UNIT 1: DIGITAL DOCUMENTATION

INTRODUCTION TO STYLES

Styles

A style is a combination of font effects, colours and background that you can apply on selected pages, text and other elements in your document to quickly change their appearance.

Using styles allows you to:

• Create a consistent document.
• Format a document with minimal effort.
• Quickly change the appearance of the entire document.
• Create a table of content.
• Create an outline view of document.

Styles Categories in Writer (Libre Office Writer)

Writer is style-based software and provides six style categories:

1. Paragraph styles: It can contain formatting information for the entire paragraph such as text body, heading, header & footer, caption, etc. It is also used for compiling a table of content.
2. Character styles: They are used for formatting a block of text inside a paragraph such as text colour, text size, highlight, emphasise, etc. It is used to provide exceptions to Paragraph style(s).
3. Frame styles: They are used to organise a document in sections. Frame style allows to format frames and images, by specifying its size, position, border, placement of text and pictures, etc. In the document.
4. Page styles: It is used to store formatting information for a page, such as its layout, size, margins, placement of header & footer, borders, background, etc.
5. List styles: they are used to store formatting information for numbered or bulleted lists, such as indentation, numbering style, punctuation after number, etc. List style can also be used for creating outlines.
6. Table styles: They are used to store formatting information for tables of data, such as aligning text inside table, text or border colour, etc.

Styles and Formatting

There are many predefined styles in Writer, which can be accessed by using the following methods:

Method 1: Click on the styles menu.

Method 2: Click on the Styles option from the menu bar using style drop down list box from the toolbar. The current paragraph style is displayed in the textbox. If the toolbar is not visible, click on View➡️Toolbars, and enable Formatting/ Formatting (Styles).

Method 3: Click on the Styles icon from Sidebar. The styles menu appears. Click on any one of these buttons to display a list of existing styles in that category. From the bottom of the window, selecting Show Preview option displays the style along with the name in the list.

Method 4: Using the keyboard shortcut F11 key.

Applying Styles

To apply styles, follow the given steps:
Step 1: Select the text to be formatted. The selected text may be a collection of characters, words, lines, paragraph, page, frame or table.

Step 2: To format the selected text, choose appropriate style by clicking the button from the top of the Styles bar.

Step 3: A list of styles for that category appears. Double click on the desired style to apply to the selected text.

Using Fill Format Mode

Fill Format tool allows you to apply the same style to multiple scattered elements throughout the document.

Fill Format can be used to style various elements such as pages, frames, tables, lists, paragraphs, or individual characters efficiently.

To use Fill Format option, follow given steps:
Step 1 Open the document to be styled.

Step 2 Open the Styles window and select the desired style category and then select desired style from drop-down list.

Step 3 Select Fill Format Mode button.

Step 4 To apply the selected style, take the mouse pointer to the desired location and click. Do take care to apply style to the appropriate type of content.

Step 5 Repeat step 4 until all the changes have been made for that style in the entire document.

Step 6 To quit Fill Format mode, click the Fill Format Mode button again or press the ESC key.

Creating and Updating Styles

To create your own custom style, there are three ways:

1. New Style from Selection:
   Styles actions option in the Styles menu is used to create a new style or modify an existing style.

   It can also be used to load a style defined in a document or template, in the list.

   To create a new style from selection, use the following steps:
   Step 1: Select a portion of the document using which a new style is to be created.

   Step 2: Click on the styles option on sidebar, to open it.

   Step 3: Choose the category of style (paragraph, character, frame, page, list and table) to create a new one.

   Step 4: Click on Styles actions icon and select New Style from Selection option. The New Style from Selection dialog box appears.

   Step 5: Type the name of new style.

   Step 6: Click OK to save changes.

2. Update a Style Using Selection:
   Instead of creating a new style, an existing style can be modified for the desired aspect:

   Update Selected Style is the second option under the Styles action that can be used for doing so.

   To update an existing style, follow the given steps:
   Step 1: Select the page/paragraph to be modified.

