Getting started with word processor – Writer
Usually, a shortcut
to LibreOffice can be found on the desktop or in the Quick Launch Taskbar.
Depending on the operating system you’re running, the procedure could somewhat
change (Windows or Linux).
1. To start
LibreOffice Writer in Windows, double click LibreOffice Writer icon in desktop
2. Alternatively,
click on the Start or Windows button, select LibreOffice → LibreOffice Writer
from application window.
3. Using the Search
command, type the word ‘writer’ in the search field, and select LibreOffice
Writer from the offered results.
4. In Ubuntu Linux,
find the LibreOffice Writer icon on the application launcher, or search it by
clicking on ‘Show Applications’
Creating a document
Step 1 : Click on
File Menu → New → Text Document.
Step 2 : Now save the file by clicking on the File Menu → Save. Give the name
of the file. By default, the file is saved in .odt format.
Step 3 : Saving the file by another name It is possible to make another copy of
the file by saving it
To Save a document using password
Step 1 : Select
File → Save
Step 2 : Select the location on disk to save the file
Step 3 : Type a suitable name for the document
Step 4 : Click on Save button
Step 5 : To save the document with password, put a tick on the checkbox Save
with a password
Step 6 : Type the password to open the file in Set password dialog box
Step 7 : Type the same password in the second box and click OK button
Parts of the Writer window
The various parts
of the Writer window have been briefly explained below.
1. Title bar – Title bar is
located on the top of Writer window. It shows the title of the currently opened
document.
2. Menu bar – It appears
below the Title Bar. It shows the menu items File, Edit, View, Insert,
Format, Tables, Tools, Window and Help.
3. Toolbars – The tool bar
appears below Menu Bar. By default, the Standard Tool Bar and
Formatting Tool Bar will appear.
4. Standard toolbar – It contains
commands in the form of icons.
5. Formatting toolbar
– It contains the various options for formatting a document. A
graphical representation of commands is shown in the form of icons.
6. Status bar – This is
positioned at the left bottom of the Writer window and displays the number of
pages, words, the language used, zooming, etc. It is located at the bottom of
the workspace.
7. Scroll button and
scroll bar – It is used to scroll the document.
8. Zoom – It allows to
change the scale of the text and pictures in the document only for
view. It does not affect the physical document. It is used to check
the finishing quality of the document.
Editing the document
(a) Undo
and Redo
• Open the existing file (For example, report.odt) and then start editing in it.
• If, by mistake, you have made some changes and now you want to erase the last
change done, then
use the Undo option.
• After undo command, again if you want to go back then use the Redo option.
(b)
Moving and copying text
Cut and Paste: It is used to move a selected text from one place to another.
• Select the text and click on Edit → Cut option or press CTRL+X
• Place the cursor where the text has to be moved. Click on Edit → Paste option
or press CTRL+V
(c) Copy and Paste
It is used to make a duplicate copy of selected text.
Step 1: Select the text and click on Edit→ Copy option or press CTRL+C
Step 2: Place the cursor where the text has to be duplicated. Click on
Edit→Paste option or press CTRL+V
(d) Selection criteria
There are several
selection tricks to speed up the selection process as below.
* How to Select ?
a) To select a single word at a time ==>Position the mouse pointer anywhere on that word and double click.
b) To select a complete sentence at a time ==> Position the mouse pointer anywhere in the sentence and triple click. (Triple click means to quickly click the left mouse button three times.)
c) Complete Paragraph ==> Position the mouse pointer anywhere in the paragraph and quadruple click (Quadruple click means to quickly click the left mouse button four times.)
d) A document ==> Press Ctrl + A on the key board. Drag the mouse pointer till you see a right arrow which is white. Then click it thrice.
(e) Selecting non-consecutive text items
If the text is not
continuous and you have been asked to select a part of the text from a
paragraph, then perhaps you may say that it is not possible to select the
non-consecutive text. But Writer provides a way to select the non-continuous
text using the keyboard and mouse.
(f) Find and Replace
This feature is
used to search for a text and replace it with other text.
• Select Edit → Find & Replace, the dialog box will open.
• Type the text to find in the Find box.
