Openoffice is a productive office suite with a collection of different software packages such as
(i) Openoffice writer - Word processor to create text documents
(ii) Openoffice calc - Spreadsheet to create worksheets
(iii) Openoffice Base - Database
(iv) Openoffice Impress - Presentation Software
(v) Openoffice Draw - Drawing software
(vi) Openofice Forumula - Create formula and equations..

To merge a group of cells:
(i) Select the cells to merge.
(ii) Right click and choose Cell ➝ Merge or choose Table ➝ Merge Cells from the menu bar.

AutoText allows you to assign text, tables, grajphics and other items to a key or key combination. For example, rather than typing "TamilNadu" every time you use that phrase, you might just type "tn" and press F3.

Openoffice writer has the ability to insert and edit images in a more simply way.
(i) Place the insertion pointer where you want the image to appear
(ii) Select Insert \(\rightarrow\) Picture \(\rightarrow\) From file 
(iii) The insert picture dialog box appears where the picture gallery opens from which the desired picture can be selected.
(iv) If the picture is not in the gallery, then browse the pictures from the folder, choose the desired picture.
(v) Click on the Open button
(vi) The selected picture is inserted into the document.

OpenOffice Writer has a Find and Replace feature that helps to locate for a text inside a document and replace it with another word.
Click Edit Find & Replace (or) Ctrl + F
The Find & Replace dialog box appears as shown.
Steps to Find & Replace a text :
(i) Type the text you want to find in the Search forbox For Example : To search a word "Bombay" in a document and replace with "Mumbai", enter the word "Bombay" in the Search for box.
(ii) Enter the word " Mumbai" in the Replace with box and Click Find button, to start the search, the found word is highlighted and the first occurrence of "Bombay" is highlighted.
(iii) To replace text, click Replace button.
The highlighted word is replaced with the word given in the Replace with box.
(iv) Click Find All Writer selects all instances of the search text in the document.
All occurrences of Bombay are highlighted.
(v) Click Replace All button, Writer replaces all matches.
This will replace all occurrences of "Bombay" with "Mumbai".
(vi) Enable Match caseto perform the search case sensitively so that uppercase and lower cases are distinguished separately.
(vii) Enable Whole Words only to make the search more specific to words. For example, if you search for the word "Image", the command will only find Image" not "Imaging" "Images" etc.

(i) Page formatting: The most important thing in a word processor is how to format the page with elements such as margins, numbering, page layout, headers and footers. Formatting your pages makes it look more attractive and make it easier to read.
(ii) Changing page size : The default page size in writer is 8.5 \(\times\) 11^'', the same as that of a standard A4 printing paper. However, for different types of documents, you may need to change the page size.To change the paper size:
Select the page to be resized.
Select Format \(\rightarrow\) Page, the page style dialog box
Select Page Tab
In the paper format group, select the format like A4, legal etc.
Or the width and height option can be used to set the page size.
(iii) Changing page margins :Changing or setting page margins in OpenOffice Writer can be done in two ways :
Using the Rulers - quick and easy, but does not have precise values.
Using the Page Style dialog box - can specify precise values for the margins.
1. Changing page margins - using Ruler.
The shaded sections of the rulers are the margins.
Hold the mouse pointer over the line between the gray and white sections.
The mouse pointer turns into a double-headed arrow.
Hold down the left mouse button and drag the mouse to move the margin and release it at the required point.
The new margin is set.
2. Using the Page Style dialog box.
To change margins using the Page Style dialog box
1. Right-click anywhere on the page and select Page from the popup menu and select page tab of Page Style dialog box as shown.
2. In the Margins group, specify the values for left,right, top and bottom margins.
3. Click ok button.
Orientation : Page orientation refers to how the document will be displayed On screen and printed. There are two different orientations:
Landscape - The width of the document is more than the height. This is best suited for displaying professional photos, invitations, albums, tables etc.

Portrait - This is the most common and default orientation.Here, the height of the document is more than the width. Normally books, newspapers will be displayed in this format.

