Web browser (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Dozens of Web browsers are available for download and use on any smartphone, and many of these browsers are free. Most smartphones come with a browser already installed. However, many users have another browser they’re already fond of using on their desktop or portable computer. Your favorite Web browser might be offered in a mobile version. So, which one is the best? That depends on what you’re going to be doing with it.

Websites Optimized for Specific Browsers

Most Web browsers developed by reputable companies or developers will open and view most any website. However, each Web developer has to choose which browsers he or she is optimizing for when designing the website. Hence, some websites just look better in one browser than another. This does not mean the browser is inferior, it simply means that the website was optimized for another browser. Naturally, most websites are optimized for the Web browsers most commonly used by their visitors. For instance, T-Mobile’s customer service website would be optimized for viewing in their G-1 browser because most, if not all, of their guests are using this software. Hence, the more common or popular the browser you choose, the more websites will be optimized for viewing in it.

The Difficulty With Mobile Browsers

Tablet computers, smartphones and other compact size devices are, by nature, more challenging for Web designers to cater to. These devices generally have less speed and memory than larger devices, slowing the time it takes to load images, graphics, photographs, special fonts and other elements of the page. To complicate matters further, some users get good 4G reception in their home city while others live in areas that barely get good 3G coverage. While Web designers strive to create attractive websites that draw attention, they don’t want to alienate their mobile visitors with less capacity for loading and viewing their site. It’s a balancing act, and a lightweight browser can do a lot for enhancing the user’s experience on any website.

Some Top Picks

The browser that comes installed on your smartphone might be the best option for most users because it is common and many websites will be optomized for it. T-Mobile free cell phones come with G-1 installed, and has received rave reviews from customers. Other users might enjoy some of the browsers available for free download. Opera Mobile is one of the most common. Other popular browsers to consider include Firefox, Silk, Ovi, Netfront and Dolphin.

How to Choose

Since Web browsers are generally small, download quickly and take up relatively little memory, it is possible to download and test several before you decide which one you want to stick with. Many users find it beneficial to keep two or even three browsers installed, because websites that don’t look great in one browser might be optimized for another. Having the option to view the website in another browser is sometimes helpful, especially if you’re making an important decision based on what you see on the site. Be sure to download the mobile version of the browser you choose.

When you have to fax an important document to another business or client, there is certainly no time to waste. More businesses are using reliable online faxing services as opposed to the loud, and often complicated traditional machines once used for sending important documents. Consider these four steps to make sure that your documents are sent over efficiently and in a timely manner.

Check the Internet

Online faxing is reliant on an Internet connection, so you cannot afford an outage during times when you need to send over important documents. Check periodically to make sure that your Internet is up and running throughout the day. Resolve any problems immediately. 

Upload the Document Efficiently

Faxing documents over the Internet come in the form of either scanned images or saved docs. You should always have both tools on hand for a variety of situations. Saved documents are the most common on computers, but if you need to send a signed paper in a hurry, you will need to have your scanner hooked up.

Also make sure that you fill out all pieces of information properly before sending. Faxing over incomplete documents is very unprofessional, and it wastes both your time and that of the recipient’s. Teach your employees proper documentation as well if anyone else besides you faxes over important papers.

Send the Document Promptly

The benefit of online faxing is that the process is done through your email. If you have important documents to send and you are out of the office, you can still complete the process from your laptop or smart phone. Always have your mobile tools on you in case such instances occur.

When sending an online fax, you will need to type in the recipient’s unique number. This is the case whether the recipient receives the document through their email or printed through a traditional fax machine. Whenever you send a document, you should always relay both your business phone number and fax number for when the recipient needs to get in touch with you immediately. This helps prevent any future communication problems.

Choose the Right Services

It is also important to choose the right online faxing services from the start. An unreliable company can pose potential problems when you are in the middle of sending an important document. You may also consider choosing a company that sends confirmation emails to you after sending such important pieces of information.

The Modern “Lone Wolf”

Because of the prevalence of online casinos, professional gamblers no longer need to travel from city to city to find a new stomping ground (though they may still travel from Starbucks to Starbucks as the mood takes them). Indeed, to move to a new casino all he or she needs to do is find a directory of casinos and then click on the next hyperlink.

Similar to the ease of finding a new “house” to bet against, the vast quantity of online casinos makes it so that they must actively compete for business by offering large sign up bonuses to new players. This additional wrinkle in the business has given the modern professional gambler a new name — “bonus hunters.” These bonus hunters troll the internet to find bonuses for their favorite online gambling games, use the bonus, collect their winnings and then move on.

Staying Organized

While any romantics reading this article might mourn the loss of the red leather notebook, the purely practical will see the immense improvements that Open Office can offer to a gambler who chooses to pursue this new way of life.

So if you want to keep track of your gambling while playing exciting casino games like Fantastic Four slots, you might want to consider the following tips:

• Ease: All a modern gambler does to record his or her winnings is minimize his or her game, bring up an open office spreadsheet and type — as opposed to having to either keep track of the progress of the game mentally until it was over, or else hold everyone else up while the notebook was whipped out and scribbled in.
• Speed: Most people can type faster than they can write — a factor that has largely contributed to the disappearance of cursive — but also means that gamblers can record their efforts on a computer faster than on a pad of paper.
• Security: This is a big one. By keeping digital — rather than physical — records, the modern gambler can make sure those records stay secure by making backup copies, which can be stored with cloud computing, and simply because a person is less likely to lose their laptop than a small notebook.
• innovation: Because Open Office is — as its name suggests — an open source software, it is improved regularly, for free!

