Getting Started Guide

4

Chapter
Getting Started with
WriterWord Processing with OpenOffice.org
This 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
Jean Hollis WeberAgnes Belzunce
Spencer E. Harpe
Peter Kupfer
Janet Swisher

Michele Zarri
Daniel Carrera
Peter Hillier-Brook
Gary Schnabl
Linda Worthington

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

Publication date and software version
Published 15 April 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?......................................................................................5
The Writer interface............................................................................... 5
Status bar...........................................................................................6
Changing document views.....................................................................8
Moving quickly through a document......................................................9Working with documents......................................................................10
Saving as a Microsoft Word file........................................................10
Working with text................................................................................. 11
Selecting items that are not consecutive..........................................11
Selecting a vertical block of text.......................................................12
Cutting, copying, and pasting text....................................................13
Finding and replacing text and formatting.......................................14
Inserting special characters..............................................................15
Inserting dashes and non-breaking spaces and hyphens..................16
Setting tab stops and indents...........................................................16
Changing the default tab stop interval.............................................17
Checking spelling and grammar.......................................................18
Using built-in language tools............................................................18
Using AutoCorrect............................................................................19
Using word completion.....................................................................20
Using AutoText.................................................................................. 20
Formatting text.................................................................................... 21
Using styles is recommended...........................................................21
Formatting paragraphs.....................................................................21
Formatting characters......................................................................22
Autoformatting.................................................................................. 22
Creating numbered or bulleted lists.................................................23
Hyphenating words........................................................................... 24
Formatting pages.................................................................................26
Which layout method to choose?.......................................................26
Getting Started with Writer3

Creating headers and footers...........................................................28
Numbering pages.............................................................................. 28
Changing page margins....................................................................30
Adding comments to a document.........................................................31
Creating a table of contents.................................................................32
Creating indexes and bibliographies....................................................33
Working with graphics.........................................................................33
Printing from Writer............................................................................. 34
Quick printing................................................................................... 34
Controlling printing..........................................................................34
Selecting print options for a document.............................................35
Printing in black and white on a color printer..................................36
Previewing pages before printing.....................................................36
Printing a brochure........................................................................... 37
Printing envelopes............................................................................38
Printing labels................................................................................... 41
Sending a fax using Writer...................................................................42
Sending a fax through the Print dialog.............................................43
Adding a Fax icon to the toolbar.......................................................43
Tracking changes to a document.........................................................43
Using fields.......................................................................................... 44
Linking to another part of a document.................................................44
Using hyperlinks............................................................................... 45
Using cross-references.....................................................................45
Using bookmarks..............................................................................47
Using mail merge................................................................................. 47
Using master documents...................................................................... 47
Creating fill-in forms............................................................................ 48

4

Getting Started with 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 (see Chapter 3)• 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 (see Chapter 10)
And many more

These features are covered in detail in the Writer Guide.

The Writer interface
The main Writer workspace is shown in Figure 1. The menus andtoolbars are described in Chapter 1 (Introducing OpenOffice.org).
Some other features of the Writer interface are covered in this chapter.

Figure 1: The main Writer workspace in Print Layout view
The Writer interface

5Status bar
The Writer status bar provides information about the document andconvenient ways to quickly change some document features.

Figure 2: 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.
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. Click in the Page Number field and typethe sequence number of the required page. After a brief delay, thedisplay 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 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.
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 when
6

Getting Started with Writerselecting text. See “Working with text” on page 11 for more
information about ADD and BLK.
Unsaved changes
An asterisk (*) appears here if changes to the document have notbeen saved.

Figure 3: Right end of status bar
Digital signature
If the document has been digitally signed, an icon
shows here.
You can double-click the icon to view the certificate.
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. For details, consult the Help or the Writer Guide.
View layout
Click an icon to change between single page, side-by-side, and booklayout views (Figure 4). You can edit the document in any view.

Figure 4: View layouts: single, side-by-side, book.
The Writer interface

7

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
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 (Figure 5), where you can set the same
options as on the Status bar. In Web Layout view, most of the choices
are not available.

Figure 5: Choosing Zoom and View Layout options.

8

Getting Started with WriterMoving quickly through a document
In addition to the navigation features of the Status bar (describedabove), you can use the main Navigator window and the Navigation
toolbar as described in Chapter 1 (Introducing OpenOffice.org).
In Writer, you can also display the Navigation toolbar by clicking on thesmall Navigation icon near the lower right-hand corner of the window
below the vertical scroll bar, as shown in Figure 6.

Figure 6: Navigation icons.
The Navigation toolbar (Figure 7) shows icons for all the object types
shown in the Navigator, plus some extras (for example, the results of a
Find command).

Figure 7: Navigation toolbar
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, Next Bookmark, or Continue search forward.
For more uses of the Navigator in Writer, see the Writer Guide.

Moving quickly through a document

9Working with documents
Chapter 1 (Introducing OpenOffice.org) includes instructions on
starting new documents, opening existing documents, and saving
documents. Chapter 3 (Using Styles and Templates) covers how tocreate a document from a template.

Saving as a Microsoft Word fileIf 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 appear only in the Microsoft Word versionof the document.
2) Then choose File > Save As.
3) On the Save As dialog (Figure 8), in the File type (or Save astype) drop-down menu, select the type of Word format you need.
4) Choose Save.
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 withthe .odt version of your document, you must open it again.

Tip

10

To have OOo save documents by default in the Microsoft Word
file format, go to Tools > Options > Load/Save. See“Choosing options for loading and saving documents” in
Chapter 2 (Setting up OpenOffice.org).

Getting Started with WriterFigure 8. Saving a file in Microsoft Word format

Working with text
Working with text (selecting, copying, pasting, moving) in Writer issimilar to working with text in any other program. OOo also has someconvenient ways to select items that are not next to each other, select a
vertical block of text, and paste unformatted text.

