Writer Guide

1

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

Authors
Agnes Belzunce
Daniel Carrera
Laurent Duperval
Stefan A. KeelPeter Kupfer
Carol Roberts
Gary Schnabl
Janet M. Swisher
Jean Hollis Weber
Linda Worthington
Michele Zarri

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

Publication date and software version
Published 5 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
What is Writer?......................................................................................5Starting Writer....................................................................................... 5
Starting from the system menu...........................................................6
Note for Mac users..........................................................................6
Starting from an existing document...................................................6
Note for Windows users...................................................................6
Using the Quickstarter under Windows..............................................7
Using the Quickstarter icon.............................................................7
Disabling the Quickstarter...............................................................7
Reactivating the Quickstarter..........................................................8
Using the Quickstarter under Linux...................................................8
Preloading OOo under Linux/KDE......................................................8
Starting from the command line.........................................................8
The Writer interface............................................................................... 9
Menus............................................................................................... 10
Toolbars............................................................................................ 10
Displaying or hiding toolbars.........................................................11
Submenus and tear-off toolbars.....................................................11
Moving toolbars............................................................................. 11
Floating toolbars............................................................................ 12
Docking/floating windows and toolbars.........................................12
Customizing toolbars.....................................................................13
Right-click (context) menus..............................................................14
Rulers................................................................................................ 14
Status bar.........................................................................................14
Changing document views...................................................................17
Using the Navigator.............................................................................17
Moving quickly through a document.................................................19
Using the Navigation toolbar............................................................20
Rearranging chapters using the Navigator.......................................21
Introducing Writer3

Setting reminders.............................................................................21
Choosing drag mode.........................................................................22
Starting a new document.....................................................................22
Creating a blank document...............................................................22
Creating a document from a template..............................................23
Opening an existing document.............................................................24
Saving a document............................................................................... 25
Password protection.........................................................................25
Saving a document automatically.....................................................26
Saving as a Microsoft Word document..............................................26
Getting help......................................................................................... 27
Undoing and redoing changes.............................................................28
Closing a document.............................................................................. 28
Closing Writer...................................................................................... 29

4

Introducing WriterWhat is Writer?
Writer is the word processor component of OpenOffice.org (OOo). In
addition to the usual features of a word processor (spelling check,thesaurus, hyphenation, autocorrect, find and replace, automatic
generation of tables of contents and indexes, mail merge, and others),
Writer provides these important features:• Templates and styles• Page-layout methods, including frames, columns, and tables• Embedding or linking of graphics, spreadsheets, and other
•
•
•
•
•
•

objects
Built-in drawing tools
Master documents—to group a collection of documents into asingle document
Change tracking during revisions
Database integration, including a bibliography database
Export to PDF, including bookmarks
And many more

Styles are central to using Writer. Using styles, you can easily format
your document consistently and change the format with minimal effort.
A style is a named set of formatting options. Writer defines several
types of styles, for different types of elements: characters, paragraphs,
pages, frames, and lists. Often, you are using styles whether you
realize it or not. The use of styles is described in more detail in
Chapter 6 (Introduction to Styles) and Chapter 7 (Working with Styles).
The other features of Writer listed above are also covered in detail inother chapters of this guide.

Starting Writer
If you are reading this document in OpenOffice.org, you already know
how to start Writer. However, if this is a printed version or a PDF
version, you may not know how to start Writer. So let’s look at three
ways to do that:• From the system menu
• From an existing document• From the command line

Starting Writer

5

Starting from the system menu
The most common way to start Writer is by using the system menu,
the standard menu from which most applications are started. On
Windows, it is called the Start menu. On GNOME, it is called theApplications menu. On KDE, it is identified by the KDE logo. On Mac
OS X, it is the Applications menu.
When OpenOffice.org was installed on your computer, in most cases amenu entry for each component was added to your system menu. (Ifyou are using a Mac, see note below.) The exact name and location ofthese menu entries depends on the operating system and graphicalenvironment.

Note for Mac users
You should see the OpenOffice.org icon in the Applications folder.
When you double-click this icon, a text document opens in Writer. To
open the other components (Draw, Calc, Impress, Base), go to the Filemenu of the Writer window and select the component you want.
OOo does not automatically put a shortcut icon on the desktop, but you
can add one if you wish. If you don’t know how to add shortcut icons
for launching programs, please consult the help for your operating
system.

