Writer Guide

17

Chapter
Customizing WriterThis PDF is designed to be read onscreen, two pages at atime. If you want to print a copy, your PDF viewer shouldhave an option for printing two pages on one sheet ofpaper, but you may need to start with page 2 to get it toprint facing pages correctly. (Print this cover page
separately.)CopyrightThis document is Copyright © 2008–2010 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
Peter Hillier-Brook
Barbara M. Tobias
Jean Hollis Weber
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........................................................................................... 4
Customizing menu content..................................................................... 4
Creating a new menu.......................................................................... 5
Modifying existing menus...................................................................6
Adding a command to a menu.............................................................7
Modifying menu entries......................................................................7
Customizing toolbars.............................................................................8
Modifying existing toolbars................................................................. 9
Adding a command to a toolbar..........................................................9
Choosing icons for toolbar commands................................................9
Example: Adding a Fax icon to a toolbar.......................................10
Creating a new toolbar.....................................................................12
Assigning shortcut keys.......................................................................12
Example: Assigning styles to shortcut keys......................................13
Example: Assigning macros to shortcut keys....................................14
Saving changes to a file....................................................................17
Loading a saved keyboard configuration..........................................17
Resetting the shortcut keys..............................................................17
Assigning macros to events..................................................................17
Adding functionality with extensions...................................................18
Installing extensions.........................................................................18
Using extensions............................................................................... 19
Template Changer.......................................................................... 19
Compose Special Characters.........................................................19
Professional Template Pack II........................................................19
PDF Import.................................................................................... 20
Writer’s Tools................................................................................. 20

Customizing Writer3

Introduction
This chapter describes some common customizations that you may
wish to do.
You can customize menus, toolbars, and keyboard shortcuts in
OpenOffice.org, add new menus and toolbars, and assign macros toevents. However, you cannot customize context (right-click) menus.
Other customizations are made easy by extensions that you can installfrom the OpenOffice.org website or from other providers.
Note

Customizations to menus and toolbars can be saved in a template.
To do so, first save them in a document and then save the document
as a template as described in Chapter 10 (Working with Templates).

Customizing menu content
In addition to changing the menu font (described in Chapter 2), you
can add and rearrange items on the menu bar, add items to menus, andmake other changes.
To customize menus:
1) Choose Tools > Customize.
2) On the Customize dialog box, go to the Menus page (Figure 1).
3) In the Save In drop-down list, choose whether to save thischanged menu for the application (Writer) or for a selected
document.
4) In the section OpenOffice.org Writer > Menus, select from the
Menu drop-down list the menu that you want to customize. The
list includes all the main menus as well as sub-menus, that ismenus that are contained under another menu. For example, in
addition to File, Edit, View, and so on, there is File | Send andFile |Templates. The commands available for the selected menu
are shown in the central part of the dialog box.
5) To customize the selected menu, click on the Menu or Modify
buttons. You can also add commands to a menu by clicking on the
Add button. These actions are described in the following sections.
Use the up and down arrows next to the Entries list to move theselected menu item to a different position.
6) When you have finished making all your changes, click OK tosave them.

4

Customizing WriterFigure 1. The Menus page of the Customize dialog box

Creating a new menu
In the Customize dialog box, click New to display the New Menu dialog
box, shown in Figure 2.
1) Type a name for your new menu in the Menu name box.
2) Use the up and down arrow buttons to move the new menu into
the required position on the menu bar.
3) Click OK to save.
The new menu now appears on the list of menus in the Customize
dialog box. (It will appear on the menu bar itself after you save yourcustomizations.)
After creating a new menu, you need to add some commands to it, as
described in “Adding a command to a menu” on page 7.

