Professional Documents
Culture Documents
MODULE 12
OPERATING A
WORD PROCESSING
APPLICATION
By:
RIZZA R. RENOMERON
National Assessor for VG NC III
CA-VGD0313140909003
SHERYL R. MORALES
National Assessor for BKP NC III
CA-BKP0313140911226
MODULE 11
OPERTING A
WORD PROCESSING
APPLICATION
• Information Sheet 1 FORMATTING (TEXT)
• Information Sheet 2 FORMATTIG (PARAGRAPHS)
• Information Sheet 3 FORMATTIG (DOCUMENTS)
• Information Sheet 4 INSERTING OBJECTS (TABLES)
• Information Sheet 5 INSERTING OBJECTS (PICTURES, IMAGES AND CHARTS)
• Information Sheet 6 USING MAIL MERGE
• Information Sheet 7 PREARING OUTPUTS
OPERATING A WORD PROCESSING
MODULE TITLE
APPLICATION
DESCRIPTION: This module covers the knowledge, skills, attitudes and values
needed to operate a word processing application which include
formatting, inserting objects, using mail merge and preparing output
documents.
COURSE OBJECTIVE: Students completing this module will be able to: apply formatting
techniques; apply the elements of word processing environment;
use basic editing features; and prepare outputs.
LEARNING GUIDE
Lea r n i n g S teps Re s o u r c e s
1. Read Information Sheet 1 on Information Sheet 1
Formatting (Text )
The size of fonts is measured in points. A point is 1/72”. The size is determined by the
distance from the bottom of the descender to the top of the ascender.
The central part of the letter is called the body. Fonts vary in the relative sizes of their
ascenders, descenders and body as well as their thickness.
Another difference between fonts are those which have small tails or feet attached to the
vertical strokes. These are called serif fonts. Examples are Times New Roman and
Bookman Old Style. The fonts without these are called sans serif fonts. Examples are
Arial, Tahoma and Verdana.
Default fonts
The default font is the font that Writer chooses for you unless you specify otherwise. To set
the default font:
1. Tools->Options
2. Expand Text document
3. Double click on Basic fonts.
4. Click on Default.
Formatting
This is shown in the following screen. If you click Default in this dialogue, the fonts
will be set to the original Writer defaults.
• Edit->Undo or Ctrl-Z will undo the changes you have just made.
Available fonts
The fonts that are displayed could vary from installation to installation. Certain fonts are
installed when you install the operating system, whether Linux or Windows. Further fonts
can be added at a later stage, but this must be done through the operating system interface.
Apply subscript, superscript to
text
Attributes can be set before new text is typed or they can be added to existing text. The
object bar contains icons for setting bold, italic and underlined.
When an attribute is set, the corresponding icon on the object bar will have a border around
it. In the above illustration, bold is on but italic and underline are off.
• Before typing new text, set each of the attribute settings using the object bar icons as
described above. These settings will hold for further text until you change them.
If you now move to another part of your document where the settings were set
previously, the icons on the object bar will change to reflect the settings of this
text.
Where you highlight text that contains a mixture of the same attribute, for
example, some bold and some unbold text, the situation becomes slightly more
complicated. You will need to click the icon two or three times to achieve the
desired state.
Formatting
a2 – 2ab + b2 = (a – b)2
The term position is used to describe the three options of subscript, superscript and
normal.
Use icons
If you use superscript and subscript frequently, you might like to add appropriate icons to
the object bar.
1. Tools->Configure
Apply case changes to text
6. Press OK.
The superscript and subscript icons will be added to the object bar as shown below.
Instead of using the keyboard combinations, you can now use these icons in the same
way that you use bold, italic and underline icons.
The colour of text can be changed just like the other attributes.
1. Format->Character
2. Click the Font effects tab.
3. Click on the Font color drop down window to display the available colours.
As in the case of the other text attributes, you can set the colour of new text before you
type it or change the colour of existing text. In the latter case, first highlight the text and
then use this procedure.
You may also change the font colour by using a long click on the Font colour icon on the
object bar (Hold the left mouse button down until the colour palette is displayed).
Styles
The more elegant and efficient method would be to format one paragraph very carefully
and then copy the formatting to other paragraphs. In order to achieve this, Writer makes
use of styles. A style is a set of attributes that can be applied to characters, paragraphs and
pages. Each style is given a name.
Writer has styles for characters, paragraphs or pages. The next section will look at styles in
more detail. This section will consider the basic use of the character style to copy
formatting from one block of text to another.
A character style is a set of attributes that can be applied to individual letters, numeric
digits and symbols. The attributes could include font style, size and colour, and bold, italic
or underlining.