Selecting items that are not consecutive
To select nonconsecutive items (as shown in Figure 9) using themouse:
1) Select the first piece of text.
2) Hold down the Control key and use the mouse to select the next
piece of text.
3) Repeat as often as needed.
Now you can work with the selected text (copy it, delete it, change thestyle, or whatever).
Note

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

Working with text

11

Figure 9: Selecting items that are not next to each otherTo select nonconsecutive items using the keyboard:
1) Select the first piece of text. (For more information about
keyboard selection of text, see the topic “Navigating and selectingwith the keyboard” in the Help.)2) Press Shift+F8. This puts Writer in “Add” mode. The word ADD
appears on the status bar.
3) Use the arrow keys to move to the start of the next piece of text
to be selected. Hold down the Shift key and select the next pieceof text.
4) Repeat as often as needed.
Now you can work with the selected text.
Press Esc to exit from this mode.

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

Now highlight the selection, using mouse or keyboard, as shown in
Figure 10.

12

Getting Started with WriterFigure 10: Selecting a vertical block of text

Cutting, copying, and pasting text
Cutting and copying text in Writer is similar to cutting and copying text
in other applications. You can use the mouse or the keyboard for these
operations. You can copy or move text within a document, or between
documents, by dragging or by using menu selections, icons, or
keyboard shortcuts. You can also copy text from other sources such as
Web pages and paste it into a Writer document.
To move (cut and paste) selected text using the mouse, drag it to the
new location and release it. To copy selected text, hold down theControl key while dragging. The text retains the formatting it had
before dragging.
When you paste text, the result depends on the source of the text andhow you paste it. If you click on the Paste icon, any formatting the texthas (such as bold or italics) is retained. Text pasted from Web sites andother sources may also be placed into frames or tables. If you do not
like the results, click the Undo icon or press Control+Z.
To make the pasted text take on the formatting of the surrounding text
where it is being pasted,choose either:• Edit > Paste Special, or• Click the triangle to the right of the Paste icon, or• Click the Paste icon without releasing the left mouse button.

Then select Unformatted text from the resulting menu.
The range of choices on the Paste Special menu varies depending on
the origin and formatting of the text (or other object) to be pasted. See(Figure 11) for an example with text on the clipboard.

Figure 11: Paste Special menu
Working with text

13

Finding and replacing text and formatting
Writer has a Find and Replace feature that automates the process ofsearching for text inside a document. In addition to finding andreplacing words and phrases, you can:
• Use wildcards and regular expressions to fine-tune a search (seethe Help for details).
• Find and replace specific formatting (see the Writer Guide ).
• Find and replace paragraph styles (see the Writer Guide).
To display the Find & Replace dialog (Figure 12), use the keyboard
shortcut Control+F or choose Edit > Find & Replace from the menubar.
1) Type the text you want to find in the Search for box.
2) To replace the text with different text, type the new text in the
Replace with box.
3) You can select various options such as matching the case,matching whole words only, or doing a search for similar words.
4) When you have set up your search, click Find. To replace text,
click Replace instead.

Figure 12: Expanded Find & Replace dialog

14

Getting Started with Writer

Tip

CautionIf you click Find All, OOo selects all instances of the searchtext in the document. Similarly, if you click Replace All, OOo
will replace all matches.
Use Replace All with caution; otherwise, you may end up withsome hilarious (and highly embarrassing) mistakes. A mistakewith Replace All might require a manual, word-by-word,
search to fix.

Inserting special characters
A special character is one not found on a standard English keyboard.
For example, © ¾ æ ç ñ ö ø ¢ are all special characters. To insert a
special character:
1) Place the cursor where you want the character to appear.
2) Choose Insert > Special Character to open the Special
Characters dialog (Figure 13).
3) Select the characters (from any font or mixture of fonts) you wish
to insert, in order, then click OK. The selected characters areshown in the lower left of the dialog. As you select a character, it
is shown on the lower right, along with its numerical code.
Note

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

Figure 13: The Special Characters window,
where you can insert special characters.
Tip

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

Working with text

15

Inserting dashes and non-breaking spaces andhyphens
To prevent two words from being separated at the end of a line, press
Control+Shift+spacebar after the first word to insert a non-breaking
space.
In cases where you do not want the hyphen to appear at the end of aline, for example in a number such as 123-4567, you can press
Control+Shift+minus sign to insert a non-breaking hyphen.
To enter en and em dashes, you can use the Replace dashes option on
the Options tab under Tools > AutoCorrect Options. This option
replaces two hyphens, under certain conditions, with thecorresponding dash.
– is an en-dash; that is, a dash the width of the letter “n” in the font
you are using. Type at least one character, a space, one or two
hyphens, another space, and at least one more letter, then aspace. The one or two hyphens will be replaced by an en-dash.
— is an em-dash; that is, a dash the width of the letter “m” in the
font you are using. Type at least one character, two hyphens, andat least one more character, then a space. The two hyphens will
be replaced by an em-dash.
See the Help for more details. For other methods of inserting dashes,
see the Writer Guide.

Setting tab stops and indents
The horizontal ruler shows both the default tab stops and any tab stops
that you have defined. Tab settings affect indentation of fullparagraphs (using the Increase Indent and Decrease Indent icons on
the Formatting toolbar) as well as indentation of parts of a paragraph(by pressing the Tab key on the keyboard).
Using the default tab spacing can cause formatting problems if you
share documents with other people. If you use the default tab spacing
and then send the document to someone else who has chosen adifferent default tab spacing, tabbed material will change to use theother person’s settings. This may cause major formatting problems.
Instead of using the defaults, define your own tab settings, as
described in this section.
To define indents and tab settings for one or more selectedparagraphs, double-click on a part of the ruler that is not between theleft and right indent icons to open the Indents & Spacing page of the16

Getting Started with WriterParagraph dialog. Double-click anywhere between the left and rightindent icons on the ruler to open the Tabs page of the Paragraphdialog.
A better strategy is to define tabs for the paragraph style. See
Chapters 6 and 7 in the Writer Guide for more information.
Tip

Using tabs to space out material on a page is not recommended.
Depending on what you are trying to accomplish, a table isusually a better choice.

