Self-publishing

using
OpenOffice.org 3 Writer
How to use free software to write,
design, and create PDFs for
print-on-demand books

Jean Hollis Weber

Friends of OpenDocument, Inc.

Australia

Free eBook Edition

Copyright © 2009 Jean Hollis Weber

This book is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License,

v 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/). You are free to copy,
distribute and transmit the work, and to adapt the work, under the
condition that you must attribute the source (this book) to Jean Hollis
Weber, but not in any way that that suggests Jean endorses you or your
use of the work.
All trademarks within this guide belong to their legitimate owners.

Published by:
Friends of OpenDocument Inc.
PO Box 640
Airlie Beach, Qld 4802
Australia

This book was created using free software: OpenOffice.org Writer 3.1
(word processing and page layout) and the Gimp 2.6.6 (image editing).
Both programs are available for Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X.

ISBN 978-1-921320-07-1

Free eBook Edition

 Contents
Preface............................................................................ix
Why use OpenOffice.org?.......................................................ix
What do you need to do first?.................................................x
For more on self-publishing....................................................x
Acknowledgments...................................................................x

Part 1:
Essentials.........................................................................1
1 Introduction to Writer.................................................3
The Writer workspace.............................................................3
Toolbars..............................................................................4
Context-sensitive toolbars..................................................4
Displaying and hiding toolbars...........................................5
Moving toolbars..................................................................5
Customizing toolbars..........................................................5
Docked and floating windows.................................................6
Right-click (context) menus....................................................6
Status bar...............................................................................6
Changing document views......................................................9
Using the Navigator................................................................9
Move quickly through a document...................................11
Use the Navigation toolbar...............................................11
Set reminders...................................................................12
Creating a new document.....................................................13
Create a document from a template.................................13
Saving a document................................................................14
Saving as a Microsoft Word document.............................14
Combining several documents into a book...........................15

2 Set Up Writer..............................................................17
Choosing options for all of OpenOffice.org...........................17
User data..........................................................................18
General options................................................................18
View options.....................................................................19
Print options.....................................................................20
Appearance options..........................................................21
Choosing Load and Save options..........................................22

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 Choosing options for Writer..................................................23
Writer general options......................................................24
View options.....................................................................24
Formatting Aids options...................................................25
Grid options......................................................................26
Print options for Writer....................................................26
Table options....................................................................27
Change-tracking options..................................................28
Choosing language settings..................................................28
Install the required dictionaries.......................................28
Change some locale and language settings......................28
Choose spelling options....................................................29

3 Write and Edit in Writer............................................31

General recommendations....................................................31
Selecting, copying, and pasting text.....................................32
Moving paragraphs quickly..................................................32
Finding and replacing text and formatting...........................33
Find and replace specific formatting................................34
Find and replace paragraph styles...................................35
Find and replace line breaks and paragraph ends...........35
Checking spelling and grammar...........................................36
Using Writer’s built-in language tools..................................38
Using the thesaurus..............................................................39
Using automatic functions....................................................40
AutoCorrect......................................................................40
Word completion...............................................................41
AutoText...........................................................................42
Including document information...........................................43

4 Design your Book using Writer’s Styles....................45

What are styles? Why use them?..........................................45
Types of styles..................................................................46
Basic page layout using page styles.....................................46
Automating the sequence of page styles..........................48
Creating and modifying paragraph styles.............................51
Properties of paragraph styles.........................................52
Modify the built-in sequence of styles..............................53

5 Format Pages in Writer.............................................57

Defining page styles..............................................................57
Examples..........................................................................57
Setting up headers and footers.............................................62

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 Numbering pages..................................................................63
Restart page numbering...................................................63
Applying page styles.............................................................64
Apply a sequence of page styles.......................................64
Change a sequence manually...........................................64
Add a title page to an existing book.................................65
Add a copyright page to an existing book........................66

6 Format Text in Writer................................................67

Typography...........................................................................67
Hyphenating words...............................................................68
Manual hyphenation.........................................................70
Working with fonts................................................................70
Use paragraph styles........................................................71
Use character styles.........................................................71
Applying paragraph and character styles.............................72
Use the Styles and Formatting window............................72
Use the Apply Style list....................................................72
Use Fill Format mode.......................................................73
Use keyboard shortcuts....................................................74
Inserting special characters.................................................74
Inserting non-breaking spaces and hyphens........................75
Inserting dashes....................................................................75
Defining your own tabs and indents.....................................76
Working with lists.................................................................77
Create a new list style......................................................78
Apply the list style............................................................81
Combine list and paragraph styles...................................82

7 Create PDFs using Writer.........................................83

Quick export to PDF..............................................................83
Controlling PDF content and quality....................................84
General tab of PDF Options dialog...................................84
Initial View tab.................................................................86
User Interface tab............................................................87
Links tab...........................................................................88
Security tab......................................................................88
Printing to PostScript for PDF conversion............................89

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Part 2:
Extras..............................................................................91
8 Pictures and Graphics in Writer................................93
Creating and editing images.................................................93
Prepare images for black-and-white printing...................94
Inserting an image from a file...............................................95
Inserting images from other sources....................................97
Graphics program.............................................................97
Scanner............................................................................97
OpenOffice.org Gallery.....................................................98
Modifying an image..............................................................99
Use the Picture toolbar....................................................99
Use the Object toolbar and right-click menu..................100
Use the Picture dialog....................................................100
Crop an image................................................................100
Rotate an image.............................................................101
Positioning images within the text......................................102
Arrange images..............................................................103
Anchor images................................................................103
Align images...................................................................104
Wrapping text around images.............................................105
Example: page wrapping................................................107
Using Writer’s drawing tools..............................................108

9 Tables of Contents in Writer...................................109

Creating a table of contents quickly...................................109
Defining a hierarchy of headings........................................110
Choose paragraph styles for outline levels....................111
Customizing a table of contents..........................................112
Index/Table tab...............................................................113
Entries tab......................................................................115
Styles tab........................................................................117
Columns tab....................................................................118
Background tab..............................................................119
Maintaining a table of contents..........................................119

10 Indexes in Writer......................................................121
Adding index entries...........................................................121
Building an alphabetic index quickly..................................123
Customizing index entries..................................................123
Example of using an index key.......................................124
Customizing an index..........................................................125

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 Index/Table tab...............................................................125
Entries tab......................................................................127
Columns tab....................................................................128
Styles tab........................................................................129
Maintaining an index..........................................................129
View and edit existing index entries...............................130

11 Create Special Effects in Writer...............................131

Drop caps............................................................................131
Edit the Drop Caps character style................................132
Character spacing...............................................................133
Rotating text.......................................................................134
Centering text vertically on a page.....................................135
Paragraph borders and backgrounds..................................136
Page borders and backgrounds..........................................136
Header and footer special effects.......................................137
Include document information.......................................138
Use a table to align text in headers and footers.............139
Special effects for lists........................................................140

12 Track Changes in Writer..........................................141

Preparing a document for review.......................................142
Recording changes and comments.....................................142
Viewing recorded changes..................................................143
Accepting or rejecting changes..........................................143
Merging modified documents.............................................145
Comparing documents........................................................145
Inserting, editing, and replying to notes.............................146

13 Use Templates in Writer..........................................149

Creating a template............................................................150
Using predefined templates................................................151
Setting up a custom default template.................................152
Creating a document from a template................................153
Editing a template...............................................................154
Updating a document when its template is changed..........154
Changing to a different template........................................155
Use a blank document based on a new template...........155
Use the Template Changer extension.............................156

14 Customize Writer.....................................................157
Customizing menus and toolbars.......................................157
Assigning shortcut keys......................................................157

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 Example: Assign styles to shortcut keys.........................158
Example: Assign macros to shortcut keys......................159
Reset the shortcut keys..................................................161
Adding functionality with extensions..................................162
Install extensions............................................................162
Some popular extensions for Writer...............................163

Index........................................................................165
About the author......................................................171

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Preface

This book is for beginners to intermediate users of

OpenOffice.org 3 Writer who want to produce a book-length
document such as a novel, a collection of poetry or essays, or a
non-fiction book, and then self-publish the book using an
on-demand printing service (Lulu, Booksurge, CreateSpace,
Lightning Source, or the like).

Why use OpenOffice.org?

People use OpenOffice.org for several reasons:
• No licensing problems. You can put the program on as
many computers as you wish, and give away copies to as
many people as you wish. OpenOffice.org does not need to
be activated or registered, and it never “phones home”
unless you have told it to do so—to check for updates, for
example.
• No cost. You never have to pay for a copy, if you
download it from the official website. CDs are available at
low cost. Beware of people selling the program on CD for
more than $10—or at any price for downloading from any
website. Higher prices and download fees are legal, but
why pay more for a free program?
• Multi-platform. It works on Linux, Microsoft Windows,
Apple’s Mac OS X, and other operating systems.
• File compatibility. You can open and save to many file
formats, including Microsoft Office formats, in addition to
the default OpenDocument format.
• Built-in export to PDF (Portable Document Format). You
no longer need to buy or use another program to create
PDFs, unless your printing service demands that you do
so.

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What do you need to do first?
This book assumes that you have successfully installed
OpenOffice.org on your computer, and that you know how to
create, edit, save, and print files. Although this book is written
for OpenOffice.org 3, most of the information is relevant to
earlier versions of OpenOffice.org. Some features are new in
version 3.0 and later updates.
If you do not already have a copy of OpenOffice.org, or if you
want to upgrade to the latest version, go to
http://www.openoffice.org/ to download a free copy.

For more on self-publishing

This book introduces Writer as a tool for preparing a PDF for a
self-published book, but it does not cover other aspects of the
printing and publishing process or specifics of the various print-
on-demand services.
You can find numerous books on these topics. Aaron
Shepherd’s book Aiming at Amazon has many essential tips for
the self-publisher about publishing, obtaining and using ISBNs,
print-on-demand (particularly through Lightning Source), and
getting your book listed by Amazon and other online bookstores.
You can get Aaron’s book from his website,
http://www.newselfpublishing.com/books/AimingAmazon.html

Acknowledgments
Material in this book is generally based on Getting Started with
OpenOffice.org and OpenOffice.org 3 Writer Guide. These books
were produced by a team of volunteers known as OOoAuthors.
Copies are available as free PDFs on the OpenOffice.org
Documentation Project’s website, in low-cost printed editions
published by Friends of OpenDocument Inc., and on the
OpenOffice.org Documentation wiki. Here are the website
addresses:
http://documentation.openoffice.org/
http://www.lulu.com/opendocument/
http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/Documentation/
OOo3_User_Guides

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 Part 1:
Essentials
The first seven chapters of this book cover topics that every
self-publisher needs to know about using OpenOffice.org for
writing and desktop publishing of books.
1 Introduction to Writer
2 Set Up Writer
3 Write and Edit in Writer
4 Design your Book using Writer’s Styles
5 Format Pages in Writer
6 Format Text in Writer
7 Create PDFs using Writer

The seven chapters in Part 2: Extras (beginning on page 91)

cover topics that may be relevant to your book or your use of
OpenOffice.org, but are not needed by everyone.

Free eBook Edition

Free eBook Edition
1 Introduction to Writer

Writer is the word processing component of OpenOffice.org.

It has many important features that are of interest to self-
publishers:
• Powerful page layout
• Easy-to-use templates and styles
• Export to PDF
• Placement of pictures and graphics
• Automatic creation of tables of contents and indexes
• Tracking of changes during editing

Writer also provides the usual features of a word processor,

including spelling checker, thesaurus, hyphenation,
autocorrection, find and replace, and mail merge.
Learning how to use Writer to create, edit, and manage
documents is an important first step. This chapter introduces
these basics.
Writer is similar to Microsoft Word, but it is also different. If
you are familiar with Word, you may need to learn some new
ways when you work in Writer. If you can’t find a certain feature
in Writer, don’t assume that feature is not there. Writer might
handle it in a different way.

The Writer workspace

The most commonly used view of the main Writer workspace,
Print Layout, is shown on the next page. (Go to page 9 for more
about document views.)

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Chapter 1 Introduction to Writer 3
Toolbars
Most of Writer’s toolbars can be either docked or floating. They
can be moved to different locations (top, side, bottom) in the
Writer workspace. They can even be floated outside the Writer
window.
The top toolbar is called the Standard toolbar. All
OpenOffice.org components (Writer, Calc, Draw, Impress, Base)
have this toolbar.
The second toolbar at the top is the Formatting toolbar. It
shows tools related to the selection or the cursor’s position. For
example, when a graphic is selected, the Formatting toolbar
shows tools for formatting graphics. When the cursor is in text,
the tools shown are Writer’s text formatting tools.

Context-sensitive toolbars
Writer has several other toolbars that normally appear only
when the context requires them. For example, when the cursor
is in a table, the Table toolbar appears. When the cursor is in a
list, the Bullets and Numbering toolbar appears. These toolbars
are normally floating, but you can dock them.

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Displaying and hiding toolbars
To display or hide toolbars, choose View > Toolbars, then click
on the name of a toolbar in the list. An active toolbar has a
checkmark next to its name.

Moving toolbars
To move a docked toolbar, click on its handle and drag it to the
new location. To move a floating toolbar, click on its title bar and
drag it to the new location. Floating toolbars dragged to a
docking location change into docked toolbars.

Customizing toolbars
You can choose which icons are visible on a toolbar. You can also
add icons and create new toolbars, as described in Chapter 14.
To customize a toolbar, click the down-arrow at the end of
the toolbar (or on the title bar of a floating toolbar). A menu
drops down.

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The Writer workspace 5
 To show or hide icons defined for the selected toolbar, choose
Visible Buttons from the drop-down menu. Icons that are
visible on the toolbar are checked. Click on an icon to select or
deselect it.

Docked and floating windows

Windows such as the Navigator, Styles and Formatting, and
Gallery can be moved, re-sized, or docked.
To dock or undock a window, hold down the Control key and
double-click on the gray area next to the icons at the top of the
window.
To move a floating window, click on the title bar and drag the
window, as you would do for a floating toolbar.

Right-click (context) menus

You can quickly access many menu functions by right-clicking on
a paragraph, a graphic, or another object. A context menu will
pop up. Often the context menu is the fastest and easiest way to
reach a function. If you do not know where to find a function in
the menus or toolbars, you can often find it by right-clicking.

Status bar
The Writer status bar provides both information about the
document and convenient ways to quickly change some
document features. From left to right, the fields are as follows.

Left end of status bar

Right end of status bar

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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. If you restarted page numbering at 1 on the third
page, then its page number is 1 but the sequence number of that
page is 3.
If any bookmarks have been defined in the document, a right-
click on this field pops up a list. Click on the required bookmark.
To jump to a specific page in the document, double-click on
this field. The Navigator opens (see page 9). On the Navigator,
click in the Page Number field and type the sequence number of
the required page. After a brief delay, the display jumps to that
page.

Page style
Shows the style of the selected page. To change the 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,
double-click on this field; the Page Style dialog opens.

Language
Shows the language for the selected text. Click to open a menu
where you can choose another language for the selected text or
for the paragraph where the cursor is located. You can also
choose None (Do not check spelling). Choose More to open
the Character dialog.

Insert mode
Click to toggle between Insert and Overwrite modes.

Selection mode
Click to toggle between STD (Standard), EXT (Extend), ADD
(Add) and BLK (Block) selection. EXT is an alternative to
Shift+click when selecting text. See the Writer Guide for more
information about these modes. Normally you would use STD.

Unsaved changes
An asterisk (*) appears here if changes to the document have
not been saved.

Digital signature
An icon appears here if the document has been digitally signed.
Double-click the icon to view the certificate.

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Status bar 7
Object information
When the cursor is in a section, heading, or list item, or when an
object (such as a picture or table) is selected, information about
that item appears in this field. Double-clicking in this area opens
a relevant dialog.
Object Information shown
Picture Size and position
List item Level and list style
Heading Outline numbering level
Table Name or number and cell reference of cursor
Section Name of section

View layout
Choose an icon to change between single page, side-by-side, and
book layout views (see next page). You can edit the document in
any view. (New in OpenOffice.org 3.)

View layouts: single, side-by-side, book

Zoom
To change the view magnification, drag the Zoom slider or click
on the + and – signs or right-click on the percent field to pop up
a list of choices. (New in OpenOffice.org 3.)

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You can also double-click on the percent field to open the Zoom
and View Layout dialog.

Changing document views

Writer provides several ways to view a document: Print Layout,
Web Layout, and Full Screen. To access these and other choices,
go to the View menu and click on the desired view. (When in
Full Screen view, press the Esc key to return to either Print or
Web Layout view.)
When in Print Layout, you can use both the Zoom slider and
the View Layout icons on the status bar. In Web Layout, you can
use the Zoom slider.
You can also choose View > Zoom from the menu bar to
display the Zoom & View Layout dialog, where you can set the
same options that are on the status bar. In Web Layout view,
most of the choices are not available.

Using the
Navigator
In addition to the Page
Number field on the status
bar (described on page 6),
Writer provides other ways to
move quickly through a
document. The many features
of the Navigator, the
Navigation toolbar, and
related icons help you find
specific items in a document.
The Navigator lists all of
the headings, tables, text
frames, graphics, bookmarks,
and other objects contained
in a document.
To open the Navigator,
click its icon on the Standard toolbar, or press F5, or
choose Edit > Navigator on the menu bar, or double-click on
the Page number field on the status bar. You can either dock the

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Using the Navigator 9
Navigator to the side of the main Writer window or leave it
floating.
In the list of categories, click the + sign by any of the lists to
display the contents of the list.
The icons at the top of the Navigator window have the effects
described in the table below.

Active only in master documents and their associated

subdocuments.

Opens the Navigation toolbar (see page 11).

Jumps to the previous or next item in the document.

To select the category of items, see page 11.

Jumps to the page number in the box. Type the page

number or select it using the up and down arrows.

Drag Mode. Select hyperlink, link, or copy.

List Box On/Off. Shows or hides the list of categories.

Content View. Switches between showing all

categories and showing only the selected category.

Inserts a reminder (see page 12).

Jumps between the text area and the header or footer

area (if the page has them).

Jumps between a footnote anchor and the

corresponding footnote text.

Choose the number of heading levels to be shown.

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Move quickly through a document
The Navigator provides several convenient ways to move around
a document and find items in it:
• To jump to a specific page in the document, type its
sequence number in the box at the top of the Navigator.
• When a category is showing the list of objects in it,
double-click on an object to jump directly to that object’s
location in the document.
To see the content in only one category, highlight that
category and click the Content View icon. Click the icon
again to display all the categories. You can also change
the number of heading levels shown when viewing
Headings.
• Use the Previous and Next icons to jump to other objects
of the type selected in the Navigation toolbar. (See below
for details.)

Tip
Objects are much easier to find if you have given them names
when creating them, instead of keeping Writer’s default
names of graphics1, graphics2, Table1, Table2, and so on.
These default names may not correspond to the position of
the object in the final document.

Use the Navigation toolbar

To display the Navigation toolbar, click the Navigation
icon in the Navigator (page 9) or the small Navigation
icon near the lower right-hand corner of the window below the
vertical scroll bar (shown below).

Previous, Navigation, and Next icons

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Using the Navigator 11
 Navigation toolbar

The Navigation toolbar shows icons for all of the object types
shown in the Navigator, plus some extras (for example, the
results of a Find command).
Click an icon to select that object type. Now all the Previous
and Next icons (in the Navigator itself, in the Navigation toolbar,
and on the scroll bar) will jump to the next object of the selected
type. This is particularly helpful for finding items like bookmarks
and index entries, which can be difficult to see in the text. The
names of the icons (shown in the tooltips) change to match the
selected category; for example, Next Graphic or Next Bookmark.

Set reminders
A little-known and very useful feature of Writer is reminders.
Reminders let you mark places in your document that you want
to return to later on, to add or correct information, make some
other change, or simply mark where you finished editing. The
possible uses of reminders are limited only by your imagination.
To set a reminder at the cursor’s location, click on the
Reminder icon (a paperclip) in the Navigator. You can set
up to 5 reminders in a document (setting a sixth causes the first
to be deleted).
Reminders are not highlighted in any way in the document,
so you cannot see where they are, except when you jump from
one to the next—the location of the cursor then shows the
location of the reminder.
To jump between reminders, first select the Reminder icon
on the Navigation toolbar. Then click the Previous and Next
icons.

