LibreOffice-Suite-Base/C2/Introduction/English

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Visual Cues Narration
Show Slide Number 1

Spoken tutorial on LibreOffice Base.

Learning Objectives

  • What is LibreOffice Base?
  • Prerequisites for using Base
  • What can you do with Base?
  • Relational Database basics
  • Create a new database
  • Create a table
Welcome to the Spoken tutorial on LibreOffice Base.

In this tutorial, we will learn about

  • What is LibreOffice Base?
  • Prerequisites for using Base
  • What can you do with Base?
  • Relational Database basics
  • Create a new database
  • Create a table.
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What is LibreOffice Base

  • Database front-end of the LibreOffice suite.
  • Equivalent of Microsoft Access.
  • Free and open source software, free of cost and free to use and distribute.
LibreOffice Base is the database front-end of the LibreOffice suite.

Base is the equivalent of Microsoft Access.

Base is free and open source software, free of cost and free to use and distribute.

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Prerequisites for using Base

System Requirements for Microsoft Windows

  • Microsoft Windows 2000 (Service Pack 4 or higher), XP, Vista, or Windows 7;
  • Pentium-compatible PC
  • Up to 1.5 Gb available hard disk space;
Let us look at the Prerequisites for using Base.

Following are the System requirements for Microsoft Windows

Microsoft Windows 2000 (Service Pack 4 or higher), XP, Vista, or Windows 7;

Pentium-compatible PC

Up to 1.5 Gb available hard disk space;

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System Requirements for Ubuntu Linux

  • Linux kernel version 2.6.18 or higher;
  • Pentium-compatible PC
  • 512Mb RAM recommended

For complete info, visit http://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/system-requirements/

For Ubuntu Linux, here are the System requirements

Linux kernel version 2.6.18 or higher;

Pentium-compatible PC

For both Windows and Linux installation we require

256 Mb RAM (recommended 512 Mb RAM recommended)

For complete info about the system requirements, visit http://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/system-requirements/

In a fresh Internet Browser, go to: http://www.java.com/en/download/index.jsp. Simply point on the red button in the centre that says 'Free Java Download'. Do not click on it. You will also need to install Java Runtime Environment which you can download at the following link http://www.java.com/en/download/index.jsp.

Click on the Red button in the centre that says 'Free Java Download'.

Once the file is downloaded, double click on it and follow the instructions to install.

Point on Windows Start,

Click Start-->All Programs-->LibreOffice Suite and simply point on the LibreOffice Base, but do not click on it.

In a fresh Internet Browser, go to: http://www.libreoffice.org. Do not click, but simply point at the 'Download Libreoffice' green area.

Let us now look at LibreOffice Base installation:

If you have already installed LibreOffice Suite with the complete installation option,

Then, you can access LibreOffice Base, by clicking on the Start menu at the bottom left of your screen. Click on All Programs, and then click on LibreOffice Suite.

If you have not installed LibreOffice Suite, you can install Base by visiting the official website http://www.libreoffice.org and clicking on the green area that says 'Download LibreOffice'.

Detailed instructions are available in the first tutorial of LibreOffice Suite.

Remember, when installing, use the 'Complete' option to install 'Base'.

Okay, let us go to the next topic now.

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What can you do with LibreOffice Base? a) you can store organized data

What can you do with LibreOffice Base?

With Base, you can store organized data

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with bullet point b) on the right appearing

perform data entries and view data using forms
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with bullet point c) on the right appearing

retrieve information using queries and
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with bullet point d) on the right appearing

design and generate nice, printer-ready reports.

Base helps you to manage databases.

As you may know, a database is a group of data, forms, queries and reports.

Show Slide Number 5

Examples of Base Databases:

  • manage Customer Information databases,
  • track sales orders and invoices
  • maintain student grade databases
  • build a library database
For example, Base can be used to
  • manage Customer Information databases,
  • track sales orders and invoices,
  • maintain student grade databases or
  • build a library database.
Show Slide Number 6

Relational Database basics

Show Books table with column headers as BookId, title, author, publisher, year of publication and price.

Need to show cursor movement on the various regions of the table as narration goes forward

Let us now learn about some basics of databases.

A database has data stored and organized into tables.

Tables have individual pieces of data stored in rows and columns.

Such a database is also called a relational database where the tables have relationships with each other using the columns.

Let us consider a simple database for a Library.

A library can be a collection of Books.

And books can be issued to members of the library.

A book can have a title, an author, a publisher, year of publication and a price.

These are called characteristics or attributes.

Similarly, a Library member has a Name, phone number and an address.

And the library issues books to its members only.

Now let us see, how we can store this data as individual tables of rows and columns.

Information about each book can be stored in a Books table, with its attributes becoming the columns: book title, author, publisher, year of publication and price.

To distinguish each book, let us also add a unique identifier column called BookId.

This way, we can have two completely different books with the same title.

In the same Slide Number 6,

Show Members Table beneath, with columns as MemberId, Name, Phone.

Below this, show the third table BooksIssued with columns as IssueId, BookId, MemberId, Date Issued, Date of Return, Actual Date of Return, CheckedIn.

