The Tiny Guide to OpenOffice.org [illustrated edition] 9781930919662, 1930919662

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The Tiny Guide to OpenOffice.org

Benjamin Horst

Hentzenwerke Publishing

Published by: Hentzenwerke Publishing 980 East Circle Drive Whitefish Bay WI 53217 USA Hentzenwerke Publishing books are available through booksellers and directly from the publisher. Contact Hentzenwerke Publishing at: 414.332.9876 414.332.9463 (fax) www.hentzenwerke.com [email protected] The Tiny Guide to OpenOffice.org By Benjamin Horst Technical Editor: Solveig Haugland Copy Editor: Farion Grove Copyright © 2004 by Benjamin Horst All other products and services identified throughout this book are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies. They are used throughout this book in editorial fashion only and for the benefit of such companies. No such uses, or the use of any trade name, is intended to convey endorsement or other affiliation with this book. All rights reserved. No part of this book, or the ebook files available by download from Hentzenwerke Publishing, may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except that program listings and sample code files may be entered, stored and executed in a computer system. The information and material contained in this book are provided “as is,” without warranty of any kind, express or implied, including without limitation any warranty concerning the accuracy, adequacy, or completeness of such information or material or the results to be obtained from using such information or material. Neither Hentzenwerke Publishing nor the authors or editors shall be responsible for any claims attributable to errors, omissions, or other inaccuracies in the information or material contained in this book. In no event shall Hentzenwerke Publishing or the authors or editors be liable for direct, indirect, special, incidental, or consequential damages arising out of the use of such information or material. ISBN: 1-930919-66-2 Manufactured in the United States of America.

This book is dedicated to my grandfather, Walter Danielsen, one of the first computer programmers at AT&T, and an excellent role model for a life of family and community service. ―Benjamin Horst

Table of Contents Introduction...............................................................................................1 OpenOffice.org Features and Market Context..................................1 Purpose of this Book.........................................................................4 How is OpenOffice.org Related to StarOffice?.................................4 Migrating from Microsoft Office to OpenOffice.org........................4 The Five Fears of Migrators..............................................................6 Getting Started...........................................................................................8 Acquiring OpenOffice.org................................................................8 Installing OpenOffice.org.................................................................9 OpenOffice.org Overview.......................................................................10 System Requirements......................................................................10 Creating New Documents...............................................................11 Opening Recent Files......................................................................11 Toolbars and Object Bars................................................................11 Long-Clicking and Moving Menus.................................................12 Using OpenOffice.org’s Built-in Help System...............................12 Page Layout—Portrait or Landscape..............................................12 Using Portrait and Landscape Pages in the Same Document..........12 Margins and Alignment...................................................................13 Rulers and Units..............................................................................13 AutoCorrect.....................................................................................14 AutoSave.........................................................................................14 Undo and Redo...............................................................................14 Zoom View.....................................................................................14 Batch Conversion to OpenOffice.org Formats................................14 PDF Export.....................................................................................15 Password Protecting Documents.....................................................15 Opening Corrupted Files.................................................................16 Printing............................................................................................16 Page Preview...................................................................................17 Using OpenOffice.org’s Navigator.................................................17 Using OpenOffice.org’s Stylist.......................................................18 Using the Gallery............................................................................19 Creating Templates.........................................................................20 The Template Directory..................................................................21 Accessibility....................................................................................21 Keyboard Commands......................................................................21 OpenOffice.org on Mac OS X........................................................21 Writer......................................................................................................22 Interface Overview..........................................................................22 Creating a New Text Document......................................................23 Online Layout View........................................................................23 General Text Formatting.................................................................23 Word Count—Document and Selection..........................................23

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Line Spacing and Double Spacing..................................................24 Finding and Replacing Text............................................................24 Inserting or Linking Graphics.........................................................25 Wrapping Text Around Graphics....................................................25 Adding Space Around Graphics......................................................25 Creating Borders Around Graphics.................................................26 Placing a Graphic in the Background..............................................26 Anchoring Graphics........................................................................27 Using the Graphics Gallery.............................................................27 Creating Captions for Graphics.......................................................27 Inserting Footnotes and Endnotes...................................................27 Inserting Page Breaks......................................................................27 Inserting Headers and Footers.........................................................28 Page Numbering..............................................................................28 Inserting Page, Date and Other Fields.............................................28 Entering Your Name and Address for Reuse..................................28 Specifying Document Title and Other Information.........................29 Saving in Microsoft Word Format..................................................29 Saving in Microsoft Word Format by Default................................29 Opening Microsoft Word Files.......................................................30 Opening WordPerfect Files.............................................................30 Using and Creating Styles...............................................................30 Using the Spellchecker....................................................................31 The Grammar Checker Situation.....................................................31 Using Paste Special with Formatted and Unformatted Text...........32 Non-Contiguous Text Selection......................................................32 Creating Lists..................................................................................32 Inserting Tables...............................................................................33 Table AutoFormatting.....................................................................33 Deleting Tables...............................................................................34 Creating Charts...............................................................................34 Rotating 3D Charts..........................................................................35 Creating Columns...........................................................................35 Creating Frames..............................................................................36 Entering Text in a Frame.................................................................37 Controlling Text Flow Between Frames.........................................37 Creating Floating Frames................................................................37 Inserting Notes................................................................................38 Adding Hyperlinks..........................................................................39 Editing Hyperlinks..........................................................................39 Generating a Table of Contents.......................................................40 Creating a Bibliography..................................................................41 Using Document Version Control...................................................41 Tracking Changes...........................................................................42 Word AutoCompletion....................................................................42

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Calc..........................................................................................................42 The Calc Interface...........................................................................42 Creating a New Spreadsheet...........................................................43 Entering Values...............................................................................43 Saving in Microsoft Excel Format..................................................43 Opening Microsoft Excel Files.......................................................44 Opening Delimited Text Files as Spreadsheets in Calc...................44 Formatting Cells..............................................................................45 Quick Number Formatting..............................................................45 Using AutoFormat for Spreadsheets...............................................45 Entering Formulas...........................................................................46 Using Calc Functions......................................................................46 Calculating a Sum...........................................................................47 Creating Graphs or Charts in Calc..................................................48 Modifying Graphs or Charts in Calc...............................................48 Creating Cell Comments or Notes...................................................49 Autofilling Rows or Columns.........................................................49 Selecting All Cells...........................................................................50 Selecting Non-Contiguous Cells.....................................................50 Inserting and Deleting Rows and Columns.....................................51 Resizing Rows and Columns..........................................................51 Split Window View.........................................................................51 Freezing a Spreadsheet Region.......................................................52 Inserting Headers and Footers.........................................................52 Protecting a Cell..............................................................................53 Protecting a Sheet............................................................................53 Removing Protection From a Cell, Sheet or Document..................53 Inserting Data Source Data.............................................................53 Adding and Reordering Sheets........................................................54 Using Styles in Calc........................................................................54 Specifying a Print Range.................................................................55 Using the Page Style Window to Specify How a Spreadsheet Will Print.........................................................................................55 Printing Selected Sheets, and Printing Only Pages With Content...56 Impress....................................................................................................56 Getting Started................................................................................56 Turning Off the AutoPilot...............................................................56 Adding Templates for Impress........................................................56 Creating a Template........................................................................57 Impress Interface.............................................................................57 Adding Slides..................................................................................58 Creating Slides................................................................................58 Running a Slide Show.....................................................................59 Slide Viewing Options....................................................................59 Using Master Slides........................................................................60 Editing the Master View for Presentation Notes.............................61

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Using Styles in Impress...................................................................61 Switching a Presentation's Template...............................................61 Inserting Graphics...........................................................................62 Adding Gallery Graphics to a Presentation.....................................62 Creating Drawings on Slides...........................................................63 Working with Layers.......................................................................63 Creating Slide Transition Effects....................................................63 A Self-Running Kiosk Presentation................................................64 Using Slide Show Sound Effects....................................................64 Applying Effects to Objects and Text.............................................64 Customizing Slide Shows...............................................................65 Live Mode Editing..........................................................................66 Exporting as Flash or PDF..............................................................66 Saving in Microsoft PowerPoint Format.........................................67 Opening Microsoft PowerPoint Files..............................................67 Presentation Printing Options..........................................................67 Draw........................................................................................................68 Vector vs. Raster Drawing..............................................................68 The Draw Interface.........................................................................69 Creating a New Drawing.................................................................69 Modifying the Page Size and Orientation.......................................69 Inserting a Graphic..........................................................................70 Exporting Drawings to Other Formats............................................70 Creating Shapes and Lines..............................................................70 Creating Three-Dimensional Objects..............................................71 Modifying a Shape’s Attributes......................................................71 3D Attributes for 3D Objects..........................................................72 Precise Object Positioning..............................................................73 Rotating Text and Objects...............................................................74 Converting 2D Text and Objects to 3D...........................................75 Arranging Object Layers.................................................................75 Cropping an Image..........................................................................75 Placing Drawings in Other Documents...........................................75 Math........................................................................................................76 The Commands and Selection Windows.........................................76 Inserting a Math Object into a Document.......................................77 Running Math Independently..........................................................77 OpenOffice.org Math vs. TeX........................................................77 MathML Support in OpenOffice.org...............................................78 Creating a Formula..........................................................................78 Inserting a Formula from Math.......................................................78 Working with Fonts in Math...........................................................78 Web.........................................................................................................79 Creating HTML Files......................................................................79 Creating HTML Documents from Templates.................................79 Opening an HTML Document........................................................79

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Creating an HTML Template..........................................................80 Inserting a Horizontal Line.............................................................80 Inserting a Table..............................................................................80 Inserting Notes................................................................................81 Viewing and Modifying HTML Source..........................................81 Inserting Graphics...........................................................................81 Updating File Links........................................................................81 Creating Hyperlinks........................................................................81 Data Sources and Forms..........................................................................82 Working with Data..........................................................................82 Creating a Data Source....................................................................83 Editing Data....................................................................................84 Sorting Data....................................................................................84 Filtering Records.............................................................................85 Searching Records with a Query.....................................................85 Using the Form AutoPilot to Create a Form...................................86 Creating a Form from Scratch.........................................................87 Specifying a Data Source for a Control Using the AutoPilot..........87 Form Controls and Customizations.................................................88 Using a Form...................................................................................88 Creating a Mail Merge Letter Using the AutoPilot.........................88 Creating Labels Using Data Sources...............................................89 Macros, Scripting and APIs.....................................................................89 Finding Macros ..............................................................................89 Installing Macros.............................................................................90 Placing a Macro in a Toolbar Button..............................................90 Recording Macros...........................................................................90 Editing Macros................................................................................91 Using Macros..................................................................................91 Invoking Macros via Keystroke or Toolbar....................................91 Using OpenOffice.org Basic to Write Macros................................91 Using Microsoft Office Macros......................................................92 More Macro Documentation...........................................................92 Scripting OpenOffice.org................................................................92 API: The Application Programming Interface................................92 Where to Find More Information............................................................93 Books..............................................................................................93 Mailing Lists...................................................................................94 Web sites.........................................................................................94 Corporate Support...........................................................................95 Getting Involved in the OpenOffice.org Project......................................95 Index........................................................................................................98

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Our Contract with You, the Reader In which we, the folks who make up Hentzenwerke Publishing, describe what you, the reader, can expect from this book and from us.

Hi there! I’ve been writing professionally (in other words, eventually getting a paycheck for my scribbles) since 1974, and writing about software development since 1992. As an author, I’ve worked with a half-dozen different publishers and corresponded with thousands of readers over the years. As a software developer and all-around geek, I’ve also acquired a library of more than 100 computer and software-related books. Thus, when I donned the publisher’s cap seven years ago to produce the 1997 Developer’s Guide, I had some pretty good ideas of what I liked (and didn’t like) from publishers, what readers liked and didn’t like, and what I, as a reader, liked and didn’t like. Now, with our new titles for 2004, we’re entering our seventh season. John Wooden, the famed UCLA basketball coach, posited that teams aren’t consistent; they’re always getting better—or worse. We’d like to get better… One of my goals for this season is to build a closer relationship with you, the reader. In order for us to do this, you’ve got to know what you should expect from us. ► You have the right to expect that your order will be processed quickly and correctly, and that your book will be delivered to you in new condition. ► You have the right to expect that the content of your book is technically accurate and up-to-date, that the explanations are clear, and that the layout is easy to read and follow without a lot of fluff or nonsense. ► You have the right to expect access to source code, errata, FAQs, and other information that’s relevant to the book via our Web site. ► You have the right to expect an electronic version of your printed book to be available via our Web site. ► You have the right to expect that, if you report errors to us, your report will be responded to promptly, and that the appropriate notice will be included in the errata and/or FAQs for the book. Naturally, there are some limits that we bump up against. There are humans involved, and they make mistakes. A book of 500 pages contains, on average, 150,000 words and several megabytes of source code. It’s not

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possible to edit and re-edit multiple times to catch every last misspelling and typo, nor is it possible to test the source code on every permutation of development environment and operating system—and still price the book affordably. Once printed, bindings break, ink gets smeared, signatures get missed during binding. On the delivery side, Web sites go down, packages get lost in the mail. Nonetheless, we’ll make our best effort to correct these problems— once you let us know about them. In return, when you have a question or run into a problem, we ask that you first consult the errata and/or FAQs for your book on our Web site. If you don’t find the answer there, please e-mail us at [email protected] with as much information and detail as possible, including 1) the steps to reproduce the problem, 2) what happened, and 3) what you expected to happen, together with 4) any other relevant information. I’d like to stress that we need you to communicate questions and problems clearly. For example… ► “Your downloads don’t work” isn’t enough information for us to help you. “I get a 404 error when I click on the Download Source Code link on www.hentzenwerke.com/book/downloads.html” is something we can help you with. ► “The code in Chapter 10 caused an error” again isn’t enough information. “I performed the following steps to run the source code program DisplayTest.PRG in Chapter 10, and I received an error that said ‘Variable m.liCounter not found’” is something we can help you with. We’ll do our best to get back to you within a couple of days, either with an answer or at least an acknowledgement that we’ve received your inquiry and that we’re working on it. On behalf of the authors, technical editors, copy editors, layout artists, graphical artists, indexers, and all the other folks who have worked to put this book in your hands, I’d like to thank you for purchasing this book, and I hope that it will prove to be a valuable addition to your technical library. Please let us know what you think about this book—we’re looking forward to hearing from you. As Groucho Marx once observed, “Outside of a dog, a book is a man’s best friend. Inside of a dog, it’s too dark to read.” Whil Hentzen Hentzenwerke Publishing November 2004

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Acknowledgements Thanks are due to Whil Hentzen and Solveig Haugland, my publisher and technical editor, respectively, for their roles in creating this book. I would also like to thank every member of the OpenOffice.org project, from those I work with daily to those I’ve never met, for creating such a superb product and such an effective community that reaches every part of the globe. Christian Einfeldt and Rain Breaw deserve special thanks as some of my closest collaborators and supporters. Thanks also to other authors of OpenOffice.org-related books, FAQs, online Help pages, manuals, and more. We’re all a part of the same team, with the same goal. I hope my book is as useful to others as your works have been to me!

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About the Author Benjamin Horst lives and works in the computing technology field in New York City. He is a graduate of Vassar College (Class of 1999), where he studied Geography, and the Harvard University Graduate School of Design (Class of 2001), where he earned his Master in Urban Planning degree. Horst has been working with OpenOffice.org, coaching users, and supporting the software since shortly before version 1.0 was released. A member of the Marketing Project, he worked at the OpenOffice.org booth at Comdex 2003 and spoke on Microsoft Office to OpenOffice.org migration strategies at its Open Source Innovation Center. He introduced OpenOffice.org and open source software to thousands of participants at the National Hispanic Women’s Leadership Conference in Los Angeles in the spring of 2004, and has continued promoting OpenOffice.org at other events and venues. Horst is active in a number of volunteer projects and entrepreneurial activities. He can be contacted via his Web site at www.solidoffice.com.

Solveig Haugland is an author and instructor located in Lafayette, Colorado. Her company, GetOpenOffice.org, does training, consulting, and learning materials for StarOffice and OpenOffice.org. Solveig is the author of several StarOffice and OpenOffice.org books, including StarOffice Companion and OpenOffice.org Resource Kit. In her spare time she hikes, goes swing dancing, and plays Texas Hold’em.

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The Tiny Guide to OpenOffice.org Introduction This chapter describes the OpenOffice.org project, its history and context, and summarizes some of the software’s unique features. It also explains the purpose of this book, and the process of migrating from Microsoft Office to OpenOffice.org, while addressing the issues important to individual and corporate switchers.

OpenOffice.org Features and Market Context What is OpenOffice.org? OpenOffice.org is a full-featured office and desktop productivity suite of applications, including components for word processing, spreadsheets, slide show presentations and vector drawing. It also includes database connection, HTML editing, mathematical equation editing, and advanced scripting capabilities. As an open source program, OpenOffice.org can be downloaded and shared without charge from the project Web site. Its source code is available for any person or group to examine, study or modify for their own purposes or to share back with the project. OpenOffice.org is moving from a position of viable competitor to Microsoft Office and WordPerfect Office, to the new default choice in many markets. Non-profits, university students, small businesses and governments make up the early adopters and today's core userbase. Meanwhile, OpenOffice.org is moving rapidly into the mainstream for computer users in all sectors of the market and in every country. OpenOffice.org is gaining momentum around the globe for many good reasons. It is the only office suite available on all major computer platforms—Windows, Linux, Mac OS X—as well as many smaller ones (Solaris, FreeBSD, BeOS, and so forth). It is available in 75 languages and counting (Microsoft Office has about 20). It contains unique features not available from competitors—for example, one-click PDF export, Flash export, the most advanced text styling capabilities, and a full-featured vector drawing component. The data format of OpenOffice.org files is a compressed XML format, fully documented and articulated; programs other than OpenOffice.org are welcome to read and write in its format. Already, Abiword and KOffice, for example, are Introduction

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implementing this key capability. Corrupted files, while very rare, can be opened with a zip program to rescue the data within. Finally, OpenOffice.org can read and write Microsoft Office formats (Word, Excel and PowerPoint), in many cases more accurately than various versions of Microsoft Office itself.

Project History The OpenOffice.org project dates to October 2000, when it was launched by Sun Microsystems through the donation of an earlier incarnation of StarOffice. Today’s StarOffice is now based on the OpenOffice.org code developed by a worldwide community of volunteer programmers, testers, marketers and other specialists. The original StarOffice was developed by StarDivision of Hamburg, Germany, beginning in 1985. When StarDivision was purchased by Sun in 1999, our current odyssey began. Today, the OpenOffice.org Web site sees millions of visits and provides up to 300,000 downloads of the software every week. Twentyfive million total downloads in the project’s first three years, combined with lab installations, CD distribution and further sharing, have led to a userbase estimated at 40 to 75 million at the beginning of 2004.

Languages The number of languages in which OpenOffice.org is available is constantly increasing. The Localization Project (http://l10n.openoffice .org/) translates the software, with approximately 75 language localizations currently complete enough for normal end-users. The native language projects provide support mechanisms for OpenOffice.org user and developer communities around the world, including organizational support to facilitate the translation done by local speakers of each language, as well as user support mailing lists and developer resources. The latest information can be found at the NativeLang Confederation page at http://native-lang.openoffice.org/.

Software Licenses OpenOffice.org is distributed according to a dual-licensing strategy. The LGPL (Library or Lesser General Public License) and SISSL (Sun Industry Standards Source License) are simultaneously attached to the code. Any person or organization can choose to use the software according to the terms of either or both licenses. The LGPL allows anyone access to the source code, but requires that enhancements made to that code must be shared according to the same terms as the LGPL itself. The SISSL allows for commercial software products, notably Sun’s

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StarOffice, to be derived from the OpenOffice.org codebase. Taken together, this dual-license provides great code freedom for developers and users of OpenOffice.org. A part of this freedom is permission to actually sell copies of OpenOffice.org on CD or other format, with some responsibilities attached so that purchasers can also enjoy the same freedom when they inherit a copy of the code.

