Insert Multiple Rows or Columns In Open Office (Calc) Spreadsheet

When using an Open Office Calc Spreadsheet additional rows or columns can be inserted by > Insert > and from the Drop Down > Row (or Column). This action can be repeated to insert as many rows or columns as needed.

Alternatively rows and columns can be added by clicking on the icons   on the Tool Bar.

If these icons and the associated icons 'Delete Row' 'Delete Column' are not showing on the tool bar they may be added -

Click on the down arrow at the end of a toolbar for a drop down list -

• Visible Buttons,

• Customise Toolbar,

• Dock Toolbars,

• Dock All Toolbars,

• Lock Toolbar position,

• Close Toolbar.

Beside the name – Visible Buttons is a side arrow which will show a list of icons and the name of their function that could be on this toolbar. The icons that are already displayed on the toolbar will be shown by a grey background to the icon. Click on any of the icons not already greyed to add them to the toolbar. Click on the 'Insert Rows' 'Insert Columns' 'Delete Row' 'Delete Columns' to add them. These will prove very helpful if using Calc regularly.

To add multiple rows to a Calc sheet select multiple rows where you want the new rows to be. Click the row at one end of the range and Shift+click the row at the other. Then Insert Rows will replace all those rows with new empty ones, moving existing rows down.

The Insert Rows can be done by > Insert > Rows or by

Clicking once on the icon on the tool bar.

Additional columns may be added in the same way by using Insert Columns for as many extra columns are needed.

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.

Inserting Lines In Open Office Writer Documents

There are times when you need to insert horizontal lines in an Open Office Writer document. If you 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.  This will insert a horizontal line across the page between the set margins. Each key will give a different line style.

To remove the line once it is present -

Put the cursor at the beginning of the paragraph after the line, and backspace until the line disappears. Then press Enter to separate your paragraphs again, or

Right-click in the paragraph before the line and select Paragraph… | Borders. Under “Borders”click in the leftmost small box, to remove all borders or in the Style List scroll to the top of the list to left click on ‘none’. Press OK.

Add Colour to the line -

The colour of the line may be changed. Writer sees the line as a border attached to and part of the preceding paragraph. With the cursor in the preceding paragraph (or just above the line), go to > Format > Paragraph > Borders > Line > Colour and select the desired colour from the drop down list an click OK. Alternately right click and from the list > Paragraph > Borders > Line > Colour – select the desired colour from the drop down list and click OK.

Saving Documents automatically in Open Office

To create a backup file every time you save a document -

1. Choose Tools – Options – Load/Save – General.

2. Mark > Always create backup copy

If the Always create backup copy option is selected, the old version of the file is saved to the backup directory whenever you save the current version of the file.

You can change the backup directory by choosing Tools – Options – OpenOffice.org – Paths, then change the Backups path in the dialog – Paths used by Open Office.org

The backup copy has the same name as the document, but the extension is .BAK. If the backup folder already contains such a file, it will be overwritten without warning.

To save recovery information automatically every n minutes

1. Choose Tools – Options – Load/Save – General.

2. Mark Save AutoRecovery information every and select the time interval.

This command saves the information necessary to restore the current document in case of a crash. Additionally, in case of a crash OpenOffice.org tries automatically to save AutoRecovery information for all open documents, if possible.

If the need arises to recover a file use the path set as above which wil take you to the ….BAK file.

Paste Special Icon on Tool Bar in Open Office

When pasting data into an Open Office document (Writer, Calc etc) the data may be in a different format to what is required. (For example the copy may contain a link to a site but in the new position it may not need to be displayed as a link)

Options available from Edit drop down are  -

• Paste or
• Paste Special.

Open Office Paste command assumes you want to keep the characteristics of the copied text in the new place.

Paste Special opens a Paste Special window which gives selections such as Open Office Writer, Formatted test (RFT) HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language), Bitmap, GDI Metafile etc depending on where the copy came from.  Select one of these and click OK.

Alternatively there is an icon on the task bar for the Paste command.   There is a down arrow on the right of this icon. Clicking on this arrow will give the Paste Special options the same as if the route > Edit > Paste Special was taken. A click on the format required will paste that format to the new place.

This allows the user to use the icon drop down in preference to going to > Edit > Paste Special which brings up a Paste Special Window from which to select the format required and then clicking on OK.

Open Office – How to Change the Default Font Typeface and Size of Font

You can set the default font in Tools > Options > Text Document > Basic Fonts, but that doesn’t change the size of the font.

To change the size of the default font as well as the font itself, make the change in the default paragraph style. Then make the document into a template and set it as the default template.

Here’s how to do all this:

1. Open a blank document.

2. (Optional) Use Tools > Options > Text Document > Basic Fonts. Select the font from the drop-down lists. Click OK to save.

