LibreOffice Tutorial

Chapter 1
Introduction to Writer
Writing a Conference Call LetterCopyrightThis document is Copyright © 2019 by the LibreOffice Documentation Team. Contributors are listed
below. You may distribute it and/or modify it under the terms of either the GNU General Public
License (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html), version 3 or later, or the Creative Commons
Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), version 4.0 or later.
All trademarks within this guide belong to their legitimate owners.

Contributors
This book is adapted and updated from LibreOffice Tutorial by Bernard Poole.

To this edition
Pulkit Krishna

To previous editions
Bernard Poole

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 bedeleted.

Publication date and software version
Published April 2020. Based on LibreOffice 6.4.

Documentation for LibreOffice is available at http://documentation.libreoffice.org/en/Contents
Copyright..............................................................................................................................2
Contributors................................................................................................................................. 2
To this edition.......................................................................................................................... 2
To previous editions................................................................................................................ 2
Feedback..................................................................................................................................... 2
Publication date and software version.........................................................................................2

LEARNING OUTCOMES......................................................................................................4
BEFORE YOU BEGIN...........................................................................................................4OPENING, NAMING & SAVING A NEW WRITER DOCUMENT.........................................6
Opening a new Writer document..................................................................................................6
Naming & Saving a new Writer document....................................................................................8
Creating a new folder................................................................................................................. 10

SOME HELPFUL HINTS WHILE USING WRITER.............................................................11
Word processing is not the same as using a typewriter..............................................................11
Removing unwanted Returns (using the Show ¶ option)............................................................12
Undoing unintended actions......................................................................................................13
Scrolling through a document....................................................................................................14
Shortcuts or quick keyboard commands....................................................................................16
Renaming a document............................................................................................................... 16

CREATING AND SAVING A DOCUMENT..........................................................................17
Typing the Conference Call Letter..............................................................................................18

UPDATING AND SIMPLE FORMATTING OF A DOCUMENT...........................................18
Inserting the date....................................................................................................................... 18
Adding text to an existing document..........................................................................................21
Removing text............................................................................................................................ 21
Changing text............................................................................................................................. 22
Selecting (highlighting) a block of text........................................................................................23
Using the Writer Indent Markers................................................................................................24

CHECKING THE DOCUMENT FOR SPELLING ERRORS...............................................28
Accessing and using the spelling checker..................................................................................28

PRINTING A FIRST DRAFT OF THE DOCUMENT............................................................29
Removing your document from the printer.................................................................................31
Always proofread your writing....................................................................................................31

RUNNING OFF A FINAL COPY..........................................................................................31
MAKING A BACKUP COPY OF THE DOCUMENT...........................................................31
LOOKING BACK.................................................................................................................32
LOOKING FORWARD.........................................................................................................32
SKILL CONSOLIDATION....................................................................................................32

Chapter 1 Introduction to Writer | 3

LEARNING OUTCOMESIn this tutorial, along with some helpful hints to bear in mind when word processing, you willlearn the steps required to produce a word-processed document from scratch and carry out
basic formatting and editing functions. These include:

•
•
•
•
•
•

opening and naming a new word processor document
entering and saving a document
updating and simple formatting of a document
checking a document for spelling and grammar errors
printing a document
making a backup copy of a document

It is likely that you are not a beginner to word processing, so you may think you don't need tocomplete this tutorial. That would be a mistake. Most computer users learn no more than theminimum they think they need to know to use a program such as Writer, without taking thetrouble to learn other useful features of the software. In other words, even if you have used aword processor for a while, there's a good chance that you will still benefit from completing thistutorial. So, with this in mind please conscientiously work your way through the tutorial with aview to learning new things. You'll be surprised what you’ll discover!

Before you begin
CautionYou'll find it easiest to use this tutorial if you follow the directions carefully. On
computers there are always other ways of doing things, but if you wander off onyour own be sure you know your way back!
Chapter 1 makes the assumption that you are already familiar with computing environment,
though you may not be an expert in its use. You'll also need to know:•••

where to find the computer
how to turn the computer on
how to log on to the system (using your login name and password).

You also should be familiar with the Windows, Icons, Menus, and Pointers (the so-called WIMP
interface) with which you interact with the computer. If not, your instructor will make this clear
to you before you proceed with these tutorials.
Chapter 1 assumes that you have downloaded a zipped copy of the set of Work Files for
LibreOffice that accompany these tutorials. You can download them from the same place you
have downloaded this Tutorial (See Preface). These files, after they have been unzipped,should ideally be stored on your data drive (hard drive or USB drive, for example) in threefolders named Base Files, Impress Files, and Miscellaneous Files. You also will need a fourthfolder for the data files that you will be creating while working your way through the tutorials.
This fourth folder will be called Data Files. If you do not have these four folders and files ready,prepare them now before proceeding with this tutorial. Here are the steps to do this:First, after you have downloaded the zipped set of Work Files onto your computer, Unzip
the file by double clicking on the File name (Work Files for LibreOffice.zip) and4 | Chapter 1 Introduction to WriterExtract them onto your hard drive or USB drive.
You should now have a folder called Work Files for LibreOffice on your Hard Drive or USB
Drive.
Double click on the Work Files for LibreOffice folder to open it.
Inside the Work Files for LibreOffice folder you should see three folders named Base Files,
Impress Files, and Miscellaneous Files. You need to create a new, fourth, folder called Data
Files. Here’s how you do this.
In the Work Files for LibreOffice folder, right click in the white space below the list of
the existing three folders then, in the drop down menu (called a Context Menu) that pops
up, select New > Folder (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Creating a New Folder
The system will create a new folder and you need to immediately give the folder the name
Data Files (Figure 2 next page).

