Everyone uses a word processor, spreadsheet and presentation program, but that doesn't mean you have to work with Microsoft Office. LibreOffice is the uncrowned king of the MS Office alternatives. The package is free and files created in Word, Excel and PowerPoint are compatible with LibreOffice. What's more, those who have worked with the Microsoft programs will have a constant sense of recognition with this open source counterpart.
Tip 01: Desktop Applications
LibreOffice 6.1.4 is a group of desktop applications consisting of a word processor (Writer), a spreadsheet creation application (Calc), a presentation app (Impress), a vector graphics creation program (Draw), a database program (Base) and a separate math module (Math). You run these programs as desktop applications. There is also an online version that you have to install on your own web server. It is therefore less suitable for the home user. Besides, the fact that this office suite does not store data on a remote server also gives peace of mind, of course. You don't have to worry about what Microsoft, Google or Apple do with your data. The applications look like older versions of MS Office, but that is not a direct disadvantage. When the famous ribbon was introduced in 2007, not everyone was enthusiastic about this interface. Ribbon haters will be relieved that LibreOffice mimics the menu structure of the older version of Microsoft Office.
Tip 02: Downloads
Depending on the operating system you are using, download the appropriate LibreOffice installation package here. A version is available for Windows, macOS and Linux. On the home page of LibreOffice you will also find the Help Pack (English). To do this, first click on the green Download now-knob. Then you will see the Built-in help function in Dutch to stand. It is a 2.2 MB file that provides help for offline use. After installing LibreOffice on Windows, you need to restart your computer.
LibreOffice opens very quickly. You will be taken to a window with a menu on the left to select the application you want to launch. On the right you will recognize shortcuts to documents that you have recently saved. The first time you open this suite, this field is empty. There is also a button Templates, which takes you to a number of templates for each application. It must be said: the offer of templates is limited. You can use the function Template management import new models from the internet.
Tip 03: Toolbars
With Writer, you can write anything from small memos to full-length books. The standard toolbar contains everything you need to format your text documents. There are even buttons to send the document by email or to save the document in PDF format. On the toolbar you will also find the functions to divide the text into sections, to create tables and to add illustrations. Writer even has a special toolbar for designing forms that you save in docx or pdf format. When formatting the forms, you can add controls such as list boxes, check boxes, labels, and fields.
Ribbon interface
Still love Office's new interface with the Ribbon? In LibreOffice 6 it is disabled by default, but you can bring it up via the Experimental functions. First go to Tools / Options / LibreOffice / Advanced and tick the box Turn on experimental features. Then restart LibreOffice. Then you enable the ribbon via Image / User Interface. There you now have four new views: Contextual Groups, Tab, Groups and Groups compact. The latter gives the most streamlined version of the toolbar.
Tip 04: Autocorrect and word completion
When you start typing, you notice that your text is already being corrected. The autocorrect is already set to Dutch by default. Words that the corrector does not recognize will be marked with a red wavy line. In the context menu (which you bring up with the right mouse button) you can read the suggestions for these underlined words and in the same way you can add the suspect word to your personal dictionary. A major improvement in version 6 is that the LibreOffice spell checker will also recognize an added word in derivations and compound words. If you used to add the word 'usb' to your dictionary, the corrector still didn't recognize 'micro-usb' and 'usb connection'. So now it is. In the context menu you will also find the commands Set the language of the selection and Set the paragraph language.
Writer even supports word completion, a feature some users love and others hate. With word completion, Writer tries to guess which word you are typing. When you agree, press Enter, otherwise just keep typing. To enable or disable this word completion, go to Tools / Options for AutoCorrect and then you use the tab word completion.
AutoText
Make it easy on yourself and let AutoText enter bits of text you often use. For example, if you want to record the closing formula “Sincerely” followed by your name and possibly address in AutoText, you first type this text, select it and press Ctrl+F3. In the AutoTextwindow, give this fragment a name and choose a keyboard shortcut. In the box below, click on the category My Auto Text. Then click on the AutoTextbutton where you have the option New chooses. Close this window. When you later use the hotkey while writing and then press the F3 key, Writer will automatically insert the selected text.
