You can write text in columns using any one of the following options:

• Set the page format to columns

• Insert a section with columns

  • Text fills all columns to the same height

  • Text fills first column, then flows into next column

• Use a multi-column table

• Use text frames or linked text frames

Each option has its own advantages and disadvantages.

Set the page format to columns

This looks like the most obvious choice if you need columns on several pages.

To apply columns to the current page style:

• Choose Format – Page – Columns.

This however changes the current page style, which most often will be the "Default" page style. If you want some other pages without columns, you must know or learn how to apply different page styles in the same document.

To define a new page style with columns:

1. Choose Format – Styles and Formatting to open the Styles and Formatting window.

2. Click the Page Styles button in the Styles and Formatting window.

3. Right-click the Default entry to open the context menu.

4. Choose New...

   
   

5. In the Page Style dialog, type the name of your new page style, for example, Two Columns.

6. In the Next Style list box, select the Two Columns style, or the Default style.

   Choosing the same style as next style will continue this page style for the following pages.

   Choosing another style as next style will define the current page style to span one page only.

7. On the Columns tab, select the columns options. Click OK.

8. Now you can apply the new Two Columns style to the current page range by double-clicking the Two Columns name in the Styles and Formatting window.

   For a definition of page ranges, see "The scope of page ranges" in the blog entry http://blogs.sun.com/oootnt/entry/changing_page_orientation

You see, the obvious and simple way to apply columns is simple only if you want to apply columns to the whole document. Otherwise it turns out to become a difficult multi step instruction. Fortunately, there are other ways to get columns that are much simpler to apply.

Insert a section with columns

To apply columns to a part of a page:

1. Choose Insert – Section.

2. Click the Columns tab page and set the options. Click Insert.

The checkbox "Evenly distribute contents to all columns" is enabled by default. The text will flow into the columns so that they all are filled to the same height. The whole section changes its height accordingly.

If you disable the checkbox, text flows into the first column of the section. The section grows down until it reaches the lower page margin. Only then the text will flow into the next column.

You can press the column break key, Ctrl+Shift+Return, to manually jump to the next column. This does the same for columns that the page break key, Ctrl+Return, does for pages.

Use a multi-column table

For some applications you may prefer to insert a multi-column table and enter your text into the cells.

The table offers some formatting features that you may prefer. For example, it is easy to drag-and-drop the cell and table borders to resize the columns. Different backgrounds to the cells are possible, and other options.

Use text frames or linked text frames

This is another option that can be helpful for newsletters, for example. You can read about linked frames in this blog entry: http://blogs.sun.com/oootnt/entry/text_boxes_in_writer_documents and of course the installed application Help has some helpful advice, too.

Tip: before you decide which method to use for your columns in a long document, you may want to test the results of all output options first. Some methods for columns will export to PDF or to HTML better than others.

Using OpenOffice.org to write your MediaWiki articles

Did you know that there is an export filter for OpenOffice that you can use to convert your Writer documents to MediaWiki text?

The filter is an XSLT that converts your document from ODT to plain text with MediaWiki markup. It works best if you use styles properly throughout your document.

1. Download and save this file (right-click and Save As):

   http://www.openoffice.org/nonav/issues/showattachment.cgi/45498/odt2wiki.xslt

2. Start OpenOffice.org

3. Select Tools > XML Filter Settings

4. Click the New button and in the General tab, fill in the form as shown:

5. Click the Transformation tab.

6. Click the Browse button for the XSLT for export .

7. Browse to where you saved the XSLT in step 1. Click Open . You should see something similar to this:

8. Click OK , and then Close the XML Filter Settings window.

Now you can use the export filter to save your ODF files as MediaWiki formatted text. To export, all you need to do is:

• Open your Writer document (or create a new one)

• Click File > Export , and select ODT2Wiki from the File format drop down box.

• Give it a filename (and a location) and click Export .

