What is Impress?

Impress is the presentation (slide show) program included in LibreOffice. You can create slides that
contain many different elements, including text, bulleted and numbered lists, tables, charts, and a wide
range of graphic objects such as clipart, drawings, and photographs. Impress also includes a spelling
checker, a thesaurus, text styles, and background styles.
This chapter includes instructions, screenshots, and hints to guide you through the Impress environment
while designing your presentations. Although more difficult designs are mentioned in this chapter,
explanations for creating them are in the Impress Guide. If you have a working knowledge of how to
create slide shows, we recommend you use the Impress Guide for your source of information.
To use Impress for more than very simple slide shows requires some knowledge of the elements which
the slides contain. Slides that contain text use styles to determine the appearance of that text. Creating
drawings in Impress is similar to the Draw program included in LibreOffice. For this reason, we
recommend that you also see Chapter 3 Using Styles and Templates and Chapter 7 Getting Started with
Draw in this guide. You may also wish to consult the Draw Guide for more details on how to use the
drawing tools.
Starting Impress
You can start Impress in several ways, as described in Chapter 1 Introducing LibreOffice.
When you start Impress for the first time, the Presentation Wizard may be shown. See “Creating a new
presentation using the Presentation Wizard” on page 13. Otherwise, the main Impress window is
displayed.
You can turn the Presentation Wizard on and off in Tools > Options > LibreOffice Impress > General
> New document by selecting or deselecting the Start with wizard option.
Main Impress window
The main Impress window (Figure 1) has three parts: the Slides pane, Workspace, and Sidebar.
Additionally, several toolbars can be displayed or hidden during the creation of a presentation.
 Tip
You can close the Slides pane or the Sidebar by clicking the X in the upper right corner of
each pane or go to View > Slide Pane or View > Sidebar on the Menu bar to deselect the
pane. To reopen a pane, go to View on the Menu bar and select Slide Pane or Sidebar again.
You can also maximize the Workspace area by clicking on the Hide/Show marker in the
middle of the vertical separator line (highlighted in Figure 1). Using the Hide/Show marker
hides, but does not close, the Slide pane or Sidebar. To restore a pane, click again on its
Hide/Show marker.

Workspace
The Workspace (normally in the center of the main window) opens in the Normal view. It has five
tabs: Normal, Outline, Notes, Handout, and Slide Sorter. These five tabs are called View buttons.
Since LibreOffice 5.1, the View buttons are not shown by default; but they can be activated by
choosing View > Modes Tab Bar from the menu bar.
The Workspace below the View buttons changes with the chosen view. The workspace views are
described in “Workspace views” on page 9.
Figure 1: Main window of Impress; ovals indicate the Hide/Show markers. The View Tab Bar is visible in
this image.

Slides pane
The Slides pane contains thumbnail pictures of the slides in your presentation in the order in which they
will be shown, unless you change the slide show order. Clicking a slide in this pane selects it and places it
in the Workspace. When a slide is in the Workspace, you can make changes to it.
Several additional operations can be performed on one or more slides simultaneously in the Slides pane:
 •Add new slides to the presentation.
 •Mark a slide as hidden so that it will not be shown as part of the presentation.
 •Delete a slide from the presentation if it is no longer needed.
 •Rename a slide.
 •Duplicate a slide (copy and paste).
 •Move a slide to another place in the slide stack by dragging and dropping it to the
desired position. If the position is not visible in the slide pane, the slide stack will scroll up or
down accordingly.
It is also possible to perform the following operations, although there are more efficient methods than
using the Slides pane:
 •Change the slide transition following the selected slide or after each slide in a group.
 •Change the slide design.
 •Change slide layout for a group of slides simultaneously.

Sidebar
The Sidebar has seven sections. To expand a section you want to use, click on its icon or click on the
small triangle at the top of the icons and select a section from the drop down list. Only one section at a
time can be open.
 Properties
Shows the layouts included within Impress. You can choose the one you want and use it as it is, or
modify it to meet your own requirements. However, it is not possible to save customized layouts.
Master Pages
Here you define the page (slide) style for your presentation. Impress includes several designs for
Master Pages (slide masters). One of them – Default – is blank, and the rest have background and
styled text.
 Tip
Go to Format > Styles > Styles and Formatting on the Menu bar or press the F11 key to
open the Styles and Formatting dialog, where you can modify the styles used in any master
page to suit your purpose. This can be done at any time.
Custom Animation
A variety of animations can be used to emphasize or enhance different elements of each slide. The
Custom Animation section provides an easy way to add, change, or remove animations.
Slide Transition
Provides a number of slide transition options. The default is set to No Transition, in which the
following slide simply replaces the existing one. However, many additional transitions are
available. You can also specify the transition speed (slow, medium, fast), choose between an
automatic or manual transition, and choose how long the selected slide should be shown (automatic
transition only).
Styles and Formatting
Here you can edit and apply graphics styles and create new ones, but you can only edit existing
presentation styles. When you edit a style, the changes are automatically applied to all of the
elements formatted with this style in your presentation. If you want to ensure that the styles on a
specific slide are not updated, create a new master page for the slide.
Gallery
Opens the Impress gallery from which you can insert an object into your presentation either as a
copy or as a link. A copy of an object is independent of the original object, so changes to the object
have no effect on the copy. A link remains dependent on the original object and changes to the
object are reflected in the link.
Navigator
Opens the Impress navigator, in which you can quickly move to another slide or select an object on
a slide. It is recommended to give slides and objects in your presentation meaningful names so that
you can easily identify them when using the navigator.

