Sunday, February 18 2007 @ 04:09 AM EST Contributed by: sde
Like other OpenOffice.org applications, Writer has dozens of options available from Tools > Options > OpenOffice.org Writer. These options allow you to adjust both the general settings of Writer and specific options for different kinds of formatting. Many are ideal for desktop publishing, and a similar set of options is available for web documents under Tools > Options > OpenOffice.org Writer/Web.
However, there are several small problems when adjusting Writer options. First, unlike in earlier versions of OpenOffice.org, in recent versions you can only review options when you have a text document open. Second, like the general settings for OpenOffice.org's behavior, options are not always in the most logical place. In some cases you may have to jump around from tab to tab to make the adjustments you want. Finally, because the options have been slightly rearranged from earlier versions, you may find that the online help does not always explain your choices in enough detail, or refer to options that have been removed from the program.
Yet, despite these problems (or maybe because of them), a tour of Writer options may help you to customize the application to fit your preferred methods of work.
General setup
The first tab you'll probably want to visit is Basic Fonts. Since this tab sets the fonts for text (or Default), headings, and several other basic situations. I think of it as a quick and dirty alternative to using paragraph styles. If you do use the tab as a style substitute, you can check the Current document only box; otherwise, your settings apply to all new Writer documents.