The output will be a plain text file with MediaWiki markup. You can simply paste the text direct into the MediaWiki edit box.

There are a few things that you should be aware of.

• Images do not convert. You will have to add them to the Wiki page separately.

• Long documents (for example documents over 25 pages) do not convert well. Although, depending on your computer, you may have some success with longer documents, I recommend converting long documents in smaller chunks.

• Documents with complicated layouts may not convert perfectly, especially if you have complex tables or complex lists. Make sure you double check the results in the Wiki.

This XSLT filter is also documented on the OpenOffice Wiki at: http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/Odt2Wiki

Background

Conditional text can be very useful when working on documents that are to be published to multiple audiences.

For example, you could create a letter template that contains different text depending on the language or recipient country.
In OpenOffice.org, you can relate the visibility of sections to certain conditions.

Example

You are running WorldWide Conditions Inc, a small but exquisite start-up that has just opened an office in Germany to expand to the old European market. You would like to use one template for both countries letters, but the US and German offices use different letter heads.

This example neglects the fact that the US and Germany use different paper formats, too. These cannot be conditionally set on a document. Well actually, they could with a little macro logic, but this is beyond the scope of this posting and may be a topic for a later one.

You can create a template that contains both versions and switch the versions by specifying the language of the letter being either EN (for English) or DE (for Deutsch). Here is how:

Note: This is my first attempt with wink and flash animations. It's far from being as nice and nifty as the stuff our media design gurus are able to produce. So bear with me.

Referencing Cells in Calc

If you are working on a spreadsheet containing multiple sheets that all share a common set of categories as a first column, and these category titles may change with time, you don't need to modify them on each and every sheet, just use cell references.

Background

Cell References in OpenOffice.org Calc have the following general syntax:

FILENAME#SHEETNAME.CELLADDRESS

with

• FILENAME being the name of the file that contains the value to be referenced
• SHEETNAME being the name of the sheet in that file that contains the value to be referenced
• CELLADDRESS being the name of the cell that contains the value to be referenced
  

If you are referencing within the same file, the FILENAME# part is optional, if you are referencing within the same sheet, the SHEETNAME. part is optional, too.

Example

On Sheet1, Mary had a little lamb, and you would like Mary to have a little lamb on Sheet2, too:

Go to Sheet2, click on the first cell and insert the magic formula:

=Sheet1.A1

telling Calc to insert a reference to cell A1 on Sheet1 in the current document. That cell says Mary and so does this cell after entering the formula. But as you can see on its formula bar, it just points to cell A1 on Sheet1 and displays its content:

Now for the rest of the rows, you don't need to enter the formula again. Just select the range of cells:

and select " Edit - Fill - Down" from the main menu to let OpenOffice.org fill the cell contents for you:

Now, if you decide that Mary should rather have a cow, she'll have it on all referenced sheets as well:

You can customize the OOo user interface in many ways. In today's tip you see how to add a word count icon to the main Writer toolbar.

1. Click the Down Arrow icon at the far right of the Formatting toolbar.

2. In the icon's menu, choose Customize Toolbar.

3. Click Add.

   You see the Add Commands dialog.

4. In the left list click Options, then in the right list scroll down and click Word Count.

5. Click Add, then click Close.

   Now you already see the new command as a text entry on the toolbar. You can select the new command and click the Up and Down buttons to change the position on the toolbar.

To assign an icon to the new command, select the new command, then click Modify and choose Change Icon.

Most users of OpenOffice.org already know that it is easy to change all icons at once, to find a totally new look of their Office. Only few StarOffice users know that they can enjoy an all new icon theme, too.

In OOo, you choose Tools - Options - OOo - View. Here you can select another Icon Style from a list box. Click OK, and you see the new icons immediately.

The supplied icon sets may be different for different distributions of OOo. In my version, I can select from the default set, Industrial, HiContrast, and Crystal.

I like the large icons of the Crystal set, so I want to see those icons in my installation of StarOffice, too.

