Further OpenOffice.org Modules

Contents

4.1. Using Presentations with Impress
4.2. Using Databases with Base
4.3. Creating Graphics with Draw
4.4. Creating Mathematical Formulas with Math

Besides OpenOffice.org Writer and OpenOffice.org Calc there are more applications along the OpenOffice.org package. These includes Impress, Base, Draw and Math. With these you are able to create presentations, design databases, draw up graphics and diagrams and create mathematical formulas.

Using Presentations with Impress

Use OpenOffice.org Impress to create presentations for screen display or printing, such as slide shows or transparencies. If you have used other presentation software, you can move comfortably to Impress, which works very similarly to other presentation software.

Impress can open and save Microsoft Powerpoint presentations, which means you can exchange presentations with Powerpoint users, as long as you save your presentations in Powerpoint format.

Creating a Presentation

  1. When you launch OpenOffice.org Impress directly, a wizard appears. Otherwise click File+New+Presentation.

  2. Select the option to use for creating the presentation.

    There are three ways to create a presentation:

    • Create an empty presentation

      Opens Impress with a blank slide. Use this option to create a new presentation from scratch, without any preformatted slides.

    • Create a presentation from a template

      Opens Impress with your choice of template. Use this option to create a new presentation with a predesigned OpenOffice.org template or a template you’ve created or installed yourself, such as your company’s presentation template. Impress uses styles and templates the same way other OpenOffice.org modules do. See Section 2.5, “Using Templates to Format Documents” for more information about templates.

    • Open a existing presentation

      When you want to edit existing presentation check this radiobox. Click Open... to select your presentation at the file dialog.

  3. Select a slide design and an output medium, then click Next.

    The slide design provides a variety of backgrounds and ready-made presentations, or you can select Original to create your own.

    The output medium is the form the final presentation will take, such an overhead sheet, paper, or a screen slide show, among other choices.

    Select Preview for a thumbnail showing your choices.

  4. Select the type and speed of slide transitions and the presentation type (the timing of the presentation), then click Create.

    There are several slide transition choices, available from the drop-down.

    You can choose either the default presentation type or Automatic. If you select Automatic, specify the amount of time each page displays and the length of the pause between presentations.

The presentation opens, ready for editing.

Using Master Pages

Master pages give your presentation a consistent look by defining the way each slide looks, what fonts are used, and other graphical elements. Impress uses two types of master pages:

  • Slide Master

    Contains elements that appear on all slides. For example, you might want your company logo to appear in the same place on every slide. The slide master also determines the text formatting style for the heading and outline of every slide that uses that master page, as well as any information you want to appear in a header or footer.

  • Notes Master

    Determines the formatting and appearance of the notes in your presentation.

Creating a Slide Master

Impress comes with a collection of preformatted master pages. Eventually, most users will want to customize their presentations by creating their own slide masters.

  1. Start Impress, then create a new empty presentation.

  2. Click View+Master+Slide Master.

    This opens the current slide master in Master View.

  3. Right-click the left-hand panel, then click New Master.

  4. Edit the slide master until it has the desired look.

  5. Click Close Master View or View+Normal to return to Normal View.

[Tip]

When you have created all of the slide masters you want to use in your presentations, you can save them in an Impress template. Then, any time you want to create presentations that use those slide masters, open a new presentation with your template.

Applying a Slide Master

Slide masters can be applied to selected slides or to all slides in the presentation.

  1. Open your presentation, then click View+Master+Slide Master.

  2. (Optional) If you want to apply the slide master to multiple slides, but not to all slides, select the slides that you want to use that slide master.

    To select multiple slides, pressCtrl in the Slides Pane while clicking on the slides you want to use.

  3. In the Task Pane, right-click the master page you want to apply.

    If you do not see the Task Pane , click View+Task Pane.

  4. Apply the slide master by clicking one of the following:.

    • Apply to All Slides

      Applies the selected slide master to all slides in the presentation.

    • Apply to Selected Slides

      Applies the selected slide master to the current slide, or to any slides you select before applying the slide master. For example, if you want to apply a different slide master to the first slide in a presentation, select that slide, then change to Master View and apply a slide master to that slide.