Digital Documentation (Advanced) Notes

Introduction to Digital Documentation

Digital documentation involves creating, editing, and managing documents on a computer. Open source
word processor handles documents created by word very well.

Using LibreOffice Writer

LibreOffice Writer is a free and open-source word processor. It is part of the LibreOffice suite and offers
powerful features for document creation and management.

You can open MS word documents in Libreoffice writer too. A file created with Libreoffice will be
of .odt (OpenDocument Text) extension.

We will learn about these 4 things in Libreoffice writer

a) Styles: Documents can be kept uniformly using styles

b) Images: Add images to make the document more appealling
c) Table of Contents(TOC): Add TOC which helps to navigate easily
d) Mail Merge: To generate similar documents faster

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Styles in LibreOffice Writer

Styles are predefined formats that can be applied to text, paragraphs, pages, frames, list and other
elements in your document. They help maintain consistency and save time. Once a style is created, we
can apply it to a whole group of formats at the same time.

In simple words, if you create a style (a set of formats) for 1 page, we can apply that to any number of
pages. Some of the formats can be font size, type, paragraph formatting, page layout, margins etc.

Advantages of Styles

a) Helps in maintaining uniformity across all pages in a document

b) Saves time and effort if similar formatting has to be done in lots of pages

Creating and Applying Styles

 Page Styles: includes margins, headers and footers, borders and backgrounds.
 Paragraph Styles: Define the appearance of paragraphs like text alignment, line spacing, borders
etc.
o To create: Go to (Styles > New Style from Selection or Shift + F11).
o To apply: Select the paragraph and choose the style from the Styles menu.
 Character Styles: Define the appearance of text characters like font, size, bold, italics etc.
 o To create: Go to (Styles > New Style from Selection or Shift + F11).
o To apply: Highlight the text and choose the style from the Styles menu.
 Frame Styles: Used to format graphic and text frames including text wrapping, borders,
backgrounds etc.
 List Styles: Allows to format & position numbers or bullets in a list.

Ways to apply styles

(i) Using Styles menu or Styles Window

In the menubar, goto Styles and use any of the styling.

OR

You can also use (View > Styles or F11) to open styles window.

(ii) Using Fill format mode

Open the Styles window (View > Styles or F11) and then use the option Fill Format mode button
shown below to apply formats to paragraph or a page or frames.

Press ‘Esc’ button to come out of Fill Format mode.

(iii) Changing Styles using Style dialog

a.Using Style dialog (View > Styles or F11) update a style from selection.
b. AutoUpdate feature is available for Paragraph and frame styles.

Steps to do AutoUpdate is given below:

(i) Click on the Styles button in the sidebar on the right side of the LibreOffice Writer window.

Or Alternatively, you can go to View > Styles (or press F11 on your keyboard).

(ii) Select Paragraph Styles:

In the Styles sidebar, click on the Paragraph Styles icon (usually the first icon).

(iii) Choose the Style to Modify:

Right-click on the paragraph style you want to auto-update and select Modify.

(iv) Enable AutoUpdate:

In the Paragraph Style dialog that appears, go to the Organizer tab.

 Check the AutoUpdate box.

(iv) Copying Styles from a template or document

Go to Styles Window, and click on Style action dropdown

Choose ‘Load Styles from Template’ option

Choose the appropriate category and template and apply the style from Load Styles
dialog box.

Select ‘Overwrite’ to replace styles in original document that have same name as styles
in the document from which you are importing styles.

If ‘Overwrite’ box is not selected in Load Styles dialog box, you only copy styles whose
names are not used in original document.
 (v) Creating New (custom) styles

Open Style window (View > Styles or F11), and under Style actions select ‘New Style from
Selection’ option.

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Working with Images

In Libreoffice writer, when you want to make your document visually appealing, we use images. Three
types of images can be used:

(i) Image files such as photos, drawings, scanned images

(ii) Diagrams
(iii) Charts

Inserting Images

 Go to (Insert > Image )and choose the file from your computer.
 While inserting an image, we can use ‘Link’ option to provide a reference to image. Thou image
appears inside the document, it is maintained as a separate file.
  Or you can drag and drop an image onto the Document
 To insert an image from clipboard, use copy (Ctrl+C) and paste (Ctrl+V)

Formatting Images

 Use the image toolbar(View > Toolbars > Images) for cropping, resizing, and flip vertically or
horizontally or rotate 900

Wrapping Text Around Images

 Select the image and use the wrapping options from the toolbar (e.g., Wrap Through, Wrap
Tight).

