Formatting Spreadsheet Documents

BASIC Guide

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• The Language of OpenOffice.org Basic

• Overview of a Basic Program
• Working With Variables
• Strings
• Numbers
• Boolean Values
• Date and Time
• Arrays
• Scope and Life Span of Variables
• Constants
• Operators
• Branching
• Loops
• Procedures and Functions
• Error Handling
• Other Instructions

• Runtime Library

• Conversion Functions
• Strings
• Date and Time
• Files and Directories
• Message and Input Boxes
• Other Functions

• Introduction to the API

• Universal Network Objects (UNO)
• Properties and Methods
• Modules, Services and Interfaces
• Tools for Working with UNO
• Overview of Central Interfaces

• Working with Documents

• The StarDesktop
• Styles and Templates

• Text Documents

• The Structure of Text Documents
• Editing Text Documents
• More than Just Text

• Spreadsheet Documents

• The Structure of Spreadsheets
  • Rows and Columns
  • Cells and Ranges
  • Formatting Spreadsheet Documents
• Editing Spreadsheet Documents

• Drawings and Presentations

• The Structure of Drawings
• Editing Drawing Objects
• Presentations

• Charts (Diagrams)

• Using Charts in Spreadsheets
• The Structure of Charts
• Chart Types

• Databases

• SQL: a Query Language
• Types of Database Access
• Data Sources
• Database Access

• Dialogs

• Working With Dialogs
• Properties
• Events
• Dialog Control Elements

• Forms

• Working With Forms
• Control Element Forms
• Database Forms

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A spreadsheet document provides properties and methods for formatting cells and pages.

Cell Properties

There are numerous options for formatting cells, such as specifying the font type and size for text. Each cell supports the com.sun.star.style.CharacterProperties and com.sun.star.style.ParagraphProperties services, the main properties of which are described in Text Documents. Special cell formatting is handled by the com.sun.star.table.CellProperties service. The main properties of this service are described in the following sections.

You can apply all of the named properties to individual cells and to cell ranges.

VBA : The CellProperties object in the OpenOffice.org API is comparable with the Interior object from VBA which also defines cell-specific properties.

Background Color and Shadows

The com.sun.star.table.CellProperties service provides the following properties for defining background colors and shadows:

CellBackColor (Long)

background color of the table cell

IsCellBackgroundTransparent (Boolean)

sets the background color to transparent

ShadowFormat (struct)

specifies the shadow for cells (structure in accordance with com.sun.star.table.ShadowFormat)

The com.sun.star.table.ShadowFormat structure and the detailed specifications for cell shadows have the following structure:

Location (enum)

position of shadow (value from the com.sun.star.table.ShadowLocation structure).

ShadowWidth (Short)

size of shadow in hundredths of a millimeter

IsTransparent (Boolean)

sets the shadow to transparent

Color (Long)

color of shadow

The following example writes the number 1000 to the B2 cell, changes the background color to red using the CellBackColor property, and then creates a light gray shadow for the cell that is moved 1 mm to the left and down.

Dim Doc As Object
Dim Sheet As Object
Dim Cell As Object
Dim ShadowFormat As New com.sun.star.table.ShadowFormat

Doc = ThisComponent
Sheet = Doc.Sheets(0)
Cell = Sheet.getCellByPosition(1,1)

Cell.Value = 1000

Cell.CellBackColor = RGB(255, 0, 0)

ShadowFormat.Location = com.sun.star.table.ShadowLocation.BOTTOM_RIGHT
ShadowFormat.ShadowWidth = 100
ShadowFormat.Color = RGB(160, 160, 160)

Cell.ShadowFormat = ShadowFormat

Justification

OpenOffice.org provides various functions that allow you to change the justification of a text in a table cell.

The following properties define the horizontal and vertical justification of a text:

HoriJustify (enum)

horizontal justification of the text (value from com.sun.star.table.CellHoriJustify)

VertJustify (enum)

vertical justification of the text (value from com.sun.star.table.CellVertJustify)

Orientation (enum)

orientation of text (value in accordance with com.sun.star.table.CellOrientation)

IsTextWrapped (Boolean)

permits automatic line breaks within the cell

RotateAngle (Long)

angle of rotation of text in hundredths of a degree

The following example shows how you can "stack" the contents of a cell so that the individual characters are printed one under another in the top left corner of the cell. The characters are not rotated.

