Writer Guide

3

Chapter
Working with Text

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separately.)CopyrightThis document is Copyright © 2005–2010 by its contributors as listed
in the section titled Authors. You may distribute it and/or modify it
under the terms of either the GNU General Public License, version 3 orlater, or the Creative Commons Attribution License, version 3.0 or
later.
All trademarks within this guide belong to their legitimate owners.

Authors
Jean Hollis WeberAgnes Belzunce
Daniel Carrera
Laurent Duperval
Katharina GreifPeter Hillier-Brook
Michael KotsarinisPeter Kupfer
Iain Roberts
Gary Schnabl
Barbara M. Tobias
Michele Zarri

Feedback
Please direct any comments or suggestions about this document to:authors@documentation.openoffice.org

Publication date and software version
Published 25 March 2010. Based on OpenOffice.org 3.2.

You can download
an editable version of this document fromhttp://oooauthors.org/english/userguide3/published/

Contents
Copyright............................................................................................... 2
Introduction........................................................................................... 5
Selecting text......................................................................................... 5
Selecting items that are not consecutive............................................5
Selecting a vertical block of text.........................................................6
Cutting, copying, and pasting text.........................................................7
Finding and replacing text.....................................................................8
Find and replace specific formatting..................................................9
Find and replace paragraph styles....................................................10
Use wildcards (regular expressions).................................................10
Inserting special characters.................................................................12
Inserting non-breaking spaces and hyphens.....................................13
Inserting en and em dashes..............................................................13
Formatting paragraphs........................................................................14
Setting tab stops and indents...........................................................16
Changing the default tab stop interval.............................................17
Formatting characters.........................................................................18
Autoformatting..................................................................................... 18
Creating numbered or bulleted lists....................................................20
Using the Bullets and Numbering toolbar........................................20
Example: configuring a nested list....................................................21
Using footnotes and endnotes..............................................................24
Inserting footnotes/endnotes............................................................24
Defining the format of footnotes/endnotes........................................25
Checking spelling and grammar..........................................................25
Using built-in language tools...............................................................27
Using the thesaurus............................................................................. 29
Hyphenating words..............................................................................29
Automatic hyphenation.....................................................................30
Manual hyphenation.........................................................................31
Using AutoCorrect...............................................................................32
Working with Text

3

Using word completion........................................................................33
Using AutoText..................................................................................... 34
Line numbering.................................................................................... 34
Tracking changes to a document.........................................................35
Preparing a document for review.....................................................36
Recording changes............................................................................ 36
Accepting or rejecting changes.........................................................37
Merging modified documents...........................................................39
Comparing documents......................................................................39
Adding other comments.......................................................................39
Linking to another part of a document.................................................41
Using cross-references.....................................................................41
Using bookmarks..............................................................................41
Using hyperlinks............................................................................... 42
Inserting hyperlinks using the Navigator.........................................42
Inserting hyperlinks using a dialog box............................................43
Editing hyperlinks............................................................................. 45
Switching between insert and overwrite mode....................................45
Counting the words in a selection........................................................46

4

Working with Text

Introduction
This chapter covers the basics of working with text in Writer, the wordprocessing component of OpenOffice.org (OOo). It assumes that you
are familiar with the use of a mouse and keyboard and that you haveread about Writer’s menus and toolbars and other topics covered in
Chapter 1 (Introducing Writer).
We recommend that you also follow the suggestions in Chapter 2(Setting up Writer) about displaying formatting aids, such as end-ofparagraph marks, and selecting other setup options.
When you have read this chapter, you should know how to:• Select, cut, copy, paste, and move text
• Find and replace text
• Insert special characters• Format paragraphs and characters• Create numbered or bulleted lists• Check spelling, use the thesaurus, and choose hyphenation
options• Use the autocorrection, word completion, autotext, and line
numbering features• Track changes, undo and redo changes, and insert notes• Link to other parts of a document

Selecting text
Before you can do anything with text, you need to select it. Selecting
text in Writer is similar to selecting anything in other applications.
In addition to selecting blocks of text, you can select items that are notconsecutive, and columns (vertical blocks) of text.

Selecting items that are not consecutive
To select nonconsecutive items (as shown in Figure 1) using themouse:
1) Select the first piece of text.
2) Hold down the Control (Ctrl) key and use the mouse to select thenext piece of text.
3) Repeat as often as needed.

Selecting text5

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

Macintosh users: substitute the Command key when
instructions in this chapter say to use the Control key.

To select nonconsecutive items using the keyboard:
1) Select the first piece of text. (For more information about
keyboard selection of text, see the topic “Navigating and
Selecting with the Keyboard” in the OpenOffice.org Help (F1).)
2) Press Shift+F8. This puts Writer in “ADD” mode. The word ADD
appears on the Status Bar.
3) Use the arrow keys to move to the start of the next piece of text
to be selected. Hold down the Shift key and select the next pieceof text.
4) Repeat as often as needed.
Now you can work with the selected text.
Press Esc to exit from this mode.