   Step 2: Format the selected portion as per the requirement.

   Step 3: Click on the Styles option on sidebar.

   Step 4: Using Styles actions button, click on Updated Selected Style.

3. Using Drag and Drop:
   Another way of creating a new style is by using the Drag and Drop method. It is very easy and convenient to use.
   To create a new style using Drag and Drop method, follow the given steps:
   Step 1: Select the text from the document and change its formatting as desired.
   Step 2: Apply the desired style on the text.
   Step 3: Click on the desired style under which, the new style is to be created.
   Step 4: From the document, drag the selected portion of text to the Style menu. The new style from selection dialog window appears.
   Step 5: Type the name of new style.
   Step 6: Click on the OK button to save the name of new style.

Load Styles from Template or Document

Load Styles From Template

This is the third option listed in styles actions drop-down list.

This option enables a document to be formatted by copying style and by loading it from a template.

A template allows you to copy all styles or a group of styles at one time.

To copy styles from a template, follow the given steps:
Step 1: Open the document to be formatted by copying styles.

Step 2: Click on the styles option on sidebar and click on styles action icon.

Step 3: Click on Load Styles from Template option. The Load Styles from Template dialog box appears.

Step 4: Choose the Category and then select the template too copy a style from.

Step 5: Select the options for the type of styles to be copied– Paragraph and character (for texts), Frame, Pages, List (for numbering styles).

Step 6: Click OK to copy the style.

Load Style from Another Document

A document can also be formatted using styles from another document through the Load Style from Template dialog box.

Use the following steps to copy Styles from another document:
Step 1: Open the document, where you want to copy the styles.

Step 2: Click on the Styles option on Sidebar and then click on Styles action icon.

Step 3: Click on Load Styles from Templates option, a dialog box appears.

Step 4: Select the checkboxes for the style categories you want to copy.

Step 5: To replace the existing styles with the copied ones, select ‘Overwrite’ and click ‘OK’ to duplicate the styles into the target document.

Step 6: The screen won’t update, but the styles and formatting window will display the names of the newly imported styles.

Applying Default Style

When a new document is created, Writer automatically applies the default style, which are displayed in the status bar. You can choose to keep the default style or modify it as needed.

WORKING WITH IMAGES

Inserting an Image File

To insert any images stored in your computer, you can use the following methods:

Method 1 insert Image Option

To insert image using the Insert Image dialog box, follow the given steps:

Step 1: Position the cursor where you want to insert an image.

Step 2: Click on the Insert menu.

Step 3: Click on the Image option. The Insert image dialog box appears.

Step 4: Select the image file.

Step 5: Click on the Open button to add it to your document.

Method 2 inserting an Image using Drag and Drop

Drag and drop refers to selecting an image form particular location and placing it into the document where the image is required.

To do so, follow the given steps:

Step 1: Open the document and move the cursor to the location where you want to insert the image.

Step 2: Now, locate the image on your computer using the File Explorer window

Step 3: Select the image and drag it in your document. The image will be inserted in the document.

Method 3 Inserting an image using Copy and Paste

To insert an image using the Copy and Paste method, follow the steps:
Step 1: Open the document in which the image already exist.
Step 2: Click on the image and press Ctrl+C to copy it. The image gets copied to the clipboard.
Step 3: Now, open the other document and place the cursor where you want to paste the image.
Step 4: Press Ctrl+V. The copied image is pasted in the document.

Method 4 insert an image by linking

By inserting an image as a linked file, only a reference to the image is stored instead of the image itself, which helps reduce the document’s size. The actual image is saved separately as a file along with the document.

In order to link an image to your document, follow the given steps:
Step 1: Click on the document where you want the image to appear.
Step 2: Choose Insert ➡️Image on the menu bar or click the insert image icon on the standard toolbar.
Step 3: Navigate and select the image.
Step 4: At the bottom of the dialog box a “Link” option is mentioned. Click this option to insert the image as a link.
Step 5: Click open.