Starting from an existing document
All Writer documents are associated with the Writer application. Thismeans that you can start OpenOffice.org automatically, simply by
double-clicking a Writer document in a file manager such as Windows
Explorer.
You can spot an OpenOffice.org Writer document by its icon:.

Note for Windows users
If you have associated Microsoft Office file types with OOo, then when
you double-click on a *.doc (Word) file, it opens in OOo Writer.
If you did not associate the file types, then when you double-click on a
Microsoft Word document, it opens in Microsoft Word (if Word isinstalled on your computer).
You can use another method to open *.doc files in OOo and save in the*.doc format from OOo. See “Opening an existing document” on page
24 for more information.
6

Introducing Writer

Using the Quickstarter under Windows
The Quickstarter is an icon that is placed in the Windows system tray
during system startup. It indicates that OpenOffice.org has been
loaded and is ready to use. (The Quickstarter loads library *.DLL files
required by OOo, thus shortening the startup time for OOo components
by about half.) If the Quickstarter is disabled, see “Reactivating the
Quickstarter” on page 8 if you want to enable it.

Using the Quickstarter icon
Right-click the Quickstarter icon in the system tray to open a pop-up
menu from which you can open a new document, open the Templates
and Documents dialog box, or choose an existing document to open.
You can also double-click the Quickstarter icon to display theTemplates and Documents dialog box.

Figure 1: Quickstarter pop-up menu

Disabling the Quickstarter
To close the Quickstarter, right-click on the icon in the system tray andthen click Exit Quickstarter on the pop-up menu. The next time thecomputer is restarted, the Quickstarter will be loaded again.
To prevent OpenOffice.org from loading during system startup,
deselect the Load OpenOffice.org During System Start-Up item on
the pop-up menu. You might want to do this if your computer has
insufficient memory, for example.

Starting Writer

7

Reactivating the Quickstarter
If the Quickstarter has been disabled, you can reactivate it by selecting
the Load OpenOffice.org during system start-up option in Tools >Options > OpenOffice.org > Memory.

Using the Quickstarter under Linux
Some installations of OpenOffice.org under Linux have a Quickstarter
that looks and acts like the one described above for Windows (theoption on the Memory page is labeled Enable systray quickstarter).

Preloading OOo under Linux/KDE
In Linux/KDE, you can use KDocker to have OOo loaded and ready for
use at startup. KDocker is not part of OOo; it is a generic “systray app
docker” that is helpful if you open OOo often.

Starting from the command line
You may want to start Writer from the command line (using the
keyboard instead of the mouse). Why? Well, by using the command
line, you have more control over what happens when Writer is started.
For example, using the command line, you can tell Writer to load adocument and print it immediately, or to start without showing thesplash screen.
Note

Most users will never need to do this.

There is more than one way to start Writer from the command line,
depending on whether you have installed a customized version or the
standard download from the OOo web site.
If you installed using the download on the OOo web site, you can start
Writer by typing at the command line:
soffice -writerorswriter
Writer will start and create a new document.
To see a list of options you can use when starting Writer at thecommand line, type:soffice -?
Below is a list of some of the more popular options.
8

Introducing WriterOptionDescription-help

Get a complete list of options.

-nologo

Do not show the startup screen.

-show <odp-file>Start presentation immediately.

-view <documents ...>

Open documents in viewer (read-only) mode.

-minimized

Start OOo minimized.

-norestore

Suppress restart/restore after fatal errors.

-invisible

No startup screen, no default document andno UI. This is useful for third-party
applications that use functionality provided
by OOo.

If you have a customized version of OOo (such as the one provided by
Linux Mandrake or Gentoo), you can start Writer by typing at thecommand line:
oowriter
Note

Although the command syntax differs, the effect is identical: it
starts OOo with an empty Writer document.

