to the body of the form letter

Our example database (Figure 317) contains a field for a second address line (AD2) that is blank for some addresses. If you wish to remove any blank lines that may appear in the address block when the letters are printed, you can use the procedure described in “Suppressing blank lines (optional)” on page 311. Otherwise, continue to the next step.

The document is now ready to be printed.

Choose File > Print and click Yes in the message box.

Figure 319: Mail merge confirmation message

In the Mail Merge dialog (Figure 320), in the Records section, you can choose to print all records or selected records. To select individual records to be printed, Ctrl+click on each one. To select a block of records, select the first record in the block, scroll to the last record in the block, and Shift+click on the last record. You can also specify a range of record numbers to print.

To send the letters directly to the printer, select Printer in the Output section and click OK. Or, you can save the letters to a file for further editing or formatting; see “Saving merged documents” on page 312.

If you have not saved the original, prototype form letter document (template) previously, then you should do so now. Having a form letter template could greatly simplify the creation of other form letters and is highly recommended.

Figure 320: The Mail Merge dialog

Suppressing blank lines (optional)

If you wish to suppress blank lines, follow this procedure:

Click at the end of a paragraph to be suppressed if empty, and then choose Insert > Field > More Fields to display the Fields dialog.

Select the Functions tab and then choose Hidden Paragraph in the Type column.

Note

When using the Mail Merge Wizard (page 317), you can select automatic suppression of blank lines and avoid the work described in this step.

Figure 321: Defining a conditional hidden paragraph

Now click in the Condition box and enter the details of the condition that defines a blank address field. It has the general form of:

![Database.Table.Database field]

For example, in our database the condition to test if the AD2 field is empty would be:

![Addresses.Sheet1.AD2] as illustrated in Figure 321.

Alternative ways to express this condition include NOT Addresses.Sheet1.AD2 and Addresses.Sheet1.AD2 EQ “”.

Click Insert.

Saving merged documents

You may prefer to save the letters in a file, to allow for proofreading or formatting. To do this:

In the Mail Merge dialog (Figure 320), select the records to be included, then select File in the Output section to activate some other choices on the page (Figure 322).

You can choose whether to save the output as a single document (containing all of the letters) or save the letters as individual documents; and you can specify the name, location, and format of the files.

Figure 322: Saving output to a file

Click OK. In the Save as dialog, enter a file name for the saved letters and choose a folder in which to save them. The letters will be saved consecutively as separate pages in the single document, or numbered consecutively in individual files.

You can now open the letters and edit them individually as you would edit any other document.

Printing mailing labels

Labels are commonly used for printing address lists (where each label shows a different address), but they can also be used for making multiple copies of one label only, for example return-address stickers, or labels for CDs/DVDs or other items.

Before beginning this process, note the brand and type of labels you intend to use. You can also define your own label size; see Step 6).

Tip

If you are printing the same information on each label, you may find the Business Cards dialog useful. Access it through File > New > Business Cards. The Labels and Business Cards dialogs are very similar.

Preparing for printing

To prepare mailing labels for printing:

Choose File > New > Labels. The Labels dialog opens.

On the Labels page (Figure 323), select the Database and Table.

From the Database field drop-down list, select the first field to be used in the label (in this example, FNAME), then click the left arrow button to move it to the Label text area.

Continue adding fields and inserting desired punctuation, spaces, and line (paragraph) ends until the label is composed. Figure 323 shows the completed label.

Figure 323: The completed label

On some operating systems, a scroll bar will appear below the Label text box and you can see where the paragraph ends are located. On others (as in the example), the fields may appear in a list and you cannot see where the paragraph ends are located. You can check them later in the procedure (Step 8)).

Select the label stock in the Brand drop-down list. The types for that brand then appear in the Type drop-down list. Select the size and type of labels required, and then go to Step 7). If your label sheets are not listed, go to Step 6).

To define labels that are not on the list:

Select [User] in the Type box on the Labels page. Then, click the Format page of the Labels dialog (Figure 324). Measure on your labels those dimensions illustrated and enter them into the respective boxes on the left side.

Horizontal pitch is the distance between the left edges of adjacent labels.

Vertical pitch is the distance between the upper edge of a label and the upper edge of the label directly below.

Figure 324: Specify settings, if necessary

You can now save the label template if you are likely to use it again. Click Save.

In the Save Label Format dialog that pops up, type names for your label Brand and Type. Click OK.

On the Options tab of the Labels dialog (Figure 325), select the Synchronize contents option.

Figure 325: Options tab of the Labels dialog

Click New Document. You now have a one‑page document containing a series of frames, one for each label of the selected type and filled with the data source address fields that you selected. Although this document appears to have only one page of labels, the printed or saved output will be expanded to include enough pages for all of the selected records from the data source.

In this document you can see the paragraph ends if you use the Toggle Formatting Marks toolbar button or View > Formatting Marks on the Menu bar.

You should also see a small window containing a Synchronize Labels button, usually in the upper left corner of the screen.

If any paragraph ends or other punctuation are missing, or if you wish to change the font or other characteristics of one or more fields or lines (paragraphs) of all the labels, you can do so now. In the upper left label, select the field(s) that you wish to change, then change them manually or by selecting a paragraph style or character style. Add any missing punctuation. Then click the Synchronize Labels button to automatically add these changes to all of the labels.

Printing

Choose File > Print. The message shown in Figure 319 appears. Click Yes to print.

In the Mail Merge dialog (Figure 320), you can choose to print all records or selected records. To select records to be printed, use Ctrl+click to select individual records. To select a block of records, select the first record in the block, scroll to the last record in the block, and Shift+click on the last record.

Click OK to send the labels directly to the printer. If you prefer to save the labels to a file, then select File in the Output section, where Save as single document is preselected. In this case, clicking OK opens the Save As dialog, where you can enter a file name and location, as described in Step 6) on page 310.

Note

Blank lines in addresses on labels are suppressed automatically, as they are when using the Mail Merge Wizard (page 317).

Editing a saved file of mailing labels

To edit a saved file of mailing labels, open the file in the same way as any other Writer document.

You can edit individual records manually (for example, to correct a spelling error without needing to change the source spreadsheet and regenerate the labels), but you cannot edit all labels at once (for example, to change the font used) by a manual technique. However, you can edit the paragraph and/or character styles associated with the label records:

Right-click in a label record. Choose Paragraph > Edit Style in the context menu.

Then in the Paragraph Style dialog, you can make changes to the font name, the font size, the indents, and other attributes.

Printing envelopes

Instead of printing mailing labels, you may wish to print directly onto envelopes.

The production of envelopes involves two steps, setup and printing. For general instructions on setting up envelopes for printing using the Format and Printer pages of the Envelope dialog, see “Printing envelopes” in Chapter 7, Printing, Exporting, Emailing, and Signing.

To produce a single envelope, you can type or paste the name and address into the Addressee box, or you can get information from an address data source as described in this section.

Setting up envelopes for printing

Choose Insert > Envelope on the Menu bar.

On the Envelope tab of the Envelope dialog (Figure 331), choose whether to add Sender information (the “from” address) to the envelope. If so, type the information in the Sender box. If you’re using envelopes preprinted with sender information, either leave this box empty or deselect the Sender checkbox.

Figure 326: Choosing addressee and sender information for envelopes

Create the Addressee fields by dragging and dropping from the data source headings, as described in “Printing mailing labels” on page 313, then click the New Document button to create the envelope template.

Alternatively, click New Document, open the Data Sources window above the envelope template, then drag the data source headings into the Addressee box on the envelope.

At this point you may wish to save this document as a template.

Merging and printing the envelopes

To merge addresses and print the envelopes:

Choose File > Print. The message shown in Figure 319 appears. Click Yes to print.

The Mail Merge dialog (Figure 320) appears. As with form letters and mailing labels, you can choose to print envelopes for one, several, or all address records in the database.

Make your selections and then click OK to print direct to the printer. To check the envelopes before printing them, see “Saving merged documents” on page 312 for instructions. Blank lines are automatically suppressed.

Using the Mail Merge Wizard to create a form letter

The manual method of creating a form letter is described in “Creating a form letter” on page 309. If you prefer to use the Mail Merge wizard, the technique is described in this section.

Open a new document with File > New > Text Document and choose Tools > Mail Merge Wizard on the Menu bar.

Step 1: Select starting document

The Mail Merge Wizard (Figure 327) gives several options for the starting document:

Use the current document

Create a new document

Start from existing document

Start from a template

Start from a recently saved starting document

For the purposes of this example, we opened a new text document.

Select Use the current document and click Next.

Figure 327: Select starting document

If the current document does not have a registered data source associated, a warning message is displayed. Click the Exchange Database button to open the Exchange Databases dialog (Figure 328) and select the required database from the Available Databases list, If necessary, click the Browse button to open a file browser and find the required database to register. Click Define to close the dialog and associate the selected database with the document.

Figure 328: Exchange Databases dialog

Step 2: Select document type

The wizard can produce letters or email messages. In this example, we are producing a letter. Select Letter and click Next.

Figure 329: Choose document type

Step 3: Insert address block

This is the most complex step in the wizard. In this step (Figure 330) you will do three things:

Tell the wizard which data source to use. The data source must be an existing file.

Select the address block to use in the document. This means choosing which fields appear (for example, whether the country is included) and how they look.

Make sure that the fields all match correctly. This is very important. For example, the UK English version of the wizard has a field called <Surname>. If your spreadsheet has a column called “Last Name”, you need to tell the wizard that <Surname> and “Last Name” are equivalent. This is described in “Matching the fields” on page 321.

Figure 330: Insert address block

Selecting the data source (address list)

If the current address list, identified beneath the Select Different Address List button in section 1 (Figure 330), is not the one you wish to use, click the button to open the Select Address List dialog (Figure 331) for choosing a data source.

Figure 331: Select address list dialog

If you have not already created the address list, you may click Create to do so now. This step will allow you to create a .csv (Comma Separated Values) file with a new list of address records. If you have an address list that is not registered in LibreOffice, but which you wish to use, click Add and select the file from the location in which it is saved.

In each of these cases a new data source (.odb file) will be created and registered.

Select the address list and click OK to return to the Insert Address Block dialog. We retain Addresses as our address book for this example. The wizard can also exclude certain records; click Filter to choose them.

Selecting and optionally editing the address block

In section 2 (Figure 330), select the address block to appear on the letter, define its appearance, and choose the fields it contains. The main page gives two choices. Click More to open the Select Address Block dialog for more choices.

The Select Address Block dialog (Figure 332) displays the original two blocks plus other choices for the format of the address block (you may need to scroll down to see all of the choices). You can also optionally include or exclude the country (for example, only include the country if it is not England) in the Address Block Settings section. The formats provided are relatively common, but they might not exactly match your preference. If this is the case, select the address block that is closest to what you want and click Edit, which opens the Edit Address Block dialog.

In the Edit Address Block dialog (Figure 333), you can add or delete address elements using the arrow buttons between the boxes. To move elements around, use the arrow buttons on the right. For example, to add an extra space between the first and the last names in Figure 333, click <Last Name> and then click the Move right arrow button on the right-hand side.

Figure 332: Select address block

Figure 333: Edit address block

Click OK to close the Edit Address Block dialog, then click OK on the Select Address Block dialog to save your changes and return to the Mail Merge Wizard.

Matching the fields

Finally, it is time to match the wizard’s fields with the spreadsheet fields, so that items like <Surname> and “Last Name” match correctly.

Look at section 3 of the wizard (shown in Figure 330 on page 319). The box at the bottom displays one record at a time, using the address block format you specified. Use the right and left arrow buttons below that address box to step through the addresses, checking that they display correctly. Do not assume that all the records display correctly, just because one or two do.

If the addresses do not display correctly, click Match Fields.

The Match Fields dialog (Figure 334) has three columns:

Address elements are the terms the wizard uses for each field, such as <First Name> and <Last Name>.

Use the Matches to field column to select, for each address element, the field from your data source that matches it.

The Preview column shows what will be shown for this field from the selected address block, so you can double-check that the match is correct.

When you have matched all the fields, click OK to return to the Insert Address Block dialog. Now, when you use the arrow buttons to look at all the addresses, they should all look correct. If not, go back and change anything you’re not happy with, before clicking Next to move to the next step.

Note that you will not be able to continue until you have correctly matched all the fields in your chosen address block. If you see <not yet matched> in a field position it indicates that the field in question is not correctly matched.

Figure 334: Match fields dialog

Notice the option for Suppress lines with empty fields in section 2 of Figure 330. Using the Wizard, you do not have to create your own conditional suppression fields, as you do when using the manual form letter method described earlier in this chapter..

Step 4: Create salutation

It is possible to create just about any salutation you want in this step (see Figure 335).

Select This document should contain a salutation to enable the General salutation list box. Some general texts are available in the list box, or you can enter your own text. A preview pane displays your choice.

Select Insert personalized salutation to enable further salutation constructs.

You can, for example, use a different greeting for men and women. To do this, Writer must have some way of knowing whether a person is male or female. In a spreadsheet, you might have a column called Gender. In the section Address list field indicating a female recipient, set the Field name to Gender and the Field value to F. The Male salutation is then printed for all men and the Female salutation for all women. Unfortunately, LibreOffice does not provide for other genders; however, you can use a non-gendered salutation.

If you do not have such a column in your spreadsheet, or if you do not need to distinguish between genders in the salutation, then you can leave the Field name and Field value boxes empty and use the customized content of the Male list box for the salutation to all recipients.

Figure 335: Create a salutation

As an example:

Click the New button alongside the Male list box. The Custom Salutation (Male Recipients) dialog opens (see Figure 336).

Select Salutation in the Salutation elements list on the right and drag it into box 1 on the right.

In the Customize salutation box, select an appropriate greeting or type your own text into the box. Edit it as needed.

Select and move First Name from the Salutation elements list into box 1, using either the Add to salutation arrow button or by dragging it. Then click the Move right arrow button on the right-hand side to add space between the salutation and the first name.

Select and move Last Name from the Salutation elements list into box 1, then click the Move right arrow button to add space between the first and the last names.

Finally, move Punctuation Mark across and select the comma from the choices in the Customize salutation box.

The construct is shown in the Preview box.

Carry out any final editing. Click OK.

This method allows you to use gender neutral titles such as Doctor (Dr) and Reverend (Rev), or titles such as Ms, or omit titles.

Figure 336: Customizing the salutation

Step 5: Adjust layout

In Step 5: Adjust layout, you can adjust the position of the address block and salutation on the page. You can place the address block anywhere on the page. The salutation is always on the left, but you can move it up and down the page. Use the buttons shown in Figure 337 to move the elements.

Figure 337: Adjust layout

You now have a Writer document into which you can type the contents of the letter. To merge the fields and print the letters, choose File > Print on the Menu bar. A message pops up, asking if you want to print a form letter. Click Yes.

The Mail Merge dialog (Figure 320) is now displayed, where you can optionally select records to include or exclude (in the top section) and, in the Output section, choose to print the letters immediately (Printer) or save them (File) for further editing or printing at a later time.

If you choose File, you can then choose whether to save the output as a single document (containing all of the letters) or save the letters as individual documents, and you can specify the name, location, and format of the files. Click OK to save the letters. You can now open the letters and edit them individually as you would edit any other document.

Writer Guide 7.2

Chapter 15
Tables of Contents, Indexes, Bibiographies

Introduction

This chapter describes how to create and maintain a table of contents, an index, and a bibliography for a text document using LibreOffice Writer. Other types of index are mentioned briefly. To understand the instructions, you need a basic familiarity with Writer and styles (see Chapter 8, Introduction to Styles, and Chapter 9, Working with Styles).

Tables of contents

Writer’s table of contents (TOC) feature lets you build an automated TOC from the headings in a document. Whenever changes are made to the text of a heading in the body of the document or the page on which the heading appears, those changes automatically appear in the table of contents when it is updated.

Before you start, make sure that the headings are styled consistently. For example, you can use the Heading 1 style for chapter titles and the Heading 2 and Heading 3 styles for chapter subheadings.

This section shows you how to:

Create a table of contents quickly, using the defaults.

Customize a table of contents.

Note

You can use any style you want for the different levels to appear in the TOC; the examples in this chapter uses the default Heading styles. You can specify other paragraph styles to appear in the TOC, as described in “Create From” on page 330.

Tips

If some of your headings do not show up in the table of contents, check that the headings have been tagged with the correct paragraph style. If a whole level of headings does not show up, check the settings in Tools > Chapter Numbering. See “Defining a hierarchy of headings” in Chapter 8, Introduction to Styles.

If you add or delete text (so that headings move to different pages) or you add, delete, or change headings, you need to update the table of contents. To do this: Right-click anywhere in the TOC and select Update Index in the context menu.

If you cannot place the cursor in the TOC, choose Tools > Options > LibreOffice Writer > Formatting Aids, and then select Enable cursor in the Protected Areas section.

The TOC appears with a gray background. This background is there to remind you that the TOC is a field; the text you see is generated automatically. The background is not printed and does not appear if the document is converted to a PDF. To turn off this gray background, go to Tools > Options > LibreOffice > Application Colors, then scroll down to the Text Document section and deselect Index and table shadings.

This change may leave a gray background showing behind the dots between the headings and the page numbers, because the dots are part of a tab. To turn that shading off, go to Tools > Options > LibreOffice Writer > Formatting Aids and deselect the option for Tabs in the Display formatting section.

Creating a table of contents quickly

Most of the time you will find the default table of contents to be all you need, although the formatting may be inelegant. To insert a default TOC:

Create a document, using the following paragraph styles for different heading levels (such as chapter and section headings): Heading 1, Heading 2, and Heading 3. These are what will appear in your TOC. Writer can evaluate up to ten levels of headings.

Click in the document where you want the TOC to appear.

Choose Insert > Table of Contents and Index > Table of Contents, Index or Bibliography.

Click OK. The result will be a typical table of contents with the entries generated as hyperlinks.

Caution

If you have Edit > Track Changes > Show enabled when editing a document and you update the TOC, then errors may occur, as the TOC will still include any deleted headings and deleted text may cause page numbering in the TOC to be wrong. To avoid this problem, be sure this option is deselected before updating a TOC.

Customizing a table of contents

Almost every aspect of the table of contents can be customized to suit the style and requirements of your document.

Start by clicking in the document where you want the table of contents to appear and choose Insert > Table of Contents and Index > Table of Contents, Index or Bibliography to open the Table of Contents, Index or Bibliography dialog shown in Figure 338.

Figure 338: Type tab of Table of Contents, Index or Bibliography dialog

You can also access this dialog at any time by right-clicking anywhere in an existing table of contents and choosing Edit Index in the context menu.

The Table of Contents, Index or Bibliography dialog has five tabs. Each tab covers a different aspect of the TOC structure and appearance:

Use the Type tab to set the attributes of the TOC.

Use the Entries and Styles tabs to format the entries in the TOC.

Use the Columns tab to put the TOC into more than one column.

Use the Background tab to add color or an image to the background of the TOC.

You can display a preview box, located on the right-hand side of the dialog, to show as you work how the TOC will look: select the Preview option in the lower left of the dialog. The illustrations in this chapter show the dialog as it appears with the preview box hidden.

Note

The preview box shows the appearance from settings made on the Type, Entries, and Styles tabs. It does not show changes made on the Columns and Background tabs.

After making all your changes, click OK to apply them. To revert to the default settings for the Columns and Background tabs, select each tab in turn and click the Reset button. The settings on the Type, Entries and Styles tabs must be reset manually; the Reset button has no effect.

Type tab

Use the Type tab (Figure 338) to set the attributes of the TOC.

Title

To give the table of contents a different title, type it in the Title field. To delete the title, clear the Title field.

Type

Select a type in the drop-down list. For a TOC, be sure the Type is set to Table of Contents. See “Alphabetic indexes” on page 335 and “Other types of indexes” on page 343 for more about creating other types of indexes.

Caution

You can change the type of index only when you first create it. Once you define an index type (for example, a table of contents) you cannot change it.

Protected against manual changes

By default, to prevent the TOC from being changed accidentally, this option is selected; the TOC can only be changed by using the context menu or the dialog. If the option is not selected, the TOC can be changed directly, just like other text. However, any manual changes will be lost when you update the TOC, so they should be avoided.

Create Index or Table of Contents

In the For drop-down list in this area, you can select whether the TOC will cover all the headings of the document (Entire document) or just the headings of the chapter where it is inserted. Writer identifies a “chapter” as all the headings between two first level outline headings (normally Heading 1).

Evaluate up to level

Writer can use up to 10 levels of headings when it builds the table of contents (or the number of levels used in the document, whichever is smaller). To specify the number of levels included, enter the required number in the Evaluate up to level box. For example, the TOC in this book includes only the first three heading levels.

Create From

The third section of the Type tab determines what Writer should use to create the TOC. The choices (not mutually exclusive) are Outline, Additional styles, and Index marks.

Outline

By default Writer uses the outline levels; that is, paragraphs formatted with the paragraph styles associated with outline levels in Tools > Chapter Numbering.

You can change the paragraph styles included in the outline, and you can include other paragraph styles in the outline by assigning an outline level to those styles. Both of these methods are described in “Using paragraph styles to define a hierarchy of headings” in Chapter 8, Introduction to Styles.

Additional styles

You can add more paragraph styles to the TOC. This can be useful, for example, when you want to include the heading of an annex (appendix) in the TOC. If the Outline option is also selected, the additional styles will be included in the table of contents together with the ones defined in the outline numbering. Select this option and click the Assign styles button to open the Assign Styles dialog (FIgure 339).

Index marks

This selection adds any index entries that you have inserted into the document by using Insert > Table of Contents and Index > Index Entry. Normally you would not use this selection for a table of contents. However, if you select Table of Contents in the Index drop-down list at the top of the Insert Index Entry dialog (Figure 345), Writer will distinguish between them and any index entries intended for inclusion in an alphabetic or other index.

Figure 339: Assigning additional styles to TOC levels

Entries tab

Use the Entries tab (Figure 340) to define and format the entries in the TOC. Each outline level can be styled independently from the other levels by adding and deleting elements.

Figure 340: Entries tab of Table of Contents, Index or Bibliography dialog

Click a number in the Level column to select the outline level whose elements you want to format. The Structure line contains the elements included in the entries for that level. Elements that can be added to the structure line are displayed just below the structure line, and are grayed out if they cannot be included:

The LS icon represents the start of a hyperlink.

The E# icon represents the “chapter number”, which means the heading number value assigned to a heading style in Tools > Chapter Numbering, not just for chapters but also for other levels of headings. See “Setting up heading numbering” in Chapter 8, Introduction to Styles.

The E icon represents the chapter (or sub-chapter) text: That is the text formatted with the paragraph style used for each level.

The T icon represents a tab stop.

The # icon represents the page number.

The LE icon represents the end of a hyperlink.

Each white field on the Structure line represents a blank space where you can add custom text or another element.

Caution

In the Chapter Numbering dialog (covered in Chapter 8), if you have included any text in the Before or After boxes in the Separator section for any given level, then that text will be part of the E# field for that level. Take care when building the structure line not to create any unwanted effects in the appearance of the TOC.

Adding elements

To add an element to the Structure line:

Click in the white field where you want to insert the element.

Click one of the active buttons just below the Structure line. For example, to add a tab, click the Tab Stop button. An icon representing the new element appears on the Structure line.

To add custom text, such as the word Chapter, type the text in the white field. Don't forget a trailing space.

Changing elements

To change an element in the Structure line, click the icon representing that element and then click a non-grayed out element in the row of buttons just below the Structure line. For example, to change a chapter number to a tab stop, click the E# icon on the Structure line (it shows then as being pressed) and then click the Tab Stop button in the row of available elements. To cancel before swapping an element, click in one of the white spaces.

