Writer Guide 24.2
Chapter 2, Working with Text: Basics
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Published February 2024. Based on LibreOffice 24.2 Community.Other versions of LibreOffice may differ in appearance and functionality.
Some keystrokes and menu items are different on macOS from those used in Windows and Linux. The table below gives some common substitutions used in this document. For a detailed list, see LibreOffice 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 |
|
Alt |
⌥ (Option) or Alt |
Used with other keys |
|
F11 |
⌘+T |
Open Styles deck in Sidebar |
This chapter covers the basics of working with text in Writer. It assumes that you are familiar with the use of a mouse and keyboard and that you have read about Writer’s menus and toolbars and other topics covered in Chapter 1, Introducing Writer.
We recommend also displaying formatting aids, such as end-of-paragraph marks, tabs, breaks, and other items in Tools > Options > LibreOffice Writer > Formatting Aids (macOS: LibreOffice > Preferences > LibreOffice Writer > Formatting Aids). To hide or display these markers, go to View > Formatting Marks. See Chapter 20, Setting up Writer, for more information.
This chapter covers the following topics:
Selecting, cutting, copying, pasting, and moving text.
Finding and replacing text.
Inserting special characters.
Checking spelling and grammar, using the thesaurus, and choosing hyphenation options.
Using the AutoCorrect, Word Completion, AutoText, and case-changing features.
See also Chapter 3, Working with Text: Advanced, and Chapter 4, Formatting Text.
Selecting text in Writer is similar to selecting text in other applications. You can swipe the mouse pointer over text or use multiple clicks to select a word (double-click), sentence (triple-click), or paragraph (quadruple-click).
You can also click in the text, press F8 to enter Extending selection mode, and then use the arrow keys on the keyboard to select a contiguous block of text. Press F8 again when finished selecting the block of text.
In addition, you can select non-contiguous items and vertical blocks of text.
One way to change the selection mode is to use the icon on the Status bar (see Figure 1). When you right-click the icon, a context menu displays the options: Standard selection, Extending selection (F8), Adding selection (Shift+F8), and Block selection (Ctrl+Shift+F8). Click on an option to activate it.
Figure 1: Changing the selection mode using the status bar
To select non-consecutive items (Figure 2) using the mouse in Standard selection mode:
1) Select the first piece of text.
2) Hold down the Ctrl key and use the mouse to select the next piece of text.
3) Repeat as often as needed.
To select non-consecutive items using the keyboard in Adding selection mode:
1) Select the first piece of text. For more information about keyboard selection of text, see the topic “Navigating and Selecting with the Keyboard” in the LibreOffice Help (F1).
2) Press Shift+F8, or click the Selection mode icon on the Status bar and select Adding Selection in the list, to enable Adding selection mode.
3) Use the arrow keys to move to the start of the next piece of text to be selected. Hold down the Shift key and select the next piece of text.
4) Repeat as often as required.
Now you can work with the selected text (copy it, delete it, change the style, and so on). After finishing your work with the selected text, press Esc to exit Adding selection mode.
Figure 2: Selecting non-consecutive pieces of text
To select a vertical block of text that spans through multiple rows, use Writer’s Block selection mode. Go to Edit > Selection Mode > Block Area, or press Ctrl+F8, or click the Selection mode icon on the status bar and select Block selection in the list. Now you can highlight the selection, using mouse or keyboard, as shown in Figure 3.
Figure 3: Selecting a block of text
Cutting and copying text in Writer is similar to cutting and copying text in other applications. You can copy or move text within a document, or between documents, by dragging or by using menu selections, icons, or keyboard shortcuts. You can also copy text from other sources such as Web pages and paste it into a Writer document.
To move (drag and drop) selected text using the mouse, drag it to the new location and release it; the cursor changes shape while dragging.
To copy selected text, hold down the Ctrl key while dragging. The text retains the formatting it had before dragging.
To move (cut and paste) selected text, use Ctrl+X to cut the text, insert the cursor at the paste-in point and use Ctrl+V to paste. Alternatively, use the Copy / Paste buttons on the Standard toolbar or the options under Edit on the Menu bar.