Changing the default tab stop interval
Note

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

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

Figure 14: Selecting a default tab stop interval
You can also set or change the measurement unit for rulers in thecurrent document by right-clicking on the ruler to open a list of units,
as shown in Figure 15. Click on one of them to change the ruler to that
unit. The selected setting applies only to that ruler.

Figure 15: Changing themeasurement unit for a ruler

Working with text17

Checking spelling and grammar
Writer provides a spelling checker, which can be used in two ways.
AutoSpellcheck checks each word as it is typed and displays awavy red line under any misspelled words. When the word iscorrected, the line disappears.
To perform a separate spelling check on the document (or a text
selection) click the Spelling and Grammar button. This checks
the document or selection and opens the Spelling and Grammar
dialog if any misspelled words are found.
Here are some more features of the spelling checker:• You can right-click on a word with a wavy underline to open acontext menu. If you select from the suggested words on themenu, the selection will replace the misspelled word in your text.
Other menu options are discussed below.
• You can change the dictionary language (for example, Spanish,French or German) on the Spelling and Grammar dialog.
• You can add a word to the dictionary. Click Add in the Spellingand Grammar dialog and pick the dictionary to add it to.
• Click the Options button on the Spelling and Grammar dialog toopen a dialog similar to the one in Tools > Options > Language
Settings > Writing Aids described in Chapter 2. There you canchoose whether to check uppercase words and words withnumbers, and you can manage custom dictionaries, that is, add ordelete dictionaries and add or delete words in a dictionary.
• On the Font tab of the Paragraph Styles dialog, you can set
paragraphs to be checked in a specific language (different fromthe rest of the document). See Chapter 7 (Working with Styles) in
the Writer Guide for more information.
Writer does not include a grammar checker, but you can install an
extension such as Language Tool and access it from Tools > Spellingand Grammar. (See Chapter 14 for more about installing extensions.)
Language Tool adds a new menu item and submenu to the Tools menu,
from which you can configure the tool and check or recheck the
document.

Using built-in language tools
Writer provides some tools that make your work easier if you mix
multiple languages within the same document or if you write
documents in various languages.
18

Getting Started with WriterThe main advantage of changing the language is that you can then use
the correct dictionaries to check spelling and apply the localizedversions of Autocorrect replacement tables, thesaurus, andhyphenation rules.
You can also set the language for a paragraph or a group of characters
as None. This option is especially useful when you insert text such as
web addresses or programming language snippets that you do notwant to check for spelling.
Specifying the language in character and paragraph styles is thepreferred method, because styles allow a greater level of control andmake changing the language much faster. On the Font tab of theParagraph Styles dialog, you can specify that certain paragraphs bechecked in a language that is different from the language of the rest of
the document. See Chapter 7 (Working with Styles) in the Writer Guide
for information on how to manage the language settings of a style.
You can set the language for the whole document, for individual
paragraphs, or even for individual words and characters, all from
Tools > Language on the menu bar.
Another way to change the language of a whole document is to use
Tools > Options > Language Settings > Languages. In the Default
languages for documents section of the Options dialog, you can choosea different language for all the text.
The spelling checker works only for those languages in the list thathave the symbol
next to them. If you do not see the symbol next toyour preferred language, you can install the additional dictionary using
Tools > Languages > More dictionaries online.
The language used for checking spelling is also shown in the statusbar, next to the page style in use.

Using AutoCorrect
Writer’s AutoCorrect function has a long list of common misspellings
and typing errors, which it corrects automatically. For example, “hte”
will be changed to “the”.
Choose Tools > AutoCorrect Options to open the AutoCorrect dialog.
There you can define which strings of text are corrected and how. In
most cases, the defaults are fine.
AutoCorrect is turned on when Writer is installed. To turn it off,
uncheck Format > AutoCorrect > While Typing.

Working with text19

To stop Writer replacing a specific spelling, go to the Replace tab,highlight the word pair, and click Delete.
To add a new spelling to the list, type it into the Replace and Withboxes on the Replace tab, and click New.
See the different tabs of the dialog for the wide variety of other options
available to fine-tune AutoCorrect.
Tip

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

Using word completion
If Word Completion is enabled, Writer tries to guess which word you
are typing and offers to complete the word for you. To accept thesuggestion, press Enter. Otherwise continue typing.
To turn off Word Completion, select Tools > AutoCorrect Options >Word Completion and deselect Enable word completion.
You can customize word completion from the Word Completion pageof the AutoCorrect dialog:• Add (append) a space automatically after an accepted word.
• Show the suggested word as a tip (hovering over the word) rather
than completing the text as you type.
• Change the maximum number of words remembered for word
completion and the length of the smallest words to beremembered.
• Delete specific entries from the word completion list.
• Change the key that accepts a suggested entry—the options are
Right arrow, End key, Return (Enter), and Space bar.
Note

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

Using AutoText
AutoText allows you to assign text, tables, graphics and other items toa key combination. For example, rather than typing “Senior
Management” every time you use that phrase, you can type “sm” andpress F3. You can also save graphics or tables (such as a formatted Tip
like the one on this page) as AutoText.
20

Getting Started with WriterTo assign some text to an AutoText shortcut:
1) Type the text into your document.
2) Select the text so it is highlighted.
3) Choose Edit > AutoText (or press Control+F3).
4) Enter a name for your shortcut. Writer will suggest a one-letter
shortcut, which you can change.
5) Click the AutoText button on the right and select New (text
only) from the menu.
6) Click Close to return to your document.
Tip

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

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

Formatting text
Using styles is recommended
Styles are central to using Writer. Styles enable you to easily format
your document consistently, and to 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. See Chapter 3 (Using Styles andTemplates) in this book and Chapters 6 and 7 in the Writer Guide.

