LibreOffice Writer is a powerful document editor that serves as a free alternative to Microsoft Word. In this part, you will learn how to quickly and conveniently create documents, format text, use styles, and export finished files to PDF and DOCX.

Creating a new document, headings, and paragraphs

After launching Writer, you will see a blank document. You can start typing immediately, but it is worth applying good practices from the beginning to make later editing easier.

Basic document elements:
Paragraph – create a new paragraph by pressing Enter.
Headings – instead of manually changing the font size, it is better to use styles:
Heading 1 for a chapter title,
Heading 2 and subsequent levels – for subchapters.
This ensures your documents look consistent and professional.

To set a heading:

Select the text, click the styles drop-down list on the toolbar, and choose “Heading 1”.

Note: Using heading styles allows you to automatically generate a table of contents later.

Text formatting: fonts, colors, alignment

Writer provides all standard formatting tools on the toolbar. You will find, among others:

bold (Ctrl + B), italic (Ctrl + I), underline (Ctrl + U),
text and background color changes,
text alignment: left, center, justified.
Moreover, you can also set paragraph spacing, indents, and line spacing—all available in the Format → Paragraph menu.

Creating lists: numbered and bulleted

To create a list, select the text and click the list icon on the toolbar. You can then nest the list—Tab increases the list level, and Shift + Tab decreases it.

Inserting tables and images

Tables:
Select Insert → Table or click the table icon.
Specify the number of columns and rows, then enter your data.
You can also change the table style, add borders, or apply shading.

Images:
Go to Insert → Image → From File.
After adding an image, you can resize it, move it, and add a shadow or frame.
This will make your documents more visually appealing.

Styles and templates – save time

What are styles?
They are sets of formatting assigned to a specific element. Instead of setting the font and color each time, simply select the appropriate style.

To use it:

Open the Styles panel (F11 or View → Styles).
Right-click “Heading 1” → Modify – and set your own parameters.
Thanks to this, changes will be automatically applied throughout the entire document.

Templates:
LibreOffice allows you to save layouts as templates. You can reuse them multiple times, which significantly speeds up your work.

File → Templates → Save as Template

Exporting to PDF, DOCX, and EPUB

After finishing your work, save the file in your chosen format.

DOCX:
File → Save As
Choose format: Microsoft Word 2007–365 (.docx)

PDF:
File → Export As → Export as PDF
You can set quality, password protection, or other options.

EPUB (e-book):
File → Export As → Export as EPUB
This format is compatible with readers such as Kindle or PocketBook.

In this part, you learned how to:

create and format documents in Writer,
use styles and templates,
insert lists, tables, and images,
export documents to popular formats.

Soon, we will move on to LibreOffice Calc—you will learn about formulas, charts, and useful tricks for working with data.