Toolbars
Many toolbars can be used during slide creation. They can be displayed or hidden by going to View >
Toolbars on the Menu bar and selecting from the context menu.
You can also select the icons that you wish to appear on each toolbar. For more information, refer to
Chapter 1, Introducing LibreOffice.
Many of the toolbars in Impress are similar to the toolbars in Draw. Refer to the Draw Guide for details
on the functions available and how to use them.

Status bar
The Status bar (Figure 2), located at the bottom of the Impress window, contains information that you
may find useful when working on a presentation. For details on the contents and use of these fields,
see Chapter 1 Introducing LibreOffice in this guide and the Impress Guide Chapter 1 Introducing
Impress.
 Figure 2: Status bar
 Note
The sizes are given in the current measurement unit (not to be confused with the ruler units).
This measurement unit is defined in Tools > Options > LibreOffice Impress > General.
From left to right, you will find:
 •Information area – changes depending on the selection. For example:
Example selection Examples of information shown

Text area Text Edit: Paragraph x, Row y, Column z

Charts, spreadsheets Embedded object (OLE) “ObjectName” selected

Graphics Bitmap with transparency selected

 •Cursor position – the position of the cursor or of the top left corner of the selection
measured from the top left corner of the slide, followed by the width and height of the selection
or text box where the cursor is located.
 •Unsaved changes – a flag indicating that the file needs saving. Double-clicking on this
flag opens the file save dialog.
 •Digital signature – a flag indicating whether the document is digitally signed. After the
file has been saved, double-clicking on this flag opens the digital signatures dialog.
 •Slide number – the slide number currently displayed in the Workspace and the total
number of slides in the presentation.
 •Page (slide) style – the style associated with the slide, handout, or notes page currently
in the Workspace. Double-clicking on the style name opens the slide design dialog.
 •Zoom slider – adjusts the zoom percentage of the Workspace displayed.
 •Zoom percentage – indicates the zoom percentage of the Workspace displayed.
Double-clicking on zoom percentage opens the zoom and layout dialog.
You can hide the Status Bar and its information by going to View on the Menu bar and deselecting Status
Bar.
Workspace views
Each of the Workspace views is designed to ease the completion of certain tasks. It is therefore useful to
familiarize yourself with them in order to accomplish those tasks quickly.
 Note
Beginning with LibreOffice 5.1, the Workspace View tab bar is hidden by default. Turn it
visible by choosing View > Modes Tab Bar.
 Note
Each Workspace view displays a different set of toolbars when selected. These toolbar sets
can be customized by going to View > Toolbars on the Menu bar, then check or uncheck the
toolbar you want to add or remove.

Normal view
Normal view is the main view for working with individual slides. Use this view to format and design and
to add text, graphics, and animation effects.
To place a slide in the slide design area (Normal view) (Figure 1 on page 6), click the slide thumbnail in
the Slides pane or double-click it in the Navigator (see Chapter 1 Introducing LibreOffice and the Impress
Guide for more information on the Navigator).

Outline view
Outline view (Figure 3) contains all the slides of the presentation in their numbered sequence. It shows
topic titles, bulleted lists, and numbered lists for each slide in outline format. Only the text contained in
the default text boxes in each slide is shown, so if your slide includes other text boxes or drawing objects,
the text in these objects is not displayed. Slide names are not included either.

Figure 3: Outline view

Use Outline view for the following purposes:
 •Quickly inserting text for fast content creation or editing, when formatting and
adding graphic objects is postponed until the final stages of creating the presentation.
 •Making changes in the text of a slide:
 –Adding and deleting the text in a slide as in the Normal view.
 –Moving the paragraphs of text in the selected slide up or down by using the up and
down arrow buttons (Move Up or Move Down) on the Text Formatting toolbar’
 –Changing the outline level for any of the paragraphs in a slide using the left and right
arrow buttons (Promote or Demote) on the Text Formatting toolbar.
 –Moving a paragraph and changing its outline level at the same time using a combination
of these four arrow buttons.
 •Comparing slides with your outline (if you have prepared one in advance). If you notice
from your outline that another slide is needed, you can create it directly in the Outline view or
you can return to the Normal view to create it.

Notes view
Use the Notes view (Figure 5) to add notes to a slide. These notes are for your information and are not
seen by the audience when the presentation is shown.
Figure 5: Notes view
1. 1) Click the Notes tab in the Workspace.
2. 2) Select the slide to which you want to add notes: click the slide in the Slides pane, or
double-click the slide name in the Navigator.
3. 3) In the text box below the slide, click on the words Click to add notes and begin
typing.
You can resize the Notes text box using the colored resizing handles which appear when you click on the
edge of the box. You can also move the box by placing the pointer on the border, then clicking and
dragging. To make changes in the text style, click on the Styles and Formatting icon
on the Sidebar.

Handout view
Handout view is for setting up the layout of your slide for a printed handout. Click the Handout tab in the
workspace and the Layouts section opens on the Sidebar (Figure 6). Here you can choose to print 1, 2, 3,
4, 6, or 9 slides per page. If the Layouts section does not open, then click on the Properties icon
at the side of the Sidebar.
Use this view also to customize the information printed on the handout. Refer to Chapter 10, Printing, E-
mailing, Exporting, and Saving Slide Shows, in the Impress Guide for instructions on printing slides,
handouts, and notes.
Go to Insert > Page Number, Insert > Fields, or Insert > Header and Footer on the Menu bar and the
Header and Footer dialog opens. Click on the Notes and Handouts tab (Figure 7) and select the elements
you want to appear on each handout page and their contents. More details on how to use this dialog are
provided in the Impress Guide.

Figure 6: Handout layouts

Figure 7: Header and Footer dialog – Notes and Handouts page

Slide Sorter view
Slide Sorter view (Figure 8) contains all of the slide thumbnails. Use this view to work with a group of
slides or with only one slide.

