82. Set Impress Options  SEE ALSO 81 Create a New Presentation 84 Run a Presentation
Not everybody works the same way, so not every Impress user wants to use Impress the same way. By setting some of Impress's many options, you will make Impress conform to the way you like to do things. For example, you may want Impress to create all new presentations using the Presentation Wizard (see 81 Create a New Presentation ) or you might always want to begin with a completely empty presentation and add all the initial elements. The Impress options you set control these and many other Impress aspects. 82. Set Impress Options 
 TIP Even if you're familiar with Calc or another OpenOffice.org set of options, initially learning about Impress's options helps you see a preview of what Impress is able to do.
As a matter of fact, Impress has an option for just about anything! Table 11.1 describes Impress's options. You'll learn a lot about what Impress can do just by looking through the option categories available to you. | 1. | Request Options
Select Options from Impress's Tools menu. The Options dialog box appears. From the Options dialog box, you can change any of Impress's options as well as overall options for all OpenOffice.org programs. Click the plus sign next to OpenOffice.org to display the categories.
| | 2. | Change the OpenOffice.org Options Select any option in the OpenOffice.org category to modify OpenOffice.org-wide settings such as pathnames. For example, if you don't like the pathname you see when you open or save a file, click the My Documents option in the Paths category, and then click Edit and change the file path to a different location. TIPS If you're new to OpenOffice.org, consider leaving all the OpenOffice.org options "as is" until you familiarize yourself with how the OpenOffice.org programs work. If you change a file path and want to restore the original path, select the path again and click Default . | | 3. | Open the Impress Category and Set General Options Click the plus sign next to the Impress option to display the four Impress-specific options listed in Table 11.1 at the beginning of this task. Click the General options category; the dialog box changes to show options you can select to make changes to the general Impress options. The Text Objects section enables you to specify how you wish to edit text objects inside your presentationseither quickly when they're available by clicking them or only after you double-click the text object (or click the Option bar's Allow Quick Editing button, if the Options toolbar is displayed). The New Document section determines whether you want the Presentation Wizard to start when you first create a new presentation. The Settings section describes how you want Impress to use its background cache when displaying objects in a presentation (without the cache, Impress runs more slowly, although on recent computers you'll hardly notice the difference). In addition, you can specify how you wish to handle copying and moving presentation objects, and you may also specify how you want to handle measurements and tab stops, such as in inches or metrically. The Start Presentation section determines whether you want Impress to jump to the most-recently edited slide or the first slide when you open a new presentation. The Compatibility section determines how you want Impress to handle the printing and paragraph-spacing capabilities of Impress. KEY TERM Background cache A memory area that Impress can use to speed some operations. Instead of waiting for Impress to load all objects needed in a presentation from the disk drive, you can have Impress preload certain presentation objects into the background cache memory area so those objects more rapidly appear when it becomes time for them to display. | | 4. | Change the View Options Click the View options category under the Impress category; the dialog box changes to show options that handle Impress's onscreen display. The Alternative display section determines how and when Impress shows slide elements such as text and images or shows only placeholders or contours . If you choose to show Image placeholders or Text placeholders , Impress will not display actual text and graphics but rather will show placeholders for them to speed your screen's display. If your slides contain drawings, you may want to display them in Contour mode or Line contour only to speed their display as well. During the editing of a large presentation, you can often speed up the editing process by electing to show placeholders and contours instead of actual text and graphics. When running your presentation for others, of course, Impress will show the actual text and graphics during the presentation. The Display section determines how special elements such as the rulers are to show while you work within Impress. KEY TERM Placeholders Fast-loading graphic or text objects that take the place of slower-loading graphic images and long spans of text. | | 5. | Change the Grid Options Click to select the Grid category under the Impress option category. The Grid section allows you to determine whether you wish to display a nonprinting grid to help align objects, and whether you want to use the Snap to feature so that items automatically align with the nearest gridline. The Resolution section specifies the width between each grid point measurement (decrease the width for detailed slides). If you click to check the Synchronize axes option, when you change the X-axis , the Y-axis adjusts symmetrically at the same time, instead of changes to one axis not affecting the other. The Snap section allows you to determine what you want objects to snap, or align, to and just how precisely. If you plan to produce many freeform presentation slides, you'll want to turn off all snap-to items. If you create commercial presentations, such as for business meetings, advertisements, and education classes, that show relationships and textual backgrounds and layouts, you may wish to require that some objects move toward the closest snap-to grid for consistency and alignment of objects. KEY TERMS X-axis The horizontal axis on a slide (or drawing) with the lower-left corner of your slide having an X-axis value of 0 and increasing as you move up the slide. Y-axis The vertical axis on a slide (or drawing) with the lower-left corner of your slide having a Y-axis value of 0 and increasing as you move to the right on the slide. | | 6. | Change the Print Options
Click to select the Print category under the Impress option category. The Contents section lets you specify whether, when you're printing, Impress should include graphic objects, notes, handouts, and an outline. The Quality section allows you to determine whether you want your slides printed in the default screen colors, in a more efficient grayscale, or in black and white (both printed without colors, thus saving color printer ink and toner). The Print section specifies what you want printed, such as the page name (if you've assigned one), date, time, and pages you've hidden within the presentation but may want to print. The Page options section allows you to determine how you want your presentations to fit the final pagewhether they take up the actual size specified by the ruler on your drawing or whether you want Impress to shrink the slides enough to fit on the current page. You can use the Brochure option if you want to print on the front and back of the page and you can opt to use the printer's own paper tray settings instead of the default settings.
| Table 11.1. Impress Presentation Options | Impress Option Category | Explanation | | General | Describes general Impress settings, such as the initial use of the Presentation Wizard when you create new presentations, and sets the default unit of measurement for elements within a presentation. | | View | Describes how Impress appears on the screen and which Impress special elements, such as rulers and text placeholders, are shown. | | Grid | Determines whether Impress displays a grid for you on your presentation slide backgrounds, to help you place elements on your slides more accurately and consistently. | | Print | Describes how Impress handles the printing of presentations, such as printing presentation notes along with the presentation. |
TIP If you are new to presentations, perhaps it's best to accept Impress's default option settings. Read through them now to familiarize yourself with Impress terminology, however. Once you've created some presentations, you'll better understand how these options impact your work.
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