OpenOffice.org 2, Firefox, and Thunderbird for Windows All in One [Electronic resources]

1.

Request Options

Select

Options from Impress's

Tools menu. The

Options dialog box appears. From the

Options dialog box, you can change any of Impress's options as well as overall options for all OpenOffice.org programs. Click the plus sign next to OpenOffice.org to display the categories.background cache when displaying objects in a presentation (without the cache, Impress runs more slowly, although on recent computers you'll hardly notice the difference). In addition, you can specify how you wish to handle copying and moving presentation objects, and you may also specify how you want to handle measurements and tab stops, such as in inches or metrically. The

Start Presentation section determines whether you want Impress to jump to the most-recently edited slide or the first slide when you open a new presentation. The

Compatibility section determines how you want Impress to handle the printing and paragraph-spacing capabilities of Impress.

KEY TERM

Background cache A memory area that Impress can use to speed some operations. Instead of waiting for Impress to load all objects needed in a presentation from the disk drive, you can have Impress preload certain presentation objects into the background cache memory area so those objects more rapidly appear when it becomes time for them to display.

4.

Change the View Options

Click the

View options category under the

Impress category; the dialog box changes to show options that handle Impress's onscreen display. The

Alternative display section determines how and when Impress shows slide elements such as text and images or shows only placeholders or contours. If you choose to show

Image placeholders or

Text

placeholders , Impress will not display actual text and graphics but rather will show placeholders for them to speed your screen's display. If your slides contain drawings, you may want to display them in

Contour mode or

Line contour only to speed their display as well. During the editing of a large presentation, you can often speed up the editing process by electing to show placeholders and contours instead of actual text and graphics. When running your presentation for others, of course, Impress will show the actual text and graphics during the presentation. The

Display section determines how special elements such as the rulers are to show while you work within Impress.

KEY TERM

Placeholders Fast-loading graphic or text objects that take the place of slower-loading graphic images and long spans of text.X-axis , the

Y-axis adjusts symmetrically at the same time, instead of changes to one axis not affecting the other. The

Snap section allows you to determine what you want objects to snap, or align, to and just how precisely. If you plan to produce many freeform presentation slides, you'll want to turn off all snap-to items. If you create commercial presentations, such as for business meetings, advertisements, and education classes, that show relationships and textual backgrounds and layouts, you may wish to require that some objects move toward the closest snap-to grid for consistency and alignment of objects.

KEY TERMS

X-axis The horizontal axis on a slide (or drawing) with the lower-left corner of your slide having an X-axis value of 0 and increasing as you move up the slide.

Y-axis The vertical axis on a slide (or drawing) with the lower-left corner of your slide having a Y-axis value of 0 and increasing as you move to the right on the slide.

6.

Change the Print Options

Click to select the

Print category under the

Impress option category. The

Contents section lets you specify whether, when you're printing, Impress should include graphic objects, notes, handouts, and an outline. The

Quality section allows you to determine whether you want your slides printed in the default screen colors, in a more efficient grayscale, or in black and white (both printed without colors, thus saving color printer ink and toner). The

Print section specifies what you want printed, such as the page name (if you've assigned one), date, time, and pages you've hidden within the presentation but may want to print. The

Page options section allows you to determine how you want your presentations to fit the final pagewhether they take up the actual size specified by the ruler on your drawing or whether you want Impress to shrink the slides enough to fit on the current page. You can use the

Brochure option if you want to print on the front and back of the page and you can opt to use the printer's own paper tray settings instead of the default settings.

General

Describes general Impress settings, such as the initial use of the Presentation Wizard when you create new presentations, and sets the default unit of measurement for elements within a presentation.

View

Describes how Impress appears on the screen and which Impress special elements, such as rulers and text placeholders, are shown.

Grid

Determines whether Impress displays a grid for you on your presentation slide backgrounds, to help you place elements on your slides more accurately and consistently.

Print

Describes how Impress handles the printing of presentations, such as printing presentation notes along with the presentation.