6. Click the New style from selection icon (the second from the end), .
11. Click on the Fill format mode icon or press Esc to stop copying the formatting.
Character styles: Displays formatting styles for characters. Use character styles
to apply font styles to selected text in a paragraph.
Frame styles: Displays formatting styles for frames. Use frame styles to format
frame layouts and position.
Page styles: Displays formatting styles for pages. Use page styles to determine
page layouts, including the presence of headers and footers.
Numbering styles: Displays formatting styles for numbered and bulleted lists.
Use numbering styles to format number and bullet characters and to specify
indents.
Fill format mode: Applies the selected style to the object or text that you select in
the document. Click this icon, and then drag a selection in the document to apply
the style. To exit this mode, click the icon again, or press Esc.
New style from selection: Creates a new style based on the formatting of the
current paragraph, page, or selection.
Update style
Once the new style has been created, you can open the Stylist at any stage use the Fill
format mode to change the format of text. The following method can be applied to a
character, a word, a line of text or a much larger block of text.
1. Format->Stylist or F11.
2. Click the Character style icon.
3. Click the style you wish to apply.
4. Click the Fill format mode icon, .
5. Move the mouse pointer to the starting point of the text you wish to format. The
mouse pointer will have the form of the paint can, .
6. Click and drag (hold down the left mouse button) over the text you wish to change.
7. Release the left mouse button and repeat on other text you wish to change.
Paragraph styles
• Highlight the text to which you wish to apply the style. You can use the shortcuts
described in the section called “Insert text” [21] to select the text.
1. Format->Stylist or F11.
2. Click the Character style icon.
3. Double click the style you wish to apply.
Paragraph styles
Paragraph styles have additional features associated with them. These features, which
include margins, justification and line spacing, will be covered in detail in the following
sections.
3. Format->Stylist or F11.
4. Click Paragraph styles, .
5. Click New style from selection, .
1. Format->Stylist or F11.
2. Click Paragraph styles, .
When you make use of automatic hyphenation, Writer does all the work for you. This
option can be applied to individual paragraphs or to paragraph styles.
2. Format->Paragraph.
3. Click on the Text flow tab.
4. Tick the Automatically check box in the Hyphenation area.
5. Click OK.
As you insert text into or delete text from a paragraph that has automatic hyphenation,
Writer will adjust the hyphenation to the changes.
A B C D
You wish to call attention to a statement in your document by making the text
1 bold.
Which button do you select?
To call attention to a block of text, you want place a block of color behind the
4 text to highlight it.
Which button do you select?
Another way to call attention to a block of text is to place a border around it.
5
Which button do you select?
A quoted block of text has been indented. You wish to continue the document
6 but you need to undo the indent.
Which button do you select?
You have made a birthday certificate and you want the student's name to be
7 displayed in color.
Which button do you select?
8. T he hori zont al pos itioni ng of t ext (s uc h a s l eft , ri ght , c ent er, or j us tify)
A ) A lignm ent
B) H eade r
C) Bol d
D ) Inde nt ation
9. A pri nt e nha nc em ent us ed t o m ake c ha ra cters a ppe ar da rke r t ha n ot he r t ext t o a dd e m pha sis
A ) F oot er
B) F ont t ype
C) Bol d
D ) A lignm ent
10. A fe ature t ha t e na bl es you t o m ove t ext from one pl ace t o a not he r
A ) Bol d
B) H eade r
C) Copy
D ) S hi ft ke y
11. T he t ype of c ha ra cter form at t ha t de term ine s t he l ook of t he c ha ra cter
A ) F ont S tyl e
B) Ca ps L oc k
C) D elete
D ) Inde nt ation
12. T he de sign a nd a ppe ara nc e of pri nt ed c ha ra cters
A ) F oot er
B) F ont t ype
C) F ont s ize
D ) H eade r
1.B 2.A 6.D 4.B 5.A 60D 70B 8.A 9.2.C 10..C 11.A 12.B
INFORMATION SHEET 2
FORMATTING (PARAGRAPH)
Paragraph Formatting
Insert, remove paragraph marks
There is a slight technical distinction between the ordinary use of the term paragraph and
the term as is commonly used.
If you press Shift+Enter you can create a new line. This creates a new paragraph in the
usual sense it is used in everyday language. Technically we say that Shift+Enter inserts a
soft carriage return. Writer, however, will treat the new text as part of the existing
paragraph. This means that if you apply a paragraph style to the first part of the paragraph,
Writer will apply it to the part after the soft return as well.
Sometimes the hard carriage return is referred to simply as a paragraph break and the soft
carriage return as a line break.
