Printing from Writer

Getting Started with OpenOffice.org 3

Chapter 4. Getting Started with Writer

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• The Writer interface
• Working with documents
• Working with text
• Formatting text
• Formatting pages
• Adding comments and graphics to a document
• Creating a table of contents, index, or bibliography
• Printing from Writer
• Sending a fax
• Tracking changes to a document
• Fields, mail merge, master documents, and forms
• Using cross-references

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Writer provides a range of choices when printing.

Quick printing

Click the Print File Directly icon File:PrintFileDir.png to send the entire document to the default printer defined for your computer.

You can change the action of the Print File Directly icon to send the document to the printer defined for the document instead of the default printer for the computer. Go to Tools > Options > Load/Save > General and select the Load printer settings with the document option.

Controlling printing

For more control over printing, use File > Print to display the Print dialog.

File:PrintDialog.png

The Print dialog.

On the Print dialog, you can choose:

• Which printer to use (if more than one are installed on your system) and the properties of the printer—for example, orientation (portrait or landscape), which paper tray to use, and what paper size to print on. The properties available depend on the selected printer; consult the printer’s documentation for details.
• What pages to print, how many copies to print, and in what order to print them. Use dashes to specify page ranges and commas or semicolons to separate ranges; for example: 1, 5, 11–14, 34–40. Selection is the highlighted part of a page or pages.
• What items to print. Click the Options button to display the Printer Options dialog.

File:PrinterOptions.png

Printer Options dialog.

Selecting print options for a document

Selections on the Printer Options dialog apply to this printing of this document only.

To specify default printing options, you need to use two pages in Tools > Options: OpenOffice.org – Print (see [[../Setting Up OpenOffice.org|Chapter 2]]) and OpenOffice.org Writer – Print (which looks very similar to the Printer Options dialog).

Some items of interest on the Printer Options dialog include:

• In the Contents section, you might choose not to print graphics or page background in drafts, for example (to save toner or ink).
• In the Pages section, you can choose:
  • Print only left (even-numbered) pages or only right (odd-numbered) pages. These settings are useful when you want to print on both sides of the page, but do not have a printer that handles this automatically.
  • Print in reversed page order.
  • Brochure—the results of this selection are discussed in Printing a brochure.
• In the Notes section, you can choose whether to print any notes that have been added to your document (using Insert > Note), and where to print the notes.

Printing in black and white on a color printer

You may wish to print documents in black and white on a color printer, to save expensive color ink or toner. Common uses are for drafts or documents to be photocopied in black and white. Several choices are available.

To print the current document in black and white or grayscale:

1. Click File > Print to open the Print dialog.
2. Click Properties to open the properties dialog for the printer. The available choices vary from one printer to another, but you should find an option for Color. See your printer’s help or user manual for more information.
3. The choices for color may include black and white or grayscale. Choose one of these. Grayscale is best if you have any graphics in the document. Click OK to confirm your choice and return to the Print dialog, then click OK again to print the document.

To set up OOo to print all color text and graphics as grayscale:

1. Click Tools > Options > OpenOffice.org > Print.
2. Select the Convert colors to grayscale option. Click OK to save the change.

To set up OOo Writer to print all color text as black, and all graphics as grayscale:

1. Click Tools > Options > OpenOffice.org Writer > Print.
2. Under Contents, select the Print black option. Click OK to save the change.

Previewing pages before printing

The normal page view in Writer shows you what each page will look like when printed, but it shows only one page at a time. If you are designing a document to be printed double-sided, you may want to see what facing pages look like. OOo provides two ways to do this:

• View Layout (editable view) —see [[../Writer interface#Status bar|View layout]].
• Page Preview (read-only view) —from which you can print multiple pages onto one sheet of paper.

To use Page Preview:

1. Click File > Page Preview, or click the Page Preview button File:PagePrevIcon.png. The Writer window changes to display the current page and the following page, and shows the Page Preview toolbar in place of the Formatting toolbar.
File:PagePrevToolbar.png
Page Preview toolbar.
2. Click the Book Preview icon File:BookPrevIcon.png to display left and right pages in their correct orientation.
3. To print the document from this page view, click the Print page view icon File:PrintPgViewIcon.png to open the Print dialog. Choose your options and click OK to print as usual.
4. To choose margins and other options for the printout, click the Print options page view icon File:PrOptPgViewIcon.png to display the Print Options dialog.
File:PrOpt.png
Print Options dialog.

Printing a brochure

You can print a document with two pages on each side of a sheet of paper, arranged so that when the printed pages are folded in half, the pages are in the correct order to form a booklet or brochure.