Clearly, the modern gambler, or bonus hunter, has some large advantages over his or her media doppelgänger. However, I would contend that Open Office is one of the bigger ones.

To get started you will want to download OpenOffice. Once the software is installed, click File>New>Text Document. Located at the bottom of the screen are two words: Page 1/1 and Default. Page 1/1 references the numbers of pages in the documents, in this case one page. Default references the name of the Page Style that is in effect,

Choose the Default Paper Size

1. Make the Page Style: Default window appear by clicking on Format then Page.

2. Choose the tab marked Page.

3. In the Format menu choose the Paper format option. A huge list of selections will appear, choose the name of the desired paper size. (A complete list of all available selections can be viewed in the Format menu, simply click the arrow. As this tutorial is written for USA OpenOffice users the standard paper size will differ from UK OpenOffice users who will need to choose a different page size, in this case they would choose A4 which is the standard page size in the UK.)

4. Select Letter>OK. This will automatically reset the default page style to a width of 8.50 inches and a height of 11.00 inches. After selecting OK a flashing cursor will be located on the screen.

New Page Style Creation for Pages 1, 2, 3 and 4

1. Select Format then Styles and Formatting.

2. Select Page Styles to make the Page Styles window appear.

3. Choose the icon called New Style From Selection then click New Style From Selection. Another window titled Create Style will appear on the screen.

4. In the text box under Style name write Page 1. Select the OK button. In the box the text Page 1 will appear underneath the Style Name box.

5. Select Page 1 by double clicking on the text Page 1 in the list under Page Styles. At the top of the page a flashing cursor will appear. Located at the bottom of the screen are the words “Page 1” and “Page 1/1”. The phrase Page 1/1 refers to the location of the cursor being on the first page of a one page document file. The phrase Page 1 refers to the selected page style.

6. To create a Page 2 Style select New Style From Selection icon then the New Style from Selection. The Create Style window will appear on the screen again.

7. In the text box under Style name write Page 2. Select the OK button. In the box the text Page 2 will appear underneath the Style Name box and under Page 1.

8. To create a Page 3 follow the previous two steps, naming it Page 3.

9. Right-click on Page 3 which is located in the Styles and Formatting window. Select Modify then Columns. Located in the menu box for Columns click on the arrow and change the existing number to 2. Select OK.

10. Create a new Page 4 style by following the steps above.

11. Located in the Styles and Formatting window select the Page 4 by right-clicking it. Select Modify then Page. A selection called Orientation will be listed, select Landscape by placing a dot in the blank circle before Landscape.

14. Select OK.

Change and Apply the Heading 1 Paragraph Style and Add Paragraphs

OpenOffice offers the ability to create titles above the paragraphs of a document. This is known as the Heading Paragraph Style.

1. If the Paragraphs Styles menu is not already up on the screen, select the icon titled Paragraphs Styles. A list of Paragraph Styles will appear that can then be applied to the paragraphs.

2. Move the cursor to Heading 1 and right-click on it. A small rectangular box with New and Modify will appear on the screen.

3. Select Modify. A window titled Paragraph Style: Heading 1 will appear.

4. In the tabs, select the Alignment tab. Under the options menu, select Center. To select Center place a dot in the black spot next to the word Center.

5. Select the Font tab. If the default setting is not already set, input Arial font, Bold typeface, 20 pt font size and then select ok. (If the size is presented as a percentage, change it to a number. To do the reverse and change points to percentage delete the number in the size box and type it as a percentage such as 25%.)

6. Choose words to type out as test words. Type out the words “My Classes.”

7. Located in the Styles and Formatting window, select the selection titled Heading 1 by double clicking on it. The text “My Classes” will be centered.

8. Hit the Enter Key. (You will now find the cursor two lines down from the starting point. When a paragraph style with a “heading” is selected, two lines are added when you press enter. The text is then automatically set to the default setting of “text body.” The default setting is the font Arial, font size 12. To see what font is selected look in to the toolbar under Formatting (located fourth line from the top), the words “Text Body” should appear in the “Apply Style” menu. In the font name box the words Arial will appear and the 12 is placed in the font size box.)

9. Select a phrase to type out. Type out a phrase such as “These are my classes.” This text will look different than the words “My Classes” did at the top. This is because for “My Classes” the selected and applied paragraph style is “Heading 1,” while “These are my classes” has an applied paragraph style known as “text body.”

10. Hit the Enter key. Type out a phrase like “I will make a list of my classes.” And see what style it comes up in.

Apply the Page Style Called Page 2 To A Second Page

1. To create a second page a page break must be applied. To do this select Insert, then Manual break. Under the Type second of the box there should be a dot before the words Page Break. If it is not there put the dot there.

2. Under the Style section in the menu box click the arrow and choose the option Page 2. Select OK. The cursor will be moved to the top of the new page. (The bottom of the page should have the text “Page 2/2 and “Page 2”. Page 2/2 will refer to the fact that the cursor is located on the second page of a document that is two pages long. Page 2 refers to the selected page style.)

