Lesson 3 – Formatting Page Stylesbvres.org/...web-page/...3_Formatting_Page_Styles.pdf · Lesson 3 – Formatting Page Styles The Page Style Organizer shows the style Name, and

Lesson 3 – Formatting Page StylesLesson 3 – Formatting Page Styles

The concept of styles:The concept of styles:

Styles: In the context of LibreOffice Writer, Styles refers to the characteristics of a part of a document. For example, a page style includes information about page size, layout (portrait or landscape), margins, columns, background color, and more. A paragraph style includes information about indents and spacing, alignment, font, borders, and more.

Casual word processing users adjust things like page margins and page layout manually, and have to repeat making these adjustments on every new document. However, to enjoy the time savings and power available in LibreOffice Writer you must learn how to control document styles. The concept of styles is critical to unleashing the power of desktop publishing. In this lesson, creating page styles will be discussed. How-ever, the idea of styles applies to other aspects of documents. Once you understand how to adjust page styles, you will have a head start on knowing how to use paragraph, character, and frame styles.Basically the idea of styles is that different parts of a document will share cer-tain characteristics. For example, in the document you are reading all right side (or odd numbered) pages have a footer containing a page number that is right justified.

Footer: A footer is an area at the bottom of a page reserved for material that is not part of the regular document body text flow.

Header: A header is an area at the top of a page reserved for material that is not part of the regular document body text flow.

All left side (or even numbered) pages might have page numbers that are left justified, while all right side (or odd numbered) pages might have page num-bers that are right justified. If a document is printed on both sides of the paper, the page numbers will then be on the outside edge of the pages as the reader leafs through the document. The document you are reading right now has one page header appearance for the first page in the chapter, and different headers for the following left and right pages. By creating special styles for left and right pages, the formatting for new pages will be automatically taken care of by the system. If the author wants to change the appearance of all pages in a document, she simply changes the page style definitions and the entire document is automatically updated with the new style.Page styles will be introduced in this lesson. Keep in mind that styles are also available for paragraphs, and other document features. A Styles and Formatting dialog box provides tools for controlling styles. Additional styles will be covered in later chapters.

Formatting page styles:Formatting page styles:Documents that will be printed (as opposed to those that only appear on web pages or in e-books) will have margins of a specific size, and may include headers and footers. It is not unusual to have different formats for the first page in a document, or for left and right pages (when double-sided printing will be used). This section will review the options for controlling page styles and for creating new custom page styles.

✔ If My First Document is not on the display Open it.

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LibreOffice Styles


✔ From the Menubar, select File, Save As.

✔ Enter the name My Lesson 3 Document in the File Name text box and then select the Save button.

This creates a new document and if you check the Titlebar you will see the file name displayed. The original document file will still be stored in the computer.

✔ From the Toolbar, select the Styles and Formatting tool to open the Styles and Formatting dialog box. [You can also press the F11 shortcut key on the keyboard to open the Styles and Formatting dialog box.]

✔ In the Styles and Formatting dialog box, select the Page Styles tool.

When you pause the mouse cursor over a tool icon, a TOOL TIP will appear that will describe the tool function.

In the example shown here, the page styles tool in the Styles and Format-ting area has been selected. The list shows the default page styles.Next, you will see how to modify a page style. Then, you will create a custom page style of your own.First, a quick review of some LibreOffice Writer display info. (The display in the following illustration has been reduced in size to save printing space. The illustration is from LibreOffice Writer version 3.)

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Formatting page styles:Formatting page styles:

Near the lower left corner of the LibreOffice Writer display is the page number status area. This shows the current page and the total number of pages in the document.

To the right of the page number is the page style. The example shows that the Default page style is in use.The View Layout tool allows for displaying a single page, two pages side by side, and book mode which shows left and right pages as they would appear when the pages are printed double sided for a book.

Near the lower right corner of the LibreOffice Writer display is the Zoom Slider. There is a tiny – on the left side of the slider, a tiny + on the right end of the slider, and a slider zoom grabber near the center of the slider. To the right of the zoom slider is a number that shows the current display magnification.

Note that display magnification, or zoom, only controls how big the document looks on the computer monitor. It does not have any effect on font size or how the document will look when it is printed.

Let's adjust the characteristics of the Default page style.✔ In the Styles and Formatting dialog box, select the Page Styles tool.

✔ Right click on the Default page style, then select Modify.

This will open the Page Style dialog box for the Default style.There are 8 tabs across the top of the Page Style dialog box: Organizer, Page, Background, Header, Footer, Borders, Columns, and Footnote. The il-lustration shows that the Organizer tab has been selected.

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The Page Style Organizer shows the style Name, and the name of the Next Style. In this example they are the same.

