StarOffice is a complete office suite, a collection of office tools for Linux. It was developed by Star Division, a German company that has enjoyed tremendous success in Europe. In 1999 StarOffice was sold to SUN Microsystems which is the leader corporation in enterprise computing.

     SUN Microsystems has increased the popularity of Star Office by advertising it on its web site. The main purpose is to provide free software that can do the work of Microsoft Office, which costs around $450. Star Office is distributed for free for personal use.

     In the last few months, SUN has made Star Office partly open source. The source code to the program is available freely on the Internet. With available source code, programmers around the world will have a chance to see how the program operates, and will have a chance to contribute to the development. Also having open source code helps the program be more stable because other programmers can see what causes certain problems and can provide fixes to the source code. That's the concept of the open source philosophy.

     With the availability of the source code, and free distribution over the Internet, it seems like Star Office is serious competition to Microsoft Office, and Corel WordPerfect Suite which currently dominate the office suite applications market. With SUN Microsystems' name and support behind it, Star Office is the office suite of the future.

     If youre familiar with Office 95 or Office 97, many of the features of Star Office will be familiar to you. Star Office includes advanced features such as automatic indexes, integrated drawing tools, spreadsheet database functions, chart designers and a macro programming language called Star Basic. It offers similar functionality to Microsoft Office and is able to read and write the file formats of MS office tools, including the most important ones: the word processor and spreadsheet.

     If youre not familiar with Microsoft Office but you have been using Linux, youll love working with Star Office. It provides everything you need to create documents, spreadsheets, databases and presentations. You can also use Star Office as an integrated Internet tool, read e-mail and newsgroups, browse the web and download from ftp sites, all within the same comfortable interface.

* StarOffice is cross-platform, it runs natively on the  Solaris, Microsoft Windows 95/98/\-NT, OS/2, and Linux operating systems.  It is designed as an integrated desktop rather than as individual  applications that work together.

* StarOffice is a desktop.

* StarOffice contains internet applications. Through these   applications it is possible to do everything needed on internet  without using any other programs.

* StarOffice is a file manager.

* StarOffice is an HTML editor. Using star office, you can   prepare your web pages visually and reformulate written documents  into html format.

* StarOffice is an image editor. Star Image can edit any  sort of image file, add effects onto them and create images in motion.

* StarOffice is a word processor. Star Writer, the word   processor of StarOffice is highly capable compared to other known  word processors.

* StarOffice is a spreadsheet. Using Star Calc, the spreadsheet   of StarOffice, you can easily create tables, make calculations, draw  graphics and make analysis  of     the statistics.

* StarOffice is a database. You can prepare visual tables.   Itis one of the strongest databases ever created.

* StarOffice is a presentation and graphics program.

* StarOffice is a math editor. StarMath, the math editor of   StarOffice can write equations and work on them.

* StarOffice is 100% compatible with other office applications.   You can save the documents you prepared with StarOffice in any format  and open the documents you prepared with other applications in StarOffice.

1) At least 90MHz Pentium-class processor or 85 MHz Sparc,

2) 16MB RAM (32MB recommended),

3) Windows 95/98/NT, OS/2, Linux or Solaris,

4) 115MB hard disk space for Windows, 180MB for Linux and  Solaris,

5) At least 256 bits of color.

You can download StarOffice from the web site of SUN,   www. stardivision. com for free.

     StarOffice consists of many components such as the desktop; bars; spreadsheet, presentation and document programs. When you open Staroffice, you come across the contents of the main work area which is actually your desktop. At the top, there are the menu bar and the function bar and at the bottom, the task bar.

      StarDesktop, the location where you perform all your tasks, is the central element for your work in StarOffice. The desktop cannot be closed like ordinary document windows and is always visible in the work area if you have no other files or windows open. With the context menu of your desktop icon, you can choose either the Windows desktop or the StarOffice desktop.

     If you use other operating systems you'll have as a standard the StarOffice desktop. StarDesktop displays the documents, spreadsheets and other files you want to work with. Every currently open document provides the tools appropriate for use with that document type. If you have opened a text document for example, all tools, (menu commands and icons in the toolbars) are provided to edit text. The appropriate functions are also automatically provided for working with spreadsheets and presentations. The environment in StarOffice (menu commands, context menus, toolbars, status bars, etc. ) always adapts to the situation by providing you the tools you need for the current job

     In the title bar, you can see the name of the StarOffice application and the title of the actual document. If the document does not have a title, you see the name of the file.

     On the top of the StarOffice window, there is the menu bar. By pointing to a menu with the mouse and pressing the left mouse button, the menu opens and you can select an item from the submenu by clicking it.

     The menus are ordered according to their basic functions. The Edit menu includes functions necessary for editing a document (Copy and Paste, Cut, Undo, and so on). The View menu contains functions with which you can control your view of a document and other on-screen elements.

     You can change the menu bars, the toolbars and the status bar according to your own needs and preferences.

     Below the menu bar, there is the Function bar. This bar contains icons for some important commands and functions that you can activate in StarOffice.

     At the left of the function bar, the URL field indicates the location of the active document. It is possible to select or enter other URL (Uniform Resource Locator) addresses in order to open a document either in your file system or in the Internet.

     Other toolbars include the object bar, main toolbar and the option bar. These bars are assigned to certain document types you edit in StarOffice.

     After starting StarOffice, the first thing to be seen is the StarDesktop. On the desktop, documents, folders, mails, etc. are displayed in separate windows. However, if no document is open, the background of the desktop is displayed. It is possible to assign the desktop a color and/or background picture, either through the desktop's context menu or from the Gallery. The icons for documents, applications and other icons on the desktop can also be arranged. It is also possible to label documents with different colors and fonts.

     When a document is opened, the content of the document or folder appears in the desktop. The desktop may be partially or completely hidden from view in this case, though it is always active in the background. If a newsgroup or an e-mail account is opened, the message is displayed in separate frames containing the relevant information but the desktop is always on the background. In order to switch back to the desktop view, one needs to click the Desktop icon on the task bar.

     In the Explorer, you can manage and organize all the elements in StarOffice. You can open the Explorer with the Explorer icon in the function bar. If it is open but hidden, you should click the Show icon at the left border of your desktop.

     The Beamer's function is to show the contents of a selected Explorer entry; whereby folders and directories are not displayed in the Beamer. If the Beamer is active and displayed, you can see it below the function bar. You can activate the Beamer with the Beamer-icon in the function bar. If the Beamer is active but hidden, click the Show icon on the upper border of your desktop to make it visible. The contents of the Beamer depends on the entry selected in the Explorer. You will have different contents in the Beamer if you select a database, a Gallery theme or a folder.

     StarOffice has a task bar which displays all active tasks as icons. Click any icon in order to view and edit the active task. From left to right you see the Start and Desktop icons followed by all StarOffice tasks and any other system tasks. On the right in the task bar you see a task tray where the e-mail indicator and the time of day are shown.

     The area between the Desktop and Start button in the Task Bar represents the Quickstart Bar. It can be used to quickly start an application, or open a document or folder.

    The Start icon opens a menu where you can choose from the various StarOffice document types.

