Advanced Features of Writer

ToC
To give the listing of the contents of the document, we can use the Table of Contents
feature, which is based on different types of heading styles.

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When multiple users are working on a single document, the Track Changes feature
can be used to keep a track of the editing being done by each user.

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Table of Contents

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1. Allows inserting an automated table of contents in a document.
2. The entries or contents of this table are automatically taken from the headings

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and subheadings of the document.
3. These contents are hyperlinked in the table. So, by clicking on any topic in the
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table of contents, we can navigate directly to the selected topic.
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Hierarchy of Headings
1. Click on the Styles button from the right sidebar. Click on the Paragraph
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Styles and then Headings. The Styles dialog window will display the list of
headings from Heading 1 to Heading 10
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2. Place the cursor on Heading 1 as typed in the document. Then click on the
Heading 1 from the Styles dialog window
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3. Once the desired heading styles are applied in the document, the same
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hierarchy will be reflected in the table of contents also.

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Creating a Table of Contents (ToC)

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The correct ToC will be generated only if proper paragraph styling for headings is
applied to the document
1. Open the earlier created file “documentation.odt”.
2. Assign proper heading styles to the various headings in the document
from the Styles dialog box
3. Place the cursor at the position where the table of contents is to be inserted.
 4. From main menu, select Insert > Table of Contents and Index > Table of
Contents, Index or Bibliography. The Table of Contents, Index and
Bibliography dialog box will be displayed
5. By default, the Type tab will be selected, with a preview of ToC on the right
side of the dialog box. On the left of the dialog box, is the Types and Title
section. In the Title text box, the default name of the ToC, i.e. Table of
Contents, is displayed. You can change this name, just by typing in the text box
6. The title will be changed in the Preview section

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By default, the checkbox for Protected against Manual Changes option is selected.

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This protects the ToC from any accidental change. If this box is unchecked, then the

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contents of ToC can be changed directly on the document page, just like any other
text on the document.

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In the Create Index or Table of Contents List box, the Entire Document option is
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selected in the For list box
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The Outline checkbox is selected, so the complete outline of the ToC is shown
in the preview. Click and deselect it if you do not want to see it
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7. Click OK button. The Table of Contents will be inserted in the document

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(Moving a mouse pointer over any of the entries will show a tool tip stating to press
Ctrl+click to open hyperlink followed by the heading title)
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Customisation of ToC
1. Right click anywhere on the ToC and select Edit Index option from the popup
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menu.
2. The Table of Contents, Index or Bibliography dialog box will be displayed
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3. The dialog box has five tabs – Type, Entries, Styles, Columns and
Background.
4. The options in these tabs can be used to edit the table in various ways. The
changes made will be reflected in the Preview section of the dialog box.
Type Tab: is active by default after opening the Table of Contents, Entries or
Bibliography dialog box to insert the ToC.
Entries Tab: contains options to set styles for various entries in the ToC.
Styles Tab: contains options to apply the desired styles to the text of each level in the
table of contents. To apply a custom paragraph style to any level, follow the steps
given below

5. Click and select the level from the Levels list box
6. Click and select the desired paragraph style from the Paragraph Styles list box.
7. Click the OK button to apply the selected paragraph style to the selected
outline level. The assigned style appears in square brackets in the Levels

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list and will also be visible in the Preview pane.
8. Click OK button to apply the selected styles.

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To remove the applied paragraph styling, select the desired level in the Levels list
box, and then click the Default button.

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Columns Tab: contains options to set the number of columns that we want to have in
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our ToC.
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Background Tab: Contains options to change the background of the ToC. The
current background color will be displayed in the Active Color window.
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To change the background color:

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1. Click the Color button on the top of the dialog box.

2. Select the desired color from the Colors palette. The selected color will appear
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in the New color window

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3. To add the selected color to the custom palette, click Add Button below the
color palette. Now, the added color can be re-used whenever required.
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4. Click OK to apply the desired color to the ToC

5. To remove the background color from the ToC, click None button present on the
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top of the dialog box.

Maintaining a ToC
Updating the ToC
1. Right-click anywhere in the ToC.
2. From the pop-up menu, select Update Index option. Writer updates the ToC so
as to reflect any changes made in the document.
Deleting ToC
To delete the ToC, right-click on the table and select Delete Index option from the
pop-up menu.

Template
Using templates
- A template is a preset layout that helps to create professional and/or formal
documents easily.

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(Sometimes there is a need to copy specific content including graphics, such as
logo of a company, image of a product or text, such as tag lines of a product or

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a company, legal notices or even headers and footers in multiple documents.)
- Instead of adding and then formatting the objects in all documents, we can use

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templates.
- A template can contain all the features or objects that a regular document can

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contain – text, graphics, styles and can even use any language. In a template
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we can create and save defined headings, text formats, styles, page numbers,
headers and footers
- If no specific template is specified, then Writer uses the default template as
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blank document template for the file being created.

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1.Checking the template of the document

To see what template is associated with a document, select the Properties option
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from the File menu. The Properties dialog box will be displayed Since the document
was created from the
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default template
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2.Create a document with template.