These two keys insert different hidden control characters into the text.
• Press the non-printing characters icon, , on the main toolbar to make these
Once hidden control characters are visible, they can be edited like any other text.
The following paragraph illustrates some text in which non-printing characters have been
made visible.
Insert a paragraph mark
In this example, the heading is separated from the first paragraph by two paragraph breaks.
The first and second paragraphs are technically a single paragraph as they are separated by
two line breaks.
• Press Shift+Enter.
OR
Formatting
1. Insert->Manual break ..
2. Click the Line break radio button and click OK.
1. Tools->Autocorrect / Autoformat
2. On the Options tab, ensure that Combine single line paragraphs if length greater
than 50% is selected. (To change the minimum percentage for the line length,
double-click the option in the list, and then enter a new percentage.)
3. Click OK.
4. Select the text from which you wish to remove the line breaks.
5. Format->Autoformat->Apply.
East Africa.
1. Format->Stylist.
2. Select paragraph styles.
3. Right click on Default.
4. Click Modify.
5. Click the Alignment tab.
6. Click Justified in the Options area.
7. Click OK.
All paragraphs that use the default style will now automatically be justified.
Indents refer to the amount of space inserted between the text and the left and right hand
margins. In the case of a first line indent,the first line is indented but not the subsequent
lines. In the case of a hanging indent, the first line is not indented while subsequent lines
are. Indents may be set up before a paragraph is created or applied to existing paragraphs.
1. Format->Paragraph.
2. Click the Indents & Spacing tab.
3. Set the Before text, After text and First line in the Indent area to achieve the desired
effect.
The following table illustrates how the previous indents were achieved.
The effect of the negative value is to move the first line back to the margin and
so create a hanging indent.
If the Automatic check box is ticked, the first line of the paragraph is indented according
to the size of the font and the line spacing. The setting in the First Line box is ignored.
1. Format->Stylist.
2. Select paragraph styles.
3. Right click on the style you wish to modify.
Formatting
4. Click Modify.
5. Click the Indents & Spacing tab.
6. Make adjustments as above.
7. Click OK.
All paragraphs based on the style you have modified will change to reflect the new values.
1. Format->Paragraph.
2. Click on the Indents & Spacing tab.
3. Click the Spacing drop drop down window.
4. Select the line spacing.
5. Click OK.
1. Format->Stylist.
2. Select paragraph styles.
3. Right click on the style you wish to modify.
4. Click Modify.
5. Click the Indents & Spacing tab.
6. Select the line spacing.
7. Click OK.
1. Format->Paragraph.
2. Click on the Indents & Spacing tab.
3. Adjust the values in the Above paragraph and Below paragraph windows.
4. Click OK.
The second to fifth columns are left, right, centre and decimal aligned on the tabs
respectively.
Notice the different icons on the ruler for the different tab stops.
Formatting
Tab stops are set for a paragraph or group of paragraphs. They may also be set in a style
1. Format->Stylist
2. Select Paragraph styles.
3. Right click on Default.
4. Select Modify.
5. Click on the Tabs tab.
6. Click Delete all to clear existing tab stops.
7. Enter a Position and click on a tab Type.
8. Click New.
9. Repeat the process for all the default tabs you wish to set.
10. Click OK when done.
When users create columns of data as in the earlier screen, a common mistake is to press
the Enter key at the end of each line. This means that when you drag a tab stop icon, it will
only have an effect on one line. A better idea is to press Shift+Enter at the end of each line
until all the data has been entered. In this way, Writer can treat the entire block of data as a
single paragraph. The tab stop icons can then be dragged and change the positions of entire
columns at once.
1. Format->Paragraph.
2. Click the Tabs tab of the dialogue.
Apply bullets, numbers to a single
level list. Remove bullets,
If only the default tabs are set, the tab stops will not be shown. If custom tabs have
been set, these will be displayed as shown in the screen.
• Press the Delete all button. This will clear all default and custom tab stops for the
current paragraph.
• Highlighted the tab stop you wish to delete and press the Delete button.
A quick way of setting tab stops is to right click on the paragraph, select
Paragraph in the context sensitive menu and then press the Tabs tab.
No bullets Bulleted
Formatting
If you Press Enter in a bulleted line, Writer will automatically insert a bullet at
the start of the new line.
Sometimes clicking on the bullet icon on the Object bar produces an undesired
spacing with the bullet. In such a case, use the Stylist.
Remove numbering
1. Select the items from which you wish to remove the numbering.
2. Click the numbering icon on the Object bar.
9. Click OK.
This paragraph has a 1.00 pt black border with a grey shadow to the lower left.
