set page orientation

set margins

text alignment

enter text, numbers and symbols

insert table

apply borders

insert headers/footers including automatic fields

use bullets/numbering

use tabs/indents

use word count

set font type

set font size

emphasise text

insert paragraph breaks

insert text

move text

delete text

set linespacing

replace text

Finding and replacing text

When looking for certain words in a 3000-word essay, it is inefficient togo through every word manually. Writer has a Find and Replacefeature that automates the process of searching for text inside adocument.In addition to finding and replacing words and phrases, you can:• Use wildcards and regular expressions to fine-tune a search.• Find and replace specific formatting.• Find and replace paragraph styles.To display the Find & Replace dialog box (Error: Reference source notfound), use the keyboard shortcut Control+F or select Edit > Find &Replace.

1) Type the text you want to find in the Search for box.

TipIf you click Find All, Writer selects all instances of the searchtext in the document. Similarly, if you click Replace Allbutton, Writer replaces all matches.

CautionUse Replace All with caution; otherwise, you may end up withsome hilarious (and highly embarrassing) mistakes. A mistakewith Replace All might require a manual, word-by-wordsearch to fix, if not discovered in time to undo.

2) To replace the text with different text, type the new text in theReplace with box.3) You can select various options, such as matching the case,matching whole words only, or doing a search for similar words.(See below for some other choices.)4) When you have set up your search, click Find. To replace text,click Replace instead.

Use wildcards (regular expressions)Wildcards (also known as regular expressions) are combinations ofcharacters that instruct OOo how to search for something. Regularexpressions are very powerful but not very intuitive. They can savetime and effort by combining multiple finds into one.Table below shows a few of the regular expressions used by OOo.

To use wildcards and regular expressions when searching andreplacing:1) On the Find & Replace dialog box, click More Options to seemore choices. On this expanded dialog box (Figure 56), select theRegular expressions option.

2) Type the search text, including the wildcards, in the Search forbox and the replacement text (if any) in the Replace with box. Not

all regular expressions work as replacement characters; the linebreak (\n) is one that does work.

3) Click Find, Find All, Replace, or Replace All (notrecommended).

Examples of search wildcards (regular expressions)

Inserting special charactersA “special” character is one not found on a standard English keyboard.For example, © ¾ æ ç ñ ö ø ¢ are all special characters. To insert aspecial character:1) Place the cursor in your document where you want the characterto appear.2) Click Insert > Special Character to open the SpecialCharacters dialog box.3) Select the characters (from any font or mixture of fonts) you wishto insert, in order; then click OK. The selected characters areshown in the lower left of the dialog box. As you select eachcharacter, it is shown on the lower right, along with the numericalcode for that character.

Counting the words in a selectionSelect a block of text and choose Tools > Word Count. OOo displaysthe number of words and characters in the selection as well as thenumber of words in the document. You can also see the number of

words and characters (and other information) in the entire documentin File > Properties > Statistics.

Formatting paragraphs

You can apply many formats to paragraphs using the buttons on theFormatting toolbar. Below figure shows the Formatting toolbar as afloating toolbar, customized to show only the buttons for paragraphformatting.

Setting tab stops and indentsThe default tab stops affect two things: tabs within paragraphs (asshown below) and the indentation of entire paragraphs by usingthe Increase Indent button on the Formatting toolbar.Using the default tab stops to space out material on a page is notrecommended, for two reasons:• If you use the default tab interval and then send the document tosomeone who has chosen a different default tab interval, tabbedmaterial will change to use the other person’s settings.• Any changes you make to the default tab stops affect existingdefault tab stops (in any document you open afterwards) as wellas tab stops you insert after making the change.

Both cases may cause a major formatting problem, as illustrated

below.To avoid these unwanted changes, do not use the default tabs. Instead,define your own tab stops in paragraph styles or individual paragraphsas described in “Defining your own tab stops and indents”To set the measurement unit and the spacing of default tab stops, useTools > Options > OpenOffice.org Writer > General. On this page,make any required changes in the Settings section and click OK to save.

You can also set or change the measurement unit of the ruler itself byright-clicking on the ruler to open a list of units, as shown in below.Click on one of them to change the ruler to that unit. This change doesnot affect the measurement unit chosen in the Options.

The horizontal ruler shows both the default tab stops and any that youhave defined.

Formatting charactersYou can apply many formats to characters using the buttons on theFormatting toolbar. Figure 65 shows the Formatting toolbar as afloating toolbar, customized to show only the buttons for characterformatting.