When you paste text, the result depends on the source of the text and how you paste it. If you click the Paste button, then the pasted text keeps its original formatting (such as bold or italics). Text pasted from websites and other sources may be placed automatically into frames or tables as part of the format when you paste. If you do not like the results, click the Undo button or press Ctrl+Z.
To make the pasted text inherit the paragraph style at the insertion point:
Choose Edit > Paste Special, or
Click the arrow on the combination Paste button, or
Double-click the Paste button without releasing the left mouse button, or
Press Ctrl+Shift+V
Then select Unformatted text or Paste Unformatted text in the resulting menu.
You can also press Ctrl+Alt+Shift+V, which pastes unformatted text directly.
The range of choices on the Paste Special menu varies depending on the origin and formatting of the text (or other object) to be pasted. Figure 4 shows an example with text on the clipboard.
Figure 4: Paste Special menu
Writer has two ways to find text within a document: the Find toolbar for fast searching and the Find and Replace dialog. In the dialog, you can:
Find and replace words and phrases.
Use wildcards and regular expressions to fine-tune a search (see Chapter 3).
Find and replace specific attributes or formatting (see Chapter 3).
Find and replace paragraph styles (see Chapter 3).
By default, the Find toolbar is docked at the bottom of the LibreOffice window, just above the Status Bar (Figure 5), but you can float it or dock it in another location. For more information on floating and docking toolbars, see Chapter 1, Introducing Writer. If the Find toolbar is not visible, choose View > Toolbars > Find or Edit > Find on the Menu bar or press Ctrl+F.
Figure 5: Docked position of Find toolbar
To use the Find toolbar, click in the box and type the search text, then press Enter to find the next occurrence of that term. Click the Find Next or Find Previous (arrow) buttons as needed.
Click the Find All button to select all instances of the search term within the document. Select Match Case to find only the instances that exactly match the use of upper and lower case letters in the search term. To open the Find and Replace dialog, click the icon next to Match Case.
To close the Find toolbar, click the X button on the left, or press Esc on the keyboard when the cursor is in the search box.
To display the Find and Replace dialog (Figure 6), use any of the following methods:
Use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+H (macOS: Cmd+Shift+F).
Choose Edit > Find and Replace on the Menu bar.
Click the Find and Replace button on the Find toolbar.
When the dialog is open, click Other options to expand it.
Figure 6: Expanded Find and Replace dialog
To use the Find and Replace dialog:
1) Type the text you want to find in the Find box.
2) To replace the text with different text, type the new text in the Replace box.
3) You can select various options, such as matching the case or matching whole words only.
The other options include searching only in selected text, searching from the current cursor position backwards toward the beginning of the document, searching for similar words, searching in comments, and using regular expressions (wildcards). The use of other options is described in Chapter 3, Working with Text: Advanced.
Additional options are shown when CTL or Asian languages have been selected in Tools > Options > Language Settings > Languages.
4) When you have set up the search, click Find Next. As the document view moves to each found instance, you can replace the text by clicking Replace or skip that instance by clicking Find Next again.
Tip
If you click Find All, Writer selects all instances of the search text in the document. Similarly, if you click Replace All, Writer replaces all matches, without stopping for you to accept each instance.
Note
Use Replace All with caution; otherwise, you may end up with mistakes that you won’t be able to undo later if you save and close the file. (Ctrl+Z works only before the file is saved.) A mistake with Replace All might require a manual, word-by-word, search to fix.
A special character is one not found on a basic English keyboard. For example, © ¾ æ ç Ł ñ ö ø ¢ are all special characters.
To insert one or more special characters, place the cursor in the position where you want the characters to appear. Then do one of the following:
Click the Special Character icon on the Standard toolbar to open a list of favorite and recently used characters and click on one to insert it (Figure 7). Hover the pointer over a character to show a description in a tooltip. To open the Special Characters dialog from this list, click the More Characters button in this list.
