Getting Started Guide

Chapter 2
Setting up LibreOffice
Choosing Options to Suit the Way You Work

CopyrightThis document is Copyright © 2010–2016 by the LibreOffice Documentation Team. Contributors
are listed below. You may distribute it and/or modify it under the terms of either the GNU General
Public License (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html), version 3 or later, or the Creative Commons
Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), version 4.0 or later.
All trademarks within this guide belong to their legitimate owners.

Contributors
Jean Hollis WeberJohn A Smith
Ron Faile Jr.

Olivier Hallot
Martin Saffron

Hazel Russman
Steve Schwettman

Feedback
Please direct any comments or suggestions about this document to the Documentation Team’s
mailing list: documentation@global.libreoffice.org
Note: Everything you send to a mailing list, including your email address and any other personal
information that is written in the message, is publicly archived and cannot be deleted.

Acknowledgments
This chapter is revised and updated from Chapter 2 of Getting Started with OpenOffice.org 3.x.
The contributors to that chapter are:
Jean Hollis Weber
Peter Hillier-Brook

Agnes Belzunce
Stefan A. Keel

Daniel Carrera
Michele Zarri

Publication date and software version
Published 17 May 2016. Based on LibreOffice 5.1.

Note for Mac users
Some keystrokes and menu items are different on a Mac from those used in Windows and Linux.
The table below gives some common substitutions for the instructions in this chapter. For a moredetailed list, see the application Help.
Windows or LinuxMac equivalent

EffectTools > Options
menu selection

LibreOffice > Preferences

Access setup options

Right-click

Control+click and/or right-click
depending on computer setup

Open a context menu

Ctrl (Control)⌘ (Command)

Used with other keys

F5

Shift+⌘+F5Open the Navigator

F11

⌘+T

Open the Styles and Formatting window

Documentation for LibreOffice is available at http://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/documentation

Contents
Copyright.............................................................................................................................. 2
Contributors................................................................................................................................. 2
Feedback..................................................................................................................................... 2
Acknowledgments........................................................................................................................ 2
Publication date and software version......................................................................................... 2
Note for Mac users...................................................................................................................... 2

Choosing options for all of LibreOffice............................................................................. 4
User Data options........................................................................................................................ 4
General options........................................................................................................................... 4
Memory options........................................................................................................................... 5
View options................................................................................................................................ 6
Print options................................................................................................................................. 8
Paths options............................................................................................................................... 9
Color options.............................................................................................................................. 10
Fonts options............................................................................................................................. 11
Security options......................................................................................................................... 12
Security options and warnings.............................................................................................. 14
Personalization.......................................................................................................................... 15
Application colors....................................................................................................................... 15
Accessibility options................................................................................................................... 16
Advanced options...................................................................................................................... 17
Basic IDE options...................................................................................................................... 18
Online update options................................................................................................................ 18
OpenCL options......................................................................................................................... 19

Choosing Load/Save options........................................................................................... 20
General...................................................................................................................................... 20
VBA Properties.......................................................................................................................... 22
Microsoft Office.......................................................................................................................... 22
HTML compatibility.................................................................................................................... 22

Choosing language settings.............................................................................................24
Install the required dictionaries.................................................................................................. 24
Change some locale and language settings.............................................................................. 24
Choose spelling options............................................................................................................. 26
English sentence checking........................................................................................................ 27
Grammar checking................................................................................................................ 28
Punctuation........................................................................................................................... 28
Others................................................................................................................................... 28
Other languages sentence checking.......................................................................................... 29

Choosing Internet options................................................................................................ 29
Controlling LibreOffice’s AutoCorrect functions............................................................29

Chapter 2 Setting Up LibreOffice | 3

Choosing options for all of LibreOfficeThis section covers some of the settings that apply to all the components of LibreOffice. For
information on settings not discussed here, see the Help.
Click Tools > Options. The list in the left-hand box of the Options – LibreOffice dialog varies
depending on which component of LibreOffice is open. The illustrations in this chapter show the list
as it appears when a Writer document is open.
Click the marker (+ or triangle) by LibreOffice on the left-hand side. A list of pages drops down.
Selecting an item in the list causes the right-hand side of the dialog to display the relevant page.

Figure 1: LibreOffice options

Note
The Reset button, located in the lower right of the full Options dialog, has the same
effect on all pages of the dialog. It resets the options to the values that were in placewhen you opened the dialog.
If you are using a version of LibreOffice other than US English, some field labels may be different
from those shown in the illustrations.

User Data options
Because LibreOffice can use the name or initials stored in the LibreOffice – User Data page forseveral things – including document properties (‘created by’ and ‘last edited by’ information), thename of the author of comments and changes, and the sender address in mailing lists – you will
want to ensure that the correct information appears here.
Fill in the form (not shown here), or amend or delete any existing information. If you do not wantuser data to be part of the document’s properties, clear the box at the bottom.

General options
The options on the LibreOffice – General page are described below Figure 2.

