Introduction to Styles in Libre Office Writer

INTRODUCTION
There are two ways of creating an attractive digital document in Writer:
1. Manual formatting a document :
In manual formatting we select a part of a document, such as page, paragraph or words and
then applied formatting effects using the formatting toolbar. Manual formatting is popular, as it is
easy to use and requires less knowledge.
2. Formatting by applying styles:
To avoid inconsistency in formatting and reduce time and effort in formatting a document, we
use Styles in Writer.
Introduction to Styles
A style is a collection of all formatting information, which you want to save and then apply on
the document.
For example, following details of “Font” can be stored as a style with the name ‘Heading style’
Size – 12
Name – Bookman Old Style
Weight –Bold
Alignment – Left
Now we can apply Heading style to all headings of the document
NOTE: Style allows us to shift our focus from appearance of the document to the content of
document
Styles Categories
LibreOffice Writer provides six Style categories, which are as follows:
1. Page Style:
It includes basic page layout like page size, its margin, placement of header and footer,
footnote, borders and background.
2. Paragraph Style:
Paragraph formatting includes tab stops, text alignment, line spacing and borders.
3. Character Style:
This style is used to work on block of letters, i.e. word(s) in the paragraph. Character styles
allow changing the text colour, text size, highlighting text and emphasising it.
4. Frame Style:
Frames are like containers, which can hold text, graphics and lists. Therefore, applying Frame
Styles allows to format a frame by specifying its size, position, border and how the text is placed
around the picture.
5. List Style:
It can be used to style lists by putting numbering or bullets of a different kind or specify
numeric format.
6. Table Style:
Table Style category allows to format a table by adding borders, using different text or border
colour(s), aligning text inside the table, having different patterns or text colour.
Styles & Formatting
Writer provides many options and tools to style or format a document. Styles in
Writer, can be accessed by using any of the following methods:
1. Click Style option from Menu Bar and click Manage Style.
2. Using Style Drop Down list box, from the Toolbar. If the Toolbar is not visible then, click on
View>Toolbars, and enable Formatting/“Formatting (Styles)”.
 3. Using Sidebar Menu. On the Sidebar, clicking on Styles icon, displays the Style sub-menu.
4. Using keyboard shortcut — F11 function key
Style Window
This window can be opened by using any of the methods given above.

1. First six icons allow to select the category of style, such as Paragraph style, Character style,
Frame style, Page style, List style and Table style to work on.
2. From the bottom of the window selecting Show Preview option displays its style along with the
name in the list.
3. At the bottom of Style window, there is a Drop Down list, to select the filter for the style list to be
displayed above. By default this filter is set to Hierarchical.
Steps to apply Style in a document
1. Select the text to be formatted.
2. Choose appropriate style by clicking the button from the top of the Styles bar.
3. A list of styles for that category appears. Double click on the desired style to apply to the
selected text.
Apply Style using Fill Format mode
To apply a style on words present at different locations in the document, we can use Fill Format
mode. It is the second icon from right on the Style menu. Steps to apply style using Fill Format
option is given below:
1. Open the document to be styled.
2. Open the Styles window and select the desired style category and then desired style.
3. Select Fill Format button.
4. To apply the selected style, take the mouse pointer to desired location and click.
NOTE: To quit Fill Format option, click the Fill Format button again or press the Esc key.
Creating a New(Custom) Style
There are two ways to create a custom style
A. From Selection: Steps are given below
 1. Select the portion of document, such as page, paragraph, and character, to change its
appearance.
2. Choose the category (paragraph, character, page, etc.) from Style menu for which a new
style is to be created.
3. Select Style action button and then click on New Style from Selection.
4. In Create Style dialog window, type the name of new style, say, ‘MyStyle’.
5. Click OK to save the name of new style.
B. Using Drag and Drop: Steps to create a new Style using Drag and Drop
method are given below.
1. Select the text from the document and change its formatting as desired.
2. Choose the desired style from Style Window under which, new style is to be created.
3. Now drag the selected portion of text to the Style Menu.
4. Create Style dialog window appears.
5. Type name of new style and press OK button to save.
NOTE:
1. Drag and Drop method cannot be used to create a Page Style.
2. While dragging the text cursor shape changes.
Updating(Modifying) a New(Custom) or Pre-defined Styles
Instead of creating a new style for a small changes in predefined style, an
existing Style can be modified. Follow the steps given below to modify an
existing user defined style of page, frame or paragraph style.
1. Select the page/paragraph to be modified.
2. Format the selected portion as per the requirement.
3. Go to Style menu, and click on the button to update.
4. Using Style Action button, click on Updated Selected Style.
NOTE – Ensure that the aspect modified remains same throughout the selection. For
example, in paragraph, if you are changing font face or size then, throughout the
paragraph it should remain same.
Load Styles from a template or document
It is used to copy styles from an existing template or document. Once copied, in the list of styles,
you can create a new document having same appearance as old one with no extra efforts. steps
to copy style from template or document are:
1. Click on the Load Styles from the Style menu.
2. Load Styles dialog box open and choose the category of your document.
3. Find and select the desired template to copy styles from.
4. Also select the options for the types of styles to be copied, such as Paragraph and Character
styles, Frame, Page or List.
5. Click OK button
NOTE:
1. If you want to copy the style from file then instead of Template option, click on the From File
button. A File Selection dialog box is displayed and selects the desired document.
2. By selecting Overwrite option from the load style dialog box, the styles being copied will
replace any existing styles with the same name.

