LibreOffice-Suite-Writer-6.3/C2/Introduction-to-LibreOffice-Writer/English

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Title: Introduction to LibreOffice Writer

Author: Pratik Kamble

Novice Reviewer: Nikita and Pooja

Domain Reviewer: Praveen and Nancy

Keywords: LibreOffice Writer, word processor, Toolbars, Title bar, Menu bar, Standard toolbar, Formatting bar, Save, Export, MS Word, PDF, File type, Font Name, Font Size, Bold and Align


Visual Cue Narration
Slide : Title Welcome to the spoken tutorial on Introduction to LibreOffice Writer.
Slide : Learning Objectives In this tutorial, we will learn:
  • About LibreOffice Writer
  • Various toolbars in Writer
  • How to open a new and existing document
  • How to save and close a document in Writer
  • How to save as MS Word document
  • How to export as a PDF document
Slide : What is LibreOffice Writer ?
  • LibreOffice Writer is the word processor component of the LibreOffice Suite.
  • It is the equivalent of Microsoft Word in Microsoft Office Suite.
  • It's free and open source software.
  • It can be shared, modified and distributed without any restrictions.
Slide: OS and versions LibreOffice Writer can run on any of the following operating systems:
  • Microsoft Windows 8 or higher versions
  • GNU/Linux OS and
  • Mac OSX
Slide: System Requirements This tutorial is recorded using
  • Ubuntu Linux OS version 18.04 and
  • LibreOffice Suite version 6.3.5
Slide: LibreOffice installation
  • By default, the latest Ubuntu Linux OS has LibreOffice Suite pre-installed in it
  • To install a specific version, refer to the LibreOffice Installation series on this website.
Only Narration Let us learn how to open LibreOffice Writer.
Click on Show Applications ->search bar type “Writer”->click on LibreOffice Writer icon In Ubuntu Linux OS, click on the Show applications icon located at the bottom left corner.


In the search bar type Writer.


From the displayed list, click on the Libreoffice Writer icon.

Click on “Start menu”->search bar type “Writer”->click on LibreOffice Writer icon In Windows OS, click on the Start Menu icon located at the bottom left corner.


In the search bar, type Writer.


From the displayed list, click on the Libreoffice Writer icon.

In the main Writer window.


Only Narration:

This will open an empty document in the main Writer window.


Now let us learn about the main components of the Writer window.

Highlight with a red box - Title bar, Menu bar, Standard toolbar and Formatting bar. The Writer window has various toolbars at the top.


These are Title bar, Menu bar, Standard toolbar and Formatting bar.

Highlight with a red box - Search bear, Drawing toolbar, Status bar. At the bottom, we see the Search bar, Drawing toolbar and Status bar.
We can enable or disable these toolbars from the interface.
Click View menu >> Toolbars


Check Drawing toolbar and Find

To do so, go to the View menu and select Toolbars.


From the sub menu, check or uncheck the toolbars based on your preference.

Highlight with a red box - vertical scroll bar and sidebar At the right side, we see the vertical scroll bar and sidebar.
Only Narration All of these have the most commonly used options.


We will learn about these as the series progresses.

Only Narration Now let us learn how to open a new document in Writer.
Point to on New icon We can open a new document by clicking on the New icon in the Standard toolbar.
Click File menu


Click New >> Text Document


Alternatively go to the File menu in the menu bar.


Then click on the sub menu New and select the option Text Document.

Point to Title bar - Untitled 2


Click on X icon at top right


A new Writer document named Untitled 2 opens up.


Close the newly opened document named Untitled 2 by clicking on the X icon at the top right.

Only Narration Now, we’ll type some text in the Untitled 1 document.
Type “RESUME Type the word “RESUME”.
Only Narration Once done typing our document, we should save it for future use.
Click on File To save the file, click on the Save icon in the Standard toolbar.
Dialog box A dialog box appears on the screen.
Point to Name.



Type “Resume” in the Name field.

It prompts us to enter the name of our file in the Name field.


I will type the name of the file as “Resume”.

Select Desktop location to save the file. On the left side, I’ll select Desktop as the location to save my file.
Click File type drop-down Notice, we have a File type drop-down at the bottom right corner.


Click on this drop-down.

Only narration It shows a list of file types or file extensions in which we can save our file.
Point to “ODF Text Document (.odt)


The default file type in LibreOffice Writer is ODF Text Document (.odt).


ODF stands for Open Document Format which is an open standard.

Only narration It is also accepted by the Government of India policy on open standards in e-Governance.
Click on “ODF Text Document (.odt)”. I will click on the ODF Text Document option to save my file.


Do likewise on your machine.

Click on Save button.


Click on the Save button at the top right corner of the dialog box.
Writer window We will be redirected back to the Writer window.
Point to “Resume.odt” in the title bar. Observe the change in the title bar now.


It has changed to Resume.odt

Text on screen “Word 97-2003 (.doc)”


Text on screen “Word 2007-365 (.docx)”

Besides saving in dot odt format, we can also save our file in dot doc and in dot docx formats.


Files with these formats can be opened later in MS Word application.

Only Narration Now, we will save the same file as a docx file.
Click on File >> Save as Go to File menu in the menu bar and then click on the Save As option.
Save As dialog box >> click on File type drop-down



Scroll down and select Word 2007 - 365(.docx)

In the Save As dialog box, click on the File type drop-down at the bottom right corner.


Scroll down and select Word 2007 - 365 (.docx)

Choose Desktop as location >> Click on Save button. Again choose the same file location to save.


