Second Edition

By Bruce Byfield & Jean Hollis Weber

Copyright
This book is Copyright © 2022 by Bruce Byfield, under the Creative Commons
Attribution Sharealike License version 4.0 or later.
(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).
LibreOffice is a trademark of The Document Foundation. Apache OpenOffice is a
trademark of the Apache Software Foundation. All other trademarks within this guide
belong to their respective owners.

Editor & Publisher

Jean Hollis Weber, Condon, Queensland 4815, Australia. Please direct any comments or
suggestions about this document to [email protected].

Acknowledgments
Parts of this book’s content were originally published, sometimes in different forms, by
Linux Journal, Linux.com, Linux Pro Magazine, Open Content and Software, Wazi, and
WorldLabel. Our thanks for permission to re-use this material.
Thanks to Jean Hollis Weber for editing and updating this edition of the book to
LibreOffice 7.3.5.

Publication date and software version

Published November 2022. Based on LibreOffice Version 7.3.5.

Photo credits
Cover photos and the photo on the interior title page are copyright by Bruce Byfield and
released under the Creative Commons Attribution Sharealike License, version 4.0 or later.
They depict the Sun Yat Sen Classical Garden in Vancouver, Canada. The gardens are
based on the philosophy of feng shui, which, like typography, works deliberately to
produce a natural, unnoticed effect. All photos are used with permission.
Also included in the text are the following original works of art: Nathan Wilson’s
“Tag’wa,” Nigel Fox’s “Butterflies #3,” and Todd Stephen’s “Jorja and I.” All these are in
the collection of Bruce Byfield and used by permission of the artists.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
1 Introduction
3 What is typography?
4 What is LibreOffice?
5 What is Open Document Format?
5 About this book
6 About the writer
7 About the editor

Chapter 2
9 Going in style
10 Example: Formatting with styles
11 Debunking myths about styles
13 Example: Styles save time
16 When should you use styles?
17 The types of styles
20 Working with styles
22 Selecting the style type
22 Viewing styles
23 Finding current styles
24 The nature of styles
25 The hierarchy of styles
26 The Default paragraph style
27 The Organizer tab
29 Applying styles
29 Using the Styles and Formatting window
30 Using the Formatting tool bar
31 Using Fill Format Mode
32 Pasting styles
33 Applying styles using keyboard shortcuts
33 Creating and modifying styles
35 Hiding and deleting styles
35 Naming styles
36 Automating style application
36 Another way of writing
Chapter 3
37 Recycling using templates
39 When to use templates
39 Example
40 How templates work
40 Linking templates with documents
42 Re-attaching styles
42 Identifying a template
43 Using the Templates window
44 Planning a template library
45 Example: Assessing template requirements
46 Naming templates
46 Readying templates for use
47 Downloading templates
48 Creating templates with wizards
48 Saving and registering templates
50 Saving multiple templates
50 Setting a new default
51 Storing template structure
52 Using placeholders
53 Using fields in templates
55 Example: Using placeholders & fields
56 Editing templates
57 Deleting templates
57 Exporting templates
57 Changing templates
58 Copying styles
60 Working with templates in a file manager
61 The complete basics

Chapter 4
63 Fonts, color, and the magic number
64 Finding fonts to use
65 Installing fonts for LibreOffice
65 Choosing fonts in LibreOffice
65 Font families
68 Font styles
73 Font sizes
76 Font effects
77 Choosing basic fonts
77 Judging fonts
78 Choosing a body font
79 Choosing a heading font
79 Other considerations for fonts
81 Matching fonts
82 Matching by historical categories
85 Using dummy text to experiment
87 Adjusting the page color
87 Setting color through line spacing
90 Contexts for changing color
91 Applying the magic number
93 Example: Solving the magic numbers
97 Using font shaping codes
98 An unexpected journey

Chapter 5
99 Spacing on all sides
100 Preparing to design
102 Planning text styles
103 Setting vertical line spacing
105 Line spacing at small font sizes
106 Spacing between paragraphs
108 Removing unexpected spaces
108 Avoiding widows and orphans
110 Selecting an alignment
111 Using a Justified alignment
114 Using a Left alignment
114 Setting hyphenation
116 Setting horizontal spacing
118 Setting first line indentation
120 Example: Designing a letter template
124 The text style basics

Chapter 6
125 Text tools and traps
126 Setting borders
127 Adding borders
128 Using borders in character and paragraph styles
130 Highlighting and setting backgrounds
132 Using backgrounds in character and paragraph styles
132 Setting transparency
133 Setting tab stops
135 Using tabs effectively
136 Setting up drop capitals
139 Outlining and making lists
139 Automating lists
140 Restarting paragraph numbering
140 Nesting lists
142 Outlining with paragraph styles
146 Using multiple languages
147 Setting up other language features
148 Creating a block quote style
149 Preparing styles for HTML
152 Minimizing HTML problems
153 Preparing styles for EPUB
154 Preparing styles for PDF
154 Moving beyond practical text

Chapter 7
155 Positioning and automating text
156 Fine-tuning characters
157 Positioning superscript and subscript
160 Aligning different-sized text on one line
161 Rotating text
162 Adjusting font width
163 Adjusting character combinations (kerning)
165 Manufacturing small capitals
166 Making line spacing consistent
168 Automating with styles
169 Configuring conditional styles
172 Setting page breaks by style
174 Single-sourcing by hiding text
176 Choosing a tactic for hiding/showing text
177 Hiding text using styles
178 Hiding text using fields
181 Hiding with sections
185 The limits to LibreOffice text design
Chapter 8
187 Styling the page
188 Understanding layout conventions
189 Applying page styles
189 Automating the next style
191 Planning page styles
192 Designing left and right pages
192 Designing the first page
194 Setting the paper format
196 Example: A4/Letter combined template
197 Setting layout settings
199 Setting margins
200 Choosing margin proportions
202 Designing headers and footers
204 Turning on headers and footers
205 Choosing tabs or tables
205 Formatting headers and footers
211 Making vertical headers and footers
212 Setting page numbers
216 Setting up multiple page columns
218 Setting up footnotes
219 Setting the page background
220 Using recurring images
221 Moving in the new dimension

Chapter 9
223 Getting in the frame
224 How frame styles work
225 Understanding pre-defined frames
225 Planning frame use
226 Preparing images
229 Preparing images in graphics editors
230 Setting image resolutions
230 Using cropping or indicators
232 Setting natural borders
233 Cleaning up the image
233 Inserting images
234 Choosing linking or embedding
236 Formatting frames and images
 236 Resizing frames and images
238 Positioning frames on the page
238 Setting anchors
239 Choosing text wrap
241 Setting white space around a frame
242 Example: Developing a white space policy
242 Setting other wrap options
243 Setting frame and image borders
244 Setting frame backgrounds
244 Setting general options
245 Adding columns
245 Adding hyperlinks and macros
246 Adding captions
250 Formatting captions
250 Adding automatic captions
251 Making images stay in place
251 Using the Haugland solution
252 Using the table solution
255 Advanced uses of frames
255 Creating marginalia and sideheads
257 Creating watermarks
259 Setting text flow between frames
261 Working around the problems

Chapter 10
263 Structured prose: lists and tables
264 Understanding the types of list
264 Bullet (unordered) lists
267 Numbered (ordered) lists
268 Outline lists
270 Naming list styles
272 Applying list styles
273 Formatting list styles
274 Positioning bullets, numbers, and list items
277 Formatting ordered (numbered) lists
282 Designing unordered (bullet) lists
282 Example: Making a checklist
283 Using images as bullets
285 Example: Repeating graphics using lists
286 Setting up and designing tables
287 Planning tables
289 Designing tables
289 Adding a table
291 Editing table parts
294 Setting text flow options
296 Adding spreadsheet behaviors
296 Adding captions
297 Using AutoFormats
298 Creating AutoFormats
299 Using tables as workarounds
300 New aspects of literacy

Chapter 11
301 Styled features and long documents
302 Using outline levels
303 Writing an outline
304 Outlining in the Navigator
306 Using cross-references
308 Cross-referencing within one document
309 Cross-referencing to another file
311 Using outline levels in tables of contents and indexes
312 Creating a table of contents
320 Creating an index
324 Creating citations and bibliographies
329 Creating footnotes and endnotes
330 Using master documents
338 Moving beyond Writer

Chapter 12
339 Designing and delivering slide shows
339 Why are slide shows boring?
341 Deciding when to use a slide show
343 Designing a presentation
344 Outlining slide shows
346 Making a structural template
348 Designing with master slides
349 Creating master slides
349 Choosing slide backgrounds
 354 Adding footer information
354 Setting Presentation styles
359 Selecting a slide transition
360 Setting slide layouts
361 Adding other elements
362 Example: Displaying one line at a time
365 Preparing notes and handouts
366 Setting presentation options
368 Saving templates
368 Delivering a slide show
369 Understanding design constraints

Chapter 13
371 Designing drawing content
372 Learning design principles
373 Example: applying design
378 Finding content
379 Producing content
381 Dimension lines
381 Text inside a shape
381 Connectors
382 Curves and polygons
382 Freeform lines
383 Callouts
384 Rotating, slanting, and distorting shapes
384 Editing points
384 The Fontwork Gallery
387 3D objects
388 Tables
388 Grouping shapes
390 Stacking shapes into other shapes
393 Connecting lines and curves
393 Adding images
394 Designing fills
400 Gathering shapes

Chapter 14
401 Drawing styles and charts
402 Planning drawing styles
402 Applying drawing styles
404 Formatting drawings
412 Setting text characteristics
415 Creating a flow chart
417 Adding charts and graphs
418 Formatting charts
419 Selecting chart types
421 Editing graphs and charts
423 Creating a chart
424 Separating analysis and creativity

Chapter 15
427 Spreadsheet design
428 Planning spreadsheets
429 Building lists and data collections
431 Designing spreadsheet lists
432 Exercise: A trip-planning list
433 Designing data collections
435 Exercise: Creating a mark book
436 Adding data and functions
437 Adding spreadsheet tools
438 Hiding and showing cells
438 Grouping and outlining cells
439 Filtering data
441 Creating subtotals
443 Defining cell content and adding help
445 Creating pivot tables
449 Deciding on the styles
449 Applying spreadsheet styles
450 Setting up cell styles
450 Selecting fonts for spreadsheets
451 Selecting borders
451 Selecting backgrounds
452 Setting how numbers are handled
454 Setting alignment
455 Rotating text
456 Adding hyphenation and text wrap
458 Setting cell protection
459 Setting conditional formatting for cells
463 Using page styles
463 Printing sheets
468 Formatting spreadsheets automatically
469 Adding other elements
469 Working with conventions

Chapter 16
471 Putting everything together
472 Checking copy
472 Your favorite things
473 Checking structure
475 Checking design
476 Positioning objects
476 Adjusting hyphenation
477 Checking the spelling
478 Checking the diction
480 Checking page breaks
481 Problems with master documents
482 Updating
482 Making the final check

Appendix A
483 Downloading LibreOffice
483 Extensions and templates

Appendix B
485 Learning more about typography
Appendix C
487 Where to get free-licensed fonts
Appendix D
491 Free-licensed equivalents for standard fonts
For Trish, Always
 1
Introduction
Office suites are as old as the personal computer. Yet, after
more than forty years, few of us have learned how to use them.
Oh, we have learned how to get things done in them. Most of
us can format a document and print it out, after a fashion. But
many of us haven’t learned how to do these tasks efficiently,
taking advantage of all the tools that are available.
It is as though we have learned enough about cars to go
downhill in them and coast across level ground, but never learned
about the ignition. We get things done, but with more effort and
less efficiency that we should. Some tasks, like going uphill, we
don’t imagine are even possible because of our ignorance.
Using any office suite to its full potential means knowing how
to design your documents – and nine-tenths of design is knowing
how to use styles and templates. Knowing how to use styles and
templates is the equivalent of being handed the key to that
coasting car and shown the gas pedal – suddenly, you can take
control of the vehicle, instead of getting by on clumsy makeshifts.

Introduction 1.
 That is especially true of LibreOffice. Its Writer word
processor in particular is structured around the concept of styles.
Not only does Writer have more types of styles than other word
processors, but many advanced features, such as tables of
contents and master documents, take more effort to use without
styles. And having spent the time to set up styles, you would
prefer not to do the work all over again for your next document,
so templates also become an important part of your work flow.
Other parts of LibreOffice are less dependent on styles than
Writer, but are still more style-aware than their equivalents in
Microsoft Office.
Much of this book is designed to explain not only what styles
and templates are and how to use them, but also what you need
to consider when selecting them. The rest is mostly about
features that are not quite styles, or that are dependent on styles
for full efficiency. Other sections are distinctly not about styles,
but needed for a full discussion about design.
However, one thing that this book is not is a relentless death
march in regimented order through every item in the menus.
Instead, it looks at important features from the point of view of
planning, as a variety of tactics that you can choose, and skips
around as seems most useful for planning. It assumes that readers
are either already familiar with LibreOffice and other office
suites, or, at least, can tour the menus by themselves.
You might call this book an effort to make a single map out of
two separate bodies of information: LibreOffice’s features, and
the standard practices of typography (designing with text).
By understanding both, you can take advantage of what
publishers have been learning for over half a millennium about
what works and what doesn’t. The alternative is to spend more

2. Designing with LibreOffice

time on trial and error, and still end up (as likely as not) with
something worse than if you had taken some advice.

What is typography?
People have strange ideas about typography. Many imagine
that it is about design that screams for attention, like blinking
text on a web page. Many, too, suppose that the main purpose
is to show how clever the designer is.
The truth is, nothing could be more wrong. The real purpose
of typography is to make the text more inviting and easy to read.
Its focus is not abstract design, but practical concerns like
providing margins wide enough so that readers can comfortably
hold a book, or features that make a document easier to update.
Far from calling attention to itself, the best typography hides,
noticed by casual readers only in a vague sense that a document is
comfortable to read. The features that produce these
characteristics should be noticeable only to eyes trained to be
alert for them.
LibreOffice does not have all the tools needed for the highest
levels of typography. However, it does have many of them, and
far more than any other office suite. The more you know about
typography, the more you can make it do what you want.
Still, in the end, Designing with LibreOffice is not about
design in the abstract, but about getting everyday tasks done.
Those who want to know more about typography and layout
should look at Appendix B for more information.

Introduction 3.
What is LibreOffice?
LibreOffice is an office suite that runs on Linux, macOS, and
Windows. It is released under a free license that lets you use it
legally on as many machines as you want, and share it with
others, and even modify it if you have the knowledge and skill.
LibreOffice is descended from OpenOffice.org, a free and
open source software project run for years by Sun Microsystems.
When Oracle bought Sun in 2010, LibreOffice started
developing its own version of OpenOffice.org, as the code’s
license permits. Eventually, Oracle gave its rights in the code to
The Apache Foundation. Today, OpenOffice.org no longer
exists, but Apache OpenOffice does.
LibreOffice and Apache OpenOffice are similar in many
features, but LibreOffice has many new features that are not in
Apache OpenOffice, including the ability to save to modern
Microsoft Office formats such as .docx. This book does not
attempt to cover any differences between the two programs.
Several other organizations repackage LibreOffice, often
under a different name and sometimes using different icons and
other minor changes. This practice is perfectly legal.
Linux distributions are especially apt to make these cosmetic
changes. You can tell if you are using an altered version because
those installed from the repositories of distributions usually
install to /usr/lib/libreoffice/. By contrast, installations directly
from LibreOffice downloads install to the /opt directory.
Both LibreOffice and Apache OpenOffice are available at no
cost to anyone with an Internet connection. In addition, an
enterprise version of LibreOffice, named Collabora Office, is
available for Windows, macOS, Android, iOS, and online use.

4. Designing with LibreOffice

What is Open Document Format?
LibreOffice uses Open Document Format (ODF), a file format
consisting of zipped XML files, as its default file format.
You can use this format to exchange documents with any
other application that uses ODF, such as Apache OpenOffice,
Calligra Suite, or AbiWord. You can also open files from
Microsoft Office, Apple Pages, WordPerfect, Microsoft Works,
and many other formats, although some formatting may be lost in
complex documents. You can save from LibreOffice to most
Microsoft Office formats and a few others.

About this book

This book standardizes on LibreOffice on Linux, because that
is what the author (Bruce) uses every day. However, the content
usually applies to macOS (Jean’s main operating system) and
Windows versions as much as the Linux versions.
Where important differences exist, we try to mention them,
but they are surprisingly few. If you see a difference that we fail
to mention, please let us know, so that we can make corrections.

Tip
Designing with LibreOffice is about layout, so it does not
mention every available feature.

If you need information on features or selections that are not

mentioned in this book, see the LibreOffice documentation
page:

https://documentation.libreoffice.org/en/

Introduction 5.
About the writer
(Bruce Byfield) I have been writing about free and open
source software for almost two decades. The first edition of this
book had over 35,000 downloads before a site upgrade reset the
download counter. I long ago lost count, but by now I’ve written
over 2200 articles. Many have been about OpenOffice.org or
LibreOffice.
My LibreOffice articles include:
• “11 Tips for Moving to OpenOffice.org,” which was the cover
article for the March 2004 Linux Journal
(https://www.linuxjournal.com/article/7158).
• “Replacing FrameMaker with OOo Writer,” October 2004
(https://www.linux.com/news/replacing-framemaker-ooo-writer/).
• “How LibreOffice Writer Tops Microsoft Word: 12
Features,” April 2012
(https://www.datamation.com/applications/how-libreoffice-writer-
tops-ms-word-12-features/).
Before becoming a journalist, I was a technical writer and
graphic designer. During that part of my working life, I had
several chances to stress-test OpenOffice.org, including writing
several manuals of over 700 pages. It met every challenge I threw
at it, making me aware that the software had more to it than most
people assumed.
LibreOffice is not perfect. Some parts of it are difficult to use,
and others are undocumented in any meaningful way. A few
seem to suffer from longstanding bugs. Some parts are obsolete.
All the same, LibreOffice is not just a wannabe Microsoft
Office. Rather, it is a powerful pieces of software in its own right,

6. Designing with LibreOffice

sometimes falling short of Microsoft Office, but just as often
exceeding it. It remains by far the best office suite available today.
Some users complain about LibreOffice’s reliance on styles
and templates. Yet, without them, LibreOffice would not be
nearly so powerful. They truly are the ignition key that most of us
have been missing while coasting downhill.

About the editor

(Jean Hollis Weber) I have over 40 years of experience as a
scientific and technical editor and writer, working for
organizations including CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and
Industrial Research Organization) and IBM Australia. Since
2003 I have been working as a volunteer writer, editor, and
publisher for the OpenOffice.org and LibreOffice projects.

Introduction 7.
 2
Going in style
You have two ways to design a document in LibreOffice: by
manual formatting and by applying styles. Or, as I like to joke:
the wrong way and the right way.
Manual formatting (also called direct formatting) is how most
people design a document. When you format manually,
whenever you want to change the default formatting, you select
part of the document – for example, a paragraph or a word – and
then apply the formatting using the tool bars or one of the menus.
Then you do the same thing all over again in the next place
that you want the same formatting. And the next, and the next.
If you decide to change the formatting, you have to go through
the entire document, changing the design one place at a time.
Manual formatting is popular because it requires little
knowledge of the software. In effect, you are using the office
application as though it were a typewriter.
But although this approach gets the job done, it’s slow. Not
only that, but many features are awkward to use when you
format manually – assuming you can use them at all.

Going in style 9.
 By contrast, a style is a set of formats. For example, a character
style might put characters into italics if they form the title of the
book. A page style might list everything about how a page is
designed, from the width of its margins to its orientation and the
background color.
The advantage of styles is that you design everything once.
Instead of adding all the characteristics every place where you
format, you apply the style.
If you decide you want a different format, you edit the style
once, and within seconds, every place where you applied the
style has the new format as well.
You don’t have to remember the details of the formatting,
either – just the name of the style.

Example: Formatting with styles

To fully appreciate the difference between formatting manually and
formatting with styles, imagine that you are preparing a twenty page
essay for a university class. You have decided to use the DejaVu Serif
typeface with a size of 10 points. Twenty minutes before you leave for
class, you re-read the professor's instructions and realize that she only
accepts essays in 12 point Times New Roman.
If you have manually formatted, you will be lucky to finish editing before
you leave. But if you have used styles, you can change the font and its
size in less than a minute, and print out a new copy of the essay with time
to spare.
Then you can save the document as a template. The next essay you write
for that professor, you can concentrate on content and not have to worry
about formatting.

10. Designing with LibreOffice

 Other advantages of styles? You can mostly eliminate the
need for tabs, especially at the start of a new paragraph, because
you can create a style that automatically indents for you.
Similarly, instead of creating a separate frame for a section
formatted differently from the rest of the document, you can
include the different format in a set of styles and keep typing.
Another major advantage is that if you use heading styles, you
can use them as bookmarks in Navigator to help you move
around in a document. But unlike normal bookmarks, you don’t
have to define them in a separate task. Instead, headings are
available for use the moment that you set the styles.
In the same way, headings let you generate a table of contents
with a minimum of settings. Separate headers and footers for
different pages are easier to maintain. You can give a uniform
look to the frames around photos you add, set up a drop capital to
mark the start of a new chapter, and automatically change page
layouts, freeing yourself to focus on content.
However, the real saving comes when you save your design as
a template. Once you have created your basic templates, the next
time you start a document, you won’t have to think about
formatting at all – instead, you can open the template and start
writing. Usually, the more you use styles, the more time you save.
Amazingly, some users view styles as an intrusion on their
rights to work as they please. Of course they can do as they like,
but not using styles means they work harder than necessary.

Debunking myths about styles

People who have never used styles often have bizarre ideas
about them. Sometimes, these ideas may be excuses to rationalize
not using styles, but often they are misunderstandings.

Going in style 11.

 Here are some of the most common myths about styles:
Myth about styles Reality
• Styles impose on users’ • You can work without styles.
right to work the way they But why demand the right to
choose. inconvenience yourself?
• Styles are hard to learn. • Styles represent a different
way of thinking than manual
formatting. However, you
can learn their basic concepts
in ten minutes.
• Styles are for programmers, • Styles are for anybody who
not ordinary users. wants to work efficiently.
Actually, just as many
programmers format
manually as anyone else.
• Styles require you to • You don’t need to memorize
memorize their names. anything. You just need to
read from the lists of styles in
LibreOffice.
• What you set in styles • A style affects only the parts
applies to all the document, of a document to which you
so styles are more limited apply it.
than manual formatting.
• Styles are too complicated. • You don’t need to
understand every feature of
every style. Often, you can
just accept the defaults.

12. Designing with LibreOffice

Myth about styles Reality
• Styles are limiting. You • Most aspects of styles can be
can’t change what’s built fine-tuned, toggled on or off,
into them. or ignored until you need
them. You can’t do anything
manually that you can’t do
with styles much more easily.
• Styles can conflict with • Only one style of a particular
each other. type can apply to a selection.
You can have a character and
a paragraph style applying to
the same selection, but not
two different character styles
or two different paragraph
styles.
• Manual formatting is • You can change styles on the
preferable because you can fly, too. In fact, changing
make changes on the fly. styles is quicker; you only
have to make a change once
to apply it through the entire
document.

Example: Styles save time

Just how much time do you save by using styles? Let's imagine that you
have a heading paragraph that you want to format extensively.
Specifically, you want to set the font, font size, font weight, font color,
and the space above the paragraph. In addition, you want to edit the
heading so that it starts with a number.

Going in style 13.

The shortest way to make these changes manually is:

Steps Action
1 Highlight the text of the header.
2–4 Open the font list in the tool bar, scroll, and select
the font.
5–-6 Open the font size in the tool bar, scroll, and select
the font size.
7 Select font weight from the tool bar icon.
8–9 Open FONT COLOR in the tool bar and select the color.
10–14 Select from the menu FORMAT > PARAGRAPH > INDENTS
& SPACING, edit the SPACE ABOVE field, and click OK.

15 Add a numbered list from the tool bar.

If you are lucky, you might save a few actions if you don’t have to scroll
for a setting, but this series of steps is a good average. You would have to
repeat these steps, of course, for every header in the document.
By contrast, setting up a style could take 21 steps. However, once the
style is ready, here's how you would make the same changes using styles:

14. Designing with LibreOffice

Steps Action
1 Place the cursor anywhere in the header paragraph.
2 Press F11 to open the STYLES AND FORMATTING
window in the sidebar.
3 If necessary, change the display in the STYLES AND
FORMATTING window to ALL STYLES (or another view
that shows the style you want).
4 Scroll to the paragraph style you want.
5 Select the paragraph style.

This example is extremely conservative. If you are using styles, then

probably the STYLES AND FORMATTING window is already open. Often,
too, you may not need to change the view.
However, even being conservative, applying the style requires one-third
the number of actions than making the changes manually. When you
change one paragraph’s style, you also change every other use of the style
in the same document. That means that if the document has more than
two instances of the heading, using styles saves you effort.

Tip
In most Windows and macOS installations of LibreOffice, and
some Linux installations, the STYLES AND FORMATTING window
is named STYLES.

Going in style 15.

When should you use styles?
The short answer is, “Whenever it saves time.” Still, in
practice, even experts sometimes use manual formatting in
certain circumstances.

Format manually if: Use styles if:

• The document is short (1-2 • The document is long (over
pages), and you have no 3 pages).
templates that you can use.

• The document will be used • The document is going to

once and never reused. be used over and over.

• The document will only be • The document will be

edited by a single person. edited by more than one
person.

• Any editing will only take • The document will be

place within a few days of edited weeks, months, or
finishing the document. even years after the first
version.

• Some people who will edit • The document belongs to a

the document have no idea standard class of
how to use styles, and refuse documents, such as a letter,
to learn. a fax, or memo.

16. Designing with LibreOffice

Format manually if: Use styles if:
• A consistent format doesn’t • The document design must
matter for some other match that of other
reason. For example, the documents from you or
document is informal, and your company or
won’t affect your company's organization.
branding.

• You are experimenting • You want to use the

with styles while building a document in a number of
template. Until you finalize different ways, each of
the styles, you will make so which requires some minor
many changes that creating changes: for example,
styles is mostly wasted printing it on both a white
effort. and a red background.

• The document’s formatting • The document is highly

is extremely simple and formatted, like a brochure.
regular, like an essay.

The more circumstances that apply, the clearer your decision.

However, even if all indications are to use manual formatting,
check the templates you have saved. You may find one close
enough to your needs to re-use.

The types of styles

Most office suites confine themselves to paragraph and
character styles in their word processors. However, LibreOffice
adds four more styles in Writer, and other styles for spreadsheets,
presentations, and diagrams.

Going in style 17.

 These additional styles greatly extend what LibreOffice can
do. They make Writer less a word processor than an intermediate
desktop publishing tool. Writer may not have all the precision of
a tool like InDesign, but it compares favorably with a tool like
FrameMaker for text-heavy documents. In fact, I know of several
publishers who use Writer for designing their books.
Admittedly, styles are less useful in other LibreOffice
applications. The layout in their files tends to be less uniform
than in Writer. However, in other applications, styles do help to
centralize frequently used settings, which is a benefit by itself.
The styles available in LibreOffice are:

Style Comment
Writer
PARAGRAPH PARAGRAPH styles are the most commonly
used style. A paragraph begins and ends
when you press the ENTER key. Common
paragraph styles include those for body text
and headings. Equivalent to manual
formatting with FORMAT > PARAGRAPH, plus
some extras.
CHARACTER CHARACTER styles modify selected letters in a
paragraph style. Common character styles
are bold lettering for emphasis, italics for a
book title, and underlining and a different
color for a web link. An exact equivalent to
manual formatting with FORMAT >
CHARACTER.

18. Designing with LibreOffice

Style Comment
FRAME All objects inserted to a Writer document
are contained by a frame. By customizing
FRAME styles, you can automatically adjust
elements such as the border around objects
and how text flows around them. Right-click
on a selected frame for the manual
equivalent.
PAGE PAGE styles store most page formatting,
including margins, headers and footers, and
footnotes. Manual changes to these formats
are stored in the page style and affect all
pages in the document that use the same
style. Some additional formatting can be
done manually using INSERT > SECTION,
without affecting the page style.
LIST Styles for configuring bullet lists and
numbered lists. LIST styles can be applied
directly to a list, or, more elegantly,
associated with one or more paragraph
styles. Equivalent to manually formatting
with FORMAT > BULLETS AND NUMBERING.
TABLE Recent versions of Writer now have table
styles, which you can apply like other styles
from the STYLES AND FORMATTING window
instead of creating the manually.

Going in style 19.

Style Comment
Calc
CELL CELL styles set both the appearance of cells
and the types of content in them, such as
percentages or currency. They also can
automatically set the number of decimal
places used by the cell, and automatically
wrap and hyphenate the contents of a cell.
PAGE PAGE styles set how to arrange selected
sheets or cells to print to paper.
Draw and Impress
GRAPHIC Styles for drawing objects, including
graphic text.
PRESENTATION Styles for the contents of slides (Impress
only).

Working with styles

To open the STYLES AND FORMATTING window, do one of the
following:
• Select STYLES > MANAGE STYLES from the menu bar.
• Press the F11 key.
• Click the MORE STYLES... link at the bottom of the SET
PARAGRAPH STYLE list in the FORMATTING tool bar.
• Select the STYLES AND FORMATTING button on the sidebar.

20. Designing with LibreOffice

 Tip
You can add a SHOW THE STYLES SIDEBAR icon from the list of
visible icons to the FORMATTING tool bar and click that to open
the STYLES AND FORMATTING window.

Writer’s version of the STYLES AND FORMATTING window.

The STYLES AND FORMATTING window opens by default in the

sidebar. You can undock the window (or any other display in the
sidebar) and make it floating. Click the SIDEBAR SETTINGS icon on
the top right of the sidebar and select UNDOCK. When the window
is undocked, select DOCK from this list to redock it. LibreOffice
remembers whether the window is docked or undocked when
you restart it.
You can also drag the floating window by its title bar to the left
or right edge of the editing window, then when a frame appears,

Going in style 21.

release the floating window to dock it. Dragging on the title bar of
the docked window should undock it. The reliability of these
techniques varies.

Selecting the style type

On the top left of the STYLES AND FORMATTING window are
icons for each type of style. If you hover the mouse over them,
you will see what type of style each icon represents. Click an
icon to display the styles for its particular type.

Viewing styles
Because the list of styles is long, the drop-down list at the
bottom of the STYLES AND FORMATTING window has filtered views
that need less scrolling.
The best view depends on what you are doing. For example,
when you are designing, the HIERARCHICAL view helps you work
with related styles. By contrast, after you have written a few
pages, the APPLIED STYLES view minimizes the styles displayed.
The basic views vary with the application. The most common
ones are:
• HIERARCHICAL: Shows how styles are related to each other (See
“The hierarchy of styles,” page 25). Helps you decide where
to make changes in multiple styles by editing just one of them.
• APPLIED STYLES: The styles used in the current document.
This view is useless with a new document, but as you
continue to work, it reduces the number of styles displayed.
• CUSTOM STYLES: The styles you have created, as opposed to the
pre-defined ones.
• AUTOMATIC: A minimalist list of pre-defined styles. AUTOMATIC
is the default view when you open a new document.

22. Designing with LibreOffice

• ALL STYLES: Especially when you are viewing paragraph
styles, the ALL STYLES view can give you so many names to
scan that using it is counter-productive. Use ALL STYLES only
when you are completely unable to find the style you want.
• HIDDEN STYLES: Styles you have removed from the other views
to reduce the clutter.
Paragraph styles have a number of additional views. Most are
self-explanatory divisions of the uses for styles, such as HTML
STYLES and INDEX STYLES.
Styles that don’t fit into any other category, such as CAPTION,
FOOTER LEFT, or TABLE CONTENTS are listed as SPECIAL STYLES.

Tip
The HTML view shows the paragraph styles that LibreOffice
has mapped directly to specific HTML tags.

Finding current styles

The STYLES AND FORMATTING window always opens with the
style for the current cursor position highlighted. If you change
the type of style displayed in the STYLES AND FORMATTING window,
then the highlighted style also changes, if possible.
For example, if you are using the TEXT BODY paragraph style
and switch the display to character styles, ordinarily NO
CHARACTER STYLE will be highlighted. However, if you switch to
the list styles, nothing will be highlighted unless the cursor is at a
position where a list style is being used.
In Writer, you can identify current styles in other places in
the editing window. When closed, the list of paragraph styles on
the FORMATTING tool bar always displays the current style.

Going in style 23.

 Similarly, the current page style is shown, third from the left,
in the indicators at the bottom of the editing window. As you
scroll through a document, it is updated automatically.
In addition, you can select EDIT > FIND AND REPLACE > OTHER
OPTIONS > PARAGRAPH STYLES to locate where a style is used in a
document. Finding character styles is not directly possibly, but
FIND & REPLACE’s OTHER OPTIONS do include search by settings of
character styles using ATTRIBUTES and FORMAT.

Searching for PARAGRAPH STYLES is an essential option for editing

format and structure.

The nature of styles

LibreOffice has pre-defined styles that you can modify but not
delete. In each style type, especially paragraph and character
styles, the pre-defined styles are well thought out, and might be
all that you need. Some people say that you have less trouble if
you use only pre-defined styles, even though that may limit your
designs. Whether that is true is uncertain, but the pre-defined
styles are useful references for what you can do with styles.
In addition, you can create custom styles that are based on
pre-defined ones, or entirely new ones by clicking on any pre-
defined style. Custom styles provide the specialized needs that
the pre-defined styles do not.

24. Designing with LibreOffice

 Both custom and pre-defined styles behave similarly.
Understanding their behaviors is essential for working with them.

The hierarchy of styles

Many styles in LibreOffice are hierarchical (although for some
reason a few, such as LIST styles, are not). In other words, they are
ordered in a tree, with each style taking its characteristics from
the one at the top and modifying some of them.
A style that is one level above another is called the parent of
the style directly below it. Similarly, styles that are one level
below another one are called its children. Changing a parent
style also changes its children.
This relationship can be confusing, especially the first time a
style apparently changes its characteristics spontaneously.
However, by making changes to the parent, you save the time you
would spend changing its children one at a time.

A style hierarchy for paragraph styles in Writer. Changes to the HEADING

style will change all the styles below it.

Going in style 25.

Changing the style hierarchy
You can manipulate the style hierarchy using the INHERIT FROM
field on the ORGANIZER tab. The style inherited from is the current
style’s parent – the style from which the current style inherits
characteristics.

Tip
In Apache OpenOffice and earlier LIbreOffice releases, the
INHERIT FROM field is called LINKED WITH.

Sometimes, you may want to use the field to set an arbitrary

parent. For example, if you created two paragraph styles for
bullets, differing only in the list style each used, you could save
time by setting one of the styles as the parent of another. Either
one would do – the point is to make changes only once, not twice.

The Default paragraph style

The only paragraph style that does not have a hierarchical
parent is the one at the top of the entire tree. This style is called
DEFAULT PARAGRAPH STYLE.
You can choose to edit the DEFAULT PARAGRAPH STYLE so that it
includes the basic formatting you have chosen for the document.
Alternatively, you can leave the DEFAULT PARAGRAPH STYLE
unchanged, so that you can exchange documents easily with
people on other machines.
This second choice is not always possible because different
versions of LibreOffice may set different default paragraph styles,
but is worth trying. In effect, this approach uses another style
such as TEXT BODY as an unofficial default, leaving the DEFAULT
PARAGRAPH STYLE to function like FORMAT > CLEAR DIRECT
FORMATTING.

26. Designing with LibreOffice

 Either way, the DEFAULT PARAGRAPH STYLE is useful when
pasting formatted text from inside or outside the current
document creates formatting problems.
The easiest way to solve these problems is to strip out most of
the formatting by applying the DEFAULT PARAGRAPH STYLE, then to
apply the formatting you want.

Tip
Lists sometimes leave bullets or numbers behind after you apply
the DEFAULT PARAGRAPH STYLE to them. When that happens,
right-click and choose NO LIST from the menu.

The Organizer tab

The window for each style throughout LibreOffice is divided
into tabs. Many tabs, such as the BORDER and the AREA tabs,
display identical features throughout LibreOffice; so, in later
chapters, the book gives cross-references to prevent repetition.

To change a style’s parent, change the INHERIT FROM field on the

ORGANIZER tab (may be called LINKED WITH).

Of all the tabs, the ORGANIZER tab is most important. It

summarizes the style and its relation to other styles.

Going in style 27.

 The ORGANIZER tab can include four fields:
• NAME: The entry that appears in the STYLES AND FORMATTING
window. It should be descriptive or suggest the style’s
function.
• NEXT STYLE: The style that is automatically used next when
you press the ENTER key. For instance, HEADING 1 Is often
followed by TEXT BODY. Since a heading is almost never
followed immediately by another heading, this is a reasonable
choice. By contrast, TEXT BODY’s NEXT STYLE is usually TEXT
BODY, because several paragraphs in a row are likely to be text.
• INHERIT FROM (LINKED WITH): The parent style in the hierarchy.
Changes to the parent style will change the current style, so
you don’t have to make changes to every related style.
• CATEGORY: The view in which the style is listed. By default,
styles you create are displayed in CUSTOM STYLES, but you can
choose any other view instead.

Tip
You can sometimes make a view more effective by changing
which category each of your custom styles displays in.

In addition, the ORGANIZER tab shows a summary of all the

formatting options selected for the style.
Some fields in the ORGANIZER tab are grayed-out in types of
styles where they would make no sense. For example, two frames
seldom occur one after the other, so a FRAME style window omits
the NEXT STYLE category.

28. Designing with LibreOffice

Applying styles
To apply a style, you must select part of the document. A
paragraph or page is selected when the mouse cursor is anywhere
in or on them, but frames or drawing objects must be selected by
clicking in them so the frame and its eight handles displays. You
can also drag the mouse to select multiple paragraphs or
spreadsheet cells.
You have several options for applying a style: the STYLES AND
FORMATTING window, the FORMATTING tool bar, FILL FORMAT mode,
pasting from your system’s clipboard, and applying keyboard
shortcuts.

Using the Styles and Formatting window

With the STYLES AND FORMATTING window open, you can apply
a style with a single mouse-click – or maybe two as you select
another style category to list.
For many users, the STYLES AND FORMATTING window is the
most efficient way to apply styles. Some users keep it docked in
the sidebar, which can mean that a maximized window is
necessary, depending on the size of your monitor.
If you prefer not to work in maximized windows, undock the
window and place it where it is close enough to the editing
window to minimize mouse motions, but far enough away that it
doesn’t block what you are doing.
The STYLES AND FORMATTING window shows a preview of the
current font formatting for paragraph and character styles. You
can disable the preview by deselecting the SHOW PREVIEWS box at
the bottom of the window.

Going in style 29.

Using the Formatting tool bar
In Writer, you can apply paragraph styles to a selection by
opening the drop-down list of paragraph styles on the left on the
FORMATTING tool bar (the default bottom tool bar).

Tip
When applying a style, always click on the left of a list item.
Otherwise, you risk being entangled in the menu.

The Set Paragraph Style list on the FORMATTING toolbar.

When you start a new document, the list includes only a half
dozen commonly used styles. Gradually, though, other paragraph
styles are listed as they are used in the document. Clicking the
MORE STYLES... link at the bottom of the list opens the STYLES AND
FORMATTING window, while selecting EDIT STYLE from a style’s
drop-down menu opens the dialog window for the style.
Similarly, UPDATE TO MATCH SELECTION edits the style based on
the formatting of the text you select before opening the drop-
down list.

30. Designing with LibreOffice

 The list has the advantage of offering a preview of each
paragraph style, showing the typeface, size, and color of the style.
Many other formatting elements are not shown in the preview.
Consequently, the list is a limited tool at best. At most it
serves as a reminder of what the style looks like.

Using Fill Format Mode

With the STYLES AND FORMATTING window, you also have the
option with some style categories of reversing the basic
application technique, choosing the style first, and where to apply
it second. When applying character styles, it is almost like
painting with the cursor, as its icon in the STYLES AND FORMATTING
window suggests.
To use FILL FORMAT:
1 Select a style.

2 Click the FILL FORMAT MODE button (the second from the right
at the top of the STYLES AND FORMATTING window).
When FILL FORMAT is available, the cursor changes to a paint
bucket.
If the button is grayed out, you cannot use FILL FORMAT with
the style category selected.
3 Drag the cursor over the part of the document you wish to
format. You need to drag the cursor for only a few characters
to apply the style to a paragraph or a page. However, to apply
a character style, you need to drag the cursor across all the
characters you plan to format.
4 Click the FILL FORMAT MODE button a second time to turn the
mode off.

Going in style 31.

Pasting styles
The rules for copying and pasting styles are simple regardless
of whether you use PASTE or PASTE SPECIAL, or are copying from
one document to another:
• When source material formatted in a style with the same
name as a style in the target is copied into a paragraph, then
the target’s style is used.
• When source material formatted in a style not in the target is
copied into a new paragraph, then the formatting is kept and
the style name is added to the target document.
• Any formatting done manually or with a character style in the
source is copied wherever it is pasted.
These rules hold true for all types of styles.
They also hold true for any Open Document Format file,
including those created in Apache OpenOffice or Calligra Suite,
the free office program designed for the KDE Plasma desktop.
You can remove most of this formatting by selecting CLEAR
FORMATTING from the top of the drop-down list of paragraph styles
on the FORMATTING tool bar.
Unfortunately, some of the original formatting, including the
text color and any underlining, sometimes remains. When it
does, applying No Character Style may remove it. If some
formatting still persists, retype the material. To avoid the
problem, use the method described in the Tip below.

Tip
When you paste material, click the arrow beside the PASTE icon
in the top toolbar and select UNFORMATTED TEXT. The extra step
may prevent formatting difficulties.

32. Designing with LibreOffice

Applying styles using keyboard shortcuts
Pressing CTRL+1 ... CTRL+10 applies the HEADING 1-10 styles.
These shortcuts can be useful in documents such as an outline, in
which you are using only Heading paragraph styles. You can set
keyboard shortcuts for other styles from TOOLS > CUSTOMIZE >
FUNCTIONS > STYLES.
Keyboard shortcuts can save stress on your wrists and hands
when you are typing for long periods, so you may want to record
additional macros and assign them to keyboard shortcuts. The
DEFAULT STYLE and TEXT BODY paragraph styles are likely
candidates for macros, and so are the EMPHASIS and STRONG
EMPHASIS character styles.

Caution
To record macros in LibreOffice, you first need to select TOOLS
> OPTIONS > LIBREOFFICE > ADVANCED > ENABLE MACRO
RECORDING (LIMITED). The menu item RECORD MACRO is then
listed under TOOLS > MACROS without any need to re-start
LibreOffice.

Creating and modifying styles

LibreOffice has styles for most ordinary purposes, so one way
to save time is to use only pre-defined styles, changing no more
attributes than necessary. On the whole, the styles have
intelligent defaults, and you usually only have to make a few
changes while designing.
However, if you decide to edit styles, you have several options
in Writer:
• Right-click on a style in the STYLES AND FORMATTING window
and select NEW to create a style that clones the selected style

Going in style 33.

 (in other words, one that is a child of the selected style in the
hierarchy). Be sure to rename it immediately. If you forget to
rename, you can find the new style at the bottom of the list of
styles, named something like UNTITLED1.
• Right-click on a style in the STYLES AND FORMATTING window
and select MODIFY to edit the selected style.
• Manually format and select part of the document. Open the
drop-down list on the top right of the STYLES AND FORMATTING
window and select NEW STYLE FROM SELECTION. This option is
handy for creating styles on-the-fly or if you have a hard time
visualizing settings while you are planning a design.
• Select a passage and drag it to the STYLES AND FORMATTING
window when it displays paragraph or character styles. A
dialog window opens so that you can give the new style a title.
• Select the AUTOUPDATE check box on the ORGANIZER tab of a
style. When this box is selected, any manual formatting you
do automatically updates the style.
• Edit styles from the tool bar, then highlight part of the
document, select a style in the tool bar’s drop-down list and
click UPDATE TO MATCH SELECTION.

Caution
Only select AUTOUPDATE if everyone editing the document uses
styles. Otherwise, the result could be stylistic chaos. In fact,
when using styles, discourage any editors from doing any
manual formatting.

You can also copy styles from a template into the current
document. See “Copying styles,” page 58.

34. Designing with LibreOffice

Hiding and deleting styles
Hiding styles reduces the clutter in the STYLES AND
FORMATTING window. To hide a style, select HIDE from the right-
click menu, one style at a time. If you need to use the style again,
you can restore it from the HIDDEN STYLES view.
A custom style that is no longer needed can be deleted using
the right-click menu. You cannot delete a pre-defined style.

Caution
LibreOffice warns that a style is in use, but does not stop you
deleting it. The default style replaces a deleted one.

Naming styles
Especially in Writer, styles are named for their functions,
followed by their position in the file hierarchy. For instance, USER
INDEX 1 is the paragraph style for the first level of text in an index.
Similarly, character styles include EMPHASIS and INTERNET LINK.
Other names for pre-defined styles are descriptive, such as
OBJECT WITHOUT FILL in Draw.

Tip
Since you will probably be using at least some pre-defined
styles, you may decide to use the same conventions for custom
styles.

However, to save yourself scrolling endlessly through the

STYLES AND FORMATTING window, consider prefacing any
custom styles with “C-” or some other unique preface. That way,
you can easily find and apply custom styles without having to
change the view.

Going in style 35.