What’s Next for OpenOffice.org As of this writing, the current version of OpenOffice.org is 1.1.2. Version 2.0 is under development with a release scheduled for 18 months after the release of 1.1 (which occurred in September 2003). Focus in 2.0 is on improving interoperability with Microsoft Office, overall usability, performance and programmability, further improving stability, easing administration and deployment, enhancing features for Asian and Complex Text Layout languages, and enhancing collaboration tools. The Mac OS X version will become a full peer of the other platform versions and language localizations will continue to be added. Startup time and document open and save time will be drastically improved. OpenOffice.org will improve its graphical user interface to match better with GNOME, KDE, Windows and Mac OS X’s Aqua. Since version 2.0 is still a long way off, it is too early to know what other features and improvements will be added, but you can always give feedback to the developers by signing up with the proper project mailing lists.

New Components (Groupware, Database) A groupware project is developing an open source mail, contacts, calendar, to-do list and IM server as a companion to OpenOffice.org. The OpenGroupware.org project is headquartered at www.opengroupware.org. Its client component, Glow, is found at the OpenOffice.org Web site (http://groupware.openoffice.org/glow/). Like OpenOffice.org, OpenGroupware.org began as a proprietary product that was later open sourced, hence the project is about one year old but already has a very workable product that can be downloaded for free and is supported by a sizable community of users and developers. While version 1.1 (and 1.0) of OpenOffice.org include database connection and form functionality, the method is not intuitive for many users. A separate database component similar to Microsoft Access or Filemaker Pro, but with greater connectivity to external databases, is slated for inclusion in OpenOffice.org 2.0. Current functionality will be given a new user interface with the intent of making it more accessible and logical for users of the software.

Introduction

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Purpose of this Book The Tiny Guide to OpenOffice.org is intended as a quick reference for skilled users of OpenOffice.org, the starting point for those who don’t have time for a large manual, and a general reference for home users who won’t need all the features this software star has to offer. It’s also designed as a companion to some of the other fine manuals on the market, many of which were written by friends and OpenOffice.org project volunteers.

How is OpenOffice.org Related to StarOffice? OpenOffice.org’s open source code forms the base of StarOffice. OpenOffice.org is dual-licensed under the LGPL and SISSL licenses, allowing users of the software to use and redistribute the software under either or both licenses. The SISSL permits companies to build a proprietary product from the OpenOffice.org source code as long as a fully open source reference implementation of its file formats is available. StarOffice has chosen to use the SISSL, and because StarOffice uses the very same file formats as OpenOffice.org, the open source reference implementation is OpenOffice.org itself. In the future it is possible that other OpenOffice.org-derived office suites will come to exist, and the phrasing of the licenses ensures their relationship to OpenOffice.org will be equivalent to the StarOffice-OpenOffice.org relationship today. File format compatibility is the paramount concern (to allow universal interoperability), and it is guaranteed by the licensing terms enacted.

Migrating from Microsoft Office to OpenOffice.org Millions of people are migrating from Microsoft Office to OpenOffice.org in 2004 alone. The pace of migrations has been continuously increasing, as the great advantages of OpenOffice.org gain more and more public recognition. Upgrading to OpenOffice.org is simplified by the fact that it can readily coexist on a computer where Microsoft Office has already been installed. There is no need to uninstall Microsoft Office, which means that one can begin using OpenOffice.org on simple tasks as a means of becoming familiar with it. However, it is recommended that users remove the Microsoft Office crutch after about three months of dual office suite use. This final leap, small though it may be, is a necessary psychological step ensuring that if a user has a problem with OpenOffice.org in the future, he or she will take the time to learn how a task is done in OpenOffice.org rather than switching back to the old known technique in Microsoft Office.

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For small businesses making the switch, it is likely that some employees will rebel against using something new and unfamiliar. (This same attitude crops up even when changing from an older to a newer version within the Microsoft Office family!) However, sharing management’s reason for the switch with employees can help to create “buy-in” and enthusiasm. Employees should be given copies to install and familiarize themselves with at home, even before the office switch occurs. Documentation should be liberally distributed, and online and built-in Help resources introduced to all. Also, volunteers can be solicited as the first upgraders, who will learn by doing and then share their newfound skills with other company employees as they are moved along the upgrade chain. One of these can specialize in document conversion for legacy files, and be tasked with converting archives into OpenOffice.org’s formats as a means of future-proofing valuable data. Furthermore, because of the great financial effect of no licensing fees for OpenOffice.org, a company can take some of that savings and offer $50 or $75 to the first third or half of employees who volunteer to begin the migration. Information and tricks specific to the company should be collected and shared on an intranet site or a bulletin board where everyone can contribute wisdom as well as learn new techniques. Finally, online documentation and mailing lists should be emphasized as the first place to research problems, sparing a company’s internal IT staff for other matters. Students stand to gain a great deal most immediately. Typically on a tight budget, and without legacy documents that need conversion, OpenOffice.org is clearly a better choice from a financial perspective. The version of Microsoft Office designed for students only includes the three basic components (and has no provision for PDF export, a staple interchange format on campuses) yet remains about $150 per copy. Most students can switch to OpenOffice.org in the time it takes to download and install it. Campus networks and computer-savvy friends or roommates should make using OpenOffice.org an easy task. Campus LUGs or IT groups can distribute it on the network or on CD-Rs for the cost of the blank media. Organic sharing as occurs on campus networks is anticipated and encouraged by the developers of OpenOffice.org. Finally, non-profit organizations and the public sector tend to have very limited funding and a strong responsibility to their constituents that every expense be tightly controlled. They cannot favor any particular vendor, and instead must choose their software tools based on criteria of cost and functionality. OpenOffice.org and other open source applications are ideally suited for the use of non-profit and public sector users around the world.

Introduction

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The Five Fears of Migrators Students and small businesses can make the upgrade from Microsoft Office to OpenOffice.org without the concerns that are likely relevant to larger organizations. Among their concerns about making the switch, most can be summarized by the Five Fears discussed here. Each one of these fears has a rational counterargument that should prove persuasive.

1. Fear of the Unknown Most people are resistant to change; even if they wholly support the end goal, the necessity of a change may be stressful. To counter this, a company should contact other companies, non-profits and government agencies that have already completed the process. Their experiences and successes will ease employees’ fears. Companies can also benefit from their own employees who enjoy experimenting with new technologies. Allow them to self-select as the early adopters within your organization. They can then act as encouragement and informal support for the rest of the office when it follows shortly thereafter.

2. Fear of Legacy Document Conversion An organization with stacks of archives in a tightly controlled file format may feel tied to it. That such power is held by one fickle supplier of software shows the danger of not moving to OpenOffice.org’s open XML file formats as soon as possible! A company should appoint an individual or team to specialize in document conversion. This team will test conversion methods and develop a protocol for corporate adoption. The occasional manual changes required will be carried out most uniformly if the process is left to a smaller group charged with this specific task. Yet one more payoff of upgrading to OpenOffice.org will become apparent during this step: The very same document saved into OpenOffice.org’s format will require far less disk space, making for lighter demands on office file storage servers and quicker e-mailing and sharing of documents in any context. The same document data, in OpenOffice.org’s format, typically occupies about one-third the disk space it requires when saved in a Microsoft Office format.

3. Fear of Training Costs The third common fear concerns the cost and time of training. In truth, a switch from Microsoft Office to OpenOffice.org is no larger a step than from an older to a newer version of Microsoft Office itself. However, trainers are available and may make sense for a larger office environment. See www.getopenoffice.org for more information on

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trainers. Also, plentiful documentation is recommended. Many books and Web sites with online documentation are mentioned at the end of this Guide. The software’s built-in Help, and OpenOffice.org’s users mailing list, will also fill this need. Finally, total immersion is recommended after a short coexistence period. The removal of the Microsoft Office crutch will strongly encourage staff to learn how to use OpenOffice.org for their tasks. “It can’t be done!” will be replaced with the understanding that methods may differ, yet the capabilities are the same.

4. Fear of Incompatibility Fourth, interoffice compatibility with business partners and customers is of great importance. The “.doc” (and .xls and .ppt) compatibility of OpenOffice.org is truly extraordinary and will almost always suffice. In fact, when Microsoft Office format files are corrupted or unreadable in Microsoft Office, they can often be opened in OpenOffice.org and resaved, rescuing the data contained within. It is sometimes said that OpenOffice.org is more compatible with Microsoft Office than Microsoft Office is with itself! Nevertheless, sometimes a Microsoft Office file opened in OpenOffice.org will require manual reformatting. Frequently, a simple adjustment of the page margins or replacement of bullet point graphics will solve the problem. A number of such compatibility options can be configured for each OpenOffice.org component. Choose Tools | Options | [Application Name] | General, and customize the settings under Compatibility. Due to a number of factors, the best format for true document interoperability has long been Adobe PDF (a non-editable, platformindependent format for graphics and text), and that standard is supported almost universally in business communications. OpenOffice.org has the native ability to create PDF files, a feature still not available in Microsoft Office.

5. Fear of a Technical Support Void Formal tech support had until recently been the final major fear. However, StarOffice support had long been available for purchasers of StarOffice, and local computer consultants have always been a support option for OpenOffice.org. The online Help and mailing lists were also a fast and highly effective, though informal, source for support. The entire support landscape changed in December 2003, when Sun announced formal technical support options for the OpenOffice.org suite. (See further information at the end of this Guide.)

Introduction

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Getting Started This short chapter discusses two key actions: acquiring OpenOffice.org from its Web site or a CD distributor, and installing OpenOffice.org on Windows, Linux and Mac OS X.

Acquiring OpenOffice.org To date, OpenOffice.org has gained its great popularity simply through word of mouth, individual downloads and small-volume CD sales. These remain the best ways to acquire a copy. You can download OpenOffice.org from http://download.openoffice.org/ (see Figure 1), though a broadband connection is recommended for this route. Users on dial-up should probably purchase a CD-ROM from an eBay reseller or www.solidoffice.com, for example. University users might want to contact their IT department or campus bookstore for a free or cheap copy. CD-ROM distributors generally supply extra templates, macros, sample files and even other open source software programs on their CDs as a bonus and additional incentive to purchase their packages.

Figure 1. The OpenOffice.org download page.

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The Tiny Guide to OpenOffice.org

Installing OpenOffice.org Before installing OpenOffice.org, a Java Runtime Environment (JRE, also called a Java Virtual Machine, or JVM) can optionally be installed, to unlock additional functionality in the suite. JREs for most platforms can be downloaded for free from www.sun.com. The current version at the time of this writing, 1.4.2, is available from http://java.sun.com/j2se/ 1.4.2/download.html. At the end of the installation, you are asked whether to associate OpenOffice.org with the three file types created by Microsoft Office (Word, Excel and PowerPoint) as well as HTML files. Checking these boxes means that OpenOffice.org becomes the default editor for Microsoft Office file types. Usually this is the best choice if you intend OpenOffice.org to become your full-time replacement for Microsoft Office or if you don’t have Microsoft Office installed. The file association can easily be reversed later if necessary.

Windows For Windows, simply run the setup.exe program when logged in as the person who will use OpenOffice.org. Installation proceeds in a standard manner with clear guidance from the installer. More information is available on the project Web page at www.openoffice.org/dev_docs/ instructions.html. If you need to install OpenOffice.org for additional users, simply log in as the new user and run the installer. (The setup.exe program will be available in the OpenOffice.org1.1.x directory within the system’s Program Files directory, unless you specified a different location during the initial installation.) Choose to repair the installation, which just takes a moment (and which only needs to create a few desktop icons and menu entries), and which will now provide the new user a fully functioning installation.

Linux Most Linux users will find that OpenOffice.org is preinstalled with their distribution. It is also easily acquired as a Debian or Red Hat package and installed through the package manager. In the case that it is not preinstalled, or if you want to use a more recent version, detailed instructions for installation on Linux are available on the project Web page at www.openoffice.org/dev_docs/ instructions.html. In summary, as root user, download the OpenOffice.org tarball and extract it into a temporary directory. Then enter that directory and Getting Started

9

execute the setup script for a “network” installation. Log in as a normal user and run the user portion of the setup script, using the Workstation installation option, for each normal user on the system. When finished, you might need to restart your window manager for the proper menu items to appear.

Mac OS X Mac OS X versions of OpenOffice.org are available as standard “.pkg” installers and are very easy to install, because any user with administrative privileges can install OpenOffice.org for all system users with the simple installer. Currently, the developmental port of OpenOffice.org to Java is the easiest version to use with OS X. It can be found by the working name of NeoOffice/J at www.neooffice.org/java/. Other developmental versions will provide their own specific sets of instructions.

Uninstalling OpenOffice.org In Windows, open the Control Panel and select Add/Remove Programs (Windows XP calls it Change or Remove Programs). Select OpenOffice.org and choose Remove. In Linux, start the Setup program that installed OpenOffice.org in the first place, and choose the Remove option. In Mac OS X, simply drag the application bundle to the Trash and empty the trash.

OpenOffice.org Overview System Requirements Very efficient software, requiring surprisingly little in computer hardware resources, is a hallmark of open source projects. Open source is often used in order to squeeze more life out of older computers, with environmental and social equity benefits. (The hardware stays out of landfills, and it is often given to people who otherwise could not afford a computer.) OpenOffice.org embraces these ideals. It can run on as little as 32MB of RAM, though 128MB is recommended and more RAM will have a very positive effect on performance. OpenOffice.org can run on Windows 95 (though not officially supported) and every newer Windows OS with 250MB of disk space free and a Pentium-compatible processor. It requires Glibc 2.2.0 or newer on Linux and 300MB of disk space, with

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The Tiny Guide to OpenOffice.org

a screen resolution of at least 800x600. OpenOffice.org will run on any Mac with OS X, using either Apple’s supplemental X11 software and 150-MB of disk space for OpenOffice.org 1.1.2, or the Java version of OpenOffice.org and 400MB of space.

Creating New Documents To create a new document in OpenOffice.org, from any component, choose File | New. From the submenu, select the type of document to create: Text Document, Spreadsheet, Presentation, Drawing, HTML Document or Formula. The document will open in a new window.

Opening Recent Files At the bottom of the File menu, the four most recently closed documents are listed for quick access when working in OpenOffice.org. Also, displayed in the upper left of the Function Bar is a text field in which a document’s path can be typed to open it. The triangle button on the right opens a scrollable list of dozens of the most recently modified documents, in reverse chronological order (newest on top).

Toolbars and Object Bars OpenOffice.org’s components display three toolbars by default. Two of them are stretched horizontally across the top of the document window below the menus, and the third is docked vertically to the left of the main

The Object Bar

The Function Bar

The Main Toolbar Figure 2. Toolbars and Object Bars. OpenOffice.org Overview

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window (see Figure 2). The Function Bar is the topmost and contains the New Document, Open, Save, Print and other buttons. Below it is the Object Bar, containing the Apply Style, Font and Font Size menus, the text decoration buttons (bold, italic, underline), paragraph alignment buttons and others. Finally, the Main Toolbar on the left-hand side contains the Insert, Insert Graphics, Spellcheck and other buttons.

Long-Clicking and Moving Menus OpenOffice.org makes frequent use of the “long-click,” particularly for buttons on the Main Toolbar. (Not all buttons have this capability, but those that do contain a tiny green triangle in their icon.) To long-click something, click it and hold the mouse button down for a few moments. This will open a submenu with additional options (see Figure 3). When you have longclicked a button on the Main Toolbar and opened its submenu, you may want to keep that menu open and handy to use again soon. Move the mouse over its miniature titlebar, Figure 3. A Main click it and drag the menu into a new Toolbar submenu location. It will turn into a floating window opened as a floating that can be freely moved and accessed until window. you decide to close it again.

Using OpenOffice.org’s Built-in Help System Like most software applications today, OpenOffice.org provides a thorough and searchable internal Help system. Generally, this is the first place to look for support issues, before even reading the excellent material available online. Choose Help | Contents to open the Help application, or press F1. Use the Contents, Index, Find and Bookmarks tabs to locate the information you need.

Page Layout—Portrait or Landscape Choose Format | Page | Page tab. Orientation can be toggled from Portrait to Landscape using the radio buttons. You can also access numerous other page formatting options while working within this dialog box.

Using Portrait and Landscape Pages in the Same Document If you have a document that will require pages in both portrait and landscape, the key is to create a landscape page style (since many portrait page styles already exist). To do so, click the Stylist On/Off button in the Function Bar or choose Format | Stylist to open the Stylist window, and

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The Tiny Guide to OpenOffice.org

then click the Page Styles button (fourth from the left; see Figure 4). Right-click in the list of styles and Figure 4. The Page Styles choose New, and then name the style in the window that appears. Click on button. the Page tab, and then select Landscape (and make any other changes to the style while you’re there). Clicking OK will save the style. To use the new page style, place the cursor in the document where the new style will begin. Choose Insert | Manual Break from the menu, and then select Page Break from the resultant window. Select the style you just created (with the landscape page orientation) in the style list, and click OK. To return to the original page orientation later in the document, use the same technique but choose your original page style from the style list.

Margins and Alignment Most perceived formatting errors experienced when importing Microsoft Office documents into OpenOffice.org components are simply a case of different default margins used by the programs. A large embedded image shifting to the next page is a frequent manifestation of this trouble, but the solution is simply to make note of the margins used in the original document and to implement the same margins in the imported OpenOffice.org file. To quickly change the document’s margins, access the Page Style window for the current style by choosing Format | Page, or simply rightclick in the document and select Page from the shortcut menu. Click the Page tab, and in the Margins area, reduce the top and bottom margins, and then click OK. If necessary, reduce the size of the right and left side margins as well. Page styles also permit specification of page format settings that will be used throughout a document. Open the Stylist window and click the Page Styles button (fourth from left; see Figure 5). Right-click on the Default style, and choose Modify. Click the Page tab to access controls for the margins, paper format and orientation.

Rulers and Units

Figure 5. The Page Styles button in the Stylist.

Right-click on the ruler in OpenOffice.org and choose your preferred measurement system in the pop-up menu. Centimeters, Inches and Points tend to be the most useful options. OpenOffice.org Overview

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The vertical ruler is not shown by default. To turn it on, choose Tools | Options | Text Document | View from the menu, and check the Vertical Ruler box to turn it on or toggle it back off.

AutoCorrect Select Tools | AutoCorrect/AutoFormat to open the AutoCorrect window, where automatic spelling correction and automatic word completion features are managed. Use the Replace, Exceptions, Options, Custom Quotes and Word Completion tabs to specify the behavior of these features and to turn them on or off. When AutoCorrect is on, an individual correction can be reversed by selecting Edit | Undo, or by pressing Ctrl-Z on the keyboard. Multiple levels of undo are available to reverse a number of previous changes. The number of reversible steps is set under Tools | Options | OpenOffice.org | Memory.

AutoSave OpenOffice.org does not use AutoSave by default, though turning it on is simple: Choose Tools | Options | Load/Save | General. Under the Save heading, check Always Create Backup Copy and AutoSave Every. Enter the number of minutes between AutoSaves. Check Prompt to Save if you want to accept or reject each AutoSave attempt.

Undo and Redo The number of available undo steps can be customized to a user’s preference by selecting Tools | Options | OpenOffice.org | Memory from the menu, and altering the field value stored there.

Zoom View Select View | Zoom or right-click on the zoom figure in the status bar at the bottom of the page. Choose among Entire Page, Page Width, Optimal or a percentage (which, when accessed from the menu option, can be chosen arbitrarily by typing a number in the Variable field).

Batch Conversion to OpenOffice.org Formats To convert many of your existing documents to OpenOffice.org formats with one command, you use a method called batch conversion. OpenOffice.org handles batch conversion via a specialized AutoPilot. Open File | AutoPilot | Document Converter. Choose whether you’ll be converting StarOffice files or Microsoft Office files and check off the

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The Tiny Guide to OpenOffice.org

types you’ll be working with. Click Next, and then navigate to the folder containing your existing files. Choose a new folder in which to save the files after conversion (using the same folder is also an option). On the final step in the AutoPilot, choose Convert. The original files will not be altered in any way, and the new versions will be saved in your chosen location.