Before you begin | 5

Figure 2: Renaming the new folder
Type Data Files for the new folder name.
While you are working your way through these tutorials, you will be creating many files andstoring them in appropriately named folders inside this Data Files folder.

OPENING, NAMING & SAVING A NEW WRITER DOCUMENT
Opening a new Writer document
Before you can use LibreOffice, you must have the program installed on your computer so thatyou can open the program. Figure 3 on the next page illustrates the window you will see when
you open the LibreOffice program.

6 | Chapter 1 Introduction to WriterFigure 3: LibreOffice opening dialog box
If this doesn’t look like the screen you got when you opened LibreOffice, every operating
system is slightly different in the steps to open a program, so we’ll assume that you alreadyhave that figured out.
Here now are the steps to open a new Writer document. Figure 4 (next page) illustrates thescreen you will see when you first open a new Writer document.

OPENING, NAMING & SAVING A NEW WRITER DOCUMENT | 7

Figure 4: New blank Writer document (annotated)
Notice the default title that Writer has given the document (Untitled1). You will be changing
this shortly when you save the document for the first time.
Figure 4 illustrates the toolbars (Menu Bar, Standard Bar and Formatting Bar) that areavailable when you open any new Writer document.
Figure 4 above also illustrates the Ruler Bar, along with the tool for setting Tab Stops andthe tools for setting Indents—called Indent Markers.
Many, if not most, users of Writer never figure out how to use these Tab Stops and Indent
Markers. Many users do not even know they exist! You will be very familiar with theseindent markers by the time you complete these tutorials.
Check out the tool for setting Tab Stops; it’s on the same line as the Ruler Bar, but at theleft edge of the Writer window (see Figure 4 above)—it’s so small you could easily miss it(a lot of Writer users do!)You’ll be practicing using this Tab Stop tool later in the tutorial; note where it is for now.
Make a mental note of the Indent Markers, too; they’re on the left and right sides of theRuler bar (Figure 4 again)
Naming & Saving a new Writer document
In the following exercises, use your Data Files folder to save the files you’ll create.
Look at the new document’s default name (Untitled1) at the top left of the Writer window(see Figure 4 above)
The document is given this default name by LibreOffice because you haven't yet given it aname of your own.
It is ALWAYS a good idea to immediately—and thoughtfully—name a new document
before you even begin to enter any data, and then save the document on the drive and in
8 | Chapter 1 Introduction to Writerthe folder of your choice. It’s not a bad idea to save a backup copy, too (you’ll have theopportunity to create backups at the end of each chapter of these tutorials).
There are two good reasons for naming and saving your files thoughtfully:
1. If you give a document an appropriate descriptive name (such as Letter to Mom 38-04) you will be able to more easily identify the contents of a document. A
thoughtful name will also help you find a document on the disk drives, because you
can have the system search for it by the word(s) you expect to be in the name.
2. If you carefully save a document (file) in a location of your choice you will moreeasily find the document at some later date. For example, if it’s a letter you’resaving, you’d want to save it in a folder called, say, Correspondence (which you
would naturally need to create ahead of time).
Let’s get on with the task at hand (Naming and Saving a new Writer document).
From the File menu, select Save As.
Writer now displays the Save As dialog box (Figure 5).

Figure 5: The Save As dialog box
As you see in Figure 5, the Save As dialog box prompts you:

(1) to select the location where you want to save the new document (in this case, in yourWork Files for LibreOffice > Data Files folder);(2) to type a name for the document before clicking on the Save button.
OPENING, NAMING & SAVING A NEW WRITER DOCUMENT | 9

In the left frame of the Save As dialog box (called the Quick Access pane), click once
on LibreOffice Tutorials to open the folder (Figure 5 above) then, in the next window of
the Save As dialog, double click on the Work Files for LibreOffice folder.
You should now see a list of four folders, including the Data Files folder you created when you
prepared it for use with these tutorials (Figure 5 above).
Double click on the Data Files folder to open it (Figure 5 above)
You are going to create various types of Data files as you work your way through thesetutorials, including Writer files, Calc files, Base files and Impress files. For now you’re going tocreate a new folder, called Writer Documents, just for your Writer files. You’ll later create thefolders for the three other types of data files.

Creating a new folder
So, inside the Data Files folder you need to create a new folder to store all the documents you
will create using Writer. You already learned to do this when you created the Data Files folder(see page 5 on the previous page).
Here are the steps if you still need help:
In the Work Files for LibreOffice > Data Files folder, click on the New Folder icon
(Figure 6)

Figure 6: The New Folder icon in the Save As dialog box
The system quickly creates a New Folder, with a default name highlighted in blue (Figure 6),
inviting you to type a name for the New Folder.
For the new folder’s name, type Writer Documents, hit the Enter key, then double click
10 | Chapter 1 Introduction to Writeron the new folder to Open it
Writer opens the new folder so that you can save inside it the new document you are about tocreate (Figure 7).
In the File name: data entry box (Figure 7), type Conference Call Letter to replace thedefault name (Untitled 1) and press Enter (or click on Save)

Figure 7: Naming the Conference Call Letter
From now on, you do not need to select Save As to save the document unless you want tosave a backup or save it in some other location. Whenever you simply Save this particular file,
it will be saved with the name Conference Call Letter in this same folder (Writer Documents)
on your disk drive.

