Lesson 1 Getting Started

Transcription

1 Please memorize vocabulary words as you proceed through these lessons. Most folks who have trouble getting into word processing have trouble because they are not familiar with the slanguage used by computer people. The Windows Desktop is the name of the display on the screen when Windows is first started. The folks who invented this thought that the display somehow mimicked a person's office desk where you might have documents or tools lying around. Starting LibreOffice Writer Starting LibreOffice Writer with a computer that is running the Windows operating system may be done several ways depending on how the computer has been set up. In most situations, you will have a shortcut on the desktop or on the Quick Launch Taskbar. Windows XP Desktop Page 1

2 The Taskbar is a horizontal area at the bottom of the Windows display. Windows XP Taskbar Windows 7 Taskbar Double click means to move the mouse pointer over the desired item and click the left mouse button twice, quickly, click-click. A LibreOffice shortcut on the Taskbar will start the program. If the shortcut icon is not available on your computer, skip to the next step. Start LibreOffice Writer If there is an LibreOffice shortcut icon on the display, double click on it to start the program. If you do not see a shortcut select Start, Programs, LibreOffice, LibreOffice Writer. Select Text Document from the LibreOffice application display to start a new LibreOffice Writer document. It will take a little time for the LibreOffice Writer program to open. How much time depends on the speed of your computer. Once the program is open, your display should look similar to the following example. The red oval shows the starting position for the text cursor. Mouse Pointer: the mouse pointer is the little picture that Starting LibreOffice Writer in moves around when you move the mouse. This pointer will Windows 7 change when you move it over different parts of the Windows display. When the mouse pointer looks like an I beam, it is called the TEXT CURSOR. Page 2

3 Starting LibreOffice Writer Entering text: Move the mouse pointer near the upper left corner of the document area (see red oval in the illustration) and click the left mouse button once. This step will insure that the LibreOffice Writer program Window is active and that the text cursor will be at the start of the new document. Note to experienced typists: With a typewriter you had to do a carriage return at the end of every line. With a mechanical typewriter, the carriage and paper moved under the hammers as you typed and you had to shove a lever to move the carriage back to the left to start a new line. With an electric typewriter a carriage return key provided a similar function. On the computer, the Enter key appears to do the same thing as the return key on an electric typewriter. In word processing, however, the computer automatically wraps text to the next line when the edge of the paper is reached. You have to forget the habit of pressing the Enter (or return) key at the end of each line. The only time you should press the Enter key is at the end of a paragraph. Type the following paragraph in the LibreOffice Writer window. This is my first LibreOffice Writer document. I am now typing a new paragraph into the document. I will not press the enter key until I am finished with the first paragraph. When you have finished typing your first paragraph, press the Enter key to end the paragraph and start a new paragraph. Continue typing and add two new paragraphs as shown. (Do not worry if there is not a double line space between paragraphs. Later, you will see how to adjust paragraph spacing.) I am now typing a second paragraph. It is important to remember that in word processing, paragraphs are ended by pressing the enter key. It is also important to know that a paragraph in word processing may consist of several sentences, one sentence, one word, or even no words at all. I will press the enter key to end this paragraph. This is the start of the third paragraph in the document. The vertical line that moves along Page 3

4 as I type is called the text cursor. The text cursor marks the point where new characters will appear as I type. There are a number of ways to move the text cursor around the document. I will learn a number of techniques for moving the text cursor as I go through this tutorial. Your display should now look similar to that shown below. In the document shown, there are no extra lines or spaces between paragraphs. Resist the temptation to enter extra lines between paragraphs. In the next lesson, you will learn how to automatically create spaces between paragraphs. But first you will see how easy it is to print your document. Printing documents: Observe the upper part of the display in the illustration. (You will learn about more parts of the display in the next lesson.) Observe that the third horizontal area below the top of the display (called the Toolbar) has a row of small pictures (called tool icons). If you move the mouse pointer over these tool icons and pause, a TOOL TIP will briefly open that shows what the tool does. The illustration shows the tool tip for the Print tool. Selected means that the mouse pointer is positioned over a tool and the left mouse button is pressed once. A Tool Tip is a message that appears when the mouse pointer is hovered over a tool icon. The illustration shows the mouse pointer positioned over the Print tool, and the Tool Tip shows Print File Directly (current printer name). This means that when this tool is selected, the current document will be sent to the default printer. In this example the default printer for the computer being used has been set to Ricoh C430dn. The name of your default printer will probably be different. Some computers have access to Page 4

5 Printing documents: more than one printer. The default printer is the one where documents will be printed, unless the user selects an alternate printer. In general, a default setting is one that is used by the computer unless the user makes a different choice. Select the Print File Directly tool on the Toolbar and wait for your document to be printed. If it is not printed, make sure that the printer is turned on and has been properly set up for your computer. Saving a document: You should never have to type anything twice when you are using word processing. However, you have to save your document as a file or you will never see it again. Saving a document is done by using another tool on the Toolbar. The Save tool is shown in the earlier illustration. Select the Save tool on the Toolbar. At this point the Save As dialog box will open. This dialog box will vary depending on which version of Windows is being used. In any case, there is a File name: text box for entering the name of the new file. Enter My First Document in the File Name text box. Then select the Save button in the Save As dialog box. Whenever you want to retrieve this document, you can use the Open tool on the Toolbar. Now that you have some idea about how LibreOffice Writer works, you should practice a bit before starting the next Lesson. Select the X in the upper right corner of the display to stop the LibreOffice Writer program. Go back to the beginning of this Lesson and go through the steps again. However, this time enter your own text, and save the document with your own file name. Page 5

6 There is quite a bit of information to learn about LibreOffice Writer. The best way to become comfortable with the program is to repeat the Lessons two or three times each before moving on to the next lesson. Congratulations. You have now created, printed, and saved your first document. You now have enough information to do useful work. Practice by creating a document or two of your own. In the next lesson, you will see how to enhance the appearance of documents. Points to remember: Paragraphs may have several sentences, one word, or no words at all. To end a paragraph, press the enter key. To print a document using the default printer select the Print tool from the Toolbar. To save a document, select the Save tool from the Toolbar. Then adjust the Save in: folder as required and enter a new file name. Page 6