Tip 05: Sidebar
Because the traditional toolbar does not have enough space to show all the possibilities of a modern word processor, LibreOffice works with a multifunctional sidebar. Clipart can be found in the sidebar below Gallery. The panel Styles also get out of the sidebar while writing. Anyone who uses a word processor a bit sensibly works with styles to format the header, the quotes, the lists in the same way every time. The styles are filled with a wide range of pre-made styles, but you can of course also add your own styles. Another tool that you will find here is the Navigator. This comes in handy when the document becomes very long. With help from Navigator jump back and forth in the document based on the headings, bookmarks, images, comments, links, and objects. Name an object in your document so that it acts as an anchor for the Navigator can function. In addition, there is another panel Characteristics for text formatting and a panel Page to control margins, orientation, and header and footer.
Tip 06: Extension Center
By default, LibreOffice has the Dutch word list and hyphens installed. If you also want to use this word processor to write in other languages, you will of course also want to install the word lists of that foreign language. You get those extra languages via the menu Tools / Extension Manager. In this window you manage the extensions you have ever installed and via the button Get more extensions online connect to the LibreOffice online extension bank. In addition to all kinds of dictionaries, you will find tools for the modules Draw, Base and Math and all kinds of model documents that other users have shared. It includes interesting material, such as a tool to calculate vehicle expenses, an extension to fill text boxes with dummy text, a template to track blood sugar levels and much more. After installing the extension, you will need to restart LibreOffice.
Compatible
We want to reassure anyone who is afraid to rely on this free suite in a world where Microsoft Office is used by more than a billion people. LibreOffice works with the OpenDdocument format like .odt for text, but the package has excellent compatibility with Microsoft Office. It has long been no problem to save a document in the doc or docx format, or to convert presentations with embedded videos to the pptx format of PowerPoint. In Writer it is possible to export documents to the epub format so that you can produce e-books from this word processor. Even QuarkXPress files can be imported. Of course you can also export to PDF. In addition, you can protect the document with a password in the PDF options. This allows you to determine whether the recipient is allowed to open, modify, print or copy the document.
Tip 07: Worksheets
Anyone who has ever worked in Excel will immediately find their niche in Calc. Each spreadsheet can consist of several worksheets and each sheet is made up of cells that you fill with text, numbers and formulas. At the bottom of the screen you see the worksheets that are in the spreadsheet. Calc uses the Open Document format .ods to save spreadsheets, but you can also export the file to the xls format for Excel or to various file formats such as csv, pdf, html.
To quickly format a value in a cell as currency, percentage, date, number, or decimal, use the toolbar buttons layout. In Calc we find the handy sidebar again, where you can Characteristics determines the formatting of the cells. For example, if you want all negative numbers to appear in red, check that option in this panel. Calc supports advanced features such as pivot tables and can make predictions for the future based on current data.
Tip 08: Formulas
No spreadsheet without formulas… When you click in the sidebar on the fXbutton clicks, the panel opens Functions. All formulas are drawn up in Dutch and to maintain an overview of the enormous range, LibreOffice organizes the formulas in categories such as Financial, Logical, Mathematical and so forth. When you select a number of cells with numbers in Calc, the sum of those values appears in the status bar by default. You can also have other calculations appear here by clicking on the button where now Sum= state.
Do you want to display certain data in graphs? This works the same as in Excel: you select a range and then click the button Diagram. This opens the Assistant Charts that guides you through the various selection steps. It must be said that the various diagrams are inferior to Excel on a graphical level.
Tip 09: Share
The Calc spreadsheet module allows multiple users to work simultaneously on the same worksheet. To do this, each user who wants to collaborate must enter a name in Tools / Options / LibreOffice / User Data. Then the person who creates the worksheet activates the collaboration on this worksheet with Tools / Share worksheet. This saves the document in To share and you notice that in the title bar. When one of the users saves the shared document, this document will update itself so that the user sees the latest version of all changes saved by all users.
Tip 10: Vectors
Draw is a typical vector drawing program, although it can also perform operations on raster images. This drawing package has a set of tools on board to create technical drawings with 2D and 3D manipulation. A Draw drawing can have a maximum page size of 300 cm by 300 cm, which can be useful when producing technical drawings, brochures and posters. Vector graphics are composed of geometric elements, such as lines, circles, and polygons. The huge advantage of vector graphics is that you can scale them without losing quality.
Draw easily exchanges the images with the rest of the LibreOffice suite. You can also work with drawings in Writer or Impress, which you then modify with a subset of tools in Draw. And when you want to edit a PDF document in LibreOffice, the package will open the PDF file in Draw.
Tip 11: Layers
You create and edit the drawing on the large workspace in the middle. You place shapes, text boxes and images on this workspace. You can also divide a drawing over several pages. In that case, the panel Pages very useful to visualize. In addition, Draw can manipulate elements on different layers. Layers help you organize complex topics into logical groups. At the bottom of the workspace you can see how many layers the drawing consists of and you can set the transparency of each layer.