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1. Create a new document from File > New > Templates ...
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2. A template selection window will be displayed. Select a template.

3. Click on Open button, a document with the selected template will open
4. Now check the template of the created document from File > Properties.
Observe that the template name is displayed under Template in the Property
dialog box

3.Creating a Template
 1. Open the document in LibreOffice Writer whose template is to be created.
2. From main menu bar, select File > Templates > Save. The Save As Template
dialog box appears
3. Type the name of the new template (T1) in Template Name text box.
4. Select the category of the template being created. A category is just like a folder
that helps to organize the templates. Some of the categories that can be seen in
the dialog box are My Templates, Business Correspondence, Online Business
Documents and Presentations

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5. Click and select Set as default template checkbox to make the current
template as the default template

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6. Click Save button to save the template.

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7. A template in Writer is saved with an extension .ott. Now this template file can
be used by any document in LibreOffice Writer.

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4.Using In-built/Saved Templates
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Follow the following steps to use a predefined template to style a document.
1. Open the new document in LibreOffice Writer.
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2. From main menu bar, select File > Templates > Manage Templates. You can
also use the keyboard shortcut key Ctrl+Shift+N to open the Templates dialog
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box. The Templates dialog box will be displayed, showing a list of all available
templates
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3. Select the desired template, and click Open button. The new document will be
opened with the same content, appearance and formatting effects as the saved
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template.
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4. Make the desired changes and save the file

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5.Using Online Templates

These templates are installed on the computer, they will appear in Templates window
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1. From main menu bar of LibreOffice Writer, select File > Templates > Manage
Templates.
2. Templates dialog box will be displayed. Observe the small circular icon Browse
Online Templates in the lower left corner above the Help button
3. Click on Browse Online Templates button on the bottom left of the Templates
window (Fig 3.19). The official templates page of OpenOffice Writer
(https://extensions.libreoffice.org/templates) will open in the browse
 1. If you click on any of the templates, you will see the detailed information about
that template.
2. Download the desired template, say Calendar
3. Creator and save it on your computer.
4. Open LibreOffice Writer
5. Click File > Templates > Open Template…
6. From the Open dialog box, browse for the template, that is to be opened, and
click on Open button.

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7. The template file will open.
8. Make the desired changes in the content or appearance.

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9. Save the file

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(Libreoffice.org also provides extensions on

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https://extensions.libreoffice.org/extensions. These are independent programs that
can be added or removed from the main existing application. Some templates are
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available in the form of extensions which can be downloaded and installed on the
computer. )
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6.Importing a Template
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1. Open the Templates dialog box.

2. Click Import Templates button located in the bottom right corner of the dialog
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box. The Select Category dialog box will open

3. To add the new template into any existing category, click and choose that
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category from the list box. Otherwise, click and select Create a New Category
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check box.
4. Type the name of the new category in the text box.
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5. Click OK button. The Open dialog box will appear.

6. Browse for the folder where the downloaded template file was saved.
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7. Select the file and click Open button. The selected file will be added to the list of
templates

7.Editing a Template
1. Click File > Templates > Manage Templates. The Templates dialog box will be
displayed.
2. Ctrl+Shift+N.
3. Right-click on the template that you wish to set as the default template.
 4. From the popup menu, select option Set as Default
5. The default icon will appear on the top left of the template file. The next time you
create a new document by selecting File > New > Text Document, the new
document will use the last edited template.

8.Moving a Template
When you place a mouse pointer on any of the templates in
the Templates dialog box, a tool tip appears displaying the name of the template and

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its respective category.
Move a template from one category to another by following the steps given below.

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1. Open the Templates dialog box.

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2. Click and select the template to be moved.
3. Click Move button.

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4. Select the new category where the template has to be moved.
5. Click OK button. de
9.Exporting a Template
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When a template is exported, it is saved as a template file at any desired location.
Exporting the template is a useful feature for sharing the templates with multiple
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users.
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1. In the Templates dialog box, select the template to be exported.

2. Click on Export button located in the bottom right of the dialog box.
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3. Then the Select Path dialog box appears to select the folder where you want to
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export the template.

4. Select the folder and press on OK button. The selected template will be
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exported in that folder and a confirmation dialog box, will be displayed.

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10.Applying Templates to a blank document

1. Open a new document in LibreOffice Writer by selecting File > New > Text
Document.
2. Select File > New > Templates to display the Templates dialog box.
3. Select the desired template. The template will be opened in a new window.
4. Copy the entire content of the template by using keyboard shortcut key Ctrl+A
for selection and Ctrl+C to copy.
 5. Open the blank document and paste the copied content of the template by using
keyboard shortcut key Ctrl+V.
6. Add or delete the content as desired and save it as a text file.
7. Add or delete the content as desired and save it as a text file.

Once a template is created, it can be applied to an existing document by selecting

Insert >Text From File option. Browse and select the template file that has been
saved on the computer. The selected template will be inserted in the document

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