Figure 1: Selecting items that are not next to each other

Selecting a vertical block of text
You can select a vertical block or “column” of text that is separated by
spaces or tabs (as you might see in text pasted from e-mails, program
listings, or other sources), using OOo’s block selection mode. Tochange to block selection mode, use Edit > Selection Mode > BlockArea, or click several times in the status bar on STD until it changes to
BLK.
Now you can highlight the selection, using mouse or keyboard, as
shown in Figure 2.
6

Working with Text

Figure 2: Selecting a vertical 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 (cut and paste) selected text using the mouse, drag it to the
new location and release it. To copy selected text, hold down theControl key while dragging. The text retains the formatting it had
before dragging.
When you paste text, the result depends on the source of the text andhow you paste it. If you click on the Paste icon, then the pasted text
keeps its original formatting (such as bold or italics). Text pasted fromWeb sites and other sources may also be placed into frames or tables.
If you do not like the results, click the Undo icon or press Control+Z.
To make the pasted text take on the formatting of the text surrounding
where it is pasted, choose either:• Edit > Paste Special, or• Click the triangle to the right of the Paste icon, or• Click the Paste icon without releasing the left mouse button.
Then select Unformatted text from the resulting menu.
The range of choices on the Paste Special menu varies depending on
the origin and formatting of the text (or other object) to be pasted. See
Figure 3 for an example with text on the clipboard.

Figure 3: Paste Special menu
Cutting, copying, and pasting text

7

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

Finding and replacing text
Writer has a Find and Replace feature that automates the process ofsearching for text inside a document. In addition to finding andreplacing words and phrases, you can:Use wildcards and regular expressions to fine-tune a search.
• Find and replace specific formatting.
• Find and replace paragraph styles.
To display the Find & Replace dialog box, use the keyboard shortcut
Control+F or choose Edit > Find & Replace from the menu bar.
Type the text you want to find in the Search for box.
1) To replace the text with different text, type the new text in the
Replace with box.
2) You can select various options, such as matching the case,matching whole words only, or doing a search for similar words.
(See below for some other choices.)
3) When you have set up your search, click Find. To replace text,
click Replace instead.
Tip

Caution8

If you click Find All, Writer selects all instances of the searchtext in the document. Similarly, if you click Replace All
button, Writer replaces all matches.
Use Replace All with caution; otherwise, you may end up withsome hilarious (and highly embarrassing) mistakes. A mistakewith Replace All might require a manual, word-by-wordsearch to fix, if not discovered in time to undo.

Working with Text

Figure 4: Expanded Find & Replace dialog box

Find and replace specific formatting
A very powerful use of Find & Replace takes advantage of the format
option. For example, you might want to replace underlined words withitalics.
On the Find & Replace dialog box (with More Options displayed, as in
Figure 4):1) To search for text with specific formatting, enter the text in the
Search for box. To search for specific formatting only, delete any
text in the Search for box.
2) Click Format to display the Text Format (Search) dialog box. The
tabs on this dialog box are similar to those on the Paragraphformat and Paragraph Style dialog boxes.
3) Choose the formats you want to search for and then click OK. The
names of selected formats appear under the Search for box. For
example, you might search for all text in 14-point bold Helvetica.
4) To replace text as well as formatting, type the replacement text in
the Replace with box.

Finding and replacing text9

To search for specific text with specific formatting (for example,
the word hello in bold), specify the formatting, type the text in
the Search for box and leave the Replace with box blank.
To remove specific character formatting, click Format, select the
Font tab, then select the opposite format (for example, No Bold).
The No Format button on the Find & Replace dialog box clears
all previously selected formats.
5) Click Find, Find All, Replace, or Replace All

Tip

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

Find and replace paragraph styles
If you combine material from several sources, you may discover thatlots of unwanted paragraph styles have suddenly shown up in yourdocument. To quickly change all the paragraphs of one (unwanted)
style to another (preferred) style:1) On the expanded Find & Replace dialog box (Figure 4), selectSearch for Styles. (If you have attributes specified, this option islabeled Including Styles.) The Search for and Replace with boxes
now contain a list of styles.
2) Select the styles you want to search for and replace.
3) Click Find, Find All, Replace, or Replace All.
Repeat steps 2 and 3 for each style that you want to replace.

Use wildcards (regular expressions)Wildcards (also known as regular expressions) are combinations ofcharacters that instruct OOo how to search for something. Regularexpressions are very powerful but not very intuitive. They can savetime and effort by combining multiple finds into one.
Table 1 shows a few of the regular expressions used by OOo.
Tip

10

The online help describes many more regular expressions andtheir uses.

Working with Text

Note

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

To use wildcards and regular expressions when searching andreplacing:1) On the Find & Replace dialog box, click More Options to see
more choices. On this expanded dialog box (Figure 4), select theRegular expressions option.
2) Type the search text, including the wildcards, in the Search forbox and the replacement text (if any) in the Replace with box. Not
all regular expressions work as replacement characters; the line
break (\n) is one that does work.
3) Click Find, Find All, Replace, or Replace All (notrecommended).
Table 1. Examples of search wildcards (regular expressions)
Use this
expression

Examples and comments

Any single
character.

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

One of thespecifiedcharacters[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 alphabeticallyascending order.

Any single
character except
the characters
inside the brackets[^x]p[^a]st finds post and pest, but notpast.

The beginning of aword\<start\<log finds logbook and logistics, but
not catalog.

The end of a wordend\>

log\> finds catalog, but not logistics.

A paragraphmarker$

Does not work as a replacement
character. Use \n instead.

A line break\nFinds a line break that was insertedwith Shift+Enter. When used as areplacement character, it inserts aparagraph marker.

To findFinding and replacing text

11

Inserting special characters
A “special” character is one not found on a standard English keyboard.
For example, © ¾ æ ç ñ ö ø ¢ are all special characters. To insert a
special character:
1) Place the cursor in your document where you want the characterto appear.
2) Click Insert > Special Character to open the Special
Characters dialog box.