• To change the text with different text, enter the new text in the Replace
box.
(g) Jumping to the page number
Sometimes we may
require to jump to a particular page number. ‘Go to Page’ feature of Writer is
useful. To do this, select the Edit Menu→ Go to Page (Keyboard
shortcut: Ctrl+G).
(h) Non-printing characters
When you press keys
like Enter, the Space Bar, and the Tab key, that do not appear on the screen,
we are actually entering these characters is know as Non-printing
characters.
(i) Checking spelling and grammar
Writer helps us to
correct the spelling. It also provides a grammar checker to check the grammar
of the sentence. It can be used separately or in combination with the spelling
checker. This is one of the important features of any word processing
application.
To check the
spelling and grammar of the document (or selected text), select Tools →
Spelling and Grammar, or click the Spelling and Grammar button on the
Standard toolbar, or press the keyboard key F7.
1. Automatic Spell
Checker – checks each word as it is typed and displays a wavy red line under
any unrecognised words. Right-click on an unrecognised word to open a context
menu. Certain suggestions will be displayed for the selected word. Click on the
most appropriate word out of the suggested words to replace the underlined
word.
2. Using synonyms and
the thesaurus – Sometimes you search for a word having a similar in meaning to
the word you have in mind. A word processor helps to look up synonyms
(different words with the same meaning) and antonyms (words with the opposite
meaning) in the thesaurus. The list of synonyms can be accessed from a context
menu.
Formatting a document
To setup a page, select and click on the Format → PageSetup and
the Page option.
Page style dialog
It allows to select paper size and format (A4, A5, B4, Letter).
User can adjust ‘Orientation’ as Portrait or Landscape. The user can set the
Margins (Left, Right, Top, Down).
Formatting text
There are various methods of formatting text. We can apply any
one method as per the suitability. These
methods are
• use the menu options from menu bar.
• use the readily available buttons on the formatting toolbar.
• use the context menu. The context menu appears by right clicking on the
selected text.
• use the keyboard shortcut.
Removing
manual formatting
To see the effect of formatting the text, first remove manual
formatting. For this, select the text and choose
Format → Clear Direct Formatting from the Menu bar, or click the Clear Direct
Formatting button on the
Formatting toolbar, or use Ctrl+M from the keyboard.
Common
text formatting
Some of the common text formatting features.
1. Changing font size – by selecting font size.
2. Changing font style – bold, italic, underline
3. Changing font type – by selecting font drop down.
4. Changing font colour – by selecting font colour icon.
Changing text case
It is possible to change the case of the text. There are 6
Change Case options in LibreOffice
- UPPER CASE
- lower case
- Cycle Case
- Sentence case
- Capitalize Every Word
- tOOGLE cASE
Superscript
and Subscript
For example, in the date 5th July, the ‘th’ character appearing
after 5 is in the superscript case. In some situations, such as while writing
scientific/chemical formula, such O2, the character 2 is in the subscript case.
Now, in our example, change the 5th July to 5th July.
• To apply superscript: Select the text and select Format → Text → Superscript
• To apply subscript: Select the text and select Format → Text → Subscript
Paragraph style
Every paragraph in a LibreOffice Writer document has a paragraph
style.
Indenting paragraphs – The
entire paragraph can be indented in one step. there is a two different type of
indent ‘Increase Indent’ and ‘Decrease Indent’.
Aligning paragraphs – The
paragraph can be aligned as Left, Right, Center and Justify.
Font colour, highlighting,
and background colour – There are three more
tools—Font Color, Highlighting,
and Background tools on the Format Toolbar.
Using the bullets and
numbering – You can assign the bullets or numbering to the list items
in the document by using the options on the Bullets and Numbering toolbar. You
can also create a nested list by using the buttons on the Bullets and Numbering
toolbar.
Assigning colour, border
and background – To assign background colour to the paragraph, first select
the paragraph. Select Format → Paragraph → Area→ Colour, then select the
colour. To assign border to the paragraph, select the paragraph, then select
Format → Paragraph → Borders → Select Line – Style, Width, Colour.
