MAKING THE MOVE TO OPENOFFICE.ORG in Font

Making Code 39 in Font MAKING THE MOVE TO OPENOFFICE.ORG

Figure 13-10. The main sections of the Impress interface You can hide each on-screen item by clicking the View menu and then removing the check next to it. Alternatively, by clicking the vertical borders between each pane, you can resize the pane and make it either more or less prominent on the screen. This is handy if you wish to temporarily gain more work space but don t want to lose sight of the previews in the Slides pane, for example.

All elements within Impress can be animated in a variety of ways. For example, you might choose to have the contents of a particular text box fly in from the edge of the screen during the presentation. This can help add variety to your presentation and perhaps even wake up your audience, but be aware that too many animations can look unprofessional. They should never get in the way of your message. Setting an animation effect is simply a matter of clicking the border of the object you wish to animate in the main editing area so that it is selected, selecting Custom Animation in the Tasks pane, and then clicking the Add button. In the dialog box that appears, select how you want the effect to work. With each animation, you can select the speed you wish it to play at, ranging from very slow to fast. Simply make the selection at the bottom of the dialog box. After the animation has been defined and you ve clicked OK, it will appear in a list at the bottom of the Custom Animation pane. You can choose to add more than one animation to an object by clicking

the Add button again (ensuring the object is still selected in the main editing area). The animations will play in the order they re listed. You can click the Change Order up and down arrows to alter the order. To fine-tune an effect you ve already created, double-click it in the list to open its Effect Options dialog box (you can even add sound effects here). Under the Timing tab, you can control what cues the effect, such as a click of a mouse, or whether it will appear in sequence with other effects before or after in the list.

The Fontwork tool lets you manipulate text in various playful ways, such as making it follow specific curved paths. You can find this tool on the drawing toolbar, located at the bottom of the program window. (It s the icon that s an A in a frame.) When you click the icon, the Fontwork Gallery dialog box appears, offering a choice of predefined font effects. Don t worry if they re not quite what you want, because after you make a choice, you ll be invited to fine-tune it. After you ve made the selection, the dummy text Fontwork will appear on the screen. Editing the text is simple: just double-click the Fontwork text and type your own words (note that, confusingly, the text will appear underneath the fontwork itself, rather than in a dialog box). When you ve finished, click outside the Fontwork selection.

In addition to Fontwork effects, Impress includes a powerful 3D tool, which can give just about any onscreen element a 3D flourish (this tool is also available in some other OpenOffice.org applications). To use it, create a text box or shape by using the Drawing toolbar at the bottom of the screen. Then rightclick the text box or shape and select Convert To 3D.

Note The 3D option is designed simply to give your object depth. If you want to create a genuine 3D object that you can rotate in 3D space, select 3D Rotation Object.