lesson 7 - creating a newsletterbvres.org/schoolhouse-web-page/schoolhouse_files... ·...

Lesson 7 - Creating A Two Column NewsletterLesson 7 - Creating A Two Column Newsletter

IntroductionIntroduction

This lesson will cover some of the basics for creating a newsletter or similar two column document. Most newsletters have a standard format that is repeated in each issue. This is a natural application for LibreOffice Writer since once the page and paragraph styles have been established, the editor need only worry about content.

Importing StylesImporting Styles

✔ Open LibreOffice Writer andstart a new document.

✔ From the Menu Bar, select File,Save As, and enter Lesson 7Newsletter as the file name.

✔ In the Styles and FormattingSidebar, select Load Styles.

✔ In the Load Styles dialog box,toggle all of the check boxeson, then select From File.

✔ In the Open dialog box, select My Lesson 4.

This last step has saved a lot of timein creating page and paragraphstyles. There are a few modificationsto make for the newsletter format,but starting with the styles created in an earlier lesson provides a big head start.

✔ Place the text cursor in the first page.Then, from the Styles andFormatting Sidebar, select the Page tool and double click on the My First Page style.

✔ From the Menu Bar, select File,Properties and enter MyLibreOffice Writer Newsletter asthe Title.

Your document should now look similar toFigure 7- 3. If the document title does notappear in the first page header, you misseda step back in Lesson 4. No problem. If thetitle does not appear, complete the following step.

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Figure 7-1: Loading Styles.

Figure 7-2: The Properties Title

Lesson 7 - Creating a Newsletter

• Place the text cursor in the header and from the Menu Bar select Insert, Field, Title.

Inserting a Date FieldInserting a Date Field

✔ Place the text cursor at the endof the title paragraph andpress the Enter key.

✔ From the Menu Bar, select Insert, Field, Date.

✔ Double click on the date and inthe Edit Fields dialog box,select your preferred dateformat.

Modifying a Paragraph StyleModifying a Paragraph Style

Next, we will modify the Paragraph Style forthe first page header.

✔ In the Styles and FormattingSidebar, select the Paragraph tooland right click on the My TitleParagraph style and select Modify.

✔ In the Paragraph Style My TitleParagraph dialog box, select the Borders TAB.

✔ Set the Line Width to 1.50.

✔ Set the Padding to 0.12, then select Apply and view the result..

✔ In the Paragraph Style My TitleParagraph dialog box, select the Area TAB.

✔ Select the Bitmap option, select the Sky bitmap, then select Apply andview the result.

✔ In the Paragraph Style My Title Paragraph dialog box, select the Font Effects TAB.

✔ Turn the Outline and Shadow options ON.

✔ Change the Font color to Blue, then select Apply and view the result.

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Figure 7-3: Modifying the title.

Figure 7-4: Formatting the date field.

Forward

You should feel free to explore the different Paragraph Style settings and options, and doa bit of experimenting.

✔ When you are satisfied with your My Title Paragraph style modifications, select OK.

As you can see, it is easy to create a custom newsletter masthead by using a custom Paragraph style for the page header text.

Modifying Page StylesModifying Page Styles

It is common for newsletters to use atwo column style. Most people canread narrow columns of text fasterthan full page with lined of text. Youreyes can track vertically better thanhaving to shift from one side of thepage to another. Therefore, we willmodify the newsletter page styles tohave 2 columns.

✔ In the Styles and FormattingSidebar, select the Page tooland right click on the MyFirst Page style, and select Modify.

✔ Select the columns TAB.

✔ In the Page Style My FirstPage dialog box select the 2Columns option.

✔ Check to see that the Spacingbetween columns is 0.20, then select OK.

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Figure 7-5: Modifying My Title Paragraph style.

Figure 7-6: Setting the page style to 2 columns.


✔ Repeat the above steps for the My Left Page and My Right Page styles.

Importing TextImporting Text

Next, we will need some text for our newsletter. For this example we will copy and paste text from the Internet. The ‘rule of thumb’ is that you should never have to type text twice, even if someone else typed it first.

