OpenOffice.org Training, Tips, and Ideas

Three nice new features for Writer, in OpenOffice.org 3.1

I'm going to be going over the 3.1 features in the next few blogs. Here are a few that are just nice -- not groundbreaking but very nice, convenient changes that making interacting and collaborating easier. The third just makes slight annoyances go away a little more easily.

Replying to Notes
In 3.0 the notes are new and improved by being in boxes off to the side. Now you can click and hold down on the black arrow, and reply to them, too. The reply shows up immediately below the original in a contrasting color. (You need to be a different user, under Tools > Options > OpenOffice.org > User Data for this option to be available.)

Easier Accept/Reject of Changes
It's also easier now in Writer to accept or reject a change when you're tracking changes. Just right-click (as I like to say, when in doubt, right-click).

Remove Hyperlink
You could always remove a hyperlink by selecting the text and choosing Format > Default Formatting, or right-clicking on the selected link and choosing Default Formatting. However, this makes it more obvious. Right-click without selecting and you get Remove Hyperlink as an option, as well as Copy Hyperlink.

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Quick Guide to Creating Automatic Tables of Contents

I've got this post with a PDF from my workbooks on how to create tables of contents. However, I wanted to also make one that's just here in the web site, and with fewer details.

This is  a table of contents in Writer. Never, ever create one from scratch. It is so much easier to create one automatically.

Note:
- The gray part doesn't print; it's just there to indicate that there's something automatic happening.
- You can change how each level looks just by modifying certain styles; more on that later.
- If you make changes to the document, then right-click on the TOC and choose Update, the TOC will automatically reflect the changes in the document. Page numbers will be correct, etc.

Creating a Table of Contents: Step 1, Select and Apply Paragraph Styles

Writer knows what to put in the TOC based on what paragraph styles you tell it to look at. Paragraph styles like Heading1 etc. should be applied to the headings in the document. So plan and apply the paragraph styles that set up the structure of the document.

Paragraph styles are here; choose Format > Styles and Formatting. You can use existing ones such as Heading1 through Heading10 (recommended) or create your own.

For instance, in this document I decided that the first heading (chapter) would have Heading1 paragraph style applied;  the second level down would have Heading2 paragraph style applied, and so on. So in this illustration, the heading Types of Bread has the Heading2 style applied.

So that's what you do.

• Decide what paragraph styles you'll use on the top-level headings, the second-level headings, and so on.
• Apply those styles to the headings.

To apply a style:

• Click in the heading
• And either double-click the style name in the Styles and Formatting window, or if it's there, select it in the dropdown list on the left.

Do that to every heading in your document. This is of course less of a pain if you do it as you write the document rather than all at once afterwards.

Note: If you apply Heading1, Heading2 etc.  and don't like how they look, right-click on a heading with the style applied and choose Edit Paragraph Style.

In the window that appears, just make your changes and click OK.

Creating a Table of Contents: Step 2, Set Up the Table of Contents

Click in your document before any of the content. Then choose Insert > Indexes and Tables > Indexes and Tables. This window will appear.

First, check the number of levels you want to include. If you don't want all of them, change the Evaluate Up To Level setting.

Then be sure that the Outline checkbox is marked. Click the ... icon next to it.

In this window, specify the paragraph styles you selected and applied  in the previous major step, then click OK. If you used Heading1 through Heading10 it should already be set up correctly.

Then click OK in the main tab and your TOC will appear.

Creating a Table of Contents: Step 3, Modifying the Table of Contents

If you don't like how the TOC looks, modify the styles used to format the TOC. Right-click on a line in the TOC that you don't like and choose Edit Paragraph Style.

In the window that appears, change the settings, then click OK.

The TOC will reflect those changes.

To update, edit, or delete the TOC, right-click on it.

Is That All There Is?

Definitely not. See this blog for more info including how to make the TOC hotlinked. But you're well on your way.

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Expanded List of Tips for Tweaking Word Documents or WP Documents That Don't Look Perfect in OpenOffice Writer

I realized that I don't really have all the tips for compatibility between OpenOffice.org Writer and Microsoft Word in one spot. Here we go. These aren't all of the things you could ever try but they're my classics.

• Before converting the document, see what you can do about creating it well in a way that will convert well. If you create documents well, they'll convert well.
• If people are having problems with your document, find out if they really need to edit the document at all. If they just need to print it or have it on hand, then use File > Send > Document as PDF and all formatting problems are moot. Ditto if the problem is on your end -- if you don't need to edit the document you've received, then ask for a PDF version.
• Don't overlook the idea, with legacy documents, of A) keeping a couple licenses of Word around so you don't have to bother converting 0r B) contracting out the conversion work.
• Check the page formatting. Choose Format > Page and adjust the page size, margins, and page orientation.  Make the page margins smaller  if you're having trouble fitting everything onto the right number of pages.
• If text formatting is decidedly odd, select and choose Format > Default to remove formatting and start over.
• Change the font and/or font size. Select the text and choose a different font and font size from the dropdown lists at the top left of the toolbar.
• If graphics are behaving oddly, right-click on each and choose Anchor > To Page. Then reposition the graphic. You might also want to slightly shrink the graphic so it will fit better, or increase the size.
• For lists, select the list and click the numbering or list icon to turn off all numbering or bullets. Then reapply the list or bullets by clicking the same icon again.

• Adjust the default tabs. Choose Tools > Options > OpenOffice.org Writer > General. Set the tabs slightly smaller or slightly larger and check the effect.
• Adjust the default fonts. Choose Tools > Options > OpenOffice.org Writer > Basic Fonts (Western). Specify the fonts and font sizes that fit best in your documents.

• Check the fonts that are used with your printer and operating system. You might want to set up font substitution. Choose Tools > Options > General > Fonts, and use the online help to apply the replacement table. Replace fonts you can’t use with fonts you can.
• Choose Tools > Options > OpenOffice.org Writer > Compatibility. If the printer metrics option at the top isn’t on, select it. Try changing the other settings in the window and see if those items help.

If you find that you have a set of formatting changes that works well going to Word and back again, make that your default template. Then every time you create a new Writer document, it will have those attributes.

• Create a document with the correct formatting attributes.
• Choose File > Templates > Save.
• Save the template in My Templates and call it Conversion.
• Click OK.
• Choose File > Templates > Organizer.
• In the left-hand pane, expand My Templates and select the Conversion template.
• Right-click on that template and choose  Default Template.

• If you want to go back to the normal default template later, open the Organizer again, right click, and choose Reset Default Template > Text Document.

Undocking the Gallery

READ THE WHOLE POST BEFORE YOU DO THIS.

The Gallery is a nice tool for easy access to clip art or any graphics. Here are a couple blogs on it.

http://openoffice.blogs.com/openoffice/2007/09/getting-a-pictu.html

http://openoffice.blogs.com/openoffice/2007/04/adding_graphics.html

Here's a tip from Dave Richards -- you can make the gallery float, so that you can position it in a more convenient place in your work area.

What the Gallery Generally Looks Like

Choose Tools > Gallery, and you get the clip art and categories on your system. (You can click on each of these images to see a bigger version.)

Adjusting the Amount of Space for the Gallery

You can make the gallery take up less, or more, room, by moving your mouse over the small dotted portion of the border, as shown. When you mouse turns into a double-ended arrow, drag up or down.

Then the Gallery portion is smaller or larger, depending on your adjustments.

Floating the Gallery

However, if you'd like your Gallery to be a floating pane like some of the other windows in OpenOffice.org, you can do that. Click and hold down on the gray part at the top, and drag down into the middle of the document.

When you see a rectangle with a gray dashed border, release. The Gallery will be a floating pane.

You can resize and move the pane as you would normally for any floating pane.

Redocking the Gallery

Now, here's the question -- how do you get the Gallery back to where it was, docked at the top?

Not easily. ;>

You can drag the Gallery easily to the left, right, or bottom, and redock it there. Just drag toward the border and when you see the gray dashed border again, release and the Gallery will be docked.  (To turn off the Gallery, just choose Tools > Gallery again.)

You can redock the Gallery at the top, it's just really tricky. There is a very small area where you can position the Gallery floating pane and the gray dashed border will appear. Here's the area where it is. Drag the Gallery through it slowly; dragging down usually works better for me than dragging up.

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Doing page numbers with alternating pagination

I got this question a while ago: how do you set up a document so that the page numbers go 1, 3, 5, etc.?

You take advantage of something that some people find to be a problem but can actually be used as a simple solution for exactly this situation.

In books, the first page, page 1, is on the right; you get page 2 when you flip and start reading on the left side of the spine, and so on. Writer is set up like this.

If you have a right page, then you instead of doing normal flow have another right page, that skips the left page so you go 1 (no 2 from the left), 3, and so on.

Thus to have alternating odd pages, just set up your page to be Right Page Only. Choose Format > Page, Page Tab, and for the Format, select Only Right.

Click the Header or Footer tab and turn on the header or footer, and click OK. Insert your page number in either the header or footer by choosing Insert > Fields > Page Number.

Now, OpenOffice gives you the option to insert a blank page for that missing Left page. You don't want to, though. You want to make sure the phantom left (even) page doesn't show.

Choose Tools > Options > Writer > Print. Unmark the option to print automatically inserted blank pages. If you leave the option marked, then you'll get blank unnumbered pages between your odd pages.

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Video tutorial for creating cross-references

Video tutorial, take 2. Smaller display area. It takes a while to load, but should run fine once it gets going. (Optimization is one of the things I'm working on as I create more of these.)

It's about how to create cross-references in Writer, and what they are.

Note: The video uses the Navigator (press F5) to get around more easily to various headings being referenced. The Navigator shows you the structure of your document and the objects in it. By "structure" I mean that it shows all the text to which you have applied the paragraph styles Heading1, Heading2, and so on. More specifically, it shows whatever you have set up as the paragraph styles defining your documentBy structure under Tools > Outline Numbering. That's a whole nother topic, though a very useful one. To learn more about outline numbering and the Navigator, see these blog entries.

http://openoffice.blogs.com/openoffice/2006/10/in_praise_of_ou.html

http://openoffice.blogs.com/openoffice/2007/06/using_the_navig.html
http://openoffice.blogs.com/openoffice/2007/06/going_to_a_spec.html
http://openoffice.blogs.com/openoffice/2007/06/leaving_a_trail.html

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Things that don't work when you save Writer documents in Word's .doc format

OpenOffice.org has a feature that lets you automatically save documents in Microsoft Office format. Save Writer as Word, save Calc as Excel, etc. This lets your users send out documents to the outside world without having to remember to save in MS format first.

Choose Tools > Options > OpenOffice.org > Load/Save and use the lists in the bottom half of the window.

Likewise, you can save an OOo document in MS format by choosing File > Save As, or by choosing File > Send > Document as [microsoft format for that document type].

However. There's a but. It's not a huge but, but it's significant.

In some versions of OpenOffice.org, the following features don't work when you save a Writer document in Word format. It's not just the automatic saving, it's saving in Word format through File > Save As, as well. So the only way to get around it is to save as PDF (click the PDF icon on the toolbar or choose File > Export as PDF).

This isn't a complete list; please add your own through comments. I just tested all of these on the standard 2.3 release.

Mail merge prints field names, not content. If you save your mail merge document in Word format, then print, all you'll get is the names of the fields, like Firstname, rather than the data, like Bob.

Background graphics disappear. If you choose to put a graphic in the background of a header footer or page, under Format > Page, the graphics will disappear when you save in Word format.

Custom frame, page, and list styles get screwed up This one is an issue because page styles are the basis for doing so much really good, powerful stuff. (I hope this is on the list of things to fix, and/or not a problem in other builds.) I just tested, in 2.3, a file I'd created with custom page styles to automatically switch from a page style with no page number on the first page footer to a page number on subsequent page footers.

If you insert page breaks between page styles with Insert > Manual Break, and the  Break With feature in the Text Flow tab of a paragraph style, do preserve more formatting than the Next Style feature in the Organizer tab, which preserves nothing.  The headers and footers are preserved in the first two approaches, as are page borders and jumps from page 2 to page 66.  Landscape versus portrait is also preserved.

However, no background formatting is preserved, and the page style names are changed to Default for the first one, Convert1 for the second, and so on.

