Remove Margin Border from OpenOffice Writer Document

Do you find the margin border in Openoffice Writer annoying and want to get rid of it?

Open an OpenOffice Writer Document

                                                            Page with Margin borders

In the page title bar Go to > Tools > Options which opens the Options Window

Click on the plus sign of OpenOffice.org which opens the drop down list.

In the list click on 'Appearance' and to the right of the window un tick 'Text boundaries'  Click 'OK' at the bottom of the window.  This will close the window and remove the margin borders from the writer page.

To show the margin borders again follow the above and tick the box beside 'Text boundaries' and click 'OK' at the bottom of the window. 

Print Grid Line with no Input in Open Office Calc (Spreadsheet)

It possible to print the lines showing rows and columns on a blank spreadsheet.

One way is to open a new Calc (Spreadsheet) and go into Format > Page > Sheet > Tick against Grid in the Print list and click OK. Then put a space in the top left hand cell and the bottom right hand cells of the sheet by placing the cursor in the cell and moving the space bar once or twice to give it something to print.

Do a Print Preview before printing to be sure what is done is correct.

Open Office – Text in a Circle Shape

Open an Open Office Writer document

Go to > View > Toolbars > tick beside Fontwork (This opens a Fontwork Window at left top of page.)

The Fontwork Window has these options available -

Fontwork Gallery – adds another Fontwork object

Fontwork Shape – edits the shape

Fontwork Same Letter Heights – changes the height of characters

Fontwork Alignment – aligns the text

Fontwork Character Spacing – changes the character spacing and kerning

Click on frame with A in centre . This opens the Fontwork Gallery.

Choose a simple font (eg – use the second one in from top left – disregard the shape at this stage.)

Double Left Click on the chosen font. This will close the Fontwork Gallery window and copy ‘Fontwork’ to your document with green handles around it and a yellow dot.

From the Fontwork Window Click on Fontwork Shape to show the drop down box of shapes.

Choose the narrow circular shape (second bottom row and second from right end) by a double left click on it. The word ‘Fontwork’ will change shape..

Double-left click the word ‘Fontwork’ to enter text edit mode. This will bring a line of text reading ‘Fontwork’ in the middle with a flashing cursor to the end of it. (Cursor is not showing in image below)

Select the text in the middle by holding down the shift key and move the cursor back over the the word using the left arrow key so it is highlighted. Now type in new text (Happy Birthday). Double Left click in the word Fontwork. This will change your text and the shape it is.

Click the text in the shape so there are the small green handles around it. Move the cursor over a green handle until the cursor changes to a double ended arrow. Move the arrow to drag out to the circle shape.

With the green handles around the circle click on the text to get a cross with double ended arrows. Using these arrows with the cursor the shape and text can be moved around on the page.

At this stage the colour bar will be added at the top of the page -

which will allow the text colour to be change. The text can have a line colour around it or colour as

Invisible, Colour, Gradient, Hatching or Bitmat. Try the varitations that are here.

The font style can be changed – just double click and highlight the middle text as below and change the font, size, or colour (as above). Click away from the straight text in the centre and the text will return to circle shape.

To increase the gap between words (with the green handles on) hover you mouse over the yellow dot (near the centre dot on the left hand side above) and your pointer will turn into a hand. Click and drag the circle upwards slightly and that will create a bigger gap between the first and last words. Another method to give more space between words (with the text highlighted in the centre) is press the space bar to make a space before or between words.

The number of letters in the text being used and the size of the circle will determine the finished size of the text.

It may be a bit difficult to do some of the steps above at first attempt but persevere and experiment a little using more or less letters in the wording, add extra spaces between words, change the font being used, change colours and more.  Experiment with different shapes.  Have fun!

Once satisfied with the circle of text it can be copied to use in a card programme (if the one you use does not have this capability), to an e mail, or included in a slide show or text document etc.

Open Office Calc (Spreadsheet) Adding Background colour to every second line

If working on a spread sheet there can be advantages to have each second row shaded in a particular colour throughout the sheet. This will stay constant even if rows are deleted or added to the sheet during work on it.

Open an 'Open Office Calc' document

Select any single cell within the sheet to format it with the colour required.

Go to Format > Cells > Background > click on colour required > click on OK

Next step is to give that format a name.  Go to Format > Styles and Formatting >  In the Styles and Formatting Window > click on the 'New style from Selection' Icon (the middle icon at the top right hand corner of the Window). Hover the cursor over the icon and the name will appear to confirm it is the right icon.

In the 'Create Style' Window > Style name > insert a name of the colour to identify the background chosen > click OK. This inserts that name in the list on the Style and Formatting Window. Close the Style and Formatting Window by clicking on the 'X' in the top right hand corner.