4 | Chapter 2 Setting Up LibreOfficeFigure 2: Setting general options for LibreOffice
Help – Extended tips
When Extended tips is active, a brief description of the function of a particular icon or menu
command or a field on a dialog appears when you hold the mouse pointer over that item.
Open/Save Dialogs – Use LibreOffice dialogs
To use the standard Open and Save dialogs for your operating system, deselect the Use
LibreOffice dialogs option. When this option is selected, the Open and Save dialogs
supplied with LibreOffice will be used. See Chapter 1, Introducing LibreOffice, for more aboutthe LibreOffice Open and Save dialogs. This book uses the LibreOffice Open and Savedialogs in illustrations.
Document status – Printing sets “document modified” status
If this option is selected, then the next time you close the document after printing, the print
date is recorded in the document properties as a change and you will be prompted to savethe document again, even if you did not make any other changes.
Year (two digits)
Specifies how two-digit years are interpreted. For example, if the two-digit year is set to1930, and you enter a date of 1/1/30 or later into your document, the date is interpreted as
1/1/1930 or later. An “earlier” date is interpreted as being in the following century; that is,
1/1/20 is interpreted as 1/1/2020.
Help Improve LibreOffice – Collect usage data and send it to The Document Foundation
Send usage data to help The Document Foundation improve usability of the software. Data
about usage patterns helps with identifying the most frequently used sequences ofcommands while performing common tasks; the developers can then design a user interface
that is easier to use and more productive. The usage data is sent anonymously and carries
no document contents, only the commands used.

Memory options
The options on the LibreOffice – Memory page control how LibreOffice uses your computer’smemory and how much memory it requires. Before changing them, you may wish to consider thefollowing points:•

More memory can make LibreOffice faster and more convenient (for example, more undo
steps require more memory); but the trade-off is less memory available for otherapplications and you could run out of memory altogether.

Choosing options for all of LibreOffice | 5•If your documents contain a lot of objects such as images, or the objects are large,
LibreOffice’s performance may improve if you increase the memory for LibreOffice or the
memory per object. If you find that objects seem to disappear from a document that
contains a lot of them, increase the number of objects in the cache. (The objects are still in
the file even if you cannot see them on screen.)•

To load the Quickstarter when you start your computer, select the option near the bottom of
the dialog. This makes LibreOffice start faster; the trade-off is LibreOffice uses somememory even when not being used. This option is called Enable systray quickstarter on
Linux. It is not available on Mac OS X or on systems where the Quickstarter module has
not been installed.

Figure 3: Choosing Memory options for the LibreOfficeapplications

View options
The options on the LibreOffice – View page affect the way the document window looks andbehaves. Some of these options are described below Figure 4. Set them to suit your personal
preferences.

Figure 4: Choosing View options for LibreOffice applications

6 | Chapter 2 Setting Up LibreOfficeUser Interface – Scaling
If the text in the help files or on the menus of the LibreOffice user interface is too small or toolarge, you can change it by specifying a scaling factor. Sometimes a change here can have
unexpected results, depending on the screen fonts available on your system. However, it
does not affect the actual font size of the text in your documents.
User Interface – Icon size and style
The first box specifies the display size of toolbar icons (Automatic, Small, or Large). The
Automatic icon size option uses the setting for your operating system. The second box
specifies the icon style (theme); here the Automatic option uses an icon set compatible withyour operating system and choice of desktop: for example, KDE or Gnome on Linux.
User interface – Screen font anti-aliasing(Not available in Windows.) Select this option to smooth the screen appearance of text. Enterthe smallest font size to apply anti-aliasing.
Mouse positioning
Specifies if and how the mouse pointer will be positioned in newly opened dialogs.
Middle mouse button
Defines the function of the middle mouse button.
•

Automatic scrolling – dragging while pressing the middle mouse button shifts the view.

•

Paste clipboard – pressing the middle mouse button inserts the contents of the“Selection clipboard” at the cursor position.

The “Selection clipboard” is independent of the normal clipboard that you use by Edit >Copy/Cut/Paste or their respective keyboard shortcuts. Clipboard and “Selection clipboard”
can contain different contents at the same time.
Function

Clipboard

Selection clipboard

Copy content

Edit > Copy Ctrl+C

Select text, table, or object.

Paste content

Edit > Paste Ctrl+V pastes atthe cursor position.

Clicking the middle mouse button pastes
at the mouse pointer position.

Pasting into anotherdocument

No effect on the clipboard
contents.

The last marked selection is the content
of the selection clipboard.

Graphics output – Use hardware acceleration
Directly accesses hardware features of the graphical display adapter to improve the screen
display. Not supported on all operating systems and LibreOffice distributions.
Graphics output – Use anti-aliasing
Enables and disables anti-aliasing, which makes the display of most graphical objects looksmoother and with fewer artifacts. Not supported on all operating systems and LibreOffice
distributions.

Tip
Press Shift+Ctrl+R to restore or refresh the view of the current document after
changing the anti-aliasing settings, to see the effect.
Graphics output – Use OpenGL for all rendering (on restart)
Enables and disables the use of the 3D graphics language OpenGL. Not supported on all
operating systems and LibreOffice distributions.