Figure 5: The Special Characters dialog box, where you caninsert special characters3) Select the characters (from any font or mixture of fonts) you wish
to insert, in order; then click OK. The selected characters areshown in the lower left of the dialog box. As you select eachcharacter, it is shown on the lower right, along with the numericalcode for that character.

12

Tip

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

Note

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

Working with Text

Inserting non-breaking spaces and hyphens
Non-breaking spaces
To prevent two words from being separated at the end of a line,press Control+spacebar after the first word.
Non-breaking hyphen
You can use a non-breaking hyphen in cases where you do not want
the hyphen to appear at the end of a line, for example in a number
such as 123-4567. To insert a non-breaking hyphen, press
Shift+Control+minus sign.

Inserting en and em dashes
To enter en and em dashes, you can use the Replace dashes option
under Tools > AutoCorrect > Options (Figure 14). This option
replaces two hyphens, under certain conditions, with thecorresponding dash.
In the following table, the A and B represent text consisting of letters A
to z or digits 0 to 9.
Text that you type:A - B (A, space, minus, space, B)

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

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

A—B (A, em-dash, B)

A-B (A, minus, B)

A-B (unchanged)

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

A -B (unchanged)

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

A –B (A, space, en-dash, B)

Another means of inserting en or em dashes is through the Insert >Special Characters menu. Select the U+2013 or U+2014 character,
respectively.
A third method uses keyboard shortcuts. These shortcuts varydepending on your operating system.

Tip

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

Inserting special characters

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

Tip

On a keyboard with no numeric keypad, use a Fn (Function)
key combination to type the numbers. (The Fn key is usually tothe 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 shouldbe Alt+Fn+mjij.

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

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

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

Formatting paragraphs
You can apply many formats to paragraphs using the buttons on theFormatting toolbar. Figure 6 shows the Formatting toolbar as a floating
toolbar, customized to show only the buttons for paragraph formatting.

Tip

14

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

Working with Text

1 Open Styles andFormatting Window
2 Apply Style
3 Align Left
4 Centered

5 Align Right
6 Justified
7 Line Spacing: 1
8 Line Spacing: 1.5
9 Line Spacing: 2

10 Numbering On/Off
11 Bullets On/Off
12 Decrease Indent
13 Increase Indent
14 Paragraph format dialog box

Figure 6: Formatting toolbar, showing icons for paragraph formatting
Figure 7 shows examples of the text alignment options.

Figure 7: Text alignment options
When using justified text, the last line is by default aligned to the left;
however, if so desired, you can also align the last line to the center ofthe paragraph area or justify it so that spaces are inserted between thewords in order to fill the whole line. In the case where the last line
consists of a single word, you can also have this word stretched tocover the whole line. Figure 8 shows an example of the effect obtained
when setting each of these options.

Figure 8: Four choices for the last line of a justified paragraph
These options are controlled in the Alignment page of the Format >Paragraph dialog box (see Figure 9).

Formatting paragraphs

15

Figure 9: Options for the last line of a justified paragraphSetting tab stops and indents
The horizontal ruler shows both the default tab stops and any tab stops
that you have defined. Tab settings affect indentation of fullparagraphs (using the Increase Indent and Decrease Indent icons on
the Formatting toolbar) as well as indentation of parts of a paragraph(by pressing the Tab key on the keyboard).
Using the default tab spacing can cause formatting problems if you
share documents with other people. If you use the default tab spacing
and then send the document to someone else who has chosen adifferent default tab spacing, tabbed material will change to use theother person’s settings. This may cause major formatting problems.
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 selectedparagraphs, double-click on a part of the ruler that is not between theleft and right indent icons to open the Indents & Spacing page of theParagraph dialog box. Double-click anywhere between the left andright indent icons on the ruler to open the Tabs page of the Paragraphdialog box.
A better strategy is to define tabs for the paragraph style. See
Chapters 6 and 7 for more about paragraph styles.

16

Working with Text

Figure 10: 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 isusually a better choice.

Changing the default tab stop interval
Note

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

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

Figure 11: Selecting a default tab stop interval
You can also set or change the measurement unit for rulers in thecurrent document by right-clicking on the ruler to open a list of units,
as shown in Figure 12. Click on one of them to change the ruler to that
unit. The selected setting applies only to that ruler.

Formatting paragraphs

17

Figure 12: Ruler showing default tab stops

Formatting characters
You can apply many formats to characters using the buttons on theFormatting toolbar. Figure 13 shows the Formatting toolbar as afloating toolbar, customized to show only the buttons for character
formatting.

1 Open Styles andFormatting Window
2 Apply Style
3 Font Name
4 Font Size
5 Bold6 Italic
7 Underline
8 Superscript
9 Subscript
10 Increase Font
11 Reduce Font

12 Font Color
13 Highlighting
14 Background Color
15 Open Character Format
dialog box

Figure 13: Formatting toolbar, showing icons for character formatting
It is highly recommended that you use character styles rather thanmanually formatting characters. For information on styles and how to
use them, see Chapters 6 and 7.

Tip

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

Autoformatting
Writer can be set to automatically format parts of a document
according to the choices made on the Options page of the AutoCorrect
dialog box (Tools > AutoCorrect Options).

