OpenOffice

What is OpenOffice? Well....its the answer to all all your word processing, presentation, and spreadsheet prayers. It can do all the above (and more) as well as or better than any other software available, it runs on any operating system, and ...its free! Unbelievable but true. Save your money, use OpenOffice.

OpenOffice can do the following :

* Word Processing (creating text documents)

* Presentations (for business events and meetings)

* Spreadsheets (for all your accounting needs)

* Databases (create databases for your inventory, tracking items etc etc)

Word Processing

If you don't know what word processing is, its pretty easy to explain. If you wish to write text, then you need a type of software known as a Word Processor. These softwares are usually much more sophisticated than being mere digital typewriters. They allow you to check your spelling as you write, format your text with different fonts, colors, styles, and sizes, send your formatted text to a printer, include images in your page, create letterhead templates, templates for printing on envelopes, and much much more.

The more you use a word processor, the more you get into the depths of its functionality, and the quicker and tastier your documents become. OpenOffice is unique in the world of Word Processors because it is fantastically powerful, and it doesn't cost you one unit of currency. Its is completely free.

If you are already familar with this type of software its probably through using Microsoft Word (MSW). MSW has become the default word processing software for almost every situation, whether it be at home, at school, or at work. You can expect to be able to do pretty much everything MSW does with OpenOffice. This includes opening existing MSW files, and saving files as Microsoft Word files so your unenlightened friends and colleagues can open them (remember to tell them they should also install OpenOffice). The biggest difference - the cost.

Presentations

If you have a great idea and you want to demonstrate it clearly to a group of people, then many use 'presentation software' to do this. Using this type of software you can easily create any number of nice slides containing text and images for demonstrating your ideas. The slides can be shown on a computer screen, printed out, or projected onto a large screen. Projecting presentations is, for example, the default method of presenting at business conferences and meetings.

If you are not a designer then don't worry. Most types of presentation software (including OpenOffice), have simple templates that help you arrange your text and images neatly. These templates make the process of creating slides about as simple as it can be, and the results look clean and professional. When you get really slick you can also add audio and video. Once you are used to using the software making good looking slides gets quicker and you can change, reuse, and remix your slides for using in other presentations. An archive of slides soon becomes a useful and time saving resource.

As with Word Processors, if you have used presentation software before it is probably been because you have used Microsofts PowerPoint (MPP). Once again, you can do pretty much all you did with MPP via OpenOffice, including opening MPP files and saving presentations so MPP can read them.

Spreadsheets

Generally speaking, if you have come within two miles of managing any part of a budget using a computer, you have used or seen a spreadsheet. Spreadsheets are commonly used for tracking small budgets, but they are not used exclusively for accounting purposes. Spreadsheets are also used for managing lists of information. These lists can be simple, such as a list of names and phone numbers, through to keeping to-do lists or tracking complex inventories.

As with the above examples, Microsoft rules the roost of Spreadsheet applications and if you have used a spreadsheet it has probably been Microsofts Excel (MEXL). OpenOffice does all MEXL does, and as with the other examples, you can open MEXL files and save your own files so MEXL can read them.

Database

Databases are slightly more complicated. They are slightly more abstract than the above examples. Essentially a database is somewhere you can store information so you can quickly retrieve it, and cross reference it with other information stored in the database. Commonly databases are used for managing more complicated lists of information than you would typically manage with a spreadsheet (this isn't always true but its generally the case).

Microsofts Access Database (MAD) is the most common type of database used for these purposes. OpenOffices database is known as BASE and can interact with Adabas D, ADO, Microsoft Access, and MySQL databases.

Installing on Windows

Software name : OpenOffice
Homepage : http://www.openoffice.org/
Software version used for this installation : 2.2
Operating System use for this installation : Microsoft Windows (2000)
Recommended Hardware : 1GHz processor, 250MB storage space, internet connection

Get the installer

The first step for installing OpenOffice on Windows is to getthe installer. Open a browser (such as Firefox or Internet Explorer) and visit the OpenOffice homepage ( http://www.openoffice.org )

The steps that need to be taken to get to the installer may seem needlessly long, especially if you just wish to download the installer. However the installer is big - about 100MB. Thats a big file to download, so the good people at OpenOffice allow you the opportunity get the installer through a variety of methods. We shall look at them by clicking on the big green 'get openoffice.org' button:

Now you should see a page listing the options for getting the installer. The options are :

Download a file - you will need a reasonably fast connection to download the 98MB file (or lots of patience!)
Order a CD - sometimes a complicated procedure and it will require a credit card as it this will cost you money
Download via P2P - if you wish to download the file and the first option is unbearably slow then try this. warning : it is complicated to do it this way

For the purposes of this installation guide we are going to download the installer the usual way (option 1), so click on the big green button which says Download openoffice.og

If all is well you now get to choose which installer you want. This is determined by the operating system you have, we are using Windows (if you are not using Windows this is the wrong installation guide for you). So we may wish to click on the big blue Windows text - but don't do it yet! :

You will notice that there is a small text below the Windows text (seen above), which looks like this:

Now, the Java JRE download is not absolutely necessary for your installation. It does enable some extra functionality but also it requires more files to be downloaded (about an extra 10MB). So I would recommend that if you have a 'slow' connection or are paying for your downloads then uncheck this option (do this by just clicking on the text shown above). Otherwise, if you are happy with an extra 10mb, leave the option with its default (checked) setting.