PDF Export A new feature of OpenOffice.org beginning Figure 6. The Export Directly as PDF button. with 1.1 is one-click export to PDF. This is an extremely useful feature for which users of Microsoft Windows and Office have to pay several hundred additional dollars to purchase Adobe Acrobat Standard or Professional. The Export Directly as PDF button is located in the Function Bar (see Figure 6), or from the menus, choose File | Export as PDF. When you click the PDF button in the Function Bar, a PDF is immediately created from your open file with the same file name and in the same directory. (Its extension is “.pdf” so it will not overwrite your original file.) If you want to specify the directory, file name or PDF quality, choose File | Export as PDF. Specify the name and location, click Save, and in the PDF Options window, set the Page Range and Compression. When satisfied, click Export. The compression options include optimization for Screen, Print and Press. Screen Optimized creates the smallest file sizes, which are ideal for reading on a computer screen (color images are downsampled to 72 dpi, with overall resolution set at 600 dpi). The Print Optimized option downsamples color images to 300 dpi with overall resolution set at 1200 dpi; it’s ideal for normal printing needs with documents, though its larger file sizes can hinder file sharing via e-mail or Web sites. Press Optimized will downsample color images to 300 dpi but sets overall resolution to 2400 dpi. It creates the largest PDF files and is only needed for use with high-quality professional printing tasks, if even then.

Password Protecting Documents Any document can be saved with password protection. Opening a password-protected document requires entry of the password; it’s wise to record it somewhere where it will not be lost. Choose File | Save As. In the lower left portion of the dialog box, check Save with Password. The Enter Password window is shown, with its Password and Confirm fields. OpenOffice.org Overview

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Type the password identically in each field, and choose OK. You can also turn off password protection from the Save As dialog box. Simply uncheck Save with Password to remove the protection. OpenOffice.org will then open a prompt asking if you’d like to overwrite the existing file, since you are saving a new one with the same name. Choose to overwrite the file if you want to eliminate the file with a password and only save the new version without password protection. Otherwise, change the name of the new file to create a different version, while keeping the previous, password-protected version as well.

Opening Corrupted Files Although rare, OpenOffice.org documents are sometimes susceptible to corruption. To recover the data, open OpenOffice.org and choose File | Open. Select the corrupt file and press Ctrl-Alt-L (Command-Option-L on Macs), and then click OK in the resulting dialog box. Again, select Open, and after the file has opened, use Save As to rename it. The newly renamed file should now open normally. OpenOffice.org also makes a fine tool for rescuing Microsoft Office files that are corrupted enough to be unreadable or to crash Microsoft Office. Frequently the data can be salvaged, even if the document formatting sometimes cannot. There is no special action required, simply start OpenOffice.org and choose File | Open to open the corrupt file. If it opens successfully, just save it with a new name (in OpenOffice.org format for further editing in OpenOffice.org, or in Microsoft Office format to return it to a Microsoft Office user).

Printing To specify printer settings, choose File | Printer Settings, select a printer and click the Properties button. Format the document for a specific printer and set the paper size, orientation and scale. To set OpenOffice.org-specific options, choose File | Print to open the Print window, and then click the Options button to open the Printer Options window. Default settings will suffice for typical printing needs, but customization is also possible. Use the Contents section to indicate which non-text elements of the document will be printed from among Graphics, Tables, Drawings, Controls or Background. With the Pages section, you can print only left or only right pages, reverse the pages or print in brochure format. The Notes section allows you to print the document’s notes with the document or on their own. Additional miscellaneous configuration settings fall under the Other category.

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The Tiny Guide to OpenOffice.org

Page Preview Page Preview provides a WYSIWYG environment to review documents before committing them to paper. It also allows a few other tricks. Page Preview can be used to print multiple pages on one sheet of paper. Choose File | Page Preview from the menu. (You must be in regular view, not Online Layout view. Click the Online Layout button at the bottom of the Main Toolbar to switch between the two views.) Using the Page Preview Object Bar, select the Print Options Page View Figure 7. The Print Options Page button (second from the View button on the Page Preview right; see Figure 7) to set a variety of general Object Bar. print options. The Print Options Page View button opens the Print Options window (see Figure 8), which lets you set the number of rows and columns printed per sheet of paper. (A preview pane in the window illustrates the results.) Margins around the edge of the printed sheet are set in the Margins section of the window, Spacing controls the space between each page fitted to the sheet, and Format determines whether the page will use landscape or portrait layout. After choosing settings, click OK to print it as it appears, or Default to switch back to one row and two columns per sheet.

Figure 8. The Print Options window. Using OpenOffice.org’s Navigator Unique to OpenOffice.org, the Navigator window allows easy access to portions of a document (especially useful for long documents such as theses or books). It can be used to switch back and forth among multiple open documents and to jump to any of a document’s headings, tables, text frames, graphics, notes, hyperlinks, pages or other elements. OpenOffice.org Overview

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Choose Edit | Navigator or click on the compass-like button (fourth from the right in the Function Bar; see Figure 9) to open the floating Navigator window (shown in Figure 10).

Figure 9. The Navigator button.

Like the Stylist and other floating windows, the Navigator can be collapsed into a floating title bar for quick access without obscuring the document beneath or completely closing the window.

Using OpenOffice.org’s Stylist OpenOffice.org’s Stylist window is used to create and modify styles, as well as apply them to text and other elements within a document. A style is a collection of pre-set, userdefinable attributes describing the characteristics of the elements; a paragraph style, for example, will describe the indents, spacing, alignment, font, background, tabs and much more. It is quicker and more precise to create a style and use it for each instance of a similar object than to re-assign all the desired attributes to each new object as they are created. Further, a named style can be modified at any time, instantly causing all objects using that style to be updated automatically.

Figure 10. The Navigator window.

Figure 11. The Stylist button.

Choose Format | Stylist or click the hand-pushing-a-switch button (third from the right in the Function Bar; see Figure 11) to open the floating Stylist window (shown in Figure 12). While styles are used in other office suites, they are more powerful and more central to the workflow in OpenOffice.org. There are five types of styles used in Writer: Figure 12. The Stylist Paragraph, Character, Frame, Page window. and Numbering. Calc has two types,

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The Tiny Guide to OpenOffice.org

Cell and Page. Impress also has two, Graphics and Presentation, while Draw uses only Graphics styles. Of all, the Paragraph styles in Writer are possibly the most frequently used. To apply a style, highlight the text or object and double-click the desired style in the Stylist. Or, place the cursor first, double-click the style and then begin entering text to have it produced in the desired style from the start. Existing styles can be modified, or new ones created, by rightclicking in the Stylist window and choosing New or Modify from the shortcut menu.

Using the Gallery OpenOffice.org’s Gallery is a tool used to store and organize clip art, particularly graphics and sounds, for ready use within documents. It includes an assortment of graphics and sounds by default, and you can also customize it by adding your own. The Gallery pane can be opened at any time by choosing Tools | Gallery or by clicking the Gallery button, a hanging-picture icon on the far right of the Function Bar. The Gallery window is a large floating window attached just below the Function Bar. The Gallery contains several categories of graphics, from 3D to Backgrounds, Bullets and others. New personalized themes can also be created with a click of the New Theme button. Any graphic can be dragged and dropped into the document page, or right-click and choose

Figure 13. The Gallery’s Floating window. The Gallery button is circled in the top right, the Collapse and Pushpin buttons in the bottom left. OpenOffice.org Overview

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Insert | Copy from the shortcut menu to insert it at the cursor location in the document. To see a larger preview of one of the graphics, doubleclick it (and double-click the graphic again to return to the full Gallery). At the bottom left of the Gallery window is a small triangle widget that collapses, but does not close, the Gallery. Next to it is a pushpin widget that toggles the Gallery from floating atop the Writer window (Floating, as shown in Figure 13) to stuck above the window, pushing its contents lower on the screen (Stick, as shown in Figure 14). The Gallery is closed by clicking its Function Bar button or selecting Tools | Gallery, to toggle it off.

Figure 14. The Gallery window “Stuck” open. Creating Templates A file created in any component of OpenOffice.org can be saved as a template, allowing future documents to be based on it and to be updated when the template is changed. (Templates are like styles, but on a document-sized scale.) To save the current document as a template, choose File | Templates | Save from the menu. After you have created the template, you can save modifications by choosing File | Save or File | Save As.

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The Tiny Guide to OpenOffice.org

The Template Directory Saving a template file to the template directory will allow it to be most easily accessed from within OpenOffice.org. The path to the template directory differs on different platforms and custom environments. To find the path for your system, choose Tools | Options | OpenOffice.org | Paths from the menu, and then scroll to the Templates entry. There can be several locations, separated by a semicolon, and the folders used are typically named User and Share. If you’ve downloaded or created templates but saved them in a different directory, you can import them into your standard template directory. Choose File | Templates | Organize, select a target category in the left-hand list, long-click the Commands button and select Import Template.

Accessibility To work with accessibility options, choose Tools | Options | OpenOffice.org | Accessibility from the menu. Available options include Support Assistive Technology Tools, Use System Font for User Interface, Automatically Detect High Contrast Mode of Operating System and several others. You can specify additional interface options in Tools | Options | OpenOffice.org | Appearance. Colors used to indicate document changes, the color of the background grid, and HTML code syntax highlighting are all specified in this location.

Keyboard Commands Slight differences in the keyboard configurations of Windows/Linux systems and Macs can lead to confusion, though translation of the key names should eliminate any problems. First, Ctrl on Windows and Linux is the equivalent of the Command key on a Mac keyboard (it has a hollow apple logo and a cloverleaf design on it). Alt on Windows and Linux is called Option on the Mac, and the Mac Control key is a general modifier that does not have a directly analagous equivalent on the other systems. Regarding mouse use, to right-click on Macs with a single-button mouse, simply hold the Control key while clicking with the mouse.

OpenOffice.org on Mac OS X Because a fully native version of OpenOffice.org is not expected on Mac OS X until version 2.0, the Mac platform can feel a bit neglected. However, the lack of a complete formal release does not mean there is OpenOffice.org Overview

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nothing to work with; several test projects under development are quite competent for daily use (including the writing of this book). Experimental versions can be found at the umbrella Web site of the NeoOffice project (www.neooffice.org). Most rely on the use of X11, which can be jarring and inconvenient for Mac users, so the NeoOffice/J project was created to cope with that. Ported to Java, NeoOffice/J runs on Mac OS X without the use of X11, but without a true Aqua interface either. It is a very good interim solution, though, and the latest news and downloads can be found at www.neooffice.org/java/.

Writer Interface Overview Writer opens the Stylist and Navigator windows by default. They can be closed and opened again with their respective buttons in the Function Bar (top toolbar, close to the right-hand side). The interface contains three default toolbars: the Function Bar, Object Bar and Main Toolbar (see Figure 15). The Function Bar is identical in all of OpenOffice.org’s components and is located in the same place, just below the menus. Beneath it is the Object Bar, which houses the drop-down paragraph styles list, text ornamentation, paragraph alignment, numbering, indent and text coloring controls. The Main Toolbar is docked in its normal home on the left-hand side of the main working window.

Function Bar Object Bar Main Toolbar Navigator Stylist

Figure 15. OpenOffice.org Writer. 22

The Tiny Guide to OpenOffice.org

Creating a New Text Document To create a new word processing document from within OpenOffice.org, choose File | New | Text Document, or when starting OpenOffice.org, choose Text Document as the document type.

Online Layout View The default page view in OpenOffice.org Writer shows the pages as they will be printed, with the margins on all sides and the page edges visible. It creates a small gap between each page as you scroll through the document. If this behavior interferes with your writing flow, it may be best to switch to Online Layout View. Simply choose View | Online Layout in the menu to toggle back and forth between these two views. (Or, you can use the bottommost button on the Main Toolbar as well.) Online Layout View does not show page breaks or the edges of printed pages; it’s just one long, uninterrupted text field, like Jack Kerouac would have preferred.

General Text Formatting The left side of the Object Bar contains the font menu (dropped down in Figure 16) and font size menu, followed by bold, italic and underline options for text. Further to the right is the paragraph alignment section, and then numbered and bulleted lists. Next are two buttons for increasing or decreasing the degree of indentation. Finally, font color, highlighting and paragraph background color appear furthest to the right on the toolbar.

Figure 16. Writer’s font menu.

Word Count—Document and Selection For a word count of the complete document, choose File | Properties and then select the Statistics tab. (In addition to word count, other calculated statistics include the number of pages, tables, graphics, Writer

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paragraphs and other objects.) OpenOffice.org’s default setup does not support word count on a selection at this point, but there is a macro to do the job. It can be downloaded from www.darwinwars.com/lunatic/ bugs/oo_macros.html.

Line Spacing and Double Spacing To use double spacing, 1.5 line spacing or another variant in your document, choose Format | Paragraph, click the Indents and Spacing tab, and select an option in the Line Spacing list. Click OK. To make the buttons for line spacing visible in the Object Bar, right-click on the Object Bar and select Visible Buttons | Line Spacing: 1, Line Spacing: 1.5 and Line Spacing: 2. (You’ll have to make them visible one at a time.)

Finding and Replacing Text Writer contains a flexible search and replace feature. To find a phrase located somewhere in the text, and optionally to replace it with another text string, choose Edit | Find & Replace. Type the string and its replacement in the fields as indicated (see Figure 17). Then, select Find or Find All to simply find the strings. Choose Replace or Replace All to replace the next instance, or all instances, with the new strings. Note the extensive customization of the search available in the Options subheading.

Figure 17. The Find & Replace window.

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The Tiny Guide to OpenOffice.org

Inserting or Linking Graphics To insert a graphic into an OpenOffice.org document, choose Insert | Graphics | From File. Browse to the appropriate file and click Open. The Insert Graphics window contains a useful option in the bottom left, the Link checkbox. Check the Link box if you do not want the graphic to be copied into the OpenOffice.org document, but simply referenced from a separate file. This results in a smaller OpenOffice.org document, but complicates sharing it (because linked images as separate files have to be shared too). However, it also updates the graphic in the OpenOffice.org document whenever the source is modified. For a quick alternative, copy a graphic from another application and then paste it into your current file using Edit | Copy and Edit | Paste.

Wrapping Text Around Graphics Right-click on a graphic that you have inserted or pasted into a document. From the shortcut menu, choose Wrap and then a wrapping type (see Figure 18). Page Wrap is typically the most useful option.

Figure 18. Wrapping text around graphics. Adding Space Around Graphics To customize spacing around a graphic wrapped with text, right-click on the graphic to open its shortcut menu, and then choose Graphics. Select the Wrap tab. At the bottom left is the Spacing section, in which you can Writer

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set the amount of empty space on the left, right, top and bottom of the graphic. Simply type the desired number in each field.

Creating Borders Around Graphics Creating a border around a graphic requires that two basic settings be determined: border location and border style. Select the graphic with a single-click, and then right-click it and choose Graphics. Click the Borders tab in the Graphics window (shown in Figure 19). First, choose a Line Arrangement from the left-hand portion of the window. This will specify the edges of the graphic to which border lines will be applied. Next, from the Line section, select a line width, style and color. You also have the option in the Spacing to Contents section to set the distance between the graphic and its border. Finally, the Shadow Style section can optionally be used to generate a shadow effect. Click OK to apply the changes.

Figure 19. The Borders tab of the Graphics window.

Placing a Graphic in the Background To place a graphic in the background, so that text flows on top of it, right-click the graphic and choose Wrap | In Background. Attempting to use Arrange | Send to Back will not work because that function is designed for relating graphics to other graphics, not to text.

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Anchoring Graphics When a graphic is placed in a document, it is anchored to a paragraph by default. An anchor icon indicates how the graphic is attached to the surrounding text. Right-click on the graphic and select Anchor, and then choose To Page, To Paragraph, To Character or As Character. Circumstance will dictate the most appropriate option. To Page and To Paragraph will be commonly used for larger graphics, while As Character is particularly effective for very small graphics that should appear in the normal flow of a line of text.

Using the Graphics Gallery See “Using the Gallery” in the “OpenOffice.org Overview” chapter for details on the Graphics Gallery in OpenOffice.org.

Creating Captions for Graphics Right-click a graphic in the document and select Caption from the shortcut menu. Select a category, such as Figure, in the Category field; you can also create a new category by typing its name into the Category field, which will then become available for reuse with other graphics captions in the document. Enter the caption itself in the Caption field. The Caption feature creates a frame around the graphic and enters the caption text in the new frame, referenced with an automatically incremented number. The caption text can be modified by clicking in it and editing. To select the graphic, click it once and then its green handles will appear. To select the frame, click its border, which will cause its green handles to appear. Be sure to use the frame, not the graphic, when setting Wrap, Alignment and other features that will affect its placement in the text.

Inserting Footnotes and Endnotes Select Insert | Footnote. In the window, choose between Automatic or Character numbering systems. Below, choose for the Type either Footnote or Endnote.

Inserting Page Breaks You can insert a manual page break by choosing Insert | Manual Break or by simultaneously pressing the Ctrl and Enter keys. From the Insert Break window, select Page Break, and if the next page is to have a different style or to restart the document’s page numbering, choose the appropriate style in the drop-down menu and enter the desired page number. Writer

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Inserting Headers and Footers Choose Insert | Header | Default. This will create a header using the default header text style. Text entered in the header will appear on all pages, so it is a good place to put the author’s name, creation date and document title, for example. For a footer, choose Insert | Footer | Default. Any text can be placed in a footer, but typical usage would be for page numbering. See the next section for that. To eliminate a header or a footer, return to Insert | Header (or Footer). The submenu will have a checkmark adjacent to the style of header or footer used, usually Default. Selecting this item will turn off the header or footer. For more precise control over inserting, removing and modifying headers and footers, you can also use the Page Style window. Choose Format | Page, and then work within the Header and Footer tabs.

Page Numbering A footer or header is generally the best place to apply page numbering. Create a footer, for example, and then scroll to the bottom of the page, click in the footer and choose Insert | Fields | Page Numbers. Each page will be numbered and automatically updated.

Inserting Page, Date and Other Fields Automatic page numbering is just one field type that can be inserted into a document. The Date, Time, Page Count, Subject, Title, Author and others are also available. Choose Insert | Field and then select the appropriate choice in the submenu. For Time or Date, double-clicking on the inserted text will open a window that allows you to select different time and date display formats. Each inserted field will be automatically updated with the correct metadata, taken from your computer’s internal clock or from the User Data field or Properties of the document. If the name of the field, such as date or page number, appears instead of the data, choose View | Fields to toggle between displaying field names and their contents.

Entering Your Name and Address for Reuse User Data is often stored in fields within a document, and is especially useful when a document is being produced by a collaborative process.

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Notes entered within a document, for example, can be automatically signed with your initials. Select Tools | Options | OpenOffice.org | User Data to bring up the window. Some of this data may have been filled in when you first installed OpenOffice.org. Here it can be modified, but unwanted fields can simply be left blank. Company, First and Last Name, Address, Title and contact information are all included. For many individual users, filling in the name fields is enough.

Specifying Document Title and Other Information To specify a document title, which will appear in the title bar instead of the file name, choose File | Properties. In the Description tab, you can input Title, Subject, Keywords and Comment information. Title is used most frequently, but the others will also come in handy at times.

