LibreOffice-Suite-Writer-6.3/C2/Typing-text-and-basic-formatting-in-Writer/English

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Title: Typing text and Basic formatting

Author: Nancy Varkey, Pratik Kamble

Novice Reviewer: Nikita and Pooja

Domain Reviewer: Praveen and Nancy

Keywords: Align, Bullets, Numbering, Bold, Underline, Italics, Font name, Font size, Font color


Visual Cue Narration
Slide : Title Welcome to the Spoken tutorial on Typing text and basic formatting.
Slide : Learning Objectives In this tutorial, we will learn to:
  • Align text
  • Use Bullets and Numbering
  • Use Cut, Copy and Paste options
  • Use Bold, Underline and Italic options
  • Use the Font name, Font size, Font color options in Writer
Slide: Formatting features
  • Applying these features make our documents more attractive.
  • They will be much easier to read as compared to the documents which are plain text.
Slide: System Requirements This tutorial is recorded using
  • Ubuntu Linux OS version 18.04 and
  • LibreOffice Suite version 6.3.5
Open Resume.odt file Open the file Resume.odt which we have created earlier.
Slide: Code files
  • This file has been provided to you in the Code files link on this tutorial page.
  • Pls download and extract the file.
  • Make a copy and then use it for practising.
Only Narration We will first learn about aligning text in Writer.
Point to Text RESUME We had previously typed the word RESUME and aligned it to the center of the page.
Select word RESUME So, let’s select the word RESUME once again.
Only Narration If you have resized your LibreOffice window, some of the icon may not be visible.
Click on Double arrow icon In that case, click on the double arrow icon at the end of the toolbars to see the hidden icons.
Click on Align Left icon Now click on the Align Left icon on the Formatting toolbar.
Point to Text RESUME The word RESUME is now aligned to the left of the page.
Click on Align Right icon on formatting toolbar


Point to Text RESUME

Click on the Align Right icon.



The word RESUME gets aligned to the right of the page.

Click on Justify icon on formatting toolbar


Point to Text RESUME


Only Narration

Now, click on the Justify icon.


The word RESUME is uniformly placed between the right and left margin of the page.


This feature will be more obvious when we have a line or paragraph of text.

Press Ctrl +Z (3 Times) Let’s undo the changes until our text Resume is centre-aligned.


In Writer, we press Ctrl + Z keys on the keyboard to undo an action.


Deselect the word RESUME.

Press Enter


Now, press Enter key on the keyboard to go to the next line.


Press the Enter key once again to create one more line.

Click on Align Left


Click on Bold icon

Click on the Align Left icon in the Formatting toolbar.


Then click on the Bold icon from the toolbar to disable the bold option.

Only Narration Now let’s learn about bullets and numbering.
Slide: Bullets and Numbering
  • Bullets and Numbering are used when independent points have to be written in a document
  • Each point starts with either a bullet or a number.
  • Bullets are used for unordered lists
  • Numbering is used for ordered lists
Point to the Bullets and Numbering icons. In the Formatting toolbar, we can see the separate icons for Bullets and Numbering.
Click on the Bullets icon


Point to the bullet symbol

Let’s click on the Bullets icon.


Immediately a dot or bullet symbol appears on the document.

Type a >> Enter Let’s type the alphabet a and press Enter.
Type b >> Enter Now, let’s type b and press Enter.
Click on the Numbering icon


highlight the number 1

Next let’s press the Numbering icon.


Immediately, the bullet symbol is converted to number 1.

Type c >> Enter

Type d >> Enter

Type c and press Enter.

type d and press Enter.

Only narration Hope this gives you a clear picture of the difference between bullets and numbering.
Click and drag the left mouse button to select this text. Click and drag the left mouse button to select all this text.
Click on Format menu >> Bullets and Numbering Now, we will learn another method of accessing Bullets and Numbering.


First click on the Format menu in the menu bar and then on Bullets and Numbering option.


Point to option such as Bullets, Numbering, Outline, Image

Bullets and Numbering dialog box opens up.


It provides various styles under different tabs which can be applied to our document.

