Menus and Toolbars:

Using and customizing those common to all OpenOffice.org components

Contents

Overview	ii

Copyright and trademark information	ii

Feedback	ii

Acknowledgments	ii

Modifications and updates	ii

Menus	1

Customizing the menu font	1

Customizing menu content	1

Toolbars	2

Long click buttons and tear-off toolbars	3

Displaying or hiding toolbars	3

Moving toolbars	3

Customizing a toolbar	4

Creating a new toolbar	5

Overview

This document describes the menu bar and toolbars common to all OpenOffice.org components and how to customize them. Toolbars specific to Writer, Calc, Draw, and Impress are discussed in the user guides for those components.

Copyright and trademark information

The contents of this Documentation are subject to the Public Documentation License, Version 1.0 (the "License"); you may only use this Documentation if you comply with the terms of this License. A copy of the License is available at:
http://www.openoffice.org/licenses/PDL.rtf.

The Original Documentation is Menus and Toolbars: Using and customizing those common to all OpenOffice.org components. The Initial Writer(s) of the Original Documentation is/are Linda Worthington © 2004. All Rights Reserved. (Initial Writer contact(s): lindaw65@earthlink.net. The Initial Writer contact(s) is to report errors in the documentation. For questions regarding how to use the software, subscribe to the Users Mail List and post your question there: http://support.openoffice.org/index.html.)

All trademarks within this guide belong to their legitimate owners.

Feedback

Please direct any comments or suggestions about this document to:
authors@user-faq.openoffice.org.

Acknowledgments

Portions of this document are based on material provided by Ian Laurenson in the Migration Guide.

Modifications and updates

Version	Date	Description of Change
1.0	10 Dec 2004	First published edition.

Menus

Menus are located across the top of the screen. The main menu selections are File, Edit, View, Insert, Format, Tools, Window, and Help. When you choose one of the menus, a submenu is made available for other options.

File contains commands that apply to the entire document such as Open, Save, and Export to PDF.

Edit contains commands for editing the document such as Undo and Find and Replace.

View contains commands for controlling the display of the document such as Zoom and Online Layout.

Insert contains commands for inserting elements into your document such as Headers, Footers, and Graphics.

Format contains commands, such as Style and AutoFormat, for formatting the layout of your document.

Tools contains functions such as Spellcheck, Configure, and Options.

Window contains commands for the display window.

Help contains Help Contents, Tips, and information about the version of OpenOffice.org you have installed.

Customizing the menu font

If you want to change the menu font:

Choose Tools > Options > OpenOffice.org > Accessibility.

Check Use system font for user interface, then click OK.

Customizing menu content

It is possible to customize menus in OpenOffice.org. To customize menus:

Choose Tools > Configure.

On the Configuration dialog, pick the Menu tab (Figure 1).

Select the location in the Menu entries list box.

Select the new menu item using the Category and Function list boxes.

Click New to insert that function into the menu.

Figure 1. The Menu tab or the Configuration dialog

Toolbars

The top toolbar (default position) is called the Function Bar. The Function Bar is consistent across the OpenOffice.org applications.

The second toolbar across the top (default location) is the Object Bar. The Object Bar is a context-sensitive bar which shows the relevant toolbars in response to the cursor's current position or selection. For example, when the cursor is in a table, the object bar provides both a Table Bar and a Text Bar. To toggle between these bars click the large triangle button at the right end of the Object Bar.

The toolbar down the left side (default position) is the Main Toolbar. It has the buttons most relevant to the current application.

Figure 2 shows the default locations of the toolbars.

Figure 2. Locations of the three main toolbars in OpenOffice.org

Long click buttons and tear-off toolbars

Buttons with a small green triangle will display sub-menus, tear-off toolbars, and other ways of selecting things with a long click, depending on the button.

Figure 3. Example of a tear-off toolbar

The tear-off toolbars are always floating and cannot be docked on any edge. To move a tear-off toolbar, drag it by the title bar.

Displaying or hiding toolbars

To display or hide toolbars, choose View > Toolbars or right-click on the toolbar to display the same menu. Any toolbar you have active will show a checkmark beside the toolbar name.

Moving toolbars

To move a toolbar, hold the Ctrl key down and double-click on the toolbar. The toolbar is now a floating toolbar or free window.

To dock the toolbar in another area, hold down the Ctrl key and drag the toolbar to the new location and release the mouse key or left mouse button. The toolbar will dock in the new location.

Customizing a toolbar

There are three main ways to get to the toolbar customization dialog:

On the toolbar, right-click and choose Customize.

Choose View > Toolbars > Customize from the menu bar.

Choose Tools > Configure from the menu bar. On the Toolbars tab (Figure 3), choose the toolbars you want to modify and click the Customize button.

Figure 4. The Toolbars tab of the Configuration dialog

In each case, the Customize Toolbars dialog (Figure 4) opens.

From the dropdown Toolbars list, choose the toolbar you wish to customize.

View the Available buttons on the left hand side for the toolbar you have selected and the current buttons under Buttons in use.

Choose the button to be added or removed and then use the Add-> and <-Remove buttons.

Figure 5. The Customize Toolbars dialog

Note: There is no in-built tool button editor. To use a custom icon, save it to the "{installpath}/share/config/symbol" directory in *.BMP format. OOo automatically searches this directory for new icons each time the Customize Buttons dialog is opened. Custom icons must be 16 x 16 or 26 x 26 pixels in size and cannot contain more than 256 colors.

Creating a new toolbar

To create a new toolbar:

Choose Tools > Configure... > Toolbars from the menu bar.

Click New. This will create a toolbar called “User-defined no.1”. It is not possible to change the name of this toolbar.

Customize the toolbar as above.

JHW

Mouse key? I'm not familiar with this term.

---- JHW, 09/12/2004, 19:20 ----

Toolbars

Menus and Toolbars	5

Title:	Menus and Toolbars: Using and customizing those common to all OpenOffice.org components
Version:	1.0
First edition:	December 2004
First English edition:	December 2004

Overview

Menus and Toolbars	v

Menus and Toolbars

Jean Hollis Weber

2004-11-27T11:35:45