The Desktop icon reacts differently to short or long clicks. A single click switches to the current desktop whereas an extended click opens a menu where you can choose a task. Using the desktop context menu, you can switch between existing desktops, as well as open new documents.

     Enter some text. Line breaks are controlled automatically with your software, so you do not need to manually do so. Press the Enter key only where you want to begin a new paragraph.

     You can simply begin to write without worrying about typing errors. You should correct your typing errors later on, so you will not be interrupted by constantly having to move the cursor around to correct your mistakes. You can also format headings, highlight words, and make other typographical changes after you have finished writing the main bulk of your text.

     Also the automatic word completion can help you when entering text: If you enter the same word (longer than 5 characters), StarWriter will suggest after typing the first three characters the familiar word. Press the Enter key to accept the suggestion if correct. If more than one word begins with the same three characters, you can enter the key combination (Ctrl)(Tab) to search from the beginning of the list, and (Shift)(Ctrl)(Tab) to search from the end of the list of familiar words. You can find more information to this function in the StarWriter Help under "Word competion".

     To insert new characters into an already existing text, simply place the cursor at the position where the change should be made and enter the correction. Any text following your addition will be shifted as necessary.

     If the text is not meant to be shifted but instead overwritten by a new text, then the text document should be in the Overwrite mode instead of in the default Insert mode. You can switch between these modes by pressing the (Ins) key. The selected mode will be indicated in the status bar with "INSERT' or "OVER". You can also toggle this function by clicking the field in the status bar.

     It is not necessary to delete a word before replacing it with another word. Simply select the word and type the new word in it's place instead. Even if you enter only one new character, the typing replaces the entire selected text. With the Insert mode, you can then enter further characters. Your newly entered text will be lost as soon as you turn off the computer. To read, edit, and print the text again after restarting your computer, you must first save it as a file on the hard disk or on another permanent storage medium.

     To save your current document, use the Save command in the File menu. To open a document, use the Open command in the File menu. In both cases, a dialog box appears that provides more information about the file

     Assign your text document a name when you save it. You can, for the most part, choose any name you like (according to the restrictions of your operating system). It is better to choose a descriptive name for the file so that you can easily find it later.

     Printing is controlled primarily with the Print dialog, which is activated in the File menu. In this dialog, you can select a specific printer (in case you have installed more than one printer). Under Print document, you can determine how many pages you want to have printed (or only certain pages), and how many copies you want to have made.

     With StarOffice it is easy to print several pages of a text document on one single sheet of paper:

     Switch in the Page view to (File - Page View). In the Object bar, you can choose to display either two or four pages, or you can click on the Scale icon and define the amount of pages to be shown by setting the number of rows and columns. With a long click on the icon, you will open a grid formed submenu. Here you can determine by dragging with your mouse cursor, how many columns and rows ("Pages") can be viewed and printed.

     Click the Print Page View icon in the Object bar. In the Printer dialog you can access the printer properties dialog and switch between portrait or landscape format.

     A text without any special formatting can have a monotonous appearance. To outline text, to highlight individual words, quotations, or references, or to separate certain parts of the text, you can apply various types of formatting.

     StarOffice offers a choice between hard or soft formatting for applying text attributes such as bold or italics, and defining the font, type, and font size. A hard format is obtained by applying an attribute directly to a portion of text. For example, you can apply bold formatting directly to a selected text by clicking the Bold icon in the Text object bar. Soft formatting applies a style to the text. The style is a named set of defaults for formatting text.

     The styles for characters, paragraphs, frames, numbering and pages (or cells in spreadsheets) are always saved with the document. When the document is opened again, the styles still apply to all formatted objects. You can also copy the styles from one document to another. Styles with the same name will be overwritten or not replaced, as you choose.

     When you start StarOffice for the first time certain default settings apply to all document types. With these default settings that represent a standard template, a new document can be opened under File - new text document. You can define any document as a standard template if you wish to, meaning that any new document you open will contain the custom styles you have defined in the template document.

     Open the Stylist with the command in the Format menu or by pressing (F11). You can also click on the icon in the Function bar.

     At the top left of the Stylist, the five icons enable you to switch the display between paragraph, text, frame, page and numbering styles. The available styles are listed in the main area of the Stylist. However, only the styles in the category selected in the list box at the bottom of the Stylist are displayed.

     Activate the Paragraph Styles display, if it is not already selected, by clicking on the icon at the far left in the Stylist. Double-click an entry in the list of paragraph styles to apply the selected style to the paragraph in which the cursor is currently positioned.

     Double-clicking on another entry correspondingly modifies the formatting of the current paragraph.

     The names of the styles give an indication of the intended purpose. If you want to find out exactly what each style does, click once on the style in the Stylist. Next, activate the context menu and select the Modify command. In the dialog that appears, you will see exactly how the style is defined. Close the dialog with Cancel if you don't want to modify the selected style.

         Text Styles Font Style, Font Size, Language

         Paragraph Styles Indents and Spacing, Alignment, Hyphenation, Tabs, Font, Language, Initials

         Page Styles Header, Footer, Margins, Columns

         Frame Styles Position, Anchoring, Borders

         Numbering Styles Numbering Type, Outline, Bullets, Text Style Order

     The Conditional Styles in StarWriter enable you to group many context dependent styles together under one name. You can, for example, create a Business Letter" template, that contains hierarchic derived styles for titles, bulleting, tables, etc. If you now format a whole business letter with these styles, the context dependent subordinate styles will automatically be allotted to the corresponding elements in the business letter. A detailed description for the conditional styles in text documents can be found in the StarOffice Help.

     With the corresponding icons in the object bar, you are able to assign bulleting and numbering to your text document. As with the icons for bold, italic, etc. you assign hard formatting, which is not already determined by the template.

      If you always use bulleting and numbering with certain formats, you should create a paragraph style with the tab Numbering. Here you can assign a certain numbering style. The numbering style can be used to determine how a format can look, and can be edited in the Stylist (in the Stylist, click the Numbering style and then in the context menu, select the preferred template and click Modify.

     To apply the newly defined paragraph or text styles in other documents, create a document template. When you create a document template from an existing document, it contains all styles of the current document.

     If you wish, you can delete all text from the current document, leaving only the styles.

Activate the menu command FileDocument Template. . . on. In the dialog Document Template, select the section where you would like to save your template. In the text field New Document enter the name for your template and click OK. Later, you can open a dialog with File - New - From Template. . . and select a template to be used in creating a document. The defined text and paragraph styles will then be available for the new document.

In this example, you have applied the same "Head 1" paragraph style to multiple paragraphs. The Stylist can save you a lot of time by applying styles to several paragraphs at once. In the Stylist, select the style you want to apply to multiple paragraphs. Click once on the name of the style. At the top of the Stylist, click on the Fill Format Mode icon. The mouse pointer changes to a symbol indicating this mode as soon as you move back into the document. Click once on every paragraph in the text you want to apply the selected style to. Finally, to switch off this mode, click the icon again or press the Escape key.