Modifying an Image

There are various options to resize, crop, delete, and rotate an image in the Image toolbar.

Using the Image Toolbars

The Image toolbar automatically appears whenever you insert or select an image in your document.
The various tools in Image Toolbar are:

1. Filter: Filters are used to enhance the appearance of an image. These filters are:
   
   • Invert: Inverts the colour values of coloured image. In case image is gray-scale, then the brightness is inverted. Smooth Softens the contrast of image. Another dialog box appears to adjust parameter.
     
   • Sharpen: Increases the contrast of image.
     
   • Remove noise: Removes single pixels from the image.
     
   • Solarisation: Used in photographs to reverse tones marking dark area light and light area dark.
     
   • Ageing: Simulates the effect of time on picture.
     
   • Posterise: Makes picture appear like painting by reducing colours in the image.
     
   • Pop Art: Applies a visual style reminiscent of the Pop Art movement.
     
   • Charcoal Sketch: Changes image as charcoal sketch. Relief Adjusts light source to create shadow.
     
   • Mosaic: Combines group of pixels into a single area of one colour.
2. Image Mode: This mode changes the appearance of image in different ways as Greyscale, black/white and watermark.
3. Crop Image: Cuts off unwanted part of the image.
4. Flip Horizontally: Flips the image horizontally by 180°.
5. Flip Vertically: Flips the image vertically by 180°.
6. Rotate 90° Left: Rotates the image by 90° left.
7. Rotate 90° Right: Rotates the image by 90° right.
8. Rotate: Image can be rotated by any angle using this tool.
9. Transparency: Modify the percentage value in the Transparency box on the Picture toolbar to make the image more transparent.
10. Color: This tool modifies the individual RGB colour values of the image as well as the brightness, contrast, and gamma of the image.

Cropping Image

When you are only interested in a section of the image for the purpose of your document, you may wish to crop parts of it.

There are Two ways you can crop your image in Libre Writer:
Method 1: Using the Crop tool
Method 2: Using image dialog box.

Resizing an Image

Resizing is the process of altering the image size without cutting any part of the image. When resizing an image, we change the dimension of the image so that it fits in the desired area.

Again, there are two ways to resize an image:
Method 1: Using image handles. Image handles are the dots that appear on the side and edge of the image when you click on the image.
Method 2: Using image dialog box.

Drawing Objects

Writer drawing tools allows you to create graphics such as simple diagrams using rectangles, circles, lines, text and other pre-defined shapes.

To begin using the drawing tools, display the Drawing toolbar:
Step 1: Choose View tab➡️select Toolbars that will open sub menu.
Step 2: Select Drawing. To use a drawing tool:

1. Click on the document where you want the drawing to be anchored.
2. Select the tool from the Drawing toolbar.
3. Move the pointer to the place in the document where you want the graphic to appear and then click-and-drag to create the drawing object.
4. To cancel the selected drawing function, press the ESC key, or click on the Select icon on the Drawing toolbar.
5. You can now change the properties of the drawing object using either the Drawing Object Properties toolbar.

Setting or Changing Properties for Drawing Objects

Setting Properties Before Drawing

This method lets you define the object’s appearance (colour, line style, etc.) before you place it on the canvas.

Changing Properties After Drawing

This method lets you precisely control size, position, rotation, and other geometric properties of an existing object.

Resizing a Drawing Object in LibreOffice

Resizing a drawing object works the same way as resizing an image.

Grouping Drawing Objects

Grouping an object means combining two or more drawing objects into one group.
To group drawing objects, follow the below steps:
Step 1: Select an object, then hold down the Shift key and select the others you want to include in the group.
Step 2: With the objects selected, hover the mouse pointer over one of the objects and follow below steps:

• Choose Format tab.
• Select Group that will open sub menu.
• Select Group option.
  

To Ungroup the objects:
Step 1: Select the group first➡️Select Format➡️Group➡️Ungroup.
Step 2: You cannot include an embedded or a linked graphic in a group with drawing objects.

