LibreOffice

Gentoo installation

• Emerge myspell-en, myspell-fr etc to get spellchecking support.

Writer

• To create a line break, use SHIFT + ENTER. This won't create a new paragraph.

Pages

• You can edit the page style at the bottom of the application screen (left click to change the page style).
• If the footer is different on left and right pages, edit the page style, Footer tab, and check the checkbox "Same Content Left / Right".
• To be able to correctly print (at the right size) double check that Page Format (in Format -> Page) is set to the correct size. Else the printer will ask for another paper size and refuse to print.

Paragraphs

• If there is a thin black line appearing somewhere, it is most likely a paragraph border. To remove it, edit the paragraph formatting.

Numbering and Bullets

• When creating a new paragraph (typing ENTER), a new number / bullet is automatically inserted. You can remove it by pressing BACKSPACE.
• I don't know how to have two or more levels of numbering / bullets on the same line.

Calc

Types

• It seems that there is no function to convert an internal date to a text (using some formatting options).
• You can use "'" (single quote) in front of a value to force Calc to recognize it as text.
• There are test functions like ISTEXT, ISNONTEXT who can be useful.

Sheets

• You can delete the current sheet via Edit -> Sheet -> Delete.
• You can link a whole sheet from an external document. For that, use Insert -> Sheet from file... and check the Link checkbox. This feature can be very useful.
• Sometimes in that case you must trigger "hard recalculation" if cells don't appear to update right. The key shortcut is Control + Shift + F9.

Rows and columns

• You may move a row/column/cells by using the following procedure:
  • Select the cells you want to move.
  • Then click on the black square, and start to drag and drop it.
  • While dragging hold the alt key to move it to the destination.

Cells

• To paste the contents of a cell, not its formula, copy as usual and then select "Paste special".

Referencing external cells

• You can reference cells in another sheet or even in another document. You can even use some functions to build the path of the other document. Example:

=INDIRECT(CONCATENATE(Sheet2.B1,YEAR(H1),"-", MONTH(DATE(Sheet2.B10,Sheet2.B9,1)) - 1, "-vincent-bernardi-pay.ods'", "#$sheet1.i15"))

The CONCATENATE function is used to build the path. Note that you *must* use double quotes for concatenate to work when dealing with inline strings. The INDIRECT function is used to actually get the value of the referenced cell.

• Note that if you don't remember the syntax for referencing an external document or another stylesheet, you can just click on a cell, type "=" then click on the target cell on the external document. It will fill in the reference for you.

Merged Cells

• You can see if some cells are merged by clicking on a row / column head. Then all cells belonging to the row are highlighted in blue except those that are merged.
• To unmerge: Format -> Merge cells.

Exporting to PDF

• It is possible to define only certain sheets to be exported to PDF by defining a "Print Range" (Format -> Print Ranges -> Define). You can give a custom selection or just select "Entire sheet" to use the current sheet. In that case you don't need to enter anything in the field.