3. Press F11 to open the Styles and Formatting window. Click the Paragraph Styles icon. Right-click on Default and choose Modify. On the Font tab, set the required typeface and size. Click OK to save.

4. To save this document as a template, use File > Templates > Save. Give the template a name and save it in the Default folder. (You can put it anywhere you like, but that makes it easy to find again.) Click OK.

5. To make this template the default template, use File > Templates > Organize. Select the template you just created, then click Commands > Set As Default Template.

Now any text documents you create with File > New (or the New icon) will have the typeface and size you want.

You can also set margins, spacing, paragraph spacing, printer setup in the default template.

If you want different default fonts or sizes for different types of documents, you can set up several templates and use File > New > Templates and Documents (instead of File > New) to choose one when starting a new document.

Adding an Icon to a Toolbar and Customising the Toolbar in Open Office

When Open Office programme is installed a number of icons are displayed on the toolbars as default.

A click on the down arrow at the end of a toolbar gives a drop down list -

• Visible Buttons,
• Customise Toolbar,
• Dock Toolbars,
• Dock All Toolbars,
• Lock Toolbar position,
• Close Toolbar.

Beside the name – Visible Buttons is a side arrow which will show a list of icons and the name of their function that could be on this toolbar.  The icons that are already displayed on the toolbar will be shown by a grey background to the icon. Click on any of the icons not already greyed to add them to the toolbar.  Delete any not required by clicking on the icon.

It is known that there is generally more than one way to carry out functions on a computer.  Check through the icons available as there may be functions there that would help with work being done by just clicking on an icon on the toolbar.

To add a button to the list of Visible Buttons -

1. Choose Tools – Customise, and click on the Toolbars tab
2.  In the Toolbars box, select the toolbar you want to change
3.  Click Add Commands, select the new command, then click Add.
4  If you want, you can rearrange the Commands list by selecting a command name and   clicking Move Up and Move Down.
5.  Click OK

Adding Line Numbers in Open Office Writer

OpenOffice.org can insert line numbers in an entire document or to selected paragraphs in your document.

Line numbers are included when you print your document. You can specify the line numbering interval, the starting line number, and whether to count blank lines or lines in frames. You can also add a separator between line numbers.

To Add Line Numbers to an Entire Document
1. Choose Tools – Line Numbering.
2. Select Show numbering, and then select the options that you want from the Line Numbering Window that comes up.
3. Click OK.

To Specify the Starting Line Number
1. Click in a paragraph.
2. Choose Format – Paragraph, and then click the Numbering tab.
3. Select the Include this paragraph in line numbering check box.
4. Select Restart at the paragraph check box.
5. Enter a line number in the Start with box.
6. Click OK.

For further information on adding Line Numbering to specific paragraphs go to Open Office Help and type in Line Numbers and click on Display at the bottom left hand of the page.

Perhaps you are wondering why you want to do this – It is often done in legal documents and if you were comparing documents or sending a document to someone for them to check it would simplify making comments by referring to words etc in a particular line.

Open Office Extensions

Like Firefox, OpenOffice also comes with extensions that can be used to improve its functionality.

The site -  http://extensions.services.openoffice.org/application – lists Extensions.

At this page it is possible to view All Extensions or view them as applicable to the various Applications in Open Office (eg Writer, Base, Calc, Draw etc) or by the Highest Rated, Most Popular, Most Recent etc.

People all over the world create these extensions and then provide them for all users of Open Office so it is not uncommon to find extensions that are in a foreign language.

The site includes instructions on installation of extensions as does the Help Files in the Open Office applications.

Open Office – Problem with Opening Files

At times, when double clicking on the desktop shortcut, or even directly on the application in the program files Open Office fails to open. There is no message given. When the computer restarts, it will usually open them but may fail to open later on in the same session.  This could be one possible solution to try.

If you are using a windows machine then probably the soffice.bin has not closed properly from the last session. Open the Windows Task Manager with > Ctrl + Alt + Del > Processes Tab – to see if the process ‘soffice.bin’ is still active. If it is then highlight it and click on End Process.  This will bring up a Task Manager Warning window which requires a click for Yes or No.   Click the Yes to terminate the process.  OpenOffice.org should open normally the next time you try to launch it.

In the Processes tab there may be a number of soffice.bin entries.  To find and end any ‘soffice.bin’  is easiest to do from a list sorted in alphabetical order. Do this by clicking the ‘Image Name’ heading at the top of the list. There may be ‘soffice.exe’ and other Open Office processes, but they should all close when the ‘soffice.bin’ is gone.

Create Text Frames in Open Office Writer

If you are moving from Word to Open Office Writer you may be looking for Text Boxes.  In Open Office Writer Frames are used.  These can hold all kinds of objects including images, graphics, text, formulae and watermarks.

Frames can be placed anywhere on the page.