18

Working with Text

Figure 14: Autoformat choices on the Options page of
the AutoCorrect dialog box
The Help describes each of these choices and how to activate theautoformats. Some common unwanted or unexpected formattingchanges include:• Horizontal lines. If you type three or more hyphens (---),
underscores (___) or equal signs (===) on a line and then press
Enter the paragraph is replaced by a horizontal line as wide as
the page. The line is actually the lower border of the preceding
paragraph.
• Bulleted and numbered lists. A bulleted list is created when you
type a hyphen (-), asterisk (*), or plus sign (+), followed by aspace or tab at the beginning of a paragraph. A numbered list is
created when you type a number followed by a period (.), followed
by a space or tab at the beginning of a paragraph. Automatic
numbering is only applied to paragraphs formatted with theDefault, Text body or Text body indent paragraph styles.
Tip

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

Autoformatting

19

To automatically format the file according to the options you have set,choose Format > AutoCorrect and select or deselect the items on thesubmenu.
While Typing
Automatically formats the document while you type.
Apply
Automatically formats the document.
Apply and Edit Changes
Automatically formats the file and then opens a dialog box where
you can accept or reject the changes.
AutoCorrect Options
Opens the AutoCorrect dialog (Figure 14).

Creating numbered or bulleted lists
There are several ways to create numbered or bulleted lists:• Use autoformatting, as described above.
• Use list styles, as described in Chapter 7 (Working with Styles).
• Use the Numbering and Bullets icons on the paragraphformatting toolbar (see Figure 6). This method is described here.
To produce a numbered or bulleted list, select the paragraphs in thelist and then click on the appropriate icon on the toolbar.
Note

It is a matter of personal preference whether you type yourinformation first, then apply Numbering/Bullets or apply theseas you type.

Using the Bullets and Numbering toolbar
You can create a nested list (where one or more list items has a sublist
under it, as in an outline) by using the buttons on the Bullets andNumbering toolbar (Figure 15). You can move items up or down thelist, create subpoints, and even change the style of bullets.
Tip

20

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

Working with Text

1 Bullets On/Off
2 Numbering On/Off
3 Numbering Off
4 Up One Level
5 Down One Level

6 Move Up (One Level) with
Sub-points
7 Move Down (One Level) with
Sub-points
8 Insert Unnumbered Entry
9 Move Up

10 Move Down
11 Move Up in Sub-points
12 Move Down in Sub-points
13 Restart Numbering
14 Bullets and Numbering

Figure 15: Bullets and Numbering toolbar
If you create a nested list using the predefined styles, all the levels of
the list (up to 10) apply the same numbering (or bullet), however inmany circumstances you will want to use a combination of numberingformats and bullets when creating a nested lists. Such lists with amixture of numbering formats and bullets can be easily configured as
described in the following example. Additional information on lists andin particular the technique to create your own list style is described in
Chapter 7 (Working with Styles).

Tip

When creating nested lists, one option is to enter all the list
paragraphs first and apply the levels afterwards.
You can use keyboard shortcuts to move paragraphs up or
down the outline levels. Place the cursor at the beginning of
the numbered paragraph and press:
Tab Down a level
Shift+Tab Up a level
To insert a tab stop at the beginning of a numbered paragraph(that is, after the number but before the text), press
Control+Tab.

Example: configuring a nested list
We will use a numbering style to produce the following effect:
I. Level-1 list item
A. Level-2 list item
i. Level-3 list itema) Level-4 list item

Creating numbered or bulleted lists

21

This example uses one of the supplied styles, Numbering 1, however if
you intend to reuse this type of nested list you can also create a newstyle as illustrated in Chapter 7 (Working with Styles).
1) Open the Styles and Formatting
window and click the List
Styles icon at the top. Rightclick on the Numbering 1 styleand choose Modify from the
pop-up menu.
2) On the Numbering Style dialog
box, go to the Outline page,
where you will find that one
style matches ourrequirements. Click once on
Figure 16: Modifying a list stylethat style.

Figure 17: Choosing a predefined outline-numbering style3) To modify the layout of the list, use the Options tab (Figures 18
and 19). Notice that the preview on the right shows the outline
selected. In the Level box on the left, select 1, then 2, 3, and 4
and see how the information in the Numbering and After boxes
changes.
Use the Options page to set different punctuation; for example, aperiod (full stop) after “a” on level 4 instead of a parenthesis.

22

Working with Text

Figure 18: Checking the outline numbering for level-1 list items

Figure 19: Numbering style for level-2 list items
To make the indentation at each level greater or less than thedefault, change it on the Position page. Select the level, thenmake any changes in the indentation, spacing, or numberingalignment.
4) Repeat for each level as required, then click OK.

Tip

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

Using footnotes and endnotes
Footnotes appear at the bottom of the page on which they arereferenced. Endnotes are collected at the end of a document.
To work effectively with footnotes and endnotes, you need to:• Insert footnotes.
Using footnotes and endnotes23• Define the format of footnotes.
• Define the location of footnotes on the page; see Chapter 4(Formatting Pages).

Inserting footnotes/endnotes
To insert a footnote or an endnote, put the cursor where you want thefootnote/endnote marker to appear. Then select Insert > Footnote
from the menu bar or click the Insert Footnote Directly or Insert
Endnote Directly icon on the Insert toolbar.

Figure 20: Using the Insert Footnote Directly icon on the toolbar
A footnote (or endnote) marker is inserted in the text, and the cursor isrelocated to the footnote area at the bottom of the page (or to theendnote area at the end of the document). Type the footnote or
endnote content in this area.
If you use Insert > Footnote, the Insert Footnote dialog box isdisplayed. Here you can choose whether to use the automatic
numbering sequence specified in the footnote settings and whether toinsert the item as a footnote or an endnote.

