Getting Started Guide

PrefaceCopyrightThis document is Copyright © 2021 by the LibreOffice Documentation Team. Contributors arelisted below. You may distribute it and/or modify it under the terms of either the GNU General
Public License (https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html), version 3 or later, or the Creative
Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), version 4.0 or later.
All trademarks within this guide belong to their legitimate owners.

Contributors
To this edition
Jean Hollis Weber

Kees Kriek

To previous editions
Jean Hollis WeberLeo Moons
Andrew Jensen
Dan Lewis
Jorge Rodriguez
Valerii GoncharukPeter Schofield
Steve Fanning
Amanda Labby
Dave Barton
Olivier Hallot

Kees Kriek
Paul Figueiredo
Cathy Crumbley
Simon Quigley
Lera Goncaruk

Feedback
Please direct any comments or suggestions about this document to the Documentation Team’s
mailing list: documentation@global.libreoffice.org

Note
Everything you send to a mailing list, including your email address and any otherpersonal information that is written in the message, is publicly archived and cannot
be deleted.

Publication date and software version
Published June 2021. Based on LibreOffice 7.1 Community.
Other versions of LibreOffice may differ in appearance and functionality.

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

EffectTools > Options
menu selection

LibreOffice > Preferences

Access setup options

Right-click

Control+click or right-click
depending on computer setup

Open a context menu

Ctrl (Control)⌘ (Command)Used with other keys

F11

⌘+T

Open the Styles deck in the Sidebar

Documentation for LibreOffice is available at https://documentation.libreoffice.org/en/Contents
Copyright............................................................................................................................2Contributors.............................................................................................................................. 2
Feedback.................................................................................................................................. 2
Publication date and software version.......................................................................................2
Using LibreOffice on macOS.....................................................................................................2

Who is this book for?........................................................................................................4
What’s in this book?..........................................................................................................4
Where to get more help.....................................................................................................4
Help system.............................................................................................................................. 4
Other free online support.......................................................................................................... 5
Paid support and training.......................................................................................................... 5

What you see may be different........................................................................................6
Illustrations................................................................................................................................ 6Icons......................................................................................................................................... 6Using LibreOffice on macOS............................................................................................6
What are all these things called?.....................................................................................7
Frequently asked questions.............................................................................................8

Preface | 3

Who is this book for?
Anyone who wants to get up to speed quickly with LibreOffice will find this Getting Started Guidevaluable. You may be new to office software, or you may be familiar with another office suite.

What’s in this book?
This book introduces the main components of LibreOffice:•Writer (word processing)•Calc (spreadsheets)•Impress (presentations)•Draw (vector graphics)•

Base (database)•Math (equation editor)

It also covers some of the features common to all components, including setup andcustomization, styles and templates, macro recording, and printing. For more detail, see the user
guides for the individual components.

Where to get more help
This book, the other LibreOffice user guides, the Help system, and user support systems assume
that you are familiar with your computer and basic functions such as starting a program, openingand saving files.

Help system
LibreOffice comes with an extensive online Help system. This is your first line of support.
Windows and Linux users can choose to download and install the offline Help for use when notconnected to the Internet; the offline Help is installed with the program on macOS.
To display the Help system, press F1 or select Help > LibreOffice Help on the Menu bar. If you
do not have the offline help installed on your computer and you are connected to the Internet,
your default browser will open the online Help pages on the LibreOffice website.
The Help menu also includes links to other LibreOffice information and support facilities. Theoptions marked by a ‡ sign in the list below are only accessible if your computer is connected tothe Internet.
•What's This? For quick tips when a toolbar is visible, place the mouse pointer over any ofthe icons to see a small box (“tooltip”) with a brief explanation of the icon’s function. For a
more detailed explanation, select Help > What's This? and hold the pointer over theicon. In addition, you can choose whether to activate Extended Tips using Tools >Options > LibreOffice > General.

•User Guides ‡ Opens your default browser at the Documentation page of the LibreOfficewebsite, https://documentation.libreoffice.org/en/english-documentation/. There you willfind copies of user guides and other useful information.

•Show Tip of the Day Opens a small window with a random tip on how to use LibreOffice.

