Getting Started Guide

Chapter 4
Getting Started with Writer
Word processing with LibreOfficeCopyrightThis document is Copyright © 2020 by the LibreOffice Documentation Team. Contributors arelisted below. You may distribute it and/or modify it under the terms of either the GNU General
Public License (https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html), version 3 or later, or the Creative
Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), version 4.0 or later.
All trademarks within this guide belong to their legitimate owners.

Contributors
To this edition
Jean Hollis Weber

Kees Kriek

Rafael Lima

Steve Fanning
Jorge Rodríguez
Cathy Crumbley

Kees Kriek
Amanda Labby

To previous editions
Jean Hollis Weber
Dave Barton
Paul Figueiredo

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 January 2021. Based on LibreOffice 7.0.

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

EffectTools > Options
menu selection

LibreOffice > Preferences

Access setup options

Right-click

Control+click or right-click
depending on computer setup

Open a context menu

Ctrl (Control)⌘ (Command)

Used with other keys

F11

⌘+T

Open the Styles deck in the Sidebar

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

What is Writer?..................................................................................................................6
The Writer interface...........................................................................................................6
Status Bar................................................................................................................................. 7
Sidebar..................................................................................................................................... 9
Properties deck.................................................................................................................... 9Page deck.......................................................................................................................... 10
Styles deck......................................................................................................................... 10
Gallery deck....................................................................................................................... 10
Navigator deck................................................................................................................... 10

Changing document views.............................................................................................10
Working with documents................................................................................................11
Saving as a Microsoft Word file...............................................................................................11
Moving quickly through a document........................................................................................11
Using the Navigator............................................................................................................11
Using Go to Page............................................................................................................... 12

Working with text.............................................................................................................12
Selecting items that are not consecutive.................................................................................12
Selecting a vertical block of text..............................................................................................13
Cutting, copying, and moving text...........................................................................................14
Pasting text............................................................................................................................. 14
Finding and replacing text and formatting...............................................................................14
Using the Find toolbar........................................................................................................ 14
Using the Find & Replace dialog........................................................................................15
Inserting special characters.....................................................................................................16
Inserting dashes and non-breaking spaces and hyphens........................................................17
Inserting non-breaking spaces...........................................................................................17
Inserting non-breaking hyphens.........................................................................................17
Inserting en and em dashes...............................................................................................17
Checking spelling and grammar..............................................................................................18
Checking spelling automatically.........................................................................................18
Using the Spelling dialog....................................................................................................18
Using synonyms and the thesaurus........................................................................................19
Using AutoCorrect................................................................................................................... 19
Using Word Completion.......................................................................................................... 20
Using AutoText........................................................................................................................ 21

Formatting text................................................................................................................22
Using styles is highly recommended.......................................................................................22
Formatting paragraphs using styles........................................................................................23
Formatting paragraphs directly................................................................................................23
Chapter 4 Getting Started with Writer | 3

Removing direct formatting.................................................................................................23
Formatting characters using styles..........................................................................................24
Formatting characters directly.................................................................................................24
Formatting tables.................................................................................................................... 24
AutoCorrection........................................................................................................................ 24
Creating lists with styles.......................................................................................................... 25
Creating bulleted and numbered lists.................................................................................25
Creating nested lists...........................................................................................................26
Creating lists with direct formatting.........................................................................................26
Creating bulleted and numbered lists.................................................................................26
Creating nested lists...........................................................................................................27
Setting tab stops and indents..................................................................................................27
Changing the default tab stop interval.....................................................................................27
Changing measurement units for tab stops and rulers............................................................28
Hyphenating words................................................................................................................. 28
Automatic hyphenation using styles...................................................................................28
Setting hyphenation with Writing Aids.................................................................................29
Manual hyphenation...........................................................................................................29

Formatting pages............................................................................................................29
Creating headers and footers..................................................................................................30
Inserting a header or footer................................................................................................30
Displaying different headers on right and left pages...........................................................30
Determining header and footer appearance.......................................................................30
Inserting document title in headers and footers..................................................................31
Numbering pages.................................................................................................................... 31
Displaying the page number...............................................................................................31
Including the total number of pages....................................................................................31
Restarting page numbering................................................................................................32
Changing page margins..........................................................................................................32
Adding a custom watermark to the page background.............................................................33

Adding comments to a document.................................................................................34
Formatting comments.............................................................................................................34
Navigating through comments.................................................................................................34
Printing comments..................................................................................................................34

Using built-in language tools.........................................................................................35
Options for applying languages...............................................................................................35
Using styles........................................................................................................................ 35
Using direct formatting.......................................................................................................35
Preventing text from being checked for spelling......................................................................35
Obtaining resources for additional languages.........................................................................36

Creating a table of contents...........................................................................................36
Creating indexes and bibliographies............................................................................36
Using footnotes and endnotes.......................................................................................36
Working with images (graphics)....................................................................................37
Working with tables of data............................................................................................37

4| Chapter 4 Getting Started with WriterPrinting and exporting to PDF or EPUB........................................................................37
Using mail merge.............................................................................................................38
Tracking changes to a document..................................................................................38
Using fields......................................................................................................................38
Linking and cross-referencing within a document......................................................39
Using hyperlinks...................................................................................................................... 39
Creating and using cross-references.......................................................................................39
Using bookmarks.................................................................................................................... 40

Using master documents...............................................................................................41
Classifying document contents.....................................................................................41
Creating fill-in forms.......................................................................................................41

Chapter 4 Getting Started with Writer | 5

What is Writer?
Writer is the word processor component of LibreOffice. In addition to the usual features of a word
processor (spelling check, thesaurus, hyphenation, autocorrect, find and replace, automatic
generation of tables of contents and indexes, mail merge, and others), Writer provides theseimportant features, which are covered in detail in the Writer Guide:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

Templates and styles (see Chapter 3)
Page layout methods, including styles, frames, columns, and tables
Automated tables of contents and indexes
Embedding or linking of images, equations, spreadsheets, and other objects
Built-in drawing tools
Master documents, to group a collection of documents into a single document
Change tracking during revisions
Lists
Tables of data
Database integration, including a bibliography database
Mail merge
Export to PDF and ePub (see Chapter 10)
Document digital signatures
Form design and filling
And many more

The Writer interface
The main Writer workspace is shown in Figure 1. The menus and toolbars are described in
Chapter 1, Introducing LibreOffice. Some other features of the Writer interface are covered in thischapter.

Figure 1: The main Writer workspace

6 | Chapter 4 Getting Started with WriterStatus Bar
The Writer Status Bar provides information about the document and convenient ways to change
some document features quickly.

Figure 2: Status Bar components
Page number
Shows the current page number, the sequence number of the current page (if different),
and the total number of pages in the document. For example, if you restarted page
numbering at 1 on the third page, its page number is 1 and its sequence number is 3.
If any bookmarks have been defined in the document, a right-click on this field pops up alist of bookmarks; click on one to go to that location.
To jump to a specific page in the document, click on this field. A small Go to Page dialog
pops up. Type the required page number and click the OK button or press Enter.
Word and character count
The word and character counts of the document are shown in the Status Bar, and are kept
up to date as you edit. When text is selected, the word and character counts for theselection will appear here.
The character count includes spaces. To display a dialog showing the character countexcluding spaces, click the word count in the Status Bar, or choose Tools > Word Count.
You can also see the number of words and characters (and other information including thenumber of pages, tables, and graphics) in the entire document in File > Properties,
Statistics tab.
Page styleShows the style of the current page. To select a different page style, right-click on this field.
A list of page styles pops up; choose a different style by clicking on it. To edit the current
page style, click on this field. The Page Style dialog opens.