 In Writer, you sometimes find that you use different
categories of styles in the same design. For example, a list style
can have a character style associated with it so that you can have
colored bullets or numbers. In addition, the same list style can be
assigned to a paragraph style so that it is used whenever you
choose the paragraph style. To help you find each of these styles
later, give them the same name. Since each is in a different
category, neither you nor LibreOffice should confuse them.

Automating style application

In most documents, some styles follow one another in a set
pattern. A TITLE paragraph style is usually followed by a SUBTITLE,
and a TEXT BODY paragraph style by another TEXT BODY. A FIRST
PAGE style is usually followed by a LEFT PAGE, which is followed
by a RIGHT PAGE.
You can take advantage of such patterns by filling in the NEXT
STYLE field on the Organizer tab. With some types of styles, such
as lists, having a NEXT STYLE makes no sense, and the field is
grayed out. But with the NEXT STYLE field filled in, just starting a
new paragraph or page will automatically apply the next style
without your hands leaving the keyboard.

Another way of writing

Don’t be surprised if you need time to get used to the idea of
styles. Using styles involves more planning beforehand than
manual formatting. Yet the basic concepts are straightforward,
and already you might be starting to see how styles can automate
formatting.
In the next chapter, you’ll see how templates can help you
recycle document designs to save you even more time.

36. Designing with LibreOffice

 3
Recycling using templates
No one has time to design a document every time they sit
down to write. It’s inefficient. Nor do you want everyone working
on a project to design their own documents. The solution to both
these problems is templates – files to store formatting and
structure to re-use or share.
Templates are handled differently from ordinary documents.
Before you use them, they need to be registered, so that
LibreOffice is aware of them. They also have their own menus
and menu items that normal files do not use.
Mostly, templates store formatting. However, they can also
store structure, either in the form of outlines, or of fields that
automatically fill in standard information or indicate with
placeholders what kind of information should be added.
This structural use of templates tends to be under-
emphasized. However, you can find examples of it in some older
releases of LibreOffice in the Impress templates entitled
“Introducing a New Strategy” and “Recommendation of a
Strategy.”

Recycling using templates 37.

 Both these templates include not only formatting, but a
standard set of slides for developing a presentation with certain
goals in mind. You can develop equally detailed structural
templates to automate your work.

An Impress slide with a formal placeholder for the title and informal ones
for other information. Placeholders help you to rough out a design
without requiring specific information.

Tip
If you are a long-time user of office suites, you may be wary of
templates because of how easily they became corrupted in
Microsoft Word when you made any changes or tried to mix
templates.

If so, don't worry. LibreOffice templates are designed to

eliminate the problems that caused the corruption in Word.
Mostly, they succeed, although sometimes at the cost of
restricting what you can do with templates.

38. Designing with LibreOffice

When to use templates
As with styles, the short answer is, “Whenever possible.” Not
only are templates more efficient than designing from scratch, but
using them consistently helps you get used to the concepts
behind them.
Over the years, I have heard users claim that templates are
impractical because every document they do is different.
However, when I probe such claims, I usually find that the
problem wasn’t that every document was different, but that the
person making the claims didn’t think in terms of structure. Nor
did they realize that a consistent general format can be part of
corporate or personal branding.
A more plausible reason for not using templates is that setting
them up takes time. Yet even that excuse fails to survive scrutiny.

Example
The all-purpose template I first designed in 2002 took several hours to
design, and maybe another two to fine-tune.
Since then, I have used that all-purpose template for hundreds of
documents. Each time I used it, I could start to write immediately and
without worrying about how it was formatted.
At a minimum of three hours per template design, I have easily saved
over a month’s time thanks to that one template alone.
Other templates I have made over the years have seen less use. But
always, the initial hours lost to template design have still been regained
countless times over the years.
Using templates does mean planning ahead. But this new work flow
rapidly repays the effort to change your work habits.

Recycling using templates 39.

How templates work
Unlike Microsoft Word, LibreOffice does not include a
NORMAL template (or similar) anywhere in its menus. This
omission eliminates the possibility of a document being
corrupted by too much editing of the default template.
The only way that you can alter LibreOffice’s default formats
without using templates is to change the font settings in TOOLS >
OPTIONS > LIBREOFFICE WRITER > BASIC FONTS (WESTERN). Default
formatting such as page and list styles cannot be edited at all.
However, you can also design a template with far more
formatting information and set it as the default. Its settings will
be used for every document when you select FILE > NEW, unless
you specifically select another template.

Linking templates with documents

Whichever template you use, it must be properly registered
before you can apply (link) it to a document. See “Saving and
registering templates,” page 48.
Only one template can be applied at one time to a document.

Caution
Two styles of the same name in separate documents can have
different formats.

If the linked template changes, the next time you restart

LibreOffice and open the document, you are prompted to update
the document. Styles shared by the template and the document
are updated, but styles that are only in the document are not.
If you choose UPDATE STYLES, then the document continues to
be linked to the template. However, remember to save the
document after updating.

40. Designing with LibreOffice

FILE > PROPERTIES > GENERAL lists the template upon which the
document was originally based.

By contrast, if you choose KEEP OLD STYLES, it is unlinked from

the template, and you are not prompted for further updates when
the template changes again. However, the PROPERTIES window
continues to list the template, even though it is irrelevant.

When you open a document, you are warned when its template has been
edited.

Generally, you want to avoid detaching documents from their

templates. Since the whole point of using templates is to make
uniform design easier, the best practices are usually:

Recycling using templates 41.

• Change the formatting only on the template.
• Always keep documents connected to their templates.
• Never make any formatting changes in a document.
• As soon as you make changes to the template, close and
reopen the documents that use the template as soon as
possible. This practice may disturb your work, but it means
that you won’t have to remember what changed, or wonder if
you made an accidental change when you receive notice of
the change the next time that you open the file.

Re-attaching styles
The Template Changer extension is available for re-attaching
styles to a document or changing the template linked to a
document. Because any attempt to swap templates raises the
possibility of corruption, test the extension using duplicate files
until you are confident that it works.
A more reliable solution is usually to copy and paste the file
contents to a blank file created from the original template.

Caution
Any changes visible with EDIT > TRACK CHANGES > SHOW are
lost when you copy and paste.

By contrast, any comments or fields are copied.

Identifying a template
You can always identify a LibreOffice (Open Document
Format) template file, because the second letter in its extension is
always a t.

42. Designing with LibreOffice

Application ODF Format
Writer .ott
Calc .ots
Impress .otp
Draw .otg
Template extensions for Open Document Format.

Using the Templates window

LibreOffice does not display template directories directly.
Instead, it creates a virtual view in the TEMPLATES window of the
contents of all the template directories listed in TOOLS > OPTIONS >
LIBREOFFICE > PATHS > TEMPLATES.

The Templates window, showing filters for different categories.

Recycling using templates 43.

 The TEMPLATES window opens from several places in the
program:
• FILE > NEW > TEMPLATES.
• FILE > TEMPLATES > MANAGE TEMPLATES.
• The TEMPLATES link on the Start Center.
The TEMPLATES window can be filtered for different types of
templates – TEXT DOCUMENTS, SPREADSHEETS, PRESENTATIONS, and
DRAWINGS. and for different categories.
In addition to the built-in categories, you might create your
own, such as EN-US and EN-CA for templates that use American
and Canadian English locales for dictionaries.
Other options might be categories named for a client or
project or specific themes, such as light or dark backgrounds –
whatever works best for you.

Planning a template library

Whether you create or download your templates, start by
assessing the types of documents you create regularly. Installing
or designing more templates than you generally need will only
make finding the ones you actually use harder.
Begin your planning by considering what your general layout
will be. If you work for a company, does it have corporate colors
that you will constantly use? If so, begin by creating the colors
using FORMAT > AREA for any graphic object (see “Designing fills,”
page 394). New colors become available for use throughout
LibreOffice, for items such as table borders and headings in
addition to fills. Earlier versions of LibreOffice had a similar page
in TOOLS > OPTIONS, but that page is no longer there.

44. Designing with LibreOffice

 Are particular fonts part of your personal or corporate
branding? Do you prefer a particular font size? All such items can
go into an all-purpose template that can be the starting point for
others. Call the result something like GENERAL or STANDARD.
Become more specific by recalling what documents you have
written in the past. If you can’t remember them:
• Open FILE > RECENT DOCUMENTS.
• Check the attachments in emails that you have sent.
• Keep a diary of the documents you produce over a week or a
month and how often you write the same kind.
A carefully selected template can last you for years, so taking
the time to classify your work is worth the effort.

Example: Assessing template requirements

Imagine that you are a financial account executive. You want your all-
purpose template to use your company's branding.
After some consideration, you find that you are regularly writing one-
page memos, short official letters, and longer monthly internal reports.
You also write quarterly reports for the company newsletter, whose editor
wants copy in HTML, and the occasional personal letter, whose design
should make clear that you are not speaking officially for the company.
Basically, in planning your template library, you are answering the
question: What documents do I regularly produce in LibreOffice?
You will probably come up with at least three or four different templates
that you will need regularly. If you don't download them, create them
gradually as the need arises. Unless some of your templates are extremely
similar, you probably won't want to design more than one at a time.

Recycling using templates 45.

Naming templates
Like style names, template names should be as descriptive as
possible. Descriptive titles are simply easier to find in a menu.
However, another practical reason for choosing template
names carefully is that, if you copy a file to another computer,
you might have a naming conflict. If that happens, your
document will not be seen how you meant it to be seen. If you
forgot to make a copy, you could have a lot of re-formatting to do.
To avoid such problems, make your template names as specific
as possible. For instance, instead of LETTER.OTT, call your template
PERSONAL-LETTER – or, better yet, something long and exact like
PERSONAL-LETTER-FORMAL-STRUCTURE. The more specific the
template’s name, the easier it will be to find when you want it.

Readying templates for use

Once you have figured which templates you need, you can get
the templates you need in several ways:
• Downloading and installing templates made by others,
perhaps with minor modifications.
• Creating your own templates using LibreOffice’s wizards as a
guide.
• Designing your own templates from scratch.
Regardless of how you obtain templates, they must be
registered before LibreOffice can take full advantage of them.
See “Saving and registering templates,” page 48.

Downloading templates
If you prefer not to design your templates from scratch, you
can use pre-existing templates instead, modifying them as
necessary. Appendix A lists some of the larger sites for templates.

46. Designing with LibreOffice

 Almost all the templates that you find online are released
under free licenses, so you can generally modify them freely.
The disadvantage of using others’ templates is that you have
to sort through them to find what you want.
Often, too, you have to modify downloaded templates to get
the exact design you want. In the end, you may not save time so
much as exchange the time spent designing for searching and
tweaking templates.
Another problem with these official sites is that each template
must be downloaded and installed separately.
However, you may be able to find extensions that will install
multiple templates together from TOOLS > EXTENSION MANAGER
after you download them. Using such extensions can save several
hours of effort.
You can also open Microsoft Office templates and convert
them to Open Document Format. This may be a useful solution
for presentation backgrounds, but less so for word processing
documents, especially those with complex formatting, which may
not import or export well.

Caution
Using Microsoft Office templates is illegal if you do not have a
copy of Microsoft Office. To avoid any legal difficulties –
however remote – avoid using templates designed for Microsoft
Office except for personal, non-commercial purposes.

Creating templates with wizards

If designing your own templates is too large a step, start by
using the wizards that LibreOffice installs.

Recycling using templates 47.

 These wizards illustrate the kinds of decisions that you make
when designing, and can give you a sense of the sorts of decisions
you need to make when designing your own templates.
In addition, they are good examples of how to add structure to
templates. However, despite their best efforts to provide variety,
the wizards do tend to create unimaginative, outdated results.
Wizards are available from the FILE > WIZARDS sub-menu.
Some of the wizards give you the option of using a LibreOffice
Base database or the address book of an email client for filling in
fields.
When you are finished setting options for the template, the
wizard defaults to saving the resulting template to your personal
template directory, registering them for immediate use.

Saving and registering templates

A regular file only needs to be saved in order to be ready for
use. By contrast, each template must be registered with
LibreOffice before you can use it, just as databases and address
books must be.
What this means is that you cannot simply save a template.
True, if you save a file using FILE > SAVE or FILE > SAVE AS, you
can select a LibreOffice template from the drop-down list of
formats in the SAVE AS dialog window. This approach is useful for
such purposes as saving a template so you can install it on
another computer, or give a copy to a friend.

48. Designing with LibreOffice

LibreOffice’s letter template wizard. Although often more elaborate than
strictly necessary, these wizards can give you a starting point to studying
templates.

However, a conventional SAVE does not register and activate

the new template for use on your system. To make a template
available, follow these steps:

Recycling using templates 49.

1 Select FILE > TEMPLATES > SAVE AS TEMPLATE.
2 A small SAVE AS TEMPLATE window opens. Name the template,
select a category, and click SAVE. The newly saved template is
now available for use.

Saving a document as a template.

Saving multiple templates

If you have downloaded a large number of templates, you can
register them in the TEMPLATES window; select MANAGE > IMPORT
on the upper right. Alternatively, you can manually move them
into one of the directories listed in the LIBREOFFICE > PATHS
section of TOOLS > OPTIONS.

Setting a new default

The default template for each module in LibreOffice is based
on several assumptions. It assumes that most users want a generic
font, like Liberation Serif. It assumes that a connection exists

50. Designing with LibreOffice

between language locale and paper size, so that an installation
that defaults to US English will use letter-sized paper, while one
that defaults to UK English will use A4 paper.
These are reasonable assumptions. However, if they don’t
serve your needs, you can avoid making changes to every generic
document that you start by changing the default template.
To change the default template:
1 Create and register the replacement template.

2 Open the TEMPLATES window. Select the replacement default

template.
3 Right-click and choose SET AS DEFAULT.
Now, each new document will use the default template unless
you specifically choose another template. LibreOffice reverts to
its built-in default template if you delete the replacement default.

Storing template structure

Discussions of templates usually emphasize storing formats in
them. However, templates can store everything from return
addresses to standard boilerplate such as corporate
backgrounders – any information that you re-use but do not care
to reinvent or type again. Instead, you can begin writing similar
documents either immediately or with only minor modifications.
Such information is especially easy to store in Impress, in
which each piece of information can be placed on one slide and
easily deleted or rearranged.

Recycling using templates 51.

Using placeholders
Placeholders are fields that mark the type of information
needed at a certain spot, but leave you to fill in the details by
clicking them. For example, Impress has built-in placeholders for
slide titles, body text, and inserted objects.

An Impress slide, with placeholders for the title and text, and a generic
placeholder for tables, charts, images, and movies in the middle.

You can also use placeholders for text and objects in Writer
from INSERT > FIELD > MORE FIELDS > FUNCTIONS. Select FORMAT,
then give the placeholder a name in the PLACEHOLDER field. The
REFERENCE field can be ignored.

52. Designing with LibreOffice

The FIELDS dialog window for adding placeholders in Writer.

The placeholders are added as fields in the document. When

you are ready to insert the information, click the placeholder field
to replace it.

PLACEHOLDER fields in Writer for the opening of a letter.

Using fields in templates

Fields are another way to store information in templates. Four
kinds of fields are likely to be useful:
• System information, such as date and time.
• General user information, stored in TOOLS > OPTIONS >
LIBREOFFICE > USER DATA.
• Document information, stored or displayed in FILE >
PROPERTIES.

Recycling using templates 53.

• Document statistics, generated as you create the document.
They include page numbers, page counts, and other
information commonly placed in the header or footer.
As this information changes, the fields in the template will
also change, updating each time that you open the document
without you having to change it manually.

Tip
Date and time fields are of two kinds. Fixed fields add the
current information and never change. By contrast, variable
fields always update to the current date and time when anyone
opens a document or updates the fields.

Both have uses. For example, you could place a fixed date field
beside a witness' signature, and a variable date field at the top of
a letter template.

Date and time fields also support a number of formats,

defaulting to the one listed for the current language. LibreOffice
offers no way to change the default formats permanently.

Although a Month-Day-Year format is common in the United

States, increasingly international use favors a consistent
sequence – either Year-Month-Day or, less frequently, a Day-
Month-Year format. All these formats can have two or four
digits for the year.

Example: Using placeholders & fields

LibreOffice includes a tool for designing do-it-yourself business cards.
The tool is designed so that you add information on one sample card, then
add the information automatically to the rest.
To create the sample card:

54. Designing with LibreOffice

1 Go to FILE > NEW > BUSINESS CARDS. On the MEDIUM tab, select the
label sheet to use. Click the NEW DOCUMENT button to continue.

2 Adjust the zoom so you can work comfortably on the sample card.

3 Create two frames of equal width and height from INSERT > FRAME >
FRAME. One is for a graphic on the left, and the other for text on the
right.

4 Place the cursor in the left hand frame and select INSERT > FIELD >
MORE FIELDS > FUNCTIONS > PLACEHOLDER.

5 Create an Image placeholder and call it GRAPHIC. Click the INSERT

button to continue. You do not have to close the FIELDS dialog
window to continue.

6 Place the cursor in the right hand frame and create one placeholder
per line for AUTHOR, POSITION, COMPANY, EMAIL, and PHONE.

Tip
The AUTHOR field is filled automatically with the name entered
in the User Data for LibreOffice’s general use.

7 Give each line a right alignment. You can further adjust the look of
the placeholders by editing the PLACEHOLDER character style.

8 Save the document. The BUSINESS CARD template is now ready for
any user to complete by clicking on each placeholder and replacing it
with actual information.

Recycling using templates 55.

A basic business card template. Placeholders are used for information,
and the name is filled in using the AUTHOR field, which borrows
information from TOOLS > OPTIONS > LIBREOFFICE > USER DATA >
FIRST / LAST NAME.

Editing templates
Unless you are extremely well-organized or lucky, you won’t
make a perfect template in one sitting. Instead, the first few times
you use a template, you are likely to find countless ways to
improve it so that it meets your needs without requiring endless
manual adjustments.
To open a template for editing, select FILE > TEMPLATES > EDIT
TEMPLATE to open a file manager and select a template. You can
also select FILE > TEMPLATES > MANAGE TEMPLATES to open the
TEMPLATES window, right-click on the template and select EDIT.
Once a template is open, you can edit and save it exactly the
same as any other document.

56. Designing with LibreOffice

Deleting templates
You can delete custom or imported templates. You cannot
delete templates installed with LibreOffice, through an extension,
or for the entire system, although you can delete the extension
from TOOLS > EXTENSION MANAGER.
From within the TEMPLATES window, select the template to
delete, then right-click and select DELETE.

Caution
The TEMPLATES window does not include confirmation dialogs.
A selected file is deleted as soon as you click DELETE. Nor can
the deletion be undone.

Exporting templates
You can export a template from the TEMPLATES window. Select
the template to export, then right-click and select EXPORT.
Exporting a template takes a copy of the template, de-registers
the copy, and saves it to the directory of your choice.

Changing templates
Except with Template Changer or another extension, you
cannot directly change which template is used by a document.
Nor is there any means to apply multiple templates to the same
document. However, you can use three workarounds.
The first is to open a document based on another template,
then copy and paste into it. This method works best when all
styles in both documents have the same names, because the styles
in the original document will take on the formatting of the new
document.

Recycling using templates 57.

 Tip
If you experience some problems with graphics, try copying and
pasting a few pages at a time instead of all at once.

In addition, any custom-named styles in use in the original

document are copied over to the new document. By contrast,
custom-named styles that are defined but not in use, as well as
tracked changes, will not appear in the new document.
A second method is to create a new master document with a
different template. If you import the template-less document into
the master document, it will be reformatted while being used
from within the master document. When not opened from the
master document, it will revert to its original formatting. See
Chapter 11 for more about master documents.
The third and most practical method is to copy styles between
documents.

Copying styles
Copying styles is convenient when two people have been
working on a document, but made their own changes to the
template (something that happens, although you shouldn’t
encourage it). You might also use the feature to copy manual
formatting of a document to its template, although making
changes to the template is generally a more reliable practice.
To copy styles between documents:
1 Press F11 to open the STYLES AND FORMATTING window.

2 From the STYLES ACTIONS menu at the far right of the icon bar,
click LOAD STYLES FROM TEMPLATE.
The LOAD STYLES FROM TEMPLATE window opens. The
CATEGORIES pane shows the template categories in the

58. Designing with LibreOffice

 TEMPLATES window, while the TEMPLATES pane shows the
templates in the selected category.

Tip
You can use Styles > Load Styles from the menu bar to quickly
open the Load Styles from Template window.

Copying styles between documents. Select OVERWRITE to replace

existing styles of the same name.
3 Either select one of the templates in the TEMPLATES pane or
click the FROM FILE button and select a document or template
using the file manager.
4 Select the types of styles to import by selecting the boxes
along the bottom of the LOAD STYLES FROM TEMPLATE window.
5 If you want to replace any styles in the current document that
have the same name as the ones in the template or document

Recycling using templates 59.

 from which you are importing styles, select the OVERWRITE
box.
If you do not want to replace styles, leave the OVERWRITE box
unselected. You will import only styles that have names not
found in the current document.
6 Click the OK button. You receive no confirmation, but the
importing is complete in a matter of seconds.

Caution
Copying styles does not change the template listed in FILE >
PROPERTIES > GENERAL. If you are unsure whether a document
is still associated with a template, make a minor change in the
template and see if the document updates the next time that you
open LibreOffice.

Working with templates in a file manager

LibreOffice includes all the features you need to interact with
templates. Sometimes, however, you may want to deal with
templates from outside LibreOffice, either because LibreOffice is
not open or because you are dealing with more than one template
at a time. Or perhaps you want to organize your installation by
adding sub-folders to the main template directories.
In these cases, you can interact with templates through a file
manager. The storage directory for templates varies with the
operating system and software release, but you can find which
directories your installation is using by going to TOOLS > OPTIONS >
LIBREOFFICE > PATHS > TEMPLATES.
You can add directories to the template path, separating them
from each other with a semi-colon. If you want to make

60. Designing with LibreOffice

directories accessible to all users on the system, log in as root or
administrator and go to the directory in which LibreOffice was
installed. For example, if you downloaded a Linux version
directly from The Document Foundation, this directory will be
in something like /opt/libreoffice7.4/share/template. In other
cases, the top two directories may be different, but the bottom
two should be the same.
If you are installing a large number of templates, placing them
all in one directory, adding to the path, and re-starting
LibreOffice is the quickest way of registering them.

The complete basics

If you have also read Chapter 2, you should now have a
general sense of how styles and templates work.
The next few chapters explain the points you need to consider
to design useful and beautiful styles and templates.

Recycling using templates 61.

 4
Fonts, color, and the magic
number
The first step in designing a document is to choose its fonts.
Your choices will determine not only the look of your document,
but, in a well-designed document, other details of your design as
well.
As you select fonts, constantly ask yourself: How appropriate
is a font to your subject matter and requirements?
Often, answering this question is a matter of imagination.
Typography may have worked out a general set of principles, but
it remains an art more than a science. For instance, a modern
geometric font may seem futuristic, and therefore more
appropriate for science fiction.
At other times, the answer will be exact. For example, some
fonts have characters that are so thin that they are invisible online
or with a low resolution printer. Others may be so gray they are
hard to read, or so black that their effect is overwhelming on the
page.

Fonts, color, and the magic number 63.

 However, whatever the conditions, the fonts you choose
should never be more noticeable than the content. The choice of
fonts is meant to enhance your content, not to make the layout
the center of attention.

Finding fonts to use

Many users never venture beyond the fonts installed on their
computers when they design documents. Nothing is wrong with
that choice, but nothing is particularly right with it, either.
By using fonts that everyone has seen many times, you greatly
increase the chance of creating an impression of blandness.
Familiar fonts like Times Roman or Helvetica can work against
you, because they encourage readers to pay less attention or
unconsciously question the originality of your ideas.
Traditionally, more computer fonts are designed for sale like
any other software. Design houses like Adobe sell hundreds,
including official versions of famous fonts like Gill Sans or Didot.
For years, the only alternative to paying for fonts was to use
public domain fonts, which were often low quality.
However, hundreds of free-licensed fonts are now available.
Sometimes designed by more than one person and often for love
of typography rather than for money, the best free-licensed fonts
like Gentium easily rival commercial fonts.
Many Linux distributions include a few free-licensed fonts in
their package repositories. For other places where you can find
free-licensed fonts, see Appendix C, “Where to get free-licensed
fonts.”

64. Designing with LibreOffice

Installing fonts for LibreOffice
LibreOffice supports TrueType (.ttf) and OpenType (.otf) font
file formats. PostScript (.pfb) fonts are no longer supported. Other
font formats exist, and may be supported by your operating
system, but these formats may be limited in selection and quality.
If you have administration privileges, you can install
additional fonts through your operating system. Otherwise, you
can install fonts only for LibreOffice by placing their files in
the /share/fonts folder in the system path listed at TOOLS >
OPTIONS > LIBREOFFICE > PATHS and restarting LibreOffice.

Choosing fonts in LibreOffice

The first step in design is to choose the fonts. They are chosen
on the FONT tab of a paragraph or character style.
On the FONT tab, each font has three basic characteristics: its
family, its style or typeface (depending on the version and
platform), and its size. Fonts can be further modified by features
on the FONT EFFECTS tab. See “Font effects,” page 76.

Font families
In LibreOffice, related fonts are called a family. The six main
font families are:
• Serif: Fonts whose lines end with a foot or a hook.
A sub-category of serifs is called slab serifs, and uses very large
serifs, making them suitable for posters and online.

Left: Serif font (Goudy Bookletter 1911). Right: Slab serif font
(Chunk). The serifs on the slab serif are much thicker than on the
ordinary serif.

Fonts, color, and the magic number 65.

The FONT tab for character and paragraph styles.

• Sans serif: Literally, fonts whose lines lack the foot that
characterizes serifs. Sans serif fonts often read well online.
When the New Typography of the early twentieth century
favored them as part of the general simplification of design,
sans serif fonts gained a reputation for modernity that they
still keep today. They are informally called Sans.

Font: Raleway. A recent design, Raleway hints at a serif for the

lower case “a,” but its general tendency is sans serif.

66. Designing with LibreOffice

• Monospace: Fonts in which every letter occupies exactly the
same amount of horizontal space. By contrast, in most fonts,
letters take up different amounts of space, with “i” taking up
the least and “m” the most.
Monospace fonts can be either serif or sans serif, but the sans
serif monospace fonts usually look more contemporary.
Because of their association with typewriters, monospace
fonts are unpopular today, except for specific uses such as
writing code or movie scripts.

Font: Deja Vu Sans Mono. This font is included in most Linux

distributions.

• Display: Unusual fonts, usually used only in short lines in a

heading or on a pamphlet or ad.

Font: Cinzel, a font based on Roman inscriptions.

• Script: Fonts that imitate cursive handwriting.

Font: Pinyon-Script.

• Dingbat: Fonts in which pictures replace letters. Hundreds of

dingbat fonts are available, from practical ones useful in charts
and diagrams to fun ones with dinosaurs and medieval figures.
Their advantage over clip art is that they are scalable; their
disadvantage is that they only display in one color.

Fonts, color, and the magic number 67.

 Font: Entypo.

Font styles
Different members of a font family are often called weights.
This term is a reference to the thickness of the lines that make up
the individual letters. In character and paragraph styles,
LibreOffice refers to a weight as a font style or typeface.
The most common styles are:
• Roman: This is the font style most often used for body text. It
may also called Regular, Book, or Medium, although these are
not always exact synonyms in individual font families.
Sometimes a Narrow or Condensed version is available, in
which the characters take up less width.

Font: ADF Romande.

• Italic: A cursive font, slanted to the right, used mainly for

emphasis and book titles. In modern fonts, the Italic is
sometimes replaced by an Oblique style, which is similar to
the Roman, only inclined to the right.

Left Font: ADF Baskervald. Right Font: ADF Gillus.

• Bold: A version of the font with heavier lines on each

character. Used for strong emphasis and headings, this weight
sometimes replaces Italic online.

68. Designing with LibreOffice

 Variants may have names like Black, Semi-bold, Demi-bold,
Extra, or Heavy, sometimes each with a different thickness of
line. The thicker variations are usually intended for use at
large font sizes in media like posters.

Left: Lato Bold. Right: Lato Ultra Black.

• Old Style Figures: Numbers which have no common baseline,

originally designed in the Renaissance. Those who have
studied typography often prefer them, even though, to a
modern eye, they can look stuffy and be difficult to read. Their
opposite, which most fonts have, are called lining figures, and
are the numerals generally in use today.

Above: Old style figures. Font: Goudy Bookletter 1911. Below:

Lining figures. Font: Liberation Sans.

Caution
Avoid using old style figures in spreadsheets or in diagrams in
which you want to align numbers. Their lack of a common
baseline is distracting in long columns or tables of numbers, and
they are difficult to position manually.

• Small Capitals (Small Caps): Specially designed upper case

letters intended to make more than two capitals in a row more
readable.

Fonts, color, and the magic number 69.

 Tip
If you use old style figures for numbers, use small caps beside
them. Normal caps look outlandishly large beside old style
figures.

Top: True small caps, created using the font’s metrics. Bottom:
Regular upper case letters. Small capitals are not only smaller
than regular capitals, but also proportioned differently. Font:
Fanwood.

Tip
In addition, some font families include styles such as Bold
Italic, Thin, and Outline. A few fonts take a different approach,
and divide fonts into Serif, Sans, and Monospace.

Real fonts vs. manufactured ones

Some fonts store metrics for different weights within the same
file. Others have separate fonts for each weight, but if you change
the weight while using the regular weight, you get manufactured
versions of the different weights which have little resemblance to
the real ones.
This problem is common with TrueType fonts, and when you
change weights from the tool bar or a CHARACTER dialog window.

70. Designing with LibreOffice

Top: Manufactured italics. Bottom: True italics. The angle on the
manufactured italics makes them awkward and harder to read, and the
letter shapes are frankly flights of fantasy. Font: Nobile.

Top: A manufactured bold style. Bottom: The bold style the designer
intended. Notice the difference in spacing and letter shape. Font: Nobile.

Top: True small capitals. Middle: Manufactured small capitals for the
same font. Bottom: Regular capitals. Font: Linux Libertine G.

Selecting fonts by font styles / typefaces

In theory, font styles should help you to choose fonts.
However, in practice, font styles are inconsistent enough that the
best they can give you is a rough indication of whether a font is
suitable for your needs.
To start with, a font family traditionally contains four main
styles: Regular, Italic, Bold, and Bold Italic. However, remember
that just because two font styles have the same name does not
mean you are under any obligation to use them together.

Fonts, color, and the magic number 71.

 For instance, Nobile Italic is not actually an italic at all.
Instead it is an oblique – the regular weight angled to the right. If
you prefer an italic, you might go searching for something
compatible with the regular weight.
Or perhaps an ampersand (&) figures in your design, but the
font you want to use has a mundane design for ampersands. Just
because the type designer thinks that font styles or individual
characters fit together does not mean that you should accept their
judgment.

Designers regularly borrow ampersands (and sometimes question marks)

when they want an elegant touch. Fonts, from left to right: Cantarell,
Quattrocento Roman, Goudy Bookletter 1911, Accanthis ADF Std., Lato.

Consider, also,s that you are rarely likely to need Bold Italic.
Since the EMPHASIS character style uses Italic and STRONG
EMPHASIS uses Bold, Bold Italic serves no regular purpose. It may
be useful as a display or heading font, but often you can ignore a
Bold Italic style if the other styles suit your needs.

The four basic font styles in most font families. Up to a dozen others may
also be included. Font: Nobile.

Through the years, various attempts have been made to

standardize font styles. If you know CSS, you may recall how it
categorizes font weights with three-digit numbers.

72. Designing with LibreOffice

 However, even in this summary, problems emerge. Italic and
Oblique have no natural place, so you now see fonts designated as
Italic or Oblique in their names. The same is true for Outline
fonts, which show only the borders of characters but no fill.
Even more important, what looks like a well-regulated system
at first glance is on closer look extremely arbitrary. The use of
names is not standardized in 300-500, or 700-900, and, while in
theory a font could have a weight of 350, what exactly would that
mean, except in relation to other fonts in the same family?
100: Extra Light. 600: Semi-Bold/Demi-bold.
200: Light. 700: Bold.
300: Book. 800: Heavy, Extra, Black.
400: Regular, Roman. 900: Ultra, Extra.
500: Medium.
Font styles in CSS. Many fonts use the same classifications.

These cautions do not mean that font styles are not useful in
deciding what fonts to use. But you do need to remember that all
systems are approximate and relative to the font family. Always
experiment thoroughly before selecting a font.

Font sizes
Traditionally, fonts are measured in points. In the digital age,
this measurement has been standardized as one-seventy-second
of an inch or 2.5 centimeters. Previously, a point was actually
slightly less, but points remain defiantly non-metric and a sign of
typographic expertise.

Fonts, color, and the magic number 73.

 Tip
When you are setting up paragraph and character styles, go to
TOOLS > OPTIONS > LIBREOFFICE WRITER > GENERAL >
SETTINGS and change the MEASUREMENT UNIT to points.

Using points will make designing much easier because you have
a consistent measurement. You can always change the
MEASUREMENT UNIT back to centimeters or inches when you
start to add content to a template.

The font size refers to the amount of space given to each

character and the empty space around it. However, how each
font uses the empty space can vary tremendously. Each font uses
a different amount of empty space, which explains why the
actual height of fonts of the same size is inconsistent. In fact, the
actual height can vary considerably.

The font size for each of these capitals is the same, but the height of the
letters varies. Fonts, from left to right, are League Spartan, Oxygen Sans,
and Liberation Sans.

The standard size for body text is usually 10–14 points. Text
for captions and notes sometimes goes as low as 8 points, while
headings and titles are rarely more than 28 points.

74. Designing with LibreOffice

 Tip
LibreOffice's pre-defined heading paragraph styles express size
as percentages of the Headings styles.

Since the size of all headings are usually determined at the same
time and in relation to each other, using percentages is logical.

However, as shown later in this chapter, many design elements

are based on the size of the standard fonts, which are most
conveniently measured in points. For this reason, setting
headings in points as well only makes sense.

You can force LibreOffice to display the size in points by

placing the cursor in the SIZE field of the FONT tab, and entering
the size followed by “pt.”

Heading styles are measured by default in percentages because their size

is often determined together.

Fonts, color, and the magic number 75.

Font effects
The FONT EFFECTS tab contains a variety of features, with
widely differing degrees of usefulness.

The FONT EFFECTS tab for character and paragraph styles. Many of the
choices on this tab should be used sparingly, if at all.

In most circumstances, the FONT COLOR and EFFECTS fields are

the most useful. In particular, the EFFECTS > CASE field includes
the option for SMALL CAPITALS, which are used to make two or
more upper case letters in a row more readable.
By contrast, the TEXT DECORATION fields – OVERLINING,
STRIKETHROUGH, and UNDERLINING – have limited use in most
circumstances. All three are largely for the automatic use of

76. Designing with LibreOffice

LibreOffice when displaying changes in a collaborative
document.
In all other cases, use the FONT EFFECTS tab cautiously. Effects
such as SHADOW or RELIEF are leftovers from when word
processors were new and users over-indulged in all the effects
they suddenly had. These effects break the basic purpose of
typography by calling attention to themselves while doing
nothing to enhance the main text.

Choosing basic fonts

The typographical convention is to limit each document to
two font families: one for body text, and one for headings,
headers, and footers. Any more tend to call attention to the
design at the expense of the content.
However, this is not quite the limitation it sounds. The
majority of fonts include a minimum of four font styles – Roman,
Italic, Bold, and Bold Italic. Some have as many as nine, and a
few have even more. Using so many font styles in the same
document can look just as cluttered as too many different fonts,
but nobody is likely to notice if you use several together.
A few fonts even come in pairs of a serif and a sans serif, and
even a monospaced variation. These styles are more than enough
for most needs. In fact, one font family is often all that is needed
for effective design.

Judging fonts
To appreciate the differences between fonts, some
typographical terms are useful:

Fonts, color, and the magic number 77.

The basic terms to describe fonts physically.

• X-height: the height of a letter “x” and sixteen other letters.

• Ascenders and descenders: respectively, vertical strokes that
rise above the baseline and descend below it.
• Bowls: The rounded parts of letters like “b,” “d,” and “o.”
• Serifs: The small hooks at the bottom and top of ascenders
and descenders found in some fonts.
If you study different font samples, you will see how these
elements differ between fonts. This is the first step in learning
how to appreciate fonts professionally. After all, if you have
names for features, you can more easily observe them.

Choosing a body font

The first font you need is a body text. The main functional
criterion for a body text font is that it must be easily readable by
your audience in the conditions in which they are likely to see it.
For example, if you are designing a memo template for a low-
resolution fax, you might prefer a larger, bold text style. Similarly,
a brochure aimed at seniors might use a larger font size than usual
out of respect for their failing eyesight. In other cases, you may be
limited by a lower printer resolution or even a temporary shortage
of toner to fonts with thick, consistent lines.

78. Designing with LibreOffice

 Tip
Often, a key feature for body text is the x-height. This is the
height of the letter “x” and sixteen other lower case letters.

As a rule, the higher the x-height, the more readable a font is

likely to be. However, if the ascenders and descenders are short,
a high x-height might be less of an asset.

Choosing a heading font

The second font you probably need is for headings, headers,
footers, and sub-headings – everything that guides readers
through the document but is not actually content. It can belong
to the same font family as the body text, but, if so, it should be a
different font style, size, or color.
LibreOffice provides for up to ten heading levels, but this
number is overkill. Any more than three or four levels of headings
(including chapter titles) makes designing difficult and
meaningless. Formatting ten heading levels so that each is distinct
may just be possible, but neither the designer nor the reader is
likely to be able to remember what all of them mean.

Other considerations for fonts

Choosing fonts begins with the impression you want to make.
For instance, a commonly used font helps to put readers in an
accepting mood, while a usual one might reinforce an impression
of innovation.
At times, a font might need to fit the constraints of the page. A
tall, narrow page, for example, might be matched with a similarly
tall, narrow font. Or maybe a font has some association with the
content – for instance, at least one edition of Arthur Conan

Fonts, color, and the magic number 79.

Doyle’s The Hound of the Baskervilles was printed in Baskerville
font.
More general considerations can include:
• Where will the document be used? The North American
convention is to use a serif font for body text, and a sans serif
for headings. By contrast, in Europe typographers are much
less likely to abide by this convention. You can use a sans serif
for body text in North America, but it may be perceived as
avant-garde.
• Is the document for paper or online use? Even today, text on a
screen is lower resolution than professional printing, and may
be processed differently by the brain than words on a page.
For online use, you want fonts to have regular shapes, with a
minimum of tapering. Often, that means designing mainly
with sans serifs and the occasional slab serif.
• Will recipients have the fonts installed on their computers to
display the document properly? If you only want recipients to
view the document, you can send a PDF file. Otherwise, you
might be better off sticking to the standard Times New
Roman, Arial or Helvetica, and Courier.

Tip
If you use Linux, and lack these fonts, look for the Liberation
fonts, which are designed to take up the same space as the
standard fonts.

• Is embedding fonts in the file a solution? LibreOffice has had

font embedding since version 4.1.3.2; find it in FILE >
PROPERTIES > FONT. Embedding simplifies file-sharing, making
it unnecessary for recipients to have the document’s fonts.

80. Designing with LibreOffice

 However, a file of 14 kilobytes balloons into one of 13.4
megabytes when only two fonts are embedded. Add more, and
a file with embedded fonts may become too large to send as an
attachment, especially to an account that can only receive
attachments of a certain size.
• Do you prefer to use only free-licensed fonts? If so, you will
be unable to use some of the best-known fonts, although you
can sometimes find substitutes for them (see Appendix D,
“Free-licensed equivalents for standard fonts”).
Free-licensed fonts are often cost-free. Recipients only need
an Internet connection to install the fonts they need.

Matching fonts
Modern typography usually uses separate fonts for body and
heading text. Matching fonts is an art form rather than a science,
but you can increase the odds of finding fonts that go together by
selecting ones that:
• Share the same font family. Modern typographers sometimes
design serif, sans serif, and monospaced fonts to be used
together, which can be a great convenience.

Tip
An exception is the Liberation fonts, which are designed as
replacements for Times Roman, Helvetica, and Courier, rather
than for compatibility with each other.

• Are designed by the same typographer. A designer’s

preferences and habits may remain similar enough between
fonts to give a common appearance.

Fonts, color, and the magic number 81.

• Have a large number of font styles, especially if you plan to
use the same font for both body text and headings.
• Are inspired by the same historical era or are described in the
same terms. Even if you are uncertain how a Humanist font
(one based on Renaissance designs) differs from a Geometric
font (one based on simple shapes), you can safely guess that
the two are unlikely to go together. Of course, the more you
know about the history of typography, the more you match
fonts by their origins. See “Matching by historical categories,”
below.
• Occupy the same horizontal or vertical width. If nothing else,
this criterion makes for a more symmetrical design.
However, no matter what criteria you use, the only way to be
sure that fonts match is to experiment with them, both on-screen
and by printing frequent hard copy samples.

Matching by historical categories

Fonts frequently defy easy categorizations. However, some
general historical trends do exist, even though experts do not
always agree on the features that identify trends, or where each
font belongs.
Historical categories are not mentioned anywhere in
LibreOffice, but you can sometimes match fonts by choosing ones
from the same historical category.
Humanist serifs
Humanist serifs were originally fonts designed during the
Renaissance, mostly by Italian designers – which is why a
standard font is called Roman and a cursive font Italic. Humanist
fonts are characterized by small x-heights, regular strokes,

82. Designing with LibreOffice

rounded bowls, small serifs, and a dark color. Some strokes may
be angled, such as the crossbar on the lower case “e.”
They are popular choices for body text today, although some
designers think they look old fashioned.
The original Humanist fonts were also extremely dark,
perhaps to make them more legible by candlelight. Modern
imitations sometimes reduce the darkness to make them more
acceptable to modern tastes.

Font: Coelacanth, a free-licensed version of Bruce Roger’s popular

Centaur, which in turn was inspired by the work of Renaissance designer
Nicholas Jenson.

Old Style
Sometimes an alternate name for Humanist serifs, “Old Style”
is technically reserved for seventeenth-century designs or designs
inspired by them.
Old Style fonts are characterized by wedge-shaped serifs, and
their strokes show more variation in thickness than Humanist
fonts. Like Humanist serifs, Old Style fonts are very popular for
general purposes.

Font: Linden Hill, a modern free-license rendering of Frederick Goudy’s

Deepdene.

Transitional
Also called Enlightenment, NeoClassical, and Modern,
Transitional fonts first appeared during the Enlightenment.
Their name refers to the fact that their serifs are small,
anticipating the rise of sans serifs. Their strokes vary widely, their

Fonts, color, and the magic number 83.

bowls are oval, and their serifs thin. Extreme versions, like the
proprietary Didot, have strokes that are so thin that they almost
disappear at small font sizes, or with a low-resolution printer.

Font: Baskervald ADF, a free-licensed version of Hugo Baskerville’s

classic transitional font Baskerville.

Slab serifs
Slab serifs first appeared in the early 1800s. They are
sometimes called Egyptian, because they were used in the
publications of the research done in Egypt during Napoleon’s
invasion.
As their name implies, slab serifs have thick, broad serifs.
Although often used for posters, some can be used for body text.
Many are an exception to the conventional wisdom that serif
fonts cannot be used online, and are often highly readable online
or in slide shows.

Font: Josefin Slab.

Sans serifs
Sans serif fonts are exactly what their French name implies:
fonts without serifs. When they first appeared in the early
nineteenth century, they were called “grotesque” and “gothic.”
Modern sans serifs usually fall into one of two categories.
Geometric fonts are marked by regular strokes and simple shapes,
including circles for bowls. Geometric fonts were popular with
Modernist schools for design.

84. Designing with LibreOffice

Font: Oxygen, the default for KDE’s Plasma desktop in Linux.

By contrast, Humanist sans serif or Modern Humanist fonts

are based on the clean lines of Roman inscriptions. Both the Arts
and Crafts and Art Nouveau schools of design favored them, and
they remain popular today.
Some Humanist sans serifs are versatile enough to be used for
both headings and body text.

Font: Cantarell, the default font for the GNOME desktop in Linux.

Using dummy text to experiment

Dummy text is text unrelated to the document. It is used so
you can focus on the result of formatting changes rather than the
content.

The start of the Lorem Ipsum, the popular dummy text passage.

The traditional dummy text in typography is the Lorem

Ipsum, a passage so-called from its opening words. The Lorem
Ipsum is fractured Latin, based on a passage from Cicero’s essay,
“The Extremes of Good and Evil,” and can be downloaded from
several sites.

Fonts, color, and the magic number 85.

 The assumption behind the Lorem Ipsum is that, unless you
can read Latin, you will not be distracted by the meaning of the
words when you focused on formatting. For that matter, even if
you read Latin, the passage is unlikely to distract you for very
long, because you will see it so often that you will soon ignore the
sense.

Caution
Do not rely on the font preview in the FORMATTING tool bar or
the sidebar. A single word is not enough to judge a font. At a
minimum, you need several lines, while page design usually
requires an entire page.

Study how the fonts you choose work together. They should
not be jarringly different, but they should be sufficiently different
for readers to tell them apart at a glance.
Look, too, for body text that fills a page or column without
many hyphens. A sample riddled with hyphens is a sign that you
will either have to change the font, or adjust its size or alignment.
As you work with a template, you will probably make changes
the first few times you use it, including to the fonts.
However, you want a selection of fonts that will go together
with a minimum of tweaking. If you need to fiddle too much with
SCALE WIDTH or SPACING in a paragraph style, then finding another
font is probably less effort for more aesthetic results.