Saving in Microsoft Word Format While the native compressed XML file format used by OpenOffice.org is superior for reliability reasons and uses less disk space, it is nevertheless necessary on occasion to save files in Microsoft Word format—for sharing with some professors or business partners, for example. Choose File | Save As. A dialog box appears with fields to create a file name and to select where it will be saved. Below this is a drop-down menu where file type is chosen. The default will be OpenOffice.org Text Document, but many other options are available. Choose that which is most appropriate for your needs; when saving in Microsoft Word format, select the Microsoft Word 97/2000/XP format unless you specifically need version 6 or a prior version. Remember that RTF can often substitue for Microsoft Word’s doc format without many of its disadvantages. A checkbox reading “Automatic file name extension” is best checked. After clicking Save, OpenOffice.org often displays a warning that the specified file type may not correctly save all data in the document. This can usually be ignored, but it is a reminder why documents should be saved in OpenOffice.org’s native formats unless a good reason exists to do otherwise. (When saving the document again later, this warning will not appear.)

Saving in Microsoft Word Format by Default Select Tools | Options | Load/Save | General. Select Text Documents in the list at the bottom, and under Always Save As, select the file type you prefer. This can be replicated for each type of document (word processing, spreadsheet and presentation) and includes other options in addition to Microsoft Word.

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Opening Microsoft Word Files During installation, after everything has been completed, the installer window asks if you would like OpenOffice.org to open Microsoft Office formatted files by default. If you check the box next to each file type, OpenOffice.org will change the icons on all Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents to the OpenOffice.org icons. It does not change the documents themselves in any way, and they can still be opened in Microsoft’s Office applications, but if you simply double-click on one from the file browser, it will launch in OpenOffice.org. If you did not choose this option during installation, the icons will still look like Microsoft Office icons. Opening one of these files in OpenOffice.org is quite simple. Launch OpenOffice.org and choose File | Open, and then navigate to the desired file and double-click it.

Opening WordPerfect Files A project to develop filters is located at http://wp.openoffice.org/, though it is incomplete at this point. Currently, a library originally developed by the Abiword project can be used by OpenOffice.org to open WordPerfect files in OpenOffice.org. It is not included with the default OpenOffice.org installation, though can be downloaded separately from its own Web site. The project home page is found at http://libwpd.sourceforge.net/. Follow the instructions online to download and use this software component. Note that the stand-alone converter, “wpd2sxw,” may be the best option for most users. It will convert documents outside of the OpenOffice.org environment and save them into OpenOffice.org’s format. Better interoperability with WordPerfect is a priority for the next major release of OpenOffice.org. Also, the current version of StarOffice provides a filter for WordPerfect files, if that is an immediate need.

Using and Creating Styles Using styles ensures consistency and ease of updating through the process of writing a long document. If all headers, for example, use the Heading 2 style, they can all be updated at once by modifying the font size or other text attributes of the style, and there’s no concern that one could have been missed somewhere. Writer makes use of five different types of styles: Paragraph Styles, Character Styles, Frame Styles, Page Styles and Numbering Styles. Styles are not unique to OpenOffice.org, but OpenOffice.org’s use of styles is generally more mature than in other office suite applications. Predefined styles can be used as a starting point by most users, but eventually you will want to create your own styles to further customize

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your documents. Using a style is fairly straightforward; first write some text, and then open the Stylist (Format | Stylist, or click the fingerpushing-a-switch button on the Function Bar). Select the text, and then double-click on the desired style. To create a new style, right-click in the Stylist and select New. The Paragraph Style window, shown in Figure 20, contains a bewildering array of options for the newly created style. The Character, Frame, Page and Numbering Style windows feel a bit more manageable, with their smaller numbers of settings. Existing styles can be modified by right-clicking them in the Stylist and specifying their new attributes in the resulting Style window.

Figure 20. The Paragraph Style window. Using the Spellchecker Spellcheck and AutoSpellcheck are located under Tools | Spellcheck in the menu, and their buttons are also available on the Main Toolbar. You can also choose to spellcheck the entire document using the F7 key.

The Grammar Checker Situation OpenOffice.org does not include a grammar checker at this time. If this feature is of great importance to you, you should visit the OpenOffice.org Writer

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Web site to add your vote for implementation; or better yet, volunteer your time and skill by contributing to the project.

Using Paste Special with Formatted and Unformatted Text Choose Edit | Paste Special or long-click the paste button in the toolbar (see Figure 21) for additional formatting options when pasting Figure 21. The text. The text can be pasted as unformatted Paste button. text, formatted text (RTF), HTML or OpenOffice.org Writer-formatted text, depending on its source. Often, when copying text from an e-mail or Web browser, it’s most convenient to eliminate formatting (especially the font face and size) before inserting it into a Writer document, by choosing the unformatted text option.

Non-Contiguous Text Selection First, change the text selection mode by clicking the box in the status bar that reads STD (see Figure 22). It Figure 22. The STD box in the toggles through three modes: STD, EXT and status bar. ADD. Using ADD, noncontiguous text can be selected by clicking and dragging over each section of text, or by double-clicking on a word to select the entire word. Clicking once on a selected text section deselects that section only. After an action is performed on the non-contiguous selection, the text selection mode automatically returns to STD.

Creating Lists The Object Bar contains buttons for instantly creating numbered and bulleted lists (see Figure 23). Type the list, then select even Figure 23. List just a part of each line you want numbered or buttons, from left: bulleted, and click either the numbered or numbered list, bulleted button. The numbered or bulleted bulleted list, list is created. To customize the bullet graphics or the numbers, right-click on the decrease indent, list and choose Numbering/Bullets. In the and increase indent. Numbering/Bullets window, click the Bullets tab for predefined graphical bullets, or the Numbering Type tab for different predefined numbering styles.

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To number items in a list that is non-consecutive (in other words, there are lines within the list that should not be numbered), first select the entire block of text and turn on numbering. Then, select each block or individual line that should not be numbered, and turn off numbering by clicking the Numbering On/Off button. To start a numbered list at a number other than 1, create the numbered list and then right-click on the first item. Choose Numbering/Bullets, as before, and this time open the Options tab. The last text field reads Start At; enter the number you want the list to start at.

Inserting Tables To insert a table, choose Insert | Table. A window opens in which you will name the table, specify the number of columns and rows, and choose other options such as a header, border and more. After the table has been inserted, select the entire table to modify it using buttons from the Table Object Bar, shown in Figure 24. The three buttons on the top right are, from left to right, borders, line styles and background color. The remaining buttons, to the left of these three, deal with adding and deleting rows and columns, expanding their width and the width of the table, summarizing a row or column, and other similar functions. Mouse over any of these to show a ToolTip naming the button’s function. (At the far right of the toolbar is a blue triangle button, which toggles between the Table Object Bar and the normal Object Bar. Only one will be visible at a time.)

Figure 24. The Table Object Bar.

Table AutoFormatting Many preset formats can be used with tables to save time and improve consistency. Select an entire table and choose Format | AutoFormat. The list on the left-hand side of the window shown in Figure 25 contains the AutoFormat options. Click the More button on the right for additional format, font, alignment, border and pattern options for each AutoFormat. To create a new AutoFormat for future reuse, first format a table to your specifications. Then select it and choose Format | AutoFormat. Click the Add button in the AutoFormat window, and then name your new format.

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Figure 25. The AutoFormat table window. Deleting Tables To delete only the contents of a table, select the entire table and press the Delete key. To also delete the table itself, select the entire table and the first line above it on the page. Press the Delete key to delete it all. Also, when the entire table is selected, you can click the Column Delete or Row Delete button on the Table Object Bar, or right-click on the table and choose Column | Delete or Row | Delete to delete the whole table.

Creating Charts After inserting a table into a Writer document and entering data in it, you can use it to create charts. Select the entire table, and choose Insert | Object | Chart. The AutoPilot guides you through the details of creating the chart (see Figure 26), and inserts it into the document

Figure 26. The AutoFormat Chart window. 34

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when complete. Using the chart’s border handles, it can be resized to best fit its context. Double-clicking on different parts of the chart allows for modification of its various aspects after it has been created. Double-clicking a chart also opens the special chart editing version of the Main Toolbar at the left side of the work area, which contains specialized tools for the task (see Figure 27).

Rotating 3D Charts A 3D chart may need to be rotated to its optimum viewing angle to illustrate a point. To do so, doubleclick the chart to enter its editing mode, and then click once on the data portion of the chart. The cursor will change to a rotation icon, indicating that you can now click and drag to rotate the data. Two menu options are also available to use in rotating the chart: Choose Format | Position and Size from the menu or just Position and Size from the shortcut menu. The Position and Size window opens, where a pivot point and rotation angle can be carefully selected. The second menu option is to select Format | 3D View to open the 3D View window. Rotation values, in degrees, are specified for each of the three axes of rotation.

Figure 27. The Main Toolbar when editing a chart.

Creating Columns Anything from a page to a frame, text box or single paragraph can be formatted as multiple columns. First, to set up a page to use multiple columns, choose Format | Page. Then, click the Columns tab in the Page Style window that opens (see Figure 28). Two- and three-column styles can be selected from the preset buttons, or the number of columns can be entered into the Columns text field. Width and spacing is set in the second portion of the window, and separator lines between the columns can be specified in the third portion of the window. To apply columns to a selected block of text, select the text and choose Format | Columns. Set the column options just as you did for a page. Click OK and the columns are created, eliminated or modified to fit your specifications, and contained within a new section created in your document.

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Figure 28. Creating columns in the Page Style window. Creating Frames Support for frames in OpenOffice.org Writer allows it to act as a page layout tool, among its many other strengths. Frames can be nested in other frames to create very complex layouts, and can also be connected to one another, so that text overflows from one into the next in sequence (familiar to any newspaper reader!). A standard text frame is inserted by choosing Insert | Frame to open the Frame window. A second way to create a text frame is to long-click Insert, the first button in the Main Toolbar, and then choose Insert Frame Manually, which is the first button in the popup menu (see Figure 29). Move the mouse down and to the right to select the number of columns the frame will contain. Release the mouse, which will change the cursor to crosshairs, and then click and drag in the document to size and place Figure 29. The Insert Frame the new frame. Manually button.

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Entering Text in a Frame Attempting to enter text in a regular frame can show the process to be slightly temperamental. It is necessary to first click once in the document outside of the frame, then to click once in one of the columns inside the text frame. Now you can type in, or insert an object into, the frame. In order to select the frame itself, place the cursor over the frame’s border until it becomes a crosshairs, and then click once on the border. At this point, you can double-click, or right-click and select Frame from the shortcut menu, to open the Frame Formatting window.

Controlling Text Flow Between Frames Any number of regular (not floating) frames can be created and linked to form an automatic, continuous flow of text between them, even if the frames are on separate pages. The main restriction is that the frames must be empty of content before being linked. After creating the frames, click the edge of the first frame, which will cause handles to appear on its sides and corners. Figure 30. The Link In the Frame Formatting Object Bar, click Frames button. the Link Frames button (it looks like a chain and is second from the far right; see Figure 30), which will change the cursor into a chain icon with a circle and slash attached. Next, move the mouse over the second text frame. The icon will change, replacing the circle-and-slash part with a regular pointer, and a dashed outline will appear around the frame. At this point, click once on the frame, and a connector line will be drawn from the end of the first frame to the beginning of the second to indicate the flow. (The line exists only to show the flow, and it does not print.) The frames can be moved about the document and the link will be preserved. Text can be entered and formatted as if everything were one continuous block of text. Two frames can be unlinked by selecting the first frame and clicking the Unlink Frames button in the Frame Formatting Object Bar (it is on the far right and its icon is a broken chain; see Figure 31).

Figure 31. The Unlink Frames button.

Creating Floating Frames A floating frame, conceptually, is like inserting another document in its own native environment into the Writer document. The object inside a frame can be edited as if working in Calc, Draw or Impress (or even Writer, as it is possible to insert a Writer document into a floating frame Writer

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inside another Writer document). It is different enough from a regular frame that it is inserted using Insert | Floating Frame, or the third button in the Main Toolbar, the Insert Objects button (see Figure 32). However, floating frames do not print, which can limit their usefulness for many purposes. To create one, place the cursor in the document where the floating frame is to be inserted. Use the Insert | Floating Frame menu command or long-click the Insert Object button and choose the Insert Figure 32. The Floating Frame button, which is third from the left. Insert Objects The Frame Properties window will now open; click button. the ellipsis button (...) to browse and select the existing file that will occupy the floating frame. The Floating Frame Properties window includes additional options, such as a name for the floating frame (which is useful when using the Navigator), whether a scrollbar or visible border line is to be included, and what the spacing between the frame border and its contents will be.

Inserting Notes Using notes, one can insert comments, questions or further elaboration in a document, which is very useful for team collaboration and even individual projects. To create a note, place the cursor after the specific piece of text to which the note will refer. Then choose Insert | Note, which opens the Note window. Type your note in the text field, and then, to add your initials and the date, click the Author button. (The initials used will be taken from User Data, stored under Tools | Options | OpenOffice.org | User Data.) A yellow rectangle appears in the text to indicate the note’s location. Double-click it to open the note, or place the cursor to the right of the rectangle and press Delete to remove the note. When receiving a document with notes in it, you can open the notes and add further comments (see Figure 33). The Author button inserts your initials and a timestamp to differentiate the additional comments from the original. Right and left arrows will appear if there are other notes in the document; they can be used Figure 33. The Edit Note window.

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to quickly cycle through and review all notes. Notes are easily printed. Choose File | Print, and then click Options. The Printer Options window contains a section for notes. End of Page is often the best way to print notes in the context of the document containing them.

Adding Hyperlinks When you type a URL into a Writer document, it will automatically be formatted to work as a hyperlink, which is indicated by the text becoming underlined and colored blue. Clicking the hyperlink will launch your default Web browser and open the page. Automatic creation of hyperlinks can be turned off by choosing Tools | AutoCorrect/AutoFormat. Click the Options tab and deselect both boxes for URL Recognition in the list. To manually create a hyperlink for text that is not a URL, select the text that will become the link, choose Format | Character, and click the Hyperlink tab (see Figure 34). Type the URL in the URL field and click OK.

www.gutenberg.net

Figure 34. Manually creating a hyperlink in Writer. Editing Hyperlinks When a hyperlink has been inserted in a document, clicking on it opens the link in your default Web browser. To edit the text of the link instead of following it, find the HYP button on the bottom of the main OpenOffice.org window (see Figure 35), Writer

Figure 35. The HYP button. 39

and click it once to change it to SEL. The text or graphic of the link can now be selected and modified. When finished, switch back to HYP by clicking the button again.

Generating a Table of Contents A table of contents in OpenOffice.org is created in an automated manner using the headings of the document, paragraph styles of your choice, or both. To insert the table of contents, first be sure that you have applied heading styles such as Heading 1 and Heading 2 to the appropriate text. Then set the cursor where you want to place the table. From the menu, choose Insert | Indexes and Tables | Indexes and Tables. This opens the Insert Index/Table window, shown in Figure 36. Click the Index/Table tab and use the Type drop-down list to select Table of Contents. If you are generating the table of contents based solely on heading styles, be sure that the Outline option is marked and that the number in the Evaluate Up To Level field is at least as great as the number of heading levels you used. Click OK. If you want the table of contents to include styles other than the heading styles, mark the Additional Styles option in the Insert Index/Table window, click the Additional Styles browse button, and in the Assign Styles window select the styles you want and use the arrow buttons to move them to the appropriate level. To update a table of contents after changes have been made to headings elsewhere in the document, right-click in the table of contents and choose Update Index/Table from the shortcut menu.

Figure 36. Generating a table of contents.

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Creating a Bibliography OpenOffice.org contains a functional bibliography tool right in the suite, without need for third-party software. The tool contains a database for storing bibliographic records, which consist of the metadata (author, title, publisher and so on) for each cited reference. To create or query records, open the Bibliography Database window by choosing Tools | Bibliography Database from the menu. To insert an entry in the text, select Insert | Indexes and Tables | Bibliography Entry from the menu. The Short Name drop-down menu is used to select which record from the Bibliography Database is to be used. The bibliographic table itself is created by choosing from the menu: Insert | Indexes and Tables | Indexes and Tables. In the Insert Index/Table window, the Index/Table tab will be selected; use the Type drop-down menu to select Bibliography. Note that exporting an OpenOffice.org document containing these features to Microsoft Word format will result in the loss of the Bibliography Database, as no equivalent exists in Word. References in the text will also be changed from the special bibliographic field to regular text.

Using Document Version Control Version control in Writer (and Calc) is designed for saving incremental snapshots of documents as they are created. Previous document versions can be viewed (but not edited) to make comparisons with the latest revision. Changes in the latest version can be accepted or rejected, and reverting to a previous version is also permitted. Be sure to save your document before attempting to create versions of it. Then, choose File | Versions from the menu. The Versions window opens; click the Save New Version button in the top left to create the first version. Use the Insert Version Comment window to very briefly describe the version, and then click OK. After two or more versions have been created, you can open older versions by choosing File | Versions, and then selecting the desired version and clicking Open from within the Versions window. Previous versions always open in read-only mode. Comparing versions is also handled by choosing File | Versions. The open document will be used as the basis for comparisons; from the Versions window, choose the second version to which it will be compared. Click the Compare button, which opens the Accept or Reject Changes window. Change marks are displayed to clearly identify areas that have been modified between the two versions. Writer

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Finally, it is possible to revert to a previous version of a document and eliminate all later versions. Choose File | Versions, and then select the version to which you will revert the document. Click the Compare button from the right side of the Versions window, and then click the Reject All button in the Accept or Reject Changes window. Close this window and then save the document. (Saving with the same name overwrites the existing file and thus eliminates all changes made after the version to which you have reverted. Use File | Save As to preserve the original document and simply create a new one.)

Tracking Changes For editing documents, particularly in a collaborative group, you can use OpenOffice.org’s revision tracking features. When ready to begin recording changes to a document, select Edit | Changes | Record. Change marks will accompany each modification you make to the document: A black line in the left margin indicates a change was made in that line, text that you delete will be stricken out, new text added to the document will be underlined, and text will become bold to indicate modifications made to its attributes. A different text color is used for each separate author’s changes. To show the change marks in a document, select Edit | Changes | Show. To open the Accept or Reject Changes window, choose Edit | Changes | Accept or Reject. Here, the entire document’s changes will be listed, and you can select them and accept or reject them individually using the Accept and Reject buttons, or all at once, using the Accept All or Reject All buttons.

Word AutoCompletion When typing in OpenOffice.org, you’ll notice that it suggests autocompletions for words as you type. If you want to turn this off or change how it works, choose Tools | AutoCorrect/AutoFormat to open the AutoCorrect window. Click the Word Completion tab. Unmark the Enable Word Completion option to turn this feature off, or use the Accept With list to change the key you press to accept a word completion.

Calc The Calc Interface Calc’s user interface contains four default toolbars: the Function Bar, Object Bar, Formula Bar and Main Toolbar (see Figure 37). The Function Bar is identical to its incarnation in OpenOffice.org’s other

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components, and is located in the same place, just below the menus. Beneath it is the Object Bar, which houses the spreadsheet-specific controls, and below that is the Formula Bar, which is used for creating formulas. The Main Toolbar is docked in its normal home on the left. Its contents are a mixture of standard buttons used throughout OpenOffice.org and buttons with specific purposes for Calc.

Function Bar Object Bar Formula Bar Main Toolbar

Figure 37. OpenOffice.org Calc.

Creating a New Spreadsheet To create a new spreadsheet from within OpenOffice.org, choose File | New | Spreadsheet, or when starting OpenOffice.org, choose Spreadsheet as the document type.

Entering Values To enter data values in a cell, simply select the cell with a click or by navigating to it with the keyboard arrows, and then type in the data. Data is formatted automatically by Calc as numbers, dates and so on, which you can change in the Format Cells window.

Saving in Microsoft Excel Format Choose the File menu, and then select Save As. A dialog box appears with fields to create a file name and to select where it will be saved. Calc

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Below this is a pop-up menu where file type is chosen. The default will be OpenOffice.org Calc Document, but many other options are available. Choose Microsoft Excel 97/2000/XP and verify the check box reading “Automatic file name extension” is checked. After you click Save, OpenOffice.org often displays a warning that the specified file type may not correctly save all data in the document. This can usually be safely ignored, but keeping a backup copy in OpenOffice.org format is a wise safeguard. The warning will not appear when saving the document after the first time.