✔ Open your web browser and go to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page.

✔ In the Wikipedia search box, enter Plant Taxonomy.

✔ Highlight (or select) the first twoparagraphs in the article ( SeeFigure 7-1) and then press Ctrl+C to copy the text to theclipboard.

We would like to paste the text intothe newsletter, but we do not want touse whatever text formatting used byWikipedia. LibreOffice Writer has anoption for pasting text that will usethe current paragraph style.

✔ Place the text cursor in the firstparagraph in your newslettercolumn 1.

✔ In the Styles and FormattingSidebar, select the Paragraph tool anddouble click on the My Text BodyParagraph style .

✔ From the Menu Bar, select Edit, PasteUnformatted Text.

This trick will add the text to your documentusing the paragraph style where the text waspasted. The Wikipedia article added an extrablank paragraph between the two paragraphs.This is easy to delete.

✔ Place the text cursor in the blankparagraph and press the Del key.

Have you saved your document lately?

We need a heading for this part of the newsletter article. We can copy and paste the words Plant Taxonomy to a new line.

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Figure 7-7: Copying text from Wikipedia.

Figure 7-8: Pasting Unformatted Text.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

Forward

✔ Press Ctrl+Home to move the text cursorto the top of the document, the pressthe Enter key to add a new paragraph.

✔ Select the words Plant taxonomy andpress Ctrl+C to copy the words to theclipboard.

✔ Press Ctrl+Home to move the text cursorto the top of the document.

✔ Press Ctrl+V to paste the text.

✔ With the text cursor in the first line,select Heading 1 from the ParagraphStyle drop down list.

That was so much fun, let’s get some moretext from Wikipedia.

✔ Press Ctrl+End to move the text cursor to the end of the document and press Enter.

✔ Set the paragraph style to Heading 1 and then enter Carl Linnaeus.

✔ Press Enter to add anew paragraph.

✔ Set the new paragraph to the My Text Body Paragraph style.

✔ Select the text Carl Linnaeus and press Ctrl+C to copy the text.

✔ Go to the Wikipedia web site, place the text cursor in the search box, and then press Ctrl+V and search for Carl Linnaeus.

The copy and paste tricks work between different program windows and can save you a lot of time.

✔ Highlight (or select) the first three paragraphs in the Carl Linnaeus article and thenpress Ctrl+C to copy the text to theclipboard.

✔ Place the text cursor in the My Text Bodyparagraph below the Carl Linnaeus heading.

✔ From the Menu Bar, select Edit, PasteUnformatted Text.

✔ Delete the blank paragraphs in the Linnaeusarticle.


Importing PicturesImporting Pictures

The copy and paste trick works for pictures as wellas text.

✔ Right click on the picture of Linnaeus in theWikipedia article, and then select CopyImage from the context menu.

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Figure 7-10: Copying an image.

Figure 7-9: Selecting the Heading 1 style.


✔ Place the text cursor somewhere in the first paragraph of the Linnaeus article, then press Ctrl+V.

This adds the picture, but it needs a bit of formatting.

✔ Double click on the Linnaeus picture in the newsletter.

✔ Select the Type TAB in the Image dialog box.

✔ Toggle the Keep ratio option ON in the Image dialog box.

✔ Set the Width to 1.25, then set the Horizontal Position to Right.

✔ Select the Wrap TAB in the Image dialog box.

✔ Set wrap to Before, and then set Spacing to 0.10 for Left, Right, Top, and Bottom.

✔ Select the Borders TAB in the Image dialog box.

✔ Set All Four Borders, then select Cast Shadow to Top Left.

✔ Select OK in the Image dialogbox.

Your newsletter should now looksimilar to Figure 7- 11.

✔ Press Ctrl+End to move the textcursor to the end of thedocument and press Enter.

✔ Set the paragraph style to Heading 1 and then enter Rudbeckia.

✔ Press Enter to add anewparagraph.