Creating numbered or bulleted listsThere are several ways to create numbered or bulleted lists:

• Use autoformatting, as described above.• Use list styles.• Use the Numbering and Bullets icons on the paragraphformatting toolba. This last method is described here.

To produce a numbered or bulleted list, select the paragraphs in thelist and then click on the appropriate icon on the toolbar.

Using the Bullets and Numbering toolbarYou can create a nested list (where one or more list items has a sublistunder it, as in an outline) by using the buttons on the Bullets andNumbering toolbar. You can move items up or down thelist, create subpoints, and even change the style of bullets.

Example: configuring a nested listWe will use a numbering style to produce the following effect:I. Level-1 list item

A. Level-2 list itemi. Level-3 list item

a) Level-4 list itemThis example uses one of the supplied styles, Numbering 1, however ifyou intend to reuse this type of nested list you can also create a newstyle as illustrated in Chapter 7 (Working with Styles).1) Create the first item and apply the Numbering 1 style from theStyles and Formatting window.2) Select Format > Bullets and Numbering to open the dialogthat controls the appearance of the list.3) Go to the Outline page, where you will find that onestyle matches our requirements. Click once on that style.4) To modify the layout of the list, use the Options tab. Notice that the preview on the right shows the outlineselected. In the Level box on the left, select 1, then 2, 3, and 4and see how the information in the Numbering and After boxeschanges.Use the Options page to set different punctuation; for example, aperiod (full stop) after “a” on level 4 instead of a parenthesis.To make the indentation at each level greater or less than thedefault, change it on the Position page. Select the level, then

make any changes in the indentation, spacing, or numberingalignment.5) Repeat for each level as required, then click OK.Choosing a predefined outline-numbering style

Checking the outline numbering for level-1 list items

Numbering style for level-2 list items

Setting up basic page layout using stylesIn Writer, page styles define the basic layout of all pages, includingpage size, margins, the placement of headers and footers, borders andbackgrounds, number of columns, and so on.

Writer comes with several page styles, which you can build on ormodify, and you can define new (custom) page styles. You can have oneor many page styles in a single document.

Inserting a page break without switching the styleIn many documents (for example, a multi-page report), you may wantthe text to flow from one page to the next as you add or deleteinformation. Writer does this automatically, unless you override thetext flow using one of the techniques described earlier.If you do want a page break in a particular place, for example, to put aheading at the top of a new page, here is how to do it:1) Position the cursor in the paragraph you want to be at the start ofthe next page. Right-click and choose Paragraph in the pop-upmenu.2) On the Text Flow page of the Paragraph dialog box, inthe Breaks section, select Insert. Do not select With Page Style.3) Click OK to position the paragraph at the start of the next page.

Defining a different first page for a documentMany documents, such as letters and reports, have a first page that isdifferent from the other pages in the document. For example, the firstpage of a letterhead typically has a different header, as shown in, or the first page of a report might have no header or footer, while the other pages do. With OOo, you can define the style for the first page and specify the style for the following page to be applied automatically.

Changing page orientation within a documentA document can contain pages in more than one orientation. Acommon scenario is to have a landscape page in the middle of adocument, whereas the other pages are in a portrait orientation. Hereare the steps to achieve it.

Setting up a landscape page style1) Note the page style that is current and the margin settings. (Youcan find the margin settings on the Page page of the Page Styledialog box.)2) Create a new style. (Right-click on the current page style in theStyles and Formatting window and choose New, from the pop-upmenu.)3) On the Organizer page of the Page Style dialog box (Figure 96),name (by typing in the Name field) this new style Landscape andset the Next Style property to Landscape (to allow for havingmore than one sequential landscape page).

4) On the Page page of the Page Style dialog box, set theOrientation to Landscape. The width and height attributes of thepage will automatically change.5) Change the margins so that they correspond with the margins ofthe portrait page. That is, the portrait top margin becomes thelandscape left margin, and so on.6) Click OK to save the changes.

Inserting a landscape page into a portrait documentNow that you have defined the Landscape page style, here is how toapply it.1) Position the cursor in the paragraph or table at the start of thepage that is to be set to landscape. Right-click and chooseParagraph or Table, respectively, in the pop-up menu.2) On the Text Flow page of the Paragraph dialog box orthe Table Format dialog box select Insert (or Breakfor a table) and With Page Style. Set the Page Style property toLandscape. Click OK to close the dialog box and to apply thenew page style.3) Position the cursor in the paragraph or table where the page is toreturn to portrait orientation and change the properties of thatparagraph or table properties so that With Page Style is theportrait page style that was used before the Landscape pagestyle.4) Click OK to return to the previous portrait page style.