Click Insert > Special Character to open the Special Characters dialog (Figure 8). Double-click the characters (from any font or mixture of fonts) you wish to insert, in order; they appear in the document as you select them. The selected characters are also added to the Recent Characters list on the lower left of the dialog.
Figure 7: Insert Special Characters icon on the Standard toolbar
Figure 8: Special Characters dialog
Tips
To view details of a character, single-click it; details are shown on the right, along with its numerical code.
To insert a character and leave the dialog open, double-click the character. To insert a character and close the dialog, click it and then click the Insert button.
Different fonts include different special characters. If you do not find a special character you want, try changing the Font selection.
You can insert a variety of formatting marks while typing or later. Most of these marks can be inserted using a keyboard shortcut; all are available in Insert > Formatting Mark on the Menu bar (Figure 9).
Non-breaking space
Figure 9: Insert > Formatting Mark submenu
Soft Hyphen
Narrow No-break Space
No-width Optional Break
Word Joiner
When complex text layout (CTL) is enabled, these additional formatting marks are active:
Left-to right Mark
Right-to-Left Mark
To enter en and em dashes as you type, you can use the Replace dashes option on the Options tab under Tools > AutoCorrect > AutoCorrect Options. This option replaces one or two hyphens, under certain conditions, with the corresponding dash (Table 1).
In Table 1, the A and B represent text consisting of letters A to Z or digits 0 to 9.
Table 1: Inserting dashes
|
Text that you type |
Result |
|
A - B (A, space, hyphen, space, B) |
A – B (A, space, en dash, space, B) |
|
A -- B (A, space, hyphen, hyphen, space, B) |
A – B (A, space, en dash, space, B) |
|
A--B (A, hyphen, hyphen, B) |
A—B (A, em dash, B) |
|
1--2 (number, hyphen, hyphen, number) |
1–2 (number, en dash, number) |
|
A-B (A, hyphen, B) |
A-B (unchanged) |
|
A -B (A, space, hyphen, B) |
A -B (unchanged) |
|
A --B (A, space, hyphen, hyphen, B) |
A –B (A, space, en dash, B) |
Another way to insert en and em dashes is through the Insert > Special Characters menu. Select the U+2013 or U+2014 character (found in the General punctuation subset), respectively.
A third method uses keyboard shortcuts. These shortcuts vary depending on your operating system, as described below.
Tip
You can also record macros to insert en and em dashes and assign those macros to unused key combinations, for example Ctrl+Shift+N and Ctrl+Shift+M. For more information about key combinations, see Chapter 20, Customizing Writer.
macOS
Windows
Tip
On a keyboard with no numeric keypad, use a Fn (Function) key combination to type the numbers. (The Fn key is usually next to the right of the left-hand Ctrl key on the keyboard.) For example, on a US keyboard layout, the combination for an en dash should be Alt+Fn+mjim and for an em dash it should be Alt+Fn+mjij.
Linux
Tip
The key that operates as a Compose key varies with the Linux distribution. It is usually one of the Alt or Win keys, but may be another key, and should be user-selectable.
By default, four dictionaries are installed for each language, if they are available for that language: a spelling checker, a grammar checker, a hyphenation dictionary, and a thesaurus. The spelling checker determines if each word in the document is in the installed dictionary. The grammar checker works in combination with the spelling checker. You can enable or disable the grammar checker in the Spelling dialog.
You can choose to check spelling and grammar automatically as you type and at any other time.
To enable automatic checking of spelling, go to Tools on the Menu bar and select Automatic Spell Checking, or click the Automatic Spell Checking icon (which may not be displayed by default) on the Standard Toolbar), or go to Tools > Options > Language Settings > Writing Aids (macOS: LibreOffice > Preferences > Language Settings > Writing Aids) and select Check spelling as you type in the Options list. For more information about spell checking options, see Chapter 20, Customizing Writer.
Automatic Spell Checking checks each word as it is typed and displays a wavy red line under any unrecognized words. Right-click an unrecognized word to open a context menu (Figure 10). You can click one of the suggested words to replace the underlined word with the one selected. If the list does not contain the word you want, click Spelling to open a dialog. When the word is corrected, the line disappears. If the word is correct but not in the dictionary, you can choose Add to dictionary to add it.
