Word Processing
Senior 1 · ICT
Word Processing
Lesson 5 of 5
25 min
Let's begin
Your class is writing a short history of your school. Five students each write one section, the teacher checks it, and at the end it needs a contents page. If every student formats headings differently, the document looks messy, and changing every heading by hand takes hours. Styles solve the first problem, a table of contents is built from them automatically, and comments and tracked changes let the teacher suggest corrections without destroying anyone's work.
The steps use LibreOffice Writer; Word paths are in brackets.
A style is a named set of formatting that you apply in one step. For example, the paragraph style Heading 1 might mean "Liberation Sans, 18 pt, bold, with space below". Writer's main paragraph styles include Heading 1, Heading 2 and Heading 3 for titles at different levels, and Body Text for ordinary paragraphs.
Why use styles instead of making each heading bold and large by hand? The document stays consistent, a change to one style updates every heading, the Navigator lists your headings so you can jump between them, and Writer can build a table of contents from them.
A comment is a note attached to part of the text, shown in the margin, that does not change the document itself. Select the text and choose Insert > Comment (Ctrl + Alt + C). (Word: Review > New Comment.) Right-click a comment to reply to it, mark it resolved or delete it. Writer adds the author's name from Tools > Options > LibreOffice > User Data.
Track changes records every insertion and deletion so that the author can see exactly what a reviewer changed and decide whether to keep it.
Before sending a finished document to others, accept or reject every change: hidden tracked changes can still show text that you meant to delete.
Work in groups. Each group writes and designs one short document about your school's history, using everything in this unit.
A suggested plan. Headings use the Heading 1 and Heading 2 styles; the paragraphs use Body Text. Every page except the cover has a header with the school's name and a footer with "Page X of Y".
| Skill | Where you use it |
|---|---|
| Create, save and name the file | Save as School history - group 3.odt in your ICT folder; save often |
| Page layout | A4, portrait, 2 cm margins; a page break after the cover and after the contents |
| Styles and contents | Heading 1 and 2 for every heading; an automatic table of contents on page 2 |
| Character and paragraph formatting | A large centred title on the cover; justified body text with 1.15 line spacing; a bulleted list of achievements |
| Headers, footers, page numbers | School name in the header; "Page X of Y" in the footer; none on the cover |
| Editing | Find and Replace to spell the school's name the same way everywhere |
| Reviewing | Swap documents with another group: they add comments and tracked changes; you accept or reject each one |
| Finishing | Update the table of contents, check spelling, then export a PDF |
Interview a teacher or older staff member for facts, and say who they are in your Sources section. Write in your own words.
Tip
Style it, don't paint it. Give headings a Heading style instead of formatting them by hand, and the contents page builds itself.
Comments suggest; tracked changes edit, and wait for your decision.
All 12 headings in a report are Heading 2. The teacher wants them blue instead of black. What is the quickest way?
Solution: In the Styles deck, right-click Heading 2 > Edit Style, and change the font colour to blue. All 12 headings change at once.
Gatete inserted a table of contents, then added a new section. The new heading is missing from the contents. Why, and how does he fix it?
Solution: The table of contents does not update by itself. He right-clicks it and chooses Update Index (and checks that the new heading has a Heading style).
What is the difference between a comment and a tracked change?
Solution: A comment is a note in the margin; it does not change the text. A tracked change is a real edit to the text that is marked so that the author can accept or reject it.
Your teacher returns your project with tracked changes. What must you do before exporting the final PDF?
Solution: Go through every change and accept or reject it (Edit > Track Changes > Manage), deal with the comments, update the table of contents, then export.
Remember
Sources and credits
Page 1 Cover: title, school name, class, date, a photo (no header)
Page 2 Table of contents
Page 3 1 How our school began (Heading 1)
1.1 The founders (Heading 2)
1.2 The first buildings (Heading 2)
2 Our school today (Heading 1)
3 Achievements and memories (Heading 1)
4 Sources: who we interviewed (Heading 1)