✔ Set the new paragraph to the MyText Body Paragraph style.

✔ Select the text Rudbeckia andpress Ctrl+C to copy the text.

✔ Go to the Wikipedia web site,place the text cursor in the search box, and then press Ctrl+V and search forRudbeckia.

✔ Highlight (or select) theparagraphs in the Rudbeckiaarticle down to the wordRatibida and then press Ctrl+Cto copy the text to theclipboard.

✔ Place the text cursor in the MyText Body Paragraph belowthe Rudbeckia heading.

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Figure 7-11: Adding a picture.

Figure 7-12: Adding a Rudbeckia picture.

Forward

✔ From the Menu Bar, select Edit, Paste Unformatted Text.

This example shows what happens when you copy specially formatted text and paste it into your document. The text that was copied included text in a frame. In this example we will simply delete unwanted paragraphs.

✔ Delete the blank paragraphs in the Rudbeckia article including the paragraphs from the Contents box.

OK, here is a quiz challenge for you.

✔ Copy and paste the rudbeckia picture into your newsletter. Make the image 2.0 inches wide.

Next we will add a bit of highlighted text.

✔ Go to the last paragraph in the Rudbeckia article.

Remember how to select a sentence?

✔ Select the first sentence in the last paragraph of the Rudbeckia article.

✔ Use the Highlight Color tool to set the highlight color to Light Yellow 4.

OK, time for another challenge quiz.Do you remember how to changefont case?

✔ In the last paragraph, select Olof Rudbeck.

✔ Change the case of the OlofRudbeck to upper case.

HINT: Use Format, Text.

✔ Make Olof Rudbeck Bold.

✔ Press Ctrl+C to copy the OlofRudbeck text.

✔ Press Ctrl+End and add aparagraph to the end of yourtext.

✔ Paste the Olof Rudbeck text into the last paragraph.

✔ Change Olof Rudbeck to the Heading 1 style.

✔ Press Enter to add a new paragraph and set the style to My TextBody Paragraph.

✔ Go to Wikipedia and paste Olof Rudbeck in the search box.

✔ Copy the first paragraph in the Rudbeck article and add it yournewsletter.


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Figure 7-13: Highlighting text.


Next challenge.

✔ Copy and paste the Olof Rudbeck picture into the first paragraph of the Olof Rudbeck article.

✔ Set the picture width to 1.50, Position Right, wrap Before, 4 borders with 0.04 padding.

Adding CaptionsAdding Captions

Next, we will add a caption to the picture.

✔ Right click on the Olof Rudbeckpicture.

✔ Select Insert Caption from the contextmenu.

The Caption dialog box provides severalCategory text options to precede your cap-tion. You can also enter your own In thisexample, we will select None.

✔ Select Category None

✔ Enter the text Olof Rudbeck, Len’s 8th

great uncle.

Captions have a default paragraph style, how-ever, you can use any paragraph style, includingcustom styles for caption paragraphs. In theexample shown, the caption text was selectedand the font modified.


Let’s add another article to the newsletter.

✔ In the Olof Rudbeck article, select and copyJohannes Rudbeckius.

✔ Go to the end of the document and add anew Heading 1 paragraph for JohannesRudbeckius.

✔ Add a new My Text Body Paragraph belowthe Johannes Rudbeckius Heading 1 paragraph.

✔ Enter Johannes Rudbeckius in the Wikipedia search box.

✔ Copy the 5 paragraphs about Johannes Rudbeckius from Wikipedia and past them in your newsletter as unformatted text.

✔ Delete the blank paragraphs from the article.

By now you can see how easy it is to copy text from an Internet article and add it to yourown documents. Let’s add another article to the newsletter so that we will have enough text to fill at least 3 pages.

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Figure 7-14: Inserting a Caption.

Figure 7-15: Picture with caption.

Forward

✔ In the Wikipedia article about Johannes Rudbeckius, locate and select the name Alfred Nobel near the end of the article. (The name should be highlighted in blue.)

This should open a Wikipedia article about Alfred Nobel.