SOME HELPFUL HINTS WHILE USING WRITER
You will shortly type the text of the Conference Call Letter. Before you begin, read thefollowing helpful hints.
Word processing is not the same as using a typewriter
Next to no one uses a typewriter anymore. But if you happen to be one of those who havenever yet used a computer, but you used to use a typewriter, read on.
As you type at the computer keyboard, the characters (letters of the alphabet, numbers, etc.)
appear on the screen. When you use a typewriter, however, the letters appear directly on thepaper in front of you. Also, when using a typewriter you have to move the carriage that holds
the sheet of paper in place back at the end of every line so that you can start typing at the
beginning of the next line on the page. This is called a carriage return.

SOME HELPFUL HINTS WHILE USING WRITER | 11

When you use a word processor, however, the system takes care of the end of each line. As
you type away in word processing, the program is aware that you are getting to the end of theline, and it will automatically move a word to the beginning of the next line if it doesn't fit
completely on the end of a line. The technical term for this is “wrap around.” You don't have toworry about hyphenating words that are broken up over two lines—unless you want to, ofcourse.
So, when you are using a computer, the only time you need to hit the Enter key is at the end ofa paragraph, whether the paragraph be an empty line, just one word, one line, or several lines.
Type the following passage for practice—remember, don't press the Enter key until you get tothe end of the paragraph .
1

And though he tried to look properly severe for his students, Fletcher Seagull suddenly saw
them all as they really were, just for a moment, and he more than liked, he loved what he saw.
No limits, Jonathan? he thought, and he smiled. His race to learn had begun.
2

Notice how the word processor wrapped around the text at the end of each line.
Removing unwanted Returns (using the Show ¶ option)
You can have Writer show you exactly where, in your document, you have hit the Enter or
Return key (say, at the end of paragraphs). To do this you’ll click on the Show ¶ icon in theStandard Toolbar (Figure 8).

Figure 8: The Show ¶ icon in the Standard toolbar
In the Standard Toolbar, click on the Show ¶ tool now (Figure 8 above)
The ¶ symbol is the standard mark used by editors to indicate the need for a paragraph breakin running text. Right now you should see a ¶ symbol at the end of the paragraph you justtyped and also on the empty line after the paragraph.
In the Conference Call Letter that you’ll be typing shortly, the ¶ symbol, if you have the ¶ option
turned on, would appear wherever you hit Enter/Return at the end of each paragraph. Another¶ symbol would appear on an empty line because, strictly speaking, the empty line is anotherparagraph break.
1 The lines on your screen may be longer or shorter.
2 From the book "Jonathan Livingston Seagull: a story" by Richard Bach. New York, NY: Avon, 1970. And yes, the grammar is correct,
so don’t worry if it seems odd to you here and there!

12 | Chapter 1 Introduction to WriterNotice also that the Show ¶ tool puts a dot wherever there is a space in the running text. You
should see lots of dots throughout the Jonathan Livingstone Quote you just typed. This isuseful, for example, so that you can see wherever you may have unintentionally typed extra
spaces here and there that you may want to remove.
Let’s try this now.
Position the cursor immediately before the sentence that begins “No limits, Jonathan?
…”, then hit the Enter key twice
Notice the ¶ symbols that show you where you hit the Enter key—one at the end of theprevious line, and the other on the empty line ahead of the cursor.
Now remove the Paragraph marks you just entered by pressing the Backspace key
twice
Finally, click on the Show ¶ icon in the Standard Toolbar to turn off the paragraphmarks (¶) and all the dots between the words

Undoing unintended actions
If you do something you didn't intend, or if you make a mistake, you'll select Undo from theStandard toolbar which is located immediately below the Menu Bar (Figure 9). This is alifesaver that you will use often!

Figure 9: Undo/Redo tools
In the Standard toolbar check out this Undo/Redo option now so you can see where tofind it when you need it
A quicker way to Undo is to use the shortcut Ctrl+z on your keyboard. You can also undo any
number of specific recent actions by clicking on the small arrow next to the Undo tool in theStandard toolbar (Figure 9 above), which will drop down a menu or list of the various actions
you have taken since the last Undo. Be careful when you use this feature, however, because if
you undo, say, 10 actions, all the actions you did prior to that will also be undone!

SOME HELPFUL HINTS WHILE USING WRITER | 13

Scrolling through a document
We need to open a longer document so you can practice different ways of scrolling.
From the File menu select Open…, then navigate to the Work Files for LibreOffice >Miscellaneous Files > Practice folder
Among the various files in the Practice folder locate the document called Term
Paper and double click on it to open it
Now, with the Term Paper document open on the screen, look at the scroll bars (Figure
10).