Using the Gallery

 The gallery provides a collection of images and clipart. Access it via (View > Gallery)

Creating Drawing objects

 Display Drawing toolbar (View >Toolbars > Drawing)

 Then draw an object using shapes in the drawing toolbar.
 Group the objects (by selecting all shapes & using Grouping them)
 Experiment with resizing of objects

Positioning images within Text

4 settings are used to position images

 1) Arrangement : Placing image on an imaginary vertical axis. It tells how images are stacked
vertically on each other
2) Alignment: Aligning the image vertically or horizontally w.r.t anchor point
3) Anchoring : It is a reference point for images. An image has an anchor point.
4) Text Wrapping: It refers to how images are wrapped around the surrounding text. You may
want to wrap text around the image both sides or one side. You can also have text in front of
image.

Arrange images in different ways w.r.t text or other image

a) Bring to Front (bring till frontmost layer)

b) Bring Forward (bring one layer forward)
c) Send Backward (send one layer backward)
d) Send to Back (Send to the bottommost layer)

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Creating a Table of Contents

Understanding Table of Contents

A Table of Contents (TOC) provides an overview of the document's structure, listing the headings and
subheadings along with page numbers. Its like index of a book.

Creating a Table of Contents

 Place the cursor where you want the TOC.

 Go to (Insert > Table of Contents and Index > Table of Contents, Index, or Bibliography.)
 Customize the settings as needed and click OK.

Editing Table of Contents

 Right-click on the TOC and select Update Index or Table of contents.

Deleting Table of Contents

 Right-click on the TOC and select Delete Index or Table of Contents.

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Using Mail Merge

What is Mail Merge?

Mail Merge is a feature that allows you to create multiple documents from a single template, merging a
list of data such as names and addresses.

Suppose you have to send the same email to thousands of receipients, then we use mail merge. Using data
source(libreoffice calc sheet) that contains data like Name, Address, City we can create multiple
documents from a single document.

If data source contains email address, then using mail merge it is possible to send email to multiple
people.

Steps in mail merge

(1) Create a Data Source:

 Use a spreadsheet (i.e. Libreoffice Calc) or database to create your data source with columns like
Name, Address, Title etc.

 In LibreOffice, go to (File > Wizards > Address Data Source) to connect your data source.
(2) Creating Mail Merge Document or Source Document

 Using Libreoffice Writer, create a source document

 Go to (File > New > Text Document)
 Write the mail content that will be used for mail merge with placeholders like [first name], [City]
etc.

(3) Connecting the data source

 On the Source document created using Libreoffice Writer, use (Edit> Exchange Database) to connect
to the data source.

 In the exchange database dialog box, click ‘browse’ and choose the available databases
 Select the sheet and Click on ‘Define’

Now data source is connected to your document and you have access to the table fields.

(4) Inserting the data fields to your document

 On the Source document created using Libreoffice Writer, use (View > Data Sources) to view the
data source.
 Select each field from the view data source part into your document by dragging and dropping
them. Repeat the drag and drop for each field in the data source.
(5) Mail merge to create multiple emails from source

 On the Source document created using Libreoffice Writer, use (View > Toolbars > Mail Merge) to
view the mail merge bar as below.

 Now click on ‘Save Merged Documents’ and select the appropriate option if you want to merge
all into one document or into separate documents.
 If you choose ‘Save as individual documents’ you will get a separate files as below

Since there were 4 records in the Data source, four documents are created above.

Alternatively you can also use Tools > Mail Merge Wizard to do mail merge using wizard.

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Summary

 Styles save time and ensure consistency in document formatting.

 Images enhance the visual appeal and clarity of documents.
 A Table of Contents provides an organized overview of the document.
 Mail Merge automates the creation of personalized documents.

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