Writer Guide 7.5

Chapter 3,
Working with Text: Advanced|1

CopyrightThis document is Copyright © 2023 by the LibreOffice Documentation Team. Contributors arelisted 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
Kees Kriek
John A. Smith
Toni Blackwelder

Jean Hollis Weber
Bruce Byfield
John M. Długosz

Gillian Polack
Hazel Russman
Ron Faile Jr.

Feedback
Please direct any comments or suggestions about this document to the Documentation Team’s
forum at https://community.documentfoundation.org/c/documentation/loguides/ (registration isrequired) or send an email to: loguides@community.documentfoundation.org. Emails sent to theforum are moderated.

Note
Everything you post to a forum, 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 February 2023. Based on LibreOffice 7.5.

Using LibreOffice on macOS
Some keystrokes and menu items are different on macOS from those used in Windows andLinux. The table below gives some common substitutions for the instructions in this document.
For a detailed list, see the application Help.
Windows or LinuxmacOS equivalent

EffectTools > Options
menu selection

LibreOffice > Preferences

Access setup options

Right-click

Control+click or right-click
depending on computer setup

Open a context menu

Ctrl (Control)⌘ (Command)

Used with other keys

Alt

⌥ (Option) or Alt, dependingon keyboard

Used with other keys

F11

⌘+T

Open Styles deck in Sidebar

2 | Chapter 3, Working with Text: Advanced

Contents
Copyright..........................................................................................................................2
Contributors................................................................................................................................2
Feedback....................................................................................................................................2
Publication date and software version........................................................................................2
Using LibreOffice on macOS......................................................................................................2

Introduction......................................................................................................................5
Using built-in language tools..........................................................................................5
Using Tools > Language.............................................................................................................5
Using language settings in Options............................................................................................6
Using paragraph and character styles........................................................................................7
Using the Status bar...................................................................................................................7

Advanced find and replace techniques.........................................................................8
Find and replace paragraph styles..............................................................................................8
Find and replace text formatting.................................................................................................8
Similarity search..........................................................................................................................9
Search with wildcards and regular expressions........................................................................10

Tracking changes to a document.................................................................................11
Preparing a document for review..............................................................................................11
Track Changes menu and toolbar.............................................................................................12
Recording changes...................................................................................................................12
Recording inserted, deleted, and moved material...............................................................13
Recording changes of paragraph styles and other formatting.............................................13
Outline tracking....................................................................................................................13
Viewing changes and comments..............................................................................................13
Accepting or rejecting changes.................................................................................................14
Comparing documents..............................................................................................................15
Merging modified documents....................................................................................................15

Adding other comments................................................................................................16
Using footnotes and endnotes.....................................................................................17
Inserting footnotes and endnotes..............................................................................................18
Formatting footnotes and endnotes..........................................................................................18

Linking to another part of a document........................................................................19
Using cross-references.............................................................................................................19
Using bookmarks......................................................................................................................19
Using hyperlinks........................................................................................................................20
Editing hyperlinks.................................................................................................................20

Rearranging headings and text using the Navigator..................................................20
Outline folding................................................................................................................21
Using the Navigator..................................................................................................................21
Using a mouse..........................................................................................................................22
Saving, printing, and exporting folded contents........................................................................22

Copyright | 3

Inserting material from other documents....................................................................22
Line numbering.............................................................................................................. 22

4 | 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•

Outline folding (hiding and showing contents)•

Inserting material from other documents•

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-ofparagraph 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 thesame 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 thecorrect 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 checkspelling). This option is especially useful when you insert text such as web addresses orprogramming 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, in Tools > Language on the Menu bar (Figure 1):•

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... toopen 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).

Using built-in language tools | 5

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

Figure 1: 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 (macOS: LibreOffice > Preferences > Language Settings >Languages) In the Default languages for documents section (Figure 2), you can choose a
different language for all the text that is not explicitly marked as a different language.

CautionA change in the default language from the Options dialog is a general change ofsettings 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 toselect the For the current document only option (Figure 2).

Figure 2: Options available in the Languages settings

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

6 | Chapter 3, Working with Text: Advanced

Using paragraph and character styles
Changing the language on the Font tab of the Paragraph Styles dialog (Figure 3) will change thelanguage for all paragraphs that use that paragraph style. If you will have whole paragraphs indifferent languages in a single document, you can use a different paragraph style for eachlanguage. 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 astyle.

