Writer Guide 7.3

Chapter 2,
Working with Text: Basics

CopyrightThis document is Copyright © 2022 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 WeberTo previous editions
Jean Hollis Weber
Gillian Polack
Ron Faile Jr.
John M. Długosz

Kees Kriek
Bruce Byfield
John A. Smith

Rafael Lima
Shravani Bellapukonda
Hazel Russman

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 March 2022. Based on LibreOffice 7.3.

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

Alt

⌥ (Option) or Alt, depending on
keyboard

Used with other keys

F11

⌘+T

Open Styles deck in Sidebar

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

Introduction........................................................................................................................4
Selecting text.....................................................................................................................4
Selecting items that are not consecutive...................................................................................4
Selecting a vertical block of text................................................................................................5

Cutting, copying, and pasting text..................................................................................6
Finding and replacing text................................................................................................6
Using the Find toolbar............................................................................................................... 6
Using the Find and Replace dialog...........................................................................................7

Inserting special characters.............................................................................................8
Inserting non-breaking spaces, hyphens, and more..................................................................9
Inserting en and em dashes....................................................................................................10

Checking spelling and grammar....................................................................................12
Spelling................................................................................................................................... 12
Spelling and grammar............................................................................................................. 13
Grammar................................................................................................................................. 14
English sentence checking.................................................................................................15
Grammar checking............................................................................................................. 16
Punctuation........................................................................................................................ 16
Others................................................................................................................................ 17

Using synonyms and the thesaurus.............................................................................17
Hyphenating words.........................................................................................................18
Automatic hyphenation............................................................................................................ 18
Manual hyphenation................................................................................................................ 19

Using AutoCorrect...........................................................................................................20
Using Word Completion..................................................................................................21
Using AutoText................................................................................................................22
Creating AutoText.................................................................................................................... 22
Inserting AutoText.................................................................................................................... 23
Printing a list of AutoText entries.............................................................................................23

Changing the case of selected text...............................................................................24

Chapter 2, Working with Text: Basics | 3

Introduction
This chapter covers the basics of working with text in Writer. It assumes that you are familiar withthe use of a mouse and keyboard and that you have read about Writer’s menus and toolbars andother topics covered in Chapter 1, Introducing Writer.
We recommend that you also display formatting aids, such as end-of-paragraph marks, tabs,
breaks, and other items in Tools > Options > LibreOffice Writer > Formatting Aids. You canhide or display these markers by going to View > Formatting Marks. See Chapter 20, Setting up
Writer, for more information.
When you have read this chapter, you should know how to:•

Select, cut, copy, paste, and move text.

•

Find and replace text.

•

Insert special characters.

•

Check spelling and grammar, use the thesaurus, and choose hyphenation options.

•

Use the AutoCorrect, Word Completion, AutoText, and case-changing features.

See also Chapter 3, Working with Text: Advanced, and Chapter 4, Formatting Text.

Selecting text
Selecting text in Writer is similar to selecting text in other applications. You can swipe the mouse
cursor over text or use multiple clicks to select a word (double-click), sentence (triple-click), or
paragraph (quadruple-click).
You can also click in the text, press F8 to enter Extending selection mode, and then use thearrow keys on your keyboard to select a contiguous block of text. Press F8 again after you havefinished selecting the block of text.
In addition, you can select non-contiguous items and vertical blocks of text.
One way to change the selection mode is to use the icon on the Status bar (see Figure 1). Whenyou right-click the icon, a context menu displays the available options: Standard selection,
Extending selection (F8), Adding selection (Shift+F8), and Block selection (Ctrl+Shift+F8). Leftclicking cycles through these selections.

Figure 1: Changing the selection mode using
the status bar

Selecting items that are not consecutive
To select non-consecutive items (Figure 2) using the mouse in Standard selection mode:
1) Select the first piece of text.
2) Hold down the Ctrl key and use the mouse to select the next piece of text.
3) Repeat as often as needed.