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Creating a new document
To create a new, blank document in Writer:
• When OpenOffice.org is open but no document is open,
click the Text Document icon on the Welcome screen, or
click the Templates icon to start a new document using a
template.
• When a document is already open in Writer:
– Press the Control+N keys, or
– Use File > New > Text Document, or
– Click the New button on the main toolbar.
The new document opens in a new Writer window.

Create a document from a template

A template serves as the foundation of a set of documents, to
make sure that all documents in the set have a similar layout:
the same page size, the same headers and footers, the same
fonts, and so on.
If you plan to save the chapters of your book as separate
documents and combine them into one file at the end, as
described on page 15, then you should base the individual
chapters on a template.
To create a new document based on a template, choose File
> New > Templates and Documents, or click the Templates
icon on the Welcome screen. In the Templates and Documents
dialog, choose the required template and click Open.
For more about creating and using templates, see
Chapter 13.

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Creating a new document 13
Saving a document
Writer saves in a file format called OpenDocument Text (.odt).
To save a document:
• Press Control+S, or
• Use File > Save, or
• Click the Save icon on the main toolbar.
To save a document under a different name, choose File > Save
As.

Saving as a Microsoft Word document

If you need to exchange files with users of Microsoft Word, they
may not know how to open and save .odt files. Microsoft Word
2007 with Service Pack 2 (SP2) can do this. Users of Word 2007,
2003, XP, and 2000 can also download and install a free
OpenDocument Format (ODF) plugin from Sun Microsystems.
Some users of Microsoft Word may be unwilling or unable to
receive .odt files. (Perhaps their employer won’t allow them to
install the plug-in.) In this case, you can save a document as a
Microsoft Word file.
1 First save your document in the file format used by
OpenOffice.org, *.odt (very important—this is your
working copy).
2 Then click File > Save As.
3 On the Save As dialog, in the File type drop-down menu,
select the type of Word document you need. Click Save.
You want to keep working with the OpenOffice.org version of
your document, so close the Microsoft Word file and open the
.odt file again. If you don’t, then all changes you make to the
document will occur in the Microsoft Word (.doc) document.
This procedure leads to the undesirable situation of having
two versions of the document on your computer: .odt and .doc.
To avoid this, you can generate a .doc file and email it to
someone without saving it. Choose File > Send > E-mail as
Microsoft Word. Writer creates a temporary .doc file and opens
an email program with the .doc file attached. Type or select the
recipient’s email address and send the email as you normally
would.

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Combining several documents into a book
One way to build your book is to save each chapter or section in
a separate document. Reviewers or editors can then deal with
individual chapters while you work on others.
When the book is complete, you need to combine all the
chapters and other material (title page, copyright page, and so
on) into one file before final formatting, creating a table of
contents, and producing a PDF for printing.
To combine files:
1 Open the first file. Ensure that end-of-paragraph marks
are visible.
2 Go to the last page of the document. If there is no blank
paragraph at the end, press Enter at the end of the last
paragraph to create a blank paragraph.
3 With the cursor in the blank paragraph, choose Insert >
File from the menu bar.
4 Select the second document and click Insert.
5 Wait a few seconds for the file to open and paginate, then
repeat steps 2 through 4 for the third and subsequent
documents until all have been included. Save the book
under another file name.
6 Proceed with final formatting (see Chapter 5).

Note on master documents

OpenOffice.org has a master document feature for combining
a collection of files into one file. Although master documents
do work, they have some quirks that can make them more
trouble than they are worth for books that are mostly text.
Master documents are best left for more complex documents.
For this reason they are not covered in this book.

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Combining several documents into a book 15
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2 Set Up Writer

This chapter describes how to set up some of Writer’s features.

You may want to jump right into designing or writing your book,
but spending a few minutes with this chapter now will save you
from irritation later.
This chapter does not cover all of the options. See the help
file or the Writer Guide for more information.

Choosing options for all of OpenOffice.org

On the menu bar, click Tools > Options. If you don’t see the
subsections in the Options dialog, click the + sign by
OpenOffice.org in the left-hand section.

Note
The Back button (not shown above) resets the options to the
values that were in place when you opened OpenOffice.org.
This button has the same behavior on all the Options pages.

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Chapter 2 Set Up Writer 17
User data
Because Writer uses the name or initials stored in the User Data
page for several things, for example document properties
(created by and last edited by information) and the name of the
author of notes and changes, you’ll want to make sure that the
correct information appears in this field.

General options
Some of the options on the General page are described below.

Help – Tips
When Tips is active, one or two words appear when you
hover the mouse pointer over an icon or field.

Help – Extended tips

When Extended tips is active, a brief description of the
function of a particular icon or menu command appears
when you hover the mouse pointer over that item.

Help Agent
To turn off the Help Agent (similar to Microsoft’s Office
Assistant), deselect this option. To restore the default
behavior, click Reset Help Agent.

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Document status
If this option is selected, then the next time you close the
document after printing, the print date is recorded in the
document properties as a change and you will be prompted
to save the document again, even if you did not make any
other changes.

View options
The View choices control how the document window looks and
behaves. Some of the options are described below.

User Interface – Scaling

Changes the font size in menus and in the help files. This
setting does not change the actual font size of text in
documents.

User Interface – Icon size and style

Changes the size and style of toolbar icons.

Menu – Show icons in menus

Causes icons to appear next to words in menus.

Font Lists - Show preview of fonts

Shows an example of the font along with the font name.

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Choosing options for all of OpenOffice.org 19
 (Left) Font list with preview; (Right) Without preview

Font Lists - Show font history

Causes the last five fonts that you have assigned to the
current document to be displayed at the top of the font list.

Print options
Set print options for the default printer and most common
printing method. Change these settings at any time by using this
page or by clicking the Options button on the Print dialog
during the printing process.

In the Printer warnings section near the bottom, choose to be

warned if the paper size or orientation in the document do not
match the paper size or orientation of the printer.

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Tip
If your printouts are coming out incorrectly placed on the
page or chopped off at the top, bottom, or sides, or if the
printer is refusing to print, the most likely cause is page size
incompatibility. See also “Print options for Writer” on page
26.

Appearance options
Writing, editing, and (especially) page layout are easier when
you can see the page margins (text boundaries), the boundaries
of tables and sections, grid lines, and other features. In addition,
you might prefer colors that are different from the defaults of
OpenOffice.org for such items as note indicators and field
shadings.
• To show or hide things such as text boundaries, select or
deselect them.
• To change the colors of these items, click the down-arrow
in the Color setting column and select a color from the
drop-down list.
• To save your color changes as a color scheme, type a
name in the Scheme box and click Save.

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Choosing Load and Save options
In the Options dialog, click the + sign to the left of Load/Save
and choose General. Some items are described below.

Load user-specific settings with the document

When you save a document, certain settings are saved with
it. When a document is opened, some settings (printer name,
data source linked to the document) are always included
(loaded), whether or not this option is selected. If you select
this option, these document settings are overruled by the
user-specific settings of the person who opens the document.
If you deselect this option, users’ personal settings do not
overrule the settings in the document.

Load printer settings with the document

If this option is not selected, the printer settings that are
stored with the document are ignored when you print using
the Print File Directly icon. The default printer in your
system is used instead.

Edit document properties before saving

If this option is selected, the Document Properties dialog
pops up to prompt you to enter relevant information the first
time you save a new document (or whenever you use Save
As).

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Save AutoRecovery information every __ Minutes
Choose whether to enable AutoRecovery and how often to
save the information used by the AutoRecovery process.
AutoRecovery overwrites the original file. If you also choose
Always create a backup copy, the original file then
overwrites the backup copy. Recovering your document after
a system crash will be easier, but recovering an earlier
version of the document may be harder.

Default file format and ODF settings

ODF format version. If you share documents with people
who are still using OpenOffice.org 2, save the document
using ODF version 1.0/1.1, which is the ODF version used by
OpenOffice 2.
Document type. If you routinely share documents with
users of Microsoft Word, you might want to change the
Always save as attribute for text documents to one of the
Word formats. (A better strategy would be to ask the Word
users to work with your .odt files. See “Saving as a Microsoft
Word document” on page 14 for more information.)

Note
Although Writer can open files in the .docx format produced
by Word 2007, versions up to 3.1.1 cannot save in .docx
format. This ability will be included in releases starting with
3.2 (November 2009).

Choosing options for Writer

Settings chosen on the pages in the
OpenOffice.org Writer section of the
Options dialog determine how your
Writer documents look and behave
while you are working on them.
In the Options dialog, click the +
sign that is next to OpenOffice.org
Writer in the left-hand section of the
dialog. A list of pages drops down.

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Writer general options
Settings on this page control the updating of links and fields, the
units used for rulers and other measurements, whether captions
are automatically added to things such as tables and figures,
and paragraph spacing and tab stop behavior.

The main items of interest on this page are in the Settings

section: the measurement unit and the default tab stop interval.
The default tab stops setting controls two things: tabs within
paragraphs and the indentation of entire paragraphs when using
the Increase Indent button on the Formatting toolbar.
Using the default tab stops to space out material on a page is
not recommended. It may cause major formatting problems.
Instead, define your own tab stops in paragraph styles or
individual paragraphs, as described in “Defining your own tabs
and indents” on page 76.

Tip
To change the measurement unit of the ruler itself, right-
click on the ruler, then select the desired unit from the pop-
up list. This change does not change the measurement unit
chosen under Tools > Options.

View options
Set the defaults for viewing Writer documents on the two pages
called View and Formatting Aids.
View is a good page to check when you cannot see expected
graphics or when you see field codes instead of text or numbers.

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Formatting Aids options
Symbols for tabs and for paragraph ends help you when writing,
editing, and doing page layout. You might want to know if any
tabs or blank paragraphs are present or if any tables or graphics
extend into the margins.

Note
Direct cursor lets you place text, images, tables, frames, and
other objects in any blank area on the page. Writer inserts
blank paragraphs and tabs to position the text or objects.
Avoid this feature. It is incompatible with the correct use of
styles and leads to formatting oddities.

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Grid options
Snap to grid is helpful when you are trying to align objects
such as graphics or tables. You can adjust the sizing of the grid
and you can specify other grid details.

Print options for Writer

Choose which items are printed with the document by default.
These options are in addition to those on the OpenOffice.org –
Print page (page 20).

Some considerations:
• When you are working on drafts and you want to save
printer ink or toner, deselect some of the items in the
Contents section.

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 • The Print black selection causes colored text (but not
graphics) to print as solid black on both color and black-
and-white printers. (On most black-and-white printers,
colored text and graphics print as grayscale.)
Contrast this setting with Convert colors to grayscale
on the OpenOffice.org – Print page (page 20), which
causes both colored text and graphics to print as
greybeard on color printers.
• If you are printing double-sided on a non-duplexing
printer, print only the left or the right pages, then turn the
stack over and print the other half.
• Depending on how your printer ejects pages (face up or
face down), you might need to print the pages in reverse
order so that they stack in the correct order as they are
printed.

Tip
You can override any of these defaults when printing a
document. Click File > Print, then click the Options button
on the Print dialog. The Printer Options dialog that appears
is similar to the one shown above.

Table options
Use this page to specify the default behavior of tables.
• If most of your tables will require borders or headings,
select those options. Otherwise, deselect borders and
headings here, and add them as needed to individual
tables.
• Number recognition can be very useful if most of your
tables contain numerical data. Writer recognizes dates or
currency, for example, and formats the numbers
appropriately. However, if you want the numbers to
remain as ordinary text, deselect this option.

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Change-tracking options
If you plan to use the change-tracking feature of Writer
(described in Chapter 12), use the Changes page to choose how
inserted and deleted material is marked, whether and how
attribute changes such as bold or italics are marked, and
whether and how change bars appear in the margins.

Choosing language settings

You may need to do several things for the language settings:
• Install the required dictionaries
• Change some locale and language settings
• Choose spelling options

Install the required dictionaries

OpenOffice.org automatically installs several dictionaries. To
add other dictionaries, be sure you are connected to the
Internet, and then use Tools > Language > More Diction-
aries Online. OpenOffice.org will open your default web
browser to a page containing links to additional dictionaries.
Follow the prompts to select and install the ones that you want.

Change some locale and language settings

You can change some details of the locale and language settings
that OpenOffice.org uses, for all documents or for specific
documents.
In the Options dialog, on the left, choose Language
Settings > Languages. On the right, change User interface,
Locale setting, Default currency, and Default languages for
documents as required. In the example, English (UK) has been
chosen for all the settings.

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 If you want the language (dictionary) setting to apply to the
current document only, instead of being the default for all new
documents, select For the current document only.

Here you can also select the options to enable support for
Asian languages (Chinese, Japanese, Korean) and support for
CTL (complex text layout) languages such as Hindi, Thai,
Hebrew, and Arabic. If you choose either of these options, the
next time you open this dialog, you will see some extra choices
under Language Settings. These choices (Searching in Japanese,
Asian Layout, and Complex Text Layout) are not discussed here.

Choose spelling options

In the Options dialog, on the left, choose Language Settings >
Writing Aids. On the right, near the bottom, choose the
settings that are useful for you.
• If you don’t want spelling checked as you type, deselect
Check spelling as you type and select Do not mark
errors (to find these, scroll down in the Options list).
• If you use a custom dictionary that uses uppercase words
and words with numbers such as AS/400, select Check
uppercase words and Check words with numbers.
• Check special regions is for checking the spelling of
headers, footers, frames, and tables.

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Here you can also check which of the user-defined (custom)
dictionaries are active. Add or remove dictionaries by clicking
the New or Delete buttons.

Note
OpenOffice.org does not have a grammar checker, but you
can install a grammar checker extension such as Language
Tool and access that tool from Tools > Spelling and
Grammar. See Chapter 14 for more about installing
extensions. Page 37 describes the Language Tool extension.

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3 Write and Edit in Writer

This chapter covers the basics of writing and editing using

Writer. Formatting, fonts, symbols, and lists are covered in
Chapter 6.
• Select, copy, paste, and move text
• Find and replace text
• Check spelling and use the thesaurus
• Use language tools
• Use autocorrection, word completion, and autotext
• Include document information in text

General recommendations
Write and edit before formatting
Write, edit, and assemble materials, and then use Writer to
format your book. Do not format as you write.
Concentrate on the content when you are in the writing and
editing stage. Concerns about formatting in this stage will just
distract you.
Certainly, apply paragraph styles to headings and other
elements as you go, but don’t worry about other layout issues
such as spacing, page breaks, font choices, placement of
graphics, and so on.
If you need to share drafts with a user of Microsoft Word, you
can save drafts in Word and receive edits in Word, without being
concerned about possible formatting incompatibilities.

Spacing of paragraphs and headings

Define spacing between paragraphs in the paragraph style as
described in Chapter 6.
Do not press Enter several times to create extra space either
between paragraphs or before and after headings. Doing this

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Chapter 3 Write and Edit in Writer 31
might create blank paragraphs tagged as headings, which will
show up with page numbers in the Table of Contents.

Selecting, copying, and pasting text

The Writer operations of selecting, cutting, and copying text are
similar to the same operations in other word processors. 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 and paste it
into a Writer document.
When you paste text, the result depends on the source of the
text and how you paste it. If you click on the Paste icon, then the
pasted text keeps its original formatting. If you do not like the
results, click the Undo icon or press Control+Z.
To make the pasted text take on the formatting of the text
surrounding where it is pasted, choose either:
• Edit > Paste Special, or
• Click the triangle to the right of the Paste icon, or
• Click the Paste icon and hold down the mouse button.
Then select Unformatted text from the resulting menu.
The range of choices on the Paste Special menu varies
depending upon the origin and formatting of the text (or other
object) to be pasted.

Moving paragraphs quickly

Click anywhere in the paragraph, then press and hold the
Control+Alt keys while pressing the up-arrow or down-arrow
key. The paragraph will move to a new location either before the
previous paragraph or after the next paragraph. To move more
than one paragraph at a time, select at least part of all the
paragraphs you want to move before pressing the
Control+Alt+arrow keys.

Tip
If your paragraphs suddenly jump from one place to another,
the most likely reason is that you have accidentally pressed
one of these key combinations.

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Finding and replacing text and formatting
Using Writer’s Find and Replace feature, you can search for and
replace:
• Words and phrases
• Specific formatting (such as bold or italic)
• Paragraph styles
• End-of-paragraph and line break marks
To display the Find & Replace dialog, use the keyboard
shortcut Control+F or select Edit > Find & Replace.

Expanded Find & Replace dialog

1 Type the text you want to find in the Search for box.
2 To replace the text with different text, type the new text
in the Replace with box.
3 You can select various options, such as matching the
case, matching whole words only, or doing a search for
similar words. (See the next section for some other
choices.)

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 When you have set up your search, click Find or Find All. To
replace text, click Replace instead.

Caution
Use Replace All with caution; otherwise, you may end up
with some highly embarrassing mistakes that might require a
manual, word-by-word search to fix.

Find and replace specific formatting

A very powerful use of Find & Replace takes advantage of the
format option. For example, you might want to replace
underlined words with italics.
On the Find & Replace dialog (with More Options displayed):
1 To search for specific formatting only, delete any text in
the Search for box.
To search for text with specific formatting, type the text
in the Search for box.
2 Click Format to display the Text Format (Search) dialog.
The tabs on this dialog are similar to those on the
Paragraph format and Paragraph Style dialogs.
3 Choose the formats you want to search for and then click
OK. The names of selected formats appear under the
Search for box. For example, you might search for all
text in 14-point bold Helvetica.
4 To change the formatting, click in the Replace with box,
then click Format to display the Text Format (Replace)
dialog. Choose the formats you want, and then click OK.
To leave the text unchanged, and only change the
formatting, leave the Replace with box blank.
To replace text as well as formatting, type the
replacement text in the Replace with box.
5 To remove specific character formatting, click Format,
select the Font tab, then select the opposite format (for
example, No Bold). The No Format button on the Find &
Replace dialog clears all previously selected formats.
6 Click Find, Find All, Replace, or Replace All.

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Tip
Unless you plan to search for other text using the same
attributes, click No Format to remove the attributes after
completing your search. If you forget to do this, you may
wonder why your next search fails to find words you know
are in the document.

Find and replace paragraph styles

If you combine material from several sources, you may discover
that lots of unwanted paragraph styles suddenly show up in your
document. To quickly replace one (unwanted) style with another
(preferred) style:
1 On the expanded Find & Replace dialog, select Search
for Styles. (If you have attributes specified, this option is
labeled Including Styles.) The Search for and Replace
with boxes now contain a list of styles.
2 Select the style you want to search for and the style you
want to replace it with.
3 Click Find, Find All, Replace, or Replace All.
Repeat steps 2 and 3 for each style that you want to replace.

Find and replace line breaks and paragraph ends

If you paste material from emails or websites, you may find that
such material often uses two line breaks at the end of a
paragraph instead of one end-of-paragraph mark. This causes a
whole group of paragraphs, often including headings, to be
treated as only one paragraph in Writer, often resulting in major
formatting problems.
To change two line breaks into one end-of-paragraph mark:
1 On the Find & Replace dialog, click More Options to see
more choices. On this expanded dialog, select Regular
expressions.
2 Type \n\n in the Search for box and \n in the Replace
with box. Click Find, Find All, Replace, or Replace All.

Tip
When searching, Writer uses $ for the end-of-paragraph
mark and \n for a line break. For a replacement character,
use \n for the end-of-paragraph mark.

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 You don’t need to use Find & Replace (as you do in some
other programs) to replace two end-of-paragraph marks
(with nothing in between) with one. Instead, you can go to
Tools > AutoCorrect > Options and check the box for
Remove blank paragraphs.
Searches for end-of-paragraph marks are usually combined
with other regular expressions and wildcards. The online
help describes many regular expressions and their uses.
Regular expressions can save you time and effort by
combining multiple finds into one. Most of them are not the
same in OpenOffice.org and Microsoft Office.

Checking spelling and grammar

The spelling feature of Writer can be used in two ways.
AutoSpellcheck checks each word as it is typed and
displays a wavy red line under any misspelled words.
When the word is corrected, the wavy red line disappears.
To perform a separate spelling check on the whole
document or on selected text, click the Spelling and
Grammar button. This opens the Spelling and Grammar
dialog if any misspelled words are found.

