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Writing your first document in LibreOffice Writer

Open Writer, type a short document, save it in the right format, close it and open it again, and learn how Writer's tools match the ones in Microsoft Word.

25 minbeginnerUbuntu/LinuxWindowsPractical task needs a laptop or desktop

Marking a lesson as read does not prove you can do it. Skills count as demonstrated when you pass the quiz (not yet) and complete the practical tasks (not yet).

By the end of this lesson you will be able to

  • Open LibreOffice Writer and name the main parts of its window.
  • Type, select and change text, using undo to reverse a mistake.
  • Save a document as .odt and as .docx, and explain the difference.
  • Close and reopen a saved document from the folder where you saved it.

Letters, school work, CVs and reports are all written in a word processor, so this is the program that most people use first and most often. A word processor is far more than a typewriter: it lets you change your mind, move paragraphs about, fix mistakes and change the look of a page in seconds. On Ubuntu the free office suite LibreOffice is already installed, and its word processor is called Writer. If you later buy a Windows laptop with Microsoft Word, almost everything you learn here carries across.

What Writer is, and how it compares with Word

LibreOffice is a free, open-source office suite. It has a word processor (Writer), a spreadsheet program (Calc), a presentation program (Impress) and a few more. It runs on Ubuntu, Windows and macOS. Microsoft Word is the best-known word processor and belongs to the paid Microsoft 365 suite, although a simpler version runs free in a web browser. The two programs do the same jobs, and their menus are similar enough that skills move easily from one to the other.

Writer and Word side by side
TaskLibreOffice WriterMicrosoft Word
Controls are grouped byA menu bar (File, Edit, View, Insert, Format and so on) plus toolbarsA ribbon with tabs (Home, Insert, Layout and so on)
Default file type.odt (OpenDocument Text).docx
SaveCtrl+SCtrl+S
Bold, italic, underlineCtrl+B, Ctrl+I, Ctrl+UCtrl+B, Ctrl+I, Ctrl+U
Undo and redoCtrl+Z and Ctrl+YCtrl+Z and Ctrl+Y
Show hidden formatting marksCtrl+F10Ctrl+Shift+8, or the paragraph mark button on Home
CostFreePart of a paid subscription or a one-off purchase

Opening Writer and finding your way around

Open a blank document

On Ubuntu 24.04

  1. Step 1: Search for Writer

    Click Activities at the top left, type Writer and press Enter, or click LibreOffice Writer in the results.

    You should see: The LibreOffice window opens. You may see the Start Center first; if so, click Writer Document.

  2. Step 2: Look at the blank page

    A white page appears with a flashing line, called the cursor, at its top left.

    You should see: The title bar says Untitled 1 – LibreOffice Writer.

Simulated interface: not a real screenshot

A simulated Writer window with its main parts numbered.

Untitled 1 - LibreOffice Writer
FileEditViewInsertFormatStylesTableToolsHelp

Dear Mr Kimani,

I am writing to ask about the rent receipt for September.

Yours sincerely,

Amina Wanjiru

  1. Marker 1: Title bar: shows the file name
  2. Marker 2: File menu: New, Open, Save
  3. Marker 3: Format menu: fonts and paragraphs
  4. Marker 4: The page where you type
A simulated Writer window with its main parts numbered.
Read this figure as text

A simulated word processor window with a title bar, a menu bar and a page with typed text, each part numbered.

A simulated window titled Untitled 1 - LibreOffice Writer. Marker 1 points to the title bar, which shows the file name. Marker 2 points to the first menu, File, in the menu bar that also holds Edit, View, Insert, Format, Styles, Table, Tools and Help. Marker 3 points to the Format menu, which holds fonts and paragraph settings. Marker 4 points to the page itself, where you type; it holds a short letter to a landlord. Under the page, the status bar shows the page number and word count, and a zoom slider.

Under the menu bar are toolbars of small buttons: Standard (new, open, save, print, undo) and Formatting (font name, size, bold, italic, alignment, lists). At the bottom is the status bar, which shows the page number, the word count and a zoom slider. If a toolbar is missing, open the View menu, choose Toolbars and tick it.

Typing, selecting and changing text

Just start typing. When a line is full, the text wraps to the next line by itself, so do not press Enter at the end of every line. Press Enter only when you want a new paragraph, which is a block of text that ends where you pressed Enter. This is the most important habit in word processing, because spacing, headings and lists all work on paragraphs.

