UNIT 1: DIGITAL DOCUMENTATION (ADVANCED)

SESSION 1: CREATE AND APPLY STYLES IN THE DOCUMENT

SESSION 2: INSERT AND USE IMAGES

SESSION 3: CREATE AND USE TEMPLATE

SESSION 4: CREATE AND CUSTOMIZE TABLE OF CONTENTS

SESSION 5: IMPLEMENT MAIL MERGE

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SESSION 1: CREATE AND APPLY STYLES IN THE DOCUMENT
A style is a set of formats that you can apply to selected pages, text, frames, and other
elements in your document to quickly change their appearance. When you apply a
style, you apply a whole group of formats at the same time.

Styles are logical attributes. Using styles means that you stop saying “font size 14pt,
Times New Roman, bold, centered”, and you start saying “Title” because you have
defined the “Title” style to have those characteristics. In other words, styles mean that
you shift the emphasis from what the text (or page, or other element) looks like, to
what the text is.
Styles help improve consistency in a document. They also make major formatting
changes easy. For example, you may decide to change the indentation of all
paragraphs, or change the font of all titles. For a long document, this simple task can
be prohibitive. Styles make the task easy.
OpenOffice.org supports the following types of styles:
• Page styles include margins, headers and footers, borders and backgrounds. In
Calc, page styles also include the sequence for printing sheets.
• Paragraph styles control all aspects of a paragraph’s appearance, such as text
alignment, tab stops, line spacing, and borders, and can include character
formatting.
• Character styles affect selected text within a paragraph, such as the font and size
of text, or bold and italic formats.
• Frame styles are used to format graphic and text frames, including wrapping type,
borders, backgrounds, and columns.
• Numbering styles apply similar alignment, numbering or bullet characters, and
fonts to numbered or bulleted lists.
• Cell styles include fonts, alignment, borders, background, number formats (for
example, currency, date, number), and cell protection.
• Graphics styles in drawings and presentations include line, area, shadowing,
transparency, font, connectors, dimensioning, and other attributes.

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 • Presentation styles include attributes for font, indents, spacing, alignment, and
tabs.

Applying styles
OpenOffice.org provides several ways for you to select styles to apply.

Using the Styles and Formatting window

1) Click the Styles and Formatting icon located at the left-hand end of the object
bar, or click Format > Styles and Formatting, or press F11.
The Styles and Formatting window shows the types of styles available for the
OpenOffice (OpenOffice.org) component you are using.
Figure 1.1 shows the window for Writer, with Page Styles visible.

Figure1.1: The Styles and Formatting window for Writer, showing paragraph styles

You can move this window to a convenient position on the screen or dock it to an edge
(hold down the Ctrl key and drag it by the title bar to where you want it docked).
2) Click on one of the icons at the top left of the Styles and Formatting window to display
a list of styles in a particular category.
3) To apply an existing style (except for character styles), position the insertion point in
the paragraph, frame, or page, and then double-click on the name of the style in one
of these lists. To apply a character style, select the characters first.

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Using Fill Format mode
Fill format mode is used to apply a style to many different areas quickly without having
to go back to the Styles and Formatting window and double-click every time. This
method is quite useful when you need to format many scattered paragraphs, cells, or
other items with the same style.
1) Open the Styles and Formatting window and select the style you want to apply.

2) Click the Fill Format mode icon .

3) To apply a paragraph, page, or frame style, hover the mouse over the paragraph,
page, or frame and click. To apply a character style, hold down the mouse button
while selecting the characters, clicking on a word applies the character style for that
word. Repeat step 3 until you made all the changes for that style.
4) To quit Fill Format mode, click the Fill Format mode icon again or press the Esc
key. An important point to note here is that when this mode is active, a right-click
anywhere in the document undoes the last Fill Format action. Be careful not to
accidentally right click and thus undo actions you want to keep.

Creating New (Custom) Styles

You may want to add some new styles. You can do this in two ways:

Creating a new style from a selection

You can create a new style by copying an existing manual format. This new style
applies only to this document; it will not be saved in the template.
1. Open the Styles and Formatting window and choose the type of style you want to
create.
2. In the document, select the item you want to save as a style.
3. In the Styles and Formatting window, click on the New Style from Selection icon
(refer Figure 1.2).

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 Figure 1.2: Naming a new style created from a selection

4. In the Create Style dialog, type a name for the new style. The list shows the names
of existing custom styles of the selected type. Click OK to save the new style.