Dim Doc As Object
Dim Sheet As Object
Dim Cell As Object

Doc = ThisComponent
Sheet = Doc.Sheets(0)
Cell = Sheet.getCellByPosition(1,1)

Cell.Value = 1000

Cell.HoriJustify = com.sun.star.table.CellHoriJustify.LEFT
Cell.VertJustify = com.sun.star.table.CellVertJustify.TOP
Cell.Orientation = com.sun.star.table.CellOrientation.STACKED

Number, Date and Text Format

OpenOffice.org provides a whole range of predefined date and time formats. Each of these formats has an internal number that is used to assign the format to cells using the NumberFormat property. OpenOffice.org provides the queryKey and addNew methods so that you can access existing number formats as well as create your own number formats. The methods are accessed through the following object call:

NumberFormats = Doc.NumberFormats

A format is specified using a format string that is structured in a similar way to the format function of OpenOffice.org Basic. However there is one major difference: whereas the command format expects English abbreviations and decimal points or characters as thousands separators, the country-specified abbreviations must be used for the structure of a command format for the NumberFormats object.

The following example formats the B2 cell so that numbers are displayed with three decimal places and use commas as a thousands separator.

Dim Doc As Object
Dim Sheet As Object
Dim Cell As Object
Dim NumberFormats As Object
Dim NumberFormatString As String
Dim NumberFormatId As Long
Dim LocalSettings As New com.sun.star.lang.Locale

Doc = ThisComponent
Sheet = Doc.Sheets(0)
Cell = Sheet.getCellByPosition(1,1)

Cell.Value = 23400.3523565

LocalSettings.Language = "en"
LocalSettings.Country = "us"

NumberFormats = Doc.NumberFormats
NumberFormatString = "#,##0.000"

NumberFormatId = NumberFormats.queryKey(NumberFormatString, LocalSettings, True)
If NumberFormatId = -1 Then
   NumberFormatId = NumberFormats.addNew(NumberFormatString, LocalSettings)
End If

MsgBox NumberFormatId
Cell.NumberFormat = NumberFormatId

The Format Cells dialog in OpenOffice.org Calc provides an overview of the different formatting options for cells.

Page Properties

Page properties are the formatting options that position document content on a page as well as visual elements that are repeated page after page. These include

• Paper formats
• Page margins
• Headers and footers.

The procedure for defining page formats differs from other forms of formatting. Whereas cell, paragraph, and character elements can be formatted directly, page formats can also be defined and indirectly applied using page styles. For example, headers or footers are added to the page style.

The following sections describe the main formatting options for spreadsheet pages. Many of the styles that are described are also available for text documents. The page properties that are valid for both types of documents are defined in the com.sun.star.style.PageProperties service. The page properties that only apply to spreadsheet documents are defined in the com.sun.star.sheet.TablePageStyle service.

VBA : The page properties (page margins, borders, and so on) for a Microsoft Office document are defined by means of a PageSetup object at the Worksheet object (Excel) or Document object (Word) level. In OpenOffice.org, these properties are defined using a page style which in turn is linked to the associated document.

Page Background

The com.sun.star.style.PageProperties service defines the following properties of a pages background:

BackColor (long)

color of background

BackGraphicURL (String)

URL of the background graphics that you want to use

BackGraphicFilter (String)

name of the filter for interpreting the background graphics

BackGraphicLocation (Enum)

position of the background graphics (value according to enumeration)

BackTransparent (Boolean)

makes the background transparent

Page Format

The page format is defined using the following properties of the com.sun.star.style.PageProperties service:

IsLandscape (Boolean)

landscape format

Width (long)

width of page in hundredths of a millimeter

Height (long)

height of page in hundredths of a millimeter

PrinterPaperTray (String)

name of the printer paper tray that you want to use

The following example sets the page size of the "Default" page style to the DIN A5 landscape format (height 14.8 cm, width 21 cm):

Dim Doc As Object
Dim Sheet As Object
Dim StyleFamilies As Object 
Dim PageStyles As Object
Dim DefPage As Object

Doc = ThisComponent
StyleFamilies = Doc.StyleFamilies
PageStyles = StyleFamilies.getByName("PageStyles")
DefPage = PageStyles.getByName("Default")

DefPage.IsLandscape = True
DefPage.Width = 21000
DefPage.Height = 14800

Page Margin, Border, and Shadow

The com.sun.star.style.PageProperties service provides the following properties for adjusting page margins as well as borders and shadows:

LeftMargin (long)

width of the left hand page margin in hundredths of a millimeter

RightMargin (long)

width of the right hand page margin in hundredths of a millimeter

TopMargin (long)

width of the top page margin in hundredths of a millimeter

BottomMargin (long)

width of the bottom page margin in hundredths of a millimeter

LeftBorder (struct)

specifications for left-hand line of page border (com.sun.star.table.BorderLine structure)

RightBorder (struct)

specifications for right-hand line of page border (com.sun.star.table.BorderLine structure)

TopBorder (struct)

specifications for top line of page border (com.sun.star.table.BorderLine structure)

BottomBorder (struct)

specifications for bottom line of page border (com.sun.star.table.BorderLine structure)

LeftBorderDistance (long)

distance between left-hand page border and page content in hundredths of a millimeter

RightBorderDistance (long)

distance between right-hand page border and page content in hundredths of a millimeter

TopBorderDistance (long)

distance between top page border and page content in hundredths of a millimeter

BottomBorderDistance (long)

distance between bottom page border and page content in hundredths of a millimeter

ShadowFormat (struct)

specifications for shadow of content area of page (com.sun.star.table.ShadowFormat structure)

The following example sets the left and right-hand borders of the "Default" page style to 1 centimeter.