• The first one, no border, is the default which means that unless otherwise specified all
paragraphs will appear with no border.
• The second one is a box border which will draw four lines around the paragraph, ie top,
bottom, left and right.
• The third one is a left and right border only with no top and bottom.
• The fourth one is a top and bottom border only with no left and right border.
• The last one is a left border with no others at all.
SELF-CHECK 2
Instruction: Encircle the correct answer.
1.Word's default space setting is________.
A. single space
B. 1.5 space
C. double space
D. triple space
E. quadruple space
5. A _____ is blank space that appears from the edge of text to the edge of the paper
A. line space
B. paragraph space
C. formatting space
D. margin
E. character space
8. ______ increases the distance between the side of a paragraph & the left or right margin.
A. justify button
B. center button
C. increase indent button
D. decrease indent button
E. right align button
9. ______ is the top triangle that appears at the left of the ruler.
A. left indent
B. hanging indent
C. falling indent
D. right indent
E. first line indent
11. ______ adds space between characters in a line so that the line starts at the left margin &
always ends at the right margin.
A. left align
B. align right
C. justify
D. center
E. ctrl+2
13. If you press ctrl+5, you are changing the spacing by how much?
A. 5 inches
B. 0.5 inches
C. 1.5 inches
D. 0.55 inches
E. 2.5 inches
14. An example of a bulleted list is_______.
A. Full block letter
B. modified block letter
C. semi-blocked letter
D. Memo
E. Table
A. justified
B. right aligned
C. left aligned
D. centered
1. A 2.D 3.A 4.C 5.D 6.A 7.D 8.C .E 10.D 11.C 12.C. 13.C 14. D. 15.C 16.C
INFORMATION SHEET 3
FORMATTING (DOCUMENTS)
Document Formatting
Change document orientation to portrait or landscape.
Normally we print across the short side of a page as, for example, on the page you are
reading. This orientation of the page is called portrait. We can alter the page layout so that
we print across the long side of the paper. This is called landscape. The next screen
illustrates the two orientations.
Writer also has to have information about the size of the paper you will be using for
printing in order to be able to format the document correctly. Usually we use A4 size.
Change orientation and paper size
of current page layout
There might be times when you use smaller paper, such as A5, or larger paper, such as A3.
The printer you use will impose restrictions on the size of paper. Paper size can be set at
the same time as orientation.
3. Click either the Portrait or Landscape radio button to set the desired orientation.
4. Set the paper size to a standard size by clicking on the Format drop down window or
enter a custom size using the Width and Height windows.
5. Click OK.
This will set all the pages of the document up to the point where a page break
with a new style has been inserted. If you wish to use different page
orientations within the same document, you will need to make use of page
styles.
The margins can be set at the same time as the paper orientation.
1. Format->Page.
2. Click the Page tab.
3. Set the Left, Right, Top and Bottom margins (see the previous screen capture of the
dialogue window).
4. Click OK.
The margins can be set in a style in exactly the same way as the paper orientation.
When you insert a hard page break using Ctrl+Enter, Writer will automatically use the
current page style on the next page.
• Delete the page break by deleting the character at the end of the paragraph.
You will see how to change headers and footers within a document using styles in the next
section.
Insert a header
1. Insert->Header
Depending on the existing styles, you will see different menus. The one on the left is
what you will see in the case of a simple document where there are no styles. The
second will be displayed where the document contains a number of page styles.
This will display a header region. In this you can type and format your heading. You
will only need to do this once. Writer will automatically insert this header at the top of
each page.
3. Enter and format the text of the header as shown, for example, on the next screen.
Insert a footer
Footers are inserted in exactly the same way, except to start the process:
• Insert->Footer
1. Format->Stylist
2. Select Page styles.
3. Click Default.
4. Click New from Selection.
5. Call the style Chapter 1.
6. Double click on the Chapter 1 style.
7. Insert->Header->Chapter 1.
8. Create your header.
9. Click Update style and close the Stylist dialogue.
At this point you would type up the text of chapter 1. When you are ready to start the next
chapter:
1. Make sure the cursor is in Chapter 1. (This will ensure that Chapter 1 is the current
style.)
2. Format->Stylist
3. Select Page styles.
4. Click New from Selection.
5. Call the style Chapter 2.
Add fields in Headers, Footers:
date, page number information,
At this stage you have created a new style called Chapter 2 which is identical to the
Chapter 1 style.
6. At the end of chapter 1: Insert->Manual break.
7. Click the Page radio button.
8. Click the Style drop down window and select Chapter 2.
9. Click OK.
This will insert a hard page break with the new page having the Chapter 2 page style.
