GNU Essentials: LibreOffice Writer for Windows

Select, cut, copy, paste, and move text.

• Find and replace text.

• Insert special characters.

• Check spelling and grammar, use the thesaurus, and choose hyphenation options.

• Use the AutoCorrect, Word Completion, AutoText, and case-changing features.

This lecture video offers more information about Selecting Text.

This lecture video offers more information about Find and Replace.

Writer includes a spelling checker and a grammar checker. To access the spelling checker dialog, go to:

Tools > Spelling

The Spelling dialog displays. Select the Check grammar checkbox to check grammar.

The video in this lecture demonstrates using the thesaurus.

The video in this lecture demonstrates using hyphens.

This lecture video offers more information about AutoCorrect.

With Word Completion enabled, LibreOffice Writer matches the text to offer suggestions for words. This feature does not look like it uses Deep Learning or AI just yet, but they easily could implement a learning model.

To approve a suggestion, press Enter when the recommended text displays.

To turn off Word Completion go to:

Tools > AutoCorrect > AutoCorrect Options > Word Completion

Deselect Enable word completion.

This lecture video offers more information about Auto Text.

At times, special characters need to be inserted into documentation. Watch this lecture for more information about inserting special characters with Writer.

There are several options for changing case.

• UPPERCASE

• Cycle case

• Sentence case

• tOGGLE cASE

• SMALL CAPITALS

• Capitalize Every Word

To change the case of text:

• Select the text

• Choose Format > Text on the Menu bar

• Select one of the options for changing the case.

The provided video demonstrates some of the changing case options.

The track changes feature in Writer allows others to view what edits were made. This lecture video offers more information about Track Changes.

This lecture video offers more information about different options available for managing track changes.

There are several ways for you to control page layouts.

This section provides demos and information about layout:

• Margins

• Page breaks

• Headers and footers

• Page numbering

• Title pages

  
  

The video demonstrates how to remove manual formatting using Writer.

This video demonstrations how to use the styles sidebar and properties.

This video demonstrates how to use styles.

What are styles!

We use styles for boilerplate or repetitive formatting of content.

A style includes font, placement, emphasis and a defined set for a specific Type such as Title or Heading1. Using styles, writers can easily make edits to content formatting.

Styles help improve consistency in a document.  This is beneficial in the user experience.

Styles also make major formatting changes simple.

If your style guide is updated to change the indentation of all paragraphs or change the font of all titles, this can be easily applied by changing the set style.

Delete custom styles only.

There is no option to delete predefined styles in Writer. 

However, as a developer, since this is free and open source software, you can change predefined styles in the code.

To apply a character style:

1. Select the Character(s) or Word(s)

2. Use one of the following methods to apply a character style

• Styles menu on the Menu bar

• Character Styles tab of the Styles deck on the Sidebar

• Right-click context menu for Character. Select Character again to open the Character dialog.

• Formatting (Styles) toolbar

The video demonstrates applying a character style.

Use the Style dialog to change a style (not a table style):

• Right-click the style in the Styles deck

• Select Modify in the context menu

• The dialog displayed depends on the type of style selected.

• Each style’s dialog has several tabs.

Apply Styles to paragraphs:

• Set Paragraph Style drop-down list at the left end of the Formatting toolbar and the Formatting (Styles) toolbar

• Set Paragraph Style drop-down list at the top of the Properties deck of the Sidebar

• Paragraph tab of the Styles deck on the Sidebar

• Styles menu on the Menu Bar (limited to common styles)

• Keyboard shortcuts Ctrl+1 to Ctrl+5 (paragraph styles Heading 1 to Heading 5)

• Formatting (Styles) toolbar using View > Toolbars > Formatting (Styles)

As previously discussed, there are three methods to create a new style:

• drag-and-drop

• New Style using Selection icon on the Styles deck

• Style dialog

For full control over the style (with relationship to other styles), use the Style dialog.

Note: Table styles are created in a different way.

Style dialog

• Open the Styles deck on the Sidebar.

• Select the category of style you want to create by clicking on the appropriate icon on the top part of the Styles deck.

• Right-click in the window

• Select New in the context menu.

  The dialog displayed depends on the type of style selected.

Tip: The dialogs used to create a new style and to modify an existing style are mostly the same, but with one exception: conditional styles have a different dialog.

