Sams Teach Yourself StarOffice® 5 for Linux in 24 Hours |
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Hour 10: Using Tables, Indexes, and Other Special Features |
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In this hour, you learn you how to use some of the more common features of StarOffice beyond the standard formatting discussed in Hours 8, "Formatting Your Document," and 9, "Using Advanced Formatting Tools."
Specifically, many of your documents will include tables. In this hour you learn how to insert and modify StarOffice tables. Also, if you work on any large documents (more than, say, 20 pages), you might want to use the automatic index generation in StarOffice. Finally, this hour explores some other useful features such as using outline mode and automatic bulleted lists.
Some of these features are much easier to show you if you have an existing document. At times, a reference is made to one of the sample documents that comes with StarOffice. In any case, you're probably starting to work with your own documents, so you can try out the tasks on your own.
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Tables are a great way to organize data. When you need to present a list that has components that correspond to each other, a table can be the perfect presentation. It makes it easier for a person who is reading your document to scan the information quickly and to find relationships between parts of the data that you present.
Tables are easy to start and edit in StarOffice, either from the menus or from the Object toolbar. In this hour, you learn how to work with both. When it seems appropriate, you also get a tip about how using StarOffice compares with the operation of other word processors with which you might already be familiar.
Suppose you're creating a document that discusses the languages used around the world. You want to insert a table that lists a few countries that you're interested in and the languages spoken in those countries.
To insert this simple table (which you'll also use for further examples), follow these steps:
1. Position your cursor where you want the table inserted.
2. Choose Table from the Insert menu. The Insert Table dialog box appears (see Figure 10.1).
Figure
10.1
In the Insert Table dialog box, you can specify the size of a new table.
3. Enter a table name in the Name field (you can leave the default name if you prefer).
4. Enter the number of columns and rows that the table will contain in the corresponding fields.
Tip - This example creates a small table with two columns and five rows. You'll expand it as you learn other table features. |
5. Choose OK to create the new table (see Figure 10.2).
Figure
10.2
The new table created for this "languages" example.
Following is a much quicker method for inserting a table:
1. Make sure that the Main toolbar is visible onscreen (select it in the View|Toolbars menu if it isn't already selected).
2. Click and hold the Insert icon (the top icon on the Main toolbar).
3. Drag over to the Table Insert icon (don't release the mouse button yet).
4. Drag down in the grid that appears until the number of highlighted columns and rows matches the size of the table that you want to insert (see Figure 10.3).
Figure
10.3
A table can quickly be inserted via the Main toolbar.
Another method that you might need to use to create a table involves converting an existing list or block of text into a table.
The StarOffice conversion to tables isn't as smart as it could be, however. Arrange your text so that all the cells on a single row of the table that you want to create are on a single line in the text before you convert to a table.
If you don't arrange the text in this manner, you can't tell how many columns StarOffice will use when it creates a table from the text lines.
Each item that is in its own cell in the table needs to be separated from the next item by a tab, a comma, or a semicolon.
Use the following steps to convert text to a table:
1. With your text arranged, select all the text that you want included in the table.
2. Choose Convert Text to Table in the Tools menu (this item is not available on the menu until you select a block of text).
3. The Convert Text to Table dialog box appears. Select which separator you want to use to divide items on each line: comma, tab, or semicolon (if you use paragraphs, your table will only have one column).
4. Choose OK to create the new table from your block of text.
When you have a table inserted into your document, you can enter text into the table cells. Move between cells using the following hints:
Click in any table cell to place the cursor in that cell.
Use the Tab key to advance the cursor to the next cell.
Use Shift+Tab to back up to the previous cell.
After you have entered text in your table, you're likely to need to update the formatting or size of the table.
Notice that the Object toolbar changes when you move the cursor to any table cell. Instead of standard text formatting tools such as bold, italics, and centering text, the Object toolbar includes icons for Insert Row, Split Cells, and Border formatting.
Tip - To see a short description of any button on the Object toolbar, move the mouse pointer over that icon and leave it there for a moment. A yellow pop-up description appears for that icon. |
When you insert a new table in your document, the top row of the table is automatically formatted using the Table Heading style. The rest of the cells use the Table Contents style. You learned about styles in Hour 9.
Taking the table of languages in Figure 10.4 as a starting point, suppose that now you need to add some information to the table. The following section steps through how to perform some common table functions.