Unfortunately, StarOffice does not offer the Icon Style list box. There may be a reason for this decision, but there don't seem to be any technical barriers to use an OOo icon set for StarOffice. You can even use a different icon set for every user on a network installation. This is how to proceed - but be careful, this is not an official method but more of a "hack":

1. Get the images_crystal.zip file from an OOo installation. The images*.zip files are stored in the {OOo_installation}/share/config folder.
2. Copy the file to your {StarOffice8_userfiles}/user/config folder. On Linux systems, this is ~/.staroffice8/user/config. On Windows systems, this is something like C:\Documents and Settings\your_username\Application Data\StarOffice8\user\config.
3. Rename the copied file to images.zip
4. Restart StarOffice 8 to see the new icons. You may want to select the "large" icon size in Tools - Options - StarOffice - View.

As a StarOffice user, I want to thank all OOo icon artists for their great work that they contribute to the community!

Starting with the developer snapshot m213, the new Chart module can be tried out. The next release of OpenOffice.org 2.3 should include this new module for every user.

There are many enhancements. See the list of the most important new or changed features: http://graphics.openoffice.org/chart/whatsnewinchart2.html

The new Chart is much easier to use, with a live preview and improved workflow.

But the main reason to write about the new Chart is the improved application help for Chart.

This is the first time that an OpenOffice.org member, Regina Henschel from the very active German OOo users group, submitted a substantial part of the help text for a whole OOo module. A big Thank You goes to Regina! Due to her work the new Chart help is much better and more complete than it would have been otherwise. Our collaboration by email and Issuezilla mails has been a pleasant experience.

The technical writers at Sun Microsystems would very much appreciate to work together with many more OOo community authors to provide improved contents to all other modules of the application help. Please have a look at our Wiki page http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/OOo_OnlineHelp to find out how you can help with the Help and thus make the OpenOffice.org software even better than it is today.

You can insert a cell data range from a Calc spreadsheet into your Impress presentation. Two different approaches can be used, depending on your intention:

Inserting a static copy of the cell data

A static copy of the Calc data is a one time snapshot of the Calc data that you put into an Impress slide. There is no link between both sets of data. If you cange the cell data in Calc, the data in your slide will not be affected. You can also change the contents of the table in your slide. This affects only the local copy inside your slide, it will not change the original Calc sheet.

This is quite easy using copy and paste.

1. Select and copy (Ctrl+C) the cells in Calc

2. Go to the slide where you want to insert the data

3. Press Ctrl+V to paste the data as table that is an OLE object

Now you can rescale the table as a whole object, by dragging any of the eight handles. This will distort the table, however.

If you want to change some formatting, for example the font size or the zoom factor, double-click the OLE object. This places you into the inplace edit mode, where you can use the Calc formatting features to edit the table inside your Impress slide. You can also change the size of the view, for example to show a 3x4 cell area. Click outside the object to leave the edit mode.

Inserting a live link to the saved version of a Calc file

As a recently added new feature, you can also insert a one-way live link from a range of Calc data. You will get the opportunity to see always the latest cell contents from the Calc sheet in your Impress slide.

As with the static copy method described above, you can change the table formatting and its contents in the slide.

When you later open the Impress presentation file, you will be asked if you want to update the links or not. If you answer Yes to update the links, the changes that you edited in your slide will be overwritten by the current data from the Calc spreadsheet file. Only the saved data from the Calc spreadsheet file are used.

1. Go to the slide where you want to insert the data

2. Choose Insert - Object - OLE object

3. Select the Object type with "Spreadsheet" in the name

4. Click Create from file

5. Enable the Link to file checkbox

6. Enter the file name or click Search to select the Calc file
   

You can manually update the link in Impress. Choose Edit - Links, select the link to the Calc sheet, and click the Update button.

Only use a Calc file with a few cells. You will only see the first sheet as an OLE object, and it can get difficult to resize the view in case there are many rows or columns.