Opening Microsoft Excel Files Launch OpenOffice.org, choose File | Open and navigate to the desired Excel file. Select it and click OK, and the document opens.

Opening Delimited Text Files as Spreadsheets in Calc Choose File | Open and navigate to the text file. Select from File Type “Text CSV (.csv .txt),” which appears near the end of the list. Select Open, and then choose the appropriate delimiter (such as comma, tab and so forth). Use Fixed Width for data that lines up visually. A preview is displayed when each potential delimiter is selected to help clarify how it will appear in Calc (see Figure 38).

Figure 38. Opening a text file as a spreadsheet in Calc. 44

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Formatting Cells When you enter numeric data into cells, you can simply type the numbers, currency, dates, times or other types of data, and then quickly format the cells to indicate what type of data they contain. Select a cell or group of cells to format and choose Format | Cells from the menu to open the Format Cells window. Use the Numbers tab to specify how the selected cells’ data will be displayed, such as the date or time format to use, the number of significant figures in decimals, the national currency or many others. Format | Cells is also used to make cosmetic changes to the information displayed in spreadsheet cells. Use the Font, Font Effects, Alignment, Borders, Background and Cell Protection tabs to further work with cell formatting.

Quick Number Formatting Several quick formatting options for numbers are available as buttons in the Object Bar, including Currency, Percent and Standard (see Figure 39). Adjacent to these are buttons for adding and deleting decimal places. Removing a decimal place will round the cell’s contents to the chosen figure.

Figure 39. Quick formatting buttons in Calc—Currency, Percent, Standard, Add Decimal Place, and Delete Decimal Place.

Using AutoFormat for Spreadsheets Calc’s AutoFormat feature provides many predefined spreadsheet table formats to speed development of well-designed products. To begin,

Figure 40. The AutoFormat spreadsheet window. Calc

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select the cells in your spreadsheet that you plan to AutoFormat, and then choose Format | AutoFormat from the menu. The AutoFormat window contains a list of formats along with a preview display area for each, as it is selected from the list (see Figure 40). Be certain to click the More button if you want to override any of the format settings that are included in the selected AutoFormat. Click OK when finished selecting format and options. Custom AutoFormats can be created in Writer and used in both Writer and Calc, but they cannot be created from within Calc.

Entering Formulas The Formula Toolbar’s text field is used for entering formulas. First, type an equal sign or click the “=” button in the toolbar. Then, type the formula into the field, referencing cells by clicking them with the mouse. Click a cell or type its name (column letter followed by row number, such as B4), then enter the operator such as +, -, * or /, and then the next cell’s name. Continue building your formula using this syntax style. When finished, click the checkmark button in the Formula Toolbar or press the Enter key or an arrow key on the keyboard. (Clicking in another cell or a blank cell will only add that to the formula!) Relative cell references are used by default. To use an absolute reference instead, type a “$” before each part of the cell address (for example, $C$9 makes both column and row absolute, while C$9 makes the column relative and the row absolute). Double-click a cell containing the result of a calculation to see the formula used to generate it, as well as to display colored boxes around the cells that are its building blocks (see Figure 41).

Figure 41. Double-click a cell to see its formula.

Using Calc Functions Many common functions are included in Calc for the performance of various calculations. The Functions AutoPilot lists all available functions, Figure 42. provides online Help, and helps you enter appropriate values. Click its button in the Formula The Functions Toolbar (a small grid icon to the left of the Greek AutoPilot button. letter sigma’s Sum button; see Figure 42). Use the Category drop-down list or select All to see all functions (see Figure 43). Select a function to see Help, or either click Next or double-click the

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function name to enter cells and data for the function. Each function will have different possibilities on its argument page. The Result field shows the result of the function as it exists in the window. After completing the design of the function in the AutoPilot, click OK to insert the formula into the selected cell in your spreadsheet.

Figure 43. The Calc Functions AutoPilot. To see a gallery of the functions available in Calc without using the AutoPilot, choose Insert | Function List. A floating window anchored to the right-hand side of the Calc window appears; a drop-down menu at its top allows you to view all functions, recent functions or other logical subdivisions of the total. There are several hundred functions from which to choose.

Calculating a Sum You can quickly calculate the sum of a row or column of numbers. Click in the cell immediately to the right of or below the last cell to be included. Figure 44. The Then click the Sum button in the Formula Bar (its Sum button. icon is the Greek letter sigma; see Figure 44). Calc automatically detects the range of cells to summarize and indicates its selection with an outline of them, as well as displaying the formula in the formula field. The selection can be changed by dragging the border to include or exclude further cells; non-adjacent cells can be selected by holding down the Ctrl key and clicking them.

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Creating Graphs or Charts in Calc Calc uses the term chart to refer to what most people think of as a graph. To insert a chart using the AutoFormat Chart window (similar to an AutoPilot; it’s shown in Figure 45), simply select the data you want to chart and choose Insert | Chart from the menu. You can also long-click the Insert Object button on the Main Toolbar, and then choose Insert Chart from there.

Figure 45. Calc’s AutoFormat Chart window. Calc’s default behavior is to chart cells that have already been highlighted, or, if none, it will choose a best-guess alternative. This can be overridden in the first page of the AutoFormat Chart window, however, which allows you to switch back to the spreadsheet window and change your selection. The first page also permits specification of the first selected row and column as labels, and includes a drop-down list for choosing in which sheet of the workbook the chart will be placed (it can be easily moved later). The second and third pages contain chart types and variants, as well as the option to chart the data in columns or rows. The preview pane of these windows shows the effect of each change made. The fourth and final page of the AutoFormat Chart tool is used to specify the chart’s name, legend and axis titles. Click the Create button to finish the chart and place it into your Calc document.

Modifying Graphs or Charts in Calc Existing charts can be readily modified in Calc. To begin, select the chart by clicking on it once; the green handles will appear around it. The chart can now be resized or moved on the page.

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Alternatively, to edit the content of the chart, click it as mentioned in the previous step, and then double-click it, which will cause a gray border to appear. Use the shortcut menu (right-click) to modify the legend or labels. Portions of the chart can be clicked upon to begin editing just the legend, axis labels or other. Text, including titles, can be double-clicked to edit. Specialized tools will appear in the Main Toolbar for editing different portions of the chart when they are selected. A chart can be changed from one type to another. Double-click it to enter its editing mode, and then choose Format | Chart Type from the menu, or Chart Type from the shortcut menu. This opens the Chart Type window, where you can select any of the chart types and variants. To change a chart’s data, select it with a single click (not a doubleclick). Use the shortcut menu to select Modify Data Range, which will open the first page of the AutoFormat Chart tool. Modify the range just as you did when first creating the chart. To work with the chart’s legend, select it and choose Format | Object Properties from the menu, or Object Properties from the shortcut menu. The Legend window contains tabs to specify its Borders, Area, Transparency, Characters, Font Effects and Position. In chart editing mode, modify the displayed axes by choosing Format | Axis | All Axes, which opens the Axis window. Line, Characters, Font Effects and Label tabs are available. Choose Insert | Title to open the Titles Window, where you can modify the chart’s labels. To edit the grid lines shown on a chart, choose Insert | Grids, which opens the Grids window.

Creating Cell Comments or Notes Select the appropriate cell, and then choose Insert | Note from the menu. Fill in the pop-up box with the text of the note, and then click outside of the note when finished. The cell will indicate a note is attached by displaying a small red square in its top right corner. The note will become visible when the mouse pointer moves over the cell, or when the cell is selected. To modify a note, right-click the cell and choose Show Note from the shortcut menu. The text can be freely modified. Delete all text to eliminate the note itself.

Autofilling Rows or Columns Data can be replicated in any direction in columns or rows using Calc’s Fill functionality. You can fill the cells with the same data, or increment the data numerically or by a sort list. Calc

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To replicate the data in a particular cell, click on that cell and hold the mouse button down. Drag or Shift-Select to select additional cells in the same column or row (up, down, left or right). From the menu, choose Edit | Fill | direction in which you dragged. A second way to replicate the data is to use the Automatic Fill Handle (as shown in Figure 46), while holding down the Ctrl key.

Figure 46. Using the Automatic Fill Handle in Calc.

Filling cells with incremented data works with numbers, dates and cell references (by themselves, or within formulas). Other data, such as text not in a predefined or user-defined sort list, will simply be replicated via this process. To increment, first select the starting cell. Move the mouse over the Automatic Fill Handle, which is a small square in the lower right-hand corner of the selected cell. The pointer will change to a small cross shape; left-click and drag to fill additional cells. Each one will be filled with incrementally increased data starting from the original selected cell’s value.

Selecting All Cells To select all the cells of a spreadsheet, click the gray box in the top left corner, above the row labels and to the left of the column labels (see Figure 47), or press Ctrl-A on the keyboard. To select an entire column, click the gray box above it that contains the column’s label letter. For a row, click the gray box to the left of it that contains the row’s label number.

Figure 47. Selecting all cells in a spreadsheet. Selecting Non-Contiguous Cells First, select a cell or group of cells by Shift-clicking them. Then, release the Shift key and Ctrl-click additional cells. Groups of additional cells can be selected by holding Ctrl and Shift while clicking and dragging.

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Inserting and Deleting Rows and Columns To insert a row or column, select the entire column to the right or row below your insertion point by clicking on the row or column label (its letter or number). Right-click in the selected row or column’s header and choose Insert Rows or Insert Columns from the shortcut menu. It will be inserted prior to the row or column you selected. To delete rows or columns, select the target (by clicking the row or column header) and choose Delete Rows or Delete Columns from the shortcut menu. In both cases, Calc will automatically adjust cell references in the spreadsheet to preserve calculations that have been generated.

Resizing Rows and Columns When text is wider than the cell holding it, it will either appear to run over into adjacent cells if they are empty, or the cell will display a small red arrow at the right side of the cell to indicate that additional text is hidden. Numbers wider than cells will be indicated by three pound signs (“###”) displayed in the cell. Cells can be widened, or their contents can be wrapped (or the font size can be reduced), to show more information in the cell. To wrap text in a cell, select the cell, right-click and choose Format Cells from the shortcut menu. The Format Cells window opens; choose the Alignment tab, and then check the Automatic Line Break option at the bottom of the window. Resizing rows and columns is even simpler. Move the mouse over the header for either row or column, where the name (row number or column letter) is displayed. Above its border, the mouse pointer changes to a double-arrow design; click and drag to change the size of the row or column. Alternatively, by double-clicking here, the cell will be sized to perfectly display all the data it contains.

Split Window View A single Calc window can be split into two or four separate areas showing different parts of a spreadsheet at one time (see Figure 48). Above the vertical scrollbar, and to the right of the horizontal scrollbar, sit two thick black lines. Mousing over them changes the pointer into a thick double arrow. Click and drag the thick line to move a divider across the window, creating two separately scrollable areas. Alternately, click in the cell where you want the split to occur and choose Window | Split from the menu. Four separate regions can be created by invoking both

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the horizontal and vertical tools simultaneously. Each region can be used to display a unique portion of the spreadsheet, allowing more rapid entry and display of data in large or complex layouts.

Figure 48. Split Window view. Freezing a Spreadsheet Region To prevent rows or columns from scrolling away as you move through the spreadsheet to work with new data, they can be frozen in place. For example, if you have used the first row or first column as headers or labels for the data in them, you may want to freeze them in place while scrolling through the rest of the spreadsheet. Select the row immediately below the desired non-scrolling row(s) or the column immediately to the right of the column(s) intended to freeze. To freeze rows and columns simultaneously, click an individual cell below and to the right of the freeze zone. From the menu, choose Window | Freeze.

Inserting Headers and Footers Just as in Writer, Calc makes use of headers and footers on its pages; however, the procedure used to create them is different. To begin, choose Format | Page and select the Header tab. Be sure the Header On option is marked, then click the Edit button and enter your header text or automatic

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fields such as file name and data in the left, center or right areas of the header. Headers and footers will appear on all pages. For a footer, choose Format | Page, select the Footer tab, and be sure the Footer On option is marked. Click Edit, and add text or fields. Any text can be placed in a footer, but typical usage would be for page numbering. To eliminate a header or a footer, return to Format | Page and click the Header or Footer tab. Uncheck the button reading Header On or Footer On, located in the top left corner of the window.

Protecting a Cell To prevent a cell from being overwritten by accident, it can be protected. However, when choosing to protect cells, by default every cell is protected. In order to protect only some of them, first select all cells in a spreadsheet. Then, right-click in one and choose Format Cells from the shortcut menu. In the Format Cells window, select the Cell Protection Tab. Uncheck the Protected box and click OK. Next, select those cells that will be protected, right-click and choose Format Cells again. Select the Cell Protection tab, check the box for Protected and click OK. Finally, choose Tools | Protect Document | Sheet to protect the selected cells on that sheet. For a multi-sheet Calc document, choose Tools | Protect Document | Document from the menu. Note that the Protect Sheet window has a password field, but it can be left blank and protection will still function.

Protecting a Sheet To protect an entire sheet, choose Tools | Protect Document | Sheet from the menu. Enter a password in the Protect Sheet window (or simply leave the field blank) and click OK.

Removing Protection From a Cell, Sheet or Document To remove protection, choose Tools | Protect Document | Sheet (or Document), and click it to toggle protection off. The Unprotect Sheet window requires entry of the password (if one was supplied) to complete the change. If you didn’t enter a password before, leave the field blank.

Inserting Data Source Data To bring data from a predefined data source into a spreadsheet, begin by selecting Data | DataPilot | Start from the menu. In the Select Source Calc

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window, click Data Source Registered in OpenOffice.org and click OK. This will open the Select Data Source window, shown in Figure 49; in the Database field, choose the name of your data source. In the Data Source field, choose the name of the tables to be used. The Type field can be left as Sheet. Click OK to open the DataPilot window, where you specify the layout of the data in your spreadsheet. When finished, click OK to return to the spreadsheet itself.

Figure 49. Selecting a data source in Calc. Adding and Reordering Sheets Three spreadsheets are contained within each Calc file by default, visible by their navigation tabs at the bottom of the main window. Using several sheets to separate data and calculations into logical subsections can provide more effective working conditions in Calc. To add a sheet, right-click an existing sheet’s tab area and choose Insert from the shortcut menu. With the Insert Sheet window, you can position the new sheet before or after the current sheet, insert one or many sheets, or insert sheets from other Calc files. Sheets can be reordered by dragging their tabs in the tab area. To rename a sheet, right-click its tab and select Rename from the shortcut menu. To delete a sheet, right-click its tab and select Delete from the menu.

Using Styles in Calc Calc makes use of two primary types of styles to streamline a user’s workflow: page styles and cell styles. To work with styles, you will use the Stylist, just as in other OpenOffice.org components. Open it with the Stylist button in the Function Bar (see Figure 50).

Figure 50. The Stylist button in the Function Bar.

Page styles are used to control the page orientation, margins, page borders, backgrounds, headers, footers and print settings. Cell styles are used for formatting cells’ font faces, size and color, as well as alignment, spacing, background color and more.

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See “Using and Creating Styles” in the “Writer” chapter for details on creating and applying styles.

Specifying a Print Range When printing a spreadsheet, Calc will by default print every sheet containing data. To instead print just a subset of the data, first define a print range. To do so, select the cells that should print, and then choose Format | Print Ranges | Define. Additional cells can be added later by selecting the new cells and then choosing Format | Print Ranges | Add from the menu. Under the Format | Print Ranges menu item, Edit and Remove options can be used to make other modifications to the print range that has been defined.

Using the Page Style Window to Specify How a Spreadsheet Will Print Select Format | Page to open the Page Style window (shown in Figure 51). Click the Sheet tab to make printing-related modifications, including specifying the page order and start page number, selecting the elements of the spreadsheet that will print (headers, grids, notes, graphics and so on), and setting the scale of the document, or fitting it automatically to a set number of pages.

Figure 51. Modifying print settings in the Page Style window. Calc

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Printing Selected Sheets, and Printing Only Pages With Content Choose Tools | Options | Spreadsheet | Print from the menu, or select File | Print and then click the Options button. The Print Options window contains two choices: Suppress Output of Empty Pages, and Print Only Selected Sheets. Check or uncheck these two items to suit your printing needs. The active, frontmost sheet is selected by default, which is indicated by the white color of its tab at the bottom of the window. To select additional sheets, simply press the Shift key while clicking their tabs. To deselect a sheet, click it while pressing Ctrl (or Command on Mac OS X).

Impress Getting Started Choose File | New | Presentation from an already-open OpenOffice.org document, or start OpenOffice.org and choose Presentation as the document type. A new window will be displayed, with the AutoPilot open by default. In the Type section of the AutoPilot, click the Empty Presentation radio button to create a new presentation without using a template, or click From Template if you have a template installed that you want to use. Click the Create button, since the remaining screens of the AutoPilot do not offer much additional convenience and you can skip them.

Turning Off the AutoPilot If the AutoPilot is not something you will use, it can be turned off by checking “Do not show this dialog again,” or it can be turned off (and back on again) under Tools | Options | Presentation | General.

Adding Templates for Impress To install templates for use in Impress, first select Tools | Options | OpenOffice.org | Paths, and scroll down to the Templates category. By default, at least two paths will be declared for use in storing templates. Make a note of the paths, and copy your downloaded template files to one of these locations. To make the new templates appear in the AutoPilot on its next use, choose File | Templates | Organizer. Simply opening the window and then closing it will register the templates to be displayed in the AutoPilot.

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Creating a Template To create a new template from an Impress file, choose File | Save As, and then select OpenOffice.org Presentation Template from the File Type drop-down menu. The file will be saved with the “.sti” extension. Save it to one of the templates folders as described in “Adding Templates for Impress.”

Impress Interface By default, Impress will open the Stylist and Navigator windows, just as in other OpenOffice.org components. In addition, there are four default toolbars: the Function Bar, Draw Object Bar, Presentation Toolbar and Main Toolbar. The Function Bar is identical to its incarnation in OpenOffice.org’s other components, and is located in the same place, just below the menus. Beneath it is the Draw Object Bar, which houses the vector drawing controls, and below that is the Presentation Toolbar, consisting of text-based buttons including Insert Slide, Modify Slide Layout and others (the Presentation Toolbar may appear as a floating window by default). The Main Toolbar is docked in its normal home on the left. Its contents are sensitive to the workspace context of Impress; it displays text and shape-related tools in Drawing View and Handout View, or outline management tools in Outline View. Two additional sets of buttons are located to the left of the horizontal scrollbar, and to the top of the vertical scrollbar (see Figure

Left to Right: Current Slide View Master Slide View Layer View Navigation Arrows

Top to Bottom: Drawing Outline Slide Notes Handout Start Slide Show

Figure 52. OpenOffice.org Impress. Impress

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52). The buttons in the left set are as follows: The first two switch the workspace between the current slide and the master slide. The third button modifies the appearance of drawing layers in a slide. The next four buttons are for moving the tabs that allow for rapid switching between slides. Navigation consists of using the forward and back arrows to find the tabs representing the slides around the one you want, and then clicking on the tab for the slide you need to work on. It works well when making modifications to several nearby slides and switching back and forth between them, a typical workflow for most users. The button set on top of the vertical scrollbar is used to switch between the six standard views, or workspaces, in Impress. The buttons represent, from top to bottom, Drawing, Outline, Slide, Notes, Handout and Slide Show views.

Adding Slides Choose Insert Slide in the Presentation Box, Insert | Slide from the menu, or Slide | Insert Slide from the contextual shortcut menu. (In Drawing View, Figure 53. The right-click in the background to open the shortcut menu. The Presentation Box can be toggled on and Presentation Box off from the far right button on the Object Bar, as On/Off button. shown in Figure 53.) The new slide is inserted after the slide in which you are working.