Formatting paragraphs
You can apply many formats to paragraphs using the buttons on theFormatting toolbar. Figure 16 shows the Formatting toolbar as afloating toolbar, customized to show only the icons for paragraphformatting. The appearance of the icons may vary with your operating
system and the selection of icon size and style in Tools > Options >OpenOffice.org > View.

Formatting text21

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

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

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

Figure 16: Formatting toolbar, showing icons for paragraphformatting

Formatting characters
You can apply many formats to characters using the buttons on theFormatting toolbar. Figure 17 shows the Formatting toolbar,
customized to include only the icon for character formatting.
The appearance of the icons may vary with your operating system andthe selection of icon size and style in Tools > Options >OpenOffice.org > View.

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

12 Font Color
13 Highlighting
14 Background Color
15 Open Character Format
DialogFigure 17: Formatting toolbar, showing icons for character formatting

Tip

To remove manual formatting, select the text and choose
Format > Default Formatting, or right-click and choose
Default Formatting.

Autoformatting
You can set Writer to automatically format parts of a document
according to the choices made on the Options page of the AutoCorrect
dialog (Tools > AutoCorrect Options).
22

Getting Started with Writer

Tip

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

Some common unwanted or unexpected formatting changes include:• Horizontal lines. If you type three or more hyphens (---),

underscores (___) or equal signs (===) on a line and then press
Enter, the paragraph is replaced by a horizontal line as wide as
the page. The line is actually the lower border of the preceding
paragraph.
• Bulleted and numbered lists. A bulleted list is created when you
type a hyphen (-), star (*), or plus sign (+), followed by a space or
tab at the beginning of a paragraph. A numbered list is created
when you type a number followed by a period (.), followed by aspace or tab at the beginning of a paragraph. Automatic
numbering is only applied to paragraphs formatted with theDefault, Text body or Text body indent paragraph styles.
To turn autoformatting on or off, choose Format > AutoCorrect andselect or deselect the items on the list.

Creating numbered or bulleted lists
There are several ways to create numbered or bulleted lists:• Use autoformatting, as described above.
• Use list (numbering) styles, as described in Chapters 6(Introduction to Styles) and 7 (Working with Styles) in the Writer
Guide.
• Use the Numbering and Bullets icons on the paragraphformatting toolbar (see Figure 16): select the paragraphs in thelist, and then click the appropriate icon on the toolbar.
Note

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

Using the Bullets and Numbering toolbar
You can create nested lists (where one or more list items has a sublist
under it, as in an outline) by using the buttons on the Bullets andNumbering toolbar (Figure 18). You can move items up or down thelist, or create subpoints, and even change the style of bullets. Use
View > Toolbars > Bullets and Numbering to see the toolbar.

Formatting text

23

The appearance of the icons may vary with your operating system andthe selection of icon size and style in Tools > Options >OpenOffice.org > View.

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

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

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

Figure 18: Bullets and Numbering toolbar

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

Automatic hyphenation
To turn automatic hyphenation of words on or off:
1) Press F11 to open the Styles and Formatting window.

Figure 19: Modifying a style2) On the Paragraph Styles page of the Styles and Formatting
window, right-click on Default in the list and select Modify.
3) On the Paragraph Style dialog, go to the Text Flow page.
4) Under Hyphenation, select or deselect the Automatically option.
Click OK to save.

24

Getting Started with WriterFigure 20: Turning on automatic hyphenation

Note

Turning on hyphenation for the Default paragraph style affects
all other paragraph styles that are based on Default. You can
individually change other styles so that hyphenation is not
active; for example, you might not want headings to behyphenated. Any styles that are not based on Default are notaffected.

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

Figure 21: Setting hyphenation options
To change the minimal number of characters for hyphenation, theminimum number of characters before a line break, or the minimum
number of characters after a line break, select the item, and then click
the Edit button in the Options section.
Hyphenation options set on the Writing Aids dialog are effective only if
hyphenation is turned on through paragraph styles.

Manual hyphenation
To manually hyphenate words, do not use a normal hyphen, which willremain visible even if the word is no longer at the end of a line when
you add or delete text or change margins or font size. Instead, use aconditional hyphen, which is visible only when required.
To insert a conditional hyphen inside a word, click where you want thehyphen to appear and press Control+hyphen. The word will behyphenated at this position when it is at the end of the line, even if
automatic hyphenation for this paragraph is switched off.
Formatting text25

Formatting pages
Writer provides several ways for you to control page layouts: pagestyles, columns, frames, tables, and sections. For more information,
see Chapter 4 (Formatting Pages) in the Writer Guide.

Tip

Page layout is usually easier if you show text, object, table, andsection boundaries in Tools > Options > OpenOffice.org >Appearance, and paragraph ends, tabs, breaks, and otheritems in Tools > Options > OpenOffice.org Writer >Formatting Aids.

Which layout method to choose?
The best layout method varies depending on what the final document
should look like and what sort of information will be in the document.
Here are some examples.
For a book similar to this user guide,with one column of text, some figures
without text beside them, and someother figures with descriptive text, usepage styles for basic layout, and tables
to place figures beside descriptive text
when necessary.

26

Getting Started with WriterFor an index or other document withtwo columns of text, where the text
continues from the left-hand column to
the right-hand column and then to thenext page, all in sequence (also known
as “snaking columns” of text), use pagestyles (with two columns). If the title ofthe document (on the first page) is fullpage width, put it in a single-column
section.

For a newsletter with complex layout,
two or three columns on the page, andsome articles that continue from one
page to some place several pages later,
use page styles for basic layout. Place
articles in linked frames and anchor
graphics to fixed positions on the page
if necessary.

