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Getting Started Guide 7.0

Preface

Copyright

This document is Copyright © 2020 by the LibreOffice Documentation Team. Contributors are listed below. You may distribute it and/or modify it under the terms of either the GNU General Public License (https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html), version 3 or later, or the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), version 4.0 or later.

All trademarks within this guide belong to their legitimate owners.

Contributors

To this edition

Jean Hollis Weber

Leo Moons

Kees Kriek

To previous editions

Jean Hollis Weber

Steve Fanning

Kees Kriek

Andrew Jensen

Amanda Labby

Cathy Crumbley

Dan Lewis

Dave Barton

Simon Quigley

Jorge Rodriguez

Olivier Hallot

Paul Figueiredo

Valerii Goncharuk

Peter Schofield

Lera Goncaruk

Feedback

Please direct any comments or suggestions about this document to the Documentation Team’s mailing list: documentation@global.libreoffice.org

Note

Everything you send to a mailing list, including your email address and any other personal information that is written in the message, is publicly archived and cannot be deleted.

Publication date and software version

Published November 2020. Based on LibreOffice .

Using LibreOffice on macOS

Some keystrokes and menu items are different on macOS from those used in Windows and Linux. The table below gives some common substitutions for the instructions in this document. For a detailed list, see the application Help.

Windows or Linux

macOS equivalent

Effect

Tools > Options
menu selection

LibreOffice > Preferences

Access setup options

Right-click

Control+click or right-click depending on computer setup

Open a context menu

Ctrl (Control)

(Command)

Used with other keys

F11

+T

Open the Styles deck in the Sidebar

Who is this book for?

Anyone who wants to get up to speed quickly with LibreOffice will find this Getting Started Guide valuable. You may be new to office software, or you may be familiar with another office suite.

What’s in this book?

This book introduces the main components of LibreOffice:

It also covers some of the features common to all components, including setup and customization, styles and templates, macro recording, and printing. For more detail, see the user guides for the individual components.

Where to get more help

This book, the other LibreOffice user guides, the built-in Help system, and user support systems assume that you are familiar with your computer and basic functions such as starting a program, opening and saving files.

Help system

LibreOffice comes with an extensive Help system. This is the first line of support for using LibreOffice. Windows and Linux users can choose to download and install the offline Help for use when not connected to the Internet; the offline Help is installed with the program on macOS.

To display the Help system, press F1 or select LibreOffice Help in the Help menu. If you do not have the offline help installed on your computer and you are connected to the Internet, your default browser will open the online Help pages on the LibreOffice website.

The Help menu also includes links to other LibreOffice information and support facilities.

Note

The options followed by a sign in the list below are only accessible if your computer is connected to the Internet.

Other free online support

The LibreOffice community not only develops software, but provides free, volunteer-based support. In addition to the Help menu links above, there are other online community support options available, see the table below.

Free LibreOffice support

FAQs

Answers to frequently asked questions
https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Faq

Mailing lists

Free community support is provided by a network of experienced users
https://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/mailing-lists/

Questions & Answers and
Knowledge Base

Free community assistance is provided in a Question & Answer formatted web service. Search similar topics or open a new one in

https://ask.libreoffice.org/en/questions

The service is available in several other languages; just replace /en/ with de, es, fr, ja, ko, nl, pt, tr, and many others in the web address above.

Native language support

The LibreOffice website in various languages
https://www.libreoffice.org/community/nlc/

Mailing lists for native languages
https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Local_Mailing_Lists

Information about social networking
https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Website/Web_Sites_services

Accessibility options

Information about available accessibility options
https://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/accessibility/

OpenOffice Forum

A forum that provides support for LibreOffice, among other open source office suites https://forum.openoffice.org/en/forum/

Paid support and training

You can also pay for support through service contracts from a vendor or consulting firm specializing in LibreOffice. For information about certified professional support, see The Document Foundation’s website: https://www.documentfoundation.org/gethelp/support/

What you see may be different

Illustrations

LibreOffice runs on Windows, Linux, and macOS operating systems, each of which has several versions and can be customized by users (fonts, colors, themes, window managers). The illustrations in this guide were taken from a variety of computers and operating systems. Therefore, some illustrations will not look exactly like what you see on your computer display.

Also, some of the dialogs may be different because of the settings selected in LibreOffice. You can either use dialogs from your computer’s operating system or from LibreOffice. The differences affect mainly Open, Save, and Print dialogs. To change which dialogs are used, go to Tools > Options > LibreOffice > General and select or deselect the option Use LibreOffice dialogs.

Icons

The LibreOffice community has created icons for several icon sets: Breeze, Colibre, Elementary, Karasa Jaga, Sifr, and Sakapura; some are also available in a dark version. As a user you can select your own preferred set. The icons in this guide have been taken from a variety of LibreOffice installations that use different sets of icons. The icons for some of the many tools available in LibreOffice may then differ from the ones used in this guide.