If these are issues for you, please vote to have the following bugs prioritized as things to work on. (I'm actually having trouble bringing up the OOo issue tracker right now; I think these are correct but I will check them later.)

http://www.openoffice.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=78723

http://www.openoffice.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=73533

http://www.openoffice.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=11522

http://www.openoffice.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=22635

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Fixing problem OpenOffice files by unzipping, mixing, and matching

One of the great things about OpenOffice.org is that you can open corrupted Word files with it. Or Word files that are just too big to open in Word, open fine in OpenOffice Writer.

However, every so often you will get a rogue OpenOffice file that just won't behave. It crashes constantly, or behaves in other ways that just don't make sense.

In that case, the best approach is surgery.

OpenOffice file formats can be unzipped to reveal their components. Once you see their components, you can take copy different components from a different uncorrupted file and replace the corrupted ones in your problem file. Zip it all up together again, and whammo, your file works.

I'll show an example in Writer but the same principles apply to Calc, Draw, and Impress.

So you have your file. Let's say this is the file you're having problems with. It's got a couple styles, a picture, and of course content.

I like to make a copy of the problem file, just to make sure I can always get back to the original version. So I create a copy, give it a different name, and change the extension to .zip. (Or gzip, or whatever works for you on your operating system.)

Then unzip the .zip file, and you'll get a directory of component files and directories.

Here's what's inside that new directory.

I'm not going to go into painful detail about all of the content. But content.xml contains the content, styles.xml contains the style definitions, Pictures contains the graphics, and so on.

Here's a snap of part of the content.xml.

And of the styles.xml.

And the Pictures directory. Note that the file name is different than the inserted picture.

So here's what I do. If I have content but don't care about the styles, pictures, whatever else in the problem document, I:

- create a new totally empty OpenOffice document of the same type (Writer, Calc, etc.)

- change the extension to .zip and unzip it

- copy the content.xml file from the problem doc directory into the new empty doc directory, replacing the empty doc's content.xml file

- zip up the new empty doc directory

- change the .zip extension to .odt, .ods, or whatever

- and open it up again, using this as the new version of the problem document

If you have pictures and styles in the problem document that you need, then just copy the Pictures and Thumbnails directories, and the content.xml and styles.xml files, into the new empty doc directory, replacing the corresponding directories and files.

It's a techy but quite effective way to redo a document.

Would it be better to just copy and paste the content of the problem document to another new empty document? Not always--nasties have a nasty way of accompanying the content. But sure, try that first, and if that doesn't work, then do this.

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Another way to tweak labels, and save the format

In this entry I talked about a fairly straightforward but manual way of giving your labels a little room to breathe.

In this entry, I'll go through how to use the Format tab to tweak a particular layout, then save it for re-use.

When you create labels, you of course choose File > New > Labels. You select your type and layout here, then add your content, and then click New Document.

You get something that looks like this.

Now, what if you then print and everything is too high, too low, too much to the left, etc.?

Well, you just adjust it, then save that adjustment as a specific format you can select next time.

When you're in the Labels window, click the Format tab.

Here's what all the measurements mean. I suggest starting by changing the left and top margin, then get into changing the pitch if necessary.

Horizontal pitch

The distance from the left of one label to the left of the label to the right of it. If you want to actually increase the distance between columns of labels, i.e. if labels get increasingly (or decreasingly) cut off as you go across the sheet, change this.

Vertical pitch

The distance from the top of one label to the top of the label below it. If you want to actually increase the distance between rows of labels, i.e. if labels get increasingly (or decreasingly) cut off as you go down the sheet, change this.

Width

Just the width of the actual space for the label content.

Height

Just the height of the actual space for the label content.

Left margin

The distance from the left side of your sheet of labels to where content begins. If all your labels are getting cut off on the left, adjust this.

Upper margin

The distance from the top of your sheet of labels to where content begins. If all your labels are getting cut off on the top adjust this.

Columns

The number of columns. You don't need to adjust this.

Rows

The number of rows. You don't need to adjust this.

Examples

Here's a normal sheet, next to one where I increased just the top margin. Click the image to see it larger.

Here's an example where I increased the vertical pitch by a half inch. You wouldn't want to increase it that much, but I made it big to make sure you could see the effect. Click the image to see it bigger.  Note that on the right, you only are at the 5th row while at the same place on the left, you're at the 7th row.

Once you've got the label adjustments where you want them, click Save in the Format tab. Name the label in the window that appears, and click OK.

Then when you create labels again, that saved format will be in the list.

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Summary of new features in OpenOffice.org 2.3

Here’s a summary of the features from the 2.3 new features list that I considered the most useful or important to write about. This page  http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/New_Features_2.3 about the new features is an excellent guide, as well.

General

• This is convenient for anyone who prints to multiple printers, all over the world. You can load or ignore the printer settings for your documents. This means you don’t end up accidentally printing to the printer in building 4 which is on the opposite side of the country, just because you were on a business trip there last week and that’s where you last printed your document.
  

• If your document isn’t wider than the OpenOffice.org window, then it will be centered in the window, not left-aligned.
  

• Lots of locale information was added, for locations such as Tagalog, Frisian, and Hausa.
  

Writer and Web

• The HTML editor now has a preview feature. Choose File > Preview in Web Browser and the document opens in the default browser.

• I love this feature. You know how when you get a hyperlink but then want to retype it or reformat it, but clicking on it takes you to the target of the link? No more. You can select hyperlinked text all you want; you now have to Ctrl Click to open a link. This is very nice.
  

• The notes say that there is a new compatibility option on Tools > Options > OpenOffice.org Writer > Compatibility: Do Not Justify Alignment in Lines Ending With Manual Line Break. However, I’m mentioning this because I couldn’t see it. The illustration shows the compatibility options that are there.
  

• When you open the Styles and Formatting window (Format > Styles and Formatting), you can set what kinds of styles you wanted to see: Applied, Custom, Automatic, etc. Previously, you had to reset this every time you opened a new document or re-opened OpenOffice.org. Now, thankfully, that category will stick. The setting is saved per application. However, the choice you make for Paragraph, Character, Frame, List, or Page doesn’t stick.
  
  

• When you right-click on text, you used to see Default as one of the options. Now you see Default Formatting, which is clearer. (Default Formatting is a great way to just clear out any extraneous formatting and apply the default style to the selected item.) This is a very nice feature regardless of the text; for one thing, it’s the best way to remove the hotlink from a URL.
  

• A new export filter lets you export to MediaWiki format. Choose File > Export and select MediaWiki in the file format list.

Calc

• This is a very, very smart change. By default, the print options for Calc are now set to Print Only Selected Sheets and Suppress Output of Empty Pages. If the Print Only Selected Sheets option is enabled, the Calc page preview shows only the displayed sheet and the message “There is nothing to print.” To change these options, choose Tools > Options > OpenOffice.org Calc > Print, or choose File > Print and click the Options button.
  

• Here’s another very smart change that will screw up all my documentation. :) The SUM icon on the main Calc toolbar has changed. Now you can select the range of numbers to add, click the SUM icon, and get the total in the first cell below the selected range. Phew. But if you liked it the old way, it still works that way, too.
  

• Graphics can be linked to macros. This should help with Excel compatibility.
  

• The Excel export filter now handles the cotangent functions COT, ACOT, COTH, and ACOTH.

• Calc now supports inline matrix/array constants in formulas. An inline array is surrounded by curly braces '{' and '}'. Elements can be each a number (including negatives), a logical constant (TRUE, FALSE) or a literal string. See this link for more detail. http://sc.openoffice.org/servlets/ReadMsg?list=features&msgNo=230

• You can now use dynamic ranges, rather than absolute ranges defined with $, in lists in Data Validity. Choose Data > Validity, and under the Criteria tab select Cell Range from the list.
  
  

• The GETPIVOTDATA function returns a result value from a DataPilot table, so it can be used in a cell formula.
  

Mail Merge, Databases, and Forms

• The infamous checkbox on the print message when you print a mail merge document, Do Not Show Warning Again, is gone. Phew! See this blog http://openoffice.blogs.com/openoffice/2006/10/how_to_get_the_.html for why that caused problems.
  
  

• This is nice. When you choose File > Print with a mail merge document, in the Mail Merge window, you can choose to save the document as separate documents or as one document.
  
  

• Unfortunately, in Base there is still no File > Export or File > Import feature. File > Export does appear, but it’s dimmed.

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A fabulous way to do list numbering. Note: with great power comes great responsibility and a little extra setup work.

OpenOffice Writer numbering is powerful but it lacks at least one very important feature. Well, two. Here's the first.

First Problem

To restart the list at 1, you have to do it manually. You have to click on something like this, click on the first item:

6. Badgers
7. Toads
8. Owls

and click the Restart at 1 icon on the numbering toolbar

to make it look like this.

1. Badgers
2. Toads
3. Owls

NOTE However that this restart attribute is NOT available when you create a style. You can't create a style that restarts at 1. So it's a manual-only attribute. This can be annoying. Especially since importing new versions of the style you're using can wipe out the restart setting.

Second Problem

The numbers are inserted automatically so you can't click between the number and the text to insert a tab, or just format the number directly, or whatever. You can do this all through the numbering setup window, so it's not a huge issue, but sometimes it's nice to just grab hold of something and format it.

Here's what you might want to do if these are problems for you and you're up for something completely different.

I really like it. It's powerful and reliable.

The solution comes from my colleague Jean Weber, at www.jeanweber.com.  She has an excellent book on Writer, including high-end complex issues like this.

Here’s the link to the OOo doc, to which she contributed. http://documentation.openoffice.org/manuals/oooauthors2/

Here’s a link to her book on Amazon. http://www.amazon.com/OpenOffice-org-Writer-Free-Alternative-Microsoft/dp/0596008260/sr=8-1/qid=1163013762/ref=pd_bbs_1/002-0539644-5923228?ie=UTF8&s=books

Here’s a link to the file you’re going to be using to solve this problem. http://documentation.openoffice.org/manuals/oooauthors2/0214WG-WorkingWithFields.pdf

What you do is, you create a numbering series of your own that has nothing to do with the normal numbering.

I’ll leave the particular details to Jean’s guide; go to the section called Defining your own numbering sequences. Here’s what you need to accomplish.

1. Create a single number range for every level. For instance, if your top level is regular Arabic, your second level is Alphabetic, and your third level is lower Roman, then create a single number range for each of those called Arabic, Alpha, and Roman (or one two and three, or Larry Moe and Curly, or whatever). Choose Insert > Fields > Other, click the Variables tab, choose Number Range on the left, and the rest is pretty clear. Jean's guide provides lots of nice detail for this.

2. Create paragraph styles with the indenting you want, one style for each level. The paragraph styles are what will take care of the indenting. You also need to set up the correct tabs since you’ll press Tab between the number range and the text.

Here are examples for levels 1, 2, and 3. In this formatting example  there’s an indent of .3 inches from the left margin of the document for all text. Also the distance from the number to the text is .3 inches.

Level 1 (plus set a .3 tab in the Tabs tab)

Level 2 (plus set a .3 tab in the Tabs tab)

Level 3 (plus set a .3 tab in the Tabs tab)

3. Start inserting the numbers, just anywhere in the document. You're going to insert them, then make shortcuts so that you can insert them more easily.

Choose Insert > Fields > Other, select your top level variable such as Arabic, specify 1 in the Value field, and click Insert.

Now   create your ArabicContinued field.  Press Return or just make a space or two. Still in the Fields window, delete the 1 from the Value field, and click Insert to insert another field of the same range. It’ll show up in the document as  2. Click Insert again if you want to prove it's working; it'll show up as 3.

DO NOT set up different variables here for the regular and the restart. They need to have the same name.

Do the same for the first item and the next item at all the levels you’re using.

4. Apply the appropriate paragraph styles to each number range you're using. If you created a paragraph style called TopLevelNumbering, apply it to all the Arabic fields (or whatever you're using at the top level). Also press Tab to insert a tab after each number.

5. If you have a lot more work to do, you want all this inserting stuff to be easier so make AutoTexts.

5.a. Select the first top-level numbering item, the Arabic one that equals 1 and the tab. (Not crucial, but as long as you're saving yourself some work, you can make the tab show up automatically, too.) Be sure the appropriate style is applied so that you can bundle the number and the correct style into one convenient autotext.

5.b. Choose Edit > AutoText. Type a name like ArabicRestart, make the shortcut something obvious like AR for ArabicRestart. Click and hold down on the Autotext button and choose New.