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Here are some more features of the spelling checker:
• Right-click on a word with a wavy red underline to open a
powerful context menu. You can select from the suggested
words on the menu.
• You can change the dictionary language (for example,
Spanish, French, or German) on the Spelling and
Grammar dialog.
• To add a word to a dictionary, click Add in the Spelling
and Grammar dialog and pick the dictionary to add it to.
• Click the Options button on the Spelling and Grammar
dialog to open a dialog similar to the one in Tools >
Options > Language Settings > Writing Aids, that was
described in Chapter 2.

OpenOffice.org does not include a grammar checker, but you

can install an extension such as Language Tool and access it
from Tools > Spelling and Grammar. (See Chapter 14 for
more about installing extensions.) Language Tool adds a new
menu item and submenu to the Tools menu, from which you can
configure the tool and check or recheck the document. Here is
an example of the Language Tool extension in use.

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Using Writer’s built-in language tools
Writer provides some tools that make your work easier if you
use more than one language in the same document or if you
write documents in various languages.
On the Font tab of the Paragraph Styles dialog, you can
specify that certain paragraphs be checked in a language that is
different from the language of the rest of the document. See
“Working with fonts” on page 70 for more information.
The main advantage of changing the language is that you can
then use the correct dictionaries to check spelling and apply the
localized versions of thesauruses, hyphenation rules, and
AutoCorrect replacement tables.
You can also set the language for a paragraph or a group of
characters as None. This option is especially useful when you
insert text such as web addresses or programming language
snippets that you do not want to check for spelling.
Specifying the language in character and paragraph styles is
the preferred method, because styles allow a greater level of
control and make changing the language much faster.
However, starting with OpenOffice.org 3.0, you can set the
language for the whole document, for individual paragraphs, or
even for individual words and characters, all from Tools >
Language on the menu bar.

For selection
Applies the selected language to the selected text (the
selection can be as short as a few characters or as long as
several paragraphs).

For paragraph
Applies the selected language to the paragraph where the
cursor is located.

For all text

Applies the selected language to the entire document.

Another way to change the language of a whole document is to

use Tools > Options > Language Settings > Languages. In
the Default languages for documents section, you can choose a
different language for all of the text.

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 Unlike the menu tool that applies to the individual document,
a change in the default language from the Options dialog is a
general change of settings of OpenOffice.org and will therefore
apply to all the documents created in the future. If you want to
change the language for the current document only, be sure to
select the For the current document only option.
The spelling checker works only for those languages in the

list that show the symbol . If you do not see this symbol next
to your preferred language, you can install the dictionary using
Tools > Languages > More dictionaries online.
The language used for checking spelling is also shown in the
status bar, next to the current page style (see page 7).

Using the thesaurus

The thesaurus gives alternate words and phrases. Select the
word or phrase you want to find more choices for and click
Tools > Language > Thesaurus or press Control+F7. Click on
a meaning to show alternate words and phrases.

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

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Using automatic functions
Writer provides several ways to automate some of your work. If
you do not want to use a particular automated function, you can
turn it off easily.

AutoCorrect
Writer’s AutoCorrect function automatically corrects a long list
of common misspellings and typing errors. For example, hte will
be changed to the.
Select Tools > AutoCorrect Options to open the
AutoCorrect dialog. There you can define what specific strings
of text will be corrected. In most cases, the defaults are fine.

AutoCorrect is turned on when Writer is installed. To turn it off,

uncheck Format > AutoFormat > While Typing.
To fine-tune AutoCorrect, examine the different tabs of the
dialog. You will see that many options are available.

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 To stop Writer from replacing a specific spelling, go to the
Replace tab, highlight the word pair, and click Delete.
To add a new spelling to the list, type it into the Replace and
With boxes on the Replace tab, and click New.
AutoCorrect can also be used as a quick way to insert special
characters. For example, (c) will be autocorrected to ©. You can
add your own special characters.

Word completion
If Word Completion is enabled, Writer tries to guess which word
you are typing and offers to complete this word for you. To
accept the suggestion, press Enter. Otherwise, continue typing.

To turn off Word Completion, select Tools > AutoCorrect

Options > Word Completion and uncheck Enable word
completion.
You can customize word completion from the Word
Completion tab.
• Add (append) a space automatically after an accepted
word.

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Using automatic functions 41
 • Show the suggested word as a tip that simply hovers over
the word instead of completing the word as you type.
• Change the maximum number of words remembered for
word completion and the minimum allowable length of the
words.
• 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.
Automatic word completion occurs only after you type a word
for the second time in a document.

AutoText
You can assign text, tables, graphics, and other items to an
AutoText shortcut key combination. Then, to insert the AutoText,
type the shortcut and press F3.
For example, rather than typing Senior Management, you
can save those words as AutoText with the shortcut sm, then
simply type sm and press F3 to insert the words into your
document. Similarly, you can save a formatted table as AutoText
with the name tip and then insert a copy by typing tip and
pressing F3.
To assign some text to an AutoText shortcut:
1 Type the text into your document.
2 Select the text.
3 Go to Edit > AutoText (or press Control+F3).
4 Enter a name for your shortcut. Writer will suggest a one-
letter shortcut, which you can change.
5 Click the AutoText button on the right of the AutoText
dialog and select New (text only) from the menu.
6 Click Close to return to your document.

Tip
If the only option under the AutoText button is Import,
either you have not entered a name for your AutoText or
there is no text selected in the document.

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Including document information
Sometimes you may want to put information such as the file
name, the date the document was last edited, or the word count
somewhere in the text or in a header or footer.
Some information fields can be inserted directly from the
Insert > Fields submenu.

Other information fields are on the Document or

DocInformation tabs of the Fields dialog, shown below and on
the next page.

Select the type of information required in the left-hand

column (here we have chosen Statistics), the specific item in the
middle column, and the format in the right-hand column. If
you’re not sure, choose the default format selection (whatever is
highlighted for your choices in Type and Select). If the result is
not what you want, you can change it later.

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 Some of the document properties information is generated
automatically, some comes from information you enter on the
Description tab of the Document Properties dialog (File >
Properties), and some comes from information on the User Data
page of Tools > Options > OpenOffice.org (see page 18).

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4 Design your Book using
Writer’s Styles

This chapter describes how to plan and set up the design of your
book, using Writer’s styles.
The steps in designing a book are:
• Plan the sequence of pages needed in the book.
• Set up the page styles needed for this sequence of pages.
• Set up the paragraph styles.

What are styles? Why use them?

Styles are sets of formats for pages, text, frames, and other
elements of a document. When you apply a style, you apply a
whole group of formats at the same time. Proper use of styles
improves consistency in a document and makes major
formatting changes easy.
To change the appearance of an element (such as the font),
you change the style, and then all of the elements that use that
style will change automatically. This helps maintain consistency
throughout the book.
Writer also uses styles for processes such as compiling a
table of contents.

Tip
Any modifications of styles, and any new styles that you
define, apply only to the document you are working on. If you
want the changes to be available to other documents, you
need to put them into a template. See Chapter 13 for details.

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Types of styles
Writer has five types of styles:
• Page styles control page formatting (page size, margin,
and the like).
• Paragraph styles control the formatting of entire
paragraphs. (Headings are a type of paragraph.)
• Character styles control the formatting of a selected text
inside a paragraph.
• List styles control outlines, numbered lists, and bulleted
lists.
• Frame styles control frames and graphics.
The Styles and Formatting window lists all styles defined for a
document. To display this window, press F11 or click the Styles
and Formatting icon on the Formatting toolbar. This window can
be docked or it can be floating.

Basic page layout using page styles

All pages in a Writer document are based on page styles. Page
styles define the basic layout of pages, such as page size,
margins, the placement of headers and footers, borders and
backgrounds, and number of columns.
In this section, we’ll define some typical page styles to use in
our book.

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Tip
Look toward the left end of the status bar at the bottom of
the Writer window. The page style for the current page is
displayed there.
You can modify Writer’s built-in page styles, and you can
define new (custom) page styles. You can have one or many page
styles in a single document. If you do not specify a page style,
Writer uses its built-in Default page style.
The illustration below shows a typical sequence of the pages
in a book. Notice that some have no page numbers, while others
have lower-case roman numerals (i, ii, iii) and others have
Arabic numbers (1, 2, 3).

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Tip
The publishing term for all the pages before the first page of
Chapter 1 (or the Part 1 page, if there is one) is front matter.

Automating the sequence of page styles

When you need a page with one style to be followed by a page
with a specific style, you can automate the sequence. The style
of the page that follows can be the same as the style of the first
page, or it can be different.
As we’ll see in this section, automation is the only practical
way to handle a sequence of page styles in some cases. In other
cases, automation is optional but using it means you don’t have
to remember which style comes next in the sequence and assign
it manually.
The first thing to do is decide on the styles you need. Don't
worry if you think that later you might need another style or
want to change the sequence—you can do so at any time.
The styles we’ll be using correspond to the pages shown in
the diagram on page 47:
• Title (cover) page
• Copyright page
• Table of Contents page
• Contents other pages
• First Page (for each chapter)
• Default page (for all other pages in each chapter)
Automating a sequence of styles makes use of the Next Style
property of styles. You can define page styles in any order you
want, but some ways are more efficient than others. You might
think it makes sense to work through the page styles from the
beginning of the book, starting with the Title page, but in fact it
is easier to start at the end of a sequence of pages, so that the
next style is always defined before it is needed in the sequence.

Single chapter
First we will look at a single chapter from somewhere in the
book. Most chapters will be like this one. It needs two styles:
First Page and Default. The figure on the next page shows the
concept.

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 Both of these styles are provided by Writer, so we don’t need
to create new ones. In addition, both styles have been set up to
have a Next Style of Default, so we can proceed without
modifying them.

To demonstrate the effect of this automatic sequence:

1 Create a new document (choose File > New > Text
Document or press Control+N). Make sure that end-of-
paragraph marks are showing.
2 Click anywhere in the first page of the document.
3 Go to Page Styles in the Styles and Formatting window
and choose First Page, or right-click in the Page Style
area of the status bar and choose First Page from the
pop-up list.
4 Type or paste something on this page. Because this is a
demonstration of page styles, don’t be concerned with the
formatting of the text. Keep typing or pasting until the
text continues to a second page.
Notice that the page style for the new page is shown in
the status bar as Default, which is the style that it should
be. You didn’t have to do anything; the change in page
styles occurred automatically.
5 Keep typing or pasting until the text continues to a third
page. Notice that the page style for the third page is also
Default, as it should be.

Note
A real book chapter would have several pages of text already,
so all you would need to do is steps 2 and 3 to apply the
sequence of page styles to an existing chapter.

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Start of a book
The figure below shows a more complex sequence of page styles
for the start of a book.

This sequence uses four styles that are not provided by

Writer, so we need to create them. We’ll start at the end of the
sequence and work our way forward: Contents Other, Table of
Contents, Copyright page, Title page.
1 Open a new document, or use the one from the previous
example. Go to Page Styles in the Styles and Formatting
window. Right-click and choose New from the pop-up
menu.
2 On the Organizer tab of the Page Style dialog, type
Contents Other in the Name box. Open the Next Style
drop-down list and select Contents Other.
3 For now, ignore the other tabs. Click OK to save.
4 Repeat steps 2, 3, and 4 three times, in this order:
Name: Table of Contents
Next Style: Contents Other
Name: Copyright page
Next Style: Table of Contents
Name: Title page
Next Style: Copyright page
To apply this sequence of styles, see Chapter 5.

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Add a chapter to the book sequence
How do you change from the “front matter” sequence to the
chapter sequence? The concept is shown in the illustration on
the next page.
A change from one sequence to a new sequence can be done
either manually or by using a property of paragraph styles to
automate the change. These methods are described in Chapter
5. Which method you use is entirely up to you.

Creating and modifying paragraph styles

Paragraph styles control aspects of a paragraph’s appearance
such as text alignment, tab stops, line spacing, borders, and
character formatting (font, font size, color). The formatting of
individual words within a paragraph can be changed by using
character styles or manual formatting. Character formatting is
covered in Chapter 3.
Writer comes with many predefined paragraph styles, which
you can modify. You can also define new (custom) styles.

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 You can modify paragraph styles by:
• Using the Paragraph Style dialog
• Updating from a selection
• Using AutoUpdate (not recommended)
• Loading or copying styles from another document or
template

Properties of paragraph styles

Save some time by understanding some of the properties of
paragraph styles and then doing some things in a particular
order. Two important properties are Linked with and Next Style;
both are found on the Organizer tab of the Paragraph Style
dialog.
• Linked with. When styles are linked, a change in the
base style affects every style linked with it. For example,
every Heading style (such as Heading 1, Heading 2) is
linked with a base style called Heading.
• Next style. When you type a paragraph and then press
Enter to start a new paragraph, the new paragraph will
automatically have the style defined as the next style. For
example, you can define the Heading 1 style to be
followed by a First paragraph style, the First paragraph
style to be followed by a Text body style, and the Text
body style to be followed by more paragraphs in the Text
body style until you change one of them to another style.
The Next style property is effective only when you are
typing in text. If you later apply a style (such as a
heading) to a paragraph, the style of the following
paragraph does not change.

Caution
If you are in the habit of manually overriding styles in your
book, be sure that the AutoUpdate option (on the Organizer
page of the Paragraph Style dialog) is not enabled, or you
will suddenly find whole sections of your document
reformatting unexpectedly.

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Modify the built-in sequence of styles
The built-in sequence of heading and paragraph styles uses
Heading 1 for chapter titles and Heading 2, Heading 3, and so
on for subheadings, with each heading followed by a paragraph
in the Text body style. If you want a different sequence, read on.
For our example sequence, we’ll modify three built-in styles
(Heading 1, Heading 2, and Text body) and create one custom
style (First para).

Tip
Heading styles are essential for creating an automatic table
of contents and for placing information such as chapter titles
into headers or footers. For more information, see Chapters 9
and 11.
One common book design uses one paragraph style for the
first paragraph of a chapter or section, and another paragraph
style for all of the other paragraphs in the chapter or section.
This book uses this design.
To set up a different style for the first paragraph of each
chapter, you need to do two things:
• Create a new style, or modify an existing style, for the
first paragraph, and set it up to be followed automatically
by the style used for the other paragraphs.
• Set up the heading styles to be followed automatically by
your chosen first paragraph style.
Because a style must exist before we can choose it as a Next
Style, we will create the First paragraph style before defining
the heading styles.
We want the First paragraph style to be the same as the Text
body style, with one difference: Text body will have the first line
indented, but First paragraph will have no indentation of the
first line. We can save some time (and later inconsistencies if we
change something else) by linking the First paragraph style to
the Text body style and changing only that one setting. Later, if
we make other changes to the Text body style, those changes
(such as font and spacing) will apply to the First paragraph style
as well.

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Modify the Text body style
To do all of this efficiently, we’ll start with the Text body
paragraph style.
1 If the Styles and Formatting window is not already open,
press F11 to open it. Go to the Paragraph Styles list.
Right-click on the Text body style and select Modify from
the pop-up menu.
2 On the Organizer tab, notice that you cannot change the
name of the style (because it is a built-in style), the
AutoUpdate option is not marked, Next Style is already
set to Text body, and the Text body style is linked with the
Default style. All of these settings are what we want.

3 On the Indents & Spacing tab, change the setting for

First line indent (the example uses 18 pt).

4 Leave the other tabs alone for now. Click OK to save the
change.

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Create the First paragraph style
Now that we’ve modified the Text body style, we’ll create a First
paragraph style linked with it.
1 On the Styles and Formatting window, right-click on the
Text body style and select New.
2 On the Organizer tab, change the Name from Untitled to
First paragraph. Do not select the AutoUpdate option.

3 Click on the Next Style list; it changes from Untitled to

First paragraph. Scroll down and select Text body.
4 Notice the Linked with setting, which is Text body. That is
what we want, so leave it as shown.
5 Go to the Indents & Spacing tab and change the First line
setting to 0.00.
6 Leave the other tabs alone for now. Click OK to save your
new style.

Modify the heading styles

Now that we have created the First paragraph style, we can
change the heading styles to use it as a next style. At the same
time, we will set up the chapter titles (Heading 1) to start on a
new page.
1 On the Styles and Formatting window, right-click on the
Heading 1 style and select Modify.
2 On the Organizer tab, change Next Style to First
paragraph.

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 3 On the Text Flow tab, under Breaks, select Insert and
With Page Style. Choose First Page from the drop-down
list of styles. Leave Page number set to 0. Click OK.
4 Leave the other tabs alone for now. Click OK to save the
change.
5 Repeat steps 1, 2, and 4 for the Heading 2 and Heading 3
styles.

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5 Format Pages in Writer

Apply your book design using Writer’s page styles.

• Define and apply page styles
• Set up headers and footers
• Set up page numbering
As you know, a book has different types of pages (copyright
page, table of contents page, chapter title page, and so on).
Writer controls the layout of these pages using page styles.
Headers and footers are part of page layout, so they are
included in the page style.
First define the appearance (format) of pages in the page
styles. Then apply these page styles by using a combination of
automatic sequencing and manually changing the sequence.

Defining page styles

In Chapter 4, we created the page styles for an example book
and set up their sequencing. Now we will define the margins
and other formatting for the pages.

Examples
Default page style
The Default page style is the most commonly-used page style. All
the chapter pages (except the first page of each chapter) use it.
These pages are normally mirrored. Facing pages may have
page numbers on the outer edges and the inner (binding)
margin may be wider than the outer margin.
1 On the Page Styles tab of the Styles and Formatting
window, right-click on Default, and choose Modify.
2 On the Page tab of the Page Style: Default dialog, in the
Paper Format section, choose the page size for your book,
or define a custom size by changing the dimensions in the

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 Width and Height boxes. Choose Mirrored for the page
layout. The Format item under Layout settings refers to
the page numbers. For the Default pages, leave it set to
1,2,3, ….

3 On the Header tab, choose Header on and uncheck

Same content left/right. Leave the other settings
unchanged.

4 The Footer tab is almost identical to the Header tab.

Choose Footer on and uncheck Same content
left/right. Leave the other settings unchanged.
5 Click OK to save your changes.
You can also define some formatting of the headers and footers
here (for example drawing a line above the footer). See page
137 for more information.

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First Page style
The first page of a chapter normally starts on a right-hand page.
It usually does not have a header, but it may have a footer
containing a page number.
1 On the Page Styles tab of the Styles and Formatting
window, right-click on First Page and choose Modify.
2 On the Page tab of the Page Style: First Page dialog, set
the Paper Format to match the paper format chosen for
the Default page style.
3 Set Page layout to Only right and set the margins as
needed. Typically the right margin for the First Page style
is the same as the outer margin for the Default page
style, the left margin is the same as the inner margin, and
the bottom margins are the same. You may want to make
the top margin larger.
4 On the Header tab, make sure Header on is not checked.
5 On the Footer tab, choose Footer on. Leave the other
settings unchanged.

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Title Page style
A title page is always a right-hand page. It usually has no header
or footer.
1 On the Page Styles tab of the Styles and Formatting
window, right-click on Title Page and choose Modify.
2 On the Page tab of the Page Style: Title Page dialog, set
the Paper Format to match the paper format chosen for
the Default page style.
3 Set Page layout to Only right and set the margins as
needed. The margins for a title page are often quite
different from the margins for other pages in a book.
4 On the Header and Footer tabs, make sure Header on
and Footer On are not selected.

Copyright page style

A copyright page is always a left-hand page. It has no header or
footer and may have margins that are different from other pages
in the book.
1 On the Page Styles tab of the Styles and Formatting
window, right-click on Copyright and choose Modify.
2 On the Page tab, set the Paper Format to match the paper
format chosen for the Default page style. Set Page layout
to Only left and set the margins as needed.

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 3 On the Header and Footer tabs, make sure Header on
and Footer On are not selected.