Figure 3: 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 therest 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 4). This change affects only theselected paragraphs.
The language used for checking spelling is also shown in the Status bar, next to the page style inuse. You can change the language for the paragraph or the entire document; click the languagein the Status bar to pop up a menu of choices.

Figure 4: Language choices on the Status bar
The Reset to Default Language option on the menu and submenu is the fastest way to return aparagraph or the entire document to the default language set in Tools > Options (describedabove).
Using built-in language tools | 7

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 yourdocument. To quickly change all the paragraphs from one style to another (preferred) style:1) 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.
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.

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 tobe found or replaced appear below the Find and Replace boxes (Figure 5). Clicking on the downarrow to the right does not bring up options.

Figure 5: Find and replace text formatting
To find a type of formatting in the document, follow this procedure:
1) Open the Find and Replace dialog (Figure 5) and select Other options.

8 | Chapter 3, Working with Text: Advanced

2) 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.
3) Click the Format button to open the Search for Formatting dialog, which looks much likethe Character dialog. Select a format from any of the tabs (for example: bold, 14 pt,
Spacing above paragraph).
4) 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 paragraphstyle, select the Including Styles box.
5) Choose Find All to have all formats found highlighted. Choose Find Previous or Find
Next to find one format instance at a time.
6) To replace the chosen format, click inside the Replace box, then choose Format andchoose a replacement from the tabbed options.
7) Replace the formats one at a time using Find Previous > Replace or Find Next >Replace. Use Replace All to change all formats at once.
8) To avoid errors the next time you use this dialog, it is a good idea to repeat Step 2 andclear all the formatting criteria selected.
To change the formatting for a specific word or phrase in a document:
1) Type the word or phrase in the Find box.
2) 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 onlychange 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.
3) 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 searchThis option finds terms that are similar to the Find: text. For example, a similarity search can findwords 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 6).

Figure 6: Similarity search dialog

Advanced find and replace techniques | 9

Exchange charactersEnter 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 charactersEnter the maximum number of characters by which a word can exceed the number ofcharacters in the search term.
Remove charactersEnter the number of characters by which a word can be shorter than the search term.
CombineSearches 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 1 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:1) On the Find and Replace dialog, click Other Options to see more choices. On thisexpanded dialog, select the Regular expressions option.
2) 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.
3) Click Find, Find All, Replace, or Replace All (not recommended).
Table 1: Examples of search wildcards (regular expressions)
Use this
Examples and comments
To findexpression
Any single character. (a period or b.d finds bad, bud, bid, and bed.
full stop)
One of the specified[xyz]
b[iu]n finds bin and bun.
characters
Any single character in[r-t]eed finds reed, seed, and teed; ranges must
[x-y]
this range
be in alphabetically ascending order.
Any single character
except the characters
inside the brackets
The beginning of aword
The end of a word
A paragraph marker[^x]

A line break\n\<startend\>$

10 | Chapter 3, Working with Text: Advanced

p[^a]st finds post and pest, but not past.
\<log finds logbook and logistics, but notcatalog.
log\> finds catalog, but not logistics.
Does not work as a replacement character. Use\n instead.
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 adifferent 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. See“Comparing documents” on page 15.

•

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,
deleted, or moved material and changed formatting. Later, you or another person canreview and accept or reject each change.

•

This section describes the use of change tracking features, which include:•

Tracking insertion and deletion of text, images, tables, and other objects.

•

Tracking changes of the attributes of paragraph styles and character styles.

•

Tracking insertion and deletion of table rows, including empty rows.

•

Showing moved material in a different color from added or deleted material.

•

Tracking material moved using the Navigator.

•

Tracking footnote deletion and insertion.

•

Showing list numbering changes at the list item.

Note
Not all changes are recorded. For example, changing a tab stop from align left toalign 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 sothat 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 toturn off protection or accept or reject changes.
1) 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 documentwith a different name and use this new document as the review copy.
2) With the review copy open, make sure that change recording is turned on. The Edit >Track Changes > Record Menu bar item and the Record Track Changes button on the
Track Changes toolbar are highlighted when recording is turned on.
3) Click Protect Track Changes on the Track Changes toolbar or select Edit > Track
Changes > Protect on the Menu bar. On the Enter Password dialog that opens, type apassword (twice) and click OK.
Tracking changes to a document | 11

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 7), Writer provides a convenient toolbar (Figure 8)that includes buttons for the same functions. To enable the Track Changes toolbar, click View >Toolbars > Track Changes. You can dock this toolbar in a convenient place or leave it floating.