To print a brochure on a single-sided printer:

1. Plan your document so it will look good when printed half size (choose appropriate margins, font sizes, and so on). Click File > Print. In the Print dialog, click Properties and be sure the printer is set to the same orientation (portrait or landscape) as specified in the page setup for your document. (Usually the orientation does not matter, but it does for brochures.)
2. Click Options. In the Pages section of the Printer Options dialog, choose Brochure and Right pages. Click OK twice to print the first side of each page.
3. Flip the pages and put them back into the printer, in the correct orientation to print on the blank side. You may need to experiment a bit to find out what the correct arrangement is for your printer.
4. Click File > Print and check Properties to make sure the printer setup is still correct.
5. Click Options again. In the Pages section of the Printer Options dialog, choose Brochure and Left page. Click OK twice to print the second sides.
6. If your printer can do double-sided, then click on the options for Left pages, Right pages, and Brochure, and it should not only do those but collate too.

Printing envelopes

Printing envelopes involves two steps: setup and printing.

To set up an envelope to be printed by itself or with your document:

1. Click Insert > Envelope from the menu bar.
2. In the Envelope dialog, start with the Envelope tab. Verify, add, or edit the information in the Addressee and Sender boxes (the “from” on the envelope). You can type information directly into the Addressee and Sender boxes, or use the right-hand drop-down lists to select the database or table from which you can draw the envelope information, if desired. See [[../../Writer Guide/Using Mail Merge|Chapter 11 (Using Mail Merge)]] in the Writer Guide for details on how to print envelopes from a database.
File:Envelope.png
Choosing addressee and sender information for an envelope.
3. On the Format page, verify or edit the positioning of the addressee and the sender information. The preview area on the lower right shows the effect of your positioning choices.
File:EnvelopeFormat.png
Choosing positioning and size of elements for an envelope.
4. To format the text of these blocks, click the Edit buttons to the right. In the drop-down list you have two choices: Character and Paragraph.
• In Character, you can choose Fonts (Sizes...), Fonts Effects (Underlining, Color...), Position (Rotating/scaling...), Hyperlink, Background and more.
• In Paragraph, you can choose Indents & Spacing, Alignment, Text Flow, Tabs, Drop Caps, Borders and Backgrounds.
5. In the lower left of this page, choose the envelope format from the drop-down list. The width and height of the selected envelope then show in the boxes below the selected format. If you chose a pre-existing format, just verify these sizes. If you chose User defined in the Format list, then you can edit the sizes.
6. After formatting, go to the Printer page to choose printer options such as envelope orientation and shifting. You may need to experiment a bit to see what works best for your printer. You can also choose a different printer or alter printer setup (for example, specify the tray that holds envelopes) for this print job.
File:EnvelopePrinter.png
Choosing printer options for an envelope.
7. When you have finished formatting and are ready to print, click either the New Doc or Insert button to finish.
• New Doc makes only an envelope or starts a new document with the envelope. Insert inserts the envelope into your existing document as page 1.
• To not proceed with this envelope, click Cancel or press the Esc key. You can also click Reset to remove your changes and return to the original settings when the dialog opened.
8. When the Envelope dialog closes, you are returned to your document, which now has the envelope in the same file as the document. Save this file before you do anything else.

To print the envelope:

1. Choose File > Print from the menu bar.
2. On the Print dialog, under Print range, choose Pages and type 1 in the box. Click OK to print.

Printing labels

Labels are commonly used for printing address lists (where each label shows a different address), but they can also be used for making multiple copies of one label only, for example return-address stickers.

To print labels:

1. Choose File > New > Labels on the menu bar. The Labels dialog opens.
2. On the Labels page, fill in your own label text in the Inscription box, or use the Database and Table drop-down lists to choose the required information, as described in [[../../Writer Guide/Using Mail Merge|Chapter 11 (Using Mail Merge)]] in the Writer Guide.
File:Labels.png
Labels dialog, Labels page.
3. Select the label stock in the Brand drop-down list. The types for that brand then appear in the Type drop-down list. Select the size and type of labels required. You can also select User in the Type drop-down list and then make specific selections on the Format page.
File:LabelsFormat.png
Labels dialog, Format page.
4. On the Format page, choose the pitch, sizes, margins, columns and rows for user-defined labels, or just verify with a brand of label stock you have loaded into the printer.
5. Click Save to save your new format.
6. When you have finished formatting, click New Document to make your sheet of labels or click Cancel (or press the Esc key). You can also click Reset to remove your changes and return to the original settings when the dialog opened.
7. On the Options page, choose to print the entire page of labels or one single label, then select which one by the column and row. You can also change printer setup.
File:LabelsOpt.png
Labels dialog, Options page.
8. You can print right away using the Print File Directly icon on the toolbar or by choosing File > Print from the menu bar, or you can save the file to print later.