The Writer interface
The main Writer workspace is shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2: The main Writer workspace in Print Layout view

The Writer interface

9

MenusThe Menu bar is located across the top of the Writer window, justbelow the Title bar. When you choose one of the menus listed below, asubmenu drops down to show commands.
• File contains commands that apply to the entire document suchas Open..., Save, and Export as PDF....
• Edit contains commands for editing the document such as Undo:xxx (where xxx is the command to undo) and Find &Replace.... It also contains commands to cut, copy, and paste
selected parts of your document.
• View contains commands for controlling the display of the
document such as Zoom... and Web Layout.
• Insert contains commands for inserting elements into yourdocument such as headers, footers, and pictures.
• Format contains commands for formatting the layout of yourdocument, such as Styles and Formatting, Paragraph, andBullets and Numbering.
• Table shows all commands to insert and edit a table in a text
document.
• Tools contains functions such as Spelling and Grammar,
Customize..., and Options....
• Window contains commands for the display window.
• Help contains links to the OpenOffice.org Help file, What’s This?,and information about the program. See “Getting help” on page27.

Toolbars
Writer has several types of toolbars: docked, floating, and tear-off.
Docked toolbars can be moved to different locations or made to float,
and floating toolbars can be docked.
The top docked toolbar (default position) is called the Standard
toolbar. The Standard toolbar is consistent across the OpenOffice.org
applications (Writer, Calc, Draw, Impress, Base).
The second toolbar across the top (default location) is the Formatting
toolbar. It is a context-sensitive bar that shows the relevant tools in
response to the cursor’s current position or selection. For example,
when the cursor is on a graphic, the Formatting bar provides tools forformatting graphics; when the cursor is in text, the tools are forformatting text.
10

Introducing WriterDisplaying or hiding toolbars
To display or hide toolbars, choose View > Toolbars, then click on thename of a toolbar in the list. An active toolbar shows a check markbeside its name. Tear-off toolbars are not listed in the View menu.

Submenus and tear-off toolbars
Toolbar icons with a small triangle to the right will display submenus,
tear-off toolbars, and other ways of selecting things, depending on theicon. Figure 3 shows a tear-off toolbar from the Drawing toolbar.
Tear-off toolbars can be floating or docked along an edge of the screen
or in one of the existing toolbar areas. To move a floating tear-off
toolbar, drag it by the title bar. See “Moving toolbars” below.
Click here and dragToolbar tears off and floats

Figure 3: Example of a tear-off toolbar

Moving toolbars
To move a docked toolbar, place the mouse pointer over the toolbar
handle, hold down the left mouse button, drag the toolbar to the newlocation, and then release the mouse button (Figure 4).
To move a floating toolbar, click on its title bar and drag it to a newlocation (Figure 5).

The Writer interface

11

Figure 4: Moving a docked toolbar

Figure 5: Moving a floating toolbar

Floating toolbars
Writer includes several additional context-sensitive toolbars, whose
defaults appear as floating toolbars in response to the cursor’s current
position or selection. For example, when the cursor is in a table, afloating Table toolbar appears, and when the cursor is in a numberedor bullet list, the Bullets and Numbering toolbar appears. You can dockthese toolbars to the top, bottom, or side of the window, if you wish
(see “Moving toolbars” on page 11).

Docking/floating windows and toolbars
Toolbars and some windows, such as the Navigator and the Styles andFormatting window, are dockable. You can move, resize, or dock themto an edge.

12

Introducing WriterTo dock a window, do one of thefollowing:• Click on the title bar of thefloating window and drag it to
the side until you see the outlineof a box appear in the main
window and then release thewindow. This method depends
on your system’s window
manager settings, so it may notwork for you.
• Hold down the Control key anddouble-click on a vacant part of
the floating window to dock it in
its last position. If that does notwork, try double-clicking
without using the Control key.
To undock a window, hold down theControl key and double-click on avacant part of the docked window.
Note

Figure 6: Docking a window

The Styles and Formatting window can also be docked or
undocked by using Control+double-click on the gray area next to
the icons at the top of the window.

Customizing toolbars
You can customize toolbars in several ways, including choosing whichicons are visible and locking the position of a docked toolbar. You canalso add icons and create new toolbars, as described in Appendix B.
To access a toolbar’s customization options, use the down-arrow at theend of the toolbar or on its title bar.

Figure 7: Customizing toolbars
To show or hide icons defined for the selected toolbar, choose Visible
Buttons from the drop-down menu. Visible icons have a checkmark
next to them. Click on icons to select or deselect them.
The Writer interface

13

Right-click (context) menus
You can quickly access many menu functions by right-clicking on aparagraph, graphic, or other object. A context menu will pop up. Often
the context menu is the fastest and easiest way to reach a function. If
you’re not sure where in the menus or toolbars a function is located,
you can often find it by right-clicking.

