Alternative Way to Insert a Table in OpenOffice Writer

While you can insert tables via the Insert->Tables functions, you can also insert a one row table by typing the syntax -

+----------+--------------------+-----------+

onto a new line and the moment you press enter after the last +, the line gets converted into a table, and the “+” characters are turned into vertical lines.

The row height of the table can be increased when you are within a cell of the table by pressing the enter key. The width of the cells in the table can still be altered by placing the cursor over the dividers in the cells until the cursor changes to the line with two arrow heads and 'Adjust table column' appears. Change the column width by moving the cursor.

The advantage of a table entered using the above is that you have a visual of what the width of each cell of the table will be as you do the above.

(Note - If that conversion does not happen, you might have deactivated the feature in the past. Go to Tools -> AutoCorrect -> Options. AutoCorrect Window comes up. Under the Options tab put a check beside “Create table”. Check that Format -> AutoCorrect -> While Typing is enabled also. Click OK at bottom of window to close window)

Saving a Graphic into the Open Office Gallery for Furture Use

(This blog was written for versions of OpenOffice up to Version 3.4.0)

If you have a graphic that you may want to use later you may put it in the Open Office Gallery.  The graphic can be something that has been downloaded from the Internet or received in an e mail etc.  If it can be copied from there to an Open Office document it can then be placed into the Open Office Gallery.

Open the Open Office document containing the graphic.  If the Gallery isn't showing, open the Gallery by choosing Tools > Gallery or left clicking on the Gallery icon in the Toolbar.

From the list of themes on the left had side of the Gallery, select the theme category you want to put the graphic into in the Gallery.

If you want to make a new theme, click New Theme at the top left of the Gallery window.  In the 'Properties of New Theme' window that opens, type the new name and click OK.  Then left click on that theme to select and open it in the Gallery.

Select the graphic that you want to put in the Gallery.

• Left click on it and release the mouse. (This leaves the green boxes around the graphic.)
• Now left click on the graphic and hold the mouse down on the graphic.
• Keep holding down for at least two seconds. Do not release the mouse.
• Drag the graphic into the gallery and release the mouse.
• The graphic is now stored in the Gallery.

The graphic may later be copied into an Open Office Writer, Calc, Presentation or Draw document which all have a Gallery Icon.

The graphic can also be copied from the Gallery to an Open Office Writer document and from there be copied and used in an email, a Word programme or Card Making programme etc.

The size of the graphic can be altered by selecting it with a left click. This puts the green handles around it. Clicking on a any of the green squares  brings up a double ended arrow and the graphic can be dragged in or out to resize it.  If one of the corner green squares is selected the  arrow may be dragged in or out and this will keep the perspective of the graphic.

A click on the body of the graphic  produces double arrows and the graphic can be moved to another position the page by dragging on it with the mouse.

Sub menus and Tear-off Toolbars in Open Office

(This blog was written for versions of OpenOffice up to Version 3.4.0)

Some toolbar icons have a small black triangle but clicking on them gives different results.

When you click on that triangle, either a sub menu or tear-off toolbar appears, depending on the tool.   A sub menu gives a list. Try this on an Open Office Writer document - Click on the 'New' icon triangle and a list appears showing all the Open Office documents that can be opened by clicking on a particular one (ie Text Document, Spreadsheet  etc.)  The list disappears immediately you click on one item from the list as the selection opens that particular selection or it will disappear if the cursor is clicked anywhere on the window away from the list.

Note the difference if you click on the small triangle at the 'Font Colour' icon.  What happens then is that a window with the a title bar - 'Font Colour' appears. This is what is called a Tear-off Toolbar.  At this stage it is possible to choose a colour, click on it and any highlighted text in the work you are doing will take on the selected colour.  The Font Colour window immediately disappears.

Say you want to go ahead and make a number of changes to other words in your document. Place the cursor on the header bar (Font Colour) of the window and drag the window down to the side of your work area.   Release the mouse and the window will stay where it is placed until you click on the 'X' in the top right hand corner of the window.