5.c. Repeat the steps for the next number at that level, the one that doesn’t have 1 as the value. So select the field that shows 2 in your document, choose  Edit > AutoText,  and call this one just Arabic or ArabicContinued. Make the shortcut something like A or AC.

5.d. Repeat those  steps for every level.

6. Now just keep on formatting or typing your list by inserting numbers. Type AR F3 (the shortcut plus the key that says "insert the autotext with that shortcut" to insert a numeral 1 plus a tab. Type AC F3 to insert a sequential continuous number.   

Note on inserting: You can't have the cursor immediately next to any existing text or the AutoText tool will get confused about what you want to do. There has to be at least a space between the cursor and any other text.

Alternately, if your list already exists, copy and paste the appropriate restart and continuous number variables to the appropriate spots, rather than using the shortcut keys.

In Conclusion

Is it wildly different from normal numbering? Yes. Is it complicated to set up? No more than any other complex numbering.

Does it offer much more reliability and control than other numbering in OpenOffice Writer, for complex lists? Yes, yes, oh god, yes.

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Sorting: Your basic everyday sorting

In the mood of fall cleaning and to celebrate having gotten my office organized, I'm going to blog this week about sorting. Today, it's just basic run-of-the-mill sorting using the sorting icons on the toolbar.

Let's say you've just got this list, and you want to sort it alphabetically.

Select it, without selecting any data you don't want sorted.

Click either the A-Z or Z-A icon.

You get your results.

Be sure not to select any headings, i.e. the word Employee in this case, or you get this result, which you don't want.

What if you have something like this, though? Something with multiple columns.

Here's the thing. Selecting, say, the 2000 column and clicking a sort icon will NOT give you good results. It will sort just the data in the 2000 column and leave all the other data behind. So all of a sudden your data is wrong.

You cannot specify the column to sort by, using the simple sort icons. That's covered in my next blog entry on sorting.

Here's what you can do. You can sort by the first column in the data set. You select ALL the data, again without the headings.

You click the sort icon you want.

And you get your results; the data is sorted by the first column. That's your only choice.

If you had selected just one column, the data would be goofed up.

For more control over sorting, tune in for the next sorting blog.

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Back to School: Creating cute graphic-filled borders in OpenOffice Writer like you can in Microsoft products

One of the nice things about Microsoft products is that they have a lot of prefab goodies.  OpenOffice.org is a little more of a from-scratch situation. But you have much more flexibility, and you can still do a lot of great stuff. It's not easy, at least not using this approach, to add borders all around, but you can do it in the top and bottom.

Step 1: Add graphics to the gallery.
You can find lots of great graphics on the Internet by googling for "free clip art." For the purposes of borders, keep an eye out for graphics that are small, i.e. under an inch by an inch, and also that have some white space around them.

Step 2: Learn to use the feature documented here.
I'll also describe it in this blog but that's another one that talks about using it in general. Can't hurt to skim that blog.

Step 3: Use this blog entry to add top and bottom headers and footers with any appropriately sized graphic in your gallery.

NOTE: To take out the repeating background borders in this blog, use the instructions here or just Undo (Ctrl Z or use the Undo icon) to go back to not having a background border.

How to Create Graphical Top and Bottom Borders in the Header and Footer

First, open your document.

Turn on the header and footer. Choose Insert > Header > Default, then Insert > Footer > Default.

You now have headers and footers. The graphics will repeat in the background of each to create the graphical border.

Next, turn on the Gallery by choosing Tools > Gallery or clicking the Gallery icon.

Find a category you like, then find a graphic you want to use. Drag the graphic into the document to see how big it is, if you don't know. This one, for instance, is too big. To delete it, just select it so that the green handles are showing, in the document, and press Delete on your keyboard. You can also press Ctrl Z or use the Undo icon.

This one is better. It's a good size, plus there's some white space around the graphic so that when it tiles, you won't see part of another row of the graphic.

Delete the graphic from the document once you know which one you're going to use.

Click in the header.

Right-click on the graphic, in the gallery, and choose Insert > Background > Header.

The graphic will appear, repeating, but not all of it will show at first.

Click in the header and press Return once or more times to add more space, to show the entire graphic.

If part of the graphic is showing on the right side, click in the header and move your mouse over the ruler, at the edge of the right margin. When your mouse becomes a 2-ended arrow, click and hold down, and drag to the left or right to show the amount of graphic you want.

Then only whole graphics will show.

Then click in the footer, and do the same thing. Insert the same graphic, or another graphic if you want, in the background of the footer, then adjust it as necessary the same way you adjusted the header.

Choose File > Page Preview to see the document.

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Getting a Picture from a Document Into the Gallery

I've already written about how to get a graphic from a file on your computer into the Gallery. But how do you get a graphic you like, that's just sitting in some OpenOffice document, into the Gallery? You could just copy it and paste it from that document to others, but putting it in the Gallery is more convenient.

1. Open the document containing the graphic.

2. If the gallery isn't showing, open the gallery by choosing Tools > Gallery or clicking on the Gallery icon.

3. Select the theme, the category you want to put the graphic in, in the gallery.

4. If you want to make a new one, click New Theme. Type the new name and click OK. Then select that theme in the Gallery.

5. Select the graphic. Release the mouse.

6. Click and hold down, and keep holding down on the graphic, for at least two seconds. Don't release the mouse, and drag the graphic into the gallery.

7. The graphic will appear in the gallery, at whatever location is set up as your gallery location, in a subdirectory for draganddrop.

You can set or change your gallery paths here. Tools > Options > OpenOffice.org > Paths.

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Making Illustrated Callouts With Clip Art From the Gallery, and the OpenOffice Callout Drawing Tools

I love the callouts in OpenOffice.org. I also love that they're available in Draw, Impress, Writer, and Calc.

To get started, just choose View > Toolbars > Drawing. If there isn't a checkmark next to the Drawing option, select it.

Now look for the Drawing toolbar. It usually appears at the bottom of your work area.

Adding a Graphic

You can choose Insert > Picture > From File to add a graphic if you know where it is. Or just choose Tools > Gallery to turn on the picture gallery, and drag in a graphic from there. Click here to learn more about using the Gallery, including adding graphics to it.

Adding a Callout

You can choose Insert > Picture > From File to add a graphic if you know where it is. Or just choose Tools > Gallery to turn on the picture gallery, and drag a graphic into your document.

1. Be sure you've got the Drawing toolbar on, according to the instructions at the top of this blog.

2. Find the Callouts icon.

3. Click and hold down on the black triangle to the right of the Callouts icon.

4. Click on the tool you want. Move your mouse into the drawing area.

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5. Click and hold down, drag your mouse down and to the right (or up and to the left) and you'll see the callout being drawn.

6. Release the mouse, the callout you drew appears.

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7. Select a different fill color for the callout.

8. Select different line width, style, and color for the callout.

9. Double-click in the graphic; the cursor will appear.

10. Type the callout.

11. If the text is too big, click the callout border, find a handle, and drag the handle to resize the callout.

12. Double-click in the callout to select the text so you can change the font, then select a font from the dropdown window.

13. Drag the point of the callout to where it needs to be; it will change sides if necessary. Alternately, drag the callout to a different position in relation to the graphic.

And you're done!

From Draw or Impress: Exporting the Graphic to Reuse Later (for Use in the Gallery, on a Web Page Like This Blog, or Any Other Reason)

You can copy and paste to Writer or Calc. However, if you want to add your graphic with callout to the Gallery, put it in a web page, or anything else more reusable, do this.

Select everything you want to export. You can select everything manually, press Ctrl A, or just draw  a box with your mouse (not the box tool) completely around the items to select.

Choose File > Export.

Specify the location to export to and name the file. Select the format, not HTML but JPG, PNG, or something similar.

Click Save.

If a message prompts you to make some choices, either click OK accepting the options, or make your choices. For instance, with JPG, the highest number is the best quality.

 

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Taking Your Microsoft Office Templates, and Making Them Available in OpenOffice.org or StarOffice

If you have a bunch of Microsoft Office templates that you love, you can just choose File > Open in OpenOffice.org to use them. However, if you want them to be available in the wizard when you create a new presentation, or available from File > New > Templates and Documents in OpenOffice.org, you need to do two things: convert them to OOo format, and put them where OOo expects to find them.

Converting Your Microsoft Office Templates to OpenOffice.org/StarOffice Format
You need to convert them to OpenOffice format. Choose File > Wizards > Document Converter. Follow the wizard through to create a converted set of copies of the templates.

Step 1.

Step 2, then just follow the wizard as prompted.

Pointing to Templates to Use: Approach 1
(Use Approach 2 if this doesn't work)
Now, choose Tools > Options > OpenOffice.org > Paths. Select the Templates line.

Click Edit, then click Add, and add the path to the templates you want to point to. (Click this image to see a larger version if you like.)

Click OK, and OK, and OK  again.

Now you'll see the templates when you choose File > New > Templates and Documents.

Pointing to Templates to Use: Approach 2 (Usually Need to Do This for Impress)
1. Copy the directory of converted copies.
2. Paste it into this directory:
openoffice\share\template\en-us (or whatever your language is)
3. If they don't show up in the wizard, restart OpenOffice.org and your computer if necessary

If You Only See One of the PowerPoint Templates That You Converted, in the OpenOffice Wizard
See this entry.

For More Information on Templates
For more information on templates, see this post, which includes this information.

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Addon tools for OpenOffice.org Writer

I received this information a while ago and have been meaning to blog about it for some time.

http://nothickmanuals.info/doku.php/writertools

After a cursory look, it's a set of macros that provide the following tools:

• Lookup Tool allows you to lookup the currently selected word in several online references, including Cambridge Dictionaries, WordNet, and Google Define.
• Google Translate allows users to quickly translate selected text fragments between different languages using the Google Translate service.
• Show on the Map tool allows you to select a city, a street name, or a postal code and map it using the Multimap service.
• Email Backup can be used to quickly send a backup copy of the currently opened document to a specified email address.
• Multi-format Backup macro saves the currently opened Writer document in the Word, RTF, and TXT formats. The backup files are stored in a separate folder with a date stamp. On Linux, the macro also archives the resulting folder using the tar utility.
• Remote Backup allows you to quickly save a backup copy of the current document on a FTP server.
• Convert to DokuWiki converts the current document into DokuWiki format.
• Start/Stop Timer tool can be used to keep tabs on time spent on the currently opened document and save the time data (the document name, used time, and date) in the accompanying WriterDB database.
• Word Hunt Game is a simple game, where you have to guess the word randomly picked by Writer.
• Word of the Day tool picks and displays a random word and its definition from the from the accompanying WriterDB database. As a writer, you may often come across a new word or an interesting expression. The WriterDB database allows you to store your language findings in one place, while the Word of the Day tool helps you to keep them active in your memory.
• Add to Basket tool copies the currently selected text fragment into the basket table in the WriterDB database. It’s perfect for storing notes and text snippets.

The web site states that the Writer’s Tools extension is released under GNU GPL and that Writer’s Tools is very much a work in progress.

Once installed, you get this menu.

The lookup tool, for instance, gives you this window at first:

You then get this window or a similar one with the results.

Converting to docuwiki looks like this:

I got an error trying to use the add to basket feature. I might or might not have fully set up the database correctly.

Here's the first window of the translation feature:

And the results.
Places to Stay and Things to Do was translated into Plätze zum zu bleiben und Sachen zum zu tun by Google.

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Printing Envelopes in OpenOffice.org Writer (Repost)

I ran into Christian Einfeldt at Linuxworld, who mentioned that he had some questions about printing  envelopes. It's a good perennial topic, so I'm rereposting.

(Originally posted December 2, 2005)

I get a lot of questions about envelopes. A lot. I wrote an article for TechTarget.com about how to do envelopes in OpenOffice.org 2.0.

I included some templates there; here are the same envelope templates for OpenOffice.org 2.0.

• Envelope template, not hooked up to a data source, using frames
• Envelope template, not hooked up to a data source, not using frames

The article is long and detailed. Here are the key points.

• You need to get to know your printer and let it know to expect envelope shapes, not letter or A4 shapes.

• You also need to fiddle around for a while and figure out where--left, right, perpendicular, parallel--in the tray your printer expects envelopes. Buy a box of cheap envelopes and expect to waste a few while you experiment.

• Then make sure that your envelope document is set up to print to the envelope size your printer is expecting. Envelope 10 is good.