Adjusting the page color

An important aspect of choosing fonts is the color of the body
font. In this context, “color” does not refer to whether the text or
the paper is black or green. Instead, color is the typographical
term for how dark or light a passage or a page looks overall.

86. Designing with LibreOffice

 When you have found the line spacing that gives the color
most pleasing to your eye, make a note of it. That line spacing is
the magic number that can be the key to the rest of your design.
As you can see by opening professionally published books,
you usually want the body text to be neither too black nor too
washed out. Too black a color can be disturbing, while too
washed out a color can be hard to read and looks like a publisher’s
error. Instead, you want a consistent dark gray.
The color of headings is usually darker than the body text, so
it stands out when you are browsing. Otherwise, you can ignore
the color of headings and concentrate on the body text.

Tip
When looking at color, set the zoom to 100%. Print a page to get
another perspective. You may find that squinting helps you to
focus on the color and to ignore the content.

Setting color through line spacing

The single most important influence on color is line-spacing.
In LibreOffice, line spacing is set in the LINE SPACING field on the
INDENTS & SPACING tab for paragraph styles.
Line spacing is defined as the measurement from one baseline
(the imaginary line that the bottom of a letter like “n” or “m” sits
on) to the next one.

Line spacing is the distance between two baselines.

Fonts, color, and the magic number 87.

 In LibreOffice Writer, line spacing appears to be set by the
font size. The exact measurement is displayed when you set the
LINE SPACING field to FIXED.
For convenience, typographers notate line spacing after the
font size, so that a paragraph set in 12/14 has a 12 point font size
and 14 points of line spacing.
When a paragraph’s font size and line space are identical – for
instance, 12/12 – then the paragraph is said to be “set solid.”
However, you rarely see a paragraph set solid except for short
lines of text in brochures or ads, because the lines look crowded
except with a few fonts with small letter sizes with plenty of
white space around them.

A font set solid (in this case, 12/12). With so little line spacing, the text is
cramped and hard to read. Font: Universalis ADF STD.

88. Designing with LibreOffice

The INDENTS & SPACING tab. The color is adjusted mainly by setting the
LINE SPACING field to a fixed distance.

LibreOffice sets a default line spacing based on the font size.

For a 12 point font, that average is just over 14 points. However,
because each font uses the space for characters differently, the
default line spacing is not always ideal.

Tip
LibreOffice used to allow you to set line spacing to one-tenth of
a point (1/720th of an inch). However, starting with the 4.2
release, you can only set line spacing to the nearest point. While
you might not think such a small measurement would make a
difference, it often can.

Fonts, color, and the magic number 89.

 When you have found the line spacing that gives the best
color, make a note of it. That magic number can be the key to
much of the rest of your design.

Caution
Typography calls line-spacing “leading,” because of the pieces
of metal that were once inserted between lines of text on a
printing press.

However, LibreOffice uses “fixed” to refer to leading, and

“leading” to refer to space in addition to the font size.

Contexts for changing color

Developing an eye for line spacing takes practice. Acceptable
color may also depend to a degree on culture, era, and the
principles of different design schools. However, certain contexts
are more likely to need adjustments in line spacing than others.
Experiment until you get acceptable results.
Increase spacing for: Decrease spacing for:
• Fonts whose characters are • Fonts whose characters are
narrow or have smaller broad and have relatively
spaces between them. large spaces between them.
(Adjusting SCALE WIDTH and
SPACING on the POSITION tab
may help as well.)
• A line of text greater than • A line of text less than 45
about 80 characters. characters.
• Font sizes of less than 10 • Fonts of 10–14 points.
points, or more than 14.

90. Designing with LibreOffice

Increase spacing for: Decrease spacing for:
• Roman fonts that are too • Roman fonts that are light
black. gray.
• Most sans-serif fonts. • Some serif fonts.
• Any italic or oblique font.
Deciding whether to increase or decrease font spacing.

Applying the magic number

Beginning typographers often wonder how to proportion
documents. Over the years, countless theories have evolved,
many of them uncomfortably elaborate. But the easiest is what I
call – for want of a better name – the magic number.
The magic number is the line spacing that gives the preferred
color with the chosen Body Text font. Its application is simple:
whenever possible, any measurement in a document will be a
multiple of the selected line spacing.
Not every design element can use the magic number, but most
of the important ones can.
At times, you might use half the line spacing instead of a
whole multiple. In theory, you could use quarter-line spacing, or
an even smaller fraction, but that is harder to track.
Just as importantly, half line-spacing quickly puts spacing
back to the magic number itself. As you design, you may want to
keep a calculator handy, or else jot down a palette – a list of the
multiples or half-multiples that you will be using.

Fonts, color, and the magic number 91.

• Text indents. • Tabs.
• First line indent. • Page margins.
• Space above paragraph. • Header/footer height.
• Space below paragraph. • Space between a header and
footer and main text.
• Space between • The combination of heading
numbers/bullet and list font size, the space
items. above/below.
• The space above or below a
graphic or any other inserted
object.
Some design elements to be adjusted using multiples of the magic
number.

A line-spacing palette for typical body text. All measurements are in

points and can be used for setting other sizes and spacing. Font: Cinzel.

Using the magic number is painstaking – but it is precise and

unambiguous. You should have no trouble detecting a document
designed with the magic number, because of its unified
appearance.

92. Designing with LibreOffice

 Example: Solving the magic
numbers
Page color can be affected by many variables, including the designer’s
eye, the paper, and the toner left in the printer. Sometimes, it can be
subjective, particularly if your eyesight is imperfect. However, at the very
least, you should be able to make the page color regular, even if the tone
could be improved.
In fact, the variables are so numerous that, each time you use a font, you
need to ask yourself if the circumstances are different enough that you
need to re-test the color.
Do not assume that because a color worked once, it will work equally
well under other circumstances. Choosing the page color is always highly
contextual, and small changes in formatting can sometimes have large
effects.
Always experiment systematically. Increase the font size and line-spacing
a bit at a time, and work with different combinations systematically.
Making large changes will only waste time by forcing you to backtrack.
If you are lucky, LibreOffice’s default settings of 12/14 (font size = 12
points, line-spacing = 14 points) may require no tweaking. In my
experience, 20–35% of fonts need no adjustments.
For example, here is Josefin Slab without modifications:

Fonts, color, and the magic number 93.

Font: Josefin Slab, 12/14.

The font size might be increased, but on the whole Josefin Slab’s default
color is acceptable as is. That is just as well, because a couple of extra
points between each line can add dozens of pages to a book and increase
its production cost.
However, other fonts require testing, changing the font size and line-
spacing one at a time, and trying out different combinations.
For example, at the default 12/14, E. B. Garamond’s color is acceptable,
but the height of the upper cases letters is unusually high, and makes the
lines a little pinched. Changing the line spacing to 12/16 improves the
layout:

Font: Above, E.B Garamond, 12/14. Below: E.B. Garamond, 12/16.

Humanist fonts designed in the Renaissance were often designed to be

very black by modern standards. Since that is the way they are meant to
be seen, trying to lighten them would fail to do them justice.

94. Designing with LibreOffice

Not every modern Humanist Serif is as dark as its inspirations, but many
are. An example is Colecanth:

Font: Humanist (Coelacanth), 12/14.

Should you encounter a modern font that remains very dark despite all
adjustments, that is probably a sign that it Is designed for headings or as a
display font, and should not be used for body text.
If you really want to use a font with a dark color, try changing the width
of characters from POSITION > SCALING, or the spacing between fonts
from POSITION > SPACING.
For example, after wrestling Heuristica to a setting of 12/16, I found it
still too dark, so I set the Spacing to add .8 of a point more between
characters.
Even then, the font was darker than ideal, but much more increased space
between letters would have destroyed the look of the font completely.
Under the circumstances, this final modification was the best I could
manage, and is still darker than ideal:

Fonts, color, and the magic number 95.

Font: Above, Heuristica 12/14. Below, Heuristica 12/16, with .8pts of
extra spacing between characters.

At other times, if all else fails, try a different font style. Raleway Thin, to
take one example, is too pale for body text. (Perhaps it is meant to add a
shadow?) Changing the font size or the space between characters worked
slightly, but not enough.
In the end, I concluded that I was using Raleway Thin for a purpose that
it was simply not intended for, and switched to Raleway’s Regular weight
instead.

Font: Above, Raleway Thin 12/14. Below: Raleway Regular, 12./14.

96. Designing with LibreOffice

The lesson in these examples? LibreOffice’s defaults may not be what
you need, so experiment as widely as possible as you search for the best
possible page color. Too much depends on it for you settle for anything
less.

Using font shaping codes

In LibreOffice 5.3, the HarfBuzz font renderer was
introduced. One unfortunate result was that support for
Postscript fonts was dropped, but the typographic results more
than outweighed this small disadvantage. With HarfBuzz, users
of Writer suddenly had the control of professional printers.
HarfBuzz does not add any new features to a font. Instead, it
makes it easier to use existing features, and, at times, improve
how letters are displayed on the page. For example, if you want to
use only old style figures, you can set a font family to use them, so
long as it suports them.
Thanks to HarfBuzz, Writer can support all Unicode
supported scripts. Not only are more non-Latin alphabets
supported, but they are rendered more cleanly as well.
Just as importantly, a series of text-shaping codes was
introduced that can modify the appearance of fonts by adding
them to the end of the font name in the Family field on the Font
tab. For instance, :ital enables italics if the font supports them,
while :-ital turns them off. Alternatively, a value can sometimes
be entered, so that :ital=1 is the same as ital, and :ital=0 is the
same as :-ital. Some codes have several values. By entering a code
into a character or paragraph style, an advanced feature is a click
away in the Styles and Formatting window. Multiple codes can
be used at the same time.

Fonts, color, and the magic number 97.

 The following table shows some useful codes in English:
Code Action
:smcp Replaces lower case letters with small capitals.
:c2sc Replaces upper case letters with small capitals.
:cpsp Improves spacing between regular capitals.
:inum Uses only lining figures.
:onum Uses only old style figures.
:frac Reduces the size of any two numbers separated by a
forward slash.
:zero Zero has a slash through it.
:lig A single character replaces awkward letter
combinations.
:subs Replaces letters with subscript characters.
:sup Replaces letters with superscript characters.
:title Replaces letters with characters designed for titles.
Selected HarfBuzz Font Shaping Codes. Every font does not support
every code.

For a complete list of codes, see:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_typographic_features#OpenType_ty
pographic_features
Not every code is useful for the Latin alphabet.

An unexpected journey
This chapter started with selecting fonts, but it ends well into
character and paragraph styles. The next chapter continues
where this one leaves off, going into more detail about character
and paragraph styles.

98. Designing with LibreOffice

 5
Spacing on all sides
Paragraph styles are the most frequently used type of style in
LibreOffice. However, they interact so closely with character
styles that talking about one without the other is impossible –
they even share several of the same tabs in their dialog windows.
Paragraph styles define the general formatting for any text-
heavy document, while character styles provide brief variations.
For short bursts of text – for example, a title, URL, or bullet point
– character styles provide exceptions that give paragraph styles
the flexibility they lack by themselves.
Chapter 3 ventured into some of the basics of paragraph and
character settings while discussing fonts and how to find the ideal
line spacing. This chapter completes the discussion of basic
paragraph formatting, (including a more detailed discussion of
line spacing), covering the options for vertical and horizontal
spacing.
The next two chapters discuss special features and potential
problems and advanced features.

Spacing on all sides 99.

 Tip
Many of the tabs in character and paragraph style dialog
windows reappear in the other LibreOffice applications. To
minimize repetition, later chapters refer back to this chapter and
the two following it.

Preparing to design
• Choose your fonts and ideal line spacing.
• Have a calculator and a list of multiples of the line spacing
ready so you can check basic measurements.
• Set the default measure to points in TOOLS > OPTIONS >
LIBREOFFICE WRITER > GENERAL > SETTINGS > MEASUREMENT
UNIT. You can reset the default unit to centimeters or inches
when you are done, but points are the most commonly used
unit of measurement for general typography.

Before you design, set the MEASUREMENT UNIT to points.

100. Designing with LibreOffice

• Set the zoom to 100% so you can judge the page color. Print or
zoom in or out periodically so you can get a different
perspective.
• In the status bar at the bottom of the editing window, set
LibreOffice to display multiple pages, selecting the third
button from the left. Unless you are struggling with a small
monitor, a two-page spread helps you see the effect of your
design choices.

Displaying multiple pages shows how the document will look

when printed or else viewed on a wide screen monitor in a two-
page spread.

A multi-page display gives a design overview. Here, it confirms that

footers are mirrored as intended.

Spacing on all sides 101.

• Open a second file where you can experiment and use
dummy text to test formats.
• While you design, use manual formatting. Creating styles at
this point is just an extra step until you have finished
experimenting. When you have decided on the formatting
choices, you can always drag a selected passage to the STYLES
AND FORMATTING window to create a style from it.

• Use this chapter’s headings as a checklist so you cover all the

basic formatting.

Tip
As you work, you may find that some of the settings you have
already chosen require changing – even the magic number.

Rather than resisting the change, accept it as a natural part of the

design process. The goal is to develop the best design you can,
not to cling to a pointless consistency.

Planning text styles

You can save time while designing by working whenever
possible with Writer’s pre-defined styles. Later, as you write, you
will find that some features, such as INSERT > FIELD > MORE FIELDS
> DOCUMENT > CHAPTER > CHAPTER NAME field, depend on the pre-
defined paragraph styles being in the document.
The pre-defined character and paragraph styles should cover
most of your needs, but you can add other styles as needed.
Then go through the list of pre-defined styles and decide
which ones you do not need. For example, paragraph styles
HEADING 5–10 are far more headings than anyone can manage.
Perhaps, too, you have no use for paragraph styles like LIST 1

102. Designing with LibreOffice

CONT., LIST 1 END, and LIST 1 START, and they will only clutter up
the STYLE AND FORMATTING window. For each unnecessary style,
select HIDE from the right-click menu. Should you decide that you
need a hidden style after all, you can go to the HIDDEN STYLES
view and select SHOW instead.
All these tasks are a lot of work. But you will also find that
there are many styles in which you can keep the default settings.
For instance, line spacing may be unimportant in headings,
since headings are often less than a single line in length.
Similarly, in a simple document, an automatic first line indent
may completely remove the need to set tab stops. The fact that
many defaults can be used unchanged or entirely ignored greatly
reduces the amount of designing necessary to complete a
template.

Setting vertical line spacing

Writer’s LINE SPACING field is on the INDENTS & SPACING tab of
each paragraph style. The field rounds entries to the nearest
point (1/72 of an inch).
This rounding produces adequate results, but not always
optimal ones. Believe it or not, 1/10 of a point can make a large
visual difference.
If you used your choice of fonts to determine the magic
number, then you have already adjusted this option using the
FIXED setting in the LINE SPACING field. FIXED remains by far the
best setting, because it is the only option that gives an exact
measurement.

Spacing on all sides 103.

Line spacing options for paragraphs.

FIXED also has the advantage that lines will be in the same
horizontal position on all pages, especially if the document uses
only one font, regardless of whether the PAGE LINE-SPACING setting
is turned on.
In addition, should you print on both sides of a page, the lines
will overlap in most places, preventing the shadow of the other
page showing through thin paper.
However, one problem with paragraph styles with larger font
sizes, such as headings, is that they can have the tops or bottoms
of letters cut off when FIXED is used. This problem can be solved
by setting the LINE SPACING field using the AT LEAST option while
keeping the line height unchanged.

Cut-off characters are a sign that the FIXED line spacing needs to be either
adjusted or replaced by AT LEAST.

The other options for line spacing are different ways of

expressing line spacing. Except for quick, one-off documents,
avoid the SINGLE, 1.5 LINES, and DOUBLE options. These options
use Writer’s standard defaults for line spacing, and are optimal
for any given font only by luck.

104. Designing with LibreOffice

 The least useful option is PROPORTIONAL, in which line-spacing
is expressed as a percentage of the automatically determined
single space, and not an exact figure. In other words, this option
places you two removes from the actual figure for line spacing.
Another vague option is LEADING. “Leading” is a term from the
days of manual typesetting, when scraps of lead or anything else
around the print shop were used to increase line spacing.
“Leading” came to refer to the entire line spacing. However,
LibreOffice uses the word to refer to only the extra space beyond
the font size. For example, in LibreOffice, a paragraph set to
12/15 would be set with LEADING at 3 points.

Line spacing at small font sizes

You can sometimes find fonts specially designed to be
readable at sizes below 10 points. More often, small font sizes
need extra line spacing to make them readable.
Unfortunately, LibreOffice, like most word processors, treats
line spacing for small font sizes the same as line spacing for any
other size. As a rule, select FIXED to give small font sizes the extra
line spacing they need.

Above: 8 point Liberation Serif with automatic single spacing. Below:

8/12 Liberation Serif. Font sizes of less than 10 points almost always
require extra line-spacing for readability.

Spacing on all sides 105.

Spacing between paragraphs

The INDENTS & SPACING tab, with the ABOVE PARAGRAPH and BELOW
PARAGRAPH fields listed under SPACING

Vertical spacing is set on the INDENTS & SPACING tab in the

SPACING > ABOVE PARAGRAPH and SPACING > BELOW PARAGRAPH
fields.
Vertical spacing is also used to increase the effectiveness of
headings. The rule is simple: Put a heading closer to the content
it summarizes, and the relation between the heading and the
content becomes clear at a glance.
Extra spacing between paragraphs is one of the ways to
indicate the start of a new paragraph (the other is an indentation
of the first line). Usually, extra spacing is used in technical
documents instead of first line indentation, but the only rule is
not to use both at the same time.

106. Designing with LibreOffice

Putting less space between headings and the passage they introduce helps
the eye to associate them.

Tip
The heading's font size, and the space above and below it,
should total a multiple of the line spacing. In this way, heading
paragraph styles match the line spacing every few lines.

Use the same formula if spacing between body text paragraphs

is used instead of a first line indentation.

In this example, the line spacing is set to 15 points. Together, the

spacing before the heading and after it plus the font size for the
heading should equal a multiple of 15 or of 7.5 (half the line height).

Spacing on all sides 107.

Removing unexpected spaces
The combined effect of BEFORE and AFTER settings for two
subsequent paragraph styles can cause unexpectedly large spaces
between paragraphs.
Minimize this problem by using only the BEFORE PARAGRAPH
field and leaving the AFTER PARAGRAPH field set to zero for most
paragraph styles.
In the case of pictures, you may want to vary the spacing to
avoid extra large gaps.
Sometimes, the conflict may be between an image and a
paragraph style. When that happens, modify the space below the
image so that it matches the convention you have set and leave
the paragraph style settings alone. After all, spacing around an
image or any other object is manually set already.

Avoiding widows and orphans

Standard typography tries to avoid a single line at the bottom
of a page – an orphan – or a single line at the top of a page – a
widow.
Of course, avoiding widows and orphans is not always
possible. Some paragraphs are a single line long. TOOLS >
AUTOCORRECT does have an option to combine short paragraphs,
but that is not always suitable to the sense of the passage.
Other paragraphs have a number of lines that do not fit
Writer’s settings. For example, if you have set last and first
paragraphs on a page to each have two lines, something has to
give when a three-line paragraph straddles two pages.
The TEXT FLOW tab of a paragraph style includes four options
for avoiding both.

108. Designing with LibreOffice

The TEXT FLOW tab, with ORPHAN CONTROL and WIDOW CONTROL under
OPTIONS.

The main tools for avoiding widows and orphans are WIDOW
CONTROL and ORPHAN CONTROL. For TEXT BODY and related styles,
you should activate both, accepting the default of keeping two
lines together, or three at the most. You do not need these settings
for heading paragraphs, or in a case in which all paragraphs are
short – in either case, the controls will have nothing to adjust.
As an alternative, keep WIDOW CONTROL and ORPHAN CONTROL
unselected and select instead DO NOT SPLIT PARAGRAPH. This
setting may keep important information together and therefore
easier to read, but can result in page breaks well before the
bottom of the page.
For headings, you may prefer KEEP WITH NEXT PARAGRAPH.
When headings are meant to introduce the body text below
them, having the heading and body text on separate pages makes
no sense. However, this setting, too, may result in poorly
positioned page breaks, so use it sparingly.

Spacing on all sides 109.

Selecting an alignment
On the ALIGNMENT tab of a paragraph style, you have four
choices for horizontal positioning: LEFT, RIGHT, CENTERED, and
JUSTIFIED.

The ALIGNMENT tab, with the OPTIONS at the top of the window.

RIGHT is rarely used except in short, highly-formatted

documents such as ads or diagrams, while CENTERED is generally
reserved for titles and sub-titles. For most paragraph styles, your
choice is likely to be LEFT or JUSTIFIED.
Whatever your choice of alignment, if you are using
hyphenated styles, run TOOLS > LANGUAGE > HYPHENATION as a last
step before publishing. This selection repairs any sub-optimal
choices Writer might have made on the fly.

110. Designing with LibreOffice

Using a Justified alignment
Many users prefer a Justified alignment, in which all lines
start at the same position on the left and end at the same position
on the right. Because commercial publications often use Justified,
users often believe it looks more professional.
The preference may also be a reminder of the earliest days of
word processing, the first time that a Justified alignment became
practical. The vast majority of typewriters, of course, could only
use a Left alignment.
The trouble is, a Justified alignment often requires more work.
Too often, it results in irregular spacing between characters or
words that looks far worse than Left alignment ever could. You
almost always need to tinker to find the best distribution of
characters and words on a line.
Generally, too, the shorter the line, the harder you have to
work to make Justified work. As a rule, lines of less than 40
characters are too much effort to be worth justifying. A Left
alignment can still cause problems, but they are often less severe,
especially in columns or tables.
The easiest way to tell if a paragraph style can easily use
Justified is to set it up with dummy text and count the number of
lines that end in a hyphen and the blotches of irregular white
space.
The more of these problems that appear, the more you need to
change the hyphenation, the font, the font size, and/or the
column width in the hope of a better fit. You can even go to the
POSITION tab to expand or condense character spacing.

Spacing on all sides 111.

An example of the wrong alignment for the line length. The middle
column has three hyphenated lines, while hyphenation causes awkward
breaks throughout. Even worse, several lines are single words. Some lines
even have more than one fault.

Setting the last line of justified text

The last line of justified text is only a complete line by luck.
Almost always, it is an incomplete line.
LibreOffice offers several choices of how to handle this
approach. All but one leave large gaps between words or letters
that anyone who cares about the design of their documents
should find unacceptable.

The LAST LINE options for justified text on the ALIGNMENT tab. The
options in the drop-down list are START, CENTERED and JUSTIFIED.

112. Designing with LibreOffice

 Tip
SNAP TO TEXT GRID (IF ACTIVE) uses the non-printing grid set
in TOOLS > OPTIONS > LIBREOFFICE WRITER > GRID for
positioning.

The only consistently aesthetic choice is to set the LAST LINE

field to LEFT. This selection is the only one that eliminates the
impossible situation of trying to justify a line of text that is too
short and has ugly gaps in it.
The other options – JUSTIFIED, CENTERED, EXPAND SINGLE WORD,
and LEFT – all look awkward. The only reason to use any of them
is to provide a sample of why they are unacceptable.

The justification of the last line. From top to bottom: JUSTIFIED,

CENTERED, EXPAND SINGLE WORD, and LEFT.

You may be able to improve the look of JUSTIFIED by selecting

SNAP TO TEXT GRID (IF ACTIVE) and adjusting the grid set in TOOLS
> OPTIONS > LIBREOFFICE WRITER > GRID. However, getting an
acceptable look is likely to take a lot of trial and error.

Spacing on all sides 113.

Using a Left alignment
When a paragraph has a Left alignment, all lines start at the
same position on the left, but can end anywhere on the right. For
this reason, a Left alignment is sometimes referred to as “ragged
right.” This is the default choice in Writer, probably because it is
reasonably acceptable without tweaking, especially if lines are
not hyphenated or are over about 40 characters long.
Generally, the shorter the line, the harder you have to work to
make Justified look decent. That means that Left can be a better
choice in columns or tables.

Setting hyphenation
Hyphenation options are set on the TEXT FLOW tab. Whether
to hyphenate is one of the most important design decisions you
will make when designing a document.
Hyphenation is a contentious issue in digital design. Most
word processors hyphenate as you type, and while they make
adjustments as the line lengths change, their on-the-fly solutions
are not always optional. Short lines are especially hard to
hyphenate well automatically.
These difficulties are one reason that many designers prefer a
Left alignment. A Left alignment does not always produce the
best possible use of the line, but its shortcomings are rarely as
severe as those with a Justified alignment.
Another choice is to turn off hyphenation completely, which
is probably why the TEXT FLOW tab does not check the
AUTOMATICALLY hyphenation box by default.
Other designers, more determined or more patient, try to
improve hyphenation by adjusting the settings on the TEXT FLOW
tab. The number of letters at the end and start of the line should

114. Designing with LibreOffice

be 1–4. The typographical convention is not to allow more than
two lines in a row to end with a hyphen.

Detail of the TEXT FLOW tab, showing the hyphenation controls.

The CHARACTERS AT LINE END and CHARACTERS AT LINE BEGIN

fields can sometimes be manipulated to improve hyphenation by
playing one off against the other. Working by itself, the MAXIMUM
CONSECUTIVE HYPHENATED LINES field can also make a difference.
In many documents, only TEXT BODY and perhaps another
handful of paragraph styles are used at such length that
hyphenation can improve how they fall on the page. Headings,
which are rarely more than a few words long and almost never
more than two lines, generally do not need to be hyphenated at
all. If anything, headings are easier to scan if not hyphenated.
You may want to change the hyphenation by adjusting:
• The HYPHENATION settings on the TEXT FLOW tab.
• The font weight or size.
• The choice of fonts.
• The settings for TOOLS > OPTIONS > LANGUAGE SETTINGS >
WRITING AIDS > OPTIONS > MINIMAL NUMBER OF CHARACTERS FOR
HYPHENATION. These settings are over-ridden by any formatting
in the document itself.

Spacing on all sides 115.

• The SCALE WIDTH and SPACING fields on the POSITION tab to
expand or condense character spacing. Frankly, these fields
are a last desperate measure.
If you do hyphenate, the line divisions can be improved by
running TOOLS > LANGUAGE > HYPHENATION as a final touch on the
document. This tool not only works interactively, giving you
more control, but also generally does a better job than the on-the-
fly hyphenation, if run when the document is complete.

Tip
For extra fine-tuning, go through a document when it is
complete, and hand-hyphenate by positioning the cursor
between syllables and pressing CTRL+ -. This key combination
creates a conditional hyphen that only comes into play when it is
in the hyphenation zone near the right margin.

Setting horizontal spacing

By default, paragraphs run from the left margin to the right
margin – or, at least, to a region just before the right margin that
LibreOffice must reach before starting a new line, with or
without hyphenation.
However, on the INDENTS & SPACING tab, you can indent a
paragraph on the left by entering a value in the BEFORE TEXT field,
or on the right by entering a value in the AFTER TEXT field.
Common uses for an indent include:
• The start of a new paragraph, using the FIRST LINE field.
• A quotation of over three lines or 100 words. Typically, such
long quotations are indented one line-space on the left and

116. Designing with LibreOffice

 right. No quotation marks are used, since the indentation is
enough to mark is a quotation.
• The space between a bullet or number and an item in a list.
This space is set using the INDENT AT field on the POSITION tab
for a list style.
• Notes, tips, or warning paragraph styles.
• Paragraph styles intended for single style outline numbering.
• Cases in which headers and footers are wider than body text.

Controlling the number of indents

Some paragraph styles that begin with an indentation are
unavoidable in a text document. However, too many different
indentations clutter the design, so indentations should be kept to
a minimum. No need, for example, exists to have a bulleted or
numbered list indented more than the TEXT BODY style. Instead,
the indentation for a long quotation can be the same as the first
line indentation, as well as the position where the text starts in a
list item after a bullet or number.

Tip
Horizontal line spacing can also be a help in readability.
Regardless of font or page size, typographic convention
suggests that a line of body text should be 50–75 characters long
for readability – or, to put things another way, two to three lower
case alphabets long in a single-column layout.

In tables or multi-column layouts, the length should generally be

30–50 characters, regardless of alignment. Anything less risks
cluttering the column with hyphens, single-word lines, and/or
vast stretches of white space.

Spacing on all sides 117.

An example of why indents should be as few as possible. Starting at the
left margin, the top passage has five indentations, and looks cluttered. The
bottom passage looks less cluttered because it reduces the number of
indentations to three.

Setting first line indentation

A first-line indent is one of the two ways to indicate a new
paragraph. The other way is to add extra space between
paragraphs.
Usually, a first line indent is used for more formal or literary
works, while an extra space may be for technical manuals, but the
rule is not absolute. The only firm convention is that you should
use one or the other, but not both at the same time.
Most people set an indent of 30–36 points – no doubt a
legacy of typewriters, on which setting indentations precisely was
difficult. However, that is excessive.
Unless a font is extremely small, the first line indent usually
needs to be no more than the line spacing, and you might even
manage with half a line-space, depending on the font size.
If you set the FIRST LINE field to AUTOMATIC, you can largely
ignore tabs, except for features like tables of contents that rely
upon them for some features.

118. Designing with LibreOffice

The first line indent is set in the FIRST LINE field of the INDENT section of
the INDENTS & SPACING tab. You can use it either by pressing the TAB
key or by selecting the AUTOMATIC box.

First line indentation. 36 points (top) can leave too much white space to
the left, while half a line-space (bottom) can be hard to distinguish.
Usually, a full line-space (middle) avoids both extremes.

Example: Designing a letter template

If you have been reading chapter by chapter, at this point you may want a
sense of what goes into a template.

Spacing on all sides 119.

You can customize a letter template from FILE > WIZARDS > LETTER that
uses frames to position different elements of the letter. As an alternative,
here are the steps in building a letter template with styles.
The example ignores page settings, since they have not been covered yet.
You can add margins and headers after you have read about page styles.

Choosing fonts
This template uses two fonts: One for the body of the letter, and one for
information like addresses and the salutation – the equivalents of headers
in other documents.
After some experimentation, I opted for two free-licensed fonts from the
Arkandis Digital Foundry. Baskervald ADF Std. imitates the classic
Eighteenth Century font Baskerville and is used for body text. Gillius
ADF No.2, which imitates Gill Sans, is used for heading text (that is,
anything not part of the body text).
If you download and install these two fonts on your system, you can build
the template by following the description below.

Creating the basic font palette

To prepare Gillius ADF No.2, apply these settings to the HEADING
paragraph style:
• Since this font is only for short lines, ignore elements such as first line
indentation or widow and orphan control, which will not be used.
• Set the font size to 14 points for greater legibility on the FONT tab,
and set the line space to 18 points. Experiments with page color show
that anything less makes the color of the font too dark on the page.
To prepare Baskervald ADF Std, apply these settings to the TEXT BODY
style:

120. Designing with LibreOffice

• Select the AUTOMATICALLY box for hyphenation, ORPHAN CONTROL,
and WIDOW CONTROL on the TEXT FLOW tab.
• Set the font size to 15 on the FONT tab. Baskervald's characters use
more white space than most fonts, and therefore appear much smaller
than the actual size.
• Set the LINE SPACING to FIXED > 18 POINTS on the INDENTS &
SPACING tab. This setting gives Baskervald a color close to that of
Gillius, which makes for a uniform look on the page.
Check these settings by printing samples of at least three lines for both
fonts. All other styles will be based on the settings for these two, with
variations for individual needs.

Setting up other styles

The best way to set up other styles is to start at the top of the document
and note the styles that are needed:
• Use the pre-existing ADDRESSEE style for the return address. Change
the INHERIT FROM field on the ORGANIZER tab from ADDRESSEE to
HEADER, and change the alignment to RIGHT on the ALIGNMENT tab.
• Below the return address is the DATE style, which is followed by
white space, then the ADDRESS. Create both as new styles linked to
the HEADER style.
Then make the following changes to the DATE style:
1 Set the NEXT STYLE field on the ORGANIZER tab to ADDRESS.

2 Change the alignment to RIGHT on the ALIGNMENT tab.

3 On the INDENTS AND SPACING tab, set SPACING > ABOVE PARAGRAPH
to 54 points, and SPACING > BELOW to 126 points. Notice that these
are multiples of the fixed line spacing of 18 points being used for
Header and its subordinate style.

Spacing on all sides 121.

 Tip
If you are using any page size other than Letter, increase
SPACING > BELOW to a multiple of 18.

4 From the menu, select INSERT > FIELD > MORE FIELDS > DOCUMENT
> DATE. Select a format from the FORMAT pane, then click the INSERT
button. Now, every time you select the DATE style, the current date
will be automatically added.

5 The ADDRESS style is unmodified from the HEADER style. However, it

is worth creating so you remember what style to use. Besides, you
might eventually decide to modify it.

6 The next style is the SALUTATION. On the INDENTS & SPACING TAB,
set SPACING > ABOVE PARAGRAPH to 36 points (2 lines), and SPACING
> BELOW PARAGRAPH to 18 (1 line). Then, on the ORGANIZER tab, set
the NEXT STYLE field to TEXT BODY.

7 The TEXT BODY style is already created. However, it needs a FIRST

LINE INDENT setting on the INDENTS & SPACING tab. Set it to 18
points, the same as the line spacing.

8 Create a SIGNATURE style with the following settings:

• On the ALIGNMENT tab, set the alignment to CENTER.

• On the INDENTS & SPACING tab, set SPACING > ABOVE PARAGRAPH to
18 points (1 line),
• On the INDENTS & SPACING tab, set SPACING > BELOW PARAGRAPH
to 95 points (5 lines). Leave more space below if you have a large
signature.

Creating character styles

122. Designing with LibreOffice

The only character styles likely to be needed with this template are those
for EMPHASIS (italics) and STRONG EMPHASIS (Bold). Base both on the
Body Text (Baskervald ADF Std, 15 point).

Other points
Following these steps results in a useful, well-designed template.
Formatting consists of six changes of paragraph styles, two of which are
automatically changed when I press the ENTER key. Instead of worrying
about formatting, I can concentrate on what I am saying.
However, you may prefer to organize the paragraph styles differently than
I have done, and make other adjustments beyond the basics given here.
Building a template is a matter of trial and error, and you are unlikely to
remember everything – or get all design elements perfect – after a single
session.
For instance, after using the template for a few letters, I realized that the
default margins created a somewhat narrow look. Changing the left and
right margin to 72 points (a multiple of the line spacing for the TEXT
BODY) improved the layout immensely.
Similarly, when I realized the template worked best for short letters, I
added a page with a footer containing the page number for longer letters.
I could also have added a few touches, such as creating and attaching a
list style to the SALUTATION paragraph style that automatically added
“Dear” when I applied the paragraph style.

The text style basics

The settings discussed in this chapter are the ones you are likely
to use in every document. The next two chapters explore special
cases and advanced settings that you may want to use now and
then.

Spacing on all sides 123.

 6
Text tools and traps
Chapter 5 discusses settings that almost all documents use.
This chapter is about less common character and paragraph
settings. You might find several of these features in a single
document, but rarely all.
Some of these features just have limited or specialized use.
However, others you should consider carefully before using.
Some are design elements that seemed reasonable decades
ago, but have since become obsolete – and never were in the best
typographical tradition. Still others are obscure or difficult to use.
In these cases, the same results can often be obtained with more
options by choosing another method.
There is even a feature or two that LibreOffice technically
supports but implements so poorly that you will get more
satisfying results if you use another piece of software instead.
I was tempted to avoid talking about such features altogether,
but the warnings are worth giving. Besides, possibly, they may
have more practical uses than they appear to do. If anyone knows
such a use, I would be glad to hear.

Text tools and traps 125.

 Of course, if you do find a use for some of the features I
disparage, ignore my cautions and do as you think best. While
typographic practice can advise, it should never be a set of
conventions followed blindly. In the end, anything that makes the
text more readable or easier to navigate or maintain is legitimate.

Setting borders
Borders are the lines surrounding an object on all four sides.
All LibreOffice’s applications include an identical BORDERS tab on
at least one of their styles. In Draw and Impress, a similar feature
is called LINE.

Similar BORDERS tabs are found throughout LibreOffice.

126. Designing with LibreOffice

Adding borders
To set up borders:
1 Under LINE ARRANGEMENT, use either the PRESET or USER-
DEFINED diagrams to choose on which sides you want a border.

The PRESET diagrams set all sides together, offering pre-

defined arrangements at a single click. With the USER-DEFINED
diagram, you can set each side separately.
2 Set the line’s STYLE, WIDTH, and COLOR. In most circumstances,
choose the thinnest, plainest style possible. You may need to
choose a thicker line so it is detectable on low-end printers.
3 Set the PADDING on each side. Generous padding increases
readability by avoiding a cramped look.

Above: BORDERS > PADDING set to 0 points. Below: Set to 5

points. The extra white space increases readability.

Tip
Occasionally, borders may appear when you have set none. If
that happens and you do not need borders, leave the LINE
ARRANGEMENT blank, and select LINE > STYLE > NONE.

Text tools and traps 127.

4 If you want a shadow as part of the border, select its POSITION,
DISTANCE (from the border), and COLOR.

Tip
Shadows can help separate a picture from the background.
However, if you cannot explain the reason for using a shadow,
you should not use one. Shadows were so over-used in the mid-
1990s that today they can look excessive and old-fashioned.

A paragraph with a border and shadow. Only use a shadow if you have a
reason for doing so. The days are long past when people used shadows
simply because they could.

Using borders in character and paragraph styles

Many beginning designers dislike empty space. To them,
empty space is wasted space. As a result, they are tempted to
corral it by putting borders around everything. This is a
temptation that they should almost always avoid.

128. Designing with LibreOffice

 In text documents and presentation slides, the uses of borders
are limited. The most obvious uses are to create a blank space to
put an answer on a quiz, or to indicate a side bar in a newsletter.

Borders in character styles can be used for answer blanks.

Borders in paragraph styles can be used to create side-bars. By placing a

border around a small side discussion when the rest of the text has none,
you emphasize that it is not part of the normal text flow. Font: Liberation
Serif.

Often, however, borders are just another bit of unnecessary

clutter. Enough empty space may achieve the same purpose as a
border while looking less constricted. Sometimes a frame may be
a better choice because it has more options.
No matter how you add borders, minimize their width and be
generous with the PADDING settings. Borders that crowd the
content only obscure.

Text tools and traps 129.

Highlighting and setting backgrounds

Like the BORDERS tab, the BACKGROUND/AREA tab is found throughout

LibreOffice, sometimes allowing only color.

Highlighting is available in character styles, and most useful

for emphasizing passages in informal documents. Backgrounds or
areas are available in paragraph styles, and are basically the same
feature as highlighting, except that highlighting is available only
as a color, while a background or area can also be a gradient,
hatching, pattern, or image/bitmap.

Tip
Using the AREA and TRANSPARENCY tabs, you can give a
paragraph its own watermark. See “Creating watermarks,” page
257.

If you are choosing a color background, make sure that the

color you want is among LibreOffice’s defined colors. If not, go to

130. Designing with LibreOffice

FORMAT > AREA > COLORS to add it as a custom color (see
“Designing area colors,” page394, or make adjustments on the
TRANSPARENCY tab (see “Setting transparency,” page 132).
Similarly, before you add a graphic background, prepare its
dimensions and transparency in a graphics editor such as GIMP.

The basic rule for backgrounds: text and background should contrast with
each other.

For all backgrounds/areas, the basic rule is: combine light-

colored text with a dark background, and dark-colored text with a
light background. Without a strong contrast, your document loses
readability. Dark text on a light background is easiest for many
people to read, because that is the most commonly used.
Be careful, too, not to use backgrounds with too many
different colors. Too often, the result will be illegibility.

Most foreground colors are lost on multi-colored backgrounds.

Text tools and traps 131.

 Tip
When adding backgrounds, consider whether you need to check
the contrast for black and white as well as color printing. The
two are not necessarily the same.

Using backgrounds in character and paragraph

styles
Like borders, backgrounds have limited use in character and
paragraph styles. Several character styles, each with a different
color background, might be useful for highlighting when you are
taking notes, or for a brochure, but the majority of text-heavy
documents use a plain white background.
Most of the time, you have more options and more control if
you use a frame instead, or perhaps apply the background to a
page style.

Setting transparency
The TRANSPARENCY tab originated in graphic styles, and was
added to paragraph styles in Writer in the 4.4 release.
The tab adds transparency when a selection is made on the
BACKGROUND/AREA tab. 0% is no transparency, 100% complete
transparency.
From the TRANSPARENCY tab, you can:
• Create a transparency to add quickly (if approximately)
another color without formally defining a color in TOOLS >
OPTIONS > LIBREOFFICE > COLORS.
• Edit the transparency of a background/area to improve the
contrast between the foreground and background.

132. Designing with LibreOffice

• Create a background gradient using degrees of transparency.
A gradient makes a transition between two colors. (See
“Designing area gradients,” page 396.)

The TRANSPARENCY tab works with the AREA tab. Here, the controls to
define a gradient are shown.

Setting tab stops

Tabs are set positions on a line. The place where a tab begins
is called the tab position or tab stop.
Usually, tab stops should be multiples of the line-spacing, and
kept to the minimum necessary. Much of the time, the standard
typewriter tab stops of half or one inch will be far more than you
need.
Tabs are sometimes used to create columns of text, but a table
is usually a better option. If you use an automatic first line indent,
in many cases the only reasons to use tab stops are from habit or

Text tools and traps 133.

because LibreOffice uses them in an advanced feature such as
tables of contents.

Use of tabs can be greatly minimized. When you do use tabs, make each a
multiple of the line spacing.

The types of tabs are:

• LEFT: Places the left edge of the text column at the tab
position, extending the text to the right. In most cases, this will
be the most commonly used type, and often the only one.
• RIGHT: Places the right edge of the text at the tab, extending
the text to the left. The most common use of this type is to
position a column of text against the right margin.
• CENTERED: Places the center of the text at the tab position,
extending it on both the left and the right. Often, this type can
be replaced by setting the general alignment of the line to
CENTERED.
• DECIMAL: Places the decimal at the tab position, and whole
numbers and text to its left. You can set the decimal character
according to the language locale. For instance, the decimal
character is a period in most English locales.
The trouble with all the types of tabs is that they can be an
unstable way of positioning characters. The smallest formatting
change can sometimes throw them out of position.

134. Designing with LibreOffice

The four types of tab positions differ in where text appears in relation
to the tab stop in the ruler.

Using tabs effectively

Even if you minimize the use of tabs yourself, you cannot
avoid LibreOffice’s built-in uses of them. For example,
LibreOffice uses tabs to position text in relation to bullets and
numbers in list styles, and as an option in customizing tables of
contents or in the use of a conditional style.
Otherwise, consider whether you need tabs or can substitute
another solution. Frames or tables with invisible borders are often
a more stable choice.
When using tabs, do: When using tabs, do not:
• Set them in the DEFAULT • Use them to indicate the start
paragraph styles, or at the of new paragraphs. Instead,
very least, as high up the create a FIRST LINE INDENT and
hierarchical tree as possible. check the AUTOMATIC box on
Otherwise, you will have to the INDENTS & SPACING tab.
set tabs separately for each
paragraph style.
• Make the tab positions • Use them to position
multiples of the line characters in a text frame,
spacing. such as a header or footer.
Instead, use a table with
invisible borders and carefully
adjusted column widths.

Text tools and traps 135.

When using tabs, do: When using tabs, do not:
• Set the tab positions as late • Use fill characters in the
as possible in your blank spaces between tab
designing. Otherwise, positions. See “Avoiding the
changes in features such as default TOC design,” page
font or font size may force 315.
you to re-set them.
The Dos and Don’ts of using tab stops.

Setting up drop capitals

Drop capitals are enlarged letters that mark the start of a new
chapter or section. The DROP CAPS tab for a paragraph style
automates the process of creating a text frame and setting the text
flow around it.
Drop caps are more common in fiction than non-fiction, and
in magazines than in an academic essay. They create an
informality that is more at home in a novel than in most types of
non-fiction. The exception are the highly decorated capitals
found in illuminated manuscripts from the Middle Ages.
Before creating drop caps, consider what other indicators of a
new chapter you have in your design. If your first page style starts
lower down than the rest of your pages, or if the start is marked
by a recurring design or by numbers, then drop caps may be more
than you need.
To set up drop caps:
1 Choose the font for the drop caps. It can be the same font as
for body text – perhaps in a different weight – a decorative
font, or even a character from a dingbat set.
2 Use the DROP CAPS character style to define the font.

136. Designing with LibreOffice

The DROP CAPS tab.

3 Create a DROP CAPS paragraph style. Most likely, it will be the

child of TEXT BODY, differing only in having settings for DROP
CAPS.

4 On the Drop Caps tab of the paragraph style, under Settings,

select DISPLAY DROP CAPS. This selection enables others on the
tab, as well as the preview to the right.
5 Under CHARACTER STYLE, select DROP CAPS.
6 Select either NUMBER OF CHARACTERS or WHOLE WORD to set the
length of the drop cap. You can use up to 9 characters.
7 Set the height of the drop cap in terms of the number of lines.

Tip
Placing the entire first line in a different font weight is a very
common layout choice. If you want to try it, ignore the DROP
CAPS tab and create a FIRST LINE style instead.

Text tools and traps 137.

8 Set the SPACE TO TEXT. Unless the drop cap is extremely large,
the magic number is probably too much, so try half of it first.