4 | Chapter 2, Working with Text: Basics

To select non-consecutive items using the keyboard in Adding selection mode:
1) Select the first piece of text. For more information about keyboard selection of text, see
the topic “Navigating and Selecting with the Keyboard” in the LibreOffice Help (F1).
2) Press Shift+F8 to enable Adding selection mode.
3) Use the arrow keys to move to the start of the next piece of text to be selected. Holddown the Shift key and select the next piece of text.
4) Repeat as often as required.
Now you can work with the selected text (copy it, delete it, change the style, and so on). After
finishing your work with the selected text, press Esc to exit Adding selection mode.

Figure 2: Selecting non-consecutive pieces of text

Selecting a vertical block of text
You can select a vertical block of text that spans through multiple rows using Writer’s Blockselection mode. Use Edit > Selection Mode > Block Area, or press Ctrl+F8, or click the
Selection icon in the status bar and select Block selection in the list. Now you can highlight the
selection, using mouse or keyboard, as shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3: Selecting a block of text

Selecting text | 5

Cutting, copying, and pasting text
Cutting and copying text in Writer is similar to cutting and copying text in other applications. 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 (drag and drop) selected text using the mouse, drag it to the new location andrelease it; the cursor changes shape while dragging.

•

To copy selected text, hold down the Ctrl key while dragging. The text retains theformatting it had before dragging.

•

To move (cut and paste) selected text, use Ctrl+X to cut the text, insert the cursor at thepaste-in point and use Ctrl+V to paste. Alternatively, use the Copy / Paste buttons on theStandard toolbar or the options under Edit on the Menu bar.

When you paste text, the result depends on the source of the text and how you paste it. If you
click the Paste button, then the pasted text keeps its original formatting (such as bold or italics).
Text pasted from websites and other sources may be placed automatically into frames or tables
as part of the format when you paste. If you do not like the results, click the Undo button or press
Ctrl+Z.
To make the pasted text inherit the paragraph style at the insertion point:•

Choose Edit > Paste Special, or•

Click the arrow on the combination Paste button, or•Double-click the Paste button without releasing the left mouse button, or•

Press Ctrl+Shift+V

Then select Unformatted text or Paste Unformatted text in the resulting menu.
You can also press Ctrl+Alt+Shift+V, which pastes unformatted text directly.
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. Figure 4 shows an example with text on the clipboard.

Figure 4: Paste Special menu

Finding and replacing text
Writer has two ways to find text within a document: the Find toolbar for fast searching and theFind and Replace dialog. In the dialog, you can:•Find and replace words and phrases.

•

Use wildcards and regular expressions to fine-tune a search (see Chapter 3).

•

Find and replace specific attributes or formatting (see Chapter 3).

•

Find and replace paragraph styles (see Chapter 3).

6 | Chapter 2, Working with Text: Basics

Using the Find toolbar
By default, the Find toolbar is docked at the bottom of the LibreOffice window, just above theStatus Bar (Figure 5), but you can float it or dock it in another location. For more information on
floating and docking toolbars, see Chapter 1, Introducing Writer. If the Find toolbar is not visible,
you can display it by choosing View > Toolbars > Find or Edit > Find on the Menu bar or bypressing Ctrl+F.

Figure 5: Docked position of Find toolbar
To use the Find toolbar, click in the box and type your search text, then press Enter to find thenext occurrence of that term. Click the Find Next or Find Previous (arrow) buttons as needed.
Click the Find All button to select all instances of the search term within the document. SelectMatch Case to find only the instances that exactly match the use of upper and lower case lettersin the search term. To open the Find and Replace dialog, click the icon next to Match Case.
To close the Find toolbar, click the X button on the left, or press Esc on the keyboard when the
cursor is in the search box.

Using the Find and Replace dialog
To display the Find and Replace dialog (Figure 6), use any of the following methods:•

Use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+H.

•

Choose Edit > Find and Replace on the Menu bar.

•

Click the Find and Replace button on the Find toolbar.