Figure 8: Slide Sorter view

Customizing Slide Sorter view

To change the number of slides per row:
1) Go to View > Toolbars and select Slide Sorter and Slide View to show or hide the Slide
Sorter and Slide View toolbars (Figure 9).
2) Adjust the number of slides (up to a maximum of 15).
Figure 9: Slide Sorter and Slide View toolbars

Moving a slide using Slide Sorter

To move a slide in a presentation in the Slide Sorter:
1. 1) Click the slide and the slide is highlighted (Figure 8).
2. 2) Drag and drop the slide to the location you want.

Selecting and moving groups of slides

To select a group of slides, use one of these methods:
 •Using the Ctrl key – click on the first slide and, while pressing the Ctrl key, select the
other desired slides.
 •Using the Shift key – click on the first slide, and while pressing the Shift key, select the
final slide in the group. This selects all of the other slides between the first and the last slide
selected.
 •Using the mouse – click slightly to one side (left or right) of the first slide to be selected.
Hold down the left mouse button and drag the cursor until all of the slides you want selected are
highlighted.
To move a group of slides, select them and then drag and drop the group to their new location.

Working in Slide Sorter view

 You can work with slides in the Slide Sorter view just as you can in the Slide pane. To make changes,
right-click a slide and choose any of the following from the context menu:
 •New Slide – adds a new slide after the selected slide (see “New slide” on page 16).
 •Duplicate Slide – creates a duplicate of the selected slide and places the new slide
immediately after the selected slide (see “Duplicate slide” on page 17).
 •Delete Slide – deletes the selected slide.
 •Rename Slide – allows you to rename the selected slide.
 •Slide Layout – allows you to change the layout of the selected slide.
 •Slide Transition – allows you to change the transition of one or a group of selected
slides.
 •Hide Slide – any slides that are hidden are not shown in the slide show.
 •Cut – removes the selected slide and saves it to the clipboard.
 •Copy – copies the selected slide to the clipboard without removing it.
 •Paste – inserts a slide from the clipboard after the selected slide.
Creating a new presentation using the Presentation Wizard
This section describes how to start a new presentation using the Presentation Wizard.
 Tip
The first thing to do is decide on the purpose of the presentation and set out a plan. Although
you can make changes as you go, you will save a lot of time by having an initial idea of who
the audience will be, the structure, the content, and how the presentation will be delivered.
When you start Impress, the Presentation Wizard may appear (Figure 10).
1) In step 1, under Type, choose one of the options. These options are covered in the Impress
Guide.

o –Empty presentation creates a blank presentation.
o –From template uses a template design already created as the basis for a new
presentation. The wizard changes to show a list of available templates. Choose the template
you want.
o –Open existing presentation continues work on a previously created presentation. The
wizard changes to show a list of existing presentations. Choose the presentation you want.
 Figure 10: Choosing the type of presentation
1. 2) Click Next. Figure 11 shows the Presentation Wizard step 2 as it appears if you
selected Empty Presentation at step 1. If you selected From template, an example slide is shown
in the Preview box.
2. 3) Choose a design under Select a slide design. The slide design section gives you two
main choices: Presentation Backgrounds and Presentations. Each one has a list of choices for
slide designs. If you want to use one of these other than <Original>, click it to select it.
 –The types of Presentation Backgrounds are shown in Figure 11. When you select a
presentation background, you will see a preview of the slide design in the Preview window.

o –<Original> is for a blank presentation slide design.
 Figure 11: Selecting a slide design
1. 4) Select how the presentation will be used under Select an output medium. The
majority of presentations are created for computer screen display so it is recommended to
select Screen. You can change the page format at any time.
 Note
The Screen page is set by default for a 4:3 display (28cm x 21cm) so it is not suitable for
modern widescreen displays. Use the Widescreen option instead. You can also change the
slide size and proportions at any time by switching to Normal view and selecting Slide >
Page/Slide Properties.
1. 5) Click Next and step 3 of the Presentation Wizard appears (Figure 12).
1. a) Choose the desired slide transition from the Effect drop-down menu.
2. b) Select the desired speed for the transition between the different slides in the
presentation from the Speed drop-down menu. Medium is a good choice for now.
3. c) Select the presentation type. For most purposes, choose Default; you can change this
later. For details on the choices under Automatic, see the Impress Guide.
 Figure 12: Selecting a slide transition effect
 Note
If you did not select a template in step 1 of the Presentation Wizard, then steps 4 and 5 will
not appear after step 3. Click Create and your new presentation is created.
1. 6) Click Next. In step 4 of the Presentation Wizard, you can enter information about
your company and the presentation you are creating.
Figure 13: Entering information about your presentation
1. 7) Click Next. In step 5, the Presentation Wizard shows a preview of what your
presentation will look like (Figure Error: Reference source not found). If the preview does not
appear, select Preview.
 Figure 14: Presentation preview
1. 8) To create a summary of your presentation, select Create summary.
2. 9) Click Create and your new presentation is created.
 Tip
You can accept the default values for both Effect and Speed unless you are skilled at creating
presentations. Both of these values can be changed later while working with slide transitions
and animations. These two features are explained in more detail in Chapter 9, Slide Shows,
in the Impress Guide
Formatting a presentation
A new presentation contains only one empty slide. In this section we will start adding new slides and
preparing them for the intended contents.