Select Bullets tab Select Bullets tab if not already selected.


Many bullets styles are seen here.

Select the large square bullets >> click on Ok Select the large square bullets.


And click on the OK button at the bottom right corner of the dialog box.

Highlight the new bullet style Observe the change in the bullet symbols.
Click on Format menu >> Bullets and Numbering >> select Numbering tab Now, let’s reopen the Bullets and Numbering dialog box and click on the Numbering tab.


Many numbering styles are seen here.

Select the Roman numerals >> click on Ok Let’s select the Roman numerals style.


And click on the OK button at the bottom right corner of the dialog box.

Highlight the new bullet style Observe the change in the numbering. They appear as Roman numerals now.
Only Narration Likewise we can use any bullets or numbering style as per our choice.
Select this newly typed text


Press the Delete key


Press the Backspace key

Now press the Delete key on the keyboard.


Then press the Backspace key on the keyboard to remove the remaining numbering also.

Click on Format menu >> Bullets and Numbering >> select Numbering tab Let’s reopen the Bullets and Numbering dialog box and click on the Numbering tab.
Click on second style

Click on OK button

Now, let us click on the second style

and click on the OK button.

Only Narration We are now ready to type our first point.
Type NAME: RAMESH >>Press Enter We’ll type NAME colon space RAMESH and press Enter.
Press Enter key


Here onwards, press the Enter key after every point.
Point to 2 The next bullet point shows the new incremental number.
Type FATHER’S NAME: MAHESH >>Press Enter Let’s type the second point in the Resume as “FATHER’S NAME” colon MAHESH
MOTHER’S NAME: SHWETA” >>Press Enter Then type the third point as MOTHER’S NAME colon SHWETA.
FATHERS OCCUPATION: GOVERNMENT SERVANT” >>Press Enter


MOTHERS OCCUPATION: HOUSEWIFE

Type the next two points as shown here.
Press Ctrl + S Let’s save our file by pressing Ctrl + S keys.


It’s a good habit to frequently save our file while working.

Text on screen: Multiple levels of bullets or numbers in a list. There can be multiple levels of bullets or numbers in a list.


It depends on the format we choose.

Only Narration Let me demonstrate for you.
Go to point no. 4 FATHERS OCCUPATION


cursor after colon and press Enter.

Go to point no. 4 FATHERS OCCUPATION.



Place the cursor after the colon and press Enter.

Press Tab key once.


Point to newly created bullet point

Now press Tab key once.


Immediately, no. 5 turns into a new Bullet list and gets indented below no. 4

Cursor to the end of the bullet point >> press Enter


Type SELF EMPLOYED >> press Enter

Move the cursor to the end of the bullet point and press Enter.


Type SELF EMPLOYED and press Enter.

Press Shift + tab key on the keyboard We can press Shift + Tab keys to decrease the indentation.
Press Delete key Now press the Delete key till the next point comes up one line.
Cursor to the end of the bullet point >> press Enter


Point to newly created no. 6

Move the cursor to the end of the numbered point 5 and press Enter.


No. 6 appears on the list.

Click on Format menu >> Bullets and Numbering >> Click on Remove button To turn off Bullets and Numbering, reopen the Bullets and Numbering dialog box.


Click on the Remove button at the bottom.

Point to the New line of text We see that the bullet and numbering style is no longer seen for the new line of text.
Highlight the icons Bullets and Numbering. Explore the bullets and numbering quick access icon in the formatting toolbar on your own.
Highlight all occurrences of the word NAME Notice that we have typed the word NAME thrice in our document.
Only Narration Instead of typing the same text all over again, we can use the Copy and Paste option in Writer.
Only narration So, let us learn how to do this.
Delete NAME from the text MOTHER’S NAME First, delete the word NAME from the text MOTHER’S NAME.
Select the word NAME Select the word NAME in FATHER’S NAME
Right-click on mouse >> Copy Right-click on the mouse and select Copy.
Cursor between MOTHER’S and Colon >>Right-click on mouse >> Paste Place the cursor between the text MOTHER’S and colon symbol.


Right-click on the mouse and select Paste.