Applying changes to all outline levels

If you wish to apply the displayed structure and formatting to all outline levels, click the All button on the right.

Deleting elements

To delete an element from the Structure line, click the button representing that element and then press the Delete key on your keyboard. For example, to delete the default hyperlink setting, click the LS icon and then press the Delete key. Repeat this for the LE icon.

Applying character styles

You might want an element to be a bit different from the rest of the line. For example, you might want the page number to be bold. To apply a character style to an element:

Be sure you have previously defined a suitable character style.

On the Structure line, click the button representing the element to which you want to apply a style.

In the Character Style drop-down list, select the desired style.

To view or edit the attributes of a character style, select the style in the Character Style drop-down list and then click the Edit button.

Tip

The default character style for hyperlinks (such as those inserted by Insert > Hyperlink) is Internet Link, which by default is underlined and shown in blue.

The default hyperlinks of TOC entries are set to the Index Link character style, which may be different in appearance from the Internet Link style. If you want them to appear the same as internet links, you can select the LS icon on the Structure line and change the character style selection for TOC entries to Internet Link.

You can also change the attributes for Index Link to what you want.

Tab parameters

Click on the Tab stop icon on the Structure line to bring up these controls:

Fill character: select the tab character you wish to use; the first choice is none (blank).

Tab stop position: specify the distance to leave between the left page margin and the tab stop. Optionally, select Align right for the tab stop; this selection inactivates the distance.

Tab position relative to paragraph style indent

When this option is selected, entries are indented according to the settings of their individual formats. Where a paragraph style specifies an indent on the left, tab stops are relative to this indent. If this option is not selected, tab stops are relative to the left margin position.

Styles tab

Use the Styles tab (Figure 341) to change which paragraph style is assigned to display the text of each level in the table of contents. In most cases, the best strategy is to keep the assigned styles but change their settings as needed to make the TOC appear the way you want.

To apply a custom paragraph style to an outline level:

In the Levels list, select the outline level.

In the Paragraph Styles list, click on the desired paragraph style.

Click the < button to apply the selected paragraph style to the selected outline level.

The style assigned to each level appears in square brackets in the Levels list.

To remove paragraph styling from an outline level, select the outline level in the Levels list, and then click the Default button.

To view or edit the attributes of a paragraph style, click the style in the Paragraph Styles list, and then click the Edit button.

Figure 341: Styles tab of the Table of Contents, Index or Bibliography dialog

Columns tab

Use the Columns tab to change the number of columns for the TOC. Multiple columns are more likely to be used in an index than in a TOC, so this tab is described in the section on indexes. See Figure 348.

Background tab

Use the Background tab (Figure 342) to add color or a bitmap (image) to the background of the TOC.

Adding color

To add color to the background of the table of contents, select the Color button from the row of buttons near the top of the dialog, then select a color and click OK.

See “Adding custom colors” in Chapter 20, Customizing Writer, for more about defining and using background colors.

Figure 342: Background tab, showing Color choices

Adding a bitmap (image)

To add an image to the background of the table of contents:

From the row of buttons near the top of the dialog, select Bitmap. The Background tab now displays the bitmap options, as shown in Figure 343.

Figure 343: Image options on the Background tab

Select from the given bitmaps or click the Add/Import button to select an image from your computer’s file system.

Under Options, select the type of placement for the image.

Style – select custom position/size, tiled, or stretched.

Size – select the required Image aspect ratio or the Scale option.

Position – select where the image is to be displayed.

To apply the image, click OK.

Deleting a color or an image

To delete a color or an image from the table background, select None at the top of the dialog.

Editing a table of contents

To edit an existing TOC, right-click anywhere in the TOC and choose Edit Index in the context menu. You can also open the Navigator in the Sidebar, click the expansion symbol (+ sign or triangle) next to Indexes, then double-click on Table of Contents.

The Table of Contents, Index or Bibliography dialog (Figure 338 on page 328) opens. You can edit and save the TOC as described in the previous section.

Updating a table of contents

Writer does not update the TOC automatically, so after any changes to the headings, you need to update it manually. Right-click anywhere in the TOC; in the context menu, choose Update Index.

You can also update the index from the Navigator: expand Indexes, right-click on the name of table of contents you want to update, and choose Index > Update.

Deleting a table of contents

To delete the TOC from a document, right-click anywhere in the TOC and choose Delete Index in the context menu. You can also delete the index from the Navigator by choosing Index > Delete in the menu shown in Figure 345. Writer will not prompt you to confirm the deletion.

Alphabetic indexes

An alphabetical index (referred to as an index) is a list of keywords or phrases used throughout a document that, if listed in order with page numbers, may help the reader find information quickly. Generally an index is found in the back of a book or document.

This section describes how to:

Add index entries manually.

Use a concordance file.

Create an alphabetic index quickly.

Customize the display of index entries.

Customize the appearance of the index.

View and edit existing index entries.

Adding index entries

Before you can create an index, you must create some index entries, either manually or by using a concordance (see page 338). To create index entries manually:

To add a word to the index, place the cursor anywhere in that word. To add multiple words as one entry, select the entire phrase.

Choose Insert > Table of Contents and Index > Index Entry to display a dialog similar to that shown in Figure 345. When the dialog opens, the selected text appears in the Entry text input box. You can accept the word or phrase shown, or change it to whatever you want.

Click Insert to create the entry.

Tip

You can also open the Insert Index Entry dialog by clicking the Insert Index Entry icon at the right-hand end of the Insert toolbar, as shown in Figure 344.

Figure 344: Insert Index Entry icon on Insert toolbar

Tip

A cursor placed immediately before the first character of a word, or immediately after the last character of a word if it is followed by a space, counts as being in that word.

You can create multiple entries without closing the dialog. For each one:

Click at the location in the document that you want to index.

Click again on the dialog.

Change the entry if needed, and click Insert.

Repeat steps 1–3 until you have finished with the entries, then click Close.

Figure 345: Inserting an index entry

Below is a brief explanation of the fields in the Insert Index Entry dialog and how to use them.

Index

The type of index this entry is for. The default is Alphabetical Index, but you can use this field to create extra entries for a table of contents or user-defined indexes or lists of almost anything. For example, you might want an index containing only the scientific names of species mentioned in the text, and a separate index containing only the common names of species. See “Other types of indexes” on page 343.

Entry

The word or phrase to be added to the selected index. This word or phrase does not need to be in the document itself; you can add synonyms and other terms that you want to appear in the index.

1st key

An index key is an entry that has no associated page number and has several subentries that do have page numbers. Using keys is a useful way of grouping related topics. (See “Example of using an index key” on page 337.)

2nd key

You can have up to a three-level index, where some of the first-level keys have level-2 entries that are also keys (without page numbers). This degree of index complexity is not often necessary.

Main entry

When the same term is indexed on several pages, often one of those pages has more important or detailed information on that topic, so you want it to be the main entry. To make the page number for the main, or most important, entry stand out, select this option and then define the character style for the page number of a main index entry to be bold, for example.

Apply to all similar texts

Select this option to have Writer automatically identify and mark any other word or phrase that matches the current selection. The Match case and Whole words only options become available if this option is selected. Use this option with care, as it may result in many unwanted page numbers (for minor uses of a word) being listed in the index.

Example of using an index key

An index key is a primary entry under which subentries are grouped. For example, you might want to create a grouping similar to this:

LibreOffice

Calc, 10

Impress, 15

Writer, 5

In this example, LibreOffice is the 1st key. The subentries (with the page numbers showing) are the indexed entries. To insert an index entry for the topic Writer, on the Insert Index Entry dialog (Figure 345 on page 336), type Writer in the Entry box and LibreOffice in the 1st key box.

Note

If field shading is active (Tools > Options > LibreOffice > Application Colors > Text Document > Field shadings), when a selected word or phrase has been added to the index, it is shown in the text with a gray background. If the text of an index entry has been changed from the text of the word selected, the index entry is marked by a small gray rectangle at the start or end of that word.

Creating a concordance

A concordance is a plain text file that lists words to add to the index. It has one word or phrase defined on each line. Each line has a strict structure, consisting of seven fields, separated by semicolons:

Search_term;Alternative_entry;1st_key;2nd_key;Match_case;Word_only

No space is entered between the semicolon and a field’s content. A key is a higher level heading that a search term is placed beneath.

If you choose not to have an alternative entry, a first key or a second key, leave those fields blank, so that one semi-colon immediately follows another.

The last two fields are structured somewhat differently. If you want only entries that have the same upper or lower case letters as your entries, enter 1 in the second to last field. Similarly, entering 1 in the last field sets the index to only include instances where the entry is a whole word, and not part of a larger one. You can also leave the last two fields blank, as you can with any of the others.

For example, entering:

Macaw;Ara;Parrots;;0;0

Would produce an entry for macaw with

A listing under macaw.

An alternate listing under ara (the scientific name).

A listing of Parrots, Macaw.

No second key (notice the two semi-colons).

Inclusion of instances that start with a lower or upper case letter (both “macaw” and “Macaw”).

Inclusion of instances in which the term is a whole word or part of a longer word.

Whether creating a concordance is faster than adding entries manually is debatable, but a concordance is certainly more systematic. The disadvantage of a concordance is that it can produce an index that includes instances of common words that are irrelevant for your purposes. In many cases, a useful index may require a combination of manual entries and a concordance.

Creating an alphabetic index quickly

Now that you have some index entries, you can create the index.

Although indexes can be customized extensively in Writer, most of the time you need to make only a few choices.

To create an index quickly:

Click in the document where you want to add the index and click Insert > Table of Contents and Index > Table of Contents, Index or Bibliography to open the Table of Contents, Index or Bibliography dialog.

In the Type box on the Type tab (Figure 346), select Alphabetical Index.

In the Options section, you may want to deselect Case sensitive (so that capitalized and lower-case words are treated as the same word) and Combine identical entries with p or pp.

If you are using a concordance, select Concordance file in the Options section, then click the File button and select the concordance file you created.

Click OK. The result will be a typical index.

Customizing an index

To customize an existing index, right-click anywhere in the index and choose Edit Index in the context menu.

The Table of Contents, Index or Bibliography dialog (Figure 346) has five tabs. All of them can be used to customize the index.

Use the Type tab to set the attributes of the index.

Use the Entries and Styles tabs to format the entries in the index.

Use the Columns tab to put the index into more than one column.

Use the Background tab to add color or an image to the background of the index.

After making your changes, click OK to save the index so it appears in your document.

Type tab

Use the Type tab (Figure 346) to set the basic attributes of the index.

To give the index a different title, edit the Title field. To delete the title, clear the Title field.

Be sure the type of index is set to Alphabetical Index.

By default, to prevent the index from being changed accidentally, the option Protected against manual changes is selected; the index can only be changed by using the context menu or the dialog. If the option is not selected, the index can be changed directly, just like other text. However, any manual changes to an index will be lost when you update it, so they should be avoided.

Figure 346: Type tab for an alphabetic index

In the drop-down list in the Create Index or Table of Contents section, select Entire document. You can also choose to create an index for just the current chapter.

Other options determine how the index handles entries.

Combine identical entries

Defines how identical entries are dealt with. Normally each page number of an indexed word or phrase will be shown in the index; however, these can be combined using the Combine identical entries with p or pp. If you want a page range displayed, select Combine with – (which will produce something similar to 23–31). If you want different entries based on what letters are capitalized, select Case sensitive.

AutoCapitalize entries

Automatically capitalizes the first letter of each entry regardless of how they show within the document itself.

Keys as separate entries

For the keys to have their own page numbers, select this option.

Concordance file

Choose the file to be used, if any. See page 338 for more information.

Sort

Defines how the entries are sorted when displayed. The only option is alphanumeric, but you can define which language alphabet will be used.

Entries tab

Use the Entries tab to set exactly how and what will be displayed for each of the entries. The tab is similar to Figure 347.

Note

Hyperlinking from the index to the location of entries in the text is not available.

Figure 347: Entries tab for an alphabetical index

To begin, in the Level column select the index level whose elements you want to format. Level “S” refers to the single letter headings that divide the index entries alphabetically when the Alphabetical delimiter option is selected in the Format section. (You will be able to apply your changes to all index levels later.) In the Structure and Formatting section, the Structure line displays the elements for entries in that level. Each button on the line represents one element:

The E icon represents the entry text.

The T icon represents a tab stop.

The # icon represents the page number.

The CI icon represents chapter information. This is not present by default, but can be added by selecting the Chapter info button.

Each white field on the Structure line represents a blank space. You can add, change, or delete elements as described on page 331 for a table of contents.

Chapter Info

The Chapter Info button inserts chapter information, such as the chapter heading and number. The information to be displayed is selected from the Chapter entry list that appears when this option is selected. This data is determined in the Chapter Numbering dialog (Tools > Chapter Numbering).

Applying character styles

Each element on the Structure line may be given additional formatting. For example, you may want the page number to be a different size from the rest of the index text. To do this, apply a character style to one of the elements in the Structure line, as for a table of contents; see page 332.

Formatting entries

Apply additional formatting using the options in the Format section.

Alphabetical delimiter. This separates the index entries into blocks that start with the same first letter, using that letter as a header. For example, if your index begins:

apple, 4

author, 10

break, 2

bus, 4

Then selecting this option will give you:

A

apple, 4

author, 10

B

break, 2

bus, 4

Key separated by commas. Arranges the entries in the index on the same line but separated by commas.

Tab position relative to Paragraph Style indent. When selected, entries are indented according to the settings of their individual formats. Where a paragraph style with an indent on the left is in use, tab stops will be relative to this indent. If this option is not selected, tab stops will be relative to the left margin position.

Styles and Background tabs

Use the Styles tab to change which paragraph style is assigned to display the text of each level in the index. In most cases, the best strategy is to keep the assigned styles but you can change their settings as needed to make the index appear the way you want.

The Background tab is the same as for TOCs. Refer to “Styles tab” on page 333 and “Background tab” on page 333 for detailed information on these tabs.

Columns tab

Use the Columns tab (Figure 348) to change the number of columns for the index.

Figure 348: Columns tab of the Table of Contents, Index or Bibliography dialog

Adding multiple columns

To display the index in more than one column:

Either enter the number of columns desired in the box labeled Columns or select the icon representing the number of columns.

To evenly distribute the columns according to the page width, select the AutoWidth box. If it is unchecked, you can manually set each of the following:

Width of each of the columns

Spacing between the columns

You can choose to have a separator line between the columns:

Style: The default is None, or select from three choices of line style.

Width: The width (thickness) of the line. The default is 0.25pt.

Color: Choose the color of the separator line. The default is Black.

Height: The height of the line, as a percentage of the full column height. The default is 100%

Position: Position of the line relative to the columns (top, centered, or bottom) if the height is less than 100%.

Maintaining an index

To modify the appearance of an index, right-click anywhere in the index and choose Edit Index in the context menu. The Table of Contents, Index or Bibliography dialog opens and you can edit and save the index using the five tabs described in the previous section.

To update or delete an index, right-click anywhere in the index and select Update Index or Delete Index.

Viewing and editing existing index entries

Once you have added the initial entries, you can make some amendments. You can view and edit these using the following steps:

Ensure that field shading is active (View > Field Shadings or Ctrl+F8), so you can locate index entries more easily.

Place the cursor in the field shading of an existing index entry in the body of the document, right-click, and select Index Entry in the content menu. In the case of a changed-text entry, the field shading is immediately before the word. Placing the cursor immediately before a word marked as a text entry will satisfy both selection criteria.

A dialog similar to Figure 349 appears. You can move through the various index entries using the forward and back arrow buttons. If there is more than one entry for a single word or phrase, a second row of buttons with a vertical bar at the point of the arrow head is displayed allowing you to scroll through each of these entries.

Make the necessary modifications or additions to the index entries, and then click OK.

Figure 349: Viewing and editing index entries

Other types of indexes

An alphabetical index is not the only type of index that you can build with Writer. Other types of indexes supplied with Writer include those for illustrations, tables, and objects, and you can even create a user-defined index. This chapter does not give examples of all the possibilities.

To create other indexes:

Place the cursor where you want the index created.

Select Insert > Table of Contents and Index > Table of Contents, Index or Bibliography on the Menu bar.

On the Table of Contents, Index or Bibliography dialog, in the Type drop-down list, select the index wanted.

Modify the various tabs, which are similar to those discussed in previous sections.

Click OK when everything has been set.

Example: Creating an index of figures

Creating an index (list) of figures or tables is easy if the figure captions were created using Insert > Caption or manually using a number range variable as described in Chapter 17, Fields.

On the Table of Contents, Index or Bibliography dialog, in the Type drop-down list, choose Table of Figures. You can change the title of the index to something else; we have used Table of Figures as our title.

Be sure Captions is selected in the Create From section, and choose the category of caption. The default for Category is Figure; in our example we have used Figure for the figure captions.

Under Display, you can choose References (to include the category, number, and caption text), Category and Number, or Caption Text. We have chosen References.

The other tabs of this dialog are similar to those described for tables of contents.

Figure 350: Creating other types of indexes

Click OK. The result is shown in Figure 351.

Figure 351: Resulting table of figures

Bibliographies

A bibliography is a list of references used in a document. The references can be stored in a bibliographic database or within the document itself.

This section shows you how to:

Create a bibliographic database; add and maintain entries.

Add a reference (citation) into a document.

Format the bibliography.

Update and edit an existing bibliography.

Citations within the text require entries in different fields in the bibliography database, and different presentations in the text. Before creating a list of references, determine which citation style you need for a document. The five main styles are:

APA (American Psychological Association): Psychology, education, and other social sciences.

MLA (Modern Languages Association): Literature, art, and humanities.

Chicago: History and specific publications.

Turabian: A variation of the Chicago style for general use by university students.

AMA (American Medical Association): Medicine, Health, and Biology.

The Bibliography Database (Figure 352) is the source for citations in the text, no matter what citation style you use.

All citations use the Identifier field (first on the left) to set the format for a citation in the document. In this column, you can add the citation in the correct form for the citation style. All necessary information, including the Identifier field, should be entered before any citation is created in the document. The Identifier column in the database table and the Short Name field below the table are the same field.

Tip

Writer has a single bibliography database for all documents. Since formatting entries can be tedious, consider creating a template with citations for each type of source material.

Creating a bibliographic database

Although you can create references within the document itself, creating a bibliographic database allows reuse in other documents and saves a lot of time.

For most of this section, the database table used is the sample one that comes with Writer. For information on creating a new table in the bibliographic database, see Chapter 8, Getting Started with Base, in the Getting Started Guide.

The bibliography database has to cover many different media and circumstances, which is why it contains so many fields. It also includes fields such as ISBN that no citation style uses, but might be useful to you during your research.

Note

Any single entry in the bibliography needs only about half a dozen fields filled in, no matter what citation format you use. What differs is the fields needed for each type of source material and the order of the fields in each citation style.

To open the database select Tools > Bibliography Database. The Bibliography Database window, similar to that in Figure 352, opens. The upper part of the tab shows all of the records, in a table layout similar to that of a spreadsheet. The lower part of the tab shows all the fields of the selected record.

Caution

The sample entries in the sample database for both the Identifier column and the Short Name field are meaningless. Replace them with the proper format for the citation style you are using.

Figure 352: Bibliography Database main window

Changing the data source

To change the data source in use (for example, if you have more than one bibliographic database for different purposes), select Data > Choose Data Source on the Menu bar, or click the Data Source button on the toolbar near the top of the Database window. The Choose Data Source dialog lists registered data sources. Select one of them and click OK.

To add (register) a different data source, see instructions in Chapter 8, Getting Started with Base, in the Getting Started Guide.

Filtering records

To set up a filter for specific records within the bibliographic database, select Data > Filter on the Bibliographic Database Menu bar, or click the Standard Filter button on the toolbar near the top of the window. In the Standard Filter dialog (Figure 353), choose the fields, conditions, and values for the filter and click OK.

Figure 353: Setting up a filter for the bibliographic database

Adding entries to the database

Use the Bibliography Database dialog (Tools > Bibliography Database) to add entries to the database:

You can add records directly into the database using the fields in the lower section of the dialog shown in Figure 352 on page 346.

Select Data > Record on the Menu bar of the Bibliography Database dialog, or click the + icon to the left of the horizontal scroll bar.

Enter a name for the entry in the Short Name box. Complete other fields as required. Use the Tab key to move between fields.
It is best to use a unique name in the Short name field. This field is used when inserting entries into documents.

To complete the entry, move to the last field and press Tab again, or click on any other cell in the table.

If your document requires [Author, date] style citations, use the Short name field of the database to record the information in the required format.

Maintaining entries in the database

To maintain entries in the database, use the Bibliography Database dialog (Tools > Bibliography Database). Click the appropriate record and modify the fields as appropriate.

Modified entries are saved automatically to the database when the cursor moves off the record.

Advanced: Modifying the bibliographic database

You can modify the bibliography database in several ways, as summarized below.

Note

For more information on how to use LibreOffice’s database features, see Chapter 8, Getting Started with Base, in the Getting Started Guide.

Column details

To change the details of columns in the bibliographic database, select Data > Column Arrangement on the Menu bar, or click the Column Arrangement button on the toolbar near the top of the window (Figure 352). On the Column Layout for Table “biblio” dialog (Figure 354), you can change which fields are allocated to which columns. As an example, you can select to have Author data go into the Identifier column, by changing the destination in the drop-down list. The Short name data column destination sets to <none> automatically, as you can't set duplicate destinations for data.

Figure 354: Changing column layout for bibliographic database

Field details

You can make changes to the bibliography database (for example, rename fields or change the length of fields) by doing the following:

In the main document (not the Bibliography Database window), press Shif+Ctrl+F4 or click View > Data Sources to open the data source window, similar to Figure 355.

Make sure that the Bibliography database is selected as well as the correct table. You may have to expand some levels to be able to select the correct ones.

Figure 355: Data Source view of Bibliography database

Right-click the table entry (biblio in the example) and select Edit Database File in the context menu. This opens a window similar to Figure 356, which is the main menu for Base, the database component of LibreOffice.

If Tables (in the Database section on the left) is not selected, select it now.

Right-click the biblio table name in the Tables section and select Edit in the context menu to display a window similar to that shown in Figure 357.

You can now select each of the fields. Select the text in the Field Name cell and change the entry as required. Click in the Field Type cell to open a selection menu to change the data type in that cell. In the Field Properties section, you can modify the data properties. For each field selected, a description of that field appears to the right of the section.

When finished, you will be asked to confirm that you want the changes saved.

Figure 356: Main window for working with databases

Figure 357: Modify table properties window

Adding references (citations) into a document

Writer supports two methods of adding references to your document:

From a bibliography database, such as the one built into Writer.

Directly from the keyboard.

Entering references from a database

To add references from the bibliographic database into a document:

Place the cursor where you want the reference to appear.

On the Menu bar, choose Insert > Table of Contents and Index > Bibliography Entry.

In the Insert Bibliographic Entry dialog (Figure 358), choose Bibliography database in the Bibliography Source section at the top of the dialog.

Figure 358: Inserting bibliographic entries into a document

Select the reference from the Short name drop-down list in the middle of the dialog. The Author and Title of the selected reference are shown below the Short name field, to help you verify that it is the reference you want.

To insert the reference into the document, click Insert.

You can keep the dialog open and insert another reference into the document; you do not need to close and reopen it.

When you have finished inserting all the references, click Close.

Entering references from documents

You may choose to enter your bibliographic entries directly into the document, instead of from an external database. For example, you may not be working on your own computer.

Click in the document where you want to add the entry.

Select Insert > Table of Contents and Index > Bibliography Entry.