The tear-off Toolbars can be without a title header.  Try clicking the small triangle of an icon in the  Drawing Toolbar – the window that results has a bar  with three small lines in the centre. This may be either at the top or the bottom of the window depending on the version of Open Office being used.  A blue bar appears when the cursor is placed over the lines.  By holding the left mouse button down and dragging the cursor the window can be moved and the title of the window appears. These windows have a triangle on the bar which when clicked will display a sub menu. Click on Visible Buttons on the sub menu and the list that comes up shows the names of the contents of that window.

The tear-off tool bars can be floating or docked along an edge of the screen or in one of the existing toolbar areas. To move a floating toolbar, drag it by the title bar.

Microsoft Word also contains Sub menus and Tear-off Tool bars.

Extended Tips in Open Office

(This blog was written for versions of OpenOffice up to Version 3.4.0)

You can enable extended tips for all icons on the tool bars every time your cursor hovers over one of them by choosing Tools > Options. This opens the  Options OpenOffice.org -  General window > Click on the plus beside OpenOffice.org to open the drop down.   Click on  General and under Help on the right hand side of the window tick the box for Extended tips and then click OK at the bottom of the window.

You may not want to have extended tips on all the time so follow the procedure above and tick in the box for Tips and then OK at the bottom of the window and the name only of the icon will show when you hover the mouse over the icon.

You can enable an extended help text for every icon just for a limited time. Press the keys Shift and F1 and point the mouse to an icon. You see the extended help text. This mode is valid until you click anywhere else or press the Esc key.

Open Office - Using the Direct Cursor

(This blog was written for versions of OpenOffice up to Version 3.4.0)

The direct cursor allows you to enter text anywhere on a page.

Instead of pressing the Enter key a number of times to move the cursor down the page in Open Office Writer, the direct cursor allows you to click in any blank area of a page to place text, images, tables, frames, and other objects at that position.

At any position on the page if you place the direct cursor approximately in the middle between the left and the right margins of a page or a table cell, the text you insert will be centered. Similarly, text is left - aligned when the direct cursor is placed on the left margin or the right margin to right align.

To set the behavior of the direct cursor, choose Tools - Options - OpenOffice.org Writer - Formatting Aids.  Place a tick in the Direct Cursor box – Click OK to close the Options -  Formatting Aids Window.

A click in a free space in the text document and the mouse pointer changes to reflect the alignment that will be applied to the text that you type:

OpenOffice automatically inserts the required number of blank lines, and, if the options are enabled, tabs and spaces.

It may take a little time to get used to using the direct cursor.

Open Office - Export part of a long document as PDF

(This blog was written for versions of OpenOffice up to Version 3.4.0)

If you have the need to send only a page or part of a long "file.odt" to someone this can be done as a "page.pdf".

Click on >File then >Export as PDF and the window PDF Options opens.

The first option on the General tab at upper left shows Range.  Here the options are All, Pages, or  Selection. There are further refinements that can be made on this tab. Make the choices required and Click on Export at the bottom of the window and save the new PDF to where you want to keep it.

There are other Tabs in the PDF Options for further refining under these headings -

• Initial View
• User Interface
• Links and
• Security

Page Layout in Open Office – Using Sections

(This blog was written for versions of OpenOffice up to Version 3.4.0)

Open Office Writer provides several ways for control of page Layouts.
1. Page Styles
2. Columns
3. Frames
4. Tables
5. Sections

A section is a block of text that has special attributes and formatting.  Use sections to
1. Write protect text
2. Hide text
3. Dynamically insert the contents of another document
4. Add column, margin indents, background colour or background graphic to a portion of the document

To create a section:
1. Place the cursor at the point in the document where the new section is to be inserted. Or select the text that  is to be placed in the new section.
2. From the main menu, choose Insert > Section.  The Insert Section dialog opens.
3. Click on the Sections tab (if it is not already displayed)

The Insert Section dialog has five tabbed pages.
Use the Sections page to set the section's attributes
Use the Columns page to format the section into columns
Use the Indents page to set indents in the right and left margins of the section
Use the background page to add colour or a graphic to the section's background.
Use the Footnotes/Endnotes page to customize the section's footnotes and endnotes
At any time you can reset a tabbed page to its default setting by clicking the Reset button.