SUMMARY
1. A Style is collection of all formatting information, which you want to save and then apply
on the document.
2. Writer provides six Style categories – Page,
3. Paragraph, Character, Frame, List and Table.
4. Predefined Heading style(s) act as bookmarks in a document. These bookmarks allow
faster browsing in a document.
5. These Style(s) tools can be accessed from Menu bar, Drop Down List and Side bar.
6. Fill Format is used to style scattered – Pages, Frames, Tables, Lists, Paragraphs or
Characters in a document
7. Writer allows creating custom style and saving them for future use.
8. These new styles can be created using Selection method or Drag and Drop method.
9. Drag and Drop method cannot be used to create a Page style.
10. A user defined style once created, can be updated at any point of time. Steps used for
updating a style are same as creation of style.
11. A document can be styled using another document or a template.
Chapter 2: Working with images in
LibreOffice Writer Class 10 IT-402 Notes:

Pictures have visual appeal, as our brain responds quickly to colors in

comparison to any other form of information. A picture can be a draw-
ing, chart, photo, logo, graph.
In this chapter we will learn to create a document with pictures and also
learn to insert and modify images.
A picture is a digital image, which is representation of image in finite set
of digital values 0 or 1, known as pixels. These are stored in various
types of graphics files with the file extension, such as GIF, JPG, JPEG,
PNG, BMP, etc

Inserting an Image in a Document

The image file stored in the computer, can be inserted into a document
using different ways which are give below:
1. Using Insert Image dialog.
2. Using Drag and Drop option
3. Using Cut, Copy and Paste option
4. By Linking
1. Inserting Image Using Insert Image Option
Steps to insert an image using Insert Image dialog box, is given below
1. Open the document and click on Insert > Image from
menu bar.
2. An Insert Image dialog box will open which will allow
to choose the picture file to be inserted.
3. Select the file and click on Open button to insert an
image in document.
2. Inserting Image Using Drag and Drop Option
Steps to insert an image using drag and drop option are:
1. Open the document to insert an image in LibreOffice
Writer.
2. Open a file browser window (Win+E) and select the
image file to be inserted.
3. Drag the image into the document and drop it, where
you want it to appear in the document.
3. Inserting Image Using Copy and Paste Option
Steps to insert an image using copy paste option are:
1. Copy the image which is to be inserted.
2. Open the document and paste it where ever required.

NOTE: Inserting an image using any of the above described method

saves a copy of image file in the document wherever image is inserted,
that means, the image gets embedded in the document
Use of Anchor in Image – LibreOffice Writer

🔹 What is Anchoring?
Anchoring fixes the image to a specific part of the document so that when the content moves
(typing, deleting), the image stays connected to that anchor point.

🔹 Types of Anchors in LibreOffice Writer:

Anchor To Meaning
Page Image stays fixed to a specific page number. Doesn’t move with text.
Paragraph Image moves with the paragraph it is anchored to.
Character Anchors image to a specific character in the text.
As Character Image is treated like a text character. Moves inline with text flow.
Frame Anchors image inside a frame, if used.

📝 Why Use Anchoring?

 To control image movement during editing
 To maintain layout structure
 Useful when making templates or reports

🔧 How to Anchor an Image?