In the Insert Bibliographic Entry dialog (Figure 358), select Document content in the Bibliography Source section at the top of the dialog.

Click New to open the Define Bibliography Entry dialog.

Complete all the fields that are relevant to your entry. Type a unique name in the Short name box, because the Insert Bibliography Entry dialog uses this entry for the citation.

Select an option in the menu in the Type box to enable the OK button.

Click OK when all the fields wanted are completed.

Click Insert to add the Short name field to the document, and then click Close.

To re-use an entry in your document, restart the sequence above, and then select the Short name required from the current list of entries, instead of selecting to add a new entry.

Editing a reference

To edit a reference:

Right-click the entry (the cursor then displays to the left of the entry).

In the context menu, select Bibliography Entry. The Edit Bibliography Entry dialog (similar to the Insert Bibliography Entry dialog) opens.

To quickly edit only the Short name, click the text box, edit the entry and then click Apply.

To edit more of the entry, click Edit to open the Define Bibliography Entry dialog.

Make any changes required and then click OK to return to the Edit Bibliography Entry dialog.

Click Apply to accept the changes and exit the dialog.

Note

Whatever the source of the citation, the modified references are stored only in the document. If the source is a bibliography database, that database remains unmodified.

Creating the bibliography

Place the cursor at the point where you wish to insert the bibliography.

Select Insert > Table of Contents and Index > Table of Contents, Index or Bibliography and change the Type to Bibliography, to display a dialog similar to that shown in Figure 359.

Figure 359: Inserting a bibliography

Type tab

Writer supports two ways of displaying references (citations) in the text of a document:

Using the text recorded in the Short name field of each bibliographic entry, for example (Smith, 2001) depending on citation style.

By numbering the referenced documents in the sequence they occur in the text, for example [1].

Tip

To specify which citation style is used in the document, use the Type tab on the Table of Contents, Index or Bibliography dialog (Figure 359).

Formatting the bibliography involves choices made in two places:

Table of Contents, Index or Bibliography dialog, covered in this section.

Bibliography 1 paragraph style (see page 353).

The basic settings are selected on this tab.

To give the bibliography a title, enter it in the Title field. (A title is not required.)

You can protect the bibliography from being changed accidentally, by selecting Protected against manual changes. If this option is selected, the bibliography can only be changed using the right-click menu or the Table of Contents, Index or Bibliography dialog. If the option is not selected, the bibliography can be changed directly on the document page, just like other text, but any manual changes will be lost when you update the bibliography.

To have the bibliographic entries (citations) numbered within the body of the document (for example, [1], [2]...), select Number entries. If, however, you wish to have the Short name field contents (from the database) appear in the document, deselect this option.

Select the type of brackets that you want for the referenced entries shown within the body of the document.

Define the sorting you require. Currently only alphanumeric sorting is supported. Sorting by the sequence that entries appear in the text is done on the Entries tab.

Entries tab

The structure of this tab (Figure 360) is similar to that for tables of contents and for indexes.

Figure 360: Entries tab for bibliographies

The Type section refers to the kind of source, such as a periodical or a web page. Each entry in the Type list has a default structure format. You can define how the entry will appear, based on its source, by selecting from the Type list of entries, or simply apply the same format to all entries by clicking the All button.

The Structure of the entry is based on the fields available in the bibliographic database. Consult the citation style required for your document and modify the Structure line as needed.

To remove elements from the Structure line, click the element then click the Remove button.

To add an element, click in the Structure line where it is to be inserted. Select either the Tab Stop, or an element in the drop-down list to the left of the Insert button, and then click Insert. The elements in the drop-down list are those fields found in the Bibliography Database.

All the elements on the Structure line can be formatted using the Character Style selection list. For example, you can define a character style so that book and journal titles are in italics or bold.

To determine how entries are sorted, modify the Sort by options. To sort by the sequence that entries appear in the text, choose Document position. In most modern citation styles, you will want Content (alphabetical descending order). Use Sort keys to group similar references.

Styles, Columns and Background tabs

Refer to “Styles tab” on page 333, “Columns tab” on page 341 and “Background tab” on page 333 for detailed information on these tabs.

Modifying the paragraph style for the bibliography

You can modify the Bibliography 1 paragraph style to suit your requirements. For example, to number the entries in the bibliography list, you need to define a list style and link that list style to the Bibliography 1 paragraph style. To do this:

On the Styles deck in the sidebar, click on the List Styles icon. Right-click on Numbering 123 and choose New in the context menu.

In the List Style dialog, go to the Organizer tab and type a name for this style. In our example, we have named it Bibliography.

In our example we want to have the numbers enclosed in square brackets. To do this, go to the Customize tab and type [ in the Before box and ] in the After box, as shown in Figure 361. Remove any other punctuation, such as a period, that may be in the After box.

Figure 361: Specifying square brackets before and after the number in a list

Now go to the Position tab of the List Style dialog (Figure 362). In the Indent at and Tab stop at boxes, specify how much indentation you want for the second and following lines of any item in the bibliography list of your document. Often you will need to experiment a bit to see what is the best setting. In our example, we have chosen 1 cm.

Figure 362: Setting the spacing between the margin and the text

Click OK to save these settings and close the List Style dialog. Return to the Styles deck, click the Paragraph Styles icon, choose All Styles in the list at the bottom of that window, then right-click on Bibliography 1 and choose Modify.

On the Paragraph Style dialog, go to the Outline & List tab and select Bibliography in the List Style drop-down list (Figure 363). Click OK to save this change to the Bibliography 1 paragraph style.

Figure 363: Applying a list style to a paragraph style

Now when you generate the bibliography, the list will look something like the one shown in Figure 364. You may also need to modify the structure line on the Entries tab (Figure 360).

Figure 364: Result of changing settings for Bibliography 1 paragraph style

Updating, editing, and deleting an existing bibliography

Right-click anywhere in the bibliography. From the context menu, select:

Update Index to update the bibliography.

Edit Index to open the Table of Contents, Index or Bibliography dialog so you can edit and save the bibliography.

Delete Index to delete the bibliography without a confirmation request.

Tip

If you find Writer’s bibliography feature too limited, you may wish to try Zotero, which is free and open source, available for macOS, Windows, and Linux. It is reported to work well with Writer (https://www.zotero.org/).

Writer Guide 7.2

Chapter 16
Master Documents

Why use a master document?

A master document (.odm) is a container that joins separate text documents (.odt) into one larger document and unifies the formatting, table of contents (TOC), bibliography, index, and other material. Master documents are typically used for producing long documents such as a book, a thesis, or a long report. A master document is especially useful in these situations:

When the file size or number of pages is quite large; writing, reviewing, and editing may be easier when done on subsets of the full document.

When different people are writing different chapters or other parts of the full document.

When files will be published as stand-alone documents as well as becoming part of a larger document. The chapters of this Writer Guide are an example of this usage.

When subdocuments are used in more than one final document.

You can use several methods to create master documents. Each method has its advantages and disadvantages. Which method you choose depends on what you are trying to accomplish. The different methods are described in this chapter, along with suggestions on when to use each one.

Tip

A master document is not always the best method to use in any of the situations given above. You may find that using one big file, or an ordinary document (.odt) containing sections linked to other files, may do the job just as well. For more about using sections to combine files, see Chapter 6, Formatting Pages: Advanced.

Using the master document Navigator

In Writer, the Navigator has two forms: one is used in ordinary text documents and the other in master documents.

In an ordinary text document, the Navigator displays lists of the graphics, tables, index entries, hyperlinks, references, and other items in the document, as shown on the left in Figure 365.

Figure 365: The Navigator for a text document (left) and for a master document (right)

In a master document, you can toggle between the regular and master views by clicking on the Toggle Master View icon at the upper left. In the master view, the Navigator lists the subdocuments and text sections, as shown on the right in Figure 365. The use of the Navigator in a master document is covered in more detail later in this chapter (see “Step 6. Insert the subdocuments into the master document” on page 362 and “Combining several documents into a master document” on page 364).

Styles in master documents and subdocuments

A stand-alone document becomes a subdocument when it is linked into a master document. A document can be used as a subdocument in several master documents. Each master document may have different style definitions (font, type size, color, page size, margins, and so on), which affect the appearance of the final document, but the individual documents retain their original characteristics.

The relationship between styles in a master document and its subdocuments is as follows:

Custom styles used in subdocuments, such as paragraph styles, are automatically imported into the master document.

If more than one subdocument uses a custom style with the same name (for example, myBodyText), then only the one in the first subdocument to be linked is imported into the master document.

If a style with the same name exists in the master document and in the subdocuments (for example, Default Style), then the style is applied as defined in the master document.

The styles in the subdocuments are only changed in the master document, so when a subdocument is opened for editing the original styles are not affected.

Tip

If you use the same document template for the master document and its subdocuments, the subdocuments will look the same when they are loaded into the master document as they do when viewed as individual files. When you modify or create a style, be sure to make the change in the template (not in the master document or any of the subdocuments). Then when you reopen the master document or a subdocument, the styles will update from the template.

Creating a master document: scenarios

Which method you choose from the three most common methods for creating a master document depends on the current state of your document:

You have no existing documents but intend to write a long book containing several chapters, possibly by multiple authors.

You have several existing documents (chapters) by one or more authors that you want to combine into one book, controlled by the master document.

You have one existing document (a book) that you want to split into several subdocuments (chapters) that will be controlled by the master document.

We will look at each of these scenarios in turn.

Starting with no existing documents

When you start with no existing documents, you can set up everything the way you want from the beginning. Follow these steps, in the order given. Each step is explained in detail in the following subsections.

Step 1. Plan the project

Step 2. Create a template

Step 3. Create the master document

Step 4. Create subdocuments

Step 5. Add some pages to the master document

Step 6. Insert the subdocuments into the master document

Step 7. Add table of contents, bibliography, index

Step 1. Plan the project

Although you can make changes at most steps in this process, the more you can plan before you start, the less work you will have to correct any problems later. Here are some things you need to plan.

Parts of book or report required. What pages will be in the master document and what will be in the subdocuments? Consider as an example a book with the parts given in the table below.

Part	Location
Title (cover) page	In master document
Copyright page	In master document
Table of contents (TOC)	In master document
Preface (Foreword)	Subdocument
Chapters 1 to 7	Subdocuments
Index	In master document

Page, paragraph, character, frame, and numbering styles. Determine the styles you wish to use. See Chapter 8, Introduction to Styles, and Chapter 9, Working with Styles, for instructions on how to create or modify styles and examples of the use of styles in book design. Pay particular attention to setting up headings using styles, as described in “Using paragraph styles to define a hierarchy of headings” in Chapter 8.

Fields and AutoText entries, as required. See Chapter 2, Working with Text: Basics, and Chapter 17, Fields, for ideas.

One or more templates for master and subdocuments. If you are starting a new project, create the master document and all the subdocuments from the same template. Not using the same template can create style inconsistencies that could cause your document not to look as you expect. For example, if two subdocuments have a style with the same name that is formatted differently in each document, the master document will use the formatting from the first subdocument that was added.

Page numbering. In our example, the pages are numbered sequentially from the title page. (The title page style can be defined not to show the page number, but it will still count as page 1.) Therefore the first chapter begins on a higher number page, for example page 5. To create a book in which the page numbering restarts at 1 for the first chapter, you need to do some additional work. See “Restarting page numbering” on page 366.

Step 2. Create a template

You can create a template from an existing document or template that contains some or all of the page, paragraph, character, and other styles you want for this document, or you can create the template from a blank document. For more about templates, see Chapter 10, Working with Templates. Be sure to use File > Save As Template when creating the template.

Tip

You can also create master document templates; see page 372.

Step 3. Create the master document

It does not matter in what order you create the master and subdocuments, and you do not have to create all the subdocuments at the same time, when you are starting the project. You can add new subdocuments at any time, as you need them.

Follow this process to create the master document:

Open a new document from the template you created in Step 2, by choosing File > New > Templates, then selecting the template you created. Be sure the first page of this new document is set to the page style you want for the first page of the final document; if it is not, change it. In our example, the style for the first page is Title page.

If any text or page breaks came into this document from the template, delete the text. (The TOC, index, and any fields in headers and footers can stay.)

Click File > Send > Create Master Document. Save the master document in the folder for this project. We will return to this master document later. For now, you can either leave it open or close it.

Note

Using File > New > Master Document will create a master document file (.odm) associated with the default template. If your document is, or will be, based on a custom template, use the method described above.

Tip

You can also create a master document directly from a master document template; see page 372.

Step 4. Create subdocuments

A subdocument is no different from any other text document. It becomes a subdocument only when it is linked into a master document and opened from within the master document. It can still be used as a stand-alone document. Some settings in the master document will override the settings in a subdocument, but only when the document is being viewed, manipulated, or printed through the master document.

Create a subdocument in the same way as you create any ordinary document:

Open a blank document based on the project template (very important) by choosing File > New > Templates, then selecting the required template.

Delete any unwanted text or other material that was brought in from the template, and set the first page to the page style you specified for the first page of a chapter.

Click File > Save As. Give the document a suitable name and save it in the folder for this project.

If you already have some of the chapters written, the files may not be based on the template you just created for this project. Although you can use the existing files as subdocuments as they are, you may want to change the template attached to those files; if so, use the technique described in “Associating a document with a different template” in Chapter 10, Working with Templates.

Step 5. Add some pages to the master document

To assist you, do the following:

Make sure paragraph marks are showing. You can set them in Tools > Options > LibreOffice Writer > Formatting Aids, or click the Toggle Formatting Marks icon on the Standard toolbar, or press Ctrl+F10.

Show text boundaries, table boundaries, and section boundaries (Tools > Options > LibreOffice > Application Colors).

If your master document does not contain any required “front matter” such as a title page, copyright page, or TOC page, add them now. The example in this section uses the sequence of page styles given in “Step 1. Plan the project” on page 359.

Open the master document (.odm file) you created and type the contents of the title page (or leave placeholders and fill in later). With the insertion point in the last blank paragraph on the page, click Insert > More Breaks > Manual Break. On the Insert Break dialog, select Page break and the page style for the second page (Copyright Page in our example), and leave the Change page number option deselected. Click OK.

Figure 366: Inserting a page break between the title page and the copyright page

Type the contents of the copyright page (or leave placeholders). With the insertion point in the last blank paragraph on the page, use the same method to insert another manual page break, this time setting the page style to Table of Contents page.

On the Table of Contents page, leave a blank paragraph or two or insert a TOC (Insert > Table of Contents and Index > Table of Contents, Index or Bibliography). The TOC will not have any contents until you add the subdocuments, but a gray mark or box indicates its location. For more about inserting and formatting TOCs, see Chapter 15, Tables of Contents, Indexes, Bibliographies.

Note

Depending on the style definitions for the first paragraph (usually a heading) on the Copyright and TOC pages, you may not need to insert manual page breaks.

Step 6. Insert the subdocuments into the master document

Now we are ready to add the subdocuments.

Tip

Subdocuments are inserted into a master document before the item highlighted in the Navigator. If you insert the last subdocument first, and then insert the other subdocuments before the last one, they will end up in the correct sequence without the necessity of moving them up or down in the list.

Display the Navigator (click the Navigator icon on the Sidebar).

Be sure the Navigator is showing the Master View (see “Using the master document Navigator” on page 357). If necessary, click the Toggle Master View icon at the upper left to switch between regular and master views.

On the Navigator, select Text, then click Insert > File on the Navigator toolbar, or right-click on Text and select Insert > File in the context menu.

Figure 367: Inserting a subdocument into a master document using the Navigator

A standard file browser dialog opens. Select the required file (which you created in Step 4) and click Insert. This example uses seven chapters; we will load Chapter 7 first, as suggested in the Tip above.

The inserted file is listed in the Navigator before the Text item, as shown in Figure 368.

Figure 368: Navigator after inserting one subdocument

Because the Text section contains the title page and other material, highlight it and click the Move Up icon to move it to the top of the list. (Or, highlight the subdocument you just inserted (Chapter 7) and click the Move Down icon to move it below the Text section.)

Highlight the subdocument you just inserted (Chapter 7), then click Insert > File to insert the first subdocument; in this example, Chapter 1. Chapter 7 remains highlighted. Repeat with Chapter 2, Chapter 3, and so on until all the subdocuments have been added to the list. You can insert several several files at the same time. The Navigator will now look something like Figure 369.

Save the master document again.

Figure 369: The Navigator showing a series of files in a master document

Step 7. Add table of contents, bibliography, index

You can generate a table of contents, bibliography, or index for the book, using the master document. You must insert these items into a text section in the master document. For more about these document elements, see Chapter 15, Tables of Contents, Indexes, Bibliographies.

In case you did not insert a table of contents in step 5, position the cursor on the page in the first text section where the table of contents is to go and choose Insert > Table of Contents and Index > Table of Contents, Index or Bibliography to create it.

If you do not have a Text section at the end of the master document, insert one before the last subdocument, then move it down so it is after the last subdocument. Now, if you have included bibliographic entries in your subdocuments, you can put the insertion point on the page in this last text section where the bibliography is to go and create the bibliography.

If you have included index entries in your subdocuments, put the insertion point on the page in the last text section where the index is to go and create the index.

Figure 370 shows the Navigator after addition of a TOC and index.

Figure 370: Navigator showing subdocuments, table of contents, and index in a master document

Combining several documents into a master document

When you have several existing documents, you can combine them into one document controlled by a master document.

This method works best when all of the documents were created from the same template, but you can also use it when the documents have been created from different templates. This method is especially useful when the subdocuments are created or maintained by multiple writers. For example, you might be creating an anthology of short stories, a book of symposium papers, or a set of engineering test results with a standard company title page.

We will use a book of engineering test results as an example.

Tip

You could create a master document template (see page 372) and use it as the starting point for this method. In that case, skip steps 1 and 2 and start with step 3.

Open the title page document that you plan to use as the master document. To avoid creating too many subdocuments when this document is converted to a master document, have only one level 1 heading present. If there are more, temporarily change them to lower level headings and note which they are (add, for example, an asterisk at the end of each heading to remind you which have to revert to level 1 headings later).

Select File > Send > Create Master Document, name and save this master document (see “How to do it” on page 366).

Let us assume the original document was named FrontPage with a single Level 1 heading, and that when we created the master document (.odm file) we named it TestFile.

In this case, the master document is a blank file containing only one section. Also created at the same time was a subdocument named TestFile1, which is a .odt file containing the text from the FrontPage file. When you open the .odm file and click Yes to update all links, this file is linked in to the master document to provide the original content.

The original FrontPage file is left intact in its folder.

Figure 371: TestFile documents created from FrontPage

Open the master document and click Yes to update links. The master document opens with the Navigator showing by default (see “Using the master document Navigator“ on page 357 and “Step 6. Insert the subdocuments into the master document“ on page 362 for more detailed information).

Click Insert > File.

Figure 372: Adding files to the master document

Navigate to the location of the test results files (Results1.odt, Results2.odt, and so on). Select the first file to insert, Results1.odt for example, and click Insert. The file is inserted above the existing entry.

Click the Move Up icon to have the TestFile1 text above the Results1 text (file contents are inserted above the selected file in the master document).

Repeat from step 4 as often as required. It does not matter which file is highlighted in the master document when you insert the next one, just select the inserted file and use the Move Up or Move Down icons to position it as required.

Figure 373: Moving subdocuments

To edit the master document, to perhaps add a widget serial number and a client's name, in the master document right-click TestFile1.odt and select Edit in the context menu. Add the required content to the file that opens, save and close the file (see “Editing a master document” on page 368 for more detailed information).

Select Tools > Update > Links on the Menu bar, or click Update > Links in the Navigator and click Yes to confirm. All the edits in the master document will now show.

Splitting a document into master and subdocuments

When you have one existing document that you want to split into a master document and several subdocuments, you can have Writer split the document automatically at headings with an outline level of your choice.

Although this method is quick and easy, some cleanup work may be necessary:

The automatically generated file names for the subdocuments are maindocnameX.odt, where X is 1, 2, 3, and so on. If you have a Preface or other “chapter” starting with a Heading 1 before Chapter 1, the file names will not directly correspond to the chapter numbers. You may wish to rename the subdocuments; see “Adding, deleting, or renaming subdocuments” on page 368.

If the original document is associated with a template, the master document (.odm) is also associated with that template, but the subdocuments are not. The subdocuments inherit the styles in the original document, but their association with the template is lost.

How to do it

Open the document and choose File > Send > Create Master Document.

On the Name and Path of Master Document dialog (Figure 374):

Navigate to the folder where you want to save the master document and its subdocuments (or create a new folder).

Type a name for the master document in the File name box.

In the separated by: list, choose the outline level where the file should be split into subdocuments. Usually this is Outline: Level 1 for a chapter heading, but your document may be structured differently. For more information about outline levels, see “Using paragraph styles to define a hierarchy of headings” in Chapter 8, Introduction to Styles.

Leave the Automatic file name extension option selected, and click Save to split the document into subdocuments and create the master document.

Figure 374: Splitting a document into master and subdocuments

If you selected Outline: Level 1 and the paragraph style at that level is Heading 1, each of the subdocuments begins with a Heading 1 paragraph.

Restarting page numbering

The examples in the previous sections showed a very basic collection of files with sequential page numbering. This is useful for many documents, including e-books, but a typical printed book has the following sequence of page numbers:

No page numbers on cover page or copyright page.

Lower-case roman numerals in the front matter, starting with i.

Arabic numerals in the body of the document, starting with 1.

Page numbering sequential through the rest of the book.

To set up a master document to produce such a book, you need to define a different paragraph style for the heading of the first chapter and assign two special characteristics to it.

Example

Each chapter may start with a Heading 1 paragraph, set up in the Breaks section of the Text Flow tab of the Paragraph Style dialog to start on a new page (Figure 375). The Page number checkbox is not selected, so numbering continues from the number of the previous page.

Figure 375: Breaks section of Text Flow tab of Paragraph Style dialog for Heading 1

Look on the Outline & List tab (Figure 376) of this dialog to see what outline level Heading 1 is assigned to. Usually this will be Outline level: Level 1. The level cannot be changed here because it has been set in Tools > Chapter Numbering.

Figure 376: Outline & List tab of Paragraph Style dialog for Heading 1

Only one paragraph style can be assigned to Outline Level 1 through Tools > Chapter Numbering. However, you can assign additional paragraph styles to any outline level by using the Outline & List tab on the Paragraph Style dialog.

Therefore, you want to define a style called Heading 1 Chapter 1 that is identical in appearance to Heading 1 but has one essential difference:

Right-click Heading 1 in the Paragraph Styles section of the Styles tab in the Sidebar, and select New. On the Organizer tab of the Paragraph Style dialog, name the new style, select the next style, and be sure Inherit from shows Heading 1.

Figure 377: Organizer tab for the new style

On the Text Flow tab, in the Breaks section (Figure 375), select Insert, Type: Page, Position: Before, With Page Style: First Page, and Page number: 1.

On the Outline & List tab, set the Outline level to Level 1 (Figure 378). This ensures that the heading will appear in the Table of Contents along with the other chapter headings. The List Style for this heading is No List, as it was not assigned an outline level through the Outline Numbering dialog.

Figure 378: Assign the style to Outline level 1

Now, assign the new style to the first paragraph of Chapter 1, and you’re done.

Editing a master document

After creating a master document, you may want to change its appearance or contents.

Changing the appearance of the master document

You can change the styles in the template as your project develops. Do not make changes to styles in the master document or in any of the subdocuments; make those changes in the template.

To update the master document (and all of the subdocuments) with changes to the template, open the master document. You will get two messages: first, to ask if you want to update all links; and second, if you want to apply the changed styles. Answer Yes to both of these messages.