Figure 7: Track Changes menu

Figure 8: Track Changes toolbar
1 Show Track Changes
3 Previous Track Change
5 Accept Track Change
7 Accept All Tracked Changes
9 Accept Track Change and select Next
11 Manage Track Changes
13 Insert Track Change Comment
15 Compare Non-Track Changed Document

2 Record Track Changes
4 Next Track Change
6 Reject Track Change
8 Reject All Tracked Changes
10 Reject Track Change and select Next
12 Insert Comment
14 Protect Track Changes
16 Merge Track Changed Document

Recording changes
To begin recording (tracking) changes, click Record Track Changes on the Track Changes
toolbar or select Edit > Track Changes > Record on the Menu bar. To show or hide the displayof changes, click Show Track Changes on the Track Changes toolbar or select Edit > Track
Changes > Show on the Menu bar.
To enter a comment on a tracked change, place the cursor in the area of the change and thenclick Edit > Track Changes > Comment or click the Insert Track Change Comment button (notthe Insert Comment button) on the Track Changes toolbar.
To stop recording changes, click Edit > Track Changes > Record again.
12 | Chapter 3, Working with Text: Advanced

Tip
See also “Adding other comments” on page 16 for a way to annotate text that is not
associated with a tracked change.

Recording inserted, deleted, and moved material
By default, inserted text is underlined, deleted text has a line through it (strike through), both arein color, and a mark (change bar) appears in the margin. To modify the default settings, see
Chapter 20, Customizing Writer.
In an existing table, a deleted row is shown in pink and an inserted row in cyan. A new, blanktable is marked in the margin but the rows are not colored.
Moved material is shown in green and indicated by a double underline (new location) or double
strikethrough (old location).

Recording changes of paragraph styles and other formatting
When a different paragraph style is applied to a paragraph, the change is indicated by a mark inthe margin.
By default, a change of character style or a manually applied character attribute is indicated bybold, colored text in addition to the attribute (such as italic or underlined), and the change inindicated by a mark in the margin.
Changes in list numbering show the original list numbers of all list items as well as the newnumbers. Some examples are shown in Figure 9.

Figure 9: Examples of recorded list numbering changes

Outline tracking
Outline tracking uses the Navigator to track changes in the sequence of entire portions of adocument: a heading and any material between it and the next heading of the same level. With
Track Changes enabled, using the Move Chapter Up and Move Chapter Down buttons on the
Navigator causes the moved material to be marked and tracked in the same way as material
moved using drag-and-drop or cut-and-paste.
Outline tracking is enabled by default. To disable it, right-click on any heading in the Navigatorand choose Off from the context menu.

Viewing changes and comments
Hold the mouse pointer over a tracked change; you will see a Help Tip showing the type ofchange, 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.
In addition to being displayed as an extended tip, recorded comments are shown in the list in theManage Changes dialog (Figure 10). If no comment has been recorded for a change, theComment field is blank.
To move from one tracked change to the next, use the Previous Change and Next Change
buttons on the Track Changes toolbar (Figure 8).
Tracking changes to a document | 13

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

Track Changes toolbar (Figure 8)•

Items on the Track Changes menu (Figure 7)•

Right-click (context) menu•Manage Changes dialog•

Manage Changes deck on the Sidebar

Track Changes menu and toolbar
For quick and easy accepting and rejecting of changes, you can use the Track Changes
toolbar (Figure 8), which includes buttons for the same functions as appear on the Edit >Track Changes submenu (Figure 7).
Right-click (context) menu
1) If tracked changes are not showing, click the Show Track Changes icon on the Track
Changes toolbar or select Edit > Track Changes > Show on the Menu bar.
2) 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.
3) Right-click the changed text. In the context menu, choose Accept Change or Reject
Change.
Manage Changes dialog and Sidebar deck
1) Click the Manage Track Changes icon on the Track Changes toolbar or select Edit >Track Changes > Manage on the Menu bar. The Manage Changes dialog (Figure 10)
opens, showing changes that have not yet been accepted or rejected. Or, click theManage Changes icon in the Sidebar to display the same information.

