Take your first steps with LibreOffice FINISH THE INSTALLATION
DOWNLOAD LIBREOFFICE
Open your browser and go to libreoffice.org/download The default download options should be fine, but click on ‘Choose your Operating System’ if you want to change them. The default language is US English. If you want to change this to British or Australian English (we do), click on ‘need another language’ and select it from the list. Then select ‘Download’.
SAVE AND LAUNCH THE INSTALLER
Your browser of choice will now ask what to do with the installation file. Click on Save to begin the download. The file is quite small (around 200MB) so this won’t take long. If you’re using Microsoft Edge, click Run once the download has finished to launch the installer. For other browsers, you may need to open the downloads folder and double click the installer from there.
Once the LibreOffice installer launches, click Next to continue. You can now choose the Installation type. Leave ‘Typical’ checked (you can always change this later) and click Continue. On the next screen, click the checkbox to have LibreOffice launch on startup then click Install. Windows will ask you to confirm that you want to make changes. Click Yes and the install will complete.
OPEN DOCUMENTS IN LIBREOFFICE
You should now see a shortcut for LibreOffice on your desktop. Double click this to open the main window. Open a Microsoft Office document to familiarise yourself with the app. Click on ‘Open File’, then navigate to your file of choice. Click Open. The corresponding app for your file will launch automatically. Here, the Microsoft Word Document opens in Writer.
CREATE A NEW LIBREOFFICE DOCUMENT
Close your document and relaunch LibreOffice from your desktop. Note the document you just opened is now listed under ‘Recent Files’. You can double-click to reopen files you’re working on at any time. For now, look at the Create section of the main window and click one of the options, such as Calc Spreadsheet, this will create a new, blank document for you to work on.
SAVE A DOCUMENT
Once you’ve changed your document to your satisfaction, it’s time to save it. Click the Save icon at the top left or choose ‘File... Save As’. Choose a filename. Under ‘Save as Type’, you’ll see that LibreOffice wants to use its own (.odf) format. If you want to share this document with MS Office users, click this menu and choose a Microsoft format (such as .xlsx). Click Save to confirm. USE TEMPLATES
Rather than creating a document from scratch, LibreOffice includes templates to get you started. Launch LibreOffice again and click the arrow besides Templates to view categories such as those for presentations. Double-click your chosen template to load a new document based on it. Use Manage Templates to add and remove categories as well as to make your own templates.
ADD LIBREOFFICE EXTENSIONS
Open your browser and visit extensions.libreoffice.org to view all available add-ons. Here, we’re installing the Language Tool, which checks your grammar. Click the link to download and save the file. Next, open LibreOffice and go to ‘Tools > Extension Manager’. In the new window that appears, click Add, navigate to the new file and click Open to install. OTHER LIBREOFFICE APPS
So far, we’ve focused on word processing, spreadsheets and presentations. LibreOffice has other powerful apps however. Draw enables you to create graphics and diagrams. Math is used to work with formulae. Both of these work as standalone apps or can be launched from inside others. The handy app, Base, allows you to create and edit databases, much as Microsoft Access does. HOW DO I...?
This is only a brief introduction to LibreOffice. Visit the Community Support portal ( http://bit.ly/2nMDoXI) for further help. Or press ‘F1’ at any time when using LibreOffice to be redirected to the relevant help page. One handy tip is to start with the Features section to see if the function you want is supported. It often is, but you access it in a different way than in MS Office.