• You can type in your data for the envelope or use a data source. My article goes over both.
• The simplest way is to just choose File > New > Envelope, then Format > Page Size and instead of Letter or A4, choose Envelope 10 and change the orientation to landscape.  Then either with standard margin formatting or with frames, put the text where you want.
• As another way to create the envelope document, you can also choose Insert > Envelope, and use the three-tabbed window that appears.
• Print the envelopes separately from your letter or other document that goes with the envelope. It complicates things too much with the paper size that the printer expects.

Then just print the envelope. (If you're using data sources, click Yes in the dialog box that appears asking if you want to print a form letter.)

The next time you want envelopes, just use that same document you already created, and change the addresses. Either save the document in myimportantdocuments\envelopes, or if you're a template kind of person, make it a template. (File > Templates > Save, select a category and name the template, then choose File > New > Templates and Documents and pick your envelope template.

Note: Doing it in 2.0 is quite similar to how to do it in OpenOffice.org 1.1. Here are my posts how to do that; they're excerpted from my OpenOffice.org workbooks.

• OpenOffice.org 1.x Mail Merges, Envelopes, and Labels
• OpenOffice.org 1.x Plain Labels and Envelopes

Tip on Printer Setup
Some of the pain of envelopes is the printer setup. Here's a GREAT tip from Miriam:
"I just read your envelope printing tip. Instead of constantly changing and checking the printer settings, I add another instance of the printer, configure it for envelopes and name it "envelope." When I want to print an envelope I choose this printer instead of the default one. That way my settings are always the same."

Envelope Mantra
Here's the other main point I want to make sure everyone understands.

Envelopes aren't too bad once you figure out how to do it the first time. Honest.

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Pump up the Format Paintbrush with a double-click

I sometimes wish I could just format my documents with mind control. But until I develop that power, there are several options. Styles. The toolbar. And to speed things up once you've done things right, the Format Painbrush icon.

So. This is how it usually works.

You have some text. You format one part of it the way you want. It's got maybe three or four different formatting attributes, so a pain to do it over and over again.

So you select the piece that's formatted

And click the Format Paintbrush icon once

And move your mouse to another word (you see the effect of the Format Paintbrush icon because your mouse pointer is now a paint bucket)

And select it, and you get the same formatting. But nowyou're done. You have to click the Format Paintbrush icon again to get more formatting juice.

So to keep formatting as long as you want, then select the formatted text like you normally would, then doubleclick the Format Paintbrush icon.

Then keep selecting as many words or letters as you want to have formatted the same way as the text you selected.

Click the Format Paintbrush icon once when you're done to stop the formatting.

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Important Note on OpenOffice Writer Styles

I was talking to my friend Simon the other day (who's a fabulous flight instructor and photographer in the Denver area, plus Java instructor) about what to present at LinuxWorld.

We were talking about styles and how that's something that can help people be more efficient. The conversation turned to list styles, and I mentioned that list styles and paragraph styles are totally different. List styles contain only list attributes, no text or paragraph formatting attributes. Simon's jaw dropped, he was very surprised. So I decided to make sure that was clear here.

Background
To apply, create or modify styles, choose Format > Styles and Formatting. Select the right category of style at the top: paragraph, character, frame, page, or list/bulleting.  Select text then double-click the style you want to apply.

To create or modify, just right-click on the white area and choose New, or right-click on an existing style and choose Modify.

Specifics on List Versus Paragraph Styles 

List styles, list formatting, is all about attributes of the list. Indenting of the list. Bullets or numbering of the list. Etc. You cannot control the font through the list formatting window.

And here are the attributes you can apply to paragraph styles.

To apply font formatting and list formatting to a list, using styles, you apply a paragraph style AND a list style. The following screen shot shows the paragraph style that's applied, then the list style that's applied.

This paragraph style is applied to the list.

And this list style is also applied to the list.

Now, applying two styles is a bit extra work so you can link the two styles. If there's a paragraph style that you only use with lists, then you can say, hey, whenever I apply this paragraph style, then also apply this list style.  Then you don't have to take the extra step of applying the list style; that'll happen automatically. However, remember that this happens ALL the time, so you want to do this only with a paragraph style that is ALWAYS applied to lists.

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Simple Summer Tips for Easier Use of OpenOffice.org Writer

In the summer season, I want to throw out some nice easy-going simple tips.

(I also just took three blues-dancing lessons, my quads are burning and apparently my Norwegian-Lutheran upbringing did not, as perhaps one might assume, prepare me for a sensuous blues dancing career or even hobby. I am thus feeling very very very beginnerish, and  very sympathetic to those who might not have been using OpenOffice.org heavily since 1999.)

Anyway. Here's the summer vacation reading equivalent of some everyday OpenOffice.org tips. Some new, some not. It's just how I use the program, things that make it easier.

* I always start OpenOffice.org by starting Writer, then keep it open and create or open new Calc, Writer, Base documents, etc. I probably run OOo slower than some people but I like having all the documents open, and just creating or opening new ones from the menu of whatever OpenOffice.org document's menu is available.

* I use, as much as possible, the File > Recent Documents menu. Any document you've created and closed recently is likely to show up there.

* Undo, undo, undo. You can use the Undo icon, or just press Ctrl Z and keep going. OpenOffice is set up for 20 undoes and you can set it for farther back under Tools > Options > OpenOffice.org > Memory.

You can undo multiples at a time by clicking and holding down on the Undo icon and choosing multiple items by selecting as many as you want.

*Select multiple non-contiguous pieces of text by holding down Ctrl. Select the first word or character, then hold down Ctrl, hold down the next word, release Ctrl, and so on. When you're done, release the mouse, and the Ctrl key. Then you can apply the same formatting, or other action, to all of them at once.

* Use styles! Just Heading1 through Heading3, and Text Body, will save you a lot of time. Select the text, then select the style from the dropdown list shown.

* Edit the existing styles rather than creating new ones. Apply the styles, then if you don't like them just edit them and everywhere they're applied, they'll change. Select anything with a particular style applied that you want to edit, right-click, and choose Edit Paragraph Style. (This of course works only for paragraph styles.)

A window appears where you can change any attributes of the formatting that you want. Click the tab you want, make the changes, click another Tab and make changes, etc. then click OK.

The change will be applied to any text where that paragraph style was applied. As with any modification to or creation of a style, the changes apply only in the current document.

* Keep your cats off the desk. My cat Winston loves to lay his head on the Esc key. And wackiness ensues.

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An equivalent of the Word's Outline View, with the OpenOffice.org Writer Navigator

Who hasn't had one of these experiences?

• You're writing your guide to gardening, you're looking at the headings for your garden-preparation chapter, and you realize you have made instructions for the compost pile a level-3 small section when it should really be a chapter of its own.
  
• You think, re-reading the first draft of your novel, "No, the dream sequence should come first to grab people, and I'll put the conversation between Grimelda and her guru in chapter five after the chariot race."
• You are tired of scrolling through your document and you want to just go directly to the section on shoe-making so you can add the cool new stuff about suede. Or you've put in a table, or a graphic, and you want to go directly to it to make some changes.
• ou're writing a 680-page document and you just want to read through the main heading titles and make sure that they're in a good order, that you're using parallel grammatical structure, that you're capitalizing correctly, etc.

In Word you might use the Outline view. In OpenOffice Writer, you use the Navigator.

Press F5 and you'll see the Navigator window.

First: What you need to do in your document to make sure the Navigator works for you

You must either use the Heading1 through Heading10 styles on the text that is used as your document headings. Or you can apply other styles to your headings and set them up at the right levels; choose Tools > Outline Numbering. (See this entry for more on outline numbering.)

Applying the heading styles

This picture shows how to apply the Heading1-Heading10 styles in a simpler  example, a document about bread.

Modifying how the heading styles look

If you don't like how the Heading1-Heading10 styles look, right-click on any text with the style you don't like applied to it, and choose Edit Paragraph Style. Make your changes in the formatting window that appears and click OK.

Then: What you can do with the Navigator

You can:

• View all the headings in your document: just the top levels, just the top and second levels, and on down
• Jump from one section to another just by double-clicking
• Jump to other items in the navigator such as tables, bookmarks, or charts, just by double-clicking
• Turn chapters into sections by demoting and vice versa
• Easily drag sections to different places in your document to re-order the document: not just chapters but any section that starts with a Heading1-Heading10 style, or with whatever styles you set up under Outline Numbering.

Viewing the Headings

In the Navigator, press F5. You'll see all the headings. The icon labeled Heading Levels Shown lets you see only Heading1s, only Heading1s and Heading2s, etc.

Click as shown to view the number of heading levels you want.

Jumping from one section to another

I'm currently at the top of the document.

I double-click the Breweries and Wineries sub-section and bam, that's what's displayed in the document itself.

Jump to other objects in the document: tables, bookmarks, etc.

I double-click the Table1 item (I don't name my tables but you can when you choose Insert > Table) and immediately it's displayed.

Change chapters to sections and vice versa by promoting and demoting heading levels

Let's say I want the Romance section to be less important, a heading level or two down. It's currently assigned the Heading2 style so it's at level 2.

I can just click on it, then click the Demote Level icon as many times as needed to move the section to where I want it. I clicked it once so now Romance is at level 3. (And Jazz and other sections below it were moved down, as well.)

Ditto for making sections more important; click the Promote Level icon.

Re-order sections in the document

Let's say I want the chapter Getting Here and Getting Around to be earlier in the document, not last. It's a Heading1 and I don't want to change that, but it's now starting on page 22 (look in the bottom left corner) and I want it earlier in the document.

I click Promote Chapter and it's now earlier in the document. It's at the same level, as you can see by the applied style, but it's now on page 16 as you can see in the lower left corner.

I can do the same thing with lower-level sections. I can take the By Train subsection here, currently before By Car

click Demote Icon, and now it's the last section in the document, not second to last. It's after the By Car section.

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Inserting Stored, Reusable Information in OpenOffice Writer: One of the Most Useful Features in OpenOffice.org

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 piece of text like your name, your company's motto, or anything else such as special characters
• Autotext lets you put in huge amounts of text and graphics, with the formatting

Using  the Automatic Formatting to Create Handy Shortcuts

Let’s say you type the word supercalfragilisticexpealidocious a zillion times a day, or your name and title. As much as you might like to type, it's repetitive work.

Or let's say that you need to use any of the special characters like accents or Greek letters. You can insert them the long way if you want.  Choose Insert > Special Characters, scroll through, switch fonts as necessary, select what you want, and click OK. But that takes a long time.

Whatever you want to type, you can set up a shortcut for it.

To do this:

First, get the text you want to reuse ready. Like get your special character inserted in the document, or think about exactly what motto or title or name it is that you want to get into your document more quickly.

Now choose Tools > AutoCorrect and click on the Replace tab.

1. In the left-hand Replace field type your shortcut like sig and in the right-hand field.

2. In the right-hand With field, type your name or motto or paste in the special character that you've already inserted in your document.

3. Click New.

4. 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."

5. Click OK.

6.  In your document, type the shortcut, followed by a space, and your words or special character will appear.

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. Or in the AutoText window, click Paths. You can add or delete paths there.

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

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How the New OpenOffice Chart Tool Works When You Don't Specify a Data Range

I've talked about the new chart tool in previous blogs here and here.

In both of those, though, I assumed that you would be selecting the data range in the Calc spreadsheet or Writer table before inserting the chart. Which you normally would be.

 

If you choose Insert > Chart in Calc, in the new tool, without a range selected, it's not much use. You get a big blank chart.

In Writer, however, at least in this stage of development of the tool, you get something different when you choose Insert > Object > Chart with no data range selected. Thanks to Linda from Largo for pointing this out.

It's not much good like that, of course, so right-click on it and choose Chart Data Table to input some data.

You get this window where you can not only fill in the names on the X and Y axes and the data, but you can add and remove rows and columns of data, and move rows and columns around.

This is nice if you have the data written down somewhere but not in a chart or table, and it's just quicker to slam in the data manually than to base it on a chart or table. It took about twenty seconds to make this chart. (It would have taken more if I'd had any actual data on penguins and marmots as pets. ;>  )

That was the chart data table, and then I just clicked the red X in the upper right corner to close and update the chart. Here's what it looks like.

This chart approach does lack titles, and X and Y axis titles. However, you can just make them with text boxes. Choose View > Toolbars > Drawing (deselect the chart first) and use the Text tool to draw a text box outside of the chart area. Type what you want in the text box, then drag it into the chart area.