 Right-click on the image → Select Anchor
 Or use Drawing Object Properties Toolbar

🎯 Example:
 Anchor to Page: For logo that must stay on Page 1
 Anchor to Paragraph: For charts tied to a specific section
 As Character: For icons in-line with sentence

4. Inserting an Image by Linking

If multiple copies of the same image are required to be inserted in the
document, it is beneficial to save the link of image instead of inserting
the image. Inserting a link, stores its reference instead of the image it-
self, thereby reduces the size of the document.
To link the image file check the Link option in Insert Image dialog box
Keyboard shortcut to link an image – drag and drop the image while
holding the Ctrl+Shift keys.
Modifying an Image in a Document
We can modify the image inserted in the document according to our re-
quirement. The Image toolbar
is used to resize, crop, delete and rotate the image.
Using the image toolbar
The image toolbar automatically appears when an image is inserted or
selected in the document. If you want to keep it always on screen, click
on View > Toolbars > Image from the menu bar. The various tools avail-
able on Image toolbar is shown below.

Tools on Image Description

toolbar

Image Filter There are 11 types of filters available for improving an

image.

Image Mode Image can be changed to black and white, gray-scale

or a watermark.

Crop Cuts off non-desirable part of the image.

Flip Horizontally Flips the image Horizontally by 180o.

Flip Vertically Flips the image Vertically by 180o.

Rotate 90o left Rotates the image by 90o left.

Rotate 90o right Rotates the image by 90o right.

Rotate Image can be rotated by any angle using this tool.

Transparency Makes an image transparent by using the value

provided in percentage.

Colour Red, Blue or Green colour can be modified or adjust-

ment for brightness,
contrast and gamma can be made
Working with images in LibreOffice Writer
Working with images Toolbar color
Clicking on the colour button will display the col-
our drop down list as shown above. It consists of
six components in the drop down list. The first
components represent the three primary colours
Red, Green and Blue, respectively. The fourth
component represent the Brightness, fifth com-
ponent represent the Contrast and last sixth com-
ponent represent the Gamma
Clicking on Image Filter opens up a window with
11 filters, as shown below. Following table gives
the brief description of various tools available in
the Image Filter window

Working with images Toolbar

filter

Tool Description
Name

Invert Inverts the colour values of coloured image. In case image

is gray-scale then its
brightness is inverted.

Smooth Softens the contrast of image. Another dialogue box ap-

pears to adjust parameter

Sharpen Increases the contrast of image

Remove Removes single pixels from the image

Noise
 Solarisa- Used in Photographs to reverse the tone. Dark appears light
tion and light appears dark.
Another dialogue box appears to adjust parameter

Aging Simulates the effect of time on picture. On clicking it, an-

other dialogue box appears to
adjust parameter

Posterise Makes a picture appear like painting by reducing colours in

the image. Another
dialogue box appears to adjust parameter, when this icon is
clicked.

Charcoal Changes image as charcoal sketch

Sketch

Relief Adjusts light source to create shadow using dialogue box to

adjust parameter

Mosaic Joins group of pixels into a single area of one colour. An-
other dialogue box appears
to adjust parameter.

Resizing an Image in a Document

Resizing is the process of reducing or enlarging the size of the image.
Quick and easy way to resize an image is by dragging the image’s sizing
handles. Steps are
1. Click on the image and observe the eight sizing
handles surrounding the image.
2. Position the pointer over one of the sizing handles
and drag to resize the image.
3. Release the mouse button when satisfied with the
new size.
NOTE: By dragging the corner handles, one can resize both the width
and the height of the image simultaneously, while the other four handles
only resize one dimension at a time.

Deleting an Image in a Document

To delete the image, just select the image by clicking on the image and
press the Delete key.
Drawing Objects
If you need to draw a flowchart or a callout box in your document,
LibreOffice Writer provides the feature of
drawing tools for such work.
To display Drawing Toolbar in the Writer window, click on View > Tool-
bars > Drawing. The toolbar contains various basic drawing objects of
different types to create any design. Steps to design are:
1. Place the cursor in the document where you want the
drawing to be placed.
2. Select the tool from the Drawing toolbar.
3. Click-and-drag to create the drawing object in the
document.
4. Release the mouse button to finish drawing.
NOTE: To cancel the selected drawing function, press the Esc key or
click the Select icon (the arrow)
on the Drawing toolbar.