✔ Follow the process used above to add a section about Alfred Nobel to your newsletter. Add a picture of Alfred.

Next we will add an introductory paragraph followed by a Table of Contents for the docu-ment.

✔ Press Ctrl+Home to move the text cursor to the beginning of the document.

✔ Enter the words In This Issue and change the paragraph style to Heading 1.

✔ In the paragraph following In This Issue, enter the following text.

This issue of Flower Power News focuses on the history of giving the Black Eyed Susan the scientific name Rudbeckia. You will learn about some of the historical characters who have influenced the field of botany.


Inserting a Table of ContentsInserting a Table of Contents

Tables of contents are based on paragraphstyles. The default style Heading 1 makesit easy to insert a Table of Contents to ourdocument.

✔ Place the text cursor in the paragraphbelow the text entered in theprevious step.

✔ From the Menu Bar, select Insert,Table of Contents and Index, Table ofContents, Index or Bibliography.

✔ Select the Type TAB in the Table ofContents dialog box and check tosee the Title is Table of Contents.

✔ Select the Background TAB in theTable of Contents dialog box.

✔ Select Light Lime 4 as the Background Color.

✔ Select OK to close the Table ofContents dialog box.

If you hover the mouse pointer over theparagraphs in the Table of Contents, youcan see the default paragraph style for each entry. It is possible to either modify the default paragraph styles, or to create custom paragraph styles for use in the Table of Contents. In this example, the default styles will be modified.

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Figure 7-16: Inserting a Table of Contents


✔ Right click on the Table of Contentsparagraph.

✔ From the context menu, select Styles, Editstyle.

✔ In the Paragraph Style Contents Headingdialog box, select the Alignment TAB,select Center, then select OK.

✔ Right click on one of the contents listingparagraphs and from the context menu,select Styles, Edit style.

✔ In the Paragraph Style Contents 1 dialogbox, select the Indents & Spacing TAB.

✔ Set the Indent, Before text to 0.25.

✔ Set the Indent, After text to 0.25.

✔ Select the Font TAB and set the font to Ariel, Bold, 11pt.

✔ Select OK to close the dialog box.

Your document should look similar to Fig-ure 7- 18.

If you make any changes to the text in yourdocument, it might change what page theHeading 1 paragraphs are located. Before fi-nalizing your document you should rightclick on the Table of Contents and selectUpdate Index.

Modifying Paragraph StylesModifying Paragraph Styles

In earlier lessons, you learned how to mod-ify paragraph style by right clicking on thestyle in the Sidebar and selecting Modify.As you have seen in the Table of Contentsexample, you can also modify a paragraphstyle by right clicking on it in the body ofthe document and selecting Styles, Editfrom the context menu. Let’s use this trickto modify the header and footer para-graphs.

✔ Right click on the left page headerparagraph.

✔ In the Paragraph Style My LeftHeader Paragraph dialog box, select the Indents & Spacing TAB.

✔ Set the Indent, First line text to 0.25.

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Figure 7-17: Modifying a paragraph style.

Figure 7-18: A modified Table of Contents.

Forward

✔ Select the Borders TAB and select the Set Top and Bottom Borders Only option.

✔ Select the Area TAB, Bitmap option, and set the Bitmap to Sky. Then select OK.

✔ Repeat these settings for the My Right Header Paragraph style.

You can also modify the footer paragraph styles if you like.


Widows and OrphansWidows and Orphans

In typesetting, widows and orphans are lines at the beginning or end of a paragraph, which are left dangling at the top or bottom of a column, separated from the rest of the paragraph. Most document designers do not like to see a page or column begin or end with a single line of text. LibreOffice Writer provides a way of controlling widows and orphans. There is also a way to control Hyphenation of words.

✔ Right click on a My Text Body Paragraph.

✔ In the Paragraph Style My Text Body Paragraph dialog box, select the Text Flow TAB.

✔ In the Options section, turn on the Orphan control, and Widow control options ON.