Figure 6: Expanded Find & Replace dialog
When the dialog is open, click Other options to expand it.
Finding and replacing text | 7

To use the Find and Replace dialog:
1) Type the text you want to find in the Find box.
2) To replace the text with different text, type the new text in the Replace box.
3) You can select various options, such as matching the case or matching whole words only.
The other options include searching only in selected text, searching from the current
cursor position backwards toward the beginning of the document, searching for similarwords, searching in comments, and using regular expressions (wildcards). The use ofother options is described in Chapter 3, Working with Text: Advanced.
Additional options are shown when CTL or Asian languages have been selected in Tools> Options > Language Settings > Languages.
4) When you have set up the search, click Find Next. As the document view moves to eachfound instance, you can replace the text by clicking Replace or skip that instance byclicking Find Next again.

Tip
If you click Find All, Writer selects all instances of the search text in the document.
Similarly, if you click Replace All, Writer replaces all matches, without stopping for
you to accept each instance.

CautionUse Replace All with caution; otherwise, you may end up with mistakes that you
won’t be able to undo later if you save and close the file. (Ctrl+Z works only before
the file is saved.) A mistake with Replace All might require a manual, word-by-word,
search to fix.

Inserting special characters
A special character is one not found on a basic English keyboard. For example, © ¾ æ ç Ł ñ ö ø¢ are all special characters.
To insert one or more special characters, place the cursor in the position where you want thecharacters to appear. Then do one of the following:•

Click the Special Character icon on the Standard toolbar to open a list of favorite andrecently used characters and click on one to insert it (Figure 7). You can also open theSpecial Characters dialog (Figure 8) by clicking the More Characters button in this list.

Figure 7: Insert Special Characters
icon on the standard toolbar

8 | Chapter 2, Working with Text: Basics

•

Click Insert > Special Character to open the Special Characters dialog (Figure 8).
Double-click the characters (from any font or mixture of fonts) you wish to insert, in order;
they appear in the document as you select them. The selected characters are also added
to the Recent Characters list on the lower left of the dialog.

Figure 8: The Special Characters dialog

Tips
To view details of a character, single-click it; details are shown on the right, alongwith its numerical code.
To insert a character and leave the dialog open, double-click the character. To insert
a character and close the dialog, click it and then click the Insert button.
Different fonts include different special characters. If you do not find a particular special character
you want, try changing the Font selection.

Inserting non-breaking spaces, hyphens, and more
You can insert a variety of formatting marks while typing or later. Most of these marks can beinserted using a keyboard shortcut; all are available in Insert > Formatting Mark on the Menubar (Figure 9).
Non-breaking space
To prevent two words from being separated at the end of a line, press Ctrl+Shift when you
type the space between the two words.
Non-breaking hyphen
You can use a non-breaking hyphen (also called a hard hyphen) in cases where you do notwant the hyphen to appear at the end of a line, for example in the following text “123-4567”.
To insert a non-breaking hyphen, press Shift+Ctrl+hyphen.
Inserting special characters | 9

Figure 9: Insert > Formatting Mark submenu
Soft Hyphen
Soft hyphens (also called custom, discretionary, or optional hyphens) specify where words
should be divided at the end of a line. If the word does not occur at the end of a line, thehyphen does not appear. To insert a soft hyphen, press Ctrl+hyphen.
Narrow No-break Space
If you want a non-breaking space that is not as wide as a normal space, press Alt+Shiftwhile you type the space.
No-width Optional BreakUse Ctrl+/ to insert an invisible space in a word that will cause a line break if it is the last
character in the line. Available when complex text layout (CTL) is enabled.
Word Joiner
Inserts an invisible space in a word that will keep the word together at the end of a line. In
earlier versions of Writer, this mark was called No-width no break.
When complex text layout (CTL) is enabled, these additional formatting marks are active:
Left-to right Mark
Inserts an invisible mark that affects the text direction of any text following the mark.
Right-to-Left Mark
Inserts an invisible mark that affects the text direction of any text following the mark.