Using the Section page to set the attributes of the current section -
Naming Sections
Writer automatically enters a name for the current section in the top box of the New Section area.  To change the name, type over it.  The name is displayed in the sections category of the Navigator window.  If you give you sections meaningful names,  you can navigated them more easily.

Linking Sections
You can insert the contents of another document into the current section and then have Writer update the section whenever the other document is updated.  This is called linking the section to the other document.

Note :  The section when created appears as a one line area.  Place the cursor into the section and paste text or write text into the section area. The section will expand and divide the text equally between the columns you have set within the section. Graphics (from Photographs, Clip Art etc) can also be inserted into sections.

To make changes to the section go to Format > Sections > Options > OK and change previously set attributes or Click on Remove > OK.  This deletes the section but leaves the text or whatever had been included in the section which leaves you with the option of deleting that content or leaving it as it now is.

The advantage of using sections over columns is that a section takes up only as much space on the page as the content requires, whereas when a column is set it controls the whole of the page.

Open Office Extension Lorem Ipsum

(This blog was written for versions of OpenOffice up to Version 3.4.0)

This free extension to Open Office generates Lorem ipsum text. Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry.

Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book.  It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged.  Why do we use it?  It is a long established fact that a reader will be distracted by the readable content of a page when looking at its layout. The point of using Lorem Ipsum is that it has a more-or-less normal distribution of letters, as opposed to using copied or typed text in readable English.

To read further about Lorem Ipsum see - http://www.lipsum.com  (Example of Lorem Ipsum - Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit.)

The extension Lorem Ipsum can be downloaded from - http://extensions.services.openoffice.org/node/287

When the extension is installed (It appears as an Icon on the tool bar) the option is given to generate a set number of paragraphs, words, bytes or lists.

Open Officer Writer - Random Text Generator

(This blog was written for versions of OpenOffice up to Version 3.4.0)

There are two ways to generate a paragraph of random text in Open Office Writer.

One way is to use the Open Office Extension 'Lorem Ipsum'.

Another way in a  Writer document is to enter the letters "dt" - (dummy text) without the quotes and click the F3 key and a block of text is inserted.

The difference with this method and Lorem Ipsum text is that this method gives readable text whilst Lorem Ipsum makes dummy text.  It is claimed that a reader is distracted by the readable content of a page when looking at its layout.

The font type and font size can be set before typing in the “dt” and the insertion will be in that font and size.

Short Cut to Increasing Font Size Repeatedly in Open Office Writer

(This blog was written for versions of OpenOffice up to Version 3.4.0)

(This blog was written for versions of OpenOffice up to Version 3.4.0)

Perhaps you are designing a quick poster in Open Office Writer and want to repeatedly increase or decrease the font size. The usual method would be to go to the drop down in the formatting tool bar for the font size and change there

.  There is a short cut available to increase / decrease by increments of two points.  Go to View > Toolbars > and see that the Formatting Tool bar has a tick beside it to make it active.  At the end of the Formatting tool bar click on the drop down arrow > click on > Visible Buttons > scroll down and click on 'Increase Font' icon.  Repeat this for the 'Decrease Font' icon.  This will put icons for each of these on the Formatting Tool bar. These are both an Upper case 'A' – one with a small upward arrow (for increase) and the other with a small downward arrow (for decrease).

As typing is being done, a click on the icons will change the font size for the next word/s typed.  One click on the icon will give a two points increase – two clicks will increase by four points.

The same can be done on MS Word. Look at the Help file there for how to.

Open Office Calc – Pasting a Body of Text to a Cell

(This blog was written for versions of OpenOffice up to Version 3.4.0)

If you have had occasion copy a few lines of text and then paste that text into a single cell of Open Office Spreadsheet you may find the text is pasted one line at a time in a number of rows instead of all in the one cell as you wanted it to be.

One way to overcome this is to copy the lines of text, go to the Spreadsheet and click into the cell where the text is to be copied  > give the space bar a single tap > then  paste (Ctrl + V)  The text will all be contained in the one cell.