When you open a new document, it is based on the predefined standard formatting. The default fonts can be modified under Tools - Options - Text Document. . . - Standard Fonts. If you realize that you keep modifying the formats in your document to adjust again the page layout, then you should create a new standard template:

     Create or open a document that contains all your favorite templates and styles. If you wish you can remove the document's contents and save it in a directory that is always accessible, e. g. , Office51/Config. Make the chosen directory's contents visible on the StarDesktop (e. g. , by double-clicking the "Workplace" entry in the Explorer). Use the context menu of the document's icon to Set it as Default Template for the respective Type of document. In order to reset the original settings for the Default Template, switch over to the Office51/Config/New by using the Explorer. Click the commandReset Default in the context menu of the previous default template. If you have changed the default template for HTML documents for example, and you would prefer again your previous version, select in the context menu of your document the name "HTML Document". Select now in the context menu Reset Default.

     Write the document that you want to use as a template for later documents. Apply the desired formatting and modify the character and paragraph styles as necessary. Insert graphics and fields, for example, to automatically update the date in your document. You can use text, spreadsheet, presentation or drawing documents as templates.

     Assign a name to the document and save it anywhere on your hard disk. Switch to the Desktop by clicking the Desktop button in the task bar. On the Desktop now create a new link which refers to the saved document. Click New

      - Link. . . in the context menu to open the Properties of Link dialog. Enter a name for the link, for example New Letter. Switch to the Bookmark tab. Click the File. . . button and select the desired file from the file selection dialog. Finally, be sure to select the Open as Template check box. Click OK. In the Desktop, open the context menu and select the Update command to refresh the Desktop display. The new link (e. g. New Letter) to the file will then appear. You can now double-click the template on the desktop whenever you want to write a new letter. The new letter contains all the objects, styles and formats you defined in the original. The new letter is "Untitled," so when you save it you will automatically be asked to assign a name and specify the location where you want to store the document. The template will not be overwritten and can be used as often as you like.

     If you assign a number style or paragraph style, select first the text and then double click in the Stylist on the name of the style. The method is a bit different with page styles:

     A page style is always a property of the first paragraph. This can be the first paragraph of the current page or the first paragraph of a previous page. Not every first paragraph has disposal of the page style attributes. StarWriter searches for the page style of the current page, by positioning the cursor backwards to the beginning of the document. Every first paragraph will be checked for the attribute of a page style. You can apply another page style over the context menu, in the field of the current document in the status bar. If you do, StarWriter will search backwards to the first paragraph of the page where the current page style should begin. This paragraph will now contain the new page style, and from this paragraph on, will continue being the new page style (unless another style is applied to another first paragraph).

     In addition to the Stylist, which helps you format the document, the Navigator is another essential tool in StarOffice. The Navigator enables you to move exactly to a desired position in your document. Additionally, the Navigator provides useful information about the contents of the entire document at a glance. The Navigator offers you complete lists of all graphics and tables in your document. If you select a list entry with the mouse cursor, you can jump right away to this section in your document. However, the Navigator is capable of much more. For example, in text which you have structured with headings, you can change the order and hierarchy levels of whole chapters and subchapters simply by clicking the corresponding icons in the Navigator. Or use the mouse to drag a file from the Beamer into the Navigator. You can then copy parts of this file into the current document by dragging them from the Navigator. Follow this link for more details. Activate the Navigator by choosing the corresponding item in the Edit menu.

     One of the features of the Navigator is that it enables you to quickly jump to specific pages in long documents. If the Navigator is not yet open, just double-click on the display of the current page number in the status bar to open it. To close the Navigator, double-click again on the display field in the status bar. At the top left of the Navigator is a spin box for selecting the number of the desired page. Press the Enter key to display the corresponding page of your document. The cursor moves automatically to this page. You do not have to change to the new page. Simply enter a page number in the Navigator spin box and wait one or two seconds. The respective page will appear. Now enter another number, and the new page will appear. The cursor will be placed on the page only when the enter key has been pressed.

     Clicking on the Navigation button at the top of the Navigator opens a list box where you can choose the type of object. If you select "Picture" in the list box and click the Previous or Next buttons, the cursor jumps to the next or previous graphic in your document. This also works for tables, frames, sections and notes. You can select further objects in your documents within the main area of the Navigator. You will find additional entries for headings, OLE objects, hyperlinks and references. A plus sign in front of an entry in the Navigator indicates that one or more of this type of object exists in the selected document. These objects can be listed by clicking on the plus sign or by double-clicking on the entry. Double-click again on one of the object names to display it in the document and move the cursor to that position.

     With the help of the Navigator, you can jump to any object in your document. Alternatively, use the Navigation buttons in the vertical scroll bar at the bottom right of the document window. This is also a floating bar that can be positioned at any location on the screen. Click on the type of object in the Navigation toolbar to which you want to jump, and then click the respectiv arrow icon to go to the previous or next object in your document.

     In the Navigator, you can also set temporary reminders that stay in effect until you close the document. This method makes it easy to move between particular locations in the document, for example, if you want to look something up or add something later. Position the cursor at the position in the text where you want to set a reminder. Click the icon Set Reminder in the Navigator. The reminder will not be visible in the document. If you want to jump to a reminder, open the Navigation bar by clicking the respective icon at the top left of the Navigator, and select the entry "Reminder". You can now move through the reminders by clicking the Previous and Next icons.

     You will notice that after opening a new text document, the work area is divided according to predefined defaults. This layout can be altered to your needs just as most of the features of the StarOffice desktop. You can reposition the various bars and windows on the desktop, hide or display them, and also change their size. At least in the beginning, it's a good idea to keep the Navigator and Stylist visible. Both windows are of great help when working with text documents. By familiarizing yourself with these windows you will quickly become acquainted with the advantages of modern word processing. Once a seasoned StarOffice user, you may prefer to display and hide the desired windows as needed via simple keystroke commands or by clicking the icons in the function bar. To dock a window, drag it with the pressed(Strg) key combination to any margin of your workplace. You will also find in the View menu several commands that allow you to display the various toolbars to meet your needs.

     The automatic spellcheck can be switched on or off with the Auto Spellcheck icon in the Main toolbar. As you enter text, words not in the dictionary will be underlined in red. StarOffice comes with a dictionary called "Standard. dic," but you can also create your own dictionary or adapt and supplement the standard dictionary according to your own needs. You can create a custom dictionary in the Spelling dialog, via the menu command Tools

     - Options - General. . . -Spelling. When you proofread your text, the wavy underlines will draw your attention to possible spelling mistakes. Be careful about spelling errors that form other recognizable words (such as "cat" instead of "rat," for example). As long as the automatic spellcheck is activated, the red markings can be seen on the screen, but they will not be printed. The easiest way to correct misspelled words is to click on the word with the right mouse button. You will then see a context menu which offers some correctly spelled alternatives to choose from, if any can be found in the dictionary you're using. When you click one of the suggested words, it replaces the underlined word in your document. If the word marked in red is spelled correctly and you want to add it to your dictionary, you can do this with the context menu as well.