CautionChanging the page style here may affect the styles of subsequent pages, depending
on how the page styles are set up. See the Writer Guide for details.
Text language
Shows the language at the cursor position, or for the selected text, that is used for checking
spelling and grammar as well as for hyphenation and thesaurus dictionaries.
Click to open a menu where you can choose another language for the selected text or forthe paragraph where the cursor is located. You can also choose None (Do not checkspelling) to exclude the text from a spelling check or choose More to open the Character
dialog. Any directly formatted language settings can be reset to the default language fromthis menu.
The Writer interface | 7

Insert mode
Click to change to Overwrite mode; click again to return to Insert mode. In Insert mode, any
text after the cursor position moves forward to make room for the text you type; inOverwrite mode, text after the cursor position is replaced by the text you type. This feature
is disabled when in Record Changes mode.
Selection mode
Click to cycle between the different selection modes, right-click to select the required mode
from a context menu. The icon does not change, but when you hover the mouse pointerover this field, a tooltip indicates which mode is active.
Mode

EffectStandard selection

Click in the text where you want to position the cursor and dragto where you want the selection to end. Any previous selection
is deselected.

Extending selection (F8)Clicking in the text extends or crops the current selection.

Adding selection (Shift+F8)

A new, separate selection is added to an existing selection. The
result is a multiple selection.

Block selection(Alt+Shift+F8)

A block of text can be selected.

On Windows systems, you can hold down the Alt key while dragging to select a block oftext. You do not need to enter the block selection mode.
Document changes status
The icon that is displayed here changes appearance to indicate whether the document has
no unsaved changes, or it has been edited and the changes have not been saved. When
there are unsaved changes you can click on this icon to save the document.
Digital signature
If the document has been digitally signed, an icon is displayed here; otherwise, it is blank.
To sign the document, or to view the certificate, click the area or icon.
Section or object information
When the cursor is on a section, heading, or list item, or when an object (such as a picture
or table) is selected, information about that item appears in this field. Clicking in this area
opens a relevant dialog. For details, consult the Help or the Writer Guide.
View layout
Click an icon to change between single page, multiple pages, and book layout views. The
effect varies with the combination of window width and zoom factor in use. You can edit the
document in any view. See Figure 3.

8 | Chapter 4 Getting Started with WriterFigure 3: View layouts: single page, multiple pages, book
Zoom
To change the view magnification, drag the Zoom slider, or click on the + and – signs, or
click the zoom level percent (Zoom factor) to pop up the Zoom & View Layout dialog, orright-click on the zoom level percent to pop up a menu of magnification values from which
to choose. Zoom interacts with the selected view layout to determine how many pages arevisible in the document window.

Sidebar
The Sidebar is normally open by default on the right side of the Writer window. If necessary,
select View > Sidebar on the Menu bar, or press Ctrl+F5, to display it. An example is shown in
Chapter 1, Introducing LibreOffice.
The Writer Sidebar contains five decks by default: Properties, Page, Styles, Gallery, andNavigator. Each deck has a corresponding icon on the Tab bar on the right of the Sidebar,
allowing you to switch between them.
Each deck consists of a title bar and one or more content panels. Some panels contain a small
More Options button, which opens a dialog to give greater choice of editing controls. When adialog is open, the document is locked for editing until the dialog is closed.
The decks are described below.

Properties deck
Contains tools for direct formatting of content.
For text editing, the default view shows tools organized into three panels:– Style: Apply a paragraph style at the cursor position. Create or update a style.
– Character: Modify text by the font type, size, color, weight, style, and spacing.
– Paragraph: Modify the paragraph by alignment, lists or bullets, background color,
indent, and spacing.
Additional panels appear when specific types of items are selected.
If an image is selected, then the following panels open:– Area: Modify the image background fill and transparency. Further colors, gradients,
hatching, patterns, and bitmap selection and importing are available in More Options.
– Image: Modify the image brightness, contrast, color mode, and transparency.
– Wrap: Modify wrap and spacing where these are available.
– Position and Size: Modify width, height, rotation, and flip attributes.

The Writer interface | 9

If a drawing object is selected, then the following panels are available:– Area: Modify fill and transparency.
– Line: Modify style, width, color, and transparency.
– Position and Size: Modify width, height, rotation, and flip attributes.
If a table is selected, then the Table panel opens: insert, select, delete rows and columns;
split/merge cells; set row height and column width; others.
If a frame is selected, then the Area and Wrap panels open.
If a video or audio clip is inserted by selecting Insert > Media > Audio or Video, thefollowing panels open when the clip is selected:– Media Playback: Control for play, pause, stop, seek, loop, and volume.
– Position and Size: Modify width and height.

Page deck
Modifies the page style to change the most commonly used page properties. It has four panels:•

Format modifies the size, width, height, orientation, and page margins.

•

Styles modifies the numbering scheme, background, page layout (specifies whether thepage style should apply to odd or even pages or to both), and columns.

•

Header and Footer modify the respective margins, spacing, and content.

CautionBe aware that by changing the options on the Page deck, you will change the pagestyle in use, modifying not only the current page but all pages in the document using thesame page style.

Styles deck
Manages the styles used in the document. This includes applying existing styles, modifying them,or creating new ones. You can preview the changes by checking Show Previews at the bottom.
See Chapter 3, Styles and Formatting, for more information.

Gallery deck
Contains images and diagrams included in the Gallery themes. The Gallery has two sections.
The first lists the themes by name (Arrows, Bullets, Diagrams, etc.) and the second displays theimages in the selected category. Select the New Theme button to create new categories. To
insert an image into a file, or add a new image to the new category, drag and drop the selected
image. See Chapter 11, Images and Graphics, for more information.

Navigator deck
Makes it easy to navigate to specific types of content and to reorganize contents based on
categories, such as headings, tables, frames, images, and so on. See page 12 for more
information.

Changing document views
Writer has three ways to view a document: Normal, Web, and Full Screen. To change the view,go to the View menu and select the desired view.
Normal view
Normal view is the default view in Writer. It shows how the document will look when you
print it or create a PDF. In this view, you can hide or show the headers and footers and the

10 | Chapter 4 Getting Started with Writergap between pages. To hide them, choose View > Show Whitespace on the Menu bar.
When activated, a check mark appears next to the option. This also hides headers, footers,
and white space in Full Screen view. Note that this only works when single-page view isactivated in the Status Bar.
Web view
In Web view, you can use only the Zoom slider; the View Layout buttons on the Status Bar
are disabled, and most of the choices on the Zoom & View Layout dialog are not available.
In Web layout there is no visual indication of page boundaries.
Full Screen view
In Full Screen view, no toolbars or sidebar are displayed; the document takes up the fullarea available, using the zoom and layout settings previously selected. To exit Full Screen
view and return to the previous view, press the Esc key or click the Full Screen button on
the floating toolbar in the top left-hand corner. You can also use Ctrl+Shift+J to toggle
between Full Screen and the previous views.

Working with documents
Chapter 1, Introducing LibreOffice, includes instructions on creating new documents, opening
existing documents, saving documents, accessing remote servers, and password-protecting
documents. Chapter 3, Styles and Templates, covers how to create a document from a template.
By default, LibreOffice creates and saves files in the OpenDocument format (ODF). Writer
documents have the extension .ODT.

Tip
Whenever it is possible to choose the document file format, you should choose towork with the default ODF format. This reduces the likelihood of errors andcompatibility issues.

Saving as a Microsoft Word file
You may need to open, edit, and save documents in Microsoft Word formats. You can also create
and edit .ODT files and then save them as .DOC or .DOCX files. To do this:1) Important—First save your document in the file format used by LibreOffice Writer (.ODT).
If you do not, any changes you made since the last time you saved will appear only in theMicrosoft Word version of the document. Also, saving in ODF format enables you to resave or modify the document if the recipient of your document experiences trouble with
the Microsoft format.
2) Then choose File > Save As.
3) On the Save As dialog, in the File type drop-down menu, select the type of Word format
you need. You may also choose to change the file name.
4) Click Save.
This creates a separate document with a different file extension (such as .DOCX). From this point
on, all changes you make to the document will occur only in the new document. If you want to go
back to working with the ODT version of your document, you must open it again.

Working with documents | 11

Tip
To have Writer save documents by default in a Microsoft Word file format, go toTools > Options > Load/Save > General. In the section named Default File Format
and ODF Settings, under Document type, select Text document, then under Always
save as, select your preferred file format.