10. Edit the header in chapter 2.This will automatically change the Chapter 2 style.
1. Position the cursor at the point in the header or footer where you wish to insert the
page number.
2. Insert->Fields->Page numbers
Formatting
Note that the date and time inserted will be fixed and will reflect the date and
time the header or footer was created.
1. Position the cursor at the point in the header or footer where you wish to insert the
page number.
2. Insert->Fields->Other
3. Click the Document tab.
4. Click Date in Type.
5. Click Date in Format.
6. Select an appropriate date format in Format.
7. Click Insert.
1. Position the cursor at the point in the header or footer where you wish to insert the
page number.
2. Insert->Fields->Other
3. Click the Document tab.
4. Click File name under Type.
5. Select the appropriate Format.
file location
6. Click Insert.
1. Position the cursor at the point in the header or footer where you wish to insert the
page number.
2. Insert->Fields->Other
3. Click the Document tab.
1. Position the cursor at the point in the header or footer where you wish to insert the file
location.
2. Insert->Fields->Other
Formatting
2. How will you change page orientation and paper size in a style
A. Format -> Paragraph
B. Format -> Page tab.
C. Insert -> Manual Break
D. Format -> Stylist
E. Ctrl+backspace
3. You would like to insert a header, what menu tab will you choose
A. File
B. Edit
C. View
D. Insert
E. Format
5. It refers to the space at the top, bottom and sides between the printed area and the edge of the
paper
A. Bottom Margin
B. Left Margin
C. Right Margin
D. top Margin
E. Margins
6. This is where you can add the date, time, page number, page count, subject, title or author
A. Manual Break
B. Fields
C. Special Characters
D. Section
E. Hyperlink
9. In automatically applying a page number, you just have to Click Insert->Fields->Page Number
A. True
B. False
Tables
Insert a table
1. Click on the position in the document where you wish to insert the table.
2. Insert->Table
3. Writer will call the tables Table 1, Table 2, and so on. You may give the tables a name
of your own choice. Enter this in the Name window.
4. Adjust the Columns spin box to set the number of columns and the Rows spin box to
set the number of rows.
5. Tick the Border check box if you wish to include borders around the cells. Otherwise
clear this box.
6. If you wish to keep the entire table on one page, tick the Don't split table check box.
Writer will then move the entire table to the following page if it will not fit on the
current page.
7. Click OK.
The following table was created using three columns and two rows.
Objects
1. Click in the cell in which you wish to enter text and enter and format the text as usual.
2. Click Tab to jump to the next cell or click on another cell to reposition the cursor.
If a cell already contains text, you may click anywhere in the cell and insert, delete, edit or
reformat the text as in the rest of a document.
The action of Ctrl-A is somewhat complex. If the cell is not empty, pressing
this combination selects the current cell. In this case, pressing it a second time
selects the entire table. Once the table has been selected, pressing Ctrl-A once
more causes the entire document to be selected.
Delete a row
1. Position the cursor anywhere in the row to be deleted. .
2. Format->Row->Delete or press the Delete row icon on the Table object bar,
When the cursor is inside a table, the Table object bar will show table functions.
Delete a column
Insert a row
1. Position the cursor anywhere in the row adjacent to the new row.
2. Format->Row->Insert or press the Insert row icon, .
3. Adjust the Amount spin window to the number of rows you wish to insert.
4. Click either the Before or After radio button to select whether you wish the new rows
to be inserted before or after the current row.
5. Click OK.
Insert a column
1. Position the cursor anywhere in the column adjacent to the new column.
2. Format->Column->Insert or press the Insert column icon, .
3. Adjust the Amount spin window to the number of columns you wish to insert.
4. Click either the Before or After radio button to select whether you wish the new
columns to be inserted before or after the current column.
Objects
5. Click OK.
If you change a font, the row height for all the cells will adjust to accommodate the largest
font on the row as shown on the next screen.
Row heights
Set the height of rows manually
You may set custom row heights manually as follows:
1. Position the cursor in the row whose height you wish to adjust.
2. Hold down the Alt key and press the Up and Down arrows to decrease or increase the
height.
Column widths
Set column widths manually
The Format menu option lets you set the width of a single column.
5. Click OK.
Objects
1. Move the cursor over the border of the cell to display the separator icon.
2. Hold down the left mouse button. A dotted vertical line will be displayed.
3. Hold down the left mouse button and drag the vertical line.
• Position the cursor in any cell in the column. Hold down the Alt key and press the
Left or Right arrows. This will also adjust the overall width of the table.