To change the orientation :
Select the page whose orientation is to be changed
In the Page Style dialog box, under the Orientation group,
Select Portrait or Landscape button.
Click ok button.
Page colour and borders: Changing the page color is not quite common. To do so, in the Page Style dialog box,select Background tab, In As option click on color and select the color" from the color palette or select "graphic" to apply an image as a page background.

The header is a section of the document that appears in the top margin, which displays the title or chapter name, author name of a document.
(i) Select from the main menu Insert \(\rightarrow\)Header \(\rightarrow\) Default.
(ii) The header text area is separated from the normal text area.
(iii) In the header area, Enter the text that is to be repeated in all pages or Select Insert \(\rightarrow\) Fields \(\rightarrow\) Title.
The footer is a section of the document that appears in the bottom margin of the page which displays the page number, date, time etc. which gets displayed on all the pages automatically.
(i) Select from the main menu Insert \(\rightarrow\) Footer \(\rightarrow\) Default
(ii) Place the insertion pointer in the footer part of the page.
(iii) Select Insert \(\rightarrow\) Fields \(\rightarrow\) Date to insert date in all the pages.
Inserting and Formatting page numbers 
The page numbers can be inserted by performing the following steps:
(i) Place the insertion pointer where you want to insert the page number
(ii) choose Insert \(\rightarrow\)Fields \(\rightarrow\)Page Number
(iii) The page number appears with gray background.
Normally, the page numbers appear as 1,2,3....., To change the numbering style, the following sequence of steps can be performed:
(i) Position the insertion pointer where the page number has to appear.
(ii) Select Format\(\rightarrow\) page, which will display the Page Style dialog box.
(iv) In the Layout settings, select the format drop down combobox
(v) Select the desired style and click OK button.

Page margins are the white space around the top, bottom, left and right of your document.
Changing or setting page margins in openoffice writer can be done in two ways:
(i) Using the Rulers - quick and easy, but does not have precise values.
(ii) Using the Page Style dialog box - can specify precise values for the margins.
Changing Page Margins using Ruler:
(i) The shaded sections of the rulers are the margins.
(ii) Hold the mouse pointer over the line between the gray and white sections.
(iii) The mouse pointer turns into a double-headed arrow.
(iv) Hold down the left mouse button and drag the mouse to move the margin and release it at the required point.
(v) The new margin is set.
Using the Page Style Dialog Box:
To change margins using the Page Style dialog box
(i) Right-click anywhere on the page and select Page from the popup menu or select page tab of page style dialog box.
(ii) In the Margins boxes, specify the values for left, right, top and bottom margins.
(iii) Click on OK button.

(i) Rightclick \(\rightarrow\)line spacing, select the type single, 1.5 or double.
(ii) Select the entire document by Edit\(\rightarrow\) Select All
(iii) Format- paragraph
(iv) The paragraph dialog box appears, click Indents & Spacing tab
(v) In the line spacing option, select the type and click OK button.

(i) You can save by clicking File \(\rightarrow\) Save on top left corner and then click File \(\rightarrow\) Save As or Ctrl+Shift+S. After that browse the location where exactly you want to save in your computer.
(ii) You can also save by just pressing Ctrl + S and then browse the location where you want to save.
(iii) All documents in OpenOffice writer will be stored with .odt extension. You can store your OpenOffice document as Microsoft Word document or pdf.

To insert rows or columns inside a table:
(i) Place the insertion pointer in the row or in the column where you would like to add new rows or columns and right-click.
(ii) Choose Row \(\rightarrow\) Insert - to insert a new row or Column \(\rightarrow\) Insert - to insert a new column. A dialog box will appear, from which you can select the number of rows or columns to insert. You can also set the position of the new rows or columns to Before or After.

There are two different orientation :
(i) Landscape: The width of the document is more than the height. This is best suited for displaying professional photos, invitatíons, albums, tables etc.
(ii) Portrait :This is the most common and default orientation. Here, the height of the document is more than the width. Normally books, newspapers will be displayed in this format.