Table of Contents page style

The Table of Contents page style is usually similar to the First
page style for chapters, but it has one major difference: the page
numbers are in lower-case Roman numerals.
1 On the Page Styles tab of the Styles and Formatting
window, right-click on Table of Contents and choose
Modify.
2 Define the Table of Contents page style to match the First
Page style except for Format in the Layout settings
section of the Page tab: choose i, ii, iii, … from the drop-
down list.
3 On the Header tab, make sure Header on is not selected.
On the Footer tab, select Footer on. Leave the other
settings unchanged.

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Contents Other page style
This page style is similar to the Default page style, but the page
numbers are in lower-case Roman numerals.
1 On the Page Styles tab of the Styles and Formatting
window, right-click on Contents Other and choose
Modify.
2 Make all the settings the same as for the Default page
style except for Format in the Layout settings section:
choose i, ii, iii, … from the drop-down list.
3 On the Header and Footer tabs, make the settings the
same as for the Default page style.

Setting up headers and footers

Headers and footers are specified in page styles. Placing text (or
fields such as page numbers or the name of the chapter) in a
header or footer causes that text to appear on all pages with
that page style and change to suit the page it’s on.

Note
Many people incorrectly use the words header and heading
interchangeably, but the two words refer to quite different
concepts. Headers are sometimes called running headers.

Our basic page layout included some headers and footers. Now
we’ll see how to use them.
Headers and footers usually have only one paragraph. You
can also design more complex headers and footers, and you can

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include graphics. We’ll look at the simple case here. See page
137 for information on more complex layouts.

Numbering pages
The simplest case is to have the page number at the top or
bottom of every page. To do this, click in the header or footer
and select Insert > Fields > Page Number from the menu bar.
The page number now appears on every page that has this
page style. You can align the page number to the left, right, or
center of the page.

Note
Page numbers appear with a gray background. This
background indicates that the page number is a field. It is
not printed and is not visible in a PDF. To turn this feature on
or off, choose View > Field Shadings (or press Ctrl+F8),
but be aware that turning field shadings off affects all fields
in the file.

Restart page numbering

You may want to restart the page numbering at 1 on the first
page of the first chapter. You may also want to have the table of
contents numbered with Roman numerals and the main body of
the document numbered in Arabic numerals.
1 Place the cursor in the first paragraph of the page on
which you want to restart page numbering.
2 Choose Format > Paragraph.
3 On the Text Flow page of the Paragraph dialog, in the
Breaks section, choose Insert.
4 In the Type drop-down list, choose Page.
5 In the Position drop-down list, choose Before.
6 To change from Roman to Arabic numerals, choose With
Page Style and the page style for this page (First Page in
our example).
7 Choose the page number to start from (1) and click OK.

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Applying page styles
To format a book, use a combination of automatic sequencing of
page styles and manually changing the sequence.

Apply a sequence of page styles

Your book file has a title page, a copyright page, one or more
table of contents pages, and more than one chapter. The
copyright page, first page of the table of contents, and first page
of each chapter were created using manual page breaks.
The sequence of page styles was set up Chapter 4. Now we
will apply these styles.
1 In the Styles and Formatting window, click the Page
Styles icon.
2 With the cursor in the title page of the document, choose
Title page in the Styles and Formatting window.
3 Go to the second page of the book. The status bar at the
bottom of the Writer window should show Copyright as
the page style.
4 Go to the third page. The status bar should show Table of
Contents as the page style.
5 Go to the next page. The status bar should show
Contents Other as the page style.
At this point, all the pages that follow have a page style of
Contents Other. Now you need to change the page style of the
first page of each chapter, as described below.

Change a sequence manually

1 Go to the first page of Chapter 1.
2 Click in the first paragraph on the page—usually the
chapter title—and choose Format > Paragraph from the
menu bar, or right-click and choose Paragraph from the
pop-up menu.
3 On the Text Flow tab of the Paragraph dialog, under
Breaks, select Insert and With Page Style. Choose First
Page from the drop-down list of styles.

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 4 Change Page number to 1.
Now the status bar for this page shows First Page as the
style. Go to the next page. The status bar should show
Default.
5 At this point, all the pages that follow should have a page
style of Default, with the exception of the first page of
each chapter. If you have set up the Heading 1 paragraph
style as described in Chapter 4, these should have a page
style of First Page.
6 Go to the first page of each chapter and verify that its
page style is First Page. If it is not, repeat steps 2 and 3,
but leave Page number set to 0 for all chapters except
the first, so the page numbers continue from one chapter
to the next for the entire book.

Add a title page to an existing book

If your book does not include a title page, you can add one at
any time.
1 Be sure end-of-paragraph markers are showing.
2 Place the cursor before the first character on the first
page of the file.
3 Choose Insert > Manual Break from the menu bar. On
the Insert Break dialog, choose Page Break, ignore the
other boxes, and click OK.
4 Go to the new (blank) first page and set its page style to
Title Page.
5 Type or paste in the text for the title page.

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Add a copyright page to an existing book
If the book has a title page but no copyright page, here is how to
add one.
1 Be sure end-of-paragraph markers are showing.
2 With the cursor after the last character in the last
paragraph of the title page, choose Insert > Manual
Break from the menu bar.
3 On the Insert Break dialog, choose Page Break, ignore
the other boxes, and click OK.
The document now has a second page, with a page style of
Copyright.

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6 Format Text in Writer

This chapter covers the basics of formatting text in Writer:

• Typography
• Hyphenating words
• Working with fonts
• Applying paragraph styles
• Applying character styles
• Inserting special characters and dashes
• Defining tabs and indents
• Working with lists
More advanced text formatting techniques are described in
Chapter 11.

Typography
To create a professional appearance for your book, follow a few
simple typographic principles:
• Choose a typeface (font) and size that is easy to read and
prints well (some typefaces are too light or too heavy).
For help in choosing a typeface, see one of the many
books and websites on this topic.
• Use “curly quotes” (whether single or double quotation
marks) and apostrophes—not "straight quotes". But don’t
use curly quotes for symbols such as foot and inch—these
are correctly done as straight quotes.
To use curly quotes, go to Tools > AutoCorrect Options
> Custom Quotes and select the Replace option for both
single and double quotes.
• Be sure your curly quotes are the right way around. Many
programs, including Writer, sometimes get this wrong.

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 For example, the apostrophe in the phrase in the ’90s
sometimes turns into an opening single quotation mark (‘).
To fix this, type two apostrophes and delete the first one,
which is the one that turns in the wrong direction.
• Use real dashes, not two or three hyphens. See “Inserting
dashes” on page 75.
• Use the correct symbols for copyright (©), registered
trademark (®), degrees (°), multiplication signs (×, not an
ordinary x), certain fractions, and other special symbols.
You can use either AutoCorrect or Insert > Special
Characters for this, depending on the symbol.
• Decide whether to use fully-justified or left-aligned
(ragged-right) paragraphs. Many people think “real
books” must use fully-justified text, but left-aligned text is
becoming more commonly used, including in books from
big-name publishers. Full justification in Writer, as in most
word processors, often does not produce high-quality
results. To make it look right, you would have to make
some manual adjustments, not discussed in this book.
• Decide whether to hyphenate words at the ends of lines of
type. If you use fully-justified paragraphs, the word
spacing may look awkward if words are not hyphenated,
but the hyphenation dictionaries in software like Writer
are often incorrect, so you may need to do a lot of manual
adjustment to achieve a professional-looking result.

Hyphenating words
You have several choices regarding hyphenation: let Writer do it
automatically (using its hyphenation dictionaries), insert
conditional hyphens manually where necessary, or don’t
hyphenate at all. Each choice has its pros and cons. I prefer to
insert conditional hyphens manually when using fully-justified
paragraphs, and I prefer no hyphenation when using left-aligned
(ragged-right) paragraphs.
If you let Writer hyphenate words automatically, you’ll need
to check carefully for incorrect hyphenation and make
corrections when proofreading your book.

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 To turn automatic hyphenation of words on or off:
1 On the Paragraph Styles page of the Styles and Format-
ting window, right-click on Default and select Modify.
2 On the Paragraph Style dialog, select the Text Flow tab.
3 Under Hyphenation, select or deselect the Automatically
option.
4 Click OK to save.

Note
Turning on hyphenation for the Default paragraph style will
apply it to all other paragraph styles that are based on
Default. You can individually change other styles so that
hyphenation is not active. Any styles that are not based on
Default are not affected and must be set separately if you
want them hyphenated as well.
You can also set some hyphenation choices through Tools >
Options > Language Settings > Writing Aids. In Options,
near the bottom of the dialog, scroll down to find the
hyphenation settings.

To change the minimum number of characters for

hyphenation, the minimum number of characters before a line
break, or the minimum number of characters after a line break,
select the item, and then click Edit.

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 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, a dialog opens and you can manually
enter hyphens.
Hyphenate special regions specifies that hyphenation will
also be carried out in footnotes, headers, and footers.
Hyphenation options set on the Writing Aids dialog are
effective only if hyphenation is turned on through paragraph
styles.
Choices on the Writing Aids dialog for characters before line
break and characters after line break override settings in
paragraph styles for characters at line end and characters at
line begin.

Manual hyphenation
To manually hyphenate words, do not use a normal hyphen,
which will remain visible even if the word is no longer at the end
of a line when you add or delete text or change margins or font
size. Instead, use 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 and press Control+hyphen. The word
will be hyphenated at this position when it is at the end of the
line, even if automatic hyphenation for this paragraph is
switched off.

Working with fonts

Fonts are handled through both paragraph styles and character
styles. Paragraph styles define the font characteristics for the
entire paragraph. When you apply a character style to selected
text within a paragraph, the character style over-rides the
paragraph style for that bit of text.
You can apply many formats (including font choices and type
sizes) to paragraphs and characters using the buttons on the
Formatting toolbar. However, it is highly recommended that you
use styles and not manual formatting, especially for books and
other long documents. As stated in Chapter 4, using styles is

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usually better and more convenient in the long run. For this
reason, this book does not cover manual formatting.

Use paragraph styles

The Paragraph Style dialog has three tabs that have to do with
fonts. Other tabs are described in “Creating and modifying
paragraph styles” starting on page 51.

Font
Sets the font, typeface, and size. You can set the size in
several ways, including as a percentage of the font size
defined for the paragraph style that this style is based on.
For example, you might set a heading to be 130% of the body
text size. If you later make body text larger or smaller, the
heading adjusts to match. You can also set the language of
the paragraph, so that spelling will be checked using the
correct dictionary.

Font Effects
Sets font color, underlining, relief, and other effects.

Position
Sets text rotation and character spacing for the paragraph
style. See Chapter 11 for some examples of use. Subscript
and superscript are more likely to be used in character
styles.

Use character styles

Character styles complement paragraph styles and are applied
to groups of characters instead of whole paragraphs. They are
used when you want to change the appearance or attributes of
only parts of a paragraph, such as a word or phrase. Some
effects that can be obtained by means of character styles are
bold or italic typeface, subscripts, or a change in font.
Character styles do not have as many options as paragraph
styles, but the Font, Font Effects, and Position tabs are similar.
See Chapter 11 for some examples of use.
If you are accustomed to formatting text manually, character
styles can take some getting used to. Here are some suggestions
for making the transition easier:

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 • Never mix character styles and manual formatting.
Manual formatting supersedes character styles. If you
combine the two, you may end up wasting hours trying to
figure out why your character styles don’t work.
• Right-clicking and choosing Default Formatting removes
any text formatting (both manual and styles).
• Keep the Styles and Formatting window open to make
paragraph and character styles easy to access.

Applying paragraph and character styles

Writer provides several ways for you to apply styles to
paragraphs and characters:
• Using the Styles and Formatting window
• Using the Apply Style list (paragraph styles only)
• Using Fill Format mode
• Using keyboard shortcuts
To apply a paragraph style, click anywhere in the paragraph,
and then use one of these methods. To apply a character style,
select the text to be formatted, and then use one of these
methods.

Use the Styles and Formatting window

Click anywhere in the paragraph, or select the text to be
formatted, and then double-click on the name of the style in the
Styles and Formatting window.

Tip
At the bottom of the Styles and Formatting window is a drop-
down list. In the example on page 46, the window shows
Automatic, which means that the list shows only those styles
that are applied automatically by Writer. You can choose to
show all styles, only custom styles, or other groups of styles.

Use the Apply Style list

After you have used a paragraph style at least once in a
document, the style name appears in the Apply Style list on the
left of the Formatting toolbar, next to the Styles and Formatting
icon.

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 Click in the paragraph you want to apply a style to, then
open this list using the down-arrow to the right, scroll through
the list and click on the style to apply it.

Tip
Select More... at the bottom of the list to open the Styles and
Formatting window.

Use Fill Format mode

Use Fill Format to apply a style to many different areas quickly
without having to go back to the Styles and Formatting window
or to the Apply Style list every time.
1 Open the Styles and Formatting window and select the
style you want to apply.
2 Click the Fill Format mode icon. The mouse pointer
changes to a pouring-can icon.
3 To apply a paragraph style to a paragraph, click on the
paragraph.
To apply a character style, hold down the mouse button
while selecting the characters; when you release the
mouse button, the style is applied. You can also click on a
word to apply the selected character style to that word.
4 Repeat step 3 until you made all the changes you want
using that style.
5 To quit Fill Format mode, click the Fill Format mode
icon again or press the Esc key.

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Caution
When this mode is active, a right-click anywhere in the
document undoes the last Fill Format action. Be careful not
to accidentally right-click and thus undo actions that you
want to keep.

Use keyboard shortcuts

Some keyboard shortcuts for applying paragraph styles are
predefined, including Ctrl+0 for Text body, Ctrl+1 for
Heading 1, and Ctrl+2 for Heading 2. You can modify these
shortcuts and create your own (see Chapter 14).

Inserting special characters

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

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Note
Different fonts have different special characters. If you do
not find a particular special character you want, try a
different font.

Inserting non-breaking spaces and

hyphens
To keep two words from being separated at the end of a line,
press Control+spacebar after the first word (instead of just the
spacebar) to insert a non-breaking space.
In cases where you do not want a hyphen to appear at the
end of a line, for example in a telephone number such as
123-4567, press Shift+Control+hyphen to insert a non-breaking
hyphen. These show with a gray background on screen.

Inserting dashes
An em dash is the length of the character m; an en dash is the
length of the character n. En and em dashes are used for
different purposes in typography. (The Wikipedia page on dashes
has a good summary.)
You can enter en and em dashes in several ways.
If you have selected the Replace dashes option under Tools
> AutoCorrect > Options, then when you type two hyphens,
they are replaced with a dash. The type of dash depends on
whether you also type spaces before or after the hyphens. In the
following table, the A and B represent text consisting of letters A
to Z (in upper or lower case) or digits 0 to 9.
Text that you type Result
A - B (A, space, hyphen, space, B) A – B (A, space, en-dash, space, B)
A -- B (A, space, hyphen, hyphen, A – B (A, space, en-dash, space, B)
space, B)
A--B (A, hyphen, hyphen, B) A—B (A, em-dash, B)
A-B (A, hyphen, B) A-B (unchanged)
A -B (A, space, hyphen, B) A -B (unchanged)
A --B (A, space, hyphen, hyphen, A –B (A, space, en-dash, B)
B)

You can also use the Insert > Special Characters dialog;
select the U+2013 or U+2014 character.

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 A third method uses keyboard shortcuts. These shortcuts
vary according to your operating system.

Windows
Hold down one of the Alt keys 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.
On a keyboard with no numeric keypad, use a Function (Fn)
key combination to type the numbers. (The Fn key is usually
to the right of the left-hand Control key.) For example, on a
US keyboard layout, the combination for an en dash should
be Alt+Fn+mjim and for an em dash it should be
Alt+Fn+mjij.

Mac OS X
For an en dash, hold down the Option (Alt) key and type a
hyphen. For an em dash, the combination is
Shift+Option+Hyphen.

Linux
Hold down the Compose key and type two hyphens and a
period for an en dash, or three hyphens for an em dash. The
dash appears when you release the Compose key.
The key that operates as a Compose key varies with the
Linux distribution. It is usually one of the Alt or Win keys but
it may be another key. It should be user-selectable.

Tip
You can also record macros to insert en and em dashes and
then assign those macros to unused key combinations, for
example Ctrl+Shift+N and Ctrl+Shift+M. See Chapter 14.

Defining your own tabs and indents

The default tab stop interval (defined in Tools > Options >
OpenOffice.org Writer > General) controls two things: tabs
within paragraphs and the indentation of entire paragraphs
when using the Increase Indent button on the Formatting
toolbar.
Using the default tab stops to space out or indent material on
a page is not recommended.

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 • If you use the default tab interval and then send the
document to an editor who uses a different default tab
interval, then your tabbed material will be displayed using
the other person’s default tab settings.
• Any changes to the default tab stops will change the
existing default tab stops in any document you open
afterward, as well as tab stops you insert after making the
change.
To avoid these unwanted changes, define your own tab stops
in paragraph styles or individual paragraphs, using the Tabs
page of the Paragraph dialog. Better still, change the tabs
defined in the paragraph style. Right-click on the paragraph,
choose Edit Paragraph Style from the pop-up menu, and go to
the Tabs page.
To change the indentation of one or more selected
paragraphs, use the Indents & Spacing page of the Paragraph
dialog. You can also change the indentation defined in the
paragraph style. Right-click on the paragraph, choose Edit
Paragraph Style from the pop-up menu, and go to the Indents
& Spacing page.

Working with lists

List styles (also called numbering styles) work together with
paragraph styles. They define indentation, alignment, and the
numbering or bullet characters used for list items. You can
define many list styles, from simple bulleted lists to complex
multi-level (nested) lists.
Although you can create simple lists quickly by using the
Numbering On/Off or Bullets On/Off icons on the Formatting
toolbar, and create quite complex nested lists using the icons on
the Bullets and Numbering toolbar, the appearance of the
resulting lists may not be what you want. And if you later need
to change the appearance of the lists, you will have a lot of
manual work. Using List styles is usually better and more
convenient in the long run.

Note
Writer uses two terms, numbering style and list style, for the
same thing. For example, the tooltip in the Styles and

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 Formatting window says List Styles, but its style dialog says
Numbering Style.

Create a new list style

The dialog that creates a new list style consists of six tabs, in
addition to the usual Organizer tab.

Bullets, Numbering Styles, and Graphics tabs

The Bullets, Numbering Style, and Graphics tabs contain
predefined formatting for list item symbols (bullets or numbers).
To use one of them for your style, click on the image. A thick
border indicates that you have selected the item.
The bullets on the Bullets tab are font characters; those on
the Graphics tab are graphics.

Outline tab
Use the Outline tab to select from eight predefined nested lists.
(A nested list is one that is embedded in another list. For
example, on page 82 the list numbered a-b-c is nested within the
list numbered 1-2-3-4. Nested lists can be several levels deep.)
You can also select a predefined list and use it as a starting
point for your own style, customizing the list using the Position
tab and the Options tab.

Position tab
Use the Position tab to fine tune the indentation and spacing of
the list item symbol and the text of the list item. Use this tab
together with the Options tab (next section).
You can adjust these settings for each level individually or all
at once (to make them all the same). I recommend adjusting the
settings in the order given below and not according to the order
on the dialog. Start from the overall indentation for the list
elements, then fix the position of the symbols, and finally adjust
the alignment of the symbols.

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 • Numbering followed by: the element that comes right
after the bullet or number (plus any characters—for
example, a punctuation mark—chosen on the Options tab
to appear after the number). Choose between a tab stop, a
space, or nothing. If you select the tab stop, you can
specify the position of the tab.
• Indent at: how much space is reserved for the numbering
symbol, measured from the left page margin. The
alignment of the first line of the list is also affected by any
tab you may have set to follow the numbering.
• Aligned at: the position of the numbering symbol,
measured from the left margin of the page.
• Numbering alignment: how the numbering (including
any text before or after as set in the Options page) will be
aligned. Select from the drop-down menu. The Aligned at
value determines the symbol alignment.
Making the Numbering followed by distance the same as the
Indent at distance usually works well.

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 A numbered list of CD tracks highlighting the various elements

Note
The Position page is somewhat different for lists in
documents created with earlier versions of Writer. See the
Writer Guide for details.

Tip
To fully appreciate how numbering alignment works, try to
create a numbered list with more than ten elements and
make sure that enough room has been made for a number of
two or more digits.