Inserting slides
New slide
A new slide can be inserted into a presentation as follows:
1. 1) Go to Slide on the Menu bar and select New Page/Slide.
 –Or, right-click on a slide in the Slides Pane or Slide Sorter view and select New
Slide from the context menu.
 –Or, right-click in an empty space in the Workspace and select Slide > New Slide from
the context menu.
 –Or click the NewPage/Slide icon
in the Presentation toolbar. You can also select the desired layout of the new slide if you click on the
small downward arrow of the icon. If the Presentation toolbar is not visible, go to View > Toolbars on
the Menu bar and select Presentation from the list.
in the Presentation toolbar. You can also select the desired layout of the new slide if you click on the
small downward arrow of the icon. If the Presentation toolbar is not visible, go to View > Toolbars on
the Menu bar and select Presentation from the list.
2) A new slide is inserted after the selected slide in the presentation.

Duplicate slide
Sometimes, rather than starting from a new slide you may want to duplicate a slide already included in
your presentation. To duplicate a slide:
1) Select the slide you want to duplicate from the Slides Pane.
2) Go to Slide on the Menu bar and select Duplicate Page/Slide.
–Or, right-click on the slide in the Slides Pane or Slide Sorter view and select Duplicate
Slide from the context menu.
–Or, right-click on a slide in the Workspace and select Slide > Duplicate Slide from the
context menu.
–Or, click on the triangle to the right of the Slide icon in the Presentation toolbar and
select Duplicate Page/Slide from the context menu. If the Presentation toolbar is not visible,
go to View > Toolbars on the Menu bar and select Presentation from the list.
3) A duplicate slide is inserted after the selected slide in the presentation.

Selecting slide layout

When creating a presentation, the first slide is normally a title slide. You can use either a blank layout or
one of the title layouts as your title slide.
Click on the Properties icon
at the side of the Sidebar to open Layouts section and display the available layouts (Figure 15). The
layouts included in LibreOffice range from a blank slide to a slide with six contents boxes and a title.

Figure 15: Available slide layouts

To create a title, if one of the title layouts has been selected, click on Click to add title and then type the
title text. To add text content, depending on the slide layout selected, click on Click to add text. To adjust
the formatting of the title, subtitle or content modify the presentation style; see the Impress Guide
Chapter 2 Using Slide Masters, Styles, and Templates.
 Note
Text and graphical elements can be readjusted at any time during the preparation of the
presentation, but changing the layout of a slide that already contains some content can have
an effect on the content format. Therefore, it is recommended that you pay particular
attention to the layout you select to prevent any loss of content.
 Tip
To view the names for the included layouts, use the Tooltip feature: position the cursor on an
icon in the Layout section (or on any toolbar icon) and its name will be displayed in a small
rectangle.
In Tools > Options > LibreOffice > General > Help, select the Extended tips option to get
more detailed tooltip information.
To select or change the layout of a slide, select the slide in the Slides Pane so that it appears in the
Workspace and select the desired layout from the Layouts section in the Sidebar. Several layouts contain
one or more content boxes. Each of these content boxes can be configured to contain text, movies,
images, charts or tables.
You can choose the type of content by clicking on the corresponding icon that is displayed in the middle
of the content box as shown in Figure 16. If you intend to use the content box for text, click on Click to
add text.

Figure 16: Selecting content type

 Modifying slide elements
A slide contains elements that were included in the slide master, as well as those elements included in the
selected slide layout. However, it is unlikely that the predefined layouts will suit all your needs for your
presentation. You may want to remove elements that are not required or insert objects such as text and
graphics.
Although Impress does not allow you to create new layouts, you can resize and move the layout elements.
It is also possible to add elements without being limited to the size and position of the layout boxes.
To resize a contents box, click on the outer frame so that the resizing handles are displayed. To move it,
place the mouse cursor on the frame so that the cursor changes shape. You can now click and drag the
contents box to a new position on the slide.
To remove any unwanted element:
1) Click the element to highlight it. The resizing handles show that it is selected.
2) Press the Delete key to remove it.
Note
Changes to any of the layouts included in Impress can only be made using View > Normal,
which is the default. Attempting any changes by modifying a slide master, although possible,
may result in unpredictable results and requires extra care as well as a certain amount of trial
and error.

Adding text
To add text to a slide that contains a text frame, click on Click to add text in the text frame and then type
your text. The Outline styles are automatically applied to the text as you insert it. You can change the
outline level of each paragraph as well as its position within the text by using the arrow buttons on
the Text Formatting toolbar (see Figure 4 and “Outline view” on page 9) or using the Tab key while
positioning the cursor at the beginning of the paragraph. For more information on text, see “Adding and
formatting text” on page 20.

Adding objects
To add any objects to a slide, for example a picture, clipart, drawing, photograph, or spreadsheet, click
on Insert then select from the drop down menu what type of object you want to insert. For more
information, see “Adding pictures, tables, charts, and media” on page 25.

Modifying the appearance of all slides

To change the background and other characteristics of all slides in the presentation, you need to modify
the master page or choose a different master page as explained in “Working with slide masters and styles”
on page 28.
A Slide Master is a slide with a specified set of characteristics that acts as a template and is used as the
starting point for creating other slides. These characteristics include slide background, objects in the
background, formatting of any text used, and any background graphics.
 Note
LibreOffice uses three terms for a slide that is used to create other slides: master slide, slide
master, and master page. This book uses the term slide master, except when describing the
user interface.
Impress has a range of slide masters and these are found in the Master Pages section of the Sidebar. You
can also create and save additional slide masters or add more from other sources. See the Impress Guide
Chapter 2 Using Slide Masters, Styles, and Templates for more information on creating and modifying
slide masters.
If all you need to do is to change the background, you can use a shortcut:
 1. 1) Select Slide > Page/Slide Properties... and go to the Background tab on the Page
Setup dialog that opens.
2. 2) Select the desired background between solid color, gradient, hatching, and bitmap.
3. 3) Click OK to apply it.
4. 4) A dialog opens asking if the background should be applied to all the slides.
Click Yes if you want all the slides modified and Impress will automatically modify the master
page for you.
 Note
Inserting and correctly formatting a background is beyond the scope of this chapter, but you
can find all the information you need in the Draw Guide Chapter 4 Changing Object
Attributes or in the Impress Guide Chapter 6 Formatting Graphic Objects.