Creating Slides Using AutoLayouts when creating new slides in a slide show saves time and delivers greater precision in the placement of text and other elements, and also prevents some glitches that arise when you create your own object boxes on slides (for example, indenting icons don’t work properly in user-generated text boxes). When you click Insert Slide from the Presentation Box (see Figure 54) or choose Insert | Slide from the menu, the Insert Slide window opens and presents the AutoLayout options.

Figure 54. Impress’ Presentation Box.

Name the slide in the first field, Name, and use the second, Select an AutoLayout, to choose among many predefined layout options. (The first option is a blank, which you should avoid using if you intend to place any text boxes on the slide.) Click OK to generate the slide. Each element from the AutoLayout can always be modified, reshaped or

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moved in the slide you have created; their purpose is simply to speed and standardize the slide creation process.

Running a Slide Show Choose Slide Show | Start Slide Show from the menu, or click the Start Slide Show button on Impress’ upper right button bar. The Slide Show will fill the entire screen and cover the standard graphical interface of OpenOffice.org and the operating system itself. Clicking the mouse button or right arrow key will advance the show to the next slide, while right-clicking or pressing the left arrow key will move it back by one slide. Escape ends the show and returns to the previous view. To run a show with settings other than the default, first choose Slide Show | Slide Show Settings from the menu. A notable option is the ability to keep the mouse pointer visible, whose submenu, Mouse Pointer as Pen, allows you to draw on the slides as they are displayed. (For example, you can underline text, or circle a picture to draw the audience’s attention to something specific. Note that the pen color cannot be configured, however.) The Navigator Visible option keeps that window available during the slide show, which allows you to jump from slide to slide via the Navigator’s document outline navigation method or page number input field. (When not in use, it can be “rolled up” to show only its title bar, so as not to block much of the show.)

Slide Viewing Options There are five different views available in Impress: Drawing, Outline, Slide, Notes and Handout. Small buttons used to switch among these views are located above the vertical scrollbar on the right-hand side of the screen (see Figure 55). They can also be selected using the View menu. Drawing View is opened by default and is the best working space for designing and modifying an individual slide, because it shows just one at a time. Using View | Zoom, or rightclicking the zoom button at the bottom of the work area, you can enlarge it greater than 100% for extremely detailed work, or reduce it to any other scale you want.

Figure 55. Impress buttons: Drawing View, Outline View, Slide View, Notes View, Handout View, and Start Slide Show.

Outline View focuses on the textual content of the slides. Slide text can be edited and formatted, and individual slides can be moved around the presentation by drag-and-drop Impress

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of the icon next to the slide’s title. A main purpose of Outline View is to modify the hierarchical structure of the document’s text. The Object Bar contains buttons to Promote or Demote items, set the style or symbols used for numbering and bullets, and perform other actions in its outline format. Slide View shows a thumbnail image of every slide in the presentation, in four columns across the screen. One or more slides can be selected (Ctrl-click to select multiple slides) and moved to another position in the presentation via drag-and-drop. Alternatively, the selected slides can be copied and pasted into another slide show, using Edit | Copy and Edit | Paste. Slide View is also the best workspace to use when applying slide transition effects. Notes View allows the creation of annotations, or speaker’s notes, that are not displayed in the slide show, but are only visible from within Notes View. A speaker typically prints the slides in Notes View to use as a presentation aid during the slide show itself. While in Notes View, you can only edit the notes, not the slides themselves. Handout View is designed to create printed materials that presentation attendees keep for future reference. It places multiple slides on a page (four by default) to conserve paper and ink. Choose Modify Slide Layout to change the number of slides per page. Drag the slides to rearrange where they appear on the page, and choose Format | Page to change from portrait to landscape. Use the drawing tools in the main toolbar at the left side of the work area to add lines next to each slide for note-taking.

Using Master Slides A Master Slide sets the formatting, background color or pattern, and any text or graphics (such as a company’s logo) that will appear on every slide in that presentation. The Figure 56. Impress more standardized formatting can be placed in buttons: Slide View, Master View, and the Master Slide, the more efficient and precise the final slide show will turn out to be. Layer View. To work with the Master Slide, choose View | Master | Drawing from the menu or, while in Drawing View, click the Master View button from the set located to the left of the horizontal scrollbar (shown in Figure 56). Master Slides are edited in exactly the same way as any other slide in a presentation, but a change you make in the Master Slide will apply to every slide. Editing the Master Slide is a shortcut for making changes to some of the persistent styles used throughout your slide show.

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After completing the editing of your Master Slide, be sure to switch back to the normal slide view before trying to modify individual slides! Choose View | Slide or the Slide View button in the bottom left button bar to return to normal slide editing.

Editing the Master View for Presentation Notes Just as with the Master Slide View, a Master Notes View allows standardization of speaker’s notes. Select View | Master | Notes from the menu or enter Notes View and then click the Master View button from the lower left button set. The notes are stored in a text object, which can be modified, as can the font, size and other attributes of the text within. Modifying the Notes Style will also apply changes to all text in all notes. Don’t forget to return to regular Notes View after completing work with the Master Notes View by choosing View | Slide from the menu, or clicking the Slide View button.

Using Styles in Impress The use of Styles in Impress is not as deeply rooted as in Writer, Calc or Draw. Only Presentation and Graphics styles are used, and though both can be modified, only Graphics styles can be defined. Further, though objects added to slides can have different styles applied to them, those that are part of the slide’s design cannot.

Switching a Presentation's Template Conferences often provide custom templates to presenters, so a preexisting slide show must be adapted to it. However, the process is not complex. First, save the new template to your templates directory (see “Adding Templates for Impress” in this chapter). Open the presentation that you are about to modify, and then open the Presentation Box (see “Creating Slides” in this chapter). Click the Slide Design button to open the Slide Design window (shown in Figure 57). Click the Load button, locate the conference template and click OK. Finally, again in the Slide Design window, check the box labeled Exchange Background Page, to apply the new template to all slides in your slide show.

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Figure 57. The Slide Design window in Impress.

Inserting Graphics Graphics can only be inserted into a slide when working in Drawing View, Notes View or their master views. Choose Insert | Graphics | From File. Depending upon circumstance, you can choose to insert a copy of the graphic into the presentation document (the default behavior), or link to the original file by checking the Link box in the Insert Graphics window. (See “Inserting or Linking Graphics” in the “Writer” chapter.) If you choose to use the linking option, managing the file and folder hierarchy of your Impress slide show and the linked graphics files becomes very important.

Adding Gallery Graphics to a Presentation Clip art is added via the Gallery. Open the Gallery by selecting Tools | Gallery from the menu, or clicking the Gallery button on the Function Bar. Gallery items can be inserted in a document by drag-and-drop or by using the shortcut menu and selecting Insert.

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Creating Drawings on Slides The Main Toolbar, on the lefthand side, contains the tools for creating vector drawings. From top to bottom, the relevant buttons are the Text, Rectangle, Ellipse, 3D Objects, Curve, Lines and Arrows, and Connector buttons (see Figure 58). These tools allow objects to be drawn directly on a slide.

Working with Layers The button bar in the bottom left of the window, Figure 58. left of the horizontal scrollbar, contains the Layer Drawing tools on View button in a position third from the left (you the Main Toolbar: must be in Drawing View first). In Layer View, Text, Rectangle, the tabs that normally contain the names of the slides of the slide show change duty to represent Ellipse, 3D Objects, Curve, the layers of the current slide. A layer can be hidden from view by right-clicking its tab and Lines and Arrows, choosing Modify from the shortcut menu. and Connector. Deselect Visible, and the layer loses visibility, which is indicated by the layer’s name becoming blue. Using the same right-click, you can delete a layer, which will also delete all objects in it.

Creating Slide Transition Effects Slide Transition Effects can be set for one slide or for many, by selecting the slides or even the entire presentation from within Slide View. Note that transition effects will be applied during a slide show when moving to a selected slide, not when leaving it. (If a slide show’s second slide has a transition, moving from slide one to slide two will initiate it. Moving from slide two to slide three will not.) In Slide View (use the upper right button bar to switch to Slide View), click on the desired slide and use the Object Bar to select your transition from the drop-down list (see Figure 59). Choose the transition’s speed from the next drop-down list, and then set the transition type by choosing Manual, Semiautomatic or Automatic from the next. Normally, you’ll choose Manual, to make your transitions occur when you click the mouse button during the presentation.

Figure 59. The Slide Transitions Object Bar. Impress

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A Self-Running Kiosk Presentation Automatic slide transitions can be used to create self-running presentations. In Slide View, the Slide Transitions Object Bar allows you to set a transition to Automatic, which will run the selected transition using the Timing you specify. This attribute can be set for all the slides of an entire slide show, enabling such options as a self-running kiosk presentation. (After setting a slide show to Automatic Transition, open the Slide Show dialog [Slide Show | Slide Show Settings] and select Auto to run the entire presentation in a continuous loop. Set the time between slide transitions in the input field.) Semiautomatic runs the effects within the slide or selected group of slides automatically, but requires manual input to switch from one slide to the next. Finally, Manual requires user input (clicking for object effects, and clicking or using the arrow keys to move to a slide) for all transitions between and effects within the selected slides.

Using Slide Show Sound Effects First, choose the slide or slides to which you will apply the sound effect, and then open the Slide Transition window by selecting Slide Show | Slide Transition from the menu. Click the Extras button (on the top row, second from the left, as shown in Figure 60). The second row in the Extras portion of the Slide Transition window is the Sound check box, labeled with a musical note icon. Use Figure 60. Using slide the drop-down box to select a sound show sound effects. or browse to one to use. After working in the Slide Transition window’s Extras pane, or modifying sounds, be sure to click the green checkmark Assign button for your changes to be saved.

Applying Effects to Objects and Text Animation effects within a single slide, sometimes called Builds, are labeled Effects by Impress. To open the Animation Effects window, switch to Drawing View and choose Slide Show | Effects from the menu, or click the Animation Effects button on Figure 61. the Main Toolbar (see Figure 61). The Animation Select the item that will be affected by the

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effect, then choose the category and effect desired, and click the Assign green checkmark button at the top of the Effects window. Adjacent to the Assign button is a Preview button to see the results of different possible effects before you assign them. (Open the Preview window before selecting items; otherwise, the selections will be reset when you open it.) The Animation Effects window also has an Extras pane, which contains two rows of behavior controls (see Figure 62). The first row’s first button allows an item to disappear after its effect has completed (and is called the Object Invisible button), and the second button allows the item’s color to change (known as the Fade Object with Color button). Each change will take effect on the first click after the effect is displayed. The second row contains Figure 62. Impress’ Animation controls for sound, which Effects window showing the operate just as Slide Extras pane. Transitions’ sound controls. The Animation Effects window has a fourth pane, accessed via the Order button (fourth from the left). It contains a list of items that have had effects applied, and is used to change the order in which they appear. Drag and drop items in the list to reorder them. Note that the original order is determined by the order in which the objects were added to the slide, not the order in which the effects were applied.

Customizing Slide Shows To handle an abbreviated version of a standard presentation, a custom slide show can be used to display a subset of slides from that presentation. Each presentation can have many custom slide shows defined for use in different situations. In the primary slide show, choose Slide Show | Custom Slide Show to open the Custom Slide Shows window. All custom slide shows will appear in a list on the left side of the window. To create a new one, click the New button and the Define Custom Slide Show window will appear. Name the slide show, and then observe the list of existing slides on the left-hand side. Highlight slides in the Existing Slides list and click the >> button to move them into the Selected Slides list. Slides can be rearranged in the Selected Slides list

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by drag-and-drop. When finished, click OK, and click Close in the Custom Slide Shows window. To present a custom slide show, open the Custom Slide Show window (Slide Show | Custom Slide Show), and then click the Use Custom Slide Show check box. Select the desired slide show and click Start. A second method to present a custom slide show is to choose Slide Show | Slide Show Settings from the menu, then click the Custom Slide Show button and choose the desired presentation from the drop-down menu. Click OK, and then choose Slide Show | Slide Show to run the custom presentation.

Live Mode Editing Live Mode allows modification to a presentation while it is running. It can be quite convenient. To enable Live Mode, make sure the Navigator is visible during the presentation (see “Slide Viewing Options” in this chapter). In the top left side of the Navigator window, click the Live Figure 63. The Navigator’s Mode button to enable live mode editing (see Figure 63). Text can be Live Mode button. edited directly from the keyboard after it has been selected. Formatting styles are edited by selecting the item and then using the shortcut menu (via right-clicking, or Controlclicking on a Mac). To turn Live Mode off, simply click the Live Mode button again. After returning to another workspace, the changes made in Live Mode are carried over and can be saved at that point.

Exporting as Flash or PDF OpenOffice.org 1.1 introduced the ability to export an Impress slide show as “.swf” Flash format. Simply select File | Export, and in the pop-up menu choose Macromedia Flash. Name and save the file. To export to Adobe PDF (Portable Document Format), click the Export Directly as PDF button on the Function Bar or choose File | Export as PDF from the menu and specify the name, location and export details for the file. Both formats are ideal for sharing information, as they can be viewed on nearly any computer—Flash support is included in almost every Web browser today, and the free Adobe Acrobat Reader is nearly universal as well. Further, Mac OS X also includes Preview, a program that natively reads PDFs, and Linux systems come with several open source options for PDF viewing as well.

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Saving in Microsoft PowerPoint Format Choose the File menu, and then select Save As. A dialog box appears with fields to create a file name and to select where it will be saved. Below this is a pop-up menu where file type is chosen. The default will be OpenOffice Impress Document, but many other options are available. Choose PowerPoint 97/2000/XP and verify the check box reading “Automatic file name extension” is checked. After clicking Save, OpenOffice.org often displays a warning that the specified file type may not correctly save all data in the document. This can usually be safely ignored, but keeping a backup copy in OpenOffice.org format is a wise safeguard.

Opening Microsoft PowerPoint Files Launch OpenOffice.org, choose File | Open and navigate to the PowerPoint file. OpenOffice.org will automatically select the correct filter for the file, so just double-click it to open.

Presentation Printing Options Printing is essential in Impress to, for example, create printed speaker’s notes based on the Notes View, or produce handouts for the audience based on Handout View. The Print button on the Function Bar causes the file to be printed immediately, without opening a print dialog. It will print all pages on the default printer, using the current view. If you’ve already created the desired settings, this can be convenient. Otherwise, select File | Print from the menu to open the Print dialog. Here you will choose the printer, modify its properties, set the range of pages to print and the number of copies. You can access a great deal more useful information by clicking the Options button here. The Printer Options dialog, shown in Figure 64, allows you to specify one or more views to print at once (Drawing View, Notes View, Handout View or Outline View, or combine several of these options). You can select to print in color, grayscale or black-and-white, as well as whether to print the page name, print date and time in the upper left corner of the pages. You can also specify whether or not to print hidden slides. Page Options, including the ability to fit to page or tile pages, is sometimes handy for saving paper.

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Figure 64. The Printer Options window of Impress.

Draw OpenOffice.org Draw is a rather powerful drawing program, but is sometimes overlooked simply because a vector graphics program is not a common component in many office suites. Nevertheless, OpenOffice.org Draw is roughly equivalent to a program such as Corel Draw and also has many of the functions of Microsoft Visio. For those not working as professional graphics artists, Draw is also a solid replacement for many of Adobe Illustrator’s capabilities as well.

Vector vs. Raster Drawing OpenOffice.org Draw is a vector drawing program, unlike Photoshop or The GIMP, which are raster drawing tools. Vector graphics are based on vectors, or mathematical equations defining a line or shape’s direction, length and thickness. Hence, scaling a drawing up to a much larger size does not reduce its resolution. Also, individual elements remain discrete and can be modified easily at any point. For comparison, raster graphics define a grid of pixels and assign a color to each one. Scaling raster images increases the size of the pixels, and soon leads to pixellization. Raster images require a great deal more disk space than vector graphics in most circumstances. While OpenOffice.org Draw is a vector application, raster images can be embedded within its documents. The raster can be scaled and

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resized, but drawing on or around it will create new, independent vector objects.

The Draw Interface Draw opens by default with the normal toolbars in their typical positions: the Function Bar beneath the menus, the Draw Object Bar beneath that, and the Main Toolbar at the left (see Figure 65). The vertical and horizontal rulers are also both displayed by default. In the section of tabs where Impress slide names are located and navigation is managed, the page in Draw will be labeled as Slide 1.

Function Bar Object Bar Main Toolbar

Figure 65. OpenOffice.org Draw.

Creating a New Drawing To create a new drawing from within OpenOffice.org, choose File | New | Drawing, or when starting OpenOffice.org, choose Drawing as the document type.

Modifying the Page Size and Orientation OpenOffice.org Draw is an ideal tool for creating oversize poster graphics to be printed on plotters. Use Format | Page, and click the Page

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tab, to modify the dimensions of your document and to specify Portrait or Landscape orientation.

Inserting a Graphic To add images to a Draw document, choose Insert | Graphics. Most image file types are supported, and will be visible in the Insert Graphics window. (See “Inserting or Linking Graphics” in the “Writer” chapter.)

Exporting Drawings to Other Formats A Draw file can be exported to many standard vector and raster graphics file formats. Choose File | Export, and in the File Type dialog box select the desired graphics format. Choose Save. Among the many formats available, some have become very rare, so unless you have good reason to deviate, it’s best to stick with the common, cross-platform types like GIF, JPEG, PNG, SVG, EPS and TIFF.

Creating Shapes and Lines Shapes and lines are added to a drawing by using the Main Toolbar. Components available from the toolbar are, from top to bottom, Text, Rectangle, Ellipse, 3D Objects, Curve, Lines and Arrows, and Connector Line (see Figure 66). You can click each button to choose its default style, or longclick to display additional options. Having selected a component, click and drag on the drawing to place and size it. The shape will appear with its default fill color and style, and Figure 66. Drawing handles on its edges to allow further tools on the Main manipulation.

Toolbar: Text,

The most common non-shape Rectangle, Ellipse, component is text. Use the Text object button on the Main Toolbar to add a regular text box, 3D Objects, Curve, Lines and Arrows, a fit-to-frame text box or a text callout box and Connector Line. (which includes a pointer line that visually connects the text to another object). You must immediately enter text into a newly created text box or else it will disappear. Existing objects, with the exception of 3D objects, can be double-clicked to allow you to type right in the object.

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Creating ThreeDimensional Objects To insert a 3D object, click the 3D Objects button and select an object Figure 67. The 3D Objects from among cube, sphere, cylinder, button and window. cone, pyramid, torus, shell or halfsphere (see Figure 67). Click and drag in the work area to create and size the 3D object. When a 3D object is selected, click it once to turn the green handles into red handles that indicate it can be rotated (see Figure 68). Mouse over one of the handles, and then click and drag to rotate. Note that different handles rotate the object by different axes (depending on whether the corner handles, side handles or top and bottom handles are used).

Modifying a Shape’s Attributes

Figure 68. Rotating a 3D object.

You can move a shape by clicking once to select it and then dragging it, or using the keyboard arrows to move it into position. Hold the Shift key while dragging an object to move it precisely along the horizontal, vertical or a 45 degree axis. To resize an object, click and drag the green handles that appear when it has been selected. Hold the Shift key while dragging to resize the object proportionately. To modify the fill of an object, select the object and use the dropdown list options in the Object Bar. Line style, weight and color, as well as area fill and style, are easily set (see Figure 69).

Figure 69. Using Draw’s Object Bar to set line and area attributes. It’s also possible to select Format | Area or, from the shortcut menu, select Area. The Area window opens to its Area tab. (Other tabs in the Area window are Shadow, Transparency, Colors, Gradients, Hatching and Bitmaps. Each one controls additional attributes of the object, as indicated by its name. The Hatching tab is shown in Figure 70.)

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Figure 70. The Area window in Draw.