•Get Help Online ‡ Opens your default browser at the Ask LibreOffice forum of questions
and answers from the LibreOffice community, https://ask.libreoffice.org/en/questions/.

4 | Preface•Send Feedback ‡ Opens your default browser at the Feedback page of the LibreOfficewebsite, https://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/feedback/. From there you can report bugs,
suggest new features and communicate with others in the LibreOffice community.

•Restart in Safe Mode Opens a dialog where you can restart LibreOffice and reset thesoftware to its default settings.

•Get Involved ‡ Opens your default browser at the Get Involved page of the LibreOfficewebsite, https://www.libreoffice.org/community/get-involved/. There you can choose atopic of interest to help improve the program.

•Donate to LibreOffice ‡ Opens your default browser at the Donation page of theLibreOffice website, https://donate.libreoffice.org/. There you can choose to make adonation to support LibreOffice.

•License Information Outlines the licenses under which LibreOffice is made available.

•Check for Updates ‡ Opens a dialog and checks the LibreOffice website for updates toyour version of the software.

•About LibreOffice Opens a dialog and displays information about the version ofLibreOffice and the operating system you are using. This information will often be
requested if you ask the community for help or assistance with the software. (On macOS,
this item is under LibreOffice on the Menu bar.)

Other free online support
The LibreOffice community not only develops software, but provides free, volunteer-based
support. In addition to the Help menu links above, there are other online community support
options available, see the table below.
Free LibreOffice support
FAQs

Answers to frequently asked questions
https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Faq

Mailing lists

Free community support is provided by a network of experienced usershttps://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/mailing-lists/

Questions & Answers
andKnowledge BaseFree community assistance is provided in a Question & Answer format.
Search similar topics or ask a new question inhttps://ask.libreoffice.org/en/questions
The service is available in several other languages; just replace /en/ with de,es, fr, ja, ko, nl, pt, tr, and many others in the web address above.

Native language support

The LibreOffice website in various languages
https://www.libreoffice.org/community/nlc/
Mailing lists for native languages
https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Local_Mailing_Lists
Information about social networking
https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Website/Web_Sites_services

Accessibility options

Information about available accessibility options
https://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/accessibility/

Paid support and training
You can also pay for support through service contracts from a vendor or consulting firm
specializing in LibreOffice. For information about certified professional support, see The
Document Foundation’s website: https://www.documentfoundation.org/gethelp/support/
For schools, educational and research institutions, and large organizations, see
https://www.libreoffice.org/download/libreoffice-in-business/.

Where to get more help | 5

What you see may be different
Illustrations
LibreOffice runs on Windows, Linux, and macOS operating systems, each of which has several
versions and can be customized by users (fonts, colors, themes, window managers). The
illustrations in this guide were taken from a variety of computers and operating systems.
Therefore, some illustrations will not look exactly like what you see on your computer display.
Also, some of the dialogs may be different because of the settings selected in LibreOffice. Insome cases (mainly Open, Save, and Print dialogs), you can choose to use dialogs from yourcomputer’s operating system or from LibreOffice. To change which dialogs are used, go to Tools> Options > LibreOffice > General and select or deselect the option Use LibreOffice dialogs.

Icons
The LibreOffice community has created icons for several icon sets: Breeze, Colibre, Elementary,
Karasa Jaga, Sifr, and Sakapura; some are also available in a dark version. As a user you canselect your own preferred set. The icons in this guide have been taken from a variety ofLibreOffice installations that use different sets of icons. The icons for some of the many tools
available in LibreOffice may then differ from the ones used in this guide.
To change the icon set used, go to Tools > Options > LibreOffice > View. In the Icon stylesection, choose from the drop-down list.