Editing subdocuments

You cannot edit a subdocument from within the master document. Instead, you must open the subdocument, either by double-clicking on it in the master document’s Navigator, or by opening it from outside the master document. Then you can edit it just as you would edit any other document.

If, while editing a subdocument, you want to make changes to the styles that apply to the master document, see “Changing the appearance of the master document” above.

If you change the contents of any subdocument, you need to manually update the table of contents, bibliography, and index from within the master document.

Adding, deleting, or renaming subdocuments

To add a subdocument, follow the method described in “Step 6. Insert the subdocuments into the master document“ on page 362.

To delete a subdocument, right-click its file name in the Navigator and choose Delete.

If you rename a subdocument by changing its file name, the next time you update links in the master document, that subdocument will show up in the Navigator as a broken link (shown in red). To fix this, you can either change back the name of the file (the link will be restored in the next update) or follow these steps:

Right-click the broken link in the Navigator and choose Edit link.

In the Edit Sections dialog (Figure 379), select the renamed file, and edit the name of the section (which is the name shown in the Navigator).

Click OK to save the changes.

Figure 379: Editing a link in a master document

Cross-referencing between subdocuments

The methods described earlier in this chapter are all that most writers will need when using master documents. However, you might want to include automatically updated cross-references between subdocuments. This section describes how to do this.

The process to create cross-references between subdocuments is time consuming, but it works.

Caution

The method described does not work well if the subdocuments will be used standalone as well as within a master document. As shown in Figure 384 on page 372, the cross-reference will show as an error in a standalone document, but it will show correctly in the master document.

Preparing items as targets for cross-referencing

Before you can insert a cross-reference to a heading, figure, or other item in another document, you must prepare that item as a target for cross-referencing. To do this, you can either use bookmarks or set references. Bookmarks can be used only for location references such as page numbers, not for text references; set references can be used for text (such as headings or figure captions) as well as location references.

Using bookmarks

Bookmarks are listed in the Navigator and can be accessed directly from there.

Select the text you want to bookmark or click in the required place in the text. Choose Insert > Bookmark on the Menu bar.

On the Insert Bookmark dialog (Figure 380), the larger box lists any previously defined bookmarks. Type a name for the new bookmark in the top box. Click Insert.

Figure 380: Inserting a bookmark

Setting references

When you set references, be sure to select the entire text you want to use as the reference, such as a heading or figure number. Keep a list of your names for the reference fields, and be sure each name is unique. One way to keep track of this information is to save it in a separate file.

The field names are case-sensitive. You can check the field name by holding the cursor over the referenced item. In our example (Figure 381), the heading has the field name word count.

Figure 381: Finding the field name for a heading

Open the subdocument in which you want to set references.

Click Insert > Cross-reference.

On the Cross-references tab of the Fields dialog (Figure 382), click Set Reference in the Type list. The Selection list now shows any references that have been defined. You can leave this tab open while you set many headings as references.

Click in the document and highlight the text of the first heading to be used as a target for a cross-reference. Click on the Fields dialog. The text of the heading will appear in the Value box in the lower right of the dialog. In the Name box, type some text by which you can identify this heading.

Click Insert. The text you typed in the Name box now appears in the Selection list.

Repeat steps 3 and 4 as often as required, keeping a note of your references as needed.

Repeat for other subdocuments if wanted. Click Close to save and exit the dialog.

Figure 382: Setting text to be used as a target for a cross-reference

Inserting the cross-references

Open the master document. In the Navigator, select a subdocument, right-click and choose Edit in the context menu. The subdocument opens for editing.

In the subdocument, place the cursor where you want the cross-reference to appear. Click Insert > Cross Reference.

On the Cross-references tab of the Fields dialog (Figure 383), select Insert Reference in the Type list on the left. The Selection list on the right shows only the reference field names for the subdocument you are using, so ignore that list and check the list you created manually in “Preparing items as targets for cross-referencing” above. Select Reference in the Insert reference to list.

Figure 383: Fields dialog showing manual entry of field name

In the Name field in the lower right, type the name of the reference you set in the subdocument you are referring to. In our example, the name of the reference is word count.

Click Insert, type any text you want to appear between the reference and page number (such as “on page”), and then insert another reference with Page in the Insert reference to list. The cross-references will show an error as shown in Figure 384. When you hover the mouse pointer over one of these fields, you will see the field name.

(You can turn on the display of field codes by clicking View > Field Names. The two error fields shown in Figure 384 now look like Figure 385.)

After you have inserted all the cross-references required in the subdocument, click Close to save it and return to the master document window.

Figure 384: Viewing the field name

Figure 385: Displaying field codes

Select Tools > Update > Links on the Menu bar, or click Update > Links in the Navigator. All the edits in the master document will now show. Within the master document, navigate to the page of the subdocument on which you inserted the cross-reference field. You should now see the text of the cross-reference appear in the spot where you inserted it. If it does not work, save the master document, close it, and open it again, updating the links. (If you open the subdocument for editing, the error message in Figure 384 will be shown.)

Figure 386: Field contents visible

This technique also works if you open a subdocument directly in step 2 (that is, not from within the master document) and insert a cross-reference field.

Creating a master document template

A master document template is created in much the same way as any other template, described in Chapter 10, Working with Templates:

First, create the master document using File > Send > Create Master Document, as described in earlier sections of this chapter.

Then, use File > Templates > Save as Template to create the template (.otm), which will then be listed in the Templates dialog along with other templates.

Tip

Include in the name you give a master document template some indication that it is not an ordinary template.

Creating one file from a master document and its subdocuments

Master documents are .odm files containing linked subdocuments, which are in .odt format. Although linked files are very useful when writing and editing a large document such as a book, sometimes you might need to have a copy of the entire book in one file, for example when sending it to a publisher.

To export a master document to a .odt file (without affecting the original .odm file):

Open the master document and update all links. Choose File > Export on the Menu bar.

On the Export dialog (Figure 387), type a name for the exported .odt file and choose ODF Text Document (.odt) in the File format list (it should be the default choice). Click Export. This step creates an .odt file, with each subdocument in a separate write-protected section.

Close the master document and open the new .odt file, updating all links.

To break the links and remove the write protection, go to Format > Sections, select the first item in the Section list, then Shift+click on the last item in the list in order to select all the items. Deselect both Link in the Link section and Protect in the Write Protection section.

Click OK.

Figure 387: Exporting a master document to an Open Document Text (.odt) file

If you wish to eliminate some or all of the sections to have a plain text document, select the sections you wish to remove, and click Remove. The contents of those sections remain in the document; only the section markers are removed. Click OK.

Anchoring images

An image (graphic) anchored “to page” in a subdocument is not displayed when the subdocument is opened as part of a master document. Because the master document reorganizes the page flow, page numbers, and cross-references when it collates all the subdocuments together, the absolute reference to a page X in a subdocument is lost in the master document. The image loses its anchor reference and simply disappears.

In contrast, an image anchored “to page” in a text section of a master document stays with that page and does not move if the length of subdocuments changes. The image may then end up on a page somewhere in the middle of a subdocument, not where you want it to be.

To avoid these problems but keep an image positioned precisely on a particular page, anchor the image as follows:

Right-click the image and choose Properties in the context menu.

On the Type tab of the Image dialog (Figure 388), set the anchor to To character or To paragraph.

Under Position, choose suitable horizontal and vertical references to the page. Click OK to save the changes.

Figure 388: Anchoring an image and setting its position on a page

Writer Guide 7.2

Chapter 17
Fields

Introduction

Fields are used for a variety of purposes: for example, data that changes (such as the current date or the total number of pages) or might change (the name of a product or book under development), user-defined numbering sequences, automatic cross-references, and conditional content (words or paragraphs that are visible or printed in some conditions but not others). Index entries are also fields.

This chapter describes some common uses of fields. A full discussion of fields and their use is beyond the scope of this book. Power users can find more details in the application Help.

Tip

Fields have a gray background when viewed on screen, unless you have deselected View > Field shadings on the Menu bar or changed the color of field shadings in Tools > Options > LibreOffice > Application Colors. This gray background does not show when you print the file or export to PDF.

Keyboard shortcuts for fields

Here are some handy keyboard shortcuts to use when working with fields:

Ctrl+F2	Open the Fields dialog.

Ctrl+F8	Turn field shadings on or off.

Ctrl+F9	Show or hide field names.

F9	Update fields.

Quick and easy field entry

To quickly insert common fields into your document, choose Insert > Page Number or Insert > Field on the Menu bar and selecting the required field in the submenu.

Figure 389: Inserting common fields

Using document properties to hold metadata and information that changes

The Properties dialog (File > Properties) for a document has six tabs. The information on the General tab and the Statistics tab is generated by the program. Some information (the name of the person on the Created and Modified lines of the General tab) is derived from the User Data page in Tools > Options > LibreOffice. The options on the Font and Security tabs are discussed elsewhere in this book.

Use the Description and Custom Properties tabs for:

Metadata to assist in classifying, sorting, storing, and retrieving documents. Some of this metadata is exported to the closest equivalent in HTML and PDF; some fields have no equivalent and are not exported.

Information that changes. You can store data for use in fields in your document; for example, the title of the document, contact information for a project participant, or the name of a product might change during the course of a project.

This dialog can be used in a template, where the field names can serve as reminders to writers of information they need to include. (Placeholders can serve a similar function within the text; see page 392.)

You can return to this dialog at any time and change the information you entered. When you do so, all of the references to that information will change wherever they appear in the document. For example, on the Description tab (Figure 390) you might need to change the contents of the Title field from the draft title to the production title.

Figure 390: The Description tab of the document’s Properties dialog

Use the Custom Properties tab (Figure 391) to store information that does not fit into the fields supplied on the other tabs of this dialog.

Figure 391: Custom Properties tab

When the Custom Properties tab is first opened in a new document, it may be blank. If the new document is based on a template, this tab may contain fields.

Click the Add Property button in the lower right of the tab (not shown in illustration) to insert a row of boxes where you can enter your custom properties.

The Name box includes a drop-down list of typical choices; scroll down to see all the choices. If none of the choices meet your needs, you can type a new name into the box.

In the Type column, you can choose from Text, DateTime, Date, Duration, Number, or Yes or no for each field. You cannot create new types.

In the Value column, type or select what you want to appear in the document where this field is used. Choices may be limited to specific data types depending on the selection in the Type column; for example, if the Type selection is Date, the Value for that property is limited to a date.

To remove a custom property, click the button at the right-hand end of the row.

Tip

To change the format of the Date value, go to Tools > Options > Language Settings > Languages and change the Locale setting.

Using other fields to hold information that changes

One way that people use fields is to hold information that is likely to change during the course of a project. For example, the name of a manager, a product, or even your entire company may change. If you have inserted the changeable information as fields, you can change the information in one place, and it will automatically change in all the places where that field occurs.

Writer provides several places where you can store the information referred to by a field. We will look at some of them here.

Seven document properties (Page Number, Page Count, Date, Time, Title, First Author, and Subject) are on the Insert > Field menu (Figure 389). To insert one of these fields, click it in the menu. Some of these fields get their information from the Document Properties dialog (Figure 390).

Other document properties are on the DocInformation and Document tabs of the Fields dialog (Figures 392 and 393), reached by choosing Insert > Field > More Fields or pressing Ctrl+F2.

The Custom item in the Type list on the DocInformation tab is derived from the Custom Properties tab of the Document Properties dialog (Figure 391); it does not appear on the list if no custom properties have been defined.

Some of the field values are picked up from the User Data page of the Tools > Options > LibreOffice dialog, so make sure the information on that page is correct.

To insert one of these fields, select it in the Type list and then select in the Select and Format lists if choices appear. Finally, click Insert.

Figure 392: Inserting a Date Modified field using the DocInformation tab of the Fields dialog

Figure 393: Inserting a File name field using the Document tab of the Fields dialog

Tip

Although these fields are often used to hold information that changes, you can make the content unchangeable by selecting the Fixed content option (visible in Figure 392, lower right) when inserting the field. If necessary, you can come back to this dialog later and deselect this option to make the field variable again. For example, if you use a field to insert the creation date of a document, you do not want that date to change.

Using AutoText to insert often-used fields

If you use the same fields often, you can use AutoText as a quick and easy way to insert them.

To define an AutoText entry for a field:

Insert a field into your document, as described previously.

Select the field you inserted, and then choose Tools > AutoText (or press Ctrl+F3).

On the AutoText dialog (Figure 394), choose the group where this new entry will be stored (in this example, My AutoText), type a name for the entry, and change the suggested shortcut if you wish.

Click the AutoText button and click New to have the entry inserted as a field. Do not choose New (text only) because the AutoText entry will be plain text, not a field. (The New selections do not appear until you have selected a group and typed a name for the entry.)

Click Close to close the AutoText dialog.

To insert this field at the cursor position, type the shortcut and press F3.

Figure 394: Creating a new AutoText entry

Defining your own numbering sequences

You may want to define your own numbering sequences to use in situations where you do not always want the number at the start of the paragraph, or where you want more control than the built-in numbering choices give you, or where list styles do not do what you want.

This topic describes how to create a numbering sequence, using a number range variable field.

To create a number range variable using Arabic (1 2 3) numbers:

Position the cursor in a blank paragraph in your document.

Choose Insert > Field > More Fields or press Ctrl+F2, then select the Variables tab (Figure 395).

In the Type list, select Number range. In the Format list, select Arabic (1 2 3). Type whatever you want in the Name field. (We have used Step in this example.)

Click Insert. The name of the variable (Step) now appears in the Selection list, and a number field (showing 1) appears at the insertion point in your document. The Fields dialog remains open.

If you click several more times on the Insert button in the Fields dialog, the numbers 2, 3, 4, and so on will appear in the document.

You can now delete the fields you inserted; the Step sequence remains in the Select box in the Fields dialog (in this document only). You can insert this field at any place in the document.

To avoid doing all of that every time you want to put in a Step number, create an AutoText entry for Step. Then you can insert the field in the same way you would insert any other AutoText. See “Using AutoText to insert often-used fields” on page 379.

Figure 395: Defining a number range variable

Tip

If a user-defined variable is not in use in the document, the X icon next to the Value box is active. You can delete the variable by clicking this icon. To remove a variable that is used in the current document, first delete from the document all fields using that variable, and then remove the variable from the list.

Using automatic cross-references

If you type in cross-references to other parts of the document, those references can easily get out of date if you reword a heading, add or remove figures, or reorganize topics. Replace any typed cross-references with automatic ones and, when you update fields, all the references will update automatically to show the current wording or page numbers.

The Cross-references tab of the Fields dialog (Figure 396) lists some items, such as headings, numbered paragraphs, and bookmarks. If figure captions, table captions, user-defined number range variables, and some other items have been defined in a document, that type also appears in the list.

Tip

Some people use Writer’s Hyperlink feature for cross-references. However, the visible text of the hyperlink does not change if you change the text of the item to which it links. For that reason, you are advised to use cross-references in most situations. The exception is when the document is to be saved as HTML; cross-references do not become hyperlinks in an HTML document, so you need to use hyperlinks in the Writer document.

Figure 396: The Cross-references tab of the Fields dialog

Inserting cross-references

To insert a cross-reference to a heading, figure, or other item shown on the Cross-references tab:

Place the cursor where you want the cross-reference to appear in the document.

If the Fields dialog is not open, choose Insert > Cross-reference or press Ctrl+F2. On the Cross-references tab (Figure 396), in the Type list, click the type of item you are referencing (for example, Headings or Figure).

Click the required item in the Selection list, which shows both automatically created entries (for example, Headings) and user-defined references (for example, bookmarks).

In the Insert reference to list, choose the type of reference required. The choices vary with the item being referenced (see “Formats for cross-references” below).

For headings, usually you will choose Reference (to insert the full text of the heading) or Page (to insert the number of the page the heading is on).

For figures, usually you will choose Numbering (to insert only the figure number), Category and Number (to insert the word “Figure” and its number), Reference (to insert the word “Figure” with its number and the full text of the caption), or Page.

Click Insert.

For a full list of the reference formats available and their use, consult the Help.

Formats for cross-references

For all types of cross-reference, you can select from the following formats:

Page: the page number of the target.

Chapter: the number of the chapter where the referenced target is located.

Reference: the full text set as reference.

Above/Below: the word above or below depending on the position of the field relative to the referenced target.

As Page Style: similar to Page, the page number where the reference is, but using the formatting specified in the page style. This is very useful when putting a reference to a page in the front matter where roman numerals are usually employed.

For headings or numbered paragraphs, three additional options are available:

Number: Inserts the number of the heading or numbered paragraph, including superior levels depending on the context.2 For example, when you are in a chapter 1, subchapter 2, subpart 5, this may be numbered as 1.2.5. When you insert here a reference to text in the previous subpart "1.2.4" and you apply the "Number" format, then the reference will be shown as "4". If in this example the numbering is set to show more sublevels, the same reference will be shown as "2.4" or "1.2.4", depending on the setting. If you use the "Number (full context)" format, you will always see "1.2.4", no matter how the numbered paragraph is formatted.

Number (no context): inserts only the number of the heading or of the numbered paragraph. For example, if referencing a numbered item 2.4, it inserts 4.

Number (full context): inserts the full number including higher hierarchical levels. For example, if referencing a numbered item 2.4, the full numbering (2.4) is inserted.

For objects inserted with captions such as a table or a figure, you can choose:

Category and Number: inserts both the category and number of the referenced object (for example, Figure 6). This is the most used formatting for figures and tables.

Caption Text: inserts the full caption of the referenced object. For example, Figure 6: This is an example figure.

Numbering: inserts the sequential number of the referenced object, without the category (for example, if referencing Table 2, the field will contain only the number 2).

Preparing items as targets for cross-referencing

Occasionally you might want to insert a cross-reference to something that is not automatically shown on the Cross-references tab: an illustration without a caption or an item in a bullet list, for example. Before you can insert a cross-reference to such an item, you must prepare the item as a target to be referenced. To do this, you can either use bookmarks or set references.

After a target has been defined, you can cross-reference to it as described on page 382.

Using bookmarks

Bookmarks are listed in the Navigator and can be accessed directly from there. They can be used only for location references such as page numbers, not for text references. In HTML documents, bookmarks are converted to anchors that you can jump to using a hyperlink.

Select the text you want to bookmark, or click in the required place in the text. Choose Insert > Bookmark.

On the Insert Bookmark dialog, the larger box lists any previously defined bookmarks. Type a name for this bookmark in the top box. Click OK.

Setting references

Set references can be used for text references (such as headings or figure captions) as well as location references. Be sure to select the entire text you want to use as a text reference.

Choose Insert > Cross-reference or press Ctrl+F2.

On the Cross-references tab of the Fields dialog (Figure 397), select Set Reference in the Type list. The Selection list shows any references that have been defined. This dialog can remain open while you set several items as references.

Click in the document and highlight the text of the first item to set as a target for a cross-reference. Click on the Fields dialog. The text of the item will appear in the Value box in the lower right. In the Name box, type some text by which you can identify this item.

Click Insert. The text you typed in the Name box now appears in the Selection list.

Tip

See Chapter 16, Master Documents, for how to create cross-references to other subdocuments in a master document.

Figure 397: Setting text to be used as a target for a cross-reference

Using fields in headers and footers

You may want to use fields like statistics while writing, and replace them with others, like Chapter, when the document is ready for use.

You can insert fields into headers or footers, using techniques described earlier in this chapter:

To insert a page number, document title, author, creation date and time, current date and time, or total page count field, use Document Properties (see page 376) or choose Insert > Field > [item] on the Menu bar.

To insert a cross-reference to a bookmark, heading, or other item, you can use Insert > Cross-reference or Insert > Field > More Fields > Cross-references (tab).

If you have used Heading 1 for your chapter titles, you can use a Document field to insert the current chapter title, so the header or footer contents change from one chapter to the next. See Figure 398. (Writer calls chapter titles Chapter names.) If you have used outline numbering on your Heading 1, you can choose whether to include these numbers in the field (Chapter number and name). Use Insert > Field > More Fields > Document.

You can insert cross-references to other heading levels by specifying a value in the Level box in the lower right of the Document tab of the Fields dialog (Figure 398). That is, Level 1 = Heading 1, Level 2 = Heading 2, and so on.

Note

A cross-reference field in the header of a page picks up the first heading of that level on the page, and a field in the footer picks up the last heading of that level on the page.

Figure 398: Inserting the current chapter number and name into your document

To include the chapter number with the page number, position the cursor just before the Page field you inserted. On the Document tab of the Fields dialog, select Chapter in the Type column and Chapter number without separator in the Format column. Click Insert.

Go to the header or footer where you inserted this field and type the character you want to appear between the chapter number and the page number; for example, a hyphen.

The table of contents will not automatically pick up these chapter numbers, so you need to make a change on the Entries tab of the Table of Contents, Index or Bibliography dialog, as described in Chapter 15, Tables of Contents, Indexes, Bibliographies.

You can add a page count to the footer; for example, Page 9 of 12. Type the word Page and a space in front of the Page field. Type a space, the word of, and a space after the Page field. Then choose Insert > Field > Page Count.

Developing conditional content

Conditional content is text and graphics that are included or excluded from a document depending on a condition you specify.

A simple example is a reminder letter for an overdue account. The first and second reminders might have a subject line of “Reminder Notice”, but the third reminder letter might have the subject “Final Notice” and a different final paragraph.

A more complex example is a software manual for a product that comes in two versions, Pro and Lite. Both product versions have much in common, but the Pro version includes some features that are not in the Lite version. If you use conditional content, you can maintain one file containing information for both versions and print (or create online help) customized for each version. You do not have to maintain two sets of the information that is the same for both versions, so you will not forget to update both versions when something changes.

Tip

In some cases, the same effect can be obtained by hiding a paragraph or character style; see Chapter 9, Working with Styles.

Choose the types of conditional content to use

This section describes several Writer features that can help you design and maintain conditional content. You can use one or any combination of these features in the same document.

Conditional text

With conditional text, you can have two alternative texts (a word, phrase, or sentence). One text will be displayed and printed if the condition you specify is met, and the other will be displayed and printed if the condition is not met. You cannot include graphics or edit the text except in the Field dialog (not in the body of the document). You also cannot format part of the text (for example, bold one word but not the others), but you can format the field to affect all of the field contents (for example, making all of the words bold or italic). You cannot include a cross-reference or other field in the text.

Hidden text

With hidden text (a word, phrase, or sentence), you have only two choices: show or hide. If the condition you specify is met, the text is hidden; if the condition is not met, the text is displayed. The disadvantages are the same as for conditional text: you cannot include graphics, edit the text in the body of the document, format part of the text, or include a field.

Hidden paragraphs

Hidden paragraphs are like any other paragraphs, but you can specify a condition under which the paragraph is not displayed or printed. A blank paragraph can also be hidden, for example if a database field has no content for the current record. This is very useful when merging an address into a letter: if you allow two lines for the street address and the database record uses only one line, you can prevent the blank line from appearing in your document. You can include graphics, edit the text in the body of the document, format any part of the text, and include fields.

Hidden sections

Hidden sections are like hidden paragraphs, but they can include more than one paragraph, for example, a heading plus one or more paragraphs. However, a section cannot contain less than a paragraph, so you cannot use this method for single words or phrases. The contents of a hidden section behave just like the contents of any other part of the document, but you can specify a condition under which the section is not displayed or printed. In addition, you can password protect a section.

Plan your conditional content

Conditions are what programmers call logical expressions. You must formulate a logical expression for each condition because a condition is always either true (met) or false (not met). You can use the same condition in many places in your document, for different types of conditional content.

To make conditional content work, you need to:

Choose or define a variable.

Define a logical expression (condition) involving the selected variable.

