DIGITAL DOCUMENTATION
A style is a set of formats that you can apply to selected pages, text, frames, and other elements in your document to
quickly change their appearance. When you apply a style, you apply a whole group of formats at the same time.
Styles help improve consistency in a document. They also make major formatting changes easy. OpenOffice.org
supports the following types of styles:
1. Page styles include margins, headers and footers, borders and backgrounds. In Calc, page styles also include
the sequence for printing sheets.
2. Paragraph styles control all aspects of a paragraph's appearance, such as text alignment, tab stops, line
spacing, and borders, and can include character formatting.
3. Character styles affect selected text within a paragraph, such as the font and size of text, or bold and italic
formats.
4. Frame styles are used to format graphic and text frames, including wrapping type, borders, backgrounds, and
columns.
5. Numbering styles apply similar alignment, numbering or bullet characters, and fonts to numbered or bulleted
lists.
6. Cell styles include fonts, alignment, borders, background, number formats (for example, currency, date,
number), and cell protection.
7. Graphics styles in drawings and presentations include line, area, shadowing, transparency, font, connectors,
dimensioning, and other attributes.
8. Presentation styles include attributes for font, indents, spacing, alignment, and tabs.
Applying styles: -
1) Using the Styles and Formatting window-
1. Click the Styles and Formatting icon or press F11.
2. The Styles and Formatting window shows the types of styles available for the OpenOffice
3. Click on one of the icons at the top left of the Styles and Formatting window to display a list of styles in a
particular category.
4. Position the insertion point in the paragraph, frame, or page, and then double-click on the name of style
which you want to apply.
2) Using Fill Format mode-
Fill format mode is used to apply a style to many different areas quickly without having to go back to the
Styles and Formatting window.
1. Open the Styles and Formatting window and select the style you want to apply.
2. Click the Fill Format mode icon
3. To apply a paragraph, page, or frame style, hover the mouse over the paragraph, page, or frame and
click.
Creating a new style from a selection -
1. Open the Styles and Formatting window and choose the type of style you want to create.
2. In the document, select the item you want to save as a style.
3. In the Styles and Formatting window, click on the New Style from Selection icon
4. type a name for the new style. Click OK to save the new style.
Dragging And Dropping To Create A Style - Select some text and drag it to the Styles and Formatting window. If
Paragraph Styles are active, the paragraph style will be added to the list. If Character Styles are active, the character
style will be added to the list.
Modifying Styles:-
To update a style from a selection:
1. Open the Styles and Formatting window.
2. In the document, select an item that has the format you want to adopt as a style.
3. In the Styles and Formatting window, select the style you want to update, then long-click on the arrow next
to the New Style from Selection icon and click on Update Style
You can copy styles by loading them from a template or another document:
1. Open the document you want to copy styles into.
2. In the Styles and Formatting window, long-click on the arrow next to the New Style from Selection icon, and
then click on Load Styles.
3. Load style dialog box appears.
4. Select the categories of styles to be copied.
5. Click OK .
Inserting An Image File:-
When the image is in a file stored on the computer, you can insert it into an Open Office document using:
Drag and Drop-
1. Open a file browser window and locate the image you want to insert.
2. Drag the image into the Writer document and drop it where you want it to appear. A faint vertical line marks
where the image will be dropped.
Insert Picture Dialog-
1. Click in the Open Office document where you want the image to appear.
2. Choose Insert > Picture > From File from the menu bar.
3. On the Insert Picture dialog, navigate to the file to be inserted, select it, and click Open.
Inserting An Image From The Clipboard-
1. Open both the source document and the target document.
2. In the source document, select the image to be copied and press Control + C to copy the image.
3. Switch to the target document and place the cursor where the graphic is to be inserted.
4. Press Control + V to insert the image.
Inserting An Image Using A Scanner- If a scanner is connected to your computer, Open Office can call the scanning
application and insert the scanned item into the Open Office document as an image. Click where you want the
graphic to be inserted and select Insert > Picture > Scan > Select Source.
Inserting An Image From The Gallery-
1. To open the Gallery, click on the Gallery or choose Tools > Gallery from the menu bar.
2. Navigate through the Gallery to find the desired picture.
3. click and drag it from the Gallery into the Writer document or right-click on the picture and choose
Insert>Copy.
Modifying An Image:-
Using The Picture Toolbar
When you insert an image or select one already present in the document, the Picture toolbar appears. You can set it
to always be present (View > Toolbars > Picture). Two other toolbars can be opened from this one: the Graphic Filter
toolbar and the Color toolbar. From these three toolbars, you can apply small corrections to the graphic or obtain
special effects.