Figure 21: Inserting a footnote directly
If you use the Insert Footnote Directly or Insert Endnote Directly
icon, the footnote or endnote automatically takes on the attributes
previously defined in the Footnote Settings dialog box.
You can edit an existing footnote or endnote the same way you edit anyother text.

24

Working with Text

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

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

Figure 22: Defining footnote formatting

Checking spelling and grammar
Writer provides a spelling checker, which can be used in two ways.
AutoSpellcheck checks each word as it is typed and displays awavy red line under any misspelled words. When the word iscorrected, the red wavy line disappears.
To perform a separate spelling check on the document (or a text
selection) click the Spelling and Grammar button. This checks
the document or selection and opens the Spelling and Grammar
dialog box (Figure 37) if any misspelled words are found.
Here are some more features of the spelling checker:• You can right-click on a word with a wavy underline, to open a

powerful context menu. If you select from the suggested words on
Checking spelling and grammar

25the menu, the selection will replace the misspelled word in yourtext. Other menu options are discussed below.
• You can change the dictionary language (for example, Spanish,French, or German) on the Spelling and Grammar dialog box.
• You can add a word to a dictionary. Click Add in the Spelling andGrammar dialog box and pick the dictionary to add it to.
• Click the Options button on the Spelling and Grammar dialog box
to open a dialog box similar to the one in Tools > Options >Language Settings > Writing Aids described in Chapter 2.
There you can choose whether to check uppercase words andwords with numbers, and you can manage custom dictionaries,that is, add or delete dictionaries and add or delete words in adictionary.

Figure 23: Selecting a word from dictionary using theSpelling and Grammar dialog box
Writer does not include a grammar checker, but you can install an
extension such as Language Tool and access it from Tools > Spellingand Grammar. (See Chapter 17 for more about installing extensions.)
Language Tool adds a new menu item and submenu to the Tools menu,
from which you can configure the tool and check or recheck the
document. Figure 24 shows an example of the Language Tool extension
in use.
26

Working with Text

Figure 24: The Language Tool extension

Using built-in language tools
Writer provides some tools that make your work easier if you mix
multiple languages within the same document or if you write
documents in various languages.
The main advantage of changing the language is that you can then use
the correct dictionaries to check spelling and apply the localizedversions of Autocorrect replacement tables, thesaurus, andhyphenation rules.
You can also set the language for a paragraph or a group of characters
as None. This option is especially useful when you insert text such as
web addresses or programming language snippets that you do notwant to check for spelling.
Specifying the language in character and paragraph styles is thepreferred method, because styles allow a greater level of control andmake changing the language much faster. On the Font tab of theParagraph Styles dialog box, you can specify that certain paragraphs
be checked in a language that is different from the language of the restof the document. See Chapter 7 (Working with Styles) for information
on how to manage the language settings of a style.
Using built-in language tools

27

You can also set the language for the whole document, for individual
paragraphs, or even for individual words and characters, all from
Tools > Language on the menu bar.
For selection
Applies a specified language to the selected text (the selection canbe as short as a few characters or as long as several paragraphs).
For paragraph
Select this option to apply the specified language to the paragraphwhere the cursor is located.
For all text
Select this option to apply the specified language to all the
document.
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 25), you can choose a
different language for all the text.

Figure 25: Options available in the Languages settings

Caution

Unlike the menu tool that applies to the individual document,a change in the default language from the Options dialog
box is a general change of settings of OOo and will therefore
apply to all the documents created in the future. If you want
to change the language for the current document only, besure to select the For the current document only option.

The spelling checker works only for those languages in the list whichhave the symbol
next to them. If you do not see this symbol next toyour preferred language, you can install the dictionary using Tools >Languages > More dictionaries online.
The language used for checking spelling is also shown in the statusbar, next to the page style in use.

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Using the thesaurus
The thesaurus gives alternative words and phrases. Select the word orphrase you want to find more choices for and select Tools >Language > Thesaurus or press Control+F7. Click on a meaning toshow alternative words and phrases for that meaning of the word. For
example, when given the word “house”, the thesaurus offers several
meanings, including “dwelling”, “legislature”, and “sign of the zodiac”.
If you click on “dwelling”, you will see “dwelling”, “home”, “domicile”,“abode”, and other alternatives, as shown in Figure 26.
Note

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

Figure 26: The thesaurus offers alternatives to words

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

Automatic hyphenation
To turn automatic hyphenation of words on or off:
1) Press F11 to open the Styles and Formatting window (Figure 27).
On the Paragraph Styles page, right-click on Default and selectModify.

Hyphenating words

29

Figure 27: Modifying a paragraph style2) On the Paragraph Style dialog box, select the Text Flow tab.

Figure 28: Turning on automatic hyphenation
3) Under Hyphenation, select or deselect the Automatically option.
4) Click OK to save.

Note

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

You can also set hyphenation choices through Tools > Options >Language Settings > Writing Aids. In Options, near the bottom of
the dialog box, scroll down to find the hyphenation settings (seeFigure 29).

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Working with Text

Figure 29: Setting hyphenation options
To change the minimal number of characters for hyphenation, theminimum number of characters before a line break, or the minimum
number of characters after a line break, select the item, and then click
the Edit button in the Options section.
Hyphenate without inquiry
Specifies that you will never be asked to manually hyphenate words
that the hyphenation dictionary does not recognize. If this box is notselected, when a word is not recognized, a dialog box will open
where you can manually enter hyphens.
Hyphenate special regions
Specifies that hyphenation will also be carried out in footnotes,
headers, and footers.
Hyphenation options set on the Writing Aids dialog box are effective
only if hyphenation is turned on through paragraph styles.
Choices on the Writing Aids dialog box for Characters before line
break and Ccharacters after line break override settings in paragraphstyles for Characters at line end and Characters at line begin.