Choosing options for all of LibreOffice | 7

Graphics output – Force OpenGL even if blacklisted (on restart)
Forces the use of OpenGL even if the graphics device is blacklisted. A device is blacklisted
when it is buggy or may render graphics with poor quality. Not supported on all operating
systems and LibreOffice distributions.
Menu – icons in menus
Causes icons as well as words to be visible in menus.
Font Lists – Show preview of fonts
Causes the font list to look like Figure 5, Left, with the font names shown as an example ofthe font; with the option deselected, the font list shows only the font names, not theirformatting (Figure 5, Right). The fonts you will see listed are those that are installed on yoursystem.
Fonts which are tuned for use with a specific script, such as Arabic, Hebrew, Malayalam, andso on, now show an additional preview of some sample text in the target script.

Figure 5: Font list (Left) with preview; (Right) without preview

Print options
On the LibreOffice – Print page, set the print options to suit your default printer and your mostcommon printing method. Most of these options should be self-explanatory.
The option PDF as Standard Print Job Format is not available on Windows. Select this option tochange the internal print job format from a Postscript document description to a PDF description.
This format has a number of advantages over Postscript. For more information, see
http://www.linuxfoundation.org/collaborate/workgroups/openprinting/pdf_as_standard_print_job_format
Deselecting this option reverts to the Postscript document workflow system.
In the Printer warnings section near the bottom of the page, you can choose whether to be warned
if the paper size or orientation specified in your document does not match the paper size ororientation available for your printer. Having these warnings turned on can be quite helpful,particularly if you work with documents produced by people in other countries where the standard
paper size is different from yours.

Tip
If your printouts are incorrectly placed on the page or chopped off at the top, bottom, orsides, or the printer is refusing to print, the most likely cause is page size
incompatibility.
8 | Chapter 2 Setting Up LibreOfficeFigure 6: Choosing general printing options to apply to all LibreOffice components

Paths options
On the LibreOffice – Paths page, you can change the location of files associated with, or used by,
LibreOffice to suit your working situation. In a Windows system, for example, you might want tostore documents by default somewhere other than My Documents.
To make changes, select an item in the list shown in Figure 7 and click Edit. On the Select Pathdialog (not shown; may also be titled Edit Paths), add or delete folders as required, and then click
OK to return to the Options dialog. Note that some items can have at least two paths listed: one toa shared folder (which might be on a network) and one to a user-specific folder (normally on theuser’s personal computer).

Tip
You can use the entries on the LibreOffice – Paths page to compile a list of files, suchas those containing AutoText, that you need to back up or copy to another computer.

Figure 7: Viewing the paths of files used by LibreOffice

Choosing options for all of LibreOffice | 9

Color options
On the LibreOffice – Colors page, you can specify colors to use in LibreOffice documents. You canselect a color from a color table, edit an existing color, and define new colors. These colors are
stored in your color palette and are then available in all components of LibreOffice.
To modify a color:1)

Select the color to modify from the list or the color table.

2)

Enter the new values that define the color. You can choose the RGB (Red, Green, Blue) or
the CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black) system to specify your color. The changed color
appears in the lower of the two color preview boxes at the top.

3)

Modify the Name as required.

4)

Click the Modify button. The newly defined color is now listed in the Color table.

Figure 8: Defining colors to use in color palettes in LibreOffice
Alternatively, click the Pick button to open the Pick a Color dialog, shown in Figure 9. Here you canselect a color from the window on the left, or you can enter values on the right using your choice of
RGB, CMYK, or HSB (Hue, Saturation and Brightness) values.
The color window on the left is linked directly with the color input fields on the right; as you choose
a color in the window, the numbers change accordingly. The color field at the lower left shows thevalue of the selected color on the left and the currently set value from the color value fields on theright.
Modify the color components as required and click OK to exit the dialog. The newly defined color
now appears in the lower of the color preview boxes shown in Figure 8. Type a name for this color
in the Name box, then click the Add button. A small box showing the new color is added to the
Color table.
Another way to define or alter colors is through the Colors page of the Area dialog, where you canalso save and load palettes, a feature that is not possible here. In Calc, draw a temporary draw
object and use the context menu of this object to open the Area dialog. If you load a palette in one
component of LibreOffice, it is only active in that component; the other components keep their own
palettes.

10 | Chapter 2 Setting Up LibreOfficeFigure 9: Editing colors

Fonts options
You can define replacements for any fonts that might appear in your documents. If you receivefrom someone else a document containing fonts that you do not have on your system, LibreOfficewill substitute fonts for those it does not find. You might prefer to specify a different font from theone that the program chooses.

Note
These choices do not affect the default font for your documents. To do that, you needto change the default template for documents, as described in Chapter 3.
On the LibreOffice – Fonts page:1)

Select the Apply replacement table option.

2)

Select or type the name of the font to be replaced in the Font box. (If you do not have thisfont on your system, it will not appear in the drop-down list in this box, so you need to type
it in.)

3)

In the Replace with box, select a suitable font from the drop-down list of fonts installed onyour computer.

