Now you see them, now you don't - I'm writing about those toolbars, as we call them, that keep popping up whenever you don't need them. While later, once you managed to get rid of them, you could need the one or the other toolbar, but where is it now?

OpenOffice.org by default tries to show the toolbars that you might need, according to the current context. When you use the down arrow key to scroll down a Writer text, different toolbars can appear.

• With the cursor in a table, you see the Table toolbar.

• Position the cursor inside a numbered list, and you see the Bullets and Numbering toolbar.

• A list inside a Writer table cell even shows both of the above.

• Scrolling across an image, another toolbar asks for your attention. And so on.
  

Now, if you don't want such a toolbar you can close it with the small icon on top of that toolbar. Scroll further down and back, and there it is again. This can get annoying.

But keep in mind that toolbars are there to help you with editing, formatting, inserting new objects, and so on.

These kind and helpful companions can be scared away in two different ways:

• Click the Close icon on a toolbar to close the bar temporarily. It will reappear as soon as possible.

• Choose “View - Toolbars - (name of the toolbar)” to close it forever.

A permanently closed toolbar will never again come back. Except when you summon it up by “View - Toolbars - (name of the toolbar)”.

By the way, it's easy to lose track of what all those icons do. Here are another two companions, one temporarily and one permanently: You can enable an extended help text for every icon.

• Press Shift+F1 and point the mouse to an icon. You see the extended help text. This mode is valid until you click anywhere or press Esc.

• Choose "Tools - Options - OpenOffice.org - General" and enable the extended help tips permanently.