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.)

Saving a Graphic into the Open Office Gallery for Furture Use

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.