To change the icon set used, go to Tools > Options > LibreOffice > View. In the Icon style section, choose from the drop-down list.

Notes

Some Linux distributions include LibreOffice as part of the installation and may not include all the icon sets mentioned above. You should be able to download other icon sets from the software repository for your Linux distribution if you wish to use them.

The Galaxy, Oxygen, and Tango icon sets are no longer included as part of the standard installation package. They can be added back by downloading and installing them as extensions from https://extensions.libreoffice.org/en/extensions/

Some of the previously included gallery sets are now only available as extensions; see https://extensions.libreoffice.org/?Tags%5B%5D=49 or search for specific ones,
for example, the People Gallery, https://extensions.libreoffice.org/en/extensions/show/people-gallery

Using LibreOffice on macOS

Some keystrokes and menu items are different on macOS from those used in Windows and Linux. The table below gives some common substitutions for the instructions in this book. For a more detailed list, see the application Help.

Windows or Linux

macOS equivalent

Effect

Tools > Options menu

LibreOffice > Preferences

Access setup options

Right-click

Control+click and/or right-click depending on computer setup

Open a context menu

Ctrl (Control)

⌘ (Command)

Used with other keys

F11

⌘+T

Open the sidebar Styles deck

What are all these things called?

The terms used in LibreOffice for most parts of the user interface (the parts of the program you see and use, in contrast to the behind-the-scenes code that actually makes it work) are the same as for most other programs.

A dialog is a special type of window. Its purpose is to inform you of something, or request input from you, or both. It provides controls to use to specify how to carry out an action. The technical names for common controls are shown in Figure Figure 1. In most cases the technical terms are not used in this book, but it is useful to know them because the Help and other sources of information often use them.

Figure 1: Dialog showing common controls

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  1. Tabbed page (not strictly speaking a control).

  2. Radio buttons (only one can be selected at a time).

  3. Checkbox (more than one can be selected at a time).

  4. Spin box (click the up and down arrows to change the number shown in the adjacent text box, or type in the text box).

  5. Thumbnail or preview.

  6. Drop-down list from which to select an item.

  7. Push buttons.

In most cases, you can interact only with the dialog (not the document itself) as long as the dialog remains open. When you close the dialog after use (usually, clicking OK or another button saves your changes and closes the dialog), then you can again work with your document.

Some dialogs can be left open as you work, so you can switch back and forth between the dialog and the document. An example of this type is the Find & Replace dialog.

Frequently asked questions

How is LibreOffice licensed?

LibreOffice is distributed under the Open Source Initiative (OSI) approved Mozilla Public License (MPL). See https://www.libreoffice.org/about-us/licenses/

It is based on code from Apache OpenOffice made available under the Apache License 2.0 but also includes software that differs from version to version under a variety of other Open Source licenses. New code is available under LGPL 3.0 and MPL 2.0.

May I distribute LibreOffice to anyone? May I sell it? May I use it in my business?

Yes.

How many computers may I install it on?

As many as you like.

Is LibreOffice available in my language?

LibreOffice has been translated (localized for more than 80%, both UI and Help) into over 46 languages, so your language probably is supported. Localisation is well under way for another 30+ languages (50-80%) and for another 50+ languages help is more than welcome. In addition, over 70 spelling, hyphenation, and thesaurus dictionaries are available for languages and dialects that do not have a localized program interface. The dictionaries are available from the LibreOffice website at: www.libreoffice.org.

How can you make it for free?

LibreOffice is developed and maintained by volunteers and has the backing of several organizations.

I am writing a software application. May I use programming code from LibreOffice in my program?

You may, within the parameters set in the MPL and/or LGPL. Read the licenses: https://www.mozilla.org/MPL/2.0/.

Why do I need Java to run LibreOffice? Is it written in Java?

LibreOffice is not written in Java; it is written in the C++ language. Java is one of several languages that can be used to extend the software. The Java JDK/JRE is only required for some features. The most notable one is the HSQLDB relational database engine.

Java is available at no cost. More information and download links to the appropriate edition for your operating system can be found at: https://java.com/en/download/manual.jsp

Note

If you want to use LibreOffice features that require Java, it is important that the correct 32-bit or 64-bit edition matches the installed version of LibreOffice. See the Advanced Options in Chapter 2 of this guide. If you do not want to use Java, you can still use nearly all of the LibreOffice features.

How can I contribute to LibreOffice?

You can help with the development and user support of LibreOffice in many ways, and you do not need to be a programmer. To start, check out this webpage: https://www.libreoffice.org/community/get-involved/

May I distribute the PDF of this book, or print and sell copies?

Yes, as long as you meet the requirements of one of the licenses in the copyright statement at the beginning of this book. You do not have to request special permission. We request that you share with the project some of the profits you make from sales of books, in consideration of all the work we have put into producing them.

Donate to LibreOffice: https://www.libreoffice.org/donate/

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