Printing All Formulas Used in Your Calc Sheets

Sometimes you want a printed reference of the formulas that you entered to a spreadsheet. You can get a printout of all formulas by a few mouse clicks.

Most Calc users already know that it is easy to see the formulas on screen:

• Choose Tools - Options - OOo Calc - View, then enable Display - Formulas.

Now, to print the formulas you have to look at a different option.

• Choose Format - Page - Sheet, then enable Print - Formulas. Print the spreadsheet.

Don't forget to reset the Print - Formulas setting after printing, so you will get the calculated values again on later printouts.

If you need a file that lists the formulas, enable printing formulas as above, then choose File - Export to PDF. The resulting PDF file lists all formulas in the defined print range.

Creating text art in 10 seconds

You can create interesting artwork from text in OOo Draw. You need a logo or a title page for your brochure? Within a few seconds you can see the first results. Look at these examples that were finished within a few seconds:

Create stunning 3D text objects in Draw.

Play around with graphical text effects in Draw.

To create a 3D object

1. Open OOo Draw.

2. Click the T (text box) icon.

3. Drag a frame, enter the text.

4. Select the text, for example by pressing Ctrl+A.

5. Select a plain basic font and a big font size. You can enter any font size in the Font Size box if you want a size that is not listed.

6. Choose Modify - Convert - To 3D.

7. Select an area color, a line style, line width, and a different line color.

8. To rotate the 3D text art, click the Rotate icon. Rest the mouse over any of the six handles to see in which direction you can rotate the 3D object by dragging that handle.

To create graphical text effects

1. Open OOo Draw.

2. Click the T (text box) icon.

3. Drag a frame, enter the text.

4. Select the text, for example by pressing Ctrl+A.

5. Yes, it's all the same steps as in "To create a 3D object" above to create graphical text. Select a nice font and enter a big font size.

With the text selected, choose Format - Character - Font Effects to set the font color. In the example, the big O was set to gray color. The white text near the top was set to white color, then moved over the gray character. Use Modify - Arrange to change the stacking order of the text objects.

For the text effect in the middle of the example image, the big character O and the text "OpenOffice.org" were positioned at the same location, then selected together (click both with Shift key held down). Then both were combined by Modify - Combine.

In the installed Help for Draw or Impress you can find more instructions and tips and tricks. Click the "Instructions for Using OOo Draw/Impress" link on the main Draw or Impress Help page.

To export the text art as pictures

The Draw text objects are vector graphics that can be scaled to any size without problems. Copy the objects and paste them into Writer or Calc documents. If you want the objects on a Web page, you must export them to a pixel graphic format.

1. Select the object to export.
2. Choose File - Export.
3. Select a pixel graphics format and enter a name for the picture. Be sure that the Selection check box is enabled.
   

A Free and Open World

Today I read a question in an OOo mailing list. It was about this:

"OpenOffice.org is free. Do you use advertising like most free things that causes tons of popup ads?"

And the answer of course is that there is no advertising and no annoying popup ads. You don't need to submit your mail address to some unknown people who promise to use it wisely, and you will not get a customized home page anywhere that tracks your Web habits.

How comes?

Is it possible that there exists a total different parallel world, free from adverts that try to sell something to you? A world without any monetary greed, and without commercial exploitation?

Yes, such a world exists. And you can be a part of it.

Here are some links taken randomly from my bookmark list (and I'm quite sure that the world of humanity is much bigger than the hyperlinked part of the Web):

• Software: http://www.sourceforge.net - find more than 140.000 projects that are offered for free and that invite you to participate and share

• Information: http://www.wikipedia.org - find what other people know about our world that they want to share, and contribute your own findings in an organized way

• Creativity: http://creativecommons.org/ - find musicians, movie makers, book authors, who care more for distributing their art than for getting rich fast, and give them a hug by paying them with your attention (or more)

• Responsibility: http://www.rightlivelihood.org/recip.htm - ask any one of the laureates how you can help, or just read what they achieved and discuss this with your friends

• Working, money, health, religion: well, on some topics the common "truths" about what is the right way of living and what is wrong are really strong. Just giving any one link may lead to big trouble with some people. Instead of giving a link, I'll ask you to watch the movies Koyaanisqatsi and Powaqqatsi.