3D Attributes for 3D Objects To begin, select a 3D object in your document and choose Format | 3D Effects from the menu. The 3D Effects window opens and displays its tools. Its interface is somewhat obtuse, but you will soon recognize the trappings of a true 3D modeling application. The buttons along the top of the window function like tabs, each representing a different category of modifiable attributes. From left to right, the first button is Favorites. When selected, 12 predefined combinations of 3D effects are displayed in the main window. The Preview window will display your current object as modified by any of the favorites (see Figure 71). Figure 71. The Favorites Geometry is the second button. As 3D effects consist of

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smaller segments (the number of straight line segments used to approximate a curve, for example), the number of segments can be changed here. Edge rounding, scaled depth, rotation angle and depth are also located in Geometry. Third from the left is the Shading Properties button. Shading mode, shadow (including shadow surface angle), and camera distance and focal length are controlled here. The Illumination button is the fourth, marked by its lightbulb icon. It modifies the light source illuminating the 3D object, as well as ambient light. Both can be modified by color values, hue, saturation and brightness. Note that there is no automatic way to reset the dialog to its default values, though, and many of the changes will result in little visible difference on the 3D object anyway. Textures is the fifth button, and it is only functional if the 3D object has had a gradient, hatch or bitmap applied. (To apply these, select the object, right-click and choose Areas in its shortcut menu.) The texture type can be toggled between black-and-white or color. Mode, Projection X, Projection Y and Filtering options are also possible. The sixth button is the Material button. It includes a Favorites section preloaded with gold, plastic and other finishes, as well as tools to modify the object color, illumination color, specular color and specular intensity.

Precise Object Positioning Generally, you move an object by first selecting it and then dragging it with the mouse. For more precise movement, use the arrow keys on the keyboard. It is also possible to hold the Shift key while dragging an object with the mouse; this causes the object to move only horizontally or only vertically. Additionally, the status bar at the bottom of the window shows the precise position of the mouse and the size of any object that is selected. When you click on an object to select it, the status bar displays the position of the upper left-hand corner of the object’s rectangular bounding box. You can also right-click an object and choose Position and Size from the shortcut menu to place objects using the Position and Size window. Grid lines are also available to aid in object positioning. Turn the grid lines on by selecting View | Grid | Visible Grid from the menu. Some of the grid line settings are much more useful when customized a bit. Select Tools | Options | Drawing | Grid to open the window. The subdivisions of the Grid window include Grid (for toggling on or off the Snap to Grid and Visible Grid options), Resolution, Subdivision, Snap Draw

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and Snap Position. The color of the grid lines is set in a different location; find it under Tools | Options | OpenOffice.org | Appearance. Snap controls the use of snap lines and snap points, which are created by the user and which, like the grid, “magnetically” attract any object moved very close to the line or point. They make moving objects into precise line positions very straightforward. To insert a snap line or point, select Insert | Insert Snap Point/Line from the menu. This opens the New Snap Object dialog, in which you will specify point or horizontal or vertical line. You can select the position using numeric inputs, or drag a snap line into position after it has been inserted (probably easier in most cases). Snap lines will appear as dashed lines in the drawing work space, but snap points are invisible. Snapping to the snap lines and points can be toggled off using View | Snap Lines | Snap to Snap Lines. (Find other modifications in Tools | Options | Drawing | Grid, as mentioned earlier.) To line up objects in relation to one another Figure 72. without using snap lines, select the objects and choose Draw’s Modify | Alignment from the menu or the Alignment button on the Main Toolbar. (Long-click the button, Alignment which is shown in Figure 72, to open the Alignment button. Toolbar.) Objects can be aligned with this tool either vertically or horizontally, using the objects’ centers or sides as their reference points for the line.

Rotating Text and Objects You can easily rotate any text or object. Select the object and choose Modify | Rotate from the menu. The object’s selection handles will turn red and a bull’s eye/crosshairs icon will appear to indicate the center of rotation. (You can drag the center of rotation icon to move the center of rotation to a new position.) To rotate, move the mouse cursor over one of the object’s corners, and it will change into an open circle with arrows on each end. Click and drag the handle. Dragging by a side handle will fix the opposite side of the object and rotate about that side, resulting in the object’s shape changing. It is also possible to rotate objects by using the Position and Size window, found by selecting Format | Position and Size, and then selecting the Rotation tab. This is useful especially for inputting an exact degree of rotation and other information via text entry.

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Converting 2D Text and Objects to 3D Ordinary objects like an oval or a text box can be converted to 3D objects for an interesting effect. Select the existing 2D object, right-click it and choose Convert | To 3D from the shortcut menu (see Figure 73).

Figure 73. A 2D object and text converted to 3D in Draw. Arranging Object Layers Select one or more objects and choose Modify | Arrange from the menu, or right-click and choose Arrange from the shortcut menu. There are seven options for modifying the object’s depth: Bring to Front, Bring Forward, Send Backward, Send to Back, In Front of Object (which moves the selected object directly in front of the next object clicked), Behind Object (which moves the selected object directly behind the next object clicked) and Reverse (which reverses the order of selected items when more than one is selected).

Cropping an Image To crop a raster graphic that has been imported into Draw, use the Crop button in the Function Bar, which is only visible when a raster graphic Figure 74. The has been selected (it’s shown in Figure 74). This opens the Crop window, where the details Crop button. of the operation are set. Click OK to crop the graphic and close the window.

Placing Drawings in Other Documents Any drawing you create in Draw can be copied and pasted into Writer, Calc or Impress. Select the drawing and choose Edit | Copy, and then switch to the destination document, place the cursor where you want the drawing to appear and choose Edit | Paste. It is also possible, in Writer and Calc, to create drawings within a

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document by clicking the Show Draw Functions button on the Main Toolbar (to better control the drawing’s placement in the document, you may want to first create a frame and then draw in it with the drawing tools). The Draw Functions Toolbar opens, containing the tools needed to create drawings (see Figure 75). In Impress, you can create a drawing directly on a slide, as the Main Toolbar by default contains the same items it does in Draw.

Figure 75. The Draw Functions Toolbar in Writer and Calc.

Math OpenOffice.org Math is sometimes called Formula or the Equation Editor. It offers support for mathematical expressions from within other OpenOffice.org components or on their own. When an equation is saved alone, the file uses the MathML format inside an OpenOffice.org file package saved with the “.sxm” extension. Formulas are easily saved within other components for inclusion in word processing documents, presentations and more.

The Commands and Selection Windows The two unique windows in the Math user interface are the Commands and Selection windows (see Figure 76). Commands is used to input information in OpenOffice.org Math’s formula notation language. (Unlike word processing and slide shows in OpenOffice.org, Math is not created in a WYSIWYG environment.) What you enter here is rendered as a formula in the main document window. The Selection window contains a number of shortcuts for building formulas in the Commands window. Choosing an option here inserts the Math formula notation language code into the Commands window, which is then rendered in the document window. Experimenting with the Selection window is a good way to learn the formula notation language code required for assembling formulas.

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Figure 76. OpenOffice.org Math, showing the Commands and Selection windows. Inserting a Math Object into a Document To insert a mathematical formula into a Writer or other OpenOffice.org document in Windows, choose Insert | Object | OLE Object from the menu (from within Writer). Be sure the Create New radio button is selected, and then choose OpenOffice.org Formula from the Object Type list. Click OK, and then click in the object in the main document. The Formula Object Bar and toolbars will appear when working within the object. Click elsewhere in the document to return to the parent component’s interface. See “Inserting a Formula from Math” later in this chapter for more options.

Running Math Independently Math can also run independently of the other components of OpenOffice.org. Choose File | New | Formula to open the Math component by itself.

OpenOffice.org Math vs. TeX TeX has long been favored by the scientific community, and with good reason: It is the most powerful and flexible tool for generating and displaying mathematical formulas. Its greatest weakness, though, is its steep learning curve. OpenOffice.org Math, on the other hand, makes a Math

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good (though more basic) starting point for most people’s mathematical formula development needs, and can stand in for occasional users who have not learned the syntax of TeX. Sadly, OpenOffice.org Math does not read or write TeX at this time, impeding interoperability.

MathML Support in OpenOffice.org The current version of OpenOffice.org can export formulas in MathML 1.01 for interoperability and Web publishing. The MathML 2.0 specification was released in 2001 by the W3C Math working group, and Math ML 2.0 second edition has become a W3C Recommendation. OpenOffice.org does not yet include support for this version, however.

Creating a Formula Use the Commands window at the bottom of the screen to enter formulas. In support of this, the floating Selection palette has nine category buttons in two rows across the top, each of which switches the window to another category of formula sections. The categories are: Unary/Binary Operators, Relations, Set Operations, Functions, Operators, Attributes, Others, Brackets and Formats (see Figure 77). Selecting a symbol from one of these categories will insert its OpenOffice.org formula notation Figure 77. The code into the Commands window and show the Selection window rendered version in the main working window.

in Math.

To insert other special characters in a formula, place the cursor in the correct location in the Commands window, and choose Tools | Symbols | Catalog. Choose a symbol set (Greek or Special) and pick the desired symbol from the Symbols window.

Inserting a Formula from Math If you already have a formula and plan to import it into a Writer document, open Math (and make sure the Commands window is open), and choose Tools | Import Formula. Select the Writer file that will house the formula, and click Insert.

Working with Fonts in Math When working with fonts in Math, you perform actions using the Commands window, so be sure it is active first. To change a font face, select Format | Fonts. The Font Types window opens. Click the Modify

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button to set different fonts for each element of the formula. To change font size, choose Format | Font Size and select a different Base size, which modifies the font size for the entire formula. Other parts of the formula can be changed by their relative percentage of the base size. To modify spacing, choose Format | Spacing. Select a category using the Category button, and make adjustments from within the resultant window. The Preview area will display your changes live. Default spacing can be restored with the Default button. You control alignment of formula elements by selecting Format | Alignment. Next, choose Left, Centered or Right, which is calculated relative to the borders of the formula box in the document.

Web The Web component is very similar to Writer in its interface and much of its operation, including the use of styles. It provides basic HTML editing capabilities a step above what is typical for word processors, though not comparable to dedicated text editors designed for coding. Web (also frequently called “HTML Editor”) can operate in WYSIWYG (“what you see is what you get”) mode like Dreamweaver, or in source code mode like a traditional software developer’s coding tools.

Creating HTML Files Choose File | New | HTML Document. In Web, you enter and format text using styles in the same way as in Writer.

Creating HTML Documents from Templates Choose File | AutoPilot | Web Page. Select your desired template and layout style and then click Create. Alternatively, choose File | New | From Template for the same result.

Opening an HTML Document From within OpenOffice.org, choose File | Open and navigate to the document desired. Alternately, in your file browser, right-click on the HTML document and choose Open With | OpenOffice.org from the shortcut menu.

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Creating an HTML Template Select File | AutoPilot | Web Page, and in its window, select the structure and options in the left and right-hand columns. Choose the Create Template option and then click Create. The Templates window opens, in which you can enter the name of the template and choose the category under which to file it. The template will now be available. To use it, select File | New | Templates and Documents, and choose your template from the Default category (due to an apparent glitch, user-created templates always appear in this category only).

Inserting a Horizontal Line To break up long blocks of text on Web pages, horizontal lines are frequently used. Select Insert | Horizontal Line to open the Insert Horizontal Ruler window. The top option, Plain, is the usual horizontal line seen in Web pages. Options for a number of graphical lines are also included.

Inserting a Table Before inserting a table, it’s best to set, or at least review, the default table settings. Choose Tools | Options | HTML Document | Table. The Table Options window appears, showing what aspects can be customized when desired; however, it can be readily used without modification in most cases. Make any changes and then click OK. Now, in the HTML document, select Insert | Table. Choose a basic table with the settings in the window, or click the AutoFormat button for a wide selection of predefined tables. After the table has been created, it is still possible to edit many attributes. To bring up the window for modifying a table’s dimensions, right-click on the table and choose Table from the shortcut menu. Likewise, for a cell, column or row’s attributes, first select the desired element and then right-click and choose Cell, Column, or Row, and select an option from the submenu. When working in a table, the Text Object Bar is replaced by the Table Object Bar. If you need to format text, an arrowhead button at the far right-hand side of the toolbar will allow you toggle back and forth between the two active toolbars (see Figure 78).

Figure 78. Web’s Table Object Bar, and the toggle to return to the Text Object Bar. 80

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Inserting Notes Just like in Writer, you can insert notes in Web. The process is quite similar, and the note is indicated by a yellow rectangle in the text. The note will be stored in the HTML source of the file, as is commonly done with Web site source code. Choose Insert | Note to open the note window and enter your note text.

Viewing and Modifying HTML Source By default, when working in Web, you will be in a WYSIWYG environment, which shows the HTML document as it will appear in a Web browser. Power users will often find working in source code mode to be more efficient, and that is accomplished by selecting View | HTML Source, or clicking the HTML Source button in the Main Toolbar. (The document must be saved before editing can be performed in HTML Source mode.) To see how changes made in source code mode will appear in a Web browser, toggle back to WYSIWYG mode by the same button or menu process.

Inserting Graphics You insert graphics by using Insert | Graphic. By default, the link to the graphic is made as an absolute link, which usually needs modification. To change it into a relative link, switch into source code view and remove the path to the graphic, just keeping its name and extension. Then be sure the graphic and HTML file are stored in the same directory both locally and on the Web server when it is uploaded. You can change OpenOffice.org settings to apply to all future documents by using Tools | Options | Load/Save | General. Uncheck Filesystem and Internet in the “Save URLs Relative To” subsection.

Updating File Links In HTML, graphics and other files are always linked, never inserted into the main file as can be done in the standard OpenOffice.org documents. When a graphic or file is moved relative to the file linking to it, the links will need updating. Choose Edit | Links to bring up the Edit Links window. Highlight and update the links, and then click the Update button before closing the window.

Creating Hyperlinks To make text into a hyperlink, select the text and then choose Insert | Hyperlink. On the left-hand side of the Hyperlink window, choose among Internet (for linking to other Web sites), Mail & News (for an e-mail Web

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link), Document or New Document. For example, choose Internet, and fill in the Target field with the URL of the page to which it will link. It’s also possible to create a link before creating the link text. In the document, choose Insert | Hyperlink, and in the Hyperlink window, the Text field can be modified to generate the link’s text. For e-mail links (a link that opens the user’s e-mail client and automatically addresses a message), choose the Mail & News type in the left-hand bar. In the Receiver field, enter the desired e-mail address. The Subject field can be used to automatically create a subject line for the email. The Text field will be used by the Web site visitor to compose his or her message to the link’s addressee. Leave it blank, unless you want to begin the message for your visitor. See “Adding Hyperlinks” and “Editing Hyperlinks” in the “Writer” chapter for additional information.

Data Sources and Forms OpenOffice.org does not have a stand-alone database component that would be directly analagous to Filemaker Pro or Microsoft Access. However, it does include the functionality of a database component, which is actually accessed from within the Writer or Calc component. This method is referred to as Data Sources. Choose View | Data Sources to open the window displaying existing data sources; it floats above the document by default, just like the Gallery window.

Working with Data A Data Source is an OpenOffice.org connection to one or more files stored as tables in any number of possible formats, from a plain text file to a spreadsheet or an explicit database file format. The data source setup window contains a drop-down list with seven different file type options that can be used as data sources. These are: Adabas, JDBC, ODBC, dBase, ADO, Text, Spreadsheet and Addressbook. Not all of these can be created by OpenOffice.org, though all of them can be used to retrieve data. The most common and useful basic (non-relational) database format is probably dBase (which uses the file extension “.dbf”). dBase files can be created by Calc and most spreadsheet applications, making them a good intermediate format for data conversion, as well. Unlike other formats, dBase can be edited from within OpenOffice.org forms or in the data viewer. JDBC, or Java Database Connectivity, is a platform-independent set

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of drivers used to connect to many types of databases, including Oracle, MySQL, Access and numerous others. ODBC, or Open Database Connectivity, provides drivers to many databases, just as JDBC does; however, it requires specialized drivers for each platform. These must be obtained from the creator of the database to which you will connect using ODBC. ADO is the connector for Microsoft Access databases. Text is a bare-bones but highly useful format; for use as a data source it must be delimited (usually commas, tabs or space characters are used to delimit the document’s fields). Also, OpenOffice.org only permits reading of text data source files; to modify the data it must be changed in Calc or a text editor (including Writer). Calc can also be used to open a text file (as file type “Text CSV”) and save it as a dBase file for use as a data source. Spreadsheets in OpenOffice.org or Microsoft Office formats can be used as data sources. Like text files, they too are read-only and can only be modified by opening them in Calc. Finally, Addressbook files can also be used as data sources. Supported types are Windows address book, Outlook, LDAP and Netscape/Mozilla formats.

Creating a Data Source From within Writer or Calc, open the Data Source Administration window (shown in Figure 79) by selecting Tools | Data Sources from the menu. Click the New Data Source button in the top left of the window, and use the Connection section on the right to specify the Database Type and the Data Source URL.

Figure 79. The Data Source Administration window. Data Sources and Forms

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Move on to the second tab, Text, dBase or other (its name adapts to the type of data entered in the General tab). If your data source is a text document, use the Text tab to define the Field Separator used in your data source as well as other pertinent information. If it is a dBase file, use the dBase tab, where you can specify the character set and index options to be used. Click the Tables tab to review which tables will be visible for the applications. The Queries tab permits entry of SQL queries for the data source. It includes the New Query Design button, which leads to a GUI-based tool for creating queries even without explicit knowledge of SQL syntax. The Links tab may also require some review; it should be used to link to a form that is set up for viewing the data source’s contents or to connect other files to the database for future work. When everything is set, click OK to save and close the window. If no error message appears and seemingly nothing has happened, the procedure was a success. Finally, choose View | Data Sources to see the new data source in your OpenOffice.org document. It is ready for use.

Editing Data The Data Source Viewer allows direct editing of the contents of some types of data sources such as dBase, but excluding text files and spreadsheets. For JDBC and ODBC, the connection or database setup may prevent editing of the contents as well. Choose View | Data Source from the menu and then modify the data in each field directly.

Sorting Data When the Data Source Viewer is open (choose View | Data Sources), there are two primary ways to sort the data fields. To sort quickly, click once in the field to be sorted, and then click the Sort Ascending or Sort Descending button in the Object Bar (they are located third and fourth from the left, respectively; see Figure 80).

Figure 80. Data Sources Object Bar Buttons, from left: Explorer On/Off, Find Record, Sort Ascending, Sort Descending, AutoFilter, Default Filter, and Sort.

More control is available by using the Sort Order window, shown in Figure 81. Click the seventh button from the left-hand side of the Object

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Bar, the Sort button, to open it. Sort Order can be carefully controlled by up to three fields and in ascending or descending order for each.

Figure 81. The Sort Order window. Filtering Records Filtering can be accomplished by one of two methods: the AutoFilter or the Default Filter. The AutoFilter simply presents the selected records in the selected field, temporarily hiding all other records in the database. In the Data Source Viewer, click in the desired field and then click the AutoFilter button (fifth from the left on the Object Bar; its icon looks like a funnel with a star above it). To remove the AutoFilter, click the button once again. The Default Filter works in a similar manner. Open the Filter window by clicking the Default Filter button, which is to the right of the AutoFilter button and looks like a funnel but with no star above it. The Filter window allows a condition and value to be set for up to three fields to engage the filter. Like the AutoFilter, it is also disengaged by clicking its button a second time.

Searching Records with a Query Queries are used to locate records in a database based on specified criteria. You can also use a query instead of the entire data source as the basis for a mail merge letter or other document. A query can be written in SQL or developed interactively using the Query Definition window. To get started, open the Data Source Viewer by choosing View | Data Sources from the menu, expand the “+” by the data source you want to use, and then rightclick on Queries in the Figure 82. Query Window Tools, hierarchical list on the left. from left: Run, Clear Query, Choose New Query (SQL Switch Design View On/Off, Run View) from the shortcut menu, SQL Command Directly, Edit, and then type the SQL Save, and Save As. command in the field in the Data Sources and Forms

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next window. To save this query, click the Save As button and name the query. Next, press the Run button (on the far left, it looks like a stack of CDs with an arrow pointing down; see Figure 82), and see the results appear in the Query window. To use the Query Definition window to build a query, again open the Data Source Viewer and right-click on Queries in the hierarchical list on the left. This time, choose New Query (Design View) from the shortcut menu, which will open the Query Design window with a small Add Tables window on top. Select your tables and then move to the Query Design window. After working with the GUI tools, click the Save button and then name the query. Click the Run button to run it and display the results.