Change and Apply The Heading 2 Paragraph Style and Add Paragraphs

1. Select a word to type out such as English.

2. Move the cursor over to Heading 2 and right-click on it. A small box should appear and select Modify from the box. Select the Alignment tab and under options choose the option Left. Then select the Indent & Spacing tab. Under Indent type .50 in the Before text box. (To change the number click on the arrow until .50’ shows up on the screen or simply highlight the numbers under the box and type in .50”, or simply hit the delete key until the number is deleted and you can type in .50”).

3. Select the tab titled Font. Set the font settings to Arial Font, Bold Typeface, 14 pt Font Size then Click OK.

4. Under the list of available Paragraph Styles, select Heading 2 by double-clicking it. The words “English” will now appear indented a half inch and in bold font.

5. Hit the Enter key. Write out the words, “English has many parts,” then hit the Enter Key again. (This will make the cursor move down two lines. The font size will go back to a default 12 size and the worlds will not appear in bold.)

Change and Apply The Heading 3 Paragraph Style and Add Paragraphs

1. Type out the word “Verbs.”

2. Move the cursor over to Heading 3 and right-click on it. A small box should appear. Select Modify from the box. Select the Alignment tab and under options choose the option Left. Then select the Indent & Spacing tab. Under Indent type 1.0” in the Before text box.

3. Select the tab titled Font. Set the font settings to Arial Font, Bold Typeface, 14 pt Font Size then Click OK.

4. Select Heading 3 by double-clicking on the words. This will cause the word “Verbs” to appear in bold and be indented one inch.)

5. Hit the Enter Key. Write out the phrase “Some verbs are active.” Hit the Enter key again. This will make the phrase appear not in bold font and in the size 12 font size.

6. Write out the phrase “Some verbs are not active.” Hit the Enter key.

7. Write out the word “Nouns.”

8. Select Heading 3 by double-clicking on it. This will cause the word “Nouns” to appear in bold and be indented one inch.

9. Hit the Enter key. Write “A person is a noun.”

10. Hit the Enter key. Write “A place is a noun.”

Change Words Using Paragraph Style

1. Select and highlight the word “place” in the phrase “A place is a noun.” To highlight the word make sure that the cursor is right before the letter P and goes to right after the letter E in the word “place.” To highlight click and hold the right click side of the mouse and drag the cursor across the words you wish to highlight when you no longer want to highlight release the button.

2. Select the Underline icon by clicking on it. The word “place” will now appear underlined.

The Heading 2 Paragraph Style Application and How to Add Paragraphs

1. Write out the word “Math.”

2. Select the Heading 2 style by double-clicking on the selected style. The word will appear in size 14 font and in a bold typeface.

3. Hit the Enter key. Write out the phrase “Math has many parts.”

Apply the Heading 3 Paragraph Style and Add Paragraphs.

1. Write out the word, “Addition.”

2. Select the option Heading 3 by double-clicking on it. The phrase “Addition” will appear on the screen to be bold and indented one inch.

3. Hit the Enter key. Write out the phrase, “Two plus two equals four.”

4. Hit the Enter key. Write out the phrase “Three plus three equals six.”

5. Write out the word, “Subtraction.”

6. Select the option Heading 3 by double-clicking on it. This will cause the word “Subtraction” to appear in bold and indented one inch.

7. Hit the Enter key. Write out the phrase, “Four minus two equals two,” then hit the enter key.

8. Locate the X in the upper right corner of the Styles and Formatting window and click on it to close it out.

Switch and Use The Page Styles Named Page 3 and Page 4

1. To create a third page a page break must be applied.

2. Under the Style section in the menu box click the arrow and choose the option Page 3. Select OK. (The bottom of the page should have the text “Page 3/3 and “Page 3”.)

3. To create a fourth page a page break must be applied.

4. Under the Style section in the menu box click the arrow and choose the option Page 4. Select OK. (The bottom of the page should have the text “Page 4/4 and “Page 4.”)

Using Headings to Create a Table of Contents

The Headings setting can be used to create a table of contents.

1. Select the first line of the document right after the phrase “My Classes.” The blinking cursor will show up right after the s.

2. Select Insert>Indexes & Tables > Indexes & Tables. A window titled “Insert Index/Table” will appear on the screen.” A blinking/flashing cursor is located in the Title box. Press the arrow to choose Tables of Contents, this option might already be selected. Also make sure the Protect against manual changes is unchecked. Press OK.

3. The blinking cursor will be right before the T in the phrase Table of Contents. Located in the Formatting toolbar, select the Centered icon. The whole phrase “Table of Contents” will now become centered on the page.

How to Update a Table of Contents

Updates to the headings are not automatically applied to the Table of Contents. These updates must be done manually every time there is a change.

1. Write the words, “Adverbs” somewhere in the section under the English heading. Select Heading 3 by double-clicking it.

2. Place the cursor anywhere in the Table of Contents by clicking anywhere inside the Table of Contents.

3. Right-click to make a menu appear.

4. In the menu select Update index/table. The word Adverbs will be moved under English within the Table of Contents. Any new headings or changes that were made previously are now changed within the Table of Contents.

How to Save a File in OpenOffice Suite

1. Select File then Save As. The Save As menu will appear as a pull down menu, select My Documents if it is not previously highlighted. A pull down menu will also appear in the Save as Type box, make sure to choose the OpenDocument Text (.odt).

2. Type out the words Lesson #2 in the File name text box.

3. Select Save. The Lesson #2 file will now be saved and can be used in the future. However it is still located on the screen.

