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The Writer interface

The main Writer workspace is shown in Figure

Menus
Menus are located across the top of the Writer window. The main menu selections are File,
Edit, View, Insert, Format, Table, Tools, Window, and Help. When you click one of the
main menu names, a list of related options is displayed.
• File contains commands that apply to the entire document such as Open, Save, and
Export as PDF.
• Edit contains commands for editing the document such as Undo and Find & Replace.
• View contains commands for controlling the display of the document such as Zoom and
Web Layout.
The Writer interface
• Insert contains commands for inserting elements into your document such as headers,
footers, and pictures.
• Format contains commands for formatting the layout of your document, such as Styles
and Formatting, Paragraph, and Bullets and Numbering.
• Table shows all commands to insert and edit a table in a text document.
• Tools contains functions such as Spell check, Customize, and Options.
• Window contains commands for the display window.
• Help contains links to the Help file, What’s This?, and information about the program.

Creating a new document

Creating a blank document
You can create a new, blank document in Writer in a number of ways:
• Press the Control+N keys. A new empty document opens. If you already have a
document open, the new document appears in a new window.
• Use File > New > Text Document.
• Click the New button on the main tool bar .
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Creating a document from a template

You can use templates to create new documents in Writer. Templates serve as the foundation
of a set of documents, to make sure they all have a similar layout. For example, all the
documents of the Writer Guide are based on the same template. As a result, all the documents
look alike—they have the same headers and footers, use the same fonts, and so on.

Once you do have templates on your system, you can create new documents based on them
by using File > New > Templates and Documents. This opens a window where you can
choose the template you want to use for your document.

Opening an existing document

Here is one way to open an existing document in Writer:
1) Click File > Open (or press Control+O).
2) In the file chooser, you can reduce the list of files by selecting the type of file you are
looking for. If you choose Text documents as the file type, you will only see
documents Writer understands.
3) Select the file you want, and then click Open.
Note This method opens Word (*.doc) files, as well as OOo files and other formats.
You can also open an existing OOo Writer document using the same methods you would use
to open any document in your operating system.

Saving a document
There are three ways to save a document in Writer:
• Press Control+S.
• Select File > Save.
• Click the Save button on the main tool bar.
You also can tell Writer to save your document automatically at regular intervals. To enable
this, you must configure OpenOffice.org to save all documents automatically.
1) Select Tools > Options. The Options window appears.
2) Select Load/Save > General.
3) Click on Save Auto Recovery information every. This enables the box to set the
interval. The default value is 30 minutes. Enter the value you want by typing it or by
pressing the up or down arrow keys.

Save Files
1. IF you are working in OpenOffice, you can choose to save the file in either the Microsoft format
or in the OpenOffice format (Click File > Save As. In the “File type:” box, select the format of
your choice.)
2. 2. IF you have opened a Microsoft document in OpenOffice and have made no changes to the
Microsoft document (.doc) and click File > Close, the file will be saved in the Microsoft format,
(.doc) IF you have made changes to the Microsoft document, ( .doc) and click Close, you will
get a choice to Save , Discard, or Cancel.
3. IF you click Cancel, the option of closing is canceled and you will go back into the the
document.
4. IF If you click Discard, the modified Microsoft file that you were working with will be discarded
(will be lost), however the original Microsoft file that you had opened will still be there..
5. IF you click Save, you will get this message:
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Tip To have OOo save documents in a default Microsoft Word file format, go to Tools
>Options > Load/Save > General. There is a section named Default file format. Under
Document type, select Text document, under Always save as, select your preferred file
format.

Exporting to PDF
OpenOffice.org can export documents to PDF (Portable Document Format). This industry standard
Quick export to PDF
Click the Export Directly as PDF icon to export the entire document using the default
PDF settings. You are asked to enter the file name and location for the PDF file, but you do
not get a chance to choose a page range, the image compression, or other options.
Controlling PDF content and quality
For more control over the content and quality of the resulting PDF, use File > Export as
PDF. The PDF Options dialog box opens. This dialog box has four pages (General, Initial
View, User Interface, and Security). Here 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.
Make your selections, and then click Export. Then you are asked to enter the location and
file name of the PDF to be created, and click Save to export the file.