Setting or Changing properties of Drawing

Object
Writer provides tools in Drawing Object Properties toolbar for changing
properties, i.e. customising an object. Properties of the object can be
modified or edited, either at the time of its creation, i.e. before you start
drawing them or after its creation. When properties are modified before
creation, it is known as setting default value(s).
Drawing Object Properties Toolbar is displayed when we select the ob-
ject. It is a floating toolbar, and can be placed anywhere on the screen.
To set the properties before drawing the object, follow the given steps.
1. Select the object from the Drawing toolbar.
2. Change the various properties of object from Draw-
ing Object Properties Toolbar.
3. Draw the selected object on the document.
To set the properties after drawing the object, follow the given steps
1. Select the object in the document whose properties
are to be modified.
2. Change the various properties of object from Draw-
ing Object Properties Toolbar.

Resizing Object
Sometimes we want to change the size of drawing object to accommod-
ate it at a particular place in the document. Steps to resize a drawing are
given below:
1. Select the object to be resized.
2. All eight handles on the corners and edges will be
visible.
3. Drag the required handle to change the shape and
size.
NOTE: For resizing and maintaining original shape of drawing, use
corner handles. Using edge handles will resize drawing non-proportion-
ally.

Grouping Objects
LibreOffice Writer allows grouping of different objects, to behave as a
single entity. Once grouped, all shapes belonging to that group become
its member and a change applied on one member works on all. Follow
the given steps to group the drawing objects.
1. Select the object by clicking over it.
2. Hold the Shift key and keep on selecting all other ob-
jects by clicking on it.
3. Select a group tool from Drawing Object Properties
Toolbar. Alternatively, selecting from main menu Format >
Group > Group will also do same work.
NOTE: There are four options under Group option. These are Group, Un-
group, Enter Group, Exit Group. These options are also present in the
Drawing Object Properties Toolbar.

Positioning image in the text

Positioning of an image is controlled by four settings.
1. Arrangement
2. Anchoring
3. Alignment
4. Text Wrapping
These settings can be accessed using three ways –
1. Using Format menu.
2. Using context menu after right clicking on the object.
3. Using Drawing Object Properties Toolbar.
Let us learn how to use Drawing Object Properties Toolbar to position a
drawing in the page.
1. Arrangement: In Overlapping objects, arrangement determines the po-
sition of the current drawing with respect to other drawings or text. The
Drawing Object Properties toolbar consists of the six arrangement tools
which are briefly explained below.
Tool Effect

Bring to Front Place image on top of all objects / images

Bring image one level up, when there are overlapping

Forward One
images

Back One Sends image one level down in overlapping images

Send to Back Place image at the bottom of all objects/images

To Foreground Moves the drawing object in front of the text

To Back-
Moves the drawing object behind the text
ground
Working with images in LibreOffice Writer
NOTE: – First four settings can be applied on an image or drawing, but
last two are available for drawings only.
2. Anchoring: It acts as a reference point for image or drawing. Anchor-
ing allows an image to retain its position to a page, paragraph, character
or frame.
3. Alignment: It allows the vertical or horizontal placement of the image
with respect to its anchor. An image can be aligned in six different styles
– 3 horizontal and 3 vertical.
4. Text Wrapping: It allows the placement of image in relation to text.
Text Wrapping tools are available under Drawing Object Properties Tool-
bar. There are six choices which are briefly explained below.
SUMMARY
• In a digital document, a graphic or image is called digital image.
• A digital image is represented in pixels.
• Predefined image can be inserted using Drag-Drop method, Copy-Paste
method or using Insert Image dialog box.
• Inserting an image embeds a copy of the image in the document.
• An image can be linked to a document using Insert Image dialog box.
• Linking an image saves only the link of the image instead of embed-
ding the image. This saves space in case multiple copies of the same im-
age are required.
• Image Toolbar can be used to modify an image. Tools for filtering, res-
izing, cropping, deleting and rotating an image are available in this tool-
bar.
• Drawing Tools are used to create pictures (objects), such as Flowchart,
Call out box, designs, etc.
• Properties of Object can be customised by resizing, rotating, moving or
editing.
• Drawing object properties can be modified either at the time of creation
(when you start drawing) or after its creation.
• Properties when modified before creation, is known as setting Default
values.
• An object drawn using different shapes, can be grouped to behave as
single object.
• Writer provide various tools to arrange text and image or drawing on a
page.
Chapter 3 Advanced Features of Writer Notes: Important points

Introduction
LibreOffice Writer is a word processor that provides a variety of fea-
tures. To give the listing of the contents of the document, we can use the
Table of Contents feature, which is based on different types of heading
styles. LibreOffice Writer also provides templates to create professional
documents. When multiple users are working on a single document, the
Track Changes feature can be used to keep a track of the editing being
done by each user.