Figure 10: Spelling context menu
If the document has change tracking enabled, then the context menu contains extra options relating to changes in the text.
The choices in the second and third sections of the menu are:
Ignore
Ignore All
Add to Dictionary
Spelling
Always correct to
AutoCorrect Options
In the fourth section of the context menu, you can set language settings for the text. These settings can be applied to the selection or to the paragraph containing the selection.
To perform a combined spelling and grammar check on the document (or a text selection), select Tools > Spelling or click the Spelling button on the Standard toolbar, or press F7. In order to use this feature, the appropriate dictionaries must be installed.
The Spelling tool checks either the document from the cursor point onwards, or the text selection. It opens the Spelling dialog (Figure 11) if any unrecognized words are found or if any of the built-in grammar rules are broken. You can choose to restart from the beginning of the document when the check reaches the end of the document.
If the Check grammar option is selected in the lower left of the dialog, any grammar errors detected will also be shown. Figure 13 shows an example
Text language
Not in dictionary
Suggestions
Ignore Once, Ignore All, Add to Dictionary
Figure 11: Spelling alert using the Spelling dialog
Ignore Rule
Correct
Correct All
Add to AutoCorrect
Undo
Options
By default, Check grammar as you type is enabled in Tools > Options > Language Settings > Writing Aids > Options. Automatic Spell Checking must be enabled for this to work. You can also check grammar at any time using the Spelling tool, and you can disable grammar checking as you type.
When grammar checking as you type is enabled, any errors detected are shown underlined by a wavy blue line. Right-clicking on this line opens a context menu (Figure 12).
Figure 12: Context menu for grammar errors
The first entry in the menu describes the suspected broken grammatical rule.
The second menu item in the left example is Explanations, which opens your browser to a web page offering more information about the error. This entry is not always present in the context menu, as seen in the second example in Figure 12.
In the second section of the menu is the suggested correction. Clicking this changes the text to the suggestion. The example to the right appears blank, but clicking here removes the extra space causing the error.
In the third section of the menu, choose whether to ignore the indicated error or to open the Spelling dialog, shown in Figure 13.
In the final section of the menu, you can set the language for the selection or the paragraph.
In the example shown in Figure 13, hovering the mouse pointer over More… on the upper right-hand side displays the URL for more information on the error indicated. Clicking on More… opens your default browser to that URL.
Figure 13: Spelling dialog showing URL for expanded grammar explanation
Tip
To select a different color for the wavy underline for grammar mistakes, go to Tools > Options > LibreOffice > Application Colors. See Chapter 20, Customizing Writer.
Additional grammar checking rules can be selected through Tools > Options > Language Settings > English sentence checking. You can also go to Tools > Extensions, select English spelling dictionaries, and then click the Options button.
On the English Sentence Checking page (Figure 14), choose which items are checked for, reported to you, or converted automatically. After selecting the additional grammar checks, you must restart LibreOffice, or reload the document, for them to take effect.
Figure 14: English sentence checking options
Possible mistakes
Capitalization
Word duplication
Parentheses
Word spacing
Quotation marks
Sentence spacing
Apostrophe
More spaces
Em dash; En dash
Multiplication sign
Ellipsis
Minus sign
Convert to metric; Convert to non-metric
Thousands separation of large numbers
Language Tool is a multilingual grammar, style, and spelling checker provided by https://languagetool.org/. Writer can now use this tool for grammar checking along with the built-in grammar checker described above. When Language Tool is activated (see Chapter 20, Customizing Writer), it appears on the list of available language modules in Tools > Options > Language Settings > Writing Aids.
You can access a short list of synonyms from a context menu (Figure 15).
1) Right-click a word and point to Synonyms on the context menu. A submenu of alternative words and phrases is displayed.
2) Click a word or phrase in the submenu to have it replace the highlighted word or phrase in the document.
Figure 15: Synonyms on the context menu
The thesaurus gives a more extensive list of alternative words and phrases. To use the thesaurus:
1) Right-click on a word, point to Synonyms in the context menu, then click Thesaurus in the Synonyms submenu. See Figure 15.