Dim Doc As Object
Dim Sheet As Object
Dim StyleFamilies As Object 
Dim PageStyles As Object
Dim DefPage As Object

Doc = ThisComponent
StyleFamilies = Doc.StyleFamilies
PageStyles = StyleFamilies.getByName("PageStyles")
DefPage = PageStyles.getByName("Default")

DefPage.LeftMargin = 1000
DefPage.RightMargin = 1000

Headers and Footers

The headers and footers of a document form part of the page properties and are defined using the com.sun.star.style.PageProperties service. The properties for formatting headers are:

HeaderIsOn (Boolean)

header is activated

HeaderLeftMargin (long)

distance between header and left-hand page margin in hundredths of a millimeter

HeaderRightMargin (long)

distance between header and right-hand page margin in hundredths of a millimeter

HeaderBodyDistance (long)

distance between header and main body of document in hundredths of a millimeter

HeaderHeight (long)

height of header in hundredths of a millimeter

HeaderIsDynamicHeight (Boolean)

height of header is automatically adapted to content

HeaderLeftBorder (struct)

details of the left-hand border of frame around header (com.sun.star.table.BorderLine structure)

HeaderRightBorder (struct)

details of the right-hand border of frame around header (com.sun.star.table.BorderLine structure)

HeaderTopBorder (struct)

details of the top line of the border around header (com.sun.star.table.BorderLine structure)

HeaderBottomBorder (struct)

details of the bottom line of the border around header (com.sun.star.table.BorderLine structure)

HeaderLeftBorderDistance (long)

distance between left-hand border and content of header in hundredths of a millimeter

HeaderRightBorderDistance (long)

distance between right-hand border and content of header in hundredths of a millimeter

HeaderTopBorderDistance (long)

distance between top border and content of header in hundredths of a millimeter

HeaderBottomBorderDistance (long)

distance between bottom border and content of header in hundredths of a millimeter

HeaderIsShared (Boolean)

headers on even and odd pages have the same content (refer to HeaderText , HeaderTextLeft, and HeaderTextRight )

HeaderBackColor (long)

background color of header

HeaderBackGraphicURL (String)

URL of the background graphics that you want to use

HeaderBackGraphicFilter (String)

name of the filter for interpreting the background graphics for the header

HeaderBackGraphicLocation (Enum)

position of the background graphics for the header (value according to com.sun.star.style.GraphicLocation enumeration)

HeaderBackTransparent (Boolean)

shows the background of the header as transparent

HeaderShadowFormat (struct)

details of shadow of header (com.sun.star.table.ShadowFormat structure)

The properties for formatting footers are:

FooterIsOn (Boolean)

footer is activated

FooterLeftMargin (long)

distance between footer and left-hand page margin in hundredths of a millimeter

FooterRightMargin (long)

distance between footer and right-hand page margin in hundredths of a millimeter

FooterBodyDistance (long)

distance between footer and main body of document in hundredths of a millimeter

FooterHeight (long)

height of footer in hundredths of a millimeter

FooterIsDynamicHeight (Boolean)

height of footer is adapted automatically to the content

FooterLeftBorder (struct)

details of left-hand line of border around footer (com.sun.star.table.BorderLine structure)

FooterRightBorder (struct)

details of right-hand line of border around footer (com.sun.star.table.BorderLine structure)

FooterTopBorder (struct)

details of top line of border around footer (com.sun.star.table.BorderLine structure)

FooterBottomBorder (struct)

details of bottom line of border around footer (com.sun.star.table.BorderLine structure)

FooterLeftBorderDistance (long)

distance between left-hand border and content of footer in hundredths of a millimeter

FooterRightBorderDistance (long)

distance between right-hand border and content of footer in hundredths of a millimeter

FooterTopBorderDistance (long)

distance between top border and content of footer in hundredths of a millimeter

FooterBottomBorderDistance (long)

distance between bottom border and content of footer in hundredths of a millimeter

FooterIsShared (Boolean)

the footers on the even and odd pages have the same content (refer to FooterText, FooterTextLeft, and FooterTextRight )

FooterBackColor (long)

background color of footer

FooterBackGraphicURL (String)