     StarWriter can spellcheck for various languages (with Thesaurus and hyphenation). In StarOffice's setup program, you can determine with the manual installation and later on with the "Change Installation" function which choice of available languages you want to install. Currently there is a legal licence limitation of three installed languages, but you can at any time add and subtract different languages to meet the requirements. You can determine the language of your document in the Stylist under the paragraph style Standard. All other paragraph styles are deriviated from this paragraph style. You can select a specific language in the Font tab. To assign different languages to various paragraphs in your document, you can either use hard formatting or a new paragraph style. Single words can also recieve another language by using the text style. The spellcheck is of course to your disposal when using all installed languages.

     If you want to exclude certain areas, words or tables from the spellcheck, perhaps because they are in a foreign language for which you have no module, then assign "None" as the language. You can either use hard formatting to do this (Select text then Format - Character, Font tab) or modify the corresponding style for the text (context menu - Edit Paragraph Style. . . ).

     With the Search function in StarOffice, you can search for variations of key words, even with multiple deviations allowed, or restrict the search to specific locations in the document, such as the beginning of words or the end of paragraphs.

     Activate the Search function with (Ctrl) (F). Type the word you want to find and press Enter StarOffice begins the search, starting at the current cursor position. When the end of the document is reached, a dialog appears, asking if you want to continue the search at the beginning of the document. Press the Enter key to confirm. If the text string is found, it will be highlighted. The Search and Replace dialog remains open. You don't need to close it and can move it any place on the screen. However, if you do close it, it retains the previously entered strings, so you don't have to enter them again for the next search. StarOffice offers a practical multiple selection function in combination with the Search All button. For example, if you want all the words "bold" in your text to appear in bold, enter this word under Search For and click on Search All. All matches will be highlighted. You can then simply click on the Bold icon in the Text object bar to format all matches at once.

     Select the Whole Words Only option if you only want to find whole words that match the search word. For instance, if the word "in" is entered as the search term under Search For, all instances of "in" or "In" as stand-alone words in the text are found. Words like "bin" or "chin" will not be found if this check box is selected. If you are searching for regular expressions or styles, do not select this option.

     When this check box is selected, the search is case-sensitive to upper and lower case letters. So if you search for "in," it will be found, but not the word "In. " You can combine a case-sensitive search with the Whole Words Only search option.

     You can also use wildcards within the search word. In this case, select the Regular Expressions option. If you enter "c*an" as a search word, then any number of "c"s can appear before the "an", but do not necessarily have to. Thus, the words "an," "can," "ccan," etc. , are found and highlighted. The regular expressions are specified in a form known to Unix users. If you choose to select exactly one character for your search, you need to use a point (period) instead of a question mark. If you want to assign a wildcard for several successive characters, you need to use a period and asterisk, not only a asterisk. The end of a paragraph is found with a dollar sign, tha beginning of a paragraph with a (") sign. The regular expression ^$ will find a blank space.

     If you are searching for a specific word in a particular place, as is often the case in a long text, you will probably enter the word under Search For and then skip each irrelevant location by repeatedly clicking the Search button. However, it can easily happen that you click Search once too often. In this case, select Backward and click again on Search to return to the previous location of the search string in the text.

     Select this option if you don't want to search the entire document. The search will be restricted to the range selected in the document. If you select a text before activating the Search command, then the search automatically takes place only within the selected range.

    Among other things, this option enables you to reformat all or part of a text. For example, text formatted with the style "Heading 2" can be replaced with the style "Heading 3. " Select the paragraph style in the list box under Search For. Then select the new paragraph style in the Replace with field. Start the replacement process with the Replace button. All matching strings found in the text will be displayed one after the other. You can decide each time whether to replace the string found in the text, to replace this and all other strings found in the text, or to cancel the process.

     StarOffice can format your documents as you type or whenever you specifically choose to do so. Once you have become familiar with using AutoFormat during input, you can draft your documents more quickly and effectively. Here are two examples:

     AutoCorrect functions are helpful if you often make the same typing errors. If, for example, you tend to capitalize not only the first letter of some words but also the second, simply select the AutoCorrect function that corrects mistakes of this type during input. The AutoFormat formats your texts. If a paragraph begins with a minus sign followed by either a tab or a space, the AutoFormat function will automatically reformat the paragraph as part of a bulleted list. The automatic bullets will also apply to subsequent paragraphs. If you simply press Enter (and leave the paragraph blank), this will end automatic bulleting. AutoFormat for text documents is switched on and off with the Format - AutoFormat menu command. In the submenu, select While Typing if you want AutoCorrect to correct errors while you type. If you'd prefer to automatically format the whole document, use the menu command Apply. You can achieve with the Format Document and review changes command, that all document changes taken place in the AutoFormat will be revised. You have afterwards the choice of accepting or rejecting all changes, or you can review each change separately. Select the options Tools- Auto Correction/ Auto Format. . . . The AutoCorrection offers you many options. Some can be turned on and off, and some can be used for entry and post processing. The replace and exception lists are language dependent, whereas StarOffice searches first the list for the language in your text, then in a superior language family list, then finally in all installed languages ( e. g. first in English (US), then in English (GB), then in "all languages"). In the AutoCorrect dialog, the Replace tab contains many automatically replaceable words and phrases. You can enter your most frequent typing errors here and have them automatically replaced with the correct word. You can also use AutoCorrect to enter characters that are difficult to insert via the keyboard. For example, if you type (C), this will immediately be converted to a copyright symbol if you have checked the Use Replacement Table box on the Options tab.

     StarOffice offers a user-friendly AutoText function, which enables you to insert even long phrases in letters, faxes, and other documents using preset or user-defined shortcuts. Text blocks make it easy and quick to compose letters with identical or similar contents. The advantage of AutoText is that you can insert a complete word or phrase just by typing a shortcut. Enter the shortcut for the desired AutoText block and press (F3). The AutoText is instantly inserted at the current cursor position. If you use the AutoText dialog, you don't need to remember the shortcut, but selecting and inserting obviously takes much longer this way. Position the text cursor where you want to insert the text block. Enter the shortcut for the text block and press (F3). The AutoText automatically replaces the shortcut characters. The AutoText dialog activated via the Edit menu contains several AutoText blocks. Try out some of the predefined text blocks, and you'll see that they can even include pictures and tables.

     If you are writing a personal letter, the AutoPilot and standard text blocks are not essential, but in formal business correspondence these aids can save you a lot of time and make your work much easier. Keep in mind that the provided templates for letters, faxes, and many other uses are extremely useful as a basis for creating customized templates. For a complete list of predefined and custom templates, select the menu command File - New - From Template. . . or (Ctrl)(N). Start the AutoPilot with the File - AutoPilot - Letter menu command. In this short introduction, simply accept all AutoPilot defaults, and then print the result. You could click on the Create button right away, but to familiarize yourself with these procedures you should click Next on each dialog page, so that you have seen every page at least once. Browse successively through the AutoPilot pages for creating a letter template. You don't have to enter data or modify options on all pages; however, each page allows you to make modifications according to your preferences for a business letter. Of course, senders and recipient addresses must be entered manually, but you can also choose which of the predefined elements you want to include in your letter. Your return address will be automatically taken from the data that you entered during installation. You can change this data at any time by activating the command Tools - Options - General - to enter your new data.