From the Tool Bar > Insert > Frame. Accept the defaults in the ‘Frame’ Window and click OK. This will put a small rectangle on the page.  This can be resized using the green handles.  Place the cursor on one of the green handles and when it turns to a double arrow drag out to the size required.  If clicking on a corner green handle and dragging, the frame will retain its ratio.

Click inside the frame and begin typing to add text.  Once finished writing, the frame can be moved  wherever you like. Click on the frame border to get the green handles again, and then place the cursor in the frame. With the cursor changed to four arrows the frame may be moved to any position on the page by holding down the left mouse and dragging.  At any time the green handles may be removed by clicking outside the frame.

With the green handles around the frame a double left click anywhere on the frame will bring up the ‘Frame’ window. The Frame window gives tabs for options such as – Type, Options, Wrap. Hyperlink, Borders, Background, Columns and Macro.  Here – set margins, text wrapping, number of columns contained within the frame, borders (set style from list or Choose None), Colour including transparency etc. Remember to click OK to accept the selections.

A single right click on the frame border will bring down a menu list with the selections of Arrange, Alignment, Anchor, Wrap all of which have a further list of selections.  Other items are Description, Frame (which brings up the full frame window) and Cut and Copy.

Printing an Open Office Calc (Spreadsheet) onto one page

If you have an Open Office Calc document that extends over one page and you would like to print it on one page this will make it possible.

With the Calc document open -

Format > Page > Sheet tab > Scale > Scaling Mode > Fit print range(s) to width/height > Set the width to 1 and height to 1 > Click OK

This can be done whether the page is in Portrait or Landscape Orientation.  Suggest expanding the page margrins to get the output as large as possible when starting the project .

Make your own Sticky Notes to Keep in Open Office Gallery

Some documents can be brushed up by pasting sticky notes on the pages. You can create some nice notes in OpenOffice.org without much effort. Save them in the Gallery, and then later you can easily position them to any place In your Writer, Calc and Drawing documents.

Create a container in the Gallery for the sticky notes:
     1.      Open the Gallery.  Tools > Gallery or click on the Gallery Icon (looks like a hanging picture) on the tool bar.
     2.      Left Click New Theme… button to create a new theme. Name it "Sticky Notes" for example.

Create some notes:
   1  In Writer, left click the Show Draw Functions icon on the Standard toolbar. The Drawing toolbar opens next to the bottom of the window.
   2.  Left click the Text icon (with the letter T on it). Then drag a rectangle on the page.
   3.  Enter some text to keep the text box visible. You are in text edit mode now.
   4.  Left click outside the text box to leave text edit mode.
   5.  Left click the text once. Now the text box is selected as an object. You see eight handles to move and scale the text box.
   6.  Right-click inside the text box to open the context menu.
   7.  Choose Area to open the Area Window.  There are tabs here for – Area, Shadow, Transparency, Colours, Gradients, Hatchings and Bitmaps. Make a choice of colour etc and click OK.
   8.  Right-click inside the text box to open the context menu again.
   9.  Choose Line to open the Line Window.  There are tabs here for -Line, Line Styles and Arrow Styles. Choose to set the border properties.
 10.  Right-click inside the text box to open the context menu again.
 11.  Choose Text to open the Text Window.  There are tabs here for Text and Text Animation.
Define spacing between text and borders here and click OK.
Left click outside the text box to leave the selected object.
Double-click the text to edit the text  and choose the font style etc.

Store the sticky note in the Gallery:    Open the Gallery and in the themes open the Sticky Notes theme created earlier.
Use drag-and-drop to copy the text box into the Gallery. This can be a little bit tricky.
   1.  First you must left click the text box to see the eight handles. When you see the handles you know that the object is selected.
   2.  When you just click and drag the object, it will not leave the document's pages. So you must left click the text box and hold down the mouse button for a second or two without moving the mouse. Then, without letting go of the mouse button, start moving the mouse to the Gallery.
   3.    Now you can release the mouse button to drop the text box into the Sticky Notes folder of the Gallery.

Apply a sticky note from the Gallery:
   1.  With a document open, open the Gallery.   Open the Sticky Notes theme.
   2.  Drag-and-drop a text box (also known as a sticky note now) from the Gallery into the document. No need to wait a second when you drag from the Gallery.
   3.  Double-click the text box to edit the text. Select the text and choose Format > Character to open the Character Window for the tabs Font, Font Effects and Position. Change the text color or other character properties and click OK.

By default, the text box is anchored to the paragraph where you dropped it. You can move the text box to another paragraph, and the anchor will follow. You can also change the text box anchoring to be anchored to the page, or to a character.

Alternative Way to Insert a Table

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, 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 enter.

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 doesn’t happen, you might have deactivated the feature in the past. Go to Tools -> AutoCorrect -> Options. Put a check beside “Create table”. Check that Format -> AutoCorrect -> While Typing is enabled also.)