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Options tab
Use the Options tab to define the style of the outline levels.
First, on the left side, select the outline level that you want to
modify. To modify all ten levels at once, select 1 – 10 as the level.
If you started from a predefined outline, some of the levels will
already have settings.
Your choice of numbering style in the Numbering list (bullet,
graphics, or one of the numbering sequences such as 1, 2, 3, ...)
determines which other options are available. The right-hand
side of the dialog shows a preview of the modifications made.
To revert to the default values, click the Reset button in the
bottom right corner.

Apply the list style

Now that the list style is available, it can quickly be applied to
any list in the document. Select the list and then double-click on
the desired list style name in the Styles and Formatting window.
Remember that applying a list style does not affect the
characteristics of the underlying paragraph; therefore you may
want to make sure that you are satisfied with the paragraph
style before applying the list style.
If you have more than one list in a document, the second and
subsequent lists with the same style continue their numbering
from the previous list. To restart a list at 1, right-click anywhere
in the paragraph you want numbered 1, and choose Restart
numbering.

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 To stop using numbering, click the Numbering On/Off icon
on the Standard toolbar.

Tip
If you intend to combine several files into one book, be sure
to restart list numbering for the first list in every chapter. If
you don’t, then when you combine the files, the first list will
continue numbering from the last list in the previous chapter.

Combine list and paragraph styles

When applying a list style, the underlying paragraph style
remains unchanged. If your list must also have a certain font
size, certain indentations, and so on, you can combine a specific
list style with a paragraph style and then simply apply the
paragraph style to the list.
To combine a list style with a paragraph style, use the
Numbering page of the Paragraph Style dialog.
1 Create the list style that you want to use for the
paragraph, for example MyNumberedList.
2 Create a new paragraph style.
3 On the Organizer tab of the Paragraph Style dialog:
a Give the new paragraph style a name, say Numbered
Paragraph.
b For Next Style, choose Numbered Paragraph (this
will make the following paragraph have the same
style, until you choose a different style).
c For Linked with, choose None.
4 Set up this paragraph style to your liking. Because the
indentation is controlled by the list style, do not change
the indent settings on the Indents & Spacing tab. (You
might want to change the spacing above and below the
paragraph.)
5 On the Outline & Numbering tab, choose the
MyNumberedList style created in Step 1.
6 Click OK to save this style.

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7 Create PDFs using Writer

Writer can export documents to PDF (Portable Document

Format), the file format usually required by print-on-demand
publishers. PDF is also the most commonly used file format for
e-books, because it can be read on most computers and
handheld devices.
Be sure to check with your print-on-demand service for any
special requirements they may have regarding PDFs. At the time
of writing, common requirements include:
• Graphics must not have transparency. If necessary, use
your image processing program to remove the
transparency. (Consult that program’s documentation for
how to do this.)
• Graphics/images should be in grayscale, not color, at a
resolution of no more than 600 dpi (300 dpi preferred).
You can set this during PDF export.
• All fonts must be fully embedded. Writer’s PDF export
does this automatically.
A few services may strictly require that you use Adobe
Acrobat to create the submitted PDFs, for technical reasons. See
“Printing to PostScript for PDF conversion” on page 89.
The best settings for PDFs intended for printing may be
different from the best settings for PDFs to be read as e-books.
If you want to make your book available in both printed and
e-book forms, you may want to create two PDFs using different
settings.

Quick export to PDF

Click the Export Directly as PDF icon to export the entire
document using the last set of selections made through the PDF
Options dialog. You can choose the file name and location for the
PDF, but you do not get a chance to choose a page range or the

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Chapter 7 Create PDFs using Writer 83
print quality. Direct export is convenient for creating draft PDFs
or multiple PDFs using the same settings.
When producing a PDF to send to your printing service, be
sure to go through the PDF Options dialog to ensure that all the
settings are exactly what you want.

Controlling PDF content and quality

For more control over the content and quality of the resulting
PDF, use File > Export as PDF. After you choose the location
and file name of the PDF, the PDF Options dialog opens. This
dialog has five pages (General, Initial View, User Interface,
Links, Security). Make your selections, and then click Export.

General tab of PDF Options dialog

On the General tab, you can choose which pages to include in
the PDF, the type of compression to use for images (which
affects the quality of images in the PDF), and other options.

Range section
All
Exports the entire document. This is the setting you would
normally use for creating a PDF of a book.

Pages
As you assemble the book, you might want to export a few
sample pages. For a range of pages, use the format 3–6
(pages 3 to 6); for single pages, use 7,9,11 (pages 7, 9, and
11). You can also export a combination of page ranges and
single pages, by using a format like 3–6,8,10,12.

Selection
Exports whatever material is selected. Useful for checking
portions of a book.

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Images section
Lossless compression
Images are exported without any loss of quality. For printed
books, select this option.

JPEG compression
Allows for varying degrees of quality. A setting of 90% tends
to work well with photographs. Suitable for e-books.

Reduce image resolution

For print-on-demand publishing, set this for 300 or 600 dpi
(dots per inch). Lower-dpi images may be suitable for e-
books if image quality is not a major concern, but they are
not suitable for printed books. Higher dpi images are best for
commercial offset printing, but may be rejected by print-on-
demand services. Check with your printing service to be
sure.

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General section
PDF/A-1
This format is designed for long term preservation. It is
generally not suitable for print-on-demand printing. Do not
select.

Tagged PDF
Relevant only for onscreen viewing of PDFs. Depends upon
the .odt file having special tags embedded within it. This
topic is too complex for this book. Do not select.

Create PDF form

Choose format of forms submitted from within the PDF file.
Not relevant to print-on-demand or e-books. Do not select.

Export bookmarks
Creates PDF bookmarks for all hyperlinked table of contents
entries. For printed books, do not select. For e-books, select
this option.

Export notes
Exports notes as PDF notes. Do not select.

Export automatically inserted blank pages

Books usually have chapters set to always start on an odd-
numbered (right-hand) page. When the previous chapter
ends on an odd page, Writer inserts a blank page between
the two odd pages. For printed books, select this option. For
e-books, you may wish to deselect this option.

Initial View tab

This tab is relevant only for e-books. The options control how a
PDF viewer displays the file.
To avoid problems for printed books, choose Page only in
the Panes section, leave Open on page as 1, and choose
Default for Magnification and Page layout.
For e-books, you may wish to choose Bookmarks and page
for Panes, but leave Magnification and Page layout as Default.

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User Interface tab
This tab is relevant only for e-books. The options control how a
PDF viewer displays the file.
To avoid problems for printed books, deselect all options
except All bookmark levels in the Bookmarks section.
For e-books, select Display document title in the Window
options section, but deselect all other options in that section and
the User interface options section. In the Bookmarks section,
select Visible bookmark levels and change the number to
match the number of heading levels in the table of contents of
the printed book.

Tip
Be sure the correct title is on the Description tab of the
Document Properties (File > Properties).

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Links tab
Chooses how links between e-books and other electronic
documents are exported to PDF, an advanced topic that is not
covered in this book.
For printed books, deselect all options, except Default mode
in the Cross-document links section.

Security tab
PDF export includes options for encryption (so that a password
will be needed in order to open the PDF) and applying some
digital rights management (DRM) features.

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 For PDFs that are to be printed, do not set any passwords.
Printers cannot handle files that require passwords. For an e-
book, you may wish to set some of these passwords. If you want
to sell both print-on-demand books and e-books with DRM
features, you need to create two PDFs using different settings.

Printing to PostScript for PDF conversion

Your print-on-demand service may require that you provide PDF
files created by Adobe Acrobat, or provide files in a format that
they can convert to PDF using Acrobat.
To comply with this requirement, you can print to a
PostScript file from Writer, then convert the PostScript file to
PDF using Adobe Acrobat. Do not save to another word
processing format such as .doc or .rtf, even if your printing
service accepts those files, because you cannot be sure that your
page formatting will be preserved.
If you don’t have access to a copy of Acrobat, you can use
Adobe’s online file conversion service (not free) or one of the
many third-party services offering file conversion (also not free).

Note
The free Adobe Reader cannot create PDF files. You must use
Adobe Acrobat for this purpose.
To print to PostScript:
1 Choose File > Print.
2 On the Print dialog, select Print to file. In the Printer
Name list, choose Adobe PDF or any PostScript printer.
Click OK.
3 On the Save as dialog, choose where to save the file and
type a file name. The file type should be listed as
PostScript. If it is not, uncheck Automatic file name
extension, and type .PS at the end of the filename. Click
Save.

Note
If you choose a black-and-white printer from the list, the
resulting PDF (after conversion from PostScript) will be in
grayscale.

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Free eBook Edition
 Part 2:
Extras
The first seven chapters of this book covered topics that every
self-publisher needs to know about using Writer for writing
and desktop publishing of books.
The next seven chapters cover topics that may be relevant
to your book or your use of Writer, but are not needed by
everyone.
8 Pictures and Graphics in Writer
9 Tables of Contents in Writer
10 Indexes in Writer
11 Create Special Effects in Writer
12 Track Changes in Writer
13 Use Templates in Writer
14 Customize Writer

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8 Pictures and Graphics in
Writer

Graphics in Writer are of three basic types:

• Image files such as photos, drawings, and scanned images
• Diagrams created using Writer’s drawing tools
• Charts created using OpenOffice.org’s Chart facility
This chapter covers images and diagrams.
More detailed descriptions on working with drawing tools
are in the Draw Guide and Impress Guide. How to create charts
is described in the Calc Guide.

Creating and editing images

Images (also called ‘pictures’ in OpenOffice.org and in this book)
might be created with a graphics program, scanned, or
downloaded from the Internet (if you have permission to use
them), or they might be photos from a digital camera.
Writer can import various vector (line drawing) and raster
(bitmap) file formats. The most common are GIF, JPG, PNG, and
BMP.
Some things to consider when choosing or creating pictures
include image quality and whether the picture will be printed in
color or grayscale (‘black and white’).
Use a resolution of 300 dpi (dots per inch) for photos and
600 dpi for line drawings. Higher resolution won’t improve
image quality on POD printers. Be careful with downloaded
artwork, which is often at 72 dpi—it may be suitable for display
on a screen but it is not good for printing.
To edit photos and other bitmap images, use a bitmap editor.
To edit line drawings, use a vector drawing program. You do not
need to buy expensive programs. Open-source (and usually
no-cost) tools such as Gimp (bitmap editor) and Inkscape (vector

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drawing program) are excellent. These and many other
programs work on Windows, Macintosh OS X, and Linux.
For best results:
• Create images that have the exact dimensions required
for the document, or use an appropriate graphics package
to scale photographs and large drawings to the required
dimensions. Do not scale images with Writer, even though
Writer has tools for doing this, because the results might
not be as clear as you would like.
• Do any other required image manipulation (brightness
and contrast, color balance, cropping, and so on) in a
graphics package, not in Writer, even though Writer has
the tools to do a lot of these things too.
• If the book will be printed in black and white, convert all
color images into grayscale before creating the PDF of the
book. Be sure to check your print-on-demand service’s
requirements: some may print in black-and-white from a
color PDF; others require than any images be converted to
grayscale. To convert images to grayscale from within
Writer, use the Graphics Mode list on the Picture toolbar
as described on page 99.

Prepare images for black-and-white printing

If color images are to be printed in grayscale, check that any
adjacent colors have good contrast and print dark enough. Test
by printing on a black-and-white printer using a grayscale
setting. Better still: change the “mode”
of the image to grayscale, either in a
photo editor or in Writer itself (see
“Graphics mode” on page 99).
For example, the top diagram to the
right looks good in color. The circle is
dark red and the square is dark blue. In
grayscale, the difference between the
two is not so clear. A third element in
the diagram is a yellow arrow, which is
almost invisible in grayscale.

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Changing the colors of the circle and the arrow improves the
contrast and visibility of the resulting grayscale image. A better
result can often be obtained by choosing grayscale fills, not
color fills.

Inserting an image from a file

When the image is in a file stored on your computer, you can
immediately insert it into the Writer document.
To insert an image from a file, use either of these methods.
Drag and drop
1 Open a file browser window and locate the image you
want to insert.
2 Drag the image into the Writer document and drop it
where you want it to appear. A faint vertical line marks
where the image will be dropped.
Insert Picture dialog
1 Click in the location in the Writer document where you
want the image to appear.
2 On the menu bar, select Insert > Picture > From File.
3 On the Insert Picture dialog, navigate to the file to be
inserted, select it, and click Open.

At the bottom of the Insert picture dialog are two options,

Preview and Link.

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 Select Preview to view a small image of the selected graphic
file on the right, so you can verify that you have the correct file.
Select Link to create a link to the file containing the image,
instead of embedding (saving a copy of) the image in the
document.
If you link to an image, then the image is displayed in the
document, but the saved document contains only a reference to
the image file—not the image itself. The document and the
image remain as two separate files, which are temporarily
merged together only when you open the document again.
The main advantage to linking pictures comes during the
draft phase of writing and illustrating a book. If you change a
picture but keep the same filename and location on your
computer, then the next time you open the book file, the
changed picture is included. You don’t have to remember to
replace the earlier version with the revised picture (which is
what you have to do when you embed).
A minor advantage to linking pictures is a smaller file size for
the main document. For most people, file size is no longer the
problem it was some years ago.
The main disadvantage to linking comes if you need to send
the file to someone else, or when you copy or move it to another
computer or another location on the same computer. In these
situations, you must make sure that the image files remain in
the same location relative to the text file. Keeping all the files in
one folder and sending or moving the whole folder is the easiest
way to make sure that the files stay together.
You can embed linked images into the main file at any time.
1 Open the document in Writer and choose Edit > Links
from the menu bar.
2 The Edit Links dialog shows all the linked files. In the
Source file list, select the files you want to change from
linked to embedded.
3 Click the Break Link button.
4 Save the Writer document.

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Inserting images from other sources
You can insert images from a graphics program, a scanner, and
the Gallery.

Graphics program
You can use many different graphics programs to edit an image.
You can either save the edited image as a file and insert it as
described earlier, or insert the image directly from the graphics
program into your Writer document.
Follow these steps:
1 In the graphics program window, select an area of the
image to be copied (or select the entire image).
2 Move the cursor over the selected area and press
Control+C to copy.
3 Switch to the Writer window.
4 Click to place the cursor where the image is to be
inserted. Press Control+V to paste the image.

Scanner
If a scanner is connected to your computer, Writer can call the
scanning application and add the scanned image to the
document in one step. Click where you want the image to
appear, and then select Insert > Picture > Scan > Select
Source from the menu bar.

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 This procedure probably will not give you a high-quality
image that is of the correct size. You will get better results by
scanning material into a graphics program and editing it there
before inserting it into Writer.

OpenOffice.org Gallery
The Gallery contains graphics that you can insert into your
documents. Writer does not come with many graphics, but you
can add your own pictures or find extensions containing more
graphics. For more about the Gallery, see Getting Started with
OpenOffice.org 3.
To insert a Gallery image into a document:
1 Click on the Gallery icon (right side of the Standard
toolbar) or choose Tools > Gallery.
2 Select the theme containing the image you want to insert.
3 Click on the image, then drag and drop it into the
document. You can also right-click on the image and
select Insert > Copy.

Here is an example of an image dragged from the Gallery.

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Modifying an image
When you insert a new image, you may need to modify it to
make it more suitable for the document.
Although Writer provides many tools for working with
images, for best results it is generally better to use an image
manipulation program such as Gimp to modify images (for
example, to crop, resize, rotate, and change color values) and
then insert the result into Writer.

Use the Picture toolbar

When you insert an image or select one that is present in the
document, the Picture toolbar appears. This toolbar can be
either floating or docked.

Two other toolbars can be opened from this one: the Graphic
Filter toolbar, which can be torn off, and the Color toolbar,
which opens as a separate floating toolbar.
From these three toolbars, you can apply small corrections to
graphics or obtain special effects. See the Writer Guide for a
complete listing of these tools. Here are three of them.

Graphics mode

Some print-on-demand services want all graphics to be in

grayscale, if the book is to be printed in black-and-white. If
you have not changed color images to grayscale in a graphics
program, you can do it here. Select the image, and then
select Grayscale from the Graphics mode list.

Transparency

Do not use transparency for print-on-demand books, because

the printing service might not accept the resulting PDF.

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Flip vertically or horizontally

To flip an image vertically or horizontally, select the image,

and then click either the relevant icon.

Use the Object toolbar and right-click menu

When you insert an image or select one that is already in the
document, the Object toolbar appears. This toolbar is usually
docked just below the main toolbar, but it can be made to float.
The Object toolbar has icons for basic wrapping, alignment,
anchoring, borders, and other functions. Right-clicking on an
image pops up a menu of functions similar to those on the
Object toolbar. See the Writer Guide for details.

Use the Picture dialog

Use the Picture dialog for more control over images. Cropping,
borders, wrapping, and other functions are accessed through
this dialog. The functions are described in detail in the Writer
Guide.

Crop an image
Sometimes you might want to crop (cut off) parts of an
image. It’s best to do this in a graphics package, but you can do
it in Writer. To start, right-click on the image and select Picture
from the pop-up menu. In the Picture dialog, go to the Crop tab.

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Keep scale / Keep image size
When Keep scale is selected, cropping the image does not
change the scale of the picture.
When Keep image size is selected, cropping produces
enlargement (for positive cropping values), shrinking (for
negative cropping values), or distortion of the image so that
the image size remains constant.

Left, Right, Top, and Bottom

The image is cropped by the amounts entered in these boxes.
For example, a value of 3 cm in the Left box cuts 3 cm from
the left side of the picture.
• When Keep scale is selected, the size of the image also
changes.
• When Keep image size is selected, the remaining part of
the image is enlarged (when you enter positive values for
cropping) or shrunk (when you enter negative values for
cropping). The overall width and height of the image
remains unchanged.

Width and Height

The Width and Height fields under either Scale or Image
size change as you enter values in the Left, Right, Top, and
Bottom fields. Use the thumbnail next to these fields to
determine the correct amount by which to crop.

Rotate an image
Writer does not provide a tool for rotating an image, but you can
use a drawing or graphics program to rotate the image before
adding it to the Writer document. Here is how to do it in
OpenOffice.org Draw.
1 Open a new Draw document (File > New> Drawing).
2 Insert the image you want to rotate.
3 Select the image, then in the drawing toolbar (shown by
default at the bottom of the window in Impress and

Draw), select the Rotate icon .

4 Rotate the image as desired. Use the red handles at the
corners of the picture and move the mouse in the

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 direction you wish to rotate. By default the picture
rotates around its center (indicated by a black crosshair),
but you can change the pivot point by moving the black
crosshair to a new rotation center.
5 Select the rotated picture by pressing Ctrl+A, then copy
the image to the clipboard with Ctrl+C.
6 Then go back to the location in the Writer document
where the image is to be inserted and paste the image
Ctrl+V).

Tip
To restrict the rotation angle to multiples of 15 degrees, hold
down Shift while rotating the image in step 4.

Positioning images within the text

When you add an image to a text document, you need to choose
how to position it. Writer is not a desktop publishing program,
so there are some limitations to the positioning of images.
Positioning is controlled by four settings:
• Arrangement refers to the stacking position of an image
relative to other graphic objects or text.
• Alignment refers to the vertical or horizontal placement of
the image in relation to the anchor point.
• Anchoring refers to the reference point for the image.
This point could be the page, the frame where the object
is, a paragraph, or even a character. An image always has
an anchor point.
• Text wrapping refers to the relation of images to the
surrounding text. The text might treat the image as a
separate paragraph or character. It might wrap around
the image on one or both sides or it might be behind or in
front of the image.
You can access these settings in these ways:
• From the Format menu
• From the pop-up menu when you right-click on the image
• From the Object toolbar
• From the Type and Wrapping tabs of the Picture dialog

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Arrange images
Arrangement is only relevant when objects are overlapping. You
can choose between four settings, plus a special setting just for
drawing objects.
• Bring to Front: Places the image on top of any other
graphics or text.
• Bring Forward: Brings the image one level up in the
stack. Depending on the number of overlapping objects,
you may need to apply this option several times to obtain
the desired result.
• Send Backward: The opposite of Bring Forward; sends
the selected object one level down in the object stack.
• Send to Back: Sends the selected image to the bottom of
the stack, so that other graphics and text cover it.
• To Background / To Foreground: (Only available for
drawing objects.) Moves the drawing object behind or in
front of the text.