Customizing menu content

5Figure 2: Adding a new menu

Modifying existing menus
To modify an existing menu, select it in the Menu list and click the
Menu button to drop down a list of modifications: Move, Rename,
Delete. Not all of these modifications can be applied to all the entries
in the Menu list. For example, Rename and Delete are not available
for the supplied menus.
To move a menu (such as File), choose Menu > Move. A dialog box
similar to the one shown in Figure 2 (but without the Menu name box)
opens. Use the up and down arrow buttons to move the menu into therequired position.
To move submenus (such as File | Send), select the main menu (File) in
the Menu list and then, in the Menu Content section of the dialog box,
select the submenu (Send) in the Entries list and use the arrow keys tomove it up or down in the sequence. Submenus are easily identified in
the Entries list by a small black triangle on the right hand side of thename.
In addition to renaming, you can specify a keyboard shortcut thatallows you to select a menu command when you press Alt+ an
underlined letter in a menu command.
1) Select a menu or menu entry.
2) Click the Menu button and select Rename.
3) Add a tilde (~) in front of the letter that you want to use as anaccelerator. For example, to select the Save All command bypressing Alt+V, enter Sa~ve All.
6

Customizing WriterAdding a command to a menu
You can add commands to the supplied menus and to menus you havecreated. On the Customize dialog box, select the menu in the Menu list
and click the Add button in the Menu Content section of the dialogbox.
On the Add Commands dialog box, select a category and then thecommand, and click Add. The dialog box remains open, so you canselect several commands. When you have finished adding commands,
click Close. Back on the Customize dialog box, you can use the up anddown arrow buttons to arrange the commands in your preferred
sequence.

Figure 3: Adding a command to a menu

Modifying menu entries
In addition to changing the sequence of entries on a menu or submenu,
you can add submenus, rename or delete the entries, and add groupseparators.
To begin, select the menu or submenu in the Menu list near the top of
the Customize page, then select the entry in the Entries list under
Menu Content. Click the Modify button and choose the required action
from the drop-down list of actions.
Customizing menu content

7

Most of the actions should be self-explanatory. Begin a group adds a
separator line after the highlighted entry.

Customizing toolbars
You can customize toolbars in several ways, including choosing whichicons are visible and locking the position of a docked toolbar, as
described in Chapter 1 (Introducing Writer), and adding or deleting
icons (commands) in the list of those available on a toolbar. You canalso create new toolbars. This section describes how to create new
toolbars and add or delete icons on existing ones.
To get to the toolbar customization dialog box, do any of the following:• On the toolbar, click the arrow at the end of the toolbar andchoose Customize Toolbar.
• Choose View > Toolbars > Customize from the menu bar.
• Choose Tools > Customize from the menu bar and go to the
Toolbars page.

Figure 4. The Toolbars page of the Customize dialog box

8

Customizing WriterModifying existing toolbars
To modify an existing toolbar:
1) In the Save In drop-down list, choose whether to save thischanged toolbar for the application (Writer) or for a selected
document.
2) In the section OpenOffice.org Writer > Toolbars, select fromthe Toolbar drop-down list the toolbar that you want to modify.
3) Click on the Toolbar or Modify buttons, and add commands to a
toolbar by clicking on the Add button. You can also create a new
toolbar by clicking on the New button. These actions aredescribed in the following sections.
4) When you have finished making all your changes, click OK tosave them.

Adding a command to a toolbar
If the list of available buttons for a toolbar does not include all thecommands you want on that toolbar, you can add commands. When you
create a new toolbar, you need to add commands to it.
1) On the Toolbars page of the Customize dialog box, select the
toolbar in the Toolbar list and click the Add button in the Toolbar
Content section of the dialog box.
2) The Add Commands dialog box (Figure 3) is the same as foradding commands to menus. Select a category and then thecommand, and click Add. The dialog box remains open, so you canselect several commands. When you have finished adding
commands, click Close. If you insert an item which does not havean associated icon, the toolbar will display the full name of theitem: the next section describes how to choose an icon for atoolbar command.
3) Back on the Customize dialog box, you can use the up and downarrow buttons to arrange the commands in your preferred
sequence.
4) When you are done making changes, click OK to save.

