Make special selections, compress documents to save space and get updates first
Extend your selections
Writer and Calc have some nifty hidden tricks for selecting text. Click and drag as normal to select, then try right-clicking on the tiny box/text-cursor icon in the status bar (at the bottom of the program window, towards the centre). Choose ‘Adding selection’, for example, and you’ll be able to select multiple unconnected passages of text or cells: simply hold down the Control (Ctrl) key while making your selections, then press Ctrl+C to copy them all at once. Also, use the ‘Extending selection’ option to enlarge an existing selection, or ‘Block selection’ to draw a box around stuff you want to select.
Change capitalisation quickly
Sometimes it’s useful to quickly change the case of your text, from lower- to upper case to create a headline, say. In Writer and Calc you can do this with the keyboard shortcut Shift+F3: simply press this repeatedly to cycle through the different style options. In other LibreOffice programs this shortcut brings up various dialogue boxes, but you’ll find the same options on the Format menu – within the Change Case sub-menu.
Add up the way you want
Calc’s status bar displays an instant tally of the values contained in selected cells – but did you know you can tweak this handy totaliser to show something other than the sum total? Right-click where it says ‘Sum=’ then choose a different calculation. Average, for example, determines the average of the selected values, while Maximum picks out the highest value.
Add features with extensions
Familiar with those extensions that add extra features to your web browser? Well, LibreOffice can be improved in exactly the same way. Visit http://extensions.openoffice.org to see your options. Installation is as simple as doubleclicking the downloaded extensions (files with an OXT extension) and following the prompts. There are loads to try but we’d definitely recommend checking out Read Text (www.snipca.com/18019). This puts a speech-bubble icon in most LibreOffice apps – just click this and the program will read aloud any selected text.
Compress images for smaller files
Documents, spreadsheets and presentations with lots of images can result in large files sizes, making them difficult to share via email and taking up valuable hard-drive space. You can make life easier with a little-known feature that compresses images – but doesn’t necessarily result in lost quality. Select an image then open the Format menu, move your cursor to Image and choose Compress Image. JPEG compression offers the biggest space-savings but if you want to retain full quality, choose the ‘Lossless compression’ button, set the Compression value to 9 (that’s the maximum), then click OK.
Embed fonts to preserve your layouts
If you share your LibreOffice documents with others then embedding fonts will ensure your layouts are preserved, because all the fonts used will be saved along with the file. If the recipient doesn’t have all the necessary fonts installed on their computer, LibreOffice will automatically draw on its embedded data. To do this in any LibreOffice tool, click File followed by Properties, then choose the Font tab and tick the ‘Embed fonts in this document’ box.
Get the latest updates before everyone else
You may already be aware that if you want the latest LibreOffice features you should download and install Fresh, as this gives you the latest ‘major’ version with the newest features. The Still edition is older, but potentially more reliable.
That said, the Fresh install has a hidden way to ensure you’re at the front of the queue when it comes to any updates. In any LibreOffice program open the Tools menu and choose Options. Now double-click the LibreOffice category in the left-hand pane to expand it, then select Online Update.
The default here is ‘Every week’, so to get the latest updates quicker select ‘Every day’ and make sure that ‘Check for updates automatically’ is ticked. If you’re even more impatient, visit this dialogue box any time to click Check Now.