4. Select Fire>Close and the Lesson#2 will disappear.

We will create and save a template. This template will contain the same layout designed in the start of the tutorial. This will save time because you don’t have to recreate the same page layout. How-to for making the template are also included.

How to Open a New Document

1. If you’re at the desktop, begin by clicking Start on the start menu. Find “All Programs,” then “Open Office 2.2” and select the “OpenOffice.org Writer.”

2. If you’re at the “OpenOffice.org Writer,” click File, then select New and Text Document.

3. The text document titled “Untitled1 – OpenOffice.org Writer” will now appear on your screen.

How to Deactivate Word Completion

1. Click on Tools, then Auto Correct and click on the “Word Completion” tab.

2. If a check mark is present in the box next to “Enable Word Completion,” click to remove the check mark and then click on Ok.

3. If no check mark is present in the box next to “Enable Word Completion” then simply click Ok.

How to Adjust Paper Size

1. Click on Format, then Page. The window will appear for “Page Style: Default.”

2. Click on Page and the Page window will appear.

3. In the “Paper Format” area under the “Format” menu, select your paper size. In order to view the options in the Format menu, simply click on the check mark. For UK-based users, the regular paper size is the A4. This tutorial is written assuming a regular USA paper size.

4. Click on Letter and Ok. The width will be set to 8.5 inches and the height will be set to 11 inches. Your flashing cursor will appear back on your page.

How to Adjust Margins

Your flashing cursor is defined as where both lines merge. The line on the side of the corner is your Left Margin line. The line above your cursor is your Top Margin line. The line to the right on the screen is your right margin and though the bottom margin is there, it is not visible.

You can place words, graphics and numbers anywhere except the border banding the four edges of your paper. Margin is a word that describes the lines where your paper borders end and your words begin. Now anything that you add is going to stay within these lines that are responsible for indicating the margins. These margin lines will appear on the screen only and do not transfer when you print the page.

How to Change the Margins

1. Click on Format and Page. The window will appear for “Page Style: Default.”

2. Click on Page and the Page window will appear.

3. Click on the dialog box accompanying Left under Margins and change the number to .50. You can achieve this by moving the pointer to this Left dialog box, where the pointer will turn into a cursor. Slide the pointer to the far left of the Left dialog box, click the mouse then press your Delete key until the dialog box is empty. Then type “.50.”

4. There are two additional ways that you can replace the number in your dialogue box. The first is to simply highlight the contents of the box and then type in “.50″ and the second is just to click the down arrow accompanying the dialog box until “.50″ appears in the box.

5. In the right dialog box, repeat the process to change the number to “.50.”

6. Repeat this process for the bottom dialog box, but this time use “.55.”

7. Press Ok.

8. Now your document will appear with reset margins. The working area is now larger and the margin area is smaller than before.

How to Create a Footer

Click on Insert, then click on Footer and Default. The footer will be created at the bottom area of your page and the cursor will be located in the Footer area.

How to Add Page Numbering or Page Count

To Add in Your Footer

1. Click on your Footer area. Type “Page” and then click the space bar. Now click on Insert then Fields and Page Number. Now Page 1 will appear in the designated Footer area.

2. To add a page count, click on the Space Bar and then type “of.” Click on the Space Bar again. Now click Insert then Fields and Page Count. Now the Footer will read “Page 1 of 1.”

3. Click anywhere else on the page and the cursor will appear where you click.

How to Display Field Names Rather Than Numbers

1. Click on View and a menu will appear.

2. If there is no check mark present before the Field Name section, then numbers will show in your Footer.

3. If a check mark is present by the Field Names section, then the name of that field will show in the footer, with an example being “Date (fixed)” rather than an actual date.

How to Activate Tips

When you activate Tips and you move your cursor over an Icon, the Icon name will appear on your screen.

1. Click on Tools and Options. If a + is present before the OpenOffice.org, then click on this + symbol. A menu will appear directly below. Click on General and then follow one of the two steps below:

2. If no check mark is present before Tips, then click on the Tips word to place the check mark. The menu will close and the feature will be activated.

3. If a check mark is present before Tips, then simply click Ok. The window will close and the cursor will return to your document. This means that the Tips feature has already been activated.

How to Create a Template

Templates can be created using the same exact settings as the document that was made at the tutorial’s beginning. The template is usable any desired number of times in order to open text files using the same settings.

1. Click on File, then Templates and Save. The templates window is going to appear.

2. Type “Page Layout” in your New Template dialog, meaning that Page Layout will be the name for the new template.

3. Click on My Templates underneath Categories if not already selected. If selected, it will have a blue background.

4. Click on Ok and the template will be saved. The “Ultitled1″ text document is still visible.

5. Click on File, Close. A dialog box will appear asking if you want to save changes. Click on Discard to close the text file without saving it.

How to Create New Documents Using a Template in OpenOffice Suite

1. Click on File, New, and finally Templates and Documents and the Templates window is going to appear.

2. Click the Templates icon and the icon will be highlighted with blue.

3. Double-click My Templates under Title and the files in this folder will appear on your screen.

4. Click Page Layout and information pertaining to the template will appear on your screen.

5. Click Open and the document “Ultitled1″ will appear on your screen.

6. The Untitled1 file will have the same exact settings that this tutorial created and is available to use for any ordinary text file.

Teachers: You may need to download OpenOffice and open up a new text file for each of the students.