Getting help
Writer provides several forms of help. In addition to a full Help file, you can choose whether
to activate tooltips, extended tips, and the Help Agent.
Placing the mouse pointer over any of the icons displays a small box, called a tooltip. It gives
a brief explanation of the icon’s function. For a more detailed explanation, select Help >
What’s This? and hold the mouse pointer over the icon you need more help with.

Tips and extended tips can be turned on or off from Tools > Options
> OpenOffice.org > General.

PAGE SETUP IN OPEN OFFICE

Open Office’s menus are similar to MS Office’s, but some commands are in different
locations. For example, Open Office considers page layout a format issue, so it is found in
the Format menu (Format > Page) instead of in the File menu Page setup.
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What is Calc?
Calc is the spreadsheet component of OpenOffice.org (OOo).
Calc works with elements called spreadsheets. Spreadsheets consist of a number of
individual sheets, each containing a block of cells arranged in rows and columns.

Starting Open Office Calc.

Starting new spreadsheets

A new spreadsheet can be opened regardless of which other component of OOo you are using
at the time. For example, a new spreadsheet can be opened from Writer or Impress.
From the File menu
Click on the File menu and then select New > Spreadsheet.
From the toolbar
Use the New Document button on the Standard toolbar. (This button is always a page
of text from the current component with a black arrow to the right.) A long-click (click and
hold) on the New Document button opens a submenu from which you can choose
Spreadsheet (or any other type of OOo document). This submenu can also be opened by
single-clicking on the black arrow next to the New Document button.
From the keyboard
If you already have a spreadsheet open, you can press Control+N to open a new spreadsheet.

Opening existing spreadsheets

From the File menu

Click on the File menu and then select Open.
From the toolbar
Click the Open button on the Standard toolbar.
From the keyboard
Use the key combination Control+O.

Saving spreadsheets
Spreadsheets can be saved in three ways.
From the File menu
Click on the File menu and then select Save.
From the toolbar
Click on the Save button on the Function bar. This button will be greyed-out and
unselectable if the file has been saved and no subsequent changes have been made.
From the keyboard
Use the key combination Control+S.
If the spreadsheet has not been saved previously, then each of these actions will open the
Save As dialog box (Figure 6). Here you can specify the spreadsheet name and the location in
which to save the spreadsheet.
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Figure 6. Save As dialog

Note: The default file extension is ods so you need to change it to .xls as shown in above figure.

DataPilot or Pivot Table

DataPilots are Calc’s equivalent to Excel’s Pivot Tables. However there are a number of
limitations. Pivot tables import from Excel into Calc (although the cells do not have the
PivotTable shading),

Inserting notes (“comments” in Excel)

In Excel, a comment could be added by right-clicking on a cell and selecting Insert
Comment from the context menu. Also, a comment in Excel can be edited or deleted by
right-clicking on the cell.
In Calc, there is no context menu selection for inserting a note. A note is inserted by the menu
path Insert > Note.
To edit an existing note in Calc, the same menu path is used (Insert > Note).
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To delete a note in Calc, either:

• Select Insert > Note, then highlight and delete the contents of the note; or
• Press Delete; then from the dialog box, uncheck all items except for Notes.

Use of Autosum feature

The Autosum feature (invoked by clicking on the upper-case Greek sigma) works slightly
differently in one respect in Calc than in Excel.
For either Excel or Calc, you can select an empty cell, generally just below the bottom of a
range containing numbers to be summed (or to the right of a range of numbers to be
summed). When the Autosum button is clicked, Excel or Calc will propose a range to be
summed, which in many cases, is in fact the range the user intended. If this is the correct
range, pressing Enter will enter the SUM function into the cell. If the proposed range is not
what the user intended, the user can highlight the range desired, then press Enter. There is no
difference between Excel and Calc when using the Autosum as described above.
In Excel, you can also first highlight the range to be summed plus one additional blank cell,
then click Autosum. The SUM function will then be entered in the previously blank cell. This
use of Autosum is not available in Calc.