Table of Contents
Table of Contents, allows to insert an automated table of contents in a
document. The entries or contents of this table are automatically taken
from the headings and sub headings of the document. Also, by clicking
on any topic in the table of contents, we can navigate directly to the se-
lected topic.

Creating a Table of Contents(ToC)

Before inserting the table of contents or ToC in a document, you must
ensure that proper heading styles, such as Heading 1, Heading 2, Head-
ing 3 and so on are inserted in the document.
Steps to insert the TOC in the document are:
1. Open the document.
2. Place the cursor at the position where the table of
contents is to be inserted.
3. From main menu, select Insert > Table of Contents
and Index > Table of Contents, Index or Bibliography.
4. The Table of Contents, Index and Bibliography dialog
box will be displayed.
5. Type the title of the Table of content and click OK.
NOTE: All the headings will appear with page numbers in the ToC. The
entries in the ToC are hyperlinked. Pressing Ctrl+click the cursor will dir-
ectly move on to the selected section heading.

Table of Contents Dialog Box – Advanced features of Writer

Customisation of Table of Contents(ToC)
Right click anywhere on the ToC and select Edit Index option from the
popup menu. The Table of Contents, Index or Bibliography dialog box
open. This dialog box has five tabs Type, Entries, Styles, Columns and
Background. The options in these tabs can be used to edit the table in
various ways.
Type Tab: is active by default after opening the Table of Contents,
Entries or Bibliography dialog box.
Entries Tab: contains options to set styles for various entries in the ToC.
Styles Tab: contains options to apply the desired styles to the text of
each level in the table of contents.
Steps to apply a custom paragraph style to any level
1. Click and select the level from the Levels list box.
2. Click and select the desired paragraph style from the
Paragraph Styles list box.
3. Click OK button to apply the selected styles.
NOTE: To remove the applied paragraph styling, select the desired level
in the Levels list box, and then click the
Default button
Columns Tab: contains options to set the number of columns that we
want to have in our ToC.
Background Tab: contains options to change the background of the
ToC. The current background color will be displayed in the Active Color
window.
Steps to change the background color of ToC
1. Right click on ToC and choose Edit index from the
drop down menu.
2. Click on background tab from the dialog box.
3. Click the Color button on the top of the dialog box.
4. Select the desired color from the Colors palette. The
selected color will appear in the New color window.
5. Click OK to apply the desired color to the ToC
Steps to remove the background color of ToC
1. Right click on ToC and choose Edit index from the
drop down menu.
2. Click on background tab from the dialog box.
3. Click None button present on the top of the dialog
box.
Steps to add a graphic/image as a background of the ToC.
 1. Right click on ToC and choose Edit index from the
drop down menu.
2. Click on background tab from the dialog box.
3. Click on Bitmap button in the Background tab of the
dialog box.
4. Select the desired graphic option and click OK but-
ton.

Maintaining a Table of Contents(ToC)

Maintaining a Table of Contents means to update (If any changes are
made to the document section headings or page numbering) or delete
the ToC.
Updating the ToC : Steps to update ToC are
1. Right click on ToC and choose Update index from the
drop down menu.
2. Writer updates the ToC so as to reflect any changes
made in the document into ToC
Deleting the ToC : Steps to delete ToC are
To delete the ToC, right click on the table and select Delete Index option
from the pop-up menu. The ToC will
be deleted

Template
A template in the context of this textbook refers to a preset layout used
to create documents with a consistent format.
1. Templates can be used to create a resume, chapter
or project report.
2. Templates can be used to add logo of company or
any product image in multiple documents.
3. Templates can be reused, saving time and effort in
document formatting.
Steps to create a document with template
1. Create a new document from File > New > Tem-
plates…
2. A template selection window will be displayed.
3. Select a template, for example, select the first tem-
plate ‘Modern business letter’ and click on Open.
How to check the template name of the created document?
Click on File > Properties and see the template name under Template
caption in the Property dialog box
Creating a Template
Steps to create and save a template in Writer are
1. Open the document in LibreOffice Writer whose tem-
plate is to be created.
2. Select File > Templates > Save. The Save As Tem-
plate dialog box appears.
3. Type the name of the new Template in Template
Name text box.
4. Select the category.
5. Select Set as default template checkbox to make the
current template as the default template.
6. Click Save button to save the template.