Now, you may be expecting the download to start but no! OpenOffice get another chance to try and squeeze some cash out of you. Remember - OpenOffice is free! you don't have to give them any money. However, if you have lots of money then maybe you might be tempted to donate some and you can do it here.Or you could, as they suggest, spread the good word etc. Its up to you. I think most people just ignore the text and press the continue to download button.

If life is sweet then the download will begin. Go make a coffee and wait until it is complete.

Start the installation

The installer will have downloaded to your computer. You will need to know where it has been downloaded to, in my case I have everything download to the Desktop. If you don't know where the installer is then it is hard to give advice as to how to find it. One option could be to try the search function on your computer and look for a file which includes 'OOo' on its name. If this is what you have to do, then good luck! Otherwise proceed to where the installer has downloaded. You should see a icon like this:

This is where the fun begins. Double click the installer icon :

Just click through this by pressing Next > :

There are a couple of things to check in the above screen. The first is the place where the installation files will be 'unpacked'. At the moment the files are all nicely compressed. This means the file size is reduced by various tricks of data manipulation for better (faster) delivery over the internet. So the installer must first decompress (unpack) the files and in the Destination Folder section you are being told where the unpacked files will be stored (by default the unpacked files will be stored in the same place as the installer you downloaded). Most of the time with this kind of option you stick with the defaults and worry about cleaning up the files later. Unless you have a good reason changing the default, just leave it as is.

The other thing you need to check is whether or not you have enough storage space available for the installation. You can see some information listed like so:

In the above example the installation requires 113.1MB of storage space on the harddisk (the example above is using the extra Java JRE files and so the information on your computer may look different). Additionally, you will see the the amount of space available on your hard disk. In this case it is 18.1GB. If the space available is less that the space required then you can't perform the installation. Your option is to then delete some files from your computer until you have enough space.

If the space available is bigger, then chill out! All is well! You can now press Unpack and a new screen will appear and show the process of the files unpacking.

When the process is complete you will see the first screen of what is actually the installation process.

Press Next > and you see the licence agreement screen :

Here you should either bore yourself and read the licence but lifes too short so just click on the I accept the terms in the license agreement and be happy. You could of course decide not to accept the license and then you have saved yourself more time because you won't be able to install the software at all.

So, agree to the license and click Next > and you will see the user registration screen :

Type in any name and organisation. It doesn't matter. Also, just (unless you are mean hearted) keep the default to Anyone who uses this computer (all users) and press Next > and you arrive at the screen to decide if you wish a default or a custom installation.

Just leave it as the Completeinstallation (default) and press Next > to lead you to the file type screen :

Ok...now you actually have a real decision to make. From this page you get to decide what software will open Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files. Normally Microsoft products deal with these files but if for any reason (and there are many) you wish to take this priviledge away from Microsoft and hand it to OpenOffice, then check the appropriate boxes. If it was me, I would check all the boxes, but thats just me. Whatever you decide, do it, and then press Next >

So, after all that you finally get to actually install the software. Click Install and the installation procedure should begin, leaving you with something that looks like this:

and then this:

Believe it or not, thats a wrap! Click Finish . Now its rather and unfriendly finish to the installation process as nothing happens to confirm it actually is installed, we are meant to take it on trust. If you want to verify that all is well then you have to goto your Start menu, and select the program manually :

If all is well the OpenOffice application you choose should actually open (the OpenOffice.org Writer selected above is the Word Processor):

Installing Ubuntu

Software name : OpenOffice
Homepage : http://www.openoffice.org/
Software version used for this installation : 2.0
Operating System use for this installation : Ubuntu 6.10
Recommended Hardware : 1GHz processor

OpenOffice is already installed on Ubuntu. Accessing it is quite easy. If you are using an installation of Ubuntu with no changes to the default Desktop, then you can simply move your mouse to the Applications menu.

If you place your mouse over the OpenOffice.org Word Processor (as in the above example) and take your finger off the mouse button then the OpenOffice will start, and within a short time you should see something like this on your screen:

What you see is actually a complete wordprocessor^?. This means you can write letters and other texts and save them, email them, or print them. The functionality of the OpenOffice wordprocessor is extremely sophisticated and it is unlikely that you would need another software do all your wordprocessing. The software is also capable of opening, and writing, files from almost every other wordprocessor available including Microsoft Word.