Writer provides some tools that make your work easier if you mix multiple languages within the same document or if you write documents in various languages:

• The functions in Tools > Language

• Language settings in Options

• Paragraph and character styles

• The functions available on the Status bar

The main advantage of changing the language for a text selection is that you can then use the correct dictionaries to check spelling and apply the localized versions of AutoCorrect replacement tables, thesaurus, and hyphenation rules.

A grammar checking dictionary may also be available for the selected language.

You can also set the language for a paragraph or a group of characters as None (Do not check spelling).

This option is especially useful when you insert text such as web addresses or programming language snippets that you do not want to check for spelling.

Language tools are an advanced topic but here is some information you may find useful to begin your journey using language tools in LibreOffice Writer.

LibreOffice uses the term “export” for some file operations involving a change of file type.

If you cannot find what you want under File > Save As, look under File > Export as well.

Writer can export files to XHTML, EPUB and other formats.

Choose File > Export.

On the Export dialog, specify a file name for the exported document, then select the required file format and click Export.

Exporting to PDF

LibreOffice can export documents to PDF (Portable Document Format). This standard file format is ideal for sending the file to someone else to view using Adobe Reader or other PDF viewers. Warning A document in PDF format is not protected against contents tampering or editing by default. The PDF document contents can be edited by specialized software tools, including LibreOffice Draw. Tip Unlike Save As, the Export command writes a copy of the current document in a new file with the chosen format, but keeps the current document and format open in your session. Quick export to PDF Click the Export Directly as PDF icon on the Standard toolbar, or File > Export As > Export Directly as PDF, to export the entire document using the PDF settings you most recently selected in the PDF Options dialog. You are asked to enter the file name and location for the PDF, but you do not get a chance to choose a page range, the image compression, or other options

• Go to File > Export as > Export as PDF

• The PDF Options dialog opens

• This dialog has six tabs (General, Initial View, User Interface, Links, Security, and Digital Signatures)

• Select the settings

• Click Export

• Enter the location and file name of the PDF

• Click Save to export the file

EPUB format has become popular since mobile devices such as smartphones, tablets, and e-readers appeared on the market. The EPUB format is implemented as an archive file consisting of HTML files carrying the content, along with images and other supporting files. Writer can export a file to EPUB. A text-only document generally exports well, but some contents (such as illustrations, tables, and cross-references) may not export correctly. Tip Other ways to export to EPUB from Writer (.odt) files include Calibre, an open-source e-book manager that runs on Windows, macOS, and Linux. Calibre provides many e-book conversion facilities and allows editing of the result.Quick export to EPUB Choose File > Export As > Export Directly as EPUB to export the entire document using the EPUB settings you most recently selected on the EPUB Export dialog (see below). You are asked to enter the file name and location for the EPUB file, but you do not get a chance to select other options. 158 | Chapter 7 Printing, Exporting, Emailing, Signing Controlling export to EPUB For more control over the content and quality of the resulting EPUB file, use File > Export As > Export as EPUB. The EPUB Export dialog opens (Figure 159). Figure 159: EPUB Export dialog The EPUB Export dialog has the following fields: Version Choose the EPUB version for the exported file. Values are EPUB 2.0 and EPUB 3.0. Most new e-readers can read EPUB 3.0. Split method Select the method to start a new section. Choose Heading to start the section on a heading, according to the document’s chapter numbering. Choose Page break to start the section on a page break. Layout method Choose Reflowable to have the ebook display change to fit the screen size and the user’s preference (so page size and header/footer content is not exported). Choose Fixed to have the ebook layout remain the same under all conditions. Customize - Cover image The path to the image file for the cover page. If no image is specified, the EPUB file will automatically use any image with a name like cover.gif, cover.jpg, cover.png, or cover.svg. A custom cover image is embedded in the EPUB file. Customize - Media directory The path to the optional directory for the cover image, metadata, and multimedia files. If you do not specify a directory, the exporter looks for custom media and metadata in the current document directory inside a folder with the same name as the document file name. Exporting to EPUB format | 159 Metadata The basic information for the file that provides tags to help searches. These fields provide another chance to edit metadata that is picked up by default from File > Properties in Writer.

