What is Writer?

What Is Writer?

Writer is the word processor component of Apache OpenOffice. In addition to the usual features of a word processor (spelling check, thesaurus, hyphenation, autocorrect, find and replace, automatic generation of tables of contents and indexes, mail merge and others), Writer provides these important features:

• Templates and styles (see Chapter 2)
• Page layout methods, including frames, columns, and tables
• Embedding or linking of graphics, spreadsheets, and other objects
• Built-in drawing tools
• Master documents to group a collection of documents into a single document
• Change tracking during revisions
• Database integration, including a bibliography database
• Export to PDF, including bookmarks (see Chapter 9)
• And many more

These features are covered in detail in the Writer Guide.

Changing Page Margins

You can change page margins in two ways:

• Using the page rulers—quick and easy, but does not have fine control
• Using the Page Style dialog—can specify margins to two decimal places

If you change the margins using the rulers, the new margins affect the page style and will be shown in the Page Style dialog the next time you open it. Because the page style is affected, the changed margins apply to all pages using that style.

To change margins using the rulers:

1. The gray sections of the rulers are the margins. Put the mouse cursor over the line between the gray and white sections. The pointer turns into a double-headed arrow.
2. Hold down the left mouse button and drag the mouse to move the margin.

Figure 57: Moving the margins

The small arrows on the ruler are used for indenting paragraphs. They are often in the same place as the page margins, so you need to be careful to move the margin marker, not the arrows. Place the mouse pointer between the arrows and, when the pointer turns into a double-headed arrow, you can move the margin (the indent arrows will move with it).

To change margins using the Page Style dialog:

1. Right-click anywhere on the page and select Page from the pop-up menu.
2. On the Page tab of the dialog, type the required distances in the Margins boxes.