Choosing icons for toolbar commands
Toolbar buttons usually have icons, not words, on them, but not all of
the commands have associated icons.
To choose an icon for a command, select the command in the Toolbar
Content – Commands list in the Customize dialog box, and click
Customizing toolbars

9Modify > Change icon. On the Change Icon dialog box, you can scroll
through the available icons, select one, and click OK to assign it to thecommand.

Figure 5: Change Icon dialog box
To use a custom icon, create it in a graphics program and import it into
OOo by clicking the Import button on the Change Icon dialog box.
Custom icons must be 16 x 16 or 26 x 26 pixels in size and cannot
contain more than 256 colors.

Example: Adding a Fax icon to a toolbar
You can customize OpenOffice.org so that a single click on an icon
automatically sends the current document as a fax.
1) Be sure the fax driver is installed. Consult the documentation foryour fax modem for more information.
2) Choose Tools > Options > OpenOffice.org Writer > Print. The
dialog box shown in Figure 6 opens.
3) Select the fax driver from the Fax list and click OK.
4) Click the arrow icon at the end of the Standard toolbar. In thedrop-down menu, choose Customize Toolbar. The Toolbars pageof the Customize dialog box appears (Figure 4). Click Add.

10

Customizing WriterFigure 6: Setting up OOo for sending faxes5) On the Add Commands dialog box (Figure 7), select Documents in
the Category list, then select Send Default Fax in the Commands
list. Click Add. Now you can see the new icon in the Commandslist.
6) In the Commands list, click the up or down arrow button toposition the new icon where you want it. Click OK and then click
Close. Your toolbar now has a new icon to send the current
document as a fax.

Figure 7: Adding a Send Fax command to a toolbar

Customizing toolbars

11Creating a new toolbar
To create a new toolbar:
1) Choose Tools > Customize > Toolbars from the menu bar.
2) Click New. On the Name dialog box, type the new toolbar’s nameand choose from the Save In drop-down list where to save thischanged menu: for the application (Writer) or for a selected
document.

The new toolbar now appears on the list of toolbars in the Customize
dialog box. After creating a new toolbar, you need to add somecommands to it, as described above.

Assigning shortcut keys
In addition to using the built-in keyboard shortcuts (listed in Appendix
A), you can define your own. You can assign shortcuts to standard OOofunctions or your own macros and save them for use with the entire
OpenOffice.org suite.

CautionBe careful when reassigning your operating system’s or OOo’s
predefined shortcut keys. Many key assignments are universally
understood shortcuts, such as F1 for Help, and are always
expected to provide certain results. Although you can easily
reset the shortcut key assignments to the OOo defaults,changing some common shortcut keys can cause confusion,
frustration and possible data loss or corruption, especially ifother users share your computer.

To adapt shortcut keys to your needs, use the Customize dialog box, as
described below.
1) Choose Tools > Customize > Keyboard. The Customize dialog
box opens.
2) To have the shortcut key assignment available in all componentsof OpenOffice.org, select the OpenOffice.org button.

12

Customizing Writer3) Next select the required function from the Category and Function
lists.
4) Now select the desired shortcut keys in the Shortcut keys list at
the top of the page and click the Modify button on the right. The
selection now appears in the Keys list on the lower right.
5) Click OK to accept the change. Now the chosen shortcut keys will
execute the function chosen in step 3 above whenever they arepressed.

Note

All existing shortcut keys for the currently selected Function arelisted in the Keys selection box. If the Keys list is empty, it
indicates that the chosen key combination is free for use. If it
were not, and you wanted to reassign a shortcut key
combination that is already in use, you must first delete theexisting key.
Shortcut keys that are greyed-out in the listing on the Customize
dialog box, such as F1 and F10, are not available forreassignment.