A selection of drop capitals.

Tip
CONTENTS > TEXT is not active for a paragraph style. It is active
for individual paragraphs, to give the text to use instead of the
first letter or word of the paragraph. It is used mainly for
decorative symbols. However, the WHOLE WORD and NUMBER
OF CHARACTER fields substitute adequately for it in a style
definition.

138. Designing with LibreOffice

Outlining and making lists
Lists have enough features that they are a separate type of
style in Writer. However, as you might guess from the existence
of the OUTLINE & LIST tab, paragraph styles are essential to lists
and outlining.

Associate a list style with a paragraph style in the APPLY LIST STYLE
section on a paragraph style’s OUTLINE & LIST tab.

Specifically, on the OUTLINE & LIST tab, you can:

• Associate list styles with paragraph styles so that they can be
applied automatically. The same list style can be associated
with multiple paragraph styles.
• Create an outline using a single paragraph style.
• Add a paragraph style to the default outline styles. Being
included in the outline styles means that a paragraph using
that style is listed in the Navigator, and used automatically in
features like tables of contents.

Automating lists
An unordered list is another name for a bullet list, and an
ordered list is another name for a numbered list.

Text tools and traps 139.

 Set up an ordered or unordered list in the dialog for list styles
(see “Understanding the types of list,” page 264. Then associate
it with a paragraph style from the paragraph’s OUTLINE & LIST tab
in the LIST STYLE field.

Restarting paragraph numbering

You do not need to create a separate list style for each
numbered list in a document.
To restart the numbering in any numbered list, select LIST >
RESTART NUMBERING from a paragraph’s right-click menu.

Restart the numbering in a list from the right-click menu.

Nesting lists
A nested list – a list within a list – is most common in an
online text, where space is unimportant and structured text like
lists and tables improve readability.
To nest a list, you have two choices. The first is to create a list
style, and set up two or more list levels with different formatting
choices on the POSITION and CUSTOMIZE tabs. The advantage of list
levels is that each level can be formatted separately, but all the
levels remain connected. You can switch to the next level below
by pressing the TAB key, or to the one above by pressing
SHIFT+TAB.
The preview pane can help you set up each list level, and the
customized list style is associated with a paragraph style for use.

140. Designing with LibreOffice

The PREVIEW pane for a bulleted list style with two list levels. The other
list levels have not been customized, so they default to the same bullet as
the top level.

To switch to a lower list level while using the associated

paragraph style, press the TAB key before entering content; to
switch to a higher list level, press SHIFT+TAB.
The second choice is to create two separate list styles, then
associate each list style with a separate paragraph style.
Neither choice has any advantage over the other, since you
are still dealing with the same options. However, in both cases,
each nested list is typically indented more than the list level
above it. Typically, too, each list level will use a different bullet
style or numbering system.
Style names like BULLETED and BULLETED 2 or NESTED will help
to remind you of the relation between the two paragraph styles.
For convenience, use the same names for both the PARAGRAPH and
LIST styles, since they cannot be mixed up.

Text tools and traps 141.

Nested lists created using two separate list styles.

Outlining with paragraph styles

An outline is typically a way of planning a document that
readers never see, so often whether the pre-defined format is
exactly what you prefer won’t matter.
LibreOffice has several ways to outline using paragraph styles.
With TOOLS > CHAPTER NUMBERING, you can choose a numbering
style for each paragraph style, making it part of the Outline
Levels (see “Outlining and making lists,” page 139).
Alternatively, you can ignore TOOLS > CHAPTER NUMBERING,
and associate each Heading style with a separate list style using
the STYLES AND FORMATTING window.
An even easier form of outlining is to create a single list style
for outlining. If you want to, you can manually set up the
different levels on the list style’s CUSTOMIZE tab. However, you can
get much the same result by selecting a pre-defined pattern from
the list style’s OUTLINE tab instead.
To use the paragraph style, press ENTER + TAB to add a sub-
level paragraph. The sub-level paragraph automatically uses the
numbering pattern of the list style. To raise the level of a
paragraph style, press ENTER + TAB + SHIFT.

142. Designing with LibreOffice

Pre-defined formatting for outlines in the LIST STYLES window.

Creating outlines with a single paragraph style

To set up a single paragraph style for outlining:
1 Create a list style and associate it with one of the pre-defined
formats on the OUTLINE tab.
2 Select or make a paragraph style for outlining. You cannot use
the HEADING 1-10 styles. Presumably, this restriction prevents
confusion between a single paragraph style outline and the
registered outline levels.
3 On the ORGANIZER tab of the paragraph style, set the style to
use itself as the NEXT STYLE.
4 Assign the list style to the paragraph style using the LIST STYLE
field on the paragraph style’s OUTLINE & LIST tab.

Text tools and traps 143.

Adding paragraph styles to outline levels
Outline levels are a concept used throughout LibreOffice to
automate advanced features. For example, outline levels
determine which paragraph styles are displayed by default in the
Navigator under HEADINGS, and in a table of contents .
By default, outline levels are mapped to the HEADING 1-10
paragraph styles. LEVEL 1 is mapped to HEADING 1, LEVEL 2 to
HEADING 2, and so on.
You can change these mappings, or add another paragraph
style to an outline level in the OUTLINE LEVEL field on the OUTLINE
& LIST tab.

OUTLINE LEVELS default to Heading paragraph styles. You can add other
paragraph styles using the OUTLINE LEVEL field on their OUTLINE & LIST
tabs.

144. Designing with LibreOffice

 Tip
You can assign more than one paragraph style to an outline
level, but only one paragraph style displays in TOOLS >
CHAPTER NUMBERING.

Tip
In the drop-down list for the OUTLINE LEVEL field on the
OUTLINE & LIST tab, all paragraph styles not assigned to an
outline level are identified as BODY TEXT. This designation has
nothing to do with the TEXT BODY paragraph style.

Skipping a paragraph in a list

In many lists, each paragraph is a list item and is therefore
numbered. However, you sometimes need to break up a list with
an unnumbered or unbulleted paragraph that gives more detail
about a list item. Without such a paragraph, a list item may turn
into a long paragraph, reducing the readability that is the whole
point of using a list.
To create a style for such paragraphs, you can use the
paragraph style with a list to create a linked paragraph that is
mostly formatted identically. The exceptions are on the OUTLINE
& LIST tab, on which:
• OUTLINE LEVEL is set to BODY TEXT.
• LIST STYLE is set to NONE.
• THIS PARAGRAPH IN LINE NUMBERING is unchecked.
If you have only a few horizontal indents, this style may be
usable with multiple lists.

Text tools and traps 145.

 TEXT BODY INDENT is a pre-defined paragraph style that you
can use for this purpose.

Tip
If you want to number paragraphs as lines in a poem, use TOOLS
> LINE NUMBERING.

This tool is more comprehensive than the formatting available

from within paragraph style formatting, with a selection of
character styles and the exact positioning of numbers in relation
to text.

Using multiple languages

LibreOffice supports over 165languages, and many more
locales. Locales are variants of a language that have unique
vocabularies and spellings.
For example, in the UK English locale, the correct spelling is
“neighbours,” while in US English, it is “neighbors.” A complete
locale consists of separate dictionaries for spell-checking,
hyphenation, and thesauruses.
Many users use only the default language determined by the
version of LibreOffice that they downloaded. However, you have
two options for adding support for more languages and locales.
The most common way to add support for additional
languages is to select them from the drop-down list at TOOLS >
OPTIONS > LANGUAGE SETTINGS > WRITING AIDS > USER-DEFINED
DICTIONARIES > NEW.
In addition, the extension site also has packages for several
languages, including Ancient Greek, Finnish, and Basque.

146. Designing with LibreOffice

Use the general language settings to load as many languages and locales
as you want.

Setting up other language features

Adding dictionary locales may be only the first step in using
another language. You may need to:
• Select a system keyboard layout for the language. An
international English keyboard is adequate for most Western
European languages. Without a suitable keyboard layout, you
have to rely on INSERT > SPECIAL CHARACTER for accents and
umlauts.
• Install a font for a language. A Greek style is of limited use if
your installation of LibreOffice has no Greek font installed.
• Adjust the settings for Asian or Complex Text Layout
languages at TOOLS > OPTIONS > LANGUAGE SETTINGS >
LANGUAGES > DEFAULT LANGUAGES FOR DOCUMENTS.

Text tools and traps 147.

• Create multiple styles with similar names in a multi-language
document. For example, you might have paragraph styles
called TEXT BODY – ENGLISH and TEXT BODY – FRENCH.
• Disable TOOLS > AUTOCORRECT OPTIONS in a multi-language
document. If you don’t use Autocorrect, uncheck the ENABLE
WORD COMPLETION and COLLECT WORDS boxes at TOOLS >
AUTOCORRECT > AUTOCORRECT OPTIONS > WORD COMPLETION.
• Set URLs or snippets of code to NONE In the LANGUAGE field to
spare yourself extra queries while spell checking.

Creating a block quote style

All forms of academic quotation have a special format for long
quotations – that is, quotations that fill more than three lines or
are longer than about 100 words.
Quotations that meet this criteria are presented in a block so
that they are easier to read. The assumption is that a long quote
would not be used unless it was important. Readers may wonder
if the emphasis is misplaced if a block quotation is not especially
relevant.
Typically, the paragraph style for a block quote is the child of
the body text style. The standard format for a block quotation is:
• Do not use quotation marks, unless someone is quoted
directly or speaking.
• Use the same font and font size as for the body text. Making
the font size smaller only makes the block harder to read.
• Use an equal indentation on the left and right sides of the
paragraph, based on the line spacing. Usually, 40–50 points
on each side will be about right, the exact width depending on
the font size.

148. Designing with LibreOffice

 The standard layout for a block quotation. The extra indentation is
used instead of quotation marks.

• Indicate new paragraphs by either a first line indent or else an

extra space between paragraphs. The indicator is not
necessarily the same as the one used in the rest of the body
text.
Writer includes a QUOTATIONS paragraph style by default,
although you might prefer a custom style with a name like BLOCK
QUOTATION for greater clarity.

Preparing styles for HTML

HTML has never been well integrated into LibreOffice
Writer. You can create clean HTML files using FILE > NEW >
HTML DOCUMENT (see “Minimizing HTML problems,” page 152),
but saving a formatted document as HTML from Writer
produces unnecessarily complex code.
Although Writer includes VIEW > WEB so you can have an
approximation of how an HTML page looks, the view is not
always reliable.
Writer/Web includes VIEW > HTML SOURCE so you can see the
code with which you are working. You cannot see the code and
the result at the same time, but you can switch between them.
In addition, you cannot save an HTML file as a template.

Text tools and traps 149.

 To add to the inconvenience, HTML is treated in a very
individualist way. While LibreOffice uses FILE > PROPERTIES to
create a thorough collection of meta-tags, only a limited number
of character and paragraph styles are converted directly into
HTML tags. Other styles, as well as fields, are converted to .css
classes.
These peculiarities mean that HTML files exported from
LibreOffice preserve as much of the formatting as possible.
Unfortunately, they also mean that LibreOffice does not
produce clean HTML from formatted documents – that is, files
with only HTML tags that are easy to use in other applications.
Unless you are prepared to write your own style sheet, or
clean up HTML files exported from LibreOffice either manually
or through a program like HTML Tidy, LibreOffice’s exported
HTML requires great effort while offering results that are usually
mediocre at best.
Paragraph style HTML tags Comments
Heading 1-6 <h1> - <h6> Notice that only 6
headings are available,
while Writer has 10.
List Contents <p> Converts to the
default paragraph tag.
Use with list styles.
List Headings <dl>, <dd> Creates a definition
list <dl> or adds the
heading <dd>.

150. Designing with LibreOffice

Paragraph style HTML tags Comments
Preformatted text <pre> Appears in the web
browser in a
monospaced font
(such as Courier).
Quotations <blockquote> Indents the text on
both margins.
Sender <address>
Table Contents <p> Converts to the
default paragraph tag.
Table Heading <p> Converts to the
default paragraph tag.
Text body <p> The default HTML
tag for contents.
How Paragraph styles are mapped to HTML tags.

Character style HTML tags Comments

Definition <dfn> Displays default font.
Emphasis <em> Displays as an italic
font.
Endnote characters References style Defaults to default
sheet. font.
Example <samp> Defaults to
monospaced font.
Footnote characters References style Uses default font.
sheet.
How Character styles are mapped to HTML tags.

Text tools and traps 151.

 You could, of course, create a series of macros for HTML tags,
then save files as plain text, renaming them in a file manager.
However, at that point, using a dedicated HTML editor is less
trouble.
The only times that using LibreOffice’s HTML output is
advisable are when the output is only going to be used by itself
and has a short life.
Problems with cluttered HTML are often compounded when
the output files are used, or when someone uses a file without
knowing its limitations.

Minimizing HTML problems

LibreOffice HTML code is generally best avoided. However, if
you do decide to use it, follow these steps to minimize problems:
1 Select FILE > NEW > HTML DOCUMENT.

2 Press F11 to open the STYLE AND FORMATTING window. Notice

that the ALL and HTML views are identical.
3 Select VIEW > WEB. This selection displays the file as a web
page instead of a printed page.
4 Customize only by making changes to the pre-defined
paragraph and character styles listed in the table above.

Tip
If you want clean code, avoid using additional styles, using any
character or paragraph style that requires a style sheet, or using
multiple page, frame, or list styles.

In other words, design as though you are using the plainest

possible HTML.

152. Designing with LibreOffice

5 Save the document by selecting FILE > SAVE AS and selecting
HTML DOCUMENT TEMPLATE (.OTT) as the format or file type.
Notice that you cannot save an HTML document using
TEMPLATES > SAVE AS TEMPLATE. If you try, you receive no error
message, but nothing is saved. Instead, save the file as an
HTML DOCUMENT TEMPLATE in a directory specifically set aside
for that purpose.
6 If you want clean HTML output, do one (or both) of the
following: Manually remove unnecessary tags or run the file
through a tool such as HTML Tidy. In Linux, many major
distributions have HTML Tidy in their repositories.
7 Open the file in at least one major browser such as Chrome,
Firefox, Safari, or Microsoft Edge to see whether any display
problems exist.
To use the template, navigate to the directory in which the
template was saved.

Tip
If these instructions seem too complicated, avoid using Writer to
generate HTML output. On all operating platforms, there are
many tools for writing web pages that are easier to use than
Writer.

Preparing styles for EPUB

Writer has limited support for EPUB, the most popular open
source format for ebooks. To export, go to FILE > EXPORT AS... >
EXPORT DIRECTLY AS EPUB... However, this support is extremely
limited for more than an essay or a book layout. Many features

Text tools and traps 153.

are not supported, including sections, frames, tables, drop caps,
columns, and lists. In addition, too many images can result in
some of them being inverted or misplaced.
Paragraph and character styles are generally well-supported,
and using them can make mistakes easier to correct. However, the
fewer you use, the easier export is likely to be. Headings are
especially useful, because they can be used to indicate page
breaks if you use FILE > EXPORT AS... > EXPORT AS EPUB.
If you want advanced features, try importing a Writer file into
Calibre (available from https://calibre-ebook.com/download), and
editing the .CSS code in the style sheets of the EPUB.

Preparing styles for PDF

To export to PDF, go to EXPORT AS... > EXPORT DIRECTLY AS
PDF... or to EXPORT AS... > EXPORT AS PDF. PDF format is similar to
the postscript language for printers, and is the best format for
sharing files when you want them to be seen exactly as intended.
However, if you use a font that the recipient is unlike to have,
select FILES > PROPRTIES > FONT > EMBED FONTS IN THE DOCUMENT
before exporting to PDF. Note that embedding will vastly
increase the file size if you you have a large number of fonts.

Moving beyond practical text

If you are reading this book from beginning to end, at this
point all the features of character and paragraph styles that you
might want to use regularly have been covered.
However, before the topic of text styles is wrapped up,
Chapter 7 discusses some advanced features – ones that are not
strictly necessary to your design, but ones that can automate your
design and make template design more efficient.

154. Designing with LibreOffice

 7
Positioning and automating text
This chapter concludes the discussion about character and
paragraph styles by talking about their advanced features. It
explains the relationship between paragraph and list styles, how
to position characters more precisely, and several specific ways to
automate your work flows using text styles.
The automating features are easy to overlook, but they can be
as important as features that affect the look of a document.
For example, a conditional style allows you to format the same
style differently depending on its context, or set a paragraph style
so that it always starts a new page. Although casual users may
never be aware of such features, those who write as part of their
work will soon become well aware of the time these feature save.
You will rarely use these features all the time, nor all of them
at once. However, knowing what is available can help you to
design your documents more intelligently and to work more
efficiently when you write.
For example, the font effect HIDE sounds minor. Yet in one
unimportant-looking toggle switch, HIDE provides an elegant

Positioning and automating text 155.

solution for one of the most difficult tasks for professional
documenters – maintaining multiple versions of the same
document in a single file.

Fine-tuning characters
Like most word processors or layout software, LibreOffice
does much of the housekeeping for design.

The POSITION tab is the main spot for adjusting individual characters.

For example, without consulting users, Writer examines font

files to display characters properly. It also detects whether a font
family includes italics or bold weights, and decides the size and
placement of footnote numbers.

156. Designing with LibreOffice

 Most users are happy to let LibreOffice make these decisions.
However, the software’s decisions are not always ideal, so at times
you might want to tweak the spacing between characters or
reposition footnote numbers.
LibreOffice includes the tools you need for such tweaking.
Many are on the POSITION tab, although others are scattered
throughout the character and paragraph style dialogs.

Positioning superscript and subscript

The POSITION tabgives you several advanced options for
adjusting superscript characters (above others on the same line)
and subscript characters (below others on the same line). Another
alternative for superscript characters is to adjust the vertical
alignment of text on the same line (see “Aligning different-sized
text on one line,” page 159).
These adjustments are relatively common, because,
depending on the font, LibreOffice’s default superscript and
subscript characters can sometimes be too too small for easy
reading.
To understand superscript and subscript characters, you have
to remember that all letters sit on an imaginary baseline. Many
characters have what is called an x-height – the height of a letter
x, but also of an m or r, as well as the bowl of a lower case b or p.
Still others like y have descenders, or lines that are lower than
the baseline, while letters like k have ascenders, or lines that rise
above the x-height. However, all characters are positioned
relative to the baseline. The exact positions are part of the font’s
design and are stored in its files. There is no reason, though, why
you should not modify the intended design if you care to make
the effort.

Positioning and automating text 157.

Superscript and subscript characters. The superscript “2” on the left is
higher than the ascenders or the question mark, and throws off the look of
the line.
By contrast, the subscript “2” on the right is as low as the bottom of the
descender on the “y,” which gives a more consistent look to the line
(Font: Lato).

Superscript characters, such as mathematical components or

footnote numbers, are usually positioned somewhere between the
x-height and the height of the ascenders.
Similarly, subscript characters, such as those in chemical
equations, usually sit between the baseline and the low point of
descenders.
The size of superscript and subscript characters is a trade off
between being large and easily readable and being uncluttered
but harder to read. To many users, LibreOffice’s defaults are too
small.
When adjusting both position and size, be prepared for
several trials and errors before getting the best results, with the
adjustments getting smaller as you move closer to the ideal.
To direct your experiments, consider these points:
• The exact size will vary with the font’s white space, but 40–
60% of the body text should be the usual range.
• If a font’s characters use a lot of white space, so that they look
small compared to fonts of the same size, increase its size.

158. Designing with LibreOffice

• Unless the x-height is exceptionally large, using it for the
bottom of superscript characters often makes for a consistent
design. However, using this guide with a large x-height is
likely to make the superscript characters too small.
• Avoid old style characters for superscript and subscript. Their
lack of a common baseline means either an eye-disturbing
clutter or a time-consuming positioning of each numeral
separately.
• Aligning superscript characters with the top of ascenders and
subscript characters with the bottom of descenders has the
advantage of being symmetrical while giving you a visible
target.

Caution
The fields for lowering or raising superscript or subscript
characters read all input as percentages, rounded to the nearest
number. You cannot use points in them.

Tip
The POSITION tab for characters and paragraph styles is
specifically for blocks of text. To create formulas, open FILE >
NEW > FORMULA or use the Math application.

Aligning different-sized text on one line

The TEXT-TO-TEXT option on the ALIGNMENT tab of a paragraph
style vertically aligns text of different sizes on the same line. It
can be used with a brochure or poster, but its main use is
probably to create superscript or subscript characters without the

Positioning and automating text 159.

fuss of using the POSITION tab (see “Positioning superscript and
subscript,” page 157).
The setting can align font sizes by the TOP, MIDDLE, or BOTTOM
of the letters, or the default BASE LINE. In each case, the largest
characters remain on the baseline, while other characters are
raised or lowered in relation to them. For example, if you select
BOTTOM, then the smaller characters are positioned at the bottom
of the largest characters’ descenders (the lines below the base
line). Similarly, with TOP selected, the smaller characters are
positioned at the top of the largest characters’ ascenders (the lines
above the x-height).
However, mostly you can leave the setting on AUTOMATIC,
which defaults so that all different font sizes are aligned by the
base line. In other words, you can usually safely ignore the
setting.

From top to bottom: The TEXT-TO-TEXT field on the ALIGNMENT tab set
to AUTOMATIC (BASE LINE), BOTTOM, MIDDLE, AND TOP.

Rotating text
The POSITION tab for a character style includes settings for
rotating text 90 (right angle to the baseline and above) and 270
degrees (right angle to the baseline and below). These settings are

160. Designing with LibreOffice

mostly useful in a table heading, but both interfere with
readability and should not be used if any alternative exists.

Above: Controls for rotating a character style on the POSITION tab.

Below: Controls for rotating graphic text on a sample’s right-click menu.
Graphic text is created using Fontwork on the DRAWING toolbar, and is
treated as a drawing object rather than as text.

The rotation tools may be useful in brochure and ad designs,

but they are very basic. You will have more precision than these
settings offer if you use graphical text – text treated as a drawing
object, called Fontwork in LibreOffice – and then right-click and
select POSITION AND SIZE > ROTATION instead.

Positioning and automating text 161.

Adjusting font width
The width of characters is interpreted by LibreOffice’s
reading of each font’s file. However, you can adjust it using the
SCALE WIDTH field on the POSITION tab. This feature is especially
useful when you have no condensed or expanded version in a
font family.

From top to bottom: 100%, 115%, and 85% character width. Greater
increases or decreases tend to look clumsy with most fonts, especially at
smaller sizes. Font: Maven Pro.

In pre-digital typesetting, changing the width of a font would

also include changing the design of many of the individual
characters to keep the proportions in the shape of the letter.
These adjustments do not happen with most digital fonts, and
rarely to the same degree. Consequently, you can do little to
change the width of some fonts without producing a disordered
mess.
However, most fonts can stand 1–15% adjustments less or
more than the default 100% without deteriorating too badly.
These adjustments can help improve the page color of the body
text.

162. Designing with LibreOffice

Adjusting character combinations (kerning)
Kerning is the spacing between characters. Professional
printers sometimes adjust kerning to improve the appearance of
awkward combinations of letters. Combinations such as “Va,”
“ll,” and “ff” can be improved in most fonts, and individual fonts
may benefit from the adjustment of other combinations as well.

Changing the spacing between characters using the SPACING field on the
POSITION tab.
Left: Reducing the space between characters improves the spacing.
Middle: Creating your own ligature by moving characters together.
Right: Sometimes, kerning means increasing the space between
characters for easier reading. Font: Maven Pro.

Kerning has always been a concern in typography, but digital

typography makes it more important than ever. Unlike in manual
type, digital fonts usually do not have different spacing when the
font size changes. Instead, the spacing is intended for a standard
size.
Consequently, if you greatly decrease or increase font size, the
kerning may be off. What is intended for 12 points may not work
for 8 or 48 points.
Moreover, LibreOffice’s general kerning tends to be very
loose, and you can often improve on it if you are willing to make
the effort and make small changes.
If you choose to handle your own kerning, create character
styles with adjusted spacing. You may manage with only a single
kerning character style for all your needs, but if you are really
attentive to detail, you might decide on individual kerning

Positioning and automating text 163.

character styles for different letter combinations – it all depends
on your patience, the font you use, and your perfectionism.
However, you may want to change the spacing, either to
improve legibility or for a short string of characters in a more
graphical document, such as a brochure, by adjusting the SPACING
field on the POSITION tab.
If you are manually adjusting justified lines, you might also
want to make micro changes here and there.
No matter what your interest, you will want to select the PAIR
KERNING box beside the field.

Tip
Whether you worry about kerning depends on how much of a
perfectionist not only you, but the font’s designer, happens to be.

Often, you can reduce the amount of kerning by carefully

choosing a font after looking at letter combinations that often
need kerning. Gentium, for instance, is tightly kerned and even
uses ligatures automatically.

By contrast, early versions of Cantarell had a reputation – since

outgrown – for being poorly kerned, which made manual
kerning much more difficult.

Manufacturing small capitals

Small capitals are designed to improve the look of two or more
capital letters in a row. Although they have to be applied in
individual cases, small caps are especially useful in improving the
readability of text full of abbreviations.

164. Designing with LibreOffice

From top to bottom: genuine small caps, manufactured small caps, and
regular caps. If you compare the “A” in the genuine small caps with the
other samples, you can see that small caps are not just a matter of size –
the proportions of letters are also changed. Font: Linux Libertine G.

When a font does not include its own set of small caps,
LibreOffice creates an imitation of them, usually making them
smaller than ordinary capitals. However, these imitations are
rarely more than adequate, because true small capitals are
distinguished not just by size, but by an entire redesign of
characters.
Still, not every font comes with small capitals, leaving you
sometimes with no choice except to try making your own.
Making your own small caps
If a font lacks small capitals, LibreOffice manufactures some.
However, you might want to see if you can improve on what
LibreOffice offers. If so, follow these steps to manufacture small
caps for yourself:
1 Use the regular capitals for your experiments. Starting from
manufactured capitals mean that you are inheriting all sorts of
assumptions that are hard to pin down.
2 Start with a character style that is several points smaller than
the paragraph font with which it will be used. Experiment
until you find a suitable size.

Positioning and automating text 165.

3 Use the SCALE WIDTH field on the POSITION tab to make the
characters slightly wider than those of the paragraph style it
will accompany. Do not increase the width by more than a
few percent, or it may look grotesque.
4 Increasing the width may have upset the spacing between
characters, so experiment with the SPACING field on the
POSITION tab. Because the small cap character style has a
smaller font size, you probably will want to increase the
spacing anyway to increase legibility.
When you have finished your tweaks, compare your effort to
LibreOffice’s manufactured small caps, and choose the best one
to use.

Making line spacing consistent

Even advanced users puzzle over the ACTIVATE PAGE LINE-
SPACING setting on the INDENTS & SPACING tab. It’s a large mystery
for a simple setting. Formerly called REGISTER-TRUE, this feature
makes lines consistent across the pages – or as near as possible if
different-sized fonts are used.
When ACTIVATE PAGE LINE-SPACING is selected, the lines of text
in columns, mirrored pages, or on both sides of a page are spaced
identically. Usually, the spacing is that of the TEXT BODY font.
This setting improves the look of both single and multi-
column documents, and prevents shadows of the other side being
from interfering with reading.

Tip
Setting ACTIVATE PAGE LINE-SPACING for more than one
paragraph style can negate the setting. Use the setting only for
the paragraph style used most often – usually TEXT BODY – and

166. Designing with LibreOffice

 related styles (for example, TEXT BODY INDENT) that use the
same line spacing.

Instead of using ACTIVATE PAGE LINE-SPACING for Headings,

make the font size, the space above, and the space below equal a
multiple of the line spacing. That way, the Headings will rarely
be out of sync for any length of time.

You can improve the effectiveness of the setting for pages

printed on both sides by choosing a heavier weight of paper –
which you probably want anyway if a document is important
enough that you are concerned about line spacing.
There is no reason not to select this setting, but setting LINE
SPACING to FIXED on the INDENTS & SPACING tab will produce much
the same effect.

Tip
Page styles also have a USE PAGE LINE-SPACING setting, which
allows you to set the line spacing by page, selecting the
paragraph style to use. Choose either the paragraph or the page
line-spacing setting, rather than using both.

Positioning and automating text 167.

The USE PAGE LINE-SPACING feature on the INDENTS & SPACING tab
makes lines consistent across the pages – or as near as possible if
different-sized fonts are used.

Automating with styles

People think of typography mostly in terms of format – that is,
the choices of fonts and spacing. However, digital typography is
also about making a document easier to construct and maintain.
These concerns do not matter if you are writing a document
that will be sent, read, and discarded in a matter of minutes. In
fact, any attempt to implement them in a short-lived document is
a waste of effort.
However, many other documents have longer life spans. For
example, a technical manual may be revised a dozen times or
more in its life cycle. In such circumstances, any formatting that
gives you one less thing to think about is welcome.
This section introduces two features of paragraph styles that
make documents easier to construct: using conditional styles, and
setting page breaks by style.
In exchange for some extra setup, both features keep your
hands on the keyboard as you work, allowing you to focus on
content instead of distracting you with formatting issues.

168. Designing with LibreOffice

Configuring conditional styles
A conditional style is an alternative way of using paragraph
styles. Normally, you define a style, then set the NEXT STYLE field
on the ORGANIZER tab. However, with a conditional style, you
define the paragraph’s format in each context, such as in a table or
a footer. When the cursor moves to a new context, the style’s
format changes automatically.

The CONDITION tab sets up one paragraph style to use the formatting of
other styles in different contexts.

Positioning and automating text 169.

 Caution
Don't confuse a conditional paragraph style with a
CONDITIONAL TEXT field available from INSERT > FIELDS. All
that the two have in common is that each changes when their
context changes.

Conditional styles are different enough from the normal use

of styles that they puzzle many users, who scrupulously avoid
them. However, they are easier to use than you might imagine.
Each contextual format is defined by another paragraph style,
then connected to the conditional style on the CONDITION tab.
Conditional styles do have limitations:
• You cannot make any pre-defined paragraph styles
conditional except TEXT BODY. In fact, pre-defined paragraph
styles display no CONDITION tab, although new (custom)
paragraph styles created from them do.
• If you want a custom style to be conditional, you must set up
at least one condition before you click the OK or ACCEPT
button when you close the style dialog window for the first
time. Otherwise, the next time you open the style’s dialog
window, the CONDITION tab is no longer available.
• A conditional style is limited to thirty pre-defined contexts.
You might be able to think of at least two dozen more contexts
that might be useful, but you cannot create custom contexts.
Still, even with these limitations, conditional styles can be
useful, especially if the document structure is not too complex.

170. Designing with LibreOffice

Defining conditional styles
Conditional styles are an answer to those who claim that
styles are too difficult to remember. With conditional styles, you
only need to remember the name of a single paragraph style per
document or template, yet format quickly in different ways.
Admittedly, the available contexts are limited, but they may
still be enough for many purposes. You might think of conditional
styles as equivalent to single-style outlining – an advanced trick
that can be useful and free you from thinking about formatting.
To create a conditional style:
1 Examine a CONDITION tab and make a note of the contexts you
want to use. You cannot create new contexts.
2 Create or format a paragraph style for each context you plan
to use. The only pre-defined style that you can use as a
conditional style is TEXT BODY, but you can create a new style
from any pre-defined one.
3 Create a new paragraph style and go to the CONDITION tab.

Tip
To minimize confusion, name the style CONDITIONAL TEXT or
something like SINGLE STYLE so you can identify it.

Otherwise, as you work, you might wonder why the formatting

has changed but the style listed on the tool bar hasn't.

4 Highlight a context on the CONDITION tab.

5 In the PARAGRAPH STYLES pane on the CONDITION tab, select the
paragraph style that you want to apply in the highlighted

Positioning and automating text 171.

 context. Click twice, and the selected style is listed under
APPLIED STYLES on the right side of the CONTEXT pane.

6 Repeat Step 4–5 as often as needed.

Caution
If you want to use conditions with a custom style, you must set
at least one before you close the dialog window for the first
time. If you do not set at least one condition, the tab will be
unavailable the next time you open the style’s dialog window.

So long as you have set at least one condition, you can add and
delete conditions later.

7 Click the OK or APPLY button when all the contexts you plan
to use are associated with a paragraph style.

Setting page breaks by style

The application of a particular paragraph style often
coincides with the start of a new page.
For example, new chapters may always start with a paragraph
style called CHAPTER NUMBER or TITLE, while a style called
DIAGRAM TITLE might begin a new page reserved for an image that
occupies an entire page. You might define LANDSCAPE TITLE to use
when inserting a landscape page in an otherwise portrait-
oriented document.
This feature is set up in the BREAK section of the TEXT FLOW
tab for a paragraph style.

172. Designing with LibreOffice

Automating page breaks
To set up automatic page breaks:
1 Open the dialog window for the paragraph style that will
coincide with the start of a new page.
2 Select TEXT FLOW tab > BREAKS > INSERT.
3 Set the TYPE to PAGE.
4 If the POSITION is BEFORE, you can select the WITH PAGE STYLE
box, and choose the new page’s style from the drop-down list.
5 When you select a page style to follow the break, you can also
re-set the PAGE NUMBER. For example, you might have a page
style for an introduction numbered in lower case Roman
numerals, and ordinary pages that use Arabic numerals.
6 If you want the page number to continue sequentially from
the previous page, leave the PAGE NUMBER field set to 0.

Automate page breaks in the BREAKS section of the TEXT FLOW tab
by associating them with a paragraph style. This setting is used mostly
to start new chapters in a long document or a master document.

Positioning and automating text 173.

 Caution
The TYPE of break also includes the option of COLUMN. This
selection may be useful in a multi-column section or a
newsletter. However, it can be awkward and confusing. In many
cases, you are likely to have less trouble with items shifting if
you create a table instead.

Single-sourcing by hiding text

Multiple versions of documents that differ only in some
details are common in business or academia. For instance, you
might want one version of a handout for students, and another
version for teachers that adds teaching goals and suggestions for
use. Or, you might have one version of a software manual for
users and another for system administrators.
The only trouble is that maintaining multiple versions of a
document is difficult. Placing each version in its own file
complicates keeping all the versions in sync. Forget just once to
update all versions, and correcting the mistake can cost you
several painstaking hours.
Yet in most word processors, maintaining all versions in a
single file complicates printing, forcing you to create a duplicate
copy first, and then to delete all the parts not needed for the
version you are printing and hope that you don’t make a mistake.
LibreOffice’s solution to this dilemma is to create a single file
in which selected words, paragraphs, or sections are hidden or
revealed as needed. The tools include styles and fields. All the
tools for hidden elements work with two versions of the text, but
sections and some fields do not work with three or more versions.

174. Designing with LibreOffice

 Using hidden text is faster than manual formatting and
reduces the chances of making mistakes. It also eliminates the
need to print from copies, which with careless hands or tired
brains can lead to the accidental over-writing of the original file.

Maintaining two copies of the same document in a single file is as easy as

toggling on or off the HIDDEN box near the bottom of the FONT EFFECTS
tab.

Positioning and automating text 175.

Choosing a tactic for hiding/showing text
Features for hiding and showing text can be used in two ways.
If two versions of the document share common text, enter one
using ordinary paragraph styles and create unique paragraph
styles for the other that can be hidden and shown as needed. This
method works with both styles and with sections and fields, but
can be hard to organize.

One way to structure single-sourcing is to have one set of styles, sections,

or fields that are always visible and another set for each additional
version that can be turned on and off.

The alternative is to create a special set of paragraph styles for

each version of the document, turning them on and off as needed.
In this structure, each version could be distinct, and single-
sourcing mainly a method of keeping related material together.
Alternatively, each version could be mixed and matched. For
example, if you were preparing user, developer, and admin guides
for a piece of software, the published guide for administrators
might require showing both the user and admin material, while
the guide for developers might include both the admin and
developer material. You might also create multiple bodies of
content found in more than one version, although that might
become too complex to work with. All these possibilities can be
used by setting up multiple variables for fields (see “Hiding text
using fields,” page 178), one for each version, but are least
confusing when working with styles only.

176. Designing with LibreOffice

Another way to single source is to have separate sets of styles, fields, and
sections for each version of the document, turning each on and off as
needed

No matter how you work, single-sourcing can be confusing, so

choose the name of styles and fields to help keep everything
straight. You can even give each paragraph style a different font
color to make it quickly recognizable. Each style’s font color can
be replaced quickly by using EDIT > FIND & REPLACE. If you are
printing in black and white and use dark enough colors, you may
not even need to change the colors when you print.

Hiding text using styles

To hide or reveal text, you can toggle the HIDDEN box on a
style’s FONT EFFECT tab. You can either choose part of the
document to hide to produce one alternative version, or else
create a different set of paragraph styles for each version.
Whatever method you choose:
1 Create one set of character and paragraph styles for text that
appears in all versions of the document.
2 Create the common styles needed for each version of the text.
For example, in a student quiz with an answer key, you might
have one set of styles with names like USER – TEXT BODY and
TEACHER – TEXT BODY. These styles are formatted exactly the
same as the common styles, and hidden as needed.

Positioning and automating text 177.

 Tip
You may not need to copy all the common styles for each
version of the file. For example, in a quiz, the teacher's version
might only need a single paragraph style called ANSWER KEY.

3 On the FONT EFFECT tab, toggle HIDDEN as needed before

printing. Notice that spacing above or below a paragraph is
hidden along with the text. By contrast, you need to select the
space after a string of hidden characters.
4 After you print a version from a single-source file, de-select
HIDDEN so the complete file is visible the next time you open it.

Hiding text using fields

An alternate but more time-consuming way of single-sourcing
is to place each passage in its own field. You can either toggle one
version of the document, or else create a separate variable with a
unique value for each version of the document. Usually, this
second method is practical only for relatively short documents.
When you single-source, the FUNCTIONS tab of the FIELDS
dialog contains several useful tools: HIDDEN TEXT, HIDDEN
PARAGRAPH, and CONDITIONAL TEXT. Other types of fields exist, but,
except for SET VARIABLE, are not relevant to single-sourcing.
For very limited uses, such as changing the title or the
contents of a header or footer, you can use INPUT LISTS, which
contains interchangeable items. However, input lists are
impractical in a longer document, because each has to be
changed separately.

178. Designing with LibreOffice

The HIDDEN TEXT field window.

The HIDDEN option in a character or paragraph style is the

stylistic equivalent of some of the fields in INSERT > FIELD > MORE
FIELDS > FUNCTION > TYPE, such as HIDDEN TEXT and HIDDEN
PARAGRAPH.

Caution
Make sure that VIEW > FIELD SHADINGS and VIEW > HIDDEN
PARAGRAPHS are turned on when you use these fields.
Otherwise, you will be lucky to find the hidden text or
paragraphs.

The fields used for single-sourcing use an off or on condition

for hiding and unhiding. A condition is merely a state of a
document – or, if you prefer, a version with different content.
For instance, when a condition is set to 0, then the content in
the fields is hidden, creating one version of the file. When a
condition is set to 1, then the content is shown, creating a second
version. Alternatively, the condition that turns one version of a
document on could be the name of the version, such as USER
GUIDE. This arrangement is no different than checking or
unchecking the HIDDEN box in a style.

Positioning and automating text 179.

 Tip
A HIDDEN TEXT field can be awkward, because the field for
entering it makes only a limited amount of text visible at one
time. Hiding a section may be a simpler tactic to use.

Alternatively, in a CONDITIONAL TEXT field, a simple expression

is set up using the CONDITION, THEN, and ELSE fields on the right
side of the window. For instance, if the condition is 1, then the
text that appears in the document is whatever is entered in the
THEN field, such as USER'S GUIDE. However, change the condition
to anything else, and the text in the document becomes whatever
is entered in the ELSE field, such as SYSTEM ADMINISTRATOR'S GUIDE.
This arrangement is almost as handy as the HIDDEN box in a
style. In effect, the CONDITION field becomes a password to limit
who can change the condition.
The main disadvantage of this method is that each condition
needs to be changed separately, while using the HIDDEN FONT
effect means toggling a single box.

Do not confuse a CONDITIONAL TEXT field with a CONDITIONAL

paragraph style. A CONDITIONAL TEXT field is similar to the HIDDEN
check box on a paragraph style’s FONT EFFECTS tab.

180. Designing with LibreOffice

Hiding with sections
When documents have large areas to hide or show, you may
prefer using sections.
Sections are areas that have properties that are different from
the main body of text. These properties may be formatting, or
content that is password-protected from editing.
You can also add a link to insert a separate file in the current
document. Such links can be another sort of single-sourcing,
allowing content used in several documents to be maintained in
one place.

INSERT > SECTION can hide or reveal large sections of text.

Positioning and automating text 181.

Automating the use of fields and sections
Field windows stay open after you insert a field, allowing you
to move to the next position for a field in the document. Section
windows do not, although you can use the Navigator to jump
from one section to the next as you edit.
However, changing the conditions for each field or section
individually eats up time. If the same field appears more than
once, you can copy and paste or use TOOLS > AUTOTEXT so that
you can add information with a couple of keystrokes, instead of
making changes manually.

A variable can be a master control for turning all fields with the same
condition on or off.

182. Designing with LibreOffice

 Better yet, you can set a general variable that toggles all fields
at the same time:
1 Place the cursor at the start or end of the document, or
anywhere else that is easy to locate.
2 Click INSERT > FIELD > MORE FIELDS > VARIABLES > SET
VARIABLE.

3 Set the FORMAT. You can leave it as GENERAL, or specifically as

TEXT or a number format.

4 At the bottom of the window, give the variable a name. The

name can indicate one of the document versions, or be
something like MASTERSWITCH.
5 Enter a value. It can be text, or simply 0 or 1, but make sure
that it uses the FORMAT entered.
6 Click the INVISIBLE box so that the variable cannot be seen in
the document. Then click the INSERT button.

Caution
Locating the variable can be difficult, so you should place it in
some easy to find place. You might choose to leave it visible
while you work.

7 In all the CONDITIONAL TEXT, HIDDEN TEXT, and HIDDEN

PARAGRAPH fields, as well as SECTIONS, set the condition to the
variable name, followed by the value in quotation marks. For
example: MASTERSWITCH “0” or ADMINGUIDE ”1”.
Now you can show or hide all the fields in the document by
changing only the variable, much as you would with a style.

Positioning and automating text 183.

 A HIDDEN TEXT field set up to work with a variable called
MASTERSWITCH. The value of the variable follows its name.

If you have more than two versions of the document, you can
create other variables to toggle each one off and on.
However, make sure that the values are different for each, and
that each is placed where you can easily find them. The easiest
way to find the values is to use EDIT > TRACK CHANGES > MANAGE
CHANGES, especially when the document is complete and the only
changes you are marking are hiding or showing different versions.
Using sections
Sections are yet another way to hide or unhide text. They can
be used more easily than fields for long passages, but are less
versatile than a paragraph style.
Sections work in much the same way as fields:
1 Place the cursor where you want an empty section, or else
highlight existing text. Then select INSERT > SECTION. The
INSERT SECTION dialog window opens.

2 Give the section a unique name that reflects its contents, and
if desired protect it with a password.
3 Click the HIDE box, and/0r set the WITH CONDITION field to 1.
Either is necessary, but not both. When you close the dialog
window, the section and the space above and below it are no
longer visible in the document.

184. Designing with LibreOffice

 Tip
A section set to hide is visible until you remove the mouse
cursor from it.

4 When you want to edit the section, click FORMAT > SECTIONS.
The dialog window lists the document’s sections, with an
open or closed lock beside each name to indicate whether it is
hidden. Sections can be formatted without unlocking them,
but must be unlocked to edit the text.

The limits to LibreOffice text design

If you read the last few chapters in sequence, you should start
to understand why Writer can best be described as an
intermediate desktop publisher. Using Writer, you can follow
basic typographic principles and easily design complicated
documents.
In the first edition of this book, I finished with a description of
how to work around some of the typographic limitations of
Writer. However with the introduction of HarfBuzz’s font
shaping codes, almost all of those limitations have been removed.
A few enhancements still appear in new releases, but today there
are few reasons for all but the most demanding users to work with
a separate layout application. Publishers can easily use the Writer
file submitted by a writer for the final printing file. In fact,
numerous publishers have done so ever since the release of
OpenOffice.org, but today it is easier than ever.

Positioning and automating text 185.

 8
Styling the page
Page styles are one of Writer’s distinguishing features. Most
word processors have character and paragraph styles, but having
page styles elevates Writer to an intermediate desktop publisher,
giving it immense flexibility.
Page styles matter because the design of pages is central to
typography. In fact, until the rise of digital typography, the page
was generally the main unit of composition.
Entire books have been written on the topic of page design,
many of them full of abstruse theories reinforced by complicated
diagrams that often seem far away from the practical issue of
composition. Fortunately, you do not need to follow obscure
theories in order to design a page.
The only drawback to page styles is that most users are
unaccustomed to thinking in terms of pages. Why, many ask,
should page numbers or footers and headers be associated with
pages? Other word processors do not make the same association.
However, the page is really the most logical place for such
features. Learn to accept this association, and possibilities open

Styling the page 187.

up that are not available in manual formatting – not the least of
which are increased ease of use.

Understanding layout conventions

Page design is based on the two-page spread of left and right
pages, because that is what you see when reading a book unless
you are on the first or, sometimes, the final page.
While your document may be intended to be read online, a
two-page spread is still a reasonable view to refer to regularly,
because it means that you are less likely to miss any design
problems.
Even more importantly, with wide screen monitors having
become universal, a two-page spread is the most economical
display of a document.
You can get a spread view by selecting BOOK VIEW from the
zoom controls at the bottom right of the editing window.
Traditionally, a document’s first page is a right page, modified
to make clear that it is the start. Open any book and you
immediately see why: On the left is the cover or binding, which
leaves the first page to fall on the right.