RulersTo show or hide rulers, choose View > Ruler. To enable the verticalruler, choose Tools > Options > OpenOffice.org Writer > View andselect Vertical ruler.

Figure 8. Turning on the vertical ruler

Status bar
The Writer status bar provides information about the document andconvenient ways to quickly change some document features. From left
to right, the fields are as follows.

Figure 9: Left end of status bar
Page number
Shows the current page number, the sequence number of thecurrent page (if different), and the total number of pages in the
document. For example, if you restarted page numbering at 1 on thethird page, its page number is 1 and its sequence number is 3.
14

Introducing WriterIf any bookmarks have been defined in the document, a right-clickon this field pops up a list of bookmarks; click on the required one.
To jump to a specific page in the document, double-click on thisfield. The Navigator opens (see page 17). Click in the Page Number
field and type the sequence number of the required page. After abrief delay, the display jumps to the selected page.
Page styleShows the style of the current page. To change the page style, rightclick on this field. A list of page styles pops up; choose a different
style by clicking on it.
To edit the current page style, double-click on this field. The Page
Style dialog box opens.
LanguageShows the language for the selected text.
Click to open a menu where you can choose another language forthe selected text or for the paragraph where the cursor is located.
You can also choose None (Do not check spelling) to exclude thetext from a spelling check or choose More... to open the Character
dialog box.
Insert mode
Click to toggle between Insert and Overwrite modes when typing.
Selection mode
Click to toggle between STD (Standard), EXT (Extend), ADD (Add)and BLK (Block) selection. EXT is an alternative to Shift+click whenselecting text. See Chapter 3 (Working with Text) for more
information about ADD and BLK.
Unsaved changes
An asterisk (*) appears here if changes to the document have notbeen saved.

Figure 10: Right end of status bar

The Writer interface

15

Digital signature
If the document has been digitally signed, an icon
You can double-click the icon to view the certificate.

shows here.

Section or object information
When the cursor is on a section, heading, or list item, or when an
object (such as a picture or table) is selected, information about that
item appears in this field. Double-clicking in this area opens a
relevant dialog box.
ObjectPictureList item
Heading
Table
Section
Other

Information shown
Size and position
Level and list style
Outline numbering level
Name or number and cellreference of cursor
Name of section(Blank)Dialog box opened
Format Picture
Bullets and Numbering1
Bullets and Numbering1
Table Format
Edit Sections
Fields (Cross References page)

View layout
Click an icon to change between single page, side-by-side, and booklayout views (Figure 11). You can edit the document in any view.

Figure 11. View layouts: single, side-by-side, book
Zoom
To change the view magnification, drag the Zoom slider, or click on
the + and – signs, or right-click on the zoom level percent to pop up
1 If a list style was used with a list item or heading, no dialog box appears.

16

Introducing Writer

a list of magnification values from which to choose. Zoom interacts
with the selected view layout to determine how many pages arevisible in the document window.

Changing document views
Writer has several ways to view a document: Print Layout, Web Layout,
and Full Screen. To access these and other choices, go to the View
menu and click on the required view. (When in Full Screen view, press
the Esc key to return to either Print or Web Layout view.)
When in Print Layout, you can use both the Zoom slider and the View
Layout icons on the Status bar. In Web Layout, you can use the Zoom
slider.
You can also choose View > Zoom from the menu bar to display theZoom & View Layout dialog box (see Figure 12), where you can set thesame options as on the Status bar. In Web Layout view, most of the
choices are not available.

Figure 12. Choosing Zoom and View Layout options

Using the Navigator
In addition to the Page Number field on the Status bar (described on
page 14), Writer provides other ways to move quickly through adocument and find specific items by using the many features of theNavigator, the Navigation toolbar, and related icons.