Dragging And Dropping To Create A Style

You can drag and drop a text selection into the Styles and Formatting window to create
a new style.
Select some text and drag it to the Styles and Formatting window. If Paragraph Styles
are active, the paragraph style will be added to the list. If Character Styles are active,
the character style will be added to the list.

Modifying Styles
OpenOffice.org provides several ways to modify styles (both the predefined styles and
custom styles that you create):
• Updating a style from a selection
• Load or copy styles from another document or template

Any changes you make to a style are effective only in the current document. To change
styles in more than one document, you need to change the template or copy the styles
into the other documents.

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Updating A Style From A Selection

To update a style from a selection:

1. Open the Styles and Formatting window.
2. In the document, select an item that has the format you want to adopt as a style.
3. In the Styles and Formatting window, select the style you want to update (single-
click, not double-click), then long-click on the arrow next to the New Style from
Selection icon and click on Update Style(Refer Figure 1.3).

Figure 1.3: Updating a style from a selection

Loading Styles From A Template Or Document

You can copy styles by loading them from a template or another document:
1. Open the document you want to copy styles into.
2. In the Styles and Formatting window, long-click on the arrow next to the New Style
from Selection icon, and then click on Load Styles.

Figure 1.4. Copying styles from a template into the open document
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3. On the Load Styles dialog (Figure 1.4), find and select the template you want to
copy styles from.
4. Select the categories of styles to be copied. Select Overwrite if you want the styles
being copied to replace any styles of the same names in the document you are
copying them into.
5. Click OK to copy the styles. You will not see any change on screen.

To copy the styles from another document, click the From File button to open a
window from which you can select the required document.

ACTIVITY

1. Write your resume/ Bio Data and apply different styles on it,
2. Create a pamphlet on Cyber Awareness. Apply different styles on it

QUESTIONS

1. What are Styles ?. What are the advantages of using styles

2. Give any four styles supported by OpenOffice.org
3. How can we create our own styles

SESSION 2. INSERT AND USE IMAGES

Relevant Knowledge

Images can be added to a document in several ways: by inserting an image file, directly
from a graphics program or a scanner, or from the Open Office Gallery.

Inserting An Image File

When the image is in a file stored on the computer, you can insert it into an Open
Office document using either of the following methods:

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Drag and Drop
1. Open a file browser window and locate the image you want to insert.
2. Drag the image into the Writer document and drop it where you want it to appear.
A faint vertical line marks where the image will be dropped.
This method embeds (saves a copy of) the image file in the Writer document. To link
the file instead of embedding it, hold down the Control+Shift keys while dragging the
image.

Insert Picture Dialog

1. Click in the Open Office document where you want the image to appear.
2. Choose Insert > Picture > From File from the menu bar.
3. On the Insert Picture dialog (see Figure 1.5), navigate to the file to be inserted,
select it, and click Open.
At the bottom of the dialog are two options, Preview and Link. Select Preview to
view a thumbnail of the selected image on the right, so you can verify that you have
the correct file. See below for the use of Link.

Figure 1.5. Insert picture dialog

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 Inserting An Image From The Clipboard
Using the clipboard, you can copy images into an Open Office document from another
Open Office document and from other programs. To do this:
1. Open both the source document and the target document.
2. In the source document, select the image to be copied.
3. Move the mouse pointer over the selected image and press Control+C to copy the
image to the clipboard.
4. Switch to the target document.
5. Click to place the cursor where the graphic is to be inserted.
6. Press Control+V to insert the image.

If the application from which the graphic was copied is closed before the graphic is
pasted into the target, the image stored on the clipboard could be lost.

Inserting An Image Using A Scanner

If a scanner is connected to your computer, Open Office can call the scanning
application and inserted the scanned item into the Open Office document as an image.
To start this procedure, click where you want the graphic to be inserted and select
Insert > Picture > Scan > Select Source.
Although this practice is quick and easy, it is unlikely to result in a high-quality image
of the correct size. You may get better results by scanned material into a graphics
program and cleaning it up there before inserting the resulting image into Open Office.

