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Open Office – Writer, impress, calc

Open office is a package which can be used for various purposes such as creating
documents, making presentation, maintaining records etc. It is open source
software.
Created by Apache

Word Processor
It is a package that processes textual matter and creates organised and flawless
document.
E.g. Open Office Writer, MS Word, Abiword, Liber Office Writer etc.

Features of word processor

1. Fast – because there is no mechanical carriage movement.
2. Editing – easily changeable or easily add something to document.
3. Permanent storage – can be saved and used later on.
4. Formatting features – changes the display style of text. E.g. bold, italic,
underline etc.
5. Graphics – inserting images or various drawings in it.
6. OLE (Object Linking & Embedding) – For inserting files like – audio, video,
equations, pictures etc.
7. Spell check – Automatically checks spelling and grammar.
8. Mail merge – To print a large number of letters/documents with more or
less having similar text.

WYSIWYG  What You See Is What You Get.

Various Components of Open Office Writer

1. Title Bar- Located at top of screen and displays name of document and
application. Extension of writer is .odt
2. Menu bar –It lists various menu options.
3. Formatting toolbar – Used for formatting document.
4. Standard Toolbar- Most frequently used commands.
5. Ruler Bar – to format the alignment of text. Also used to position the tab.
6. Status bar- Displays information like page number, column number or line
number.
7. Scroll bar – To scroll up or down to the page.
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8. Work area – The area where we can write.

Word wrap When a word does not fit on a line, it automatically flows to the
beginning of the next line. This process is called word wrap.
Enter Key
1. Used to end a line
2. End or change paragraph
3. Create a blank line.

Non Printing Characters (Shortcut  Ctrl+F10)

The character that do not print anything on a document. It just gives a blank
space and moves the cursor also.
1. Enter Key
2. Space bar
3. Tab
To show and hide non printing character-
Enter -->
Space bar --> .
Tab --> 

Creating, Saving & Closing a document

To create a new document Ctrl+N
save – Ctrl+S
Save as  Ctrl + Shift +S
Close --> File close
Quit  Ctrl+Q  File-> Exit

Editing and Formatting text

Bold  ctrl + B
Italic  Ctrl + I
Underline  Crtl + U
Double Underline  Ctrl + D
Font size --> Drop down list of font size which is there in formatting toolbar.
Max size 96
Min size 6
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Text colour  default  black  Change by font colour button

Margin: Distance in between the text and the edge of the paper.
1. Left - distance between left edge of paper and text
2. Right - distance between right edge of paper and text
3. Top – distance between top edge of paper and text
4. Bottom - distance between bottom edge of paper and text

Columns in writer
Format  Page  Column tab

Indentation: It is the distance in between text and page margin.

1. Positive indentation – Text should be inside margin
2. Negative indentation - Text should be outside margin
3. Hanging indentation – Text start after a space from the last written line.

Text Alignment - It refers to the arrangement of text within document.

1. Horizontal
a. Left – Ctrl + L
b. Right - Ctrl + R
c. Centre - Ctrl + E
d. Justify - Ctrl + J
2. Vertical
a. Top
b. Middle
c. Bottom
d. Justify

Line Spacing
It is height of line of text including extra spaces with the line. To increase or
decrease the space in between two or more lines.
Format  Paragraph  Indent and spacing  Line spacing
1. Single
2. One and half
3. Double
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Page Orientation
How the text will display on a document i.e. length-wise or width-wise.
Format  Page  Page Tab Orientation option
1. Portrait  when text is written length-wise.
2. Landscape When text is written width-wise.

Headers and Footers

In this we can write text or can insert graphics such as page number, date,
company logo that is usually printed at the top or bottom of each page in a
document. Header is printed in the top margin and footer is printed in the
bottom margin of a page. Both are available in Insert menu.
Insert  Header
Insert  Footer
Or from Format Page  click header or footer

We may insert required things in header or footer box or can insert different
option available in Insert fields.

Editing a document
Editing a document means to change the content of a document. Before editing a
document it is necessary to know how we can navigate to the document, how to
select the text and how copy or move.

