10 Amazing Tricks for Open Office

Open Office has carved a niche in the office suite market as the most viable alternative for Microsoft Office. It’s popularity is contributed to the fact that it is a freeware and it supports standard OpenDocument Format as well as Microsoft Office formats. With a Microsoft Office like interface and all essential features, the Open Office suite has been designed to meet the needs of most office environments. It’s no wonder that small and mid-sized entrepreneurs running on budget are increasingly switching to this open source office suite. Open Office 3.0 version was a major upgrade and now we have the 3.1 version with enhanced features and bug fixes.  Features introduced in the Office Suite includes a vector-based drawing environment called Draw, a presentation program called Impress, a spreadsheet program called Calc, and several others. With so much on offer, you still have a lot to explore in Open Office. To enhance your experience with the Office Suite we offer you 10 amazing tricks for Open Office.

1. Creating Sections in a Open Office document

Sometimes you might prefer certain portions in your document to behave differently. This is made possible in Open Office with the Sections feature.
To create a section you can simply go to Insert> Sections. The sections are named serially by default as Section 1, Section 2 and so on.

In order to change the way a particular sections behaves you have an easy trick.

Step 1: Go to Format > Sections

Step 2: Select a particular section from the list which needs to behave differently.

Now you have the following options

• To protect a particular section from being changed, check the Protected check box under Write Protection.
• Add a password to this section to remove the write protection.
• To allow only the section to be edited in a write-protected document, under the Properties check Editable in read-only document.

2. Wrapping text in Open Office Call cells

You need not wonder if don’t find wrap text feature in Open Office.  There’s an Open Office feature that allows you to wrap text. Just follow the steps

Step 1: Choose the cell or cells in which you want wrap text

Step 2: Right-click and select Format cells

Step 3: Click the Alignment tab

Step 4: In the Properties area, check the Automatic line break box

Step 5: Click Ok

3. Creating animations in Open Office Impress

Now that Open Office features Impress you can use all the prefab custom animation. It also allows you to control the path an object takes. Suppose you have a diagram and you wanna a small electron object to follow a certain path through the diagram. Here’s how you can do it Impress

Step 1: First of all draw an object.

Step 2: Under Custom Animation> Motion Paths tab, select any one of the first three effects.


Step 3: The cursor would change so that you can select the path you want. Draw the path the you want the object to follow.

Run the presentation to see the effect.

Step 4: If you wanna edit the motion path, apply any standard motion path like Eight-Point Star. The path would appear on the slide.

Step 5: Click on the path and expand it. This will give you another path. You can delete the old path and you are done.

4. How to open a .txt or .csv file in a Spreadsheet

If you have got data in rows and columns separated by tabs or commas and you want them organized in a spreadsheet without punctuations, here’s a trick for you. One of the commonly used ways to get data out of a spreadsheet or database is the comma-delimited files. In open office the .txt or .csv file opens in Writer. This is quite annoying. Here’s the trick how to open the .txt or .csv files in Calc spreadsheet.

Step 1: Start Open Office with any application Writer, Draw or Calc.

Step 2: Select File>Open

Step 3: In the File Type list, select Text CSV. It’s near the bottom of the list of types. Open the file.

Step 4: You would get the window where you specify how the files were created, what separates the data into columns, etc.

Step 5: In the same window you can specify the date and other information column by column

Step 6: Once you are done click Ok. The data will appear in the spreadsheet

Step 7: To save it as spreadsheet choose File>Save As and then select the standard Open SpreadSheet (.ods) format to save the file.

5. Assigning different set of values to same set of cells

In Calc you can assign different set of values to the same set of cells. What this implies is that you can use the formulas and create charts, as well as use the Data Pilot on the same cells, with alternate values for different situations. Here’s how you can do it

Step 1: Select the cells in which you wanna attach the alternate values

Step 2: Go to Tools> Scenarios

Step 3: Click Ok

A grey box will appear by default around the area of selection. By default this is scenario 1.

To create the second scenario follow the same steps, go to Tools > Scenarios.

To move between the two scenarios you can use the scenario drop down menu that appears boxed around the cells. On the same set of cells you can create as many scenarios as you want. Editing one scenario would not affect any change in the other scenarios.

6. Adding or editing notes in cells in Cal

Often you need to add small notes to the cells to include important information.

To add notes to the individual cells follow these easy steps

Step 1: Select the cell or cells in which you want to add notes.

Step 2: Go to Insert> Notes. You will get a yellow field where you can enter your text.
You can resize or reposite the notes by dragging the nodes of the field.

Every cell with a note would show a small red square on the top right corner. To view the notes just hover the cursor over the square.

In case you want to edit the notes follow these steps

Step 1: Go to Insert > Notes

Step 2: Right-click on the cell with the note and check Show Note, to see the note permanently while editing.

Step 3: Double-click the notes to edit it

7. How to insert table in Open Office in a jiffy

Instead of inserting tables from via Insert > Table function, you can insert table by a typing an easy syntax. Here’s the

+—-+—-+—+

Type this syntax and press Enter, the line will automatically get converted into a table.  The + character will get converted into vertical borders.

In case the table is not activated, go to the Tools> AutoCorrect > Options and check the Create table. Also check the Format > AutoFormat > While Typing is enabled.

8. Editing Two or More Parts of a document at the same Time

Unlike Microsoft Word, Open Office doesn’t allow you to split-window to edit different pages split in two different panes. Well, Open Office seems one step ahead.

Click the Windows menu and open New Window that displays the same document you’re working on. It allows you to open as many windows as you want. Each would be opened at a different place in the document. Open as many windows as you can. If you make any change in one window it immediately appears in all others.

Turn off the toolbar in one or more windows to reduce the clutter.  Tile or cascade the windows by right clicking on the OpenOffice.org button on the Windows taskbar.

9. Rehearsing Slide Show

With Open Office’s Impress you can calculate the duration for display of each slide during any presentation. Go to Slide Show > Rehearse Timing and activate it. This would show up a semi-transparent timer in the bottom left corner of the screen as you carry out your presentation. This would allow you to change the slide at an appropriate time. Once you go through the entire presentation the timing for each slide would be automatically stored. Eventually you can save the file and run the presentation. Now the presentation would be carried out at your rehearsed pace.

10. Playing StarWars game

If you had enough of work now its your time to play. Well, what about playing StarWars in Open Office. We’ll tell you how.

Step 1: Open up Open Office Calc

Step 2: Click on any cell and type =GAME(”StarWars”). Now press Enter

Enjoy StarWars game inside Open Office

Don’t forget to share your experience of having used these amazing tricks with us.