Choose or define a variable

You can use the following variables in your condition:

User-defined variables

Predefined LibreOffice variables, which use statistical values from the document properties

User data

Database field contents—for example, from your address book

You cannot use internal variables (for example, page number, or chapter name) to formulate conditions.

Define a logical expression (condition) involving the variable

The condition compares a specified fixed value with the contents of a variable or database field.

To formulate a condition, use the same elements as you would to create a formula: operators, mathematical and statistical functions, number formats, variables, and constants. The possible operators, and many examples of use, are given in the Help; look in the index under Defining Conditions and conditional. You can define quite complex expressions, but in most cases a simple condition will do the job.

Create the variable

To create the variable, you can use choices found on the DocInformation, Variables, and Database tabs of the Fields dialog.

DocInformation fields

“Using document properties to hold metadata and information that changes” on page 376 described how to set up a custom document property. You can use that document property as the variable in your condition statement.

User-defined variable field

To set up a variable or user field:

Place the cursor where you want the field to be inserted.

On the Fields dialog, select the Variables tab (Figure 401).

Select Set variable in the Type list and Text in the Format list. Type a name for the variable in the Name box, and a value in the Value box. I have chosen ProLite for the name (to remind me that this variable is related to the two product versions), and I set the value as Lite because I can remember “If it is the Lite version, then this text should be hidden.”

Select Invisible so the field does not show in the document. Click Insert, then click Close. A small gray mark will appear where you inserted the field.

Figure 399: Defining a variable to use with conditional content

Tip

Because the gray mark is so small, you may have trouble finding it again, especially if you have other fields in the document. You may prefer to leave the variable field visible while you work, and change it to invisible just before you create final copy.

At any time, you can place the insertion point just before the field and choose Edit > Fields or right-click the field and choose Fields in the context menu. On the Edit Fields dialog (Figure 404), select or deselect Invisible.

Apply the condition to the content

Now that you have defined the variable, you can use it in a condition statement. This topic describes some of the possibilities.

Conditional text

First, let us set up some conditional text that will insert the words Great Product Lite into the Lite version and Great Product Pro into the Pro version of the manual. You would use this field whenever you want to mention the name of the product.

Place the cursor where you want one of these phrases to appear. (You can move or delete it later, if you wish.)

On the Functions tab of the Fields dialog, select Conditional text in the Type list.

As shown in Figure 400, type ProLite EQ "Lite" in the Condition box, Great Product Lite in the Then box, and Great Product Pro in the Else box.

Note

These fields are case-sensitive, and quotation marks are required around a text value such as Lite.

Click Insert to insert the field, then click Close. You should see Great Product Lite in the text.

Figure 400: Inserting conditional text

Tip

If you want to insert this field into your text in many places (as you probably would for a product name), create an AutoText entry for it. See “Using AutoText to insert often-used fields” on page 379 for instructions.

Hidden text

You might use hidden text for words or short phrases that describe features of Great Product Pro that are not found in the Lite version. You can reuse the same field in several places in the document—for example, by copying and pasting it. To create a hidden text field:

On the Functions tab of the Fields dialog, select Hidden text in the Type list (Figure 401).

Figure 401: Creating a condition for hidden text

Type ProLite EQ "Lite" in the Condition box and type the required text in the Hidden text box. Remember, this is the text that is hidden if the condition is true.

Click Insert to create and insert the field.

To show all hidden text so you can edit it, do one of the following:

On the Tools > Options > LibreOffice Writer > View page, select the Display fields: Hidden text option.

Double-click in front of the variable that you used to define the condition for hiding the text, and enter a different value for the variable.

Hidden paragraphs

A conditional paragraph is hidden if the condition is true. To hide a paragraph:

Click in the paragraph to be hidden.

On the Functions tab (Figure 402) of the Fields dialog, select Hidden Paragraph in the Type list.

For this example, type ProLite EQ "Lite" in the Condition box.

Click Insert to create and insert the field.

Figure 402: Creating a condition for a a hidden paragraph

To show all hidden paragraphs so you can edit them, do one of the following:

Choose View > Field Hidden Paragraphs on the Menu bar.

On the Tools > Options > LibreOffice Writer > View page, select the Display Fields: Hidden paragraphs option.

Double-click in front of the variable that you used to define the condition for hiding the paragraph, and enter a different value for the variable.

Hidden sections

A conditional section is hidden if the condition is true. To create a conditional section:

Select the text that you want to be included in the conditional section. (You can edit this text later, just as you can edit any other text.)

Choose Insert > Section. On the Insert Section dialog (Figure 403), go to the Section tab, then select Hide and enter the condition in the With Condition box. You can also give the section a name; this is strongly recommended, so you can find it again easily if you have several sections in your document.

Click Insert to insert the section into your document.

To show a hidden section so you can edit it:

Choose Format > Sections.

On the Edit Sections dialog (similar to the Insert Section dialog), select the section from the list.

Deselect Hide and click OK. You can now edit the contents of the section. Afterwards, you can choose Format > Sections and select Hide to hide the section again.

To make the hidden section a normal part of the document (that is, to remove the section markers, but not the contents of the section):

Show the hidden section, as described above.

On the Edit Sections dialog, select the section from the list.

Click Remove. The contents of the section are now a normal part of the document.

Figure 403: Creating a section to be hidden when a specified condition is met

Change the value of the variable

To change the value of the variable between Lite and Pro:

Find the variable field you created in “Choose or define a variable” on page 387.

Click once just in front of this field, then right-click and click Fields in the context menu.

On the Edit Fields dialog (Figure 404), change the value of the variable to Pro.

If you have set fields to update automatically, all of the conditional and hidden text that uses this variable as a condition will change.

Note

Conditional text and hidden text can only be edited in the Edit Fields dialog.

Tip

To turn on automatic updating of fields, choose Tools > Options > LibreOffice Writer > General, and select Fields under Automatically Update.

Figure 404: Changing the value of the variable

Using placeholder fields

A placeholder field prompts you to enter something (text, a table, a frame, an image, or an object).

To insert a placeholder field into a document:

On the Functions tab of the Fields dialog, select Placeholder in the Type column and select what the placeholder is for in the Format column.

In the Placeholder box, type the text that you want to appear in the placeholder field.

In the Reference box, type the text that you want to display as a help tip when you rest the mouse pointer over the field.

Figure 405 shows the results of inserting a placeholder field for an image.

Figure 405: Inserting a placeholder field

Because the <Logo> field is an Image placeholder, when you click the field in the document, the Insert Image dialog opens, prompting you to select an image. When you select an image and click Open, the image replaces the field in the document.

Similarly, clicking on a Table placeholder field opens the Insert Table dialog, clicking on a Frame placeholder field opens the Frame dialog, and clicking on an Object placeholder field opens the Insert OLE Object dialog. The Text placeholder field is different: you simply click it and type some text in the Placeholder box, which replaces the field.

Using other fields

Other uses of fields, including database fields, are described in various chapters of this book.

LibreOffice provides many other fields that you may find useful, but they are too specialized to cover in this book. Please refer to the Help system for details, instructions, and examples.

Classifying document contents

Document classification and security are important for businesses and governments. Where sensitive information is exchanged between users and organizations, the parties agree how such information will be identified and handled. LibreOffice provides standardized means for sensitive information to be identified and protected, using a set of standard fields that can be used to hold sensitive information.

LibreOffice implemented the open standards produced by TSCP (Transglobal Secure Collaboration Participation, Inc.). It contains three BAF (Business Authentication Framework) categories: Intellectual Property, National Security and Export Control. Each category has four BAILS (Business Authorization Identification and Labeling Scheme) levels: Non-Business, General Business, Confidential, and Internal Only.

To enable document classification, open the TSCP bar (View > Toolbars > TSCP Classification). This toolbar contains list boxes to help in selecting the security of the document. LibreOffice then adds custom fields in the document properties (File > Properties, Custom Properties tab) to store the classification policy as document metadata.

To prevent a breach in security policy, contents with a higher classification level cannot be pasted into documents with a lower classification level.

Writer Guide 7.2

Chapter 18
Forms

Introduction

This chapter covers the use of interactive forms within Writer documents. A form has sections that are not to be edited, and other sections that are designed for the reader to make changes. For example, a questionnaire has an introduction and questions (which do not change) and spaces for the reader to type answers or select from supplied choices.

Writer provides several ways to enter information into a form, including check boxes, option buttons, text boxes, pull-down lists, and other items, collectively known as form controls.

LibreOffice forms include a lot of features; not everything is described in this chapter. Notable omissions are using forms in HTML documents and writing macros to link to form controls.

LibreOffice Calc, Impress, and Draw also support forms in much the same way that Writer does.

When to use forms

Forms are used in three ways:

To create a simple document for the recipient to complete, such as a questionnaire sent out to a group of people who fill it in and return it.

To link into a database or data source and allow the user to enter information. Someone in a sales department might enter purchasers’ information into a database using a form.

To view information held in a database or data source. A librarian might call up information about books.

Using forms to access a database offers a fast and easy way to build complex graphical front ends. Your form can include not only the fields that link to the data source, but also text, graphics, tables, drawings and other elements.

A typical way to use a simple form is:

You design the form, then save it.

You send the form to others (for example, by email).

They fill in the form, save it, and send it back to you.

You open the form and see what their answers are.

Tip

By using a data source, or setting a form to update over the web, you can gather data automatically. However, those methods are more complex and are not covered in this chapter.

Alternatives to using forms in Writer

LibreOffice Base provides an alternative way to access a data source. There are a lot of similarities between forms in Base and Writer, but one may be better for a particular task than the other. Base is appropriate only if the form accesses a data source; you would not use it for simple forms.

Creating a simple form

This section explains how to create a simple form without any links to a data source or database and without advanced customization.

Create a document

You do not need to do anything special when creating a document to use as a form, though it’s a good idea to make sure that the grid is enabled so that controls can be positioned accurately. Go to View > Grid and Helplines on the Menu bar and select Display Grid. You may also wish to select Snap to Grid.

Create a new Writer document with File > New > Text document.

Open the form toolbars

Two toolbars control form creation: Form Controls (Figure 407) and Form Design (Figure 408). Select View > Toolbars > Form Controls and View > Toolbars > Form Design on the Menu bar to show them both. You can also open the Form Design toolbar on the Form Controls toolbar.

The Form Controls toolbar has an icon for each of the most commonly used types of control. Some of these controls are also located on the Form menu (Figure 406).

You can dock these toolbars in different places on the Writer window, or leave them floating. When they are floating, you can also change them from vertical to horizontal and change the number of tools on a row; to make these changes, drag a corner of the toolbar.

See “Form controls reference” on page 397 for descriptions of the tools on these toolbars.

Activate design mode

Click the Design Mode icon on the Form Controls toolbar to turn design mode on. (Click it again to turn it off.) This activates or deactivates the icons for inserting form controls and selects controls for editing.

When design mode is off, the form behaves as it would for the end user. Buttons can be pressed, check boxes selected, list items selected, and so on.

Insert form controls

To insert a form control into the document, click the control’s icon to select it. The mouse pointer changes shape.

Click in the document where you want the control to appear. (You can move it later.)

Hold the left mouse button down and drag the control to size it. Some controls have a fixed size symbol followed by the name of the control (for example, Check Box or Option Button).

The control icon remains active, so you can insert several controls of the same type without needing to go back to the toolbar.

To change to another tool, click its icon on the toolbar.

To stop inserting controls, click the Select icon on the Form Controls toolbar, or click any of the controls you have just inserted. The mouse pointer changes back to its normal appearance.

Tip

To make a form control square, hold down the Shift key when creating it. To keep the proportions of an existing control the same, hold down Shift when resizing it.

Configure controls

After inserting the controls, you need to configure them to look and behave as you want. Right-click a form control within the document and select Control in the context menu to open the Properties dialog for the selected control. Double-clicking on a form control also opens this dialog.

The Properties dialog has three tabs: General, Data, and Events. For simple forms, only the General tab is needed. See “Configure form controls” on page 402, “Form control formatting options” on page 412, and the descriptions in the Help for more information. Configuration for use with a database is discussed in “Creating a form for data entry” on page 408.

The fields on this dialog vary with the type of control. To see additional fields, use the scroll bar or enlarge the dialog vertically.

Use the form

To use the form, leave design mode by clicking the Design Mode icon to deactivate it. Save the form document.

Form controls reference

The icons you see in Writer may differ from the ones shown here or they may be in a different order on the toolbar.

Form menu on Menu bar

Figure 406: Form menu on Menu bar

Form Controls toolbar

Figure 407: Form Controls toolbar

Form Controls toolbar
1	Select	Selects a form control to perform some other action on it.
2	Design Mode	Toggles between design mode on (to edit forms) and design mode off (to use forms).
3	Toggle Form Control Wizards	Some form controls (List Box and Combo Box) have optional wizards. If you do not want the wizard to launch when you create one of these controls, use the Wizards On/Off icon to switch wizards off.
4	Form Design	Launches the Form Design toolbar, which can also be opened with View > Toolbars > Form Design.
5	Label	A text label. The difference between this and just typing on the page is that, as a control, you can link a label field to macros so, for example, something happens when the mouse passes over it or clicks on it.
6	Text Box	A control to create a box into which the form’s user can type any text.
7	Check Box	A box that can be selected or deselected on the form. You can label the box.
8	Option Button	Creates an option button (also known as a radio button). When multiple buttons are grouped together, only one can be selected at a time. The easiest way to group multiple buttons is to use the Group Box icon on the More Controls toolbar, with wizards enabled.
9	List Box	Creates a list of options as a pull-down menu that the user can choose from. If the form is linked to a data source and wizards are on, creating a list box launches the List Box Wizard. If the form is not linked to a data source, turn wizards off and create an empty list box. Then in the List Entries field on the General tab, enter the options you want to appear on the list.
10	Combo Box	As with a List Box, you set up a list of choices. In addition, a panel at the top either displays the choice made or allows the form user to type in something else. This works the same as the List Box.
11	Push Button	Creates a button that can be linked to a macro. The label is the name that appears on the button.
12	Image Button	Behaves exactly like a push button, but displays as an image. Choose the image in the Graphics option on the General tab in the Control Properties dialog.
13	Formatted Field	A control allowing numeric formatting options. For example, you can set maximum and minimum values for the number entered, or the number type (decimal places, scientific, currency).
14	Date Field	Stores a date. You need to configure the earliest and latest dates the field will accept, the default date, and the date format. You can add a spinner.
15	Numerical Field	Displays a number. You need to specify formatting, maximum, minimum and default values. You can add a spinner.
16	Group Box	Group boxes have two different uses. If wizards are on, creating a group box launches the Group Element wizard. This creates a group of options buttons (in which only one may be selected at a time). In most cases, using a group box is the best way to create a set of option buttons. If wizards are off, a group box is simply a visual box to group together different controls. It has no effect on the way the controls operate.
17	Time Field	Works like a date field but specifies a time.
18	Currency Field	Works like a numeric field; additionally you can add a currency symbol.
19	Pattern Field	Useful when the form links into a data source. Specify an Edit Mask to restrict what a user can enter into the field. Specify a Literal Mask to restrict which data is displayed from the data source.
20	Table Control	Table controls are only useful with a data source. If no data source is specified, you will be prompted to choose one in the Table Element Wizard. You then pick the fields to display and, when design mode is off, the data appears in the table. The table also includes controls to step through the records. Records can be added, deleted, and modified in the table.
21	Navigation Bar	A navigation bar is the same as the Form Navigation toolbar (View > Toolbars > Form Navigation), but can be placed anywhere in the document and be resized.
22	Image Control	Only useful when the form is connected to a data source and a field in the data source exists that can hold images. You can add new images to the database or retrieve and display images from it.
23	File Selection	Allows a user to select a file, either by typing the path and name directly or by clicking on a Browse button and choosing the file from a dialog.
24	Spin Button	Allows form users to choose a number by cycling through the list of numbers. You can specify maximum, minimum, default, and the step between numbers. This control is not commonly used in Writer.
25	Scrollbar	Creates a scrollbar, with a number of options to define the exact appearance. This control is not commonly used in Writer.

Form Design Toolbar

Figure 408: Form Design toolbar

Form Design toolbar
1	Anchor	Any form control can be anchored to page, paragraph, or character and also anchored as a character.
2	Align	Disabled unless the control is anchored as a character. You can align a control in different ways, for example so the top or bottom of the control lines up with the top or bottom of the text.
3	Bring to Front	Places the control on top of any other controls or text.
4	Forward One	Brings the control one level up in the stack.
5	Back One	Sends the control one level down in the object stack.
6	Send to Back	Sends the control to the bottom of the stack.
7	To Foreground	Moves the object in front of the text.
8	To Background	Moves the object behind the text.
9	Select	Selects a form control to perform some other action on it.
10	Design Mode	Toggles between design mode on (to edit forms) and design mode off (to use forms).
11	Control Properties	Launches form control properties dialog. This dialog can be kept open whiles different controls are selected.
12	Form Properties	Launches form properties dialog, which controls properties for the form as a whole, such as which data source it connects to.
13	Form Navigator	Displays all the forms and controls in the current document and allows you to edit and delete them easily. If you use the Form Navigator, give your controls names (in the properties dialog) so you can tell which is which in the navigator.
14	Add Field	Useful only if you have specified a data source for the form. Otherwise, an empty box opens. If you have specified a data source, Add Field opens a list of all the fields in the specified table, which you can then drag and drop onto the page. The fields are placed on the page with the name of the field before them.
15	Activation Order	Allows you to specify the order in which focus shifts between controls. You can test the order by leaving design mode and using Tab to switch between the controls.
16	Open in Design Mode	Opens the current form in design mode (to edit the form rather than entering data into it).
17	Automatic Control Focus	If activated, focus is set to the first form control.
18	Position and Size	Opens the Position and Size dialog, where you can type precise values, rather than dragging the control. You can also lock the size or position so they do not get changed accidentally. For some controls, you can rotate and set the slant and corner radius.
19	Display Grid	Displays a grid of dots on the page, to help you line up controls.
20	Snap to Grid	When a control is brought close to a grid point or line, it will snap to the grid. This makes it is easier to line up controls.
21	Guides when Moving	When a control is being moved, lines extend from the control horizontally and vertically to help you position it accurately.

Example: a simple form

In this example, we will create the form shown in Figure 409. If you follow the given steps, your form will look similar to this one.

Figure 409: Completed form

Create the document

Open a new document (File > New > Text Document) and type any text to be included (see Figure 410 for an example). It is a good idea to sketch the final result to use as a guide when designing the form, although it can easily be changed later.

Figure 410: Initial document without form controls

Add form controls

The next step is to add the form controls to the document. We will have four controls:

Name is a text box.

Gender is three option buttons: male, female, or other; user can select one.

Favorite shape is a list of options; user can select one.

All shapes you like is a series of check boxes; user can select one or more.

To add these controls:

Select View > Toolbars > Form Controls to open the Form Control toolbar.

If the tools are not active, click the Design Mode icon to activate them.

Click the Text Box icon, then click in the document and drag the shape of the Name text box to approximately the size you want. Drag it to line up with the Name: label.

Make sure Toggle Form Control Wizards is OFF. Click the Option Button icon. Click and drag to create three option buttons near the Gender: label in the document. We will configure these in the next section.

Click the List Box icon and draw a list box by Favourite shape: in the document. This will just be an empty pane for now.

Click the Check Box icon and create four check boxes by All shapes you like, side by side across the page.

Your document should now look something like Figure 411. Do not worry if the controls are not lined up well; we will fix this later.

Figure 411: Document with form controls

Configure form controls

Text box

No further configuration is required for the Name field, but you may wish to change the height or width of the field, its background color, or other formatting. If so:

Be sure Design Mode is on and Wizards are off.

Double-click on the Name field to open the Properties: Text Box dialog (Figure 412).

On the General tab, scroll down (or expand the dialog by dragging the bottom edge down) to find the Width and Height properties. Change these as needed.

You can then close the dialog or leave it open while you configure the other controls.

Figure 412: Changing the width and height of a text box

Option buttons

The Gender option buttons need to be configured to allow only one of the three to be selected. You can do this in two ways: using individual option buttons as described here, or using a Group Box (see page 405).

Be sure Design Mode is ON and Wizards are OFF.

If the Properties dialog is open, click once on the first option button to change the dialog to Properties: Option Button. If the dialog is not open, double-click the first option button. In the Properties dialog (Figure 413), on the General tab, type Male in the Label field and Gender in the Group name field.

Repeat for the other two options, using Female and Other, respectively, for the Label and Gender for the Group name. (Grouping allows only one option to be selected at a time.)

Figure 413: Specifying label and group names for an option button

If the option buttons are too far apart, click on each in turn and drag it to the left or right.

If the option buttons are not lined up neatly, do this:

Click the Select button on the Form Controls toolbar and draw a box around the three option button controls with the mouse to select all of them (Figure 414).

Right-click and choose Align > Top in the context menu. Figure 415 shows the result.

Figure 414: Select controls and align to top

Figure 415: Result of action to align controls

List box

To add the list of choices to the list box, do this:

Be sure Design Mode is ON and Wizards are OFF. Double-click the List Box control to open the control’s Properties dialog (Figure 417). Select the General tab.

Scroll down to find the List Entries text input box. Type the names of the shapes (Circle, Triangle, Square, Pentagon) one at a time. After each, press Shift+Enter, as shown in Figure 416.

Figure 416: Entering the terms for a list

When you click away from the List entries box in the dialog, you should see a line saying "Circle";"Triangle";"Square";"Pentagon" (Figure 417).

Figure 417: Properties dialog for a list box

Check boxes

To give the check boxes names:

Be sure Design Mode is ON and Wizards are OFF. Double-click the first Check Box control.

In the Properties: Check Box dialog (Figure 418), change the text in the Label field to Circle and press Enter. The cursor moves to the next line, and the label on the check box in the document changes immediately.

Figure 418: Top part of Properties dialog for a check box

Click each of the other three check boxes in turn. Change the text in the Label text input box in the Properties dialog to Triangle, Square, and Pentagon in turn.

Close the Properties dialog.

Turn Design Mode off.

You have now completed the form, which should look something like Figure 409 on page 401.

Group box

As an alternative to creating individual option buttons for Gender (described on page 403), you can use a Group Box to insert a group of option buttons. Group boxes stack the selections one under the other (as shown in Figure 422 on page 407); individual buttons can be moved into any arrangement you prefer (we arranged them horizontally on page 403).

To use a Group Box instead of individual Option Buttons:

Be sure both Design Mode and Wizards are ON. Click the Group Box icon and draw a box next to the Gender: label. The Group Element Wizard (Figure 419) opens automatically.

Type Male in the box on the left. Click the >> button to move it to the Option fields box on the right.

Repeat for Female and Other. The Wizard should now look like Figure 420. Click Next >.

On the next page of the Wizard (Figure 421), choose No, one particular field is not going to be selected as a default. Click Next >.

On the next page, make no changes. Click Next >.

On the next page, delete the words “Group Box” from the caption area. If we did not have a Gender: label already in the form, you might want to type Gender as the caption.

Click Finish. The survey form should look like Figure 422.

Figure 419: Inserting a Group Box using the Group Element Wizard

Figure 420: Wizard after adding names for the option fields

Figure 421: Choosing to not have a default option

Figure 422: Final group box in survey form

Finishing touches

The form is complete, but you are free to make further changes to the document. If you plan to send this out to other people to complete, you probably want to make the document read-only so that users would be able to fill in the form but not make any other changes to the document.

To make the document read-only, select File > Properties, select the Security tab and enable Open file read-only.

Note

If the document is read-only, anyone filling in the form will need to use File > Save as to save the document.

