Creating Your First Document
The word processor is one of the core applications for almost every type of computer user. Whether you’re writing a novel, report, dissertation, or just a shopping list, a decent word processor, such as Writer, is a good thing to have around. At its most basic, you can launch Writer, click into the work area, and begin typing. Words will appear on the screen within a representation of your page, and these can be highlighted (click and drag across your selection with the mouse) and then adjusted in a variety of ways using the Formatting toolbar. The options on the Formatting toolbar (from left to write) allow you to apply a style to the text (we’ll cover these later); change the font and size; make the text appear bold, italic, or underlined; change the alignment; create a list; change the indentation of the paragraph; or adjust the color or highlighting of the text.
The word processor is one of the core applications for almost every type of computer user. Whether you’re writing a novel, report, dissertation, or just a shopping list, a decent word processor, such as Writer, is a good thing to have around. At its most basic, you can launch Writer, click into the work area, and begin typing. Words will appear on the screen within a representation of your page, and these can be highlighted (click and drag across your selection with the mouse) and then adjusted in a variety of ways using the Formatting toolbar. The options on the Formatting toolbar (from left to write) allow you to apply a style to the text (we’ll cover these later); change the font and size; make the text appear bold, italic, or underlined; change the alignment; create a list; change the indentation of the paragraph; or adjust the color or highlighting of the text.
Your first project is based on producing a letterhead for a small business or solo trader. You’ll add a small graphical flourish, the essential address details, a space for a reference number, and a footer. After the design is satisfactory, you’ll save the whole thing as a template for use the next time you need to write a letter.
Create the Page
To begin, launch the application by either selecting the Start Center or Writer from the Start menu. The former launches a new window containing icons for each of the individual applications—choose Writer to get started—whereas the latter takes you straight to the application itself. Either way, a new document is displayed onscreen using a default page size and margins setup.
To begin, launch the application by either selecting the Start Center or Writer from the Start menu. The former launches a new window containing icons for each of the individual applications—choose Writer to get started—whereas the latter takes you straight to the application itself. Either way, a new document is displayed onscreen using a default page size and margins setup.
The first task is to set up the most fundamental elements of your document, the page size and margins. To do this, choose Format --> Page, and select the Page tab. A number of predefined page sizes (A4, Letter, etc.) are available via the Format drop- down list, and you can also define a new page size using the Height and Width options (see Figure 1-11). Page sizes that are higher than they are wide are Portrait (and will thus be defined as such), and pages that are wider than they are high are Landscape. You can switch these around using the two buttons below the page dimensions. For this document, choose A4.
At the bottom left are the margin values for the page, which can be altered either by clicking on the increase/decrease arrows or by simply typing new numbers in the spaces. You can also use the Tab key to move from one value to another, which automatically highlights the next number ready for editing. For this document, use 2.54cm all round, as this equates to about an inch.
Next move onto the Layout settings, where you can set up how the pages will be displayed, that is, as either a series of left or right pages, right and left (as in a book or magazine), or mirrored. The two first options are good for single- sided short documents or individual pages; with Right and Left, you can set master objects such as page headers 12 CHAPTER 1 --> WRITER: BASIC DOCUMENTS and footers independently for left and right pages. Finally, the Mirror option allows you to design on one side and have those changes mirrored on the opposite page.
For example, a page number that appears on the left edge of the left page appears on the right edge of the right page. Because this is a simple letter, choose Only Right from the list. The Format option defines how automatic page numbers will be displayed when added to a document. The choices are pretty straightforward.
The final option of interest in this dialog box is the Register- true check box. This is a typographical tool that attempts to line up the text on both sides of a page so the reader doesn’t see the shadow of the back side when reading the front side. When you select Register- true, the text style chosen in the drop- down list will be anchored to a grid on the page regardless of its size. This can be problematic on simple documents, so ignore that for now.
The final option of interest in this dialog box is the Register- true check box. This is a typographical tool that attempts to line up the text on both sides of a page so the reader doesn’t see the shadow of the back side when reading the front side. When you select Register- true, the text style chosen in the drop- down list will be anchored to a grid on the page regardless of its size. This can be problematic on simple documents, so ignore that for now.
Many other options are available in the Page Style dialog box, which you’ll learn about in Chapter 3.
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