Moving quickly through a document
Using the Navigator
The Navigator provides several convenient ways to move around a document and find items in it.
When a category is showing the list of objects in it, double-click on an object to jump directly tothat object’s location in the document.
In the top left of the Navigator is a Navigate By drop-down list. You can pick a type of object(such as a bookmark, table, or index entry) and then use the Previous (^) and Next (v) buttons
to jump from one to the next. See Figure 4.
On the top right of the Navigator is a page number field, which you can use to jump directly to a
specific page.
For more uses of the Navigator in Writer, see Chapter 1 of the Writer Guide.

Figure 4: Navigate By list on Navigator

Using Go to Page
To jump to a specific page in the document, you can:•Use Edit > Go to Page on the Menu bar.

•

Use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+G.

•

Use the page number field on the top right of the Navigator.

•

Click on the page number field in the Status Bar, to open the Go to Page dialog (Figure5). It initially shows the number of the current page and the number of pages in the
document. Type the number of the required destination page into the text box and click
the OK button.

12 | Chapter 4 Getting Started with WriterFigure 5: Go to Page dialog

Working with text
Selecting, copying, pasting, or moving text in Writer is similar to working with text in otherprograms. LibreOffice also has some convenient ways to select items that are not next to eachother, select a vertical block of text, and paste unformatted text.

Selecting items that are not consecutive
To select nonconsecutive items (as shown in Figure 6) using the mouse:
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.
To select nonconsecutive items using the keyboard:
1) Select the first piece of text.
2) Press Shift+F8. This puts Writer in “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).
Press Esc to exit from this mode.

Figure 6: Selecting items that are not next to each otherFor more information about keyboard selection of text, see the topic “Navigating and selectingwith the keyboard” in LibreOffice Help (F1).

Selecting a vertical block of text
You can select a vertical block or “column” of text that is separated by spaces or tabs (as you
might see in text pasted from e-mails, program listings, or other sources), using Block selection
Working with text | 13

mode. To change to block selection mode, use Edit > Selection Mode > Block Area, or press
Alt+Shift+F8, or right-click on the Selection icon in the Status Bar and select Block selection in
the pop-up menu.

Figure 7: Selection icon
Now highlight the selection, using mouse or keyboard, as shown below.

Figure 8: Selecting a vertical block of text

Cutting, copying, and moving text
Cutting and copying text in Writer is similar to cutting and copying text in other applications. You
can use the mouse or the keyboard for these operations. You can copy or move text within adocument, or between documents, by dragging or by using menu selections, toolbar buttons, 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 and release it.
To copy selected text, hold down the Ctrl key while dragging. The text retains the formatting it had
before dragging.
To move (cut and paste) selected text, use Ctrl+X to cut the text, insert the cursor at the paste-in
point and use Ctrl+V to paste. Alternatively, use the buttons on the Standard toolbar, or the
options under Edit on the Main menu.

Pasting text
When you paste text, the result depends on the source of the text and how you paste it. If you
click on the Paste button on the Standard toolbar or use Ctrl+V, any formatting the text has (suchas bold or italics) is retained. Text pasted from websites and other sources may also be placed
into frames or tables. 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 button of the combination Paste button on the Standard toolbar, or•Double click the Paste button in the Standard toolbar without releasing the left mousebutton.

Then select Paste Unformatted Text or Unformatted text as applicable in the resulting menu.
Unformatted text can also be pasted with Shift+Ctrl+Alt+V.

Finding and replacing text and formatting
Writer has two ways to find text and formatting within a document: the Find toolbar for fast
searching and the Find & Replace dialog. In the dialog, you can:

14 | Chapter 4 Getting Started with Writer•

Find and replace words and phrases•

Use wildcards and regular expressions to fine-tune a search•

Find and replace specific attributes or formatting•

Find and replace paragraph styles

Using the Find toolbar
By default, the Find toolbar is docked at the bottom of the LibreOffice window (just above theStatus Bar) as shown in Figure 9, but you can float it or dock it in another location. If the Find
toolbar is not visible, you can display it by choosing View > Toolbars > Find on the Menu bar,
selecting Edit > Find on the Menu bar, or by pressing Ctrl+F. For more information on floating
and docking toolbars, see Chapter 1, Introducing LibreOffice.

Figure 9: 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 also match the case (capitalization). To open the Find
& Replace dialog, select the icon to the right of Match Case.
To search in only specific types of content, click the Navigate By field in the Find toolbar andchoose from the pop-up menu. For example, to search for something inside the document
headings, select the Headings entry in the menu.

Figure 10: Selective search List
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.

Tip
Regular expressions offer powerful ways to search and replace text. For example,
they can find all instances where any number is followed by specific letters.
However, they can be challenging to understand. Refer to the Help files for guidance.

Working with text | 15

Using the Find & Replace dialog
To display the Find & Replace dialog (Figure 11), use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+H, or choose
Edit > Find and Replace on the Menu bar, or click the Find and Replace icon on the Find
toolbar. When the Find and Replace dialog is open, optionally click Other options to expand it.
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, matching whole words only, or
doing a search for similar words.
The other options include searching only in selected text, searching from the current
cursor position backwards toward the beginning of the file, searching for similar words,
and searching in comments. The exact options may vary with your language settings(Tools > Options > Language Settings > Languages).
4) When you have set up the search, click Find Next. To replace the found text, click
Replace. If you click Find All, LibreOffice selects all instances of the search text in the
document. Similarly, if you click Replace All, LibreOffice replaces all matches, without
stopping for you to accept each instance.

Figure 11: Expanded Find & Replace dialog
For more information on using Find and Replace, see the Writer Guide.

CautionUse Replace All with caution; otherwise, you may end up with some highly
embarrassing (and often hilarious) mistakes. A mistake with Replace All might
require a manual, word-by-word, search to fix.

16 | Chapter 4 Getting Started with Writer

Inserting special characters
A special character is one not found on a standard user’s keyboard. For example, © ¾ æ ç ñ ö ø¢ are all special characters not available on an English keyboard. To insert a special character:
1) Place the cursor where you want the character to appear.
2) Choose Insert > Special Character, to open the Special Characters dialog (Figure 12).

Tip
You can also click on the Insert Special Characters icon in the Standard toolbar toopen a palette of favorite characters; from there, you can choose a character or clickMore Characters to open the Special Characters dialog.
3) In the Special Characters dialog, double-click the characters (from any font or mixture of
fonts) you wish to insert, in order, then click Insert. Characters previously selected for
insertion are shown in the lower left of the dialog. As you select a character, it is shown on
the right, along with its numerical code.
The Special Characters dialog (Figure 12) includes areas to select Recent Characters andFavorite Characters. To add a new character to the Favorite Characters list, click on a characterand click the Add to Favorites button.

Tip
Different fonts have their own distinct special characters. If you do not find aparticular special character, try changing the Font selection.

Figure 12: The Special Characters dialog

Working with text | 17

Inserting dashes and non-breaking spaces and hyphens
Inserting non-breaking spaces
To prevent two words from being separated at the end of a line, press Ctrl+Shift when you typethe space between the two words. This inserts a non-breaking space. You can also use Insert >Formatting Mark > Insert non-breaking space on the Menu bar.

Inserting non-breaking hyphens
In cases where you do not want the hyphen to appear at the end of a line, for example in a
number such as 123-4567, you can press Shift+Ctrl+minus sign or use Insert > Formatting Mark> Insert non-breaking hyphen.

Inserting en and em dashes
To enter en and em dashes, you can use Replace dashes on the Options tab in the AutoCorrect
dialog (Tools > AutoCorrect > AutoCorrect Options). This option replaces two hyphens, undercertain conditions, with the corresponding dash. See the Help for more details.
–

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

— is an em-dash; that is, a dash the width of the letter “m” in the font you are using. Type atleast one character, two hyphens, and at least one more character. The two hyphens will be
replaced by 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.

Checking spelling and grammar
By default, four dictionaries are installed for each language: a spelling checker, a grammar
checker, a hyphenation dictionary, and a thesaurus (assuming it is available for that language).
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.