Accessing data sources

The most common use for a form is to input information into a database. For example, you can design a form that others can use to enter information into a contacts database. Because it is part of a Writer document, the form can contain graphics, formatting, tables, and other elements to make it look just the way you want. Modifying the form is as simple as editing a document.

LibreOffice can access numerous data sources. These include ODBC, MySQL, Oracle JDBC, spreadsheets and text files. As a general rule, databases can be accessed for reading and writing; other data sources (such as spreadsheets) are read-only.

Tip

To see the list of supported data source types for your operating system, choose File > New > Database. On the first page of the Database Wizard, select Connect to an existing database and then open the drop-down list.

For the purpose of this chapter, we assume you have previously created a database or other data source and registered it for use with Writer. Chapter 14, Mail Merge, describes how to create and register a database.

Creating a form for data entry

Once a database is registered with LibreOffice, follow these steps to link a form to the data source:

Create a new document in Writer (File > New > Text Document).

Design your form, without putting in the actual fields (you can always change it later).

Show the Form Controls and Form Design toolbars.

Click the Design Mode icon to put the document into design mode.

Click the Text Box icon. Click in the document and drag to create a text box for the first form field.

Click the Text Box icon again and drag the mouse to draw another field. Additional fields, of any type, can be added in the same way (click and drag).

So far you have followed the same steps used before when creating your first form. To link the form with the data source you registered:

Click the Form Properties icon in the Form Design toolbar, or right-click any of the fields you inserted and select Form Properties, to open the Form Properties dialog (Figure 423).

Figure 423: Form properties, connecting to a data source

In the Form Properties dialog, choose the Data tab.

Set Data Source to be the data source you registered.

Set Content Type to be Table.

Set Content to be the name of the table you want to access.

Close the dialog.

For each form control in turn, click the control to select it (small green boxes appear around it), then launch the Properties dialog: either right-click and select Control Properties or click the Control Properties icon on the Form Controls toolbar.

In the Properties dialog, click the Data tab (Figure 424). If you set up the form correctly, the Data Field option will contain a list of the different fields in the data source (for example, Name, Address and Telephone). Select the field you want.

Figure 424: Form control properties, Data tab

Repeat for each control in turn until every control that should be assigned to a field has been assigned.

Caution

If you created a database in LibreOffice Base and your Primary Key field had Auto Value set to Yes, that field does not need to be part of the form. If Auto Value was set to No, you will have to include it and users will need to enter a unique value into that field whenever they make a new entry—not something that is recommended.

Entering data into a form

Once you have created a form and tied it to a database, use it to enter data into the database or modify data already there:

Make sure that the form is not in design mode. (On the Form Controls toolbar, click the Design Mode icon. When design mode is off, most of the buttons on the toolbar will be grayed out.)

Make sure that the Form Navigation toolbar is on (View > Toolbars > Form Navigation). This toolbar normally appears at the bottom of the workspace.

Figure 425: Form Navigation toolbar

If there is existing data in the data source, use the control buttons on the Form Navigation toolbar to look at different records. To amend data in a record, edit the values in the form. To submit the changes, press Enter with the cursor in the last field. The record is saved and the next record is displayed.

If there is no data in the form, enter information by typing into the fields of the form. To submit the new record, press Enter with the cursor in the last field.

Other functions can be performed from the Form Navigation toolbar, including deleting a record and adding a new record.

Note

If a user tries to fill in the form and receives the error “Attempt to insert null into a non-nullable column”, then the form designer should go back to the database and confirm that the Primary Key field has the Auto Value set to Yes. This error will prevent the form user from saving the records.

Advanced form customization

Linking a macro to a form control

You can set any form control (for example, text box or button) to perform an action when triggered by some event.

To assign a macro to an event:

Create the macro. See Chapter 13, Getting Started with Macros, in the Getting Started Guide.

Be sure the form is in design mode. Right-click the form control, select Control Properties in the context menu, and click the Events tab (Figure 426).

Figure 426: Control properties, Events tab

Click the browse icon by any event to open the Assign Action dialog (Figure 427).

Click the Macro button and select the macro from the list in the Macro Selector dialog (not shown). You return to the Assign action dialog. Repeat as needed, then click OK to close the dialog.

Macros can also be assigned to events relating to the form as a whole. To do this, right-click a form control in the document, select Form Properties, and click the Events tab.

Figure 427: Assign action dialog

Read-only documents

Having created your form, you want whoever is using it to be able to access the information stored in the database, or complete the form, without changing the layout. To do this, make the document read-only by choosing File > Properties > Security and selecting Open file read-only.

Fine-tuning database access permissions

By default, when a database is accessed from a form, any changes can be made to it: records can be added, deleted, and amended. You may not want that behavior. For example, you may want users to be able only to add new records or to be prohibited from deleting existing records.

In design mode, right-click a form control and select Form Properties in the context menu. On the Data tab of the Form Properties dialog are a number of options: Allow additions, Allow deletions, Allow modifications and Add data only. Set each of these to Yes or No to control the access users have to the data source.

Individual fields can also be protected. This might be useful if you wanted a user to be able to modify some parts of a record but only view others, such as a stock list where item descriptions are fixed and quantities can be modified.

To make an individual field read-only, in design mode, right-click the form control within the document and select Control from the context menu. Select the General tab (Figure 428) and set Read-only to Yes.

Figure 428: Data Properties of a form

Form control formatting options

You can customize the way form controls look and behave in a number of ways. These are all accessed in design mode. Right-click the form control, select Control Properties in the context menu and select the General tab in the Properties dialog.

Set a label for the control in the Label box (not to be confused with the box called Label Field). Some form controls, such as push buttons and option buttons, have visible labels that can be set. Others, such as text boxes, do not.

Set whether the form control will print out if the document is printed with the Print option.

Use the Font setting to set the font, typeface, and size for a field’s label or for text typed into a field. This setting does not affect the size of check boxes or option buttons.

For a text box, you can set the maximum text length. This is very useful when adding records into a database. Every database text field has a maximum length and, if the data entered is too long, LibreOffice displays an error message. By setting the maximum text length of the form control to be the same as that of the database field, this error can be avoided.

You can set the default option for a form control. By default, a control is blank, or has every option unselected. You can set the control to start with a particular option or list item selected.

For controls where a password is being entered, setting the Password character (for example to *) displays only that character, but saves what the user really types.

You can add additional information and help text for a form control.

You can use other formatting controls such as background color, 3-D look, text formatting, scroll bars, and borders to further define how the control appears.

Writer Guide 7.2

Chapter 19
Spreadsheets, Charts, Other Objects

Introduction: OLE and DDE objects

You can embed or link objects as either OLE (Object Linking and Embedding) or DDE (Dynamic Data Exchange). Both methods enable you to use information from one application (say, Calc) in another application (Writer, in this case). The difference between a DDE object and a linked OLE object is that a linked OLE object can be edited from the document in which it is added as a link, but a DDE object cannot.

For example, if a Calc spreadsheet is pasted into a Writer document as a DDE object, then the spreadsheet cannot be edited in the Writer document. But if the original Calc spreadsheet is updated, the changes are automatically made in the Writer document. If the spreadsheet is inserted as a Linked OLE object into the Writer document, then the spreadsheet can be edited in Writer as well as in the Calc document and both documents are in sync with each other.

Both linking and embedding insert information from one document into another document, but the methods store information differently. They are different from directly copying and pasting information because you can open and edit objects in the applications that created them.

An embedded OLE object is a copy of information from another document. When you embed objects, there is no link to the source document and any changes made to the source document are not reflected in the destination document. Embed objects if you want to be able to use the application that created them for editing, but you do not want the OLE object to be updated when you edit information in the source document.

A linked object is a reference to information in another document. Link objects when you want to use the same information in more than one document. Then, if you change the original information, you need to update only the links in order to update the document containing the OLE objects. You can also set links to be updated automatically. When you link an object, you need to maintain access to the source application and the linked document. If you rename or move either of them, you may need to reestablish the link.

The following types of files or documents can be inserted into a Writer document as an OLE object: spreadsheets, charts, drawings, formulas (equations), and presentations.

Inserting a new OLE object

When you insert a new OLE object into a document, it is embedded; that is, the object is available only in that document and can only be edited using Writer.

To insert a new OLE object into a document:

Click where you want to insert the object.

Choose Insert > Object > OLE Object on the Menu bar.

On the Insert OLE Object dialog (Figure 429), select Create new.

Select the type of object you want to create and click OK.

A new OLE object is inserted in the document in edit mode. The toolbars displayed in Writer will change, providing the necessary tools for you to create the new OLE object.

Note

Computers running Microsoft Windows show an additional option of Further Objects in the Object Type list. This option opens a dialog where you can create an OLE object using other software that is compatible with OLE and LibreOffice. This option is available for new OLE objects and for OLE objects from another file.

Figure 429: Inserting a new OLE object

Inserting a file as an OLE object

When you insert an existing file (for example, a spreadsheet) into a Writer document as an OLE object, you can choose whether to embed or link the file.

Click where you want to insert the file and choose Insert > Object > OLE Object on the Menu bar.

On the Insert OLE Object dialog, select Create from file. The dialog changes to show a File text box (Figure 430).

Figure 430: Inserting an OLE object from a file

Click Search to open a file browser.

Locate the file you want to insert and click Open.

To insert the file as a live link so that any changes made are synchronized in both the original file and your document, select the Link to file option.

To show a selectable icon for the application that created the file (in this case, Calc), instead of displaying the contents of the file, select the Display as icon option.

Click OK to insert the file as an OLE object.

Editing OLE objects

To edit an OLE object after it has been created or inserted from a file:

Double-click the OLE object to open it in edit mode. The toolbars displayed in Writer will change to provide the tools necessary to edit the object.

When you finish editing the object, click anywhere outside the object to exit edit mode.

Save the Writer document. Any changes made to the OLE object are also saved.

If the OLE object is linked, then if you change it in Writer it will change in Calc; if you change it in Calc, it will change in Writer. This can be a very powerful tool if you create reports in Writer using Calc data, and want to make a quick change without opening Calc.

Creating a DDE link in Writer

To create a DDE link from Calc to Writer:

Open both the Writer document and the Calc spreadsheet.

In Calc, select the cells to make the DDE link to. Copy them.

Go to the place in your Writer document where you want the DDE link. Select Edit > Paste Special > Paste Special. Writer displays its Paste Special dialog (Figure 431).

Select the Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE link) option in the Selection list.

Click the OK button. Now the link has been created in Writer. When the Calc spreadsheet is updated, the table in Writer is automatically updated.

Figure 431: Paste Special dialog in Writer, with DDE link selected

Spreadsheets

To include a spreadsheet in a Writer document, you can insert either an existing spreadsheet file or a new spreadsheet as an OLE object, as explained above, or create a DDE (Dynamic Data Interchange) object.

Embedding or linking a spreadsheet

Embedding a spreadsheet into Writer includes most of the functionality of a Calc spreadsheet. Writer is capable of performing complex calculations and data analysis. However, if you plan to use complex data or formulas, it is recommended to perform those operations in a separate Calc spreadsheet and use Writer only to display the embedded spreadsheet with the results.

You may be tempted to use spreadsheets in Writer for creating complex tables or presenting data in a tabular format. However, the Table feature in Writer is often more suitable and faster to use, depending on the complexity of your data; see Chapter 13, Tables of Data.

To embed a spreadsheet into a Writer document, follow the instructions in “Inserting a file as an OLE object” on page 415.

When an entire spreadsheet is inserted into a document, if it contains more than one sheet and the one you want is not visible, double-click the spreadsheet, and then select a different sheet from the row of sheet tabs at the bottom.

Resizing and moving spreadsheet objects

When selected, a spreadsheet object is treated like any other object.

Resizing

To resize the area occupied by the spreadsheet:

Click on the object to show the selection handles in the border.

Move the mouse pointer over one of the handles. The pointer changes shape to give a visual representation of the effects applied to the area.

Click and hold the left mouse button and drag the handle. The corner handles move the two adjacent sides simultaneously, while the handles at the midpoint of the sides modify one dimension at a time.

Moving

Moving a spreadsheet object to change its position within the document is the same as moving any other object in Writer:

Click on the object to show the selection handles in the border.

Move the cursor over the object until the cursor changes shape (normally a hand, but this depends on your computer setup). Be careful not to double-click the spreadsheet object and activate object editing mode.

Click and drag the object to the desired position. Release the mouse button.

Editing a spreadsheet object

To edit a spreadsheet object, double-click it, or select it and choose Edit > Object > Edit on the Menu bar, or right-click and choose Edit in the context menu.

You edit the object in its own frame within the Writer document, but some of the toolbars change in Writer. One of the most important changes is the presence of the Formula bar, which contains (from left to right):

The Name Box, that shows the active cell reference or the name of a selected range of cells.

The Function Wizard icon.

The Select Function and Formula icons or the Cancel and Accept icons, depending on the editing actions taken in the spreadsheet.

A long Input Line to enter or review the contents of the active cell.

If you are familiar with Calc, you will immediately recognize the tools and the menu items. See Chapter 5, Getting Started with Calc, in the Getting Started Guide for more information.

Spreadsheet organization

A spreadsheet consists of pages called sheets. However, in Writer, only one sheet can be shown at a time when a spreadsheet with multiple sheets is embedded into a Writer document.

Each sheet is organized into cells, which are the elementary units of the spreadsheet. They are identified by a row number (shown on the left-hand side) and a column letter (shown in the top row). For example, the top left cell is identified as A1, while the third cell in the second row is C2. All data elements, whether text, numbers, or formulas, are entered into a cell.

Note

If the embedded spreadsheet has multiple sheets, only the active sheet is shown on the page after exiting edit mode.

Working with embedded sheets

You can insert, rename, delete, and edit sheets in an embedded spreadsheet. To begin, double-click the embedded spreadsheet to open it in edit mode. When you finish editing the embedded spreadsheet, click anywhere outside the border to exit edit mode and save the changes.

Tip

For more details on these procedures, refer to Chapter 5, Getting Started with Calc, in the Getting Started Guide.

Inserting sheets

Right-click a sheet name and select Insert Sheet in the context menu, or go to Sheet > Insert Sheet on the Menu bar to open the Insert Sheet dialog.

Select the sheet position, number of sheets to be inserted, sheet name, or which spreadsheet file to use from the options available in the Insert Sheet dialog.

Click OK to close the dialog and insert the sheet.

Renaming sheets

Right-click the sheet tab and select Rename Sheet in the context menu, or go to Sheet > Rename Sheet on the Menu bar, to open the Rename Sheet dialog.

Moving and copying sheets

Right-click the sheet name and select Move or Copy Sheet in the context menu, or go to Sheet > Move or Copy Sheet on the Menu bar to open the Move/Copy Sheet dialog.

Select whether to move or copy the sheet, the sheet location and position, and a new sheet name. Click OK to close the dialog and move or copy the sheet.

Alternatively, click the sheet tab and drag it to a new position in the embedded spreadsheet.

Deleting sheets

Right-click the sheet tab and select Delete Sheet in the context menu, or go to Sheet > Delete Sheet on the Menu bar. If the spreadsheet has only one sheet remaining, you cannot delete that sheet.

Click Yes to confirm.

Cell navigation

To move around the spreadsheet to select a cell to make it active, you can:

Use the keyboard arrow keys.

Position the cursor in a cell and left-click the mouse.

Use the Enter key to move one cell down and Shift+Enter to move one cell up.

Use the Tab key to move one cell to the right and Shift+Tab to move one cell to the left.

Entering data

Data input into a cell can only be done when a cell is active. An active cell is easily identified by a thickened and bolder border. The cell reference (or coordinates) for the active cell is displayed at the left-hand end of the Formula bar.

Select the cell to make it active and start typing. The data input is also displayed in the Input line on the Formula toolbar, making the data entry easier to read.

Use the Function Wizard, Select Function, and Formula icons to enter data, formulas, or functions into a cell. If the input is not a formula (for example, a text or date entry), the Select Function and Formula icons change into the Cancel and Accept icons.

To confirm data input into a cell, either select a different cell, or press the Enter key, or click the Accept icon on the Formula bar.

Formatting cell data

Writer normally recognizes the type of contents (text, number, date, time, and so on) entered into a cell and applies default formatting to it. However, if Writer wrongly recognizes the type of data you have entered into a cell:

Select the cell, then right-click it and select Format Cells in the context menu, or go to Format > Cells on the Menu bar, or use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+1.

In the Format Cells dialog, click the appropriate tab to open the correct page and use the options on that page to format the cell data.

Click OK to close the dialog and save your changes.

Tip

To force Writer to treat numbers as text (for example, telephone numbers) and to prevent Writer from removing the leading zeros or right-align them in a cell, type a single quotation mark (') before entering the number.

Formatting spreadsheets

It may be necessary to change the formatting of a spreadsheet to match the style used in the document.

When working on an embedded spreadsheet, you can also access any cell styles created in Calc and use them. However, if you are going to use styles, it is recommended to create specific cell styles for embedded spreadsheets, as Calc cell styles may be unsuitable when working within Writer.

Manual formatting

To manually format an embedded spreadsheet:

Select a cell or a range of cells. See Chapter 5, Getting Started with Calc, in the Getting Started Guide for more information on selecting ranges of cells.

Right-click the selection and go to Format Cells in the context menu, or go to Format > Cells on the Menu bar, or use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+1 to open the Format Cells dialog.

Use the various dialog pages to format the embedded spreadsheet so that it matches the style of your document.

Click OK to close the dialog and save your changes.

If necessary, adjust the column width by hovering the mouse over the line separating two columns in the header row until the mouse cursor changes to a double-headed arrow; then click the left button and drag the separating line to the new position.

If necessary, adjust the row height by hovering the mouse over the line separating two rows in the row header until the mouse cursor changes to a double-headed arrow; then click the left button and drag the separating line to the new position.

When you are satisfied with the formatting changes, click outside the spreadsheet area to save your changes and exit edit mode.

Using formatting styles

When an embedded spreadsheet is in edit mode, Writer displays the available styles for a spreadsheet in the Styles deck in the sidebar.

If a style you want to use is not available, you can create it (see Chapter 8, Introduction to Styles). Styles used in an embedded spreadsheet are similar to paragraph styles used in Writer.

To use styles in your embedded spreadsheet:

Open the Styles deck in the Sidebar.

Select data in a cell and double-click a style in the Styles deck to apply it.

Inserting and deleting rows or columns

To insert rows or columns in an embedded spreadsheet:

Select the column or row where you want the new column or row inserted.

Go to Sheet on the Menu bar and select either Insert Columns > Columns Before, or Insert Columns > Columns After, or Insert Rows > Rows Above, or Insert Rows > Rows Below.

Or, right-click the column or row header and select Insert Columns Before, Insert Columns After, Insert Rows Above, or Insert Rows Below in the context menu.

To delete rows or columns from an embedded spreadsheet:

Highlight the rows or columns that you want to delete.

Go to Sheet on the Menu bar and select Delete Rows or Delete Columns, or right-click and select Delete Columns or Delete Rows in the context menu.

Deleting cells

Select the cells you want to delete.

Go to Sheet > Delete Cells, or press Ctrl+-. Or, right-click on a cell and select Delete in the context menu.

Select the option you require on the Delete Cells dialog.

Merging and splitting cells

To merge contiguous cells into a single cell:

Select the cells to be merged.

Right-click on the selected cells and select Merge Cells in the context menu, or go to Format > Merge Cells > Merge Cells or Merge and Center Cells on the Menu bar, or click on the Merge and Center Cells icon on the Formatting toolbar. Using Merge and Center Cells will center align any contents in the cells.

If the cells contain any data, a small dialog opens, showing choices for moving or hiding data in the hidden cells. Make your selection and click OK.

To split a group of cells that have been merged into a single cell:

Select the cell that contains merged cells.

Go to Format > Merge Cells > Split Cells or right-click and select Split Cells in the context menu. If the split cells contained data that was merged before, this data will not be split again.

Charts and graphs

Charts and graphs are graphical interpretations of data, often from a spreadsheet. For more information, see Chapter 3, Creating Charts and Graphs, in the Calc Guide.

Inserting a chart

You can add a chart to your document as an OLE object (see page 165) or using the tools in Writer.

To add a chart using Writer’s tools, choose Insert > Chart on the Menu bar to insert a generic chart (Figure 432) at the cursor location. The chart is selected and the Menu bar and toolbars change to those appropriate for charts.

Figure 432: Chart with sample data

Selecting chart type

Your data can be presented using a variety of different charts. Writer contains several chart types that will help you convey your message to your audience. See “Chart types” on page 422.

Figure 433: Chart Type dialog showing two-dimensional charts

Make sure that the chart is selected. The chart has a border and selection handles when selected.

Click the Chart Type icon on the Formatting toolbar or go to Format > Chart Type on the Menu bar, or right-click the chart and select Chart Type in the context menu to open Chart Type dialog (Figure 433).

As you change selections in the left-hand list, the chart examples on the right change. You can move the Chart Type dialog to one side to see the effect in the chart.

As you change chart types, other selections become available on the right-hand side. For example, some chart types have both 3D and 2D variants. When 3D Look is selected, more options become available for selection of shapes for the columns or bars.

Choose the chart characteristics you want and click OK to save your changes and return to the edit window.

Continue to format the chart, add data to it, or click outside the chart to return to normal view.

Chart types

The following summary of the chart types available will help you choose a type suitable for your data. Column, bar, pie, and area charts are available as 2D or 3D types. Examples of these types are given in detail in Chapter 3, Creating Charts and Graphs, in the Calc Guide.

Column charts

A column chart shows vertical bars, with the height of each bar proportional to its value. They usually display data that shows trends over time. It is recommended to use column charts where you have a relatively small number of data points. If you have a large time series as your data, it is recommended to use a line chart.

Bar charts

A bar chart is like a column chart that has been shifted 90 degrees. It shows horizontal bars rather than vertical columns. Bar charts give an immediate visual impact for data comparison where time is not important, for example comparing the popularity of products in a marketplace.

Pie charts

A pie chart shows values as sections of a circle. The area of each section is proportional to its value. Pie charts give a comparison of proportions, for example, when comparing what different departments spent on different items or what different departments actually spent overall. They work best with a small range of values, up to about. Using a larger range of values, the visual impact begins to fade.

Area charts

Area charts are versions of line or column charts. They are useful when you want to emphasize volume of change. Area charts have a greater visual impact than a line chart, but use them carefully, because the type of data you use does make a difference to the visual impact.

Line charts

Line charts give time series with progression. They are ideal for raw data and useful for charts with data showing trends or changes over time where you want to emphasize continuity. On line charts, the X-axis is ideal for representing time series data. 3D lines may confuse the viewer, so just using a thicker line gives a better visual impact.

XY (Scatter) charts

Scatter charts are great for visualizing data that you have not had time to analyze and may be best for data where you have a constant value for comparison: for example weather data, reactions under different acidity levels, conditions at altitude, or any data which matches two numeric series. The X-axis usually plots the independent variable or control parameter (often a time series).

Bubble charts

A bubble chart is a variation of a scatter chart that can show three variables in two dimensions. Two variables identify the position of the center of a bubble on a Cartesian graph, while the third variable indicates the radius of the bubble. These charts are often used to present financial data or social/demographic data.

Net charts

Net charts are similar to polar or radar graphs and are useful for comparing data not in time series, but show different circumstances, such as variables in a scientific experiment. The poles of the net chart are the Y-axes of other charts. Generally, between three and eight axes are best; any more and this type of chart becomes confusing.

Stock charts

Stock charts are specialized column graphs specifically used for stocks and shares. You can choose traditional lines, candlestick, and two-column charts. The data required for these charts is specialized with series for opening price, closing price, and high and low prices. The X-axis represents a time series.