Modifying the slide show

By default the slide show will display all the slides in the same order as they appear in the slide sorter,
without any transition between slides. You need to use keyboard input or mouse interaction to move from
one slide to the next.
You can use Slide Show on the Menu bar to change the order of the slides, choose which ones are shown,
automate moving from one slide to the next, and other settings. To change the slide transition, animate
slides, add a soundtrack to the presentation, and make other enhancements, you need to use functions in
the Sidebar. See the Impress Guide for details on how to use all of these features.
Adding and formatting text
Many of your slides are likely to contain some text. This section gives some guidelines on how to add text
and change its appearance. Text used in slides is contained in text boxes. For more information on adding
and formatting text, see the Impress Guide Chapter 3 Adding and Formatting Text.
You can add two types of text boxes to a slide:
 •Choose a predefined layout from the Layouts section of the Sidebar and do not select
any special content type. These text boxes are called AutoLayout text boxes.
 •Create a text box using the Text icon
on the Standard toolbar (Figure 17) or the Text toolbar (Figure 18), or use the keyboard shortcut F2.
on the Standard toolbar (Figure 17) or the Text toolbar (Figure 18), or use the keyboard shortcut F2.

Figure 17: Standard toolbar

Figure 18: Text toolbar

Using AutoLayout text boxes

1. 1) Make sure Normal view is selected.
2. 2) Click in the text box that reads Click to add text.
3. 3) Type or paste your text in the text box.
Using text boxes
1. 1) Make sure Normal view is selected.
2. 2) Click on the Text icon on the Standard or Text toolbar or use the keyboard
shortcut F2. If the Standard or Text toolbars are not visible, go to View > Toolbars on the Menu
bar and select Standard or Text.
3. 3) Click and drag to draw a box for the text on the slide. Do not worry about the vertical
size and position as the text box will expand if needed as you type.
4. 4) Release the mouse button when finished. The cursor appears in the text box, which is
now in edit mode (a colored border shown in Figure 19).
5. 5) Type or paste your text in the text box.
6. 6) Click outside the text box to deselect it.
You can move, resize, and delete text boxes. For more information, see the Impress Guide Chapter 3
Adding and Formatting Text.

Vertical text
In addition to the normal text boxes where text is horizontally aligned, it is possible to insert text boxes
where the text is aligned vertically. Vertical text is available only when Asian languages are enabled
in Tools > Options > Language Settings > Languages. Click the Vertical Text icon in the Standard
toolbar or Text toolbar to create a vertical text box.

Figure 19: Creating and editing text boxes

Quick font resizing

 Impress has an Increase Font icon and a Decrease Font icon on the Text Formatting toolbar (highlighted
in Figure 20) to increase or decrease the font size of selected text. The amount by which the font size
changes depends on the standard sizes available for the font in use.

Figure 20: Quick font resizing on Text Formatting toolbar

 Note
AutoLayout text boxes can automatically resize fonts to let the box contain all the text you
insert. If you insert a long piece of text, the font size may shrink to fit into the box.
Otherwise, the font keeps its default size.

Pasting text
Text may be inserted into the text box by copying it from another document and pasting it into Impress.
However, pasted text will probably not match the formatting of the surrounding text on the slide or that of
the other slides in the presentation. This may be what you want on some occasions; however, in most
cases you want to make sure that the presentation style is consistent and does not become a patchwork of
different paragraph styles, font types, bullet points and so on. There are several ways to ensure
consistency in your presentation.

Pasting unformatted text

It is normally good practice to paste text without formatting and apply the formatting later. To paste text
without formatting:
 •Use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Shift+V and select Unformatted text from the Paste
Special dialog that opens.
 •Or click on the small triangle next to the Paste icon in the Standard toolbar and
select Unformatted text from the context menu.
The unformatted text will be formatted with the outline or paragraph style at the cursor position in an
AutoLayout text box or with the default graphic style in a normal text box.

Formatting pasted text

When formatting pasted text, you can use the tools available on the Text Formatting toolbar (Figure 21),
or the tools available in the Character and Paragraph sections of the Properties deck in the Sidebar
(Figure 22). If the Character and Paragraph sections do not automatically open after selecting some text,
click on the Properties icon
at the side of the Sidebar.

Figure 21: Text Formatting toolbar

Figure 22: Sidebar Character section

If you are pasting the text into an AutoLayout text box, you need to apply the appropriate outline style to
the text to give it the same look and feel as the rest of the presentation.
1. 1) Paste the text in the desired position.
2. 2) Select the text you have just pasted.
3. 3) Select Format > Default formatting on the Menu bar.
4. 4) Use the four arrow buttons on the Text Formatting toolbar (highlighted in Figure 4 on
page 9) to move the text to the appropriate position and give it the appropriate outline level.

o –Left arrow promotes a list entry by one level (for example from Outline 3 to Outline 2).
You can get the same result by placing the cursor at the beginning of the paragraph and
pressing the Shift + Tab keys.
o –Right arrow button demotes a list entry by one level. Press the Tab key to get the same
result after placing the cursor at the beginning of the paragraph.
o –Up arrow moves a list entry up in the list order.
o –Down arrow moves a list entry down in the list order.
5) Apply any necessary manual formatting to the text to change font attributes, tabs, and so on.
If you are pasting text in a text box, you can still use styles to format the text quickly. Only one graphic
style can be applied to the pasted text, as follows:
1) Paste the text in the desired position.
2) Select the text you have just pasted.
3) Select the desired graphical style to format the text.
4) Apply any necessary manual formatting to the text to change font attributes, tabs, and so on.