Positioning Images in 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.
Positioning of a graphic is controlled by four settings:

1. Arrangement
2. Anchoring
3. Alignment
4. Text Wrapping

Arrangement

In the case of overlapping objects, the arrangement setting defines the position of the current drawing in relation to other drawing or text. The Drawing Object Properties toolbar includes tools specifically for managing this arrangement.

The different Image Arrangement tools:

1. Bring to Front: Places image on top of all objects/ images.
2. Forward One: Brings image one level up, when there are overlapping images.
3. Back One: Sends image one level down, when there are overlapping images.
4. Send to Back: Places image at the bottom of all object/ images.
5. To Foreground: Moves the drawing object in front of the text.
6. To Background: Moves the drawing object behind the text.

Anchoring

Anchoring refers to the reference point for the images. 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.

1. To Paragraph: Graphics move with associated paragraphs, the most frequently used method.
2. To Character: Graphics are linked to specific character, moving in sync.
3. As Character: Graphics integrate as text characters, influencing line height and moving with paragraphs as text is added/ removed before them, ideal for inline icons in a sentence.

Aligning

It allows the vertical or horizontal placement of the image with respect to its anchor. The image can be aligned by using the Align option of the drawing toolbar.

The various options under Align are:

1. Left: The image gets left aligned.
2. Centred: the image gets centred aligned.
3. Right: The image gets right aligned.
4. Top: The image gets on top of the anchor.
5. Center: The image gets on the middle of the anchor.
6. Bottom: The image gets on the bottom of the anchor.

Text Wrapping

Text wrap defines how the texts in a paragraph wraps around an object.

The various wrap text options in LibreOffice are:

1. None: The image appears either on the top or at the bottom of the text.
2. Parallel: The text appears on both sides of the image.
3. Optimal: The text appears either to the left or to the right of the image.
4. Before: The text appears to the left of the image.
5. After: The text appears to the right of the image.
6. Through: The text appears behind the image.

ADVANCED FEATURES OF WRITER

Table of Contents

A Table of Contents (ToC) is a list of chapters and sections typically found at the beginning of a book, also known as the index.

In a digital document, a Table of Contents (ToC) is a list that includes chapter titles and major sections in the order they appear in the document. The ToC is generated using the headings within the document.

Benefits of ToC include:

1. Provides readers with a high-level overview of the content.
2. Giving the document a professional appearance.
3. Assisting in the creation of a structured outline for the document.

Hierarchy of Headings

The Table of Contents (ToC) is automatically generated using the predefined heading styles in Writer.

By default, the ToC includes heading level 1, 2, and 3. Headings are used to structure the document or sections within it.

• Heading 1: Represents the title of the document.
• Heading 2: Denotes the main sections of the documents.
• Heading 3: Indicates higher-level subsections within the document.
• Heading 4: Refers to subsections under Heading 3 … and so on.

Creating a Table of Contents

Before creating the Table of Contents (ToC) in a document, make sure that appropriate heading styles, such as Heading 1, Heading 2, Heading 3, and so on, are applied throughout the document.

To create a Table of Contents, follow the given steps:
Step 1: Create a document that contains different heading styles.
Step 2: Keep the cursor at the top of the document.
Step 3: From the main menu, Select Insert➡️Table of Contents and Index➡️Table of Contents, Index, or Bibliography option.
Step 4: Change the required setting and click on the OK button. The table of contents of that particular document appears.

Customisation of Table of Contents

To customise the ToC, follow the given steps:
Step 1: Right-click on the ToC. A context menu appears.
Step 2: Select the Edit index option. The Table of Contents, Index or Bibliography dialog box opens.
Step 3: Perform the required changes by clicking on the different tabs as given below: <ul> <li>Type Tab: It is active by default when you open the dialog box to insert the ToC</li> <li>Entries Tab: It contains options to set styles for various entries in the ToC.</li> <li>Styles Tab: It contains options to apply the desired styles to the text of each level in the Table of Contents.</li> <li>Columns Tab: It contains options to set the number of columns that you want to include in out ToC.</li> <li>Background Tab: It contains options to change the background of the ToC. Just click on this tab and choose the required colour to apply to the background of the ToC.</li> </ul> Step 4: Click on the OK button to apply the changes to the ToC.

