There are four ways to create a document in LibreOffice. These ways apply to all six applications: Writer (word processor), Calc (spreadsheet), Impress (presentation), Draw (drawing), Base (database), and Math (formula editor). Here are the four ways that will be discussed in this article:
Through the StartCenter
Through the File menu
Through the Standard toolbar
With keystrokes
Links to other LibreOffice links
StartCenter
As mentioned in other articles on this Website, StartCenter is the document management application that gives users access to all the documents in their computers that were opened by one of LibreOffice’s five applications. Through it, new documents also can be created.
There is a section in the left column called Create. It has options for each of the six types of documents. Click on Writer document. A new “Untitled” document opens.
File menu
All the applications have a File menu with a New sub-menu in it. The sub-menu has items for each type of document. This is the list of documents it can create:
- Text Document
- Spreadsheet
- Drawing
- Presentation
- Database
- HTML
- XML Form
- Master Document
- Formula
- Labels
- Business Cards
- Templates
To create a document, simply click the desired type of document.
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Standard toolbar
The Standard toolbar has icons for several common functions in LibreOffice applications. The icons it contains are different from application to application. However, the New icon is common to all of them.
It is a button to create a new document, and it also has a drop-down menu that will allow a user to create all the same types of documents that are in the New sub-menu of the File menu.
The button will typically be for creating a new document in the application that it is being clicked in. For example, if it is in a Writer document the icon will be of the Writer application.
However, if another type of document was created with it, it will change to the icon for the application that created the document. For example, if someone has a Writer document open and decides to click the New icon drop-down menu and create a spreadsheet document, then returns to the Writer document, the New icon will have changed to the graphic for Calc, LibreOffice’s spreadsheet application.
The drop-down menu contains the same items that are under the File menu:
- Text Document
- Spreadsheet
- Drawing
- Presentation
- Database
- HTML
- XML Form
- Master Document
- Formula
- Labels
- Business Cards
- Templates
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Keystrokes
Many people like to use the keyboard for everything in a word processor, or at least as many tasks as possible. They do not move their mouse over to the copy icon and click it, then move it over to the paste icon and press the left button again. Instead they press Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V (or Command+C and V for Mac users). This saves a few precious microseconds, and for many, it is a more comfortable way of working.
There is also a keystroke for opening a new document, Ctrl+ N for all versions of Windows and every Linux distro. (Cmd+N for Mac users).
The only limitation it has is that it can only open the type of document for the application that is being used. For example, pressing Ctrl+N in Writer will create a text document; pressing it in Calc will create a new spreadsheet.
This article has been a tutorial on the four ways of creating a new document in LibreOffice. The tutorial applies to all six applications in LibreOffice.
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Other LibreOffice links
Click one of the links below to jump to that page in this Website.
LibreOffice suite | Introduction to LibreOffice Start Center | Saving document in LibreOffice | Creating new document in LibreOffice | LibreOffice remote server introduction | Connecting LibreOffice to Google Drive | Connecting LibreOffice to FTP
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