OR
• Position the cursor in any cell in the column. Hold down the Alt+Ctrl keys and press
the Left or Right arrows. This will not change the overall width of the table.
5. Click on the Color window to display a drop down list of border colours and select a
colour.
6. You may also may also select a shadow for the outer border of the table by selecting
the appropriate options in the Shadow style area of the dialogue. This is covered in
the next section.
In this case the settings will only apply to the cells that were selected. The following screen
illustrates the effect.
In this case the four cells in the heading were highlighted before the command was
executed.
6. Click OK.
5. Select the offset of the shadow by using the Distance spin window.
6. Select the colour of the shadow by clicking on the Color drop down window and
selecting a colour.
7. Click OK.
Some other important table
functions
We would like the word TEAM to be centred across the four headings. The solution is to
merge the four cells and then centre the heading within this new cell.
Split cells
You may split cells horizontally or vertically.
3. Select the number of elements you wish to split the cells into.
4. Select either Horizontally or Vertically.
Objects
5. Click OK.
Split table
You may split a table horizontally at the current cursor position.
1. Click in the table at the point where you wish to split it.
2. Format->Split table
3. Click No heading.
4. Click OK.
This insert a blank row between the two parts of the table. Each part can now be
treated as a separate table
6. Click OK.
SELF-CHECK 4
1. It is a grid comprising a number of rows and columns.
A. cell
B. name
C. table
D. border
E. tab
2. Ctrl + A means
A. select all
B. center
C. insert
D. home
E. end
4. You may also select a shadow for the outer border of the table by selecting:
________________________________________________
1. Insert->Graphics->From file.
2. Browse to the directory / folder contains the graphics.
Linux
This is generally a good idea as it helps you select an appropriate graphic. Otherwise
you may just view long lists of file names which may not be meaningful.
Windows
2. Click the graphic you wish to insert and click Open or simply double click on the
graphic.
This will insert the graphic into the document at the current cursor position.
The following step is very important. Usually the graphic can be treated in exactly the
same way as a text character.
1. Click on the graphic to select it. Notice the handles around the borders of the graphic.
2. Right click to display the context menu click Anchor.
3. Click As Character.
7. Click Page if you wish to use the background for the entire page or Paragraph if you
wish to use it only for the current paragraph.
1. Select the block of cells containing the data. Check whether the first column and first
row contain labels as in the following screen.
Objects
2. Insert->Object->Chart.
3. Check the appropriate Caption check boxes.
4. Click Next.
5. Select a Chart type.
6. Select whether the Data series is contained in rows or columns. In this case it is in
rows.
7. Click Next.
8. Choose a Variant of the basic chart type.
9. Check the X axis and Y axis check boxes to display grid lines as desired.
10. Click Next.
11. Enter Titles for the chart as a whole and for the X and Y axes.
12. Tick the Legend check box if you wish to display a legend with the chart. This will
indicate the meaning of the different colours.
Notice the handles that are displayed around the graphic. These are illustrated in the screen
capture.
Once an image has been selected, we are able to perform various actions on it.
Duplicate a picture, image, chart
within a document, between open
Just as we select text in order to perform actions on it such as delete or copy, we can do the
same thing with graphics.
3. Position the cursor at the point where you wish to insert the duplicate. This can be
within the current document or you can switch to another open document.
4. Edit->Paste or click the Paste icon, , on the Function bar or press Ctrl-V.
1. Go to the spreadsheet and select the chart you wish to copy into the document.
2. Edit->Copy or click the Copy icon, , on the Function bar or press Ctrl-C.
3. Position the cursor at the point where you wish to move the image. This can be within
the current document or you can switch to another open document.
4. Edit->Paste or click the Paste icon, , on the Function bar or press Ctrl-V.
Objects
The image will be deleted in its original position and inserted at the new position.
The four corner handles can be dragged in any direction. The handles on the left and right
borders can only move horizontally while those on the top and bottom borders can only
move vertically.
The following screen shot illustrates dragging the bottom corner handles. The image is
only resized once the mouse button is released.
documents
Notice the checkbox next to Relative. If you click in this box it will force the
width and height to be relative to each other, ie the graphic won't distort.