Figure 10: The scroll boxes
On the right of the screen you have a vertical scroll bar and, inside it, the vertical scroll box. At
the bottom of the screen you have a horizontal scroll bar and horizontal scroll box.
At either end of the scroll bars are arrows pointing in opposite directions (left and right, or up
and down). As you might expect, clicking on these arrows will scroll a document left or right or
up and down. Scrolling from left to right or right to left is simpler than scrolling up or down,
since you only have the width of the page to deal with. But the process is the same forscrolling up and down, too.
Try scrolling now from side to side—left to right and back again—by clicking on the scroll
arrows to move the scroll box in the horizontal scroll bar
Try scrolling up and down by clicking on the scroll arrows to move the scroll box in the
14 | Chapter 1 Introduction to Writervertical scroll bar
You can scroll a lot faster by positioning the mouse arrow on the scroll box itself, holding down
the left mouse button, and dragging the box left or right, up or down, in the scroll bars.
Try this, too
If you click either side of the scroll box inside the horizontal or vertical scroll bars, this causes
the document to scroll in jumps from side to side or up and down.
Try this as well
You also can scroll and position the cursor very precisely across a line of text, character bycharacter, or up and down from line to line, by using the arrow keys on the lower right of the
keyboard.
Try this as well
Finally, yet another vertical scrolling option is available if you have a mouse with a rubberized
wheel between the buttons, as illustrated in Figure 11.

Figure 11: The scrolling wheel on
the mouse
Try this, too
When you have finished experimenting with the scroll bars, close (File > Close) the
Term Paper document

Shortcuts or quick keyboard commands
The quickest way to save your work is to press Ctrl+s on the keyboard.
The Ctrl (Control) key is in the lower left corner of the keyboard. Locate it now. You'll be using
it a lot as you become more familiar with the LibreOffice programs. It is always used in
combination with one or two other keys. Ctrl+s, for example, is executed by holding down the
Ctrl key and, while holding the Ctrl key down, at the same time quickly hit the S key.

SOME HELPFUL HINTS WHILE USING WRITER | 15

You'll learn more shortcuts as you work your way through the tutorials. The author (Bernard
Poole) has prepared a chart that breaks down the most used Writer quick keyboard
commands. You will find this chart handy when you are learning to use the software for the firsttime. The chart is available in the appendix.
For ready reference, you may want to print out the Quick Keyboards Commands sheet whichlists the most frequently used LibreOffice shortcut keyboard commands.
You can also search the help files using the search string: ” General Shortcut Keys in
LibreOffice”.

The official shortcut keys chart is also available on the LibreOffice documentation page fordownload.
Renaming a document
You will sometimes want to rename a document that you've already saved on your disk. One
way you can do this is by navigating on the disk drive to the document you want to rename,and right-clicking on the icon for the document. Then, from the context menu that pops up,
select the option to Rename…, which highlights the document’s name so that you can type a
new name for it (Figure 12).

Figure 12: Renaming an existing document or file
To rename a document which you already have open in Writer, or in any other LibreOfficeapplication, you would choose Save As from the File menu. This will give you the opportunity
to save the document with a new name of your choice. Bear in mind, however, that when you
do this, the document with the original name will still be on your disk—a second copy, if you
like. If you don't want to keep this copy, you should delete it right away so as to remove
unwanted clutter from your disk drive.

16 | Chapter 1 Introduction to Writer

CREATING AND SAVING A DOCUMENT
Practice makes perfect
Figure 13 has the contents of the Conference Call Letter you are going to create next.

Figure 13: First version of the Conference Call Letter
You still should have open on your desktop the document you already named Conference Call
Letter, but it has the Jonathan Livingstone Seagull quote, which you need to clear the
document. Here are the steps to quickly remove it.
In the Edit menu choose Select All then press the Backspace key or the Delete key
once to remove the highlighted text from the document

CREATING AND SAVING A DOCUMENT | 17

You can also use the Quick Keyboard command Ctrl+a to Select All the content of a document, or you
can use the mouse (or your finger if you have a touch screen) to drag to highlight the whole paragraph,or you can quadruple click on the paragraph.

Typing the Conference Call Letter
You should now have a blank page with the cursor waiting in the top left corner, ready for you to type in
the Conference Call Letter. Figure 13 on the previous page has the full text of the Conference Call
Letter. The Figure also shows where all the Paragraph marks (¶) are. This will help you remember to hit
the Enter key only where necessary, not at the end of every line. There’s no need to show Paragraphmarks in your version of the document, but feel free to do so if you wish.
Start by typing your own name at the top of the letter
As you type, Writer is programmed to warn you of any spelling, grammar or style errors it finds by
underlining them in red (grammar or spelling) or blue (style) on your screen. This may occur as you
type the contents of Figure 13.

Go ahead and type the letter now—hit Ctrl-S at the end of every paragraph to safely
Save the document as you go along
Once you have typed in the whole document and saved it, you should go back and correct any
errors you may have made, and then save the document again. Remember: when you save a
document with the same name as before, you are replacing the earlier version. You won't becreating a second copy.

UPDATING AND SIMPLE FORMATTING OF A DOCUMENT
Now that your Conference Call Letter is saved on disk, you can make any revisions you want.
Word processing allows you to treat text like modeling clay. You can easily mold your words
and ideas. You can change margins, put in underlines, italics, boldface, and so forth. You cancorrect errors, move text around, lay it out on the page—all at the touch of a few buttons.
In the next Chapter (Chapter Two) you will have an opportunity to become quite sophisticatedin this regard. But let's keep it simple for now. Refer back to Figure 13 while you complete thenext few sections of the tutorial.

Inserting the date
There is no date on the Conference Call Letter in Figure 13 above. A letter is incomplete
without a date, so here (on the next page) are the steps to have Writer put today's date in theletter.