Inserting en and em dashes
To enter en and em dashes as you type, you can use the Replace dashes option on the Options
tab under Tools > AutoCorrect > AutoCorrect Options. This option replaces one or two
hyphens, under certain conditions, with the corresponding dash (Table 1).
–

An en-dash is a dash the width of the letter “n” in the font you are using. Type at least one
character, a space, a hyphen, another space, and at least one more letter. The hyphen will
be replaced by an en-dash.

—

An em-dash is a dash the width of the letter “m” in the font you are using. Type at least one
character, two hyphens, and at least one more character. The two hyphens will be replacedby an em-dash. Exception: if the characters are numbers, as in a date or time range, the two
hyphens are replaced by an en-dash.

10 | Chapter 2, Working with Text: Basics

In Table 1, the A and B represent text consisting of letters A to Z or digits 0 to 9.
Table 1: Inserting dashes
Text that you type

ResultA - B (A, space, hyphen, space, B)

A – B (A, space, en dash, space, B)

A -- B (A, space, hyphen, hyphen, space, B)

A – B (A, space, en dash, space, B)

A--B (A, hyphen, hyphen, B)

A—B (A, em dash, B)

1--2 (number, hyphen, hyphen, number)

1–2 (number, en dash, number)

A-B (A, hyphen, B)

A-B (unchanged)

A -B (A, space, hyphen, B)

A -B (unchanged)

A --B (A, space, hyphen, hyphen, B)

A –B (A, space, en dash, B)

Another means of inserting en and em dashes is through the Insert > Special Characters menu.
Select the U+2013 or U+2014 character (found in the General punctuation subset), respectively.
A third method uses keyboard shortcuts. These shortcuts vary depending on your operating
system, as described below.

Tip
You can also record macros to insert en and em dashes and assign those macros tounused key combinations, for example Ctrl+Shift+N and Ctrl+Shift+M. For more
information about key combinations, see Chapter 20, Customizing Writer.
macOS
For an en dash, hold down the Option (Alt) key and type a hyphen. For an em dash, thecombination is Shift+Option+Hyphen.
Windows
On most non-Asian installations of Windows, hold down the left Alt key and type on the
numeric keypad: 0150 for an en dash or 0151 for an em dash. The dash appears when you
release the Alt key.

Tip
On a keyboard with no numeric keypad, use a Fn (Function) key combination to typethe numbers. (The Fn key is usually next to the right of the left-hand Ctrl key on the
keyboard.) For example, on a US keyboard layout, the combination for an en dashshould be Alt+Fn+mjim and for an em dash it should be Alt+Fn+mjij.
Linux
Hold down the Compose key and type two hyphens and a period for an en dash, or threehyphens for an em dash. The dash appears when you release the Compose key.

Tip
The key that operates as a Compose key varies with the Linux distribution. It is
usually one of the Alt or Win keys, but may be another key, and should be userselectable.

Inserting special characters | 11

Checking spelling and grammar
By default, four dictionaries are installed for each language, if they are available for that
language: a spelling checker, a grammar checker, a hyphenation dictionary, and a thesaurus.
The spelling checker determines if each word in the document is in the installed dictionary. The
grammar checker works in combination with the spelling checker. You can enable or disable thegrammar checker in the Spelling dialog.
You can choose to check spelling and grammar automatically as you type, or at any other time,or both.

Spelling
To enable automatic checking of spelling, go to Tools on the Menu bar and select Automatic
Spell Checking, or click the Automatic Spell Checking icon (which may not be displayed bydefault) on the Standard Toolbar, or go to Tools > Options > Language Settings > Writing Aidsand select Check spelling as you type in the Options list.
Automatic Spell Checking checks each word as it is typed and displays a wavy red line under
any unrecognized words. Right-click an unrecognized word to open a context menu (Figure 10).
You can click one of the suggested words to replace the underlined word with the one selected. If
the list does not contain the word you want, click Spelling to open a dialog. When the word iscorrected, the line disappears. If the word is correct but not in the dictionary, you can chose Add
to dictionary to add it.