Checking spelling automatically
When Automatic Spell Checking is selected on the Tools menu, each word is checked as it istyped and a wavy red line is displayed under any unrecognized words. Right-click on an
unrecognized word to open a context menu. You can click on one of the suggested words toreplace 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 is corrected, the line disappears.

Using the Spelling dialog
To perform a combined spelling and grammar check on the document (or a text selection), click
the Check Spelling button on the Standard toolbar, or choose Tools > Spelling, or press F7 on
the keyboard. This checks the document or selection and opens the Spelling dialog if any
unrecognized words are found. To also identify potential grammar problems, select the Checkgrammar box.
Here are some more features of the spelling checker:
Change dictionary language
Change the dictionary language (for example, Spanish, French or German) in the Spelling
dialog by selecting the appropriate language in the Text language drop-down list.
Add a word to the dictionary
Add a word to the dictionary by clicking Add to Dictionary in the Spelling dialog or in thecontext menu. The word will be added to the Standard dictionary, unless you have created

18 | Chapter 4 Getting Started with Writeranother dictionary in the same language. If you have created a new dictionary, you will begiven a choice of dictionaries to add the word to.
Choose text for spell checking
Choose whether to check uppercase words or words that contain numbers, by clicking the
Options button on the Spelling dialog to open a dialog similar to the one in Tools >Options > Language Settings > Writing Aids, described in Chapter 2.
Manage custom dictionaries
Create, edit, or delete dictionaries and edit words in the dictionary in the same Options
dialog.
Specify language for specific paragraphs
Set paragraphs to be checked in a language (different from the rest of the document) using
several methods—for example, by clicking on the Text Language field on the Status Bar orby creating paragraph styles for specific languages. See “Using built-in language tools” on
Page 35 or refer to the Writer Guide for more information.
Set additional grammar checking rules
Select additional grammar checking rules through Tools > Options > Language Settings> English sentence checking, or through Tools > Extension Manager > English
spelling dictionaries > Options.
“Grammar by” spell checking
LibreOffice provides “Grammar By” spelling checking. It enables the dictionary to recognize
different forms of the same word. It is particularly helpful for new words or specialized
words that are unlikely to have all variations in the dictionary. As an example, variations of
the word “motorcycle”—motorcycles, motorcycled, motorcycling, motorcyclist, etc.—would
all be accepted, without having to enter each of them individually.
To use the Grammar By feature, click the Options button in the Spelling dialog. Select or
create a dictionary and click Edit. Then type the base word in the Word field and type aword in the Grammar By field that that has the same variations as the base word. In the
motorcycle example, the word could be bike.
See the Writer Guide for more information about the spelling and grammar checking options.

Using synonyms and the thesaurus
To access a short list of synonyms, right-click on a word and point to Synonyms in the context
menu. A submenu of alternative words and phrases is displayed. Click on a word or phrase in thesubmenu to have it replace the highlighted word or phrase in the document.
The thesaurus gives a more extensive list of alternative words and phrases. To use thethesaurus, click on Thesaurus in the Synonyms submenu. If the current language does nothave a thesaurus installed, this feature is disabled.

Using AutoCorrect
Writer’s AutoCorrect function has a long list of common misspellings and typing errors, which itcorrects automatically. For example, “hte” will be changed to “the”. It also includes codes for
inserting special characters, emoji, and other symbols.
AutoCorrect is turned on by default. You may wish to disable some of its features, modify others,or turn it off completely.
You can add your own corrections or special characters or change those supplied with
LibreOffice. Choose Tools > AutoCorrect > AutoCorrect Options to open the AutoCorrect
dialog. On the Replace tab (Figure 13), you can define which strings of text are corrected andhow. In most cases, the defaults are fine.

Working with text | 19

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.
See the different tabs of the dialog for the wide variety of other options available to fine-tune
AutoCorrect.
To turn AutoCorrect off, uncheck Tools > AutoCorrect > While Typing.

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 can add your own special characters.

Figure 13: Replace tab of AutoCorrect 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 and deselectEnable word completion on the Word Completion tab.
Options for customizing word completion from the AutoCorrect dialog (Figure 14) include:

20 | Chapter 4 Getting Started with Writer•

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.

•As you add words when working on documents, you can either save them for later use inother documents or select the option to remove them from the list when closing
documents.

•

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.

•

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

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

Figure 14: Word Completion tab in AutoCorrect dialog

Using AutoText
Use AutoText to store text, tables, fields, and other items for reuse and assign them to a 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.
To store some text as AutoText:
Working with text | 21

1) Type the text into your document, then select the text.
2) Choose Tools > AutoText (or press Ctrl+F3).
3) In the AutoText dialog, type a name for the AutoText in the Name box. Writer will suggest
a one-letter shortcut, which you can change.
4) Choose the category for the AutoText entry, for example My AutoText.
5) Click the AutoText button at the bottom of the dialog and select in 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 existing formatting around the insertion
point.
6) Click Close to return to your document.
7) To insert AutoText, type the shortcut and press F3.

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.

Figure 15: Creating an AutoText entry
AutoText is especially powerful when assigned to fields. See Chapter 17, Fields, in the Writer
Guide for more information.

Formatting text
There are two basic ways to format text. Understanding these two alternatives is essential for
unlocking the power of LibreOffice:Direct (or Manual) formatting
Applies formatting directly to specific paragraphs, characters, pages, frames, lists, ortables. For example, you can select a word, then click on a button on the Formatting
toolbar to format the text as bold or italics.
22 | Chapter 4 Getting Started with Writer

Styles
Bundles formatting options under one name. For example, a paragraph style defines
numerous settings for options such as font type and size, whether paragraphs should beindented, the space between lines, how paragraphs should be aligned on the page, andmany others.

Using styles is highly recommended
Writer is designed to be a style-based program. Because styles apply whole groups of formats atthe same time, they enable you to easily format a document consistently and to change theformatting of an entire document with minimal effort. In addition, styles are used by LibreOffice
for many processes, even if you are not aware of them. For example, Writer relies on headingstyles (or other styles you specify) when it compiles a table of contents.
Writer defines six types of styles: paragraph, character, frame, page, list, and table. See Chapter
3, Styles and Templates, in this book and also refer to the Writer Guide.

Formatting paragraphs using styles
Styles can be applied to paragraphs in several ways:•

Styles drop-down selection list at the left end of the Formatting toolbar•

Styles deck of the Sidebar•

Styles menu on the Menu Bar (limited to common styles)•

Keyboard shortcuts Ctrl+1 to Ctrl+5 (paragraph styles Heading 1 to Heading 5)You can also open a Formatting (Styles) toolbar using View > Toolbars > Formatting (Styles);see Figure 16.
Figure 16: Formatting (Styles) toolbar

Tip
For important information about using paragraph styles to format documents, see
Chapter 3 of this book and Chapters 8 and 9 in the Writer Guide.

Formatting paragraphs directly
You can manually apply many direct formats to paragraphs using the buttons on the Formatting
toolbar and by using the Paragraph panel of the Sidebar’s Properties deck. Not all buttons arevisible in a standard installation, but you can customize the toolbar to include those you use
regularly. These buttons and formats include:•

Set Paragraph Style•

Bullets On/Off (with a palette of bullet styles)•

Numbering On/Off (with a palette of numbering styles)•

Align Left, Align Center, Align Right, Justified•

Align Top, Center Vertically, Align Bottom•

Line Spacing (choose from 1, 1.15, 1.5, 2, or custom spacing)•

Increase Paragraph Spacing, Decrease Paragraph Spacing•

Increase Indent, Decrease Indent, Hanging Indent•

Paragraph (to open the Paragraph dialog)

Formatting text | 23

•Set Line Spacing

Note
Direct formatting (also called manual formatting) overrides styles. This means thatwhen a new style is applied, direct formatting is not removed and still determines thedisplayed format.

Removing direct formatting
To remove direct formatting, select the text and choose Format > Clear Direct Formatting on
the Menu bar, or right-click and choose Clear Direct Formatting in the context menu, or press
Ctrl+M on the keyboard, or select the Clear Direct Formatting icon on the Formatting toolbar.

