I assume you have already downloaded your free Open Office package. If you haven’t, please do it now. Don’t worry, this post can wait until you finish your installation. You may download Open Office by now.

Open Office Writer – Open 24 Hours!

Well, this is the snapshot of Open Office Writer in action. It looks very similar to your favorite Word Processor, right? Yes, indeed, it is more or less the same as Microsoft Word. Yet writing an ebook, and converting it to a PDF is a lot easier with this software.

As you can clearly see from the snapshot, Open Office is very similar to Microsoft Word. Even the menus are more or less the same. So there is no need to be afraid of using this fairly new Word Processor on your ebook journey.

You will see a few extra menus and icons when compared to Microsoft Word. One of them is very important for us. It is called “Export Directly to PDF”. This is going to convert your Open Office Writer document into a PDF ebook by one click.

Where To Find a Cool ebook Template?

Apart from the sources i gave you in Part 2, there is one more reliable source i suggest you to take a look at. Lulu.com has great Open Office templates and some of them are free. I used a fancy looking Open Office ebook template for Bloghology. You may check and download it via this link Blank OpenOffice 6×9 book – .sxw file template

How To Import an Open Office ebook Template to Open Office Writer?

Okay, let’s go step by step:

• Download an Open Office template from one of the sources i suggested you
• Please note the file extension for these documents are .sxw
• From the main menu, you should choose File > Templates > Organize
• In the box on the left, double-click the folder into which you want to import the template
• Click the Commands button which opens the context menu
• From the context menu, choose Import Template
• Find the template that you downloaded and then click Open. The template appears in the selected folder.
• You are free to type a new name for the template or leave it as is.
• Click Close to close the Template Management window.

How to Start Writing Your Own ebook by Using an Imported Template?

Believe me, this is the best part. You will work with a template which will make things easier for you. Now, let’s go step by step again:

• Open your Open Office Writer
• Choose File > New > Templates and Documents.
• In the box on the left, click the Templates icon if it isn’t already selected. Your template folder will appear in the center box.
• You should double-click the folder that contains the template that you want to use
• Click the template you imported and Click Open.
• This will open a new document based on the book template in Writer.
• That’s it! Edit and save your ebook

After you finish compiling your ebook, you need to convert it to a PDF file. There are two ways to do it; one is from the main menu: Go to File > Export as PDF. This will open a menu for you to calibrate your PDF file. You may compress your images in order to reduce your ebook’s file size.

As i mentioned before, the other option is clicking on the “Export Directly to PDF” icon. If you are comfortable with your document, then you may just click on this icon and convert your document into a PDF file by saving it as a PDF file.

That’s all folks. You see it is not so difficult to write your ebook. However it may take some of your time to get familiar with Open Office Writer. Should you have any questions regarding Open Office Writer and editing process, please do not hesitate to ask me. It will be my pleasure to assist you when you face with a problem.

Part 4 will focus more on editing. Part 5 will mainly focus on how to promote your ebook. Enjoy reading!