Quick Start

This section contains the following information to help you get started quickly:

• A checklist that points you to common tasks for quick reference

• Feature overview

• Multiple ways of starting Writer

• An overview of the Writer work area

• A guided tour

See Chapter 5, Setup and Tips , on page 95 for general tips that can make working with the program a lot easier.

Quick Start Checklist

If you need to create a document quickly, the following sections should be particularly helpful:

• Starting a document based on a template Creating a Writer Document From a Template on page 176

• Adding headers and footers Inserting Headers and Footers on page 282

• Adding page numbers Regular Ol' Page Numbering on page 322

• Formatting paragraphs Quick Paragraph Formatting on page 208

• Adding graphics Inserting an Existing Graphic on page 274, Inserting a Gallery Image on page 275, and Tips for Adjusting Inserted Objects and Fixing Broken Links on page 304

• Printing and creating PDF files Chapter 12, Printing in Writer , on page 425

Writer Features

Writer is every bit as powerful as any word processing application on the market, and in many ways it's superior . Following are some of the features that set Writer apart:

Graphics Support

You can insert graphics of just about every conceivable format, including Adobe Photoshop PSD.

Conversion From Microsoft

The AutoPilot (wizard) lets you convert Microsoft Office documents (even entire directories of them) with a few clicks.

Book Creation

Writer offers superior features for creating multi-file books.

Table Features

You can perform calculations in Writer tables, and create charts to illustrate the table data. Charts update dynamically when table contents change. Another indispensable table feature is repeatable table headings: type it once, and when a table breaks to a new page the heading appears on the next page automatically.

Version Control

You can store versions of a Writer document as it moves through a lifecycle, letting you revert back to an earlier version if necessary. Writer also offers a full set of editing aids that display changes made to a document.

With the conditional sections feature, you can select any parts of your document and assign conditional names to those parts. You can then hide or password-protect those conditional sections, letting you show and hide sections to create different versions of the same document. (See Using Sections to Create Multiple Versions of the Same Document on page 409 for practical ways to use this feature.) Sections also support content reuse, letting you insert links to sections in other documents, and those sections are updated automatically when the source sections change.

Mail Merge

When you're creating a mail merge, you can drag database fields from a database and drop them into a Writer document.

Table of Contents Hyperlinking

For easy troubleshooting of tables of contents, or to let readers jump to sections in a document automatically, Writer lets you set up hyperlinks in table of contents entries.

Starting Writer

You can start Writer by choosing File > New > Text Document.

Help With Writer

In addition to the Help topics mentioned in Getting Help on page 96, see Good Sources of Information Online on page 39.

The Writer Work Area

Use tooltips to get to know Writer. There are tooltips for almost all fields and icons. Just position your mouse over anything you want to know the name of. You can turn tooltips on and off by choosing Help > Tips.

Clicking the Help button in a window or pressing F1 is the quickest way to get help for that window. If only general help appears, click in a field in the window.

Figure 6-1 shows the major components of the Writer environment

Figure 6-1. The Writer work area

Guided Tour of Writer

For a little help on getting started with mail merges, see Mail Merge and Business Card QuickStart on page 358.

Use this tutorial to give you a brief introduction to the Writer environment.

1. Launch Writer.

2. Type the following in the document: Gift Ideas for the Boss

3. Press the F11 key to display the Stylist.

4. In the Stylist, make sure the Paragraph Styles icon is selected to display the paragraph styles.

   

5. Right-click the zoom percentage box in the status bar and select a percentage that displays the document in a comfortable size for you.

   

6. Click in the text you typed. In the Stylist, double-click Heading 1. The text you typed changes.

7. Press the End key to jump to the end of the line, and press Enter.

8. Type the following four paragraphs (pressing Enter at the end of each):

    Following are the top three gift ideas for the boss: New crystal ball Replacement case of spearmint Euphoria Gum Machiavelli's Essential New Age Guide to Dealing With Smart Aleck Minions 

9. Select the last three paragraphs by dragging through them.

10. In the object bar, click the bullets icon. If you don't see the icon, use Figure 6-2 for guidance.

    

    Figure 6-2. Showing more icons

    

    The last three sentences become a bulleted list.

11. With the bulleted paragraphs still highlighted, click the Increase Indent icon in the object bar. The list indents to the right.

    

12. Click in the Gift Ideas for the Boss heading paragraph, and select Format > Paragraph.

13. In the Paragraph window (Figure 6-3 on page 172), on the Indents & Spacing tab, change the Bottom spacing to .25 (don't forget the decimal point in front).

    Figure 6-3. The Paragraph window

    

14. Click OK. The space increases between the heading paragraph and the first body paragraph.

15. Select the entire heading paragraph and select Format > Character.

16. In the Character window, on the Font tab, change the color to Red.

17. Click OK. The paragraph font color changes to Red.

18. Click at the end of the last bulleted paragraph and press Enter. Another bullet is displayed.

19. Click the Bullets icon to end the bulleted list, or just press Enter again.

In the next steps you'll insert a table. You may need to adjust your zoom percentage to see more of the page.

20. In the toolbar click and hold down the Insert icon. Another set of icons is displayed.

    

21. Move the pointer to the table icon. A small table picture is displayed below the icon. Move the pointer into the table picture so that two columns and four rows are selected (Figure 6-4), and release the mouse button.

    Figure 6-4. Inserting a two-column, four-row table

    

    A two-column, four-row table is inserted into the document.

22. In the two heading row cells , type the following: Gift Price

    Notice the table headings have their own paragraph format.

23. Type the gift names in the remaining cells of the Gift column, and type their prices in the Price cells. (After you enter the last price, click below the table.)

    Crystal Ball	$45
    Euphoria Gum	$18
    Machiavelli's Guide	$120

    Because you added dollar signs, the program adds .00 to the end of the numbers.

In the final steps you'll insert a header that includes the date and page number.

24. Select Insert > Header > Standard. A header text box is displayed.

25. In the main toolbar, click and hold down the Insert Fields icon, and select Date. The current date is displayed in the header.

    

26. Press the Tab key twice.

27. Click and hold down the Insert Fields icon again, and select Page Numbers. The page number is displayed in the right side of the header.

Post-Tutorial Tip

When you applied the Heading 1 paragraph style to your heading earlier in the exercise, the heading took on automatic format properties (font, font size, font color, and spacing between the heading and the first body paragraph). Let's say that after you made these changes to the heading (increasing the space between paragraphs and changing the font color to red), you wanted all your Heading 1 paragraphs to have the new formats. Simply highlight the entire paragraph, then click and drag it onto the Heading 1 item in the Stylist, as shown in Figure 6-5.

Figure 6-5. Updating a style by dragging and dropping