Documentation/OOoAuthors User Manual/Writer Guide/Setting up Writer

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This is Chapter 2 of the OpenOffice.org 2.x Writer Guide (Third edition), produced by the OOoAuthors group. A PDF of this chapter is available from the OOoAuthors Guides page at OpenOffice.org.

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<< Chapter 1 Introducing Writer   |    Chapter 3 Working with Text >>

Choosing options that affect all of OOo

This section covers some of the settings that apply to all the components of OOo. For information on settings not discussed here, see the online help.

Documentation note.png The illustrations in this chapter were taken from the English (UK) version of OOo. The spelling of some terms may be different from those you see on your screen, especially if you are using the default English (US) version.
  1. Click Tools > Options. The list in the left-hand box varies depending on which component of OOo is open. The illustrations in this chapter show the list as it appears when no document is open. (For example, when a Writer document is open, additional options for OpenOffice.org Writer and OpenOffice.org Writer/Web appear on the list.)
  2. Click the + sign to the left of OpenOffice.org in the left-hand section. A list of subsections drops down.
OpenOffice.org Options.
Documentation note.png The Back button has the same effect on all pages of the Options dialog. It resets the options to the values that were in place when you opened OpenOffice.org.

User Data options

Because OOo's revision features mark your changes and comments with the name or initials stored in User Data, you will want to ensure that your name and initials appear there. To do this:

  1. In the Options dialog, click OpenOffice.org > User Data.
  2. Fill in the form on the OpenOffice.org User Data page, or delete any existing incorrect information.
Filling in user data.

General options for OpenOffice.org

  1. In the Options dialog, click OpenOffice.org > General.
  2. On the OpenOffice.org - General page, the options are as described below.
Setting general options for OpenOffice.org.

Help - Tips

When Help Tips are active, one or two words will appear when you hover the cursor over an icon or field on the main OOo window. This setting also affects the display of notes: if both Help Tips and Extended Tips are turned off, then you will not see the contents of a note when you hover the cursor on the note.

Help - Extended tips

When Extended tips are active, a brief description of the function of a particular icon or menu command, or a field on a dialog appears when you hover the cursor on that item.

Help Agent

To turn off the Help Agent (similar to Microsoft's Office Assistant), deselect this checkbox. To restore the default Help Agent behavior, click Reset Help Agent.

Help formatting

High contrast is an operating system setting that changes the system color scheme to improve readability. To display Help in high contrast (if your computer's operating system supports this), choose one of the high-contrast style sheets from the list. For Windows XP, the high-contrast style options are as described below.

High-contrast style Visual effect
Default Black text on white background
High Contrast #1 Yellow text on black background
High Contrast #2 Green text on black background
High Contrast Black White text on black background
High Contrast White Black text on white background


Open/Save dialogs

To use the standard Open and Save dialogs for your operating system, deselect the Use OpenOffice.org dialogs checkbox. When this checkbox is selected, the Open and Save dialogs supplied with OpenOffice.org will be used. See Chapter 3 (File Management) (in the Getting Started guide for more about the OOo Open and Save dialogs.

Document status

Choose whether printing a document counts as changing the document. If this option is selected, then the next time you close the document after printing, the print date is recorded in the document properties as a change and you will be prompted to save the document again, even if you did not make any other changes.

Year (two digits)

Specifies how two-digit years are interpreted. For example, if the two-digit year is set to 1930, and you enter a date of 1/1/30 or later into your document, the date is interpreted as 1/1/1930 or later. An “earlier" date is interpreted as being in the following century; that is, 1/1/20 is interpreted as 1/1/2020.