Go back to the Spreadsheet and take the format off the chosen cell.  (Format > Cells > Background > choose No Fill > click OK)

Select all cells in the spread sheet either 'Ctrl + A' or Click the blank cell in the top left hand corner of the spread sheet at the intersection of the row and line number.

Now apply conditional formatting to the entire sheet. Go to Format > Conditional Formatting.  In the Conditional Formatting Window > tick the Condition 1 box > in the spin box below that change to 'Formula is' In the box opposite this type in formula  “mod(row()+1;2)=1” without the inverted commas. In the Cell Style from the drop down choose the colour there that was chosen previously for the spreadsheet. Click OK.

Take the highlighting off the spread sheet by clicking somewhere within the spreadsheet and every second row will be the chosen colour.

If intending to use this regularly on new spreadsheets save as a Template.

   Fonts in Open Office

There are options to font display in Open Office that make it more user friendly.

Generally the Formatting Toolbar that shows the font name and font size boxes will be displayed in Open Office Writer and Calc documents.

If not showing, click on the View in the Headings and the drop down will show Toolbars. The side bar menu shows the list of tools bars that can be opened or closed by ticking or removing the tick. One of these is the Formatting Toolbar.

With the Formatting Toolbar open the Font Name box is visible with an arrow to show a drop down list of fonts.

In Tools > Options > OpenOffice.org > View if you have ticked the Font History field and click OK the last five font names that have been selected for the document you are working on are shown in the top part of the combo box. This is a useful option if typing a document that contains a number of changes in fonts being used.

Another option in the Tools > Options > OpenOffice.org > View is to have the names of the fonts formatted in their respective font if you tick in the Preview in Fonts list and click OK. This makes the choice of font to be used easier than if all the fonts are listed in the same default font.

When the current document is closed the font history is cleared from the drop down list.

By ticking the drop down arrow a limited number of fonts is shown. If the first letter of the font being looked for is typed in the name box the list will immediately go to the block of fonts beginning with that name to make selection quicker than scrolling down through all the listed fonts.

Any font changes apply to the selected text or word in which the cursor is positioned. If no text has been selected, the font applies to the next text typed.

Open Office Calc (Spreadsheet) Freeze column labels

If working in a spreadsheet with more rows of information than can be viewed on one sheet, it is possible to keep the headings in view as you scroll down the sheet to view or enter more rows of information.

Enter the headings of the columns in Row 1 Columns A, B, C etc. (EG – Date, Day, Event, etc)  These are called labels.

Enter some detail in Row 2. Select Cell A2 > go to Window on the Menu Bar and from the Drop Down Menu > Click Freeze (this will place a tick beside the word Freeze)

From now on however many rows of the spreadsheet are used the ‘labels’ will remain visible at the top of the sheets to be a guide for reading or entering more information in the sheet irrespective of the number of rows used in the spreadsheet.

Inserting Lines In Open Office Writer Documents Part Of The Way Across A Page

In Open Office Writer it is possible to insert a number of lines of equal length for part of the way across a page which is sometimes a requirement. Open an Open Office Writer document – Go to > Insert > Table (one line and one column) > Click > OK.

This will put a table into your document. Adjust the table to the size of the line length required by hovering the cursor over the end border line to get the double ended arrows and then move the mouse to adjust the size to what is required and move to position required.

Click inside the table to make the insertion point.  Type three or more identical characters from this list –

• minus,
• underscore,
• equals,
• asterisk,
• tilde (sometimes called swung dash),
• hash mark,

at the beginning of a line and then press Enter. In Writer documents this will insert a horizontal line across the page between the set margins. Each key will give a different line style. More than one line can be entered to within the frame by pressing enter after the first line is entered.

The border will still appear to be around the table. To remove > go to Table and from the drop down > click Table Properties > Table Format > Borders Tab > Style > Choose None > click far left square under Default > Click OK. Check by doing Print Preview and the table borders will not be visible or be printed.

To remove the table (minus border) and lines once it is present, > Table > Delete > Table

The same can be achieved with using Insert Frame and adjusting procedures used for frames to insert lines across frame and adding the colour desired to the line/s.

To remove the effect once it is present – > Right click on the frame so the green handles are around the frame > Click > Delete key. This will remove the frame and the lines that were inserted.

Add Colour to the line -

In Open Office Writer the colour of the line may be changed.  Go to > Format > Paragraph > Borders > Line > Colour and select the desired colour from the drop down list. Alternately right click and from the list > Paragraph > Borders > Line > Colour and select the desired colour from the drop down list and click OK.