Hidden rows
There is no “select only visible rows” command. Selecting a block of cells with hidden rows
and deleting will delete the hidden rows as well. Work-around: select each visible row
manually before deleting.

Function list
The Function list is a floating or dockable window that provides information about the
available functions. It is an alternative to Functions Wizard. To view it: Insert > Function
List

Printing
Calc and Excel have similar printing functionality, but there are some important differences.
By default, Excel only prints the active sheet. By contrast, Calc will print all of the sheets in
the spreadsheet by default. To direct Calc to only print the active sheets, go to Tools >
Options > OpenOffice.org Calc > Print (see Figure 23). Check the box Print only selected
sheets. You can also check the box Suppress output of empty pages.
Note We recommend selecting both boxes, to print only selected sheets and to suppress
output of empty pages.
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Figure 24: Selecting print options

By default, if no print ranges have been specified anywhere within the spreadsheet, the print
range within a sheet will be chosen as a rectangular area from cell A1, to the lowest right cell
that has content.
If a print range has been specified within the spreadsheet, even on a different sheet, there is
no longer a default print range on any of the sheets. If no print range is established for a
particular sheet, nothing from that sheet will be printed.

If you only want a portion of the spreadsheet to print, you must first specify a print range.
To define the print range (this is the equivalent of File > Page Setup > Sheet in Excel, first
three fields):
1) Format > Print Ranges > Edit.
2) In the Edit Print Ranges dialog (Figure 20), select the desired range for each of the
fields.
3) You can select noncontiguous areas for the print area, with each area being on a
separate page. Each area is separated by a semicolon.

Figure 25: Edit Print Ranges dialog

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Calc provides a page-break view.

• View > Page break preview
Other settings, such as whether to have grid-lines, are done through the page style:
• Format > Page > Sheet
Print preview:
With Excel, a print preview will show what will actually be printed when finally sent to
the printer with the present settings in place. With Calc, the print preview will show the
print ranges from all of the sheets in the spreadsheet, even if it has been specified to only
print active pages.
To print:
1) File > Print.
2) Click Options to change the settings for suppressing blank pages or only the selected
sheets.
3) Other settings are the same as in Excel.
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Starting Open Office Impress

• To start Impress, navigate to the Start Menu and select Programs »» OpenOffice.org 1.9.109 »» Impress.
• The presentation wizard, Auto Pilot will open. There are three options for creating a presentation:
o Empty Presentation
o From template, and
o Open existing presentation

Custom or Empty Presentation

• At window 2, leave the default settings at <original> and screen as output medium. There are two template
designs that you can choose from, however for this tutorial will create a custom background. Click Next.
• Window 3 will give you options for setting transition effects, speed and timing. You can set these options now,
however they can be changed at a later time. Click on the Effect drop down menu and choose an appropriate
transition. The preview window will show how the transition will appear. The speed of the transition can be
adjusted under the Speed drop down menu.

• Click Create to open your new slideshow layout

Normal View
• After clicking Create in the Auto Pilot, Impress will open a blank presentation in " Normal " view. In normal
view, you will see the following:
o A blank slide in the center of the window.
o On the left side, a "Slides" pane that displays thumbnail sketches of all the slides in the presentation in
sequential order.
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o On the right side, a "Tasks" window that provides cascading menu options for:
• Master Pages
• Layouts
• Custom Animations
• Slide Transitions

Alternate Views
• In addition to " Normal " there are several other views available for previewing your presentation.