Maintaining a Table of Contents

Maintaining a table of contents consists:

• Updating a Table of Contents
  Writer does not update the ToC automatically, so after any changes to the headings, you need to update it manually.
  To update the Table of Contents, follow the given steps:
  Step 1: Right-Click on the Table of Contents. A context menu appears. Step 2: Click on the Update index option. The table of contents will be ready to update.
• Deleting a Table of Contents
  To delete the Table of Contents from a document, follow the given steps:
  Step 1: Right-Click on the Table of Contents. A context menu appears. Step 2: Click on the Delete index from the context menu. The ToC will be deleted.

Introduction to Templates

A template is a preset layout for creating professional or formal documents easily.
New document created from templates maintain the same structure and formatting. In Writer, all documents are based on templates; if none is specified, a blank default template is used.

Checking the Template of the Document

To view the template associated with a document, select Properties from the File menu. The Properties dialog box will appear. If the document uses the default template, no template will be listed.

To create a document using a template, follow the steps:
Step 1: Go to File➡️New➡️Templates, to create a new document.
Step 2: In the template selection window, choose a template.
Step 3: Click open to load the document with the selected template.
Step 4: To verify the template, go to File➡️Properties, the template name will be shown under Template in the Properties dialog.

Creating a Template

To create a new template, follow the given steps:
Step 1: Open a document and enter data in it. Format the data according to your needs.
Step 2: Click on the File➡️Template option.
Step 3: Click on the Save As Template option. The Save As Template dialog box appears.
Step 4: Enter the name of the template.
Step 5: Choose the category in which this template will appear.
Step 6: Click on the Save button.

Setting a Default Template

To set a default template, follow the given steps:
Step 1: Click on the File menu
Step 2: Click on the Templates option.
Step 3: Click on the Manage Templates option. The Templates dialog box appears.
Step 4: Click and then right-click on the desired template.
Step 5: Click on the Set as Default option.

Exporting a Template

Exporting a template allows you to save the template as a separate file, which then can be shared with others or used on different devices.

This is especially useful for maintaining consistency.

To export a template, follow the given steps:
Step 1: Click on the File➡️Templates➡️Manage Templates option. The Templates dialog box appears.
Step 2: Right-Click on the template to be exported.
Step 3: Select Export option. The Select Folder dialog box appears.
Step 4: Select the folder.
Step 5: Click on the Select Folder button. The selected template gets exported and is saved as a file.

Track Changes

Track Changes is a powerful tool that simplifies the process of commenting, editing, and reviewing a document among multiple users.

The Track Changes feature in Writer provides a way to record all modifications made to the original document. These recorded changes can then be reviewed and either accepted or rejected by the original author.

To make Track Changes toolbar visible, click on View menu➡️Toolbars➡️Track Changes option.

The various buttons on the Track Changes toolbar is given below:

1. Show track changes: Displays all changes made in the document.
2. Record track changes: Enables Track Changes feature. Once activated, any edits will be tracked.
3. Previous/ Next Track Change: Navigates through the changes made.
4. Accept/ Accept All Track Changes: Accepts the changes made.
5. Reject/ Reject All Track Changes: Rejects the changes made.
6. Manage the Track Changes: Provides detailed list of the all the changes made.
7. Insert Comment: Used for inserting comments in the document.
8. Insert Track Change Comment: Inserts notes/ comment to specific part of the document.
9. Protect Track Changes: Prevents unauthorised accepts/ rejects.
10. Compare Non-Track Changed Document: Compares two documents.
11. Merge Track Changed Document: Combines changes made in different versions of the document.