Using the Navigator

17

The Navigator lists all of the headings, tables, text frames, graphics,
bookmarks, and other objects contained in a document.
To open the Navigator, click its iconon the Standard toolbar, orpress F5, or choose View > Navigator on the menu bar, or doubleclick on the Page number field on the status bar. You can dock the
Navigator to either side of the main Writer window or leave it floating(see “Docking/floating windows and toolbars” on page 12).
To hide the list of categories and show only the icons at the top, click
the List Box On/Off icon
. Click this icon again to show the list.
Click the + sign by any of the lists to display the contents of the list.
Table 1 summarizes the functions of the icons at the top of theNavigator.
Note

The Navigator has different functions in a master document. See
Chapter 13 (Working with Master Documents).

Figure 13. The Navigator

18

Introducing WriterTable 1: Function of icons in the Navigator
Not active in ordinary documents. In a master document, switches
between the master document file and its subdocuments.
Opens the Navigation toolbar (see page 20).
Jumps to the previous or next item in the document. To select thecategory of items, see “Using the Navigation toolbar“ on page 20.
Jumps to the page number in the box. Type the page number or
select it using the up and down arrows.
Drag Mode. Select hyperlink, link, or copy. See “Choosing dragmode” on page 22 for details.
List Box On/Off. Shows or hides the list of categories.
Content View. Switches between showing all categories andshowing only the selected category.
Inserts a reminder (see page 21).
Jumps between the text area and the header or footer area (if thepage has them).
Jumps between a footnote anchor and the corresponding footnote
text.
Choose the number of heading levels to be shown.

Moving quickly through a document
The Navigator provides several convenient ways to move around a
document and find items in it:• To jump to a specific page in the document, type its sequencenumber in the box at the top of the Navigator.
• When a category is showing the list of objects in it, double-clickon an object to jump directly to that object’s location in the
document.
To see the content in only one category, highlight that category
and click the Content View icon. Click the icon again to display
all the categories. You can also change the number of headinglevels shown when viewing Headings.
• Use the Previous and Next icons to jump to other objects of thetype selected in the Navigation toolbar. (See below for details.)

Using the Navigator

19

Tip

Objects are much easier to find if you have given them names
when creating them, instead of keeping OOo’s default names ofgraphics1, graphics2, Table1, Table2, and so on—which may notcorrespond to the position of the object in the document.

Note

A hidden section (or other hidden object) in a document appears
gray in the Navigator, and displays the word “hidden” as atooltip.

Using the Navigation toolbar
To display the Navigation toolbar, click the Navigation icon
(second icon from the left at the top of the Navigator. Figure 13) or thesmall Navigation icon near the lower right-hand corner of the window
below the vertical scroll bar (Figure 14).

Figure 14: Previous, Navigation, and Next icons

Figure 15: Navigation toolbar
The Navigation toolbar (Figure 15) shows icons for all the object types
shown in the Navigator, plus some extras (for example, the results of a
Find command).
Click an icon to select that object type. Now all the Previous and Next
icons (in the Navigator itself, in the Navigation Toolbar, and on thescroll bar) will jump to the next object of the selected type. This isparticularly helpful for finding items like index entries, which can bedifficult to see in the text. The names of the icons (shown in thetooltips) change to match the selected category; for example, Next
Graphic or Next Bookmark.
20

Introducing WriterRearranging chapters using the Navigator
You can arrange chapters and move headings in the document by using
the Navigator.
1) Click the Content View icon to expand the headings, if necessary.
2) (Optional) If you have several subheading levels, you can moreeasily find the headings you want, by changing the Heading
Levels Shown selection to show only 1 or 2 levels of headings.
3) Click on the heading of the block of text that you want to moveand 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 andsubsections under the selected heading move with it.
To move only the selected heading and not the text associatedwith the heading, hold down Control, and then click the icon.
Tip

The tooltips (Promote Chapter and Demote Chapter) aremisleading; all headings defined in Tools > Outline
Numbering can be rearranged using this function.

4) To quickly change the outline level of a heading and its associatedsubheadings, select the heading in the Navigator, and then click
either the Promote Level or Demote Level icon. This action
does not change the location of the heading, only its level.
To increase the outline level of only the selected heading, but not
its associated subheadings, hold down Control, and then click the
icon.

Figure 16. Reorganizing with the Navigator
Note

Users of MS Office Word will note the similarity between thisfunctionality and Word's Outline View.