     You don't need to go through all the steps of the AutoPilot each time you want to write a letter. Although the AutoPilot does produce a document that you can immediately fill in, print, and send, the main purpose of the AutoPilot is to help you create customized document templates. The AutoPilot creates a template that you can edit, if you like, and then use as a template for your letters. This ensures that all your letters will have a consistent format. This also applies to other types of documents for which there is an AutoPilot (for instance, faxes).

     Use the "normal" Formatting (e. g. with the icons in the text object bar). You can use some of the following possibilities: Create the text in bold or in another font, change the text color and background, center the text. To optically accentuate a paragraph, select in the context menu the Outline tab. Here you can choose an outline frame for your paragraph, which can include a shadow if you wish. Enter in the Indents and Spacing tab the same value for the right and left indents, so that the framed text will appear centered.

     After text has been entered, you can insert a frame to emphasize the text. In the Insert floating toolbar, you will find the Frame icon. The following provides a brief introduction to floating toolbars: The Insert icon appears at the top of the Main toolbar in a text document. Click on the icon and hold down the mouse button until a toolbar containing additional icons appears. You can now choose the icon representing the object you want to insert. Continue to hold the mouse button and then select the icon, or drag the entire floating toolbar away from the Main toolbar and position it anywhere on the screen. Like other windows, it has a title bar and a close box. You can move the window by dragging the title bar.

     In StarOffice you can also use a draw object as a frame for text, since you can assign text to any draw element. Instead of the text frame described above, you could choose a rectangle as a draw object. In the object, you can then create an eye-catching effect with a colored animated text. To do so, follow these steps:

     With the Start button in the task bar, open a new text document. Select Format - Page. . . to determine a blue background for the whole page. Open the Draw Function in the Main toolbar and click the Rectangle icon. Draw a medium-sized rectangle in the middle of the page. Open the context menu for the selected draw object. Choose the Area command to assign a color or pattern to the area inside the rectangle. On the left side of the Fill tab, select the option Gradient, and choose e. g. "gradient 4". Close the dialog box with OK. Open the context menu once more and select the Line. . . command to define the border properties of the rectangle. For the line, choose light violet as the color with a width of 0. 20 inches, for example. Close the dialog box with OK. Double-click in the middle of the rectangle and type in your text, for example. "Sun Microsystems presents StarOffice". It doesn't matter if the text extends beyond the width of the rectangle. Click again on the edge of the rectangle to select it, then open the context menu and choose the Text. . . command. In the Text dialog box, select the Text Animation tab. Under Effects select the "Scroll Through" option. On the Text tab, you can set the text spacing from the left and right borders. Click OK. Finally, cancel the selection of the rectangle by clicking somewhere else in the document. The animated text will then begin to scroll.

     You can easily add lines to your text and adjust the angle, width, color, and other attributes however you like. Create a basic horizontal line by applying the preset paragraph style Horizontal Line. Place the cursor in a blank line and double-click the Horizontal Line style in the Stylist (HTML styles). A line created with this paragraph style is also visible on Internet pages. If perhaps the entry can not be seen with the paragraph styles, switch in the Stylist from "Automatic" to the "All Templates" view. With the command Format - Paragraph. . . - Borders, you can draw a border around a paragraph. These borders may also be "incomplete," in that they consist only of a single line beside or below a paragraph. This option is explained in detail in the StarOffice Help. To define line attributes precisely, use the Line draw object:

     In the Main toolbar, open the Draw floating toolbar and click the Line icon. The mouse pointer will change to a cross-hair symbol with a line beside it. In your document, click where the line should begin, hold down the mouse button and drag to the point where you want the line to end. If you hold down the Shift key, you can draw only horizontal, vertical, and diagonal lines. When your line has the desired direction and length, release the mouse button. You can now draw additional lines. To end the line function, press the Escape key or click the Select icon in the Draw floating toolbar. After clicking the Select icon, you can select all lines together by clicking each one while holding down the Shift key. You can then specify color, width, or other attributes for all the lines. Lines and other draw objects inserted in text are not defined in the Internet page description language HTML. Thus, instead of being exported directly in HTML format, they will be exported as graphics. After exporting, the document may look somewhat different.

     You can curve a text created with the Text icon in the Draw floating toolbar. After clicking the text icon, the mouse cursor symbol will take the form of a hair-cross. Now you can drag a frame to define the height and width of your text. If you happen to enter more text than your frame will visually allow, the frame will automatically elongated. Click one time outside of your text, and then again within your text. With the first click leave the text mode, and with the second click select the written text as an object. Now you can rotate your text with the Format - Position and Size exactly 90 degrees, or click on the icon in the object bar and rotate the object manually with the mouse cursor. If you manually rotate the object while holding down the shift key, the object will rotate only in fixed angles.

     You can achieve impressive graphic effects for short texts in headings, logos, etc. , with the program module FontWork. Here's how:

     Open the Draw floating toolbar in the Main toolbar and click the Text icon. Draw a text frame on your page, and then type in text, for example "StarOffice. " Choose the menu command Format - FontWork. You will see the FontWork window, where you can select various options:

     Click the upper-left icon with the semicircle to display the text in the shape of a semicircle. Click the icon Curve or Slant Vertical to determine the position of the individual characters relative to the line on which they are aligned. Click AutoSize Text. This automatically scales the text to the length of the line. In the shadow options, click Vertical. Specify 0. 10 inches for the x-axis shadow distance. The text should now appear almost as in the illustration. Since the first and last letters are not very easy to see, insert two blank spaces before and after the text. Just double-click the text, edit it, and then click outside the object.

     A presentation is usually a little more theatrical than a spreadsheet , and a little less verbose than a document. StarOffice gives you the tools to create profeesional presentations that can be presented live within your Linux system. To start a new presentation in StarOffice, you can use any of the methods that are now familier to you:

* Choose New from the file menu, and then choose Presentation from the New submenu.

* Double-click the new Presentation icon onthe Desktop.

* Choose Presentation from the Start menu.  When you use any of these methods, the first slide appears in the viewing area, as does the Modify Slide dialog box. In      this dialog box, select the auto-layout for the first slide in your new presentation. The view that you are seeing is called the Drawing view.

     StarImpress is like a combination of Power Point and CorelDraw. StarImpress can create multiple-slide presentations with transitions, embedded links,and slide templates. Each slide also has a full set of drawing tools, multiple layers, color capabilities, and so forth. In fact, you will notice a lot of similarities between the StarDraw tools that you can use within a StarImpress Presentation. You can use StarDraw to create flyer ,card,or brochure ,or you can use similar tools within a slide presentation.

     Most people are not creative enough to start with a blank slide a cerate a presentation worthy of the name. Instead, they prefer to use templates the professional designers at StarDivision have created to guide their efforts. If you are like most people, you might want to use one of the nine presentation templates and more than two dozen background templates that StarOffice includes to start creating your slides. To start a presentation from a StarImpress template, follow these steps:

1. Choose new from the file menu.

2. Choose From Template. . . from the New sub menu. The new dialog box appears, listing templates that you can use for your new presentation.

3. Scroll down the categories list until you find presentations. Click on it to see a list of presentation templates in the right side of the dialog bow.