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Memory options

  1. In the Options dialog, click OpenOffice.org > Memory.
  2. On the OpenOffice.org - Memory dialog:
    • More memory can make OpenOffice.org faster and more convenient (for example, more undo steps require more memory); but the trade-off is less memory available for other applications and you could run out of memory altogether.
    • To load the Quickstarter (an icon on the desktop or in the system tray) when you start your computer, select the checkbox near the bottom of the dialog. This makes OpenOffice.org start faster; the trade-off is OOo uses some memory even when not being used. This option (called "Enable systray quickstarter") is disabled in some Linux installations.
Choosing Memory options for the OpenOffice.org applications.

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View options

The choices of View options affect the way the document window looks and behaves.

  1. In the Options dialog, click OpenOffice.org > View.
  2. On the OpenOffice.org - View page, set the options to suit your personal preferences. Some options are described below.
Choosing View options for the OpenOffice.org applications.

User Interface - Scaling

If the text in the help files and on the menus of the OOo user interface is too small or too large, it can be changed by specifying a scaling factor. Sometimes a change here can have unexpected results, depending on the screen fonts available on your system. It does not affect the actual font size of the text.

User Interface - Icon size and style

The first box specifies the display size of toolbar icons (Automatic, Small, or Large); the Automatic icon size option uses the setting for your operating system. The second box specifies the icon set (theme); here the Automatic option uses an icon set compatible with your operating system and choice of desktop: for example, KDE or Gnome on Linux.

User Interface - Use system font for user interface

If you prefer to use the system font (the default font for your computer and operating system), instead of the font provided by OOo, for the user interface, select this checkbox.

User interface - Screen font antialiasing

(Not available in Windows, so not shown in Figure 4.) Select this checkbox to smooth the screen appearance of text. Enter the smallest font size to apply antialiasing.

Menu - icons in menus

Select this option if you want icons as well as words to be visible in menus.

Font Lists - Show preview of fonts

When you select this option, the font list looks like the left picture below, with the font names shown as an example of the font; with the checkbox deselected, the font list shows only the font names, not their formatting (right picture). The fonts you will see listed are those that are installed on your system.

Font list showing preview
Font list without preview

Font Lists - Show font history

When you select this option, the last five fonts you have assigned to the current document are displayed at the top of the font list.

3D view - Use OpenGL

Specifies that all 3D graphics from OpenOffice.org Draw and OpenOffice.org Impress will be displayed in your system using OpenGL-capable hardware. If your system does not have OpenGL-capable hardware, this setting will be ignored.

3D view – Use OpenGL – Optimized output

Select this option for optimized OpenGL output. Disable the optimization in case of graphical errors of 3D output.

3D view – Use dithering

The Use dithering option uses dithering to display more colors with few colors available. Dithering creates the illusion of new colors and shades by varying the pattern of color pixels. Varying the patterns of black and white dots, for instance, produces different shades of gray.

Documentation note.png Internally, 3-D graphics are always created with 16 million colors (24-bit color depth). They are used to dither portrayals with fewer colors. Without dithering, several bits of color information are omitted, making the grading distinctly visible. The fewer colors available, the poorer the quality.

3D view – Object refresh during interaction

Specifies that if you rotate or move a 3-D object, the full display is rotated or moved and not a grid frame.

Tip.png Press Shift+Control+R to restore or refresh the view of the current document.


Mouse positioning

Specifies if and how the mouse pointer will be positioned in newly opened dialog boxes.

Middle mouse button

Defines the function of the middle mouse button.

  • Automatic scrolling - dragging while pressing the middle mouse button shifts the view.
  • Paste clipboard - pressing the middle mouse button inserts the contents of the “Selection clipboard" at the cursor position.

The “Selection clipboard" is independent of the normal clipboard that you use by Edit > Copy/Cut/Paste or their respective keyboard shortcuts. Clipboard and “Selection clipboard" can contain different contents at the same time.

Function Clipboard Selection clipboard
Copy content Edit > Copy Control+C Select text, table, or object.
Paste content Edit > Paste Control+V pastes at the cursor position. Clicking the middle mouse button pastes at the mouse pointer position.
Pasting into another document No effect on the clipboard contents. The last marked selection is the content of the selection clipboard.