✔ Turn ON the Hyphenation, Automatically option.

✔ Select the Indents & Spacing TAB, and change the First line spacing to 0.25. Then select OK.

Now that we have dedicated this newsletter to botany, let’s change the title.

Changing The Document TitleChanging The Document Title

✔ From the Menu Bar, select File, Properties.

✔ Change the title to Flower Power News.

If you press Crtl+Home, you should see the new title in the first page header. We can use the Insert, Field tool to add this to the headers.

✔ Place the text cursor in the left page header.

✔ Select all of the text, then from the Menu Bar, select Insert, Field, Title.

✔ Place the text cursor after the title in the header, add a space, then select Insert, Field, Date.

✔ Double click on the date and select your preferred date format.

✔ Repeat this process for the right page header.


By using the Insert, Fields trick, you can change all of the headers and footer text with aquick change of the Properties Title.

Changing A Page BackgroundChanging A Page Background

One last experiment is to mess with the first page background.

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NOTE: If your computer does not have enough processor speed orRAM, adding a background graphic to a page may slow it down.

✔ Press Ctrl+Home to jump to the first page.

✔ From the Sidebar, select the Gallery tool.

✔ In the Gallery, select Backgrounds.

✔ Right click on sand-light and then select Insert asBackground, Page.

When you add a background to a page, it will look better if somespace is added between the margin and the text. This can bedone by modifying the paragraph styles.

✔ Right click on a My Text Body Paragraph.

✔ Select the Indents & Spacing TAB, and change the Beforetext and After text spacing to 0.08.

✔ Then select OK.

✔ Right click on a Heading 1 Paragraph.

✔ Select the Indents & Spacing TAB, and change the Beforetext spacing to 0.08.

Just in case the paragraph style changes moved things to differ-ent pages, the Table of Contents should be updated. You might also have to move some of the pictures around after chnging the paragraph style.

When you move a captioned picture be sure to select the frame, not the image. In some cases you might have to add blank paragraphs to force picture frames to stay within the mar-gins.

✔ Right click on the Table of Contents and select Update index.

Be careful when adding background images to pages. Ihave see too many instances when clever designers getcarried away with adding colorful styles to documentsand making them hard to read. I have seen this in highquality magazines where the artistic page design inter-feres with text readability. I have been frustrated bybrochures designed for seniors that use font color andbackground color combinations together with smallfont sizes that require seniors to use a magnifying glassto read the text. The point is that even toughLibreOffice Writer provides you with a variety of designoptions, you should keep your audience in mind anddo not create documents that artists love, but that arenot readable.

One last trick to finish this lesson.

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Figure 7-19: Inserting apage background im-

age.

Figure 7-20: Inserting a currentdate field.

Forward

✔ Press Ctrl+End to place the text cursor at the end of the document.

✔ Enter This document was last edited and then from the Menu Bar select Insert, Field, Date.

✔ Double click on the date and select Date [rather than Date(fixed)]. Then select yourpreferred date format.

To get an idea of how the entire newsletter will look, you can use the Page view and zoom tools.

✔ In the lower right corner of the LibreOffice Writer window, select the Book View option.

✔ Adjust the zoom until you can see the entire document layout.

The Page and Paragraph styles you have created can be applied toany document where you would like to use the two column format.If you are creating similar documents, like newsletters, on a regularbasis, LibreOffice Writer makes the job easier. To create a newaddition of a newsletter, simply load an existing document, use FileSave As to create a document with a new name, and delete all ofthe text. Now you can simply create words for the new version with-out the added effort of formatting the document.


Exporting PDF FilesExporting PDF FilesIf you want to share documents with folks who do not haveLibreOffice Writer, you should export a PDF file that you can attachto an email, or share on a flash drive. Nearly everyone has Acrobat Reader, or some pro-gram that can open PDF files.

To export a PDF file, select the Export as PDF tool on the Tool Bar.

When the PDF file is opened, it will include quick click bookmarks from your Heading 1 paragraphs.

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Figure 7- 21: TheBook View.


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