4. To see more information about the selected template, including a preview, choose the more button to expand the dialog box.

5. Double--click on the name of the presentation template that you want to use.

6. The presentation appears onscreen, ready for your text.

      With the presentation template onscreen, you can see that a lot of your works is done for you. The flow of the presentation, with information that you need to include, is already entered on the slides. You can use page-up and page-down keys to move between slides.

     Presentation layouts are similar to the slides in a presentation template, but layouts are less complete. They include a background and predefined text. To use a presentation layout follow these steps:

1. Choose new from the file menu.

2. Choose from template. . . from the new submenu. The new dialog box appears, listing templates that you can use for your new presentation.

3. Scroll down the categories list until you find Presentation Layouts. Click on it to see a list of layouts in the right side of the dialog box.

4. Decide on the layout that you want to use and double click on it in new dialog box.

5. Select a slide layout for your first slide from the dialog box that appears. When you choose OK, the first slide in a new presentation appears.

     If you want to create a personalized presentation as rapidly as possible, try the AutoPilot feature. The AutoPlilot, which has been described for other types of documents, is similar to the wizards supplied with other programs. It asks you questions, and then creates a document outline based on your answers. To use the AutoPilot to create a new presentation , follow these steps (you don't have to have a document already open to use AutoPilot):

1. Choose AutoPilot from the file menu, and then choose presentation from the autopilot submenu. The autopilot dialog box for a presentation appears.

2. Click the next button to advance to the first data entry screen of the autopilot dialogbox.

3. Enter your name or company name in the first field.

4. Enter topics that you want to cover. Type each topic on a seperate line, pressing enter after each. The box scrolls down as you enter each line.

5. Click the next button to advance to the next screen in the dialog.

6. Choose the type of presentation that you want to make by selecting a radio button on this screen. Note that a description is provided on the left side of the dialogbox. The description changes when you select different items in the list.

7. Click the next button to continue. In the next section, select a design style and a duration for your presentation.

8. Click the next button to continue. In the next section, select a presentation medium: paper, overhead transparency, or 35mm slide. The medium that you select determines which types of graphics are used in the presentation.

9. Click next to continue, and then click create to finish the presentation. After a moment, the first slide appears onscreen.

     After you have a layout or presentation template onscreen, you are ready to enter the information that you actually want to present. StarOffice uses a layout for each slide to simplfy and organize the placement of text and objects on the slide. You can add information in other locations, but the layouts make basic test entry much easier.

     If you used either the new presentation icon or a background layout from the set of presentation layouts, your screen shows a blank or graphical slide with no indication of how to proceed. Choose Slide Layout from the Format menu. The modify slide dialog box appears. From the set of AutoLayout pictures, click on the one that matches how you want to the current slide to look. For example, if you want a single headline with bullets underneath (a common choice), click on the middle picture in the second row. Other choices indicate slides that include text in columns, charts ,graphics, tables,and every combination of these elements. Completely empty slides (totally or in part) can be used to provide space for other creative things that you want to do with imported objects or with the drawing tools. When you have selected the best layout, click OK. The current slide now includes the layout that you selected. The autolayout areas show you what to do next. Each block in the layout includes an instruction to click and add a title, double-click to add a document or chart, or something similar. You can use the slide layout dialog box at any time to change the layout of the current slide. StarOffice tries to fit any existing text into the areas on the newly-selected layout.

     As you create your presentation , you'll need to add new slides for each topic. Even if you used the AutoPilot or a presentation template, you might need to insert an additional slide or two. To add a slide, choose Slide from the insert menu. The Insert Slide dialog box appears. In this dialog box, select the layout of the slide that you want to insert. ( This dialog box looks just like the one used to modify the layout of an exisiting slide. )New slide are always inserted after the current slide. After a slide inserted, you can add and edit text on it just like any other slide in your presentation.

     With the helpful hints scattered throughout the slide layouts, entering information on a slide isn't very challenging. the large-type instructions such as Click to add title, for example, don't leave much to the imagination.

     After you have entered text, you can click on any block of text to select that block and begin editing it. A cursor in the block of text indicates that it can be edited. The green handles around the text block can be used to adjust the block in which the text sits. You can do any of the following:

* Click in the center of the text box and drag it to a new location.

* Click on any green handle to expand or contract the size of the text book.

     You can setup some features of each paragraph of text. With a block of text selected , select paragraph from the format menu. The paragraph dialog box appears ,but with three tabs instead of the eight tabs that appear when you are working in a StarWriter word processing document. In the indents and spacing tab, you can set up automatic indents for lines in the selected block of text. You can also define if text is single- or double-spaced. These options are useful for larger blocks of text , which don't frequently occur within slides. In the Alignment tab, you can define the current block of text as center -, left- , or right justified this is very useful for titles and some summary. Finally, in the tabs tab you define tab stops for each of the lines of text in the paragraph. This is used for setting up columns of figures or tables within a block of text.

     You need to save your presentation with a unique name before you enter the first line of text on the first slide. To save a presentation, use the save as item on the file menu. The now-familiar Save As dialog box appears. Enter a name for your file and selected the directory to which it will be saved. Then choose the save button. After you save your presentation with a name, you can quickly update your saved presentation on disk at any time with a keystroke:ctrl + S

     For both text documents and spreadsheets, the StarOffice Save as dialog box includes several formats from which you can choose. For example, a text document can be saved as a word 97 or an RTF file. Presentations use the Export dialog box instead of the Save As dialog box. Exporting in a graphics format such as GIF, BMP,or JPEG creates a single graphics file for the currently-displayed slide. To create a graphic version of a slide,follow these steps:

1. Choose Export from the file menu. The Export dialog box appears; this dialog looks just like the save as dialog box except for the default directory and the file       types available.

2. Select a graphics format from the File Type drop down list.

3. Enter a file name for the slide that you are exporting as a graphic (by default, the correct graphics file extension is added automatically)

4. Choose Save. For most formats, another dialog box appears and ask questions specific to the selected graphics format.

5. Answers the questions in the dialog box and choose OK to complete the export process.

Exporting as a Web Presentation

     Although StarOffice can't export presentations in powerpoint format, it can export in HTML format, so your presentation can be viewed in any Web browser. Exporting in HTML creates a set of files with names based on the name you enter as an export filename. To export a presentation in HTML format, follow these steps:

1. Choose export from the file menu. It doesn't matter which slide you are viewing when you choose export in this case because the entire presentation is exported.

2. In the export dialog box, choose HTML from the file Type drop-down list.

3. Enter a file name for the HTML document

4. Choose save. The HTML export dialog box appears

5. Choose a resolution for the graphic part of the HTML pages. The higher the resolution, the larger the graphic image files are.

6. Choose OK to finish exporting to HTML. When you have finished exporting, you can use a browser, or StarOffice, to read the first file of the set of HTML documents for your presentation.

Graphics are an important part of any slide presentation. With only bulleted lists ,any presentation rapidly becomes a chore for both presenter and audience. With colorful graphics that illustrate your points, however, everything, becomes more interesting.