Figure 10: Spelling context menu
If the document has change tracking enabled, then the context menu contains extra options
relating to changes in the text.
The choices in the second and third sections of the menu are:IgnoreThis one instance of the underlined word will be ignored while the document is open. Other
instances, if they exist, will still be underlined. This setting is not stored with the document.
Ignore All
All instances of the word in the document will be ignored, and the word will be added to the
IgnoreAllList user-defined dictionary.
Add to Dictionary
The word is added by default to the Standard dictionary.

12 | Chapter 2, Working with Text: Basics

Spelling
This choice opens the Spelling dialog, which is explained in the next section.
Always correct to
Selecting this opens the submenu, which repeats the suggestions for the word from the top
section listing. Selecting a replacement word here stores the word pair in the replacement
table under Tools > AutoCorrect > AutoCorrect Options > Replace. The underlined word
is replaced with the selected word.
AutoCorrect Options
Opens the AutoCorrect Options dialog (see page 20), where you can add your own
corrections or change those supplied with LibreOffice.
In the fourth section of the context menu, you can set language settings for the text. Thesesettings can be applied to the selection or to the paragraph containing the selection.

Spelling and grammar
To perform a combined spelling and grammar check on the document (or a text selection), selectTools > Spelling or click the Spelling button on the Standard toolbar, or press F7. In order to
use this feature, the appropriate dictionaries must be installed.
The Spelling tool checks either the document from the cursor point onwards, or the text selection.
It opens the Spelling dialog (Figure 11) if any unrecognized words are found or if any of the builtin grammar rules are broken. You can choose to restart from the beginning of the document
when the check reaches the end of the document.
If you have selected the Check grammar option in the lower left of the dialog, any grammar
errors detected will also be shown. See Figure 13 for an example.

Figure 11: Spelling alert using the Spelling dialog
Text language
The language to be used for checking spelling can be selected from this drop-down list.

Checking spelling and grammar | 13

Not in dictionary
The sentence containing the error is displayed in the pane. If an unrecognized word isfound, it is highlighted. If the error is grammatical, it is indicated in a pale colored bar below
the Text language setting (Figure 13). The sentence or the word can be edited in the pane.
Suggestions
The box contains suggested replacements for the highlighted word. Select a word and thenselect Correct or Correct All to replace it.
For grammatical errors there is a single choice. Select Change to accept the suggestion.
Ignore Once, Ignore All, Add to Dictionary
Clicking one of these buttons has the same effect as the item in the context menu
described above.
Ignore Rule
When checking grammar, you can choose to ignore the suggested change.
Correct
Replaces the unknown word with the suggested word. If the sentence was edited, thewhole sentence is changed.
For grammar, the suggested replacement is used to correct the text.
Correct All
This replaces all instances of the word with the selected replacement word. Not available
for grammar checking.
Always Correct
This behaves in a similar fashion to AutoCorrect.
Undo
This button is enabled when a change has been made to the sentence, so you can reverse
the change. The button is not available if you use a Correct button to replace a word.
Options
Click this button to open the Options dialog where you can select user-defined dictionaries
and set the spell checking rules.

GrammarBy default, Check grammar as you type is enabled in Tools > Options > Language Settings >Writing Aids > Options. Automatic Spell Checking must be enabled for this to work. You canalso check grammar at any time using the Spelling tool, and you can disable grammar checking
as you type.
When grammar checking as you type is enabled, any errors detected are shown underlined by awavy blue line. Right-clicking on this line opens a context menu (Figure 12).

Figure 12: Context menu for grammar errors

14 | Chapter 2, Working with Text: Basics

•

The first entry in the menu describes the suspected broken grammatical rule.

•

The second menu item in the left example is Explanations, which opens your browser toa web page offering more information about the error. This entry is not always present in
the context menu, as seen in the second example in Figure 12.