Note
When clearing direct formatting, the text formatting will return to the applied
paragraph and character style and not the default paragraph style or default
character style (unless these styles are actually applied to the text).

Formatting characters using styles
To apply a character style, highlight the characters or words and apply the selected characterstyle from the Character Styles tab of the Styles deck on the Sidebar, from the Styles menu on
the Menu bar (limited), or from the right-click context menu (limited).

Formatting characters directly
It is recommended that you use styles to format characters as much as possible rather thanformatting characters directly, as described in this section.
You can directly apply many formats to characters using the buttons on the Formatting toolbar
and by using the Character panel of the Sidebar’s Properties deck. Not all buttons are visible in astandard installation, but you can customize the toolbar to include those you use regularly. Thesebuttons and formats include:•

Font Name, Font Size•

Bold, Italic, Underline, Overline, Double Underline, Strikethrough, Outline•

Superscript, Subscript•

Uppercase, Lowercase•

Increase Font Size, Decrease Font Size•

Font Color (with a palette of colors)•

Background Color (with a palette of colors)•

Highlighting (with a palette of colors)

Note
Just as direct paragraph formatting overrides the current paragraph style, applying
direct character formatting to characters overrides the current character styleformatting.

Formatting tables
Tables in a Writer document share the same sets of formatting elements as the spreadsheets in
LibreOffice Calc.
24 | Chapter 4 Getting Started with WriterTo apply table styles, click in the table to be formatted and double-click on a style listed in the
Table Styles tab of the Sidebar’s Styles deck. Alternatively, click in the table to be formatted,
choose Table > AutoFormat Styles on the Menu bar and select a style from the dialog that
opens. For more information, refer to Chapter 13, Tables of Data, in the Writer Guide.

AutoCorrection
You can set Writer to format or correct parts of a document automatically as you type, according
to the choices made on the Options tab of the AutoCorrect dialog (Tools > AutoCorrect >AutoCorrect Options).
Some common unwanted or unexpected formatting changes include:•

Horizontal lines. If you type three or more hyphens (---), underscores (___) or equal signs(===) on a line and then press Enter, the paragraph is replaced by a horizontal line as
wide as the column in the page. Note that the line is actually the lower border of thepreceding paragraph.

•

Bulleted and numbered lists. A bulleted list is created when you type a hyphen (-), star(*), or plus sign (+), followed by a space or tab at the beginning of a paragraph. A
numbered list is created when you type a number followed by a period (.), followed by aspace or tab at the beginning of a paragraph. Automatic numbering is only applied toparagraphs formatted with the Default Style, Text Body, or Text Body Indent paragraphstyles.

Tip
If you notice unexpected formatting changes occurring in your document, this is thefirst place to look for the cause. In most cases Edit > Undo (Ctrl+Z) fixes the issue.
To turn AutoCorrect on or off, choose Tools > AutoCorrect and select or deselect the items on
the list. The Help describes each of these choices.

Creating lists with styles
For more about creating lists using styles, see Chapter 12, Lists: Tips and Tricks, in the Writer
Guide.

Creating bulleted and numbered lists
Whenever possible, use paragraph styles for creating bulleted and numbered lists. Writer comeswith two sets of paragraph styles for this purpose. However, these styles do not include options
for settings such as the type of bullet or position of numbers. Those settings come from list
styles, which are a different type of style than paragraph styles. It is recommended to use them
together in these ways:•

Use paragraph styles List 1, List 2, List 3, and so on for creating bulleted lists. Thesestyles use Bullet list styles.

•

Use paragraph styles Numbering 1, Numbering 2, Numbering 3, etc, for creating
numbered lists. These styles use the list styles called Numbering 1, Numbering 2, etc.

To assign a list style to one of these paragraph styles, go to the Styles deck in the Sidebar, rightclick on the paragraph style you want to use, then choose Modify. On the Outline & Numberingtab on the Paragraph Style dialog, in the Numbering style drop-down list, choose the appropriate
list style (see Figure 17).
Paragraph styles such as List 1 Start and List 1 End enable you to adjust specific properties(such as the space between paragraphs) for items at the beginning or end of the list.

Formatting text | 25

Note
List styles are not meant to be used on their own. Rather, they are designed to be
attached to paragraph styles.

Figure 17: Assigning a list style to a paragraph styleCreating nested lists
With paragraph styles, you can easily create nested lists, in which list items have sub-items
under them, as in an outline. This requires specifying the settings for the additional levels. To dothis, right click on the list style (not the paragraph style), select Modify, and specify how eachlayer will be labeled, using the Numbering Style tab. Also specify the position and spacing foreach level on the Position tab. Refer to the Writer Guide for details.
Once you have set up nested lists, you can readily change the hierarchy of an item. To demote
an item one level, position the cursor at the beginning of the line (after the bullet or number) andpress the Tab key. To promote an item one level, press Shift+Tab.

Creating lists with direct formatting
Creating bulleted and numbered lists
Bullets and numbers can be manually applied in three basic ways:•

Use AutoCorrect to autoformat text, as described above•

Use the Toggle Bulleted List and Toggle Numbered List buttons on the Formatting
toolbar•Use the Paragraph panel of the Sidebar’s Properties deck

Bullets and numbering can be applied to already selected text or they can be applied as you
type.

26 | Chapter 4 Getting Started with WriterTip
Bullets and numbering applied in these ways cannot be removed with Format >Clear Direct Formatting on the Menu bar, or with the Clear Direct Formatting iconon the Formatting toolbar, or by using Ctrl+M. Rather, they are turned off or removed
from selected text by toggling the relevant buttons on the Formatting toolbar, or on
the Sidebar’s Properties deck.

Creating nested lists
Use the buttons on the Bullets and Numbering toolbar to move items up or down the list, create
sub-items, change the style of bullets, and access the Bullets and Numbering dialog, whichcontains more detailed controls. Use View > Toolbars > Bullets and Numbering to see thetoolbar.

Note
If numbering or bullets are being applied automatically in a way that you findinappropriate, you can switch them off temporarily by unchecking Tools >AutoCorrect > While Typing.
The Toggle Bulleted List and Toggle Numbered List buttons on the Sidebar’s Properties deckcan also be used to create nested lists. Click the down arrow next to the relevant button, thenclick More Bullets/Numbering to access the Bullets and Numbering dialog. However, theSidebar does not include tools for promoting and demoting items in the list, as found on the
Bullets and Numbering toolbar.

Setting tab stops and indents
The horizontal ruler shows the tab stops. Any tab stops that you have defined will overwrite thedefault tab stops. Tab settings affect indentation of full paragraphs (using the Increase Indentand Decrease Indent buttons on the Formatting toolbar) as well as indentation of parts of aparagraph (by pressing the Tab key on the keyboard).
Using the default tab spacing can cause formatting problems if you share documents with otherpeople. If you use the default tab spacing and then send the document to someone else who haschosen a different default tab spacing, tabbed material will change to use the other person’s
settings. Instead of using the defaults, define your own tab settings, as described in this section.
To define indents and tab settings for one or more selected paragraphs, right-click and choose
Paragraph > Paragraph. On the Paragraph dialog, go to the Tabs tab.
A better strategy is to define tabs for the paragraph style. This is done on the Tabs tab of theParagraph Style dialog.

Tip
Using tabs to space out material on a page is not recommended. Depending on what
you are trying to accomplish, a table or frame might be a better choice.

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

Formatting text | 27

To set the spacing of default tab stop intervals, go to Tools > Options > LibreOffice Writer >General.

Figure 18: Selecting a default tab stop interval

Changing measurement units for tab stops and rulers
Change the measurement unit for rulers in the current document by right-clicking on the ruler toopen a list of units. Click on one of them to change the ruler to that unit. The selected setting
applies only to that ruler.

Figure 19: Changing the measurement unit for a ruler

Hyphenating words
Hyphenate words at the end of a line in two ways: let Writer do it automatically (using its
hyphenation dictionaries), or insert conditional hyphens manually for specific words.