Column and line charts

A column and line chart is a combination of two other chart types. It is useful for combining two distinct, but related data series, for example sales over time (column) and the profit margin trends (line).

Entering chart data

Select the chart and then select the chart type.

Click the Data Table icon, or select View > Data Table on the Menu bar, or right-click and select Data Table in the context menu to open the Data Table dialog (Figure 434).

Type or paste information into the cells within the desired rows and columns in the Data Table dialog. You can also use the icons in the top left corner of the Data Table dialog to insert, delete or move data.

Figure 434: Chart Data Table dialog

Adding or removing chart elements

The specimen chart inserted into a document includes two elements: a chart wall and a chart legend (also known as the key). You can add or remove elements to or from a chart.

Make sure the chart is selected and in edit mode.

To add an element to the chart, go to Insert on the Menu bar and select an element in the submenu, or right-click the chart wall or a chart element and select an element in the context menu. Selecting an element opens a dialog where you can specify options for the element.

Note

Right-clicking on a chart element will give you more options to choose from when adding elements to a chart. The number of available insert options in the context menu depends on the type of element selected.

To remove an element from a chart, right-click the chart element you want to remove and select Delete in the context menu. The type of element selected for removal will change the delete options in the context menu. Or, select an element in the chart and press the Del (Delete) key or the Backspace key to remove it from the chart.

Chart formatting

To change the format of a selected chart:

Make sure the chart is selected and in edit mode.

Go to Format on the Menu bar and select on the submenu an element that you want to format, or right-click a chart element and select a format option from the context menu. Selecting an element opens a dialog where you can specify format options for the element.

The formatting options available depend on whether the whole chart is selected or which chart element has been selected.

Resizing and moving charts

You can resize or move a chart interactively or by using the Position and Size dialog. You can also use a combination of both methods.

Resizing

To resize a chart interactively:

Click a chart to select it. Selection handles appear around the chart.

To increase or decrease the height of a chart, click and drag on a selection handle at the top or bottom of the chart.

To increase or decrease the width of a chart, click and drag on a selection handle at the left or right of the chart.

To increase or decrease both the height and width of a chart at the same time, click and drag on a selection handle in one of the corners. To maintain the correct aspect ratio between height and width, hold the Shift key down while you click and drag.

Moving

To move a chart interactively:

Click the chart to select it. Selection handles appear around the chart.

Move the cursor anywhere on the chart other than on a selection handle.

When it changes shape, click and drag the chart to its new location.

Release the mouse button when the chart is in the desired position.

Position and Size dialog

To resize or move a chart using the Position and Size dialog:

Double-click the chart so that it is in edit mode.

Go to Format > Position and Size on the Menu bar, or right-click the chart and select Position and Size in the context menu. For more information on using the Position and Size dialog, see Chapter 11, Images and Graphics.

Outside of the edit mode, it is possible to change the position and size of the chart in the Type page on the Properties dialog. Right-click on the chart and select Properties in the context menu.

Chart elements

You can move or resize individual elements of a chart element independently of other chart elements. For example, you can move the chart legend to a different position. Pie charts allow individual wedges of the pie to be moved as well as “exploding” the entire pie.

Double-click the chart so that it is in edit mode.

Click any chart element to select it. Selection handles appear.

Move the cursor over the selected element and when the cursor changes shape, click and drag to move the element.

Release the mouse button when the element is in the desired position.

Note

If the chart is 3D, round selection handles appear; these handles control the three-dimensional angle of the chart. You cannot resize or reposition the chart while the round selection handles are showing. Shift+click to get back to the square resizing handles. You can now resize and reposition the 3D chart.

Changing chart area background

The chart area is the area surrounding the chart graphic and includes the (optional) main title and key.

Double-click the chart so that it is in edit mode.

Go to Format > Chart Area on the Menu bar, or right-click in the chart area and select Format Chart Area in the context menu, or double-click in the chart area to open the Chart Area dialog.

Click the Area tab and select the button corresponding to the type of background fill you want to use. The available options will change depending on the type of fill selected.

Make your selections and click OK to close the dialog and save the changes.

Changing chart wall background

The chart wall is the area that contains the chart graphic. Keep in mind that some chart types do not use a wall, like the pie chart for example.

Double-click the chart so that it is in edit mode.

Select the chart wall and go to Format > Format Selection on the Menu bar, or right-click in the chart wall and select Format Wall in the context menu, or double-click in the chart wall to open the Chart Wall dialog.

Click the Area tab and proceed as above.

Click OK to close the dialog and save the changes.

Audio and video

Although linked audio and video files are irrelevant when a Writer document is printed, if the document is opened on a computer or exported to PDF or HTML, you can play the files by clicking on the links.

Using media files

To insert a media file into your document:

Choose Insert > Media > Audio or Video on the Menu bar to open the Insert Audio or Video dialog.

Select the media file to insert and click Open to place the object in the document.

Tip

To see a list of audio and video file types supported by Writer, open the drop-down list of file types. This list defaults to All audio and video files, so you can also choose unsupported files such as .mov.

Writer only links media files and does not embed a media file into a document. Therefore if a document is moved to a different computer, any links will be broken and the media files will not play. To prevent this from happening:

Place any media files that are included in a document in the same folder where the document is stored.

Insert the media file in the document.

Send both the document and any media files to the computer which is to be used for the document and place both files in the same folder on that computer.

Using the Gallery

To insert media clips directly from the Gallery:

Go to the Gallery deck on the Sidebar.

Browse to a theme containing media files (for example, Sounds).

Click the movie or sound to be inserted and drag it into the document area.

Media playback

The Media Playback toolbar is automatically opened when a media file is selected. The default position of the toolbar is at the bottom of the workspace, just above the Drawing toolbar. However, this toolbar can be undocked and placed anywhere. If the toolbar does not open, go to View > Toolbars > Media Playback on the Menu bar.

The Media Playback toolbar contains the following tools:

Insert Audio or Video – opens the Insert Audio or Video dialog.

Play, Pause, Stop – controls media playback.

Repeat – if selected, media will continuously repeat playing until this tool is deselected.

Position (Playback slider) – selects the position to start playing from within the media file.

Timer – displays current position of the media clip and length of media file.

Mute – when selected, the sound will be suppressed.

Volume – adjusts the volume of the media file.

Media path – the location of the file on the computer.

View (Scaling drop-down menu) – only available for movies; allows scaling of the clip.

Formulas (equations)

Go to Insert > Object > Formula on the Menu bar to create a formula (equation). A formula can also be inserted as an OLE object; see page 165 for more information.

To easily add numbered formulas in Writer, you can use the AutoText entry fn (for “formula numbered”):

Start a new line in your document.

Type fn and then press the F3 key. A two-column table with no borders is inserted into the document. The left column contains a sample formula and the right column contains a reference number, as shown below.

(1)

Delete the sample formula and insert your formula as an object in the left column.

Alternatively, you can first insert your formula into the document, then carry out Steps 1 and 2 above replacing the sample formula with your formula.

When creating or editing a formula, the Math menu becomes available.

When creating formulas, take care about the font sizes to make sure they are similar in size to fonts used in the document. To change font attributes of a Math object, double-click in the formula to enter edit mode and go to Format > Font Size on the Menu bar. To change font type, use Format > Fonts.

For information on how to create formulas, see the Math Guide or Chapter 9, Getting Started with Math, in the Getting Started Guide.

Writer Guide 7.2

Chapter 20
Customizing Writer

Introduction

This chapter briefly describes some of the setup options found under Tools > Options on the Menu bar in Writer. Additional options, and more details about the ones given here, are covered in the Help and in Chapter 2, Setting up LibreOffice, in the Getting Started Guide. Several of the most relevant options are discussed in other chapters of this book, in the context of tasks where they are most applicable.

This chapter also briefly describes some common customizations that you may wish to do. You can customize menus, toolbars, and keyboard shortcuts, add new menus and toolbars, and assign macros to events. Other customizations are made easy by extensions that you can install from the LibreOffice website or from other providers. You may also choose to activate and use some experimental features; see page 457.

Tip

Many options are intended for power users and programmers. If you don’t understand what an option does, it’s usually best to leave it on the default setting unless instructions in this book recommend changing the setting.

Note

Customizations to menus and toolbars can be saved in a template. To do so, first save them in a document and then save the document as a template as described in Chapter 10, Working with Templates. If you work on more than one project, you may find that having different menus and toolbars can be useful.

Choosing options for all of LibreOffice

This section covers some of the settings that apply to all the components of LibreOffice (Writer, Calc, Impress, Draw, Math, and Base) and that are particularly important when using Writer.

To navigate to options that govern all LibreOffice components, click Tools > Options (LibreOffice > Preferences on macOS) and then click the marker (+ or triangle) by LibreOffice on the left-hand side. A list of pages drops down. Select an item in the list to display the relevant page on the right-hand side of the dialog.

Tip

The Reset button (located in the lower part of any page of the Options dialog) resets the values on that page to the values that were in place when you opened the dialog.

If you are using a version of LibreOffice other than US English, some field labels may be different from those shown in the illustrations.

User data

Because Writer can use the name or initials stored in the LibreOffice – User Data page for several things, including document properties (‘created by’ and ‘last edited by’ information), the name of the author of comments and changes, and the sender address in mailing lists, you will want to ensure that the correct information appears here. If you do not want user data to be part of the document’s properties, deselect Use data for document properties.

View options

The options on the LibreOffice – View page affect how the document window looks and behaves. Set them to suit your personal preferences. For details, see the Help or Chapter 2, Setting up LibreOffice, in the Getting Started Guide.

Print options

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

In the Warnings section on the right side 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.

Figure 435: Choosing general printing options for all 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, a likely cause is incorrect page size in printer settings.

Paths options

On the LibreOffice – Paths page, you can change the location of files associated with, or used by, LibreOffice to suit your needs. For example, you might want to store documents by default somewhere other than My Documents, or you might want to store project templates in folders not in the supplied template paths. Multiple paths are possible, so you can add locations. For more information, see “Paths” in Chapter 2, Setting Up LibreOffice, in the Getting Started Guide,

Fonts options

If you receive a document containing fonts that you do not have on your system, LibreOffice will use substitute fonts for those it does not find. On the LibreOffice – Fonts page, you can specify fonts different from the ones the program chooses.

Tip

Liberation fonts (Serif, Sans, and Mono) are often good choices to substitute for Times, Arial, and Courier.

Note

The choices made here do not affect the default fonts in your documents. To do that, see “Basic Fonts options” on page 438. To change more than the basic fonts, you need to create a new default template for Writer documents; see Chapter 10, Working with Templates

Security options

Use the LibreOffice – Security page to choose security options for saving documents and for opening documents that contain macros. For information on the options not mentioned here, refer to the Help or to the Getting Started Guide.

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 recipients to see that information, you can set warnings to remind you to remove it, or you can have LibreOffice remove some of it automatically. Note that unless the information is removed, much of it is retained even when the file has been saved to other formats, including PDF.

Click the Options button to open a separate dialog with several options, including:

Remove personal information on saving

Select this option to always remove user data from the file properties when saving the file. To save personal information with documents and still be able to manually remove personal information only from specific documents, do not select this option.

Ctrl-click required to open hyperlinks

The default behavior in LibreOffice is that using Ctrl+click a hyperlink opens the linked document or website. This is because many people find writing and editing documents easier when accidental clicks on links do not activate the links. To set LibreOffice to activate hyperlinks using just an ordinary click, deselect this option.

Application colors

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 LibreOffice’s defaults.

On the LibreOffice – Application colors page (Figure 436), you can specify which user interface elements are visible and the colors used to display them.

To show or hide items such as text boundaries, select or deselect the boxes in the On column next to the names of the elements.

To change the default colors for a specific element, click the down-arrow in the Color setting column by the name of the element and select a color from the drop-down list.

To save your color changes as a color scheme, click Save, type a name in the Scheme box, and then click OK.

Note

To change the color settings used in Track Changes mode, go to Tools > Options > LibreOffice Writer > Changes.

Figure 436: Showing or hiding text, object, and table boundaries

Choosing options for loading and saving documents

You can set the options for loading and saving documents to suit the way you work.

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

General

Most of the choices on the Load/Save – General page (Figure 437) are familiar to users of other office suites. Some items of interest are described below.

Load user-specific settings with the document

When a LibreOffice document is saved, certain settings from the user's system are saved with it. When the document is opened on another user’s system, it will use the settings saved from the previous user’s system. Deselecting this option causes the current user’s settings to override the settings previously saved with the document.

Even if you deselect this option, some settings are always loaded with the document:

Settings available in File > Print > Options.

Spacing options for paragraphs before text tables.

Information about automatic updating for links, field functions, and charts.

Information about working with Asian character formats.

Figure 437: Choosing Load and Save options

Note

The settings for any data sources linked to a document are always loaded with the document, whether or not Load user-specific settings with the document is selected.

Load printer settings with the document

If this option is enabled, the printer settings of the previous user will be loaded with the document. In an office setting, this may cause a document to be printed on a distant network printer unless the printer is manually changed in the Print dialog. If disabled, the current user’s default printer will be used to print the document. The current printer settings will be stored with the document whether or not this option is selected.

Save AutoRecovery information every __ minutes

Choose whether to enable AutoRecovery and how often to save the information used by the AutoRecovery process. AutoRecovery in LibreOffice saves the information needed to restore all open documents in case of a crash. If you have this option set, recovering your document after a system crash will be easier.

Edit document properties before saving

If this option is selected, the document’s 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).

Always create backup copy

Saves the previously-saved version of a document as a backup copy in a separate folder whenever you save a document. When LibreOffice creates a new backup copy, the previous backup copy is replaced. The backup copy gets the extension .bak. To see or change the backup folder, go to Tools > Options > LibreOffice > Paths. When opening a backup file, you will be prompted to specify the program to open it with; choose LibreOffice.

Tip

Authors whose work may be very lengthy should always consider enabling LibreOffice to create an automatic backup copy.

Save URLs relative to file system / to internet

Use these options to select the default for relative addressing of URLs in the file system and on the Internet. For details, see Chapter 2, Setting up LibreOffice, in the Getting Started Guide.

Default File Format and ODF Settings

ODF format version: LibreOffice by default saves documents in OpenDocument Format (ODF) version 1.3 Extended. While this allows for improved functionality, there may be backwards compatibility issues. When a file saved in ODF 1.3 Extended is opened in an editor that uses an earlier version of ODF, some of the advanced features may be lost. If you plan to share documents with people who use editors that use older versions of ODF, you may wish to save the document using ODF 1.2 Extended (compatibility mode).

Document type: If you routinely share documents with users of Microsoft Word, you might want to change the Always save as option to one of the Word formats. However, you can choose a Word format when you save any individual file.

VBA properties

On the VBA Properties page, you can choose whether to keep any macros in Microsoft Office documents that are opened in LibreOffice. For details, see Chapter 2, Setting up LibreOffice, in the Getting Started Guide.

Microsoft Office

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 equations or spreadsheets): convert them into or from the corresponding LibreOffice OLE object or load and save them in their original format. For details, see Chapter 2, Setting up LibreOffice, in the Getting Started Guide.

HTML compatibility

Choices made on the Load/Save – HTML Compatibility page affect HTML pages imported into LibreOffice and those exported from LibreOffice. See HTML import and export in the Help, and Chapter 2, Setting up LibreOffice, in the Getting Started Guide, for more information.

Choosing Writer-specific options

Settings chosen in the LibreOffice Writer section of the Options dialog determine how Writer documents look and behave while you are working on them.

If the Options dialog is not already open, choose Tools > Options. Click the marker (+ or triangle) by LibreOffice Writer on the left side of the dialog.

General options

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

Automatically Update [Fields and Charts]

You may not want fields or charts to update automatically while you are working, because that slows down performance. Alternatively, you may want automatic updates if you are referring to information in the fields or charts.

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 try to update when you are not connected to the network.

Figure 438: Choosing general options for Writer

Settings – Measurement unit

Document designers recommend using points as the default measurement because you can easily relate things like font size to things like indents and tabs.

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 Toolbar, which affect the indentation of entire paragraphs.

Tip

To avoid unwanted changes, do not rely on default tab settings. Rather, define your own tabs in paragraph styles or individual paragraphs (see “Setting tab stops and indents” in Chapter 4, Formatting Text).

Word Count – Additional separators

For counting words, specifies the characters that are considered to separate words, in addition to spaces, tabs, line breaks, and paragraph breaks.

Word Count – Show standardized page count

Editors and publishers often define a “standard” page as containing a specified number of characters or words; this field allows quick calculation of the number of these pages.

View options

Two pages of options set the defaults for viewing Writer documents: View (described here) and Formatting Aids (described below). View is a good page to check if, for example, you cannot see graphics on the screen.

Guides – Helplines While Moving

Helplines assist with precisely position a frame or drawing object on a page. When enabled, horizontal and vertical lines appear that are the height and width of a selected object. These lines extend across the complete working area as the object is moved.

Display Fields – Hidden text

Display text that is hidden by Conditional Text or Hidden Text fields.

Display Fields – Hidden paragraphs

Display paragraphs that contain a Hidden Paragraph field. This option has the same function as the menu command View > Field Hidden Paragraphs.

Display tracked changes

Tracked deletions in margin: By default, deletions are shown in the text with a strikethrough font. To show deletions in the margin, not in the text, select this option.

Tooltips on tracked changes: When this option is selected, hold the mouse pointer over a tracked change to show the type of change, the author, date, and time of day for the change. To hide these tooltips, deselect this option.

If you have activated experimental features, another option (Outline Folding) is shown under View. See “Using experimental features” on page 457.

The other options should be self-explanatory. If not, please refer to the Help.

Figure 439: Choosing default View options for Writer

Formatting Aids options

On the LibreOffice Writer – Formatting Aids page (Figure 440), select the desired options.

Layout Assistance – Math baseline alignment

To set the default vertical alignment for formula (Math) objects to use the text base line as a reference, select this option. To enable changing the vertical positioning of objects, deselect this option; you can then set the position for individual objects. See the Math Guide for more information.

Display Formatting

The Display Formatting options determine which symbols show when you select View > Formatting Marks on the Menu bar or the Formatting Marks icon on the Standard toolbar. Symbols such as paragraph ends and tabs can help in writing, editing, and page layout. For example, they can show if there are any blank paragraphs or if any tables or graphics are too wide and intrude into the margins of the page.

Direct Cursor

Direct Cursor lets you enter text, images, tables, frames, and other objects in any blank area in your document. Writer then inserts your choice of tabs, spaces, indents, and so on to position the text or objects. For details on these choices, please see the Help.

Note

The direct cursor feature can lead to many formatting oddities and is incompatible with rigorous use of styles.

Image – Anchor

You can choose the default anchor for newly added images: To Paragraph, To Character, or As Character. For more about anchoring images, see Chapter 11, Images and Graphics.

Figure 440: Choosing default Formatting Aids options

Grid options

Snap to grid automatically moves an object to the nearest gridlines. This can be very helpful when you are trying to align several objects such as graphics or tables.

On the LibreOffice Writer – Grid page (Figure 441), 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.

Figure 441: Choosing Grid options for Writer

Basic Fonts options

On the LibreOffice Writer – Basic Fonts (Western) page (Figure 442), you can choose the fonts and font sizes for the Default Paragraph Style, headings, lists, captions, and indexes. These values are applied to new documents unless different settings are selected in the document itself or defined in the document’s template.

To reset the values to the defaults when LibreOffice was installed, click the Default button.

If Asian and/or CTL have been activated in Languages, extra pages are provided for their font options.

Figure 442: Choosing basic (default) fonts

Print options

On the LibreOffice Writer – Print page, you can choose which items are printed with a Writer document by default. These options are in addition to the general options for all LibreOffice components on the LibreOffice – Print page (see page 430).

Figure 443: Choosing default Print options for Writer

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 option 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 gray (dithered).

By comparison, the Convert colors to grayscale option on the Options – LibreOffice – Print page (Figure 435), prints all text and graphics as grayscale on color printers. (On black-and-white printers, color in graphics normally prints as grayscale.)

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.

Tip

You can override any of these defaults when printing a specific document. Click File > Print, then use the options on the various pages of the Print dialog.

Table options

On the LibreOffice Writer – Table page (Figure 444), you can specify the default behavior of tables. See the Help or Chapter 13, Tables of Data, for more information.

Figure 444: Choosing default Table options

Some considerations:

If most of your tables will require borders or headings, you may wish to select those options. If most of your tables are used for page layout, deselect Border and Heading.

Select Do not split to prevent tables from being split across pages. 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 may 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. If you don’t use keyboard shortcuts for this purpose, you can ignore these settings. See the Help for more information.

The Behavior of rows/columns section specifies 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.

Changes options

If you plan to use the change-tracking feature of Writer (described in Chapter 3, Working with Text: Advanced), use the LibreOffice Writer – Changes page (Figure 445) to choose the way changes to text and formatting are marked. Change bars can show wherever a change has been made to a line of text and are formatted under Lines Changed.

Figure 445: Choosing options for tracking changes

Comparison options

The options on the LibreOffice Writer – Comparison page determine the level of detail used by the Compare Document feature (Edit > Track Changes > Compare Document), described in Chapter 3, Working with Text: Advanced.

Figure 446: Choosing options for comparing documents

Compatibility options

The settings on the LibreOffice Writer – Compatibility page (Figure 447) are used mainly when importing documents from Microsoft Word. If you are not sure about the effects of these settings, leave them as the defaults provided by LibreOffice. For information about settings that are not described below, see the Help. All settings selected will apply only to the current document, unless you select the Use as Default button at the bottom.

Figure 447: Choosing compatibility options

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

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. It is most useful with PostScript printers.

Add spacing between paragraphs and tables

Paragraph spacing is treated differently in LibreOffice Writer than it is in Microsoft Word. If you have defined spacing between paragraphs or tables in LibreOffice, this spacing is added to the spacing defined in Microsoft Word. This only affects the current document.

If this option is selected, Microsoft Word-compatible spacing is added between paragraphs and tables in LibreOffice Writer documents.

Add paragraph and table spacing at tops of pages

You can define paragraphs and tables 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, or if the paragraph is positioned on the first page of the document, or after a manual page break. This only affects the current document.

If you import a Microsoft 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 settings on this page as the default in Writer.

AutoCaption options

LibreOffice can automatically insert captions for tables, pictures, frames, and OLE objects in a Writer document. To set this up, use the options on the LibreOffice Writer > AutoCaption page. Select the object you want to be automatically captioned (LibreOffice Writer Image in Figure 448). With the item highlighted, specify the characteristics of the caption.

The categories supplied for captions are Drawing, Illustration, Table, and Text. To use another name (for example, Figure) for the caption label, type the required term in the Category box.

Note

You may not 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 > Insert Caption).

Information about numbering captions by chapter, character styles, frame styles, and other items on the AutoCaption page is given in other chapters in this book.

Figure 448: Setting up automatic captions

Mail Merge Email options

Using a data source such as an address book, Writer can insert personal, address, and other information into form letters. These documents can be printed for mailing or they can be emailed through Writer. (See Chapter 14, Mail Merge, for details.)

Use the LibreOffice Writer – Mail Merge Email page to set up the user and server information for sending form letters by email. If you are not sure what information to put in any of the fields, consult your email program or your internet service provider.

Figure 449: Specifying settings for use when emailing mail-merged form letters

Choosing language settings

You may need to do several things to get the language settings you want:

Install the required dictionaries.

Change some locale and language settings.

Choose spelling and grammar options.

Install the required dictionaries

LibreOffice automatically installs many language modules with the program. A language module can contain up to three submodules: spelling dictionary, hyphenation dictionary, and thesaurus. These are usually referred to as “dictionaries” in Writer.

