1. U3A General Computing Class Autumn 2014 Week 4 of 10 weeks. Mondays 4:15 to 5:45 pm Half Term – Miss 27th of October 2014 and 3 rd November. Class dates at present are= 8/9/14, 15/9/14, 22/9/14, 6/10/14, 13/10/14, 20/10/14, 10/11/14, 17/11/14, 24/11/14, 1/12/14

2. Letter writing using LibreOffice To use free LibreOffice Version 4.2.6.3 Letter writing program is called “Writer”, equivalent to MS Word 2003. Other programs in the suite are= Calc – spreadsheet, like Excel Impress - Presentation like PowerPoint. Base – A Database like Access Also Draw – for Drawing and Math for Formulae.

3. LibreOffice Writer running. Looks like Microsoft Office 2003, with the traditional File, Edit, View menu list.

4. Install LibreOffice If you have not already please install from my memory stick. Both the main program LibreOffice_4.2.6-secfix_Win_x86.msi and Help LibreOffice_4.2.6-secfix_Win_x86_helppack_en- GB.msi. Elsewhere it is available at http://www.libreoffice.org/download/libreoffice- still/ the Main Installer, but please don't download it here, it will overload the wifi here! http://www.libreoffice.org/download/libreoffice- still/ I have gone for LibreOffice Still because it is guaranteed to be stable.

5. Setup to use just installed help When LibreOffice main program and help are installed, when you press F1 you get Online help and not the just installed help. To fix do- Start, All Programs, LibreOffice 4.2, LibreOffice Writer. Then Tools, Options expand Language Settings, Languages, in User Interface change to English (UK) F1 now opens Off Line help just installed. To find this out I Googled Why can't I access offline help in LibreOffice First result gives answer.

6. Change to save in the same format as MS Word Still in Tools, Options. Expand Load/Save then General. Untick “Warn when not saving in ODF or default format”. And in “Always save as” change from ODF to Microsoft Word 97/2000/XP/2003 Now a saved document can be opened by anybody with MS Word or LibreOffice.

7. LibreOffice Writer is Very complex, to be able to handle complex documents. Try to understand only what you need to and I describe. The First line contains the Document Title – LibreOffice Writer. On the 2 nd line are the traditional Microsoft command lists File, Edit View, Insert, Format, Table, Tools, Windows and Help. Lines 3 & 4 contains Icons to do some of line 2 commands. Next is the Ruler to setup indents. Then the main box to type in.

8. Other things The big white area is where you type. The usual slider bar on the right allows you to move around in the document. The ruler bar is a white bar just above where you type. It’s used for setting Indents – where typing starts from, and Tab marks – to add big gaps in text. At the bottom is Page number, Page & Word count, View types & Zoom slider bar. Deleting text. Backspace key is to the right of = marked ← and deletes text to the left of the cursor. Delete, marked as such, deletes text to the right.

9. LibreOffice Basics Now continue presentation on document Example_Letter_as_used_in_lesson.doc This will include instructions for today's practical. I have printed you a copy. This and others good word lesson documents are in http://www.creweandnantwich-u3a.org.uk/ under Course/Groups, Computing & I.T. Groups, CMP, Course Material, Computing (CMP) Downloads, Week 4. You can download them.http://www.creweandnantwich-u3a.org.uk/

10. Next Week More on LibreOffice Writer. Saving Options, Tables, Password protect, Headers, Footers & Footnote.