Automatic hyphenation using styles
To turn automatic hyphenation of words on or off:
1) On the Styles deck in the Sidebar, go to Paragraph Styles, right-click on Default Style (oranother style you want to use) and select Modify.
2) On the Paragraph Style dialog (Figure 20), go to the Text Flow tab.
3) Under Hyphenation, select or deselect the Automatically option. When automatic
hyphenation is on, you can also set the criteria for when it should occur. Click OK to save.

Note
Turning 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 not based on Default Style are not affected. See Chapter 3, Styles andTemplates, for more about styles based on styles other than Default Style.

28 | Chapter 4 Getting Started with WriterFigure 20: Turning on automatic hyphenation in a paragraph style

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

Figure 21: 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.

Note
Hyphenation options set on the Writing Aids dialog are effective only if hyphenation isturned on through paragraph styles.

Manual hyphenation
Manually hyphenate words when you want only a specific word hyphenated at the end of a line.
Do not use a normal hyphen, which will remain visible even if the word is no longer at the end ofa line (when you add or delete text, or change margins or font size). Instead, use a conditional
hyphen, which is visible only when required.
To insert a conditional hyphen inside a word, click where you want the hyphen to appear (whenneeded) and press Ctrl+hyphen or use Insert > Formatting Mark > Insert soft Hyphen. When
the word is at the end of the line it will be hyphenated at this position, even if automatic
hyphenation for this paragraph is switched off.

Formatting pages
Every page in Writer is based on a page style. Page styles define basic layout, including pagesize, margins, headers and footers, borders, backgrounds, and so on. Changes to these settings
automatically change the page style. This means that, in contrast to paragraph styles, thesesettings cannot be used to directly format individual pages.
As with other styles, Writer comes with a number of page styles. You can modify these styles orcreate new ones. The Default Style page style is used when no other page style has been
specified.

Formatting pages | 29

In addition to page styles, several features enable you to further control page layouts, includingcolumns, frames, tables, and sections. For more information, see Chapters 5 (Formatting Pages:
Basics) and 6 (Formatting Pages: Advanced) in the Writer Guide.

Tip
Page layout is usually easier if you show text, object, table, and section boundaries
in Tools > Options > LibreOffice > Application Colors, and paragraph ends, tabs,
breaks, and other items in Tools > Options > LibreOffice Writer > Formatting
Aids.

Creating headers and footers
A header is an area that appears at the top of a page above the margin. A footer appears at thebottom of the page below the margin. Information such as a page number is placed in the header
or footer of a page style. That information is then displayed on every page with the same pagestyle (unless the page style specifies separate settings for the first page or for left and rightpages).

Inserting a header or footer
You can insert a header in several ways. Here is the easiest:•

Click above the top margin (or below the bottom margin) to make the Header or Footer
marker appear (Figure 22), and then click on the + sign.

Figure 22: Header marker at top of text area
After a header/footer has been created, a down-arrow appears on the marker. Click on this arrow
to drop down a menu of choices for working with the header (Figure 23).

Figure 23: Header menu
Alternatively, you can choose Insert > Header and Footer > Header > Default Style (or someother page style, if not Default Style).

Displaying different headers on right and left pages
Page styles can be set up to have the facing left and right pages mirrored or only right (firstpages of chapters are often defined to be right-page only) or only left. When you insert a header
on a page style set up for mirrored pages or right-and-left pages, you can have the contents of
30 | Chapter 4 Getting Started with Writerthe header be the same on all pages or be different on the right and left pages. For example, you
can put the page number on the left-hand edge of the left pages and on the right-hand edge ofthe right pages, put the document title on the right-hand page only, or make other changes.

Determining header and footer appearance
To format a header (use similar settings for a footer), you can either click on Format Header inthe menu shown in Figure 23 or go to Format > Page Style, Header tab. Both methods take you
to the same tab on the Page Style dialog.
Here you can specify if headings on the left and right pages should be the same or different. You
can also specify whether the first page will have no header or a different header than otherpages.
In this dialog, you can also turn the header on or off, set the margins, and set the spacing
between the header and document text.

Figure 24: Page Style dialog, Header tab

Inserting document title in headers and footers
Information such as a document title is often put into the header or footer. These items are best
added as fields. That way, if something (such as the name) changes, the headers and footers are
updated automatically. Here is one common way to use fields to insert the document title into theheader:1) Choose File > Properties. On the Description tab, type a title for your document, andclick the OK button.
2) Place the cursor in the header area at the top of the page.
3) Choose Insert > Field > Title. The title may appear on a gray background. The
background does not show when printed and can be turned off in Tools > Options >LibreOffice > Application Colors.
For more about headers, footers, and fields, see the Writer Guide.

Numbering pages
Displaying the page number
To display page numbers automatically:
1) Insert a header or footer as described in Creating headers and footers on page 30.
2) Place the cursor in the header or footer where you want the page number to appear andchoose Insert > Page Number.
Formatting pages | 31

3) Change the alignment of the number if you wish (left, right, or center).

Including the total number of pages
To include the total number of pages (as in “page 1 of 12”):1) Type the word “page” and a space, then insert the page number as above.
2) Press the space bar once, type the word “of” and a space, then choose Insert > Field >Page Count.

Note
The Page Count field inserts the total number of pages in the document, as shownon the Statistics tab of the document’s Properties dialog (File > Properties). If you
restart page numbering anywhere in the document, then the total page count may
not be what you want. See the Writer Guide for more information.

Restarting page numbering
Often you will want to restart the page numbering at 1, for example on the page following a title
page or a table of contents. In addition, many documents have the “front matter” (such as thetable of contents) numbered with Roman numerals and the main body of the document
numbered in Arabic numerals, starting with 1. To restart page numbering:
Place the cursor in the first paragraph of the new page.
1) Choose Format > Paragraph.
2) On the Text Flow tab of the Paragraph dialog (Figure 20 on page 29), select Insert in the
Breaks area, and then select With page style and specify the page style to use.
3) Specify the page number to start from, and then click OK.

Tip
This is also useful for numbering the first page of a document with a page number
greater than 1.

Changing page margins
You can change page margins in three ways:•

Using the page rulers—quick and easy, but does not allow fine control•

Using the Page Style dialog—allows you to specify margins with precision of up to two
decimal places•

Using the Page deck of the Sidebar

CautionWhen you change the margins, the page style is also changed and the changed
margins apply to all pages using that style.
To change margins using the rulers:
1) The gray sections of the rulers are the margins. Put the mouse cursor over the line
between the gray and white sections. The pointer turns into a double-headed arrow anddisplays the current setting in a tool-tip.
2) Hold down the left mouse button and drag the mouse to move the margin.

32 | Chapter 4 Getting Started with WriterCaution
The two small gray triangles on the ruler are used for indenting paragraphs. The
double-headed arrows shown in Figure 25 are mouse cursors shown in the correct
position for moving the margin markers. Because the triangles and arrows are often
in the same place, when changing page margins you need to be careful to move thearrows, not the gray triangles.

Figure 25: Moving the margins
To change margins using the Page Style dialog:
1) Right-click anywhere in the text area on the page and select Page Style in the context
menu.
2) On the Page tab of the dialog, type the required distances in the four boxes in the
Margins area.
To change margins using the Page deck of the Sidebar:
1)

On the Sidebar, open the Page deck.

2)

On the Format panel, use the Margins drop-down list to select the desired margins fromthe defaults provided. Click the More Options button to open the Page Style dialog
where you can enter exact margin distances.

Adding a custom watermark to the page backgroundTo add a watermark to a page background:
1) Choose Format > Watermark.
2) In the Watermark dialog, type the text and select the font, angle, transparency and colorof the watermark. Then click the OK button.

Formatting pages | 33

Figure 26: The Watermark dialog

Note
The watermark will automatically become part of the page style where it is inserted
and all other pages of the same style will have the watermark. Pages with different or
no watermarks need different Page Styles for those pages.