In this example, I also clicked on and shrank the inner data part of the chart to leave room for the title I created with the text tool.

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A Simple Way to Do Labels in OpenOffice Writer: When You Just Want to Type or Paste the Content

Here's how to just print out a few labels very simply.

I follow this procedure when I ship out books. Let's say I've got five people who've ordered books directly from me through PayPal or Amazon. I've got five emails in my inbox, with five addresses. So I need to make five labels.

I describe the simple but more labor-intensive way in the following steps. Then at the end I show what I actually do that adds a little bit of one-time extra setup and makes the whole process much simpler.

1. Choose File > New > Labels.* (See note at end.)

In this window, look at the two lists in the lower right corner. Pick the right layout, usually Avery Letter, and the kind of labels you're using (the number is on the box or envelope) like 8160.

2. Click the Options tab and make sure that the Synchronize checkbox is NOT marked.

3. Click New Document.

4. You'll see the new empty label document.

5. Now just type the content you want in each box. OR copy and paste. In my example, I copy the address from my email and paste it into the box.

If you've already used up some of the labels on the physical sheet you're going to print onto, then just start pasting or typing in the next available box.

If you have trouble clicking in a box to type, click somewhere in the blank margin around the area where the boxes are, then click in the middle of the box. You'll then see a normal blinking cursor and you'll be able to type.

6. To format the text differently, you could do a few different things. Pick any of the following; I recommend b or c.

a - Just format every text box the same, manually.

b - Format the first text box how you want it, and select some of the formatted text. Then DOUBLE-CLICK the Paintbrush icon.

Select every additional text box with text to format the same way.

Then CLICK the Paintbrush icon again and you're done.

c - Format the first text box how you want it. With some formatted text selected, choose Format > Styles and Formatting. Click and hold down on the far right icon and choose Update Style. All the other boxes will be formatted the same way.

7.  Now just stick the label sheet in your printer and print. If you want more than one sheet of labels, then just print out these, then type the new addresses over the old addresses and print a second sheet. (Or save this sheet, then choose File > Save As and save the sheet under a different name, and type the second set of addresses over the old addresses.)

* NOTE: What I actually do instead of steps 1-4 and 6 is open the label template that I created. I went through this entire process, then formatted the text the way I wanted it. I formatted the text in the first label box the way I wanted it. Then I choose Format > Styles and Formatting, I clicked and held down the mouse on the far right icon, and chose Update Style, as in step 6-c above.  After that, I chose File > Templates > Save. I named the template Labels and clicked OK.

That's what I did to create the template the way I wanted it. Then instead of step 1, I choose File > New > Templates and Documents, and pick Labels from my list of templates.

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Leaving a trail of breadcrumbs (using bookmarks) in OpenOffice Writer

You can use the Navigator for a huge number of things to find your way throughout a Writer document. Read more in this post. 

I want to point out something specific today.  You can insert bookmarks in a Writer document, and use the Navigator to find them.

Let's say that you occasionally don't write a document perfectly and completely the first time.  Maybe you're writing a manual and the subject matter expert who has the info on the new storage feature doesn't come back til next week. You have three paragraphs you need to ask her about in your manual. Plus, you've got a couple paragraphs that need to be updated next month when the new patch goes out.

Or you're writing a tourism brochure and you need more input in various sections from sponsors, and from the Parks and Rec.

How do you mark those sections?

You could make them bright blue, or put in notes, but your editor is a stickler for clean docs, plus this is in a beta release so it needs to look good.

One good solution is to insert bookmarks to mark items that need to be checked or otherwise noted.

1. Click where you need to insert the bookmark.

2. Choose Insert > Bookmark.

3. Name the bookmark and click OK.

4. The name appears in the Navigator. (Press F5 to display it.)

5. When you need to go back to the section, press F5 to display the navigator.  Expand the Bookmarks item shown.

6.  Double-click the bookmark to go to.

7. You'll go to the paragraph where you inserted the bookmark. Now, do whatever you need to, for that section.

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Going to a specific page in OpenOffice Writer, Using the Navigator

Here's a quick tip for how to go to a specific page.

- Press F5 to bring up the Navigator. (Read more about this great tool here.)

- You'll see one field with a number in it. That's the page number field.

- Type the page number to go to, and press Enter.

- You'll go to that page.

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PDF Reference to the New OpenOffice.org Chart Tool

I've done an overview/walkthrough of the new OpenOffice.org charting tool that will be released with version 2.3. It's a procedural approach, so to supplement it here's a PDF reference to some of the more complicated windows. I'll be including it and similar information in an update of my workbooks and Guidebook as soon as 2.3 has been released, and I'll provide the update to the book in PDF form, as well, so those of you who've already purchased the Guidebook can have the new chart info.

A note on the new chart tool -- in this window, you can specify multiple noncontiguous ranges. However, sometimes especially when they're in another sheet, they don't seem to take. Might just be a bug not worked out yet.

 

So for now, to more reliably add noncontiguous sections, just skip that window in the wizard, click next, and use this window. Click Add, then you'll get an item called Unnamed Series for which you can set the range of cells for the name (label/heading), the categories (must be the same as all other data series) and the Y values.

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The new OpenOffice.org Charting Tool Coming in OpenOffice.org 2.3

For anyone who has grown weary of the current OpenOffice chart tool, or for anyone who has attended my classes and grown alarmed at hearing that charting is as much art as science, there is some relief in sight.

The chart tool has been improved significantly, and it's going to be included in OpenOffice.org 2.3, to be released roughly sometime this fall. If you're curious, you can download the developer version containing the chart tool here.

Read more
Download

Here's a comment from Pete who appears to be involved in the chart development.

Thanks for the nice overview. 
Please mentions also that many limitions will be overcome with the next
release. It's not only about a new (and shiny :) ) wizard. For example
multiple data series will be possible. Error bar for most kind of
charts will be possible. Regression lines with the function and R^2 are
implemented too. The performance regarding large data sets is improved.
EXCEL im- and export was improved considerably. Many of these features
are essential for engineers, students and scientists in their daily
job.
Worth to read:
http://graphics.openoffice.org/chart/whatsnewinchart2.html

However, there is still a long list of existing issues though OOo is
close to perfection. Any Volunteers will to finish the few remaining
items?
http://www.openoffice.org/issues/buglist.cgi?issue_type=DEFECT;issue_type=TASK;issue_type=PATCH;issue_status=UNCONFIRMED;issue_status=NEW;issue_status=STARTED;issue_status=REOPENED;email1=;emailtype1=exact;emailassigned_to1=1;email2=;emailtype2=exact;emailreporter2=1;issueidtype=include;issue_id=;changedin=;votes=;chfieldfrom=;chfieldto=Now;chfieldvalue=;short_desc=;short_desc_type=substring;long_desc=;long_desc_type=substring;issue_file_loc=;issue_file_loc_type=substring;status_whiteboard=;status_whiteboard_type=substring;keywords=;keywords_type=anytokens;field0-0-0=component;type0-0-0=equals;value0-0-0=Chart;field0-0-1=short_desc;type0-0-1=substring;value0-0-1=chart;field0-1-0=short_desc;Submit%20query=Submit%20query&order=issues.issue_id

Here's a tour of it. I'm getting to know the details myself right now, but this is the gist. OK, a fairly detailed gist.

Here's the basic data we're working with.

I like to select the data since it means less typing, or just less dragging, later. Select the data and choose Insert > Chart. You get this. Click this and any other illustrations to see them bigger.

Window 1: Chart Type
Note that you get a preview of the chart as you go along, in the document. This preview of course disappears when you click Cancel without creating a chart.

There are more up front variations, it seems. Here are a few.

Who doesn't love an exploded donut?

Or a nice XY Scatter.

Or a Net.

A Column and Line with options for how many lines.

And here are the 3D options.

In this window you just pick a type, a variation, any associated options, and you click Next.

Window 2: Data Range

Here you get the choices for what data is involved. Normally in a simple chart you could just have A1 to D5 in a contiguous block. But when you don't have that, you get to specify that ahead of time. Not that this is new but it's more obvious and easier.

You could change the range just by typing something different in the Data Range field. In this, I skip the D column entirely. Use a semicolon to separate non-contiguous ranges of data.

You also have the option, again not new, to have the data in rows or in columns.

Rows

Columns

And you also get the options at the bottom of the window, First Row as Label and First Column as Label. This is the same kind of thing you specify when sorting; you're saying, if you check the box, that the first row is identifying data, not data to be charted, and ditto with the first column. You usually want to mark both. Or at least I do.

Here's what the chart looks like with both boxes marked.

And the same chart with both unmarked.

Click Next.

Window 3: Data Series

Here, you get even more control over exactly what cells are used for the labels (Names) and for the data (Y-Values). For instance, if you wanted the label for Sales to not be Sales but to be some other term off in cell J14, you could enter $J$14 instead in the Range for Name field shown.

Select Names, then select each of the items in the Data Series list and make changes if necessary for them in the Range for Name and Categories fields.

Then select Y-Values, and do the same thing for each item in the Data Series list.

If you want to add an entirely new set of data to the chart, just click Add. You'll get an Unnamed Series. Then set the Name and YValues for that one, too. Or click Remove to remove any chunk of data in the Data Series window from the chart.

Note that the Categories will be the same for all data series. If you change them for one item in the Data Series list, they'll change for all.

When done, click Next.

Window 4: Chart Elements
You're nearly there. This is the simple stuff.

Then click Finish. And you've got your chart.

Modifying the Chart Once It's Created
Modifying after creation is a tish less twitchy though not that fundamentally different.

One thing: used to be, you could just select the chart by clicking on it once, right-click, and choose to change the data series. Now you just need to double-click it, then right-click and choose Data Ranges.

Essentially,  you double-click the chart, then either rightclick, use the Format menu, or use the Format toolbar. You can also double-click on an item in the chart.

The menu and toolbar have a fewer options, which will take getting used to but is a little simpler.

Here's the menu, and the toolbar after it.

To make a change to a particular bar in this chart, you do essentially the same thing as you used to. Double-click the chart, click on one of the bars to get the data series, then click on the specific bar to modify.

- Third click

- Fourth click

- Options under Object Properties (right-click, double-click, or use menu or toolbar)

- And results

To change titles, just double-click on them and type (after the requisite click, then double-click). This is the same as before.

Overall, not a makeover top to bottom. But nicer. I'm not a frequent chart user, so please give me your comments on what is the most useful.

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Quick Tips on Sections in OpenOffice Writer

Sections are great. They're a way to partition off part of the content of a text document and treat it differently.

Quick Overview of Sections
Select your text that you want treated differently, choose Insert > Section, and choose any of the options in this window and the tabs such as Columns, Background, etc.

When you insert a section, it just means the content you selected is now partitioned off and assigned the attributes you specified in the Insert Section window.

This section below is in two columns with a gray background, because I used the Columns and Background tabs to apply those settings.

For this next sample section, I didn't select any text -- I just choose Insert > Section, chose Link, and specified the legal.odt file.   Here are those settings in the section window.

And here are the results. The contents of the legal.odt file got sucked into my current document where I inserted the link. Now anytime somebody changes the contents of the legal.odt file, those changes show up in the my document, too, since I've linked to that file.

To edit the section, choose Format > Section and select the section to change options for or delete.

I could write a whole bunch about sections. However, the main point of this blog is to point out a few things about knowing which section you're in.

Managing Sections
Name your sections. When you have more than one section in a document, things can get confusing if you don't name them.

So when you choose Insert > Section to create the section, type something more clearly memorable for the name.

Or if you've already got sections, choose Format > Section and rename them.

The current section name is displayed in the lower right corner of your document.  If you're not sure what section you're in, click in it. Look in the lower right corner, as shown.

Also if you click in a section and choose Format > Section, the section name will be highlighted.

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It's Wedding Season, and OpenOffice.org Is Here For You

Who wants to pay for someone else to make your wedding invitations? (Or programs, or whatever.)

Use OpenOffice for your wedding invitations.

This of course prompts the objection, "But there aren't any templates in OpenOffice."

Well, there are some. But that's not important. Because there are also Microsoft Word wedding invitation templates out there. Just open them in Writer and you're good.

There aren't a lot of free wedding invitation templates out there but if you can find one, just use it. Also, here's my vague attempt at one. Right-click on the link and choose to save to your computer.

http://openoffice.blogs.com/openofficeblogtemplate.ott

Here are some tips for making your own.