Tip 12: Image Styles
The sidebar in Draw has four panels, of which only one panel can be open at a time. Also here the first panel is the Characteristics, which sets the position, font, and shadows. In the panel Gallery is a collection of objects, shapes, arrows, 3D objects, and elements to create flowcharts. Just like you can define text styles, in Draw it is possible to apply graphic styles to objects via the section Styles. That way, you can change the appearance of all elements formatted with a particular profile at once by modifying their style. Finally, the sidebar also contains the Navigator, which allows you to quickly navigate between pages in the drawing. By default, Draw saves the images in the open document format .odg, but you can use the function Export also write the project to the bitmap formats .bmp, .gif, .jpg, .png, .tiff and to the vector formats .eps, .svg.
Tip 13: Arrange slides
LibreOffice's PowerPoint is called Impress. In version 6, the default size of a slide is 16:9, which corresponds to the ratio of recent screens and projectors. The slides you create will often contain several elements: text, bulleted lists, tables, charts, photos, and drawings. The main window consists of the panel slides, the workspace, and the sidebar. The common functions of all LibreOffice applications have a coherent user interface, so that you can also quickly recognize the buttons to format the slides. The panel slides contains all parts of the presentation in the correct order. To change that order or to quickly delete some slides, open the slide sorter through the menu Image. If you think a slide is temporarily redundant but don't want to delete it immediately, you can hide it via the right-click menu.
Tip 14: Content
Just like in PowerPoint, you decide which layout you want with every new slide. That format contains the placeholders for the content. When you fill such a text box, it will automatically adopt the formatting of the selected slide style. That way, your presentation style remains consistent. Of course you can use the button text box add your own text boxes. You can also place tables, charts, drawings and designs from Draw on the slide via the command Insert. Here you will also immediately find the function to add video and audio. These media files must be located locally on the hard drive. In terms of video support, you notice the limitation of this office application.
Incidentally, it is not possible with any application of LibreOffice to insert videos from the Internet. In addition, you must save the documents in Writer, Calc, Impress or Draw in the Open Document formats, otherwise the videos will not be saved in the files.
Tip 15: Transitions and animations
In the sidebar there is a panel called slide change, with a wide variety of transitions that you can set the duration of. In the panel below you select the animations to emphasize certain elements of the presentation. The side panel Main slides used to choose a completely different slide style, but it will only be applied to the selected slide(s).
Press the button Slideshow or press F5 to start the presentation. When using the context menu during the slideshow, you can change the mouse pointer to a pen whose line width and color are adjustable. During the presentation, Impress switches to the Presenter console. In this persentation mode, the speaker sees the current slide and the slide that follows on his laptop or desktop screen. In addition, he can read the comments he has previously noted on certain slides. This console only works when two monitors are connected. Of course it is also possible to print handouts in different layouts.
Open as default
LibreOffice supports the Open Document Format and this is popular with various governments. The British government opted for this open source format a few years ago, and we see the same trend in the Netherlands. Since 1 January 2009, all authorities, such as municipalities, provinces and water boards, must also provide their documents in ODF format.
The advantage of such an open standard is that the organization does not have to pay for MS Office software licenses for each computer. Moreover, as a user you do not run the risk that the developer will one day stop working with his product, so that you suddenly no longer have access to documents that are stored in their own format. The latter has happened to the users of Microsoft Works in the past.
Tip 16: Base
The database software Base is similar to Microsoft Access. This module is a component that the home user is likely to use the least. Yet this is a powerful tool with which you can even address and manage a MySQL database. Every time you start Base, the Database Wizard where you have three options: create a brand new database, open an existing database from the computer, or connect to a database created in another application. Then you create fields in different tables, so that you can fill the records with information. Databases are made to manage a lot of information, so it's nice that Base contains an extensive and customizable search system.
Tip 17: Math
The last component present in LibreOffice is an editor for writing and editing mathematical formulas.You can apply Math in the LibreOffice documents, or use the tool as a standalone application. To insert a formula into a LibreOffice document, place the cursor in the appropriate location and select the menu option Insert / Object / Formula. If you use Math as a standalone tool, you can save a formula as a separate math file. Math makes it easy for the user to type formulas. For example, to insert a fraction, click the fraction icon in the window Elements, after which you enter the values between the curly brackets. You can format any formula using the submenu Layout. That way you choose the font and font size.