  • Move around with the arrow keys, Home (start of line), End (end of line) or by clicking.
  • Select text by dragging the mouse across it, by double-clicking a word, or by holding Shift while pressing the arrow keys. Selected text is highlighted.
  • Replace by typing over a selection, delete with Backspace (before the cursor) or Delete (after it).
  • Cut, copy and paste with Ctrl+X, Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V, exactly as with files.
  • Undo a mistake with Ctrl+Z and redo it with Ctrl+Y. You can undo many steps, so you can try things without fear.

Fonts and sizes

A font is a style of lettering, such as the serif letters in a book or the plainer sans-serif ones on a sign. Select some text, then use the font name and size boxes on the Formatting toolbar. Body text is normally 11 or 12 points tall (a point is a tiny unit of height). Use one or two fonts in a document, not five. Writer's default fonts, Liberation Serif and Liberation Sans, are made to take up exactly the same room as Times New Roman and Arial, so a document keeps the same line breaks when someone opens it in Word.

Saving, closing and reopening

Until you save, your words live only in RAM, which is emptied when the program closes or the power fails. Saving writes the document to storage as a file. Save early, with a sensible name, and then press Ctrl+S every few minutes. LibreOffice also keeps recovery copies and offers to restore them after a crash, but do not depend on that.

Diagram

A good file name says what the file is and when it was written, and its extension says which format it uses.

letter-to-landlordWhat it isShort, clear, no spaces needed
-2026-10DateYear first, so names sort in order
.odtExtensionOpenDocument Text; Word uses .docx
A good file name says what the file is and when it was written, and its extension says which format it uses.
Read this figure as text

A file name split into labelled parts: the document type, the person, the date and the extension.

The file name letter-to-landlord-2026-10.odt is split into four parts. The first part, letter-to-landlord, says what the document is. The second part, a dash and 2026-10, gives the year and month, which sorts correctly in a folder. The third part is the dot. The fourth part, odt, is the file extension, which says that the file uses the OpenDocument Text format.

Save a document (the same in Writer and Word)

  1. Step 1: Press Ctrl+S

    For a new document this opens the Save As window. (Choose File, then Save As if you want to save a copy under a new name later; the shortcut is Ctrl+Shift+S in Writer.)

    You should see: A window asks for a name and a folder.

  2. Step 2: Choose a folder

    Pick Documents, or a practice folder you made earlier.

    You should see: The folder name shows at the top of the window.

  3. Step 3: Type a name

    For example first-letter-2026-10. Leave the extension to the program.

    You should see: The type box beside the name shows ODF Text Document (.odt) in Writer, or Word Document (.docx) in Word.

  4. Step 4: Press Save

    Click Save or press Enter.

    You should see: The title bar now shows your file name instead of Untitled 1.

Diagram

Three common document formats and when to use each one.

.odtOpenDocument Text
  • Writer's own format
  • Open standard, free to use
  • Best for documents you edit in Writer

Edit and keep

.docxWord document
  • What most schools and employers expect
  • Writer can open and save it
  • Layout can shift slightly

Send for editing

.pdfFixed layout
  • Looks the same on every device
  • Hard to edit by accident
  • Not meant for further editing

Send finished work

Three common document formats and when to use each one.
Read this figure as text

A comparison of the three formats .odt, .docx and .pdf, with what each is best for.

Three columns. Column one, .odt, the OpenDocument Text format: Writer's own format, open standard, free to use, best for documents you will edit in Writer. Column two, .docx, the Word format: the format that most employers and schools expect, Writer can open and save it, best when you must send a file that someone will edit in Word; layout may shift slightly. Column three, .pdf: a fixed-layout format that looks the same everywhere, best for sending a finished document that should not be edited, and cannot be edited easily.

To close a document, use File, then Close (Ctrl+W in Writer, or the X button for the window). If you have unsaved changes, the program asks whether to save: choose Save unless you are sure you want to throw the changes away. To reopen, choose File, then Open (Ctrl+O) and find the file, or pick it from File, then Recent Documents. You can also double-click the file in Files or File Explorer.

Diagram

The save, close and reopen cycle.

  1. Step 1: Type
  2. Step 2: SaveCtrl+S, name, folder
  3. Step 3: Keep savingEvery few minutes
  4. Step 4: Close
  5. Step 5: ReopenRecent Documents
The save, close and reopen cycle.
Read this figure as text

A flow of five steps from creating a document to reopening it later.