For a document with terms andtranslations to appear side-by-side inwhat appear to be columns, use a tableto keep items lined up, and so you cantype in both “columns”.

Formatting pages

27

Creating headers and footers
A header is an area that appears at the top of a page. A footer appears
at the bottom of the page. Information, such as page numbers inserted
into a header or footer, displays on every page of the document withthat page style.
To insert a header, choose Insert > Header > Default (or the pagestyle, if not Default).
Other information such as document titles and chapter titles is often
put into the header or footer. These items are best added as fields.
That way, if something changes, the headers and footers are updated
automatically. Here is one common example.
To insert the document title into the header:
1) Choose File > Properties > Description and type a title foryour document.
2) Add a header (Insert > Header > Default).
3) Place the cursor in the header part of the page.
4) Choose Insert > Fields > Title. The title should appear on agray background (which does not show when printed and can beturned off).
5) To change the title for the whole document, go back to File >Properties > Description.
Fields are covered in detail in Chapter 14 (Working with Fields) in the
Writer Guide.
For more about headers and footers, see Chapter 4 (Formatting Pages)
and Chapter 6 (Introduction to Styles) in the Writer Guide.

Numbering pages
To automatically number pages:
1) Insert a header or footer, as described in “Creating headers andfooters” on page 28.
2) Place the cursor in the header or footer where you want the page
number to appear and choose Insert > Fields > Page Number.

Including the total number of pages
To include the total number of pages (as in “page 1 of 12”):1) Type the word “page” and a space, then insert the page number
as above.

28

Getting Started with Writer

2) Press the spacebar once, type the word “of” and a space, thenchoose Insert > Fields > Page Count.

Note

The Page Count field inserts the total number of pages in the
document, as shown on the Statistics tab of the document’s
Properties window (File > Properties). If you restart page
numbering anywhere in the document, then the total pagecount may not be what you want. See Chapter 4 (Formatting
Pages) in the Writer Guide for more information.

Restarting page numbering
Often you will want to restart the page numbering at 1, for example on
the page following a title page or a table of contents. In addition, many
documents have the “front matter” (such as the table of contents)
numbered with Roman numerals and the main body of the document
numbered in Arabic numerals, starting with 1.
You can restart page numbering in two ways.
Method 1:
1) Place the cursor in the first paragraph of the new page.
2) Choose Format > Paragraph.
3) On the Text Flow tab of the Paragraph dialog (Figure 20 on page25), select Breaks.
4) Select Insert and then With Page Style and specify the pagestyle to use.
5) Specify the page number to start from, and then click OK.

Tip

Method 1 is also useful for numbering the first page of adocument with a page number greater than 1. For example,
you may be writing a book, with each chapter in a separate
file. Chapter 1 may start with page 1, but Chapter 2 could
begin with page 25 and Chapter 3 with page 51.

Method 2:
1) Insert > Manual break.
2) By default, Page break is selected on the Insert Break dialog(Figure 22).
3) Choose the required page Style.
4) Select Change page number.
5) Specify the page number to start from, and then click OK.

Formatting pages

29

Figure 22: Restarting page numbering
after a manual page break

Changing page margins
You can change page margins in two ways:• Using the page rulers—quick and easy, but does not have finecontrol.
• Using the Page Style dialog—can specify margins to two decimal
places.

Note

If you change the margins using the rulers, the new margins
affect the page style and will be shown in the Page Style dialog
the next time you open it.
Because the page style is affected, the changed margins apply
to all pages using that style.

To change margins using the rulers:
1) The gray sections of the rulers are the margins (see Figure 23).
Put the mouse cursor over the line between the gray and white
sections. The pointer turns into a double-headed arrow.
2) Hold down the left mouse button and drag the mouse to move themargin.

Figure 23: Moving the margins
30

Getting Started with Writer

Tip

The small arrows on the ruler are used for indenting
paragraphs. They are often in the same place as the pagemargins, so you need to be careful to move the margin marker,
not the arrows. Place the mouse pointer between the arrows
and, when the pointer turns into a double-headed arrow, you
can move the margin (the indent arrows will move with it).

To change margins using the Page Style dialog:
1) Right-click anywhere on the page and select Page from the popup menu.
2) On the Page tab of the dialog, type the required distances in the
Margins boxes.

Adding comments to a document
Authors and reviewers often use comments (formerly called “notes”) to
exchange ideas, ask for suggestions, or mark items needing attention.
To insert a comment in the text, place the cursor in the place thecomment refers to and choose Insert > Comment or press
Ctrl+Alt+N. The anchor point of the comment is connected by a dottedline to a box on the right-hand side of the page where you can type thetext of the comment. Writer automatically adds at the bottom of thecomment the author’s name and a time stamp indicating when thecomment was created. Figure 24 shows an example of text withcomments from two different authors.

Figure 24: Example of comments

Adding comments to a document31

Choose Tools > Options > User Data to configure the name you want
to appear in the Author field of the comment, or to change it.
If more than one person edits the document, each author is
automatically allocated a different background color.
Right-clicking on a comment pops up a menu where you can delete thecurrent comment, all the comments from the same author, or all thecomments in the document. From this menu, you can also apply somebasic formatting to the text of the comment. You can also change thefont type, size, and alignment from the main menu.
To navigate from one comment to another, open the Navigator (F5),expand the Comments section, and click on the comment text to movethe cursor to the anchor point of the comment in the document. Rightclick on the comment to quickly edit or delete it.
You can also navigate through the comments using the keyboard. Use
Ctrl+Alt+Page Down to move to the next comment andCtrl+Alt+Page Up to move to the previous comment.