How to Open a New Document

1. If you are on the desktop, then click Start followed by All Programs and OpenOffice.org 2.3, then click on OpenOffice.org Writer.

2. If you are already in the OpenOffice.org Writer program, then click File, then New and Text Document.

3. In either of these cases, the text document will appear on your screen entitled “Untitled1.”

The Screen

1. The screen is similar to a television screen and is where you are going to see things happen.

The Keyboard

1. The keyboard contains keys that you can press in order to make characters appear on your screen, including numbers, letters and symbols.

2. To “press” means to touch one of the keys on your keyboard hard enough that the character appears on the screen, then immediately releasing the key.

3. Try to press the H key. An H should appear on your screen. Next to this “h” there should be a vertical line that is flashing. This flashing line is known as the Cursor and its purpose is to indicate where new text will be placed any time that you press one of the keyboard keys. Try to press “E,” then “L” and then “P” so that the word help appears on your screen.

The Space Bar

This is the long key in the very middle of the bottom of your keyboard. Press this key and your cursor will jump over one space.

The Shift Key

The shift key will help you make letters be capitalized, allowing you to type “Help” instead of “help.”

Type “Help” using the following method:

1. Press the Shift key and hold it down. Press the “H” then release the Shift. “H” will appear capitalized on your screen.

2. Press E, L and P just as you did before so that the word “Help” now appears on your screen.

The Mouse

The device next to your keyboard is the mouse.

1. When you roll the mouse, the pointer will move on the screen.

2. When you roll the mouse up or down on your mouse pad, the pointer is going to move up or down on your screen.

3. If you roll the mouse away from the mouse pad, then you should pick it up and return it to the mouse pad.

4. Now roll the mouse to the right or left on your mouse pad. Notice that the pointer will move to the right and left along with your movements.

5. Roll the mouse until the pointer is over the word “Help.”

6. Without allowing the mouse to move, “click” with the left mouse button. The mouse is divided into different buttons, including at least a left button and a right button. Put your index finger down on the left button, pressing it with that finger and then releasing the button immediately after.

7. You should notice that your cursor moved to the place where you clicked the mouse. Press on the “X” key and an x will appear where your cursor is located.

The Main Menu

The Main Menu is located at the top of your screen and it contains the words File, Edit and View along with others.

Opening Up a New Text File

1. Click on File, then New and Text Document. Click on these words in order.

2. The text document will appear on your screen titled “Untitled1.”

Optimize Your Writer Window

You are capable of increasing or decreasing the size for what you see on your screen.

1. Click on View, then Zoom and Optimal and a dot will appear next to the word Optimal. At this point, click Ok.

2. Experiment with other choices depending on your needs.

Name a File and Save it

1. First click File, then click Save As and the “Save As” window will appear.

2. Under “Save In,” which is a pull-down menu, click “My Documents”, then click on the down arrow to open up the pull-down menu so that you can select “My Documents.”

3. Under the “File Name” menu, select “My First File” and then click Save.

4. “My first file — OpenOffice Writer” will appear at the top of your screen. This named file will still be opened up on your computer, and is in the text file format. The file has also been saved to your “My Documents” folder under this name.

How to Close Your File

1. To close a file, click on File and Close. This “My first file” file will close.

How to Open Another File

1. To open a new file, click on File and Open so that the open dialog appears.

2. Open up the look-in box by clicking on the down arrow, then select “My Documents” and select the “My first file” file. Click on Open.

The file formats are different now in OpenOffice 2.0.

1. The new download of OpenOffice has different formats in comparison to the older versions of OpenOffice 1.x.x. The new 2.0 version can open, edit and save all of the older 1.x.x files. If you use the 2.0 version, then all of the older files are going to be available and completely usable.

2. Older versions of OpenOffice are not going to be able to use the new files. Once you have installed the 2.0 version and have tried it out to ensure that the installation was completely successful, you will be able to delete older versions of the software so that you can reclaim space on your PC.

3. You can delete older versions of OpenOffice by clicking “Start” and “Control Panel.” Double-click the “Install or Remove Programs” icon, and then click on “Remove.” This is not actually going to remove any created files, only the software files that were used in the previous version of OpenOffice.

Convert OpenOffice 1.1.x .sxw Document Files to 2.0 .odt Document Files

After the conversion, both the 1.1.x files, which are .sxw text files, and 2.0 files, which are .odt files, are going to be on the computer. In order to do the conversion, take the following steps:

Step 1: Open 1.1.x from within 2.0.

1. Load the 2.0 version of the software. Click Start, All Programs, OpenOffice 1.1.x , OpenOffice.org Writer. The file will appear on the screen.

2. Click File, Open. Find the 1.1.x file, then click on the file. Click Open and the name of the file is going to appear in the box marked “File Name”. The file will appear in the 2.0 format. The name of the file will appear in the top blue line with the icon for 2.0, followed by the name of the file, then the .sxw extension. The .sxw extension is somewhat misleading because .sxw is from the older file type but the file is being opened as a 2.0 version file.

Step 2: Save Using the 2.0 Format.

1. Click File Save As. Now the “Save As” window will appear.

2. In “Save as Type”, select “OpenDocument Text” which is .odt.

3. In your “Save In” dialog, select whatever folder you desire. Click Save. Now the file will be saved in the new 2.0 format. The file will appear on your screen in this 2.0 format.

