The principle parts of a Writer window are shown below:
The Title bar contains a Back icon, a Close icon, the name of the document and a Toggle size icon. Document windows can be moved by dragging in the Title bar.
Back icon
Click on the Back icon to make the window go to the ‘back of the pile’ of windows on your desktop.
Close icon
Click on the Close icon to close the window. If any changes have been made to the document that have not been saved, a dialogue box will appear asking whether you want to save your work before the window is closed.
Document name
The full pathname of the document is displayed in the Title bar. A ‘*’ to the right of the name indicates that changes have been made to the document since it was last saved. New documents are given the name ‘Untitled’ which you change when you first save the document.
Toggle size icon
Click on the Toggle size icon to expand the window. If the window is already expanded it will return to its former size and location and position within the window stack.
The top row of the Tool bar contains the Undo, Save, Print, Find, Information, Tab well, Ruler, Zoom and Clipboard buttons. The action of each of the button bar buttons is described below.
Getting more than one command from a button: The action of the buttons may vary depending on which of the three mouse buttons is used. In general Select is the ‘safe’ option leading to a dialogue. Menu opens the equivalent menu and Adjust is a short-cut that avoids dialogues.
The Tool bar can be hidden/shown using the Tool bar command in the View menu.
Undo
Select, Adjust: Undo/Redo the last command. The button is dimmed when there is nothing to undo.
Save
Select: Opens the Save dialogue. This is the same as choosing Document from the Save menu.
Adjust: Save the document using its existing pathname without opening a dialogue. This is the same as choosing Save from the Main menu. If the document has never been saved Adjust opens the Save dialogue.
Menu: Choose between Save Document and Save Text.
Print
Select, Adjust: Opens the Print dialogue. Same as the Print command in the Misc menu.
The button is dimmed if there is no printer driver loaded.
Find
Select: Opens the Find/Replace dialogue.
Adjust: Find next occurrence.
Menu: Choose between Find, Find same and Find selection.
Info
Select/Adjust: Opens the About this document dialogue where you can see the number of words and characters in the document. Same as choosing Info... in the Misc menu.
Tabs
Left, Centre, Right and Decimal tabs are contained (in that order) in a Tab well. Tabs can be dragged onto the ruler and repositioned by dragging sideways. They can be removed by dragging them off the ruler.
TIP - Constraining Tabs. Hold down Shift when dragging tabs to constrain them to the minor divisions on the ruler.
Ruler
Select: Shows/Hides the ruler.
Menu: Lets you change the scale between Inches, Millimetres and Centimetres.
Zoom out
Select: Halve the magnification of the document to a minimum of 10% of normal size.
Adjust: Double the magnification of the document to a maximum of 999% of normal size.
Scale button
Menu: Opens the Magnify menu.
Zoom in
Select: Double the magnification of the document to a maximum of 999% of normal size.
Adjust: Halve the magnification of the document to a minimum of 10% of normal size.
Cut
Adjust/Select: Remove current selection from the document and copy it to the Clipboard.
Copy
Adjust/Select: Copy the current selection to the Clipboard.
Paste
Adjust/Select: Insert the contents of the Clipboard at the caret .
The bottom row of the Tool bar contains the Font, Font size, Bold, Italic, Underline, Plain and Alignment buttons.
Font
Menu: Same as choosing Font from the Text menu.
Font size
Menu: Same as choosing Font size from the Text menu.
Bold
Menu: Embolden the selected text by looking for a bold version of the current font. This has no visible effect if there is no bold version of the font. There will be an effect if the font is subsequently changed to one that does have Bold/ExtraBold/Ultra/Heavy.
Same as choosing Bold from the Text menu.
Italic
Menu: Italicise the selected text by looking for an italic or oblique version of the current font. This has no visible effect if there is no italic version of the font. There will be an effect if the font is subsequently changed to one that does have Italic/Slant/Oblique.Same as choosing Italic from the Text menu.
Same as choosing Italic from the Text menu.
Underline
Menu: Underline the selected text, or if no text is selected underline the text that is typed until either the caret is reset or Return is pressed.
Same as choosing Underline from the Text menu.
Plain
Menu: Remove all effects from the selected text, paragraph, picture. Equivalent to choosing Plain from the Text menu.
Left align
Select: Aligns text/picture with the left margin.
Menu: Displays the Align menu.
Centre align
Select: Centres text/picture between the margins.
Menu: Displays the Align menu.
Right align
Select: Aligns text/picture with the right margin.
Menu: Displays the Align menu.
Fill justify
Select: Aligns text with both margins.
Menu: Displays the Align menu.
Adjust: Selects forced full justification.