Creating a form with OpenOffice - a quick guide

There are several ways to create a form. In this practical tip, we explain how this works with OpenOffice.

Form in OpenOffice - insert form elements

1. First open the menu item "View" -> "Toolbars".
2. Activate the options "Form Design", "Form Navigation" and "Form Controls". The elements are then located at the bottom of OpenOffice.
3. Now open a new document in Writer and click the "Design mode on / off" icon in the "Form controls" bar.
4. Click on the form element you want to add, the mouse pointer changes into a crosshair.
5. Now position the crosshair cursor in the desired position in the document and, holding down the mouse button, determine the size of the element by dragging it.
6. If you want to insert further form elements of the same type, repeat the last step as often as necessary.
7. To insert another element, select it in the "Form Controls" window by clicking on the corresponding symbol.

Configure form elements and adapt form in OpenOffice

In order to precisely determine the appearance and behavior of the individual control elements, a few settings are still required:

1. Right-click on the element in question and select "Control Panel" from the context menu.
2. You can now use the "General", "Data" and "Events" tabs to specify position and size, font and color, as well as the behavior in the form.
3. If you do not want to add any further form fields, switch off the design mode in the "Form controls" bar by clicking on the "Design mode on / off" icon.

Read here how you can use an OpenOffice document as a template.