LibreOffice-Suite-Base/C4/Access-data-sources/English
| Visual Cues | Narration |
|---|---|
| Show Slide Number 1
Spoken tutorial on LibreOffice Base: Access other Data Sources Learning Objectives
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Welcome to the Spoken tutorial on LibreOffice Base.
In this tutorial, we will learn how to Access other Data Sources Register .odb databases View Data sources And Use Data Sources in Writer |
| Show Slide Number 2
Access other Data Sources other than Base databases Linking these into other LibreOffice documents Example: A spreadsheet or a text document, can be accessed from LibreOffice Base, and linked into LibreOffice Writer documents |
Let us see how we can access other Data Sources in Base.
LibreOffice allows other data sources to be accessed apart from Base Databases. It also allows to link them into other LibreOffice documents. For example, we can access a spreadsheet or a simple text document from inside LibreOffice Base And then link them into a LibreOffice Writer document. |
| Switch to Windows.
Open LibreOffice Base program from Windows Start-->All Programs-->LibreOffice Suite--> LibreOffice Calc Click on File>>New>> point mouse over Spreadsheet. Do not click here. |
As an example, let us create an example spreadsheet using LibreOffice Calc.
Click on Start Menu >> All Programs and open the LibreOffice Suite menu. Or if LibreOffice is already open, then we can click on File, New and then Spreadsheet, to open a new spreadsheet. |
| In the first row, first column, paste the follwing 5 rows of data:
Name Ravi Kumar Nisha Sharma Jacob Robin Salma Aziz And in the next column, paste this. Phone should align with Name. Phone 29488737 82383848 88737433 72383483 Save this as filename ‘LibraryMembers’ in a directory, remember this location. We will need it later. Close the Calc window. |
Now in the spreadsheet, let us type in some sample data as shown in the image. <pause>
And save this spreadsheet as ‘LibraryMembers’ in a directory location. Now let us remember the location, as we will need to use this file later in our example. And we will close the Calc window. |
| Click on Windows Start>>All Programs>>LibreOffice >>LibreOffice Base | Okay, now let us see how we can access this spreadsheet from LibreOffice Base.
To do this, open Base either from Windows Start menu, or If LibreOffice is already open, then we can click on File, New and then Database. |
| Click on ‘Connect to an existing database’
Click on Dropdown below. Scroll slowly Click on Spreadsheet Click on Next button |
Now, this opens the Database Wizard.
Here we will click on the ‘Connect to an existing database’ Then click on the dropdown. Notice the various database sources in this list that Base can access. And we will click on Spreadsheet here. And the Next button. |
| Click on Browse button and go to Windows directory where we saved LibraryMembers.ods
Click on Next button |
Now using the browse button, let us locate the spreadsheet from where we saved it earlier.
If there is a password for the spreadsheet, we will need to provide it too. Here we won’t need it. Let us click on the Next button. |
| Click on Yes, register the database for me
Point on Open database for editing checkbox. Keep it checked Click on Finish button Type LibraryMembers against File name in the dialog box. And Save it in the same location as the LibraryMembers.ods spreadsheet. Click Save button |
Now let us register the spreadsheet as a data source
And Open it for editing. And click on the Finish button. Now let us provide a database name here. Let us type in LibraryMembers. Notice the Save as Type: It says ODF Database which is .odb in our case. And Save it in the same location as the spreadsheet. There we have registered the spreadsheet as a data source in Base. |
| In the main Base window,
Click on Tables icon in the left panel. Click on Sheet1, Sheet2 Double click on Sheet1 |
We are in the main Base window now.
Here let us click on the Tables icon in the left panel. Notice the tables ‘Sheet1’, Sheet2, and Sheet3. Let us double click on Sheet1 to open it and here is the data from the spreadsheet. Now, with this method of accessing the Spreadsheet, we cannot make any changes from here. We can only view data, or create queries, and reports based on the existing data from here. So changes have to be made directly to the Spreadsheet itself. |
| Show Slide Number 3
Registering .odb databases. Open Base and 1. Choose Tools, Options, LibreOffice Base and Databases 2. Under Registered Databases, click New 3. Browse to where the database is located and ensure the registered name is correct. 4. Click on Ok. |
Registering .odb databases.
