Operation Manual

Launching Base to work on data sources
You can launch LibreOffice Base at any time from the Data Source window. Just right-click on a
database or its Tables or Queries icons and select Edit Database File. Once in Base, you can edit,
add, and delete tables, queries, forms, and reports.
Using data sources in Writer and Calc
Data can be placed into Writer and Calc documents from the tables in the data source window. In
Writer, values from individual fields can be inserted. Or a complete table can be created in the
Writer document. One common way to use a data source is to perform a mail merge.
Figure 262: Toolbar for the Data Sources window
Tip
Choosing Tools > Mail Merge Wizard or clicking on the Mail Merge icon (circled in
red) in the Data Sources window launches the Mail Merge wizard which steps you
through creating a mail merge document. See Chapter 11 in the Writer Guide.
Writer documents
To insert a field from a table opened in the data source window into a Writer document, click on the
field name (the gray square at the top of the field list) and, with the left mouse button held down,
drag the field onto the document. In a Writer document, it will appear as <FIELD> (where FIELD is
the name of the field you dragged).
For example, to enter the cost of meals and who paid for them on a certain date of a vacation:
1) Open the list of data sources (F4) and select the Vacations table in the Automobile
database.
2) Use this sentence: “On (date), our breakfast cost (amount) paid by (name), our lunch cost
(amount) paid by (name), and our supper cost (amount) paid by (name).” But only type
“On, our breakfast cost paid by , our lunch cost paid by , and our supper cost paid by .”
3) To replace (date), click the field name Date in the data source window and drag it to the
right of the word On. The result: On <Date>. If you have Field shadings turned on (View >
Field shading), <Date> has a gray background. Otherwise it does not.
4) To replace first (amount), click the Breakfast field name and drag it to the right of our
breakfast cost. Make sure you have the proper spacing between the field names and the
words before and after them. Result: breakfast cost <Breakfast>.
5) To replace the first (name), click the Bpayment field name and drag it to the right of paid by.
Result: paid by <Bpayment>.
6) In the same way, fill in the rest of the fields in the sentence.
– Use <Lunch> and <LPayment> for the second set of (amount) and (name) in the
sentence.
– Use <Supper> and <SPayment> for the third set of (amount) and (name) in the
sentence.
7) Final result: On <Date>, our breakfast cost <Breakfast> paid by <BPayment>, our lunch
cost <Lunch> paid by <LPayment>, and our supper cost <Supper> paid by <SPayment>.
260 | Getting Started with LibreOffice 5.0