So what has this to do with OpenOffice.org? It is a place where your contribution does matter. You can help to improve the project. Thousands already do this, every day, right now, all over the world.

Very small steps to global world peace, but might be important first steps in your life. There is a world where popup ads are not important at all. A world where your work really matters. Open Source is one part of that great world.

Expand and Configure your OOo

You can add new features to your copy of OpenOffice.org anytime. It is about as easy as adding an extension to your Firefox browser or to your Thunderbird mail client.

Some available extensions to OOo are the following files:

• Sun Weblog Publisher (from the Sun Store)

• Professional Template Pack (from Sun Store)

You may think of other useful and cool extensions you want to use within your OOo. For example, when there is a Weblog Publisher, why not also have a Wiki Publisher? Or how about getting nice images that are automatically added to the Gallery, or a set of macros together with a new toolbar to translate your documents into other languages? You imagine a new feature, ask about it in the mailing lists, and someone will (hopefully) perform the coding and offer the results to the public.

Creation and packaging of such extensions will be easy in the future, when intuitive tools will be available. As an author of OOo Help, I'm looking forward to the new Help extensions that might see the break of dawn some day. These extensions should make it very easy for everyone to enhance and add to the built-in Help of OOo.

OOo is as open to new extensions as it can be.

Open Tools - Extension Manager (formerly known as Package Manager) and click the Help button to read more about extensions.

Customize OOo

Without knowing much about programming, you can still enhance and transform your copy of OOo using the Tools - Customize dialogs. You can add your own submenus, toolbars, and key commands.

If you know how to write or record some macros within OOo, you can add those macros as icons to a toolbar or create some menu commands that call those new macros. If you want, you can also use the Events tab page of the Customize dialog to link your macros to events like "Starting OOo" or "Opening a document". There is even a dialog editor where you can design your own dialogs with all the usual controls. Choose Tools - Macros - Organize Dialogs, and then click New to create a new Basic dialog.

In the future it will be easy to create a new extension from your customized elements, so that you can hand out your new improvements to all other users of OOo.

Writing vertical text

Choose from several options to write your Writer text in vertical direction:

1. using a (graphical) text box and rotating the text box by 90 degrees

2. using a vertical text box (available when Asian language support is enabled)

3. using Fontwork

4. using a frame with vertical text direction (Asian language support enabled)

5. using a very narrow text box

Comments:

1 - to get a text box, click Show Draw Functions on the Standard toolbar. This enables the Drawing toolbar at the bottom of your window. Click the "T" icon for a text box, then drag in the document and start writing your text. When ready, click outside the text box, then click the text again. Now you see the normal green object handles. Right-click the object, choose Position and Size command, tab page Rotation.

2 - If you often need text rotated by 270 degrees, you can enable Asian language support. Use the command Tools - Options - Language Settings - Languages. Now you find a rotated "T" icon on the Drawing toolbar. Use this and you don't need to rotate the text manually.

3 - Fontwork is available by an icon on the Drawing toolbar. The main trick of using Fontwork is this: Double-click a shape to insert the "Fontwork" text art. Double-click that, then delete the text and enter your own text. Click outside of the object to see your own Fontwork text.

4 - Choose Insert - Frame for a text frame. This is more advanced than a text box: in a text frame you can use text in columns, sections, insert pictures, and much more, which is not possible in a text box.

5 - Insert a text box as in choice 1, then drag the width to reduce the space to a one letter column. Note that using the proportional Thorndale font, I had to replace the capital V by a lower case v to get this trick done. With a mono spaced font like Courier this is not necessary.