1. Move to the slide on which you want to insert a graphic.

2. Set the viewing mode to Drawing (from the master view submenu under the view menu)

3. Select Picture under the Insert Menu, and then choose from the file on the picture submenu. The Insert Picture dialog box appears.

     Any image that you import into a StarImpress presentation can be moved and sized to fit the slide you are creating. To work with an image, it must first be selected. Select an image by clicking on it; green handles appear around the object when it is selected. After an object is selected, you can manipulate it in several ways:

* Click on the middle of the object and drag it to a new location.

* Click and drag a corner of the object (on a green handle) to change the size of the object up or down. Hold down the shift key as you do this to keep the ratio correct.

* Click the right mouse button or go to the format menu to see all formatting options available for the imported image, including 3D effects and slide show actions. 

     For most bitmapped graphics that you import into a StarImpress presentation, you can use the image editor to edit the imported graphic directly. To use the image editor, right click on a selected graphic and choose Image from the pop--up menu. Choose edit from the image menu that appears. When you choose Edit from the Image menu, the bitmapped image appears in a heavy border and a different set of image manipulation tools appears in the main toolbar. The resolution of the image might also change so that you see only a portion of the graphic. When you are done editing a graphic in the image editor, click the mouse some where else on the slide. The image editor closes, leaving the edited image in place on your slide.

To use this feature, follow these steps:

1. Import a graphic into your slide.

2. Select the imported graphic by clicking on it so that you can edit its properties.

3. Choose interaction from the presentation menu. The interaction dialog box appears. No action is selected, so the dialog box isn't much to look at right now.

4. Click on the drop down box and select an action to associate with clicking on this graphic. The choices include the following:

* Play a sound.

* Start another linux program.

* Go forward or backward in the slide show.

* Go to another StarOffice document.

* Go to a specific slide in the presentation.

     The slide titles in a presentation can be listed so that you can choose which slide to go to when the selected graphic is clicked.

5. Choose OK to close the Interacion dialog box. When you start a slide show you can click on the graphic that you imported to execute the action that you               selected in the Interaction dialog box.

StarOffice drawing tools enable you to do this. The basic drawing tools are always visible on the main tool bar on the left of the screen as you edit slides in Drawing mode. The drawing tools shown on the main tool bar are vector-based drawing tools, like those used in StarDraw. Bitmap (raster) drawing tools are available by choosing Picture from the Insert menu, and then selecting from image editor.

Start with a slide in drawing mode.

1. Click on the lines and arrows icon on the main tool bar on the left side of the screen.

2. Move the mouse pointer over the slide and notice how it changes from an arrow to crosshairs.

3. Click and drag the mouse pointer across the middle of the screen to make a long horizontal line.

4. Press the Shift key to constrain the line to vertical, horizontal,or a 45 degree angle.

5. Release the mouse button to finish drawing the line. The mouse pointer changes back to an arrow (the select object mode ), but the line you drew remains selected (with a green handle on each hand).

6. Move the mouse pointer over the line you drew and press the right mouse button. A pop-up menu appears.

7. Choose line from the pop- up menu. The line dialog box appears.

8. Choose a line style from the style drop-down list.

9. Increase the line width in the Width field.

10. Choose the arrow Styles tab.

11. Select a style for the ends of the lines from the drop--down list.

12. Choose OK to close the line dialog box.

     Now add a rectangle using another of the drawing tools as follows:

1. Click and hold on the 3D Rectangle icon on the main tool bar on the left side of the window. A pop--up set of icons appears next to the Rectangle icon.

2. Move the 3D Cylinder icon and release the mouse button.

3. Click and drag the mouse pointer with in the slide to form 3D cylinder. The new object remains selected.

4. Click the middle of the cylinder and drag it to cover the text in the lower left corner of the slide.

5. Click and drag the green arrow in the middle , right side of the cylinder to make it wider.

6. Right-click on the cylinder. A pop-up formatting menu appear.

7. Choose send to back on the arrange submenu. The slide text now appears on top of the cylinder. 

     Other drawing tools from the main tool bar on the left side of the screen can be selected to add polygons, circles, blocks, of text ,and other graphic elements to your slide.

     The easiest way to import a chart from a spreed sheet is to use the standart copy and paste functions. Follow these steps:

1. Go to the spreedsheet that contains a chart that you want to use in your presentation.

2. Click on the chart to select it.

3. Choose copy from the edit menu.

4. Switch the presentation you are working on by selecting it from the window menu.

5. Move to the slide on which you want to chart inserted.

6. Choose past from the edit menu. The chart appears in the slide as an object that you can resize or move.

     If the chart isn't enough , you can add a mini-spreadsheet to a slide in your presentation. To insert a spread sheet into your slide, choose spreadsheet from the Insert menu while viewing a slide in Drawing mode. A miniature spreadsheet appears in the slide, ready to have numbers entered.

Formatting and Giving Your Presentation

     StarImpress provides several master views that make it easy to see all your slides, and to rearrange or sort them as needed.

     When you start a new presentation, StarImpress displays in Drawing View. This view shows a single slide that fills the working area. All the drawing tools are available, and all the graphics, text, and other components of a slide are displayed as they will appear during a slide show. The advantage to the drawing view is that what you see onscreen is how to actual slide will look.

     When you have multiple slides in your presentation and you are using the default Drawing view, you can use any of several methods to move between slides. The easiest way to move to the next slide is to press Page Down. Pressing Page up moves you to the previous slide. Two others methods are also available for selecting which slides to view. At the bottom of the viewing area, StarOffice diplays a tab for each slide, as well as navigaton arrows. Either of these can be used to change which slide you are viewing. The tabs at the bottom of the screen each contain the name of a slide. Clicking on one of these tabs displays the named slide. The navigation arrows can be used to move to the next slide in either direction by clicking on one of the middle two arrows, right or left. Or, you can click on the far left or right arrow to move to the first or last slide, respectiveley.

    With the slide sort view, you can work with all the slides at once, seeing how they releate to each other in the presentation. To select a slide in the Slide Sort view, click it on once. You will see a heavy black outline around the slide to indicate that it's been selected.

    The most useful feature of the slide sort view is he way it enables you to move slides around. Suppose you have a presentation with many slides and you decide to move a slide to another position in the presentation. As you drag the slide, an outline of the slide moves around the screen and a bar appears between the two slides where the slide you are dragging will be inserted when you release the mouse button.

    You can't directly insert slides in the Slide Sort view, but you can easily copy and paste slides. Using copy and paste enables you to duplicate a slide and then make modifications to it, saving time when the slides are similar layout or content. To copy and paste a slide in the slide sort view, follow these steps:

1. Click on the slide that you want to copy to select it.

2. Press CTRL+C to copy the selected slide.

3. Press CTRL+V to paste the selected slide. 

     After you have used Paste to insert a copy of a slide, you can drag that slide to a new location if necessary.

     Slide sorter enables you to see how the entire presentation is effected by the deletion of a slide. As the other slides fill in the space of a deleted slide, you can see how the topics flow and the presentation improves. To delete a slide in slide sort view, follow these steps.