Notice: You can use the same name for both of the files files, 1.1.x and 2.0 versions. The extension that is associated with the file is going to indicate which is which.

Notice: In the first step, the file is opened using the 2.0 format. The 1.1.x file that was originally opened is still on your computer in its original file format. In the second step the file is re-saved using a 2.0 file format.

Notice: If the file contains graphics and the 2.0 version is opened up, then the graphics will be visible as normal. If there are graphics in the file and the 1.1.x file version is opened up, then the graphics will not be visible due to incompatibility issues.

Save a 2.0 Version File as a 1.1.x File Version Format

If you want to save your 2.0 version file into a 1.1.x version file format, do the following:

1. Click File, Save As. Now the “Save As” window will appear.

2. Change the “Save As Type” dialog to say “OpenOffice 1.0 Text” which is a .sxw file. Select the folder you want to save in under the “Save In” dialog. The file will be saved as a 1.1.x file format and the original 2.0 file will still be present on the screen.

Spell Check

The OpenOffice software installation for version 2.0 sets the spell check as the default. The country where your downloading server is from will determine the default dictionary being used. United States servers, for example, will cause the USA dictionary to be the default. Servers in the United Kingdom will cause the UK dictionary to be the default.

When words are spelled incorrectly, they will have a red wavy line beneath them. If a word is actually spelled properly but it has a red line beneath it, then you can modify the dictionary in order to remove that red line from any correctly spelled instances of the word. From that point on, the word will never have a line underneath it.

Adding Words to the Dictionary

1. Right-mouse-click on a word that has a wavy line under it despite being spelled correctly and a menu will appear.

2. Click on Add, Standard.dic and the wavy red line will go away.

Correcting Misspelled Words

You can correct misspelled words by doing the following:

1. Right-mouse-click on the word that is misspelled with a wavy red line beneath it. A menu will appear.

2. In the top section of that menu there will be suggestions for the proper spelling. Click on the word that is spelled correctly. The menu will close and the word will be corrected.

The entire completed document or just a highlighted section can be checked for errors in spelling by clicking the “Spell Check” icon which is on the Menu Toolbar.

Using Thesaurus for Synonyms

1. Click on the word that you want to find a synonym for.

2. Click Tools, Language, Thesaurus. The dialog for the thesaurus will appear. The proper language version will appear depending on what dictionary your version of OpenOffice contains.

3. Under “Meaning,” select the meaning of the word. In the “Synonym” box, select the right word. Click OK.

Using WordPerfect Files

You can open WordPerfect file types with the 2.0 version of OpenOffice. These files were not capable of being opened in previous versions.

Using Microsoft Office Files

You can open files from Microsoft Office using OpenOffice. You can modify the opened files and can save them again using either the OpenOffice format or the Microsoft Office format.

1. To save a file in either format, go to File, Save As. Select your format of choice in “Save as Type.”

2. OpenOffice will be able to convert any Office files into OpenOffice formats with the use of the Document Converter.

3. Go to File, Wizards, Document Converter and the document converter window will open. To convert your text documents, select “Microsoft Office” and “Word Documents” when asked to choose the document type.

4. Excel and PowerPoint documents can be converted as well but only from Office to OpenOffice.

Changing the Default Document Saving Settings

1. Go to Tools, Options, Load/Save , General.

2. Select the document type in the pull down menu.

3. Under “Always Save As,” select your chosen format. OpenOffice Text might be the best file type for a Writer Text Document rather than Microsoft Word. If you choose any file type other than .odt, you may lose some content or formatting.

E-mailing in an OpenOffice File

1. Have the file open that you want to attach to an e-mail.

2. Click on File, Send, Document as E-mail. When your e-mail server window pops up, the Compose window will appear.

3. Write your e-mail as you normally would. Once written, you can send as normal as the file will already be attached.

Notice: This is only going to work if you have an e-mail client like Mozilla Thunderbird or Outlook. If you use a web mail like Hotmail or Yahoo, then this will not work for you. You will be asked instead to save the document locally and to attach it yourself using your e-mail client.

Using Rich Text Files (RTF)

RTF files can be opened, used and saved using any type of word processing software, including Open Office, NotePad, Word, WordPad and Star Office. OpenOffice files can also be saved in the RTF format. This format is an excellent way to exchange files with users that only use other word processors.

Saving in PDF Format

If you have the free Adobe add-on, then you can open PDF files in your OpenOffice software. Visit http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.HTML to download this add-on.

1. Click on File, Export as PDF. Now the export window will appear.

2. Select a folder in your “Save in” dialog box. Under “File name,” enter in a name. Click Save and the PDF Options window will appear.

3. Select either All or Range under Pages. Click on Export. The file is going to be saved under the selected folder in a PDF format. The file has been exported to your computer.

4. You cannot edit PDF files. Write the file as an OpenOffice document, then save it as an OpenOffice file AND as a PDF file. If edits need to be made, you can edit the OpenOffice version and then re-save the PDF file version.

JRE Java Runtime Environment

1. If the JRE is not already installed, then an error message might appear that says that you cannot do something specific in OpenOffice because the Java Runtime Environment is not installed.

