Getting Started Guide

Launching Base to work on data sources
You can launch OOo Base at any time from the View Data Source pane. Just right-
click on a database or the 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.
Tip
Choosing Tools > Mail Merge Wizard or clicking on the Mail Merge
icon on the View Data Source pane 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.
232 Getting Started with OpenOffice.org 3.3