Inserting An Image From The Gallery

The Gallery provides a convenient way to group reusable objects such as graphics and
sounds that you can insert into your documents. The Gallery is available in all
components of Open Office. It does not come with many graphics, but you can add
your own pictures or find extensions containing more graphics. To insert a Gallery
image into a Writer document:

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1. To open the Gallery, click on the Gallery icon (located in the right side of the
Standard toolbar) or choose Tools > Gallery from the menu bar.
2. Navigate through the Gallery to find the desired picture.
3. To insert the picture, click and drag it from the Gallery into the Writer document. You
can also right-click on the picture and choose Insert>Copy.
Figure 1.6 shows an example of an image dragged from the Gallery.

Figure 1.6. Inserting an image from the Gallery

By default, the Gallery is docked above the Writer workspace. To expand the Gallery,
position the pointer over the line that divides it from the top of the workspace. When
the pointer changes to parallel lines with arrows, click and drag downward. The
workspace resizes in response.

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To expand the Gallery without affecting the workspace, undock it so it floats over the
workspace. To do so, hold down the Control key and double-click on the upper part
of the Gallery next to the View icons. Double-click in the same area while holding
down the Control key to dock it again (restore it to its position over the workspace).
When the Gallery is docked, to hide it and view the full Writer workspace, click the in
the middle of the thin bar separating the Gallery from the workspace.
To close the Gallery, choose Tools > Gallery to uncheck the Gallery entry, or click
on the Gallery icon again.

Modifying An Image
When you insert a new image, you may need to modify it to suit the document. Here
we will discuss the use of the Picture toolbar, resizing, cropping, and a workaround to
rotate a picture.

Using The Picture Toolbar

When you insert an image or select one already present in the document, the Picture
toolbar appears. You can set it to always be present (View > Toolbars > Picture).
Picture control buttons from the Picture toolbar can also be added to the Standard
Toolbar.
Two other toolbars can be opened from this one: the Graphic Filter toolbar, which can
be torn off and placed elsewhere on the window, and the Color toolbar, which opens
as a separate floating toolbar.
From these three toolbars, you can apply small corrections to the graphic or obtain
special effects.

Graphics mode
You can change color images to grayscale by selecting the image and then selecting
Grayscale from the Graphics mode list.

Flip vertically or horizontally

To flip an image vertically or horizontally, select the image, and then click the relevant
icon.
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Filters
Table 1 provides a short description of the available filters, however the best way to
understand them is to see them in action. Feel free to experiment with the different
filters and filters settings, remembering that you can undo all the changes by pressing
Ctrl+Zor Alt+Backspaceor by selecting Edit > Undo.
Color
Use this toolbar to modify the individual RGB color components of the image (red,
green, blue) as well as the brightness, contrast, and gamma of the image. If the result
is not satisfactory, you can press Ctrl+Z to restore the default values.
Table 1: Graphic filters and their effects
Icon Name Effect
Inverts the color values of a color image or the
Invert
brightness values of a grayscale image.
Smooth Softens the contrast of an image.
Sharpen Increases the contrast of an image.
Remove noise Removes single pixels from an image.
Mimics the effects of too much light in a picture. A
Solarization
further dialog box opens to adjust the parameters.
Simulates the effects of time on a picture. Can be
Aging applied several times. A further dialog box opens to
adjust the aging level.
Makes a picture appear like a painting by reducing
Posterize
the number of colors used.
Pop Art Modifies the picture dramatically.

Charcoal Displays the image as a charcoal sketch.

A dialog box is displayed to adjust the light source
Relief that will create the shadow and, hence, the relief
effect.
Mosaic Joins groups of pixels into a single area of one color.
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Transparency
Modify the percentage value in the Transparency box on the Picture toolbar to make
the image more transparent. This is particularly useful when creating a watermark or
when wrapping the image in the background.

Using The Formatting Toolbar And Picture Dialog

When an image is selected, you can customize some aspects of its appearance using
the tools available on the Formatting toolbar as well as in the dialog that is shown by
right-clicking on the image and selecting Picture. You can, for example, create a
border around the image, selecting style and color; or you can (in the Borders page of
the Picture dialog) add a shadow to the image.

Cropping Images
When you are only interested in a section of the image for the purpose of your
document, you may wish to crop (cut off) parts of it. To start cropping the image, right
click on it and select Picture from the pop-up menu. In the Picture dialog box, select
the Crop page (see Figure 1.7).

Figure 1.7: The options available when cropping a picture

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In the Crop page, you can control the following parameters:
Keep scale / Keep image size

When Keep scale is selected (default), cropping the image does not change the scale
of the picture.
When Keep image size is selected, cropping produces enlargement (for positive
cropping values), shrinking (for negative cropping values), or distortion of the image
so that the image size remains constant.