Creating a table of contents
Writer’s table of contents feature lets you build an automated table ofcontents from the headings in your document. Before you start, makesure that the headings are styled consistently. For example, you can
use the Heading 1 style for chapter titles and the Heading 2 andHeading 3 styles for chapter subheadings.
Although tables of contents can be customized extensively in Writer,
often the default settings are all you need. Creating a quick table ofcontents is simple:
1) When you create your document, use the following paragraphstyles for different heading levels (such as chapter and section
headings): Heading 1, Heading 2, Heading 3, and so on. These
are what will appear in your table of contents.
2) Place the cursor where you want the table of contents to beinserted.
3) Choose Insert > Indexes and Tables > Indexes and Tables.
4) Change nothing in the Insert Index/Table dialog. Click OK.
If you add or delete text (so that headings move to different pages) or
you add, delete, or change headings, you need to update the table ofcontents.

32

Getting Started with WriterTo do this:1) Place the cursor within the table of contents.
2) Right-click and choose Update Index/Table from the pop-up
menu.

Note

If you cannot place your cursor in the table of contents, choose
Tools > Options > OpenOffice.org Writer > Formatting
Aids, and then select Enable in the Cursor in protectedareas section.

You can customize an existing table of contents at any time. Right-click
anywhere in it and choose Edit Index/Table from the pop-up menu.
Chapter 12 (Creating Tables of Contents, Indexes and Bibliographies)of the Writer Guide describes in detail all the customizations you canchoose.

Creating indexes and bibliographies
Indexes and bibliographies work in a similar way to tables of contents.
Chapter 12 (Creating Tables of Contents, Indexes and Bibliographies)
in the Writer Guide describes the process in detail.
In addition to alphabetical indexes, other types of indexes suppliedwith Writer include those for illustrations, tables, and objects, and you
can even create a user-defined index. For example, you might want an
index containing only the scientific names of species mentioned in thetext, and a separate index containing only the common names of
species. Before creating some types of indexes, you first need to create
index entries embedded in your Writer document.

Working with graphics
Graphics in Writer are of three basic types:• Image files, including photos, drawings, scanned images, andothers• Diagrams created using OOo’s drawing tools• Charts created using OOo’s Chart facility.
See Chapter 11 (Graphics, the Gallery, and Fontwork) in this book andChapter 8 (Working with Graphics) in the Writer Guide.

Working with graphics

33

Printing from Writer
Writer provides a range of choices when printing.

Quick printing
Click the Print File Directly icon
to send the entire document to
the default printer defined for your computer.

Note

You can change the action of the Print File Directly icon tosend the document to the printer defined for the document
instead of the default printer for the computer. Go to Tools >Options > Load/Save > General and select the Loadprinter settings with the document option.

Controlling printing
For more control over printing, use File > Print to display the Print
dialog (Figure 25).

Figure 25. The Print dialog
On the Print dialog, you can choose:• Which printer to use (if more than one are installed on yoursystem) and the properties of the printer—for example, orientation (portrait or landscape), which paper tray to use, and what
paper size to print on. The properties available depend on theselected printer; consult the printer’s documentation for details.
34

Getting Started with Writer• What pages to print, how many copies to print, and in what orderto print them. Use dashes to specify page ranges and commas or
semicolons to separate ranges; for example: 1, 5, 11–14, 34–40.
Selection is the highlighted part of a page or pages.
• What items to print. Click the Options button to display the
Printer Options dialog (Figure 26).

Figure 26. Printer Options dialog for Writer

Selecting print options for a document
Selections on the Printer Options dialog apply to this printing of thisdocument only.
To specify default printing options, you need to use two pages in Tools> Options > OpenOffice.org – Print and Tools > Options >OpenOffice.org Writer – Print (which looks very similar to thePrinter Options dialog). (See Chapter 2.)
Some items of interest on the Printer Options dialog include:• In the Contents section, you might choose not to print graphics or

page background in drafts, for example (to save toner or ink).
• In the Pages section, you can choose:–
Print only left (even-numbered) pages or only right (oddnumbered) pages. These settings are useful when you want toprint on both sides of the page, but do not have a printer that
handles this automatically.
–
Print in reversed page order.
–
Brochure—the results of this selection are discussed in“Printing a brochure” on page 37.
Printing from Writer35• In the Comments section, you can choose whether to print any

comments that have been added to your document (using Insert> Comment), and where to print the comments.

Printing in black and white on a color printerYou may wish to print documents in black and white on a color printer,to save expensive color ink or toner. Common uses are for drafts or
documents to be photocopied in black and white. Several choices areavailable.
To print the current document in black and white or grayscale:1) Choose File > Print to open the Print dialog.
2) Click Properties to open the properties dialog for the printer.
The available choices vary from one printer to another, but you
should find an option for Color. See your printer’s help or user
manual for more information.
3) The choices for color may include black and white or grayscale.
Choose one of these. Grayscale is best if you have any graphics inthe document. Click OK to confirm your choice and return to thePrint dialog, then click OK again to print the document.
To set up OOo to print all color text and graphics as grayscale:1) Choose Tools > Options > OpenOffice.org > Print.
2) Select the Convert colors to grayscale option. Click OK to savethe change.
To set up OOo Writer to print all color text as black, and all graphics asgrayscale:1) Choose Tools > Options > OpenOffice.org Writer > Print.
2) Under Contents, select the Print black option. Click OK to savethe change.

Previewing pages before printing
The normal page view in Writer shows you what each page will look
like when printed, but it shows only one page at a time. If you aredesigning a document to be printed double-sided, you may want to see
what facing pages look like. OOo provides two ways to do this:• View Layout (editable view) —see “View layout” on page 7.
• Page Preview (read-only view) —from which you can print

multiple pages onto one sheet of paper.

36

Getting Started with WriterTo use Page Preview:1) Choose File > Page Preview, or click the Page Preview button.
The Writer window changes to display the current page and thefollowing page, and shows the Page Preview toolbar in place of
the Formatting toolbar.

