Writer Guide

Introduction to fields
Fields are extremely useful features of Writer. They are used for a
variety of purposes; for example, data that changes (such as the
current date or the total number of pages) or might change (the name
of a product or book under development), user-defined numbering
sequences, automatic cross-references, and conditional content (words
or paragraphs that are visible or printed in some conditions but not
others). Index entries are also fields.
This chapter describes some common uses of fields. A full discussion of
fields and their use is beyond the scope of this book. Power users can
find more details in the application Help.
Tip
Fields have a gray background when viewed on screen, unless
you have deselected the Field shadings option or changed the
color of field shadings on the Appearance page of the Options
– OpenOffice.org dialog box. This gray background will not
show when you print the file to hard copy or PDF.
To turn field shadings on or off quickly, choose View > Field
Shadings or press Control+F8 .
Quick and easy field entry
You can quickly insert common fields into your document by choosing
Insert > Fields from the menu bar and selecting the required field
from the list, as shown in Figure 380.
Figure 380: Inserting common fields
438 OpenOffice.org 3 Writer Guide