Key Terms

Don't let unfamiliar terms discourage you from learning all you can about OpenOffice.org. If you don't completely understand what one of these words means, flip to the indicated page, read the full definition there, and find techniques related to that term .

Absolute reference

A cell reference that does not change if you copy the formula elsewhere. Page 180

Anchor

A Writer placeholder that shows itself as an icon of a boat anchor. 122

Anchor point

One corner of a range of cells ; typically, the upper-left cell in a range is considered the anchor point. 198

Arc

Half an ellipse, such as a half-moon. 127

Arguments

Values appearing inside a function's parentheses that the function uses in some way to produce its result. 205

Ascending

The sort method where lower values are sorted early in the list and higher values fall at the end of the list. 284

AutoCorrect

The ability of OpenOffice.org programs to analyze what you just typed and replace with a corrected version if needed. 143

AutoFilter

A Calc database filter where you select from a list of values to filter by and view. 285

AutoFit

The ability of AutoFormat to keep the original widths and heights of the cells that AutoFormat formats. 229

AutoFormat

The process that Calc uses to format spreadsheets from a collection of predetermined styles. 224

AutoLayout

A predesigned slide layout for Impress presentation slides. 302

AutoPilot

Preformatted guides that help you create personal and business letters and forms more easily than if you began with a blank page. 33

Cell

A row and column intersection in a Writer or Calc table or spreadsheet. 111

Cell reference

The name of the cell, composed of its column and row intersection, such as G14. This is also called the cell address. 162

Conditional formatting

The process of formatting Calc cells automatically, based on the data they contain. 243

Crop

The cutting off of parts of an image or, in the case of Draw images, the scaled shrinking of an image to a smaller size from within the Crop dialog box. 445

Custom sort list

A predefined list of values (such as month names and the days of the week), or a list you define from the Tools, Options, Spreadsheet, Custom Lists option, that determines a special sorting rank that differs from the normal alphabetic or numerical sorts. Page 285

Data range

A range you define that specifies exactly which rows and columns comprise the records and fields of your database. 280

Data series

A single, contiguous group of data that you might select from a column or row to chart. 258

Data validity

A check to determine whether data entered into a cell is valid, defined by a set of criteria that you set up. 267

Database

A collection of data that is often organized in rows and columns to make searching and sorting easy to do. 276

Edit points

This term refers to points on your drawing, represented by small square boxes, that you drag to modify that part of the shape or freeform line. 397

Endnotes

A note at the end of a document referenced by number somewhere in the document. 152

Fill handle

A small black box, at the bottom-right corner of a selected cell or range, that you drag to the right (or down or up) to fill the range of data with values related to the selected range. 204

Footer

Text that appears at the bottom of every page in a section or document. 148

Footnotes

A note at the bottom of a page referenced by a number somewhere on the page. 152

Formulas

Equations composed of numeric values and often cell addresses and range names that produce a mathematical result. 177

Functions

Built-in mathematical and logical routines that perform common calculations. 194

Group

A set of two or more selected objects in Draw. 421

Header

Text that appears at the top of every page in a section or document. 148

Hyperlinks

Text that's usually underlined in help screens (and Web pages too) that you can click to navigate to other areas. 20

Insert mode

The state of Writer where new text you type is inserted before existing text. It is indicated by the INSRT message on the status bar. 43

Insertion point

A vertical text cursor that shows where the next character you type will appear. Page 42

Landscape

Printed across the long edge, as you might do for a wide report. 86

Layers

Groups of items, such as your drawing's graphics and text, controls you place on a drawing, or dimension lines for three-dimensional space control. 388

Legend

Tells a chart's audience what series each colored line or bar represents. 260

Long click

Click and hold your left mouse button, without dragging your mouse, until a toolbar or option appears. 17

Macros

A series of keystrokes, menu selections, dialog box selections, and other keyboard-related activities that you save as recorded steps to be rerun later. 455

Master documents

A repository of documents, called subdocuments, each of which might be a chapter or document worked on by several people, as you might find in corporate reports submitted by multiple departments. 454

Master slide

Also called a master page and refers to a page that determines the background and formatting styles in the current presentation. 318

Multilevel index

An index entry that contains a primary term such as Fruit and two or more secondary entries, offset to the right under the primary term, such as apple, banana , and pear. 109

Nonbreaking space

A space that appears between words when you print the document but does not break at the end of a line. 43

Non-proportional

Each letter, no matter how wide (such as W) or narrow (such as i) consumes the same amount of space on the line. 36

OLE object

Object Linking and Embedding; this term refers to an object that can be placed inside documents of different types, such as a Writer word processing document and an Impress presentation. 344

Operator hierarchy model

A predefined order of operators when equations are being calculated. 179

Overtype mode

The state of Writer where new text replaces existing text as you type (indicated by the OVER message on the status bar). 43

PDF

The name (and filename extension) given to documents that conform to Adobe Systems' Portable Document Format. 155

Pixels

An abbreviation for picture elements, which refers to the smallest addressable dot, or graphic element, on a screen or printer. 330

Portrait

Printed down the narrow edge, as you might do for a letter. 86

Range

One or more cells, selected adjacent to each other in a rectangular manner, that you can name and treat as a single entity or group of cells in formulas. Page 197

Records

The rows in a database representing all the data for a single item. 277

Regular expressions

The name given to OpenOffice.org's extensive wildcard character support; OpenOffice.org supports far more wildcard characters than most Windows programs. 57

Relative reference

A cell that is referenced in relation to the current cell. 180

Scale

A ratio that describes the size of objects on your screen and how that size relates to their actual printed size. 380

Sheets

Numerical information presented in a tabular row and column format with text that labels and discusses the data (also, loosely, called spreadsheets). 160

Smart quotes

The rounded quotes that curl in or out, depending on whether they begin or end a quoted phrase. 144

Snap lines

Also called snap-to lines and refers to logical lines that align the objects on your drawing to one another. 378

Spreadsheets

OpenOffice.org documents that hold one or more sheets (called workbooks in Microsoft Excel). 160

Style

A set of character and paragraph formats you can apply to text to change that text's format details. 89

Subdocuments

Documents held and organized inside a master document. 461

Tables

Collections of information organized in rows and columns. 111

Template

A predefined document with styles and other formatting, such as columns and tables, that forms a model for new documents. 89

Themes

A collection of graphic files you save as a group under a theme name. The Gallery comes with several predesigned themes, such as Backgrounds and Bullets. 430

Transition

The way one slide leaves the presentation screen and the next slide appears. 301

Typeface

A character design that determines the size and style of how your characters look. 77

User-defined index

An index that is secondary to the primary, alphabetical index, such as a figure index or a list of people index. 109

Vector graphics

Graphics defined by geometric shapes such as lines, curves, rectangles, and polygons. 378

Wildcard search

Allows you to use wildcard characters, such as *, to replace characters in a search. 57