Setting Up LibreOffice

LibreOffice suite has a large number of settings or options that you can change. Some settings apply to all the components of LibreOffice and others apply only to specific components. This sections covers only some basic settings which are important for every user.

Open the Options window

You can open the Options window using the menu from LibreOffice Start Center or any other component. From the main menu choose Tools > Options.

The list in the left-hand box of the Options dialog window varies depending on which component of LibreOffice is open. Click the marker (+ or triangle) to expand a setting category. Selecting an item in the list causes the right-hand side of the dialog to display the relevant page.

There are many options you can change but you are strongly advised to leave everything in their default values. When you gain more experience then you might edit some of the options. For the purpose of this course we are going to edit only some basic options.

User Data Options

LibreOffice stores with every document you create, some additional information such as the author of the document, the time that was created etc. All this type of information is called metadata.

We can fill in the form with our personal details in user data options, update or delete any existing information. If you do not want user data to be part of the document’s properties, clear the box at the bottom.

Language Options

In this window we can setup various language settings. The most important are the User Interface language and the Locale settings.

User interface

The language of the user interface is usually set at the time LibreOffice is installed to match the language of the operating system. If more than one language has been installed for LibreOffice, you can select which language will be used for menus, dialogs, and help files.

Locale setting

The local setting is the basis for many other settings within LibreOffice and determines the defaults for

• date format
• numbering
• currency
• paper size
• units of measure, etc

Unless you select something else here, the locale of the operating system will be set as default.

Setting the wrong locale can create confusion and errors to your document. For example the date 22 January 2017 is displayed as 01/22/17 in an USA locale. Another example is numbering, the number 1.200,34 is displayed as 1,200.34 in USA locale.

Unless you live in USA you are advised to set the local to a country that uses the metric system to follow this course.