Opening a File

Software name : OpenOffice
Software version : 2.2

Opening a document ('file') in OpenOffice is one of the most common things you will do with the software. Its pretty straight forward. You need to click on the menu item that says File and then select Open...

When you release the mouse button a dialog^? will appear:

Its now a matter of finding the file you wish to open by using the Places list on the left, or by browsing the list of directories and files listed on the right. You can get used to how this system works by clicking on the names of 'places' and directories. This will help you navigate around the folders on your computer. If you get horribly lost then just press Cancel and start again, no harm done.

When you see a file that you wish OpenOffice to open, the click on the file name. It should highlight like so (selecting 'sss.odt' as an example):

Now press Open and the file will open in OpenOffice.

Saving a New Document

Software name : OpenOffice
Software version : 2.2

When you start the OpenOffice wordprocessor you automatically get a new (blank) page. If you wish to start a new text document then you only need to save the new document somewhere on your computer.

Saving a blank text file

If you are about to start work on your new document then its a very good idea to first save the document. In fact, saving your document at the start and as many times as you can remember while writing it is an excellent idea. The would be a good deal less frustration caused by lost documents if this advice was followed with more rigor.

OpenOffice does not let you save a blank document so first you will have to type some text onto the blank page. Just mouse over the blank document, click the mouse, and type something (anything - you can always delete the text later). Now, to save the new document click on the File menu and select Save

Once you have released the mouse button then you will see a dialog^? appear :

Choose a name for the file

Type the name of the file in box next to where it says Name: You can call the file anything you like. Just click the mouse on the empty text box and type away. In this example we will use 'mynewfile' as the name.

Choose where to save the file

If you just press Save the document will now be saved in the default location as listed in the Save in folder box.

This is usually in your home directory^?. However you can easily choose another place to save the document by clicking on the small arrow next to the text Browse for other folders

Then you will see a new section appear:

Now you can browse your computers directories by clicking one of the 'places' listed on the left or by clicking one of the directories on the right. For example, if I wanted to save my new document in the 'Examples' directory in the above example, I would double click on the directory 'Examples'. The contents of that directory will then be displayed:

If I pressed Save now the document would be saved in this directory alongside all the other documents listed.

As you can see, the location of the directory where you are saving the document is displayed at the top left :

In the above image you can see that the directory name where the document will be saved is displayed in bold at the far right. If you decide this is not where the document is to be saved you can always change the location by doing one of the following :

clicking on the directory names displayed at the top (for example, by clicking on 'floss')

browse the directories displayed in the list on the right

click on the 'Places' listed on the left

Choose the file format

The last thing you need to do now is choose what format the document should be saved in. A format is a very mysterious thing and there has been many hours lost debating the dark arts of file formats. The basic principle is this :

* softwares store data in files

* the way in which the data is arranged in that file is known as the 'format' or 'file format'

* choose a format that can be used by the software you use, and by the software used by people you might send documents to

Formats are usually identified by the suffix of a file name. So if you have a file called 'myfile.doc' the file format is indicated by the suffix ('.doc'). We know that '.doc' is a file format used by Microsoft Word.

Most people these days use Microsoft Word (.doc) file formats, however this is not always the case. My friends, for example, are not too keen on receiving this kind of file. If in doubt, its polite to ask what format they prefer before sending a file.

You can see a list of the available formats by clicking on the drop down menu near the bottom of the dialog:

When clicked you will see a long list of different formats.

Choose the one that suits you. If you are not sure which one to use then perhaps stay with the default format - OpenDocument Text (.odt). If you prefer Microsoft Word then you will need to save it in one of the Mircosoft Word formats, in which case you could choose:

* Microsoft Word 97/2000/XP (.doc)

* Microsoft Word 95 (.doc)

* Microsoft Word 6.0 (.doc)

If you choose the wrong format and awake in the middle of the night sweating because it was a bad choice, you can always change the format by saving the document again and choosing a preferable file format.

Press save

When you have decided the name, place to save the document, and the format of the document then press Save

Make an Address Book

You can use OpenOffice to help keep track of all your contact details. However its more powerful than being a mere 'phone book', you can use the address book to automate tasks to assist you in printing addresses on envelopes, sending mass email outs etc.

There are a couple of ways to set up an address book. You could, for example, set up a new database and store your contact information there. Alternatively you could also use a spreadsheet, and create the appropriate fields to store the contact details there.

Both these methods are useful but require you set everything up from the beginning which can take a while. especially if you have not set up a spreadsheet or database before. . However there is an easier way to do it using an OpenOffice Wizard.

