Ceci est une ancienne révision du document !
In my last article, I introduced you to the different modules of the LibreOffice program. Today, I want to show you the basic setup and manual formatting methods for the Writer module. The Writer module allows you to create formatted text-based documents. You can use Writer (below) for something as simple as a letter or journal, or something as complex as a manuscript or thesis paper.
Dans mon dernier article, je vous ai présenté les différents modules du programme LibreOffice. Aujourd'hui, je voudrais vous montrer les méthodes de configuration de base et du formatage manuel pour le module Writer. Le module Writer vous permet de créer des documents texte formatés. Vous pouvez vous servir de Writer (ci-dessous) pour quelque chose d'aussi simple qu'une lettre ou un journal ou d'aussi complexe qu'un manuscrit ou une thèse.
First, we will look at the Writer window. Starting from the top, you have the menu bar. The menu bar gives you access to all the different tools and actions you can perform on a document. Below the menu bar sits the standard toolbar. This gives you quick access to common commands such as open, save, and print. Beside the standard toolbar sits the search toolbar. Below the standard toolbar, you find the formatting toolbar - it displays icons for often-used formatting tools. The toolbar is context-sensitive, and will change when you are working with elements like drawing objects. If you have tips turned on, hovering the mouse pointer over the icons in the toolbars will show a pop-up description of what the icon does.
Tout d'abord, nous regarderons la fenêtre de Writer. Tout en haut, il y a la barre des menus. La barre des menus vous permet d'accéder à tous les outils du module et à toutes les actions possibles sur un document. En dessous de la barre des menus il y a la barre d'outils standard. Celle-ci vous donne un accès rapide aux commandes usuelles comme Ouvrir, Enregistrer et Impression rapide.
Below the formatting toolbar, and to the left, you have the horizontal and vertical rulers. The rulers are guides to help you when laying out a document. By default for the English language, the rulers display in inches. There are two ways to change the measurement units of the rulers. Right-click anywhere on the rulers (shown left), and Writer displays a pop-up menu of the different measurement units. This method works best when you need the change just for the current document. However, if you need a different measurement unit as the default, you need to change it in the Options. Go to Tools > Options > LibreOffice Writer > View. Here you can set the defaults for the vertical and horizontal rulers, or chose to work without rulers.
Now, we will create a simple letter, and I will show you how to manually format the different paragraphs of the letter. Open LibreOffice and start a new Writer document. We will place the current date at the top of the document, and align it to the right. Go to Insert > Field > Date. This will give you the date in the default date format (MM/DD/YY). You will notice the date highlighted in gray. This lets you know it is a field you have inserted into the document. Let's change the formatting of our date. Double-click the date, and a dialog window (above) will display showing the different options for displaying the date. Select the one you want and click OK. We need to right-align our date, so, find the alignment icons on the formatting toolbar, and click on the right-align icon. Our date will move to the right margin. Use the End key on your keyboard to move to the end of the current line, and press Enter. We don't want to stay right-aligned for a new paragraph, so click the left-align icon to move the start of the paragraph back to the left. Type in your salutation and press Enter.
For the body paragraphs of our letter, we want to indent the first line of each paragraph. When you are not concerned with accuracy, you can apply the indentation using the horizontal ruler. On the horizontal ruler, you will notice two triangles on the left margin (above left and right), one pointing up and the other pointing down. The bottom triangle - the one pointing up - manually adjusts the left indent for the entire paragraph. You will note there is one just like it on the right, which is used to adjust the right indent for the paragraph. The top triangle on the left - the one pointing down - adjusts the paragraph’s first-line indent. Click on the top triangle and drag it to about 0.5” (1.27 cm).
If you need more accurate indents, you can access the paragraph style dialog (below left) by double-clicking on the gray part of the horizontal ruler. You can also access the paragraph style dialog by going to Format > Paragraph. Here you have many options for formatting your paragraph. Today, we are concerned with only the first line indent, so change First line to 0.5” (1.27 cm). Click OK. You will notice the top triangle (first-line indent, shown below) has changed to the position you gave it in the dialog.
Now, we can type our paragraph. Type in your first paragraph, and press Enter. Notice that the next paragraph is indented just like the previous one. Writer will use this paragraph style until we tell it to do differently.
Once we have typed the body of our letter, we need to add a signature block, but we don't want our signature block the same as the rest of the body paragraphs. Using either the drag method or the paragraph style dialog, change the indent to 3” (7.62 cm). Now, type in your closing and press Enter. Rather than typing in your name, let's use the name field to insert your name. This will work only if you filled out the User data in the options: Insert > Fields > Author. Your letter is now done, and you can print and send it.
While manual formatting is okay on small documents, larger documents need more control. If you decide to change the formatting of paragraphs on a larger document, going through each paragraph and changing the style is tedious. In a larger document, we will need a way to change all like paragraphs at once. Next time, we will talk about using styles to accomplish this.