Figure 10: The List tab of the Manage Changes dialog
2) When you select a change in the dialog, the change itself is highlighted in the document,
so you can see what was changed.
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 to review the changes individually.

14 | Chapter 3, Working with Text: Advanced

To show only the changes of certain people or only the changes on specific days or various otherrestrictions, use the Filter tab (Figure 11) on the Manage Changes dialog. After specifying thefilter criteria, return to the List tab to see those changes that meet your criteria.

Figure 11: 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:
1) Open the edited document. Select Edit > Track Changes > Compare Document or click
the Compare Non-Track Changed Document icon on the Track Changes toolbar.
2) 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.
To set the level of detail used by this feature, go to Tools > Options > LibreOffice Writer >Comparison. See Chapter 20, Customizing Writer.

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 afacility to merge documents containing tracked changes into the original document, but thecondition for making this work is very specific: the edited documents may differ only andexclusively 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 haverecorded changes in them.
1) Open the original document into which you want to merge all copies.
2) Click Edit > Track Changes > Merge Document or click the Merge Track Changed
Document icon on the Track Changes toolbar. A file selection dialog opens.

Tracking changes to a document | 15

3) 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.
4) After the documents merge, you will see the recorded changes from the copy in theoriginal document.
5) 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 thecursor 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 theright of the horizontal ruler (Figure 12); you can click this button to toggle the display of thecomments 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 youwant 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 12 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 thesecond author are nested with those of the first author.

Figure 12: Comments in LibreOffice

16 | Chapter 3, Working with Text: Advanced

Right-click on a comment, or click the arrow in the lower left, to open a context menu where you
can delete the current comment, the whole current comment thread, all the comments from thesame 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 on the Menu bar.
When the document has been reviewed and commented and requires your action, you can markeach comment Resolved or Unresolved, using options on the comment’s context menu. Whenyou mark a comment resolved, the word Resolved is inserted under the date in the commentbox. You can toggle the display of all resolved comments in the document by using View >Resolved Comments on the Menu bar. You can also add an answer to the comment.
To navigate from one comment to another, open the Navigator (F5), scroll to find and expand theComments section. Double-click the comment text to move the cursor to the anchor point of thecomment 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 in the Comments drop-down listin the Print dialog (File > Print > LibreOffice Writer tab): Comments only, Place at end of
document, Place at end of page, Place in margins (Figure 13).

Figure 13: Options for printing comments

Using footnotes and endnotes
Footnotes appear at the bottom of the page on which they are referenced. Endnotes arecollected 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; seebelow.

•

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

Using footnotes and endnotes | 17

Inserting footnotes and endnotes
To insert a footnote or an endnote:
1) Position the cursor where you want the footnote or endnote marker to appear.
2) 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.
3) A footnote or endnote marker is inserted in the text and, depending on your choice, thecursor is relocated either to the footnote area at the bottom of the page or to the endnotearea 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 14).
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 14: Inserting a footnote/endnote

Formatting footnotes and endnotes
To format the footnotes themselves, click Tools > Footnotes and Endnotes. On theFootnotes/Endnotes Settings dialog (Figure 15), choose preferred settings.

18 | Chapter 3, Working with Text: Advanced

Figure 15: 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 toensure 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 majordifferences:•

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 updatein 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 suchas 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 figureswith captions can be set to automatically show useful text, and you have a choice ofseveral variations of the name.

•

If you save a Writer document to HTML, hyperlinks remain active but cross-references donot. (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 otherlinked 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 byhyperlink. You can also cross-reference to a bookmark. For more information, see Chapter 17.
Linking to another part of a document | 19

Using hyperlinks
When you type text (such as website addresses or URL) that can be used as a hyperlink, andthen 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 > Undoon 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 beendeselected.

Editing hyperlinks
To edit a hyperlink, click anywhere in the link text and then open the Hyperlink dialog by rightclicking and choosing Edit Hyperlink in the context menu, or clicking the Hyperlink icon on theStandard Toolbar, or choosing Edit > Hyperlink on 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, pickthe new colors, and click OK. This will change the color for all hyperlinks in all components ofLibreOffice, which may not be what you want.