Creating a new address book

First you must have OpenOffice open, then from the 'Tools' menu choose the Mail Merge Wizard:

open

You will be presented with the Mail Merge Wizard:

start

Choosing either of the first two options is fine for creating a new address book. We are not actually going to use this wizard for doing a 'mail merge'. We just want to use it as a shortcut for creating a new address book. So in my case I am just going to lkeave this page at the defaults and press 'Next>>' and you will see this:

start2

This screen also doesn't matter as this is more for those wanting to do a mail merge. We just want to set up the address book, so lets skip forward and press 'Next>>' :

start3

Now we are getting closer to the action. Here we actually get to select the adress book we wish to use, and because we dont have one the wizard will offer to set it up for us. So, press 'Select Address List' and you will be presented with a list of databases you can choose from.

start4

We want a new one, so we press 'Create':

newbook

Now we actually have a screen which will allow us to start storing our contact information. Here we can start with one or more entries (actually we can also just create an 'empty' address book, but its useful here to start entering information). So we will fill in one entry. You just need to click on the empty spaces and fill in the appropriate data. Here is an example:

1stentry

Once we have entered our first entry we can press 'OK' :

save

The above window is asking us to choose where to save the address book file. You can browse around your computers files and folders using the Places menu on the left. You should save the file somewhere you can easily find it later when you need to access it quickly. I am just going to save the file in the default place, so I just type a name for the file in the 'name' field :

Now I press 'Save' and I see that the address book has been saved:

done

We don't wish to mail merge so we will press cancel and move onto adding more entries to the address book.

Adding more entries

To add more entries to the address book you have to open the file you just created. You can do this from the OpenOffice menu :

openspreadsheet

Now you have a dialog open which you can use to browse your computer until you find the file :

opencsv

You will notice that file has been appended with the suffix 'csv'. Once selected, press 'Open' and you will be presented with an 'import' window:

openspreadsheet1

Just press 'OK' and you will see a spreadsheet infront of you:

csv2

Now, you can add new information to this document. So every time you have a new contact you can add it to the spreadsheet by simply typing the persons name and contact information in each appropriate field. You can also edit the information that is already in this document. So I will just type some entries in like so :

entries

Now I can save the document when I am happy with the list I have added. Remember I can add or delete entries from this list at anytime. I press the floppy disc icon to save the document :

I then get presented with a window that asks me if I am sure I wish to save this document as some data might be lost :

savecheck

As long as you haven't done anything strange with the entries you won't need to worry about this. So press Yes to confirm you do actually want to save this file as a csv file (which is the original format for the file). The file should be saved and no feedback is given to confirm this.

What can you do with this file?

With the file you have just created you can actually complete the mail merge process using the same wizard. This allows you to print form letters to the entire contact list, or selections of the list. It also assists you in sending mass emails to the contact list.

If you wish to use this file to do a Mail Merge it is better to change the format of the file to a spreadsheet. To do this first make sure the csv file is open in OpenOffice (see above step), and then from the file menu choose 'Save As...':

saveas

The following window should appear :

saveas2

Click on the dropdown menu that currently displays 'Text CSV (.csv)' and choose 'OpenDocument Spreadsheet (.ods)' :

ods

Now press 'Save'. You can now use your new file for keeping a list fo contacts and you can also use this easily with the OpenOffice Mail Merge.

Mail Merge

Mail Merge is a term used in the world of word processors to describe the process of combining a text document with personalised information for the purposes of mass mail outs. It could be used, for example, to send out a form letter to clients, or to send out more personalised reminder notices, Press Releases etc.

Getting Ready

You will need two things to get started on this process :

a text document ( the 'letter' - usually a OpenOffice text file)
an address list (could be an address book from Outlook, or Mozilla Thunderbird, or other contact list such as a spreadsheet)

For the purposes of this document we will assume that you have both of these in some form. You might need to experiment a little to see if your preferred address list file is supported by OpenOffice.

I will demonstrate the process using a OpenOffice document as a letter :

lettera

And I will use a list of addresses in a file I created with OpenOffice's Mail Merge Tool earlier. It is ods file which is a type of format known as a 'spreadsheet'. If you open my address book with OpenOffice it looks like this :

ods2

If you have file ending in the suffix csv (a 'comma separated file') then open this in OpenOffice and save it again as a file with the ods extension. OpenOffice sometimes has issues importing comma seperated files and so its best to work with a spreadsheet file.

Starting the Wizard

First of all, have OpenOffice running with your text document open. OpenOffice has a nice little tool to help you through the Mail Merge process. Unsurprisingly its called the Mail Merge Wizard and it is found under the Tools menu :

open

You are then asked which document you will use for the Mail Merge.

start

You have the document already open so we choose the first item 'Use the current document' which is the default setting. If you wanted to use another text file other than the one open then choose 'Start from existing document' and press 'Browse' on the right - you will then be offered a file browser to locate the file.

