Writer Quick Guide

I have just finished the Writer Quick Guide v1.0. This is for users who are new to Writer and can be printed double sides. It is placed at http://openoffice.oscc.org.my for downloading.

Improvements will be made but to be maintained to 2 pages only.

The guide is to assist users who is planning to migrate from MS Office. This starts off with advantages of OOo, comparison of the file extensions, online help and exchanging documents with MS Office users.

Other topics covered:

• Formatting page
• Formatting text
• Saving files as MS Word
• Printing a document
• Layout of Writer
• Rulers and indents
• Templates
• Tables
• Keyboard shortcuts

Looks like as of Feb 2008, MAMPU and Bahagian Matrikulasi of MOE will be among the first users. I have laminated it and handed to students as prize for the pop quiz questions.

Setting default fonts for Writer

There are time when users need to always create documents with default fonts that are different from that of the OpenOffice.org Writer. This example sets the fonts to Arial size 12 for all new Writer documents.

1. Open a new text document (Writer). Click on the Styles and Formatting button in the Formatting Toolbar or press F11.
2. Click Paragraph Styles and right click Default. Select Modify.
3. Choose the Font tab and change the font to Arial and size 12.
4. Press F11 to close Styles and Formatting.
5. Choose File ->Templates ->Save.
1. Categories choose "My Templates"
2. New Template given a name. Example is "MyArial12"
3. Click OK
   
6. Choose File ->Templates ->Organize.
1. Under the Templates column double click "My Templates" and choose "MyArial12".
2. Click Commands button and choose Set As Default Template.
3. Click Close button.

All done! Now Open a new text document and notice that the default size is as we have set.

[OOo] Outlook cant open Office attachments

After a migration to OpenOffice.org it is likely that MS Office is removed. This leaves a problem of existing programs like Outlook that receives Word documents as attachments. When a user tries to open, it gives an error that MS Word is required.
"Cannot load word for windows 6.0 files "

Users can save the attachment then open it with the Windows File Explorer (double click). The same goes for trying to open Excel and PowerPoint files.

A permanent solution is to open the Windows File Explorer (Example: Open My Folder) and at the menu bar click Tools -> Folder Options. Select the File Type tab and search for DOC extension and click the "Change" button. Select swriter and check the box for "Always use the selected program to open this file".

Do the same for XLS, PPT and ony other extensions that require MS Office.

[OOo] Removing border in default Writer

The OOo Writer page by default shows a page with the margin guides. This is really useful for those who need to judge where paragraphs wrap around. However for those who do not like this, it can be removed.

In OOo Writer menu bar click, Tools -> Options
Select OpenOffice.org -> Appearance and uncheck the User Interface Element called "Text Boundaries".