Navigating a document
Navigating a document means moving around in a document. To edit at a
particular place in a document we need to navigate to that particular place. For
this various keys and key combinations can be used.

Cursor movement: It is done by 4 cursor keys – left, right, up, down (← → ↑ ↓).
In addition to these cursor keys there are other key & key combination through
which we can navigate to the document.
Home – Beginning of the line
End – End of the line
Page up – One screen up
Page down – One screen down
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Ctrl + Home - beginning of the document

Ctrl + End - end of the document.
Ctrl + right arrow - Move word by word to right side of a document from the
cursor.
Ctrl + left arrow - Move word by word to left side of a document from the cursor

Scrolling through mouse: To scroll through mouse we need to use scrollbars and
scroll buttons with the help of mouse buttons.

Inserting or overtyping in document: It can be used by pressing the insert button

from the keyboard whose status is shown below in the status bar. If we want to
overtype some word then turn insert mode off.
If status is showing INSRT it will insert new things and previous things will be
shifted right and if status is showing OVER text will be overtyped.

Undo & Redo: Undo used for undoing most recent actions. However if we want
to undo an undo action we have to use redo. These are available in the Edit
menu. It can also be done by using the Undo and Redo button available in the
standard toolbar.
Undo  Ctrl + Z
Redo  Ctrl + Y

Text Selection: Before performing any operation on a block of text it needs to be

selected. It can be done by using the mouse or by using keyboard. Selection can
be done in various ways through mouse:

Shift + Right Arrow – One character to the right

Shift + Left Arrow - One character to the left
Ctrl + Shift + Right Arrow – To the end of the word
Ctrl + Shift + Left Arrow - To the beginning of the word
Shift + End – To the end of the line
Shift + Home – To the beginning of the line
Shift + Down Arrow – One line down
Shift + Up Arrow – One line up
Ctrl + Shift + Down Arrow – To the end of the paragraph
Ctrl + Shift + Up Arrow - To the beginning of the paragraph
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Shift + Page Down – One Screen down

Shift + Page Up – One screen up
Ctrl + Shift + Home – To the beginning of the document
Ctrl + Shift + End - To the end of the document
Ctrl + A – Select All
Rectangular area – Press ’Ctrl+Shift+F8’ and arrow button from the beginning of
the character

Selection Using Mouse:

Character – Drag mouse over character
Word – Double click over word
Line – Click on beginning of the line and drag to end of the line or click 3 times
anywhere in a line.
Paragraph – Click 4 times anywhere in a paragraph
Entire document – Click on beginning and drag to end
Rectangular area – ALT + drag over area

Copying : Select the text and copy it using various options available so that it
can be used in other places.
Select text and use Short cut is Ctrl + C
Select text and click copy button from standard toolbar
Select text and click on copy option available in Edit menu
Select text then right click using mouse over it and then select copy option.

Moving: Moving anything from one place to another. To move we have to cut it
from the original place and place it somewhere else.
Select the thing, and to cut shortcut key is Ctrl + X.

Paste: To place something at your desired place which who have either copied or
cut from somewhere.
Shortcut is Ctrl + V.

Deleting: Select the thing and delete it.

Either use delete button or backspace or cut option.

Formatting of a document
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It can be done 3 ways:

1. Character format
2. Paragraph format
3. Page Format
All are there in Format menu.

Character Format:
Format  Character

Superscript  when text is to be written below the base line.

Shortcut is Shift + ctrl + P
Or
Format  Character  select position superscript.

Subscript  when text is to be written above the base line.

Shortcut is Shift + ctrl + B
Or
Format  Character  select position subscript.

Changing case in writer

Format  Change case
Format  Character Font effect  effects.
1. To lowercase – all the characters changes to lowercase.
2. To uppercase or capital – all the characters changes to uppercase.
3. Title or Capitalize every word – All the first alphabets of each and every
word becomes capital and rest are in small case. E.g. My Name Is Rajiv
4. Small Capital – All the characters are in capital but the size 1st character in
every word is larger as compared to all the next alphabets. E.g. H ELLO WORLD
5. Toggle case – Changes smaller alphabets to capital and vice versa.
6. Sentence case – Every alphabet of first sentence is in capital and rest are in
small.