•

In the second section of the menu is the suggested correction. Clicking this changes the
text to the suggestion. The example to the right appears blank, but clicking here removes
the extra space causing the error.

•

In the third section of the menu you can choose to ignore the indicated error, or to open
the Spelling dialog, shown in Figure 13.

•

In the final section of the menu, you can set the language for the selection or theparagraph.

In the example shown in Figure 13, hovering the mouse pointer over More… on the upper righthand side displays the URL for more information on the error indicated. Clicking on More…
opens your default browser to that URL.

Figure 13: Spelling dialog showing the URL for expanded explanation

English sentence checking
Additional grammar checking rules can be selected through Tools > Options > Language
Settings > English sentence checking. You can also go to Tools > Extension Manager, selectEnglish spelling dictionaries, and then click the Options button.
On the English Sentence Checking page (Figure 14), choose which items are checked for,reported to you, or converted automatically. After selecting the additional grammar checks, youmust restart LibreOffice, or reload the document, for them to take effect.

Checking spelling and grammar | 15

Figure 14: Additional grammar checking options

Grammar checking
Possible mistakes
Checks for errors such as with it's, he don't, this things and so on.
Capitalization
Checks for the capitalization of sentences.
Word duplication
Checks for all word duplication, rather than just the default words 'and', 'or', 'for' and 'the'.
Parentheses
Checks for correct pairing of parentheses and quotation marks.

Punctuation
Word spacing
This option is selected by default. It checks for single spaces between words, indicating
instances of double or triple spaces. To find and correct longer groups of spaces, you needto run the checker more than once.
Quotation marks
This checks that double quotation marks are typographically correct, that is, beginning [“]and ending [”] quotation marks curve in the correct directions.
Sentence spacing
Checks for a single space between sentences, indicating when one or two extra spaces arefound.
Apostrophe
Replaces an apostrophe with the correct (curved) typographical character.
More spaces
Checks word and sentence spacing for more than two extra spaces.
Em dash; En dash
These options force a non-spaced em dash to replace a spaced en dash, or force a spaced
en dash to replace a non-spaced em dash, respectively. This feature provides for different
punctuation conventions.
Multiplication signThis option is selected by default. It replaces an 'x' used as a multiplication symbol with thecorrect typographical symbol.
16 | Chapter 2, Working with Text: Basics

Ellipsis
Replaces three consecutive periods (full stops) with the correct typographical symbol.
Minus sign
Replaces a hyphen with the correct minus typographical character.

OthersConvert to metric; Convert to non-metric
Converts quantities in a given type of unit to quantities in the other type of unit.
Thousands separation of large numbers
Depending on the locale setting for the document, converts a number with five or moresignificant digits to either use a comma as a thousands separator or the ISO format, whichuses a narrow space as a separator.

Using synonyms and the thesaurus
You can access a short list of synonyms from a context menu (Figure 15).
1) Right-click a word and point to Synonyms on the context menu. A submenu of alternative
words and phrases is displayed.
2) Click a word or phrase in the submenu to have it replace the highlighted word or phrase
in the document.

Figure 15: Synonyms on the context menu
The thesaurus gives a more extensive list of alternative words and phrases. To use thethesaurus:
1) Right-click on a word, point to Synonyms in the context menu, then click Thesaurus in
the Synonyms submenu. See Figure 15.
2) In the Thesaurus dialog (Figure 16), select a word or phrase in the list of meanings.
3) Click Replace to make the substitution.
Using synonyms and the thesaurus | 17

For example, when given the word house, the thesaurus offers several meanings, including
dwelling, legislature, sign of the zodiac, and others. Select a replacement word from the list under
the relevant meaning, so for dwelling, you will see dwelling, home, domicile, abode, and otheralternatives.

Note
If the current language does not have a thesaurus installed, this feature is disabled.