A two-page spread in the editing window shows a document as readers

will experience it in hard copy.

188. Designing with LibreOffice

 This tradition also means that right pages are usually odd
numbered, and left pages even numbered.

Applying page styles

In theory, you can change the style of the page at any time by
placing the cursor on a page and making a selection from the
STYLES AND FORMATTING window. However, this practice can
cause other pages in the document to change their style – not all
the time, but often enough that the method is unreliable.
The only times this approach works reliably is when manual
or automatic pages clearly mark the start and the end of a page.

A manual page break is marked in the editing window by a purple dotted

line.

Automating the next style

You do not want to be continually inserting a page break and
selecting a page style as you work. As a result, the NEXT STYLE
field on the ORGANIZER tab is even more important for page styles
than for paragraph styles.
The most basic pattern is defined for you: a left page is
followed by a right page, and a right page by a left page. If you
use a FIRST PAGE style, its NEXT STYLE field defaults to LEFT PAGE.

Styling the page 189.

The default page succession. Usually, you can leave the default.

Tip
The NEXT STYLE field on one page style over-rides the PAGE
LAYOUT field on the PAGE tab of the next page style. For
example, if a FIRST PAGE style is set to be a right page, normally
its next page would be a left page. If you set its NEXT STYLE
field to RIGHT PAGE, then the right page becomes a left page but
retains its right-page margins and other settings.

To avoid layout problems, make sure the two fields are

consistent.

Keep this default arrangement, and you should only have to

think about setting page styles when you do something unusual,
such as adding a landscape page to an otherwise portrait-oriented
document. In these unusual circumstances, select INSERT > MORE
BREAKS > MANUAL BREAK > PAGE BREAK and select the appropriate
page style.
In other non-standard cases, you might create a paragraph
style that is set on the TEXT FLOW tab to start a new page with a
particular style. See “Setting page breaks by style,” page 172.

Planning page styles

The default page designs are either for a specific dimension,
such as ENVELOPE and LANDSCAPE, or for a specific purpose, such
as ENDNOTE or INDEX.

190. Designing with LibreOffice

 You might also considering adding page styles for:
• Tables of contents.
• Front matter such as copyright notices and acknowledgments.
• Alphabetic index. If the entries are short, it can save space by
being multi-columned.
• End notes in a scholarly work.
• A title page with the title and author’s name. A title page is
often centered, and in a larger font size than the body text.
• An epigraph, or short quote at the start of the document.
Usually, an epigraph is indented vertically and horizontally. It
may use an italic or script font.
• Poems, especially in a mixture of verse and prose.
• Dramatic scripts. Scripts have a very definite format, which
you can find online.
• Legal documents that require a strict format.
• A page for a single page, chart, or diagram that may or may not
be landscape-oriented.
For some documents, especially short ones, the DEFAULT PAGE
STYLE is all you need.
However, the most basic page styles for any purpose are the
LEFT PAGE, RIGHT PAGE, and FIRST PAGE. They are the ones that
will be models for most of the other page styles.

Designing left and right pages

Unless you are using only the DEFAULT PAGE STYLE, page
design almost always begins with the LEFT PAGE and RIGHT PAGE.
They are most often mirror images of each other, part of a two-
page spread.

Styling the page 191.

 You might choose to design only one of these styles for an
online document, although many readers on tablets or wide
screen monitors prefer a two-page spread online these days. You
should also consider a spread if the online document is ever likely
to be printed out. Unbalanced headers or footers may distract
readers from the text with a clumsy design.

Designing the first page

The first page refers not to a title page, but the page on which
a document or its first chapter begins. A first page is customarily a
modified right page. It should be different enough that it is
immediately obvious as the start of a new part of the document.

Tip
Designers sometimes pride themselves on a minimum of
indicators, but better to use more indicators than are strictly
necessary than have readers miss that you are starting a new
chapter.

Sometimes, the main indicator of a first page may be a

different header or footer from the rest of the pages – or perhaps
the only ones. Usually, however, the indicators are more obvious:

192. Designing with LibreOffice

A top margin that is 76–230 A chapter title and/or number.
points taller than the top The titles may be in one or two
margin on a normal right page. styles.

An image or a dingbat, either A drop capital of a single letter

above the text or in a text frame or a string of characters. This
at the start of the first indicator is common in fiction.
paragraph.
Common tactics for indicating a first page. If headers are a different color
from body text, you can also use the header color for the background
color.

Styling the page 193.

Setting the paper format

The PAGE tab for page styles.

Paper formats are set on the PAGE tab for a style.

The default page size is usually determined by your locale,
and should be changed as necessary for your needs or printer.
Throughout much of the world, the standard size is A4, but in
North America, the standard size is LETTER.
Regardless of the page size, the standard orientation is portrait
(taller than wide). The alternative is landscape (wider than tall).

194. Designing with LibreOffice

 Tip
To define your own page dimensions, start with any page size,
and manually change the width and height. The FORMAT field
changes automatically to USER.

Most printers will print non-standard page dimensions on

whatever size they support. Some printers may not print non-
standard dimensions at all from LibreOffice, but will support
printing if you first export the document to PDF, especially if
they support PostScript format.

All page formats assume a single sheet of paper. However,

printing multiple pages to a sheet is more economical if you are
using a large commercial printer. You can set up multiple page
sheet printing through FILE > PRINT, or else by using text frames
instead of pages.
All multiple sheets will of course need to be cut or folded
later. LibreOffice does not support crop marks, but you can still
cut pages down to size by making careful measurements.
For instance, single sheet brochures are often printed duplex
(double-sided) with connected frames on one side for pages two
and three, and frames on the other side for pages one and four.
If you are publishing online, neither paper size nor orientation
matters unless the document might be printed to PDF or
converted to an ebook format.

Example: A4/Letter combined template

A4 is a standard page size in most of the world, and Letter in the United
States and Canada. They are also close in size: A4 has a width of 595
points and a height of 842 points, while Letter has a width of 612 points,
and a height of 792 points.

Styling the page 195.

If you have an international audience, a template that you can print on
both sizes becomes a form of single-sourcing.
To create a combined A4/Letter template:
1 Create a user-defined page format with a width of 595 points, and a
height 792 points. These are the smallest measurements of the two
formats. To display, all contents must fall within this area.

2 Decide on the left and right (or inner and outer) margins as though
designing for the A4 format, the narrower of the two formats.

3 Decide on the top and bottom margins as though designing for Letter
format, the smaller in height of the two formats.

The result is not completely satisfactory for either size. However, with
this template, you can print from the same file to both sizes, rather than
maintaining two files with the same content.

Setting layout settings

LAYOUT SETTINGS on the PAGE tab set the basic formats for a
page. The PAGE LAYOUT setting offers four choices:
• MIRRORED: The page style is used for both left and right pages.
• RIGHT AND LEFT: The page style is used for both right and left
pages.
• ONLY RIGHT or ONLY LEFT: The page style is used only for right
pages or only for left pages.

Tip
When you choose MIRRORED, the margin fields on the PAGE tab
also change from LEFT and RIGHT to INNER and OUTER, with

196. Designing with LibreOffice

 the INNER margin the one closest to the center of a two-page
spread.

In a traditional hard copy book, the inner margin may have extra
space so that the book can be bound. Be careful that enough
space is allotted so that the binding does not become so tight
that it obscures characters on the inner side of the page or
requires readers to bend the binding to view the complete text.

In a mirrored layout, the INNER margin will be on the right side

of left pages, but the left side of right pages.

LAYOUT SETTINGS are on the bottom right of the PAGE tab.

Caution
The PAGE LAYOUT field may be over-ridden by the NEXT STYLE
field on the ORGANIZER tab of the previous page. Ordinarily,

Styling the page 197.

 this over-ride would mean that you could ignore the PAGE
LAYOUT field.

However, in some versions of LibreOffice, some combinations

may cause blank pages or other formatting problems. For this
reason, you should make sure that no conflicts exist, such as a
NEXT STYLE field that forces a page style set to ONLY RIGHT to
appear on a left page. Otherwise, a page style created in one
version of LibreOffice may not display as you intended in
another version.

Setting margins
Margins are set on the PAGE tab of a page style. All margins
have three purposes:
• To let readers hold hard copy without hiding some of the text
with their fingers.
• To provide space for readers to add comments in the case of
essays, proposals, and printed drafts.
• To frame the document unobtrusively so that readers can
focus on its content.
The third is by far the most important. Unlike the other two, it
applies to all documents, no matter what their medium.

Caution
None of these purposes should ever be ignored in favor of the
time-honored student efforts to fit text into a certain number of
pages.

These efforts are not only obvious, but usually distract from the
text by being too broad or too narrow.

198. Designing with LibreOffice

 Tip
The default settings for all margins in Writer is 57 points (about
3/4 inches or 2 centimeters). For almost all cases, this is at best a
minimum for a margin that fulfills any of its functions.

Choosing margin proportions

Theories about ideal margins often are based on everything
from how reams of paper were folded to make books in the
Middle Ages to analogies of musical scales, with accompanying
diagrams that look capable of summoning demons.
One popular theory holds that the ideal margin settings are
based on the Golden Section, a set of proportions first fully
described by Euclid that are said to be naturally pleasing to the
human eye.
Applying the Golden Section to page margins means that,
starting from the outer margin moving to the top, then the inner
and the bottom margins, the proportions of the margins should be
2:3:4:6. You could also start from the inner margin, but the result
is often a narrow margin that binding may reduce even more.
This ratio means that, using a basic unit of 20 points, the
inner margin would be 40 points, the top 60 points, the outer 80
points, and the bottom 120 points.
These proportions do produce a pleasing page, but publishers
sometimes regard them as wasteful, especially with the large
bottom margin.
To be truthful, the only time that you are likely to see the
Golden Section used to format pages is in poetry and in small
print runs of prose, in which printers are willing to charge more
in return for a well-designed page thar requires more pages..

Styling the page 199.

 In the end, the Golden Section is a prestige ideal rather than a
practical one – and one that not everyone believes is worth the
effort of applying its elaborate theory. If you decide to use it,
choose a thick, quality paper and a simple but elegant font for the
body text of the document. Anything less seems out of place.

A view of non-printing characters showing margins set using the

Golden Section.

A more flexible set of rules can be distilled from the majority

of theories and layouts:
• Make the TOP margin greater than the INNER margin.
• Make the OUTER margin equal or greater to the inner margin.
For printed documents, the OUTER margin should be wide
enough so that the pages or book can be conveniently held.
• Make the BOTTOM margin taller than the TOP margin.
All margins should be multiples of the line spacing.
You can find other page margins that are successful, but these
guidelines reflect the most common margins. Just as importantly,
they are flexible enough that, unlike the Golden Section, you can

200. Designing with LibreOffice

use them without adding to the printing cost by increasing the
number of pages.
Considering binding and trimming
If your document is going to be printed and bound, the INNER
margin requires extra space for the binding. This space will make
the two-page spread look lopsided on your monitor, but prevents
words disappearing into the gutter (the center of a spread, where
the edges of the pages are bound) in the finished product.
The exact space needed for binding varies with the type of
binding, and the fittings chosen. For example, a spiral bound book
can use spiral coils of different sizes.
You should consult your printer, but in most cases you will
probably need at least 20–45 points extra on the inner margin for
the binding, and possibly more.

Tip
If you are unsure what binding you will use, too wide an INNER
margin is easier to adjust than too narrow a one.

Caution
Depending on the printer used, you may also need extra space
on the other margins for trimming. Consult your publisher and
printer as necessary.

Designing headers and footers

Headers and footers are spaces at the top and bottom of the
page that contain document information. In Writer, their spacing
is in addition to the margin; they do not fill part of the margin.

Styling the page 201.

 Unlike in Microsoft Word, in Writer, headers and footers are
classified as part of a page style. Even when you manually format
from INSERT > HEADER or FOOTER, your selection is based on the
pre-defined page styles.
Headers and footers often appear together, but using just one
is just as common. Decide what information you want to display
on the page, and how it will be divided up, and you may find that
just one will do. Typically, each header or footer has up to three
pieces of information.
If you do choose both, an obvious arrangement is to reserve
one for just the page number, which is the most used information
likely to be in a header or footer.

Caution
You can use a single footer, then unselect the check boxes SAME
CONTENT LEFT/RIGHT and SAME CONTENT ON FIRST PAGE rather
than designing each page style separately.

However, do not use both approaches together. The result can be

unresolvable formatting conflicts.

202. Designing with LibreOffice

The HEADER and FOOTER tabs for a PAGE style have identical features.

Turning on headers and footers

Writer provides several ways to add a header or footer. Two of
these methods are:
• Click in top or bottom margin of the page, then click on the
small tab that appears on the right.
• Go to the HEADER or FOOTER tab for a page style and select the
ON box on the top left.

You can add a header or footer by clicking on the plus sign.

Styling the page 203.

 The immediate result is a single line for text in the top or
bottom margin. If you click on this line, the tab now shows a
down-arrow which opens a list of choices for formatting the
header or footer. Some choices have an immediate effect; others
open the HEADER or FOOTER tab for the relevant page style.

Quick-access choices for formatting a header or footer.

Choosing tabs or tables

Many users simply use tab stops to add information, using a
right tab for information that ends at the right margin. However,
this arrangement can require constant readjustment as you revise,
especially if you use fields or alter font sizes, making it more
trouble that it’s worth.
A more robust solution is to add a single-row table with
invisible cell borders and as many columns as you need. This
technique means fewer spontaneous changes than with tabs, and,
therefore, less work. You will especially appreciate the
convenience of tables if your document is likely to last several
years and through several versions of LibreOffice.

Formatting headers and footers

Below the box for turning on a header or footer are the basic
formatting options:

204. Designing with LibreOffice

• LEFT MARGIN and RIGHT MARGIN: The margins for the header
and footer are in addition to the page margins. Usually, these
can be set to zero, since headers and footers are rarely
indented more than the body text.

Tip
You cannot enter a negative number to make a header or footer
extend into the left or right margin.

Should you ever want this arrangement, you would have to give
your paragraph styles indents on the left and right, so that they
use a shorter line than the header or footer.

• SPACING: The distance between the header and footer and the
main text frame. This field should be a multiple of the line
height. If the distance is wide enough, you may not need a line
or any other sort of divider to separate the header or footer
from the body text.
• HEIGHT: The line height of the footer. Often, this will be the
line height of the body text. If you are using the footer or
header to include a recurring image, then the HEIGHT will need
to be at least the height of the image.

Adjusting the border and background

Click the MORE button on a HEADER or FOOTER tab to reach the
BORDER/BACKGROUND dialog window for headers and footers. This
dialog has three tabs, which are full of settings that should be
used cautiously.
For example, unless you are looking for a retro-1990s look,
ignore the settings on the BORDERS tab for adding a shadow to the
footer or header.

Styling the page 205.

 Most of the time, you can forget anything more than a single
line between the header and the footer and the page’s main text
frame – and even that line should be set to the thinnest setting
possible, although you might choose to color it.
In fact, you might manage without even a thin line if the space
to the body text is large enough and the font used in the header or
footer is different from the body text.
The most useful settings on the BORDERS tab are for PADDING,
and even they are only necessary if your use of borders makes the
header or footer look cramped.

Click the MORE button on a HEADER or FOOTER tab to reach the

BORDER/BACKGROUND dialog window.

The AREA tab provides a range of background choices that are

best avoided, except for the most delicate difference in shading
between the page and the header and the footer, or if the only
point of the header or footer is to add a graphic in the same place
on every page. This tab is similar to the one for page styles

206. Designing with LibreOffice

(shown in “Setting the page background,” page 219) and other
objects. It is described in detail in Chapter 14.
Consider using a transparency to make the background more
subtle than a solid color.
Adding header and footer paragraph styles
At this point, you may want to revisit your paragraph styles
for headers and footers. You have HEADER LEFT, HEADER RIGHT,
FOOTER LEFT, and FOOTER RIGHT by default. However, you might
want to create HEADER CENTER LEFT and HEADER CENTER RIGHT as
well. Or, if you are using tabs instead of tables, consider character
styles of the same names.
No matter how you arrange headers and footers, their
information should have a similar font size to the body text. The
page number, perhaps, can be larger. Making the text smaller
than the body text only reduces the usefulness of headers and
footers.
Adding content to headers and footers
The contents for headers and footers generally include static
information such as the document name, chapter name, and
writer’s name. Other possible contents include the fields available
in INSERT > FIELD.

Styling the page 207.

Fields are a common source of header and footer contents.

While you are writing, you might want to use temporary

contents, especially fields from INSERT > FIELD > MORE FIELDS >
DOCUMENT, such as the word count or template. As you finish the
document, you can delete or replace these temporary fields.
Other content is available at INSERT > FIELD > MORE FIELDS.
Most of the fields you might consider using are on the DOCUMENT
tab and the DOCINFORMATION tab.
The table below suggests likely fields.

208. Designing with LibreOffice

General Development Internal
AUTHOR FILE NAME CREATED
TITLE REVISION MODIFIED
CHAPTER TEMPLATE SENDER
PAGE STATISTIC > WORDS LAST PRINTED
TITLE PAGE COUNT MODIFIED
Fields for headers and footers. Many fields have the advantage of
updating automatically, or of taking information directly from your
personal information or from FILE > PROPERTIES.

Tip
You may want to change header and footer content as a
document is being prepared.

When you create the document, you might want to include word
count and author in the headers or footers.

However, before you publish, you probably want to delete these

fields, and replace them with ones for the chapter title that are
useful for the reader rather than the writer.

Using running headers and footers

Running headers (or footers) constantly change according to
the latest instance of a particular paragraph style. In this way,
they provide a guide for readers scanning to locate a passage.
For example, you could have a header for left pages that
repeats the text of the previous HEADING 1 paragraph style. If
HEADING 1 was used only for the chapter title, then the header
would always include the chapter title. You could then have a
right page that repeats HEADING 2 texts to help readers see where
they are in the chapter.

Styling the page 209.

 Running headers or footers can be set up using any paragraph
style set as an outline level. By default, that means using heading
styles. See “Adding header and footer paragraph styles,” page
207.

Caution
If more than one paragraph style is assigned to the same outline
level, you may have unexpected results.

To set up a running header or footer:

1 Set up a paragraph style on the TEXT FLOW tab so that it starts
a new page. The default is HEADING 1, but TITLE or a custom
style called CHAPTER NUMBER is less confusing.
2 From TOOLS > CHAPTER NUMBERING > NUMBERING, assign the
paragraph style you are using to an outline level if you have
not already done so.
3 Place the mouse cursor in the position for the page number.
4 Select INSERT > FIELD > MORE FIELDS > DOCUMENT > CHAPTER >
CHAPTER NUMBER. Then click the INSERT button.

5 Repeat steps 3 and 4 for every page style in the document that
includes page numbering.

Making vertical headers and footers

Headers and footers are generally horizontal. However, you
may find that on landscape pages (ones wider than they are tall)
that the length of headings and footers makes for difficult
reading.
You might also choose vertical headers and footers on portrait
pages (ones taller than they are wide) to give a novel effect.

210. Designing with LibreOffice

 The disadvantage of vertical headers and footers is that page
styles do not automatically repeat them on every instance of a
page style, the way they do horizontal ones. Instead, you have to
recreate them on each instance, or copy and paste them. These
choices tends to restrict them to shorter documents.
To create vertical headers and footers:
1 Add the landscape page if it is not already in use.

2 Create the text for the header or footer, using the appropriate
paragraph style and adding fields. Position it about halfway
down the landscape page.

Tip
If you are working in a document that already has portrait pages,
you can copy and paste a header or footer on another page.

3 Select the line that will become a header or footer and select
FORMAT > CHARACTER > POSITION > ROTATION/SCALING > 90
DEGREES or 270 DEGREES. 90 DEGREES positions the text so that it
begins at the bottom and moves up, while 270 DEGREES
positions the text so that it begins at the top and moves down.

Caution
Tabs, borders, shadows, and other formatting other than the
paragraph style will be stripped when you click the OK button.

4 Select the now-vertical line and click INSERT > FRAME > FRAME
to place it in a frame.
5 Position the frame outside the inner or outer margin, where it
will act as a header or footer. If you are working in an existing

Styling the page 211.

 document, check another page style to see how far the header
or footer is positioned from the main text body in other page
styles. Turn on the grid to help you position the frame.
6 Size the frame so it occupies the full space between the top
and bottom margins. To be exact, you can subtract the top and
bottom margins from the page height to get the exact size that
the frame should be. However, at a high enough zoom, the
text boundaries may be enough to guide you.
7 Right-click on the frame and select PROPERTIES from the right-
click menu to add any borders or shadows, or to turn them off.
8 Repeat as needed.

Setting page numbers

INSERT > FIELD includes PAGE NUMBER in its sub-menu.
Selecting from the sub-menu, you can insert a page number
based on the setting for the current page style set from the PAGE >
LAYOUT SETTINGS > PAGE NUMBERS field. You can then align the
page number by editing its paragraph style.
The sub-menu also includes a PAGE COUNT field, so by typing
one or two characters, you can quickly have “2 of 3” or “2/3.”
However, to gain full control of page numbering, you need to
go to INSERT > FIELD > MORE FIELDS > DOCUMENT > PAGE NUMBER
(UNSTYLED). There, you can override the page style’s setting with
another numbering format chosen from the pane on the right. For
instance, you might want to start with an introduction numbered
in Roman numerals, then continue with the body of the text
numbered in Arabic numerals.

212. Designing with LibreOffice

For a complete set of options, set page numbers from INSERT > FIELD >
MORE FIELDS > DOCUMENT > PAGE NUMBER (UNSTYLED).

You also have the option of adding an offset – of subtracting or

adding pages from the actual page count. An offset is most
commonly used when a document has a number of pages that are
either unnumbered or use a different numbering system, such as
front matter or an introduction.
Setting page number formats
LAYOUT SETTINGS > PAGE NUMBERS sets the page numbering
format for the page style. However, just as the PAGE LAYOUT field
may be over-ridden by the NEXT STYLE field on the ORGANIZER tab,
so the PAGE NUMBERS field is over-ridden by the settings you
choose in INSERT > FIELD > MORE FIELDS > PAGE NUMBER.

Styling the page 213.

 Depending on the version of LibreOffice, this over-ride may
cause formatting problems, so make everything consistent.
Adding chapter numbers to page numbering
Technical documentation or any other material that is
frequently revised sometimes restarts the numbering with every
chapter. Under this system, for example, the third page of
chapter 5 would have the page number 5–3.
This style may be used so that, when revisions are published,
users can replace only a chapter instead of the whole document –
an arrangement especially useful with ring binders.
To include the chapter in the page numbering:
1 Set up a paragraph style on the TEXT FLOW tab so that it starts
a new page. The default is HEADING 1, but TITLE or a custom
style called CHAPTER NUMBER is less confusing.
2 If necessary, from TOOLS > CHAPTER NUMBERING > NUMBERING,
assign the style you are using to LEVEL 1. In the AFTER field,
add a separator, such as a hyphen.
3 Place the cursor in the position for the page number.
4 Select INSERT > FIELD > MORE FIELDS > DOCUMENT > CHAPTER >
CHAPTER NUMBER. Then click the INSERT button.

5 Type a hyphen or other punctuation, then select INSERT >

FIELD > PAGE NUMBER) to add the page number.

6 Follow steps 3 and 5 for every page style in the document that
includes chapter-page numbering.

214. Designing with LibreOffice

Restarting page numbers
The most common scenario in which page numbering restarts
is when a document begins with an introduction – usually
numbered in lower case Roman numerals, then continues with
the rest of the text – usually numbered in Arabic numerals.
To restart the page count:
1 Create INTRODUCTION START, INTRODUCTION LEFT and
INTRODUCTION RIGHT page styles, modeled on the main default
pages. On each of these custom styles, set PAGE > LAYOUT
SETTINGS > PAGE NUMBERS to lower case Roman numerals.

2 Immediately before the page on which the page count restarts

and the main body of the text begins, select INSERT > MORE
BREAKS > MANUAL BREAK.

3 Select PAGE BREAK for the TYPE.

4 Select the page style to use after the break. Probably, you will
want to use FIRST PAGE.
5 Select CHANGE PAGE NUMBER, and set the number to RESTART AT.
Negative numbers are not allowed.

Setting up multiple page columns

Multiple columns are useful for newsletters, and for printing
indexes or other tables whose entries rarely require an entire line.
Without multiple columns, many indexes and tables would
occupy far more pages than necessary.

Styling the page 215.

The COLUMNS tab contains several tools for setting up multiple-column
layouts.

On the most commonly used formats – A4 or Letter sized

paper with a portrait orientation – you probably have room for a
maximum of 4–5 columns, unless some of them are extremely
narrow.
Fortunately, this is exactly what the COLUMN tab assumes. You
can add more columns, but the tools assume no more than 4–5.

Caution
Too many columns may result in poor hyphenation and
problems with alignment. See “Setting hyphenation,” page 114.

216. Designing with LibreOffice

 You can set the number of columns by entering an exact
number plus a layout under SETTINGS. In most cases, all columns
are given the same width.
If you prefer, you can set each column width separately using
WIDTH AND SPACING. At all times, the total with of all columns
must equal the total available. Among other possible confusions,
this arrangement means that you must reduce the free space in
one column before you add space to another column.
Below the WIDTH AND SPACING is SPACING, which sets the
spacing between columns. The greater the spacing, the easier the
text will be to read.
Use a SEPARATOR line only if the SPACING is extremely tight and
relying on white space alone would make reading difficult. In
effect, adding a line between columns is an acknowledgment that
your design does not work, but you have some overwhelming
reason not to correct it.
Combining single- and multiple-column layouts
Writer is designed with uniform pages in mind. As a result,
you cannot create a page style with more than one column
format. If you need such a layout, begin with a single-column
design, then add a multiple-column section. Unfortunately, you
will need to add the section on each instance of the page style.
Another option is to add manual frames and set up the text
flow you want. See “Setting text flow between frames,” page 259.

Styling the page 217.

Setting up footnotes
Footnotes are positioned automatically by LibreOffice –
usually with acceptable results, although occasionally the only
solution is to convert them to endnotes instead. However, you can
control much of the footnote layout by the settings on a page
style’s FOOTNOTE tab.
The most important setting is the height for the footnote area.
You can set a specific MAXIMUM FOOTNOTE HEIGHT, or NOT LARGER
THAN PAGE AREA – which means that no footnote can be larger
than a page long. Usually, this is not a problem, since a footnote
longer than a page is probably important enough to be moved to
the main text or an appendix.

If your document has no footnotes, ignore the FOOTNOTE tab.

218. Designing with LibreOffice

 Typically, you will want at least two lines’ spacing as SPACE TO
TEXT,and at least one line between the SEPARATOR LINE and the
SPACING TO FOOTNOTE CONTENTS.
A separator should be as thin and as short as possible. With
proper spacing, it may not be needed at all. However, be careful
that the separators for the footer and footnote do not result in two
solid adjacent lines.

Setting the page background

The AREA tab is available for backgrounds on page styles, but is often
unnecessary.

Backgrounds (called “area” in LibreOffice) are useful either to

mark part of the document as different or for short works like
brochures. If you can’t give a reason for a special background,
then you can be confident that it is not really needed.
Page backgrounds can be set to cover the entire page
including margins, or only the space inside the margins. This
setting is on the PAGE tab of the Page Style dialog.

Styling the page 219.

 If you set the page background to cover the margins, you will
need a printer capable of bleeds (the technical name for printing
to the edge of the paper). On many home printers, you may have
about a centimeter or so around the edge of the page where you
cannot print. This non-printing area severely limits the
usefulness of adding a full-page background.
In a printed document, changing the background from the
default white can mean slower printing and wasted ink. A more
efficient solution is to print on colored paper, although you might
have trouble matching batches of the paper exactly.
If you go ahead despite these limitations, the basic principle
remain the same as for paragraphs or any other unit of design that
can use a background.

Tip
A color or graphic background usually does not need a border
unless some point along its edge blends into the paper color.

When that happens, use the minimal border that serves its
purpose – and never add a shadow, except for a retro look.

Using recurring images

The greatest weakness of LibreOffice page styles is that they
have only limited ability to include a recurring image such as a
logo each time a style is used. In fact, there are only four work-
arounds, three of which are less than ideal:
• Place the recurring image in a header or footer. On a first
page, you might even be able to position the image more or
less the way you want it by extending the height of the header
or footer. Often, however, the usefulness of this option is
limited.

220. Designing with LibreOffice

• Associate the graphic with a list style. You will still need to
apply the list style at each position, and you are very limited
in how you can position the graphic. See “Applying list
styles,” page 272.
• Add a graphic background. Make all of the background the
same color as other pages, and position the graphic where you
want it to appear. The graphic will have no text wrap, so you
will have to design carefully so that no text comes near it.
• Anchor the image in the header or footer, but place the image
outside the header or footer, setting the anchor to TO
PARAGRAPH or TO CHARACTER. You can then position the image
anywhere on the page, and it will be repeated each time the
page style is used. This tactic is usually the most effective.

Moving in the new dimension

Immigrants from other word processors sometimes overlook
page styles. However, page styles are the means of adding
everyday features such as page numbers and headers and footers.
Just as importantly, they help you design in large blocks, such
as the page or the two-page spread. This ability gives you a
perspective that most word processors entirely lack. You might
want to use sections for slightly smaller blocks, but once you are
comfortable with page styles, you will probably find few uses for
sections unless you want to password-protect part of your
document.
Take the time to understand page styles, and you will find that
Writer really comes into its own.

Styling the page 221.

 9
Getting in the frame
Frame styles are the least understood type of style in
LibreOffice. Often, you don’t need to understand them, because
Writer adds frames automatically to contain objects such as
images.
In many ways, frame styles are as much for Writer’s automatic
formatting as they are for users. Most of the time, they are so
completely in the background that users have a hard time
distinguishing frames from the images and other objects they
enclose.
Another reason for uncertainties surrounding frames is that
keeping images where you place them can be difficult. Generally,
images stay anchored to the page, paragraph, or character to
which you assign them, and some users never have problems.
Other users find that Writer in particular spontaneously
moves images on the page for no apparent reason. Changing
anchors, moving objects, copying and pasting – sometimes any
editing seems to send objects shifting out of control.

Getting in the frame 223.

 For this reason, this chapter includes both how things are
supposed to work (and should work for you, with any luck), and
the precautions and work-arounds you may need. Although the
work-arounds may give you fewer formatting options, they do
keep images where you put them.

Tip
LibreOffice currently prefers the word “images,” but you
sometimes find the terms “graphics” and “picture” used instead.

How frame styles work

When an object is added to Writer, it is automatically
enclosed in a frame of a pre-determined type. The frame sets
how the object is placed on the page, as well as how it interacts
with other elements in the document.
You can edit the frame by modifying the frame style it uses,
but you should avoid manual overrides whenever possible.
Unfortunately, some elements are not included in any frame
style, such as an image’s anchor, alignment, stacking, and wrap, so
these usually have to be edited separately for each frame, making
this advice easier to give than to practice.

Caution
If you are having trouble positioning something, the first thing
you should do is check whether you are editing the image
instead of the frame, or the frame instead of the image.

224. Designing with LibreOffice

Understanding pre-defined frames
Because of the problems that sometimes occur with frame
styles, creating custom styles is best avoided. Instead, stick with
editing the pre-defined frame styles. Often, they will be all you
need anyway.
The names of some pre-defined frame styles are self-
explanatory, such as GRAPHICS, LABELS, and FORMULA.
Others require clarification:
• FRAME: Both a general frame and a text frame specifically.
This is the default style.
• MARGINALIA: Frames that sit on the left side of the main text
frame, creating the effect of notes in the margin. See
“Creating marginalia and sideheads,” page 255.
• OLE: The term is technically obsolete, but now refers to a
document nested within a document, including charts. In this
way, a document can be easily updated, and used in different
situations.
• WATERMARK: Frames that position a graphic behind text. You
will need to prepare the graphic for use before you add it. See
“Creating watermarks,” page 257).

Planning frame use

The addition of graphics and other objects is often an after-
thought of writing, done with minimal thought about layout.
However, you can improve your layout by choosing a general
strategy. Tactics to consider include:
• Placing images on separate pages from the text. In this case,
you may want a separate page style whose use automatically
creates a new page.

Getting in the frame 225.

• Using no text wrap, so that there is text above and below the
frame, but not to its left or right. This is a low-maintenance
tactic to use anyway, and is common in technical manuals.
While not always ideal, it generally provides an adequate
layout unless you are adding extremely small images, which
tend to get lost in all the white space to their left and right.
• Deciding how much space to place around the frame. The
space should be a multiple of the line-spacing.
• Using either a border or extra white space when images have
the same background as the pages of your document.
Before you design, sketch out the alternatives for positioning
multiple images on the same page.

Preparing images
You can adjust how an image displays with the tools on the
IMAGE and CROP tabs, which are available when you select
PROPERTIES from its right-click menu.
These tools do not affect the image itself, only its display. The
IMAGE tab has no undo function, but you can easily change the
settings until you revert to the original.
On the IMAGE tab, you can flip an image vertically or
horizontally. You can further refine the editing by setting which
pages the image is flipped upon. Using these settings, you could
add dingbats or perhaps decorative scroll work twice in a two-
page spread so that they formed a mirrored image. You can also
rotate an image by small increments.
In the FILE NAME field, adding a path changes the image from
an embedded image that is part of the document file to a linked,
separate file. Changing the path replaces the image. See
“Choosing linking or embedding,” page 234.

226. Designing with LibreOffice

The IMAGE tab edits how an image displays in LibreOffice, not the image
file itself.

Cropping is the displaying of only part of an image. Cropping

helps readers to focus on the relevant part of an image, but at the
risk of losing context. On style tabs and dialog windows, you can
easily crop so tightly that readers have little idea where the items
displayed actually are.
On the CROP tab, you can change the overall dimensions of an
image, or display only part of the image. If you display only part
of the image, you can select KEEP IMAGE SIZE or else scale the
newly cropped image to a percentage of its original size. You can
undo such changes by clicking the ORIGINAL SIZE button.

Getting in the frame 227.

The CROP tab includes not only fields to crop the display, but also fields
to adjust the display size.

Writer also provides an interactive crop tool, which can be

useful for quick editing. Right-click on the image and select CROP
to activate it.

Cropping handles on an image.

228. Designing with LibreOffice

 All these tools can be handier than opening a graphics editor
to make changes. However, given the potential instability of
frames, the tools on the IMAGE and CROP tabs are just extra things
that might go wrong. If you are having trouble with graphics
staying in place, avoid these tabs. See “Using cropping or
indicators ,” page 230.
Another consideration is that LibreOffice’s editing tools are
less versatile than many third party graphics editors.

Preparing images in graphics editors

Graphics editors are a more versatile and reliable way of
preparing images than the tools that LibreOffice itself provides.
Editors such as GIMP and Krita are free to download for all the
operating systems that LibreOffice runs on.
Before editing images, measure the distance between the left
and right (or inner and outer) margins on all pages where images
might display. You can determine this distance by subtracting the
vertical margins from the page width given on the PAGE tab of
each page style. You will need this measurement when sizing
images. If some images are too large to display legibly at this size,
consider adding a landscape page style for them.
You can open images in other applications by right-clicking
and selecting EDIT WITH EXTERNAL TOOL, or directly from the
graphics editor. If the image is already open, right-click to copy it,
then paste it in a new file in the graphics editor.
Graphics editors allow you to change the size and colors of an
image, and do many other operations. However, the four
operations necessary for every image are:
• Setting the image’s resolution and print size.
• Deciding to crop the image or to add indicators to point to
features.

Getting in the frame 229.

• Setting natural borders.
• Cleaning up the image.

Setting image resolutions

For an online document, a resolution of 96 DPI (dots per inch)
is usually enough. For hard copy, use a minimum of 300 DPI, or
600 DPI or higher for quality printing.
Resolution is best set in a graphics editor. Many graphic
editors will show an actual size and a printed size, displaying
each in a number of different formats, including pixels, points,
inches, and percentage. Getting the highest resolution is a
tradeoff: the higher the resolution, the smaller the actual or
printed size of the image. Most images can be enlarged by 50%,
but few can be increased to 200% without becoming badly
distorted unless they are very simple. Experiment to find the best
compromise.
Most editors work at the screen display of 96 DPI. If you are
making original graphics, one solution is to make everything three
times the size you need, then reduce it so that it is the right size at
3oo DPI.

Using cropping or indicators

Editing a graphic helps readers know what to focus on. You
have two main choices: cropping or adding indicators.
Cropping cuts off portions of an image to emphasize whatever
is essential. Leave some context so readers can locate what you
are discussing.
Some writers put jagged edges around a cropped image, as
though it were torn from a page, which is a vivid effort, but a
time-consuming one to produce.

230. Designing with LibreOffice

A cropped image of the TEXT FLOW tab for a paragraph style.

By contrast, indicators draw attention to parts of the image by

their bright colors and the fact that they obviously do not belong.
Types of indicators include bars, arrows, and an oval. Bars and
arrows are quickest to insert, while adding an oval usually
involves making its fill area transparent so that the part of an
image it encircles is visible.
Choose one type of indicator, and note its colors and
dimensions so that you can use them consistently.

Tip
You can add indicators such as arrows, lines, boxes, or callouts
within the graphics editor. You can also use graphics from VIEW
> TOOLBARS > DRAWING, but this is not recommended because
they can get separated from the image when you edit the
document.

Getting in the frame 231.

Indicators call attention to elements that you want readers to find easily as
they follow your discussion.

Setting natural borders

You can add a border to an image in LibreOffice. However, a
natural border can be just as effective. If possible, crop the image
so that all its edges are a different color from the document’s
background.
For example, some operating system or desktop themes place
a shadow around dialog windows. Include the shadow and you
have a natural border that needs no further attention.

232. Designing with LibreOffice

Cleaning up the image
As a final step in image editing, remove any unnecessary
clutter. For example:
• If you take a screen shot of a menu, white out any irrelevant
text and dialogs in the background.
• Check for details in the background that might accidentally
violate someone’s privacy – including your own.
• Crop any blank space in an image if possible.
• See if you can improve the contrast of an exceptionally dark or
light image.
• Experiment with image size, making it no larger than
necessary for legibility.

Inserting images
Throughout LibreOffice, frames are usually less trouble if you
follow these best practices:
• Add objects when the formatting and writing is done. The
objects are less likely to move around.
• If possible, format the frame style, not individual frames.
• Adjust objects immediately after you add them, not later. If
necessary, experiment with the exact settings first, making
notes of all the settings. Then delete the experiment and add
the frame again, applying the settings as the frame is added.
• Never drag an object to resize or reposition it. Use the right-
click menu.
• Never use spaces or empty lines to position objects. Instead,
always use styles.

Getting in the frame 233.

• Avoid putting two or more images one after the other,
unseparated by text. The workaround suggested in this
chapter is more reliable for placing two or more images
together. See “Using the table solution,” page 252.
These precautions seem to work more reliably in Writer than
in Calc, Draw, or Impress.

Choosing linking or embedding

When you select an image from the file manager using INSERT
> IMAGE, LibreOffice defaults to embedding the image as part of
the document file.
However, in some versions of LibreOffice, you can select the
LINK option in the bottom left corner of the file manager. If you
select this option, your document will use the image’s original file
each time it loads.

Located at the bottom left of the Insert Image window, the LINK option is
easy to overlook.

Professional writers and designers argue all the time about

these two approaches. Both embedding and linking have pluses
and minuses. Which you prefer is not so much right or wrong as a
matter of how you prefer to work and how others prefer to
receive your work.

234. Designing with LibreOffice

 Pluses and minuses to consider include:
Embedding Linking
• Document size is bigger, • Document size is smaller,
because images are included. without images.
• Images cannot be lost, • Images can be easily lost, so
because they are part of the create orderly directories to
document at all times. reduce the possibility.
• When you share, you know • When you share a
the document is complete. document, you have to send
There are no additional files image files as well.
to find.
• Images can be edited from • Images must be edited in a
within LibreOffice, which is graphics editor, which gives
more convenient. more options.
• Images are updated by • Images are updated by
selecting REPLACE from their overwriting the existing
right-click menu. separate image file with a
new one. If you do not use
TOOLS > UPDATE > UPDATE
ALL, Writer updates the
image the next time the
document opens.

Tip
REPLACE may not work if you have try to swap in an image with
the same name as the original. Instead, delete the original image
and then insert the replacement.

Getting in the frame 235.

Formatting frames and images
The right-click menu includes items for both frame and
image. Although you can modify many features from the right-
click menu, some observers suggest that using the dialog windows
seems to help keep objects where you placed them.

Frames and images share a similar dialog window. The main difference is
that the window for frames includes a COLUMNS tab. Be sure that you
select the one you intend to modify.

Resizing frames and images

Resize frames and images on the TYPE tab of the dialog
window. You have several options for resizing:
• Set WIDTH and HEIGHT separately. This choice can easily
distort the image, so you are better off with other alternatives.

236. Designing with LibreOffice

• Select KEEP RATIO, then change either the WIDTH or HEIGHT.
The other dimension will change automatically to remain
proportional, saving you calculations.
• Use the RELATIVE fields to set a WIDTH and HEIGHT that is a
percentage of the paragraph’s or page’s width and height.
• Select AUTOSIZE for WIDTH and HEIGHT when first adding a
frame. This option may have no effect if you edit the frame
dimensions later.

The TYPE tab for an image includes various options for resizing,
anchoring, and positioning images.

To help keep images in place, make any adjustments when

first adding an image. If necessary, experiment first, making notes
about the size you want, then delete your experiments and add
the image again.

Getting in the frame 237.

Positioning frames on the page
The POSITION options on the TYPE tab are the equivalent of the
horizontal and vertical ALIGNMENT options on the right-click
menu. You should adjust these as you are adding an image,
reserving the right-click menu for experiments.
The horizontal options are LEFT, RIGHT, CENTER, and FROM
LEFT (which works with an indent field called BY).
Each of these alignments can be relative to various reference
points. Usually, the most useful reference point is LEFT PAGE
BORDER.
By contrast, in many cases, you should use ENTIRE PAGE only if
the document is intended for on-line use or if your printer is
capable of bleeds (that is, printing to the very edge of the page).
The vertical options are TOP, BOTTOM, CENTER, and FROM TOP
(which also includes a space above field called BY). Usually, the
most useful reference point will be MARGIN, the least useful
ENTIRE PAGE.

Setting anchors
An anchor is a reference point for positioning frames and
images. You set the anchor on the TYPE tab for an image or frame.
The TYPE tab offers four options for the anchor: TO PAGE, TO
PARAGRAPH, TO CHARACTER, and AS CHARACTER. The first three
choices indicate what an object is positioned in relation to.
By contrast, AS CHARACTER indicates that the object is treated
as a character. This choice means that the line that an object is
placed upon has a height that is tall enough to display it fully.
Usually, any problems with AS CHARACTER can be solved by
setting the line spacing for a paragraph style with AT LEAST.

238. Designing with LibreOffice

 In LibreOffice 7 and above, you can specify the default
anchor for images. Go to TOOLS > OPTIONS > LIBREOFFICE WRITER >
FORMATTING AIDS and select from the IMAGE > ANCHOR list.
Setting the anchor to AS CHARACTER seems the choice least
likely to have objects shift spontaneously. If you choose TO
PARAGRAPH, the image will be positioned relative to the anchor’s
paragraph, but can flip above the anchor sometimes. See “Using
the Haugland solution,” page 251.

Choosing text wrap

Text wrap refers to how body text is positioned in relation to a
frame. Text wrap features set how exterior text moves around the
frame, and the spacing between exterior text and the frame.
Usually, generous spacing improves the look of the page.

IMAGE > WRAP positions an object in relation to the text around it.

Getting in the frame 239.

 Writer has six settings on the WRAP tab for both frames and
images:
• WRAP OFF: The frame interrupts the text, so there is no text to
the left and right of the frame. This is a favorite strategy in
technical manuals, because it requires minimal time
positioning. However, it can make small images look even
smaller because of the white space beside them. It is a good,
average choice, but not always ideal.
• BEFORE: Text wraps above, below, and to the left, leaving
white space on the right. This setting is especially useful for
frames against the right margin.
• AFTER: Text wraps above, below, and to the right, leaving
white space on the left. This setting is especially useful for
frames against the left margin.
• PARALLEL: Text wraps equally on all sides of the frame,
starting on the left, then jumping across the image to the right.
Unless the text is very short, avoid this wrap, because most
readers will have to concentrate to read the text.
• THROUGH: The frame is placed on top of the text, hiding it. If
you use this option, you should also select WRAP > OPTIONS > IN
BACKGROUND so that the text is visible. You might also make
the image partly transparent so that the text is more readable.
• OPTIMAL: Automatically wraps text on all sides of the frame. If
the frame is less than 2 centimeters from any margin, the text
is not wrapped on that side.
Generally, OPTIMAL makes a reasonable default setting if one
side of the frame is close to the left or the right margin.
However, if the frame is centered, it requires readers’ eyes to
jump continually across the frame and should be avoided.

240. Designing with LibreOffice

 Tip
Most of the text wrap settings leave a very even gap between the
frame and body text. Select WRAP > OPTIONS > CONTOUR if
you want the text wrap to conform more closely to the shape of
the object in the frame.