Creating bulleted and numbered lists

The procedure to create a bulleted or numbered list is quite different depending on the type of text box
used, although the tools to manage the list and customize the appearance are the same. In AutoLayout text
boxes, the outline styles available are, by default, bulleted lists. For normal text boxes an additional step
is required to create a bulleted list.

AutoLayout text boxes

AutoLayout text boxes included in the available layouts are already formatted as a bulleted list. Create a
slide with a bulleted list as follows:
1) From the Layout pane, choose a slide design that contains a text box.
2) In the text box, click on Click to add text.
3) Type your text and press the Enter key to start a new bulleted point.
The default list type is a bulleted list. Methods for changing the appearance of a list are explained in
“Changing list appearance” on page 24.
 Tip
Press Shift+Enter to start a new line without creating a new bullet point. The new line will have the same
indentation as the previous line. To switch off bullets altogether, click the Bullets On/Off icon on the
Text Formatting toolbar. If the Text Formatting toolbar is not displayed, go to View > Toolbar > Text
Formatting on the Menu bar.

Text boxes
Create a bulleted list in a text box as follows:
1) Click the Text icon
on the Standard toolbar and draw a text box on your slide.
on the Standard toolbar and draw a text box on your slide.
2) Click the Bullets On/Off icon
on the Text Formatting toolbar.
on the Text Formatting toolbar.
3) Type the text and press Enter to start a new bulleted line.
The default list type is a bulleted list. Methods for changing the appearance of a list are explained in
“Changing list appearance” on page 24.

Creating a new outline level

In AutoLayout text boxes, create a new outline level as follows:
 1) If necessary, press Enter to begin a new list entry.
2) To demote a list entry (move it to the right), press the Tab key or click the Demote (right arrow)
icon on the Text Formatting toolbar or use the keyboard shortcut Alt+Shift+Right. The list entry
moves to the right and is indented to the next outline level.
3) To promote a list entry (move it to the left), press Shift+Tab or click the Promote (left arrow) icon
on the Text Formatting toolbar or use the keyboard shortcut Alt+Shift+Left. The list entry moves to
the left and is indented at the next higher level.
4) To create a new list entry at the same level as the previous one, press Enter again.
In the AutoLayout text boxes, promoting or demoting an item in the list corresponds to applying a
different outline style. The second outline level corresponds to Outline 2 style, the third outline level
to Outline 3 style, and so on. A change in level and style produces other changes, for example, to font
size, bullet type, and so on.
In text boxes, a new outline level can only be created by using the Tab key to demote the list entry and
the Shift+Tab key combination to promote the list entry.
 Note
Do not try to change the outline level by selecting the text and then clicking the desired
outline style as you would in Writer. Due to the way that presentation styles work in Impress,
it is not possible to change the level in this way.

Changing list appearance

You can fully customize list appearance by changing the bullet type or numbering for the entire list or for
only a single entry. All of the changes can be made using the Bullets and Numbering dialog (Figure 23),
which is accessed by going to Format > Bullets and Numbering on the Menu bar or by clicking on
the Bullets Icon or the Numbering icon
on the Text Formatting toolbar.
For the entire list:
1) Select the entire list or click on the border of the text box so that the resizing handles are
displayed.
2) Select Format > Bullets and Numbering on the Menu bar or click on the Bullets or
Numbering icon on the Text Formatting toolbar.
 Figure 23: Bullets and Numbering dialog
1. 3) The Bullets and Numbering dialog (Figure 23) contains five pages: Bullets,
Numbering type, Image, Position, and Customize.

o –If a bullet list is needed, select the desired bullet style from the default styles available
on the Bullets page.
o –If a graphics style is needed, select one from those available on the Image page.
o –If a numbered list is needed, select one of the default numbering styles on
the Numbering type page.
o –Use the Position page to set the indent and numbering spacing and alignment of your
list.
o –Use the Customize page to customize the numbering, color, relative size, and character
used for your list.
1. 4) For a single list entry, click anywhere in the text and then follow steps 2 and 3 above.
If the list was created in an AutoLayout text box, then an alternative way to change the entire list is to
modify the Outline styles. Changes made to the outline style will apply to all the slides using them.

Adding pictures, tables, charts, and media

A contents box can contain pictures, tables, charts, or media as well as text. This section provides a quick
overview of how to work with these objects. For more information on adding pictures, tables, charts, or
media, please refer to the Impress Guide.

Adding pictures
 To add a picture to a contents box:
1) Go to Insert > Image on the Menu bar and then select either From file or Scan.
2) Alternatively, after inserting a new slide, click the Insert Image icon (Figure 16 on page 18)
on the new slide and select the file from the Insert Image dialog that opens. To see a preview of
the picture, select Preview at the bottom of the Insert Image dialog.
3) Move the picture to the desired location.
4) The picture will automatically resize to fill the area of the content box. Follow the directions
in the note below when manually resizing a graphic.
 Note
When resizing a graphic, right-click the picture. Select Position and Size from the context
menu and make sure that Keep ratio is selected. Then adjust the height or width to the size
you need. As you adjust one dimension, both dimensions will change to keep the width and
height ratio the same, ensuring that the picture will not become distorted. Remember also
that resizing a bitmap image will reduce its quality; it is better to create an image of the
desired size outside of Impress.