- Unless you're doing fancy really graphically oriented stuff, use Writer.

- Set the size of the invitation here. Format > Page, Page tab, and specify the width and height. Then specify the margins and click OK. You'll want .5 if you want the border lines in a bit from the edge, and 0 inches if you want a background design to go all the way to the border.

- Set borders here. Format > Page, Borders tab. Be sure to specify where you want the borders, i.e. which sides, then the style, then the color.

- - Set a background color or graphic here. Format > Page, Background tab. You'll need to click the Browse button to go find the graphic.

- If you want to make your own background graphic, you could create it in Draw. File > New > Drawing. Then Format > Area, Bitmaps tab, and choose a foreground and a background color. Click to make a design, then click Add and save it. This is just one of the ways to make a design.

Then draw a big rectangle at least as big as the invitation, select Bitmap as the type of fill in the toolbar at the top of the work area, and your bitmap as the fill. Also make the border Invisible.

Then select the rectangle, choose File > Export, export it as PNG, and use that as your background graphic.

- If you've got a full background in your Writer document, you'll need a Frame to put the words in. Choose Insert > Frame, and set options like the width and height, and the background color which could be white or a complementary color to the background or borders.

- Another way you can put a graphic in the background is just to insert it, then put it in the background. Choose Insert > Picture > From File. Navigate to the graphic file and select it. Then right-click on it and choose Wrap > In Background.

To lighten it, click on it and the Picture toolbar will appear. Use the Transparency field to lighten it, or use some of the other icons on the toolbar.

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Much easier, much simpler ways to print the contents of a database in OpenOffice.org Base

I've been so caught up in the complicated tools and cool hacks that I've forgotten about the really simple ways to get data from a database into a Writer document.

I'm so embarrassed.

Here's a simple way to bring in data, whether it's still in fields, or just plain text. You probably want to use this instead of the Reports feature, and instead of the Next Record field under Insert > Fields > Other, Database tab.

Here are some screen shots. I'll do more on this later but I just wanted to slap these options out there so you know about them.

Click any of the screen shots to see them bigger and in more detail.

1. Create a new text document and choose F4.

2. Click the + by your database, click the + by the word Table (or Query) and click the table or query you want to print.

3. Click the blank gray square shown, to the left of the first fieldname.

4. Click and hold down on that gray square and drag into the document.

5. Now you have various options.

Pick the option you want, insert the fields you want, apply any relevant formatting, and click OK.

Table

Fields

Text

Then print. If you bring in the data in fields, when you choose Print, click Yes when prompted and DON'T click the checkbox.)

Again, if you're printing in fields, you cna print to files or a printer. To select specific records, select the first record, hold down Ctrl, select another record, and so on.

 

 

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An Always-Reliable Way of Docking the Styles and Formatting Window in OpenOffice Writer, Impress, and Calc, and the Slide Pane in Impress

You can dock the toolbars and floating windows in OpenOffice.org.

Here's the Styles and Formatting window, docked.

Here's the Styles and Formatting window,  undocked.

Usually you can take any window, drag it toward the side of your work area (or any of the four sides, technically) and when the gray dotted outline appears, release your mouse. (Then to undock, click and hold down on the blank gray area between the icons at the top, and drag back toward the middle.)

However, this doesn't always work. The docking process, that is. The gray line doesn't always show up.

Here's a key combination to dock the Styles and Formatting window that always (to my knowledge) works.

Click on the title bar of the undocked window so that it's selected. Then press Ctrl  Shift  F10

Press that key combo and the Styles and Formatting window docks immediately. Then as described above, drag the gray area between the icons back toward the middle of the work area to undock.

And -- here's the beautiful thing -- IT WORKS WITH THE SLIDE PANE IN OPENOFFICE.ORG IMPRESS, TOO!!! And that thing is really tricky to dock.

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Beware! Saving in Word format, and mail merges, don't mix.

Mail merges don't work if you're saving your OpenOffice document in Microsoft Word format.

Whether you're doing this manually, or doing it with the window under Tools > Options > Load/Save > General, saving in Word format will strip out the mail merge fields' connection to the database.

So you can save in .doc by default, but you need to save the mail merge documents, whether they're labels, envelopes, or other documents, in OpenOffice.org native .odt format.

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Publisher Users: Making Postcards, Brochures, and Other Cool Stuff With OpenOffice Writer and Draw, and Existing Microsoft Templates (Repost)

Reposted April 2007 because this post doesn't show up in Technorati searches.

Update: See The Linux Box for more ready-made OpenOffice Impress templates.

One of the biggest losses people experience when switching to open source is the loss of all those cool templates. They are, as the song says, a hard habit to break.

The good news is, you usually don't have to break the habit. (Unless you've been using Publisher, unfortunately, and you can't open Publisher files in anything—not even Word.) Here's how to keep on using the same templates you know and love; find new ones, or create your own in Draw and Writer.

You Can Still Use Your Own Word Templates and Any Others You Can Find

Here's where you might really start to enjoy the value of OpenOffice.org's compatibility with Microsoft Office.
You can still use all those Microsoft Office templates you got with the software. (Assuming the license doesn't forbid it--just putting that in just in case. ;> ) In OpenOffice.org, just choose File > Open, go to Program Files\Microsoft Office\templates (or wherever) and find the one you want. 

You can also set up OpenOffice.org to just find those templates. See this blog on templates. Go to the end.

And you can google around for more. I googled for “postcard templates” and came to this nice site from HP. The templates are available not just in Publisher but in Word. Click the image to see it larger if you like.

http://www.hp.com/sbso/productivity/office/direct_marketing.html

Follow a few links, and you get here. Click the image to see it larger if you like.

http://www.hp.com/sbso/productivity/office/stocklayout/stocklayout_overview.html

 

I decided to download the postcard template and the brochure template. I clicked on each; here's what it looked like to choose the brochure template.

Once the files were downloaded, I just went to OpenOffice.org, chose File > Open,  and opened them in OpenOffice Writer. Here's what the postcard template looks like.

 

I modified it according to my own information; it was relatively easy. Here's what that looks like. Here's the file itself. Right-click on the link and choose to save link as.

So that's really all there is to it. Use your own  or find new ones. There are a zillion free templates out there, and you can use the Word format templates (or Powerpoint, or Excel) in OpenOffice.org. Just google for the free ones, or ask friends where they are.

Making Your Own Postcards, Brochures, etc. in Draw and Writer

Now, that's not all the fun. If you want to create a postcard yourself, let's say in Draw, you can go ahead and do that, too. Or a brochure, or anything with specific measurements.

(You can do this in Writer to; I'm just showing it in Draw since the previous section was all about Writer.)

You need to know three  things.
- Choose Format > Page and click the Page tab to set the overall page size and orientation.

- Use the drawing tools like the text box and shapes to create the borders of the items in the document. Choose View > Toolbars > Drawing to bring up that toolbar.

- Select any item, right-click, and choose Position and Size. In the window that appears, click the Position and Size tab. will let you specify that the border of the postcard box, for instance, is 4x6. Remember to mark or unmark the Keep Ratio checkbox depending on whether you want to change one measurement of the object or both.

 

So let's do an example.

 

I'm going to create another postcard template. So I choose File > New > Drawing to create a new Draw document. I choose Format > Page, click the Page tab, and set the page size and margins.  I'll need a document that's like the first one or the second one, depending on what I'm printing on.

Option 1: A document with no margins, 6 across by 8 high (for two 4x6 postcards), and portrait orientation

Option 2: A document with half-inch margins, 7 across by 9 high (for two 4x6 postcards with two half-inch margins around the outside),  and portrait orientation

Next, I create a box to show me where the content should go. I just click on the rectangle tool in the Drawing toolbar and draw the box. I don't want a fill in it so I make the fill Invisible.

I right-click on the border of the rectangle, choose Position and Size, and click on the Position and Size tab. I choose 6 wide by 4 high, and unmark the Keep Ratio checkbox.

I put the edge of the box against the edge of where the postcard paper will end.

At this point, I make a template of it, so I can get at it again. See this blog on templates. If you want my document to download and make into a template,  here it is. Right-click on the link and choose to save link as.

 

Now I just make one version of the postcard, the way I want it. I put the content in the box, keeping in mind I need a bit of space between the text and the edge of the paper.

 

I copy the postcard and paste it, and drag the pasted version down to the bottom end of the document.

 

And now I just delete the boxes.

 

That's all there is to it. A little bit of work to set up, but the template takes care of that; you only need to do it once.

 

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Creating Keyboard Shortcuts in OpenOffice, including Assigning Keyboard Shortcuts to Styles, a GREAT Feature

One of the complaints people have when switching from any software package to another is that the keyboard shortcuts that they're used to don't work anymore.

However, in OpenOffice.org you can set your keyboard shortcuts pretty much any way you want. You can even assign shortcut keys to styles. This means that:

• You can blow through formatting quickly without using the Styles and Formatting window
• You can set up styles, put them in the default template that your users use, then just give them all quick reference guides that might look like this:

         

        Text with hanging left indent   In WordPerfect was [whatever]  In OpenOffice Ctrl F4
        Heading indented from left and right   In WordPerfect was [whatever]  In OpenOffice Ctrl F6
        Back to normal text   In WordPerfect was [whatever]  In OpenOffice Ctrl Q

Assigning a Keyboard Shortcut to a Task

1. Create or open a document in the program where you want to apply the shortcut. You'll be able to choose that program, such as Writer, or all of OpenOffice.org, as the context in which the shortcut will work.

2. Choose Tools > Customize, Keyboard tab.

3. Select the program, such as Writer, or OpenOffice.org, at the top.

4. Use the Category and Function lists at the bottom to select the feature you want to assign a shortcut to. You have to be willing to spend some time looking but you'll eventually get a sense of where things are.

5. Find the keyboard shortcut, in the Shortcut Keys list in the top half of the window, that you want to assign. If it's already assigned to something, that's fine. Select the keyboard shortcut you want.

6. Click Modify. The shortcut will be assigned to the item.

7. If you want to remove a shortcut key from an item, select it in the Keys list and click Delete.

8. Click OK.

Assigning a Keyboard Shortcut to a Style

You might find it easier to just use a keyboard shortcut for styles, than to double-click them in the Styles and Formatting window. (Format > Styles and Formatting.)

To use a keyboard shortcut for a style, you do pretty much the same thing.

1. Create or open a document in the program where you want to apply the shortcut. You'll be able to choose that program, such as Writer, or all of OpenOffice.org, as the context in which the shortcut will work.

2. Choose Tools > Customize, Keyboard tab.

3. Select the program, such as Writer, or OpenOffice.org, at the top.

4. In the Category list, scroll to the bottom and select Styles. Expand the + next to it and select the category of style: Paragraph, Page, etc. Then in the Function list select the specific style. Select the shortcut you want from the Shortcut Keys list and click Modify.

5. Click OK.

Remember, the style has to be in the document where you use the shortcut key, otherwise of course it won't work.

Giving the Configurations You've Made to All Users

Shortcut keys are stored here in XP:

openofficedirectory\soffice.cfg\modules\swriter (or another module) \accelerator\en-us\default.xml

If you want everyone to have the same shortcuts, you can modify that file, then copy it to other machines or user directories. This is the directory on XP; different for Vista. (Grrr.....my impression of Vista is, OK, it's pretty because it looks like Mac, but I am sure sick of the blue screen of death.)

In Vista, it's

\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\OpenOffice.org2\user\config\soffice.cfg\
modules\swriter (or other module)\accelerator\en-US\current.xml

If you're having trouble finding the location, just make a change, then search your system for files that were recently modified, or contains a word in the change you made.

Here's what it looks like.

xlink:href=".uno:StyleApply?Style:string=HangingIndent&
FamilyName:string=ParagraphStyles" accel:shift="true" accel:mod1="true"/>

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OpenOffice Template for Writer: Suppressing the Page Number on the First Page

Suppressing the page number on the first page of a document is, unfortunately, not available simply by selecting the Suppress First Page Number checkbox.

You can set up your own documents, using page styles, so that you nave no page number on the first page, but a page number on the second and subsequent pages.
http://openoffice.blogs.com/openoffice/2006/12/merry_christmas.html

http://openoffice.blogs.com/openoffice/2006/09/starting_page_n.html

But if you want a template already made, here are two.
No page number on first page, second page is numbered page 1

No page number on first page, second page is numbered page 2

Here's how to use them.