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Print options

Set the print options to suit your default printer and your most common printing method. You can change these settings at any time, either through this dialog or during the printing process (by clicking the Options button on the Print dialog).

  1. In the Options dialog, click OpenOffice.org > Print.
  2. On the OpenOffice.org - Print dialog, look at the Printer warnings section near the bottom.
  3. Here you can choose whether to be warned if the paper size or orientation specified in your document does not match the paper size or orientation available for your printer. Having these warnings turned on can be quite helpful, particularly if you work with documents produced by people in other countries where the standard paper size is different from yours.
Tip.png If your printouts are coming out incorrectly placed on the page or chopped off at the top, bottom, or sides, or the printer is refusing to print, the most likely cause is page size incompatibility.


Choosing general printing options to apply to all OOo components.

Path options

You can change the location of files associated with, or used by, OpenOffice.org to suit your working situation. In a Windows system, for example, you might want to store documents by default somewhere other than My Documents.

  1. In the Options dialog, click OpenOffice.org > Paths.
  2. To make changes, select an item in the list shown in the figure below and click Edit. On the Select Paths dialog (not shown), add or delete folders as required, and then click OK to return to the Options dialog. Note that many items have at least two paths listed: one to a shared folder (which might be on a network) and one to a user-specific folder (normally on the user's personal computer).
Tip.png You can use the entries in the OpenOffice.org - Paths dialog to compile a list of files, such as those containing AutoText, that you need to back up or copy to another computer.


Viewing the paths of files used by OpenOffice.org.

Color options

In the OpenOffice.org - Colors dialog, you can specify colors to use in OOo documents. You can select a color from a color table, edit an existing color, or define new colors. These colors will then be available in color selection palettes in OOo.

Defining colors to use in color palettes in OOo.

Font options

You can define replacements for any fonts that might appear in your documents. If you receive from someone else a document containing fonts that you do not have on your system, OpenOffice.org will substitute fonts for those it does not find. You might prefer to specify a different font from the one the program chooses.

  1. In the Options dialog, click OpenOffice.org > Fonts.
  2. On the OpenOffice.org - Fonts dialog:
    • Select the Apply Replacement Table checkbox.
    • Select or type the name of the font to be replaced in the Font box. (If you do not have this font on your system, it will not appear in the drop-down list in this box, so you need to type it in.)
    • In the Replace with box, select a suitable font from the drop-down list of fonts installed on your computer.
  3. The checkmark to the right of the Replace with box turns green. Click on this checkmark. A row of information now appears in the larger box below the input boxes. Select the checkboxes under Always and Screen.
  4. In the bottom section of the dialog, you can change the typeface and size of the font used to display source code such as HTML and Basic (in macros).
Defining a font to be substituted for another font.

Security options

Use the OpenOffice.org - Security page to choose security options for saving documents and for opening documents that contain macros.

Choosing security options for opening and saving documents.

Security options and warnings

If you record changes, save multiple versions, or include hidden information or notes in your documents, and you do not want some of the recipients to see that information, you can set warnings to remind you to remove this information, or you can have OOo remove some information automatically. Note that (unless removed) much of this information is retained in a file whether the file is in OpenOffice.org’s default OpenDocument format, or has been saved to other formats, including PDF.

Click the Options button to open a separate dialog with specific choices.

Security options and warnings dialog

Remove personal information on saving. Select this checkbox to always remove user data from the file properties when saving the file. To manually remove personal information from specific documents, clear this checkbox and then use the Delete button under File > Properties > General.

Ctrl-click required to follow hyperlinks. In older versions of OOo, clicking on a hyperlink in a document opened the linked document. Now you can choose whether to keep this behavior (by unchecking this box). Many people find creation and editing of documents easier when accidental clicks on links do not activate the links.

The other options on this dialog should be self-explanatory.