Instruction: Write the following steps in inserting pictures, graphs and charts.
a. ___________________________________
. b. ___________________________________
c. ___________________________________
d. ___________________________________
e. ___________________________________
f. ___________________________________
a. _________________________________________________________________
b. _________________________________________________________________
c. __________________________________________________________________
d. __________________________________________________________________
e. __________________________________________________________________
f. __________________________________________________________________
g. __________________________________________________________________
3. Copy a spreadsheet chart into a document
a. _________________________________________________
b.. _________________________________________________
c.. __________________________________________________
d. __________________________________________________
e. __________________________________________________
f. __________________________________________________
b.. _________________________________________________
c.. __________________________________________________
a. _________________________________________________
b.. _________________________________________________
c.. __________________________________________________
d. __________________________________________________
e. __________________________________________________
f. __________________________________________________
g. __________________________________________________
h. __________________________________________________
i. __________________________________________________
k. __________________________________________________
l. __________________________________________________
m. __________________________________________________
INFORMATION SHEET 6
MAIL MERGE
Understand the term mail merge and the concept of merging a data source with a main
document such as a letter or a label document
A common situation that arises is that we need to send out the same letter or information to
hundreds of people or organisations. While the text of the letter may be the same, each will
contain specific references to the organisation in terms of the address and the person to
whom it is being addressed.
Another related situation is where we need to print address labels for envelopes to clients.
The client list may vary from time to time. However, when we need to print labels, we do
not want to have to type up each one anew.
In situations such as these we can make use of the Mail Merge feature.
1. A template.
2. A data source.
3. Merging the data from the data source into the template to create a set of documents.
4. Printing.
Template document
The template document is an outline of the document that you wish to produce. It
contains the fixed text which will be the same for all the documents. It also contains place
holders for the information that will change. Sometimes these place holders are also
referred to as fields. Examples would include, name, first name, title, company and
address.
If you were wanting to merge a mailing list with a letter, then the letter would be the
template document. You may also want to create labels and then you would use a label
layout as your template document.
Data source
The data source will contain the data that is inserted into the place holders when the actual
merging takes place.
In the data source, the data will be organised into a number of rows and columns. Each row
is called a record and contains the data that will be inserted to create a single document.
For example, each row would contain a name, first name, title and address.
Each record is divided up into fields corresponding to the columns. These contain the
individual items such as name and first name.
Mail Merge
Merging
Merging involves creating the link between the fields in the template and the fields in the
data source and then the actual creation of the set of documents.
1. File->New.
2. Create the data source such as the one shown below.
3. Ensure there is a single tab between each field and a carriage return at the end of the
line.
Note also that the tab is used in this situation as a field separator. It is not
used to align columns. As the previous example illustrates, the use of a single
tab will often lead to a jagged appearance. You may switch on non-printing
characters to check.
• Save the data as a text document. Writer will automatically attach the .txt extension.
The first line of the data source contains the field names. These will be used as
the place holders in the template document. A collection of records such as
this is called a table.
1. Tools->Data Sources
2. Click the General tab.
3. Click New Data Source in the top left hand side of the dialogue.
4. Type the name you wish to give the data source in the Name window. In this case we
have used General data.
5. In the Database type drop down window, select Text.
6. Use the Browse icon to select the directory containing the data source.
7. Click Apply.
8. Click the Text tab.
Mail Merge
OpenOffice.org will treat all text files that are located in the directory as tables
of the same database source, General data.
6. Delete the variable information such as name and address in the document template.
7. Drag the field titles in the data source into the document template. Remember to
insert spaces where needed.
At this point your document template will appear as on the following screen.
Open, prepare a mailing list, other
data file, for use in a mail merge
Open, prepare a mailing list, other data file, for use in a mail
merge
The process of preparing a data file was introduced in the previous section. In this section
we will look a bit deeper into OpenOffice.org's handling of data sources.
You may define your data source either from within Calc or Writer.
Once you have defined General data in this way, you can use it in exactly the same way
as before.
Although this is a very clear way of working with data, you will need to convert it before it
can be used as an OpenOffice.org data source.
4. Click OK.
Merge a mailing list with a letter,
label document
You might find it useful to work with tables when you are creating and editing
data. You could keep this in one file, for example ClientsTable.txt. When you
are ready to use it for merging you could concert it to tab delimited form and
save this as another file, for example Clients.txt.
At this point you have the document template and the data source.
To merge to a letter:
1. Open the document template. This will contain the fields or place holders and any
fixed text.
2. View->Data sources.
3. Tools->Mail Merge.
4. Click From this document.
5. Click OK.
To merge to labels:
At this point you have the option of printer the output immediately or of saving the
output to a file for later use.
Output to printer
1. Click the Printer radio button in the Output area and click OK.
2. Select the printer.
Output to file
Output to file
1. In the Mail Merge dialogue, click File under Output.
2. This will create a file for each entry in the table.
SELF-CHECK 6
6. How to merge a mailing list with a letter, label document. List the steps.
INFORMATION SHEET 7
PREPARING OUTPUTS
Preparation
Here are some of the aspects of documents you should pay attention to.