4)

The check mark to the right of the Replace with box turns green. Click on this check mark.
A row of information now appears in the larger box below the input boxes. Select Always toreplace the font, even if the original font is installed on your system. Select Screen only toreplace the screen font only and never replace the font for printing. The results ofcombining these selections are given in Table 1.

Choosing options for all of LibreOffice | 11

5)

In the bottom section of the page, you can change the typeface and size of the font used todisplay source code such as HTML and Basic (in macros).

Figure 10: Defining a font to be substituted for another font
Table 1. Font substitution replacement actions
AlwaysScreen only
Replacement action
checkbox
checkbox
checkedblank

Font replacement on screen and when printing, whether the font isinstalled or not.

checkedcheckedFont replacement only on screen, whether the font is installed or not.

blank

checkedFont replacement only on screen, but only if font is not available.

blank

blank

Font replacement on screen and when printing, but only if font is notavailable.

Security options
Use the LibreOffice – Security page to choose security options for saving documents and for
opening documents that contain macros.
Security options and warnings
If you record changes, save multiple versions, or include hidden information or notes in yourdocuments, and you do not want some of the recipients to see that information, you can set
warnings to remind you to remove it, or you can have LibreOffice remove some of it
automatically. Note that (unless removed) much of this information is retained in a filewhether the file is in LibreOffice’s default OpenDocument format, or has been saved to otherformats, including PDF.
Click the Options button to open a separate dialog with specific choices (Figure 13). See“Security options and warnings” on page 14.

12 | Chapter 2 Setting Up LibreOfficeFigure 11: Choosing security options for opening and saving documents
Macro security
Click the Macro Security button to open the Macro Security dialog (not shown here), where
you can adjust the security level for executing macros and specify trusted sources.
Certificate Path
Users can digitally sign documents using LibreOffice. A digital signature requires a personal
signing certificate. Most operating systems can generate a self-signed certificate. However, apersonal certificate issued by an outside agency (after verifying an individual’s identity) has ahigher degree of trust associated with it than does a self-signed certificate. LibreOffice does
not provide a secure method of storing these certificates, but it can access certificates thathave been saved using other programs. Click the Certificate button and select which
certificate store to use.

Note
The Certificate Path option appears only on Linux and Mac systems. On Windows,
LibreOffice uses the default Windows location for storing and retrieving certificates.
Passwords for web connections
You can enter a master password to enable easy access to websites that require a username and password. If you select the Persistently save passwords for web connections
option, the Set Master Password dialog opens (Figure 12). LibreOffice will securely store all
passwords that you use to access files from web servers. You can retrieve the passwords
from the list after you enter the master password.

Choosing options for all of LibreOffice | 13

Figure 12: Set Master Password dialog for web connections

Security options and warnings
The following options are on the Security options and warnings dialog (Figure 13).

Figure 13: Security options and warnings dialog
Remove personal information on saving
Select this option to always remove user data from the file properties when saving the file. To
manually remove personal information from specific documents, deselect this option.
Ctrl-click required to follow hyperlinks
The default behavior in LibreOffice is to Ctrl+click on a hyperlink to open the linked
document. Many people find creation and editing of documents easier when accidental clicks
on links do not activate the links. To set LibreOffice to activate hyperlinks using an ordinary
click, deselect this option.
The other options on this dialog should be self-explanatory.

14 | Chapter 2 Setting Up LibreOfficePersonalization
You can customize the overall appearance of LibreOffice with themes designed for Mozilla Firefox.
On the LibreOffice – Personalization page, select Own Theme and then click Select Theme.
Another dialog opens. Type a search term, click Search, and wait while theme thumbnails load.
Select one and click OK to apply the theme. After a brief pause the appearance of LibreOffice will
refresh and reflect the selected theme. An example is shown in Figure 15. For full details about
themes, visit the Mozilla website: https://www.https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/themes/

Figure 14: Personalization dialogs

Figure 15: Sample personalized theme

Application colors
Writing, editing, and (especially) page layout are often easier when you can see the page margins(text boundaries), the boundaries of tables and sections (in Writer documents), page breaks in
Calc, grid lines in Draw or Writer, and other features. In addition, you might prefer to use colors thatare different from LibreOffice’s defaults for such items as comment indicators or field shadings.
On the LibreOffice – Application colors page (Figure 16), you can specify which items are visible
and the colors used to display various items.
•

To show or hide items such as text boundaries, select or deselect the options next to thenames of the items.
Choosing options for all of LibreOffice | 15

•To change the default colors for items, click the down-arrow in the Color Setting column by
the name of the item and select a color from the list box. Note that you can change the listof available colors as described in “Color options” on page 10.

•

To save your color changes as a color scheme, click Save, type a name in the Schemebox, and then click OK.

Figure 16: Showing or hiding text, object, and table boundaries

Accessibility options
Accessibility options include whether to allow animated graphics or text, how long help tips remain
visible, some options for high contrast display, and a way to change the font for the user interfaceof the LibreOffice program.
Accessibility support relies on the Java Runtime Environment for communication with assistive
technology tools. The Support assistive technology tools option is not shown on all LibreOfficeinstallations. See Assistive Tools in LibreOffice in the Help for other requirements and information.
Select or deselect the options as required.