Figure
10.4
This table of languages is the basis for several table formatting examples.
With your cursor positioned within an existing table, the Format menu expands with an entire new section that includes the Table options used in the following steps:
1. You can insert a new column or a new row by selecting Insert from the Row or Column submenu of the Format menu.
2. The Insert Columns or Insert Rows dialog box appears. Enter the number of columns or rows that you want to insert.
3. Select whether they are to be inserted before the current cursor position (to the left or above) or after (to the right or below).
4. Choose OK to insert the new rows or columns.
You can also insert new rows by moving to the last cell of the table and pressing the Tab key. This method can be used only to add another row to the end of the table, however.
Another quick method is to use the icons on the Object toolbar. The Insert Row button inserts an empty row below your current cursor position. The Insert Column button splits the current column in two. The Insert Row and Insert Column buttons are shown in Figure 10.5.
Figure
10.5
The Insert Row and Insert Column buttons on the Object toolbar provide a quick
way to expand a table.
Note - The Insert Row and Insert Column buttons might not be visible on your toolbar unless you scroll down to them. |
Building on the sample table of languages shown in the previous figures, you can add additional columns and rows to hold more information. For example, another column might hold the population of each country, or each country might include multiple languages.
The logical way to extend the sample table to make space for these items is to either split a language cell into two rows instead of one, or to merge a country cell with the one below it to make one larger cell.
To create this type of table, enter all the data that you want to include, with new rows and columns for each item, (see Figure 10.6).
Figure
10.6
This table includes multiple entries for each country, but it isn't formatted
well.
When the data is in place, you can split and merge cells to make the formatting look better.
Tip - The Merge operation in StarOffice is called joining cells in most other word processors. |
For example, you can use these steps to correct the formatting:
1. Select Switzerland and the two empty cells below it.
2. Choose Cell from the Format menu.
3. Choose Merge from the Cell submenu. The cells are merged to form one large cell (see Figure 10.7).
Figure
10.7
You can use Merge to join cells.
To split a cell, select that cell and choose Split from the Cell submenu of the Format menu.
The Split Cells dialog box appears; you can select whether to split the cell horizontally or vertically, and how many cells to create from the one cell (see Figure 10.8).
Figure
10.8
The Split Cells dialog box enables you to determine how to split one cell into
several cells.
Using split and merge, you can create complex tables that effectively organize your data in a way that makes sense.
Tip - You can also use the Merge button on the Object toolbar to merge cells. |
You can fix the appearance of a table by making certain borders invisible, instead of using merge and join operations; but then the Tab key doesn't move between cells as you expect it to, and the text alignment looks bad.
Most of the formatting that you'll need for a simple table is automatic in StarOffice. However, you can also choose to set dozens of options for a table.
Although the Object toolbar changes when your cursor is inside a table, you can still use most of the same functions, either from the keyboard or from the format menu. For example, you can do the following:
Press Ctrl+B to set the selected table text to Bold.
Press Ctrl+I to set the selected table text to Italic.
Open the Paragraph dialog box in the Format menu and choose the Alignment tab to center a block of text.
Still, most of the formatting for your tables is best done in the Table Format dialog box, which you can open by selecting Table from the Format menu (see Figure 10.9). This option won't appear unless your cursor is within a table.
Figure
10.9
You can set most table format options in the Table Format dialog box.
Although you won't walk through every option in this dialog box now, you'll find that the options are similar to the regular text formatting options described in Hour 6, "Creating Graphics with StarDraw." In summary, some things that you can set in the tabs of this dialog box include the following:
Left/right/center alignment for cells in the entire table (you can set alignment for individual cells that overrides this tablewide setting)
Top/bottom alignment within a cell (again, you can override this for an individual cell from the Cell submenu of the Format menu)
The width of each column in the table (see Figure 10.10)
Figure
10.10
The Columns tab of the Table Format dialog box enables you to set the width
of each column.
The borders for the entire table or for individual cells (see Figure 10.11)
Figure
10.11
The Borders tab of the Table
Format dialog box enables you to set border properties for all cells or for
a single cell in a table.
The background color for the entire table or for any cells in the table
Tip - Many of the table formatting options can be set from the Object toolbar, including the borders and background color for any selected cells. |
Sams Teach Yourself StarOffice® 5 for Linux in 24 Hours |
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Hour 10: Using Tables, Indexes, and Other Special Features |
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