We want to just use the first option so just have to press 'Next >>'.

Select Document Type

start2

We are want to create a document that we print out so we can put it in an envelop and mail it so we choose 'letter' (the default) and press 'Next >>'

Insert Address Block

This is where you choose the layout of the contact information that will appear at the top of the letters to be printed. You can choose one of he defaults or you can get more fancy and make your own custom layout. First of all however, you need to choose what Address List you are going to use.

start3

The above screen is where we select the file with the addresses in it (Address List). You need to point OpenOffice to the right file by pressing the 'Select Address List'. If all is well you get the following window :

start4

The Address Book I wish to use is not listed so I choose 'Add' and I will be prompted to browse for the file :

browse

You will now need to tell the file browser what sort of files you are searching for, you do this using the drop down menu at the bottom right of the window:

To change the file types displayed click on this drop down menu :

I have chosen 'Address Lists'; which will locate the file I made earlier using the Mail Merge tool, you may need to try one of the other options depending on the format of the file.

Beware : leaving the setting at the default 'All files' does not necessarily show all the files available so if you do not see your file where it is supposed to be then try changing this setting. Choosing 'Address lists' is probably the best first6 choice.

My file is on the desktop so I double click on the 'Desktop' icon on the left and I am presented with the list of files and folders on my desktop and I see the file I am after ('contact.ods'):

ods

I click on the file to highlight it:

file_highlighted

And I press 'Open' at the bottom right of the window and I should see something like this:

This means my Address List has been successfully loaded into the mail merge wizard. I can now press 'OK' and return to the main mail merge screen.

merge_options_1

Changing the Address Layout

Now we get down to business. We can now decide on the layout of the address information that will be placed at the top of the letter. You can stick with the default layout which looks something like this:

You can see how this will look with the first entry in your address book in section 4 of this window:

If you wish to check other entries use the small arrows displayed in the bottom of the above image.

If you don't like this layout then you can change it with the 'More' button in section 2. If you press 'More' you will see this :

You can choose one of the defaults displayed by clicking on one of them. However, you can make it even more customised. Try pressing 'New' and you can make your own layout :

Here you see a list of fields and you can highlight these on the left and press the arrow button (pointing right) to add a field to the layout. If, for example, I press 'Title' on the left and then press the arrow I see this:

Now I can add as many items as I wish :

What you will notice is that the fields appear close to each other with no spaces, and all on the same line. You can change the exact positioning of each filed by clicking on that field in the layout display window on the right and using the arrow buttons to move it. Below is a (not very useful) example :

When you have finished customising the layout press the 'OK' button at the bottom and you return back to the window for choosing layouts. Instead of the defaults you will now only see the layout you created :

Press 'OK' again :

Now we can proceed to the next step. You might first wish to check your chosen layout with some of the entries in your address book to make sure they all look good. To do this use the arrows in section 4 to skip back and forward through contact details to see what each looks like.

You can keep adjusting the custom layout and tweaking it until its right, then when you are happy press 'Next>>' and we go to the next step.

Create Salutation

A salutation is a greeting like 'Hello' or 'To Whom it May Concern'. OpenOffice can insert a salutation at the beginning of each letter.

OpenOffice is supposed to also give you the option to the right gender-specific greeting. However there is a bug that prevents the gender specific greeting from working. The bug, fortunately, does not stop some of the salutation functions from being useful so its worth trying it out.

By default the salutations are deactivated so if you wish to create a salutation for every document you need to check the first box at the top of the window that says 'This document should contact a salutation'. So lets insert a salutation but keep the 'Personalised Salutation' turned off (if you don't wish to make use of this feature then just press 'Next >>' ).

salutationa

So now at the top of each letter we can have the greeting displayed in the 'General Salutation' box. In the above example we see 'Hello,' :

hello

We can type over this salutation or choose from the defaults in the drop down box. I will leave the default as it is. Now press 'Next >>' :

Adjust Layout

In this step you can adjust the position of the address block and salutation on the page. You can place the address block anywhere on the page. The salutation is always on the left, but you can move it up and down the page.

adjust

To move the box with the address information (highlighted in grey on the right of the window) you use the small arrows on the right of the filed displaying the position of the Address Block :

If you press these small arrows you should see the small grey block in the pane on the right move. To move the salutation use the buttons marked 'Up' and 'Down' and if you look closely you will see the salutation hop up and down on the pane on the right. Its unfortunate that it is so hard to see easily and if you have poor eyesight you don't stand a chance of seeing the changes in the small pane on the right. You would be better making your changes in the next step ('Edit Document'), however if you are persistant there is an option to zoom in by changing the 'Zoom' setting in the drop down on the right :

adjustzoom

but it has to be said its a bit useless as you cannot then move the position of what you see in the window. So if what you are changing is out of view of the area that has been zoomed in on then bad luck.