Emailing Writer documents LibreOffice provides several ways to quickly and easily send a Writer document as an email attachment in one of three formats: .odt (OpenDocument Text, Writer’s default format), .docx (Microsoft Word format), or .pdf. To send the current document in .odt format, choose: 1) File > Send > Email Document, or File > Send > Email as OpenDocument Text. Writer opens your default email program (if installed). The document is attached to a new email. 2) In your email program, enter the recipient, subject, and any text you want to add, then send the email. If you choose Email as Microsoft Word, Writer first creates a file in Word format (.docx) and then opens your email program with the Word file attached to a new email. Similarly, if you choose Email as PDF, Writer opens the PDF Options dialog where you can select the settings you want, then creates a PDF, and then opens your email program with the PDF attached to a new email. Emailing a document to several recipients To email a document to several recipients, you can use the features in your email program or you can use Writer’s mail merge facilities to extract email addresses from an address book. You can use Writer’s mail merge to send email in two ways: • Use the Mail Merge Wizard to create the document and send it. • Create the document in Writer without using the Wizard, then use the Wizard to send it. See Chapter 14, Mail Merge, for details.

Digital signing of documents To sign a document digitally, you need a personal key, also known as a certificate. A personal key is stored on your computer as a combination of a private key, which must be kept secret, and a public key, which you add to your documents when you sign them. You can get a certificate from a certification authority, which may be a private company or a governmental institution. When you apply a digital signature to a document, a checksum is computed from the document’s content plus your personal key. The checksum and your public key are stored with the document. When someone later opens the document on any computer with a recent version of LibreOffice, the program will compute the checksum again and compare it with the stored checksum. If both are the same, the program will signal that you see the original, unchanged document. In addition, the program can show you the public key information from the certificate. You can compare the public key with the public key that is published on the web site of the certificate authority. Whenever someone changes something in the document, this change breaks the digital signature. For a more detailed description of how to get and manage a certificate, and signature validation, see “About Digital Signatures” and “Applying Digital Signatures” in the LibreOffice Help. A signed document shows an icon in the Status bar. You can double-click the icon to view the certificate. More than one signature can be added to a document. Changing an existing description invalidates the signature. However, multiple signatures from the same author are allowed, because each signature can have a different description. Applying a digital signature The following procedure is an example of how to digitally sign a document. The actual procedure depends on how your computer is set up and its operating system. 1) Choose File > Digital Signatures > Digital Signatures. – If you have set LibreOffice to warn you when the document contains comments or recorded changes (see “Removing personal data” on page 163), you may see a message box asking whether you want to continue signing the document. – If you have not saved the document since the last change, a message box appears. Click Yes twice: once to continue and again to save the file. 2) The Digital Signatures dialog (Figure 161) opens. It lists existing signatures together with their description (if they have any). Click the Sign Document button to add a new signature to the document.

Removing personal data You may wish to ensure that personal data, versions, comments, hidden information, or recorded changes are removed from files before you send them to other people or create PDFs from them.

Remove personal data, versions, comments, hidden information, or recorded changes from files before you send these to other people or create PDFs.

In Tools > Options > LibreOffice > Security, click the Options button to display a dialog

Set LibreOffice to warn when files contain certain information and/or automatically remove personal information on saving.

Set security warnings and options

To remove personal and some other data from a file, go to File > Properties.

On the General tab, uncheck Apply user data and click the Reset Properties button. T

his removes any names in the created and modified fields, deletes the modification and printing dates, and resets the editing time to zero, the creation date to the current date and time, and the version number

To remove version information, either (a) go to File > Versions, select the versions from the list and click Delete, or use Save As and save the file with a different name.

You can redact documents to remove or hide sensitive information, to allow the selective disclosure of information in a document while keeping other parts of the document secret.

The introduction to images section lists types of images used in Writer.

You might create images using a graphics program, scan them, or download them from the Internet (make sure you have permission to use them), or use photos taken with a digital camera. Writer can import various vector (line drawing) images, and can rotate and flip such images. Writer also supports raster (bitmap) file formats, the most common of which are GIF, JPG, PNG, and BMP. See the Help for a full list. Writer can also import SmartArt images from Microsoft Office files. For example, Writer can open a Microsoft Word file that contains SmartArt, and you can use Writer to edit the images. Some things to consider when choosing or creating images include image quality and whether the image will be printed in color or black-and-white (grayscale). To edit photos and other bitmap images, use a bitmap editor. To edit line drawings, use a vector drawing program. You do not need to buy expensive programs. For many graphics, LibreOffice Draw is sufficient. Open-source (and usually no-cost) tools such as GIMP (bitmap editor) and Inkscape (vector drawing program) are excellent. These and many other programs work on Windows, macOS, and Linux. For best results: • Create images that have the exact dimensions required for the document, or use an appropriate graphics package to scale photographs and large drawings to the required dimensions. Do not scale images with Writer, even though Writer has tools for doing this, because the results might not be as clear as you would like. • Do any other required image manipulation (brightness and contrast, color balance, cropping, conversion to grayscale, and so on) in a graphics package, not in Writer, even though Writer has the tools to do a lot of these things, too. • If the document is meant for screen use only, there is no need to use high resolution images of 300 or more dpi (dots per inch). Most computer monitors work at between 72 and 96 dpi; reducing the resolution (and the file size) has no negative impact on what is displayed.

