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