Figure 27. Page Preview toolbar
2) Click the Book Preview icon
to display left and right pages intheir correct orientation.
3) To print the document from this page view, click the Print pageview icon
to open the Print dialog. Choose your options andclick OK to print as usual.
4) To choose margins and other options for the printout, click thePrint options page view icon
dialog.

to display the Print Options

Figure 28. Print Options dialog

Printing a brochure
You can print a document with two pages on each side of a sheet ofpaper, arranged so that when the printed pages are folded in half, thepages are in the correct order to form a booklet or brochure.
To print a brochure on a single-sided printer:
1) Plan your document so it will look good when printed half size(choose appropriate margins, font sizes, and so on). Choose File
Printing from Writer37

> Print. In the Print dialog, click Properties and be sure theprinter is set to the same orientation (portrait or landscape) as
specified in the page setup for your document. (Usually theorientation does not matter, but it does for brochures.)2) Click Options. In the Pages section of the Printer Options dialog,choose Brochure and Right pages. Click OK twice to print thefirst side of each page.
3) Flip the pages and put them back into the printer, in the correctorientation to print on the blank side. You may need toexperiment a bit to find out what the correct arrangement is foryour printer.
4) Choose File > Print and check Properties to make sure theprinter setup is still correct.
5) Click Options again. In the Pages section of the Printer Options
dialog, choose Brochure and Left page. Click OK twice to print
the second sides.
6) If your printer can do double-sided, then click on the options for
Left pages, Right pages, and Brochure, and it should not only
do those but collate too.

Printing envelopes
Printing envelopes involves two steps: setup and printing.
To set up an envelope to be printed by itself or with your document:
1) Choose Insert > Envelope from the menu bar.
2) In the Envelope dialog, start with the Envelope tab (Figure 29).
Verify, add, or edit the information in the Addressee and Senderboxes (the “from” on the envelope).
You can type information directly into the Addressee and Senderboxes, or use the right-hand drop-down lists to select the
database or table from which you can draw the envelope
information, if desired. See Chapter 11 (Using Mail Merge) in the
Writer Guide for details on how to print envelopes from a
database.
3) On the Format page (Figure 30), verify or edit the positioning of
the addressee and the sender information. The preview area on
the lower right shows the effect of your positioning choices.
To format the text of these blocks, click the Edit buttons to theright. In the drop-down list you have two choices: Character andParagraph.

38

Getting Started with Writer••In Character, you can choose Fonts (Sizes...), Fonts Effects(Underlining, Color...), Position (Rotating/scaling...),
Hyperlink, Background and more.
In Paragraph, you can choose Indents & Spacing, Alignment,
Text Flow, Tabs, Drop Caps, Borders and Backgrounds.

Figure 29. Choosing addressee and sender information

Figure 30. Choosing positioning and size of elements

Printing from Writer394) In the lower left of this page, choose the envelope format from thedrop-down list. The width and height of the selected envelope
then show in the boxes below the selected format. If you chose apre-existing format, just verify these sizes. If you chose User
defined in the Format list, then you can edit the sizes.
5) After formatting, go to the Printer page (Figure 31) to choose
printer options such as envelope orientation and shifting. You may
need to experiment a bit to see what works best for your printer.
You can also choose a different printer or alter printer setup (forexample, specify the tray that holds envelopes) for this print job.

Figure 31. Choosing printer options for an envelope
6) When you have finished formatting and are ready to print, click
either the New Doc or Insert button to finish. New Doc makes
only an envelope or starts a new document with the envelope.
Insert inserts the envelope into an existing document as page 1.
To not proceed with this envelope, click Cancel or press the Esc
key. You can also click Reset to remove your changes and returnto the original settings when the dialog opened.
7) When the Envelope dialog closes, you are returned to yourdocument, which now has the envelope in the same file as the
document. Save this file before you do anything else.
To print the envelope:1) Choose File > Print from the menu bar.
2) On the Print dialog, under Print range, choose Pages and type 1
in the box. Click OK to print.

40

Getting Started with WriterPrinting labels
Labels are commonly used for printing address lists (where each labelshows a different address), but they can also be used for making
multiple copies of one label only, for example return-address stickers.
To print labels:
1) Choose File > New > Labels on the menu bar. The Labels dialog
opens.
2) On the Labels page, fill in your own label text in the Inscriptionbox, or use the Database and Table drop-down lists to choose therequired information, as described in Chapter 11 (Using Mail
Merge) in the Writer Guide.

Figure 32. Labels dialog, Labels page3) Select the label stock in the Brand drop-down list. The types forthat brand then appear in the Type drop-down list. Select the size
and type of labels required. You can also select User in the Typedrop-down list and then make specific selections on the Format
page.
4) On the Format page (Figure 33), choose the pitch, sizes, margins,
columns and rows for user-defined labels, or just verify with abrand of label stock you have loaded into the printer.

Printing from Writer

41

Figure 33. Labels dialog, Format page5) Click Save to save your new format.
6) When you have finished formatting, click New Document tomake your sheet of labels or click Cancel (or press the Esc key).
You can also click Reset to remove your changes and return tothe original settings when the dialog opened. On the Options
page, choose to print the entire page of labels or one single label,then select which one by the column and row. You can alsochange printer setup.
7) You can print right away using the Print File Directly icon on
the toolbar or by choosing File > Print from the menu bar, or you
can save the file to print later.

Figure 34. Labels dialog, Options page

Sending a fax using Writer
To send a fax directly from OpenOffice.org, you need a fax modem anda fax driver that allows applications to communicate with the fax
modem.

42

Getting Started with WriterSending a fax through the Print dialog
1) Open the Print dialog by choosing File > Print and select the fax
driver in the Name list.
2) Click OK to open the dialog for your fax driver, where you canselect the fax recipient.

Adding a Fax icon to the toolbar
You can configure OpenOffice.org so that a single click on an icon
automatically sends the current document as a fax. See Chapter 14(Customizing OpenOffice.org) for instructions.

