Lesson 3 Formatting Paragraphs 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 page and every new document. However, to enjoy the time savings and power available in LibreOffice Writer you must learn how to use and control document styles. The concept of styles is critical to unleashing the power of desktop publishing. In this lesson, creating Paragraph Styles will be discussed. However, the idea of styles applies to other aspects of documents. Once you understand how to adjust Paragraph Styles, you will have a head start on knowing how to use Page, Character, and Frame Styles. The idea of styles is that different parts of a document share similar characteristics (like font size, spacing between lines, background color, and more). By storing these characteristics in collections of Styles, it is possible to quickly change or adjust everything in a document Before we start, you need to know about the LibreOffice Writer Sidebar. First, be sure that the Sidebar is turned on. Illustration 1: View Sidebar Open the LibreOffice Writer program. From the Menu Bar, select View, and note if the Sidebar option is ON. If it is off, toggle it on. Illustration 2: Sidebar Options The Sidebar has 4 options: Properties, Styles and Formatting, Gallery, and Navigator. In this lesson, we will concentrate on the Styles and Formatting sidebar option. From the Sidebar, select the Styles and Formatting option. Use the small arrow near the bottom of the sidebar to open a pop down selection list and select the Custom Styles display option. The Styles and Formatting sidebar should now be empty (see Illustration 3). Page 1
LibreOffice Writer 5 Tutorials Creating Custom Paragraph Styles: One of the biggest differences between typing and word processing is the notion of Paragraphs and Paragraph Styles. In Lesson 2 you saw how to change the paragraph style in your document from Default to Text Body. In this Lesson, you will learn how to create your own custom Paragraph Styles. From the Menu Bar, select File, New, Text Document. From the Menu Bar, select File, Save As, adjust the Save in: location to your preferred folder, and then enter the file name My Poem. Illustration 3: My Poem LibreOffice Writer document Illustration 3 shows the My Poem document with no custom styles yet defined. (You will add text to your poem a little later.) Observe that the Text Formatting Toolbar shows that the Default Paragraph Style is in use. Two new paragraph styles will be created. One for the title and the other for the poem text body. The Styles and Formatting Sidebar has a row of tools across the top (see Illustration 3). The first tool on the left is the Paragraph Styles tool. When this tool has been selected, a list of paragraph styles appears in the Window. The bottom of the dialog box has a List Box that controls the category of styles displayed. In this example, we will limit the list to Custom Styles. From the Styles and Formatting Window, Toolbar, select the Paragraph Style tool. Select the small arrow at the lower right corner of the Styles and Formatting Sidebar. Select the Custom Styles from the pop down list. Right click in an empty area of the Styles and Formatting dialog box and select New from the pop up menu. Page 2
This opens the Paragraph Style dialog box. Creating Custom Paragraph Styles: Observe that there are a number of tabs across the top of the Paragraph Style dialog box. The first step in creating a new paragraph style is to name the style. In the Paragraph Style dialog box, select the Organizer tab. In the Name area of the Paragraph Style dialog box, type the name My Poem Body. (Do not press the Enter key yet or the dialog box will close. If this happens, right click on the My Poem Body style in the Styles and Formatting sidebar and select Modify to reopen the dialog box.) In the Next Style area of the Paragraph Style dialog box, select My Poem Body. Illustration 4: My Poem Body style dialog box In the Inherit from area of the Paragraph Style dialog box, use the small arrow on the right side of the text box and select None from the List Box. Do not press enter or select the OK button in the dialog box until all adjustments have been made. Next, the Alignment and Font options will be set for the My Poem Body paragraph style. Select the Indents & Spacing tab in the Paragraph Style dialog box. Set the Spacing, Above paragraph to 0.20. Select the Alignment tab in the Paragraph Style dialog box. Set the Alignment to Center. Select the Font tab in the Paragraph Style dialog box. Since some installed programs add new Windows fonts, the exact list of fonts in your computer will depend on what programs have been installed. Select a Font, Typeface and Size for the poem text. (In this example, Antique, Bold, 24pt was used. However, you may choose any font you prefer.) Select OK to close the Paragraph Style dialog box. Now that a paragraph style has been created for a poem body, a second paragraph style will be created for the poem title. Right click in an empty area of the Styles and Formatting Window and select New from the pop up menu. In the Name area of the Paragraph Style dialog box, type the name My Poem Title. In the next step be sure to select My Poem Body, not My Poem Title. Page 3
LibreOffice Writer 5 Tutorials In the Next Style area of the Paragraph Style dialog box, use the scroll arrow to select My Poem Body. In the Inherit from area of the Paragraph Style dialog box, use the small arrow on the right side of the text box and select None. Do not select the OK button in the dialog box until all desired settings are made. Select the Alignment tab in the Paragraph Style dialog box, and set the Alignment to Center. Select the Font tab in the Paragraph Style dialog box, and select a Font, Typeface and Size for the poem text. (In this example, Antique, Bold, 36pt was used. However, you may choose any font you prefer.) Select the Font Effects tab in the Paragraph Style dialog box. Toggle the Shadow effect ON. Select OK to close the Paragraph Style dialog box. Now that the paragraph styles for the poem have been established, it is time to write a poem. Here is a poem for you to add to the document. If you wish, substitute your own poem verses. With the Text Cursor on the first line of the My Poem document, double click on the My Poem Title style in the Styles and Formatting Window. Enter My First Poem on the first line of the document and then press the Enter key twice. Then enter the following paragraphs (or a poem of your own). Press the Enter key to insert the blank lines shown. It has not been read in Rome It has not been read in Nome It is not about a fellow Or about the color yellow It is not fit to publish But is only poet rubbish Observe that you set the paragraph style to My Poem Title for the first line, but as soon as you pressed the Enter key, the paragraph style changed to My Poem Body. This is because when the My Poem Title was created, the next style was set to My Poem Body. This trick can save a lot of time. Now that you have created a poem, it is time to save it. Since you already created the file name for this document in an earlier step, you can use the Save tool to update the contents of the document. From the Galaxy Toolbar, select the Save tool. Page 4
Creating Custom Paragraph Styles: Illustration 5: My First Poem Now it is time for you to experiment. From the Menu Bar, select File Save As and enter a new file name to create a new document. Replace the poem title and lines with your own poem. In the Styles and Formatting dialog box, right click on the My Poem Body paragraph style, select Modify, and change the font characteristics. Repeat the previous step for the My Poem Title style. See how easy it to control the styles of an entire document. This is powerful stuff. If you write a 100 page document, you can change the fonts and spacing in 100 pages with a couple of mouse clicks. To get the most out of this lesson, open a brand new text document, and go back through this lesson again, word by word, from the beginning. Remember, if you were learning to play the piano, you would practice each piece more than once. The same drill and practice technique will help develop word processing skills faster than trying to do too much too soon. If you rush, there will not be enough soak time for the new information to be absorbed. Too see what fonts are installed on your computer, set File Explorer to This PC, Drive C:, Windows, Fonts. Page 5
LibreOffice Writer 5 Tutorials Illustration 6: Viewing installed fonts Page 6