OpenOffice would do well to fix the issues with the 'Salutation' and 'Adjust' steps in this process. The Mail Merge is still very useful, but these strange little issues make it sometimes frustrating to use. Lets press 'Next >>" and move on to the next step.

Edit Document

edit

On this step you can change the layout of the letters again. You can also exclude specific recipients form being included in the mail merge.

Excluding Recipients

You exclude a specific recipient choose the number of the recipient you wish to exclude from the 'Recipient' box:

Of course the issue is that if you have a huge list of recipients how do you know which number corresponds to which recipient? Its not easy. You could look at the original spreadsheet or consult the original address list (depending on what format it is), but its not the best way to handle this kind of function. Once again it would have been better if OpenOffice managed this step a little nicer. If you have a small list of recipients you could try selecting the number of the recipient exclusion box (pictured above) and then click on 'Edit Document...'

to check if you got the right one. Its a bit 'hacky' but it does work. If you click 'Edit Document...' then OpenOffice opens the document of the recipient number you have chosen like so:

This isn't really a good way to do it but it means you can check if you have the right recipient number for exclusion. If you do see that this is thr right person to exclude then press the small floating window (it can be hard to see ) :

and OpenOffice will return you to the Mail Merge Wizard. To exclude the recipient you then need to click on 'Exclude this recipient' :

Now, if you browse forward to another recipient number then the checked box sgould clear again, You can go back and forwards excluding recipients in this fashion, when you browse past a number that you ahve already excluded the little box should will become checked.

Editing the Layout

You can also change the layout of the merged letters by pressing 'Edit this document...'. The document then opens, you can change the document and then close it by clicking on the small pop-up window:

You should be aware that any change made on the document will appear in all documents when the Mail merge is completed.

When you are finished excluding and tweaking press 'Next>>' and a window should popup :

popup

This process is actually creating all the individual letters and merging them with the details from the address book. Then you should be pushed on to the next step:

Personalize Document

This is where you finally get to make changes to each and every document to make sure they are laid out the way you wish them to be.

peronalise

If you press 'Edit Individual Document' you will be presented with one long document containing all the letters in one file. You can scroll up and down each letter and make your changes. When you are finished you click on the small popup window:

smmalwindow

The 'Find' function on this step merely locates a word or phrase within the form letters. It does not help you find recipients. When you have finished working on each document you are ready to output the final merged documents so press 'Next >>':

Save, print or send

You have now completed the mail merge process. The last step is to do something with it. In this step, you can save the original sample letter, save the merged document or print the letters right away.

You probably want to save the starting document first and then the merged document. To save your starting document press the 'Save Starting Document' button. You will not be given any feedback if it is successful apart from the fact that the button will be greyed out and you can not press it again:

If you see this you can assume the starting document has been saved.

The merged document can be saved as one big file or one file for each letter. When you have saved the merged document, you can print the final letters now or later; and you can still manually check and edit the letters if necessary. To save the merged file click on 'Save merged file', you will see some options appear:

savemerged

If you are in a hurry to print all the documents then choose 'Save as a single document'. This will output all the merged letters to one single file which means you can open this in OpenOffice and print the lot quickly. Otherwise you would have to open each individual document and print them one by one. We will choose to save as one document. In this case we press 'Save' and we get a file browser window:

saver

We type in the name of the file and press 'Save'. The job is then done! Press 'Finish' and the wizard will close. You will have before you a single merged document. This is not the document you just saved, so do with it what you will (you can quit it and forget about it if necessary).

License

All chapters copyright of the authors (see below). Unless otherwise stated all chapters in this manual licensed with GNU General Public License version 2

This documentation is free documentation; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This documentation is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this documentation; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301, USA.

Authors

_{Free manuals for free software}

General Public License

Version 2, June 1991

Copyright (C) 1989, 1991 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301, USA

Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies
of this license document, but changing it is not allowed.

Preamble

The licenses for most software are designed to take away your freedom to share and change it. By contrast, the GNU General Public License is intended to guarantee your freedom to share and change free software--to make sure the software is free for all its users. This General Public License applies to most of the Free Software Foundation's software and to any other program whose authors commit to using it. (Some other Free Software Foundation software is covered by the GNU Lesser General Public License instead.) You can apply it to your programs, too.

When we speak of free software, we are referring to freedom, not price. Our General Public Licenses are designed to make sure that you have the freedom to distribute copies of free software (and charge for this service if you wish), that you receive source code or can get it if you want it, that you can change the software or use pieces of it in new free programs; and that you know you can do these things.

To protect your rights, we need to make restrictions that forbid anyone to deny you these rights or to ask you to surrender the rights. These restrictions translate to certain responsibilities for you if you distribute copies of the software, or if you modify it.