If color images are to be printed in grayscale, check that any adjacent colors have good contrast and print dark enough. Test by printing on a black-and-white printer using a grayscale setting. Better still: change the “mode” of the image to grayscale, either in a photo editor or in Writer itself (see “Image mode” on page 241). Creating and editing images | 227 For example, the following diagram looks good in color. The circle is dark red and the square is dark blue. In grayscale, the difference between the two is not so clear. A third element in the diagram is a yellow arrow, which is almost invisible in grayscale. Original drawing in color Drawing printed in grayscale Changing the colors of the circle and the arrow improves the contrast and visibility of the resulting grayscale image. Original drawing in color Drawing printed in grayscale If the document will be available in black-and-white print only, a better result can often be obtained by choosing grayscale fills, not color fills.

Images can be added to a document in several ways: by inserting an image file stored on your computer, directly from a graphics program or a scanner, by dragging them from the clip art internal gallery, or by copying and pasting from a source being viewed on your computer. Inserting an image file When the image is in a file stored on the computer, you can insert it into a LibreOffice document using any of the following methods. Drag and drop This method embeds (saves a copy of) the image file in the Writer document. To link the file instead of embedding it, hold down the Ctrl+Shift keys while dragging the image. 1) Open a file browser window and locate the image you want to insert. 2) Drag the image into the Writer document and drop it where you want it to appear. A faint vertical line marks where the image will be dropped. Insert Image dialog 1) Click in the Writer document where you want the image to appear. 2) Choose Insert > Image on the Menu bar or click the Insert Image icon on the Standard toolbar. 3) On the Insert Image dialog, navigate to the file to be inserted, and select it. 4) At the bottom of the dialog (Figure 234) is a Link option; see page 229. Select Preview to show a thumbnail of the selected image on the right, as in the example. Click Open. 228 | Chapter 11 Images and Graphics Figure 234: Insert Image dialog Note If you choose the Link option, a message box appears when you click Open. It asks if you want to embed the image instead. Choose Keep Link if you want the link, or Embed Graphic if you do not. To prevent this message from appearing again, deselect the option Ask when linking a graphic at the bottom of the message. Copy and paste Using the clipboard, you can copy images into a LibreOffice document from another LibreOffice document and from other programs. To do this: 1) Open both the source document or program and the target Writer document. 2) In the source document, select the image to be copied. 3) Copy the image to the clipboard. 4) Switch to the target document. 5) Click to place the cursor where the image is to be inserted. 6) Press Ctrl+V (or right-click and select Paste in the context menu, or click the Paste icon on the Standard toolbar) to insert the image. Caution If the application from which the image was copied is closed before the image is pasted into the target, the image stored on the clipboard could be lost.

To create a link:

• Insert Image. The Insert Image dialog displays.

• Click the checkbox for Link.

• Select the image.

• Click Open.

• A link to the file is set.

The image is displayed in the document. A reference to the image file is set instead of an embedded image.

The Gallery provides a convenient way to group reusable objects such as graphics and sounds that you can insert into your documents. The Gallery is available in LibreOffice Writer, Calc, Impress, and Draw.

Open the sidebar by clicking Ctrl+F5

1) Click the Gallery icon on the Sidebar.

2) Select a theme in the list provided.

3) Select an object with a single click.

4) Drag and drop the image into the document, or right-click the object and choose Insert in the context menu.

5) Adjust the size of the image and position and anchor it as needed

In this lecture, learn to add a theme and image files to the gallery. This can be useful for adding your brand logos, and content easily without inserting individual images.

Choose how to position image to the text and other images.

Positioning is controlled by four settings:

• Arrangement refers to the placement of an image on an imaginary vertical axis. Arrangement controls how images are stacked upon each other or relative to the text.

• Alignment refers to the vertical or horizontal placement of an image in relation to the chosen anchor point.