Macro security

Click the Macro Security button to open the Macro Security dialog (not shown here), where you can adjust the security level for executing macros and specify trusted sources.

File sharing options for this document

Select the Open this document in read-only mode checkbox to restrict this document to be opened in read-only mode only. This option protects the document against accidental changes. It is still possible to edit a copy of the document and save that copy with the same name as the original.

Select the Record changes checkbox to enable recording changes. This is the same as Edit - Changes – Record. To allow other users of this document to apply changes, but prevent them from disabling change recording, click the Protect button and enter a password.

Appearance options

Writing, editing, and page layout are often easier to do when you can see as much as possible of what is going on in your document. You may wish to make visible such items as text, table, and section boundaries (in Writer documents), page breaks in Calc, and grid lines in Draw or Writer. In addition, you might prefer different colors (from OOo's defaults) for such items as note indicators or field shadings.

On the OpenOffice.org - Appearance page, you can specify which items are visible and the colors used to display various items.

  1. In the Options dialog, click OpenOffice.org > Appearance.
  2. To show or hide items such as text boundaries, select or deselect the checkboxes next to the names of the items.
  3. To change the default colors for items, click the down-arrow in the Color Setting column by the name of the item and select a color from the pop-up box.
  4. To save your color changes as a color scheme, type a name in the Scheme box and click Save.
Showing or hiding text, object, and table boundaries.

Accessibility options

Accessibility options include whether to allow animated graphics or text, how long help tips remain showing, some options for high contrast display, and a way to change the font for the user interface of the OpenOffice.org program.

Accessibility support relies on Sun Microsystems Java technology for communications with assistive technology tools. See Java options. The "Support assistive technology tools" option is not shown on all OOo installations. See "Assistive Tools in OpenOffice.org" in the Help for other requirements and information.

  1. In the Options dialog, click OpenOffice.org > Accessibility.
  2. Select or deselect the options as required.
Choosing accessibility options.

Java options

If you install or update a Java Runtime Environment (JRE) after you install OpenOffice.org, or if you have more than one JRE installed on your computer, you can use the Java options page to choose the JRE for OOo to use.

If you are a system administrator, programmer, or other person who customizes JRE installations, you can use the Parameters and Class Path pages (reached from the Java page) to specify this information.

  1. In the Options dialog, click OpenOffice.org > Java.
  2. If you do not see anything listed in the middle of the page, wait a few minutes while OOo searches for JREs on the hard disk.
  3. If OOo finds one or more JREs, it will display them there. You can then select the Use a Java runtime environment checkbox and (if necessary) choose one of the JREs listed.
Choosing a Java runtime environment.

Online Update options

On the Online Update page, you can choose whether and how often to have OOo check the OOo website for program updates. If the Check for updates automatically checkbox is selected, an icon OnlineupdateIcon.png appears at the right-hand end of the menu bar when an update is available. Click this icon to open a dialog where you can choose to download the update.

If the Download updates automatically checkbox is selected, the download starts when you click the icon. To change the download destination, click the Change button and select the required folder in the file browser window.

Configuring Online Update.


Choosing options for Writer

Settings chosen on the pages in the OpenOffice.org Writer section of the Options dialog box determine how your Writer documents look and behave while you are working on them.

  1. If the Options dialog box is not already open, click Tools > Options.
  2. Click the + sign by OpenOffice.org Writer in the left-hand section of the Options - OpenOffice.org dialog box. A list of subsections drops down.

General options

The choices on the OpenOffice.org Writer - General page affect the updating of links and fields, the units used for rulers and other measurements, whether captions are automatically added to selected objects such as tables or figures, paragraph spacing, and tab stop behavior.

  1. Choose OpenOffice.org Writer > General on the Options dialog box (Figure 14).
  2. Keep in mind the following considerations when selecting options on this page.

Figure14
Figure 14: Choosing General options for Writer.