2) In the Thesaurus dialog (Figure 16), select a word or phrase in the list of meanings.
3) Click Replace to make the substitution.
For example, when given the word house, the thesaurus offers several meanings, including dwelling, legislature, sign of the zodiac, and others. Select a replacement word from the list under the relevant meaning, so for dwelling, you will see dwelling, home, domicile, abode, and other alternatives.
Note
If the current language does not have a thesaurus installed, this feature is disabled.
Figure 16: The thesaurus offers alternatives to words
You can hyphenate words at the end of a line in two ways: let Writer do it automatically (using styles and its hyphenation dictionaries), or insert conditional (soft) hyphens manually where needed. Or, you can choose to not hyphenate at all. Each choice has its pros and cons.
This option uses styles and over-rides the Tools > Options choices described on the next page.
To turn automatic hyphenation of words on or off:
1) Click the Styles tab on the Sidebar to open the Styles deck. On the Paragraph Styles list, right-click Default Paragraph Style and select Modify.
2) On the Paragraph Style dialog (Figure 17), go to the Text Flow tab.
3) Under Hyphenation, select or deselect Automatically. When automatic hyphenation is on, you can also set the criteria for when it should occur.
4) Click OK to save.
Note
Turning on hyphenation for the Default Paragraph Style affects all other paragraph styles that are based on the Default Paragraph Style. You can individually change other styles so that hyphenation is not active; for example, you might not want headings to be hyphenated. Any styles that are not based on the Default Paragraph Style are not affected. For more information, see Chapters 8 and 9 in this book.
Figure 17: Turning on automatic hyphenation
When automatic hyphenation is enabled, the following options can be set:
Don't hyphenate words in CAPS
Don't hyphenate the last word
Characters at line end
Characters at line begin
Maximum consecutive hyphenated lines
Minimum word length in characters
Hyphenation zone
You can also specify some hyphenation settings in Tools > Options > Language Settings > Writing Aids. These choices apply when there is no specific setting in a paragraph style. Hyphenation options set in Writing Aids are effective only if hyphenation is turned on through paragraph styles.
In Options, near the bottom of the dialog, scroll down to find the hyphenation settings.
Figure 18: Setting hyphenation options
To change the minimum number of characters for hyphenation, or the minimum number of characters before or after a line break, select the item, and then click the Edit button in the Options section.
Hyphenate without inquiry
Hyphenate special regions
To manually hyphenate words, do not use a normal hyphen, which will remain visible even if the word is no longer at the end of a line when you add or delete text or change margins or font size. Instead, use a soft hyphen, which is visible only when required.
To insert a soft hyphen inside a word, click where you want the hyphen to appear and press Ctrl+hyphen (minus sign) or use Insert > Formatting Mark > Insert soft Hyphen. The word will be hyphenated at this position when it is at the end of the line, even if automatic hyphenation for this paragraph is switched off.
Writer’s AutoCorrect function includes a long list of common misspellings and typing errors, which it corrects automatically. It also includes codes for inserting special characters, emojis, and other symbols. You can add your own special characters.
AutoCorrect is turned on by default when Writer is installed. You may wish to disable some of its features, modify others, or turn it off completely. To turn AutoCorrect off, uncheck Tools > AutoCorrect > While Typing.
To add your own corrections or special characters or change those supplied with LibreOffice, select Tools > AutoCorrect > AutoCorrect Options to open the AutoCorrect dialog (Figure 19). On the Replace tab, define what strings of text are corrected and how.
To stop Writer replacing a specific spelling, go to the Replace tab, highlight the word pair, and click Delete. To add a new spelling to the list, type it into the Replace and With boxes on the Replace tab, and click New.
Figure 19: Replace tab of AutoCorrect dialog
Tip
LibreOffice has an extensive list of emojis and other special characters available using AutoCorrect. For example, type :smiling: and AutoCorrect will replace it with ☺. Or, (c) will be changed to ©. You can add your own special characters.
