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../style/dot.gif"2">Hour 4: Configuring StarOfficstar029.htmP>

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star026.htm class="navigation">Changing What's on the Menus and Toolbars

 

Setting Other Global Options


A few other option settings might come in useful as you customize your StarOffice environment. All these options are configured by items on the Tools menu.

Setting Up Keyboard Shortcuts

At the end of Hour 3, "Using the Explorer and the Desktop," you learned how to use the keyboard to complete StarOffice tasks. From the Configuration dialog box, you can set up many of these keyboard shortcuts.

To set up your own keyboard shortcuts, or to change the defaults that StarOffice uses, choose Configure in the Tools menu and select the Keyboard tab. This dialog box is shown in Figure 4.13.

Figure 4.13
The Keyboard tab of the Configuration dialog box enables you to define actions for special key combinations.

As you scroll down the list in the Keyboard field, you'll see the function keys listed, as well as key combinations such as Ctrl+ letters, Shift+Ctrl combinations, and so on.

In the bottom half of the dialog box, you'll recognize the lists of categories and commands that you saw earlier in this hour when you learned about setting up menus and toolbars.

The process for creating key assignments is similar to the one for setting up menus and toolbars:

1. Select a category that contains the action to which you want to assign a keyboard shortcut. The command list updates to include commands from the category thatstar013.htm.

2. Select the specific command that you want from the command list.

3. Select a keyboard combination from the Keyboard list.

4. Choose the Assign button. The command that you selected appears next to the keyboard shortcut you selected.

5. Press OK to close the dialog box. Now you can try pressing the keyboard combination you selected to execute your command.

Setting What to Display in the Status Bar

You learned about the default status bar in Hour 2, but the status bar in StarOffice (like everything else) can be modified to suit your preferences.

From the Configuration dialog box, choose the Status Bar tab (see Figure 4.14). Note that most of the items listed are checked by default, but some are not.

By checking any of the items in the list, you can add them to the status bar. If it becomes crowded, uncheck the items that you don't want.

Tip - As with many of the other configuration options shown in this hour, the status bar changes depending on the type of file that you're viewing. If you alter the status bar while viewing a spreadsheet, and then you open a word processor document, the default status bar for word processor files remains unchanged.


Figure 4.14
The status bar can be configured to display the information that is most useful to you.

Configuring AutoCorrection

One of the most powerful features of StarOffice can also be one of the most challenging to configure; hopefully you won't have to change much!

The AutoCorrect feature watches what you type and changes it when an error is detected. Some users, both good typists and bad, find this very annoying. But because nearly all of us make errors, such as typing hte instead of the, the AutoCorrect feature can be a great help.

Tip - If you need to override the AutoCorrect feature, first enter the text as you type and allow the AutoCorrect to fix it. Then use the mouse or arrow keys to return to the spot at which you want to override the correction. Use the Delete or backspace key to erase and then reenter the letters as you want them (taking care not to press the spacebar afterward). The AutoCorrect does not change them.


By configuring the AutoCorrect feature, you can enjoy the benefits of it without the annoyances.

AutoCorrect can be configured by selecting AutoCorrect/AutoFormat from the Tools menu (when viewing an open document). The four tabs show you the many options that the AutoCorrect feature can watch for and correct.

The first two tabs--Replace and Exceptions--contain lists of words to be replaced or corrected, and exceptions to the autocorrection rules. You can add to or delete items from these lists to match your needs. (The Replace tab is shown in Figure 4.15.)

Figure 4.15
The Replace tab of the AutoCorrect dialog box enables you to configure which misspellings are to be corrected.

For example, if your work regularly includes an abbreviation that isn't listed in the Exceptions, the AutoCorrect feature always capitalizes the word that follows the abbreviation. You can add the abbreviation to the Exceptions list to prevent that autocorrection from occurring.

Most of the items in the Replace list are misspellings such as replacing thier with their. If you use other words that you often misspell, you can add them to the Replace list.

What if you don't want to use autocorrection at all? You can change to the Options tab (see Figure 4.16) and uncheck the first two boxes: Use replacement table.

Figure 4.16
The AutoCorrect options define special actions that the AutoCorrect feature can include.

Other options determine how sentences are started as well as corrections to common mistakes that occur during rapid typing.

If you don't want to see misspelled words underlined, review the Auto spellchecking options in the General Options dialog box, in the Linguistic tab. Choose Options from the Tools menu, and then choose General Options.

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Tip - The Main toolbar provides an icon to toggle Auto spellchecking on and off. See Figure 4.17
An icon on the Main tindex.htmn be used to toggle Auto spellchecking on and off.
<../style/dot.gife=2>You'll find more things bkindex.htmn set up in StarOffice to suit your work style, but you know the main configuration options and where to find them.

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Hour 4: Configuring StarOffice

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