Figure 17: Choosing accessibility options
16 | Chapter 2 Setting Up LibreOfficeAdvanced options
Java options
If you install or update a Java Runtime Environment (JRE) after you install LibreOffice, or if
you have more than one JRE installed on your computer, you can use the LibreOffice –Advanced options page to choose the JRE for LibreOffice to use.

Note
LibreOffice needs Java to run several wizards (such as in File > Wizards > Letter)and also to run databases with the internal HSQLDB engine.

Figure 18: Choosing a Java runtime environment
If you are a system administrator, programmer, or other person who customizes JRE
installations, you can use the Parameters and Class Path pages (reached from the Javapage) to specify this information.
If you do not see anything listed in the middle of the page, wait a few minutes while
LibreOffice searches for JREs on the hard disk.
If LibreOffice finds one or more JREs, it will display them there. You can then select the Usea Java runtime environment option and (if necessary) choose one of the JREs listed.
Optional (unstable) options
Enable experimental features
Selecting this option enables features that are not yet complete or contain known bugs. The
list of these features is different version by version.
Enable macro recording (limited)
This option enables macro recording with some limitations. Opening a window, switching
between windows, and recording in a different window to that in which the recording began,
is not supported. Only actions relating to document contents are recordable, so changes in
Options or customizing menus are not supported. For more about macro recording, see
Chapter 13, Getting Started with Macros.

Choosing options for all of LibreOffice | 17

Expert Configuration
Most users will have no need to use this. Click the Expert Configuration button to open a
new window in which you can fine-tune the LibreOffice installation. The page offers detailed
configuration options for many aspects of LibreOffice’s appearance and performance.
Double-click on a listed preference to enter a value to configure the preference.

Caution
The Expert Configuration dialog lets you access, edit, and save configurationpreferences that can turn the user profile of LibreOffice unstable, inconsistent, or evenunusable.

Basic IDE options
The Basic IDE Options are available after Enable experimental features has been selected on
the Advanced page of the Options dialog and the options have been saved. These options are formacro programmers and are not discussed here.

Figure 19: Basic IDE Options dialog

Online update options
On the LibreOffice – Online Update page (Figure 20), you can choose whether and how often tohave the program check the LibreOffice website for program updates. If the Check for updates
automatically option is selected, an icon appears at the right-hand end of the menu bar when an
update is available. Click this icon to open a dialog where you can choose to download the update.
If the Download updates automatically option is selected, the download starts when you click theicon. To change the download destination, click the Change button and select the required folder inthe file browser window.
If the Send OS version & simple hardware info option is selected, the information of thecomputer architecture and operating system will be sent to the server for statistics collection.

18 | Chapter 2 Setting Up LibreOfficeFigure 20: Online update options

OpenCL options
OpenCL (Open Computing Language) is a software architecture used to write programs that run indifferent processors of the computer, such as the CPU and GPU (graphics processing unit) of thevideo card. With OpenCL enabled, LibreOffice can benefit from the very fast numerical calculations
performed in the GPU, which is especially useful in very large spreadsheets with extensive
calculations. The computer video card driver must have support for OpenCL to use this feature.
OpenCL Options - Allow use of Software Interpreter (even when OpenCL is not available)
Mark this box to emulate OpenCL if your computer video card driver does not support
OpenCL.
Allow use of OpenCL
Let LibreOffice use the video card GPU to perform numerical calculation with great speed
gain. The two boxes below list the OpenCL drivers whitelist and blacklist. Click the Edit,
Add... and Delete buttons to modify the lists entries.

Figure 21: OpenCL options
Choosing options for all of LibreOffice | 19

Choosing Load/Save options
You can set the Load/Save options for loading and saving documents to suit the way you work.
If the Options dialog is not already open, click Tools > Options. Click the expansion symbol (+ ortriangle) to the left of Load/Save.

GeneralMost of the choices on the Load/Save – General page are familiar to users of other office suites.
Some items of interest are described below.

Figure 22: Choosing Load and Save options
Load user-specific settings with the document
A LibreOffice document contains certain settings that are read from the user’s system. Whenyou save a document, these settings are saved with it.
Select this option so that when a document loads, it ignores the stored settings in favor of thesettings on your computer.
Even if you do not select this option, some settings are taken from your LibreOffice installation:• Settings available in File > Print > Options•

Name of Fax•

Spacing options for paragraphs before text tables•

Information about automatic updating for links, field functions and charts•

Information about working with Asian character formats.