Notes
Some Linux distributions include LibreOffice as part of the installation and may notinclude all the icon sets mentioned above. You should be able to download othericon sets from the software repository for your Linux distribution if you wish to use
them.
The Galaxy, Oxygen, and Tango icon sets are no longer included as part of thestandard installation package. You can download and install them as extensions fromhttps://extensions.libreoffice.org/en/extensions/.
Some of the previously included gallery sets are now available only as extensions;see https://extensions.libreoffice.org/?Tags%5B%5D=49 or search for specific ones.
For example, the People Gallery is available fromhttps://extensions.libreoffice.org/en/extensions/show/people-gallery

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

LibreOffice > Preferences

Access setup options

Right-click

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

Open a context menu

Ctrl (Control)⌘ (Command)

Used with other keys

F11

⌘+T

Open the sidebar Styles deck

6 | Preface

What are all these things called?
The terms used in LibreOffice for most parts of the user interface (the parts of the program yousee and use, in contrast to the behind-the-scenes code that actually makes it work) are the same
as for most other programs.
A dialog is a special type of window. Its purpose is to inform you of something, or request input
from you, or both. It provides controls to use to specify how to carry out an action. The technicalnames for common controls are shown in Figure 1. In most cases the technical terms are notused in this book, but it is useful to know them because the Help and other sources ofinformation often use them.

Figure 1: Dialog showing common controls
1) Tabbed page (not strictly speaking a control).
2) Radio buttons (only one can be selected at a time).
3) Checkbox (more than one can be selected at a time).
4) Spin box (click the up and down arrows to change the number shown in the adjacent text
box, or type in the text box).
5) Thumbnail or preview.
6) Drop-down list from which to select an item.
7) Push buttons.
In most cases, you can interact only with the dialog (not the document itself) as long as the dialog
remains open. When you close the dialog after use (usually, clicking OK or another button saves
your changes and closes the dialog), then you can again work with your document.
Some dialogs can be left open as you work, so you can switch back and forth between the dialog
and the document. An example of this type is the Find & Replace dialog.

What are all these things called? | 7

Frequently asked questions
How is LibreOffice licensed?
LibreOffice is distributed under the Open Source Initiative (OSI) approved Mozilla PublicLicense (MPL). See https://www.libreoffice.org/about-us/licenses/
It is based on code from Apache OpenOffice made available under the Apache License 2.0
but also includes software that differs from version to version under a variety of other Open
Source licenses. New code is available under LGPL 3.0 and MPL 2.0.
May I distribute LibreOffice to anyone? May I sell it? May I use it in my business?
Yes.
How many computers may I install it on?
As many as you like.
Is LibreOffice available in my language?
LibreOffice has been translated (localized for more than 80%, both UI and Help) into over46 languages, so your language probably is supported. Localisation is well under way for
another 30+ languages (50-80%) and for another 50+ languages help is more thanwelcome. In addition, over 70 spelling, hyphenation, and thesaurus dictionaries areavailable for languages and dialects that do not have a localized program interface. The
dictionaries are available from the LibreOffice website at: www.libreoffice.org.
How can you make it for free?
LibreOffice is developed and maintained by volunteers and has the backing of several
organizations.
I am writing a software application. May I use programming code from LibreOffice in myprogram?
You may, within the parameters set in the MPL and/or LGPL. Read the licenses:
https://www.mozilla.org/MPL/2.0/.
Why do I need Java to run LibreOffice? Is it written in Java?
LibreOffice is not written in Java; it is written in the C++ language. Java is one of several
languages that can be used to extend the software. The Java JDK/JRE is only required forsome features. The most notable one is the HSQLDB relational database engine.
Java is available at no cost. More information and download links to the appropriate edition
for your operating system can be found at: https://java.com/en/download/manual.jsp

Note
If you want to use LibreOffice features that require Java, it is important that thecorrect 32-bit or 64-bit edition matches the installed version of LibreOffice. See theAdvanced Options in Chapter 2 of this guide. If you do not want to use Java, you canstill use nearly all of the LibreOffice features.
How can I contribute to LibreOffice?
You can help with the development and user support of LibreOffice in many ways, and you
do not need to be a programmer. To start, check out this webpage:https://www.libreoffice.org/community/get-involved/
May I distribute the PDF of this book, or print and sell copies?
Yes, as long as you meet the requirements of one of the licenses in the copyright statement
at the beginning of this book. You do not have to request special permission. We requestthat you share with the project some of the profits you make from sales of books, inconsideration of all the work we have put into producing them.
Donate to LibreOffice: https://www.libreoffice.org/donate/
8 | Preface