• Anchoring refers to the reference point for the images. This point could be the page or frame where the object is, a paragraph, or even a character. An image always has an anchor point.

• Text wrapping refers to the relation of images to the surrounding text, which may wrap around the image on one or both sides, be overprinted behind or in front of the image, or treat the image as a separate paragraph or character.

• Arranging an image means to determine its position relative to other images or text.

• Arranging is useful when objects are overlapping.

Choose between four common settings, plus a fifth special setting for drawing objects:

Bring to Front: Places the image on top of any other images or text.

Forward One: Brings the image one level up in the stack. Depending on the number of overlapping objects, you may need to apply this option several times to obtain the desired result.

Back One: Sends the image one level down in the object stack. Send to Back Sends the image to the bottom of the stack.

To Background/To Foreground: Only available for drawing objects; moves the drawing object behind or in front of the text.

Tip To select an object covered by other objects, press the Tab key to move through the objects until you reach the object you want.

• Anchor images as a character or to a page, paragraph, or character.

• Place images in a frame and anchor the frame to a page, paragraph, or character.

To Page (available only on Image dialog, not the toolbar or context menu) T

The image keeps the same position in relation to the page margins. It does not move as you add or delete text or other images. This method is useful when producing newsletters or other documents that are very layout intensive, or for placing logos in letterheads.

To Paragraph

The image associated with a paragraph moves with the paragraph. The image may be placed in the margin or another location. This method is useful as an alternative to a table for placing icons next to paragraphs.

To Character

The image associated with a character but is not in the text sequence. The image moves with the paragraph but may be placed in the margin or another location. This method is similar to anchoring to a paragraph.

As Character

The image placed in the document as any other character. The as character image is the height of the text line and the line break. The image moves with the text when the user adds or deletes text before the image.

This method is useful for keeping screenshots in sequence in a procedure (by anchoring these as character in a blank paragraph) or for adding a small (inline) icon in sequence in a sentence.

To Frame

If the image has been placed in a frame, you can anchor the image in a fixed position inside the frame. The frame can then be anchored to page, to paragraph, to character, or as character.

Tip You can set a default anchor for images in Tools > Options > LibreOffice Writer > Formatting Aids (Figure 238). Figure 238: Choices for setting a default image anchor

Align Image:
After the anchor point of the image is established, position the image relative to the anchor: of the image.

There are 6 align image options:

• 3 for aligning the image horizontally (left, center, right) and

• 3 for aligning the image vertically (top, middle, bottom).

Horizontal alignment is not available for images anchored As Character.

For finer control of the alignment, use the Position options on the Type tab of the Image dialog,

For both horizontal and vertical position, start by selecting the reference point in the right hand side drop-down menu, then select in the first drop-down menu among Left, Right, or Center for Horizontal or Top, Bottom, Center for vertical.

If you select From left or From top, you can specify the distance.

Note: This section includes coordinates for image placement and if there is any confusion, please reach out to the authors of LibreOffice or to aicra@faqlinux.com with any questions or recommendations for accessibility considerations with this type of option.

The Wrap setting determines the relation between the text and the image.

It is normally selected after anchoring and alignment of the image.

Several choices are available in the context menu, depending on the anchoring selection, and additional choices (including spacing from text on one or more sides of the image) are on the Wrap tab of the Image dialog (Figure 240).

None Places the object on a separate line in the document. The text is placed above and below the image but not to either side of it. Parallel Wraps text on all four sides of the border frame of the object.

Optimal The text flows around the image. Moving the image around the page causes the text to be rearranged to fill the space to the left and right of it. Optimal prevents text from being placed to the side of the image if the spacing between the image and the margin is less than 2 cm.

Before Wraps text on the left side of the object if there is enough space.

After Wraps text on the right side of the object if there is enough space. Through Superimposes the image on the text. That is, the image is in front of the text. This option should be used with an image-transparency setting in order to make the text under the image visible.

In Background Similar to Through, but the image is placed behind the text so there may be no need to change the transparency to make the text visible. Best used only for images without a lot of contrast or different colors. Contour Wraps text around the shape of the object.

Edit Contour Opens the Contour Editor; see “Editing the contour” on page 236.

First paragraph

Starts a new paragraph after the image even if the text could still wrap around the image.

Note: When anchoring an image as character, you can adjust the distance between the image and the text, but no wrapping option is available.

Positioning images within the text

On the Wrap tab of the Image dialog, use the Spacing section to adjust the spacing between the image and the text.