Setting reminders
One of the little known features of Writer which you may find quite
useful is the possibility of jumping between reminders. Reminders let
you mark places in your document that you want to return to later on,
Using the Navigator21

to add or correct information, make some other change, or simply
mark where you finished editing. The possible uses of reminders arelimited only by your imagination.
To set a reminder at the cursor's current location, click on theicon in the Navigator. You can set up to 5 reminders in a document(setting another causes the first to be deleted).
Reminders are not highlighted in any way in the document, so you
cannot see where they are, except when you jump from one to the next
—the location of the cursor then shows the location of the reminder.
To jump between reminders, first select the Reminder icon on the
Navigation toolbar. Then click the Previous and Next icons.

Choosing drag mode
Sets the drag and drop options for inserting items into a document
using the Navigator.
Insert As Hyperlink
Creates a hyperlink when you drag and drop an item into thecurrent document.
Insert As Link
Inserts the selected item as a link where you drag and drop in thecurrent document. Text is inserted as protected sections. However,you cannot create links for graphics, OLE objects, references, or
indexes using this method.
Insert As Copy
Inserts a copy of the selected item where you drag and drop in thecurrent document. You cannot drag and drop copies of graphics,
OLE objects, or indexes.

Starting a new document
Creating a blank document
You can create a new, blank document in Writer in several ways.
When OOo is open but no document is open (for example, if you close
all the open documents but leave the program running), a Welcome
screen is shown. Click one of the icons to open a new document of that
22

Introducing Writer

type, or click the Templates icon to start a new document using atemplate.
You can also start a new document in one of the following ways. If a
document is already open in OOo, the new document opens in a new
window.
• Press the Control+N keys. A new empty document opens. If you
already have a document open, the new document appears in a
new window.
• Use File > New > Text Document. The result is the same aspressing the Control+N keys.
• Click the New button on the main toolbar.

Creating a document from a template
You can use templates to create new documents in Writer. Templates
serve as the foundation of a set of documents, to make sure they all
have a similar layout. For example, all the documents of the Writer
Guide are based on the same template. As a result, all the documents
look alike; they have the same headers and footers, use the same fonts,
and so on.
A new OpenOffice.org installation does not contain many templates. It
is possible for you to add new templates to your installation and use
them for new documents. This is explained in Chapter 10 (Working
with Templates). Many more templates can be downloaded fromhttp://extensions.services.openoffice.org/ and other websites.
Once you do have templates on your system, you can create new
documents based on them by using File > New > Templates andDocuments. This opens a window where you can choose the template
you want to use for your document.
The example shown in Figure 17 uses a template called “Book” in the
My Templates folder. Select it, then click the Open button. A new
document is created based on the formats defined in the template.

Starting a new document

23

Figure 17. Creating a document from a template

Opening an existing document
When no document is open, the Welcome screen provides an icon for
opening an existing document.
You can also open an existing document in one of the following ways. If
a document is already open in OOo, the second document opens in a
new window.
• Click File > Open....
• Click the Open button on the main toolbar.
• Press Control+O on the keyboard.
In each case, the Open dialog box appears. Select the file you want,
and then click Open.
In the Open dialog box, you can reduce the list of files by selecting thetype of file you are looking for. For example, if you choose Text
documents as the file type, you will only see documents Writer can
open (including *.odt, *.doc, *.txt). This method opens Word (*.doc)
files, as well as OOo files and other formats.

24

Introducing WriterYou can also open an existing OOo Writer document using the same
methods you would use to open any document in your operating
system.
If you have associated Microsoft Office file formats with
OpenOffice.org, you can also open these files by double-clicking on
them.

Saving a document
To save a new document in Writer, do one of the following:• Press Control+S.
• Select File > Save.
• Click the Save button on the main toolbar.
When the Save As dialog box appears, enter the file name and verify
the file type (if applicable).
To save an open document with the current file name, choose File >Save. This will overwrite the last saved state of the file.

Password protection
To protect an entire document from being viewable without apassword, use the option on the Save As dialog box to enter apassword. This option is only available for files saved in
OpenDocument formats or the older OpenOffice.org 1.x formats.
1) On the Save As dialog box, select the Save with password
option, and then click Save. You will receive a prompt:

Saving a document252) Type the same password in the two fields, and then click OK. If
the passwords match, the document is saved password protected.
If the passwords do not match, you receive the prompt to enter
the password again.
Note

Passwords must contain a minimum of 5 characters. Until you
have entered 5 characters, the OK button remains inactive.