For example, if you distribute copies of such a program, whether gratis or for a fee, you must give the recipients all the rights that you have. You must make sure that they, too, receive or can get the source code. And you must show them these terms so they know their rights.

We protect your rights with two steps: (1) copyright the software, and (2) offer you this license which gives you legal permission to copy, distribute and/or modify the software.

Also, for each author's protection and ours, we want to make certain that everyone understands that there is no warranty for this free software. If the software is modified by someone else and passed on, we want its recipients to know that what they have is not the original, so that any problems introduced by others will not reflect on the original authors' reputations.

Finally, any free program is threatened constantly by software patents. We wish to avoid the danger that redistributors of a free program will individually obtain patent licenses, in effect making the program proprietary. To prevent this, we have made it clear that any patent must be licensed for everyone's free use or not licensed at all.

The precise terms and conditions for copying, distribution and modification follow.

TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR COPYING, DISTRIBUTION AND MODIFICATION

0. This License applies to any program or other work which contains a notice placed by the copyright holder saying it may be distributed under the terms of this General Public License. The "Program", below, refers to any such program or work, and a "work based on the Program" means either the Program or any derivative work under copyright law: that is to say, a work containing the Program or a portion of it, either verbatim or with modifications and/or translated into another language. (Hereinafter, translation is included without limitation in the term "modification".) Each licensee is addressed as "you".

Activities other than copying, distribution and modification are not covered by this License; they are outside its scope. The act of running the Program is not restricted, and the output from the Program is covered only if its contents constitute a work based on the Program (independent of having been made by running the Program). Whether that is true depends on what the Program does.

1. You may copy and distribute verbatim copies of the Program's source code as you receive it, in any medium, provided that you conspicuously and appropriately publish on each copy an appropriate copyright notice and disclaimer of warranty; keep intact all the notices that refer to this License and to the absence of any warranty; and give any other recipients of the Program a copy of this License along with the Program.

You may charge a fee for the physical act of transferring a copy, and you may at your option offer warranty protection in exchange for a fee.

2. You may modify your copy or copies of the Program or any portion of it, thus forming a work based on the Program, and copy and distribute such modifications or work under the terms of Section 1 above, provided that you also meet all of these conditions:

: a) You must cause the modified files to carry prominent notices stating that you changed the files and the date of any change.
: b) You must cause any work that you distribute or publish, that in whole or in part contains or is derived from the Program or any part thereof, to be licensed as a whole at no charge to all third parties under the terms of this License.
: c) If the modified program normally reads commands interactively when run, you must cause it, when started running for such interactive use in the most ordinary way, to print or display an announcement including an appropriate copyright notice and a notice that there is no warranty (or else, saying that you provide a warranty) and that users may redistribute the program under these conditions, and telling the user how to view a copy of this License. (Exception: if the Program itself is interactive but does not normally print such an announcement, your work based on the Program is not required to print an announcement.)

These requirements apply to the modified work as a whole. If identifiable sections of that work are not derived from the Program, and can be reasonably considered independent and separate works in themselves, then this License, and its terms, do not apply to those sections when you distribute them as separate works. But when you distribute the same sections as part of a whole which is a work based on the Program, the distribution of the whole must be on the terms of this License, whose permissions for other licensees extend to the entire whole, and thus to each and every part regardless of who wrote it.

Thus, it is not the intent of this section to claim rights or contest your rights to work written entirely by you; rather, the intent is to exercise the right to control the distribution of derivative or collective works based on the Program.

In addition, mere aggregation of another work not based on the Program with the Program (or with a work based on the Program) on a volume of a storage or distribution medium does not bring the other work under the scope of this License.

3. You may copy and distribute the Program (or a work based on it, under Section 2) in object code or executable form under the terms of Sections 1 and 2 above provided that you also do one of the following:

: a) Accompany it with the complete corresponding machine-readable source code, which must be distributed under the terms of Sections 1 and 2 above on a medium customarily used for software interchange; or,
: b) Accompany it with a written offer, valid for at least three years, to give any third party, for a charge no more than your cost of physically performing source distribution, a complete machine-readable copy of the corresponding source code, to be distributed under the terms of Sections 1 and 2 above on a medium customarily used for software interchange; or,
: c) Accompany it with the information you received as to the offer to distribute corresponding source code. (This alternative is allowed only for noncommercial distribution and only if you received the program in object code or executable form with such an offer, in accord with Subsection b above.)

The source code for a work means the preferred form of the work for making modifications to it. For an executable work, complete source code means all the source code for all modules it contains, plus any associated interface definition files, plus the scripts used to control compilation and installation of the executable. However, as a special exception, the source code distributed need not include anything that is normally distributed (in either source or binary form) with the major components (compiler, kernel, and so on) of the operating system on which the executable runs, unless that component itself accompanies the executable.