Setting white space around a frame

The WRAP > SPACING fields set the white space on each side of
the frame. These settings are often ignored, but they are as
important as the text wrap setting. Too little spacing and the page
looks cramped, while too much spacing weakens the association
of the frame’s contents with the body text around it.
As a general rule, the minimal white space around a frame
should be half the line height in the body text. As much as three
times the line height may also work, but anything more usually
looks sparse.
Developing a white space policy
Consistency is essential to design. For this reason, you need to
decide exactly how images and other objects fit into the text.
The basic space above and below is easy. However, what
happens when the space above an image is added to the space
below a heading? The result is too much white space. Even
worse, the result can be that the heading, which you carefully set
up so that it sat closer to what was below it than above, is now
carefully poised midway between. To prevent such problems,
you may decide that, in certain cases, an image should use less
white space than usual.

Getting in the frame 241.

 Example: Developing a white space policy
Here is a sample policy that was used in one draft of this book (the final
one is somewhat different):
• Images, tables, and paragraphs all have a minimum of 8 points of
white space above and below them.
• If another heading or other element gives enough additional white
space above or below, then an element may not add any white space
itself. The point is to be consistent and not to have any large gaps.
• The default width of all images is 280 points, the width between the
margins.
• Images may be less than the complete page width when a dialog
window is smaller than usual or is cropped.
• Images below a bullet or numbered item, or an indented paragraph,
will align with the start of the text above them. This rule means
making images 8 points narrower than normal, and setting the tables
used to be indented 16 points FROM LEFT in the TABLE tab.
• Large images or tables will be on separate pages, introduced by a
heading that forces a new page break.

Setting other wrap options

In addition to the basic text wrap choices, the WRAP tab
includes several settings that modify how the settings work:
• FIRST PARAGRAPH: Starts a new paragraph below the frame if
you press the ENTER key. Since this choice adds space
according to the size of the object, you will have more control
if you ignore this setting and adjust the white space exactly
using the SPACING fields.

242. Designing with LibreOffice

• IN BACKGROUND: Available with the THROUGH text wrap setting
only. Treats the frame as an object in a stack of objects,
sending its contents to the back so that the body text is at the
front. This option is the equivalent of right-clicking on the
contents and selecting ARRANGE > SEND TO BACK.
• CONTOUR: Wraps the text more closely to the shape of the
object in the frame than choosing a text wrap setting alone
can. This setting can give a more exact wrap, but it can also
give the page a distractingly busy look, especially when the
frame is small or has a complicated shape.
• ONLY OUTSIDE: Like CONTOUR, but ignores blank spaces in the
object. It cannot be used with frames (that is, TEXT FRAMES),
presumably because text is too regular for it to make any
difference in the wrap.
• ALLOW OVERLAP: Allows the object to overlap another object.
This option has no effect on wrap-through objects, which can
always overlap.

Setting frame and image borders

Novice designers can be obsessive about frame borders,
adding them everywhere. The result is usually cramped and
awkward-looking.
Although the BORDERS tab contains numerous options, borders
are mostly useful when at least one edge of an image is the same
color as the page background, so that one blends into the other.
Even then, extra space around the image can be just as
effective.

Getting in the frame 243.

Setting frame backgrounds
While the dialog windows for frames and images include an
AREA tab for setting background colors or other decorations, often
a background has no useful function.
A carefully selected background color might prevent an image
blending into the page background, but a border or extra space is
often an easier solution.

Setting general options

The OPTIONS tab in the Image and Frame dialog windows
contain miscellaneous options to do with editing and printing.
Often, you can ignore these settings:
• NAME: For the frame or image. Writer adds an automatic
name, such as IMAGE6 or FRAME15, but a more descriptive
name is useful if you use the Navigator to jump around in a
document. Using the file name for an image’s name can help
you stay organized.
• PROTECT: Prevents editing of CONTENT, POSITION, and SIZE.
These options are useful when a document has multiple
editors. PROTECT does not help an image stay in place.
• EDITABLE IN READ-ONLY DOCUMENT: Allows editing of the frame
in a restricted document.
• PRINT: Includes frame or image when you print.
• TEXT DIRECTION: Applies only to non-Western European
languages within a frame. Ignore this setting in English or
other Western European languages.

244. Designing with LibreOffice

The OPTIONS tab for frames.

Adding columns
You can set multiple columns for a text frame on the COLUMNS
tab in the dialog window.
You may prefer to insert a section from INSERT > SECTION...
instead, since sections have more options than frames.

Adding hyperlinks and macros

In online documents, you can add hyperlinks (links) and
macros that run when you click a frame or image. You need the
frame name from the OPTIONS tab to configure a hyperlink.
You can use some pre-defined macros, but to record a macro
in LibreOffice, you first need to select TOOLS > OPTIONS >
LIBREOFFICE > ADVANCED > OPTIONAL FEATURES > ENABLE MACRO
RECORDING (MAY BE LIMITED).

Getting in the frame 245.

 Caution
Remember that the tenth time users hear a sound or see a macro
effect, many will wish for a way to turn it off.

Adding captions
The purpose of an image may be clear from the text around it,
especially if the paragraph above introduces it with a colon.
However, at times, a caption adds clarity by repeating key
words and concepts from the text. A caption may also explain the
relevance of the image, or parts of the image whose relevance is
not immediately obvious.
Used carefully, a caption may help to give detailed
information in less space than it would take in body text. The
only trouble may be that readers are not aware of the fact, and
might miss key facts by skipping over the image.
Another consideration is that in online documents or when
the caption is separated from the text that an image illustrates,
the caption might be used as a cross-reference.
When you compose a caption, you may think that it is
embarrassingly obvious. Sometimes, that may be true, and you
may want to consider whether to use captions at all.
Most of the time, however, what is obvious to you after you
have planned and written is much less obvious to readers.
Generally, the worst that can happen is that readers skip over
what seems irrelevant to them, without blaming the writer in any
way. Under these circumstances, when in doubt, using a caption
is always a reliable option.

246. Designing with LibreOffice

Writer’s caption options are especially useful when you plan on a table of
contents for particular types of objects. Captions are automatically
detected and used to create the content entries.

To add a caption:
1 Right-click anywhere in the image and select INSERT CAPTION
from the context menu. The INSERT CAPTION dialog window
opens.
2 Add the text of the caption to the CAPTION field.
3 Consider whether you want to set the CATEGORY and
NUMBERING fields and the separator between the number and
the text. These are time-honored features for any objects
added to a document, but many modern documents avoid
them altogether. This book uses a setting of [NONE].

Getting in the frame 247.

 Tip
If you don’t see a category you want, you can add it by typing
the name into the CATEGORY field. Once you add a new
category, it is available in the list to use again.

4 Set the caption POSITION to ABOVE or BELOW. A caption below

an image is more common today, but a caption above may be
useful if you need to explain something before readers look at
the image.
5 To prefix the image number with the chapter number, click
the OPTIONS button and select the outline level that includes
the chapter number.
You may also want to select a special character style for the
chapter number, although usually there is no reason for more
than a bold weight.

Tip
If you want all figures to have these caption settings, you can set
them in TOOLS > OPTIONS > LIBREOFFICE WRITER >
AUTOCAPTION.

6 Consider whether to select APPLY BORDER and SHADOW to the

caption in the OPTIONS window. Avoid using them if you
cannot explain what purpose they serve. Often, you can do
without either one.

248. Designing with LibreOffice

The CAPTION OPTIONS window opens off the main CAPTIONS dialog
window.

7 Set the caption order, placing either the number (complete

with chapter number preface) or the category first.
To add a chapter number, you must assign a numbering style
to one paragraph style, and then assign the paragraph style to
an outline level. HEADING 1 is often used for this purpose.
8 Select OK to return to the INSERT CAPTION dialog window, then
select OK there to insert the caption.
You can edit the caption directly, or change its formatting by
selecting CAPTION again from the right-click menu.

Getting in the frame 249.

Formatting captions
Caption paragraphs are formatted using the CAPTION
paragraph style. Contrary to common usage, the CAPTION
paragraph style defaults to italic, but a regular weight is more
common.
Similarly, the style does not need to be smaller than the body
text. If anything, a smaller font for captions removes much of the
convenience of adding the image in the first place. If you want to
save space, use a narrow or condensed font style for captions.
In addition, the caption should have less space between it and
the image than between it and the text below or above it.
Proximity is one of the basic ways that design indicates that two
parts of the document are related.

Adding automatic captions

Autocaptions immediately add a caption to all specified
objects, using the CAPTION paragraph style.
To set up Autocaptions, go to TOOLS > OPTIONS > LIBREOFFICE
WRITER > AUTOCAPTION, select the types of objects for them, then
follow the directions above for adding a caption. You may not
want to use all the available options, such as numbering, but you
can leave them blank.

Tip
You can select multiple Autocaptions to format at the same time.

250. Designing with LibreOffice

Set the objects to which you automatically want to add a caption from
TOOLS > OPTIONS > LIBREOFFICE WRITER > AUTOCAPTION.

Making images stay in place

Many people have no trouble with graphics. Many others find
that they shift constantly. These different experiences may be
due to the different work habits of users, or to the operating
system or LibreOffice version being used.
However, two methods are known to work in Writer – but
not, unfortunately, in other LibreOffice applications: the
Haugland solution and the table solution. The table solution
limits some options, so use it only if the Haugland solution fails.

Using the Haugland solution

In 2009, Solveig Haugland, one of the first people to write
about OpenOffice.org, devised a solution for making images
“reasonably manageable.” Her solution is still the most reliable
anyone has found. It works mostly with the TYPE tab in the IMAGE
dialog window.

Getting in the frame 251.

 Here is Haugland’s solution, reworded and slightly reworked:
1 Create a new paragraph and click INSERT > IMAGE to add the
image.
2 Select PROPERTIES from the right-click menu on the image and
go to the TYPE tab.
3 Adjust the width and height of the image, using the SIZE fields
on the TYPE tab. You will probably want to select the KEEP
RATIO check box, to avoid distorting the image.

4 Using the right-click menu, set the anchor to AS CHARACTER.

This choice lets Writer treat the image the same way it would
a letter or number.
5 Set the horizontal and vertical alignment if necessary. The
vertical alignment rarely needs adjustment, while the
horizontal alignment can generally remain on the left side.
6 Make any other formatting changes, and close the IMAGE
dialog window.

Using the table solution

If you continue to have problems with frames and objects
staying where you placed them, try replacing them with tables. In
effect, the table acts as a frame, except that for some reason
images in a table are less likely to move around. This solution is
similar to using tables for layout on a web page.
This solution only gives you the option of wrapping text
above and below the table. However, that limitation can free you
to do things like putting the caption in a row to one side of the
image to reduce the space occupied by the image. Note that
tables may not port smoothly to EPUB format.

252. Designing with LibreOffice

 To use the table solution:
1 Create an IMAGE SPACER paragraph style. Set INDENTS &
SPACING > LINE SPACING to SINGLE.

2 Check that Autocaptions for tables are turned off in TOOLS >
OPTIONS > LIBREOFFICE WRITER > AUTOCAPTION.

3 Place the cursor on a blank line. If necessary, change the

paragraph style to DEFAULT PARAGRAPH STYLE to eliminate
unnecessary numbers, bullets, or indentations.
4 Select TABLE > INSERT TABLE, and make a table with these
characteristics: 1 column and 2 rows (or 1 column and 1 row if
you are not using captions).
5 Before inserting, unselect HEADING and BORDER and select
DON'T SPLIT TABLE OVER PAGES.

Tip
The boundaries of the table are not the same as its borders. In
some versions of LibreOffice, or with some settings, the
boundaries may be visible in the editing window or in PRINT
PREVIEW, but they will not print or be exported to PDF.

To see how the table will look in print or PDF, go to TOOLS >
OPTIONS > LIBREOFFICE > APPLICATION COLORS and deselect
TABLE BOUNDARIES.

6 With the cursor in the table, right-click and select PROPERTIES

to add the space above and below the table.
Like most measurements, these should usually be multiples of
the line spacing. If the paragraphs above or below also have
spacing, adjust the table spacing to eliminate extra spacing.

Getting in the frame 253.

7 If you want an indentation from the left, set the ALIGNMENT to
FROM LEFT, and set the indentation in the SPACING > LEFT field.

This formatting aligns the image with indented text, which is

a useful way of showing what text the image is connected to.

Use the ALIGNMENT and SPACING settings to place the table that will
contain the graphic.
8 Place the cursor in the top row of the table and apply the
IMAGE SPACER paragraph style, then click INSERT > IMAGE to add
the image.
9 Right-click on the image and select ANCHOR > AS CHARACTER.
10 Using the CAPTION paragraph style, add the caption in the
second row of the table. Be sure that your formatting positions
the caption closer to the image than to the text below the
table. Do not use automatic captions.
Although full wrap options are unavailable with this work-
around, you can use two columns, instead of two rows, and place
the caption in the second column to the left or right of the image.

254. Designing with LibreOffice

 Tip
If you have multiple images to place together, put one image in
each row or column.

Advanced uses of frames

The basic formatting of frames is straightforward. However,
some of the advanced uses of some types of frames are less
obvious. This section covers some of them.

Caution
These advanced uses may not work if frames are not staying in
place.

Creating marginalia and sideheads

Once formatted, most frames are applied automatically. A
major exception are marginalia – headings that are placed to the
left of a body of text in a second column. Marginalia can give
plenty of white space to a page, creating an inviting and original
design, all of which outweigh the fact that marginalia usually take
up more pages than a more conventional layout.
Marginalia were first named during the Middle Ages, when
paper was so expensive that none of it was wasted. Instead of
taking notes on a new piece of paper, clerks would add comments
or even drawings in the margins.

Getting in the frame 255.

Marginalia frames used to create sideheads to replacing normal headings.

In Writer, marginalia are technically not placed in the

margins – they just give the appearance of being so. That means
that you can often get away with a narrower left margin than
usual, since marginalia leave plenty of white space.
The main disadvantage of marginalia is that each one must be
added manually. However, you may think the results are worth
the final effort, since marginalia make headings easier to find.
To add sideheads:
1 Set INDENTS & SPACING > BEFORE TEXT in the TEXT BODY
paragraph style so that the text will begin to the right of the
marginalia frame. Be sure to leave a generous gap between the
frame and the text.
2 Add the main text to the document.
3 Select INSERT > FRAME > FRAME to add a text frame. Use the
following format:

256. Designing with LibreOffice

• Anchor it TO PARAGRAPH.
• Make the frame borderless. The boundary of the frame will
be visible when editing but it will not print, nor will it be
visible in FILE > PRINT PREVIEW.
• Set the frame style to MARGINALIA.
4 Adding the frame adds the FRAME CONTENTS paragraph style.
Edit the FRAME CONTENTS style to format the contents of the
marginalia frames.
5 Give each marginalia frame the same width as the first one.
6 Add images and other objects so that they align with the start
of the text.

Tip
Marginalia frames can also be used for commentary, or even as
a high-maintenance alternative to footnotes. However, for each
of these purposes, the setup is the same.

Tip
If a work-around is necessary, try using a table, adding a two-
column row whenever you want a side-head, and using the
FROM LEFT alignment in the second row to separate the text
from the side-head.

Creating watermarks
Originally, a watermark was a logo that identified the
manufacturer of paper.

Getting in the frame 257.

 Today, it refers to a faint image in the background of a page.
Sometimes a modern watermark is a logo or a graphic relevant to
the text, while at other times it is a short text that gives the status
of the text – for instance, “Draft” or “Confidential.”
The text and objects in the document appear over top the
watermark. The WATERMARK frame style positions a graphic
frame for use as a watermark.
To create a watermark:
1 Create a frame and add an image or text to it.

Tip
You may want to create the image in a graphics editor first, and
make it semi-transparent so that the text will be more visible.

2 Set the frame to use the WATERMARK frame style.

3 On the WRAP tab, select SETTINGS > THROUGH and OPTIONS > IN
BACKGROUND.

Tip
Two other ways exist to add a watermark. The first is to add a
basic frame with text or an image, and select from the right-
click menu ARRANGE > SEND TO BACK.

The second is to add an image as the background (Area) for a

paragraph, then lighten it using the TRANSPARENCY tab. In this
case, the watermark does not underlie the entire page.

If you need a work-around, create a transparent graphic with the

dimensions of the space between the margins. Then add it to a
page style as a background.

258. Designing with LibreOffice

A watermark used to indicate that a document is a draft.

Tip
Whenever possible, do not insert a watermark that you will need
to edit later. If you do need to edit a watermark, select it and
click FORMAT > ARRANGE > BRING TO FRONT.

Use the Navigator if you have trouble selecting the watermark

or its frame.

Setting text flow between frames

In advanced layouts, using multiple text frames can be easier
than using sections or columns. For example, if you create a
brochure on a single piece of paper, the inside pages (pages 2-3)
could be two connected frames.
To have text flow from one frame to another:
1 Create two or more frames using INSERT > FRAME > FRAME (or
INSERT > FRAME > FRAME INTERACTIVELY), leaving both empty.

2 Select the first frame.

3 Click the LINK FRAMES icon on the FRAMES tool bar. The tool
bar displays only when a frame is selected.

Getting in the frame 259.

4 Select the target frame (the one that text will flow into from
the first frame). When the frames are connected, a dotted line
runs between them when one frame is selected.
5 Edit the frames as needed – for example, making them
borderless, or coloring the borders or background.

The diagonal dotted line indicates that the two frames are connected. In
other words, text from the first frame will flow automatically into the
second frame.

Tip
If you anchor two text frames in the header of a page style, then
position the frames on the page and link them, the same
arrangement of frames appears on every page that uses the page
style.

260. Designing with LibreOffice

 If you are having trouble linking, the reason could be:
• The target frame has contents.
• The target frame is already linked from another frame. A
frame can only receive text from one frame and flow into one
other frame.
• The two frames are in different sections, or in different
headers or footers.
• One frame is nested in the other.

Tip
If you need a workaround, try using tables.

Working around the problems

If you think working with frame styles or images is complex –
you are right. Part of that complexity is because LibreOffice offers
more options than your average word processor, but the largest
part is the difficulty some users have in keeping images where
they place them.

Getting in the frame 261.

 10
Structured prose: lists and tables
Lists and tables are sometimes called structured prose. The
name contrasts them to the relative formlessness of body text.
Structured text is easy to read, but takes up more space than
body text. This extra space is no problem online, but can add to
the pages and therefore the expense of hard copy.
In most word processors, list options are included in
paragraph styles, while table styles are not provided at all. By
contrast, Writer treats bulleted and numbered lists as a separate
type of style, and tables as a sort of pseudo-style, or at least a
gallery of saved formats.
Writer’s separate list styles have several advantages:
• Lists have more formatting choices than can easily be
squeezed into a single tab for paragraph styles.
• The same list style can be used with multiple paragraph
styles, avoiding duplication of design work.
• A paragraph’s list style can be changed with a single selection.

Structured prose: lists and tables 263.

Understanding the types of list
With list styles, you can create:
• Bullet lists: Unordered lists whose items start with a bullet,
special character, dingbat, or graphic. The default styles offer
five common bullets, but you can add your own.
• Numbered lists: Ordered lists whose items start with a
number, upper or lower case letters, or upper and lower case
Roman numerals. The default styles offer five common
bullets, but you can add your own.
• Outline lists: Hierarchical summaries of an argument or piece
of writing, in which each level has its own numbering system.
All these types of list are in common use today, especially
online.
However, what most people do not appreciate is that each has
its own set of conventions about how they are structured and
used – conventions that are rarely taught in schools, and that
most people never observe or learn.

Bullet (unordered) lists

Bullets are probably descended from midpoints, the all-
purpose separator used in medieval European manuscripts.
However, midpoints were used to cram as much as possible on
each line because parchment and other writing materials were
expensive.
By contrast, bullets take up more space. They take full
advantage of the cheapness of wood or rag pulp paper compared
to vellum for printing.
More recently, of course, the rise of online reading means that
space is no longer an issue, so bullet points can be used at will
without increasing the expense of publication.

264. Designing with LibreOffice

 Nobody has documented exactly what happened, but the
name suggests that bulleted lists started being used after the
invention of guns loaded with balls.

Writer’s pre-defined bullet types.

However, we do know that, by the mid-twentieth century,

bulleted lists became popular in technical documents. More
recently, slide shows have further spread the use of bullets.
The conventions for bullet lists
The use of bullet lists follows well-defined rules. Bullet lists:
• Are used only when the order of the points is irrelevant. You
might want to arrange points for rhetorical effect, starting with
one fairly important point and ending with your strongest
point, but readers do not actually need to know one point
before another. The HTML tag for bullet lists, <UL>
(unordered list), emphasizes this convention.
• Have three points or more. If you have two points, they both
stay in the body of the text.
• Are introduced in the last sentence in the body text above
them either without any punctuation, or with a colon.

Structured prose: lists and tables 265.

• Consist of points that are all grammatical completions of the
last sentence in the paragraph before them. That means that
each point has a similar grammatical structure to the others.
In this bullet list, for instance, each point starts with a present
tense verb.
• May be sentence fragments, but should be consistent with
each other. For example, they could be all nouns or
participles.
• Start with a bullet on the left margin, then indent for the text.
If they are lists within lists, then the bullet has the same
indent as the text in the top level list. The extra indentations
of raw HTML and Microsoft Word are the exceptions, not the
convention.
• Can start with either an upper or lower case letter, so long as
the convention is consistent throughout the list and the
document.
• End each point with the same punctuation. No punctuation,
commas, semi-colons, and periods are all valid choices. What
matters is the consistency of list items and of all lists within
the document.
• Are generally no more than 6–8 items long. Much longer, and
the ease of reading is lost.
• Do not use an “and,” “or,” or any other word to introduce the
last point in the list, even though that would be grammatically
correct.
• Are sometimes considered too informal to use. When in
doubt, avoid them.

266. Designing with LibreOffice

Numbered (ordered) lists
While people number lists all the time, the convention is that
numbered lists should only be used when the order of the
information matters.
For instance, in a procedure in a technical manual, one step
might be impossible – or even dangerous – without doing another
one first.

Writer’s pre-defined numbered lists.

The conventions for numbered lists

Numbered lists have fewer conventions than bullet lists, but
they do have a few:
• They are used when the order of items is important. If the
order is irrelevant, use bullet lists instead.
• Like bullet lists, they are used only for three items or more.
Two-step procedures stay in the body of the text.
• They are generally introduced in the body text by a summary
of the overall task they describe that ends in a colon. For
example, “To install the software update, follow these steps:”
or, simply “To install:”

Structured prose: lists and tables 267.

• Each step can have multiple paragraphs, most of them
unnumbered, describing what happens when it is performed
or the alternatives.
• The steps in a procedure should usually be less than a dozen
(some suggest 6–8, based on the maximum number of items
the average human can easily remember). Any more are
intimidating and harder to remember.

Tip
If each step has multiple paragraphs or you have more than
about a dozen steps, you may need to break down the list into
smaller lists or else present the points as ordinary body text.

Outline lists
Outline lists summarize the structure of a much longer,
typically unwritten document. In finished technical and legal
documents, they are used in headings to make the structure
obvious, although this use is becoming less common than it was a
couple of decades ago.
Writer gives several options for outline lists. List styles create
an outline method that uses a single paragraph style. When such
a paragraph style is in use, you change the level and the
numbering by pressing the TAB key to descend a level, and
SHIFT+TAB to ascend a level. This single style outlining is by far
the quickest to apply and learn.

268. Designing with LibreOffice

Writer’s pre-defined outline list styles. Remember that bullets imply that
the order is unimportant.

The conventions for outline lists are:

• Usually, a different numbering system is used for each level to
help distinguish them.
• Levels can be ordered using Arabic numerals, upper and
lower case Roman numerals, and upper and lower case letters.
• Upper case Roman numerals are usually reserved for the top
level, and upper case letters are used before lower case ones.
Another alternative is Arabic numbers followed by lower case
letters. However, these rules are not fixed.
• In technical manuals, you used to see multiple levels in a
heading (for instance, I.A.2 or 1.1.1). These headings have
largely fallen out of practice except in a few specialized cases
such as legal documents. Also, if each heading is indented, as
was common in the days of typewriters when formatting
choices were limited, after two or three levels, almost no space
is left for text.

Structured prose: lists and tables 269.

 Tip
Practically speaking, you should also restrict the number of
levels in an outline to 3 or 4.

This restriction is not a convention so much as the recognition

that any more reduces the clarity that is supposed to be the
purpose of an outline list.

Naming list styles

Writer provides five default styles for bullet lists and five for
numbered lists. Although their names have been made more
descriptive in recent versions, you can add your own styles and
give them more detailed names like ARABIC NUMERAL BLUE or
LOWER CASE INDENTED.

The pre-defined list styles provided by Writer.

270. Designing with LibreOffice

 Tip
Using the same name for both the list style and the paragraph
style with which it is linked can make working with different
types of styles much easier. If you use a character style to define
the bullet or number, give it the same name, too.

Writer also provides five default paragraph styles for bullet

lists (LIST 1–5) and five for numbered lists (NUMBERING 1–5) and
corresponding styles ending in CONT. (Continue), END, and START.
You can use these styles to customize lists. For example, the
START paragraph style might have extra space above it to separate
the list from the body text, and the END style extra space below it.
The CONT. style is sometimes used for unnumbered
paragraphs in a list that have a different format. However, the
name suggests using it with a list style with the NUMBERING field
set to NONE on the OPTIONS tab, and (CONTINUED) or the equivalent
in the BEFORE field.
The text in the BEFORE field will be added automatically
whenever you apply the style.

Tip
If the paragraph has no other content than the BEFORE field, you
need to type a space before you press the ENTER key. Otherwise,
the paragraph disappears.

If you decide not to use these styles, you can right-click on

each of them in the STYLES AND FORMATTING window and hide
them. You can go to the HIDDEN view and unhide them later if you
decide you need them after all.

Structured prose: lists and tables 271.

Give related styles similar names and you can locate the ones you need
more quickly.

Applying list styles

You can apply a list style just as you would any other style,
placing the cursor in a paragraph, and then selecting the list style
from the STYLES AND FORMATTING window.
However, the most effective approach is to create a paragraph
style that is attached to the list style. Go to the LIST STYLE field on
the OUTLINE & LIST tab for the paragraph style, and select the list
style from the drop-down list. This method also requires fewer
mouse clicks to apply the style.

272. Designing with LibreOffice

On the OUTLINE & LIST tab for a paragraph style, select the list style to
associate with that paragraph style.

Formatting list styles

You have two ways of formatting bullets and numbers in list
styles.
The quick way is to select a style from the UNORDERED,
ORDERED, OUTLINE, or IMAGE tabs for a list style. Each of these tabs
give a variety of options, although not an exhaustive list.
However, I suggest you avoid using any choices on the IMAGE
tab unless you want a retro mid-1990s look.
The second and more practical way is to customize bullets or
numbered lists for yourself, using the CUSTOMIZE and POSITION
tabs.
Both the POSITION and CUSTOMIZE tabs have ten levels. This
setting is mostly useful for creating a single outline numbering
style, in which the numbering changes each time you press the
TAB key (see “Outline lists,” page 268).

Structured prose: lists and tables 273.

The bullets on the IMAGE tab are usually too old-fashioned to use.

For most bulleted and numbered lists, either set the LEVEL to
1, or leave the LEVEL at the default 1-10.
If your design gets muddled, restart by clicking the DEFAULT
button on the POSITION tab or RESET button on the CUSTOMIZE tab.

Positioning bullets, numbers, and list items

The POSITION tab sets up the spacing before bullets or
numbers, and between the bullet or number and the text.
When a list style is linked to a paragraph style, editing the
fields on the POSITION tab in the LIST STYLE dialog window results
in changes to the INDENT > BEFORE TEXT and INDENT > FIRST LINE
settings on the INDENTS & SPACING tab for the paragraph style.

274. Designing with LibreOffice

The POSITION tab is one of two tabs in the LIST STYLE dialog window for
customizing lists.

The reverse is also true. However, to avoid complications,

make all the changes on the POSITION tab for the list style. Not
only is that the logical place to look for changes in the list style,
but adjusting the paragraph settings usually involves negative
entries for the FIRST LINE indent field, which can complicate
editing immensely.

Structured prose: lists and tables 275.

Understanding position fields

Fields on the POSITION tab for list styles and what they refer to. In this
case, the list is indented from the left margin, which often is not the case.

When you are defining a new list style, the important fields on
the POSITION tab are:
• ALIGNED AT: The horizontal position for numbers, measured
from the left margin. In most cases, you can leave this field at 0
(at the left margin). However, if you use any NUMBERING
ALIGNMENT except LEFT, numbers set this field to another
value.
• NUMBERING ALIGNMENT: How the bullet or number is aligned.
Most of the time, you can leave this field at the default of LEFT,
but if you are having trouble positioning text, changing the
alignment to CENTER or RIGHT can sometimes solve the
problem, especially for lists or levels that require two-digit
numbers.

276. Designing with LibreOffice

 The dotted line is the margin in this example. If the value of
the NUMBERING ALIGNMENT is 0, then choosing CENTER or RIGHT
can force the numbers into the left margin.
• NUMBERING FOLLOWED BY: Sets the space between the number
or bullet and the text. Although the choices include SPACE or
NOTHING, the choice that offers the most control is TAB STOP.
Set the exact tab in the AT field directly below the drop-down
list.
• INDENT AT: Sets the start of the text. This setting should be
equal or greater to the tab stop set for NUMBERING FOLLOWED
BY.

Caution
This setting should not be more than about two line-heights, or
else the connection between the bullet or number and the text
might be lost.

Formatting ordered (numbered) lists

To create a numbered list, select a numbering style from the
NUMBER field on the CUSTOMIZE tab. The selections in the drop-
down list begin with typical choices for Western European
languages: Arabic, upper and lower case letters, and upper and
lower case Roman numerals. Scroll down, and options for
Bulgarian, Russian, Serbian, and Greek are available.

Structured prose: lists and tables 277.

Select a numbering style from the CUSTOMIZE tab.

Adding characters before and after numbers

You can set up to 40 characters before or after the actual
number using the BEFORE and AFTER fields. These characters are
added automatically whenever the list style is applied.
Common characters after a number might be a period, a
parenthesis, or both. Alternatively, you might put a parenthesis
both before or after the number, or text such as STEP # in the
BEFORE field. In a LIST CONT. style, you might add (CONTINUED)
before.
More elaborately, you might set a paragraph style to start at
the top of the page, then attach to it a list style with text so that
the paragraph style will automatically add text.

278. Designing with LibreOffice

 In a numbered list, you can choose the number of outline
levels in the list by adjusting the SHOW SUBLEVELS field. For
example, if you decided to show three sublevels, the first use of
the third sublevel would be numbered 1.1.1.

Caution
Using the BEFORE, AFTER, and/or SHOW SUBLEVELS fields
means that the settings on the POSITION tab need to be adjusted
so there is enough space between the number and the text.

Characters before and after numbers in a list, created using the BEFORE
and AFTER fields, increase the versatility of list styles.

Structured prose: lists and tables 279.

Setting the character style
By default, the CHARACTER STYLE field for numbered lists is set
to the NUMBERING SYMBOLS character style, and for bulleted lists to
the BULLETS character style.
For most purposes, you probably have no reason to change
these defaults. Unless modified, these character styles use the
same font and font size as the paragraph, and apply to both the
number and any text in the BEFORE or AFTER fields.
Common modifications include making the numbers or
bullets larger, giving them a corporate color, making them bold,
or using a condensed version of a font.

Caution
You may need to change the text indent if you use a larger font,
especially for two or three digit numbers. The line height may
also need to be increased.

Working with two-digit list numbers

Numbered lists with two digits can displace list items,
upsetting your carefully calculated designs by offsetting the text
too much.

Unless extra spacing is provided, the list items are displaced when the
numbering enters two digits.

280. Designing with LibreOffice

 You have several options to correct this problem:
• Never have a list with more than nine items. Rewrite lists that
have more, combining steps or dividing one list into two or
more shorter ones. This arrangement may make your
instructions the easiest to remember.
• Add extra space between the number and the list item using
the INDENT AT field. Do not add so much space that the
association between numbers and list items is lost.
• Adjust the size of the numbers using CUSTOMIZE > CHARACTER
STYLE.
• Set the NUMBERING ALIGNMENT to RIGHT. Watch that this
change does not extend numbers into the left margin.

Restarting a numbered list

The CUSTOMIZE tab for a numbering style includes a START AT
field. However, this field refers to the first time that the list style is
used in a document. It is not a tool for re-starting the numbering.
To restart the numbering in a list, right-click on a paragraph
with a list and select List > RESTART NUMBERING from the menu.
Reversing number order
People occasionally ask for numbered lists that count down
from the starting number, instead of up – presumably for Top 10
lists and other countdowns. Unfortunately, LibreOffice provides
no way short of a custom macro for reverse order in lists.
A reverse order list must be entered manually. Since
LibreOffice does not recognized reverse order lists, it will not
automatically generate numbers.

Structured prose: lists and tables 281.

Designing unordered (bullet) lists
The default character style for bullets is NUMBERING SYMBOLS.
If you want to change the symbol, select the CHARACTER field to
open a dialog window from which you can choose any symbol
supported by the current font.
To choose a truly unusual bullet, set the character style to use
a dingbat font. However, be careful: too detailed or unusual a
dingbat distracts from the contents.

Caution
When you use an unusual character style for bullets, be sure to
include the font used when you share a file.

If your design includes nested bullets – that is, bullet lists

within bullet lists – you can choose from the various bullet list
styles provided by LibreOffice, or you might want to create an
additional list style with a name like BULLETS2.
However, if you do use more than one bullet list style, make
sure their designs are compatible. In fact, indenting the nested
bullets and nothing more is enough to distinguish them from the
top level bullets.

Example: Making a checklist

Depending on the characters you choose, bulleted list styles can serve as
more than unordered lists. For example, a bullet list can be made into a
checklist by selecting the font or character used for the bullet.
If you want a checklist to be used with a pen, set up the list style in the
usual way, using a character style that uses the OpenSymbol font that
ships with LibreOffice, and assign the character U+E00B (a shaded open

282. Designing with LibreOffice

box) as the bullet (that is two zeros, not lower case “o”s). Print the list,
and it is immediately ready for use. Add some corporate branding and
letterhead, and the To Do list can be used in business.
If you want to use the list on the computer, create two list styles, one that
uses the character U+2752, and one that uses the character U+E531 (a
box with a check mark). Create the list using the first style, then tick off
an item by applying the second style to it.
Depending on the purpose of the list, you can also create a third list style
that uses the character U+E532 (an X mark) to indicate items that were
not completed.

With three list styles, you can create both manual and computer-based
checklists. Change the paragraph style and its associated list style as each
task is completed or marked as undone.

Using images as bullets

Using an image instead of a standard bullet is a convenient
way to add some originality to your document. However, you are
limited by the small size at which most bullets display. Mostly,
you need simple images with strong contrast as a substitute
bullet. Often, a black and white image will be more effective.
Images used for bullets are also a way to position an image on
a page. In particular, they can be used to create tip and warning
signs in a technical manual or an informal text.

Structured prose: lists and tables 283.

 In either case, select a graphic to use from POSITION > NUMBER
in the dialog window for the list style.
Choosing GRAPHICS embeds the picture within the document
file. By contrast, LINKED GRAPHICS only adds a link to the graphic.
See “Choosing linking or embedding,” page 234.

Caution
If the image is cut off, you need either to adjust the image size,
or else change the line spacing to AT LEAST so the top half of
the characters in a line is not chopped off.

After you choose GRAPHICS or LINKED GRAPHICS, the window

lists a set of fields for editing the bullet:
• The SELECT button opens a file manager to select the picture.
• The WIDTH and HEIGHT fields set the size at which the picture
displays. They do not affect the original picture file.
Remember that too large a height requires changing the
paragraph LINE SPACING setting to AT LEAST so that the letters
are not cut off at the top.
• KEEP RATIO, When selected, ensures that changing either the
WIDTH or HEIGHT field changes the other proportionally.
• ALIGNMENT can usually be ignored, but can help with the
spacing between the bullet and the text.

284. Designing with LibreOffice

The fields for using a picture as a bullet appear after you have selected
CUSTOMIZE > NUMBER > GRAPHICS or LINKED GRAPHICS.

Example: Repeating graphics using lists

Graphic bullets are especially useful for reoccurring graphics. For
example, in a technical document, you could use a graphic to mark a note,
caution, or warning, as this book does.
To use bullets for repeated graphics:
1 Create the style, setting it up to use the graphic (see “Positioning
bullets, numbers, and list items,” page 274).

2 Create a paragraph style to link the list style to. If you want a logo at
the top of every page, create an automatic page break on the
paragraph style's TEXT FLOW tab.

Structured prose: lists and tables 285.

3 Apply the paragraph style as needed.

4 Type the text to accompany the graphic. You must enter at least one
character or a space, or else the graphic disappears when you press
the ENTER key, leaving the indent but no bullet.

Setting up and designing tables

Tables began to be used in the eighteenth or nineteenth
century, when scientists first appreciated their ease of reading
and how they could suggest new relations between data.
Charles Babbage, who designed (but never built) the first
computer, was especially fascinated with tables, especially for
mathematical purposes, publishing his own tables of logarithms
early in his career. Part of the intended purpose of his never-built
Analytical Engine was to use and generate tables more efficiently.
Writer now has table styles, which you can apply like other
styles. However, you create and save them using TABLE >
AUTOFORMAT STYLES.

Tip
You do not need to have the same number of rows and columns
as in the table from which you made the AutoFormat.
AUTOFORMAT does its best to apply the format despite
differences.

Planning tables
As you design a template, decide what table formats the
document will have.
The most common are:
• Plain: Uses borders, with the thinnest possible lines.

286. Designing with LibreOffice

• No borders or background: This style is ideal for comparisons
in point forms. It needs a reasonable amount of white space to
replace the borders.
• Shaded: Uses a background for alternate rows in place of
borders. The different colors help readers follow information
horizontally within the table.

Tip
Keep the spacing around tables consistent. Most times, you will
want to use the entire space between the horizontal margins.
Watch, too, for extra space added by paragraphs above and
below the table.

• Place sample tables of the appropriate widths in TABLE >

AUTOFORMAT (see “Using AutoFormats,” page 297).

Tip
LibreOffice usually offers a choice of tables with different
backgrounds for row headings and ordinary rows. However,
modern convention favors minimizing the use of backgrounds.

Structured prose: lists and tables 287.

Basic table designs. When designing a template, choose a few designs
and stay with them, rather than designing each table as the need arises.
The three shown here are classical designs that should serve as basic
patterns for most purposes, and are compatible if two or more are used
together. As you can see, modern typography favors simple designs. They
may go out of fashion, but they will always remain functional.
For convenience, the boundaries of the borderless table in the middle are
shown within Writer, but do not print.
To see how a borderless table looks when printed, view it from FILE >
PRINT PREVIEW.

288. Designing with LibreOffice

Designing tables
The goal of tables is to present information efficiently.
Cluttered or over-designed tables work against that goal. If you
are working in a Western European language like English, these
rules should ensure that your tables serve their function properly:
• Headings should be horizontal or at the most slightly angled,
but never vertical. Vertical headings may save space, but they
reduce readability, which is the main point of having a table.
• Fonts should be the same size as body text, although they may
be in a different font or weight. Making them smaller saves
space at the cost of readability and convenience.
• Cell borders, shading for alternate rows, and other elaborate
design elements should be minimized.
• Remember to use white space to help with the design,
especially when setting the distance from a cell’s borders and
its contents. A cramped table defeats the purpose of using a
table in the first place.

Tip
In particular, leave space at the bottom of table cells. Select all
the cells in the table, and select TABLE > SPACING > BELOW.
Two line heights will often be ideal.

Adding a table
To create a new table:
1 Select TABLE > INSERT TABLE or press CTRL+ F12. The INSERT
TABLE dialog window opens.

2 Either name the table so you can find it in the Navigator, or

else accept the default name. The default name is TABLE,

Structured prose: lists and tables 289.

 followed by a number. The number indicates the order in
which the table was added, not the table's order from the start
of the file.

The INSERT TABLE dialog window includes the most commonly used
table options, so you do not have to format after the table is inserted.

3 Select from the common options listed:

• HEADING: Defines one or more rows as a TABLE HEADING row at
the top of the table. Once HEADING is selected, you also have
the option of REPEAT HEADING ROWS ON NEW PAGES, and of
selecting the number of heading rows in the fields below.

290. Designing with LibreOffice

• DON'T SPLIT TABLE OVER PAGES: Prevents tables from printing on
two or more pages unless the table is so long that is impossible.
This setting keeps information together, but can also create
problems with page breaks unless tables are always given their
own page.
• Optionally, select a Table style from the list at the bottom of
the window.

Tip
Note the options you choose in the first table and, so far as
possible, use them in every other one. Consider saving the table
as an AUTOFORMAT. See “Creating AutoFormats,” page 298.

Tip
If you want the same options most of the time, you can set some
of them in TOOLS > OPTIONS > LIBREOFFICE WRITER > TABLE.

Editing table parts

When you right-click in a table and select TABLE PROPERTIES
from the right-click menu, you can edit all parts of the table that
are currently selected. If the cursor is simply in the table, you edit
the entire table.
A more exact way to edit is to use the CELL, ROW, and COLUMN
sub-menus on the right-click menu. From these sub-menus, you
can select, insert, or delete parts of a table, as well as adjusting
their width or height.
In the CELL sub-menu, you can split a single selected cell, or
merge two or more selected cells, altering the general table design

Structured prose: lists and tables 291.

for your specific purposes. For example, you might want a table
heading to straddle more than one column.
To delete an entire table, place the mouse cursor anywhere in
the table and either click TABLE > DELETE > TABLE from the main
menu or select the table as well as the space before and after the
table and press the DELETE key. Using the menu is generally
easier.
Adjusting table spacing
By default, tables occupy the entire width of a line. To adjust
a table’s overall width, select from the right-click menu TABLE >
TABLE PROPERTIES > WIDTH. Alternatively, if you prefer, you can
adjust the ALIGNMENT and SPACING options.

The TABLE tab of the TABLE PROPERTIES dialog window has fields for
positioning a table horizontally and vertically.

The available options depend on your choice of alignments:

• AUTOMATIC: The table fills the entire line width.
• LEFT: The left side of the table aligns with the page’s left
margin. You can use SPACING > RIGHT to indent the right side of
the table.

292. Designing with LibreOffice

• FROM LEFT: The table shifts by the amount in the SPACING >
LEFT field. This option may shift the table into the right
margin, where part of it may be unprintable.
• RIGHT: The right side of the table aligns with the page’s right
margin. You can use SPACING > LEFT to indent the left side of
the table.
• CENTER: The table aligns with the center of the line. If the
table’s width equals the full length of the line, this setting has
no visible effect.
• MANUAL: Use the SPACING fields to adjust the table on its left
and right.
If the table is surrounded by text, place a table closer to the
paragraph above it than the one below it to show their relation.
Similarly, if the next paragraph style is a caption, position the
caption closer to the table than the next paragraph.
To adjust the vertical spacing before and after tables, right-
click on any part of the table and select TABLE PROPERTIES > TABLE
> SPACING > ABOVE and BELOW.
By default, content is aligned to the top of cells on the TEXT
FLOW tab. You can also align it to the center or the bottom,
although in practice there is rarely a reason for doing so.
Adjusting column spacing
You can redistribute horizontal space among the existing
columns by using the cursor to drag at cell borders. This method
may seem inexact, but with both vertical and horizontal rulers in
the editing window, it can actually be as exact as any choice.
Alternatively, select TABLE PROPERTIES > COLUMNS from the
right-click menu and balancing the COLUMN WIDTH fields.

Structured prose: lists and tables 293.

Adjusting row spacing
You can redistribute vertical space between the existing rows
by using the cursor to drag at cell borders or selecting SIZE > ROW
HEIGHT from the right-click menu.

Setting text flow options

Positioning a table in hard copy can be difficult, because you
frequently get uneven page breaks. Sometimes, rearranging rows
can improve the break, but often you need to manually intervene
with one of the available tools, most of which are listed in the
TEXT FLOW tab of the TABLE PROPERTIES dialog window.

The TEXT FLOW tab of the TABLE PROPERTIES dialog window contains
options for how a table displays on the page.

• REPEAT HEADING: Repeats the top row(s) of a table on each page

if the table continues on another page. Usually, you need only
the first row when it serves as a table heading. Repeating

294. Designing with LibreOffice

 multiple rows will usually only be needed when you have
complicated headings that take up more than a single row.
• ALLOW TABLE TO SPLIT ACROSS PAGES AND COLUMNS: A multi-page
table tends to defeat the purpose of making information easily
read. However, a table that does not split often makes for
uneven page breaks.
• ALLOW ROW TO SPLIT ACROSS PAGES AND COLUMNS: This option
has the same trade-off as allowing the entire table to split, but
to a lesser extent.
• KEEP WITH NEXT PARAGRAPH: Since a table usually requires an
introduction, this setting should only be needed occasionally.
However, it is available if it will be useful for captions if you
prefer not to place captions in a frame.
• REPEAT HEADING: Repeats the top row(s) of a table on each page
if the table continues on another page. Usually, you need only
the first row when it serves as a table heading. Repeating
multiple rows will usually only be needed when you have
complicated headings that take up more than a single row.
• CONVERT: TABLE > CONVERT in the main menu converts text to a
table, or a table to text. Converting text to a table requires
markers to mark columns and rows, and is rarely worth the
effort. However, converting a table to text saves time when
you decide to change the presentation of information or are
working with data that uses tabs to create columns.