Adding tables
To add basic tables to a slide:
1) Go to Insert > Table on the Menu bar, or click the Table icon
on the Standard toolbar.
on the Standard toolbar.
2) If there is a table already on the slide and it is selected, click the Table icon
on the Table toolbar. The Table toolbar is only visible after selecting View > Toolbars > Table on
the Menu bar and when a table is selected.
on the Table toolbar. The Table toolbar is only visible after selecting View > Toolbars > Table on
the Menu bar and when a table is selected.
3) Alternatively, and after inserting a new slide into your presentation, click the Insert Table icon
(Figure 16 on page 18).
4) Select the number of rows and columns required from the Insert Table dialog that opens.
5) Alternatively, click the small triangle to the right of the Table icon and select the number of
rows and columns by dragging the cursor.
6) Select a design style from the available options for your table in the Table Design deck in the
Properties section of the Sidebar (Figure 24). If the Table Design section does not automatically
open after inserting or selecting a table, click on the Properties icon at the side of the Sidebar.
 Note
Selecting from any of the styles in the Table Design section in the Sidebar creates a table
based on that style. If you create a table by another method, you can still apply a style of
your choice later.
The Table toolbar in Impress offers the same functions as the Table toolbar in Writer, with the exception
of the calculation functions Sort and Sum. To use Sum and Sort in your presentation, you have to insert a
Calc spreadsheet.
After the table is created, you can modify it by adding and deleting rows and columns, adjusting width
and spacing, adding borders, background colors and so on. For more information on working with tables
see the Impress Guide Chapter 3 Adding and Formatting Text and the Writer Guide Chapter 9 Working
with Tables.
Figure 24: Sidebar Table Design section
Entering data into table cells is similar to working with text box objects. Click in the cell you wish to add
data to and begin typing. To move around cells quickly, use the following keyboard options:
 •Press the arrow keys to move the cursor to another cell if the cell is empty, or to the next
character if the cell already contains text.
 •Press the Tab key to move to the next cell on the right and press Shift+Tab to move to
the next cell on the left.

Adding charts
To insert a chart in a slide:
1) Go to Insert > Chart on the Menu bar or click on the Chart icon
in the Standard toolbar.
in the Standard toolbar.
2) Alternatively and after inserting a new slide, click on the Insert Chart icon (Figure 16 on
page 18).
3) Impress will insert a default chart and open the Chart dialog. To modify the chart type, insert
your own data and change the formatting, refer to the Impress Guide.

Adding media files

To insert media files, such as music and movie clips, in a slide:
1) Go to Insert > Audio or Video on the Menu bar.
2) Alternatively and after inserting a new slide, click on the Insert Audio or Video icon
(Figure 16 on page 18).
3) A media player will open at the bottom of the screen and you can preview the media.
 4) When an audio file is inserted, the contents box will show a loudspeaker image.

Adding graphics, spreadsheets, and other objects

Graphics, such as shapes, callouts, and arrows, are often useful to complement the text on a slide. These
objects are handled much the same way as graphics in Draw. For more information, see the Draw Guide
Chapter 7 Getting Started with Draw, or the Impress Guide Chapters 4, 5, and 6.
Spreadsheets embedded in Impress include most of the functionality of Calc spreadsheets and are capable
of performing extremely complex calculations and data analysis. If you need to analyze your data or
apply formulas, these operations are best performed in a Calc spreadsheet and the results displayed in an
embedded Calc spreadsheet or even better in an Impress table.
Alternatively, go to Insert > Object > OLE Object on the Menu bar. You can select from options that
include a LibreOffice 5.0 Spreadsheet. This opens a spreadsheet in the middle of the slide and the menus
and toolbars change to those used in Calc. You can start adding data, though you may have to resize the
visible area on the slide. You can also insert an existing spreadsheet and use the viewport to select the
data that you want to display on your slide.
Impress offers the capability of inserting into a slide various other types of objects such as Writer
documents, Math formulas, Draw drawings, or another presentation. For details on using these objects,
refer to the Impress Guide Chapter 7 Including Spreadsheets, Charts, and Other Objects.
Working with slide masters and styles
A slide master is a slide that is used as the starting point for other slides. It is similar to a page style in
Writer and it controls the basic formatting of all slides based on it. A slide show can have more than one
slide master.
 Note
LibreOffice uses three terms for a slide that is used to create other slides: master slide, slide
master, and master page. This book uses the term slide master, except when describing the
user interface.
A slide master has a defined set of characteristics, including background colors, graphics, gradients; and
other objects (such as logos, decorative lines and so on), headers and footers, placement and size of text
frames, and text format.

Styles
All of the characteristics of slide masters are controlled by styles. New slides that you create using a slide
master have styles that are inherited from the slide master which was used. Changing a style in a slide
master results in changes to all slides based on that slide master, but you can modify individual slides
without affecting the slide master.
 Note
Although it is highly recommended to use the slide masters whenever possible, there are
occasions where manual changes are needed for a particular slide, for example to enlarge the
chart area when the text and chart layout is used.
Slide masters have two types of styles associated with them: presentation styles and image styles. The
prepackaged presentation styles can be modified, but new presentation styles cannot be created. For
image styles, you can modify the prepackaged styles and also create new image styles.
Presentation styles affect three elements of a slide master: background, background objects (such as icons,
decorative lines, and text frames), and text placed on the slide. Text styles are further divided
into Notes, Outline 1 through Outline 9, Subtitle, and Title. The outline styles are used for the different
levels of the outline to which they belong. For example, Outline 2 is used for the sub-points of Outline 1,
and Outline 3 is used for the sub-points of Outline 2, and so on.
Image styles are not restricted and can affect many of the elements of a slide. Note that text styles exist in
both the presentation and image style selections.
Slide masters
Impress comes with a collection of slide masters. These slide masters are shown in the Master Pages
section of the Sidebar (Figure 25), which has three subsections: Used in This Presentation, Recently
Used, and Available for Use. Click the + sign next to the name of a subsection to expand it to show
thumbnails of the slides, or click the – sign to collapse the subsection to hide the thumbnails.
Each of the slide masters shown in the Available for Use list is from a template of the same name. If you
have created your own templates, or added templates from other sources, slide masters from those
templates will also appear in this list.