Update links when loading

Depending on your work patterns, you may not want links to be updated when you load a document. For example, if your file links to other files on a network, you won't want those links to update when you are not connected to the network.

Update fields and charts automatically

You may not want fields or charts to update automatically when you are working, because that slows down performance.

Settings – Tab stops

The Tab stops setting is also used for the indent distance applied by the Increase Indent and Decrease Indent buttons on the Formatting Bar.

View options

Two pages of options set the defaults for viewing Writer documents: View and Formatting Aids.

Choose OpenOffice.org Writer > View on the Options dialog box (Figure 15).

If the items on this page are not self-explanatory, you can easily test their effects in a blank document.

This is a good page to check if, for example, you cannot see graphics on the screen or you see field codes instead of the text or numbers you are expecting.

Figure 15
Figure 15: Choosing View options for Writer.

Formatting Aids options

The display of symbols such as paragraph ends and tabs help you when writing, editing, and doing page layout. For example, you might want to know if any blank paragraphs or tabs are included or if any tables or graphics are too wide and intrude into the margins of the page.

On the OpenOffice.org Writer - Formatting Aids page (Figure 16), select the required checkboxes.

Figure 16
Figure 16: Choosing Formatting Aids options.

Notes: Direct cursor lets you enter text, images, tables, frames, and other objects in any blank area in your document. OOo inserts blank paragraphs and tabs to position the text or objects. This feature is incompatible with rigorous use of styles and can lead to many formatting oddities, so it should be avoided by professional writers.

The AutoCorrect tool automatically removes empty paragraphs, tabs, and spaces that are inserted by the direct cursor. If you want to use the direct cursor, then disable the AutoCorrect tool.

Grid options for Writer

Specifying "snap to grid" can be very helpful when you are trying to align several objects such as graphics or tables. If the grid intervals (subdivisions) are too large, you may find that you do not have enough control in placing the objects.

On the OpenOffice.org Writer - Grid page (Figure 17), you can choose whether to enable this feature and what grid intervals to use.

Figure 17
Figure 17: Choosing Grid options for Writer.

Default fonts for Writer

The default fonts specified on the OpenOffice.org Writer - Basic Fonts (Western) page apply to both Writer documents and HTML (Web) documents.

  1. If you want to change the defaults, do so on the OpenOffice.org Writer - Basic Fonts (Western) page (Figure 18). You can, of course, choose other fonts for use in specific documents, either by applying direct formatting or by defining and applying styles in those documents.
  2. When choosing fonts on this page, you are not limited to single fonts or to the ones shown in the drop-down list. You can specify a “font family"as a set of fonts that includes those suitable for Windows, Macintosh, Linux, and other operating systems. These choices are particularly important in HTML documents.
  3. If the document is viewed on a system that does not have the first font specified, it will use one of the other fonts if that one is available. Otherwise, it will substitute a font that is available on the system.
  4. Type the list of fonts, separated by commas, in the boxes. If you want these defaults to apply to the current document only, select that checkbox. The Default button resets the values on this page to the defaults installed with OpenOffice.org.

Figure 18
Figure 18: Choosing default fonts.

Print options for Writer

On the OpenOffice.org Writer - Print page (Figure 19), you can choose which items are printed with the document by default. These options are in addition to those on the OpenOffice.org - Print page (Figure 6).

Some considerations:

  • When you are working on drafts and you want to save printer ink or toner, you might want to deselect some of the items in the Contents section.
  • The Print black selection causes color text (but not graphics) to print as black on a color printer; on a black-and-white printer, this option causes color text to print as solid black instead of shades of gray (dithered).
  • Contrast Print black with Convert colors to grayscale on the Options - OpenOffice.org - Print page (Figure 5), which prints all graphics as grayscale on color printers. (On black-and-white printers, color in graphics normally prints as grayscale.)
  • If you are printing double-sided on a non-duplexing printer, you might choose to print only left or right pages, then turn the stack over and print the other pages.
  • Depending on how your printer ejects pages (face up or face down), you might need to print the pages in reverse order so they stack in the correct order as they are printed.