1. Right-click on each item to download it. Save each file to a location on your computer or a network drive you can access.

Note: You might want to just save the templates to the location already listed under Tools > Options > OpenOffice.org > Paths, Templates item. Then in step 3 choose Commands > Update instead of Commands > Import.

2. Then in OpenOffice.org Writer choose File > Templates > Organize.

3. If you saved the template to one of the existing template paths, choose Commands > Update instead and continue to step 4.

If you saved the template to another location, then select a category on the left side,  click and hold down on the Commands button and choose Import as shown.

Find the files where you downloaded them. To select both, select the first, then hold down Ctrl and select the second. Click Open.

4. The templates will appear. Click Close.

5.  If you want one of the templates to be what comes up when you choose File > New > Text document, then right-click on it and choose Set as Default Template. I strongly recommend customizing the default template, whether you use this one or another one.

6.  Click Close.

7. To access the templates, choose File > New > Templates and Documents. If necessary, click the Templates icon at the left, double-click the name of the category you put the templates in in step 3, and you'll see the templates. Select the one you want.

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Creating PDF Online Help With OpenOffice Writer and Its PDF Feature

A friend emailed me asking about templates for creating online help like you usually get by pressing F1. I didn't know of any, though I suspect that if you found one in Word, it would work OK in Writer.

That got me thinking about the PDF function, though. You can use the built-in ability to link to different headings and fields, and the PDF output function, not to mention the easy automatic hotlinked table of contents feature, to make some very nice PDF online help. Heck, with a little hacking you could be single-sourcing your online help and manual documentation.

My main point here, though, is to provide a template with which anyone can easily start making online help.  So I've posted various tools.

• A semi-empty template you can start using immediately. Right-click on the link for this and choose to save it, rather than clicking on the link to open it.
• The same document containing sample text and detailed instructions, in document rather than template format.  Right-click on the link for this and choose to save it, rather than clicking on the link to open it.
• A PDF of the same document

Essentially, you just:

• Use the styles Heading1 on down on the headings of each of your help topics

• Use the Insert > Hyperlink feature or the Hyperlink icon to link to various points within your document. You can link to any text that has a heading style applied to it, to graphics, tables, bookmarks, etc.
• Update the TOC when you change anything, and it'll automatically show everything correctly.
• Choose File > Export as PDF when you're ready to produce.

And that's all.

 

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Doing Equations, Formulas, Pi, Etc. in OpenOffice Writer and Calc -- And Impress, Updated February 2007

Updated February 2007 for Impress -- see end of post.

Sooner or later, no matter who you are, you're going to have to talk about pi. Or you're going to need to talk about squaring lambda. (Mmm....squaring lambda.....) Or you'll need to have a+b+c divided by 2.

How do you do that in OpenOffice?

The first step is to just go to the old reliable Insert menu. Anything out of the realm of plain text, just go to the Insert menu.

Just Using the Special Characters Window

Now, if you just want a Special Character, pi or lambda or something, you can choose Insert > Special Character.

Find the one you want. If you select several you'll see them all displayed at the right side of the window and they'll all be inserted.

Then just click Insert. The character will show up.

It's a pain to scroll through all that again and again so make an AutoText entry for it. See

http://openoffice.blogs.com/openoffice/2006/03/automatic_text_.html

Using the Formulas Features

If you need something more complex, then instead, choose Insert > Object > Formula.

You get an editing window at the bottom, a box for the equation in the document, and a little shortcut window floating off to the side.

Now,  you can use the little shorcut window. Click an item above the line, then click an item below the line and that inserts some placeholder stuff for you in the editing window.

   

But frankly I find it not that helpful since just writing the formulas is reasonably easy once you memorize a few tips.

• Use the Formula Reference Tables online help list to see how to enter formulas. Basically, do it how you think it would work. Use the OpenOffice.org Math Examples online  help list to see examples. These are really good. Just press F1 while you're in the editing window; you can type the titles of these topics into the Find or Index window.

• Use ^ for exponents, as in 3^2  which would be three, squared.
• Use sqrt for square root
• Use % in front of the written version of a symbol, as in %pi

So here are a few formulas. They're pretty easy to figure out. Click each image to see a slightly larger version, if you like.

a + b / $pi

a + b over $pi

(a + b) over $pi

If You Don't Know How to Write Out a Character Like %pi or %rho

Click the Sigma icon at the top to add a special character.

You can just scroll  through and select something from the list, and insert it.

Or you can add something yourself if you don't see what you need.

Optional: Add your own symbol   

To add something you don't see, click Edit.

Find what you want, by scrolling and manipulating all the dropdowns. Then name it, and click Add, not Edit.

The new symbol will show up in the symbol list.

Click in the document to stop editing the formula.

If you want to get back into the formula to change it, double-click the box the formula is in.

Formatting the Formula

All right. You've got a great formula. But it's really small. Or you'd like a different font. You change these by selecting the formula in the editing window and click on the Format menu.

Choosing Fonts gives you this window. You get to choose the font by the type: variables, etc. Click and hold down on the Modify button to change any font.

Select the font in this window, then click OK all the way back out of the windows.

That's About It

Insert > Object > Formula. Type what you want and use the online help and the brief tips I gave you.

Click in the document when you're done, and double-click the equation box to start editing again.

To format, select the text in the editing box and find the Format menu.

To add a symbol you don't know, click the Epsilon icon at the top of the window and select one--or click Edit to create your own.

Doing All This in Impress

I'm using 2.1 in February 2007 and it works just fine.

Click in a bulleted item and choose Insert > Object > Formula.

You can also paste the formula object from Writer to Impress. Don't paste it into a bullet in this case; just paste it into a layout with no bullets.

Double-click to edit, as usual.

Double-click the formula object to get into edit mode. Use the Format menu or make other changes.

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Importing Fonts Into OpenOffice.org 2.1

OpenOffice.org will just pick up whatever fonts you've got on your system. As someone who's worked with a lot of desktop publishing projects and who's mostly on Windows, I have a lot of fonts.

But let's say you don't have a lot of fonts, and you want more fonts for OpenOffice.

OpenOffice is there for you. In 2.1 there's a link from the Wizards to an installation site.

Choose File > Wizards > Install Fonts From Web.

Just follow the wizard through. Here are the windows.

Click on English and here's the text you see.

===========================

FontOOo

Version 1.6.1

FontOOo is a wizard allowing free fonts installation.

 

FontOOo is a wizard to simplify the downloading and installation of selected, high-quality fonts available on the internet.  License restrictions prevent these fonts from being directly shipped as part of OpenOffice.org but do allow end-user installation and use for no cost.   Please carefully read and follow the license for each of the fonts you install.

 

Click the button to start the wizard

Notes:

You will have to restart OpenOffice.org and the quickstarter to see your new fonts.

FontOOo only works at OpenOffice.org level and no font is installed at operating system level

 

This wizard is licensed under the terms of the LGPL, available here:
http://www.opensource.org/licenses/lgpl-license.php

Author: Laurent Godard – © 2004–2006 – [email protected]

===========================

Select available fonts. If they're dimmed, click Next and select any that are available.

I selected all these and installed them.

Selectwhat you want installed and click Next. The process will run. Restart OpenOffice.org and the quickstarter when you're done.

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ODT Plugin for Microsoft Word

Here's an ODT plugin for Microsoft Office so that you can use Word and create OpenDocument format files. I haven't tried it yet but it's on my list.

The story on Groklaw.

Download the file from Sourceforge.

TechTarget Article: Compatibility Tips for Word and OpenOffice Writer

I've written an article for TechTarget.com about how to create documents to convert as well as possible between Microsoft Word and OpenOffice.org Writer.

http://searchopensource.techtarget.com/tip/1,289483,sid39_gci1186330,00.html

It's essentially about how, when Word documents don't open all that well in OpenOffice Writer, it's often because...well, the original document wasn't in great shape. The article talks about how to use tools appropriately to make documents that are well constructed no matter what application you're using, and how well constructed documents convert better between office suites, operating systems, and other environments.

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OpenOffice Label Templates Article got Dugg and Delicioused

I'm a little fuzzy on how it happened, but my article, somewhat edited down, got Dugg and Delicioused bigtime last week! (The folks at WorldLabel sometimes engage me to write articles, and they re-released it. Kind of like a DVD Director's Cut or something. ;> )

Apparently it even made the front page of Delicious. Very fun.

Anyway, here's the article.

http://www.tech-recipes.com/rx/1955/making_labels_with_openoffice_org_templates

If you feel the urge to Digg it, or just FYI, it's in the Software category.
http://www.digg.com/software

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Mail Merge in OpenOffice Writer: Creating Mail Merge Documents From Text/CSV or Spreadsheets

I've got a lot of info out there, including lots of coverage in my book, about mail merges. However, I don't have a nice simple straightforward blog on it with everything in the same place all spelled out. Didn't, that is. This is all you need to do to make a nice simple document based on data in text files or spreadsheets.

What You Have to Do

1. Get your data. You've already got it, probably. This blog  is for people with data in text files, and in spreadsheets.

2. Turn it into a data source.

3. Create your mail merge document and suck the data in through the data source.

4. Print, specifying how many of the data records you want to print for, and whether to print to a file or printer.

1. Get Your Data

You probably already have it. It's in a .txt file or .csv that's comma or tab separated, perhaps. Or it's just a spreadsheet.

2. Make the Data Source: Text File Instructions

If your data is in text files, follow these steps.

1. Choose File > New > Database.

2. Make the selection shown, with Text as the format.

3. Click Next.

4. Specify the DIRECTORY where the text files are. Each text file in that directory will be a table in your database. Then select the item separating fields, i.e. a tab or comma or something else.

5. When all the settings look correct, click Next.

6. Umark the option to open the database for editing. You can open it; you just don't have to.

7. Click Next.

8. Save the data source (aka database) under a name that will help you remember what it is.

You're done.

2. Make the Data Source: Spreadsheet Instructions

If your data is in a spreadsheet, follow these steps.

1. Choose File > New > Database.

2. Make the selection shown, with Spreadsheet as the format.

 

3. Click Next.

4. Specify the spreadsheet file. Each SHEET in that spreadsheet will be a table in your database.

 

5. Click Next.

6. Umark the option to open the database for editing. You can open it; you just don't have to.

 

7. Click Next.

8. Save the data source (aka database) under a name that will help you remember what it is.
 

You're done.

3. Create Your Mail Merge Document and Suck the Data In From the Datasource

You can also use the simple or complex mail merge.

Simple:  http://openoffice.blogs.com/openoffice/2006/03/techtarget_arti_1.html

Complex: http://openoffice.blogs.com/openoffice/2006/02/techtarget_arti.html

But this is a nice way to do it too.

1. Create a new Writer document or open a document containing text that you want in the mail merge document.

2. Choose View > Data Sources. Everything you've created will be displayed. Click the + sign by the data source you want to use, then click + by Tables til you see the data you want to use.

3. Type any content you want and do any formatting. You can do this later too.

4. Click on the NAME OF THE FIELD, not the piece of data, that you want in the mail merge.

5. Drag it into the document and release. The field name will appear.

 

6. Add any other content and fields you want.

Save the document. You're ready to print.

4. Print the Mail Merge Document.

1. Choose File > Print.

2. You'll see this message. Click Yes. DON'T MARK THE CHECKBOX SAYING YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THE MESSAGE AGAIN.

3. In the print window, specify the range of records, if you don't want them all, and specify to print to a printer, or to files.

4. Click OK.

5. In the print window, specify the printer and click Print.

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Weird Calculation and Sorting Problems in OpenOffice Calc Spreadsheets and Writer Tables

This is a followup of my post yesterday about correct cell format.

Sometimes weird stuff happens in cells.

• Calculations don't work. They just sit there displaying the formula instead of running and displaying the results.

• Date formats don't work. You type in a perfectly good date and some bizarre number appears instead.
• Sorting doesn't work. Sorting numbers might change the order, but to an order you don't expect.

Why? Because the cells think that they are text. So it doesn't make sense to do calculations. You can't multiple bread * milk, so  you can't multiply two other things that Openoffice thinks are text.

This happens in Calc spreadsheets and Writer tables. To find out if the contents of your cells are deluded about their identity, select them, right-click, and choose Number Format.

