10 simple tips and tricks for new users

OpenOffice is a suite of free productivity tools that replaces most of the functionality of Microsoft’s Office platform and adds additional features (though you can’t track stock prices the way you can on Google Sheets). It also works across multiple operating systems, even on the best Chromebooks, and it plays well with existing MS Office documents and spreadsheets.

Many of its best features aren’t immediately apparent to new users. We compiled a list of our favorite OpenOffice tips and tricks to help you take advantage of OpenOffice’s versatile offerings.

OpenOffice has one of the most broadly customizable interfaces of any software of its kind. You can customize the existing headers and add functions to make them accessible with a single click.

1. Click
   View
   on the toolbar.
2. Select
   Toolbars
   .
3. Go to the
   Toolbars
   drop-down menu to toggle toolbars on or off, or select
   Customize
   to alter the content of existing toolbars.

   

2 Add extensions for more features

OpenOffice comes with an impressive number of tools. One advantage of its open platform is that you can add third-party extensions to fill gaps that exist.

1. Select
   Tools
   from the toolbar.
2. Click
   Extension Manager
   in the drop-down menu.

   

3. In the Extension Manager window, select
   Get more extensions online
   .
4. This opens a browser page where you can search for extensions or browse by categories like operating system or application.

Extensions give you access to dictionaries in other languages, allow you to import and edit PDFs, add new template options, and other useful functions.

3 Turn on writing assists

OpenOffice has several modules to help you draft clean, grammatically valid text documents. You can activate automatic spellchecking, access a thesaurus, or add non-standard dictionaries.

1. Click
   Tools
   in the toolbar and select
   Options
   .
2. In the
   Options
   window, open
   Language Settings
   and choose
   Writing Aids.

   

3. Choose the language modules and dictionaries you want to activate and the live spelling and grammatical tools you want to use.

4 Add a table of contents to your document

Add a table of contents to documents with several subsections or longer documents you want to break into digestible sections for easier navigation.

1. A table of contents requires headers. To create a header, click
   Format
   , then select
   Styles and Formatting
   .
2. Select a header style, click the document where you’d like to place it, and enter the header text.

   

3. To create a table of contents, click
   Insert
   in the toolbar. Then, choose
   Indexes and Tables
   and select
   Indexes and Tables
   from the sub-menu.
4. In the
   Insert index/table window
   , enter a title for your table of contents or leave it as default, and select the
   Table of Contents
   option in the
   Type
   drop-down menu.

   

5. If you only want the table of contents to include a certain number of headers, choose
   Chapter
   in the
   Create index/table for
   drop-down and set the number of headers you want in the
   Evaluate up to level
   box.
6. To alter the format and style of your table of contents, click
   Additional styles
   and then select the
   ellipsis (…)
   to the right of it.
7. Click
   OK
   to add the table of contents to your document.

5 Quickly search the web for keywords in your document

OpenOffice allows you to quickly search the text in your documents on popular search engines like Google, Yahoo, and others. Add this functionality to your toolbar for easy access.

1. Click
   View
   from the toolbar, choose
   Toolbars
   , and then toggle on the
   Hyperlink Bar
   option.

   

2. To search the web for text in your document, highlight it, click the
   binoculars
   icon, and choose which search engine to use from the drop-down menu.

   

6 Create a bibliography to cite your sources

OpenOffice offers a built-in tool for citing sources in formal or academic documents.

1. To cite a reference, click
   Insert
   on the toolbar, choose
   Indexes and tables
   , and choose
   Bibliography entry
   .
2. Select
   From document content
   and then click
   New
   .

   

3. Enter your reference information, choose its
   Type
   , click
   OK
   ,
   
   and select
   Insert
   . This inserts the reference into the text in square brackets.
4. After creating your references, you’re ready to collate a bibliography. Choose
   Insert
   , select
   Indexes and tables
   , select
   Indexes and tables
   again, and select
   Bibliography
   .