2. You can obtain JRE for free from http://www.java.com/en/download/manual.jsp.

3. On the web page for the JRE download, click on whatever operating system your computer uses.

Inserting Dates

Inserting Today’s Date in a Document

1. Place your cursor where you want to place the date.

2. Click on Insert, Fields, Date. Today’s date is going to be inserted in the mm/dd/yy format.

Inserting a Selected Date in a Document

1. Place your cursor where you want to place the date.

2. Click on Insert, Fields, Other. The Fields window will appear. Select the Document tab.

3. Select a format under “Format.”

4. Click on Insert, Close.

Changing Icon Sizes in OpenOffice

With your OpenOffice document open, click Tools, Options. If a “+” is present before OpenOffice.org, click on the “+” and a “-” symbol should then appear within the box. Click on View, then click on “Small,” “Large,” and “Automatic” in the Toolbar Icon Size area. Now you can click OK.

Background Color Highlighting

Highlighting is an option that will allow you to change the color that is behind the words on the page. You can highlight a single letter, a single word or an entire selection of words.

1. Select what you want to highlight.

2. Click on your Highlighting icon in the Formatting Toolbar. Press the icon until a drop-down menu appears. This is known as a long-click. Long-clicking means that you are pressing and holding your left mouse button until the pull down menu appears, or until another window appears offering you additional functionality.

3. Select your chosen color from the Highlighting color palette that appears before you.

Line Numbering

How to Activate the Line Numbering on Your Page

1. Click on Tools, Line Numbering and the line numbering window will appear.

2. Click on “Show Numbering” to create a check mark there if there is not one already. Under “Interval” you can select 5 or any number of your choice. Click on OK. A check mark will appear next to “Show Numbering.”

3. Every fifth line, or whatever number you chosen, will have a line number in the leftmost margin of your page.

Footer

1. Click on Insert, Footer, Default. The footer will appear at the bottom of your page. The cursor should be at the left margin and flashing.

2. Click inside of the footer and move your cursor to where you want to add data. Add the data of your choice after clicking in the desired spot.

3. Click on the page to move your cursor back.

Page Count and Page Numbering

1. Click the Footer. Type “Page” then click the space bar. Click on Insert, Fields, Page Number. Now the footer displays “Page 1.”

2. Click anywhere on the main page to return the cursor to your main document.

Start Page 1 on the Second Page

Here, the first page will not have a number.

1. Click on File, New, Text Document.

2. Click on Format, Styles and Formatting, Page Styles.

3. Right-Click “Page Styles” and then click New.

4. Under “Page Style” click on “Organizer” and name your page style as “Restarting Page Numbers.” Now click on Footer Tab, Footer On, OK.

5. Click on your first page, the one that should not have a page number.

6. Click on Format, Paragraph so that the Paragraph dialog appears.

7. Click Text Flow, Breaks, Insert. The “Type” will say “Page” in the dialog box. The position will have “Before” in the dialog box.

8. Select Breaks, With Page Style. In the dialog box that appears below Type, you should click on the down-arrow to select the “Restarting Page Numbers” option. Under “Page Number” select “1.” Now Click OK. A footer will appear on the second page of the document but there will be no footer on your first page.

9. Optional Step: Click the space bar, then type “of” and click the space bar again. Click on Insert,  Fields, Page Count. Now the footer will read “Page 1 of 1.”

Word Count

Click on Tools, Word Count. Now a menu will appear that shows you the number of words as well as characters either in the current selection or in the entire document.

Horizontal Rulers

To change between centimeters or inches, simply right-mouse-click on the rulers and select either inches or centimeters.

Name of the File on the Top Blue Title Bar

If you want a different name to appear on your title bar, which is the very topmost blue bar on your screen, then you can do the following:

1. Click on File, Properties, Description.

2. Enter any name into your title box and then click on OK. The name that you have entered will now appear in the title bar for the document, but the file name itself will not change.

Tips

When you have the Tips feature activated and you place the cursor over any icon in the menu bars in the program, the name is going to appear on your screen. This is ideal if you are just learning to use the software and need guidance on how to use the menu items.

1. Click on Tools, Options. The Options window will appear. If there is a “+” symbol in front of OpenOffice.org, then click on this plus. A menu will appear. Click on “General.”

2. If there isn’t a check mark before Tips, then click on Tips to create a check mark there. The menu will close and the feature will be activated.

3. If a check mark is there, then you simply have to click “OK.” The window will close and the cursor will return to the document because Tips is already activated.

Changing the Font Color

1. Highlight your chosen words by clicking on the first letter and holding down the shift key. Hold down the down or right key to select the entire area you want highlighted.

2. Click and hold the Font Color icon, which is an A with a colored bar beneath it. Hold the mouse down in a “long click” until the menu appears. You will see a palette of different colors that you are allowed to change your text into.

3. Choose the color that you want to convert your text into. The pallet of colors will close and the Font Color icon now displays your chosen color.

4. Click the Font Color icon quickly and release the mouse button quickly. This is known as a long click. Now your selected text is in the desired color.

Auto Correct

In your AutoCorrect window, you will find several choices for customizing AutoCorrect to suit you.

Capitalizing the first letter of each sentence will be the default setting in your initial OpenOffice installation. To change this, you can do the following:

Click Tools, AutoCorrect, Options. Add or remove the check mark before “Capitalize first letter.”

Entering Text in a Column and then Moving Your Cursor to Another Column

If you are approaching the end of a column, press Enter several times until the cursor has moved over into the new column.

Instead, you can click where you’d like to stop in your column. Click Insert, Manual Break, Column Break.