Example: Assigning styles to shortcut keys
You can configure shortcut keys to quickly assign styles in yourdocument. Some shortcuts are predefined, such as Ctrl+0 for the Text
body paragraph style , Ctrl+1 for the Heading 1 style and Ctrl+2 for
Heading 2. You can modify these shortcuts and create your own.
1) Click Tools > Customize > Keyboard. The Keyboard page of the
Customize dialog box (Figure 8) opens.
2) To have the shortcut key assignment available only for Writer,
select Writer in the upper right corner of the page; otherwise
select OpenOffice.org to make it available to every component.
3) Choose the shortcut keys you want to assign a style to. In thisexample, we have chosen Ctrl+9.
4) In the Functions section at the bottom of the dialog box, scroll
down in the Category list to Styles. Click the + sign to expand thelist of styles.
5) Choose the category of style. (This example uses a paragraphstyle, but you can also choose character styles and others.) The
Function list will display the names of the available styles for theselected category. The example shows some of OOo’s predefinedstyles.

Assigning shortcut keys

13

Figure 8. Defining keyboard shortcuts for applying styles
6) To assign Ctrl+9 to be the shortcut key combination for the List 1
style, select List 1 in the Function list, and then click Modify.
Ctrl+9 now appears in the Keys list on the right, and List 1
appears next to Ctrl+9 in the Shortcut keys box at the top.
7) Make any other required changes, and then click OK to savethese settings and close the dialog box.

Example: Assigning macros to shortcut keys
A common use for assigning macros to shortcut keys is to enable quick
and easy insertion of special characters. This example shows how to
set up keyboard shortcuts for inserting en-dashes and em-dashes.
First, you need to record a macro for inserting each type of dash. Then,
you need to assign those macro to shortcut key combinations.

14

Customizing Writer1) Choose Tools > Macros > Record Macro to start
recording a macro.
A small window is displayed so you know that
OpenOffice.org is recording.
2) Choose Insert > Special Characters to open the Special
Characters dialog box (Figure 9). Scroll down until you find theen-dash (U+2013) and em-dash (U+2014) characters. Select oneof them and click OK.

Figure 9: Find and choose the en-dash.
3) Click the Stop Recording button to stop recording, save themacro, and display the OpenOffice.org Basic Macros dialog box(see Figure 10). Type a descriptive name for the new macro in the
Macro name box on the upper left.

Figure 10: Naming the new macro and storing it
Assigning shortcut keys

154) Be sure to open the library container named My Macros. Find thelibrary named Standard under My Macros. Select Module1 andclick Save.
5) Repeat steps 1–4 to create other macros, for example to insert an
em-dash.
6) Choose Tools > Customize > Keyboard tab (Figure 11). In the
Shortcut keys list, pick an unused combination (for example,
Ctrl+Shift+N for an en-dash). In the Category list, scroll down to
OpenOffice.org Macros, click the + sign (or small triangle,
depending on your operating system), then click the + (ortriangle) next to the Standard library and choose Module1. In the
Function list, choose Endash and click the Modify button on theupper right. The selected key combination now appears in theKeys list on the lower right, and Endash appears next to
Ctrl+Shift+N in the Shortcut keys list.
7) Repeat for the em-dash macro, then click OK.

Figure 11: Defining keyboard shortcuts for running macros

16

Customizing WriterTip

For inserting en- and em-dashes, and other special characters,
you may find extensions such as Compose Special Characters
useful. See “Adding functionality with extensions” on page 18.

Saving changes to a file
Changes to the shortcut key assignments can be saved in a keyboard
configuration file for use at a later time, thus permitting you to create
and apply different configurations as the need arises. To save keyboard
shortcuts to a file:1) After making your keyboard shortcut assignments, click the Save
button near the bottom right of the Customize dialog box (Figure
8).
2) In the Save Keyboard Configuration dialog box, select All files
from the Save as Type list.
3) Next enter a name for the keyboard configuration file in theFile name box, or select an existing file from the list. If you needto, browse to find a file from another location.
4) Click Save. A confirmation dialog box appears if you are about tooverwrite an existing file, otherwise there will be no feedback andthe file will be saved.

Loading a saved keyboard configuration
To load a saved keyboard configuration file and replace your existing
configuration, click the Load button near the bottom right of the
Customize dialog box, and then select the configuration file from theLoad Keyboard Configuration dialog box.

