Advanced Word Processing Lessons

Apply text wrapping options for graphical objects (picture, image, chart, diagram, drawn object), tables. Text wrapping is the method by which the text is arranged around an image or some other object in a document. There are different types of text wrapping by which we can arrange text around objects in many different ways. To…

Use find and replace options like: font formats, paragraph formats, paragraph marks, page breaks. Find and replace options in Writer help us to find a particular block of data in the document and then replace this block with some other data which is defined using this method. To use the find and replace options in…

Use paste special options: formatted text, unformatted text. To use the paste special option of Writer, first of all copy some text. To copy text, select the text which needs to be copied and then right-click on that selected text and from the resulting menu click on ‘Copy’. After this, go to the location where…

Apply line spacing within paragraphs: at least, exactly/ fixed, multiple/proportional. Line spacing defines the distance or gap between individual lines in a paragraph. To apply line spacing within paragraphs, right-click once anywhere on the paragraph for which line spacing needs to be changed and from the resulting menu, click on ‘Paragraph’. This will open the…

Apply, modify outline numbering in multi-level lists. To apply outline numbering in multi-level lists, click on ‘Format’ from the main menu bar, and from the resulting drop-down menu, click on ‘Bullets and Numbering’. This will open the ‘Bullets and Numbering’ dialog box. In this dialog box, under the ‘Options’ tab, we have different options for…

Create, modify, and update a character style. A character style is a template which is used to define the styling for a character in LibreOffice Writer. A character style can be applied to a character and the character will take up the styling properties defined by that character style. To create, modify and update a…

Create, modify, and update a paragraph style. A paragraph style is a template which is used to define the styling for a paragraph in LibreOffice Writer. A paragraph style can be applied to a paragraph and the paragraph will take up the styling properties defined by that paragraph style. To create, modify or update a…

Apply multiple column layouts. Change number of columns in a column layout. To apply multiple column layouts, click on ‘Format’ from the main menu bar and from the resulting drop-down menu, click on ‘Columns’. This will open the ‘Columns’ dialog box. In this dialog box, under the ‘Settings’ area, we have an option, ‘Columns’. Under…

Insert, delete a column break. To insert a column break, first of all place the mouse pointer at the point where you want to insert the column break. Now click on ‘Insert’ from the main menu bar and from the resulting menu, click on ‘Manual Break’. This will open the ‘Insert Break’ dialog box. In…

Apply a table auto format/table style. To apply a table auto format/table style to a table in LibreOffice Writer, first of all click once anywhere inside the table to which the auto formatting needs to be applied. After this, click on ‘Table’ from the main menu bar and from the resulting menu, click on ‘AutoFormat’.…

Merge, split cells in a table. To merge cells in a table, first of all select the cells which need to be merged. After this, click on ‘Table’ from the main menu bar and from the resulting drop-down menu, click on ‘Merge Cells’. The selected cells will get merged into one. To split cells in…

Change cell text alignment and direction. To change the text alignment inside the cells of a table, right-click once anywhere inside the table and form the resulting menu, click on ‘Edit Paragraph Style’. This will open the ‘Paragraph Style’ dialog box. In this dialog box, under the ‘Alignment’ tab, we have a set of radio…

Automatically repeat heading row(s) at the top of each page. To automatically repeat heading rows of a table at the top of each page, first of all select the heading row of the table. After this, click on ‘Table’ from the main menu bar and from the resulting drop-down menu, click on ‘Heading rows repeat’.…

Allow, do not allow row(s) to break across pages. To allow rows of a table to break across pages in a document, right-click once anywhere inside the table and form the resulting menu, click on ‘Table’. This will open the ‘Table Format’ dialog box. In this dialog box, under the ‘Text Flow’ tab, we have…

Sort data by one column, by multiple columns at the same time. Sorting data means arranging data as per some pre-defined structures. To sort data in a table in Writer, first of all we need to select the table which needs to be sorted. After this, click on ‘Table’ from the main menu bar and…

Convert delimited text to a table. In Writer, we can convert delimited text into a table. The text to be converted must contain characters to indicate column separators. Paragraph marks indicate an end of a table row. This means that a continuous piece of text where a character, say a semicolon, separates the different columns…

As we have seen in the last section, we can convert delimited text into a table in Writer. In the same way, we can convert a table into delimited text. To convert a table into text, first of all select the table which needs to be converted into text. After this, click on ‘Table’ from…

Add a caption above, below a graphical object or table. In simple terms, a caption is a title or a small introduction or description which describes any graphical object or a table in small detail. In LibreOffice Writer, we can add a caption to a graphical object or a table. To add a caption, right-click…

