Lesser Known Yet Powerful Features Of OpenOffice!

OpenOffice is the open source counterpart for MS Office. The application provides a full suite of features that can be used by Linux users. But, OpenOffice does have some surprises in store for you. This application has some lesser known features that can be very useful and powerful tools for those using the application.

Notes: The Notes feature in OpenOffice can be used to annotate and document the work that you are doing. This is a pretty useful and powerful tool when you’re working with a team and need to pass on information to other users. In order to use it,

1. Highlight the text you want to associate with a note.
2. Click on Insert menu.
3. Select Note.
4. Type in your note in the right margin.

When you insert a Note, your name is added to it, which makes it easy for another user to figure out who has written the note. This feature can be very useful for team collaboration purposes. You can also use a drop-down menu from inside the Notes feature. This feature can be used to delete all notes, delete notes by the same author etc. Left clicking on a ote also gives you formatting options that allow you to change how a note looks.

Mail Merge: This is like a wizard that allows you to merge data with a document. You can access the Mail Merge features from the Tools menu and it will take you through the entire process from there. The steps for this are pretty self explanatory. You will have to enter the data source yourself and then edit the address block if you need different options in the address field.

Styles and Formatting: Styles and formatting is a very powerful part of OpenOffice that is often overlooked by users. For example, the Syles and Formatting window allows you to not only select different formats, but also select from various different categories of styles from the drop-down menu.

Basically, it allows you to create user-specific formatting templates for each of your documents. So, if you use a specific template commonly, you can create it and use it whenever you want. In order to do this, you will have to right click on the Styles and Formatting window and click on ‘New’. This will open up another window that will allow you to create the style.

Here you will find various tabs that will allow you to create different style elements. To save this template that you create here, do the following.

1. Click on the File menu.
2. Click on the Templates sub-menu.
3. Click on the Save entry.
4. In the new window give the template a name and select the Category this template will belong to.
5. Click OK.
6. Go back to the Templates sub-menu of the File menu and select Organize.
7. Double click the Category you saved the new template to.
8. Right click your new template.
9. Select "Set As Default Template".
10. Click Close.

This will make the template your default template. If you have more than one template and want to use a different one apart form the one set as default, then do the following,

1. Click on the File menu.
2. Click on the New sub-menu.
3. Select the "Templates and Documents" entry.
4. When the new window opens click on the Templates entry.
5. Double-click on the "My Templates" entry and then double click on the template you wish to use.†
6. You can create as many templates as you like.

Source: http://www.efytimes.com/e1/fullnews.asp?edid=127716
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