• Normal View -This view is where you will create and edit your presentation.
• Outline View - This view shows the titles of all the slides in an outline form. You can change or add titles by
clicking to the left of the outline bullet.
• Notes View - This view allows you to add notes about slides. The notes will not show in the presentation,
but will print on the handouts.
• Handout View -This view allows you to create handouts for your presentation. You can create handouts
with 1 to 6 slides per page.
• Slide Sorter View -This view allows you to preview your presentation slides as thumbnails. You can insert,
delete, copy and move your slides around in this view.
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Layouts, Text, and Slides Design Templates and Images

This section describes how to apply a layout; insert, format, This section describes how to use Design Templates to chan
and delete text; and insert and delete slides. the appearance of your slides. It also describes how to insert
manipulate images on your slide.
Design Templates

To insert and format text in a slide :

• You can add additional text boxes by clicking on the text box icon located on the bottom tool bar. Place the
cursor inside the presentation and create a rectancle text box. Click inside the box and begin typing your text.

• You can add artistic text by clicking on the Fontwork icon. This option is similar to Microsoft's WordArt.
• The Fontwork Gallery will open. Click on you preferred text format and click OK.

Drawing Tools
This section is an introduction to tools on the Drawing toolbars. The drawing tools allow you to create your own visual
effects within Impress. The toolbars are located on both the top and the bottom of the Impress screen.
• To view the Drawing toolbar, go to View->Toolbars->Drawing. Click on Drawing so that a check mark appears
beside it on the menu.

Printing and Saving

This section describes how to print different versions of your Impress presentation. Preview your presentation before
printing to insure that the design, layout, and notes are as you like them.
• To print notes, handouts, or outlines:
o Go to File->Print. Click on the Options button in the bottom left side of the window.
o The Printer Options window will open. Under the Content section, click on the desired format that you
would like to print.
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Creating a PDF file

• To print your presentation to a PDF file:
o Go to File->Print. Click on the drop-down menu besides Name and change the printer to Adobe PDF.
Click OK.
o NOTE-You can also export your presentation as a PDF file. See the Export section below.

Saving as PowerPoint
Impress allows you to save your document as a PowerPoint (.ppt) file.
• Go to File->Save As.
• In the Save As window, navigate to Save as type: Click on the drop-down menu and choose the option:
Microsoft PowerPoint 97/2000/XP.ppt
• Name your file and choose the save destination. Click on Save
Your file can now be opened by Microsoft's PowerPoint software.
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Exporting as Alternate Formats

Impress will allow you to export your presentation into many different file formats.
• Go to File->Export
• In the Export window, navigate
to File format:
• Click on the drop-down menu
and choose from the many
options.
• Name your file and choose the
save destination.
• Click on Save

Glossary

Presentation : The primary type of file Impress is used to create. Presentations typically have the file extension .ppt
(PowerPoint files); however, you can also save Impress presentations as Adobe Acrobat documents with the file
extension .pdf. Finally, you can save your presentation as a web page, with the file extension .html or .html.
Slides : Individual parts of a presentation. Slides are similar to the individual pages in a print document, and can contain
text, graphics, and animation.
Layout : The specific arrangement of text and images on a slide. Layouts can be very simple, consisting of simple titles
and text, or they can be more complex and include elaborate colors and images. You can also include animation,
sounds, and other multimedia objects in your layout.
View : OpenOffice Impress has three main views: normal view, slide sorter view, and slide show view. Normal view is
the main editing view. Slide sorter view is an exclusive view of your slides in thumbnail form, helpful for rearranging the
order of your slides. Slide show view takes up the full computer screen, like an actual slide show presentation. In this
full-screen view, you see your presentation the way your audience will.
Design Template : The specific look of a slide or group of slides. A design template can be very basic - with black text on
a white background - or it can be very colorful and complex. Typically, Impress presentations have the same design
template for all slides, although it is possible to select a different design template for each slide.
Slide Show : The way a presentation appears when you are presenting it. When you display your slides in a slide show,
the slides typically take up the whole screen, and they appear in sequence.
Placeholder : Boxes with dotted or hatch-marked outlines that appear when you create a new slide. These boxes act as
placeholders for objects such as the slide title, text, clip art, charts, and tables. Placeholders are sometimes called text
boxes.
Sizing handles : Small circles that appear along the edges of the selection rectangle around an object on your slide. You
drag a sizing handle to change the shape or size of an object. To maintain the proportions of an object while resizing,
simply drag a corner handle.