Options on the Wrap tab of the Image dialog

Editing the contour

Through wrapping and the Contour option for an image, LibreOffice automatically creates a contour.

• Right-click the image

• Select Wrap > Edit Contour in the context menu

  Alternate method:

  Open the Contour Editor by selecting Format > Wrap > Edit Contour on the Menu bar.

The dialog opens with the image loaded in the main window. Use the tools to draw the region of the image you do not want to be covered by the text; this area will be shaded.

Contour Editor tools:

• Rectangle

• Ellipse

• Polygon

• AutoContour

  
  

  Some familiarity with drawing tools is required to create complex contours. You can also select the Edit Points button and adjust the contour shape point by point.

Click the Apply button to save the contour.

Add captions to images:

• automatically

• using the Caption dialog

• manually

Adding captions automatically

Set up automatic captions for images, tables, or other objects in a document.

Choose what to caption automatically.

• sequence name for each caption (Ex: Table or Figure)

• position of the caption

To set up automatic captions, choose

Tools > Options > LibreOffice Writer > AutoCaption

Select objects to be automatically captioned and specify the characteristics of the captions.

When you insert an image, if automatic captioning is enabled, the image is placed in a frame along with a caption containing the default sequence name for images.

Position the cursor in the caption area and type the text for the caption.

You can change the sequence name by selecting one in the drop-down Category list or typing in your own. If you need a sequence name that is not one of the names provided, you can add any custom name you wish:

1) Open the AutoCaption dialog, as described above.

2) In the Add captions automatically when inserting section, select LibreOffice Writer Image. This activates the Caption area in the dialog for images.

3) Under the Category drop-down list, enter the name that you want added (say, Photo), by typing it in the box. (Overwriting a term in the box does not delete it from the list.) You can also set some options for the number style and for a separator between the name and the number, if desired.

Click OK to save the changes. A

dding captions using the Caption dialog

To add captions using the Caption dialog:

1) Insert the image, then either right-click it and select Insert Caption in the context menu, or select it and choose Insert > Caption on the Menu bar.

2) Under Properties on the Caption dialog, make your selections for the Category, Numbering, and Separator fields [Illustration, Arabic (1 2 3), and a colon (:), respectively,

type your caption text in the Caption box at the top. The text you enter for the caption appears in the box at the bottom, after the sequence name, number, and separator.

3) Click OK.

The image and its caption are placed in a frame. Tip In the Category box, you can type any name you want (for example, Photo) if the drop-down list does not include it. Writer will create a numbering sequence using that name, as it does when using the AutoCaption feature.

This lecture introduces the table and toolbar options.

To create a table with the default properties, click the Insert Table icon on the Standard toolbar.

On the drop-down graphic, choose the size of the table (up to fifteen rows and up to ten columns).

To create the table, click the cell that you want to be on the last row of the last column.

To create a new table and specify the properties for the table:

Position the cursor where you want the table to appear

Use any of the following methods to open the Insert Table dialog:

• Choose Table > Insert Table on the Menu bar.

• Press Ctrl+F12.

• On the Standard toolbar, click the Insert Table icon. Select More Options in the drop-down image.

In the General section of the Insert Table dialog, in the Name box, enter a different name from the Writer-generated default for the table.

In the Columns and Rows boxes, specify the number of columns and rows for the new table.

You can change the size of the table later, if necessary.

Creating a table from formatted text You can create a table from formatted text by using Table > Convert > Text to Table on the Menu bar. The text to be converted must contain characters to indicate column separators. Paragraph marks indicate an end of a table row. Tip Unlike the creation of a table by other methods, conversion from text to table preserves the paragraph style and character style applied to the original text. 1) Start by editing the text, if necessary, to ensure the column separator character is where you want it. Select the text you want to convert and choose Table > Convert > Text to Table to open the dialog shown in Figure 298. 2) The Separate text at section has four options for the separator for the columns of text. Select Other to choose the default comma (useful if you are importing a .csv file) or type any character in the box. The Options are the same as those in the Insert Table dialog (Figure 296). 3) Click OK to convert the text.

To Delete a Table:

• Right-click anywhere in the table and choose Delete > Table in the context menu.

• Click anywhere in the table and choose Table > Delete > Table on the Menu bar.

• Select from the end of the paragraph before the table to the start of the paragraph after the table, and then press the Delete key or the Backspace key.