Specifying a page break before a paragraph

Specifying a page break before a table

Changing page marginsYou can change page margins in two ways:• Using the page rulers—quick and easy, but does not have finecontrol.• Using the Page Style dialog box—can specify margins to two(fractional) decimal places.

To change margins using the rulers:1) The shaded sections of the rulers are the margins. Put the mouse cursor over the line between the gray andwhite sections. The pointer turns into a double-headed arrow.2) Hold down the left mouse button and drag the mouse to move themargin.

To change margins using the Page Style dialog box:1) Right-click anywhere on the page and select Page from the popupmenu.2) On the Page page of the dialog box, type the required distances inthe Margins boxes.

Creating headers and footersHeaders are portions of a document that always appear at the top of apage; footers appear at the bottom of a page. Typically, headers displaythe title or chapter name of a document.

Depending on which option you choose, an area will appear at the topor bottom of the page. In this area you can enter text and graphics that will appear on every page.

Items such as document titles, chapter titles, and page numbers, whichoften go into headers and footers, are best added as fields. That way, ifsomething changes, the headers and footers are all updatedautomatically.

To insert the document title into the header:1) Select File > Properties > Description, enter a title for yourdocument in the Title area, and click OK to close the dialog box.2) Add a header (Insert > Header > Default).3) Place the cursor in the header part of the page.

4) Select Insert > Fields > Title. The title should appear on a graybackground (which does not show when printed and can beturned off).5) To change the title for the whole document, choose File >Properties > Description.

Numbering pagesThis section describes techniques to insert page numbers and relatedinformation in a document. Some basic knowledge of page styles,which are fully described in chapters 6 and 7, may be needed to followsome of the examples given.Preliminaries: fieldsOpenOffice.org uses fields to manage page numbers. To insert a pagenumber field, position the cursor where you want to insert the numberand choose Insert > Fields > Page Number. The page numberappears with a gray background. The gray background denotes a field.Simple page numberingThe simplest case is to have the page number at the top of every pageand nothing more. To do this, put the cursor on the header and selectInsert > Fields > Page Number .

Combining header text and page numberThere are a lot of interesting variations that you can apply withoutfurther knowledge of page styles. Here are some suggestions:

• Right-align the header to make the page number appear on thetop-right.• Add (type) the word page so the header reads page 1, page 2,and so on. This also requires using the Page Number field,discussed earlier.• Add the document title so the header reads, for example: Peter'sfavourite poems, left justified, and page x with rightjustification, where x is the value of the Page Number field.Consider using a (right-aligned) tab to separate the title from thepage number.• OOo also has a Page Count field (Insert > Fields > PageCount). Using it, you could, for example, have a header thatreads page 2 of 12.

Changing the number formatMany more variations are possible. For example, you can set the pagenumber to display in Roman numerals. To do that, you could doubleclickon the page number and select the desired format; however, abetter choice is to specify the format of numbers in the page style as

explained here.In the Styles and Formatting window (press F11 if not alreadydisplayed) select the Page Styles icon and right-click on thehighlighted entry for the current style. Select Modify, which opens thePage Style dialog box.

On the Page page of the Page Style dialog box, in the Layout settingssection, select i, ii, iii, ... from the Format drop-down list.

Numbering the first page something other than 1Sometimes you may want to start a document with a page numbergreater than 1. For example, you may be writing a book, with eachchapter in a separate file. Chapter 1 may start with page 1, butChapter 2 could begin with page 25 and Chapter 3 with page 51.Follow these instructions to start the page numbering in a document ata number greater than 1. (These instructions are for a page number ina footer, but you could use a header instead.)

1) Choose Insert > Footer > [page style] to activate the footer. (Ifthe page style is already selected in the Footer menu, point to itand click OK in the OpenOffice.org 2.0 dialog box that appears.Then point to that page style again to select it.)2) The cursor is now in the footer. To insert the page number, chooseInsert > Fields > Page Number. The page number will be 1.3) Click in the first paragraph in the text area or type a paragraph oftext.4) Choose Format > Paragraph (or right-click and chooseParagraph from the pop-up menu) to display the Paragraphdialog box.5) On the Text Flow page, in the Breaks section, select Insert andselect Page in the Type drop-down list. Select With Page Styleand the page style you are using for the first page of thedocument.

6) The Page number field is now active. Type the page number youwant to start with. Click OK to close the Paragraph dialog box.