Tip: You can override any of these defaults when printing a document. Click File > Print, then click the Options button on the Print dialog box. The Printer Options dialog box that appears is similar to the one shown in Figure 12.

Figure 19
Figure 19: Choosing Print options for Writer.

Default table options for Writer

On the OpenOffice.org Writer - Table page (Figure 20), you can specify the default table behavior.

Some considerations:

  • If most of your tables will require borders or headings, select those checkboxes. If most of your tables are used for page layout, deselect borders and headings.
  • Number recognition can be very useful if most of your tables contain numerical data; Writer will recognize dates or currency, for example, and format the numbers appropriately. However, if you want the numbers to remain as ordinary text, this feature can be quite irritating, so you will want to deselect it.
  • The Keyboard handling section specifies the distances that cells move when you use keyboard shortcuts to move them and the size of rows and columns inserted using keyboard shortcuts.
  • The choices in the Behavior of rows/columns section determine the effects that changes to rows or columns have on adjacent rows or columns and the entire table. You might need to test these selections to fully understand the effects.

Figure 20
Figure 20: Choosing default Table options for Writer.

Change tracking options

If you plan to use the change-tracking feature of Writer, use the OpenOffice.org Writer - Changes page (Figure 21) to choose the way inserted and deleted material is marked, whether and how attribute changes are marked, and whether and how change bars are marked in the margins.

Figure 21
Figure 21: Choosing options for tracking changes.

Compatibility options for Writer

Do you need to import Microsoft Word documents into OOo Writer? If so, you might want to select some or all of the settings on the OpenOffice.org Writer - Compatibility page (Figure 22). If you are not sure about the effects of these settings, leave them as the defaults provided by OOo. For information about the settings not described below, see the Help. Figure 22
Figure 22: Choosing Compatibility options for Writer.

Use printer metrics for document formatting

If this checkbox is selected, the printer specified for the document determines how the document is formatted for viewing on screen. The line breaks and paragraph breaks you see on screen match those that apply when the document is printed on that printer.

This setting can be useful when several people are reviewing a document that will eventually be printed on a specific printer or when the document is exported to PDF (a process that uses “Adobe PDF" as the printer).

If this checkbox is not selected, a printer-independent layout will be used for screen display and printing.

Add spacing between paragraphs and tables (in current document)

In OpenOffice.org Writer, paragraph spacing is defined differently than it is in MS Word documents. If you have defined spacing between two paragraphs or tables, spacing is also added in the corresponding MS Word documents.

If this checkbox is selected, MS Word-compatible spacing is added between paragraphs and tables in OpenOffice.org Writer documents.

Add paragraph and table spacing at tops of pages (in current document)

You can define paragraphs to have space appear before (above) them. If this checkbox is selected, any space above a paragraph will also appear if the paragraph is at the beginning of a page or column, if the paragraph is positioned on the first page of the document, or after a manual page break.

If you import an MS Word document, the spaces are automatically added during the conversion.

Add paragraph and table spacing at bottom of table cells

Specifies that the bottom spacing is added to a paragraph, even when it is the last paragraph in a table cell.

Use as Default button

Click this button to use the current settings on this page as the default in OpenOffice.org.

AutoCaption options

Do you want OOo to automatically insert captions for tables, pictures, frames, and OLE objects that have been inserted in a Writer document?

Note: You may not always want captions for every table, for example, if you use tables for layout as well as for tables of data. You can always add captions to individual tables, graphics, or other objects (right-click > Caption).

If you do want automatic captions on one or more object types:

  1. Choose OpenOffice.org Writer > AutoCaption on the Options dialog box.
  2. On the OpenOffice.org Writer - AutoCaption page (Figure 23), select the checkbox next to an object you want to be automatically captioned (Picture in the example shown).
  3. With the item highlighted, specify the characteristics of the caption. The supplied categories for captions are Drawing, Illustration, Table, and Text. However, you are not limited to the supplied categories. If you want to use another name (for example, Figure) for the caption label, type the required term in the box. In the example shown, I have added the category "Figure" to the list.