Left, Right, Top, and Bottom

The image is cropped by the amount entered in these boxes. For example, a value of
3cm in the Left box cuts 3 cm from the left side of the picture.
• When Keep scale is selected, the size of the image also changes, so in this example
the width will be reduced by 3 cm.
• When Keep image size is selected, the remaining part of the image is enlarged
(when you enter positive values for cropping) or shrunk (when you enter negative
values for cropping) so that the width and height of the image remains unchanged.

Width and Height

The Width and Height fields under either Scale or Image size change as you enter
values in the Left, Right, Top, and Bottom fields. Use the thumbnail next to these
fields to determine the correct amount by which to crop.

Resizing an Image
The inserted image might not fit perfectly into the document if it is too big or too small.
In these cases, you can use Writer to resize the image.
1. Click the picture, if necessary, to show the green resizing handles.
2. Position the pointer over one of the green resizing handles. The pointer changes
shape giving a graphical representation of the direction of the resizing.

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3. Click and drag to resize the picture.
4. Release the mouse button when satisfied with the new size.

The corner handles resize both the width and the height of the graphic object
simultaneously, while the other four handles only resize one dimension at a time.

To retain the original proportions of the graphic, Shift+click one of the corner handles,
then drag. Be sure to release the mouse button before releasing the Shift key.

Be aware that re-sizing a bit-mapped (raster) image will adversely affect the
resolution, causing some degree of blurring. It is better to externally size your picture
correctly before insertion into your presentation, if possible.
Figure 1.8 shows three examples of an image inserted into a document and resized.

Figure 1.8. Three examples of resized images, plus the original image

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For more accurate resizing, use either the Crop page of the Picture dialog box (Figure
1.7) or, for images, the Type page of the Picture dialog box. On the Crop page you
can adjust the following settings:
 Scale Width and Height: specify in percentages the scaling of the picture. The size
of the image changes accordingly. For a scaled resizing, both values should be
identical.
 Image size: specify the size of the image in your preferred unit of measurement.
The image enlarges or shrinks accordingly.
 Original size button: when clicked, restores the image to its original size.
In the Type page of the Picture dialog box, select the Relative option to toggle
between percentage and actual dimension. For a scaled resizing, select the Keep ratio
option. As for the Crop page, clicking on the Original Size button restores the original
image size.

Rotating a Picture
Writer does not provide a tool for rotating a picture; however, there is a simple
workaround:
1. Open a new Draw or Impress document (File > New > Drawing or File > New >
Presentation).
2. Insert the image you want to rotate. You can use any of the mechanisms described
in “Error! Reference source not found.” on page Error! Bookmark not
defined., although there are some slight variations in the position of the menu
entries and icons.
3. Select the image, then in the Drawing toolbar (shown by default at the bottom of

the window in Impress and Draw), select the Rotate icon from the Effects tear-
off toolbar .
4. Rotate the image as desired. Use the red handles at the corners of the picture and
move the mouse in the direction you wish to rotate. By default the picture rotates
around its center (indicated by a black crosshair), but you can change the pivot
point by moving the black crosshair to the desired rotation center.
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 To restrict the rotation angle to multiples of 15 degrees keep the Shift key pressed
while rotating the image.
5. Select the rotated picture by pressing Ctrl+A, then copy the image to the clipboard
with Ctrl+C.
6. Finish by going back to the location of the Writer document where the image is to
be inserted and pressing Ctrl+V.

Creating Drawing Objects

To begin using the drawing tools, display the Drawing toolbar (Figure 1.9), by clicking
View > Toolbars > Drawing.

Figure 1.9. The Drawing toolbar

To use a drawing tool:
1. Click in the document where you want the drawing to be anchored. You can change
the anchor later, if necessary.
2. Select the tool from the Drawing toolbar (Figure 7). The mouse pointer changes to

a drawing-functions pointer .
3. Move the cross-hair pointer to the place in the document where you want the
graphic to appear and then click-and-drag to create the drawing object. Release the
mouse button. The selected drawing function remains active, so you can draw
another object of the same type.
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4. To cancel the selected drawing function, press the Esc key or click on the Select
icon (the arrow) on the Drawing toolbar.
5. You can now change the properties (fill color, line type and weight, anchoring, and
others) of the drawing object using either the Drawing Object Properties toolbar or
the choices and dialog boxes reached by right-clicking on the drawing object.
Set or Change Properties For Drawing Objects

To set the properties for a drawing object before you draw it:

1. On the Drawing toolbar (Figure 9), click the Select tool.

2. On the Drawing Object Properties toolbar (Figure 1.10), click on the icon for each
property and select the value you want for that property.
3. For more control, or to define new attributes, you can click on the Area or Line
icons on the toolbar to display detailed dialog boxes.
The default you set applies to the current document and session. It is not retained when
you close the document or close Writer, and it does not apply to any other document
you open. The defaults apply to all the drawing objects except text objects.