Adding spreadsheet behaviors

Writer’s tables have limited capacity to act as a spreadsheet:
• NUMBER FORMAT: Available from the right-click menu, NUMBER
FORMAT opens a dialog window where you can set how

Structured prose: lists and tables 295.

 numbers are interpreted and presented. For example, if you
set the format to DATE, you could choose from such formats as
YYYY-MM-DD or DD-MM-YY.
• NUMBER RECOGNITION: Selected from the TABLE menu.
Identifies input specifically as numbers and right aligns it.
• ADDING FORMULAS: Selected from TABLE > EDIT FORMULA in the
main menu, this option opens a tool bar for inserting a couple
of dozen common spreadsheet formulas.

The FORMULA BAR allows basic spreadsheet functions to be used in

Writer tables.

• ALIGNMENT: Available from TOOLS > OPTIONS > LIBREOFFICE

WRITER > TABLE > INPUT IN TABLES, ALIGNMENT places numbers
in the lower right corner of a cell, as in a spreadsheet.

Tip
If you need a more complex spreadsheet, create one as a
separate file, then embed it using INSERT > OBJECT > OLE
OBJECT.

Adding captions
If the sentence which introduces a table is clear enough, a
caption may be redundant.
However, if a table needs a caption, or you want to refer to the
table by a number, right-click and select CAPTION from the right-
click menu. If you always want a caption, set up AUTOCAPTION for
tables in TOOLS > OPTIONS > LIBREOFFICE WRITER > AUTOCAPTION.

296. Designing with LibreOffice

 Tip
Adding a caption to the table adds a frame around the table and
the caption.

If you are having trouble with frames staying in place, add a row
with no borders to the bottom of the table and place the caption
there.

Using AutoFormats
Writer now has table styles, which you can apply like other
styles by selecting them in the Sidebar. However, you create and
save them by selecting TABLE > AUTOFORMAT STYLES.

Table styles are created as AutoFormats, but the pre-defined formats may
include obsolete designs.

AutoFormats are the closest that Writer gets to table styles. As

with other styles, AutoFormats can be either pre-defined or
customized. Unlike other styles, AutoFormats cannot be edited,
except for being renamed. If you want to use the same name as an

Structured prose: lists and tables 297.

existing AutoFormat, you must delete the existing AutoFormat
first.
The pre-defined AutoFormat styles vary with the LibreOffice
installation. In some cases, they include styles that were popular
in the mid-1990s, but have fallen out of fashion since. Think
twice before using multi-colored AutoFormats, or the gray 3D
AutoFormat.
Follow the same restrictions when creating customized
AutoFormats. You might want to use corporate or project colors
for borders or a colored header, but usually nothing more.

Creating AutoFormats
Creating an AutoFormat is similar to creating a new
paragraph style from a selection:
Manually format a table as you choose, then, with the cursor
anywhere in the table:
1 Open the AUTOFORMAT dialog window and select the
formatting options you want to store in the AutoFormat.
2 Click the ADD button.
3 Name the new AutoFormat and click OK.

Tip
In addition to the formatting listed in the window, you also save
font selection and spacing options.

Tip
As an alternative to AutoFormats, you can save a table in EDIT >
AUTOTEXT.

298. Designing with LibreOffice

 Caution
You can delete any AutoFormats one at a time, including pre-
defined AutoFormats. Deleted AutoFormats are removed not
just from the current document, but from Writer.

Using tables as workarounds

In many ways, Writer’s tables are simpler versions of frames.
The major differences are that you cannot wrap text around
tables, and text cannot flow from cell to cell like it can from frame
to frame.
However, as detailed in Chapter 8, Writer’s frames are
sometimes unstable, shifting objects without warning. When
frames fail you, a table may be the solution you need. For
example, tables can successfully anchor text in headers and
frames, as well as keeping pictures and other objects in their
positions.
In such cases, a table gives you more limited options than a
frame or another formatting feature such as tab stops. However, if
your main goal is to keep text or objects where you place them,
tables may be more reliable than frames.

New aspects of literacy

The use of lists and tables is no more than a few hundred
years old. For much of this time, they were used by only a
minority of scientists and engineers.
Now, however, both lists and tables have become
commonplace in online documents. Neither is taught at any level
of education, but how and when to use lists and tables is rapidly
becoming part of the knowledge that defines basic literacy. Learn

Structured prose: lists and tables 299.

the conventional ways of using them, and you can be sure of
presenting your thoughts in the best possible light, both in print
and at the podium.

300. Designing with LibreOffice

 11
Styled features and long
documents
While you are designing, styles constantly prove their worth.
However, styles don’t stop giving you advantages when the
template is finished. In Writer, paragraph styles also make
advanced features more efficient, especially in academic and
formal documents.
Tasks such as outlining, navigating documents, adding cross-
references, or creating tables of contents are possible without the
use of paragraph styles. However, without styles, such features
are so much more laborious that doing them manually is a waste
of time, except in a few cases where they are unavoidable.
This chapter begins with Writer’s advanced features, focusing
on both how paragraph styles enhance them, and how you can
use them to customize your documents and give them a
professional touch. You might say that the chapter is mostly about
the unexpected dividends that taking the time to use styles can
pay you.

Styled features and long documents 301.

 The rest is about the tools for designing long and academic
documents. Some of these tools do not rely heavily on styles (if at
all), but you may need to be aware of their quirks as you design.

Using outline levels

The concepts of outline levels and chapter numbering are
combined in LibreOffice through TOOLS > CHAPTER NUMBERING.
Chapter numbering defines the paragraph styles used for each
outline level. These styles are picked up by other Writer tools to
simplify your work.

The CHAPTER NUMBERING dialog window is used for more than just
numbering chapters.

By default, each outline level in TOOLS > CHAPTER NUMBERING

is assigned a heading paragraph style, with HEADING 1 assigned to
outline LEVEL 1, and so on with each heading style corresponding
to the same outline level. However, you can change the default
style for an outline level by editing the PARAGRAPH STYLE field in

302. Designing with LibreOffice

TOOLS > CHAPTER NUMBERING. In addition, what most users never
notice is that you can also assign any other paragraph style to any
outline level, by using the OUTLINE LEVEL field on the OUTLINE &
LIST tab for a paragraph style.

Assigning a paragraph style to an outline level.

Once a paragraph style is assigned to an outline level, it can be

used for:
• Writing an outline.
• Outlining in the Navigator.
• Setting up cross-references in the most efficient manner.
• Creating tables of contents and formatting indexes and
bibliographies.

Writing an outline
You can outline using heading paragraph styles with a list
style attached to them, or a single paragraph style with an outline
list style attached.
However, the most obvious method is to use TOOLS > CHAPTER
NUMBERING. The settings for this tool resemble the choices on the
CUSTOMIZE tab of a list style. The formatting can be customized
separately for each outline level, or for all levels at once.
See “Outline lists,” page 268.

Styled features and long documents 303.

Outlining in the Navigator
The Navigator is one of the most under-used features of
LibreOffice. However, the longer the document, the more useful
it becomes as you edit and revise
To open the Navigator, select VIEW > NAVIGATOR, or press the
F5 key, or select the Navigator in the sidebar.
On the simplest level, the Navigator lists all of a document’s
objects, including outline levels – headings by default, other
paragraph styles as well if you edit outline levels. Clicking a list
item in the Navigator jumps to it in the editing window.
However, what may be less apparent is that the headings
listed in the Navigator can help to restructure a document.

The Navigator becomes a more powerful outlining tool if you set an

Outline Level to show the TEXT BODY paragraph style.

304. Designing with LibreOffice

Changing outline levels using the Navigator
Headings should be hierarchical, so that the topic in a
HEADING 3 paragraph is contained by the HEADING 2 paragraph
directly above it. For example, the heading “The Human Body”
might have sub-headings below it of “The Heart” and “The
Lungs.” This structuring strengthens the internal logic of a
document and helps readers find sections when they scan.
Such relationships are essential to the structure of a
document. If you see a heading that should be raised or lowered
in the hierarchy, highlight it and then click either the PROMOTE
LEVEL or DEMOTE LEVEL button.
Each time you click, the currently selected heading will be
raised or lowered one level in the hierarchy. So will any outline
levels subordinate to it, so that promoting a HEADING 2 outline
level to HEADING 1 also promotes all HEADING 3 outline levels
between it and the next HEADING 2.
Moving material using the Navigator
Similarly, as you work, you may find that part of the contents
belongs somewhere else in the document.
Instead of cutting and pasting, you can click either PROMOTE
CHAPTER or DEMOTE CHAPTER, the buttons on the tool bar, to move
a heading and the text beneath it to a new place in the document.

Tip
In the Navigator, “chapter” refers to the part of the document
between one heading and the next. “Promoting” moves the
chapter closer to the start of the document, “demoting” moves it
closer to the end.

Styled features and long documents 305.

 All subordinate headings and any other paragraph styles
underneath the selected heading will also move, keeping the
same position in relation to each other, but changing their group
position in the document.
In effect, the Navigator replaces ordinary copying and
pasting. However, it is more effective than copying and pasting,
because it provides a visual image of your actions.
Just as importantly, if you are interrupted, with the Navigator
there is no danger of losing content because you have forgotten
about it.

Using cross-references
Cross-references are updatable fields that refer to another part
of a document. In online documents, they are links for easy
navigation to the reference.
Manual cross-references would be difficult to maintain –
especially their page references—so LibreOffice keeps them
automatically updated as you add and delete material and close
and open documents. You can also manually update by clicking
TOOLS > UPDATE > FIELDS.
To add a cross-reference, you need two elements: the
SELECTION or source, and the REFERENCE or target. The SELECTIONS
are chosen either from the contents of outline levels or from
bookmarks or markers added manually.
Usually, you should add cross-references as your document is
being finished. That way, you avoid breaking links and having to
re-create them as you move passages around or rename files. Also,
you can keep the cross-reference dialog window open and do all
cross-references in one effort.

306. Designing with LibreOffice

 Tip
If you plan to use cross-references for tables, images, and other
elements, give each element a caption, then assign the CAPTION
paragraph style to an outline level.

If you number tables, figures, and other elements, they will

appear in the Cross-reference list automatically.

Outline levels simplify adding cross-references to items that are not

numbered. The alternative is to set references, either manually or as
bookmarks.

Styled features and long documents 307.

Cross-referencing within one document
Outline levels provide automatic markers to use with cross-
references. Add headings as you write, then follow these steps
when you add cross-references:
1 Place the cursor in the position for the first cross-reference.

2 Select INSERT > CROSS REFERENCE. The FIELDS dialog window

opens on the CROSS-REFERENCES tab.
3 From the TYPE pane, select the sort of source to use. Use
HEADINGS whenever possible, since you are adding them
anyway and they tend to be relatively short. Otherwise,
consider NUMBERED PARAGRAPHS or BOOKMARKS.
When all else fails, you can use SET REFERENCE to manually
create a source. However, this method is so cumbersome and
slow that it should be avoided if at all possible.
4 Choose the source from the SELECTION pane.
5 Choose the format for the reference from the REFER USING
pane. Click the INSERT button to insert the cross-reference into
your document. The FIELDS dialog window remains open.

Tip
ABOVE/BELOW are informal, and should be avoided in academic
or legal documents.

6 In the document, add the words to introduce the cross-

reference. For instance, if the structure you are using includes
the chapter and page number, the cross-reference dialog
inserts only the actual chapter and page number.

308. Designing with LibreOffice

 The complete reference may require something like, “See
Chapter 6, page 79.” Alternatively, you might want to
mention the heading.

Tip
You can add the wording around the text as AutoText. For
instance, you could have one AutoText entry or Custom field for
“See Chapter “ and another for “, page “ (notice the spaces at the
end of both).

Repeat for all the other cross-references. Close the dialog

window when done.

Tip
Some cross-references work differently in master documents.
See “Adding cross-references between sub-documents in a
master document,” page 334.

Cross-referencing to another file

Adding a cross-reference to another document is a different
process from adding a cross-reference within a single document,
even if both the source and the target document are in the same
master document.
The two basic methods involve using SET REFERENCE or
hyperlinking using styles. Both methods are done manually.
Using styles saves time when you are cross-referencing
another file. In fact, using SET REFERENCE to create a manual
reference is sufficiently confusing that I recommend avoiding it
altogether.

Styled features and long documents 309.

 To add a hyperlink using styles, follow this procedure:
1 Open the target document for the cross-reference. The target
document is the one which contains the cross-reference.
2 Open the Navigator by selecting VIEW > NAVIGATOR, or
pressing the F5 key, or selecting it in the sidebar.
3 Select the source document (the document which you are
referencing) from the drop-down list at the bottom of the
Navigator.
4 Set the DRAG MODE tool to INSERT AS HYPERLINK.
5 Drag the heading you are referencing into the target
document. A hyperlink to the heading is placed in the target
document. The hyperlink is active and can be used online to
jump to the source document.

Tip
If you want the hyperlink to resemble regular text, edit the
INTERNET LINK and VISITED INTERNET LINK character styles to
remove the colors and underlining. This change will affect all
hyperlinks, not just cross-references.

6 If necessary, add:
• The introductory text. You can define fields or AutoText to
avoid having to type it.
• The page number. It must be added and updated manually.
• The document name. Add it manually, or by dragging and
dropping the title of the source document.

310. Designing with LibreOffice

 Tip
The text displayed for a hyperlink is not automatically updated
in the target document when the source document changes. Use
TOOLS > UPDATE to update manually.

Using outline levels in tables of contents

and indexes

The Table of Contents, Index or Bibliography dialog window includes

tools for extensive customization of tables of contents and indexes.

LibreOffice includes tools for extensive customization of a

variety of tables and indexes. The most common are a table of
contents (TOC), which is created from outline levels. and tables of
illustrations and tables, which are created from captions.
However, you can create all sorts of indexes and tables,
including:
• Alphabetical Index: A list of keywords and their appearances
in the text – in other words, a regular index.

Styled features and long documents 311.

• Table of Illustrations: A list of images, generated from caption
categories.
• Table of Tables: A list of tables, generated from caption
categories.
• Table of Objects: A list of other elements, such as charts.
• Bibliography: A list of reference materials used in the
document.
You can also add user-defined index marks to create other
tables.

Creating a table of contents

Each kind of table has its own list of customized features.
However, the procedure for building most of them is similar to
the one for creating a table of contents:
1 If necessary, customize a page style for the table, and add it to
the document.
2 Go to INSERT > TABLE OF CONTENTS AND INDEX > TABLE OF
CONTENTS, INDEX OR BIBLIOGRAPHY > TYPE and select the type of
table. Your selection determines both the default title and
some of the advanced options. However, many of the
advanced options may be unnecessary.
3 Under CREATE FROM, select ADDITIONAL STYLES to add
additional paragraph styles to the table of contents. Any
selection you make does not add styles to the outline levels.

Tip
Styles already assigned to outline levels cannot be given
different outline levels.

312. Designing with LibreOffice

4 If your table entries are single words or phrases of a few
words, you might be able to save space by setting 2–4 columns
on the COLUMNS tab.
5 On the ENTRIES tab, customize the table entries using the
building blocks in the STRUCTURE field.

Tip
Keep the LS (Link Start) at the beginning of the ENTRY field,
and the LE (Link End) at the end of the field.

These two fields make the entire entry a hyperlink to the text,
that you can use in an online document or when editing.

Other fields appear in the tab as you make selections. The

preview pane on the left shows what your design will look like
on the page.

6 Click the OK button to add the table. You can right-click the
table to edit or update it later.
7 Edit the paragraph styles for each table entry. These styles
consist of a heading paragraph style (for instance, CONTENTS
HEADING for a table of contents), and styles for each outline
level of table entry (such as CONTENTS 1-10 for a table of
contents).
Usually, you can model the CONTENTS HEADING paragraph style
on the document’s HEADING 1 or 2 style, and the entry styles on
TEXT BODY, using the INHERIT FROM field on the ORGANIZER tab.
There is no need to use different font sizes or colors to
distinguish the style for each entry level – the left indent is
enough.

Styled features and long documents 313.

 An alphabetical index will have an index separator style for
the alphabetical delimiters at the start of each section.

Structuring table entries with building blocks

Use building blocks to customize tables of contents.

Unlike most word processors, LibreOffice provides the tools for

customizing each entry for a TOC or similar table. These tools are
located at INSERT > TABLE OF CONTENTS AND INDEX > TABLE OF
CONTENTS, INDEX OR BIBLIOGRAPHY > ENTRIES. You can also modify
indexes and tables by customizing their paragraph styles.
The tools consist of a STRUCTURE field in which you can
arrange building blocks such as PAGE NUMBER and CHAPTER
NUMBER, characters, and spaces to create a standard entry.
Below the field are the unused building blocks. When you
add a block to the field, it may become grayed out and
unselectable.
Similarly, when you delete a block from the field, it reappears
in the unused list below the STRUCTURE field.
When a building block is selected, it looks sunken in the
STRUCTURE field. In addition, formatting choices for the building
block appear in the window.

314. Designing with LibreOffice

 Each outline level can be customized separately, or together
by pressing the ALL button on the right side of the window. If the
levels have common elements, format them together, then edit
each level separately for unique features.
As you design, remember:
• Use the LS (Link Start) at the beginning of the ENTRY field and
the LE (Link End) at the end of the field to make the entire
entry a hyperlink.
• The spacing of all tabs is added to the BEFORE TEXT
indentation on the INDENTS & SPACING tab for each entry’s
paragraph style (CONTENTS 1-10). To avoid difficulties, leave
the BEFORE TEXT field set to 0.
• You can reliably use only one tab in the ENTRY field.
Otherwise, spacing can become erratic.
• You can add manual spaces and text as well as building blocks
to an entry. Manual spaces are inelegant, but can sometimes
be a workaround to the one-tab limit.

Avoiding the default TOC design

The standard word-processor design for a Table of Contents. Its need for
crutch-like leader dots between the text entry and the page number is
enough to prove it a crippled design.

TOCs in LibreOffice default to a format that has become

standard in many word processors. In this style, each entry

Styled features and long documents 315.

consists of text and a page number placed by a tab on the right
margin. In between are fill characters, usually a period.
If you have regularly generated TOCS using word processors,
you might not see anything wrong with the default TOC design in
Writer. Probably, you have seen the design too many times to be
bothered by it.
However, to anyone with design knowledge, the result is a
failed design. Starting the TOC entry at the left margin and
placing the page number against the right margin disassociates
them, and the leader dots are needed to try to reconnect them.
The result is ugly. It is also clumsy. Since periods are used to
indicate a stop, not a continuation, the periods do not lead the eye
across the page. A design that does not disassociate the text
entries and the page number in the first place is far more efficient,
and simpler as well.
Fortunately, while LibreOffice defaults to this design, you can
work with the building blocks and paragraph styles to create a
more functional design in any number of ways. For instance:
• Reduce the space between the entry text and the page
number using the paragraph style.

Larger fonts and no leader dots improves the design. But watch
for entries that spill over on to another line, spoiling the symmetry
of the design for no reason.

316. Designing with LibreOffice

• Select the # (Page no.) block and give its character style a
larger font size and/or a color to make it stand out more. The
larger page number helps to keep the association between the
text entries and page numbers.

Increasing the size of the page number helps some, but the basic
problem remains: The distance from some page entries still makes the
table of contents harder to read than necessary.

• Click on the T (Tab) block. Fields for the fill character and tab
stop position appear below the list of unused building blocks.
Replace the fill character with an underscore, and at least
your eye is guided continuously across the page, which is an
improvement on leader dots. However, having a fill character
at all still seems like a needless addition.

An underscore leads the eye across the page, but still tends to separate
the text entries from the page numbers.

• Go to the COLUMNS TAB and set the table to use two columns.
This solution shortens the distance between the text entry and

Styled features and long documents 317.

 the page number, but may be impractical if any entry text is
more than a few words long and spills over onto another line.

A two-column table of contents lessens the space between text entries

and page numbers. However, to work without the problem of long
entries taking up two lines, it requires short text entries, or perhaps a
landscape oriented page with columns.

• Delete the TAB block and manually add spaces between the E
(Entry text) and # (Page no.) blocks. Manual spaces are
generally not a good way of laying out design elements, but in
this one case, they do not create any problem beyond the need
to keep count. They are inelegant, but they work.

A ragged right table of contents keeps text entries and page numbers
together so that they can be easily read. However, two ragged
margins looks cluttered.
One way to avoid ragged right looking cluttered is to format the
Contents paragraph styles so that all entries have the same margin on
the left. However, this solution hides the hierarchal structure of the
headings.

318. Designing with LibreOffice

• Reverse the order of the text entries and the page numbers,
with a tab or a couple of manual spaces between them.

Placing the page numbers before the text entries keep their relation
clear and gives the most space for long text entries.

Tip
You can also add a special character or dingbat between the text
and page number.

Adding a chapter number

In Writer, you can add chapter numbers to page numbers in
the body of a document (see “Adding chapter numbers to page
numbering,” page 214). However, we have found no way to
produce the same result in a table of contents.
Although the chapter number building block can be used as a
prefix to the page number, the result works as desired at the top
level but not at lower levels.

Creating an index
An index is created in much the same way as a table of
objects. The main difference is that it is built from tags of
individual words or phrases, rather than from paragraph styles,
which would not provide the type of information that an index
requires. These tags display in the document as fields.

Styled features and long documents 319.

Adding index entries
The simplest way to add an entry is by selecting words or
phrases and marking them with INSERT > TABLE OF CONTENTS AND
INDEX > INDEX ENTRY. However, it is laborious and time-
consuming.
Instead, you can automate the creation of index entries by
selecting APPLY TO ALL SIMILAR TEXTS to add other occurrences of
an entry in the document. Use MATCH CASE and WHOLE WORDS
ONLY to modify the selection of similar texts.
No matter how you prepare them, indexes can have a main
entry, and up to two sub-entry levels. Any more sub-entries
would generally be overly complicated for writers to maintain
and readers to follow.

The INSERT INDEX ENTRY dialog window stays open after you insert an
entry, letting you move on immediately to the next entry.

320. Designing with LibreOffice

Generating an index
After all the entries are created, open the TABLE OF CONTENTS,
INDEX OR BIBLIOGRAPHY dialog window to generate the index.

Tip
A standard index is called an ALPHABETICAL INDEX on the TYPE
field in the TABLE OF CONTENTS, INDEX OR BIBLIOGRAPHY
dialog window. Since this is a non-standard usage, you might
modify the title to “Index.”

If your entries are short, you can save pages by setting the
index to use two columns.
If you want to add headings with letters of the alphabet, select
ALPHABETICAL DELIMITER on the ENTRIES tab. Alphabetical
delimiters are sub-headings, with one for each letter of the
alphabet.

A selection from an alphabetical index, showing delimiters.

Styled features and long documents 321.

Creating a concordance
A more systematic way to create an index is to use a
concordance. A concordance is a file that lists words to add to the
index. It is a plain text file with one word or phrase defined on
each line. Each line has a strict structure, consisting of seven
fields, separated by semi-colons:
SEARCH TERM; ALTERNATIVE ENTRY;1ST KEY;2ND KEY;MATCH CASE;
WORD ONLY
No space is entered between the semi-colon and a field’s
contents. A key is a higher level heading that a search term is
placed beneath. For instance, if your search term is “styles,” you
might want to use the keys “LibreOffice” and “office
applications.”
If you choose not to have an alternative entry, a first key or a
second key, leave the field blank, so that one semi-colon
immediately follows another.
The last two fields are structured somewhat differently. If you
want only entries that have the same upper or lower case letters
as your entries, enter 1 in the second to last field. Similarly,
entering 1 in the last field sets the index to only include instances
where the entry is a whole word, and not part of a larger one. You
can also just leave the last two fields blank, as you can with any of
the others.
For example, entering:
MACAW;ARA;PARROTS;;0;0
Would produce an entry for “macaw” with
• A listing under “macaw.”
• An alternate listing under “ara” (the scientific name).
• A listing of “Parrots, Macaw.”
• No second key (notice the two semi-colons).

322. Designing with LibreOffice

• Inclusion of instances that start with a lower or upper case
letter (both “macaw” and “Macaw”).
• Inclusion of instances in which the term is a whole word or
part of a longer word.
Whether creating a concordance is faster than adding entries
manually is debatable since the tasks are so different. However, a
concordance is certainly more systematic and possibly less
tedious.
The disadvantage of a concordance is that it can produce an
index that includes instances of common words that are
irrelevant for your purposes. In many cases, a useful index may
require a combination of manual entries and a concordance.

Creating citations and bibliographies

In the first edition of Designing with LibreOffice, I detailed how
to work with TOOLS > BIBLIOGRAPHICAL DATABASE. I did so because
I wanted to show how to use LibreOffice without extensions.
However I now consider that a waste of effort. Instead, I
recommend installing Zotero from https://www.zotero.org.
The trouble with the Bibliography Database is that it is early
1990s software that was never well-designed in the first place. In
particular, what should be called the Citation Format is labeled
first as the IDENTIFER in the database table, then as the SHORT NAME
in the input fields. This confusion has existed since
OpenOffice.org, LibreOffice’s predecessor, was first released in
2002. Nor has anyone apparently noticed, cared, or had the time
to correct the fact that the examples bear no relation to any
known citation style.
Just as importantly, while a single database for all files might
have made sense in the memory-starved computers of the 1990s,

Styled features and long documents 323.

it is cumbersome — to say nothing of unnecessary today. Add a
structure that has no built-in support for any citation style, and
you can understand why the need for an alternative is urgent.
Zotero is a stand-alone application, written in Java and
maintained by the Center for History and New Media at George
Mason University. Besides its usefulness as a manager for
reference sources, Zotero is best noted for its browser connectors
that allow it pull down citations and references directly from a
web page.
The Zotero window
For Writer and Zotero to be used together, both applications
must be open at the same time. Bibliographical sources are added
in Zotero. Sources can be pulled from the web, imported from
other bibliographical applications such as BibTeX, pasted from
the clipboard, or entered manually.

The Zotero main window streamlines the assembly of bibliographical

entries, which can be pasted into LibreOfice Writer.

324. Designing with LibreOffice

 In the left pane, sources can be grouped according to article,
or any other criteria that might be useful. Pre-defined collections
help with managing the rest. For instance, MY PUBLICATIONS lists
your own works on the Zotero web site, while DUPLICATES and
TRASH help with organization. When you are ready to produce a
bibliography, all you need to do is click on the relevant collection.
The middle pane lists the sources in the currently selected
category. When a source is selected, attachments can be added to
it, such as a web page, from the first icon in the title bar. Another
icon filters the listed sources according to different types of data,
the default one being CREATOR (that is, the Author).
On the right is the detailed information for the item currently
selected in the middle pane. The fields are far more extensive
than are needed just for citation, which is useful if you want to
keep track of sources for other reasons. In addition to basic
information, notes, tags, and any related material can be noted on
separate tags. If your intent is entirely bibliographical, you can
enter only the fields needed for a proper entry for the citation
style you will use.
When you are ready to use the sources, you can choose from
seventeen citation sources, and Zotero will create the required
entry. This feature alone removes the tedium associated with
manually compiling a bibliography (or, I might add, of hunting
through Writer’s Bibliographical Database once it has been used
a few times). It would be especially useful for writers working in
more than one academic discipline, who might need to present
the same information in more than one citation style.
Zotero can take the raw data about a source and format it for a
variety of citation styles. These formats are updated as necessary
in new releases of Zotero.

Styled features and long documents 325.

Zotero maintains an extensive choice of citation formats.

Working from Writer

Zotero adds five buttons into Writer.

The Zotero connector installs five buttons on the Writer

toolbar. The one at the far left is labeled ADD/EDIT CITATION — that
is, the reference in the text. Clicking it opens a small input
window called the QUICK FORMAT CITATION, from which a list of
citations in Zotero opens based on the filters entered. Still
another window opens from which you choose the citation
format.
To use the second button, ADD/EDIT BIBLIOGRAPHY, you must
have already added at least one citation. When you press
ADD/EDIT BIBLIOGRAPHY, a bibliography is added using the format
of the citations. It is up to you to position the resulting
bibliography. A Bibliography paragraph style is added to Writer
with the information, although you may prefer to alter the style
once it is created.

326. Designing with LibreOffice

The Zotero Quick Format Citation input window in Writer.

The third button refreshes the document and Zotero source

entries after they have been edited within Writer. From the
fourth, you can change the document’s citation style. The fifth
unlinks citations.
A sane replacement
Learning Zotero by trial and error can take a few minor mis-
steps. At times, Zotero enforces a particular work flow, such as
when it requires a citation before permitting a bibliography. This
limitation would make sense if it came with a warning of which
bibliography entry in a Zotero category lacked any citations, but
since only one citation is required, it seems arbitrary. At other
times, referring to the detailed online help can remove the need
for experimentation.
Also, like many Java applications, Zotero is never going to win
an award for speed. At times, it is so slow after a field is filled in, it
seems to have frozen, especially if you have typed quickly.
However, if you can learn to work at Zotero’s own pace, you will
find that you actually save time by eliminating wait time while
the application catches up with you.
However, Zotero remains far ahead of Writer’s built-in
Bibliographical Database. Proper citation and bibliography

Styled features and long documents 327.

citation is always going to involve plenty of drudgery, but Zotero
does remove as much of the drudgry as seems possible. As things
are, anyone writing scholarly or academic articles should find it a
relief.
Learning bibliographic formats
Before adding citations, you need the correct information for
the citation style you are using. Similarly, you need to have the
correct information for each bibliography entry.
Most citations styles developed in different fields of academic
study. They are a matter of convention, since they all give similar
information.
There are five main styles, although Zotero mention a dozen
more. If you are taking a class or writing for a journal, ask your
teacher or editor which format they prefer. Otherwise, use the
format for your field of study:
• APA (American Psychological Association): Psychology,
education, and other social sciences.
• MLA (Modern Languages Association): Literature, art, and
humanities.
• Chicago: History and specific publications.
• Turabian: A variation of the Chicago style for general use by
university students.
• AMA (American Medical Association): Medicine, health, and
biology.
Today, all except the AMA style favor parenthetical citation,
in which minimal information is presented in parentheses in the
text. Parentheses are less distracting when you read and keep
citations from being an exact duplication of the bibliography.
The AMA style uses footnotes or endnotes instead.

328. Designing with LibreOffice

Creating footnotes and endnotes
Parenthetical citations have the advantage of letting you view
them without losing your place in the text. However, footnotes
and endnotes are still used for citations in the AMA format as well
for personal preferences.
To use the bibliography database for footnotes and endnotes,
set up the citation in the IDENTIFIER column of the bibliography
database. The citation may be much longer than most
parenthetical citations, but you can still use the column.
To position a footnote or endnote, click INSERT > FOOTNOTE AND
ENDNOTE > FOOTNOTE [OR ENDNOTE]. After the number, complete
the footnote or endnote by selecting the citation from the drop-
down list for INSERT > TABLE OF CONTENTS AND INDEX >
BIBLIOGRAPHY ENTRY > SHORT NAME.

Using master documents

Master documents are meta-documents: documents made
from a collection of Writer documents. Like many advanced
aspects of Writer, they work best with a consistent use of
templates and styles.
You view the structure of a master document through a
specialized version of the Navigator that you can toggle on and
off on the tool bar’s left.
A master document contains links to its sub-documents.
When sub-documents are opened, they are reformatted
according to the master document’s template. You can print from
a master document, and edit text created in one, but all sub-
documents must be opened separately to edit them.

Styled features and long documents 329.

 Tip
The reformatting applies only within the master document. If
the sub-documents use their own template, they format
differently when opened separately.

The Navigator includes a special view for the contents of master

documents.

When to use master documents

Consider using master documents when:
• Your computer’s memory is limited, so you are working with
small documents.
• Material is used in different places. A sub-document can be
included in more than one master document.
• A document (such as a book) has multiple authors. Authors
can work on sub-documents (such as chapters) by themselves,

330. Designing with LibreOffice

 then you use the master document for assembling the
complete document.
• You want to produce two or more documents that are similar
except in some parts. You can add all the files for all the sub-
documents, then hide or unhide individual sections.

Understanding master documents’ contents

Master documents are built from three sources:
• Sub-documents: Smaller, individual files. You can edit one by
selecting it in the Navigator, and selecting EDIT from the right-
click menu. Sub-documents help multiple authors to work on
the same master document at the same time.
• Indexes and tables of objects inserted into text areas of the
master document. Like any text, they can be replaced by sub-
documents.
• Text: Areas between sub-documents that are part of the
master document. In Navigator’s master document view, each
text area is only labeled as TEXT, so their use should be
minimized to avoid confusion. You might find the parts of the
master document easier to keep track of if you avoid text and
use sub-documents instead.

Navigating master documents

Master documents have a special view in the Navigator. To
toggle the view, click the TOGGLE button in the upper left of the
tool bar. A new set of icons appears in the toolbar.

Tip
The Navigator only inserts items above the current one, You can
rearrange items after adding them.

Styled features and long documents 331.

Planning master documents
To use master documents efficiently:
• If possible, use the same template to create the master
document and all its sub-documents. A sub-document with a
different template may have formatting problems when you
switch between using it by itself and using it as a sub-
document. If you are using a sub-document in more than one
master document, ignore this advice and hope for the best.
• Place a master document and all of its sub-documents in the
same directory.
• Ordinarily, you probably want each part of a master
document to start on a separate page. You can set this format
up automatically using the BREAKS section on the TEXT FLOW
tab of paragraph styles to start a new page after the paragraph
style that begins all the sub-documents, such as HEADING 1.
• The convention in publishing is to start each new part of a
long document on a right, odd-numbered page. The reason is
that most readers’ eyes fall on the right page first. If you need
to force a page to be a right page, you can add a blank Text
section in the master document. Do not use blank paragraphs
to add another page, or you may run into difficulties.
• Aside from tables and indexes and page breaks, minimize the
content that is added to the master document directly, rather
than to sub-documents. The more content that is added
directly to the master document, the more likely it is to crash.
• Use page styles and/or manual page breaks to use different
numbering for different parts of the master document. For
example, one common format is use lower case roman
numerals for front matter such as copyright pages and tables

332. Designing with LibreOffice

 of contents, and Arabic numbers for the main text. Often, too,
numbering is restarted with the main text.

Creating master documents

Master documents can be fragile to work with. Creating one
in this order should minimize problems:
1 Create the sub-documents, even if they are blank. The sub-
documents should all use the same template. You can create
master documents from sub-documents with different
templates, but you might have formatting problems.
2 Use the same template to create the master document. Click
FILE > SEND > CREATE MASTER DOCUMENT and save. You can use
a blank document, or a sub-document. If you use a sub-
document, then it will be first in the master document, and
will not be deletable.

Tip
Master documents all have an .odm extension. However, you
can start the name with “master-document” for quicker
identification, at least while you are working.

Caution
Unless your default template is the one that the master document
uses, do not create a master document from FILE > NEW >
MASTER DOCUMENT. You want to ensure that you are dealing
only with the template you want.

Unless the master document and sub-documents share the same

template, the sub-documents reformat each time you use the
master document, increasing the chances of corruption.

Styled features and long documents 333.

3 The Navigator is open when you finish saving the master
document. Use its features to add and position all the sub-
documents (as described above).
4 Add any tables of contents, indexes, and bibliographies
directly to the master document when all the sub-documents
are complete.

Tip
Recent versions of LibreOffice include the ability to save master
document templates. These are especially useful if you are
creating, for example, several books or reports which need to
have similar styles and formatting. Create one master document
as described above, then use FILE > TEMPLATES > SAVE AS
TEMPLATE.

Adding cross-references between sub-documents in a master

document
Adding cross-references between two sub-documents in a
master documents is similar to adding a cross-reference in
another document. However, because headings do not display,
you must set references manually, in an awkward work-around:
1 Open the sub-document you plan to reference (the source
document). You can open it by itself, or from the master
document.
2 Highlight the text for the reference, and click INSERT > CROSS-
REFERENCE > SET REFERENCE.

The FIELDS dialog window opens to the CROSS-REFERENCES tab.

The selected text is entered in the VALUE field.

334. Designing with LibreOffice

3 Enter a name for the reference. Then click the INSERT button.
In the text, the selected text now has the gray shading that
marks a field.
Choose a name that is unique not only in the current sub-
document, but all other sub-documents. The easiest way to
ensure uniqueness is to make the name and the value
identical. You can also keep a separate note of each name in a
spreadsheet.

Tip
To view the reference, change to the Navigator's view of the
master document and look under REFERENCES.

4 Save the source sub-document with the reference.

5 Open the target document and select INSERT > CROSS
REFERENCE > INSERT REFERENCE.

6 The FIELDS dialog window opens to the CROSS-REFERENCES tab.

Caution
Because the reference is in another document, it is not listed in
the SELECTION pane.

7 Type the reference’s NAME in the target document.

8 Make a selection from the INSERT REFERENCE TO pane. CHAPTER
is the chapter number, REFERENCE the text of the reference.
9 In the target document, enter the lead text, then select the
format followed by the INSERT button.

Styled features and long documents 335.

 Because the target sub-document cannot find the reference in
the source sub-document, the message ERROR: REFERENCE
SOURCE NOT FOUND displays.

Caution
This error message may cause problems with pagination when
the sub-document is open by itself. You can ignore the problems
if the sub-document is only going to be used in the master
document.

10 Save the target sub-document with the cross-reference. When

you re-open the master document, it will be able to locate the
reference, and the cross-reference will now display instead of
the error message. Pagination problems due to the error
message are also corrected.
If you open the sub-document with the cross-reference from
outside the master document, the cross-reference fields show
the error message again.

Caution
Cross-references are based on the names of sub-documents. If
you change a sub-document’s name – for instance, to indicate a
draft – you have to re-insert any cross-references to it.

336. Designing with LibreOffice

Moving beyond Writer
After ten chapters, the importance of styles in Writer should
be proved beyond any doubt. When you do not use styles, you
waste time and limit your possible actions. It’s that simple.
The following chapters discuss designing using the other
components of LibreOffice for slide shows, spreadsheets, and
drawings.

Styled features and long documents 337.

 12
Designing and delivering slide
shows
The emphasis in designing shifts with Impress, LibreOffice’s
slide show application. As in Writer, templates remain important,
but styles become relatively minor. Instead, the attention turns
from formatting to structuring content – often, to the challenge of
avoiding designing a slide show that is all summary, so that you
are constantly twisting your head away from the audience to read
directly from the slides.

Why are slide shows boring?

Used well, Impress can help a talk succeed. The trouble is,
just as many people never learn how to use a word processor
properly, many fail to understand the uses and limitations of a
slide show.
Information designer Edward Tufte points out that
presentations are designed for a lecture format. In fact, with
comic exaggeration, he likens them to a Soviet May Day rally.
Unless well-planned, a slide show discourages questions from the

Designing and delivering slide shows 339.

audience, as well as conversations between members of the
audience.

A slide from a summary presentation. Slides like this one are only
effective when a presentation is running unattended.

This one-way flow of information tempts many speakers to

believe that a presentation should be a complete summary of
their ideas. Their talks follow from bullet to bullet in the most
unimaginative way possible. In many cases, presenters could have
sent their slides and stayed at home for all that their physical
presence adds.
Sometimes, a summary slide show makes sense – for example,
if the presentation is meant to run unattended as a continuous
loop at a trade show. But many exchanges of information, such as
a planning session or learning a language, fit poorly into a lecture
format.

340. Designing with LibreOffice

 Even more importantly, many – maybe most – ideas cannot fit
into a structure of separate bullet points and slides without
risking over-simplification.
These problems explain why announcing that you will not be
using slides in your talk is an almost guaranteed way to win your
audience’s applause.
Because of these problems, some critics discard the idea of
presentations altogether. But such reactions are too harsh.
Forewarned of the problems, you can still make your slides an
enhancement of your talk, and not something that overwhelms it.

Deciding when to use a slide show

A slide show is a medium with serious limitations. With no
more than 75 words per screen, a slide by itself cannot easily
communicate complex information. Even more seriously, slides
can discourage any exchange of ideas between the speaker and
the audience.
With work, you can reduce these tendencies, although you
will always be straining against them. However, before you
choose to use a slide show (assuming that you have a choice), you
should ask yourself whether one is necessary.

Use a presentation if: Don’t use a presentation if:

• Your purpose is to deliver • One of your goals is
information without audience participation.
interruptions, and/or
without a speaker.

Designing and delivering slide shows 341.

• Audience participation is • Members of the audience
limited. require individual attention
or discussion is important.

• Your topic is simple or well- • Your topic is complex or

unified. abstract, and the connection
between ideas is essential
for understanding the
whole.

• Your topic is technical. • Your topic involves an

understanding or
appreciation of language.

• Your talk includes diagrams • Your audience does not

or illustrations. need diagrams or
illustrations, or you are
presenting them in
handouts or some other
way.

• Your talk has a series of • Your talk is about high-

questions and answers, as in level, abstract concepts.
a vocabulary drill.

• The presentation is going to • You are delivering the talk

run looped and live.
unsupervised.

• You want to emphasize key

words and show how they
are spelled.

342. Designing with LibreOffice

 These guidelines limit slides to information that is hard to
present any other way, in effect using the presentation in the
same way that lecturers once used an overhead projector with
transparencies. If followed, these guidelines should free you from
the obsession of summarizing by encouraging you to add a slide
only when it helps the audience’s understanding.

Designing a presentation
In early releases, LibreOffice provided very few presentation
templates, but recent releases have a range of them and you can
install many more as extensions.
By default, Impress opens with the SELECT A TEMPLATE
window, which you can disable. You can select a template and
use it as provided, modify it to better suit your needs, or start
from scratch.
Regardless of your choice, remember that designing an
effective slide show consists of six steps:
1 Plan the presentation structure.

2 Use the MASTER view to set up features such as backgrounds,

footers, Presentation styles, and transitions.
3 Set the slide design as needed for individual slides.
4 Use the Draw-like features in Impress to create any charts and
diagrams or tables. Alternatively, you may want to insert
charts and diagrams made in another program and imported
in a standard graphics format.
5 Add any notes for your talk.
6 Choose slide show settings from SLIDE SHOW > SLIDE SHOW
SETTINGS.

Designing and delivering slide shows 343.

 In all these stages, keep everything simple and make design
choices to enhance legibility. Just as the average text-based
document rarely needs more than two fonts (plus, of course, their
font styles or weights), so a slide show rarely needs more than one
type of slide transition, or more than a few slide designs.
Each slide show is, in fact, an exercise in design under
restricted conditions. Compared to the possibilities of a Writer
document, a presentation is extremely simple, with limited
choices to make.
For instance, instead of setting up a complex format feature by
feature, you are more likely to choose a slide design. In effect, you
are designing a series of posters that are readable at a distance.
To an extent, you can add some flexibility by adding graphic
text, which is treated as an object instead of as regular text.
However, as you design, take constant reality checks. If you start
feeling that you are struggling against the structure of Impress –
for instance, by trying to wrap text around a graphic, or to set up
text to flow from frame to frame – you should probably give up
and accept the limitations of a slide show.

Tip
If you really want a complex format, design slides as Writer
pages, and then export them to PDF. You will need to be careful
that you don't use font sizes that are too small, but many
alternative presentation apps use PDF slides, and the audience
probably never notices.

Outlining slide shows

People plan in different ways. A tree of main points, mind
mapping, scribbling main points – all can be effective ways for

344. Designing with LibreOffice

different types of people to plan. Too many, though, plunge into
developing a slide show with only a limited idea of the structure.
This approach is inefficient, because it means that you are
trying to get ideas down at the same time that you are structuring,
giving only half your mind to each of two tasks, each of which
deserves your full attention. Instead of thinking and structuring
well, you most likely end up doing both poorly.
Even worse, this practice encourages slide shows that are
complete summaries of your talk.
The best place to begin a presentation in Impress is in the
Outline view. Each top outline heading is a new slide, the others
a bullet point on the slide. You can descend a level in the outline
by pressing TAB, and ascend a level by pressing SHIFT+TAB.

Tip
The OUTLINE view is simple yet powerful enough that you
might consider using it for all your outlining, even for text
documents.

Alternatively, outline in Writer, then transfer the outline to

Impress by selecting FILE > SEND > OUTLINE TO PRESENTATION.
Whichever way you work, do not stop with the outline. When
you have the complete outline, go back and mark the items that
should be enhanced by illustrations or emphasized by giving
them a slide. Aside from structural slides such as the title page,
only these points will have a slide.
No firm rule exists, but if more than about one-third of your
points are listed as having a slide, you are probably still too close
to a summary presentation. Rework the outline until points
marked to become slides are as few as possible.

Designing and delivering slide shows 345.

Use Impress’ OUTLINE tab as the starting point for a slide show.

You should now have an outline consisting consists of only

useful slides, and that you cannot simply read when presenting.

Making a structural template

If you find yourself continually doing similar types of
presentations, you can save structural templates. At the very
least, you might want to save a structural template with the first
few slides. These include:
• The title page: Use the TITLE SLIDE layout, with the
presentation’s title at the top and your name below it. In a
long slide show, you might want title pages for each section.
• Biography: Placed near the start, this slide is not a general life
history, but proof that you are an expert on your subject, and

346. Designing with LibreOffice

 that your ideas are worth listening to. If you have a reputation
among audience members for your expertise, you might omit
the biography.
• Talk outline: A summary of the major sections of your talk
after the title page and biography. You can make it more
informal by wording the sections as questions. Listeners can
follow your presentation better if they have a sense of the
structure of your talk.
• A sub-title page: Sub-title pages can be shown briefly to let
listeners know what stage your talk is at. Usually, if you use
sub-titles, you should also use a talk outline.
• Conclusion: A summary, a call to action, or an example that
emphasizes your main point. Whatever tactic you choose, the
conclusion is your last chance to leave an impression with
listeners.
• Bibliography: In a formal or academic presentation, you may
want to show your sources and comment on them briefly. In
other circumstances, you might omit the bibliography, but, if
you do, be ready to provide your sources for those who ask for
them.
• Question: The last slide in the presentation, the Question
slide indicates that you are opening the topic to general
discussion. Generally, you want to time your presentation so
that the audience has at least fifteen minutes to discuss it.