18 | Chapter 1 Introduction to WriterFigure 14: Inserting the Date into a document

UPDATING AND SIMPLE FORMATTING OF A DOCUMENT | 19

Click to position the insertion point cursor at the end of the Biwi Secondary School
address at the top of the page (the first of the two addresses)—at the end of the lastline, after “Malawi”—then press EnterThe cursor should now be waiting at the beginning of the next line.
In the Insert Menu > Field Menu click on the Date tool (Figure 14 above)
As soon as you click on the Date tool, Writer immediately inserts today’s date at the cursor.
There is, however, one problem with the all-numeric date format (all numeric)—it uses the USA style,with the month first and the day second. Elsewhere in the world, the date is shown with the day first andthe month second. So, where you have 4/2/2019, for example, is that February 4, 2019, or April 2,
2019? You really can’t be sure.
Fortunately, LibreOffice has a quick way around that problem by allowing you to select another format
for the date which spells out the month and thus can in no way be confused. Here’s what you need to do.
Use the mouse to right click on the date, and in the context menu that pops up, select
Edit Fields…
The Edit Fields dialog box comes up, enabling you to select from a long list of possible
date formats (Figure 15)

Figure 15: Selecting an easily-recognized date format

20 | Chapter 1 Introduction to WriterIn the Select column (second column), click on the second option Date—not the Date(fixed) option—then in the Format column select the date format Friday, December 31,
1999 and click on OK
Now check the new format for the date; there’s no question which date you’re referring to now,
right? You’ll also appreciate the advantage of allowing Writer to insert the date for you as not
fixed because it will be updating the date automatically when you save the letter as a template.
Later, any time you use the template, or print another Conference Call Letter, the date will be
adjusted automatically to reflect the current date on which you edit or reprint the document.

Adding text to an existing document
You will most always want to add text to an existing document—make revisions and so forth; it
is an activity which is fundamental to the whole process of writing. On a typewriter, or if you
write a document by hand, making any kind of change is usually messy, and often difficult todo. When you use the word processor, however, it is a simple task. Let's practice now.
There is no limit to the extra details that could be added to the letter, but for the sake of thisexercise you will add just one sentence to the next to last paragraph to help the parents
appreciate what Hellen will get out of the experience at the Institute.
Position the insertion point cursor so it is at the END of the paragraph which begins"The institute has a wonderful reputation..."—so after the phrase “…5th graders fromall over Malawi.”—then press the space bar once and type the sentence:
She would thus be able to meet and make friends with others of her own age andacademic ability.
Read over the sentence you just typed to check for errors. Correct any you may have made.
Before you go on to the next section you should save what you have done so far.
Press Ctrl+s to save the changes you have made to the letter

Removing text
There are several ways of removing text. In a moment you'll learn how to highlight a block oftext in order to move or delete larger sections of text. But if all you want to do is remove a few
words, or a short sentence, the quickest way is to use the Backspace key.
You are going to remove the second sentence of the second paragraph. This second sentence
begins "I have attended the facility myself...".
Position the insertion point cursor at the beginning of the third sentence of the second
paragraph—the sentence that begins "Hellen would take part ..."
Press the Backspace key as many times as is necessary until the second sentence of
this paragraph (the sentence that begins “I have attended the facility…”) is removed
from the letter
You'll find the automatic repeat feature of the keyboard (activated by holding down a key suchas the Backspace key) will come in handy for a delete operation like this.
Press Ctrl+s again to save the changes you just made
UPDATING AND SIMPLE FORMATTING OF A DOCUMENT | 21

Changing text
It is often necessary to change a word or words here and there in a document. The
Conference Call Letter overuses the word "program," for example. The word appears once inthe first paragraph and then is used twice in the final paragraphs. To improve the letter, it
would be better to rewrite the first sentence of the second paragraph to read: "The Institutehas a wonderful reputation for its offerings for both children and adults."
Place the cursor between the period (full stop) and the "s” at the end of the first
sentence in the second paragraph (right at the end of the word "programs" but before
the period/full stop)
Use the Backspace key to remove the text “both child and adult programs”
Make sure there is still a space after the word “for”, then type the phrase “its offeringsfor both children and adults.”
Another change you need to make is to the telephone number in the first sentence of the lastparagraph. A common error with numbers is called transposition, where one accidentally
reverses the order of digits. The number is supposed to be 772–3223, not 3232.
Position the cursor just at the end of the telephone number, press the Backspace key
2 times, then type the digits "23", and press Ctrl+s
At this stage your Conference Call Letter should look much the same as Figure 16.

Figure 16: Intermediate version of the Conference Call
Letter22 | Chapter 1 Introduction to WriterSelecting (highlighting) a block of text
Let’s take a few minutes to learn about highlighting text in a Writer document. Highlighted text
is text that stands out from the rest of the document because, in the case of LibreOffice, thebackground of the highlighted text becomes a block of light blue color (Figure 17).

Figure 17:
Highlighted text
When you highlight text, you can do things to it (delete it, move it, copy it, change the margins
set for it, change the font, the text style or color, and so on) without affecting the rest of yourdocument.
You can highlight a single character...
Use the mouse to position the cursor so it is immediately before the "B" in “Biwi” in theaddress at the top of the letter
Hold down the left mouse button and keep it down as you carefully drag across just the"B" at the beginning of the word so that it becomes highlighted
This latter operation is tricky the first few times you try it. If you drag across more than just the"B", keep your finger on the left mouse button and drag back until you have just what you wanthighlighted. You can select as much or as little of the text as you want. Remember, you're incontrol.3
Let go of the left mouse button when just the "B" is highlighted
Now click anywhere in the text to remove the highlighting (i.e. to deselect the selected
text)
Try this a few times on different letters anywhere in the document
Double clicking to highlight a single word...
Position the I–beam cursor anywhere over the word "Secondary" in the first line of theaddress at the top of the letter and double click the left mouse button
The single word "Secondary" should be highlighted on the screen.
Click anywhere in the text to remove the highlighting
Try this on a few more words anywhere in the document till you're comfortable with theactionTriple clicking to quickly highlight a sentence...