Manual hyphenation
To manually hyphenate words, do not use a normal hyphen, which willremain 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 aconditional hyphen, which is visible only when required.
To insert a conditional hyphen inside a word, click where you want thehyphen to appear and press Control+hyphen. The word will behyphenated at this position when it is at the end of the line, even if
automatic hyphenation for this paragraph is switched off.

Hyphenating words

31

Using AutoCorrect
Writer’s AutoCorrect function automatically corrects a long list ofcommon misspellings and typing errors. For example, “hte” will bechanged to “the”.
Select Tools > AutoCorrect Options to open the AutoCorrect dialog
box. There you can define what strings of text are corrected and how.
In most cases, the defaults are fine.

Figure 30: Replace tab of AutoCorrect dialog box
AutoCorrect is turned on when Writer is installed. To turn it off,
uncheck Format > AutoCorrect > While Typing.
To stop Writer replacing a specific spelling, go to the Replace tab,highlight the word pair, and click Delete.
To add a new spelling to the list, type it into the Replace and Withboxes on the Replace tab, and click New.
See the different pages of the dialog box for the wide variety of otheroptions available to fine-tune AutoCorrect.
Tip

32

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

Working with Text

Using word completion
If Word Completion is enabled, Writer tries to guess which word you
are typing and offers to complete this word for you. To accept thesuggestion, press Enter. Otherwise, continue typing.
To turn off Word Completion, select Tools > AutoCorrect Options >Word Completion and deselect Enable word completion.
You can customize word completion from the Word Completion tab.
• 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 savethem for later use in other documents or select the option toremove them from the list when closing the document.
• Change the maximum number of words remembered for word
completion and the length of the smallest words to beremembered.
• Delete specific entries from the word completion list.
• Change the key that accepts a suggested entry—the options areright arrow, End key, Enter (Return), Space bar, and Tab.

Figure 31: Customizing word completion

Using word completion

33

Note

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

Using AutoText
AutoText allows you to assign text, tables, graphics, and other items toa key combination. For example, rather than typing “Senior
Management” every time you use that phrase, you just have to type“sm” and press F3. You can also save graphics or tables (such as aformatted Tip like the one on this page) as AutoText.
To assign some text to an AutoText shortcut:
1) Type the text into your document.
2) Select the text.
3) Go to Edit > AutoText (or press Control+F3).
4) Enter a name for your shortcut. Writer will suggest a one-letter
shortcut, which you can change.
5) Click the AutoText button on the right of the AutoText dialog box
and select New (text only) from the menu.
6) Click Close to return to your document.
To insert AutoText, type the shortcut and press F3.
Tip

If the only option under the AutoText button is Import, either
you have not entered a name for your AutoText or there is notext selected in the document.

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

Line numberingLine numbering puts line numbers in the margin. The line numbers are
displayed on screen and are printed. Figure 32 shows an example withnumbering on every line.
Click Tools > Line Numbering and select the Show numbering
option in the top left corner. Then click OK.

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Working with Text

Figure 32: Line numbering example
You can choose how many lines are numbered (for example, every line
or every tenth line), the numbering type and whether numbers restarton 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).

Figure 33: The Line Numbering dialog box

Tracking changes to a document
You can use several methods to keep track of changes made to a
document.
• Make your changes to a copy of the document (stored in adifferent folder, under a different name, or both), then use Writer
to combine the two files and show the changes you made. Click
Edit > Compare Document. This technique is particularly
useful if you are the only person working on the document, as it
avoids the increase in file size and complexity caused by the othermethods.
Tracking changes to a document35• Save versions that are stored as part of the original file. However,this method can cause problems with documents of nontrivial sizeor complexity, especially if you save a lot of versions. Avoid thismethod if you can.
• Use Writer’s change marks (often called “redlines” or “revisionmarks”) to show where you have added or deleted material orchanged formatting. Later, you or another person can review andaccept or reject each change.
Tip

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

Preparing a document for review
When you send a document to someone else to review or edit, you may
want to prepare it first so that the editor or reviewer does not have toremember to turn on the revision marks. After you have protected the
document, any user must enter the correct password in order to turnoff the function or accept or reject changes.
1) Open the document. To check whether it contains multiple
versions, click File > Versions. If multiple versions are listed,save the current version as a separate document with a different
name and use this new document as the review copy.
2) With the review copy open, make sure that change recording isturned on. The Edit > Changes > Record menu item has acheck mark next to it when recording is turned on.
3) Click Edit > Changes > Protect Records. On the Enter
Password dialog box, type a password (twice) and click OK.
Note

Passwords must contain at least five characters. It is notnecessary to password protect the document while preparing it
for review.

Recording changes
See Chapter 2 (Setting up Writer) for instructions on setting up how
your changes will be displayed.
1) To begin tracking (recording) changes, click Edit > Changes >Record. To show or hide the display of changes, click Edit >Changes > Show.

36

Working with Text

Tip

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

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

Figure 34: Inserting a comment duringchange recording
To move from one marked change to the next, use the arrow
buttons. If no comment has been recorded for a change, the Text
field is blank.
Tip

See also “Adding other comments” on page 39 for a way toannotate text that is not associated with a recorded change.