The following setting is always loaded with a document, whether or not this option is marked:• Data source linked to the document and its view.
If you deselect this option, the user’s personal settings do not overrule the settings in the
document. For example, your choice (in the options for LibreOffice Writer) of how to update
links is affected by the Load user-specific settings option.
Load printer settings with the document
If enabled, the printer settings will be loaded with the document. This can cause a document
to be printed on a distant printer (perhaps in an office setting), if you do not change theprinter manually in the Print dialog. If disabled, your standard printer will be used to print this20 | Chapter 2 Setting Up LibreOfficedocument. The current printer settings will be stored with the document whether or not thisoption is selected.
Save AutoRecovery information every __ Minutes
Choose whether to enable AutoRecovery and how often to save the information used by the
AutoRecovery process. AutoRecovery in LibreOffice saves the information needed to restore
all open documents in case of a crash. If you have this option set, recovering your document
after a system crash will be easier.
Edit document properties before saving
If you select this option, the Document Properties dialog pops up to prompt you to enter
relevant information the first time you save a new document (or whenever you use Save As).
Always create backup copy
Saves the previous version of a document as a backup copy whenever you save a
document. Every time LibreOffice creates a backup copy, the previous backup copy isreplaced. The backup copy gets the extension BAK. Authors whose work may be very
lengthy should always consider using this option.
Save URLs relative to file system / internet
Use this option to select the default for relative addressing of URLs in the file system and on
the Internet. Relative addressing is only possible if the source document and the referenced
document are both on the same drive.
A relative address always starts from the directory in which the current document is located.
In contrast, absolute addressing always starts from a root directory. The following tabledemonstrates the difference in syntax between relative and absolute referencing.
ExamplesFile system

Internet

relative../images/img.jpg../images/img.jpg

absolute

file:///c|/work/images/img.jpg

http://myserver.com/work/images/img.jpg

If you choose to save relatively, the references to embedded graphics or other objects in yourdocument will be saved relative to the location in the file system. In this case, it does notmatter where the referenced directory structure is recorded. The files will be found regardlessof location, as long as the reference remains on the same drive or volume. This is important if
you want to make the document available to other computers that may have a completely
different directory structure, drive or volume names. It is also recommended to save relatively
if you want to create a directory structure on an Internet server.
If you prefer absolute saving, all references to other files will also be defined as absolute,
based on the respective drive, volume or root directory. The advantage is that the document
containing the references can be moved to other directories or folders, and the references
remain valid.
Default file format and ODF settings
ODF format version. LibreOffice by default saves documents in OpenDocument Format(ODF) version 1.2 Extended. While this allows for improved functionality, there may be
backwards compatibility issues. When a file saved in ODF 1.2 Extended is opened in an
editor that uses earlier versions of ODF (1.0/1.1), some of the advanced features may belost. Two notable examples are cross-references to headings and the formatting of numberedlists. If you plan to share documents with people who use editors that use older versions of
ODF, you may wish to save the document using ODF version 1.0/1.1.
Document type. If you routinely share documents with users of Microsoft Office, you mightwant to change the Always save as attribute for documents to one of the Microsoft Officeformats. Current versions of Microsoft Word can open ODT files, so this may no longer beneeded.

Choosing Load/Save options | 21

VBA Properties
On the VBA Properties page, you can choose whether to keep any macros in Microsoft Office
documents that are opened in LibreOffice.

Figure 23: Choosing Load/Save VBA Properties
If you choose Load Basic code, you can edit the macros in LibreOffice. The changed code issaved in an ODF document but is not retained if you save into a Microsoft Office format.
If you choose Save original Basic code, the macros will not work in LibreOffice but are retained
unchanged if you save the file into Microsoft Office format.
If you are importing a Microsoft Word or Excel file containing VBA code, you can select the option
Executable code. Whereas normally the code is preserved but rendered inactive (if you inspect itwith the StarBasic IDE you will notice that it is all commented), with this option the code is ready to
be executed.
Save original Basic code takes precedence over Load Basic code. If both options are selected
and you edit the disabled code in LibreOffice, the original Microsoft Basic code will be saved whensaving in a Microsoft Office format.
To remove any possible macro viruses from the Microsoft Office document, deselect Save original
Basic code. The document will be saved without the Microsoft Basic code.

Microsoft Office
On the Load/Save – Microsoft Office page (Figure 24), you can choose what to do when importingand exporting Microsoft Office OLE objects (linked or embedded objects or documents such as
spreadsheets or equations).
Select the [L] options to convert Microsoft OLE objects into the corresponding LibreOffice OLE
objects when a Microsoft document is loaded into LibreOffice (mnemonic: “L” for “load”).
Select the [S] options to convert LibreOffice OLE objects into the corresponding Microsoft OLE
objects when a document is saved in a Microsoft format (mnemonic: “S” for “save”).

HTML compatibility
Choices made on the Load/Save – HTML Compatibility page (Figure 25) affect HTML pages
imported into LibreOffice and those exported from LibreOffice. See HTML documents;
importing/exporting in the Help for more information.

22 | Chapter 2 Setting Up LibreOfficeFont sizes
Use these fields to define the respective font sizes for the HTML <font size=1> to <fontsize=7> tags, if they are used in the HTML pages. (Many pages no longer use these tags.)