1. To select the slide that you want to copy, click on it.

2. Press CTRL+X to cut the slide from the presentation. Other slides move in to fill its place.

     Transitions are the visual movement from one slide to the next in your presentation. The transitions between slides can add or take away from the effect that you are trying to create. To begin choosing slide transitions, choose Slide Transition from the presentation menu. The slide transition window appears. Use the window select slide transitions, apply them to slides, and preview the results.

     You can run the star office spell check from any slide view; however ,the outline view might be the fastest and most convenient because each slide doesn't have to be graphically drawn during spellcheck.

* The auto correct option fixes many simple typing errors, such as transposed letters.

* The autocheck option can be selected under the spelling submenu on the tools menu. This provides red uderlining as a warning for any word that can't be found in the spelling dictionary.

* The spelling window, with its replacement and ignore options and the thesaurus, is available to check the text of your presentation.

     To add notes to a slide, you must be in the notes view of your slides. Choose Master view from the View menu, and then notes from the Master view submenu. With the notes view on screen, you can add notes by double-clicking on the bottom half of the page that is displayed. A heavy line surrounds the notes area and a cursor appears. Type the notes that you want to add to the slide. You can format the text as you do any paragraph of text in a StarOffice document.

     You can open the Presentations Options dialog box by selecting presentations on the Options submenu under the tools menu. This dialog box includes settings for what is displayed and how graphic snap and grids function, and for various layout and measurement options.

* Picture placeholders: These are of the same size and shape as the picture, to save time redrawing graphic images.

* Object outlines: To save time redrawing objects.

* Text placeholders: To see where text goes on a side without displaying it.

* Line contours: Contours, without filling in the complete curve and details of the line, again to save time in drawing the line.

    The options that apply to running a slide show are not part of the Presentation options dialog box. Instead, you can find them by selecting presentation settings from the Presentation menu. Here we will explain three of them.

* Range: You can select the all slides radio button to include all slides in the slide show, or you can select the from radio button and choose a slide title from the drop-down list. If you choose the from button, the slide show starts from the selected slide.

* Repeat continuously: If this check box selected, the slide show repeat continuously, linking from the last slide back to the first slide, until the ESC key pressed to end the show.

* Change slides manually: It enables you to choose automatic or manual advance for the current slide, and to enter a delay in seconds.

    To start a slide show do any of the following:

* Choose the slide show icon on the right edge of the StarOffice window.

* Select Slide Show from the presentation menu.

* Press CTRL+F2, after a few seconds the first slide appears full-screen. 

     You can control the slide show using the mouse or keyboard, depending on the settings that you selected in the slide show dialog box.

     For many presentations, you will want to have paper handouts of your slides for your audience. StarOffice has several options for how those can be printed. The following section describes how to set up the handouts that you need.

     When you print the slides to paper, you need to select the correct paper size to which you want to print. To set the page size, follow these steps:

1. Choose page from the format menu. The page dialog box appears.

2. From the paper format drop-down list, select 8. 5x11in.

3. Choose the lanscape option to print sides or handouts. Choose the portrait option to print speaker notes or a presentation outline.

4. Choose OK to apply these settings and close the dialog box.

     Word is a computerized word processing utility which is based on  WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) philosophy. It is  quite capable of doing a lot of important things like using   different fonts in size and shape for the document preparation  in a easy--to--get approach. It has a lot of tools to be provided  for various user demands. Generally, the term Word recalls the   Microsoft Word which is a part of Microsoft Office Suite. However there are many other word processors which may not have the term  Word in their names but they have almost all features of Microsoft   Word. Amongst these we can mention about the word processor of  StarOffice we mentioned at the beginning of this document and   the word processor of KOffice, and Abiword which is developed  mostly for Linux.

     By default, Word documents are maintained in a file format   which is specified by the suffix {\tt . doc} in the name.  However it can handle the documents by reading from or saving  into the other file formats like text files {\tt . txt} or  rich text format files {\tt . rtf}. Since 1997 Word is able to   manipulate the HTML files. 

    The word window contains 9 main menus which are given below: 

     This menu controls fundamental file operations. You can get an   access for the operations like file opening, file closing, file saving, managing file margin settings, printing from this menu. 

     The editing operations which are needed to be done on the content  of the document are accessible from this menu. Cut -- Paste operations   which are available in all window structured operating systems, search  and replacement operations, undoing operations which recover from an   executed operation, repetitions can be realized by using the tools  which are accessible from this menu. 

    The medium for editing the document can be chosen via this menu.   On the other hand the toolbars which are perhaps most important  features of Word like programs can be hidden or made appearable  through this menu. 

    This menu enables us to add the objects like footnote, page number, date information, symbol, picture, caricature, ready--to--use  figures, files. Caricatures include some small pictures which  comes with Word. 

     The color, type, style, size and paragraph management of our   text material; itemization operations, shading and margin  design, column strutures, the creation of special writing  formats and their utilization are available via the tools of  this menu. 

    This menu is used for the applications of some standard grammatical    procedures, envelope and label creation, utilization of macros and  some small subroutines, the adjustment of the general settings of  Word. 

    This menu provides the tools for the construction of tables which   are composed of cells such that each cell may contain different   text material. 

    This menu enables us to work with more than one documents at the   same time.  

    As can be concluded from its name this menu gives some information   about various facilities of Word.  Let us now investigate each of these menus individually. 

    When a new documents is tried to be created a new file whose    extension is doc is opened. The document is prepared by  using the existing tools of Word and then File--Save option of  this menu is selected for saving the document file. A new window  is opened to get some information about the file where the  recent for of the document will be saved. The necessary information    is given through this window to complete the saving procedure. 

     One of the important options is Page Format. The spaces for the  left, right, top and bottom margins can be set via this option.   The selection between the landscape or portrait forms of the paper  can also be accomplished through this option. That is the paper  is used either in vertical or in horizontal position. 

     It is possible to find a word in the text and to replace it   with some other word. For this purpose Edit--Change Menu is  used. First the information for the term to be searched and  then the information about the new string which will be replaced  with the searched one are given. After this step the replacing  operation can be realized for either just a single or multiple   replacements.

      There are two fundamental toolbars: Standard Toolbar which  enables file and edit operations, and Formatting Toolbar which  operates on text and paragraphs.  

     This menu makes it possible to write some symbols which are not   directly available from keyboard. The Add--Symbol option enables  us to choose some existing symbols from this menu and add them  into the document in a desired number. 

     There is a Word specific picture writing capability which is   called WordArt. The following snapshot illustrates this. 

     All types of settings which are related to the characters to be   written into the document are adjusted from this menu. For this   purpose Format--Font Type option can be used. In this menu,  font type, font style, font size, font color can be set. 

    Format--Paragraph option can be used to set a paragraph left or   right justified or centered. The spaces from the left and right  margins can also be set via this option. 

     On the other hand we can use the Format--Item and Enumeration   options for the creation of an itemized text. 

     Format--Format option enables us to create a specific text   type at our disposal. This can be considered as our hand writing.

     This menu permits us to make settings on the defaults of Word.   For example, to set the time period for autosaving procedure to  a desired value, to set a password, to set warnings for macro  viruses, to set default file type we can use this menu.  

     The above display shows a table structure which is prepared   by using table menu.