If you see this, then the cells have the wrong format.

To correct this in Writer, just select the correct format and click OK.

To correct this in Calc:

• Close the number formatting window
• Select the problem cell
• Cut out the contents -- be sure to select and cut the series of characters in the cell, not the cell itself
• Reselect the entire cell, then press Delete
• In the window that appears, be sure that Format is selected. Click OK.

• With the cell still selected, right-click again and choose Format Cells. Select the correct format and click OK.

• Choose Edit > Paste Special
• Choose Unformatted Text and click OK

• Now the calculation should work correctly. And if it wasn't a calculation but a number, now rerun the sort and it should work correctly.

See yesterday's post about number recognition, toward the end, for how to recognize a badly formatted cell that thinks it's text, even though it might have a $ and decimal places.

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A Little Thing About OpenOffice Number Formats in Writer Tables and Calc Spreadsheets

I was just putting together a proposal, putting in the numbers for each category in a Writer table, just like I always do. I was applying automatic number formatting for the currency amounts.

The number formatting was being really annoying, though. I set the number format for a bunch of blank cells, then had to set it again when I put in the numbers since it didn't take.

I also had to re-apply currency formatting when I changed a number. It was $800.00, formatted correctly, and when I changed it to 900, it left-aligned itself and changed its number formatting to Text. That was particularly annoying.

Before we continue,  why do you care about number formatting? It's convenient but there's more. Note that the particular issue I encountered exists in Writer, but the problems if you don't have correct number formatting exist in both  Writer and Calc.

• It's easier to apply formatting that will make decimals and currency symbols appear than to retype it.
• Sorting won't work correctly if the numbers don't know they're numbers.
• Calculations won't work correctly if the numbers don't know they're numbers.

Back to the topic at hand -- why was this happening? Why was number formatting misbehaving? It usually doesn't. But it was today. It's because the default setting "Number Recognition" had been removed. Or maybe it's not on by default in 2.1.

Making Sure Your Number Formatting Sticks
Here's what to do to prevent number formatting annoyance.

1. Create your table.

2. Select the cells that you want to have numbers in.

3. Right-click and choose Number Recognition. You want a checkmark to appear next to  This will keep OpenOffice.org aware that the content you enter is, indeed, numbers and that the program should darned well apply number formatting when you tell it to.

4. Now, apply the appropriate number formatting. Right-click again on the selected cells and choose Number Format. Have your way with it, select the options you want, then click OK.

Notes on How to Detect Incorrectly Formatted Cells
A correctly formatted cell is right aligned like these.

You can have the currency symbol and decimals applied correctly, BUT if the numbers are left aligned, then they still don't know that they're numbers. They think they're text. Weird, huh? So keep an eye out for left-aligned correctly formatted numbers.

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Things That Are Hard to Figure Out in OpenOffice Writer: Page Numbers, Different Page Orientations, Watermarks, New Document Formats, and Dragging Cells (Repost)

Another "classic" post! These are perennial questions and through reposting I'll be able to get these to come up as searchable in blog searches.

Note: Here's a related article I wrote for TechTarget.com.

I get a lot of questions when I train, and just in emails. A lot of them are about things that aren't actually hard to do but they're hard to figure out how to do in the first place. Here's how to do some of them.

Adding a Page Number to an OpenOffice.org Writer document
Note: See a related post on starting a document with no page number on the first page and page 1 on the second page.

You can do this a number of ways, but this is the quickest.

1. First, make a footer for the page number to appear in. Choose Insert > Footer > Default.
2. Scroll to the bottom of the document; you'll see the footer.
3. Click in the footer. Press Tab if you want the page number in the middle, press again if you want it at the right.
4. Type the word page if you want, followed by a space.
5. Choose Insert > Fields > Page Number.
6. Format the text in the footer the way you want it.

If you want to have no page number on the first page and start with 1 or 2 on the second page, that's a bit more advanced. Stay tuned for the blog on page styles.

(You can do the footer turn-on by choose Format > Page > Footers, too.)

Putting a Portrait Page and a Landscape Page in the Same Document

You absolutely can do this. It just takes a little while. You set up a page style that's horizontal, and one that's vertical, and then you just switch.

Here's a 2.0 document (twopagestyles.odt) that has a vertical page style and a horizontal page style. (You can set them up yourself using styles—Format > Styles and Formatting, then use the help.)

1. Type your content.
2. Choose Format > Styles and Formatting.
3. Click the Page Styles icon at the top of the Styles and Formatting window.
4. Double-click the first page style you want to use, the vertical or the horizontal. (It should probably be vertical, since this page style will apply to everything above your cursor in the document.)
5. Click at the bottom of the page using that page style.
6. Choose Insert > Manual Break.
7. In the Page Style list, select the other page style, such as Horizontal.
8. Click OK.
9. Put the content on that page that you want.
10. Click at the bottom of that page.
11. Choose Insert > Manual Break.
12. In the Page Style list, select the first page style, such as Vertical.
13. Click OK. Now you're back to where you started.

Stay tuned for the blog on page styles, to create page styles yourself from scratch, and to do some gnarly pagination control.

Getting exactly what you want when you choose File > New ____ Document.

The default empty blank text document and spreadsheet are fine but you'd like the margins to be wider, or the font to be different, or for it to have certain styles. It's easy to switch out what comes up under File > New > ____ Document.

1. First, make a new document or spreadsheet. Set up the page the way you want, create or import styles, add footers and page numbers, etc.
2. Then choose File > Templates > Save.
3. Name the document, leave the category My Templates selected, and click OK.
4. Choose File > Templates > Organize.
5. Double-click the My Templates category.
6. Right-click on your template you created previously and choose Set as Default Template.
7. Click OK.

Now that document will come up when you choose File > New > _____ Document (text or spreadsheet).

To go back to the original, just repeat those steps but instead of choosing Set as Default Template, choose Reset Default Template > Text Document or Reset Default Template > Spreadsheet.

Making a Watermark

If you want a graphic or piece of text behind the content of your page, you can approach it a few different ways.

If you want a text-based watermark for your document, like CONFIDENTIAL, behind just a few pages, follow these steps. You'll  need to place the text box on every page where you want it to appear.

1. Click the “T” text icon, or if you don't see one, choose View > Toolbars > Drawing to make it appear.

2. Draw a box with the tool and type what you want inside, like CONFIDENTIAL.

3. Select the text and make it really big, maybe 66 points. You can use the font size dropdown list on the object bar for this.

4. Make the text gray if you want it lighter. Use the Font Color icon on the object bar.

5. Click somewhere else in your document, like a blank spot or some regular text.

6. If you want the text vertical or diagonal, click on the text box, right-click and choose Position and Size, click the Rotation tab, and in the Rotation field type the number of degrees. (You can also click on a point in the Default Settings region.) 55 degrees is good for a diagonal watermark.

7. Click on the text box you just drew, right-click, and choose Wrap > In Background.

8. Drag the text box to reposition it if it's not where you want, make the text larger or smaller, rotate it more or less, and make any other adjustments.

Here's an OpenOffice.org 2.0 document (watermarktemplate.odt  ) you can use with a watermark.

If you want a graphic-based watermark for just a few pages of your document, paste it into your document on each page where you want the graphic, or choose Insert  > Picture > From File. Then  do step 7 from the previous step to wrap the graphic in the background.

To make the graphic lighter, select it. The Picture toolbar should appear but if it doesn't, choose View > Toolbars > Picture. Use the Brightness icon to make the graphic lighter and use the Contrast icon to decrease contrast.

To put a graphic in the background of every page of your document (every page with the Default page style, that is, or every page with the page style you modify if you know styles), follow these steps.

1. Be sure you have the graphic, that it's light enough, and that you know where the graphic is.
2. Choose Format > Page.
3. Click the Background tab.
4. From the As dropdown list, select graphic.
5. In the Type area, be sure Position is selected.
6. Click Browse and find the graphic.
7. Click Open.

Dragging a Cell in a Spreadsheet

I get a kick out of how obscure this is. You can select two or more cells and drag them, but you can't drag just one.

Unless you do this.

1. Select the cell.
2. Click and hold down, drag the mouse down one cell, then back up one cell, and release.

Now you can drag the cell wherever you want.

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OpenOffice Templates: Making Them, and Making New Documents Based on Them (Writer, Calc and Impress): Reposted January 2007

This is embarrassing. I have a huge blogapalooza on styles but left out templates.

I shall remedy that immediately.

All right. Let's say you have the following:

• A bunch of styles you need to have when you create a document.
• Some canned text, like your signature or a graphic logo, that you use in a lot of documents
• Or you're just darned picky about how you want your documents ;>

You are an excellent candidate for using templates. Templates are documents that store styles, text, graphics, general formatting—whatever you want. You create a document, save it as a template in the Template Place, then point to that template when you want to create a new document using what it's got. (“Styles and canned text...that's what it's got....remember that.”)

And it really couldn't be easier.

Making a Template

Open a new document.

Put in it what you want in the template. Styles, graphics, text of every kind and variety. Whatever.

Then choose File > Templates > Save.

Specify My Templates unless you have another idea for a category.

(To create a new category, click the Organizer button, select a category in the button that appears, right-click on it and choose New. An untitled category will appear. IMMEDIATELY start typing the name of your new category. Click somewhere else in the category list when you're done typing. Click Close.)

Type the name of your template like Meeting Minutes.

Click OK.

Now you've got a template.

Using a Template

You need to create a new document using that template.

Choose File > New > Templates and Documents.

Select the Template icon on the left.

Open the category you chose like My Templates. You'll see your template.

Click Open and you'll have a new untitled document based on that template.

The Coolest Part—Making That Template Come Up When You Create Any New Document

Choosing File > New > Templates and Documents is fine but what if that's your template you use all the time? You can make it come up when you just choose File > New > [type of document] by setting it as the default template.

Choose File > Templates > Organize.

Open the category your template is in, in the left side.

Right-click on the template and choose Set as Default Template.

Click Close. You're done! Choose File > New > [type of document] and you'll see the effect.

To switch back to the normal original boring blank document, repeat the steps but this time choose Reset Default Template > [type of document]

Pointing to an Existing Directory of Templates

If you have a bunch of templates, Microsoft or OpenOffice.org, set up OpenOffice.org to know where they are. Then you can get to them as above by choosing File > New > Templates and Documents.

Converting, If You Want to Point to Microsoft Format Templates
First, if they're in Microsoft format, you need to convert them to OpenOffice format. Choose File > Wizards > Document Converter. Follow the wizard through to create a converted set of copies of the templates.

Step 1.

Step 2, then just follow the wizard as prompted.

Pointing to Templates to Use
Now, choose Tools > Options > OpenOffice.org > Paths. Select the Templates line.

Click Edit, then click Add, and add the path to the templates you want to point to. (Click this image to see a larger version if you like.)

Click OK, and OK, and OK  again.

Now you'll see the templates when you choose File > New > Templates and Documents.

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Putting Graphics in the Background of Labels or Any Text, in OpenOffice Writer

I got a question this morning about putting graphics in the background of labels, and it's really not that obvious. Thus, I'm blogging about it.

This applies to any graphic that you want to put behind some text, i.e. a watermark but just for one page, one label, or one paragraph.

How do you do it?

Here's what you do for regular text.

Choose Insert > Picture > From File as you would normally. Select the picture you want.

The graphic appears.

Right-click and choose Wrap > In Background.

The graphic will now be behind the text.

To lighten the graphic, select it. You'll be able to use the Picture toolbar, shown. Click on Default to see the Grayscale and Watermark options, or click the Color icon on the picture toolbar to get the Color palette where you can increase brightness, decrease contrast, etc. Also try increasing transparency, another option on the Picture toolbar.

Here's what you do for labels.

Choose File > New > Labels and set up labels as you would normally.

In the Options tab, click Synchronize.

Click New Document and the labels, with a floating Synchronize button, will appear.

Insert the picture by choosing Insert > Picture > From File.

The picture appears.

Right-click on the picture and choose Wrap > In Background.

Resize and reproportion the graphic as necessary.

Reformat the text as necessary, then click Synchronize. The  labels will each have the graphic in the background.

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TechTarget Article: Numbered and Bulleted Lists in OpenOffice Writer

I was looking through my posts and realized, hey, I hadn't posted here that I've written a fairly comprehensive article for techtarget on lists.

See also this post on how to do numbering with fields. Fields are a more reliable but more complex approach.

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