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

Accepting or rejecting changes
1) Click Edit > Changes > Accept or Reject. The Accept or Reject
Changes dialog box (Figure 35) opens.
2) When you select a change in the dialog box, the actual change ishighlighted in the document, so you can see what the editor
changed.

Tracking changes to a document373) Click Accept or Reject to accept or reject the selected change.
You can also click Accept All or Reject All if you do not want toreview the changes individually.
Changes that have not yet been accepted or rejected are displayed in
the list. Accepted changes are removed from the list and appear in the
text without any marking.

Figure 35: The List tab of the Accept or Reject Changes dialog box
To show only the changes of certain people or only the changes on
specific days or various other restrictions, use the Filter page (Figure36) on the Accept or Reject Changes dialog box. After specifying thefilter criteria, return to the List page to see those changes that meetyour criteria.

Figure 36: The Filter page of the Accept or Reject Changes dialog box

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Working with Text

Merging modified documents
The processes discussed to this point are effective when you have one
reviewer at a time. Sometimes, however, multiple reviewers all returnedited versions of a document at the same time. In this case, it may bequicker to review all of these changes at once, rather than one review
at a time. For this purpose, you can merge documents in Writer.
To merge documents, all of the edited documents need to haverecorded changes in them.
1) Open one copy.
2) Click Edit > Changes > Merge Document and select and insert
another copy of the document to be merged with the first.
3) After the documents merge, the Accept or Reject Changes dialog
box opens, as in Figure 35, showing changes by more than one
reviewer. If you want to merge more documents, close the dialog
box and then repeat step 2.
4) Repeat until all copies are merged.
All recorded changes are now included in the open copy. Save this fileunder another name.

Comparing documents
Sometimes reviewers may forget to record the changes they make.
This is not a problem with Writer because you can find the changes if
you compare documents.
In order to compare documents, you need to have the original
document and the one that is edited. To compare them:
1) Open the edited document. Select Edit > Compare Document.
2) The Insert dialog box appears. Select the original document andclick Insert.
Writer finds and marks the changes and displays the Accept or Reject
Changes dialog box. From this point, you can go through and accept or
reject changes procedure as described earlier.

Adding other comments
Writer provides another type of comments (formerly called “notes”),
which authors and reviewers often use to exchange ideas, ask forsuggestions, or brainstorm during the review process.

Adding other comments39

To insert a comment in the text, place the cursor in the place thecomment refers to and select Insert > comment or press Ctrl+Alt+N.
The anchor point of the comment is connected by a dotted line to a box
on the right-hand side of the page where you can type the text of thecomment. Writer automatically adds at the bottom of the comment theauthor’s name and a time stamp indicating when the comment was
created. Figure 37 shows an example of text with comments from two
different authors.
Select Tools > Options > User Data to configure the name you want
to appear in the Author field of the comment, or to change it.
If more than one person edits the document, each author is
automatically allocated a different background color.

Figure 37: Comments in OOo 3
Right-clicking on a comment pops up a menu where you can delete thecurrent comment, all the comments from the same author, or all thecomments in the document. From this menu, you can also apply somebasic formatting to the text of the comment. You can also change font
type, size, and alignment from the main menu.
To navigate from one comment to another, open the Navigator (F5),expand the Comments section, and click on the comment text to movethe cursor to the anchor point of the comment in the document. Rightclick on the comment to quickly edit or delete it.
You can also navigate the comments using the keyboard. Use
Ctrl+Alt+Page Down to move to the next comment andCtrl+Alt+Page Up to move to the previous comment.
40

Working with Text

Linking to another part of a document
If you type in references to other parts of the document, thosereferences can easily get out of date if you reorganize the order of
topics, add or remove material, or reword a heading, Writer provides
two ways to ensure that your references are up to date, by inserting
links to other parts of the same document or to a different document:• Hyperlinks• Cross-references
The two methods have the same result if you Control+click the link
when the document is open in Writer: you are taken directly to thecross-referenced item. However, they also have major differences:• The text in a hyperlink does not automatically update if youchange the text of the linked item (although you can change it
manually), but changed text does automatically update in a crossreference.
• 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 across-reference, you have several choices, including bookmarks.
• To hyperlink to an object such as a graphic, and have thehyperlink show useful text such as Figure 6, you need to either
give such an object a useful name instead of leaving it as thedefault name (“Graphics6”), or you need to use the Hyperlink
dialog to modify the visible text. In contrast, cross-references tofigures with captions automatically show useful text, and you
have a choice of several variations of the name.
• If you save a Writer document to HTML, hyperlinks remain active
but cross-references do not. (Both remain active when the
document is exported to PDF.)

Using cross-references
To ensure that references update if you reword a heading, caption, orother linked item, use automatic cross-references. See “Using
automatic cross-references” in Chapter 14 (Working with Fields) for
details.

Using bookmarks
Bookmarks are listed in the Navigator and can be accessed directlyfrom there with a single mouse click. In HTML documents, bookmarks
are converted to anchors that you can jump to by hyperlink. For more
Linking to another part of a document

41

about bookmarks, see “Using bookmarks” in Chapter 14 (Working withFields).