3If you are new to word processing, the secret here is: don't panic! No matter how much you might think tothe contrary, when you're working with computers you are in control—as long as you know what you're
doing. The computer is just a dumb machine designed to serve your information processing needs. Thesetutorials will help you make this dumb machine your friend.

UPDATING AND SIMPLE FORMATTING OF A DOCUMENT | 23

Position the cursor anywhere in the middle of the first paragraph in the body of the letter
paragraph and triple click on the left mouse button
Click anywhere in the text to remove the highlight, then try this again on other sentences
elsewhere in the document till you're comfortable with the action
Quadruple clicking to quickly highlight an entire paragraph...
Position the cursor anywhere in the middle of a paragraph and quadruple click on theleft mouse button
Click anywhere in the text to remove the highlight, then try this again on anotherparagraph elsewhere in the document till you're comfortable with the action
You can highlight an extended area (or block) of text...
Place the cursor right at the start of the first paragraph of the letter (before the sentencethat reads: I am pleased to inform you… )Now, while you hold down the Shift key, click at the end of the last paragraph (after thesentence that reads: I look forward to hearing from you soon. and notice that thewhole paragraph is highlighted
Click anywhere in the text to remove the highlighting
You can quickly highlight an entire document...
You should be getting the hang of this highlighting by now. You can drag the mouse tohighlight several paragraphs or even an entire document of several pages. However, dragging
through a 50-page document would quickly become tedious. So, Writer provides a short cut toselect an entire document—you may recall using this feature earlier in the tutorial.
Press Ctrl+a (or in the Edit menu choose Select All), then click anywhere in the text toremove the highlighting

Using the Writer Indent Markers
The letter is nearly ready to be printed. There are just a couple more changes you need tomake.
•For example, one style for letter–writing is to use a ½” indent for the first line of every
paragraph.

•

Another is to position the first address (the address of the sender) along with the dateso that they appear at the top right of the first page, instead of on the left. In this case,the closing signature could also be aligned on the right side of the page at the end of
the letter.

Put your thinking cap on now, because what follows can be tricky for some. Figure 18
illustrates these final changes you are going to make to the Conference Call Letter.

24 | Chapter 1 Introduction to WriterFigure 18: The final version of the Conference Call Letter

Note
Moving small indent markers is a delicate operation; be sure to position the very of
the mouse pointer (Figure 19) on an indent marker as you complete the following
exercises.
UPDATING AND SIMPLE FORMATTING OF A DOCUMENT | 25

Figure 19: the Tip of the mousepointer is the Hot Spot!
Indent Markers are used to adjust the first line margin, and the left and right margins, ofparagraphs—including a paragraph that has only one line.
On the left side of the ruler, at the 0" hash mark, you can see the two indent markers that areused to set the First Line Indent and the Left Indent for paragraphs (Figure 20). On the rightside of the ruler you can see the Right Indent marker (Figure 20 again).

Figure 20: The Indent Markers
In this exercise you will practice using just the First Line Indent marker and the Left Indent
marker. In Chapter 2 you will have plenty of opportunity to learn about the Hanging Indent
marker and the Right Indent marker.
Let’s learn how to use the First Line Indent marker now.
Click to put the cursor anywhere within the first paragraph of the letter (this tells Writerwhich paragraph of text to reformat)
In the Ruler bar, place the tip of the mouse pointer on the First Line Indent marker(see Figure 20 above), and use the mouse to drag the First Line Indent marker across½” to the right (to the ½” hash mark on the ruler)
Notice that the First Line Indent marker (the upper triangular marker) and the Left/Hanging
Indent marker (the lower triangular marker) moved independently and that only the first line ofthe paragraph has moved to the right half an inch (½”).
Next you are going to set the First Line Indent marker for both the second and thirdparagraphs in the body of the letter.
First, make sure you can see the whole letter in the window (maximize the window ifnecessary), then click to position the cursor before the first word of the second
paragraph (before “The Institute…”)
While holding down the Shift key, click at the end of the third (last) paragraph (after thewords “…from you soon.”)Both the second and third paragraphs of the letter should be highlighted.
Now position the tip of the mouse arrow on the First Line Indent marker and slide it to
the right to the ½” hash mark on the ruler bar
Notice that the first line margin of each paragraph is now set at ½" and the rest of each paragraph is set
at 0”.
26 | Chapter 1 Introduction to WriterPractice makes perfect
If this is the first time you've used these markers you may still feel uncomfortable working with them, if
only because they’re rather small and may be difficult for you to grab with the mouse pointer. Morepractice will cure that.
Next you are going to use the Left Indent marker to adjust the left margin for the First Address and theDate at the top of the letter, and then do the same to the left margin for the sign off at the end of theletter. Follow these steps carefully.
Drag to select (highlight) the First Address and Date lines at the top of the letter (thefirst four lines of text after your name)
Point at the Left Indent marker (the small marker at the bottom of the indent markers on
the left of the Ruler bar), hold down the left mouse button and drag both the First andLeft indent markers together over to the 4" hash mark on the ruler
Let go of the mouse button, then click anywhere in the text to de-select the highlighted
text
The address and date should now be lined up on the new 4" margin. Figure 21 illustrates thechange this makes to your letter.

