Shortcuts in OpenOffice Writer: Quickly Inserting Text, and Text and Graphics, with AutoFormat and AutoText

I think pretty much everyone likes to save time, and avoid painful carpal tunnel surgery. Here are the two very nice shortcut features that let you slap in a bunch of text with just a couple keystrokes.

• AutoFormat lets you create a shortcut for a line of text like your name, email, department, etc.
• Autotext lets you put in huge amounts of text and graphics, with the formatting

Using  the Automatic Formatting to Create Handy Shortcuts

The same tab where you turned off word completion has a really great feature for creating shortcuts. Let’s say you type the word supercalfragilisticexpealidocious a zillion times a day, or your name and title, or anything kinda long. You can set up a shortcut for it. It's a much more reliable approach than word completion.

To do this: Choose Tools > AutoCorrect and click on the Replace tab.

1. In the left-hand field type your shortcut like sig and in the right-hand field, type the word you’re tired of typing all the time.

2. Click New, then click OK.

3. Click the Options tab and be sure that both checkboxes for the top item, Use Replacement Table, are marked. That just means "use the stuff in the Replace tab."

4.  In your document, type the shortcut, followed by a space, and your word will appear.

Note: You can also delete anything in the Replace tab that you don't want.

AutoText: Storing and Quickly Inserting Text and Graphics

Let's say you've got a signature that looks like this.

It would be nice to just insert all that instead of typing, or even copying and pasting.

1. Go to a document where you've got that text and the logo. Select it all, including the logo, and including the paragraph above and below. MAKE SURE THAT THE LITTLE ANCHOR GRAPHIC IS NOT SHOWING FOR THE GRAPHIC—I.E. DON'T CLICK ON IT.

GOOD

BAD

2. Choose Edit > Autotext.

3. In the Autotext window, select a category, then type the name and the shortcut for it. Remember this shortcut; you can use it later to quickly insert the autotext.

4. Click and hold down on the Autotext button and choose New.

5. Expand the selected category and click on the titleof the autotext. Click the Preview checkbox below the blank area at the right. The autotext will be displayed.

6. Click Close.

 

Now you're ready to insert the Autotext. Here's how.

Long way: Click in any document. Choose Edit > Autotext, select the category and the autotext to insert, and click Insert.

The autotext will appear in the document.

Short way requiring that you remember the shortcut for the item: Type the shortcut that you entered earlier when you set up the autotext item, then press F3.

Note: To determine where your autotexts are stored, choose Tools > Options > OpenOffice.org > Paths and look at the Autotext item in the big list.

That's all there is to it! Once you get everything set up, you might never type again. ;>

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Comments

[Marcelo]

I am looking for a Linux alternative to the Windows Atlantis word processor. OOo seems OK but it seems to miss an essential feature to me that is the ability to insert large chunks of formated text from a clip library that not only holds cliparts but also all kind of objects, large chunks of text included. What's the way with OOo Writer?

[Jose]

I have used the autocorrect tip to quickly insert long phrases with just a shortcut, however, even though it works in new default documents, it does not work with new documents from other previously created templates. Why? How can I correct that?

[Jose]

I have used the autocorrect tip to quickly insert long phrases with just a shortcut, however, even though it works in new default documents, it does not work with new documents from other previously created templates. Why? How can I correct that?