To add other dictionaries, be sure you are connected to the Internet, and then choose Tools > Language > More Dictionaries Online on the Menu bar. LibreOffice 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 LibreOffice uses for all documents or for specific documents. See the Help for details on all these options.

In the Options dialog, click the expansion symbol (+ sign or triangle) by Language Settings and choose Languages.

On the right-hand side of the Language Settings – Languages page (Figure 450), change the settings as required. In the example, English (USA) has been chosen for all the appropriate settings, but you could choose a mixture of languages. For example, if you were working in Germany, you might prefer the user interface to be in English (USA), but German (Germany) for the Locale setting, which influences settings for numbering, currency, and units of measure.

If you want the language setting to apply to the current document only, instead of being the default for all new documents, select For the current document only.

Figure 450: Choosing language options

Changes to the system input language normally affect text typed into a document after the change. If you do not want this to happen, select Ignore system input language; new text will then continue to follow the language of the document or the paragraph, not the system language.

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 the Options dialog, you will see some extra pages under Language Settings. These pages are not discussed here.

Choose spelling and grammar options

To change the options for checking spelling and grammar, use the Language Settings > Writing Aids page (Figure 451).

Some considerations:

If you do not want spelling checked while you type, deselect Check spelling as you type. (You can over-ride this setting in a document using Tools > Automatic Spell Checking on the Menu bar or the Toggle Automatic Spell Checking icon on the Standard toolbar.)

If you want grammar to be checked as you type, you must have Check spelling as you type enabled too.

Check special regions means that text in headers, footers, frames, and tables are also checked when checking spelling.

Here you can also select which of the user-defined (custom) dictionaries are active, add a new custom dictionary, edit dictionaries, and delete custom dictionaries. Dictionaries installed by the system cannot be deleted. For details on using the Available Language Modules and User-defined Dictionaries sections, please see the Help.

Tip

When checking spelling, words marked “Add to Dictionary” are added by default to the standard dictionary. Words marked “Ignore All” are added to the List of Ignored Words dictionary. See Chapter 2, Working with Text: Basics.

Figure 451: Choosing languages, dictionaries, and options for checking spelling

Sentence checking

LibreOffice can check sentences in many languages. These checkers are enabled by default if the language is the computer’s default language, and others can be added using the Extension Manager (see page 454). The set of rules available for the sentence checkers depends on the language.

English sentence checking

On the Language Settings > English Sentence Checking page (Figure 452), you can choose which items are checked for, reported to you, or converted automatically. This menu is also found in the English dictionaries extension installed by default by LibreOffice (select Tools > Extension Manager, select English spelling dictionaries and click the Options button to reveal the menu). Select which of the optional features you wish to check. These are described in Chapter 2, Working with Text: Basics.

After selecting the additional grammar checks, you must restart LibreOffice, or reload the document, for them to take effect.

Figure 452: Choosing options for checking sentences in English

Defining and using custom dictionaries

You can add a variety of custom (user-defined) dictionaries, including a dictionary of exceptions (words to be avoided, which will be marked as incorrect) or dictionaries of project-specific terms (words that will not be marked as incorrect). You can then select which, if any, of these custom dictionaries to use (in addition to a standard dictionary) when setting up a document.

For more information, see “Writing Aids” in the Help.

Selecting the user interface

By default, LibreOffice Writer’s commands are grouped in cascading menus and in toolbars filled with icons—the standard user interface described in Chapter 1. In addition, Writer provides other user interface variations, displaying contextual groups of commands and contents. These are described in Chapter 21, User Interface Variants.

When you set up Writer, you can choose one of these user interfaces, and you can switch between them and the standard interface at any time.

Choose View > User Interface on the Menu bar.

On the Select Your Preferred User Interface dialog (Figure 453), choose one of the variants on the left. An example of the variant is shown in the Preview box on the right, along with a short description.

Choose the relevant button to apply your selection to all components of LibreOffice, or only to Writer.

Click Close to close the dialog and apply your selection. The Writer window changes to match your selection.

Tips

Several of the UI variants are collectively known as the Notebook bar. You can find more information about these variants in the Help system, by searching for “notebook bar” in the index, or see Chapter 21, User Interface Variants.

If you have activated experimental features (see page 457), several more choices appear on the left-hand side.

Figure 453: Selecting a user interface

Customizing menus

You can add to and rearrange menus on the Menu bar, add commands to menus, and make other changes. You can also modify context (right-click) menus in a similar way.

To customize a menu, choose Tools > Customize. On the Customize dialog, go to the Menus tab (Figure 454) or the Context Menus tab.

Figure 454: The Menus tab of the Customize dialog

Modifying an existing menu

In the Scope drop-down list in the upper right of the Customize dialog, choose whether to apply the customized menu to all of LibreOffice Writer or only to a specific document.

In the Target drop-down list, select the menu that you want to customize. The list includes the main menus and submenus. The commands on the selected menu are shown in the Assigned Commands list.

To add a command to the selected menu, click on a command in the Available Commands list and then click the large right arrow. You can narrow the search by using the Search box on the top left or selecting the Category in the drop-down list. Use the up and down arrows on the right-hand side to move the command into the position where you want it in the list.

To remove a command from the selected menu, click on it in the Assigned Commands list and then click the large left arrow.

To insert a separator or submenu, select the item directly before where you want the inserted item to appear, and use the commands in the Insert drop-down.

Figure 455: Insert drop-down

To rename a menu item, select it in the Assigned Commands list and choose Rename in the Modify drop-down.

Figure 456: Modify drop-down

When you have finished making all your changes, click OK to save them.

Creating a new menu

You might find a “Favorites” menu useful, or a menu collecting tools for a specific project. To create a new menu:

On the Menus tab of the Customize dialog, click the symbol next to Target and select Add in the drop-down list (Figure 457) to display the New Menu dialog (Figure 458).

Figure 457: Location of command to add a new menu

Type a name for the new menu in the Menu name box.

Use the up and down arrow buttons to move the new menu into the required position on the Menu bar.

Click OK to save and return to the Customize dialog.

The new menu now appears on the list of menus in the Customize dialog. It will appear on the Menu bar itself after you save your customizations.

After creating a new menu, you need to add some commands to it, as described above for modifying a menu.

Figure 458: Adding a new menu

Customizing toolbars

You can customize toolbars in several ways, including choosing which icons are visible and locking the position of a docked toolbar (as described in Chapter 1, Introducing Writer), and adding or deleting icons (commands) in the list of those available on a toolbar. You can also create new toolbars.

Modifying existing toolbars

The procedures for creating and modifying a toolbar are similar to those for menus.

Choose Tools > Customize on the Menu bar.

On the Toolbars tab of the Customize dialog (Figure 459), in the Scope drop-down list on the upper right, choose whether to save this changed toolbar for Writer or for a selected document.

In the Target drop-down list, select the toolbar that you want to customize. The current toolbar content is displayed in the Assigned Commands list.

Figure 459: The Toolbars tab of the Customize dialog

Select a command in the Available Commands list on the left. You can narrow your search by using the Search box on the top left or choosing a category in the drop-down list just below.

Click on the large right arrow to add the selected command to the Assigned Commands list for the toolbar (on the right). Use the up and down arrows in the far right to position the command in the toolbar.

To remove a command from a toolbar, select it in the Assigned Commands list on the right and click the large left arrow.

To show or hide a command assigned to a toolbar, select or clear the checkbox by its icon in the Assigned Commands list on the right.

To insert a separator, select the item directly before where you want the separator to appear, and use the command in the Insert drop-down.

To rename a toolbar item, select it in the Assigned Commands list and choose Rename in the Modify drop-down.

When you have finished making all your changes, click OK to save them.

Creating a new toolbar

To create a new toolbar:

Choose Tools > Customize on the Menu bar.

On the Toolbars tab of the Customize dialog, click the symbol next to Target and select Add in the list, to display the Name dialog.

On the Name dialog, type the new toolbar's name and choose in the Save In drop-down list where to save this new toolbar: for Writer or for a selected document.

The new toolbar now appears on the list of toolbars in the Customize dialog. After creating a new toolbar, you need to add some commands to it, as described above.

Choosing icons for toolbar commands

Toolbar buttons usually have icons, not words, on them, but not all of the commands have associated icons. If the command does not have an icon, you can choose an icon for it. To choose an icon, select the command in the list on the right, and click Modify > Change Icon. On the Change Icon dialog (Figure 460), scroll through the available icons, select one, and click OK to assign it to the command.

To use a custom icon, create it in a graphics program and import it into LibreOffice by clicking the Import button on the Change Icon dialog. Custom icons should be 16×16 pixels in size to achieve the best quality and should not contain more than 256 colors.

Figure 460: Change Icon dialog

Customizing the Tabbed user interface

As mentioned in “Selecting the user interface” on page 446, one of the choices is Tabbed. In this mode, the area at the top of the workspace is divided into tabs, where each tab displays a set of icons grouped by context. The context can change depending on the object selected in the document, for example a table or an image.

Use the checkboxes on the Notebookbar tab of the Customize dialog (Figure 461) to show and hide the individual options on the various tabs that are provided in the Tabbed mode user interface.

Use the Reset button to reset the Tabbed mode of the notebook bar configuration to the default settings.

Note

LibreOffice has three notebook bar modes that can be selected through the View > User Interface dialog – Tabbed, Tabbed Compact, and Groupedbar Compact. However, only the Tabbed mode can be modified.

Figure 461: The Notebookbar tab of the Customize dialog

Assigning shortcut keys

In addition to using the built-in keyboard shortcuts, you can define others. You can assign shortcuts to standard LibreOffice functions or your own macros and save them for use with Writer or with the entire LibreOffice suite.

To adapt shortcut keys to your needs, use the Keyboard tab of the Customize dialog (Figure 462).

Choose whether to have the shortcut key assignment available in all components of LibreOffice or only in Writer.

Select the desired shortcut key in the Shortcut Keys list at the top of the page.

Select the required function in the Category and Function lists.

Click the Modify button. The selection now appears in the Keys list on the lower right.

Click OK to accept the change.

Repeat as required.

Caution

Avoid reassigning your operating system’s predefined shortcut keys.

Figure 462: Defining keyboard shortcuts for applying styles

Note

Shortcut keys that are grayed-out in the listing on the Customize dialog, such as F1 and F10, are not available for reassignment.

Saving changes to a file

Changes to the shortcut key assignments can be saved in a keyboard configuration file for use at a later time, so you can create and apply different configurations as needed. To save keyboard shortcuts to a file:

After making keyboard shortcut assignments, click the Save button at the right of the Customize dialog (Figure 462).

On the Save Keyboard Configuration dialog, type a name for the keyboard configuration file in the File name box, or select an existing file from the list. Browse to the location where you want to save the file. (The file extension is .cfg for Configuration.)

Click Save. A confirmation dialog appears if you are about to overwrite an existing file, otherwise there will be no feedback and the file will be saved.

Loading a saved keyboard configuration

To load a saved keyboard configuration file and replace your existing configuration, click the Load button on the Customize dialog, and then select the configuration file on the Load Keyboard Configuration dialog.

Resetting the shortcut keys

To reset all of the keyboard shortcuts to their default values, click the Reset button on the Customize dialog. Use this feature with care; no confirmation dialog will be displayed.

Assigning macros to events

In LibreOffice, when something happens, we say that an event occurred. For example, a document is opened, a key is pressed, or the mouse moved. You can associate a macro with an event, so the macro is run when the event occurs. For example, a common use is to assign the “open document” event to run a macro that performs certain setup tasks for the document.

To associate a macro with an event, use the Events tab of the Customize dialog. For more information, see Chapter 13, Getting Started with Macros, in the Getting Started Guide.

Adding functionality with extensions

An extension is a package that can be installed into LibreOffice to add new functionality. Template sets, spelling dictionaries, clipart galleries, macros, and dialog libraries can be packaged as LibreOffice extensions. They can add new top-level menus, submenus or toolbar icons. Extensions may also have their own settings, available from the extension manager.

Several extensions are shipped bundled with LibreOffice and are installed with the program. These can only be removed by changing the installation options. Others can be downloaded from various websites. The official extension repository is located at https://extensions.libreoffice.org/. These extensions are free of charge.

Some extensions from other sources are free of charge; others are available for a fee. Check the descriptions to see what licenses and fees apply to the ones that interest you.

Download the extension to your computer in any folder that you want (usually folder Download).

Installing extensions

To install an extension that is listed in the repository, follow these steps:

In LibreOffice, select Tools > Extension Manager on the Menu bar.

In the Extension Manager dialog (Figure 463), click Get more extensions online.

A browser window opens. Find and select the extension you want to install and download it to your computer.

After the extension is downloaded and saved, return to the Extension Manager dialog and click Add. Find and select the extension you want to install and click Open. The extension begins installing. You may be asked to accept a license agreement.

When the installation is complete, the extension is listed in the Extension Manager dialog.

To install an extension that is not listed in the repository, download the extension, then continue with step 3 above.

Updating extensions

Click the Check for Updates button on the Extension Manager dialog to check for updates to installed extensions.

Figure 463: Using the Extension Manager

Removing and disabling extensions

To remove (uninstall) an extension that you installed, select the extension in the main window of the Extension Manager dialog and click the Remove button.

To disable an extension without removing (uninstalling) it, select the extension in the main window of the Extension Manager dialog and click the Disable button, which then changes to Enable.

Adding fonts

LibreOffice supports PostScript (.pfb), TrueType (.ttf), and OpenType (.otf) font file formats. Other font formats exist, and may be supported by your operating system, but these formats may be limited in selection and quality.

If you have administration privileges, you can install additional fonts through your operating system; they will then be available for use by LibreOffice and will appear in Writer’s font lists.

Finding free-licensed fonts

In addition to proprietary fonts from sources like Adobe, hundreds of free-licensed fonts are available. You can use, share, and edit free-licensed fonts as you please. Most are available at no cost. Many are clones or near-variations of classic fonts, but some are original fonts.

Many Linux distributions include a few free-licensed fonts in their package repositories. Other places where you can find free-licensed fonts include The League of Moveable Type (https://www.theleagueofmoveabletype.com/) and the Font Library (https://fontlibrary.org/).

Adding custom colors

To add custom colors to a color palette, for example to exactly match a corporate color scheme, follow this procedure:

Insert any drawing object, such as a square, into any document.

Right-click on the object and choose Area in the context menu.

Go to the Color tab (Figure 464). Under Colors > Palette, choose which palette you wish to add the new color to. Under New, define the new color using RGB or Hex notation, or click the Pick button to select the color on the Pick a Color dialog (Figure 465).

Figure 464: Defining a new color

Click Add in the lower left corner, enter a name for the new color in the pop-up dialog, and click OK to save.

Delete the drawing object from the document, if it is not needed.

Figure 465: Defining a color by picking it from a color chart

Using experimental features

On the Tools > Options > LibreOffice > Advanced dialog, in the Optional Features section near the bottom, is Enable experimental features (may be unstable). Experimental features may not yet be complete or may contain known bugs. These features may be different in each version of LibreOffice.

Figure 466: Bottom section of Tools > Options > LibreOffice > Advanced dialog

Some experimental features that may be of interest to users of Writer are:

On the Sidebar, two additional decks are available: Manage Changes and Design. These decks are not covered in this book.

Outline Folding: An extra option (Show outline-folding buttons) is available in Tools > Options > LibreOffice Writer > View (Figure 439). When this option is selected, a button with an arrow is visible near any selected heading in your document. Click on it to fold all text from the current heading to the next heading. If Include sub levels is also selected, clicking on a heading folds all text from that heading to the next same-level heading with all its subheadings.

Writer Guide 7.2

Chapter 21
User Interface Variants

Introduction

By default, LibreOffice Writer’s commands are grouped in cascading menus and in toolbars filled with icons—the standard user interface described in Chapter 1. These menus and toolbars are described in the chapters that discuss the related tasks and functions.

In addition, Writer provides other user interface variants, displaying contextual groups of commands and contents. This chapter describes these user interface variants and provides a quick reference to the location of the tools and functions when using each of the variants.

Selecting the user interface

When you set up Writer, you can choose one of these user interfaces, and you can switch between them and the standard interface at any time.

Choose View > User Interface on the Menu bar.

On the Select Your Preferred User Interface dialog (Figure 467), choose one of the variants on the left. An example of the variant is shown in the Preview box on the right, along with a short description.

Choose the relevant button to apply your selection to all components of LibreOffice, or only to Writer. The Writer window changes to match your selection.

Click Close to close the dialog.

Figure 467: Selecting a user interface

If you have activated experimental features (Tools > Options > Advanced), several more choices appear on the left-hand side. These choices are not described here.

Standard interfaces

Three of the user interface choices in Figure 467 are described in Chapter 1, Introducing Writer.

Standard toolbar

Classic mode with two visible toolbars: standard and formatting. The sidebar shows only its tabs.

Single toolbar

Only one toolbar with frequently used features. The sidebar shows only its Hide button.

Sidebar

The sidebar is fully opened and only one toolbar (Formatting) is showing.

The elements on each of the standard user interfaces can be modified using the View menu on the Menu bar.

Tabbed interface

The Tabbed interface (Figure 468) provides a familiar interface for users coming from proprietary office suites such as Microsoft Office. It includes a Menu bar, an Icon bar, a Tab bar, icons for the active tab, one or more tab-specific menus, and a Quick Menu. On Windows and Linux, the Menu bar can be hidden or displayed by clicking on the Menu Bar icon in the Icon bar (Figure 470).

1 Icon bar 2 Active tab 3 Icons on active tab 4 Tabs 5 Tab menus 6 Quick menu Figure 468: Tabbed Interface with Menu bar hidden

In Writer, this user interface variant includes nine fixed tabs and five additional tabs. Each tab displays a set of icons grouped by context. The context can change depending on the location of the cursor or the item selected. Each tab also includes one or more tab-specific drop-down menus at the right-hand end. The Quick Menu is the same for all tabs.

The Tabbed interface can be customized using the Notebookbar tab of the Customize dialog to show and hide the individual icons on the various tabs. See Chapter 20, Customizing Writer, for more information.

If the icons on a tab do not fit into the width of the Writer window, >> appears at the end of the row. Click it to display the other commands (Figure 469).

Figure 469: Displaying more commands on a tab

Icon bar

The icon bar (Figure 470) is located at the top left of the tabs.

Figure 470: Tabs – Icon box

1 Menu bar – Show / Hide the menu bar.

2 Open (Ctrl+O) – Open a file browser, where you can select the file to be opened.

3 Save (Ctrl+S) – Save the open file.

4 Undo (Ctrl+Z) – Undo the last action performed.

5 Redo (Ctrl+Y) – Redo the last undone action.

6 Print (Ctrl+P) – Open the Print dialog.

Quick menu

At the right-hand end of the tab bar is a Quick menu (Figure 471) containing some commonly used commands and links. Some of the Quick menu items have submenus, indicated by arrows on the right.

Figure 471: Quick menu

Fixed tabs

The fixed tabs in Writer are File, Home, Insert, Layout, References, Review, View, Extension, and Tools. The tabs are described on the following pages. The illustrations show the left and right ends of the tabs separately so they are large enough to more easily see the commands.

File tab

The File tab (Figure 472) includes commands to create new documents; open, save, print, and close documents; manage templates; export to PDF and EPUB; display document properties; add a digital signature; and sign an existing PDF.

Figure 472: Tabbed Interface – File tab

The File tab has two menus (Figure 473): File and Help. The File menu contains the same commands as the icons on the tab. The Help menu provides links to a variety of resources.

Figure 473: File tab menus

Home tab

The Home tab (Figure 474) includes commands to cut, copy, paste, and format text; insert common items (image, table, special characters, and page break); apply, update, and edit styles; and others.

Figure 474: Tabbed Interface – Home tab

The Home tab menu (Figure 475) provides additional commands that are not on the tab.

Figure 475: Home tab menu

Insert tab

The Insert tab (Figure 476) includes commands to insert many commonly used items.

Figure 476: Tabbed Interface – Insert tab

The Insert tab menu (Figure 477) provides some of the same commands.

Figure 477: Insert tab menu

Layout tab

The Layout tab (Figure 478) provides commands for working on page layout.

Figure 478: Tabbed Interface – Layout tab

The Layout tab menu (Figure 479) provides commands for a few of the same items.

Figure 479: Layout tab menu

References tab

The References tab (Figure 480) provides commands for working with tables of contents, indexes, footnotes and endnotes, cross-references, bibliographies, and fields.

Figure 480: Tabbed Interface – References tab

The References tab menu (Figure 481) provides many of the same commands.

Figure 481: References tab menu

Review tab

The Review tab (Figure 482) assists in editing. It provides quick access to recording, showing, hiding, and managing changes.

Figure 482: Tabbed Interface – Review tab

The Review tab menu (Figure 483) provides many of the same commands.

Figure 483: Review tab menu

View tab

The View tab (Figure 484) provides commands related to the display of a document on screen.

Figure 484: Tabbed Interface – View tab

The View tab menu (Figure 485) provides many of the same commands.

Figure 485: View tab menu

Extension tab

The Extension tab (Figure 486) contains only the menu for accessing the Extension Manager.

Figure 486: Tabbed Interface – Extension tab

Tools tab

The Tools tab (Figure 487) provides several tools for macros, mail merge, and form creation.

Figure 487: Tabbed Interface – Tools tab

The Tools tab menu (Figure 488) provides some of the same commands.

Figure 488: Tools tab menu

Additional tabs

Additional tabs appear when an item is selected; they are displayed between the View and Extension tabs. The additional tabs in Writer are Draw, Image, Media, Object, and Table.

Draw tab

The Draw tab (Figure 489) is displayed when a drawing object is selected. It provides commands for captioning and modifying the drawing object and for inserting and modifying Fontwork objects.

Figure 489: Tabbed Interface – Draw tab

The Draw tab menu (Figure 490) provides a subset of commands, which vary depending on the drawing object.

Figure 490: Draw tab menu examples

Image tab

The Image tab (Figure 491) provides commands for working with images, including captions, cropping, borders and area styles and colors, anchors, wrapping, positioning, and filtering.

Figure 491: Tabbed Interface – Image tab

The Image tab menu (Figure 492) provides links to dialogs for working with images.

Figure 492: Image tab menu

Media tab

The Media tab (Figure 493) provides commands for positioning and running an audio or video file.

Figure 493: Tabbed Interface – Media tab

The Media tab menu (Figure 494) provides some of the same commands

Figure 494: Media tab menu

Object tab

The Object tab (Figure 495) provides commands to position, resize, link, choose colors and borders for the selected object. The illustration shows the tab when a frame is selected.

Figure 495: Tabbed Interface – Object tab

The Object tab menu (Figure 496) provides a few of the same commands. The illustration shows the menu when a frame is selected.

Figure 496: Object tab menu

Table tab

The Table tab (Figure 497) is opened when the cursor is in a table.

Figure 497: Tabbed Interface – Table tab

The Table tab menu (Figure 498) includes some commands not shown on the tab.

Figure 498: Table tab menu

Tabbed Compact interface

The Tabbed Compact interface has the same tabs as the Tabbed interface, but the commands on each tab are arranged in a single row of icons, many with drop-down menus of choices.

Figure 499: Tabbed Compact interface example: Insert tab

Groupedbar Compact interface

The Groupedbar Compact interface (Figure 500) is divided into groups that contain commands organized as sets of icons and menus.

Figure 500: Groupedbar Compact interface example

The Groupedbar menu (Figure 501) provides a subset of commands, including a convenient way to change the user interface.

Figure 501: Groupedbar menu

Contextual Single interface

The Contextual Single interface displays a standard Menu bar and a single toolbar with context-dependent content.