Then click on the Save button at the top right corner of the dialog box.

Confirm File Format dialog box opens



Put a check on “Ask when not saving in ODF format”.

If we save the file in any other file format, Confirm File Format dialog box opens up.


Put a check on “Ask when not saving in ODF or default format” option.

Click on Use Word 2007 - 365 Format Then click on the Use Word 2007 - 365 Format button.
Writer window We will be redirected back to the Writer window.
Point to “Resume.odt” in the title bar. Observe the change in the title bar now.


It has changed to Resume.docx


Point to “Export Directly as PDF”.

The file can also be exported to PDF format.


Click on the Export Directly as PDF icon in the Standard toolbar.

Highlight Filename field, highlight left panel locations, highlight Save button.


DO NOT CLICK Save button.

Type a filename, choose a location and click on the Save button at the top right.
Click on Cancel button I will click on Cancel and show another way of saving the document in PDF format.
Click on File menu>>Export As>>Export as PDF Click on the File menu in the menu bar and select Export As sub-menu option.


Then click on the Export as PDF option.

Point to PDF Option dialog box




Click on Export button

PDF options dialog box opens up.


In this dialog box, we will see various settings to customize the PDF option.


Keep the default settings as it is and click on the Export button at the bottom.

Click on Desktop location >> click on Save button Type a filename, choose a location and click on the Save button at the top right.


A pdf file will be created in the selected location.

Click on File >> Save As>> File type drop-down >> Point to Rich Text (.rtf) Another popular extension which opens in most applications, is dot rtf, the Rich Text Format.
Point to “HTML” We can save the file in dot html format also, which is a web page format.


This is done in the same way as explained above.

File type drop-down >> Scroll down and select “HTML Document writer .html In the File type drop-down, scroll down and select HTML Document (Writer)(.html).


This option gives the dot html extension to the document.

Choose Desktop as location >> Click on Save button. Again choose the same file location to save.


Now click on the Save button at the top right corner of the dialog box.

Confirm File Format dialog box opens


Put a check on “Ask when not saving in ODF format”.

The Confirm File Format dialog box opens.


Put a check on “Ask when not saving in ODF or default format” option.

Click on “Use HTML Document (Writer) Format”. Then click on the Use HTML Document (Writer) Format button.
Point to title bar. We see that the file gets saved with dot html extension.


This format is used when we want to show our document as a web page.


It can be opened in any web browser.

Click on File>>Close Let's close this document by clicking on the File menu and then Close.
Only Narration Next, we will learn how to open an existing document in LibreOffice Writer.


Let's open the document Resume.odt

Click on Open File



File browser dialog box opens >> browse location

Click on the Open File menu on the left of the LibreOffice interface.


The file browser dialog box opens up.


Go to the location where our file is saved.

Choose Resume.odt


click on the Open button

Now in the list of filenames that appears, choose Resume.odt


Then click on the Open button at the top right corner.


The file Resume.odt opens in the Writer window.

Only Narration Likewise, we can also open files with dot doc and dot docx extensions in Writer.
Only Narration Next we will see how to modify a file and save it under the same filename.
Select word RESUME by clicking on the left mouse button and then dragging it along the text. So, first let us select the word RESUME.


To do so click the left mouse button and then drag it along the text.


This will select the text and highlight it.

Release the left mouse button. Now release the left mouse button.


The text should still be highlighted.

Point to and click on Bold icon Now, click on the Bold icon in the Formatting bar.

The text thus becomes bold.

Only Narration Next, let us align the word RESUME to the centre of the page.
Only Narration If you have resized your LibreOffice window, some of the icons may not be visible.

Click on Double arrow icon

In that case, click on the double arrow icon at the end of the toolbars .
Click on Align Centre icon Click on the Align Center icon in the Formatting bar.
Point to text We see that the text gets aligned to the center of the page.
Only Narration Now, let us increase the font size of the text.
Click on Font Size down-arrow So, click on the down-arrow in the Font Size field in the Formatting bar.
Select 14 In the drop-down, let us select 14.


The font size of the text increases to 14.

Click Font Name down-arrow

Next, let us change the Font we are using.


Click on the down-arrow in the Font Name field in the Formatting bar.

Select Undotum In the drop-down, let us select Undotum.


The font name of the text has changed to Undotum.

Press Ctrl + S keys Let us now save the changes that we have made.


To do so, press Ctrl + S keys together.

Point to the Title Toolbar The file gets saved with the same filename even after the modification is done.
Click on File >> Close Let's close the document now.


Click on the File menu in the menu bar and then click on the Close option.

Only Narration This brings us to the end of this spoken tutorial.


Let us summarize.

Slide: Summary In this tutorial, we learnt:
  • About LibreOffice Writer
  • Various toolbars
  • How to open a new and an existing document
  • To save and close a document in Writer
  • To save as MS Word document
  • To export as a PDF document
Slide: Assignment As an assignment
  • Open a new document in Writer
  • Save it under the name practice.odt
  • Type the text “This is my first assignment”
  • Underline the text.
  • Increase the Font size to 16.
  • Save and close the file.
Slide: About Spoken Tutorial Project
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Slide: Forum for specific Questions
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Slide: Acknowledgement The Spoken Tutorial project is funded by MHRD, Govt. of India.
Slide: Thank you This tutorial was originally contributed by DesiCrew Solutions Pvt. Ltd. in 2011

This is Pratik Kamble along with Spoken Tutorial team from IIT Bombay signing off.

Thank you for watching.

Contributors and Content Editors

Nancyvarkey, Pratik kamble, Pravin1389