Figure 16: The thesaurus offers alternatives to words

Hyphenating words
You can hyphenate words at the end of a line in two ways: let Writer do it automatically (using
styles and its hyphenation dictionaries), or insert conditional (soft) hyphens manually where
needed. Or, you can choose to not hyphenate at all. Each choice has its pros and cons.

Automatic hyphenation
This option uses styles and over-rides the Tools > Options choices described on the next page.
To turn automatic hyphenation of words on or off:
1) Click the Styles tab on the Sidebar to open the Styles deck. On the Paragraph Styles list,
right-click Default Paragraph Style and select Modify.
2) On the Paragraph Style dialog (Figure 17), go to the Text Flow tab.
3) Under Hyphenation, select or deselect Automatically. When automatic hyphenation is
on, you can also set the criteria for when it should occur.
4) Click OK to save.
18 | Chapter 2, Working with Text: Basics

NoteTurning on hyphenation for the Default Style paragraph style affects all otherparagraph styles that are based on Default Style. You can individually change otherstyles so that hyphenation is not active; for example, you might not want headings tobe hyphenated. Any styles that are not based on Default Style are not affected. For
more on paragraph styles, see Chapters 8 and 9 in this book.

Figure 17: Turning on automatic hyphenation
You can set hyphenation settings in Tools > Options > Language Settings > Writing Aids.
These choices apply when there is no specific setting in a paragraph style. Hyphenation options
set in Writing Aids are effective only if hyphenation is turned on through paragraph styles. In
Options, near the bottom of the dialog, scroll down to find the hyphenation settings.

Figure 18: Setting hyphenation options
To change the minimum number of characters for hyphenation, or the minimum number ofcharacters before or after a line break, select the item, and then click the Edit button in the
Options section.
Hyphenate without inquiry
Specifies that you will never be asked to manually hyphenate words that the hyphenation
dictionary does not recognize. If this box is not selected, when a word is not recognized, adialog will open where you can manually enter hyphens.
Hyphenate special regions
Specifies that hyphenation will also be carried out in footnotes, headers, and footers.

Manual hyphenation
To manually hyphenate words, do not use a normal hyphen, which will remain visible even if theword is no longer at the end of a line when you add or delete text or change margins or font size.
Instead, use a soft hyphen, which is visible only when required.
To insert a soft hyphen inside a word, click where you want the hyphen to appear and press
Ctrl+hyphen (minus sign) or use Insert > Formatting Mark > Insert soft Hyphen. The word will
be hyphenated at this position when it is at the end of the line, even if automatic hyphenation forthis paragraph is switched off.
Hyphenating words | 19

Using AutoCorrect
Writer’s AutoCorrect function includes a long list of common misspellings and typing errors, whichit corrects automatically. It also includes codes for inserting special characters, emojis, and othersymbols. You can add your own special characters.
AutoCorrect is turned on by default when Writer is installed. You may wish to disable some of its
features, modify others, or turn it off completely. To turn AutoCorrect off, uncheck Tools >AutoCorrect > While Typing.
You can add your own corrections or special characters or change those supplied with
LibreOffice. Select Tools > AutoCorrect > AutoCorrect Options to open the AutoCorrect dialog(Figure 19). On the Replace tab, you can define what strings of text are corrected and how.
To stop Writer replacing a specific spelling, go to the Replace tab, highlight the word pair, andclick Delete. To add a new spelling to the list, type it into the Replace and With boxes on the
Replace tab, and click New.

Figure 19: Replace tab of AutoCorrect dialog

Tip
LibreOffice has an extensive list of special characters accessible with AutoCorrect.
For example, type :smiling: and AutoCorrect will replace it with ☺. Or, (c) will bechanged to ©. You also can add your own special characters.

20 | Chapter 2, Working with Text: Basics

See “AutoFormatting” in Chapter 4, Formatting Text, for discussion of the Options and Localized
Options tabs of the dialog.