If distribution of executable or object code is made by offering access to copy from a designated place, then offering equivalent access to copy the source code from the same place counts as distribution of the source code, even though third parties are not compelled to copy the source along with the object code.

4. You may not copy, modify, sublicense, or distribute the Program except as expressly provided under this License. Any attempt otherwise to copy, modify, sublicense or distribute the Program is void, and will automatically terminate your rights under this License. However, parties who have received copies, or rights, from you under this License will not have their licenses terminated so long as such parties remain in full compliance.

5. You are not required to accept this License, since you have not signed it. However, nothing else grants you permission to modify or distribute the Program or its derivative works. These actions are prohibited by law if you do not accept this License. Therefore, by modifying or distributing the Program (or any work based on the Program), you indicate your acceptance of this License to do so, and all its terms and conditions for copying, distributing or modifying the Program or works based on it.

6. Each time you redistribute the Program (or any work based on the Program), the recipient automatically receives a license from the original licensor to copy, distribute or modify the Program subject to these terms and conditions. You may not impose any further restrictions on the recipients' exercise of the rights granted herein. You are not responsible for enforcing compliance by third parties to this License.

7. If, as a consequence of a court judgment or allegation of patent infringement or for any other reason (not limited to patent issues), conditions are imposed on you (whether by court order, agreement or otherwise) that contradict the conditions of this License, they do not excuse you from the conditions of this License. If you cannot distribute so as to satisfy simultaneously your obligations under this License and any other pertinent obligations, then as a consequence you may not distribute the Program at all. For example, if a patent license would not permit royalty-free redistribution of the Program by all those who receive copies directly or indirectly through you, then the only way you could satisfy both it and this License would be to refrain entirely from distribution of the Program.

If any portion of this section is held invalid or unenforceable under any particular circumstance, the balance of the section is intended to apply and the section as a whole is intended to apply in other circumstances.

It is not the purpose of this section to induce you to infringe any patents or other property right claims or to contest validity of any such claims; this section has the sole purpose of protecting the integrity of the free software distribution system, which is implemented by public license practices. Many people have made generous contributions to the wide range of software distributed through that system in reliance on consistent application of that system; it is up to the author/donor to decide if he or she is willing to distribute software through any other system and a licensee cannot impose that choice.

This section is intended to make thoroughly clear what is believed to be a consequence of the rest of this License.

8. If the distribution and/or use of the Program is restricted in certain countries either by patents or by copyrighted interfaces, the original copyright holder who places the Program under this License may add an explicit geographical distribution limitation excluding those countries, so that distribution is permitted only in or among countries not thus excluded. In such case, this License incorporates the limitation as if written in the body of this License.

9. The Free Software Foundation may publish revised and/or new versions of the General Public License from time to time. Such new versions will be similar in spirit to the present version, but may differ in detail to address new problems or concerns.

Each version is given a distinguishing version number. If the Program specifies a version number of this License which applies to it and "any later version", you have the option of following the terms and conditions either of that version or of any later version published by the Free Software Foundation. If the Program does not specify a version number of this License, you may choose any version ever published by the Free Software Foundation.

10. If you wish to incorporate parts of the Program into other free programs whose distribution conditions are different, write to the author to ask for permission. For software which is copyrighted by the Free Software Foundation, write to the Free Software Foundation; we sometimes make exceptions for this. Our decision will be guided by the two goals of preserving the free status of all derivatives of our free software and of promoting the sharing and reuse of software generally.

NO WARRANTY

11. BECAUSE THE PROGRAM IS LICENSED FREE OF CHARGE, THERE IS NO WARRANTY FOR THE PROGRAM, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW. EXCEPT WHEN OTHERWISE STATED IN WRITING THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND/OR OTHER PARTIES PROVIDE THE PROGRAM "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO THE QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE OF THE PROGRAM IS WITH YOU. SHOULD THE PROGRAM PROVE DEFECTIVE, YOU ASSUME THE COST OF ALL NECESSARY SERVICING, REPAIR OR CORRECTION.

12. IN NO EVENT UNLESS REQUIRED BY APPLICABLE LAW OR AGREED TO IN WRITING WILL ANY COPYRIGHT HOLDER, OR ANY OTHER PARTY WHO MAY MODIFY AND/OR REDISTRIBUTE THE PROGRAM AS PERMITTED ABOVE, BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR DAMAGES, INCLUDING ANY GENERAL, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE PROGRAM (INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO LOSS OF DATA OR DATA BEING RENDERED INACCURATE OR LOSSES SUSTAINED BY YOU OR THIRD PARTIES OR A FAILURE OF THE PROGRAM TO OPERATE WITH ANY OTHER PROGRAMS), EVEN IF SUCH HOLDER OR OTHER PARTY HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.

END OF TERMS AND CONDITIONS