See Chapter 4, Formatting Text, for discussion of the Options and Localized Options tabs of the AutoCorrect dialog.
If Word Completion is enabled, Writer tries to guess which word you are typing and offers to complete the word for you. To accept the suggestion, press Enter. Otherwise, continue typing.
To turn off Word Completion, select Tools > AutoCorrect > AutoCorrect Options > Word Completion and deselect Enable word completion.
You can customize word completion on the Word Completion page of the AutoCorrect dialog (Figure 20):
Add (append) a space automatically after an accepted word.
Show the suggested word as a tip (hovering over the word) rather than completing the text as you type.
Collect words when working on a document, and then either save them for later use in other documents or select the option to remove them from the list when closing the document.
Change the key that accepts a suggested entry; the options are right arrow, End key, Enter (Return), Space bar, and Tab.
Change the maximum number of words remembered for word completion and the length of the smallest words to be remembered.
Delete specific entries from the word completion list.
Figure 20: Customizing word completion
Note
Automatic word completion occurs only after you type a word for the second time in a document.
Use AutoText to store text, tables, fields, graphics, and other items for reuse and assign them to a key combination for easy retrieval. For example, rather than typing “Senior Management” every time you use that phrase, you can set up an AutoText entry to insert those words when you type “sm” and press F3.
AutoText is especially powerful when assigned to fields. See Chapter 17, Fields.
To store some text as AutoText:
1) Type the text into a document.
2) Select the text.
3) Go to Tools > AutoText on the Menu bar (or press Ctrl+F3).
4) In the AutoText dialog (Figure 21), type a name for the AutoText in the Name box. Writer will suggest a one-letter shortcut, which you can change.
Figure 21: Defining a new AutoText entry
5) Choose the category for the AutoText entry, for example My AutoText.
6) Click the AutoText button at the bottom of the dialog and select from the menu either New (to have the AutoText retain specific formatting, no matter where it is inserted) or New (text only) (to have the AutoText take on the formatting around the insertion point).
7) Click Close to return to the document.
Tip
If the only option under the AutoText button is Import, either you have not entered a name for your AutoText or there is no text selected in the document.
To save a table as AutoText:
1) Create a table and format it the way you want.
2) Select the table and go to Tools > AutoText on the Menu bar (or press Ctrl+F3).
3) Type a name for the AutoText (or amend the suggested shortcut and choose the category for the AutoText entry).
4) Click the AutoText button and select New (because you want the formatting of the table preserved). Click Close to return to the document.
To insert AutoText, type the shortcut and press F3.
To print a list of AutoText entries:
1) Choose Tools > Macros > Organize Macros > Basic.
2) In the Macro From list, find and expand Gimmicks.
3) Select AutoText and then click the Run button at the bottom of the dialog (not shown in Figure 22). A list of the current AutoText entries is generated in a separate text document. You can then print this document.
Figure 22: BASIC Macros dialog
To quickly change the case of text, select it, choose Format > Text on the Menu bar, and then choose one of the following:
UPPERCASE, where all letters are capitalized.
lowercase, where no words (except proper nouns) are capitalized.
Cycle Case, which cycles the selected words through uppercase, lowercase, sentence case, and capitalize every word.
Sentence case, where only the first word is capitalized (together with any proper nouns).
Capitalize Every Word, where every word is capitalized.
tOGGLE cASE, which changes every letter to the opposite case.
Small capitals, which capitalizes all letters in a reduced font size.
Writer does not have an automated way to do Title Case, where all words are capitalized except for certain subsets defined by rules that are not universally standardized. However, you can use Capitalize Every Word and then restore those words that you do not want capitalized.
The Format > Text menu also includes several manual formatting options, including bold, italic, and superscript. If Asian language support has been enabled, there are also several options that are used with Asian text: half-width, full-width, Hiragana, and Katakana.
You can also change the case of text using the Character dialog or a character style. Choose Format > Character, click the Font Effects tab (Figure 23), then select the type of capitalization in the Effects – Case: box.
Figure 23: Changing the case using the Character dialog