Fonts
For most writing use a standard font such as Times New Roman, Bookman, Arial, Tahoma
or Verdana. In most cases, a 10 or 11 point font is most appropriate. Be wary of using
fancy fonts in business writing.
There is considerable debate as to whether it is better to use serif or sans serif fonts. There
has been some research that serif fonts such as Times Roman are easier to read. Serif fonts
are commonly used in books. However, this is still a matter of personal taste.
Do not mix too many fonts. Generally it is best to stick to three sizes of the same font. The
more a font differs from the font of the body of the text, the less frequently it should be
used.
Styles
Make a habit of defining and using styles. These can help keep your writing consistent.
Inconsistency in style within a document looks unprofessional. An example of where styles
are particularly necessary are section headings such as the one at the start of this section.
Not only do styles keep your work consistent, they save you the problem of having to
define settings from scratch each time.
White space
White space refers to the areas of a document where there is no text. White space is found
between paragraphs, after headings and in margins.
For legibility, it is very important to have the correct amount of space. It is impossible to
lay down a formula. You will need to develop skill is looking at your finished document
and considering a number of points:
Margins
Margins are an example of white space. But they are not concerned purely with
appearance. If you intend binding a document, you will need to endure that the left hand
margin is wide enough. If you print on the reverse of each page (back to back), you will
need to set wide left and right margins on alternate pages.
If you are submitting a document for a specific purpose, such as an academic paper, you
might be required to set margins according to a fixed specification. This might well
different significantly from the default setting. Check that your margins, and any other
aspects, conform to external requirements.
Spelling
Spelling mistakes are one of the most serious problems, especially since they are easy to
deal with. Set Writer up so that spelling is checked as you type. Spelling is dealt with in the
next section.
Consistency
As mentioned a couple of times above, ensure that your document is consistent in style and
layout throughout. As you develop experience, your skill at noticing inconsistencies will
develop. If you are vigilant from the start, this skill will develop more quickly. There are
unfortunately many very experienced users who are very careless in this regard. Sometimes
technology can make us lazy.
Set languages
You might also create documents in French or German. In all cases you need to be able to
set up OpenOffice.org to check spellings in the languages you work with.
1. Tools->Options
2. Expand Language settings and click on Languages.
3. Click on the Western drop down window and select the default languages you wish
to use. This will place a tick next to each language you select.
Check spelling as you type
6. Click OK.
This is a toggle function. If the automatic spell check is off, it will switch it on.
If it is on, it will switch it off. To check whether the automatic spell check is
on or off, Tools->AutoSpellcheck is on, a tick will be displayed in the menu.
As you type, words that Writer cannot find in any of its dictionaries will be underlined with
a wavy red line as shown on the next screen
Prepare Outputs
Spellcheck will start at the current position in the document. When it reaches the end of the
document, it will ask you if you wish to continue from the start. When an error is found,
the following dialogue is displayed.
Ignore the error Click Ignore to ignore only this occurrence or click Always ignore
to ignore all occurrences of the error.
Correct the error Select the alternative in the Suggestions window.
using a suggestion
Click Replace to replace only this occurrence or press Always
replace to replace all occurrences of the error.
When you select the latter option, the next time Writer encounters the
error, it will not prompt you for a reply, but make the change
automatically.
Manually correct You may recognise the spelling is incorrect but there may not be a
the error suitable word in the suggestions.
Spellcheck selected text or a
single word
Thesaurus
Another very useful writing aid is the thesaurus. This provides you will a list of words
related to the current word.
3. Select a word from the synonym window. The selected word will appear in the
Replace window.
4. Click OK to replace the original word in your document.
• Click Add if you wish the word to be added to the user-defined dictionaries.
The word will be added to all active user-defined dictionaries. In future, if any of these are
active, OpenOffice.org will not detect any error when it encounters the word.
Preview a document
Before printing a document, you can view it on-screen as it will appear on the printed page.
This feature was covered under Page preview in the section called “Change between page
view modes” [14].
Printing
• File->Print
Print a document from an installed
printer using defined options,
OR
• Click the Pages radio button and enter the range of pages to be printed in the form
11-24. Alternatively list the pages you wish to print separated by commas.
OR
Print to a file
This feature is not commonly used anymore, but allows you to direct the output of the
printer to a file rather than to paper.
• Tick the Print to file check box to enable this feature. In order to complete the
operation, you will be prompted for a file name. Writer will add a .prn extension to
the name.
Prepare Outputs
1. File->Print
2. Click OK.
Selecting a printer
In many situations, you are able to print your work on various printers. You need to make a
selection of the most appropriate printer.
1. File->Print