Ch 6Digital Documentation (Advanced)

Digital Documentation (Advanced) — LibreOffice Writer

1. Styles in Writer

A style is a named set of formatting options (font, size, colour, spacing, alignment, etc.) that can be applied to a part of a document in one step. Styles separate the formatting of a document from its content, ensure consistency, and make document-wide changes fast — modify the style once and every place that uses it updates automatically.

LibreOffice Writer provides five categories of styles:

Applying styles: Open the Styles deck with Styles > Manage Styles or press F11 (the Styles sidebar). Select the text, then double-click the style name. Common styles can also be picked from the Set Paragraph Style drop-down at the left of the Formatting toolbar.

Fill Format Mode: In the Styles sidebar, select a style and click the Fill Format Mode (paint-can) icon; the pointer changes and every place you click receives that style. Press Esc to exit. It is ideal for applying one style at many scattered places.

Creating / updating styles: Format a paragraph the way you want, then in the Styles sidebar click Style actions and choose New Style from Selection (give it a name) or Update Selected Style to modify an existing one. You can also drag selected text into the Styles window to create a style, or right-click a style and choose Edit Style.

2. Inserting and Modifying Images

Images make a document attractive and informative. An image can be inserted in Writer by:

1. From a file: Insert > Image, browse to the file and click Open.
2. Drag and drop from a file manager into the document.
3. Clipboard: copy an image in any application and paste with Ctrl+V.
4. From a scanner: Insert > Media > Scan > Select Source / Request (the scanner must be configured).
5. From the Gallery: open the Gallery deck in the sidebar and drag clip-art into the page.

When an image is selected, the Image toolbar appears with tools for filters (invert, smooth, sharpen, aging, posterize, charcoal), colour/graphics mode (grayscale, black-and-white, watermark), transparency, flipping and rotation.

• Resizing: drag a corner handle (hold Shift to keep proportions), or set exact size in Format > Image > Properties.
• Cropping: right-click the image and choose Crop, or use the Crop tab of the Image dialog to trim unwanted edges.
• Text wrapping: Format > Wrap — options include Wrap Off (None), Page Wrap (Parallel), Optimal Page Wrap, Wrap Through and In Background, deciding how text flows around the image.
• Anchoring: Format > Anchor — To Page, To Paragraph, To Character or As Character; the anchor decides what the image stays attached to when text is edited.
• Positioning: drag the image, or use Format > Image > Properties > Position and Size; use Arrange options to bring forward / send backward.

Drawing objects: View > Toolbars > Drawing displays tools for lines, rectangles, ellipses, polygons, curves, callouts, block arrows and text boxes. Draw the object, then use the Drawing Object Properties toolbar to set area fill, line colour and style. Multiple objects can be selected (Shift+click) and grouped with Format > Group > Group.

3. Templates

A template is a model document that stores styles, formatting, standard text, logos and page setup. Every new document created from a template automatically receives all these settings. Writer files use the extension .odt, while template files use .ott.

Steps to create a template:

1. Create or open a document containing the styles and content you want to reuse.
2. Choose File > Templates > Save as Template.
3. Type a template name, select a category, and click Save.

Steps to create a document from a template: File > New > Templates (or File > Templates > Manage Templates, shortcut Ctrl+Shift+N), select the template and click Open. To make a template the default for all new documents, open Manage Templates, right-click the template and choose Set as Default.

4. Table of Contents (TOC)

Writer can build a Table of Contents automatically from the heading styles (Heading 1–10) used in the document.

1. Apply Heading 1, Heading 2, Heading 3 … styles to the chapter and section titles.
2. Place the cursor where the TOC should appear.
3. Choose Insert > Table of Contents and Index > Table of Contents, Index or Bibliography.
4. On the Type tab set the title and number of levels; keep Protected against manual changes checked.
5. Customise appearance using the Entries and Styles tabs, background using the Background tab, columns using the Columns tab, then click OK.

Updating: after editing the document, right-click inside the TOC and choose Update Index. To change or remove it, right-click and choose Edit Index or Delete Index.

5. Mail Merge

Its two components are the main document (common text plus merge fields such as <Name>, <Address>) and the data source (spreadsheet, Base database, CSV or address book). It is used for personalised letters, invitations, mailing labels and envelopes.

Steps for mail merge (Wizard):

1. Type the letter, then choose Tools > Mail Merge Wizard.
2. Select the starting document (use the current document).
3. Select the document type — Letter or E-mail message.
4. Click Select Address List and choose/create the data source; insert the address block.
5. Create the salutation and adjust the layout.
6. Click Finish, then edit individual documents if required, and print or save the merged letters (File > Print — Writer asks whether to print a form letter; choose to print all records or a range).

Individual merge fields can also be inserted with Insert > Field > More Fields > Database tab. For labels, use File > New > Labels, choose the database, table and label brand, then click New Document and print.

6. Useful Shortcut Keys