Note: The third method also merges the paragraph after the table with the paragraph before the table, which may not be what you want.

To Copy a Table:

1. Select the table.

2. Press Ctrl+C or click the Copy icon on the Standard toolbar.

3. Click where you want the table to be copied.

4. Press Ctrl+V or click the Paste icon on the Standard toolbar.

To Move a Table:

1. Select the table.

2. Press Ctrl+X or click the Cut icon on the Standard toolbar.

3. Click where you want the table to be moved.

4. Press Ctrl+V or click the Paste icon on the Standard toolbar.

This pastes the cells, the contents and formatting.

Add a caption to any table.

• Track of all captioned tables

• Automatically number tables

• Update links to tables

To add a caption to a table:

1) Right-click anywhere in the table and select Insert Caption in the context menu

Alternate: Choose Insert > Caption on the Menu bar or click the Insert Caption icon on the Table toolbar.

2) Under Properties on the Caption dialog, make your selections for:

• Category (defaults to Table)

• Numbering

• Separator fields.

The position of the caption defaults to above a table.

3) Type the caption text in the text box at the top of the dialog.

4) Click OK.

There is an option to set Writer to add captions to tables automatically. The procedure is the same as for adding captions automatically to images.

Borders Borders are useful for setting a paragraph off from the surrounding text, to include digressions from the main topic. For example, the Tips, Notes, and Cautions in this book use a border below the text.

To quickly insert one row or column, place the cursor in the row or column before or after which you want to add new rows or columns, and then do one of the following: • Click the Rows Above or Rows Below icons on the Table toolbar or the Table panel of the Properties deck on the Sidebar to insert one row above or below the selected one. • Click the Columns Before or Columns After icons on the Table toolbar or the Table panel of the Properties deck on the Sidebar to insert one column before or after the selected one. • Choose Table > Insert > Rows Above/Below or Table > Insert > Columns Before/After on the Menu bar. • Right-click and choose Insert > Rows Above/Below or Insert > Columns Before/After in the context menu. To insert any number of rows or columns: 1) Place the cursor in the row or column where you want to add new rows or columns. 2) Choose Table > Insert > Rows or Table > Insert > Columns on the Menu bar, or rightclick and choose Insert > Rows or Insert > Columns in the context menu. 3) In the small dialog that opens, select the number of rows or columns to add, and whether they appear before or after the one selected. Set Number to the number of rows or columns to insert, and Position to Before or After. 4) Click OK to close the dialog.

To quickly delete one or more rows or columns, select the rows or columns you want to delete and do one of the following: • Click the Delete selected rows or Delete selected columns icons on the Table toolbar or the Table panel of the Properties deck on the Sidebar. • Right-click and choose Delete > Rows or Delete > Columns. • Choose Table > Delete > Rows or Table > Delete > Columns on the Menu bar.

A common use for merging cells is to make a heading row that takes up the entire width of the table, or a subheading row over more than one column. To merge a cell or group of cells into one cell: 1) Select the cells to merge. 2) Right-click and choose Merge Cells in the context menu, or choose Table > Merge Cells from the Menu bar, or click the Merge Cells icon on the Table toolbar or the Table panel of the Properties deck on the Sidebar. Any content of the cells appears in the merged cell. To split a cell into multiple cells: 1) Position the cursor inside the cell. 2) Right-click and choose Split Cells in the context menu, or choose Table > Split Cells on the Menu bar, or click the Split Cells icon on the Table toolbar or the Table panel of the Properties deck on the Sidebar. 3) On the Split Cells dialog, select how to split the cell and how many cells to create. A cell can be split either horizontally (create more rows) or vertically (create more columns).

Creating nested tables You can create tables within tables, nested to a depth limited only by imagination and practicality. Nested tables are especially useful for page layout. Figure 297 demonstrates a simple, two-level example. The shaded table is inside a cell of the larger table. To achieve this, simply click in a cell of an existing table and use any of the methods mentioned in “Creating a new table” above.

To copy a spreadsheet area into a Writer document as a Writer table: 1) Open both the Writer document and the spreadsheet. 2) Select the sheet area (cells) that you want to copy. 3) Right-click and choose Copy in the context menu, or press Ctrl+C; then click in the Writer document and choose Paste in the context menu or press Ctrl+V. Or, drag the area into the Writer document. See also Chapter 19, Spreadsheets, Charts, Other Objects, for other methods of inserting spreadsheets into Writer documents.