Figure 24: Choosing Load/Save Microsoft Office options

Figure 25. Choosing HTML compatibility options
Import – Use 'English (USA)' locale for numbers
When importing numbers from an HTML page, the decimal and thousands separator
characters differ according to the locale of the HTML page. The clipboard, however, contains
no information about the locale. If this option is not selected, numbers will be interpreted
according to the Locale setting in Tools > Options > Language Settings > Languages(see page 24). If this option is selected, numbers will be interpreted as for the English (USA)locale.
Import – Import unknown HTML tags as fields
Select this option if you want tags that are not recognized by LibreOffice to be imported as
fields. For an opening tag, an HTML_ON field will be created with the value of the tag name.
For a closing tag, an HTML_OFF will be created. These fields will be converted to tags in theHTML export.
Choosing Load/Save options | 23

Import – Ignore font settings
Select this option to have LibreOffice ignore all font settings when importing. The fonts thatwere defined in the HTML Page Style will be used.
ExportTo optimize the HTML export, select a browser or HTML standard from the Export box. If
LibreOffice Writer is selected, specific LibreOffice Writer instructions are exported.
Export – LibreOffice Basic
Select this option to include LibreOffice Basic macros (scripts) when exporting to HTML
format. You must activate this option before you create the LibreOffice Basic macro;otherwise the script will not be inserted. LibreOffice Basic macros must be located in theheader of the HTML document. Once you have created the macro in the LibreOffice Basic
IDE, it appears in the source text of the HTML document in the header.
If you want the macro to run automatically when the HTML document is opened, choose
Tools > Customize > Events. See Chapter 13, Getting Started with Macros, for more
information.
Export – Display warning
When the LibreOffice Basic option (see above) is not selected, the Display warning option
becomes available. If the Display warning option is selected, then when exporting to HTMLa warning is shown that LibreOffice Basic macros will be lost.
Export – Print layout
Select this option to export the print layout of the current document as well. The HTML filter
supports CSS2 (Cascading Style Sheets Level 2) for printing documents. These capabilities
are only effective if print layout export is activated.
Export – Copy local graphics to Internet
Select this option to automatically upload the embedded pictures to the Internet server when
uploading using FTP.
Export – Character set
Select the appropriate character set for the export.

Choosing language settings
To customize the language settings in LibreOffice, you can do any of the following:•

Install the required dictionaries•

Change some locale and language settings•

Choose spelling options

Install the required dictionaries
LibreOffice automatically installs several dictionaries with the program. To add other dictionaries,
be sure you are connected to the Internet, and then choose Tools > Language > More
Dictionaries Online. LibreOffice will open your default web browser to a page containing links toadditional dictionaries that you can install. Follow the prompts to select and install the ones you
want.

Change some locale and language settings
You can change some details of the locale and language settings that LibreOffice uses for all
documents, or for specific documents.

24 | Chapter 2 Setting Up LibreOfficeIn the Options dialog, click Language Settings > Languages. The exact list shown depends on
the Enhanced language support settings (see Figure 27).

Figure 26: LibreOffice language options, without and with
Asian and CTL options enabled
On the right-hand side of the Language Settings – Languages page, change the User interface,
Locale setting, Default currency, and Default languages for documents as required. In theexample, English (USA) has been chosen for all the appropriate settings.

Figure 27: Choosing language options
User interface
The language of the user interface is usually set at the time LibreOffice is installed to matchthe language of the operating system. If more than one language has been installed for
LibreOffice, you can select which language will be used for menus, dialogs, and help files.
Locale setting
The local setting is the basis for many other settings within LibreOffice, for example defaults
for numbering, currency, and units of measure. Unless you select something else here, thelocale of the operating system will be set as default.
Decimal separator key
If the Decimal separator key option is selected, LibreOffice will use the character defined by
the default locale. If this option is not selected, the keyboard driver defines the character
used.

Choosing language settings | 25

Default currency
The Default currency is that used in the country entered as Locale. The default currency
determines the proper formatting of fields formatted as currency. If the locale setting ischanged, the default currency changes automatically. If the default currency is changed, alldialogs involving currency and all currency icons will be changed in all open documents.
Documents that were saved with one currency as the default will open using the new
currency defaults.
Date acceptance patterns
Date acceptance patterns define how LibreOffice recognizes input as dates. Locale also
defines the default expression of dates. You can define additional date patterns, separated
by semicolons, using Y, M, & D for Year, Month, and Day. LibreOffice will always correctlyinterpret dates entered in ISO 8601 format as Y-M-D and YYYY-MM-DD.

Caution
Data entered into a Calc spreadsheet or a Writer table must be entered in a format
defined by Locale in order to be recognized as dates.
Default languages for documents
Select the languages used for the spelling checker, thesaurus, and hyphenation features ofLibreOffice. If these options are only for the current document, select For the current
document only.
If necessary, select the options to enable support for Asian languages (Chinese, Japanese,
Korean) and support for CTL (complex text layout) languages such as Urdu, Thai, Hebrew,
and Arabic. If you choose either of these options, the next time you open this dialog, you will
see some extra choices under Language Settings, as shown in Figure 26. These choices(Searching in Japanese, Asian Layout, and Complex Text Layout) are not discussed here.
Enhanced language support – Ignore system input language
Default language settings depend on the Locale setting. The default locale is based on thatof the computer’s operating system. A keyboard layout is normally based on the language
used by the operating system but can be changed by the user. If this option is not selected,
and there is a change in keyboard layout, input from the keyboard will be different from whatis expected.