Adding comments to a document
Authors and reviewers often use comments to exchange ideas, ask for suggestions, or markitems needing attention.
You can connect a comment to multiple paragraphs or a single point. To insert a comment, selectthe text, or place the cursor in the place the comment refers to, and choose Insert > Commenton the menu bar, click the Insert Comment icon on the Standard toolbar, or press Ctrl+Alt+C.
The anchor point of the comment is connected by a dotted line to a box on the right-hand side of
the page where you can type the text of the comment. A Comments button is also added to theright of the horizontal ruler at the top of the page; you can click this button to toggle the display ofthe comments.

Formatting comments
At the bottom of the comment, Writer automatically adds the author’s name and a time stamp
indicating when the comment was created. If more than one person edits the document, eachauthor is automatically allocated a different background color. Figure 27 shows an example oftext with comments from two different authors.

Figure 27: Example of comments

34 | Chapter 4 Getting Started with WriterChoose Tools > Options > LibreOffice > User Data to provide the name you want to appear in
the Author field of comments.
Right-click on a comment to open a context menu where you can delete the current comment, all
the comments from the same author, or all the comments in the document. On this menu, you
can also reply to a comment, open a dialog to apply some basic formatting to the text, and markcomments as Resolved. These options are also available on a drop-down menu accessed byclicking the down arrow icon at the bottom right of the comment.

Navigating through comments
To navigate from one comment to another, open the sidebar Navigator, expand the Comments
section, and click on the comment text to move the cursor to the anchor point of the comment in
the document. Click the comment directly to edit it and right-click on the comment to delete it.
You can also navigate through the comments using the keyboard. Use Ctrl+Alt+Page Down tomove to the next comment and Ctrl+Alt+Page Up to move to the previous comment.

Printing comments
When a document contains comments, the print dialog has an option for comments to be printed
next to the text in the right margin, as they appear on the screen. In that case, the text on eachpage is scaled down to make space for the comments. The Print dialog also has options for
placing comments at the end of the page or at the end of the document, or for printing only thecomments.

Using built-in language tools
Writer provides some tools that make work easier if you use more than one language in the same
document or if you write documents in various languages. Changing the language for specifictext enables you to use the correct dictionaries and rules to check spelling, grammar, andhyphenation. It also applies the localized versions of AutoCorrect replacement options and uses
the appropriate thesaurus.

Options for applying languages
Tip
The language used at the location of the cursor is shown in the Status Bar, next tothe page style in use.

Using styles
Languages can be set on the Font tab of the Paragraph Style dialog or the Character Style
dialog. See the Writer Guide for information on how to manage the language settings of a style.

CautionBe careful when changing a language in character or paragraph styles, as this willchange the language for all characters or paragraphs using that style. It may be
useful to include the language in the name of the style.
Languages set with direct formatting will override languages set using styles.

Using built-in language tools | 35

Using direct formatting
The language of a whole document can be set by using Tools > Options > Language Settings> Languages. In the Default Languages for Documents section, you can choose the language
for all the text that is not explicitly marked as a different language.
Set the language for the whole document, for individual paragraphs, or even for individual words
and characters, from Tools > Language on the Menu bar. If the required language is notavailable in the sub menu, click More. The Tools > Options > Language Settings >Languages menu opens, where you can select the language as described above.
Alternatively, you can set the language for individual paragraphs and characters by selecting text
or putting the cursor in a paragraph and changing the language on the Status Bar. There is also
an option More, in case the text is not directly available.

Note
Although these methods are a type of direct formatting, they cannot be cleared byusing Format > Clear Direct Formatting on the Menu bar, clicking the Clear Direct
Formatting icon on the Formatting toolbar, selecting Clear Direct Formatting fromthe context menu, or using Ctrl+M.

Preventing text from being checked for spelling
You can set the language for a paragraph or a group of characters as None (Do not checkspelling) using any of the methods described above. This option is especially useful for text suchas web addresses or programming language snippets that you do not want to check for spelling.

Obtaining resources for additional languages
The spelling checker works only for those languages in the Spelling dialog list that have a
dictionary installed. You can install additional dictionaries using Tools > Language > Writing
Aids > More Dictionaries Online.

Creating a table of contents
Writer can generate a table of contents from the headings in your document. Before you start,
make sure that the headings are styled consistently. For example, you can use the Heading 1style for chapter titles and the Heading 2 and Heading 3 styles for chapter subheadings. You canalso define your own heading styles and set them up in Tools > Chapter Numbering.
Although tables of contents can be customized extensively in Writer, often the default settings are
all you need. Creating a quick table of contents is simple:
1) When you create your document, use the following paragraph styles for hierarchicalheading levels (such as chapter and section headings): Heading 1, Heading 2, Heading
3, and so on. These headings are what will appear in your table of contents.
2) Place the cursor where you want the table of contents to appear.
3) Choose Insert > Table of Contents and Index > Table of Contents, Index or
Bibliography.
4) Change nothing in the Table of Contents, Index, or Bibliography dialog (unless you want
to change the number of levels shown). Click OK.
If you add or delete text (so that headings move to different pages) or you add, delete, or change
headings, you need to update the table of contents. To do this, right-click anywhere within thetable of contents and choose Update index in the context menu.

36 | Chapter 4 Getting Started with WriterYou can customize an existing table of contents at any time. Right-click anywhere in it andchoose Edit Index in the context menu. Chapter 15, Tables of Contents, Indexes, Bibliographies,
in the Writer Guide describes in detail all the customization options you can choose.

Creating indexes and bibliographies
Indexes and bibliographies work in a similar way to tables of contents. In addition to alphabeticalindexes, other types of indexes supplied with Writer include those for illustrations, tables, andobjects, and you can even create a user-defined index.
For example, you might want an index containing only the scientific names of species mentioned
in the text, and a separate index containing only the common names of species. Before creatingsome types of indexes, you first need to create index entries in your Writer document. Chapter
15, Tables of Contents, Indexes, Bibliographies, in the Writer Guide describes how to do this.

Using footnotes and endnotes
Footnotes appear at the bottom of the page on which they are referenced. Endnotes arecollected at the end of a document.
To work effectively with footnotes and endnotes, you need to:•Insert footnotes and define their format.
To insert a footnote or an endnote, put the cursor where you want the footnote or endnote
marker to appear. Then select Insert > Footnote and Endnote on the Menu bar andchoose Footnote or Endnote, or click the Insert Footnote or Insert Endnote button on
the Standard toolbar.
A footnote or endnote marker is inserted in the text and, depending on your choice, thecursor is relocated either to the footnote area at the bottom of the page or to the endnotearea at the end of the document. Type the footnote or endnote content in this area.
To format the footnotes themselves, click Tools > Footnotes and Endnotes. On theFootnotes/Endnotes Settings dialog, choose settings as required.
See Chapter 3, Working with Text: Advanced, in the Writer Guide for more details.

•

Define the location of footnotes on the page, and the color and line styles for separatorlines, if the defaults do not meet your needs. These are found on the Footnote tab of the
Page Style dialog; see Chapter 5, Formatting Pages: Basics, in the Writer Guide.

Working with images (graphics)
Images in Writer are of these basic types:•

Image files, including photos, drawings, and scanned images•

Diagrams created using LibreOffice’s drawing tools•

Artwork created using clip art or Fontwork•

Charts created using LibreOffice’s Chart facility

See Chapter 11, Images and Graphics, in this book and Chapter 11 in the Writer Guide.

Working with tables of data
Tables are a useful way to organize and present large amounts of information. A well-designed
table can often help readers understand better what you are saying. In addition to using tables for
Working with tables of data | 37

text or numbers, you could put other objects, such as pictures, in cells. Writer’s tables can often
be used as an alternative to spreadsheets, and they provide limited spreadsheet functions.
To directly insert a table with the default properties, click the Insert Table icon on the Standard
toolbar. On the drop-down graphic, choose the size of the table.
To insert a new table using the Insert Table dialog, where you can specify the properties for thetable, position the cursor where you want the table to appear, then use any of the following
methods to open the dialog:•

Choose Table > Insert Table on the Menu bar.

•Press Ctrl+F12.