Changing font/text colour

Format paintbrush
It is used to quickly change the formatting of a text by using some other text.
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Select the formatting of text which you want to copy

Click on format paintbrush icon located in standard toolbar
Select the text whose formatting you want to change. Text will be
formatted as like above.

Font Higlighter
To set the background colour behind a text.
Format  Character  Background tab  select the colour
Or
By using font highlighter button in standard toolbar.

Paragrapgh formatting

Text alignment
Format  paragraph  alignment

Paragraph Indentation
Format  Paragraph  Indent & spacing
It can also be increased by using increase and decrease indent

Line Spacing
Format  Paragraph  Line spacing.

Spacing between paragraph

Format  Paragraph  Indent & spacing tab  Spacing

Border within a paragraph

Format  Paragraph  Borders  select the border style
Below types of borders can be applied in paragraph.
No border
All border
Left & right border
Top and bottom border
Only left border
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Page Formatting

Page size
By default paper format is A4
Default Size is 29.7 cm height and 21.0 cm width
To change this
Format  Page  Page tab  paper format

Page orientation
Format  Page  Page tab  Orientaion

Page Margin
Format  Page  Page tab  Margin
or from ruler bar

Header and footer

Format  Page Header tab
Format  Page Footer tab

Numbering Pages
Click on Header or footer and then go to Insert Fields  Page Number

Page Border and Shading

Format  Page  Borders  select the border style
Below types of borders can be applied in paragraph.
No border
All borders
Left & right border
Top and bottom border
Only left border

Column in Writer
Format  Page  Column tab

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Grammar and Spell Check Utility : It provides feature to check any grammatical
or spelling mistakes in a document. It has 2 ways:
1. AutoSpellCheck option: If it is activated writer will check automatically any
grammatical or spelling mistakes in a document. Writer will automatically
underline the grammatical or spelling mistakes in a document.
2. After creating a document, you can search for mistakes on your
document.

AutoSpellCheck option:
 Activate this by clicking on auto spell check icon in standard toolbar.
 Right click on the word with red wavy line which shows wrong spelling.
 Choose the correct word from the hints.
 Or you can add that particular word in the dictionary so that when you will
type that word again it will not going to show you the error.

After creating a doc, you can search for mistakes on your document.
Go to Tools  Spellings & Grammar option: It will start checking your document
from the beginning and when any error in encountered the spellcheck dialog box
will open along with different words as a suggestion.
F7 is shortcut of spelling and grammar option

Red wavy line  wrong spelling

Green wavy means  there is a grammatical mistake

Print preview and print a document: Print preview means to look at how our
document is going to be look alike after printing it in a page whereas printing a
document means converting the soft copy of a document in hard copy or simply
we can say printing it in a page.
Shortcut of print is Ctrl+P or select print option from the file menu.
To view the preview use page preview button from standard toolbar or select
print preview from the file menu.

During printing there are several options such as:

All pages: prints all the pages of a document.
Pages: prints the selected pages only.
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Reverse order option: It prints the pages in reverse order.

No of copies: It can be used for printing multiple copies of a document.

Typing special symbols:

It can be used for inserting various special characters in a document which is not
there in the keyboard. Steps are:
1. Bring the cursor to the position where you want to insert the special
symbol.
2. click on Insert Menu  Special characters
3. select you desired symbol
4. Click on ok button.

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List
List is a collection of similar objects.
List in open office are of these types:
1. Bullet list
2. Numbered List
3. Nested List

How to create list

1. By using the icons of bullet and numbered list in formatting toolbar.
2. Click on Format menu  Bullets and numbering
3. Shortcut key numbered  F12, bullet  Shift+F12

Bullet list – List of collection of similar object which do not have a proper
sequence. It contains some symbols rather than a sequence.