Anchor images
You can anchor images as a character or to a page, paragraph,
character, or frame. The method you choose depends on what
you are trying to achieve.

To Page
The image keeps the same position in relation to the page
margins. It does not move as you add or delete text or other
graphics. This method is useful when the image does not
need to be visually associated with a particular piece of text.
It is often used when producing newsletters or other
documents that are very layout intensive, or for placing logos
in letterheads.

To Paragraph
The image is associated with a paragraph and moves with
the paragraph. It may be placed in the margin or another
location. This method is a good alternative to using a table
for placing images next to paragraphs.

To Character
The image is associated with a character, but it is not in the
text sequence. It moves with the paragraph but may be

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 placed in the margin or another location. This method is
similar to anchoring to a paragraph but cannot be used with
drawing objects.

As Character
The image is placed in the document like any other character
and, therefore, affects the height of the text line and the line
break. The image moves with the paragraph as you add or
delete text. This method is useful for keeping images in
sequence in a procedure (by anchoring them as a character
in a blank paragraph) or for adding a small (inline) icon in
sequence in a sentence.

To Frame
If the image has been placed in a frame, you can anchor the
graphic in a fixed position inside the frame. The frame can
then be anchored to the page, a paragraph, or a character, as
required.

Align images
Once you have established the anchor point of the image, you
can decide on the position of the image relative to this anchor.
This is called aligning the image.
Choose from six options: three for aligning the graphic
vertically (top, center, bottom) and three for aligning the graphic
horizontally (left, center, right). Horizontal alignment is not
available for images anchored as character.
For finer control of the alignment, use the Position options on
the Type page of the Picture dialog. In the example below, the
upper-left corner of the image will be placed 3 cm from the left
margin of the page horizontally and on the top margin vertically.

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Wrapping text around images
The Wrap setting determines the relation between the text and
the image. It is normally selected after the anchoring and the
alignment of the picture have been set.
• No Wrap: Text is placed above and below the image but
not around it. This is the wrapping type used for most of
the pictures in this book.
• Page Wrap or Optimal Page Wrap: Text flows around
the image. Moving the image around the page makes the
text fill the space to the left and right. If the distance
between the object and the page margin is less than 2 cm,
the text is not wrapped on that side.
• Wrap Through: Superimposes the image on the text. This
option must be used with the image-transparency setting
in order to make the text under the picture visible. It is
not suitable for creating PDFs to be printed by those
print-on-demand services that do not allow transparency.
• In Background: Similar to Wrap Through but the image
is placed behind the text. You do not need to change the
transparency to make text visible.

Notes
The No Wrap option found in the pop-up menu of a picture is
equivalent to the Wrap Off menu item in the Format > Wrap
menu.
When you anchor a graphic as character, you can only adjust
the distance between the image and the text. No wrapping
option is available.

To fine tune the wrapping options, open the Picture dialog and
select the Wrap tab.
This tab is divided into three sections. In the top part you can
select from the wrap types mentioned above, plus two additional
wrap formats: After prevents the text from filling the area to the
left of the image, and Before prevents the text from filling the
area to the right.
Use the Spacing section of the page to adjust the spacing
between the image and the text.

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 The options available in the lower right of this tab change
depending on the selected wrap format.

First paragraph
Starts a new paragraph below the image when you press
Enter, even if the text could have wrapped around the image.

In background
If Through Wrap is selected, moves the image into the
background.

Contour
Wraps the text around a custom contour rather than around
the edge of the picture. It is only available for Page or
Optimal Page Wrap. See the Writer Guide for a detailed
description and an example.

Outside only
Forces the text to wrap on the outside of the image, even if
the contour contains open areas within the shape.

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Example: page wrapping
The picture on the next page is an example of page wrapping in
action. To accomplish page wrapping:
1 Insert the image into the document, then anchor it to the
first paragraph by selecting the image and moving it until
the anchor symbol is at the beginning of the paragraph.
2 Use either the mouse or the advanced settings to align
the image so that the left of the image is in line with the
paragraph indentation. In the example, the image is
placed 1 cm from the left margin.
3 Change the wrap to Page Wrap. To increase the space
between image and text, go to the Wrap page of the
Picture dialog and set the image and text gap (in the
Right and Bottom boxes) to 0.2 cm.
4 Change the position so that the image is below the first
line of the paragraph. Again, use the mouse to drag the
image or use the advanced settings.

Example of image with Page Wrap formatting

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Using Writer’s drawing tools
I recommend that you avoid using Writer’s drawing tools to
create graphics or annotate other images. The results can be
unpredictable.
• The stacking order of drawing objects does not always
stay the way you set it, so a line or circle that should be
on top of another object may suddenly end up underneath
the object.
• You cannot group images and drawing objects together, so
they may get out of alignment in your document.
• If you convert a Writer document to another format, such
as HTML, the drawing objects and the graphics will not
remain associated; they are saved separately.
To avoid potential problems, use a graphics package such as
OpenOffice.org Draw or Gimp to create the graphics, then either
copy the graphics directly into the Writer document or export
them as an image file and import that file into Writer.

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9 Tables of Contents in
Writer

Does your book need a table of contents? Novels don’t usually

have them, but non-fiction books and collections of short stories
or poetry usually do. Writer (like other word processors)
provides a convenient way to compile an automated table of
contents from the headings in your book.
This chapter shows you how to:
• Create a table of contents quickly, using the defaults
• Define a hierarchy of headings
• Customize a table of contents
Before you start, make sure that the headings are styled
consistently. Writer’s built-in styles for chapter titles and
subheadings are Heading 1, Heading 2, Heading 3, and so on.
Headings with these styles will appear in the table of contents.
You can use any styles you wish for the headings, including
custom styles, but if you do, you will have to make some other
changes, described later in this chapter.

Creating a table of contents quickly

Although a table of contents (TOC) can be customized
extensively in Writer, the default settings are usually fine until
you get to the final stages of book design and layout.
Quickly creating a TOC is simple.
1 When you create your book, use the built-in paragraph
styles for the headings (chapter titles and subheadings):
Heading 1, Heading 2, and Heading 3.
2 Click in the document where you want the TOC to appear.
3 Select Insert > Indexes and Tables > Indexes and
Tables.

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 4 If you have defined any index entries in your book, be
sure to deselect Index marks when you create a TOC.
5 Change nothing else in the Insert Index/Table dialog.
Click OK. The result will be a typical table of contents.

Tips
• If some of your headings don’t show up in the generated
TOC, check that the headings have been tagged correctly.
If a whole level of headings doesn’t show up, see
“Defining a hierarchy of headings” on page 110.
• You can customize an existing TOC at any time. Right-
click anywhere in it and select Edit Index/Table from the
pop-up menu. Continue as described in “Customizing a
table of contents” on page 112.
• The TOC appears with a gray background. This
background is not printed and does not appear in a PDF.
To turn off this gray background, go to Tools > Options
> OpenOffice.org > Appearance, then scroll down to
the Text Document section and uncheck the option for
Index and table shadings.
This change may leave a gray background showing behind
the dots between the headings and the page numbers,
because the dots are part of a tab. To turn that shading
off, go to Tools > Options > OpenOffice.org Writer >
Formatting Aids and uncheck the option for Tabs.

Defining a hierarchy of headings

Paragraph styles are the key to Writer’s automatic TOC feature.
The paragraph styles assigned to outline levels by Writer are the
heading styles supplied with Writer: Heading 1, Heading 2,
Heading 3, and so on.
Tools > Outline Numbering defines the hierarchy of
headings in a document. This name is misleading: your headings
do not need to have outline numbers.
If you are using the default heading styles for the headings in
your outline, and you do not want to use heading numbering for
automatic numbering of chapter titles, you do not need to do
anything on the Outline Numbering dialog except verify that the

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correct styles are given for each heading level you want to be
shown in the TOC.

Choose paragraph styles for outline levels

To use custom paragraph styles instead of one or more of the
default heading styles, or to use automatic heading numbering
for the chapter titles:
1 Be sure the custom paragraph styles have been defined.
For our example, we’ll use only one: MyHeading1 for the
chapter titles.
2 Click Tools > Outline Numbering to open the Outline
Numbering dialog.
3 Click the number in the Level box that corresponds to the
heading for which you want to change the paragraph
style. In our example, this is Level 1.
4 In the Numbering: Paragraph Style section, choose from
the drop-down list the paragraph style that you want to
assign to that heading level. In our example, choose
MyHeading1to replace Heading 1.
5 Repeat for each outline level that you want to change.
Click OK when done.

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Customizing a table of contents
You can alter the content and appearance of a TOC in many
different ways.
To customize a TOC, right-click anywhere in it and choose
Modify from the pop-up menu.
The Insert Index/Table dialog opens. This dialog has five
tabs. Any or all of them can be used when creating or editing a
TOC:
• Use the Index/Table tab to set the attributes..
• Use the Entries and Styles tabs to format the entries.
• Use the Columns tab to have more than one column.
• Use the Background tab to add color or a graphic to the
background.

You can display a preview box, located on the left-hand side

of the dialog, to show as you work how the TOC will look. (If you
do not see the preview box, select the Preview option in the
lower right-hand corner of the dialog.) The illustrations in this
chapter show the dialog as it appears with the preview box
hidden.
After making all of your changes, click OK to save the TOC
so that it appears in your document.

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Index/Table tab
Use the Index/Table tab to set the attributes of the TOC.

Change the title

To give the TOC a different title, type it in the Title field. To
delete the title, clear the Title field.

Set the type of index

In computer terminology, a table of contents is one of several
types of indexes. Be sure the Type of Index is set to Table of
Contents. (In the chapter on indexes, we’ll use this same
dialog but choose “Alphabetic Index” and a different set of
options. We won’t look at the other index types.)

Choose the scope of the table of contents

From the for drop-down list in the Create index/table area,
select Entire document. There is an additional option to
create a TOC for just the current chapter.

Change the number of levels included

Writer uses up to 10 levels of headings when it builds the
TOC. To change the number of levels, enter the required
number in the Evaluate up to level box.

Protect against manual changes

To prevent the TOC from being changed accidentally, select
the Protected against manual changes option. The TOC
can then only be changed using the right-click menu or the
Insert Table/Index dialog. If the box is not checked, the TOC
can be changed directly on the document page, just like
other text, but any manual changes will be lost when you
update it.

Create a table of contents from an outline

Select the Outline option to create the TOC using outline
levels; that is, using paragraphs formatted with the styles
specified in the Outline Numbering dialog. This is the method
used for most books.

Create from index marks

Not normally used for a TOC, so deselect this option. We’ll
look at index marks in Chapter 10.

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Create from additional styles
Writer automatically includes in the TOC all paragraphs that
have been formatted with the paragraph styles selected in
Tools > Outline Numbering. You might also wish to include
headings formatted with other styles. For example, you might
have styles for appendix titles or for the title of an Index
page, and you might want those titles to appear in the TOC
at the same level as the chapter titles.
Because only one paragraph style can be assigned to an
outline level in Tools > Outline Numbering, to include in
the TOC paragraphs formatted with other styles, do this:
1 In the Create from area, select Additional Styles and
click the (...) button to the right. The Assign Styles dialog
opens.
2 In the Not applied column, click the style that you want to
assign to the TOC.
3 Use the >> button at the bottom of the dialog (not shown
below) to move the selected style to the desired outline
level. For example, to have paragraphs formatted with the
selected style appear as top-level entries in the table of
contents, click the >> button once to move the style into
the 1 column. To move the style in the opposite direction,
use the << button.
4 Click OK to save your changes and return to the
Index/Table page or click Cancel to return without saving
your changes.

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Entries tab
Use the Entries tab to define and format the entries in the TOC.
For each outline level, you can add and delete elements such as
chapter (heading) numbers. You can also apply character styles
to individual elements.
To begin, click a number in the Level column to select the
outline level whose elements you want to format. (You will be
able to apply changes to all outline levels later.) The Structure
line displays the elements for entries in that level. Each button
on the Structure line represents one element.
• The E# button represents the “chapter number”, which
means the heading number. This number is for all levels of
headings.
• The E button represents the text of the heading.
• The T button represents a tab.
• The # button represents the page number.
• The LS button represents the start of a hyperlink. This
button does not appear on the default Structure line.
• The LE button represents the end of a hyperlink. This
button does not appear on the default Structure line.
Each white field on the Structure line represents a blank
space. If you wish, you can add custom text such as the word
Chapter.

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Add elements
To add an element to the Structure line:
1 Click in the white field where you want to insert the
element.
2 Click one of the five buttons just below the Structure line.
(For example, to add a tab, click the Tab stop button.) A
button representing the new element appears on the
Structure line.
3 To add custom text, type the text in the white field.

Delete elements
To delete an element from the Structure line, click the button
representing that element and then press the Delete key on the
keyboard.

Hyperlink an entry
To change the default Structure line so that the chapter number
and the entry text form a hyperlink:
1 On the Structure line, click in the white field to the left of
the E# button.
2 Click the Hyperlink button. An LS button, representing
the start of the hyperlink, appears on the Structure line.
3 On the Structure line, click in the white field to the right
of the E button.
4 Click the Hyperlink button again. An LE button,
representing the end of the hyperlink, appears on the
Structure line.
The figure below shows the result of the above steps. The
number and the text of the entries on that level will now be
hyperlinks.

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Apply character styles
You might want an element to be a bit different from the rest of
the line. For example, you might want the page number to be
bold. To apply a character style to an element:
1 Be sure you have defined a suitable character style.
2 On the Structure line, click the button that represents the
element to be changed.
3 From the Character Style drop-down list, select the
desired style.
To view or edit the attributes of a character style, select the
style from the Character Style drop-down list and then click the
Edit button.

Tip
The default character style for hyperlinks is Internet Link. By
default, this style is blue and underlined.
If you want the TOC entries to be hyperlinks, but not appear
underlined and blue, select the LS button on the Structure
line and change the character style selection to Index Link.
Click the Edit button to change the settings for Index Link to
what you want.
(You could change the settings for the Internet Link
character style, but doing this changes the attributes of all
hyperlinks in the document.)

Apply changes to all outline levels

To apply the displayed structure and formatting to all outline
levels, click the All button.

Tab position relative to Paragraph Style indent

When this option is selected, entries are indented according to
the settings of their individual formats. When a paragraph style
specifies an indent on the left, tab positions are relative to the
indent. If this option is not selected, tab positions are relative to
the left margin position.

Styles tab
Use the Styles tab to change which paragraph style is assigned
to each level in the TOC. In most cases, the best strategy is to

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keep the assigned styles but change their settings as needed to
make the TOC appear the way you want.
If you define custom styles, do this to apply them to the TOC:
1 In the Levels list, select the outline level.
2 In the Paragraph Styles list, click the desired paragraph
style.
3 Click the < button to apply the selected paragraph style
to the selected outline level.

The style assigned to each level appears in square brackets

in the Levels list.
To remove paragraph styling from an outline level, select the
outline level in the Levels list, then click the Default button.
To view or edit the attributes of a paragraph style, click the
style in the Paragraph Styles list, then click the Edit button.

Columns tab
Multiple columns are more commonly used in indexes. To
change the number of columns in a TOC, see “Using the
Columns page” in Chapter 10.

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Background tab
Use the Background tab to add color or a graphic image to the
background of the table of contents. This is not commonly done
in books with black-and-white interiors.

Maintaining a table of contents

To edit an existing TOC, right-click anywhere in it and choose
Edit Index/Table from the pop-up menu. The Insert Index/Table
dialog opens and you can edit and save the table as described in
the previous section.
Writer does not update the TOC automatically, so after any
changes to the headings, you must update it manually. To update
a TOC when changes are made to the document, right-click
anywhere in it and choose Update Index/Table from the pop-up
menu. Writer then updates the TOC.
To delete a TOC from a document, right-click anywhere in it
and choose Delete Index/Table from the pop-up menu. Writer
does not prompt you to confirm the delete.

Tip
If you cannot right-click in the table of contents, go to Tools
> Options > OpenOffice.org Writer > Formatting Aids
and select Enable in the Cursor in protected areas section.

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10 Indexes in Writer

Does your book need an index? Novels and collections of short

stories or poetry don’t usually have them, but non-fiction books
usually do.
The index is usually in the back of a book. It list words and
phrases and their locations in the book.
Writer (like other word processors) provides a convenient
way to build an automated index from index entries that you
define in your book.
This chapter describes how to:
• Add index entries to the book
• Build an alphabetic index quickly
• Customize the display of index entries
• View and edit existing index entries

Adding index entries

Before you can build an index, you must add some index entries
to the book. To do this:
1 Highlight the word or phrase to add to the index, or click
at the beginning of the word or phrase. (To add multiple
words as one entry, highlight the entire phrase.)
2 Click Insert > Indexes and Tables > Entry to display a
dialog similar to the one shown on the next page. You can
accept the word or phrase shown in the Entry box or
change it to whatever you want.
See “Customizing index entries” on page 123 for an
explanation of the fields on this dialog.
3 Click Insert to create the entry.

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 You can insert multiple entries without closing the dialog. For
each one:
1 Click at the location in the document that you want to
include in the index.
2 Click again on the dialog.
3 Change the entry if needed, and click Insert.
4 Repeat steps 1–3 until you have finished entering index
terms, then click Close.

Tip
You can also open the Insert Index Entry dialog by clicking
the Entry icon on the Insert toolbar.

Note
If field shading is active (View > Field shadings), then a
word or phrase that has been added to the index is shown in
the text with a gray background. Index entries containing
text that is different from the text in the document are
marked by a small gray rectangle.

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Building an alphabetic index quickly
Now that you have some index entries, you can build the index.
Although indexes can be customized extensively in Writer,
most of the time you need to make only a few choices. To create
an index quickly:
1 Click in the document where you want the index to
appear.
2 Select Insert > Indexes and Tables > Indexes and
Tables.
3 In the Type box on the Index/Table page, select
Alphabetical Index.
4 In the Options section, uncheck Case sensitive (so that
capitalized and lower-case words are treated as the same
word) and uncheck Combine identical entries with p
or pp.
5 Click OK. The result will be a typical index.

Customizing index entries

These are the fields in the Insert Index Entry dialog.

Index
The type of index that this entry is for. The default is
Alphabetical Index, but you can use this field to create extra
entries for an index or list of almost anything. For example,
you might want an index containing only the scientific names
of species mentioned in the text along with a separate index
containing only the common names of species.

Entry
The word or phrase to be added to the selected index. This
word or phrase does not need to actually be in the document
itself. You can add synonyms and other terms that you want
to have in the index.

1st key
An index key is an entry that has no associated page number
and has several subentries that do have page numbers. Using
keys is a useful way of grouping related topics. (See
“Example of using an index key” on page 124.)

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2nd key
You can have a three-level index, where some of the first-
level keys have level-2 entries that are also keys (without
page numbers). This degree of index complexity is not often
necessary.

Main entry
When the same term is indexed on several pages, often one
of those pages has more important or detailed information on
that topic. To make the page number for the most important
(main) entry stand out, select this option and then define the
character style for the page number of a main index entry to
be bold.

Apply to all similar texts

Select this option to have Writer automatically identify and
mark as an index entry any word or phrase that matches the
current selection. The Match case and Whole words only
options become available if this option is selected. Use this
option with care, as it may result in many unwanted page
numbers being listed in the index.

Note
If Asian languages support has been enabled in Tools >
Options > Languages Settings > Languages, some
additional fields for phonetic reading are shown in the Insert
Index Entry dialog. Enter the phonetic reading for the
corresponding entry. For example, if a Japanese Kanji
character has more than one pronunciation, enter the
correct pronunciation as a Katakana word. The Kanji
character is then sorted according to the phonetic reading
entry.

Example of using an index key

An index key is a primary entry that has subentries. For
example, you might want to create a grouping similar to this:
OpenOffice.org
Calc 10, 25
Impress 15
Writer 5, 11

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 In this example, OpenOffice.org is the 1st key. The subentries
(with the page numbers showing) are the indexed entries. To
insert an index entry for the topic Writer, on the Insert Index
Entry dialog, type Writer in the Entry box and OpenOffice.org
in the 1st key box.