Now, there are other programs such as OpenOffice.org, that can produce .odb databases. To use these inside LibreOffice Base, we will first need to register them in Base. To register any .odb database, we will need to Open Base and 1. Choose Tools, Options, LibreOffice Base and Databases 2. Under Registered Databases, click New
4. and Click on the Ok button. |
| Show Slide Number 4
View Data sources in LibreOffice |
Let us see how we can view Data sources in LibreOffice.
For this, let us consider the example spreadsheet that we registered in Base. Now, we can use it in LibreOffice Writer or Calc. As an example, let us see how we can view it inside LibreOffice Writer. |
| In the Base window, click on File >> New >> Text Document.
Click View >> Data Sources Browse through the list on top left Click on + against LibraryMembers Click on + against Tables |
First let us open Writer from the Base window.
For this, let us click on File, New and then Text document. Now we are in the Writer window. To view the available data sources, we will click on the View menu at the top and click on Data Sources. Alternately, we can press the F4 key. Now we see a list of registered databases at the top left, including LibraryMembers which we created just now. To view the database, we will expand it, by clicking on the plus symbol on the left of the database name And we will expand Tables. Here are Sheet1, 2 and 3. Let us click on Sheet 1. |
| Click on Sheet 1 | So that’s our data at the top right of the Writer window. |
| Show Slide Number 5
Use Data Sources in LibreOffice Example: in LibreOffice Writer or Calc |
Now we will see how we can use this data in our example Writer document. |
| Go back to Writer window
Click on the gray cell to the left of the first column in the first record to select it. Pressing shift key, click on the gray cell to the left of the first column, in the last record. Click, drag and drop this onto the writer document below. |
Okay, here if we want to use all of the data from the table above, then first we will select all the records there.
For this let us click on the gray cell to the left of the first column in the first record. Then while pressing Shift key, we will click on the gray cell to the left of the first column in the last record. Notice that all the data gets highlighted. Now we will click, drag and drop this onto the Writer document below. |
| In the popup
Click on the Table option at the top Click on >> button Point cursor over the areas in the popup Click on the Ok button. |
Next we see a popup window titled Insert Database columns.
So here, we will click on the Table option at the top And then click on the double arrow button to move all the fields from the left to the right list. Notice the various choices here. For now, we will simply click on the Ok button. And here is the entire table of data in the document. |
| Click on top left, press Enter key twice, click on top left again
Type “Member Name:” Click on the Name column in the data sources area at the top right. Click, drag and drop it next to the text we typed. Press the tab key once and type in “Phone number: “ Click and drag the Phone column from the top and drop it next to our text. Highlight the first record by clicking the gray cell to the left of the first record. Find the Data to Fields icon in the Table Data toolbar at the top below the Formatting toolbar. Usually 17th icon. Show tooltip Click on the Data to Fields icon. Highlight another record at the top and click on Data to Fields icon again. Show cursor over Writer document appropriately |
Next let us see how we can insert individual fields.
Let us go to the top of the Writer document and press the Enter key twice. Again go to the top left. Here let us type in Member Name colon And then click on the Name column in the data sources area at the top right. Now we will click, drag and drop it next to the text we typed. And we will press the tab key and type in Phone number colon And..... we know what to do, don’t we? We will click and drag the Phone column from the top and drop it next to our text. Then let us highlight the first record by clicking the gray cell to the left of the first record. And then we will click on the Data to Fields icon. This can be found in the Table Data toolbar at the top below the Formatting toolbar. Notice that the data in the table above is now in the Writer document. To bring in another record, we just have to highlight a different record and use the ‘Data to Fields’ icon again. So there we learnt how to use data sources inside LibreOffice documents. |
| Show Slide Number 6
Summary:
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This brings us to the end of this tutorial on Accessing other Data Sources in LibreOffice Base
To summarize, we learned how to: Access other Data Sources Register .odb databases View Data sources And Use Data Sources in Writer |
| Acknowledgement Slide | Spoken Tutorial Project is a part of the Talk to a Teacher project, supported by the National Mission on Education through ICT, MHRD, Government of India. This project is co-ordinated by http://spoken-tutorial.org. More information on the same is available at the following link http://spoken-tutorial.org/NMEICT-Intro. This script has been contributed by Priya Suresh, DesiCrew Solutions Pvt Ltd, signing off. Thanks for joining. |