Tracking changes to a document
You can use several methods to keep track of changes made to a
document.
1) Make your changes to a copy of the document (stored in adifferent folder, or under a different name, or both), then use
Writer to combine the two files and show the differences. Choose
Edit > Compare Document. This technique is particularly
useful if you are the only person working on the document, as it
avoids the increase in file size and complexity caused by the othermethods.
2) Save versions that are stored as part of the original file. However,this method can cause problems with documents of non-trivial
size or complexity, especially if you save a lot of versions. Avoid
this method if you can.
3) Use Writer’s change marks (often called “redlines” or “revisionmarks”) to show where you have added or deleted material, orchanged formatting. Choose Edit > Changes > Record. Later,
you or another person can review and accept or reject eachchange. Right-click on an individual change and choose Accept
Change or Reject Change from the pop-up menu, or choose
Edit > Changes > Accept or Reject to view the list of changes
and accept or reject them. Details are in the Writer Guide.
Tip

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

Tracking changes to a document

43

Using fields
Fields are extremely useful features of Writer. They are used for datathat changes in a document (such as the current date or the total
number of pages) and for inserting document properties such as name,author, and date of last update. Fields are the basis of crossreferencing (see below); automatic numbering of figures, tables,
headings, and other elements; and a wide range of other functions—far
too many to describe here. See Chapter 14 (Working with Fields) in the
Writer Guide for details.

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

44

Getting Started with Writer

Using hyperlinks
The easiest way to insert a hyperlink to another part of the same
document is by using the Navigator:
1) Open the document containing the items you want to crossreference.
2) Open the Navigator (by clicking its icon, choosing View >Navigator, or pressing F5.
3) Click the arrow next to the Drag Mode icon, and choose Insert
as Hyperlink. (See Figure 35.)
4) In the list at the bottom of the Navigator, select the document
containing the item that you want to cross-reference.
5) In the Navigator list, select the item that you want to insert as a
hyperlink.
6) Drag the item to where you want to insert the hyperlink in the
document. The name of the item is inserted in the document as anactive hyperlink.

Figure 35: Inserting a hyperlink using the Navigator
You can also use the Hyperlink dialog to insert and modify hyperlinks
within and between documents. See Chapter 12 (Creating Web Pages).

Using cross-references
If you type in references to other parts of the document, thosereferences can easily get out of date if you reword a heading, add or
remove figures, or reorganize topics. Replace any typed crossreferences with automatic ones and, when you update fields, all thereferences will update automatically to show the current wording or
page numbers. The Cross-references tab of the Fields dialog lists some
Linking to another part of a document

45

items, such as headings, bookmarks, figures, tables, and numbered
items such as steps in a procedure. You can also create your own
reference items; see “Setting References” in Chapter 14 (Working withFields) in the Writer Guide for instructions.
To insert a cross-reference to a heading, figure, bookmark, or otheritem:1) In your document, place the cursor where you want the crossreference to appear.
2) If the Fields dialog is not open, click Insert > Cross-reference.
On the Cross-references tab, in the Type list, select the type ofitem to be referenced (for example, Heading or Figure).

Figure 36: The Cross-references tab of the Fields dialog
You can leave this page open while you insert many crossreferences.
3) Click on the required item in the Selection list, which shows all
the items of the selected type. In the Format list, choose theformat required. Usually this will be Reference (to insert the fulltext of the heading or caption), Category and Number (to insert
the word “Figure” or “Table” and its number, but without thecaption text), Numbering (to insert only the figure or table
number, without the word “Figure” or “Table”), or Page (to insert
the number of the page the referenced text is on). Click Insert.

46

Getting Started with Writer

Using bookmarks
Bookmarks are listed in the Navigator and can be accessed directlyfrom there with a single mouse click. You can cross-reference tobookmarks and create hyperlinks to bookmarks, as described above.
1) Select the text you want to bookmark. Click Insert > Bookmark.
2) On the Insert Bookmark dialog, the larger box lists any previously
defined bookmarks. Type a name for this bookmark in the top
box, and then click OK to save.

Figure 37: Inserting a bookmark

Using mail merge
Writer provides very useful features to create and print:• Multiple copies of a document to send to a list of different
recipients (form letters)• Mailing labels• Envelopes
All these facilities, though different in application, are based aroundthe concept of a registered data source (a spreadsheet or database
containing the name and address records and other information), fromwhich is derived the variable information necessary to their function.
Chapter 11 (Using Mail Merge) in the Writer Guide describes theprocess.

Using master documents
Master documents are typically used for producing long documents
such as a book, a thesis, or a long report; or when different people are
writing different chapters or other parts of the full document, so you
don’t need to share files. A master document joins separate text
Using master documents

47

documents into one larger document, and unifies the formatting, tableof contents (TOC), bibliography, index, and other tables or lists.
Yes, master documents do work in Writer. However, until you become
familiar with them, you may think that master documents areunreliable or difficult to use. See Chapter 13 (Working with Master
Documents) in the Writer Guide.

Creating fill-in forms
A standard text document displays information: a letter, report, or
brochure, for example. Typically the reader may edit everything or
nothing in any way. A form has sections that are not to be edited, andother sections that are designed for the reader to make changes. For
example, a questionnaire has an introduction and questions (which do
not change) and spaces for the reader to enter answers.
Forms are used in three ways:• To create a simple document for the recipient to complete, suchas a questionnaire sent out to a group of people who fill it in andreturn it.
• To link into a database or data source and allow the user to enter
information. Someone taking orders might enter the informationfor each order into a database using a form.
• To view information held in a database or data source. A librarianmight call up information about books.
Writer offers several ways to fill information into a form, including
check boxes, option buttons, text boxes, pull-down lists and spinners.
See Chapter 15 (Using Forms in Writer) in the Writer Guide.

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Getting Started with Writer