Resetting the shortcut keys
To reset all of the keyboard shortcuts to their default values, click the
Reset button near the bottom right of the Customize dialog box. Use
this feature with care as no confirmation dialog box will be displayed;
the defaults will be set without any further notice or user input.

Assigning macros to eventsIn OOo, when something happens, we say that an event occurred. For
example, a document was opened, a key was pressed, or the mouse
moved. You can associate a macro with an event, so the macro is run
when the event occurs. For example, a common use is to assign the
Assigning macros to events

17

“open document” event to run a macro that performs certain setup
tasks for the document.
To associate a macro with an event, use the Events page of the
Customize dialog box. For more information, see Chapter 13 (Getting
started with macros) in the Getting Started guide.

Adding functionality with extensions
An extension is a package that can be installed into OpenOffice.org to
add new functionality.
Although individual extensions can be found in different places, theofficial OpenOffice.org extension repository is at
http://extensions.services.openoffice.org/. Some extensions are free ofcharge; others are available for a fee. Check the descriptions to see
what licenses and fees apply to the ones that interest you.

Installing extensions
To install an extension, follow these steps:
1) Download an extension and save it anywhere on your computer.
2) In OOo, select Tools > Extension Manager from the menu bar.
In the Extension Manager dialog box (Figure 12), click Add.

Figure 12: Using the Extension Manager

18

Customizing Writer

3) A file browser window opens. Find and select the extension you
want to install and click Open. The extension begins installing.
You may be asked to accept a license agreement.
4) When the installation is complete, the extension is listed in the
Extension Manager dialog box.

Tip

To get extensions that are listed in the repository, you can open
the Extension Manager and click the Get more extensions
here link. You do not need to download them separately as instep 1 above.

Note

To install a shared extension, you need to have write access to
the OpenOffice.org installation directory.

Using extensions
This section describes a few of the more important and popularextensions to Writer. All are available from the OOo extensions
repository. In each case, you need to first install the extension as
described in the previous section.

Template Changer
Adds two new items to the File > Templates menu that allow you toassign a new template to the current document or to a folder of
documents. All styles and formatting will be loaded from that template
and the document will behave as it was created using that template.
Open source.

Compose Special Characters
Provides a facility for inserting accented and special characters using
key combinations. Adds an entry (Compose Character) to the Insert
menu, which opens a dialog box where you can view the list of key
combinations and choose the keystroke you want to use to run themacro. Once setup is done, simply press the appropriate key
combination, followed by the keystroke to run the macro. Open source.

Professional Template Pack II
Provides more than 120 templates for Writer, Calc, and Impress.
Available in several languages. After you have installed this extension,
you will find the templates under File > New > Templates andDocuments. From Sun Microsystems. Freeware.

Adding functionality with extensions

19

PDF Import
This extension enables you to make minor modifications to the text ofexisting PDF files when the original source files do not exist or you areunable to open the source files. (Whenever possible, modify the source
and regenerate the PDF to obtain the best results.)
When the extension is installed, PDF is listed as a choice in the File
Type drop-down list in the File > Open dialog box.
Best results can be achieved with the PDF/ODF hybrid file format,
which this extension also enables. A hybrid PDF/ODF file is a PDF filethat contains an embedded ODF source file. Hybrid PDF/ODF files will
be opened in OpenOffice.org as an ODF file without any layoutchanges.
Non-hybrid PDF documents open in Draw. Many PDFs can be edited
and resaved with no problems. However, depending on the complexityof the layout, the fonts used, the graphics included, and other factors,
changes may be difficult to make, font substitution may occur, and thesaved result may not preserve the original layout.
From Sun Microsystems. Open source.

Writer’s Tools
A set of utilities designed to help OpenOffice.org users perform a wide
range of tasks. Using Writer’s Tools, you can back up documents, lookup and translate words and phrases, manage text snippets, and keeptabs on document statistics. Open source.

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Customizing Writer