Status bar
The Writer status bar provides information about the document and convenient ways to quickly change some document features. From left to right, the fields are as follows.
Left end of status bar
Page number
Shows the current page number, the sequence number of the current page (if different), and the total number of pages in the document. For example, if you restarted page numbering at 1 on the third page, its page number is 1 and its sequence number is 3.
If any bookmarks have been defined in the document, a right-click on this field pops up a list of bookmarks; click on the required one. To jump to a specific page in the document, double-click in this field. The Navigator opens. Click in the Page Number field and type the required page number. After a brief delay, the display jumps to the selected page. Note: the “page number” is actually the sequence number of the page, which may be different from the page number displayed on the page itself.
Page style
Shows the style of the current page. To change the page style, right-click on this field. A list of page styles pops up; choose a different style by clicking on it.
To edit the page style, double-click on this field.
Language
Shows the language for the selected text. Click to open a menu where you can choose another language for the selected text or for the paragraph where the cursor is located. You can also choose None to exclude the text from a spelling check or choose More… to open the Character dialog.
Insert mode
Click to toggle between Insert and Overwrite modes when typing.
Selection mode
Click to toggle between STD (Standard), EXT (Extend), ADD (Add) and BLK (Block) selection. EXT is an alternative to Shift+click when selecting text. See Selecting text for more information about ADD and BLK.
Digital signature
If the document has been digitally signed, an icon shows in this part of the Status bar. You can double-click the icon to view the certificate.
Right end of status bar
Section or object information
When the cursor is on a section or object (such as a picture), information about that item appears in this field. Double-clicking in this area opens a relevant dialog.
| Object | Information shown | Dialog opened |
| Picture | Size and position | Format Picture |
| List item | Level and list style | Bullets and Numbering (1) |
| Heading | Outline numbering level | Bullets and Numbering (1) |
| Table | Name or number and cell reference of cursor | Table Format |
| Other | (Blank) | Fields (Cross-ref. tab) |
(1) If a list style was used with a list item or heading, no dialog appears.
View layout
Click the appropriate icon to change between single page, side-by-side, and book layout views. You can edit the document in any view. New in OpenOffice.org 3.
View layouts: single, side-by-side, book
Zoom
To change the view magnification, drag the Zoom slider or click on the + and – signs. Zoom interacts with the selected view layout to determine how many pages are visible in the document window. New in OpenOffice.org 3.
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This book is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, version 3.0.
I’d like to see the word count relevant to the document, is there a way to customize the status bar so that the document’s word count is visible?
Wordcount is under the Tools menu in Writer (or Alt T Alt W)
not visible all the time but pretty accessible