Using Word Completion
If Word Completion is enabled, Writer tries to guess which word you are typing and offers tocomplete the word for you. To accept the suggestion, press Enter. Otherwise, continue typing.
To turn off Word Completion, select Tools > AutoCorrect > AutoCorrect Options > Word
Completion and deselect Enable word completion.
You can customize word completion on the Word Completion page of the AutoCorrect dialog(Figure 20):•Add (append) a space automatically after an accepted word.

•

Show the suggested word as a tip (hovering over the word) rather than completing thetext as you type.

•Collect words when working on a document, and then either save them for later use inother documents or select the option to remove them from the list when closing the
document.

•

Change the key that accepts a suggested entry; the options are right arrow, End key,
Enter (Return), Space bar, and Tab.

•

Change the maximum number of words remembered for word completion and the lengthof the smallest words to be remembered.

•

Delete specific entries from the word completion list.

Figure 20: Customizing word completion
Using Word Completion | 21

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

Using AutoText
Use AutoText to store text, tables, fields, graphics, and other items for reuse and assign them toa key combination for easy retrieval. For example, rather than typing “Senior Management” every
time you use that phrase, you can set up an AutoText entry to insert those words when you type“sm” and press F3.
AutoText is especially powerful when assigned to fields. See Chapter 17, Fields.

Creating AutoText
To store some text as AutoText:
1) Type the text into your document.
2) Select the text.
3) Go to Tools > AutoText (or press Ctrl+F3).
4) In the AutoText dialog (Figure 21), type a name for the AutoText in the Name box. Writer
will suggest a one-letter shortcut, which you can change.

Figure 21: Defining a new AutoText entry
5) Choose the category for the AutoText entry, for example My AutoText.
6) Click the AutoText button at the bottom of the dialog and select from the menu either
New (to have the AutoText retain specific formatting, no matter where it is inserted) or
New (text only) (to have the AutoText take on the formatting around the insertion point).
7) Click Close to return to your document.

22 | Chapter 2, Working with Text: Basics

Tip
If the only option under the AutoText button is Import, either you have not entered aname for your AutoText or there is no text selected in the document.
To save a table as AutoText:
1) Create a table and format it the way you want.
2) Select the table.
3) Go to Tools > AutoText (or press Ctrl+F3).
4) Type a name for the AutoText (or amend the suggested shortcut and choose the category
for the AutoText entry).
5) Click the AutoText button and select New (because you want the formatting of the table
preserved).
6) Click Close to return to your document.

Inserting AutoText
To insert AutoText, type the shortcut and press F3.

Printing a list of AutoText entries
To print a list of AutoText entries:
1) Choose Tools > Macros > Organize Macros > Basic.
2) In the Macro From list, find and expand Gimmicks.
3) Select AutoText and then click Run. A list of the current AutoText entries is generated ina separate text document. You can then print this document.

Figure 22: Basic Macros dialog

Using AutoText | 23

Changing the case of selected text
To quickly change the case of text, select it, choose Format > Text on the Menu bar, and thenchoose one of the following:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

UPPERCASE, where all letters are capitalized.
lowercase, where no words (except proper nouns) are capitalized.
Cycle Case, which cycles the selected words through uppercase, lowercase, andcapitalize every word.
Sentence case, where only the first word is capitalized (together with any proper nouns).
Capitalize Every Word, where every word is capitalized.
tOGGLE cASE, which changes every letter to the opposite case.
Small capitals, which capitalizes all letters in a reduced font size.

Writer does not have an automated way to do Title Case, where all words are capitalized except
for certain subsets defined by rules that are not universally standardized. However, you can use
Capitalize Every Word and then restore those words that you do not want capitalized.
The Format > Text menu also includes several manual formatting options, including bold, italic,
and superscript. If Asian language support has been enabled, there are also several options thatare used with Asian text: half-width, full-width, Hiragana, and Katakana.
You can also change the case of text using the Character dialog or a character style. Choose
Format > Character, click the Font Effects tab (Figure 23), then select the type of capitalizationin the Effects – Case: box.

Figure 23: Changing the case using the Character dialog

24 | Chapter 2, Working with Text: Basics