Using Document Properties

Apache OpenOffice 4.1 Calc Guide

Chapter 1: Introducing Calc

< Previous Section

Next Section >

• What is Calc?
• Spreadsheets, Sheets, and Cells
• Parts of the Main Calc Window
  • Menu Bar
  • Toolbars
    • Displaying or Hiding Toolbars
    • Palettes and Tear-off Toolbars
    • Moving Toolbars
    • Docking/Floating Windows and Toolbars
    • Customizing Toolbars
    • Formatting Toolbar
  • Formula Bar
  • Sidebar
  • Right-click (Context) Menus
  • Individual Cells
  • Sheet Tabs
  • Status Bar
• Starting New Spreadsheets
  • Starting a New Document from a Template
• Opening Existing Spreadsheets
• Opening CSV Files
• Saving Spreadsheets
  • Saving as a Microsoft Excel Document
  • Saving as a CSV File
  • Saving in Other Formats
• Password Protection
• Navigating within Spreadsheets
  • Going to a Particular Cell
  • Moving from Cell to Cell
    • Customizing the Effects of the Enter Key
  • Moving from Sheet to Sheet
• Selecting Items in a Sheet or Spreadsheet
  • Selecting Cells
  • Selecting Columns and Rows
  • Selecting Sheets
• Working with Columns and Rows
  • Inserting Columns and Rows
  • Deleting Columns and Rows
• Working with Sheets
  • Inserting New Sheets
  • Deleting Sheets
  • Renaming Sheets
• Viewing Calc
  • Using Zoom
  • Freezing Rows and Columns
  • Splitting the Screen
    • Splitting the Screen Horizontally
    • Splitting the Screen Vertically
    • Removing Split Views
• Using the Navigator
  • Moving Quickly through a Document
  • Choosing a Drag Mode
• Using Document Properties

< Previous Page

Next Page >

Using Document Properties

To open the Properties dialog for a document, choose File → Properties.

The Properties dialog has six tabs. The information on the General tab and the Statistics tab is generated by the program. Other information (the name of the person on the Created and Modified lines of the General tab) is derived from the User Data page in Tools → Options.

The Internet tab is relevant only to HTML documents. The file sharing options on the Security tab are discussed elsewhere in this book.

Use the Description and Custom Properties pages to hold:

• Metadata to assist in classifying, sorting, storing, and retrieving documents. Some of this metadata is exported to the closest equivalent in HTML and PDF; some fields have no equivalent and are not exported.
• Information that changes. You can store data for use in fields in your document; for example, the title of the document, contact information for a project participant, or the name of a product might change during the course of a project.

This dialog can be used in a template, where the field names can serve as reminders to users of information they need to include.

You can return to this dialog at any time and change the information you entered. When you do so, all the references to that information will change wherever they appear in the document. For example, on the Description tab (Figure 33) you might need to change the contents of the Title field from the draft title to the final title.

Figure 33: The Description page of the document’s Properties dialog

Use the Custom Properties tab (Figure 34) to store information that does not fit into the fields supplied on the other pages of this dialog box.

Figure 34: Custom Properties page, showing drop-down lists of names and types

When the Custom Properties tab is first opened in a new document, it may be blank. However, if the new document is based on a template, this page may contain fields. Click Add to insert a row of boxes into which you can enter your custom properties.

• The Name box includes a drop-down list of typical choices; scroll down to see all the choices. If none of the choices meet your needs, you can type a new name into the box.
• In the Type column, you can choose from text, date+time, date, number, duration, or yes/no for each field. You cannot create new types.
• In the Value column, type or select what you want to appear in the document where this field is used. Choices may be limited to specific data types depending on the selection in the Type column; for example, if the Type selection is Date, the Value for that property is limited to a date.

To remove a custom property, click the button at the end of the row.

To change the format of the Date value, go to Tools → Options → Languages and change the Locale setting. Be careful! This change affects all open documents, not just the current one.