Figure 1.10. Drawing Object Properties toolbar

To change the properties for an existing drawing object:

1. Select the object.
2. Continue as described above.

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You can also specify the position and size, rotation, and slant and corner radius
properties of the drawing object:
1. Right-click on the drawing object and then click Position and Size from the pop-
up menu. The Position and Size dialog box is displayed.
2. Choose any properties, as required.

Resizing a Drawing Object

The same considerations for resizing an image apply also to resizing an object. Select
the object, click on one of the eight handles around it and drag it to its new position.
For a scaled resizing, select one of the corner handles and keep the Shift key pressed
while dragging the handle to its new position.

For more sophisticated control of the size of the object,

 Select Format > Object > Position and Size from the menu bar.
 Use the Position and Size dialog box to set the width and height independently.
 If the Keep ratio option is selected, then the two dimensions change so that the
proportion is maintained, allowing for a scaled resizing.

Grouping Drawing Objects

To group drawing objects:

1. Select one object, then hold down the Shift key and select the others you want to
include in the group. The bounding box expands to include all the selected objects.
2. With the objects selected, hover the mouse pointer over one of the objects and
choose Format > Group > Group from the menu bar or right-click and choose
Group > Group from the pop-up menu.
You cannot include an embedded or linked graphic in a group with drawing objects.

Positioning Image/Graphics Within The Text

When you add a graphic to a text document, you need to choose how to position it
with respect to the text and other graphics. The positioning of graphics is often rather

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time consuming and may be very frustrating for both inexperienced and experienced
users. As Writer is a word processor rather than a desktop publishing program, there
are some limitations to the flexibility in positioning images and it takes time to get
things exactly as you would like them.
Positioning of a graphic is controlled by four settings:
1. Arrangement refers to the placement of a graphic on an imaginary vertical axis.
Arrangement controls how graphics are stacked upon each other or relative to the
text.
2. Alignment refers to the vertical or horizontal placement of a graphic in relation to
the chosen anchor point.
3. Anchoring refers to the reference point for the graphics. This point could be the
page, or frame where the object is, a paragraph, or even a character. An image
always has an anchor point.
4. Text wrapping refers to the relation of graphics to the surrounding text, which may
wrap around the graphic on one or both sides, be overprinted behind or in front of
the graphic, or treat the graphic as a separate paragraph or character.

The settings can be accessed in a number of ways, depending on the nature of the
graphics:

1. From the Format menu, where you can find Alignment, Arrange, Wrap, and
Anchor (both for images and drawing objects).
2. From the pop-up menu displayed when you right-click on the graphic.
3. From the Object toolbar shown in Figure 1.11.
4. For images, from the Type and Wrapping pages of the Picture dialog box. Note
that you cannot control the arrangement using the dialog box. To open the
Picture dialog box, click on the image to select it and then choose Format >
Picture or right-click on the graphic and choose Picture on the pop-up menu.
5. For drawing objects, from the Position and Size page of the Position and Size
dialog box. To open the Position and Size dialog box, click on the drawing
object to select it and then choose Format > Object > Position and Size or right-

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 click on the graphic and choose Position and Size on the pop-up menu. Note
that you can only control the alignment and anchoring.

Figure 1.11. Object toolbar (graphical control of positioning for images)

ACTIVITY
1. Create a New Year card using images
2. Create a Poster on Health and Hygiene
QUESTIONS
1. Explain any four Graphic filters.
2. Explain Image Cropping
3. List any three methods of inserting images in a text document.
4. What do you understand by the terms:
a. Text Wrapping
b. Anchoring

SESSION : 3 CREATE AND USE TEMPLATE

Relevant Knowledge
A template is a model that you use to create other documents. For example, you can
create a template for business reports that has your company’s logo on the first page.
New documents created from this template will all have your company’s logo on the
first page.

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