Using hyperlinks
When you type text (such as a website addresses or URL) that can beused as a hyperlink, and then press the spacebar or the Enter key,
Writer automatically creates the hyperlink and applies formatting to
the text (usually a color and underlining).
If this does not happen, you can enable this feature using Tools >AutoCorrect > Options and selecting the URL Recognition option.
If you do not want Writer to convert a specific URL to a hyperlink,choose Edit > Undo Insert from the menu bar or press Control+Z
immediately after the formatting has been applied.
You can also insert hyperlinks using the Navigator and the Hyperlink
dialog, and you can modify all hyperlinks using the Hyperlink dialog, as
described in this section.

Note

Hyperlinks between documents can be set as relative or
absolute, using the Save URLs relative to option in Tools >Options > Load/Save > General.
Relative linking is only possible when the document you areworking on and the link destination are on the same drive, andyou need to create the same directory structure on your harddisk as will apply on the destination website.
OOo uses absolute path names internally, so when you moveyour mouse cursor over a hyperlink, the tooltip displays theabsolute reference even when it is set to be a relative link.

Inserting hyperlinks using the Navigator
The easiest way to insert a hyperlink to another part of the same
document is by using the Navigator:
1) Open the document containing the items you want to crossreference.
2) Open the Navigator (by clicking its icon, choosing View >Navigator, or pressing F5.
3) Click the arrow next to the Drag Mode icon, and select Insert asHyperlink.
4) In the list at the bottom of the Navigator, select the document
containing the item that you want to cross-reference.
42

Working with Text

5) In the Navigator list, select the item that you want to insert as a
hyperlink.
6) Drag the item to where you want to insert the hyperlink in the
document. The name of the item is inserted in the document as anactive hyperlink.

Figure 38: Inserting a hyperlink using
the Navigator
You can also use the Hyperlink dialog to insert and modify hyperlinks
within and between documents (see next page).

Inserting hyperlinks using a dialog box
To display the Hyperlink dialog box (Figure 39), click the Hyperlink
icon
on the Standard toolbar or choose Insert > Hyperlink fromthe menu bar. To turn existing text into a link, highlight it before
opening the dialog box.
On the left hand side, select one of the four types of hyperlink:• Internet: a web address, normally starting with http://• Mail & News: for example an email address.
• Document: the hyperlink points to another document or toanother place in the presentation.
• New document: the hyperlink creates a new document.

Linking to another part of a document

43

Figure 39. Hyperlink dialog box showing details for Internet links
The top right part of the dialog box changes according to your choicefor the hyperlink type. A full description of all the choices, and theirinteractions, is beyond the scope of this chapter. Here is a summary of
the most common choices used in presentations.
For an Internet type hyperlink, choose the type of hyperlink (choose
between Web, FTP or Telnet), and enter the required web address(URL).
For a Mail and News type hyperlink, specify whether it is a mail ornews link, the receiver address and for email, also the subject.
For a Document type hyperlink, specify the document path (the Open
File button opens a file browser); leave this blank if you want to link toa target in the same presentation. Optionally specify the target in the
document (for example a specific slide). Click on the Target icon to
open the Navigator where you can select the target, or if you know thename of the target, you can type it into the box.
For a New Document type hyperlink, specify whether to edit the newly
created document immediately or just create it (Edit later) and thetype of document to create (text, spreadsheet, etc.). For a presentation,
Edit now is the more likely choice. The Select path button opens a
directory picker.
The Further settings section in the bottom right part of the dialog box
is common to all the hyperlink types, although some choices are more
relevant to some types of links.
• Set the value of Frame to determine how the hyperlink will open.
This applies to documents that open in a Web browser.
44

Working with Text• Form specifies if the link is to be presented as text or as a button.
• Text specifies the text that will be visible to the user.
• Name is applicable to HTML documents. It specifies text that will

be added as a NAME attribute in the HTML code behind thehyperlink.
• Event button: this button will be activated to allow OOo to react
to events for which the user has written some code (macro). Thisfunction is not covered in this book.

Editing hyperlinks
To edit a hyperlink, click anywhere in the link text and then open theHyperlink dialog box by clicking the Hyperlink icon on the Standard
toolbar or choosing Edit > Hyperlink from the menu bar. Make yourchanges and click Apply. If you need to edit several hyperlinks, you
can leave the Hyperlink dialog box open until you have edited all ofthem. Be sure to click Apply after each one. When you are finished,click Close.
The standard (default) behavior for activating hyperlinks within OOo is
to use Ctrl+click. This behavior can be changed in Tools > Options >OpenOffice.org > Security > Options, by deselecting the option
Ctrl-click required to follow hyperlinks. If clicking in your links
activates them, check that page to see if the option has beendeselected.
To change the color of hyperlinks, go to Tools > Options >OpenOffice.org > Appearance, scroll to Unvisited links and/orVisited links, select those options, pick the new colors and click OK.
Caution: this will change the color for all hyperlinks in all componentsof OpenOffice.org—this may not be what you want.
In Writer and Calc (but not Draw or Impress), you can also change theInternet link character style or define and apply new styles to selected
links.

Linking to another part of a document45

Switching between insert and overwrite
modeWith the keyboard, press Insert to toggle between overwrite mode andinsert mode. In insert mode, any text after the cursor position moves
forward to make room for the text you type; in overwrite mode, text
after the cursor position is replaced by the text you type. The current
mode is displayed on the Status Bar.
With the mouse, click in the area on the Status Bar that indicates thecurrent mode in order to switch to the other mode.

Counting the words in a selection
Select a block of text and choose Tools > Word Count. OOo displays
the number of words and characters in the selection as well as thenumber of words in the document. You can also see the number ofwords and characters (and other information) in the entire documentin File > Properties > Statistics.

46

Working with Text