It is possible to set a different page style for a following (Next) page. For example, a first page style might be followed by a left page style. The left page style could be followed by a right page, and the right page could be followed by a left page. What this means is that when the first page is filled, the system will automatically assign a different (left page) style to the next page as more text is added. Similarly, when the left page is filled, the system will automatically assign the right page style to follow a right page. Once the page styles are defined, the writer can simply type away and let the computer take care of page formatting. A little later you will learn how to create custom page styles for multiple page documents.

✔ Select the Page tab in the Page Style dialog box.

The Page Style Page section is divided into several different areas: Paper format, Margins, and Lay-out settings. The Format option provides a list box for selecting different paper formats.

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Formatting page styles:Formatting page styles:

A list box is a text box that has a small arrow on the right edge. When this arrow is selected, a list opens from which options can be selected. Since LibreOffice Writer is popular in many countries, you may see paper sizes you are not familiar with.

The Margins area is where you can adjust the page margins to your personal preference. To change a mar-gin, you can edit the values in the number boxes, or you can click on the up and down arrows on the right side of the boxes to increase or decrease the numbers.Spend a little time reviewing the different page options. Experiment a bit. Remember that you can always change the values back to the original settings.

✔ Select the Background tab in the Page Style dialog box.

The Page Style Background section provides options for setting a background color, or perhaps a graphic image, for the page.

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Observe in the example shown here, that the page back-ground has been changed to a graphic image and that the background only affects the area inside of the margins.The other page options will be discussed in a later lesson.

✔ Set the Page and Background options to your preferred settings, and then select the OK button to close the Page Style dialog box to make the Default page style changes.

Creating new page styles:Creating new page styles:In this section, three new page styles will be created. To see the application of different styles, there has to be enough text to fill three pages. Copy and Paste will be used to add duplicate text to your My First Document file. In order to preserve the original version of the My First Document file, the File, Save As option will be used to create a new document file from the current document.

Next, three new page styles will be created. One style will be for the first \page of a document, the second will be for left side (or even numbered) pages, and the third page style will be for right side (or odd numbered) pages.

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Creating a first page styleCreating a first page style

Creating a first page styleCreating a first page style✔ If the Styles and Formatting tools are not on the display, from the

Toolbar, select the Styles and Formatting tool

✔ Select the Page Styles tool in the Styles and Formatting dialog box.

✔ Select the small arrow at the lower right corner of the Styles and Formatting dialog box.

✔ Select Custom Styles from the scroll list.

There will not be any page styles shown in the list until some are created.

✔ Right click in an empty area of the Styles and Formatting dialog box and select New from the pop up menu.

This will open the Page Style dialog box. Observe that there are tabs across the top of the dialog box that provide access to various style settings.

✔ With the Organizer tab selected in the Page Style dialog box, enter My First Page as the Name.

✔ Select the small arrow on the right side of the Next Style text box and select My First Page from the scroll list.

The Next Style tells the system what page style to use for the following page when the current page is filled with text. In a later step, this will be changed to My Left Pages after that style has been defined. But first, there is a bit more work to do with the first page style.

✔ With the Page tab selected in the Page Style dialog box, enter 0.75 for the Left margins.

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If you press the tab key when the text cursor is in an entry box, the system will jump to the next box and highlight the contents. You can then type a new value in the entry box and tab to the next.

✔ With the Page tab selected in the Page Style dialog box, enter 0.5 for the Right, Top, and Bottom margins.

✔ With the Header tab selected in the Page Style dialog box, toggle the Header option ON.

✔ Select OK in the Page Style dialog box.

This defines a style for the first page of the document. The process will be repeated for right and left pages. Since these formats are being designed for two sided pages, a larger space for the binding will be on the left side of the first and right [ages, and on the right side of left side pages.

Creating a right page styleCreating a right page style✔ Right click in an empty area of the Styles and Formatting dialog box and select New from the

pop up menu.

✔ With the Organizer tab selected in the Page Style dialog box, enter My Right Pages as the Name.

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Creating a right page styleCreating a right page style

✔ Select the small arrow on the right side of the Next Style text box and select My Right Pages from the scroll list.

The Next Page option will be changed after the related page styles have been created.✔ With the Page tab selected in the Page Style dialog box, enter 0.75 for the Left margins.

✔ Enter 0.5 for the Right, Top, and Bottom margins.


✔ With the Footer tab selected in the Page Style dialog box, toggle the Footer option ON.


Creating a left page styleCreating a left page styleThere is one more page style to create. This style will be used for the left pages of our document and will include a header, and a footer.

✔ Right click in an empty area of the Styles and Formatting dialog box and select New from the pop up menu.

✔ With the Organizer tab selected in the Page Style dialog box, enter My Left Pages as the Name.

✔ Select the small arrow on the right side of the Next Style text box and select My Right Pages from the scroll list.