Creating a slide master

Creating a new slide master is similar to modifying the default slide master.
1) Enable editing of slide masters by selecting View > Slide Master on the Menu bar and
the Master View toolbar opens (Figure 26). If the Master View toolbar does not appear, go
to View > Toolbars and select Master View.
2) On the Master View toolbar, click the New Master icon
.
.
3) A new slide master appears in the Slides pane. Modify this slide master to suit your
requirements.
4) It is also recommended that you rename this new slide master. Right-click on the slide in the
Slides pane and select Rename master from the context menu.
5) When finished creating a slide master, click Close Master View on the Master View toolbar
and return to normal slide editing mode.
Figure 25: Sidebar Master Pages section

Figure 26: Master View toolbar

Applying a slide master

To apply a slide master to all the slides in your presentation:
1. 1) Click on the Master Pages icon in the Sidebar to open the Master Pages section
(Figure 25).
2. 2) To apply one of the slide masters from the available selection to all slides in your
presentation, right-click on it and select Apply to All Slides on the context menu.
To apply a different slide master to one or more selected slides:
1. 1) In the Slide Pane, select the slide or slides where you want to use a new slide master.
2. 2) In the Master Pages section on the Sidebar, right-click on the slide master you want to
apply to the selected slides, and select Apply to Selected Slides on the context menu.

Loading additional slide masters

Sometimes, in the same set of slides, you may need to mix multiple slide masters that may belong to
different templates. For example, you may need a completely different layout for the first slide of the
presentation, or you may want to add to your presentation a slide from a different presentation (based on a
template available on the hard disk).
1. 1) Go to Slide > Slide Design on the Menu bar or right-click on a slide in the Slides
Pane and select Slide Design from the context menu to open the Slide Design dialog (Figure 27).
This dialog shows the slide masters already available for use.
2. 2) To add more slide masters, click the Load button to open the Load Slide Design
dialog (Figure 28).
3. 3) Select in the Load Slide Design dialog the template from which to load the slide
master and click OK.
4. 4) Click OK again to close the Slide Design dialog.
5. 5) The slide masters in the template you selected to use are now shown in the Available
for use subsection of Master Pages.

Figure 27: Slide Design dialog

 Figure 28: Load Slide Design dialog
 Note
The slide masters you have loaded will also be available the next time you load the
presentation. If you want to delete the unused slide masters, click the corresponding
checkbox in the Slide Design dialog. If the slide master was not used in the presentation, it is
removed from the list of available slide masters.
 Tip
To limit the size of the presentation file, you may want to minimize the number of slide
masters used.

Modifying a slide master

The following items can be changed on a slide master:
•Background (color, gradient, hatching, or bitmap)
•Background objects (for example, a logo or decorative graphics)
•Size, placement, and contents of header and footer elements to appear on every slide
•Size and placement of default frames for slide titles and content
For more information on modifying slide masters, see the Impress Guide Chapter 2 Using Slide Masters,
Styles, and Templates.
1) Select View > Slide Master from the Menu bar. This unlocks the properties of a slide master
so you can edit it.
2) Select a slide master in Master Pages in the Slides pane.
3) Select an object on the slide master in the Workspace and the Sidebar will display the property
options that can be changed for the selected object. Figure 29 shows a graphic object selected
with the Graphic properties section open on the Sidebar.
4) Make all necessary changes to the slide master, then click the Close Master View icon on the
Master View toolbar or go to View > Normal on the Menu bar to exit from editing slide masters.
5) Save your presentation file before continuing.
 Caution
Any changes made to one slide when in Master View mode will appear on all slides using
this slide master. Always make sure you Close Master View and return to Normal view
before working on any of the presentation slides.
 Note
The changes made to one of the slides in Normal view (for example, changes to the bullet
point style, the color of the title area, and so on) will not be overridden by subsequent
 changes to the slide master. There are cases, however, where it is desirable to revert a
manually modified element of the slide to the style defined in the slide master. To revert
back to default formatting, select the element and select Format > Default Formatting from
the Menu bar.

Figure 29: Editing a slide master

Adding text, footers, and fields to all slides

A slide master can have text, footers, or fields added so that they appear on every slide in your
presentation. Headers are not normally added to slides.
Text
1) Go to View > Slide Master on the Menu bar to open Master View (Figure 30).
2) On the Drawing toolbar, select the Text icon or press the F2 key.
3) Click and drag in the master page to draw a text object and then type or paste your text into
the text object.
4) Go to View > Normal on the Menu bar or click on Close Master View on the Master View
toolbar when you have finished entering text objects that you want to appear on every slide in
your presentation.
Footers
To add a footer to your slides:
1) Go to View > Slide Master on the Menu bar to open Master View (Figure 30).
2) Go to Insert > Field or Insert > Page Number on the Menu bar and time to open the Header
and Footer dialog (Figure 31).
3) Select the type of date and time and type in the footer text and slide number from the available
options in the dialog.
4) Click Apply to All to apply your changes to all the slide masters in your presentation, or
click Apply to apply your changes to the selected slide master in your presentation.
5) Alternatively, you can add the date/time, footer text and slide number directly into their
respective areas as shown in Figure 30.
 Note
Normally only footers are used on a slide. To create a header, you can use a text box as
explained in “Text” on page 33.

Figure 30: Example master view