Customizing an index
You can customize an index in numerous ways.
To customize an existing index, right-click anywhere in the
index and choose Modify from the pop-up menu.
The Insert Index/Table dialog has five tabs. Any or all of them
can be used to customize the appearance of an index.
• Use the Index/Table tab to set the attributes.
• Use the Entries and Styles tabs to format the entries.
• Use the Columns tab to specify more than one column.
• Use the Background tab to add color or a graphic to the
background.
You can display a preview box, located on the left-hand side
of the dialog, to show as you work how the index will look.
(Select the Preview option in the lower right-hand corner of the
dialog.) The illustrations in this chapter show the dialog as it
appears with the preview box hidden.
After making all your changes, click OK to save the index.

Index/Table tab
Use the Index/Table tab to set the attributes of the index.
1 To give the index a different title, type it in the Title field.
(You can change an existing title by typing over it.) To
delete the title, clear the Title field.
2 Be sure the Type of Index is set to Alphabetic Index.
3 To prevent the index from being changed accidentally,
check the Protected against manual changes option.
The index can then only be changed using the right-click
menu or the Insert Table/Index dialog. If the box is not
checked, the index can be changed directly on the
document page, just like other text, but any manual
changes will be lost when you update it.

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 4 From the drop-down list in the Create index/table area,
select Entire document. You can also choose to create
an index for just the current chapter.
5 Various other options determine how the index handles
entries:
• Combine identical entries. Defines how identical
entries are dealt with. Normally each page number of
an indexed word or phrase is shown in the index, but
page numbers can be combined using these options. If
you want a page range displayed, select Combine
with – (which will produce something similar to 23–
31). If you want different entries based on what letters
are capitalized, select Case sensitive.
• AutoCapitalize entries. Automatically capitalizes the
first letter of each index entry regardless of how the
words are capitalized within the document.
• Keys as separate entries. Makes the index keys have
their own page numbers.
• Concordance file. Allows a list of words in an
external file to be imported (select using the File
button) and then used within the index. For more

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 information, see concordance file in the help. Using a
concordance file can speed up production of an index,
but unless the words are very carefully selected and
unless you edit the index afterward, the resulting
index can be full of page numbers for minor mentions
of a term.
• Sort. Defines how the entries are sorted when
displayed. The only option is alphanumeric, but you
can specify which language alphabet is to be used.

Entries tab
Use the Entries tab to define and format the entries in the index.
To begin, click a number in the Level column to select the
index level whose elements you want to format. (You will be able
to apply your changes to all index levels later.)
The Structure line displays the elements for entries in that
level. This line works the same way as for a TOC; see page 115
for details.
Each of the items that can be added to the Structure line
may have additional formatting. For example, you may want the
page number to be a different size from the rest of the index
text. To do this, apply a character style to one of the elements in
the Structure line, as described for TOCs.

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Formatting entries
You can apply additional formatting using the options in the
Format section.

Alphabetical delimiter
This will display, as a means of separating index entries, the
letter of the alphabet for the index entries that follow. For
example:
A
apple, 4
author, 10
B
break, 2
bus, 4

Key separated by commas

Arranges the entries in the index on the same line but
separated by commas.

Tab position relative to Paragraph Style indent

Indents entries according to the settings of their individual
formats. When a paragraph style with an indent on the left is
in use, tab stops will be relative to this indent. If this option
is not selected, tab stops will be relative to the left margin
position.

Columns tab
Use the Columns tab to change the number of columns for the
index.
1 Choose the number of columns desired in the box labeled
Columns, or select the icon representing the number of
columns.
2 To evenly distribute the columns according to the page
width, check the AutoWidth box. If it is unchecked, you
can manually set both the width of each of the columns
and the spacing between the columns.
3 You can choose to have a separator line between the
columns:
• Line: The width (thickness) of the line.

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 • Height: The height of the line.
• Position: Position of the line relative to the columns
(top, middle, or bottom) if the height is less than
100%.

Styles tab
Refer to “Styles tab” on page 117 for tables of contents.

Maintaining an index
To edit an existing index, right-click anywhere in the index and
choose Edit Index/Table from the pop-up menu. The Insert
Index/Table dialog opens. Edit and save the index as described
in the previous section.
Writer does not update the index automatically, so after
making changes to the index entries, you must update it
manually. To update an index, right-click anywhere in the index
and choose Update Index/Table from the pop-up menu.
To delete an index, right-click anywhere in the index and
choose Delete.

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View and edit existing index entries
After you have inserted the initial index entries into the
document, you can add more entries or you can edit them. To
view and edit existing entries:
1 Ensure that field shading is active, so you can locate
index entries more easily (View > Field shadings).
2 Right-click on an existing index entry in the body of your
document and select Index Entry from the pop-up menu.
3 A dialog similar to the one below appears. Use the
forward and back arrow buttons to move through the
index entries.
4 Make the necessary modifications to the index entries
and, when finished, click OK, then Close.

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11 Create Special Effects in
Writer

This chapter describes how to create a few commonly-used

special effects using Writer:
• Drop caps
• Character spacing
• Rotating text
• Centering text vertically on a page
• Paragraph borders and backgrounds
• Page borders and backgrounds
• Header and footer special effects
• Special effects for lists

Drop caps
A drop cap, a design that can be applied to the first letter of a
paragraph, is a large capital letter that can be several lines in
height. Some books use this design at the beginning of every
chapter.

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 Drop caps, when defined, appear only when the paragraph
contains at least as many lines as the height of the drop cap.
Shorter paragraphs, even if formatted with the style, do not
show a drop cap.
To define a drop cap:
1 Choose Format > Paragraph, or right-click and choose
Paragraph or (for a paragraph style) right-click and
choose Edit Paragraph Style.
2 On the Drop Caps page, choose the number of characters
to include in the drop caps (usually this is 1), the number
of lines for the height of the drop cap, and any extra
space to text. You may need to experiment to find the best
settings.
3 (Optional) Choose Drop Caps for the character style, if
you want to have the drop cap in a different font from the
rest of the paragraph. See the next topic for more on the
Drop Caps character style.
4 Click OK when done.

Edit the Drop Caps character style

You can choose a different font for the drop cap characters. To
do this:
1 On the Styles and Formatting window, click on the
Character Styles icon at the top.

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 2 Right-click on Drop Caps and choose Modify. This opens
the Character Style dialog, where you can change the
font.
3 Then (as described above), on the Drop Caps page of the
Paragraph Style dialog, choose Drop Caps for the
Character Style.

Character spacing
You can use character spacing for a decorative effect.

To create the effect shown above, define a paragraph style

with extra spacing between characters. (Use a paragraph style
because you want it to apply to the entire paragraph. You could
use a character style and apply that to selected words, but then
you have to be sure not to miss any of the words.)
To set extra spacing, go to the Position tab of the Paragraph
Style dialog for the style that you want to change. In the Spacing
section, select Expanded spacing and enter the amount of
space to be inserted between characters. You might need to
experiment a bit to find the best spacing for your desired effect.

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Rotating text
The second section of the Position tab for a paragraph style
controls rotation of the paragraph text. Two common uses for
rotated paragraphs are fitting headings above narrow table
columns (as shown below) and placing decorative effects on a
page.

A table with rotated headings

To create the effect shown above, create a new paragraph

style. On the Position page of the Paragraph Style dialog, in the
Rotation / scaling section, select 90 degrees. Click OK to save
the new style.

Then select the heading row of the table and apply the new
style. Any text in the cells of the heading row is now rotated.
If the headings are aligned to the top of the cells, you might
want to change the alignment to the bottom of the cells, as
shown in the example. To do this, select the cells, and then right-
click and choose Cell > Bottom (or choose Format >
Alignment > Bottom from the menu bar).

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Centering text vertically on a page
You might want to center text vertically on a title page. To do
this, you need to place the text in a frame and center the frame
vertically on the page.
1 Select the text that you want to center vertically.
2 Choose Insert > Frame from the menu bar. On the Type
tab, select Automatic under Width, AutoSize under
Height, To page under Anchor, and Center under both
Horizontal and Vertical in the Position section.
3 For vertical centering, your choice between centering on
the page text area or centering on the entire page will
depend on the top and bottom margins of the page and
the effect you want to achieve.
4 Click OK to insert the frame.

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Paragraph borders and backgrounds
To add a decorative element to a heading or make a quotation or
other paragraph stand out from the text, you can give the
paragraph a border or a colored or graphic background.
Use the border or background tabs of the paragraph or
paragraph style dialogs. The options on these tabs are fairly self-
explanatory, but you may want to consider the following points.
On the Borders tab:
• Watch out for the effects that the spacing between
borders and paragraph area produces on indentations.
• If you want the border to be drawn around multiple
paragraphs, mark that option at the bottom of the page.
On the Background tab:
• For best effect in black-and-white printing, choose one of
the gray selections, not a color. If you do not find the
desired color in the list of predefined ones, you can define
your own by selecting Tools > Options > Colors.
• You can use a graphic instead of a solid color as
background, but graphic backgrounds generally do not
reproduce well in black and white. Select Graphic in the
drop-down menu, then select the graphic object you want
to use and adjust the settings as required.
• The background is applied only to the paragraph area. If
you have defined some indentations, the space between
the paragraph and the margin remains in the page color.

Page borders and backgrounds

Borders and backgrounds for pages are part of the page style.
Use the Borders tab to draw a border around the text area of the
page. Use the Background tab of the page style dialog to apply a
background. You can choose between a solid color and a graphic
image for the background. Choose from several line styles for
the borders.
Borders and backgrounds do not include the margin area,
but they do include the header and footer area. If you want a
color or image to cover the entire page (or any part of the
margins) on some pages, you can create a special page style
with zero-width page margins and apply that style to those

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pages. To include text (such as a chapter title) on such a page,
create paragraph styles with appropriate margins, or place the
text in a frame and position the frame where you want the text
to appear. (See also “Centering text vertically on a page” on
page 135.)

Header and footer special effects

Suppose you want to have a simple header or footer that
contains only a page number that is visually separated from the
main text by a thin line—but you don’t want the line to extend
the full width of the footer area. Here’s how to do it.
Define the Footer paragraph style to have indents before and
after the text, a center alignment, and a border above the
paragraph.
The following illustrations show an example of these settings;
the result is on the next page.

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 You can also place images, document information such as the
book’s title or author, and small tables in a header or footer.
Insert a table when you want to have more than one line of
text and when you want the information to be aligned in
different ways (left, right, or center).

Include document information

Headers and footers often include document information such as
the book’s title or author or the name of the chapter.
You can type this and other unchanging information into the
header or footer, or you can use a field.
When information will change from one chapter or section to
the next, you need to use a field that displays the information
that is relevant to each page.
To include the chapter name in a header or footer:
1 Click in the header or footer, and then choose Insert >
Fields > Other (or press Control+F2) to open the Fields
dialog.
2 On the Document tab, select Chapter in the Type list and
Chapter name in the Format list.
3 Make sure that Level is set to 1, and then click Insert.

The Chapter field uses the hierarchy of headings defined in

the Outline Numbering dialog (which also determines which
headings go into a table of contents. See page 110).
The Level box determines which heading (outline) level is
displayed in the field. For example, Level 1 always displays the
most recently found heading that has the paragraph style
selected for Level 1 in the Outline Numbering dialog, Level 2
displays the most recent heading with the paragraph style
selected for Level 2 in Outline Numbering, and so on.

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Note
A Chapter field in a page header always picks up the highest
heading level on a page, even if you have specified a lower
level. For example, if a page has a Heading 1 and a Heading
2 on it, then a Level 2 Chapter name field in the header of
that page will display the Heading 1 paragraph, not the first
Heading 2 paragraph as intended. In a footer, the levels work
as intended.

Use a table to align text in headers and footers

If one or more of the items to be included in the header or footer
is too long to fit in the space available, or you need more than
one line of information, you can use a table for layout. The
contents of each cell can be aligned to the left, center, or right,
independently of the other cells.

A table in a page footer

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 Place the cursor in the footer area and choose Insert >
Table from the menu bar. Choose the number of rows and
columns required, and click OK. A typical arrangement would
be 3 columns, 1 row, as shown in the example.

Special effects for lists

Numbers of list items are in the same font and size as the text.
To add visual interest to numbered lists, you can make the
numbers larger, bold, in a different font, or with other effects.
Change the Numbering Symbols character style, using the
Font and Font Effects tabs.

Make sure the list (numbering) style has Numbering

Symbols selected as the character style on the Options tab. (You
need to do this for each level in the list style that you wish to
change.)

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12 Track Changes in Writer

You can use several methods to keep track of changes made to a

document.
• Ask editors and reviewers to use Writer’s change marks
(often called revision marks) to show where they have
added or deleted material or changed formatting. Later,
you can review and accept or reject each change.
• Make changes to a copy of the document (stored in a
different folder, under a different name, or both), then use
Writer to combine the two files and show the changes that
were made. This technique is most useful when you are
the only person working on the document.
• Save versions as part of the original file. Avoid this
method. It provides no real benefit to a self-publisher and
can cause problems with larger or more complex
documents, especially if you save a lot of versions.
The picture below shows how Writer tracks insertions and
deletions. The change bars in the margin remain visible when
the changes are hidden. See Chapter 2 for instructions on
setting up how your changes will be displayed.

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Preparing a document for review
When you send a document to someone else to review or edit,
you may want to prepare it to ensure that any changes are
recorded, without the editor or reviewer needing to remember
to turn on change tracking. Writer calls this protecting a
document.
1 Open the document and make sure that the Edit >
Changes > Record menu item is checked.
2 Choose Edit > Changes > Protect Records. On the
Enter Password dialog, type a password (twice) and click
OK. Passwords must contain at least five characters.
Now no one can turn off change recording, or accept or
reject changes, without entering the correct password.

Recording changes and comments

To begin tracking (recording) changes, click Edit > Changes >
Record. To stop recording changes, click Edit > Changes >
Record again.
To add a comment to a marked change, or edit an existing
comment, click in the area of the change and choose Edit >
Changes > Comment from the menu bar. The comment is
shown in the list in the Accept or Reject Changes dialog (see
page 143). If you want the comment to appear at the side of the
page, use Notes instead (see page 146).

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 After you have recorded more than one change, you can
move between them using the arrow buttons. If no comment has
been recorded for a change, the Text field is blank.

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

Viewing recorded changes

To display or hide all changes (insertions, deletions, and
formatting), in the document, click Edit > Changes > Show.
When changes are hidden, insertions and new formatting appear
in the text and deletions are not visible.
When changes are showing, hold the mouse pointer over a
marked change to see a Help Tip that describes the type of
change, the author of the change, and the date and time of the
change. (The author’s name is taken from information in Tools
> Options > OpenOffice.org > User Data on the computer
used by that person when editing the file.) If you have Extended
Tips turned on (Tools > Options > OpenOffice.org >
General), the comment is also visible in a tooltip when the
mouse pointer is over the change.

Accepting or rejecting changes

Changes that have not yet been accepted or rejected are listed
in the Accept or Reject Changes dialog.
Accepting or rejecting changes removes them from this list.
Rejected changes are also removed from the document. To have
a record of changes, save a copy of the file before doing this
step.

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 1 Choose Edit > Changes > Accept or Reject. The
Accept or Reject Changes dialog opens.

2 When you select a change in the dialog, the actual change

is highlighted in the document, so you can see what the
editor changed.
3 Click Accept or Reject to accept or reject the selected
change. You can also click Accept All or Reject All if you
do not want to review each individual change.
To show only certain types of changes, use the Filter tab of
the Accept or Reject Changes dialog. After specifying the filter
criteria, return to the List page to see those changes that meet
your criteria.

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Tip
After accepting and rejecting changes, go through the
document and look for minor errors such as a change that
incorrectly deleted (or failed to delete) a space between
words, or major errors such as unwanted changes in
paragraph tagging.

Merging modified documents

Sometimes two or more reviewers return edited versions of a
document at the same time. If all of the edited documents
contain recorded changes, it may be more efficient to merge the
documents and review all of the changes at once.
However, merged documents can sometimes be confusing to
read, because more than one person may have changed the
same text in different ways. You may find that dealing with one
set of changes at a time is easier.
To merge documents:
1 Open one copy.
2 Choose Edit > Changes > Merge Document. Select the
copy of the document that is to be merged with the first,
and click Insert.
3 After the documents merge, the Accept or Reject Changes
dialog opens, showing changes by more than one
reviewer.
4 If you want to merge another copy of document with the
original, close the dialog and then repeat step 2.
5 Repeat until all copies are merged.
6 All recorded changes are now included in the open copy.
Save this file under another name.

Comparing documents
If you have not protected the document, some reviewers may
forget to record the changes they make. Use Writer’s Compare
documents feature to find those changes.
To compare documents, you need to have the original
document and the one that has been edited.

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 1 Open the edited document. Choose Edit > Compare
Document.
2 Select the original document and click Insert.
3 Writer finds and marks the changes and displays the
Accept or Reject Changes dialog. From this point, you can
go through the document and accept or reject changes as
described earlier.

Inserting, editing, and replying to notes

During the review process, you may want to include notes in the
text, either for yourself or for other reviewers. Starting with
OpenOffice.org 3, notes are displayed at the side of the page
and color-coded according to the person who created them.
To insert a note, place the cursor in the place the note refers
to and select Insert > Note or press Ctrl+Alt+N. The anchor
point of the note is connected by a line to a box on the right-
hand side of the page where you can type the text of the note.
Writer automatically adds the author of the note and the date
and time when the note was created. (The author’s name is
taken from information in Tools > Options > OpenOffice.org
> User Data on the computer used by that person when editing
the file.)
If more than one person edits the document, each author is
automatically allocated a different background color.
Right-clicking on a note pops up a menu where you can
delete the note, or all the notes from the same author, or all the
notes in the document. From this menu, you can also apply some
basic formatting to the note’s text. You can change font type,
size, and alignment from the Formatting toolbar.
Starting with OpenOffice.org 3.1, several people can have a
discussion using notes, by right-clicking on a note and selecting
Reply from the pop-up menu. The illustration below shows an
example of two notes and a reply to one of them.

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 To navigate from one note to another, open the Navigator
(F5), expand the Notes section, and click on the note text to
move the cursor to the anchor point of the note in the document.
You can also navigate through the notes using the Previous
and Next icons in the Navigation toolbar (see page 11) or by
using the keyboard. Control+Alt+Page Down moves to the next
note and Control+Alt+ Page Up moves to the previous note.

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13 Use Templates in Writer

A template is a model that you use to create other documents.

For example, you can create a template for a book chapter that
contains the page styles, paragraph styles, header and footer
contents such as page numbers, and other information. New
chapters created from this template will all have the same
contents and appearance.
Later, you can edit the styles in a template and then update
the documents created from that template, keeping all the
chapters consistent in appearance. See “Updating a document
when its template is changed” on page 154.
You can also apply a different template to a document. If the
styles in the new template have the same names as the styles in
the document, the appearance of the document will change to
match the new template. See “Changing to a different template”
on page 155.
Templates can contain anything that regular documents can
contain, including text, graphics, a set of styles, and user-
specific setup information such as measurement units, language,
the default printer, and toolbar and menu customizations.
All Writer documents are based on templates. If you do not
specify a particular template when you start a new document,
then Writer uses the default template for text documents. If you
have not previously specified a custom template to be the
default template (see “Setting up a custom default template” on
page 152), Writer uses the blank template for text documents
that is installed with Writer.
To see what template is associated with a document, go to
File > Properties and look near the bottom of the General tab.
If no template is listed, the document was created from the
default template for text documents.

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Creating a template
Previous chapters of this book described how to set up styles,
headings, and a sequence of pages in a document. You could
simply use that document for your book, but saving it as a
template is good practice.
To create a template from a document that contains the
layout and styles that you want:
1 Open the document.
2 From the main menu, choose File > Templates > Save.
The Templates dialog opens.
3 In the New template field, type a name for the new
template.
4 In the Categories list, click the category to which you
want to assign the template. (The category is simply the
template folder in which you want to save the template.)
5 Click OK to save the new template.