Five steps in a row. Step 1, Type your text. Step 2, Save with Ctrl+S, choosing a name and a folder. Step 3, Keep saving every few minutes. Step 4, Close the document. Step 5, Reopen it from File, Recent Documents, or by double-clicking the file in your folder.

Common mistakes

  • ✖ Instead of: Pressing Enter at the end of every line to start the next one.

    ✔ Do this: Let the text wrap. Press Enter only to begin a new paragraph.

  • ✖ Instead of: Using spaces to move text to the middle or right of the page.

    ✔ Do this: Use the alignment buttons or the tab key. Spaces break when the font or size changes.

  • ✖ Instead of: Typing for an hour before saving for the first time.

    ✔ Do this: Save as soon as you have typed a line, with a clear name, then press Ctrl+S now and then.

  • ✖ Instead of: Saving over the only copy of a document after a big change.

    ✔ Do this: Use Save As to keep a dated copy before major edits, for example report-2026-10-draft2.odt.

If something goes wrong

I cannot find the document I saved.
Open Writer, choose File, then Recent Documents. If it is not there, search for part of the file name in Files or File Explorer. Next time, notice the folder name in the Save window.
Writer says it recovered documents after a crash.
Choose to recover them, look through the recovered versions and use Save As to give the best one a proper name in a folder you know.
A Word user says my .docx looks different on their screen.
Small shifts happen, especially with unusual fonts. Stick to common fonts, keep the layout simple, or send a PDF of the finished version.
A toolbar or the menu has disappeared.
Open View, then Toolbars, and tick the missing toolbar. In Word, double-click a ribbon tab to show it again.

Key terms

Word processor
A program for writing and formatting documents such as letters and reports.
LibreOffice
A free set of office programs for documents, spreadsheets and presentations.
Font
The style of lettering used for text, such as Arial or Times New Roman.
Open Document Format
A free, openly published way of saving documents that many programs can open.
DOCX file
The file type Microsoft Word uses for documents.

Practise it for real

Reading is not the same as being able to do it. Complete these on your own computer, then tick only what you have actually done. These ticks are your own honest record: nothing checks them for you.

Guided exerciseNeeds a laptop or desktop

Write, save and reopen a short letter

Open a blank document. Type a short, made-up letter of four or five lines to a fictional person such as Mr Kimani, ending with your name. Press Enter only at the end of paragraphs. Change the font of the first line, make one word bold and undo one deliberate mistake with Ctrl+Z. Save it as first-letter-2026-10 in Documents, close it, then reopen it from Recent Documents.

You have succeeded when:
Independent challengeNeeds a laptop or desktop

Challenge: the same letter in two formats

Without step-by-step help, save a copy of your letter as .docx as well as .odt, using Save As. In Files or File Explorer, look at both files. Write down which is bigger, what the two icons look like, and which program opens each one when you double-click. Explain in your own words when you would send the .docx and when you would send a PDF.

You have succeeded when:

Knowledge check

6 questions. You need 80% to pass. Mistakes here are part of learning, and you can retry as often as you like.

  1. Question 1.When should you press the Enter key while typing a letter?
  2. Question 2.Match each Writer shortcut to its job.
  3. Question 3.Your typed text is safe on the laptop as soon as you see it on the screen.
  4. Question 4.Wanjiru writes her CV in Writer, and an employer asks her to send it so that their staff can add notes.Which format should she choose?
  5. Question 5.Put these steps in the right order.
    1. Press Ctrl+S and name the file
    2. Close the document
    3. Reopen it from Recent Documents
    4. Type some text
  6. Question 6.What does the extension .odt tell you?

Summary

  • Writer is LibreOffice's word processor; Word is Microsoft's. Their jobs and many shortcuts match.
  • Text wraps by itself. Press Enter only to end a paragraph.
  • Ctrl+Z undoes a mistake; Ctrl+S saves; save early and often with a clear name.
  • .odt is Writer's format, .docx is Word's, and PDF is for finished copies.
  • Reopen documents from File, Recent Documents, or by double-clicking the file.

Checklist: can you do these?

Marking a lesson as read does not prove you can do it. Skills count as demonstrated when you pass the quiz (not yet) and complete the practical tasks (not yet).

Related lessons

References and further reading

Official sources for details that can change between versions.

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