URL of the background graphics that you want to use

FooterBackGraphicFilter (String)

name of the filter for interpreting the background graphics for the footer

FooterBackGraphicLocation (Enum)

position of background graphics for the footer (value according to com.sun.star.style.GraphicLocation enumeration)

FooterBackTransparent (Boolean)

shows the background of the footer as transparent

FooterShadowFormat (struct)

details of shadow of footer (com.sun.star.table.ShadowFormat structure)

Changing the Text of Headers and Footers

The content of headers and footers in a spreadsheet is accessed through the following properties:

LeftPageHeaderContent (Object)

content of headers for even pages (com.sun.star.sheet.HeaderFooterContent service)

RightPageHeaderContent (Object)

content of headers for odd pages (com.sun.star.sheet.HeaderFooterContent service)

LeftPageFooterContent (Object)

content of footers for even pages (com.sun.star.sheet.HeaderFooterContent service)

RightPageFooterContent (Object)

content of footers for odd pages (com.sun.star.sheet.HeaderFooterContent service)

If you do not need to distinguish between headers or footers for odd and even pages (the FooterIsShared property is False), then set the properties for headers and footers on odd pages.

All the named objects return an object that supports the com.sun.star.sheet.HeaderFooterContent service. By means of the (non-genuine) properties LeftText, CenterText, and RightText, this service provides three text elements for the headers and footers of OpenOffice.org Calc.

The following example writes the "Just a Test." value in the left-hand text field of the header from the "Default" template.

Dim Doc As Object
Dim Sheet As Object
Dim StyleFamilies As Object 
Dim PageStyles As Object
Dim DefPage As Object
Dim HText As Object
Dim HContent As Object
Doc = ThisComponent
StyleFamilies = Doc.StyleFamilies
PageStyles = StyleFamilies.getByName("PageStyles")
DefPage = PageStyles.getByName("Default")
 
DefPage.HeaderIsOn = True
HContent = DefPage.RightPageHeaderContent
HText = HContent.LeftText
HText.String = "Just a Test."
DefPage.RightPageHeaderContent = HContent

Note the last line in the example: Once the text is changed, the TextContent object must be assigned to the header again so that the change is effective.

Another mechanism for changing the text of headers and footers is available for text documents (OpenOffice.org Writer) because these consist of a single block of text. The following properties are defined in the com.sun.star.style.PageProperties service:

HeaderText (Object)

text object with content of the header (com.sun.star.text.XText service)

HeaderTextLeft (Object)

text object with content of headers on left-hand pages (com.sun.star.text.XText service)

HeaderTextRight (Object)

text object with content of headers on right-hand pages (com.sun.star.text.XText service)

FooterText (Object)

text object with content of the footer (com.sun.star.text.XText service)

FooterTextLeft (Object)

text object with content of footers on left-hand pages (com.sun.star.text.XText service)

FooterTextRight (Object)

text object with content of footers on right-hand pages (com.sun.star.text.XText service)

The following example creates a header in the "Default" page style for text documents and adds the text "Just a Test" to the header.

Dim Doc As Object
Dim Sheet As Object
Dim StyleFamilies As Object 
Dim PageStyles As Object
Dim DefPage As Object
Dim HText As Object

Doc = ThisComponent
StyleFamilies = Doc.StyleFamilies
PageStyles = StyleFamilies.getByName("PageStyles")
DefPage = PageStyles.getByName("Default")

DefPage.HeaderIsOn = True
HText = DefPage.HeaderText 

HText.String = "Just a Test."

In this instance, access is provided directly through the HeaderText property of the page style rather than the HeaderFooterContent object.

Centering (Spreadsheets Only)

The com.sun.star.sheet.TablePageStyle service is only used in OpenOffice.org Calc page styles and allows cell ranges that you want printed to be centered on the page. This service provides the following properties:

CenterHorizontally (Boolean)

table content is centered horizontally

CenterVertically (Boolean)

table content is centered vertically

Definition of Elements to be Printed (Spreadsheets Only)

When you format sheets, you can define whether page elements are visible. For this purpose, the com.sun.star.sheet.TablePageStyle service provides the following properties:

PrintAnnotations (Boolean)

prints cell comments

PrintGrid (Boolean)

prints the cell gridlines

PrintHeaders (Boolean)

prints the row and column headings

PrintCharts (Boolean)

prints charts contained in a sheet

PrintObjects (Boolean)

prints embedded objects

PrintDrawing (Boolean)

prints draw objects

PrintDownFirst (Boolean)

if the contents of a sheet extend across several pages, they are first printed in vertically descending order, and then down the right-hand side.

PrintFormulas (Boolean)

prints the formulas instead of the calculated values

PrintZeroValues (Boolean)

prints the zero values

Content on this page is licensed under the Public Documentation License (PDL).