Rearranging headings and text using the Navigator
You can use the Navigator (Figure 16) to move headings and their associated text to anotherlocation in a document by doing the following:
1) If necessary, click the expansion symbol (+ sign or arrow) to the left of a heading to
expand the list of subheadings.
2) (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 ofheadings.
3) 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, holddown Ctrl, and then click the Promote Chapter or Demote Chapter icon.

20 | Chapter 3, Working with Text: Advanced

Figure 16: Promote/Demote in Navigator
1 Promote Level
2 Demote Level

3 Promote Chapter
4 Demote Chapter

5 Heading Levels Shown

Tip
The names Promote Chapter and Demote Chapter might be better described asMove Up or Move Down (within the document, without changing the heading level) to
distinguish them more clearly from Promote Level and Demote Level, whichchange 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 theheading 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 associatedsubheadings, hold down Ctrl, and then click the Promote Level or Demote Level icon.

Outline folding
Using outline folding, you can hide and show all content under headings, including text, images,
tables, frames, shapes, and text boxes. In large documents, this feature can help you quickly
scroll to the right position for editing and reading.

Note
To enable this feature, go to Tools > Options > LibreOffice Writer > View (macOS:
LibreOffice > Preferences > LibreOffice Writer > View) and select Show outlinefolding buttons. Optionally select Include sub levels.

Using the Navigator
Open the Navigator (F5) and display the Headings entries. Right-click on a heading in the
Navigator and select Outline Folding > Toggle from the context menu to hide or show thecontent under between that heading and the next heading of the same level.

Outline folding | 21

Using a mouse
When you hover the mouse pointer over a heading, a small arrow appears in the left margin to
indicate that outline folding is enabled. A down arrow indicates the heading and its contents arevisible. A left arrow indicates the heading has hidden contents.
Press the Control key (Command on macOS). When the mouse pointer changes shape, click tohide or show the content between that heading to the next heading of the same level.

Saving, printing, and exporting folded contentsDocuments saved in Open Document Format (.odt) will retain the current settings of hidden andshown contents. The document contents are not affected by the folding settings.

Note
Hidden (folded) contents will not be printed or exported to PDF. To print or export thefull document, be sure to toggle off outline folding.

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, ofcourse, retype or copy and paste the common paragraphs into each document. However, if thecommon 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, thenchoose 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 content
of the link is automatically updated when the source is changed. To manually update thelinks 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 numberingLine numbers in the margin are often used in legal documents, poetry, and lists of programmingcode. 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 17 shows an example with numbering on every line.
You can choose how many lines are numbered (for example, every line or every tenth line), thenumbering type, and whether numbers restart on each page. In addition, a text separator (anytext you choose) can be set on a different numbering scheme (one every 12 lines, for example).

22 | Chapter 3, Working with Text: Advanced

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 18). Then selectany options you want and click OK.

Figure 17: Line numbering example

Figure 18: 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):
1) In the Sidebar, go to the Styles pane and click the Paragraph Styles icon.
2) Right-click on the Default Paragraph Style and choose Modify.
3) Click the Outline & List tab (Figure 19).
4) In the Line Numbering area, deselect Include this paragraph in line numbering.
5) Click OK.

Line numbering | 23

Figure 19: Disabling line numbering for a document
To enable line numbering for specific paragraphs:
1) First disable the feature for the document (as above), then select the paragraphs where
you want to add the line numbers.
2) Choose Format > Paragraph, or right-click and choose Paragraph > Paragraph on thecontext menu.
3) On the Outline & List tab of the Paragraph dialog, select Include this paragraph in line
numbering.
4) Click OK.
Alternatively, you can disable line numbering for specific paragraphs (while leaving most of themenabled) by selecting the paragraphs, choosing Format > Paragraph or right-clicking andchoosing Paragraph > Paragraph on the context menu, then going to the Outline & List tab anddeselecting Include this paragraph in line numbering.
You can also create a paragraph style that includes line numbering, and apply it to theparagraphs 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 fromnormal text.
To specify the starting line number:
1) Click in the paragraph and choose Format > Paragraph or right-click and choose
Paragraph > Paragraph on the context menu.
2) On the Outline & List tab, make sure Include this paragraph in line numbering isselected.
3) Select Restart at this paragraph and enter a line number in the Start with box.
4) Click OK.

24 | Chapter 3, Working with Text: Advanced