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Using predefined templates
Several collections of templates are available as extensions to
Writer. This page lists many of the available extensions:
http://extensions.services.openoffice.org/search/node/template.
See Chapter 14 for information about installing extensions.
After installation, these templates are listed in the Templates
and Documents window. They are usually in separate folders.
If you obtain a template that is not in an extension, you can
save it anywhere on your computer and then import it into an
OpenOffice.org template folder:
1 Choose File > Templates > Organize from the main
menu.
2 In the Template Management dialog (shown below),
select the folder where you want to put the template.
3 Click the Commands button and choose Import
Template from the drop-down menu.
4 Find and select the template that you want to import, and
then click Open.

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Setting up a custom default template
You won’t want your book template to be the default template
for every document you write, but you might want to set up a
default template that is different from the one supplied with
Writer. For example, you might prefer to use different fonts, or a
different page size or page margins, instead of those provided in
Writer’s default template. By setting up your own default
template, you avoid having to make those changes every time
you start a new document.
Here’s how to set up a custom default template:
1 Open the document that has the settings that you want to
use as the defaults.
2 From the main menu, choose File > Templates >
Organize. The Template Management dialog opens.
3 In the box on the left, double-click the folder containing
the template that you want to set as the default.
4 Click the template that you want to set as the default.
5 Click the Commands button. From the drop-down menu,
choose Set as Default Template and click Close.
The next time that you create a new document by choosing File
> New > Text Document, the document will be created from
this template. The changes do not affect existing documents.

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Creating a document from a template
1 From the main menu, choose File > New > Templates
and Documents. The Templates and Documents window
opens.
2 In the box on the left, click the Templates icon if it is not
already selected. A list of template folders appears in the
center box.
3 Double-click the folder containing the template that you
want to use. A list of all the templates contained in that
folder appears in the center box.
4 Click the template that you want to use. You can preview
the selected template or view the template’s properties
by clicking the appropriate icon. The preview or
properties appear in the box on the right.
5 Click Open. A new document based on the selected
template opens in Writer.

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Creating a document from a template 153
Editing a template
You can edit the styles and content of a template, and then you
can reapply the template’s styles to documents that were
created from that template. (You can only reapply styles. Any
changes to the content of a template, such as text in headers
and footers, affect new documents created from the template
but do not affect existing documents.)
To edit a template:
1 From the main menu, choose File > Templates > Edit.
2 In the Open dialog, find the required template and click
Open.
3 Edit the template as you would edit any document. To
save your changes, choose File > Save from the main
menu.

Updating a document when its template is

changed
The next time you open a document that was created from the
changed template, a message appears asking if you want to
update the document’s styles from the changed template.
Click Yes to apply the template’s changed styles to the
document, or click No if you do not want to apply the changed
styles to the document.

Caution
If you choose No in the message box, that message will not
appear again, and you will not get another chance to update
the styles from the template.
You can re-enable this feature by using a macro described in
the Writer Guide, or by using the Template Changer
extension to reapply the template, as described on page 156.

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Changing to a different template
At times you might want to change the template associated with
a document, or perhaps you are working with a document that
did not start from a template. A common scenario for writers is
to start with a template designed for drafts (full size paper,
double-spaced type) while writing and editing the manuscript,
and then change to a template designed for final formatting.

Tip
The names of styles in the existing document and the names
of the styles in the new template should be the same. If they
are not the same, you will need to use Search and Replace to
replace the old styles with the new ones. See Chapter 3 for
more about replacing styles.
You can change templates in two ways. If you want to update
styles only, then use the Template Changer extension. If you also
want to include content from the new template, then use the
blank document based on new template procedure.

Use a blank document based on a new template

This method includes both styles and content from the new
template. It is most useful when you want to include in your
document any graphics, wording (such as copyright or other
legal notices), header and footer information (such as cross-
references to chapter information), or other content from the
template.
1 Use File > New > Templates and Documents. Choose
the template you want. In the new document, delete any
unwanted text or graphics. Save this file with a new
name.
2 Open the existing document that you want to change. (It
opens in a new window.) Press Control+A to select
everything in the document. Copy and paste the contents
into the blank document that was created in step 1.
3 Update the table of contents, if there is one. Save the file.

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Changing to a different template 155
Use the Template Changer extension
This method does not does not include any graphics or text from
the new template. It only updates the styles and establishes an
association between the template and the document.
1 Download the Template Changer extension from
http://extensions.services.openoffice.org/ and install it as
described in Chapter 14.
2 Close and reopen OpenOffice.org. Now the File >
Templates menu has two new choices: Assign Template
(current document) and Assign Template (folder).
3 Open the document whose template you want to change.
Choose File > Templates > Assign Template (current
document).
4 In the Select Template window, find and select the
required template and click Open.
5 Save the document.

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14 Customize Writer

You can customize menus, toolbars, and keyboard shortcuts in

Writer, and add new menus and toolbars. However, you cannot
customize right-click (context) menus.
You can add extra functions to Writer by installing extensions
(add-ons) from the OpenOffice.org web site or from other
providers.
This chapter describes some common customizations and
extensions that you may wish to use.

Customizing menus and toolbars

In addition to changing the menu font (described in Chapter 2),
you can add and rearrange items on the menu bar, add items to
menus, and make other changes. Most people never want to do
this, so I won’t go into the details here. Instructions are in the
Writer Guide.

Assigning shortcut keys

OpenOffice.org has a general set of keyboard shortcuts that are
available in all components. Also, each component (Writer, Draw,
Impress, Base, and Math) has its own component-specific set of
keyboard shortcuts.
You can define other shortcuts for built-in functions or your
own macros and save them for use with all of the components of
OpenOffice.org or only with Writer. In most cases you will want
to save your custom shortcuts only for Writer, because they will
be specific to your use of Writer.
In this chapter we look at two examples of things that self-
publishers might want to assign to shortcuts.

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Chapter 14 Customize Writer 157
Example: Assign styles to shortcut keys
You can configure shortcut keys to quickly assign styles in your
document. Some shortcuts, such as Ctrl+0 for the Text body
paragraph style, Ctrl+1 for the Heading 1 style, and Ctrl+2 for
Heading 2, are predefined. You can modify these shortcuts and
you can create your own.
1 Click Tools > Customize > Keyboard.
2 Choose the shortcut keys that you want to assign to a
style. In this example, we have chosen Ctrl+9 for our
List 1 style.
3 In the Functions section at the bottom of the dialog, scroll
down in the Category list to Styles. Click the + sign to
expand the list of styles.
4 Choose the category of style that you want to use. (Our
example uses a paragraph style, but you can also choose
character styles and others.) The Function list now
displays the names of the built-in and custom styles that
are available? for the selected category.
5 To make Ctrl+9 the shortcut key combination for the
List 1 style, select List 1 in the Function list, and then
click Modify. Ctrl+9 now appears in the Keys list on the
right, and List 1 appears next to Ctrl+9 in the Shortcut
keys box at the top.
6 Make any other required changes, and then click OK to
save the settings and close the dialog.

Notes
• Any existing shortcut keys for the currently selected
function are listed in the Keys selection box. If the Keys
list is empty, then you can use the key combination that
you have chosen. If you want to reassign a shortcut key
combination that is already in use, you must delete the
existing shortcut first.
• Shortcut keys that are grayed-out in the listing (F1 and
F10 are always going to be grayed out) are not available
for reassignment.

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Example: Assign macros to shortcut keys
A common use for assigning macros to shortcut keys is to enable
quick and easy insertion of special characters. Our example
shows how to set up keyboard shortcuts for inserting en-dashes
and em-dashes.

Tip
Extensions such as Accentuate or Compose Special
Characters are useful for doing this specific task. See
“Adding functionality with extensions” on page 162.

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Assigning shortcut keys 159
 First, you need to record a macro for inserting each type of
dash. Then, you need to assign those macros to shortcut key
combinations.
1 Choose Tools > Macros > Record Macro to start
recording a macro.
A small window is displayed so you know
that OpenOffice.org is recording.
2 Choose Insert > Special Characters to open the Special
Characters dialog. Scroll down until you find the en-dash
(U+2013) and em-dash (U+2014) characters. Select one
of them and click OK.
3 Click the Stop Recording button to stop recording, save
the macro, and display the OpenOffice.org Basic Macros
dialog. Type a descriptive name for the new macro in the
Macro name box on the upper left.
4 In the Save macro in box, click the + next to the library
container named My Macros. In the My Macros list, find
the library named Standard. Under Standard, select
Module1and click Save.

5 Repeat steps 1–4 to create other macros, for example to

insert an em-dash.
6 Choose Tools > Customize > Keyboard. In the Shortcut
keys list, pick an unused combination (for example,
Ctrl+Shift+N for an en-dash). In the Category list, scroll
down to OpenOffice.org Macros, click the + sign, then

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 click the + next to the Standard library and choose
Module1. In the Function list, choose Endash and click
the Modify button on the upper right. The selected key
combination now appears in the Keys list on the lower
right, and Endash appears next to Ctrl+Shift+N in the
Shortcut keys list.
7 Repeat for the em-dash macro, and then click OK.

Reset the shortcut keys

To reset all of the keyboard shortcuts to their default values,
click the Reset button at the bottom right of the Customize
dialog. Use this feature carefully because there is no
confirmation dialog before the defaults are reset.

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Assigning shortcut keys 161
Adding functionality with extensions
An extension is a package that adds functions to OpenOffice.org.
Some dictionary extensions are provided with OpenOffice.org,
and many others are available for download from the
OpenOffice.org extension repository,
http://extensions.services.openoffice.org/.
Some extensions are free of charge. Others are fee based.
Check the descriptions to see what licenses and fees apply to
the ones that interest you.

Install extensions
To install an extension:
1 Download the extension and save it anywhere on your
computer.
2 In Writer, select Tools > Extension Manager from the
menu bar. In the Extension Manager dialog, click Add.
3 Find and select the extension you want to install and click
Open. The extension begins installing. You may be asked
to accept a license agreement.
4 When the installation is complete, the extension is listed
in the Extension Manager dialog.

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Some popular extensions for Writer
Here are a few of the more important and popular extensions to
Writer. These are free downloads from the OpenOffice.org
extensions repository.

Accentuate and Compose Special Characters

Two extensions for inserting accented and special characters
or symbols, using key combinations.

Language Tool
Detects some grammar errors, including some correctly-
spelled words used the wrong situation, such as there/their,
to/too/two, no/now. See Chapter 3.

Professional Template Pack II

Provides more than 120 useful templates for Writer, Calc,
and Impress. After you have installed this extension, the
templates appear in File > New > Templates and
Documents.

Template Changer
Adds two new items to the File > Templates menu, to
assign a new template to the current document or to a folder
of documents. See Chapter 13.

Writer’s Tools
Makes many tasks easier, including backing up documents,
looking up and translating words and phrases, managing text
snippets, and keeping track of document statistics.

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Adding functionality with extensions 163
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Index
A current page style 47
Accentuate extension 163 custom dictionary 29
accept changes 143 customize menus and toolbars 157
Adobe Acrobat 89
Adobe Reader 89
D
dash 75
align graphics 104
default
alphabetical delimiter 128
currency settings 28
anchor graphics 103
file format 23
appearance options 21
languages 28
Apply Style list 72
printer 20, 22
arrange graphics 103
tab stop interval 24
Asian language support 29
dictionaries 28
autocapitalize index entries 126
digital rights management (DRM)
autorecovery 23
88
B digital signature flag 7
backup copy 23 direct cursor 25
bookmarks 7 document
bookmarks in PDFs 86 combine into book 15
borders and backgrounds 136 create from template 12, 153
create new 13
C email 14
change tracking options 28 master document 15
changes save 14
accept or reject 143 save as .doc (Microsoft Word)
display or hide 143 14
filter 144 views 9
character spacing 133 document properties 22
character style document status 19
apply 72 double-sided printing 27
drop cap 132 drag and drop 95
in table of contents 117 drop cap 131
using 71
characters E
special 74 e-books 83, 86, 87
comments 142 en and em dashes 75
compare documents 145 export directly as PDF 83
complex text layout (CTL) 29 extensions 162
Compose Special Characters
extension 163
F
field shading 122, 130
concordance file 127
file format 23
context menu 6
file properties 149
context-sensitive toolbars 4
Fill Format 73
copy text 32
find and replace
crop image 100
formatting 34
curly quotes 67
line breaks 35
currency settings 28

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165 Index
 paragraph ends 35 crop 100
paragraph styles 35 modify 99
regular expressions 36 position 102
text 33 rotate 101
font effects 71 scanned 97
font history 20 wrap text around 105
font size in menus 19 index
footer alphabetical delimiter 128
document information 138 autocapitalize entries 126
special effects 137, 139 build 123
table to align text 139 combine identical entries 126
formatting aids options 25 concordance file 127
customize 123, 125
G delete 129
Gallery 98 edit 129
GIMP 99 entries 121
grammar checker 30, 37 format entries 128
graphics key 123, 124
align 102 main entry 124
arrange 102, 103 phonetic reading 124
crop 100 sort 127
modify 99 update 129
Object toolbar 100 index entries
position 102 add 121
right-click menu 100 edit 130
rotate 101 Insert Index/Table dialog
wrap text around 105 Background tab 119
grayscale 89 Columns tab 118, 128
grid options 26 Entries tab 115, 127
Index/Table tab 113, 125
H Styles tab 117
header
insert mode 7
document information 138
Insert Picture dialog 95
special effects 137
headers and footers 62 J
heading spacing 31 JPEG compression 85
help agent 18
hierarchy of headings 110 K
hyperlink TOC entries 116 keyboard shortcuts
hyphenation assign macros to 159
automatic 69 define 157
manual 70 reset to default values 161

I L
icon size and style 19 language
icons in menus 19 settings 28
image resolution 85 status bar field 7
images Language Tool extension 37, 163
align 104 layout views 8
arrange 103 left-aligned paragraphs 68

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Index 166
line breaks 35 Writer 23
links between e-books 88 Outline Numbering dialog 110
list overwrite mode 7
special effects 140
styles 77 P
load options 22 page layout
locale settings 28 borders and backgrounds 136
lossless compression 85 mirrored 58
only left 60
M only right 59
master document 15 views 8
measurement unit 24 page number
menus insert 63
context (right-click) 6 status bar field 7
customize 157 page styles
merge documents 145 add chapter to book 51
Microsoft Word 14 apply automatic sequence 64
automate the sequence 48
N change sequence manually 64
Navigation toolbar 11 copyright page example 60
Navigator 7, 9 default style example 57
non-breaking hyphen 75 examples 57
non-breaking space 75 first page style example 59
notes 146 headers and footers 62
number recognition 27 margins 57
numbering pages 63 other contents pages 62
single chapter 48
O start of book 50
object information (status bar) 8
status bar field 7
ODF plugin (Sun) 14
table of contents example 61
ODF settings 23
title page example 60
OpenDocument file format 14
typical sequence 47
options
paragraph
appearance 21
borders and backgrounds 136
change-tracking 28
indenting 76
formatting aids 25
justified 68
general OpenOffice.org 18
move quickly 32
general Writer 24
paragraph ends
grid 26
find and replace 35
language settings 28
markers 25
load 22
paragraph spacing 31
OpenOffice.org 17
paragraph styles
print 20
apply 72
print (Writer) 26
built-in sequence 53
save 22
find and replace 35
spelling 29
First paragraph, create 55
table 27
font effects 71
user data 18
headings, modify 55
View 19, 24
modifying 52
view (Writer) 24

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167 Index
 outline levels 111 revision marks 141
properties 52 right-click menu 6
Text body, modify 54 rotate an image 101
using 71 rotate text 134
Paste Special 32
paste text 32 S
PDF save options 22
blank page export 86 scanner 97
bookmarks 86 select text 32
digital rights management selection mode 7
(DRM) 88 sequence number of page 7, 11
e-books 83, 86, 87 shortcut keys
export documents to 83 assign macros to 159
grayscale 83 define 157
image compression and snap to grid 26
resolution 85 sort index 127
initial view 86 special character 74
links 88 spelling options 29
pages to export 85 status bar 6
quality 84 straight quotes 67
security settings 88 styles
tagged 86 apply 64
user interface 87 Apply Style list 72
PDF Options dialog 84 assign to shortcut keys 158
Picture dialog 100 character 72, 132
Picture toolbar 99 Fill Format 73
pictures heading 55
transparency 99 list 77
wrap text around 105 page 46, 57
PostScript 89 paragraph 51, 72
prepare document for review 142 purpose and use 45
preview of fonts 19 save in a template 149
print black 27 sequence 48, 53
print options 20 types 46
print options for Writer 26 Styles and Formatting window 46,
printer warnings 20 72
Professional Template Pack
extension 163
T
tab stop interval 24, 76
protect document 142
table of contents
Q change title 113
quotation marks 67 create from additional styles
114
R create from an outline 113
ragged-right paragraphs 68 create from defaults 109
record changes 142 customize 112
regular expressions 36 delete 119
reject changes 143 edit 119
reminders 12 hierarchy of headings 110
restart page numbering 63 hyperlink entries 116

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Index 168
 number of levels included 113 context-sensitive 4
protect against manual changes customize 5
113 display or hide 5
tab position in entries 117 float or dock 6
update 119 location 4
table options 27 move 5
tagged PDF 86 tooltips 18
template track changes 142
change assignment 155 transparency 83, 99
contents 149 typography 67
create 150
create document from 153 U
create new document from 13 unsaved changes flag 7
default 149, 152 user data 18
edit 154 user-specific settings 22
extensions 151
import 151
V
vertical centering on page 135
predefined 151
View Layout dialog 9
update document styles from
view magnification 8
154
view options 19, 24
Template Changer extension 156,
163 W
text workspace 3
character spacing 133 wrap text around graphics 105
rotate 134 Writer general options 24
vertical centering on page 135 Writer’s Tools extension 163
text boundaries 21
text wrapping 105 Z
toolbars zoom slider 8

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169 Index
Free eBook Edition
About the author

Jean Hollis Weber has over 30 years

of experience as a science writer and
technical editor and writer, mostly in
computing and high technology. She
retired from full-time work in 1999 and
began to self-publish.
In 2002, when she started to use OpenOffice.org 1.0, she
discovered that there was no user guide and that the Help was
poorly written, poorly indexed, and often wrong. Jean put her
years of technical writing experience to work and, with the help
of members of the OpenOffice.org user mailing list, wrote
Taming OpenOffice.org Writer, the first book published on
Writer. This book was published through Lightning Source.
In 2003 Jean became lead editor for OOoAuthors, a group of
volunteers from the OpenOffice.org community who were
writing user guides for the program. In 2009 she became co-lead
of the OpenOffice.org Documentation Project.
Jean has published printed versions of the user guides
through Lulu.com. She has also published books on other topics,
by other people, through Lulu.com and Lightning Source.
Some of Jean’s other self-published books are Electronic
Editing, 1999, and Editing Online Help, 2000. In 2004, O’Reilly
published Jean’s OpenOffice.org Writer: The Free Alternative to
Microsoft Word and Hentzenwerke published her book Is the
Help Helpful? How to create online help that meets your users'
needs.
Jean likes to travel, read science fiction, and write. She
maintains several Web sites, including:
http://jeanweber.com/, for technical editors
http://avalook.com/, for travelers to Australia
http://taming-openoffice-org.com/, for OpenOffice.org users
Jean’s blog is at http://jeanweber.blogspot.com/. For some
reason, she doesn’t find much time to contribute to it.

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Books by the OOoAuthors team

Getting Started with

OpenOffice.org 3 is for anyone
who wants to get up to speed
quickly with OpenOffice.org 3. It
introduces Writer (word
processing), Calc (spreadsheets),
Impress (presentations), Draw
(vector drawings), Math
(equation editor) and Base
(database).
December 2008
ISBN: 978-1-921320-05-7

OpenOffice.org 3 Writer Guide is

for beginners to advanced users
It covers setting up Writer to suit
the way you work; using styles
and templates; working with text,
graphics, tables, and forms;
formatting pages (page styles,
columns, frames, sections, and
tables); printing and mail merge;
creating tables of contents,
indexes, and bibliographies;
using master documents, fields,
and the equation editor (Math);
creating PDFs; and more.
January 2009
ISBN: 978-1-921320-06-4

Friends of OpenDocument Inc. sells these and other books.

Free eBook Edition

http://stores.lulu.com/opendocument