Databases

OpenOffice has a proprietary version of Basic though it is not compatible with Visual Basic. Visit http://www.openoffice.org’s Macro Documentation section for more information.

OpenOffice Flexibility vs. Microsoft Word

OpenOffice is capable of working with files in proprietary OpenOffice formats as well as Microsoft Office file formats. Microsoft Office programs like Microsoft Word cannot work with OpenOffice formats.

Part 1

Using OpenOffice and Microsoft Office on Your Computer

You can use both Microsoft Office and OpenOffice on your computer at the exact same time and they can actually work well together. However, sometimes it can be a little confusing when you are opening or closing files. Sometimes it may seem like your Office files have been converted into an OpenOffice format and that you can’t retrieve your Microsoft files again. The purpose of this tutorial is to learn how to avoid this confusion.

To Open Files

1. When you first installed OpenOffice you were allowed to choose whether to use OpenOffice or regular Office to open your Microsoft Office files.

2. By default, there will not be a check mark next to documents that are proprietary Microsoft formats.

3. If you did not place check marks in any of these boxes when you installed OpenOffice, Microsoft Office is going to use its files in the normal way.

4. If check marks are placed in these boxes, OpenOffice will open the Microsoft Office files in OpenOffice formats. In order to open a Microsoft file format you simply have to start OpenOffice and click on File, then click Open. Open Office will work with the file even if it was originally in a Microsoft Office file format.

5. If you are installing OpenOffice on a trial basis, you may not want to add these check marks until you decide if you are going to use the software.

How to Save Files

1. If you are using Microsoft Word, then Save as usual and the file will be saved in the ordinary Microsoft format.

2. If you are using OpenOffice, you can decide to save your file in the Microsoft format or in an OpenOffice format. To do so, click on File, then Save As. When the file type box pops up, select whatever format you would like to save in.

3. If you open up a Microsoft Office document in the OpenOffice software and you have not made any changes to the document, when you click on File, then Close, the file will still be saved in the Microsoft document format. If you do make changes to your document and you click Close, you will be prompted to Save, Cancel or Discard.

4. If you click on Cancel, the option of closing will be cancelled and the document will still be open.

5. If you click on Discard, the modified file will be lost but the original file will still be available to you.

6. If you click on Save, a dialog will appear stating that the document contains content or formatting that cannot be saved in the original format.

Downloading Microsoft Files From the Internet

1. While on the Internet, Copy the material of your choice.

2. While in OpenOffice, click on the drop-arrow next to the Paste icon to bring up the paste menu.

3. Click on Unformatted Text so the material is pasted into your OpenOffice document.

4. If you have saved material from the net already in OpenOffice but you did not use Paste then Unformatted Text, then the following may occur:

5. When the document opens so you can make changes, you may end up experiencing some difficulties while attempting to add paragraphs in order to create a Table of Contents. You should click on the Non-Printing Characters icon. If you see any other icons aside from the Non-Printing Characters icon in your document, then you must delete and replace those characters with the OpenOffice equivalent. After you have completed this you will be able to make the formatting changes you need without issue.

6. Notice: You are going to have to manually delete and replace each of the incorrect icons. There is no way to replace them automatically.

Icons

A file’s icon will indicate which application Windows will use to open it.

1. If you did not add check marks, then the icon for Microsoft files is going to be the standard Microsoft icon.

2. If you did add check marks, then Microsoft files will have the OpenOffice icon. Even when the OpenOffice icon appears for files that have Microsoft extensions like DOC, PPT and XLS, the file is still actually a Microsoft file format.

How to Stop OpenOffice from Opening Microsoft Files

If, when you first installed the OpenOffice software, you placed check marks by the Microsoft file formats so they would open with OpenOffice and you decide that you would rather this not happen, you are going to need to re-associate all of the word processing, presentation and spreadsheet files with the right file type.

You can use either of the following methods:

Method 1: Three Letter Extension Change

1. Go into the file types setting by going to Tools or to Folder Options from “My Computer”.

2. Delete the current associations for .xls, .doc or any file types that you want to reset the associations for.

3. The next time you click on a file in that file type, it’s going to ask you what program you want to use in order to open it. Click on Excel, Word or whatever program you would like to use.

Method 2: Change Default Settings from Within OpenOffice

1. Launch any file in the OpenOffice.org suite, such as the OpenOffice Writer program.

2. Click Tools, Options.

3. Click the “+” sign to expand the Load and Save section in the far left pane.

4. Under Load/Save, click on General.

5. Under Default File Format near the dialog’s bottom, select what type of document you would like in the Document Type list.

6. To the right you will find Always Save As, and you should change the file format to Microsoft Word 97/2000/XP.

Repeat these two steps for any other documents that you would like to convert back into the Microsoft Office format, and then select the appropriate save-as-format. Click OK and your settings will be saved. From this point on, when you save your document the default format will be the original Microsoft Office file format or extension.

Part 2

Sending Files from OpenOffice to Others

1. If you are sending a file to someone who does not use OpenOffice but the file is in an OpenOffice format, your recipient will not be able to use the file.

2. If you send the file to someone who does not have OpenOffice, you should be sending it in a Microsoft-friendly file format since most people have MS Word on their computers.

3. If the person does not have OpenOffice installed on their computer, you can suggest that they download it.

4. There is a free plug-in that allows MS Office users to use the OpenOffice format for opening, editing and saving files. To download this plug-in, visit http://www.sun.com/software/star/odf_plugin