• On the Standard toolbar, click the Insert Table icon and select More Options at thebottom of the drop-down graphic.
Writer provides many methods to format tables and the contents of cells. Refer to Chapter 13,
Tables of Data, in the Writer Guide.

Printing and exporting to PDF or EPUB
See Chapter 10, Printing, Exporting, E-mailing, and Signing Documents, in this book and Chapter
7 in the Writer Guide for details on previewing pages before printing, selecting print options,printing in black and white on a color printer, printing brochures, and other printing features.
Chapter 10 also covers exporting a Writer document to PDF (Portable Document Format) or
EPUB (a popular e-book format).

Using mail merge
Writer provides very useful features to create and print:•

Multiple copies of a document to send to a list of different recipients (form letters)•

Mailing labels•

Envelopes

All these features use data from a Writer table or another registered data source (a spreadsheet
or database containing name and address records or other information). Chapter 14 in the Writer
Guide describes the merge processes.

Tracking changes to a document
You can use several methods to keep track of changes made to a document.
•

Make your changes to a copy of the document (stored in a different folder, or under adifferent name, or both), then use Writer to combine the two files and show thedifferences. Choose Edit > Track Changes > Compare Document.

•

Save versions that are stored as part of the original file. However, this method can cause
problems with documents of non-trivial size or complexity, especially if you save a lot ofversions. Avoid this method if you can.

•(Recommended) Use Writer’s change marks (often called “redlines” or “revision marks”)
to show where you have added or deleted material, or changed formatting. Choose Edit
> Track Changes > Record before starting to edit. Later, you or another person canreview and accept or reject each change. Choose Edit > Track Changes > Show. Rightclick on an individual change and choose Accept Change or Reject Change in thecontext menu, or choose Edit > Track Changes > Manage to view the list of changes

38 | Chapter 4 Getting Started with Writerand accept or reject them. Details are in Chapter 3, Working with Text: Advanced, in the
Writer Guide.

Tip
Not all changes are recorded. For example, changing a tab stop from align left toalign right, and changes in formulas (equations) or linked graphics are not recorded.
Also, changes of a paragraph’s profile are not recorded.

CautionA document with track changes activated but with the changes not shown carries aninvisible history of document editing that the current user may not be aware of.
Contents deleted or modified can be recovered. While this is a feature, it is also a
potential privacy risk.

Using fields
Fields are extremely useful features of Writer. You can use them for data that changes (such as
the current date or the total number of pages) and for inserting document properties such as
name, author, and date of last update. Fields are the basis of cross-referencing (see below);
automatic numbering of figures, tables, headings, and other elements; and a wide range of otherfunctions. See Chapter 17, Fields, in the Writer Guide for more details.

Linking and cross-referencing within a document
If you manually type in cross-references to other parts of a document, those references caneasily get out of date if you reorganize the order of topics, add or remove material, or reword aheading. Writer provides two ways to ensure that your references are up to date: hyperlinks andcross-references.
Both methods insert links to other parts of the same document or to an external source, taking
you directly to the cross-referenced item. However, they have major differences:•

The text in a hyperlink does not automatically update if you change the text of the linked
item (although you can change it manually), but changed text does automatically updatein a cross-reference.

•

When using a hyperlink, you do not have a choice about the type of content linked to(such as text or page number), but when using a cross-reference, you have several
choices, including bookmarks.

•

To hyperlink to an object such as a graphic, and have the hyperlink show useful text suchas Figure 6, you need to give such an object a useful name (instead of a default namelike Graphics6), or use the Hyperlink dialog to modify the visible text. In contrast, crossreferences to figures with captions can automatically show useful text, and you have a
choice of several variations of the name.

•

If you save a Writer document to HTML, hyperlinks remain active but cross-references donot. Both remain active when the document is exported to PDF.

Using hyperlinks
See Chapter 12, Creating HTML Files, for details on creating hyperlinks within a document and toother documents and websites.

Linking and cross-referencing within a document | 39

Creating and using cross-references
The Cross-references tab of the Fields dialog lists some items, such as headings, bookmarks,
figures, tables, or numbered items such as steps in a procedure. You can also create your own
reference items; see Chapter 17, Fields, in the Writer Guide.
To insert a cross-reference:
1) In the document, place the cursor where you want the cross-reference to appear.
2) If the Fields dialog is not open, click Insert > Cross-reference. On the Cross-referencestab (Figure 28), in the Type list, select the type of item to be referenced (for example,
Headings or Figure).
3) Click on the required item in the Selection list, which shows all the items of the selected
type. You can type some characters in the top box under Selection to filter the list in theselection box.
4) In the Insert reference to list, select the option needed. The options determine the text
inserted for the hyperlink and how it is formatted. The list varies according to the Typechosen. The most commonly used options are Reference (to insert the full text of aheading or caption), Category and Number (to insert a figure number preceded by theword Figure or Table, but without the caption text), Numbering (to insert only the figure ortable number, without the word Figure or Table), or Page (to insert the number of thepage the referenced text is on). Click Insert.
You can leave this dialog open while you insert many cross-references.

40 | Chapter 4 Getting Started with WriterFigure 28: The Cross-references tab of the Fields dialog

Using bookmarks
Use bookmarks to rapidly navigate or link to specific locations in a document. They are listed in
the Navigator and can be accessed directly from there with a single mouse click. You can crossreference to bookmarks and create hyperlinks to bookmarks, as described above. To create abookmark:
1) Select the text you want to bookmark. Click Insert > Bookmark.
2) On the Insert Bookmark dialog, the larger box lists any previously defined bookmarks.
Type a name for this new bookmark in the top box, and then click Insert.

Linking and cross-referencing within a document | 41

Using master documents
A master document joins separate text documents into one larger document, and unifies theformatting, table of contents, bibliography, index, and other tables or lists. Master documents are
typically used for producing long documents such as a book, thesis, or long report. They areespecially handy when different people are writing different sections of a document, eliminating
the need to continually share the full document. For details on using master documents, see
Chapter 16 in the Writer Guide.
You can add master document templates to LibreOffice in the same way as ordinary document
templates. Creating a new document based on a master document template creates a masterdocument with the same initial content as the template it is based upon. See Chapter 3, Styles
and Templates, for more about creating and using templates.

Classifying document contentsDocument classification and security are important for businesses and governments. Where
sensitive information is exchanged between users and organizations, the parties agree how suchinformation will be identified and handled. LibreOffice provides standardized means for sensitive
information to be identified and protected, using a set of standard fields that can be used to holdsensitive information.
LibreOffice implemented the open standards produced by TSCP (Transglobal Secure
Collaboration Participation, Inc.). It contains three BAF (Business Authentication Framework)
categories: Intellectual Property, National Security and Export Control. Each category has fourBAILS (Business Authorization Identification and Labeling Scheme) levels: Non-Business,
General Business, Confidential, and Internal Only.
To enable document classification, open the TSCP bar (View > Toolbars > TSCPClassification). This toolbar contains list boxes to help in selecting the security of the document.
LibreOffice then adds custom fields in the document properties (File > Properties, Custom
Properties tab) to store the classification policy as document metadata.
To prevent a breach in security policy, contents with a higher classification level cannot be pasted
into documents with a lower classification level.

Creating fill-in forms
In a standard text document, such as a report, any text can be edited. By contrast, a form has
sections that are not to be edited, and other sections that are designed for the reader to fill in
information. For example, a questionnaire has an introduction and questions (which do notchange) and spaces for the reader to enter answers.
Forms are used in three ways:•

To create a simple document for the recipient to complete, such as a questionnaire sentout to a group of people who fill it in and return it.

•

To enter information directly into a database or data source. Someone taking orders
might enter the information for each order into a database using a form.

•

To view information held in a database or data source. A librarian might call up
information about books.

Writer offers several ways to organize information fields in a form, including check boxes, option
buttons, text boxes, pull-down lists, and spinners. Two toolbars are used to create forms: Form
Controls and Form Design. See Chapter 18, Forms, in the Writer Guide for more information.

42 | Chapter 4 Getting Started with Writer