Graphics mode - You can change color images to grayscale by selecting the image and then selecting Grayscale from
the Graphics mode list.
Flip vertically or horizontally - To flip an image vertically or horizontally, select the image, and then click the relevant
icon.
Color - Use this toolbar to modify the individual RGB color components of the image (red, green, blue) as well as the
brightness, contrast, and gamma of the image.
Transparency - Modify the percentage value in the Transparency box on the Picture toolbar to make the image more
transparent. This is particularly useful when creating a watermark or when wrapping image in background.
Cropping Images - To start cropping the image, right click on it and select Picture from the pop-up menu. In the
Picture dialog box, select the Crop page. In the Crop page, you can control the following parameters:
Keep scale / Keep image size - When Keep scale is selected (default), cropping the image does not change the scale of
the picture. When Keep image size is selected, cropping produces enlargement (for positive cropping values),
shrinking (for negative cropping values), or distortion of the image so that the image size remains constant.
Resizing an image:-
1. Click the picture, to show the green resizing handles.
2. Position the pointer over one of the green resizing handles.
3. Click and drag to resize the picture.
Rotating a picture:-
1. Open a new draw/Impress document.
2. Insert the image you want to rotate
3. Select the image and click on rotating icon from drawing toolbar
4. Rotate image as desired
5. Select and copy the rotated image and paste in Writer
Creating Drawing Objects:-
To begin using the drawing tools, display the Drawing toolbar by clicking View > Toolbars > Drawing.
1. Click the document in which you want to insert the object
2. Select tool from drawing toolbar
3. Click and drag to create drawing object
After inserting the object you can change the properties (fill color, line type, weight and anchoring) of object.
Grouping Drawing Objects:-
1. Select one object, then hold down the Shift key and select the others you want to include in the group.
2. Choose Format > Group > Group from the menu bar or right-click and choose Group > Group from the pop-
up menu.
Positioning Image/Graphics Within The Text:-
When you add a graphic to a text document, you need to choose how to position it with respect to the text and other
graphics. Positioning of a graphic is controlled by four settings:
1. Arrangement refers to the placement of a graphic on an imaginary vertical axis. Arrangement controls how
graphics are stacked upon each other or relative to the text.
2. Alignment refers to the vertical or horizontal placement of a graphic in relation to the chosen anchor point.
3. Anchoring refers to the reference point for the graphics. This point could be the page, or frame where the
object is, a paragraph, or even a character. An image always has an anchor point.
4. Text wrapping refers to the relation of graphics to the surrounding text, which may wrap around the graphic
on one or both sides.
CREATE AND USE TEMPLATE:-
A template is a model that you use to create other documents. For example, you can create a template for business
reports that has your company’s logo on the first page. New documents created from this template will all have your
company’s logo on the first page.
To create a template from a document:
1. Open a new or existing document of the type you want to make into a template (text document,
spreadsheet, drawing, presentation).
2. Add the content and styles that you want.
3. From the main menu, choose File > Templates > Save.
4. In the New template field, type a name for the new template.
5. In the Categories list, click the category to which you want to assign the template.
6. Click OK to save the new template.
Creating A Template Using A Wizard:
1. From main menu, chose file > wizards > type of template
2. Follow the instructions on pages of wizard.
3. In last section of wizard, you can specify name and location for saving template.
Setting a custom template as the default:-
1. From the main menu, choose File > Templates > Organize. The Template Management dialog opens.
2. In the box on the left, select the folder containing the template that you want to set as the default, then
select the template.
3. Click the Commands button and choose Set As Default Template from the dropdown menu.
Resetting the default template:-
1. In the Template Management dialog, click any folder in the box on the left.
2. Click the Commands button and choose Reset Default Template from the dropdown menu.
TABLE OF CONTENTS:-
Creating Table of Content-
1. Place the cursor where you want the table of contents to be inserted.
2. Select Insert > Indexes and Tables > Indexes and Tables.
3. Change nothing in the Insert Index/Table dialog. Click OK.
Use index/table tab to set table attributes like:
Adding A Title - If you'd like the table of contents to have a title, enter it in theTitle field
Protecting Against Manual Changes - To protect the table of contents from being changed accidentally, check the
Protected against manual changes check box.
