Open Office 2: Writer (basic) Offi… · (CwLMB) on the word “Tools”. The last item on the drop-down menu list is “Options”. (CwLMB). When you do you get a screen that looks

Open Office 2: Writer (basic)

GENERAL INFORMATION

Open Office Websitehttp://www.openoffice.org/

Open Office Support Pagehttp://support.openoffice.org/index.html

Open Office On-line Tutorialshttp://www.tutorialsforopenoffice.org/category_index/wordprocessing.html

Open Office On-line FAQ'shttp://user-faq.openoffice.org/new-faq/index.html

GETTING STARTED

1. Go to the Start button on the lower left of the screen and click with left mouse button (CwLMB). Go to ALL Programs (CwLMB). From the list find Open Office (CwLMB). Select Writer (CwLMB). After a few seconds the program will load and the screen should look something like the image above.

2. Examine the various menus across the top of the screen by moving your mouse cursor across each then (CwLMB) and look at the sub items under each menu header.

PCS PCSD TECHNOLOGY INSTITUTE 1 Open Office Writer - Basic

Menu bar

Function Bar

Status Bar

http://user-faq.openoffice.org/new-faq/index.htmlhttp://www.tutorialsforopenoffice.org/category_index/wordprocessing.htmlhttp://support.openoffice.org/index.htmlhttp://www.openoffice.org/

3. Go to the Help menu item and look at the contents there. Notice that the first choice down the list is Help and/or F1, (CwLMB)

4. A screen appears that looks like the image above. You can enter in a value in the search box and the program will provide you with details on the right.

5. To exit the Help area (CwLMB) on the red “X” in the upper right corner. It will take you back to your blank document.

6. (CwLMB) somewhere on the blank page to position the text cursor on the page7. Go ahead and type several sentences of text. It can be anything that comes to

mind, the important thing is to get several sentences in the program.


Search box

Details

Exit

Blank page

8. Your screen might look like the following:

9. Move your cursor over some text then while holding down the left mouse button highlight some text. It should look something like this.

10.Now go up to your function bar and try some off the function icons such as the dark capital “B” or the underline symbol “U”. Notice how the text you highlighted changes to reflect the function icon you selected.

11. It's time to save this masterpiece. In the upper left corner of the menu bar is the word “FILE”, (CwLMB) The sixth term down is “SAVE” (CwLMB). It will take you to a dialog box which looks like this.


Highlightedtext

Function icons

12.It is likely that your default save directory is “My Documents”. Leave that alone. (CwLMB) in the “File Name” box to move the cursor there. Enter the filename Sample 1 then (CwLMB) in the box “Save”. Your masterpiece is now saved. In the future if you wish to keep saving a document while you're working on it and you don't need to change either the filename or the storage location, simply hold down the CTRL key and then hit the letter “S”. This will save a new copy of this document over top of the last saved copy you made of it.

13.Now let's change some settings for the program. Go to the menu bar and (CwLMB) on the word “Tools”. The last item on the drop-down menu list is “Options”. (CwLMB). When you do you get a screen that looks like this.

14.Notice that this is an area where you can make general settings that will affect all of the modules in Open Office, not just the word processor. But for our purpose today we want to simply change the settings for “LOAD/SAVE”. To do that we (CwLMB) on the “+” sign next to “LOAD/SAVE” to expand our menu options. When you do that the screen will look something like this.


Where you're putting the file What you're calling

the file

The file type

Load/Save

15.Notice the expanded options. In the center of the screen you'll find a dialog box that let's you set the “Default File Format”. (CwLMB) on the small caret to the right of the dialog box. Notice that it presents you with a series of document types and in the box just to the right a corresponding series of file formats from which to choose.

16.For each document type on the left you can set a corresponding default file type on the right. If you want all of your word processing files to be saved in Microsoft Word 97/2000/XP format then your settings should look like those above.

17.You can also override any save file settings at the time you manually save a file. When you elect “File” from the menu bar you can choose “Save/As” and in the dialog box titled: “Save as type” you can make a file type selection there. It looks like this.


Expanded options Default file format

Caret

Document types

18.One other way to save a file is as a PDF. Notice on the top function bar there is an icon with a red PDF in it. If you select it (CwLMB) you get the following: dialog box

19.Notice it automatically inserts “PDF” as the file type in the “Save as “ dialog box.20.Well, now you've oriented yourself to the screen; found the Help Area; created

a masterpiece; changed some settings; and saved the document. Now it's time to print.

21.Find “File” on the upper left of the menu bar. (CwLMB) and from the drop-down menu find “Print”. (CwLMB) and from the list of available printers on the top choose a printer. Then select what pages you want to print and how many copies you wish to make. When you are finished making all of your selections choose “OK” and the job will be sent to the printer you designated.


Save as: optional file types

PDF file type inserted

22.There are several other small features you may wish to explore. For instance, to check the spelling of your document find the “ABC” icons on the function menu. The icon with the blue check mark will run the spell checker manually. The icon with the red squiggly line turns the auto correct spell checker off and on. If you turn it on then if you type a misspelled word it will underline it with a red squiggle.

23.Perhaps you'd like to insert a table. There are several ways to do this. The easiest way is to find the 3 X 3 table icon on the function menu and then (CwLMB) on the small caret to the right of it. It looks like this.

24.Once selected you can move from the upper left most box inside the little table down and to the right. As you do this it will highlight squares for you. It will look like this:


Printer names

Pages you want printed

Number of copies

25.When you let go of the left mouse button it will insert the table into your document at the point where you left the cursor. It will look like this:

26.Experiment around with your table. Try positioning your cursor on one of the lines that define a cell. Hold down the left mouse button and drag your hand. Watch what happens to the line. Try typing in a cell. Press the ENTER key. What happens?

27.Let's insert a footer in the document. Go to “Insert” on the menu bar and (CwLMB). The drop-down menu presents you with “Footer' as one of the options. (CwLMB) on “Footer” and your screen should look like this:


Highlight table cells

Inserted table

Footer

28.(CwLMB) on “Default”. This will insert a standard footer at the bottome of each page in your document. Your text cursor will jump there. You can now type anything you wishg to appear in this area on each page or you may elect to go back to the menu bar and (CwLMB) on “Insert”. The second item on the drop-down menu is “Fields”. (CwLMB) and your screen should look like this:

29.Select “Page Number” by (CwLMB). It will insert the page number at the far left of your footer. You can move the page number, change its' font, size, etc., by highlighting it then adjusting its' characteristics from the function bar just as you've done with regular text. Experiment with different settings and examine the results.

30.You can repeat this entire process to create a header. The only difference is that from the menu bar you select “Header” rather than footer. Once you've done that all of the steps for the “Footer” apply. By the way, you can import graphics/clip art into headers and footers. You can draw objects and do other fun stuff. Give it a try.

31.When you are finished, save you work. Make sure you save it as an Open Office word processing file. If you don't remember how to do it, check back to Section 17.


Insert:Fields

Footer