OOo uses a very strong encryption mechanism that makes it almost
impossible to recover the contents of a document in case you lose thepassword.

Saving a document automatically
You can choose to have Writer save your document automatically at
regular intervals. Automatic saving, like manual saving, overwrites thelast saved state of the file. To set up automatic file saving:1) Select Tools > Options > Load/Save > General.
2) Click on Save AutoRecovery information every and set thetime interval. The default value is 15 minutes. Enter the value youwant by typing it or by pressing the up or down arrow keys.

Saving as a Microsoft Word document
If you need to exchange files with users of Microsoft Word, they may
not know how to open and save .odt files. Microsoft Word 2007 with
Service Pack 2 (SP2) can do this. Users of Word 2007, 2003, XP, and2000 can also download and install a free OpenDocument Format(ODF) plugin from Sun Microsystems.
Some users of Microsoft Word may be unwilling or unable to receive*.odt files. (Perhaps their employer won’t allow them to install theplug-in.) In this case, you can save a document as a Microsoft Word
file.
1) Important—First save your document in the file format used by
OOo Writer, *.odt. If you do not, any changes you made since thelast time you saved will only appear in the Microsoft Word versionof the document.
2) Then click File > Save As.
3) On the Save As dialog box, in the File type (or Save as type)drop-down menu, select the type of Word format you need.
4) Click Save.

26

Introducing WriterFrom this point on, all changes you make to the document will occur
only in the Microsoft Word document. You have changed the name andfile type of your document. If you want to go back to working with the*.odt version of your document, you must open it again.

Tip

To have Writer save documents by default in the Microsoft Word
file format, go to Tools > Options > Load/Save > General. In
the section named Default file format, under Document type,select Text document, then under Always save as, select yourpreferred file format.

Figure 18. Saving a file in Microsoft Word format

Getting help
Writer provides several forms of help. In addition to a full Help file
(reached by pressing F1 or choosing Help > OpenOffice.org Helpfrom the menu bar), you can choose whether to activate tooltips,
extended tips, and the Help Agent from Tools > Options >OpenOffice.org > General.
Placing the mouse pointer over any of the icons displays a small box,
called a tooltip. It gives a brief explanation of the icon’s function. For a
more detailed explanation, select Help > What’s This? and hold themouse pointer over the icon you need more help with.
Getting help27

Undoing and redoing changes
When a document is open, you can undo the most recent change bypressing Control+Z, or clicking the Undo iconon the Standard
toolbar, or choosing Edit > Undo from the menu bar.
The Edit menu shows the latest change that can be undone.

Figure 19: Edit > Undo last action
Click the small triangle to the right of the Undo icon to get a list of all
the changes that can be undone. You can select multiple changes andundo them at the same time.

Figure 20: List of actions that can be undone
After changes have been undone, Redo becomes active. To redo achange, select Edit > Redo, or press Control+Y or click on the Redo
icon
. As with Undo, click on the triangle to the right of the arrow to
get a list of the changes that can be reapplied.

Closing a document
To close a document, click File > Close.
You can also close a document by clicking on the Close icon on the
document window. In Windows XP, this button looks like the X in the
red box shown in Figure 21.

28

Introducing WriterIf more than one OOo window is open, each window looks like thesample shown on the left in Figure 21. Closing this window leaves theother OOo windows open.
If only one OOo window is open, it looks like the sample shown on theright in Figure 21. Notice the small black X below the larger X in the
red box. Clicking the small black X closes the document but leaves
OOo open. Clicking the larger X closes OOo completely.

Figure 21. Close icons
If the document has not been saved since the last change, a message
box is displayed. Choose whether to save or discard your changes.
• Save: The document is saved and then closed.
• Discard: The document is closed, and all modifications since thelast save are lost.
• Cancel: Nothing happens, and you return to the document.
CautionNot saving your document could result in the loss of recently
made changes, or worse still, your entire file.

Closing Writer
To close Writer completely, click File > Exit, or close the last open
document as described in “Closing a document” on page 28.
If all the documents have been saved, Writer closes immediately. If any
documents have been modified but not saved, a warning message
appears. Follow the procedure in “Closing a document” to save or
discard your changes.

Closing Writer29