Changing The Number Of Levels - By default, Writer evaluates 10 levels of headings when it builds the table of
contents. To change the number of levels evaluated, enter the desired number in the Evaluate up to level spin box.
Using The Entries Tab - Use the Entries tab, to format the entries in the table of contents.
The Structure line displays the elements for entries in that level. Each button on the Structure line represents one
element:
The E# button represents the chapter number.
The E button represents the entry text.
The T button represents a tab stop.
The # button represents the page number.
The LS button represents the start of a hyperlink. (This button doesn't appear on the default Structure line.)
The LE button represents the end of a hyperlink. (This button doesn't appear on the default Structure line.)
Deleting Elements - To delete an element from the Structure line, click the button that represents that element and
then press the Delete key on your keyboard.
Adding Elements -
1. Place your cursor in the white field to the left of where you want to insert the element.
2. Click one of the five buttons that are just below the Structure line. (For example, to add a tab stop, click the
Tab stop button.) A button representing the new element appears on the Structure line.
Applying Character Styles
1. On the Structure line, click the button that represents the element to which you want to apply a style.
2. From the Character Style drop-down list, select the desired style. Writer applies the selected style to the
selected element.
Using The Styles Tab -
1. In the Levels list box, select the desired outline level by clicking it.
2. In the Paragraph Styles list box, click the paragraph style that you want to apply.
3. Click the < button to apply the selected paragraph style to the selected outline level.
To remove paragraph styling from an outline level:
1. In the Levels list box, select the desired outline level by clicking it.
2. Click the Default button.
Using The Background Tab - to add color or a graphic to the table background.
Adding Color - To add color to the background of the table of contents, simply click the desired color in the color grid.
Adding a graphic -
1. From the As drop-down list, select Graphic. The Background tab displays the graphics options.
2. Click the Browse button.
3. Find the graphic file that you want to use and then click the Open button.
4. In the Type area of the Background tab, choose how you want the background graphic to appear:
To position the graphic in a specific location in the background, select Position.
To stretch the graphic so that it fills the entire background area, select Area.
To repeat the graphic across the entire background area, select Tile.
Deleting Color Or Graphics -
1. From the As drop-down list, select Color.
2. Click No Fill on the color grid.
Editing A Table Of Contents -
1. Click anywhere in the table of contents and then right click. The context menu appears.
2. From the context menu, choose Edit Index/Table. The Insert Index/Table window opens and you can edit and
save the table
Updating A Table Of Contents -
1. Click anywhere in the table of contents and then right click.
2. From the context menu, choose Update Index/Table.
Deleting A Table Of Contents -
1. Click anywhere in the table of contents and then right-click. The context menu appears.
2. From the context menu, choose Delete Index/Table. The writer deletes the table of contents.
MAIL MERGE:-
A mail merge is a way to take a letter you’ve written and send it to a whole bunch of people, personalizing it with
information about them so they might think that you typed that letter personally for them. A mail merge can also be
a quick way to take a list of people’s mailing addresses and generate labels or envelopes with the address for a
different person on each label or envelope.
Create a Mail Merge Document: Letter -
1. Open a template or create a new Writer document.
2. Save the document with the appropriate name like .odt .ods .
3. Write out the text that will be going to everyone, and plan where you want the fields.
To Make The Data Source And Entering Data
1. Choose File > New > Database. You’ll see this window:
2. Select the type of data: spreadsheet data, text file data, your particular type of address book, or the type of
database you’re using like Access or mySQL
3. Click Next.
Merging the Data Source with Main Document –
1. Open the letter you want to use
2. Once you have the letter then insert the fields from the database at specific position by dragging the fields.
3. If you want a field in the letter twice, you can drag it twice.
4. Format the document anyway you want it.
5. The last step is to either print the letter to a printer, or print to a writer file so you can see all the data merge.
Editing a saved file of mailing labels -
To edit a saved file of mailing labels, open the saved label file in the normal way. You will be prompted to update all
links. Choose No for the following reason: The first label on the page is termed the “Master Label” and all other
labels are linked to it. If you update the links, then all labels will end up containing the same data.
Printing Mailing Labels - Before beginning this process, note the brand and type of labels you intend to use.
1. Chose File> New > Labels.
2. On the options tab, ensure that the Synchronize contents option is selected.
3. Select Database, Table, label Brand, and label type.
4. Clcik the Labels Tab and move fields from database field list to Label text area.
5. Choose File > Print. The message shown appears. Click yes to print.
6. In mail merge dialog, click Ok to send labels directly to printer.