Choose spelling options
To choose the options for checking spelling, click Language Settings > Writing Aids. In the
Options section of the page (Figure 28), choose the settings that are useful for you.
Some considerations:•If you do not want spelling checked while you type, deselect Check spelling as you type.
This option can also be deselected using the AutoSpellcheck button on the Standard
toolbar.

•If you want grammar to be checked as you type, you must have Check spelling as you
type enabled too.

•

If you use a custom dictionary that includes words in all upper case and words withnumbers (for example, AS/400), select Check uppercase words and Check words withnumbers.

•

Check special regions includes headers, footers, frames, and tables when checking
spelling.

26 | Chapter 2 Setting Up LibreOfficeHere you can also check which user-defined (custom) dictionaries are active by default, and add or
remove user-installed dictionaries, by clicking the New or Delete buttons. Dictionaries installed by
the system cannot be deleted.

Figure 28: Choosing languages, dictionaries, and options for checking spelling

English sentence checking
On the Language Settings > English sentence checking page, you can choose which items arechecked for, reported to you, or converted automatically. This menu is also found in the English
dictionaries extension installed by default by LibreOffice. Select Tools > Extension Manager,
select the English spelling dictionaries and click the Options button to reveal the menu. Selectwhich of the optional features you wish to check.
After selecting the additional grammar checks, you must restart LibreOffice, or reload the
document, for them to take effect.

Figure 29: Choosing options for checking sentences in English

Choosing language settings | 27

Grammar checking
Possible mistakes
Checks for things such as; with it’s, he don’t, this things and so on.
Capitalization
Checks for the capitalization of sentences. The sentence boundary detection depends on
abbreviations.
Word duplication
Checks for all word duplication, rather than just the default words ‘and’, ‘or’, ‘for’, and ‘the’.
Parentheses
Checks for pairs of parentheses and quotation marks.

Punctuation
Word spacing
This option is selected by default. It checks for single spaces between words, indicating
instances of double or triple spaces, but not of more spaces than that.
Sentence spacing
Checks for a single space between sentences, indicating when one or two extra spaces arefound.
More spaces
Checks word and sentence spacing for more than two extra spaces.
Em dash; En dash
These options force a non-spaced em dash to replace a spaced en dash, or force a spaced
en dash to replace a non-spaced em dash.
Quotation marks
Checks for correct typographical double quotation marks.
Multiplication signThis option is selected by default. It replaces an ‘x’ used as a multiplication symbol with thecorrect typographical symbol.
Apostrophe
Replaces an apostrophe with the correct typographical character.
Ellipsis
Replaces three consecutive periods (full stops) with the correct typographical symbol.
Minus sign
Replaces a hyphen with the correct minus typographical character.

OthersConvert to metric; Convert to non-metric
Converts quantities in a given type of unit to quantities in the other type of unit: metric toimperial or imperial to metric.
Thousands separation of large numbers
Converts a number with five or more significant digits to a common format, that is one whichuses the comma as a thousands separator, or to the ISO format which uses a narrow space
as a separator.

28 | Chapter 2 Setting Up LibreOfficeOther languages sentence checking
LibreOffice can also check sentences in other languages, notably Hungarian, Russian, andBrazilian Portuguese. These checkers are enabled by default if the language is the computer’s
default language. The set of rules available for these sentence checkers depends on the language.

Choosing Internet options
The Internet options available depend on your operating system.
Use the Proxy page (if available) to save proxy settings for use with LibreOffice.

Figure 30: Internet options, showing E-mail page available to Linux users
If you are using a Unix- or Linux-based operating system (including Mac OS X), an additional pageof E-mail options is available, where you can specify the e-mail program to use when you send thecurrent document as e-mail. Under Windows the operating system’s default e-mail program isalways used.
A MediaWiki publisher is included on Windows and Linux. To enable it, select MediaWiki in theInternet options, then click the Add button to open the dialog shown in Figure 31. Here you canspecify the address (URL) and log-in information for a wiki. You can add several wikis to the list.

Figure 31: Specifying a MediaWiki server accountControlling LibreOffice’s AutoCorrect functions
Some people find some or all of the items in LibreOffice’s AutoCorrect function annoying because
they change what you type when you do not want it changed. Many people find some of the
AutoCorrect functions quite helpful; if you do, then select the relevant options. But if you findunexplained changes appearing in your document, this is a good place to look to find the cause.
Controlling LibreOffice’s AutoCorrect functions | 29

To open the AutoCorrect dialog, click Tools > AutoCorrect Options. (You need to have a
document open for this menu item to appear.) In Writer, this dialog has five tabs, as shown in
Figure 32. In other components of LibreOffice, the dialog has only four tabs. More details are givenin the component guides.

Figure 32: The AutoCorrect dialog in Writer, showing some of the choices on the
Options tab

30 | Chapter 2 Setting Up LibreOffice