✔ With the Page tab selected in the Page Style dialog box, enter 0.75 for the Right margins.

✔ Enter 0.5 for the Left, Top, and Bottom margins.


✔ With the Footer tab selected in the Page Style dialog box, toggle the Footer option ON.


Now we have to go back and change the Next Page setting for the first and right pages.✔ In the Styles and Formatting dialog box, right click on My Right Pages and select Modify

from the pop up context menu.

✔ With the Organizer tab selected in the Page Style dialog box, select the small arrow on the right side of the Next Style text box and select My Left Pages from the scroll list.


Now for the first page.✔ In the Styles and Formatting dialog box, right click on My First Page and select Modify from

the pop up context menu.

✔ With the Organizer tab selected in the Page Style dialog box, select the small arrow on the right side of the Next Style text box and select My Left Pages from the scroll list.

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If everything has gone according to plan, you should now have 3 custom pages defined; My First Page, My Right Pages, and My Left Pages. The right and left pages should have both headers and footers, and the first page should have only a header. One nice thing about defining page styles is that you can easily change the page styles for an entire docu-ment. For example, suppose you wanted a larger margin on left side pages. All you have to do is modify the left page style and the document will be instantly re-formatted. Next, let's apply the page styles to the My Lesson 3 Document.

✔ Position the text cursor anywhere on the page.

✔ Double click on the My First Page entry in the Page Styles list.

Your page should now have a header area at the top of the page. Next, the title will be moved to the header.✔ Select the My First Document line of text.

✔ Press Ctrl+X to cut the text (this will place the text on the invisible clipboard).

✔ Position the text cursor in the header area of the page.

✔ Press Ctrl+V to paste the text.

If you previously changed the color, font, and/or background of the first paragraph in the document, this formatting will remain even though you cut the text out of the paragraph.

✔ Position the text cursor on the empty first line of text and delete it.

Since we need at least 3 pages of text to see how formatting works, we sill simply copy and paste some text to fill the pages. This is probably a good time to preserve the current document before making radical changes. By making new versions of your documents ad you go, you are always able to return to earlier ver-sions and recover from any major mishaps.

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Creating a left page styleCreating a left page style

✔ Select the Save tool to save the current version of your document.

✔ Select File, Save As, and edit the file name to My Lesson 3 Expanded Document and then select the Save button.

Next, the copy and paste trick will be used to add enough text to fill several pages. The extra pages will demonstrate how the page formats created earlier operate.

✔ Triple click the left mouse button once somewhere in the third paragraph. (You can also use the click and drag technique to select the paragraph text.)

✔ Ppress Ctrl+A to select all of the text.

✔ Press Ctrl+C to copy the selected text to the clipboard.

✔ Press Crtl+End to move the cursor to the end of the document.

✔ Press Ctrl+V to paste the text.

✔ Repeat the paste step (Ctrl+V) until the display shows that you are on page 3/3.

At this point, your display should show that your cursor is on page 3/3.

✔ Select the Save button.

Now that you have text covering 3 pages, the page formatting options will be examined.Observe that the bottom left of the display shows both the current page number and also the name of the Page Style used for the current page.

Defining headers and footers:Defining headers and footers:Let's put some text in the headers and footers.

✔ Position the text cursor in the header of the second page .

✔ Enter the text This is a left page header.

✔ Position the text cursor in the header of the third page .

✔ Enter the text This is a right page header.

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Inserting Fields:Inserting Fields:Next, we will add page numbers to the footers.

✔ Adjust your display so that the page 2 footer is in view.

✔ Click the mouse cursor in the footer box.

✔ Type the word Page followed by a space.

✔ From the Menubar, select Insert, Fields, Page Number.

✔ Type a space followed by the word of followed by another space.

✔ From the Menubar, select Insert, Fields, Page Count.

Your footer contents should look similar to that shown.Note that fields that are inserted will be shown with a gray background and cannot be edited. The gray background will not show in a printed copy.

✔ Select all of the text in the page 2 footer, then press Ctrl+C (or select Edit, Copy)

✔ Adjust your display so that the page 3 footer is in view.

✔ Click the mouse cursor in the footer box, then press Ctrl+V (or select Edit, Paste).

✔ With the text cursor in the page 3 footer, from the Toolbar, select Align Right.

✔ From the Toolbar, select the Save tool to update your document file.

In the next lesson you will learn how to define your own custom paragraph styles.

Points to remember:Points to remember:

• Use the Styles and Formatting dialog box to select or modify the styles of Paragraphs, Characters, Frames, Pages, and Lists.

• Each page will be followed by a page that has a style defined as Next Page in the Page Style Organizer dialog box.

• A page may or may not have either a header or a footer.• Fields can be inserted that contain page numbers or a page count. Fields are also available for time,

date, and other functions.

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