If you are pasting to a series of cells you may find that on subsequent occasions when the space bar is tapped a highlighted body of text (the previous pasted text) will appear in the cell.  Just disregard this and paste (Ctrl + V) the current body of text.  This will take the place of the text that appeared highlighted in the cell.

To understand this do a trial of copy and paste.

Open Office Spreadsheet – Deleting from a Cell or Cells

(This blog was written for versions of OpenOffice up to Version 3.4.0)

Save a bit of time and effort when working on an Open Office Spreadsheet and needing to delete the contents from a cell. Click the cell (to make the cell active) - Pressing on the Del(ete) key on the Keyboard brings up the Window 'Delete Contents' with a list of options – Delete all, Text, Numbers, Date and time, Formulas, Notes, Formats, Objects.  Generally from Text down to Notes have a tick in the boxes beside them.  Click on the OK button and all contents of the cell will be removed.

A much easier and quicker way is available. Click in the cell (to make the cell active) – then press the Backspace Key on the Keyboard (instead of the Del(ete) key on the keyboard). This clears the contents of the cell.

If you want to clear a number of adjacent cells - hold the Shift Key down and select all the cells you want to clear (this highlights all the cells) – then press the Backspace Key.  The contents of all the cells selected will be deleted.

Wrap Text Beside or  Around a Picture - Add Space Between Picture and Text

(This blog was written for versions of OpenOffice up to Version 3.4.0)

Insert a picture in an Open Office text document (Insert > Picture > From File (choose picture))  This will insert picture into the document. Right click on the picture (this will place small green markers around the picture) The cursor will change to four arrows – hold down shift key and move picture to place left centre or to the right of the page. (If you intend having text on the page it is perhaps easier to insert the text on the page before putting the picture on the page.) There are options for wrapping text around the picture. Right click on the picture (this will place small green markers around the picture) then > Format > Wrap > gives the options – Wrap Page – Optimal Page Wrap – Wrap through. After selecting the option, add the text required.

It is possible to add some space between the text and the picture whether the text is above, below, or to right or left of the picture. Right click on the picture and from the list select 'Picture' which will bring up the Picture Window with a number of tabs across the top. Select 'Wrap'. At the top of the window the various options for the wrap are shown. At the bottom of the page under Spacing are listed – Left, Right, Top, and Bottom all with options of setting the spacing. Depending on where the picture is placed set one or more of the spacings chosen. Click OK and this will wrap the text around the picture as chosen.

Slightly different options are available if a graphic is inserted. After inserting the graphic right click to place the handles around the graphic. The graphic can be moved the same way as a picture can. Right Click on the Graphic and from the list go to Wrap and in the side list to this, the wrap options are listed again but at the bottom of the list is Edit. A click on this gives an Edit Window which shows the Wrap Options and at the bottom the Spacings list with options to select for each the same way as with the picture.

This is only a limited list of effects available for pictures and graphics. Frames, flip (vertically and horizontally) background fill (for graphics) rotate are just a few. Insert a picture and and graphic and do some experimenting.

It may help to first set help options to show 'Extended Tips' - (Tools > Options > OpenOffice. Org > General > Tick 'Extended tips' to the right > Click OK.)

(This blog was written for versions of OpenOffice up to Version 3.4.0)

If you change margin settings on a lot of documents used, it is possible to set these margins as your default (Opening that way each time)

To do this, you need to create a new template with your preferred margins.

1. Open a new document of the appropriate type eg Writer or Calc etc.

2. Go to Format > Page... > Page, and adjust the margins as desired > Click OK.

3.  Go to File > Templates > Save..., and in the Templates window - give your new template a recognizable name, and click OK to save it.

4.  With the document still open - Go to File > Templates > Organize...and in the left hand side of the Template Management window double click > My Templates > Click the name of the template just saved and then click Commands drop down arrow and from the list click > Set As Default Template.

In future, when you create a new document it will have the margins you have  chosen.

If for some reason you wish to not use the default page settings for a particular document it it possible to change the margins for that particular document by > Format > Page and from the Page Style: Default window click on the Page tab and in there alter the margins as required for the document being done and click OK.