Show appropriate cursor movement over slide areas as narration goes forward

Similarly, a Members table can have columns like Name and Phone,

And a MemberId to uniquely identify or distinguish each member. <pause>

And we can track the books issued to members in a third table called BooksIssued.

This table will track the book issued, the member, date of issue, date of return, actual date of return, whether checked in or not.

We can establish relationships among these tables, to interlink the data in them.

Now this helps us to manage 'relational databases'.

Show Slide Number 7

For advanced topics on relational databases, refer to our other tutorials at: http://spoken-tutorial.org

For advanced topics on relational databases, refer to our other tutorials by visiting the website Spoken tutorial.org http://spoken-tutorial.org

Okay, let us now get started with our first Base database called “Library”!

Switch to Windows, Open Base from Windows Start menu-->All Programs-->LibreOffice-->LibreOffice Base To create a new Database, let us first open the Base program.

Then, click on the Windows Start menu at the bottom left of the screen, then click on All Programs, then LibreOffice Suite, and LibreOffice Base.

Click on Next button A pop-up window titled Database Wizard opens.

Click on the Next button to create a new database.

Click on Finish button Click on the Finish button in the following window.
Type "Library" in the File Name text box and click on Save button. This opens a Save As window.

Since we are building a Library database, we will type "Library" in the File Name text box.

And then click on the Save button.

Show the LibreOffice Base window Now we are in.

Next, let us create tables to store data.

Click on Tables icon on the left Database list To create a new table, click the Tables icon in the Database list on the left.
Click on the 'Create Table in Design View' in the Tasks list Click on the 'Create Table in Design View' in the Tasks list on the right panel.

This opens another window.

Type 'BookId' in the top left under Field Name.

Press the Tab key to move to the Field Type column.

Here, type 'BookId' as the first column under Field Name.

Use the Tab key to move to the Field Type column.

Select Integer [INTEGER] as the Field Type from the dropdown list. Since the BookId will be a different number for each book, select Integer as the Field Type from the dropdown list.
Change AutoValue from No to Yes. Press the Tab key once.


Show cursor over the yellow key symbol left of BookId

Change the Field Properties in the bottom section.

Change AutoValue from No to Yes.

This field now will uniquely identify each book.

In other words this field is also called the Primary Key.

Notice the yellow key symbol to the left of the BookId field.

Type 'Title' in the next Field Name, press the tab key, choose Text[VARCHAR]

Type 'Author' in the next Field Name, press the tab key, choose Text[VARCHAR]

Type 'PublishedYear' in the next Field Name, press the tab key, choose Integer [INTEGER]

Type 'Publisher' in the next Field Name, press the tab key, choose Text[VARCHAR]

Type 'Price' in the next Field Name, press the tab key, choose Numeric[NUMERIC] Change the Length to 5 and Decimal places to 2. Click the Format example button.

In the Field Format window. Use Currency as the Category and INR as the Format.

Choose Rs. 1234.00 that has two decimal places.

Click Ok button.

Click on the Save icon that is below the File menu. In the Save As pop-up window, type 'Books' in the table name text box and


Click on Ok button.

Let us see how we choose Field Types for field names.

Field types can be text, integer, numeric, decimal or date.

Use text, for fields that have general information, for example, name, title, address.

Use Integer, numeric, decimal for fields that may contain only numbers,

For example use numeric for a field with price information, Integer for years.

Let us create the rest of the fields now. Title Fieldtype Text Author Fieldtype Text

PublishedYear Fieldtype Integer

Publisher Fieldtype Text

Price Fieldtype Numeric

Change the Length to 5 and Decimal places to 2. Click the Format example button.

This opens the Field Format window.

Select Currency from the Category List and INR from the Format List.

Let us choose Rs. 1234.00 that has two decimal places.

Notice that the total length is five, inclusive of the two decimal places.

Click on the OK button. Now we have created all the columns for the Books table.

Let us now save the table.

Click on the Save icon that is below the File menu.

Type 'Books' in the table name text box

Note that it is saved in the same location as the database ‘Library’ as tables are a part of a database.

and click on the ok button.

In the next tutorial, we will add data to the Books table and create the Members and BooksIssued tables.

Show Slide Number 8

LibreOffice Base Summary

  • What is LibreOffice Base?
  • Prerequisites for using Base
  • What can you do with Base?
  • Relational Database basics
  • Create a new database
  • Create a table
This brings us to the end of this tutorial <pause>

To summarize, we covered the following:

What is LibreOffice Base? Prerequisites for using Base What can you do with Base? Relational Database basics Create a new database Create a table

Slide Number 9

Next tutorial - LibreOffice Base : Tables and Relationships

The next tutorial in this series is tables and relationships.
Slide Number 10

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 Spoken Tutorial.org http://spoken-tutorial.org. More information on the same is available at the following linkhttp://spoken-tutorial.org/NMEICT-Intro. This script has been contributed by Priya Suresh, DesiCrew Solutions) signing off. Thanks for joining.

Contributors and Content Editors

Chandrika