Figure 23
Figure 23: Setting up a new category for automatic captions on graphics.

For more information about numbering captions by chapter, character styles, frame styles, and other items on the AutoCaption page, see other chapters in the Writer Guide.

Mail Merge E-mail options

You can produce form letters using Writer and then use the mail merge function to personalize those letters and send them to a number of addresses taken from a data source, such as an address book. Mail merged documents can be printed and mailed, or you can send them by e-mail.

Use the Options - OpenOffice.org Writer - Mail Merge E-mail page (Figure 24) to set up the user and server information for sending form letters by e-mail. If you are not sure what information to put in any of the fields, consult your e-mail program or your Internet service provider.

Figure 24
Figure 24:

Choosing language settings

You may need to do several things to set the language settings to what you want:

  • Install the required dictionaries
  • Change some locale and language settings
  • Choose spelling options

Install the required dictionaries

OpenOffice.org 2.0 automatically installs several dictionaries with the program. To add other dictionaries, use File > Wizards > Install new dictionaries.


Change some locale and language settings

You can change some details of the locale and language settings that OOo uses for all documents or for specific documents.

  1. In the Options dialog box, click Language Settings > Languages.
  2. On the right-hand side of the Language Settings - Languages page (Figure 18), change the Locale setting, Default currency, and Default languages for documents as required. In the example, English (Australia) has been chosen as the locale, and the Australian dollar (AUD) for the currency. Although an English (Australia) dictionary exists, the English (UK) dictionary has been selected as the default language.
  3. If you want the language (dictionary) setting to apply to the current document only, instead of being the default for all new documents, select the checkbox labeled For the current document only.
  4. If necessary, select the checkboxes to enable support for Asian languages (Chinese, Japanese, Korean) and support for CTL (complex text layout) languages such as Hindi, Thai, Hebrew, and Arabic. If you choose either of these checkboxes, the next time you open this page, you will see some extra choices under Language Settings, as shown in Figure 19. These choices (Searching in Japanese, Asian Layout, and Complex Text Layout) are not discussed here.
  5. Click OK to save your changes and close the dialog box.

Note: If you need to use non-Western languages, and especially if you need to use more than one non-Western language in the same document, refer to the tutorial, “OOo in a Multi-Lingual Environment."

inline:Frame13.png
inline:Frame26.png

Choose spelling options

To choose the options for checking spelling:

  1. In the Options dialog box, click Language Settings > Writing Aids.
  2. In the Options section of the Language Settings - Writing Aids page (Figure 20), choose the settings that are useful for you. Some considerations:
    • If you don't want spelling checked while you type, deselect Check spelling as you type and select Do not mark errors. (To find the second item, scroll down in the Options list.)
    • If you use a custom dictionary that includes words in all uppercase and words with numbers (for example, AS/400), select Check uppercase words and Check words with numbers.
    • Check special regions includes headers, footers, frames, and tables when checking spelling.
    • Here, you can also check which of the user-defined (custom) dictionaries are active, or you can add or remove dictionaries by clicking the New or Delete buttons.
inline:Frame12.png

Controlling Writer’s AutoCorrect functions

Some people find some or all of the items in Writer's AutoCorrect feature annoying because they change what you type when you don't want it changed. Many people find some of the AutoCorrect functions quite helpful; if you do, then select the relevant checkboxes. But if you find unexplained changes appearing in your document, this is a good place to look to find the cause.

To open the AutoCorrect dialog box, click Tools > AutoCorrect/AutoFormat. (You need to have a document open for this menu item to appear.)

In Writer, this dialog box has five tabs, as shown in Figure 21.

inline:Frame14.png


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