Figure 21: First address after changing the indent markers
If you weren't successful the first time, just go through the steps again to get the hang of it.
Next scroll down to the end of the letter if it doesn't show on the screen
Select the lines that begin: "Sincerely yours," and that conclude with "Ms. Mary
Prendergast" and “Head of Science” (including all three of the blank lines in between)With these lines highlighted, again point at the Left Indent marker, hold down the left mousebutton and drag both the indent markers together over to the 4" hash mark on the ruler
Press Ctrl+a to save this (almost final) version of the document

UPDATING AND SIMPLE FORMATTING OF A DOCUMENT | 27

CHECKING THE DOCUMENT FOR SPELLING ERRORS
LibreOffice comes with a spelling checker. No matter how good you might think your spelling is
you would do well to take advantage of this fast, effective tool for catching spelling errors or
typos.
You Should use a spelling checker when you are proofing your word-processed work. The
system will highlight any words that it cannot find in its dictionary and may make suggestions
for words or spellings the student intended. It can thus help your students become better
spellers, and broaden their vocabulary if they are curious enough to check out the meanings of
the words they may never have come across before.
However, it cannot spell for them—yet! Nor can it correct errors such as the misuse of "to","too", and "two"! A spelling checker is not an alternative to proofreading. Tell your students theyshould always proofread their work on the printed page (in hard copy form) after they have run
it through the spelling checker. It also would be a good idea to have another student proofread
papers for them. Assessing a classmate’s work is a valuable collaborative learning experience.

Accessing and using the spelling checker
First use the mouse to position the cursor at the very top of the Conference Call Letter,right before your nameIn the Standard Toolbar click on the icon for Spelling and Grammar (Figure 22)

Figure 22: The Spelling and Grammar tool in the Standard toolbar
This will bring up the dialog box shown in Figure 23.

Figure 23: Spelling and Grammar dialog box
28 | Chapter 1 Introduction to WriterIf Writer highlights a word or phrase, this does not necessarily mean there is anything wrong
with it. You still have to be able to tell if you have made an error and you also need to know
what, if anything, to change. Sometimes you’ll ignore the spelling/grammar checker.
The Writer spelling and grammar checker is already working for you if those functions are inautomatic mode, and you should see strange looking red or blue underlines under some of thewords you typed.
Remember, the computer is just a dumb machine—it is a tool to assist your intelligence, notreplace it!
If you tell the Spelling Checker to check your document, and it has "No suggestions" for a wordhighlighted, the dialog box gives you the option to have the Spelling Checker Ignore it(because the word is correct as is); or Ignore All occurrences of the same word in yourdocument (because you don’t want the Checker to stop for them again); or Add the word to thecustom dictionary (so it won’t be flagged in future documents you work on). This is generally
useful for proper names.
In the example in Figure 23 above, the word “Chandamale” is a proper name and has beenhighlighted in red (it’s likely your own name has been, too). As you can see, the spellingchecker doesn’t recognize it and draws it to your attention. The spelling checker also suggests
what it thinks is the correct spelling (manhandle), even though this is incorrect! To fix the
problem, you just click on the Ignore All button, and Writer will fix it on the spot. Then click on
the Add to Dictionary button because you want the Spell Checker to ignore this proper nameany time it might occur in other documents you prepare.
At one time or another you will find all these features useful, so you should take the time tocheck them out. For the most part the Spelling Checker is intuitive, and one of the best things
you can do at this time is take a few minutes to browse through the various selections until you
get a feel for what the Spelling Checker can do.
Using the Spelling and Grammar... option in the Standard Toolbar, work your way
through the Conference Call Letter and correct any spelling or typing errors you may
have made, then Save your work.
In Chapter 2 you will make more extensive use of the Writer Spelling Checker.

PRINTING A FIRST DRAFT OF THE DOCUMENT
It is always useful to preview your work on screen before sending it to the printer. In
LibreOffice, you will be able to preview your work in the Print dialog box before you send it to
the printer. Let’s see how this works.
From the File menu select Print (or press Ctrl+p) and in the dialog box that pops up(Figure 24) click on the General tab

PRINTING A FIRST DRAFT OF THE DOCUMENT | 29

Figure 24: Typical Writer Print dialog box
What kind of printer are you using?
If you have a laser printer, the quality is invariably "Best." But if you have an inkjet printer, forexample, you can choose the quality of output you require. You select the print quality byclicking on the Properties button in the Print dialog box (Figure 24 above).
Printing a range of pages
With regard to Page Range, the Print All Pages option is selected by default. The Conference
Call Letter is only one page long, so you will by default want to print the entire document.
Should you want to print a subset of the pages of a long document, say from page 3 to page 6,
you would click the radio button next to Pages (see Figure 24) and enter the numbers of therange of pages in the data entry box (ex. 1,3,5-12).
Setting the number of copies Writer also asks you how many copies you want to print. As you
can see (Figure 24 on the previous page), the number 1 is already selected by default, and fora draft copy that is certainly as many as you would normally want.

