OpenOffice.org Training, Tips, and Ideas

Sun Presentation Minimizer for OpenOffice or StarOffice

I came across this a few days ago on Lifehacker.

"Windows/Mac/Linux: With pictures, videos, and high-resolution fonts, slideshows can make up some pretty big files—fine if you've got a large enough thumb drive or CD-R, but what if you have to email them? Sun Presentation Manager, a free extension for OpenOffice, shrinks down files by compressing graphics, deleting hidden slides, and creating static versions of linked objects. It works similar to the PowerPoint-based PPTminimizer, but without the $40 fee and exclusive Office platform—you can use the extension on either OpenOffice files or imported PowerPoint projects. Sun Presentation Manager is a free download, and requires OpenOffice 2.3 or StarOffice 8 or later."

http://lifehacker.com/350774/shrink-powerpointopenoffice-slides-with-sun-presentation-minimizer

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Resizing the slides in OpenOffice Impress Handouts

This excellent tip comes to me from Robert.

You can specify the number of slides in your Presentation handouts. Click the Handouts tab at the top  of the work area and you get this view. Pick 1, 2, 3, 4, or 6 slides per page.

But sometimes the slide placeholders are kind of small. Really small. It varies a bit depending on what your page orientation was when you made the change.

One thing you can do is switch between number of slides per page, like from 6 to 2 to 3. That can help.

Another approach, you're thinking is "Hey, why not resize the slides????" That would be nice, but when you move your mouse over the corner handle, you get the "denied!" ghostbusters symbol.

But, this is not the end of the line. Robert's type is that the size of the object is protected, with a window you've seen before, the run-of-the-mill Position and Size window. How to get to that window? Just select the slide object, and choose Format > Position and Size, or press F4.

See? The size was protected. No wonder you couldn't resize it.

So unmark the Size checkmark. It's that simple.

You might want to, just for consistency among the sizes of your slides, set the measurement of the slide here. It's easiest to select Keep Ratio, and just set the width. Click OK.

Or you can move your mouse over the corner handle and resize manually. Hold down the Shift key to keep the aspect ratio consistent.

Repeat for the other slides.

You will need to reposition the slides.  Drag them manually. To align them, select two or more, right click and choose Alignment, and the option you need.

Probably Unnecessary but Optional Additional Help for Even Spacing of Slides

Distribution, which helps you make slides evenly spaced apart, isn't available, so turn on View Grid and Snap to Grid if you want a little help.

To make the grid a little darker, choose Tools > Options > OpenOffice.org > Appearance.

To make changes  to the grid itself, expand the Impress option and make changes under the Grid suboption.

 

You can also zoom in for better magnification to help you make adjustments.

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Numbering in Impress slides

Numbering is....not perfect.

You can do this just fine. Select your bullet points, choose Format > Numbering and Bullets, click the numbering style tab, select a number format, click OK, and you're good.

But what if you want a normal unnumbered line in the main text area, then start with a numbered list that, of course starts a one? You can't (not easily) because numbering starts on the first item in the main text area. This is what happens if you select the second and subsequent items and apply numbering.

There is one hack and one workaround.

The Hack: Offset the first line so it starts a zero.
1. Select the items you want numbered. Choose Format > Bullets and Numbering, Njumbering Type tab, select your numbering format as usual.

2. Then click the Customize tab. Select Level 1 in the level list at the left.

3. Type 0 (zero) in the Start At field.

4. Click OK. Now the unnumbered item thinks it's 0.

Can you set it farther back like -1? No.

The Workaround: Just type your numbers.

It's easier than struggling to make Impress do something it won't, and of course there are no formatting snafus if you go back and forth between Impress and Powerpoint.

The Other Workaround: Does it really need to be a numbered list?

If not, use bullets.

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Sharing OpenOffice Impress (and Powerpoint) Presentations Online

If you find yourself emailing versions of a presentation around to collaborators, consider one or more of these instead. They're online sites that let you share your presentations.

http://www.kuanhoong.com/2008/01/08/5-ways-to-upload-store-share-or-present-your-powerpoint-files/

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Setting the default fonts for OpenOffice Writer

When you choose to create a new Writer document, you don't pick what font appears by default -- one is chosen for you. Often something like Thorndale, or a nice Nimbus Sans L, 12-point. If you then apply a heading, then a different font is used.

I don't really like the defaults, so I change the font.

Changing the font every time you create a new document is a bit of a pain, though. It's possible to set up OpenOffice so that when you create new documents, they're  the font you want.

Choose Tools > Options > OpenOffice.org Writer > Basic Fonts (Western). Click the following illustration to see it bigger.

Go through the window and just pick the fonts and font sizes that you want for the various categories. Click OK; if you want to get back to the original settings some other time, just click Defaults.

Default -- This is the font and font size for the normal text, Default and Text Body styles. If it's not a heading, it's this.

Heading -- This is the font used for anything you apply Heading1, Heading2, etc. to. The font size you pick is for Heading1 and it gets smaller from there.

List -- I couldn't get list to work. So it doesn't matter what you put here.

Caption -- If you click a picture or table and choose Insert > Caption, this is the font and size that will be used.

Index -- The font used for tables of contents and indexes.

Here's an illustration of a document with the settings shown in the Options window. Click the illustration to see it a little bigger. Note that the list content is the same as the text body content because the list font settings don't seem to work.

When you change the default font settings, only new documents are affected, not existing documents.

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