Numbered List- List of collection of similar objects which have a proper

sequence. For e.g. sequence can be of 1,2,3….. or i,ii,iii ….. or a,b,c….. etc

Nested List : List which is inside some other list is called nested list.
 To create nested list use increase or decrease indent button on formatting
toolbar.
 Create a bullet list then right click on the list where you want to insert a
nested list then select the option ‘down one level’
Formatting List- To change the nested list pattern. Select the list and click on
Format  Bullet and numbering then select your desired list type.

Inserting Graphics in Writer

There are 2 ways to insert graphics in open office writer:
1. Drawing objects
2. Pictures

Drawing Objects – It includes auto shapes, curves, lines and graphic text. These
are parts of open office writer. To do this click on View Toolbars  Drawing
After clicking on above path:
 Click the shape you want to insert
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 Drag it to the desired space in writer

 Your desired shape will be drawn.

Inserting Graphics Text Art (Fontwork)

It is used to insert different types of predefined fontwork in a document. It can
can be inserted from fontwork gallery option.
1. View  Toolbar  Fontwork
2. Click fontwork gallery icon present in drawing toolbar.

Inserting pictures in Open office writer

It can be done in 2 ways:
1. By using Insert  Pictures From File
In this way we can insert any picture that is stored in our computer system or in
some other storage device.

2. Inserting it from open office gallery

It can be done by clicking on gallery icon on standard toolbar. Once the gallery
is opened, you can drag and drop a picture from various available categories to
your file. It is there in Tools menu as well.
Image using gallery can be inserted by right click on desired image  select
insert  select copy/link.
In copy if any changes is made in original one it will not reflect to the copied
image whereas in link option changes made in original image will reflect in
inserted image.

Formatting of a picture can be done by:

Right click on picture  Select Picture option Set the changes in different
tabs as required and press ok.

Auto formatting: The formatting which is applied to the open office document
automatically. To activate or deactivate auto formatting in OO writer use the
path Tools  AutoCorrect  Options

If you type three or more hyphens (---), underscores (___) or equal signs (===)
on a line and then press Enter the paragraph is replaced by a horizontal line.

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If you press + then a space bar then write down something and press Enter it
will be automatically converted to Bullet list.

Automatically converted to Numbered list if you press 1 then a space then

write down something and press Enter.

Track Change in OO writer, Review and Comment

It is helpful in tracking the change in our open office document.
1. To enable this use Edit  Changes  Record
2. Insert the changes in the document. It will be written in different colour so
that it will be identified easily.
3. To protect the changes made in document click on Edit  Changes  Protect
Record  then type password then press enter. So that no one can apply,
delete, reject your changes.
4. Put you cursor inside the text which you have inserted to change. To give a
comment in a change Edit  Changes  Comment
5. To accept or reject the changes click on Edit  Changes  Accept or reject
as per provided date and time in changes that we have made.

Find and Replace

Find is used to find something on a document. For this we can use find icon
located in standard toolbar or we can use shortcut ctrl+F.

Find and replace option is used to find anything and replace it with other.
Short of find and replace is ctrl+F.

For both we can use Find & Find All or Replace and Replace All.

Table in Open Office writer

Table is collection of different cells arranged in different rows and columns.

We can create table in OO writer by three ways:

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1. By using table icon located at standard toolbar.

2. By using the Insert menu  Table
3. By using the shortcut ctrl+12
4. By using the table menu. Table  Insert  Table
After that give the name of the table, numbers of rows, numbers of columns and
press OK button.

To move cursor in table we can use cursor keys or tab(move to next cell) key or
shift+tab(to previous cell).

To insert a row Right click above the place where you want to insert rows then
select insert option then write down numbers of rows required then press OK.

To insert a column Right click on the place where you want to insert coulms then
select insert option then write down numbers of rows required then press OK.

To delete a column Right click on the column which you want to delete then
select delete option.

To delete a row Right click on the row which you want to delete then select
delete option.

To merge cells select the cells the right click select cells  select merge

To split a cell right click on it  select cell  select split  select horizontal or
vertical then write down in how many parts you want to split.

To auto format a table to set default style of tables we can use:

Table Menu  Auto format  Select any style  Click OK.

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