Using the Form AutoPilot to Create a Form The Form AutoPilot is the quickest way to create a customized document for viewing and entering (for editable sources that are not text or spreadsheet files) data from a data source. The form created by the AutoPilot is a separate Writer document, which can then be shared throughout an organization for convenient access to a central data source. From the menu, select File | AutoPilot | Form to open the Form AutoPilot. In the first window, select the data source, and then the table or query within that data source, that you will use. The existing fields will be listed based on what you select there. Select one or more fields and use the arrows to add them to the Fields in Form list. Click Next to move to the layout options page, where you specify the Arrangement of DB Fields, Field Border, Page Styles, Label Placement and Background Image. Click Create, and save the document. It will be a Writer document with the “.sxw” extension. The form that you created will now open. At the bottom of the working area, a toolbar contains buttons used for searching and navigating through the database connected to the form. After you have created a form using the Form AutoPilot, you can use Form Design Mode to add to or modify the document. Open the Form Functions tearoff menu (fifth down on the Main Toolbar; see Figure 83) and toggle Design Mode on by clicking the fourth button from the right on the second row of controls (the Design Mode On/Off button, by name).

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Figure 83. The Form Functions button.

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Creating a Form from Scratch First, create a document in the OpenOffice.org component that will become your form, either Writer or Calc. Then, select the Show Form Functions button from the Main Toolbar (it is fifth from the top) and long-click it. This opens the floating Form Functions Toolbar (shown in Figure 84), which contains controls for use in the form in the top row and buttons for managing the whole of the form in the bottom. You add controls to a form by selecting one from the floating toolbar and then clicking and dragging in the document to place and size that control.

Figure 84. The Form Functions Toolbar; use ToolTips and Help for details on each button. Specifying a Data Source for a Control Using the AutoPilot If you want a control such as a list box to use data from a data source, rather than entering the list items manually, you can take advantage of the AutoPilot. First, the AutoPilots On/Off button must be active (it’s located in the second row of the Form Functions Toolbar, furthest to the right). To create a group of radio buttons, place a Group Box on the form. The AutoPilot will appear automatically. In its first page, specify the names for each option and press Enter or the >> button to move each item to the active list on the right-hand side. Click Next to move to the second page, where you specify which item (or none) is to be selected by default. On the third page, each option can be assigned a numeric value starting from 1. The fourth page of the AutoPilot is the Database Field page, which can be used to allow the input of the user to be saved in a table field of a selected data source or query. Finally, the fifth page will specify the option group’s name, which will be shown as a caption in the box surrounding the option buttons. A combo box is similar to a list box, but is displayed as a dropdown menu and also allows the input of a user-created value. Again, be sure the AutoPilots On/Off button is selected, and then place a combo box on the form. The AutoPilot’s first page allows you to choose a data source for the form. Its second page, the Table Selection page, allows determination of which table or query contains the items to be listed in the combo box. The third page, the Field Selection page, is used to select a field from the table, and the fourth, the Database Field page, Data Sources and Forms

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indicates where a form user’s choice from among the options is stored in the database. A list box is nearly identical to a combo box, but has additional options for storing the data created by the form’s user. This extra information is specified in the Field Link page of the AutoPilot. The Table Element AutoPilot is very useful for a form containing a table control. It allows you to specify which fields will be displayed in which order on the table inserted into the form.

Form Controls and Customizations To customize a control, select it (click it once, and its green handles will appear) and choose Format | Control from the menu, or Control from the shortcut menu. This opens the Properties dialog, which will vary based on which control it represents (see Figure 85).

Using a Form

Figure 85. The Properties window for a combo box control.

When building a form, one works in Design Mode. To use the form, toggle the Design Mode On/Off button on the Form Functions Toolbar (second row, fourth from the right) to its off position. Controls will function as they were designed to, and if the form is linked to a data source, the database bar will appear at the bottom of the window.

By default, when a form is opened, it opens with Design Mode turned off, as a convenience for the form’s users. To make a form open with Design Mode on by default, simply click the Open in Design Mode button on the Form Functions Toolbar (second row, third from the right). Toggle it off again when the form is ready for delivery to its users.

Creating a Mail Merge Letter Using the AutoPilot From within Writer, the first step in creating a mail merge letter is to create a data source (choose Tools | Data Sources from the menu, and see “Creating a Data Source” for more details).

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To create a new letter from scratch, select File | AutoPilot | Letter and proceed from there through the long AutoPilot. You must select a business letter if you want to be prompted to select a data source. To use an existing letter, open it and choose View | Data Sources. Drag fields individually into their places in the waiting Writer document. When you are ready to print the mail merge, select File | Print. This opens a dialog box that reads “Your document contains address database fields. Do you want to print a form letter?” Click Yes to proceed. Specify a reduced range of records and print to file if you desire, and then click Print.

Creating Labels Using Data Sources Creating Labels using data sources is similar to creating a letter using the AutoPilot. First, create a data source, and then select File | New | Labels. Simply follow through with the AutoPilot to create and print your labels. Be certain to select the right template for the labels you are using, in the Labels tab.

Macros, Scripting and APIs A macro is a small program that automates a series of steps taken within one or several computer programs. Macros are written in simple programming languages specific to the software programs they control, which is known as OpenOffice.org Basic in our case. OpenOffice.org 1.1 improved the suite’s macro capabilities and introduced an advanced scripting framework with accessible APIs for the development of add-on software products. Advanced users will find many uses for these features in specialized environments and for enterprise workflow needs. Most independent users to whom this book is targeted will be more likely to need to use existing macros than to create their own. For a much more detailed discussion of macros than space affords here, visit http://ooomacros.org/ or read Andrew Pitonyak’s OpenOffice.org Macros Explained, available from Hentzenwerke Publishing at www.hentzenwerke.com/catalog/oome.htm.

Finding Macros The OpenOffice.org Macros Web site is designed for users and creators of OpenOffice.org macros. Many can be downloaded from the Web site Macros, Scripting and APIs

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at www.ooomacros.org. Others can also be downloaded from several of the Web sites listed toward the end of this book.

Installing Macros Technically, a macro is not “installed,” but because it is necessary to organize macros in a specific hierarchical manner, this organization can be thought of as a basic installation process. The hierarchy flows from library to module to macro, and user-generated macros can be stored in the Standard library or in a new user-generated library only. A macro can be copied and pasted into a module within the Standard library (under “soffice”), where it will be accessible from any document you work with. Since macros are often distributed within an OpenOffice.org document, open that document and then choose Tools | Macro from the menu. Under the name of the document, click on the module and then the macro. Copy the macro, and then select the module under soffice | Standard | Module Name where you will paste it.

Placing a Macro in a Toolbar Button Right-click the desired toolbar and choose Customize from its shortcut menu. In the Category field of the Functions subsection (located in the lower left), expand OpenOffice.org BASIC Macros, and then expand Standard. Expand the module and then select the function desired. Click the Buttons button and choose the icon for your button, and then click OK. You can close the Customize Toolbars window, or click Default to remove any of your own modifications.

Recording Macros Recording a macro is possibly the best way to get started with creating macros. It simply saves a record of your actions that can be mimicked later by running that macro. (Note this feature was introduced in OpenOffice.org 1.1 and is not available in earlier versions.) There are many actions that are not recorded, including any use of the mouse, so be sure to test this feature before making extensive use of it. To begin, open the document in which the recording will take place, and choose Tools | Macro | Record Macro from the menu. The small, floating Record Macro window appears, to show that your actions are being recorded. Perform the actions to be recorded (such as typing a particular sequence, replacing a term or phrase, or saving the document), and when finished, click the Stop Recording button on the floating Record Macro window. This causes the Macro window to open; name and save your new macro here. From the Macro window, you can select your new creation and view or modify it by clicking Edit.

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Editing Macros First, open the Macro window by selecting Tools | Macros | Macro from the menu. A list of the modules is located in the second column; click on one to display the macros stored within, and then click on the desired macro to select it. Click Edit from the buttons in the right-hand column to open the BASIC window for macro editing.

Using Macros Running a macro also starts from within the Macro window. Open it by choosing Tools | Macro from the menu, and then find the desired macro from within the second column’s list of modules and macros. Select the correct macro by clicking on it, and then click the Run button in the top right of the window.

Invoking Macros via Keystroke or Toolbar Shortcut keys can be set up to invoke a macro; this is particularly valuable for macros that will be run fairly frequently. To get started, open the OpenOffice.org document in which you will be using the macro, and then choose Tools | Configure from the menu. The Configuration window appears with the Menu tab open; in its top right corner, select the OpenOffice.org radio button. This makes the keystroke shortcut applicable to all OpenOffice.org components. The bottom half of the Keyboard tab is labeled Functions, and its first subsection is Category. In the Category list, scroll to BASIC and select it. In the Functions list, you’ll see the corresponding macro libraries for BASIC. Select one of the libraries, then one of its modules, then a specific macro. (Some libraries will be empty of modules and macros.) Now, in the Shortcut Keys section at the top of the window, select the desired keystroke, click the Modify button to assign the change, and then click OK to exit the Configuration window.

Using OpenOffice.org Basic to Write Macros Open the Macro window by choosing Tools | Macros | Macro from the menu. Then click the Organizer button on the right-hand side, which opens the Macro Organizer window. Select the library where your new macro will be stored (usually Standard, or a library of your creation), and then click the New Module button. In the window that appears, enter the name of the module and click OK. Select the new module and click the Edit button. The StarBasic IDE (StarBasic and OpenOffice.org Basic are the same thing) opens with its code development window and associated tools. Each macro begins with the line “Sub macroname” and ends with the line “End Sub”. To learn Macros, Scripting and APIs

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more about StarBasic’s commands, syntax and general capabilities, start with the built-in Help documentation, and continue with online programming resources from www.openoffice.org and http://ooomacros.org/ (note there are three “o” characters).

Using Microsoft Office Macros Unlike Microsoft Office documents, macros written for Microsoft Office will not work in OpenOffice.org because of differences in the document object models each uses. However, the capabilities and functionality of macros are quite similar. OpenOffice.org can be programmed in StarBasic (also called OpenOffice.org Basic) with a syntax quite similar to that used by Microsoft Office, or more advanced scripting and programming languages can be used, particularly Python and Java.

More Macro Documentation The “StarOffice 7 Basic Programmer’s Guide” is the next step for future programmers. It is a PDF that can be downloaded from http://docs.sun.com/db/doc/817-1826. Though titled for StarOffice, it will do fine for learning OpenOffice.org as well. In addition to the online Help and sample files available at http://ooomacros.org/, Andrew Pitonyak’s recently published OpenOffice.org Macros Explained, available from Hentzenwerke Publishing at www.hentzenwerke.com/catalog/oome.htm, is the most comprehensive guide to using and creating macros in OpenOffice.org.

Scripting OpenOffice.org Scripting OpenOffice.org is a rather advanced topic. It is managed as a part of the OpenOffice.org Application Framework Project, which can be found online at http://framework.openoffice.org/.

API: The Application Programming Interface OpenOffice.org 1.1 introduced a documented API for third-party developers to use when writing applications on top of OpenOffice.org, or for heavy customization and extension of its capabilities. The API is one of OpenOffice.org’s recognized projects, with documentation and activity taking place around its Web site at http://api.openoffice.org/. This site also distributes the OpenOffice.org Software Development Kit (SDK), which provides the tools and documents needed for programming OpenOffice.org’s APIs and creating new extensions (UNO components) for it.

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Where to Find More Information A bibliography of sorts! Since this Tiny Guide to OpenOffice.org is intended as an introductory and reference work, advanced readers are likely to have questions that are not answered within. For those questions, consider some of the following sources of additional information.

Books ► OpenOffice.org 1.1 Resource Kit, by Floyd Jones and Solveig Haugland. The original and most comprehensive reference work for OpenOffice.org. Updated in September 2004 for OpenOffice.org 1.1. ► OpenOffice.orgSwitch: 501 Things You Wanted to Know About Switching to OpenOffice.org from Microsoft Office, by Tamar Granor, edited by Sam Hiser and Scott Carr. Targeted to the specific audience of people familiar with Microsoft Office who are making the change to OpenOffice.org (actually, that is a rather large target group), this book may be ideal for corporate switchers to share with their staff members to get them up to speed with the changes. ► OpenOffice.org Writer: The Free Alternative to Microsoft Word, by Jean Hollis Weber. Focused on the Writer component, for those people who don’t use the other components of OpenOffice.org as often. This is an excellent book for power Writer users interested in advanced topics. ► OpenOffice.org for Dummies, by Gurdy Leete, Ellen Finkelstein and Mary Leete. OpenOffice.org has caught the attention of the famous “Dummies” series. If a basic introduction or their well-known format is what you need, OpenOffice.org for Dummies could be a good volume. ► OpenOffice.org Free and Easy, by Solveig Haugland and Floyd Jones. This book is an introductory, step-by-step guide for users who don’t need the comprehensive coverage of Haugland and Jones’ OpenOffice.org Resource Kit. ► StarOffice Companion, by Solveig Haugland and Floyd Jones. Very similar to the authors’ OpenOffice.org Resource Kit, StarOffice users may prefer the edition designed specifically with their needs in mind. ► Special Edition Using StarOffice 6.0, by Michael Koch. Easy to find on bookstore shelves, this encyclopedic volume was written for StarOffice 6.0, the equivalent of OpenOffice.org 1.0. Most of the information should translate easily for users of OpenOffice.org.

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Mailing Lists Official project mailing lists are a great way to follow the latest OpenOffice.org developments, to participate in the community and to ask questions (or answer questions) of other users. Each mailing list stores its archives on the Web site, so be sure to search for your issue before posing a question; be polite and try to avoid redundancy! Also, please read the introductory page that covers mailing list guidelines and member responsibilities, which is found at www.openoffice.org/mail_list.html. From this page, you can join any of the lists. For technical assistance, join the [email protected] list, and for a low-traffic general announcement list, join [email protected] (it’s a good idea for everyone to join this list). [email protected] is great for those who want to converse, both theoretically and practically, on the OpenOffice.org project and the greater open source context. The OpenOffice.org subprojects all maintain lists as well; a great way for normal people (“non-geeks”) to support OpenOffice.org is to join the Marketing Project and help to promote the software—its mailing list is [email protected].

Web sites ► www.openoffice.org/—The main project Web site, the location to download the software and the central nervous system for the entire project. Keep an eye on this site for the latest in community developments. ► www.oooforum.org/—An online discussion forum for technical assistance and questions and answers related to all parts of the software suite. Feel free to ask and answer questions here. ► www.ooodocs.org/—The OpenOffice.org Documentation Project, with FAQs, How-Tos, forums and more. ► http://ooextras.sourceforge.net/ —A collection of templates, clip art, labels, tutorials and more to support users of OpenOffice.org. ► www.ooomacros.org/—An online repository for OpenOffice.org macros as well as information for creating macros and using other tools to extend the capabilities of the software suite. ► www.sun.com/staroffice/—Sun Microsystems’ main page for StarOffice, the commercial product based on the OpenOffice.org project. ► www.staroffice.com/—An independent, volunteer-driven support site for StarOffice users. Provides similar services to many of the OpenOffice.org Web sites mentioned previously. ► www.solidoffice.com/—Project Web site of the author, providing

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CD-ROMs of OpenOffice.org, additional information about this book and other items of community interest. ► www.getopenoffice.org/—Solveig Haugland, author of several OpenOffice.org books and materials, also provides training and other services via this Web site. ► http://training.bytebot.net/—Materials to support OpenOffice.org trainers who are providing or developing OpenOffice.org courses. Colin Charles is based in Malaysia, in the heart of a region leading the globe in the use of open source software products. ► www.flexiety.com/—A CD seller, Flexiety also provides paid support options for users of OpenOffice.org. ► www.8daysaweek.co.uk/—A UK-based CD seller and provider of online forum-based support for OpenOffice.org. They are also collecting stories of migrations to OpenOffice.org, so if you have one to share, please get in touch.

Corporate Support Sun Microsystems, founder of and a major contributor to OpenOffice.org, provides paid corporate tech support for OpenOffice.org. Details are available at www.sun.com/service/ support/software/openoffice/. Many local technology shops and computer assemblers and retailers provide support for OpenOffice.org as well. Check with your favorite local partner, or visit the CD-ROM distributor project page to find possible matches: http://distribution.openoffice.org/cdrom/.

Getting Involved in the OpenOffice.org Project What makes OpenOffice.org more than just another office suite (and causes the “.org” to be appended to its name) is the community of developers and users responsible for its existence and its constant refinement. Find out about the online and offline community resources of the project, both to provide further benefits as a user, and to allow your contribution to the project’s growth. The first source for the OpenOffice.org community is the project’s own Web site at www.openoffice.org. Here one can read about OpenOffice.org, download the software for every platform and language, submit bug and feature requests, and sign up for mailing lists. Getting Involved in the OpenOffice.org Project

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OpenOffice.org mailing list information is centralized at www.openoffice.org/mail_list.html. Existing mailing lists cover all aspects of the project. The announcements mailing list is important for learning about major new releases of the software and other high-priority information. The users list provides questions and answers for new users or advanced users who’ve been stumped with a problem. It is also the primary resource for technical support for most problems. Online documentation in an FAQ format is available as well. See http://documentation.openoffice.org/user_faq/ for the index. The marketing project is an ideal way for non-programmers to contribute something back to the community of OpenOffice.org users. Simply helping friends to upgrade their office suite to OpenOffice.org is as helpful to the project as it is to the individual or group making the switch, and sharing OpenOffice.org is the essence of the marketing project. Marketing is found at http://marketing.openoffice.org/. Developers and coders, don’t feel left out! There is much work for you to do; the development project is located at http://development .openoffice.org/. Furthermore, language localizations are coordinated by the Localization Project at http://l10n.openoffice.org/. (“Localization” is often seen abbreviated as “l10n” to represent the 10 letters between “l” and “n.”) In addition to the main OpenOffice.org Web site, a number of other useful resources have emerged online. Two of the biggest are the OpenOffice.org Forum, for troubleshooting and learning new skills, at www.oooforum.org, and OO Extras, for downloading and sharing artwork, labels, templates and tutorials, at http://ooextras .sourceforge.net/. See the list of Web sites in the previous chapter for a more thorough treatment of online resources. Around the world, many universities have created special pages for OpenOffice.org and other open source software projects, which are becoming very popular on their campuses. If you are connected with a university, contact your IT department or search your university’s Web site to see what is in place. If nothing is set up yet, you could be the one to start it! The process may seem daunting, but others will quickly join and distribute the workload. The student and campus communities have much to gain from your efforts; open source succeeds on the initiative of its community members, and even if you feel you are a simple user, there are many who would surely benefit from your labors. Linux User Groups (LUGs) are also a source of information about OpenOffice.org. (They tend to be interested in all things open source, even if not directly connected to Linux itself.) Find your local LUG

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and see if they have a subcommittee focused on OpenOffice.org, or whether LUG members have other OpenOffice.org-related ideas and projects to share. Finally, contact your local government agencies to let them know how taxpayer dollars can be saved, and government transparency increased, by switching to open source software on the desktop. If the idea of Linux is intimidating, OpenOffice.org allows for a gradual introduction to the world of open source, while providing significant and immediate benefits to governmental users who make the switch. Amazingly, open source software can save money, improve quality of service and increase equity all in one smart package.

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Index A printed index is by definition limited to just those words listed. As with all Hentzenwerke books, you can download the PDF file for this book from www.hentzenwerke.com (see the section “How to Download the Files” at the beginning of this book).The PDF is completely searchable and will provide additional keyword lookup capabilities not practical in an index.

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