Point to word MOTHER’S NAME We see that the word NAME gets pasted automatically.
Text on screen: Ctrl+C to copy and Ctrl+V to paste. The shortcut keys for these options are Ctrl+C to copy and Ctrl+V to paste.
Only Narration This feature is very useful while writing repeated text in large documents.


So we don't need to type the entire text repeatedly. We can simply copy and paste.

Only Narration In Writer, there is a feature similar to Copy, which is Cut.
Only Narration Let me show a demonstration.
Delete NAME from the text MOTHER’S NAME First, delete the word NAME from the text MOTHER’S NAME.
Select word NAME in FATHER'S NAME. Now select the word NAME in FATHER'S NAME.
Right click on mouse >> Cut


Point to FATHER’S

Right-click and select Cut.


Notice that the word NAME is no longer there next to the word FATHER’S.


Which means it has been cut or deleted.

Cursor between MOTHER’s and Colon >>Right-click on mouse >> Paste Place the cursor between the text MOTHER’S and colon symbol.


Right-click on the mouse and select Paste.

Point to MOTHER’S We see that the word NAME is now pasted next to the word MOTHER’S
Text on screen: Ctrl+X to cut The shortcut key to cut is Ctrl+X.
Cursor between FATHER’S and Colon >>Right-click on mouse >> Paste Likewise, paste the word after FATHER’S also.
Only Narration Cut and Paste feature is useful to move a text from one place in the document to another.
Slide: Difference between Copy and Cut


The only difference between copying and cutting the text is
  • the Copy option keeps the original word at its place from where it was copied
  • whereas the Cut option removes it from its original place.
Press Enter twice Move the cursor to the end of the document.


Press Enter twice

Press Enter >> Type EDUCATION DETAILS >> Press Enter Now let’s type a new heading EDUCATION DETAILS.
Only Narration We will now learn how the Font name and Font size of any text can be changed or applied.
Point to Font Name field Previously, we had selected UnDotum as the font name.


Hence we can see UnDotum in the Font name field.

Only Narration Let us use a different Font and Size for the heading EDUCATION DETAILS.
Select EDUCATION DETAILS


Click on Font Name drop-down.

So, first select the text EDUCATION DETAILS


And then click on the Font Name drop-down.

Click on Liberation Sans Search for Liberation Sans and click on it.
Point to Font size field The Font Size field shows 14 currently.
Click Font size field box Let’s change this to 11.
Point to EDUCATION DETAILS We see that the Font size of the text decreases.
Point to Font Color Let’s now move to Font Color.
Select EDUCATION DETAILS Make sure that our text is still selected.
Click on Font color >> Select Green Now, click on the dropdown in the Font Color and select the color green.
Point to EDUCATION DETAILS So, we see that the heading is now green in color.
Point to Bold Italic and Underline Next we will click on the icons Bold, Italic and Underline.
Only narration We can use any combination of these text formats for our text, as per our requirements.
Press Ctrl + S

Click on the X icon

Save our file by pressing Ctrl + S keys.

And then close it by clicking on the X icon at the top right.

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

Let us summarise.

Slide: Summary In this tutorial we learnt to:
  • Align text
  • Use Bullets and Numbering
  • Use Cut, Copy and Paste options
  • Use Bold, Underline and Italic options
  • Use the Font name, Font size, Font color options in Writer
Slide: Assignment As an assignment:
  • Open the file practice.odt
  • Activate Bullets and Numbering
  • Choose any style and type few lines of text
  • Select some text and change its Font name to Free Sans
  • Set the Font size to 16
  • Make the text Italic
  • Change the Font color to red
  • Save and close the file
Slide: About spoken Tutorial Project The video at the following link summarises the spoken tutorial project

Please download and watch it.

Slide: Spoken tutorial workshops We conduct workshop using Spoken Tutorials and give certificates.

For more details, please contact us.

Slide: Forums Please post your timed queries in this forum.
Slide: Acknowledgment 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 the Spoken Tutorial team from IIT Bombay signing off.

Thank you for watching.

Contributors and Content Editors

Nancyvarkey, Pratik kamble