Insert, modify footnotes, endnotes. Footnotes and Endnotes in a document are used to give credit to sources of any material which is being borrowed, summarized or paraphrased in that document. They are intended to refer readers to the exact pages of the works listed in the Works Cited, References, or Bibliography section. The main difference…

Create, update a table of contents based on specified heading styles and formats. Writer’s table of contents feature lets you build an automated table of contents from the headings in your document. These entries are automatically generated as hyperlinks in the table. Whenever changes are made to the text of a heading in the body…

Create, update a table of figures based on specified styles and formats. In the same way as we can create a table of contents, we can also create a table of figures in Writer. A table of figures lists all the tables, graphics and objects present in the document in a table format. Whenever a…

Mark an index: main entry, subentry. Delete a marked index entry. An index entry is a technique which helps us in defining some areas in a document which we might need to be used as the headings in a table of contents. This simply means that using index entries, we can define some particular areas…

Add, delete a bookmark. A bookmark is a simple tool using which you can save shortcuts to some particular parts of a document and can reach those parts of the document directly by simply clicking on the bookmark. To add a bookmark to a place in a document, first of all click on that particular…

Create, delete a cross-reference to: numbered item, heading, bookmark, figure, and table. A cross reference is simply a reference from one part of the document to some other part of the document which contains related information. This simply means that if two parts of a document contain related information then we can use a cross…

Insert, delete fields like: author, file name and path. In Writer, fields are one of the most useful features. We can use fields for a number of different purposes. Fields are used to enter standard data blocks into a document. These can be current date, the total number of pages in a document, page number…

Insert a sum formula field code in a table. In the last section, we saw some of the different types of fields which we can insert into a document. Other than these, we can also insert a sum formula field code into a document. To insert a sum formula field code into a document, click…

When we enter a field into a document which has some kind of numbering attached to it, then sometimes it may be desired to change the numbering format for that field. This can be easily achieved in Writer. To change the field number format, click on ‘Insert’ from the main menu bar, and from the…

To update a field, right-click on the field and from the resulting menu, click on ‘Fields’. This will open the ‘Edit Fields’ dialog box. In this dialog box, we have the same ‘Type’, ‘Select’ and ‘Format’ areas as we have seen in the previous sections. Select the required ‘Type’ and ‘Format’ from this dialog box…

Create, modify a form using available form field options: text field, check box, drop-down menu. We all know what forms are. They help in presenting the data in a better and more efficient way, they are used in a variety of domains, and the best part is we can create highly interactive and useful forms…

Modify a template. A template is simply a format based on which a new document will get created in Writer. There are a number of templates which are already present in Writer and if we want to have our own template or make changes to one of the existing ones then this can be achieved…

Insert, edit, and remove a hyperlink. Hyperlinks are used to jump to a different location from within a document and this location can be in the same file, in different files and also some websites. To insert a hyperlink, click on ‘Insert’ from the main menu bar, and from the resulting drop-down menu, click on…

Embed data into a document as an object. One of the most amazing features of Writer is that it enables us to embed data into a document as an object. This means that we can insert any form of data, say a spreadsheet or a chart or a drawing or any other type, into a…

Apply automatic text formatting options. Automatic text formatting means that the text keeps on getting formatted automatically while we are typing the text into a Writer document. This means that when we type any text in a Writer document, then this text gets formatted automatically according to a pre-defined set of rules. To apply automatic…

Create, modify, and delete automatic text correction entries. Automatic text correction means that a particular word will get automatically replaced with another word. This is very useful when we want to avoid using a particular word or when we commonly misspell a word regularly. In such cases we can replace the unwanted word with the…

Create, modify, insert, and delete automatic text entries. Automatic text entry means that a particular word will get automatically inserted into the document when only a pre-defined shortcut for that word is typed. This means that we can define shortcuts for some lengthy and often used words and then can write those words into the…

Record a simple macro like: change page setup, insert a table with a repeating heading row, insert fields in document header, footer. A macro is a saved sequence of commands or keystrokes that are stored for later use. The LibreOffice macro language is very flexible, allowing automation of both simple and complex tasks. Macros are…

To run a macro, click on ‘Tools’ from the main menu bar. From the resulting drop-down menu, click on ‘Macros’, and from the sub-menu which gets displayed, click on ‘Run Macro’. This will open the ‘Macro Selector’ dialog box. In this dialog box, in the ‘Library’ field, we have the list of all the libraries.…