Tip
Save the environment
A useful environmental tip, for your draft copies, is to reuse paper that has one
side blank. Keep a box near the printer where others who use the printer candeposit used paper that is clean on one side. Only use new paper for a final copyof a document.
You are now ready to print the document.
Click on OK in the Print dialog box
30 | Chapter 1 Introduction to WriterIf all is well with your printer connections, your printer is turned on, and you have paper
correctly set up in your printer, the printer will now go ahead and produce a hard copy of yourdocument.

Removing your document from the printerIf you are using a laser printer or an ink jet printer, removing the paper from the printer issimply a matter of picking it out of the paper tray.

Always proofread your writing
Now you should take the time once again to carefully read over what you have typed.
If you used the Spell Checker, remember that it will not necessarily pick up all errors. If you
type "me" when you meant to type "he," the checker won't mind in the least, since both words
are in the dictionary.
As we noted earlier, the golden rule here is: A Spelling Checker is only as good as you are!
You should never rely blindly on the feedback from the Spelling Checker. So always proofread
your writing—and tell your students to do the same.
You might also have your friends or someone else proofread your papers. You should also
check the overall page layout to see that the document looks good on the page. If there areproblems, now is the time to fix them. Make all necessary changes on the computer and savethe document again on your disk drive. If all is well, you are ready to go ahead and print the
final version, the one that you will send in the mail to the parents. Later, in Chapter 6, you will
have the opportunity to learn how to use Mail Merge to send individualized copies of a letter toa large number of addresses.

RUNNING OFF A FINAL COPY
Follow the steps you learned above to run off a final copy of your document.
Most printers today will accept single sheets of paper. So, if you wanted to use your school's orbusiness letterhead, this would be no problem. You would, of course, need to remove thesender's address from the top of your Conference Call Letter since this address would alreadybe included on the letterhead paper.

MAKING A BACKUP COPY OF THE DOCUMENT
Your last task before completing this session at the computer should be to make a backup of
your document. For the sake of convenience, you’ll make the backup in the same folder (theData Files folder) as the rest of the data files you will create using these tutorials.
The Conference Call Letter is still open in Writer. It is also saved in your Work Files for
LibreOffice folder, since that is where you have been saving it all along.
From the File menu select Save As and in the Save As dialog box make sure you
navigate to the Data Files folder, then change the file name to Conference Call Letter.
MAKING A BACKUP COPY OF THE DOCUMENT | 31

Backup and click on the Save button.
Wait while the file is being saved, then close Writer (File > Close).

LOOKING BACKIn this tutorial you have learned the basics of the LibreOffice Writer word processor. You now
know how to enter text, save it, revise it, set margins, check it for spelling, and print it on paper
in draft, standard, or letter quality. You also learned one way to make a backup copy of yourdocuments.
Many computer users learn no more than has been covered in this chapter. Under–utilization
is a common fact of life for most computer users; they never discover the wide range of usefulthings the computer can help them do. Ideally, however, this tutorial should have made you
keen to learn more about Writer. Remember what you learned in chapter 1. You may need torefer back to some of the details spelled out here when you are using the word processor on
your own.
Above all, keep an open mind. It is almost impossible to know everything about the computer,so there is always a lot to learn, even when you think you know it all!

LOOKING FORWARD
This has been a good introduction to the LibreOffice word processor. Chapter 2 will give youan opportunity to further advance your skills.
Many of the word processing skills that you have learned will transfer across to other word
processors. The more you use the computer as a tool for writing, the more natural it will
become and the more you will improve your writing ability. The ease with which you can makechanges will have a significant impact on your willingness to generate quality written
communication. Needless to say, word processing will have the same effect on your students,
so the sooner you can get them using the computer for all their writing assignments the better.

SKILL CONSOLIDATION
Complete these exercises to reinforce what you have learned in Chapter 1. This will help you
appreciate the usefulness of the word processor for all your writing tasks.

1. Use Writer to write a letter to someone in your family or to a friend using the samelayout as the Conference Call Letter. There must be at least four paragraphs in the
body of the letter. Print out a draft copy of the story, proof read it, correct any errors,then print out a final copy of the story.
2. Write a letter to a school district superintendent explaining the details of a field trip thatyou are planning for your class. Print out a draft copy of the story, proof read it, correct
any errors, then print out a final copy of the story.

3. Write a short story of at least four paragraphs using Writer. Set the right and left
32 | Chapter 1 Introduction to Writermargins at 1.5 inches. Print out a draft copy of the story, proof read it, correct any
errors, then print out a final copy of the story.

4. Use Writer to type up a paper of your choice. Print out a draft copy of the paper, proof
read it, correct any errors, and then print out a final copy of the paper.
5. Using Writer, type a paper of at least four paragraphs explaining what you have learned
so far in tutorial 1. Print out a draft copy of the paper, proof read it, correct any errors,
and then print out a final copy of the paper.
6. Open Writer to create a new document. Name the document “A Day at the Beach” andtype at least four paragraphs on this topic. Practice adding and deleting words,
phrases, and whole sentences. Print out a draft copy of the paper, proof read it, correct
any errors, and then print out a final copy of the paper.
7. Open the document named Conference Call Letter. Change the date so that it is thecurrent date, save the updated document. Remove all the first line indents from theparagraphs. Add a paragraph explaining that if Hellen cannot attend the Institute thisyear, the offer will be open again next year. Save the updated document. Print out a
draft copy of the letter, proof read it, correct any errors, then print out a final copy of theletter.

SKILL CONSOLIDATION | 33