Page formatting
Setting up basic page
layout using styles – Page styles define the basic layout of
all pages in the document.
It includes page size, margins, header and footer, border and background,
number of columns, etc.
Inserting a page break – Page
break helps to break the current page and move to the next page. To break the
current page and start the new page select Insert → Page Break from the Menu
bar or use the keyboard command (Ctrl + Return).
Creating header/footer and
page numbers – Headers appear at the top of every page; footers appear at
the bottom of a page. To insert header in the document, select Insert → Header
and Footer → Header and To insert footer in the document, select Insert →Header
and Footer → Footer.
Defining borders and
backgrounds – You can apply the border in the individual characters or
to selected text. you can also add background color to the paragraph.
Inserting images, shapes,
special characters in a document –
1.
Inserting image – To insert an image in your document, position
the cursor where you want to insert the file, select Insert → Image. Another alternative is,
just click on the insert image icon, located below the Formatting Toolbar.
2.
Inserting special characters – special character, such as ¶ or
which cannot be typed by using the keyboard. LibreOffice Writer provides a
feature to enter the special characters in document. To do
this select Insert → Special Character.
3.
Inserting shapes – It is possible to insert various shapes in
your document. The variety of shapes
consists of Lines, Arrows, Symbols, Stars, Callouts, Flowcharts. to insert
shapes in documents select Insert →
Shape.
Dividing the document page
into columns – You can divide the documents in two or three
column using columns option. It is used in magazines and newspapers. To divide
the page into columns, select Format → Column.
Creating and managing tables
The representation of data in a tabular format is called as
table. A table has a number of rows and columns. It is also possible to have a
table with one row and one column. To represent data you have to create a
table. LibreOffice Writer provides a very rich tool for creating and managing a
table. The various features of the table are:
Creating a table
The simplest way to create a table is, click the Table icon on
the Standard toolbar. Second method, Select Table → Insert Table from the Menu
bar or Press Ctrl+F12.
Inserting
rows and columns
Choose Insert → Rows Above/Below or Insert → Columns
Above/Below. Set number to define the number of rows or columns to be inserted,
and select the Position as Before or After.
Deleting rows and columns
Right-click and choose Delete → Rows or Delete → Columns.
Splitting
and merging tables
Choose Table → Split Table from the Menu bar.
To merge
two tables
Right-click and choose Merge Tables in the context menu. You can
also use Table → Merge Table from the Menu bar.
Deleting a table
Choose Table → Delete Table from the Menu bar.
Copying a table
- From the Menu bar choose Table → Select →
Table.
- Press Ctrl+C or click the Copy icon on the
Standard toolbar.
Moving a table
- From the Menu bar, choose Table → Select
Table.
- Press Ctrl+X or click the Cut icon in the
Standard toolbar.
- Press Ctrl+V or
click the Paste icon in the Standard toolbar.
(This pastes the cells and their contents and formatting.)
Deleting rows and columns
Right-click and choose Delete → Rows or Delete → Columns.
Splitting
and merging tables
Choose Table → Split Table from the Menu bar.
To merge
two tables
Right-click and choose Merge Tables in the context menu. You can
also use Table → Merge Table from the Menu bar.
Deleting a table
Choose Table → Delete Table from the Menu bar.
Copying a table
- From the Menu bar choose Table → Select →
Table.
- Press Ctrl+C or click the Copy icon on the
Standard toolbar.
Moving a table
- From the Menu bar, choose Table → Select
Table.
- Press Ctrl+X or click the Cut icon in the
Standard toolbar.
- Press Ctrl+V or
click the Paste icon in the Standard toolbar.
(This pastes the cells and their contents and formatting.)
Mail Merge
mail merge is used to create a series of same documents with
multiple addresses. Mail merge is the process of merging the main document
(letter or certificates) with the mailing address of various persons. The main
document is merged with the mailing address, hence the name mail merge. It is
used to send invitations, letters or to print certificates for several people.
To create multiple letters using Mail Merge Wizard, select Tool
→ Mail Merge Wizard.
Creating
the data source
A data source is a set of mailing addresses in the form of a
rows and columns generally called database. The content of the database is in
the form of data records.