Tip
Adding tables can be laborious in Impress, so add a slide with a
table in the colors you want.

Designing and delivering slide shows 347.

 Add content as necessary between these slides. Use the
template as the source for other, more specialized templates.

Designing with master slides

Master slides are Impress’ equivalent of Writer’s page styles.
They set the look of your slides in one place rather than for each
slide. However, unlike page styles, each master slide also has its
own set of styles for text.
Most presentations need only a single master slide. However,
you may want design elements such as reversing the background
and foreground colors on title and biography pages to emphasize
their differences from the body of the presentation.

Edit master slides from VIEW > MASTER SLIDE.

348. Designing with LibreOffice

Creating master slides
To create each master slide:
1 Find a background template. You might find one in the
PRESENTATIONS section of the TEMPLATES window, or else create
one using Draw or a third-party application like GIMP.
2 Select VIEW > MASTER SLIDE. The Slide Master view opens and
tools for working with master slides open in the sidebar. The
MASTER VIEW toolbar opens, either docked or floating.

3 Optionally, right-click on the master slide in the SLIDES pane

and select RENAME MASTER. You may also find a RENAME
MASTER icon in the MASTER VIEW toolbar; if it’s not there, you
can add it.
4 In the sidebar, select the slide dimensions from the FORMAT
drop-down list under PROPERTIES > MASTER SLIDE.
5 On the Master Slide tab of the sidebar, click the INSERT IMAGE
button. Use the file manager to select the file for the
background.
6 Optionally, enter information in the footer.
7 Adjust the presentation styles as needed.
8 If you want to create another master slide, click the NEW
MASTER icon in the floating window. When finished, click
CLOSE MASTER VIEW in the floating window.

Choosing slide backgrounds

When you select backgrounds, you face the usual design
challenges of any background (see “Highlighting and setting
backgrounds,” page 130).

Designing and delivering slide shows 349.

 On the one hand, a single-color background risks looking
amateurish. On the other hand, a background full of gradients or
different colors risks leaving large portions of the screen with too
little or too much contrast for adding text. The ideal background
is somewhere between these extremes, with the more
complicated parts of the design either extremely simple, or else
confined to the corners or the top and bottom of the slide, leaving
the center free for displaying text.
Test possible backgrounds against a variety of different
colored texts. Setting the background to be partly transparent can
often make a major difference. Just make sure that the two
contrast, so that the text is as readable as possible.
If you plan to distribute your slides in grayscale, also check
how your slides look in black and white.
Just as importantly, you might want a background that uses
personal or corporate colors.
Finding backgrounds
LibreOffice comes with a selection of backgrounds, in the
Presentations section of the TEMPLATES window and in the
Available for Use section of the MASTER SLIDES deck in the
sidebar. You can get more templates as extensions and find many
more choices with a quick web search, although the quality of the
selections varies. Just because a background is available does not
mean that it is suitable for use.
The most common problem with downloaded backgrounds is
that they are too busy for text to be readable against them.

350. Designing with LibreOffice

 Tip
Remember that you can also use PowerPoint backgrounds. You
should have no trouble importing most PowerPoint backgrounds
– although when you save you are asked if you want to convert
to Open Document Format.

Designing backgrounds
If you are unable to find a suitable background, you can design
your own, or modify an existing one in a graphics editor. Impress
rescales slides as needed, but rescaling distorts not only graphics,
but also text on logos. For this reason, do not rely on rescaling
without thoroughly checking the results.
Impress does its best to adjust images, but to guarantee
avoiding distortion, use one of the standard monitor ratios: 16:9
for wide screens, or 4:3 for older screens.
To add an image as a background, go to SLIDE > SET
BACKGROUND IMAGE on the menu bar and choose the image file
using the file browser.
To design your own backgrounds, go to VIEW > MASTER SLIDE,
and from the menu select SLIDE > SLIDE PROPERTIES > BACKGROUND
tab to choose a color, gradient, cross-hatching, or image tile for the
background for all slides with the same master slide. Click the
GALLERY button on the sidebar for more patterns and images.
If other options fail, you can create your own patterned
background. You can also use the tools on the BACKGROUND tab to
reduce an image’s size, position it, or offset it.

Designing and delivering slide shows 351.

Right-click on the master slide in the workspace and choose PROPERTIES.
On the BACKGROUND tab, you can design and choose a variety of
backgrounds.

Tip
If you need to add a logo to the slide background, consider
placing it where the footer would otherwise go.

Be careful that a background has enough contrast with the

foreground text and is readable. Take particular care when
printing in black and white.
When you are finished designing, save the result by selecting
FILE > TEMPLATES > SAVE AS TEMPLATE. The background is then
available for use in other presentations.

352. Designing with LibreOffice

A tiled background using a brick pattern. The design is intricate, but small
enough that foreground text is readable.

A gradient background. This gradient leaves most of the slide’s center

with a strong contrast, leaving the lesser contrast to the sides where there
is less text.

Designing and delivering slide shows 353.

Adding footer information
All slides include three frames for footers: from left to right,
date and time, optional fields, and slide number.
In practice, only the slide number is used regularly these days,
and, sometimes, not even it. Instead, the footer area often holds a
company logo and ignores the frame altogether.

The footer section of Impress’ MASTER VIEW provides a simple

arrangement for basic information.

Setting Presentation styles

Impress has two types of styles for fonts. Drawing styles treat
text as one feature of objects, and are covered in Chapter 13
when Draw is discussed.
The more common font styles are Presentation styles – the
styles for each level of bullet point on the slides. Most options for
Presentation styles are explained in Chapters 5 and 6 in the
discussion of paragraph styles.
Most people change little except FONTS and FONT EFFECTS.
Unlike styles elsewhere in LibreOffice, you cannot create new
Presentation styles. However, each master slide can format its
Presentation styles differently.
If you want a design that Presentation styles cannot handle,
use a Drawing style.

354. Designing with LibreOffice

The PRESENTATION STYLES dialog window formats the bullets in a slide
show.

Selecting fonts for slides

Since slides are presented at a low resolution, sans serif or slab
serif fonts are generally preferable to serif ones for content. Titles
and sub-titles are generally large enough that they can use any
fonts.
Because backgrounds vary more in slide shows than in text
documents, experiment with the colors on the FONT EFFECTS tab to
get the one that stands out most from the background.
The default font sizes for slides are 44 points for a title and 32
points for an OUTLINE 1 style.
Avoid the temptation to make a font size smaller than the
defaults – a sure sign that you are cramming too many details on
the slide and need to rethink.

Designing and delivering slide shows 355.

Adjusting lists
The Outline styles in Impress default to bullet lists. You can
customize them using the BULLETS, NUMBERING, IMAGE, and
CUSTOMIZE tabs, but, as with list styles in Writer, avoid the retro-
styled IMAGE tab. The CUSTOMIZE tab allows adjustment of spacing
or the selection of custom bullets and numbers or larger-sized
ones for special circumstances.
However, in many cases, the default spacing is adequate. That
means that you may be mostly using the BULLETS and NUMBERING
tabs to set up lists.

Tip
If you do not want lists, set the NUMBER field on the CUSTOMIZE
tab to NONE. This one customization alone adds greatly to the
flexibility of your design.

Tip
As with headings in text documents, restrict your OUTLINE
styles to 3 or 4 levels. You can use some of the rest to create
numbered lists or lines with neither bullets or numbers.

An especially useful style to create is an Impress equivalent of

the paragraph style TEXT INDENT – that is, one with no bullets
or numbers, indented to start where the text in the list starts.

You will not be able to rename the styles, but their limited
number should make them easy to find.

Setting alignment
Presentation styles include an ALIGNMENT tab, so those who
want justified text in slides can have them. However, at the large

356. Designing with LibreOffice

font sizes that slides use, justified lines frequently have too many
hyphens and irregular spacing between words.
Instead of giving yourself one more worry, accept the default
Left alignment for content. Your audience will never notice.

Tip
Titles are centered on slide designs that include both titles and
contents. However, giving them a left alignment simplifies the
design while emphasizing that they belong to the content that
follows.

Setting indents and spacing

Line spacing, indentations, and spacing above and below lines
are all set on the INDENTS & SPACING tab.
These settings are useful for large font sizes, but needing them
in other circumstances is often a sign that you are adding too
many words per slide and risking readability. Nothing requires
that the words fill the entire slide.
Setting wrap
The TEXT tab for Presentation styles sets how content fits into
Impress’ pre-existing frames. Most users are likely to be content
with the defaults – especially since many of these settings can
have unexpected results when you change slide designs.
Deciding on tabs or tables
Mostly, you can let slide designs determine how content is
arranged on slides. If you find the default slide designs too
limiting, you are likely trying to make slides do something that
they were never intended to.

Designing and delivering slide shows 357.

 However, if you decide that you do have a reason for more
complex layouts, you can use the TABS tab for a Presentation
style, or else a table.
Of the two choices, a table positions information more
securely. You can add a table by positioning the cursor and
selecting INSERT > TABLE.
When you add a table, the PROPERTIES pane adds a TABLE
DESIGN pane. Many of the check boxes under TABLE DESIGN can
be useful for formatting, but, unfortunately, the default colors are
unlikely to match your slide show. In particular, the default black
text may need to be changed.

When using Impress’ TABLE DESIGN tab, a plain gray table is the least
garish choice.
You will probably prefer to use the tools on the TABLE toolbar
and in the TABLE PROPERTIES window to complete your table

358. Designing with LibreOffice

design. Add the result to your template for easy reuse in other
presentations.

Selecting a slide transition

LibreOffice offers nearly sixty different transitions available
from the SLIDE TRANSITION tab in the sidebar. You can set the
speed of each transition, and a sound to accompany it, and apply
it to the entire presentation, or just to the movement between two
particular slides.
This variety has a certain fascination, and every now and then
you might find a match between your topic and an available
transition.
For example, CHECKERBOARD DOWN might be suitable for a
slide show that discusses chess or uses a chess metaphor. Or a
small sound clip might emphasize the start of a major topic.
However, obsessing over slide transitions is not the best use of
your time. Few ever notice the visual slide transitions – the
audience will judge your talk on its content and its delivery, not
the transitions. Whenever possible, choose a transition and click
the APPLY TO ALL SLIDES button, and move on as quickly as
possible.

Designing and delivering slide shows 359.

Elaborate transitions are rarely worth the effort to pick them.

Setting slide layouts

Slide layouts are applied to individual slides. On the sidebar’s
PROPERTIES tab, you can select from twelve different layouts, each
with frames for different combinations of text and objects.
The layouts allow you to place text and objects with a degree
of symmetry without requiring much time. In practice, however,
the last six have far too many frames to be useful except for
handouts. At best, they make your slides hard to read.

360. Designing with LibreOffice

 Tip
The frames on slide layouts can be adjusted by dragging on their
edges with the mouse. You can also delete (but not add) frames.

You can use Drawing Object styles to add your own unique
designs, but selecting from the pre-defined layouts is almost
always a better use of your time.

While you can design your own slide layouts, there are few reasons not to
stay with the default ones..

Adding other elements

Impress slide shows are primarily words and images.
However, you can also add:
• Additional images (INSERT > IMAGE).
• Objects (INSERT > OBJECT): A separate LibreOffice file that can
be updated as needed.
• Animated GIFs (INSERT > MEDIA > ANIMATED IMAGE):
Animations can be constructed using SLIDE SHOW > CUSTOM
ANIMATION, setting up the separate images one at a time. They

Designing and delivering slide shows 361.

 are especially useful for before and after pictures when giving
instructions.
• Movies and sound (INSERT > AUDIO OR VIDEO): Both are set to
play only on a certain slide. That means that, if you want a
continuous narration, you must break it down slide by slide,
and set each slide to change only after the narration is
complete. Do this by right-clicking on the slide and filling in
the field SLIDE TRANSITION > ADVANCE SLIDE > AFTER. In this
circumstance, each slide needs its own transition setting.

Tip
Use SLIDE SHOW > REHEARSE TIMINGS to help sync movies and
sounds with your narration.

If adding these elements sounds too complex, don’t worry –

few presentations use them, and you can deliver an effective slide
show without them.

Example: Displaying one line at a time

Many animations are not worth the time they take to develop, although
sometimes they can take the place of before and after pictures.
For example, an animation can show how the links in chain mail slide
into place so that each ring is connected to six other rings.
These uses aside, one of the most common animations is displaying bullet
points or lines one at a time. This animation helps the audience to focus
on the current point being discussed, instead of encouraging their
thoughts to drift to the other points.
Showing bullet points one at a time is especially handy for oral quizzes or
in-class vocabulary reviews, or any sort of question and answer structure.

362. Designing with LibreOffice

You could get a similar effect with two slides, but putting the question
and answer on the same slide helps to keep the answer in context. Just as
importantly, having only two items on one slide lets you use a larger font
size.
To advance the slide show one line at a time:
1 Enter the question or vocabulary item on the first line. Since only two
items are on the slide, you can make the font size much larger than
usual.

2 Select the ANIMATION tab in the sidebar.

3 Select the first line on the slide (the question).

4 In the ANIMATION pane, click the PLUS button. Select ENTRANCE >
APPEAR and check that START is set to ON CLICK.

5 Select the second line (the answer) and repeat step 4.

When you present, click the mouse once to reveal the first line, then again
to reveal the second line.

Designing and delivering slide shows 363.

The ANIMATION pane.

A slide that uses animation to reveal a question in one line, then the
answer in the second line. During the presentation, each line will be
hidden until you click on it.

364. Designing with LibreOffice

 Tip
Make sure that any animations you add are not just bells and
whistles, but illustrate something that cannot be easily shown
any other way. Usually, animations are particularly useful when
you need to show motion.

Preparing notes and handouts

LibreOffice has a console built in that let you read the NOTES
tab as the slide show runs.
Unless you are an accomplished speaker, you will sound
much worse reading your notes aloud word for word. Use them as
a reminder of what you intend to say.

Impress’ NOTES tab is for information you want to remember while

presenting. Put the information in bullet or numbered lists to keep
yourself from reading the notes.

Designing and delivering slide shows 365.

 Handouts are generally copies of the slide show printed out to
give to the audience. Once part of any well-organized slide
presentation, they have been largely replaced in recent years by
putting the entire presentation online.
In theory, presenters can prepare any sort of handout, but,
typically, unless you do a detailed summary presentation,
handouts usually give only the vaguest sense of your talk and are
only minimally useful.

Tip
If you do decide to use handouts and cannot print them in color,
check their appearance in black and white for contrast.

Setting presentation options

Most of the options in the SLIDE SHOW SETTINGS dialog window
are obvious from their description. However, the implications of
some are not always clear:
• Like the HIDE Font effect, the RANGE pane is useful for single-
sourcing similar presentations in the same file. Within the
same presentation, you can store several different shows, each
for a different audience or circumstance.
• Create custom slides shows from SLIDE SHOW > CUSTOM SLIDE
SHOW.

Tip
Until you create a custom slide show, the USE CUSTOM SLIDE
SHOW option is not active.

366. Designing with LibreOffice

SLIDE SHOW > SLIDE SHOW SETTINGS provide the finishing touches to a
presentation.

• PRESENTATION MODE > LOOP AND REPEAT AFTER sets the time
between repetitions of the presentation when it runs
unattended.
• PRESENTATION ALWAYS ON TOP floats Impress above any other
open windows, preventing you from fumbling in front of your
audience, for example when a mouse slips in the middle of a
presentation.
• MULTIPLE DISPLAYS sets the display on which the presentation
runs. Usually, you will need to adjust this option so that the
presentation runs on the projector.
Other options are a matter of taste or necessity.

Designing and delivering slide shows 367.

Saving templates
Designing a slide show is not as complicated as designing a
document that may be printed. The distance at which slides are
seen is very forgiving and obscures details.
All the same, nobody wants to do the same job twice unless
they have to. Save your background and structural templates and
copies of complete presentations using FILE > TEMPLATES > SAVE
AS TEMPLATE. Even if your next presentation is on an entirely
different subject, you can probably reuse large pieces of your
previous presentations and save yourself time.

Delivering a slide show

Slide design can only do so much to make your presentation
effective. You also need to design an effective means of delivery,
to make sure that your delivery does not ruin your work.
In particular, you want to discourage yourself from reading
from the screen, and your audience from reading the screen
instead of paying attention to you.
If you create your slide show as suggested in this chapter, such
problems should be minimized. However, you can reduce
potential problems even further if you:
• Always carry a backup of your presentation.
• Create at least a rough outline of how you will deliver your
presentation if a slide projector is unavailable.
• Reduce your nervousness by arriving and setting up before
the talk starts. The less nervous you are, the less likely you are
to let the limits of the medium control the presentation.
• Know your material well enough that you only occasionally
need to refer to your notes or slides.

368. Designing with LibreOffice

• Continually position yourself (from the audience’s
perspective) to the left of the screen you are using for the slide
show. If you are speaking in a language that reads left to right,
listeners’ eyes are more likely to move toward you.
If you are using a lectern, position it to the left of the screen, if
possible. You do not need to stay in that position, but when
you start to refer to a slide, move to that position, and keep
coming back to it as you continue to discuss the slide. With
any luck, you will draw at least some listeners’ attention
toward you and what you are saying, and away from the slide.
• Move around as you deliver your presentation in order to
distract the audience from looking at the screen. In fact, you
can signal changes of topic by changing your position.
• Get somebody else to change slides, or be well-enough
rehearsed that you can set the slide show to advance
automatically. The less you interact with the slide show, the
less likely you are to start reading slides.
With these hints, you should be able to control your slide
shows, rather than being controlled by them.

Understanding design constraints

Slide shows are a design challenge with well-defined
conditions. Structurally, the conditions mean that building a
presentation is a contest in which you either succumb to the
internal logic of the form or learn how to make the conditions
serve your own purposes. Aesthetically, the conditions mean that
the choices are heavily constrained, which can help you learn
more about design.

Designing and delivering slide shows 369.

 13
Designing drawing content
Draw and Impress share a set of graphic editing tools. These
tools are partly reproduced in the Drawing tool bar of other
applications. Like stand-alone graphic editors such as Inkscape,
these tools work with vector graphics, which are formats stored
mathematically and which therefore can be expanded to any size.
However, you can also import bitmap formats such as .JPEG
and .PNG, which store information as pixels, from editors like
GIMP.
Draw and Impress are not meant to be a complete set of tools
for editing graphics. Designers have done professional works in
Draw, but mainly it is intended for diagrams and simple pictures.
Flow charts, architectural layouts, construction plans,
organizational charts, circuit diagrams, icons – these are the sorts
of documents that Draw, Impress, and the Drawing tool bar are
meant to handle.
You can also import graphics prepared in another application,
and do simple layout. However, if you want to draw or edit an
image, free programs like Inkscape or Krita have more tools.

Designing drawing content 371.

Learning design principles
Diagrams and layout have fewer limits to their design than a
page of text or even a spreadsheet. For this reason, you can work
with them better if you know some basics of design.
Whole books are written about design, and perfecting your
expertise can be a life-long study. However, the best starting
points I have ever seen are the four principles that Robin
Williams uses in her books. See Appendix B, “Learning more
about typography”.
Each principle helps to guide readers through the document,
but their use remains contextual. In some situations, using more
than one principle at once can strengthen the design, but in
others they can work against each other. Sometimes, one
principle may be strong enough that you can ignore other ones.
Williams’ four principles are:
• Alignment: Shows whether elements are or are not connected
by their alignment. For example, list items have a common
alignment, while the return address is the only part of the
letter to have a right alignment because it is unconnected to
the rest of the letter.
• Contrast: Emphasizes differences between elements on a page
by design differences. For example, use a different, larger font
for headings than for body text, or a background color for a
side bar in a financial report that is different from the
background for the body text.
• Proximity: Groups items that are related to each other
together. For example, a document’s title and author might
appear in the same header or footer. By comparison, word
count and the author’s name do not belong in the same header
or footer unless you have no other place to put them.

372. Designing with LibreOffice

• Repetition: Unifies the document by repeating design
elements. For example, if you use a particular shade of blue
for the headings, use the same blue as a background for table
headers and for a line that separates the header from the text.
These principles can be thought of as the tactics of design. To
them, I would add several strategic guidelines. These guidelines
are partly a matter of typographic standard practices, and partly a
reflection of current design trends that show no signs of
disappearing any time soon.
These strategic principles are:
• A simple design is preferable to a complicated one.
• If you don’t have a reason for a design element, delete it.
Replace it with the simplest possible alternative. Sometimes,
you may not need to replace it at all.
• Layout that calls attention to itself is bad layout. Design
enhances documents. It is not an end in itself.
• Modern design favors the asymmetrical rather the balanced
design. This strategy directly contradicts most beginners’
instinct, which is to create a symmetrical design.
There is much more to design than these brief comments. But
learn to apply these ideas, and you will be thinking like a
designer.

Example: applying design

To help make Williams’ four principles more concrete, here are four
illustrations based on the designing of business cards, showing a card
before and after a principle was applied.

Designing drawing content 373.

The After cards, while not necessarily the best of all possible designs, are
at least noticeable improvements over the Before cards.
(Photo credit: Nathan Wilson, “Tagwa”)

Alignment

Before

After

Separating the name and company from the rest of the contact
information serves no useful purpose. The design is simpler – and
therefore stronger – with all contact information in a single column, and
the name and company are still prominent because they are at the top of
the column.

374. Designing with LibreOffice

Contrast

Before

After

Since the design already splits into two columns with two different types
of information, why not make the design more interesting by giving one
column a different background color? Using the red color makes sense
because it is the dominant color in the octopus panel.
In this case, placing the name and company in one column helps because
it provides a top and bottom contrast to accompany the left and right
contrast.

Designing drawing content 375.

Proximity

Before

After

The Before card looks as though the designer thought: “Four pieces of
information? Four corners? Cool!” and plunged ahead. But there is no
connection between the pieces of information and their positioning,
which means that the reader's eyes have no hint about where to start.
Instead, eyes tend to fall on the octopus panel in the middle, which is the
most visually interesting element, but also the one that contains the least
information.
The After card introduces some proximity, placing all the information
together, and giving it a common alignment. Probably, I would use
another principle to improve the design, but at least the After card is less
cluttered and more easily read.

376. Designing with LibreOffice

Repetition

Before

After

Remember the suggestion to limit the number of fonts? Here, the Before
card’s design uses two different fonts and several weights and font sizes.
Probably, the idea was to differentiate different types of information, but
the encoding is not immediately obvious. Even more importantly, the
result is chaotic, even though a right alignment is used consistently
throughout.
By contrast, the After card uses the same font and weight throughout,
with only two different font sizes. The result is far less confusing to the
eye.

Designing drawing content 377.

Finding content
The Drawing tool bar includes a generous supply of
primitives or basic drawing shapes among its icons. They include
basic geometric shapes, callouts to annotate diagrams, arrows, and
even a library of basic flow chart shapes. By grouping or stacking
shapes, you can make more complex shapes as well (see “Stacking
shapes into other shapes,” page 390).
Often, though, you need more than the primitives. For
instance, while the flow chart library contains most of the basic
shapes for creating flow charts, some of the shapes you need may
be available from other buttons on the tool bars. Many people
will need to do a web search to find a guide to when each shape
should be used.
In addition, while Draw and Impress are ideal for creating
diagrams, they sometimes lack the necessary libraries for some
types of diagrams. Some, such as those for architectural or
electrical diagrams, are missing from both the tool bar and the
Gallery. Instead of developing the libraries for yourself, you can
save time by looking for libraries that already exist. Try:
• LibreOffice extensions (see Appendix A, “Downloading
LibreOffice”).
• The libraries of other free-licensed diagram applications, such
as Dia or Calligra Suite’s Flow.
• The OpenClipart site (https://openclipart.org/).
The GALLERY (located in the sidebar) is a convenient place to
store these libraries.

378. Designing with LibreOffice

Producing content
The odds are that if you use Draw much, you will need to
produce your own content. The Drawing tool bar contains
mostly basic shapes like rectangles or ovals, or primitives, as
designers call them.

Tip
The Drawing tool bar is complete in Draw and Impress only.
Writer and Calc versions of the tool bar are missing a few tools
such as connectors.

To draw a primitive, select an item from the Drawing tool bar,

and then move the cursor to the editing window, clicking and
dragging to size the object.
In many cases, an additional tool bar for the shape opens at
the top of the editing window for manually editing the shape.
However, applying a style instead simplifies revisions.

Tip
If you want a square instead of a rectangle, or a circle instead of
an oval, press the SHIFT key as you drag the primitive.

After you insert an object, you can move and resize it by

clicking then dragging it. When you do, a frame with eight
handles appears around the object. As you drag an object, it
appears in snap lines so that you can position it more exactly in
relation to other objects.
Click any other part of the object than the handles, and you
can move an object without changing its size and proportions. If

Designing drawing content 379.

you want to resize the object or change its shape, drag it by the
handles that appear when you click it.

A basic shape being moved. The snap lines are useful for exact
positioning, even with the grid turned off, because you can see the exact
position on the horizontal and vertical rulers.

After you add a primitive, you may need to click the SELECT
button, the first on the left of the tool bar, to restore the drawing
tools to their default state. Otherwise, you might not be able to
add another shape.
For most primitives, these instructions are all you need to
know. However, some primitives require additional notes.

380. Designing with LibreOffice

Dimension lines
Dimension lines show the space between two end points on a
diagram. The end points are emphasized by two guides or vertical
lines, and a measurement is generally used as well.

A dimension line for a three-dimensional shape.

Text inside a shape

Before release 4.4, to add text inside a shape required that you
draw the shape and the graphic text separately, then position and
group them so that the text was overlaying the shape.
However, in 4.4 and above, you can simply select an object
and start to type.
Text outside a shape is still added by creating a text box first.

Connectors
Connectors are lines attached to two objects by means of glue
points. When you move an object that has a connector, the
connector is modified to keep it attached to the object at the other
end.
The object at the other end of the connector remains in place
unless you select both objects, which drags the objects and the
connectors between them as though all elements were grouped.

Designing drawing content 381.

A rectangle attached to two others with connectors. Lines at the center of
one side are connectors, while broken lines are the snap lines for
positioning the object being moved. The paler rectangle indicates the
object’s original position.

Curves and polygons

The CURVES AND POLYGONS button is for drawing freeform
shapes, usually (but not always) with curved sides. Depending on
your selection, a curve can be open, or filled with a color.
When you draw a curve, click once to change directions, and
twice to stop drawing. When you are done, selecting the curve
reveals the points that you can drag on to adjust the shape.

Freeform lines
A freeform line is one that follows the direction of the cursor
as you move it in the editing window. The Drawing tool bar has a
separate button for freeform lines, and it is also the last option
when you select the CURVES AND POLYGONS button.
With patience and practice, you can use freeform lines to
produce more advanced content. However, while you are
learning Draw, you might want to avoid the effort.

382. Designing with LibreOffice

Callouts

Callouts describing some of the basic shapes in Northwest Coast formline

design. In this example, the text blocks have been made borderless. Photo
credit: Todd Stephens, “Jorja and I.”

Callouts are used to indicate and explain parts of a diagram.

They consist of a line pointing to part of the diagram and a text
box, both of which are edited together. The lines act like
connectors, changing shape if you drag the text box around.
By default, callouts have borders and area fills. However,
borders and fills are usually unnecessary. To remove them, right-
click the object and select LINE > STYLE > NONE or AREA > NONE.
These choices also appear in the sidebar.

Designing drawing content 383.

Rotating, slanting, and distorting shapes

Drag on rotation handles to edit a shape.

Draw provides many tools for manipulating shapes. For

example, when you right-click on a shape and select
TRANSFORMATIONS > ROTATE, the selection handles change color.
You can then rotate or slant the object using one of the handles.

Editing points
Points are controls for more complex manipulation of shapes.
Most primitives must be converted to a curve or polygon before
you can use the points tools to change them.
To edit points, select the curve or polygon in the editing
window, then right-click and select POINTS. The number and
location of the points depends on the shape.
The possible manipulations are powerful but complex. If you
are not already familiar with the concepts, you should probably
avoid using them.

The Fontwork Gallery

The Fontwork Gallery is available from the Drawing tool bar
(INSERT FONTWORK button). Fontwork shapes are midway between
manual formatting and graphic styles. They offer a quick way of
formatting graphic text that is not on a flat baseline, but follows a

384. Designing with LibreOffice

curve or other shape. Fontwork is useful mostly for short, highly
formatted documents such as a brochure or newsletter.

Fontwork is a library of formats for editing graphic text.

The Fontwork Gallery includes pre-defined samples. Often,

you will not find exactly the sample you need, but if you pick the
one closest to it, you can modify it. Sometimes, all you need to
modify it will be the standard object tool bar. However, you can
also use the Fontwork tool bar that opens on the bottom of the
editing window when you select the sample in your document.

Designing drawing content 385.

 Begin by double-clicking on the sample and replacing the
default text with your own. You will probably want to replace the
color of the FILL and the AREA as well.
The text can be formatted by clicking it, but often you will
find making changes easier by using the icons on the Fontwork
tool bar:
• FONTWORK SHAPE: Choose the shape of the baseline. The
baseline for text is the imaginary line on which the bottom of
an “m” or “n” rests upon.

Tip
If you need an effect not available from the tool bar and are
having trouble editing, set the shape to flat to make your
changes, then return to the original shape.

• FONTWORK SAME LETTER HEIGHTS: Toggles letters to same

height or restores original letter heights. Setting letters to the
same height is not the same as converting all the letters to
upper case, but produces its own distortions.
• FONTWORK ALIGNMENT: Align the entire sample, or each word.
• FONTWORK CHARACTER SPACING: Sets the spacing between
letters, choosing one of several broad categories ranging from
VERY LOOSE to VERY TIGHT, or choose a custom percentage.
• TILT UP, DOWN, LEFT, RIGHT: Angles the sample. This tool is not
available in some versions of LibreOffice.

Caution
Text pasted into a Fontwork sample is displayed unformatted
until you finish creating the sample.

386. Designing with LibreOffice

 A Fontwork sample ready for the text to be edited,

Tip
You can get quick and interesting effects by using a dingbat set
with Fontwork.

The Knavery dingbat set used with Fontwork.

3D objects
Any primitive can be made into a rotatable 3D object by
selecting it and then clicking SHAPE > CONVERT > TO 3D.
You can do some basic editing on 3D objects by clicking on
them until the handles turn red, then dragging by a handle.

A rotatable 3D rectangle.

Designing drawing content 387.

 A set of editing tools for 3D objects is available by selecting
3D EFFECTS from the right-click menu, or by clicking on TOGGLE
EXTRUSIONS on the Drawing tool bar. You can rotate objects,
adjust depth and perspective, and adjust surfaces.

Caution
Like shadows on text frames, 3D objects are easy to overdo.
Avoid using 3D shapes unless they result in a diagram that is
genuinely easier to read than a 2D one.

Tables
Tables are not on the Drawing tool bar. Instead, use INSERT >
TABLE. The tool is similar to the one in Impress, but defaults to
gray column headings and row. To get more options, either take a
screen shot of a Writer table, or add the Writer table to the Draw
or Impress document using INSERT > OBJECT > OLE OBJECT.

Compared to the table options in Writer, those for Draw and Impress are
basic.

Grouping shapes
As you build a diagram or drawing, you often want to keep
certain shapes together. In an organization chart, for example,
you might want to keep all the positions on the same level
together. By keeping them together, you can move them without

388. Designing with LibreOffice

having to reposition each one individually. In effect, you make a
single shape out of originally separate ones.
In other cases, you might build a complex object from several
simple ones. You would group them together because it is the
complex shape, not its components, with which you work.

Arranging and grouping a cylinder, rectangle, and triangle produces a

stylized pencil, suitable for use as an icon in a document, perhaps for tips.

To group shapes, select them one at a time while pressing the

SHIFT key. With each selection, the frame and handles expand to
include the new shape. Then select GROUP from the SHAPE menu
or the right-click menu from one of the shapes. The option
changes to UNGROUP so you can undo the group.

Tip
If the diagram is too crowded to select shapes to group, try
selecting smaller groups first, then grouping groups. The only
drawback to this technique is that ungrouping may become more
difficult.

Designing drawing content 389.

 Tip
You can edit an individual shape in a group by selecting ENTER
GROUP from the SHAPE menu or right-click menu.

Grouping shapes is an under-appreciated feature of

LibreOffice. Very few people seem to use it, so it is rarely
explained in any meaningful way in manuals or online help,
which in turn means that fewer people consider using it. Yet,
with ingenuity, it can produce results that cannot be created with
any other feature.

Stacking shapes into other shapes

You can build complicated shapes by combining basic shapes
in different ways. All require careful planning.
Often, the effect you want depends on which shape is on the
top or bottom of the stack. Sometimes, two menu selections can
give the same result.

Tip
Using the SHAPES menu to ROTATE, FLIP, or CONVERT shapes
may help to make primitives more versatile. In particular,
converting graphic text to a bitmap may give you more options.

Stacked shapes can be made into a single complex shape in

several ways:
• Overlap stacked shapes, then choose ARRANGE from the SHAPE
or right-click menu. The shape changes as shapes are sent
back or forward in the pile.

390. Designing with LibreOffice

 Shapes become more visible towards the front, and more
hidden towards the bottom, while in between their visibility
depends on the colors and transparencies in the stack.
Once you have the shape you want, group the objects to
preserve the more complicated shape.

A custom drop capital “O” shows how shapes can be stacked into more
complex ones.
This one consists of:
a) A circle with a thick line and transparent area..
b) An archer dingbat set. stacked on top of the circle.
c) Two sword fighter dingbats. The one on the left is converted into a
polygon using the SHAPE > CONVERT sub-menu, then flipped horizontally
to face the other.

• Create a shape from overlapping objects by selecting SHAPE >

MERGE. The result is a shape with the outlines of the objects.
Overlapping areas disappear, and the area color is the fill of
the object at the bottom of the stack.

Designing drawing content 391.

 When shapes are merged, a single new shape results that is easier to
keep track of.

• Create a shape from overlapping objects by selecting SHAPE >

SUBTRACT.

When the circle and a dingbat set are stacked, SUBTRACT leaves a
cutout showing the color of the paper.
The same effect could be made by changing the dingbat’s color, but a
white character on a white background would be easy to lose.

• Create a shape from overlapping objects by selecting SHAPE >

INTERSECT. The top objects and the visible parts of objects
lower in the stack disappear, leaving only the parts that
overlap.

In this example, the circle and the ship are in the middle of the stack,
and the rectangle at the bottom overlaps them on all sides. When
INTERSECT is chosen, the visible portion of the rectangle disappears,
leaving the objects in the middle merged to form a flaming ship.

392. Designing with LibreOffice

Connecting lines and curves
The SHAPE menu arranges items in combinations of general
curves, lines, and shapes. Unfortunately, it can be confusing,
because menu items are arranged in no particular order, and with
few indications of which item is to be used with which shapes.
To connect two lines, select them, then click SHAPE > CONNECT.
Be careful that they are actually touching, because otherwise
LibreOffice draws a connection that may be crooked. To split
lines, click SHAPE > BREAK.
Connect two curves with SHAPE > COMBINE, and split them
with SHAPE > SPLIT.

Caution
Do not try to use CONNECT or COMBINE with closed shapes. If
you do, the result is an abstract shape with few practical
purposes.

Adding images
Draw, Impress, and the Drawing tool bar treat images as
another form of primitive. All standard graphic formats are
supported, but Draw is especially useful because of its support of
vector graphics – images that are stored as a series of
mathematical relationships rather than pixels and are therefore
easier to resize.
On the right-click menu, images have several tools that
primitives lack:
• CROP: Display only part of the image, or resize the image
display. The original picture file is not affected in either case.
• REPLACE: Replaces the current image with another one.

Designing drawing content 393.

• SAVE: Copies the image to its own file.
• COMPRESS: Reduces the resolution, and therefore the size of
the LibreOffice file.
• EDIT WITH EXTERNAL TOOL: Opens the image in the system’s
default graphics editor.

Designing fills
Object areas can be decorated with different types of fills:
colors, gradients, hatchings, and bitmaps. These fills can be used
to create an abstract design for custom Impress slides or for filling
drawing shapes.
From a Drawing style, you can only use the fills that are
already defined for LibreOffice as a whole. However, you can
customize styles from FORMAT > AREA within Draw. When saved,
your custom designs become generally available in LibreOffice.
Designing area colors
A color added in FORMAT > AREA becomes available for use
throughout LibreOffice. Earlier versions had a similar page in
TOOLS > OPTIONS, but that page is no longer there.

Tip
Color definitions are ways of blending a few colors to make the
rest. RGB uses red, green, and blue, CMYK cyan, magenta,
yellow, and black. The CMYK model is generally considered
the most accurate.

The fact that RGB is used online and CMYK for hard copy
explains why printing exactly the colors you see online can be
challenging. There is no exact correspondence between the two
color models, so results can be different between the screen and
paper.

394. Designing with LibreOffice

FORMAT > AREA > COLORS creates new colors with the RGB color model
for use throughout LibreOffice.

If you need to add a specific color, sample it in a graphics

program to get its RGB definition. For example, in the screen shot
above, the blue color indicated has a definition of 114-159-207
on a scale of 256.

Tip
If a color is important in the document – perhaps because it is a
corporate color – give it a suitable name, such as DEVILFISH
SOFTWARE RED, so you can locate it quickly.

Your custom color fills are stored in the /user/config directory

of your personal configuration path in a file with an .soc
extension (StarOffice Colors).

Designing drawing content 395.

Designing area gradients
A gradient is a gradual transition from one color to another. In
between the starting color and the ending color are a number of
intermediate colors, or increments.
Gradients are a popular choice for presentations and desktop
wallpapers on computers. With a little experimenting, you can
create an original, abstract design that is suitable for almost any
subject matter.
Drawing Object styles use only gradients already defined in
LibreOffice. You can create a custom gradient from FORMAT >
AREA > GRADIENTS in the main menu.

FORMAT > AREA > GRADIENT creates backgrounds in which one color
shades into another. In Writer and Calc, right-click and choose AREA >
GRADIENT.

396. Designing with LibreOffice

 LibreOffice gradients can have up to nine settings. At first
glance, these settings may seem mathematically complex for such
a simple goal. However, you can ignore all except the colors and
still produce an original gradient.
Although you can create more complex designs with the other
fields, the most productive attitude is to regard the other fields as
options you can play with and mix and match, rather than
anything with which you have to deal.
LibreOffice supports several types of gradient:
• LINEAR: The gradient is horizontal, starting with the first color
at the top and ending with the last color on the bottom.
• AXIAL: The gradient is horizontal, starting with the first color
in the center and ending with the last color at the top and the
bottom.
• RADIAL: The gradient is diagonal, starting with the first color
in the lower right and ending with the second in the upper
left.
• ELLIPSOID: The gradient is diagonal, starting with the first color
in the lower right and moving through intermediate colors in
curved bands to end with the second color in the upper left.
• SQUARE: The gradient is diagonal, starting with the first color
in the lower right and moving through intermediate colors in
square sections to end with the second color in the upper left.
All gradients are defined by the colors they begin with (FROM)
and end with (TO). Gradients can also have a border, at which the
current color partially fades, as well as an angle.
Some gradients, such as RADIAL, also have an X (horizontal)
and Y (vertical) offset from the upper right-hand corner. Use the

Designing drawing content 397.

preview to experiment until you get the positioning that you
want.

Gradients available in LibreOffice. From top left: LINEAR, AXIS,

RADIAL, ELLIPSOID, SQUARE.

Tip
The illustrations above are based on gradients with an angle of
0, and no X or Y offset. If a gradient starts in a different
position, it will look slightly different.

Your custom gradient fills are stored in the /user/config

directory of your personal configuration path in a file with an
. sog extension (StarOffice Gradients).
Designing area hatchings
A “hatching” is a pattern of vertical, horizontal, and/or
diagonal lines. Their usefulness is easy to under-estimate, but
they can sometimes be effective fills, especially when printed in
black and white.

398. Designing with LibreOffice

FORMAT > AREA > HATCH creates linear hatching fills for use throughout
LibreOffice.

Designing area patterns

“Pattern” in this context refers to tiles that are used to create a
repeating pattern. You can build your own tile, pixel by pixel in
the Pattern Editor, or load a fill from another source.
Your custom pattern fills are stored in the /user/config
directory of your personal configuration path in a file with an .sob
extension (StarOffice Bitmap).

Designing drawing content 399.

FORMAT > AREA > PATTERN creates tiles used for a quick area fill.

Gathering shapes
Draw is limited compared to stand-alone graphic editors like
GIMP or Krita. However, as you find or develop shapes to use in a
project, you may discover that Draw and the Drawing tool bar
are more versatile than you first imagined. Draw’s usefulness, like
any graphic editor’s, depends on how familiar you are with it and
how much effort you are prepared to make.

400. Designing with LibreOffice

 14
Drawing styles and charts
Drawing styles (also known as graphic styles and drawing
object styles) define the characteristics of a drawing object in
Draw or Impress. Some are not available in any other LibreOffice
application, even though you can use the Drawing tool bar to add
manually many types of drawing objects in Writer and Calc.
Typically, you apply a drawing style after inserting a shape.

Tip
The Drawing tool bar in Draw and Impress has icons that it does
not have in Writer and Calc. In particular, the Draw and Impress
version has CONNECTORS.

Another point to be aware of: Drawing styles are for

formatting only. They do not affect shape or size. That means, for
example, that an OBJECT WITH SHADOW style can format both a
rectangle and other shapes or varying sizes and dimensions.
This chapter concludes with a discussion of how to design
graphs and charts using LibreOffice’s Chart sub-system.
Available in most LibreOffice applications, Chart remains one of

Drawing styles and charts 401.

the few tools in the entire office suite that uses manual formatting
only. Charts are important in business, academic, and scientific
documents, and are highly customizable.

Planning drawing styles

Like other LibreOffice applications, Draw includes pre-
defined styles. Some of these are for graphic text, but others are
for general categories of drawing objects, such as OBJECT WITH NO
FILL AND NO LINE. The available styles have changed from those in
earlier versions of Draw and are now more logical and generic.
Creating your own styles is often more convenient, even if
you start by modifying a pre-defined style. The best way to begin
is by breaking down the diagram into its basic elements. Then
assign one graphic style per element.
For instance, if you are building an organization chart, you
might have a style called POSITION BOXES to indicate each job. If
you want to apply this style somewhat differently – perhaps
using different colored shapes to indicate different departments
or the project lead – use the INHERIT FROM and NEXT fields on the
ORGANIZER tab to create subordinate styles with names like
POSITION BOX or PROJECT LEAD.

Applying drawing styles

Unlike styles in Writer, drawing styles can only be applied
after a shape is added to a document. Insert one of each of the
shapes your document uses, then choose the style to apply from
the STYLES AND FORMATTING window.

402. Designing with LibreOffice

The Styles and Formatting tab in the Draw sidebar shows the hierarchy of
drawing styles.

Once you have added the style to one type of object, you can
copy and paste to create others of the same type, or else use EDIT >
DUPLICATE.
Besides copying, the DUPLICATE window can enlarge and color
copies, and offset them, so you can make a copy as you need it.
When working in Draw or Impress, you might get into the habit
of replacing CTRL+C with SHIFT+F3 for copying.

Drawing styles and charts 403.

EDIT > DUPLICATE saves copying and pasting shapes.

Formatting drawings
Shape choices determine each object’s features. Many are
similar to those found in other styles, but in a diagram they
become more important.
For example, you may have few needs for a border or
background in most Writer styles, but in Draw such
characteristics (named LINE and AREA) become a primary concern.
As you work with shape characteristics, you will soon find
that many of the available settings apply only to certain shapes.
Others you may choose to ignore, either because the defaults are
good enough for your purposes or because your drawing has
nothing that could be affected by the setting. For example, if your
drawing has no text, any text setting is irrelevant.

404. Designing with LibreOffice

 Tip
For detailed information about the ALIGNMENT, FONT, FONT
EFFECTS, INDENTS & SPACING, and TABS tabs, see Chapters 3-5.
Details about style features unique to drawing styles follow in
this chapter.

Setting line formatting

Lines distinguish the outline of a shape from the area. They
are approximately equivalent to Borders in other LibreOffice
applications, although the features are not identical.

The LINE tab is analogous to the BORDERS tab in the styles for other
applications.

Drawing styles and charts 405.

 If lines are irrelevant to your design, set the LINE STYLE to
NONE, and you only need to be concerned about area formatting.
In addition to choosing the color and thickness of an object’s
outline, the LINE tab also includes options for arrows and line
ends for both ends of a line. By default, arrows and line ends have
the same proportions as the line itself, but you can make them
thinner or thicker as you choose.

Tip
The Drawing tool bar also has block arrows that you can group
with a line.

Customized lines are stored in the /user/config directory of

your personal configuration path. The .sod file contains custom
line formats, the .soe file custom arrows.
Setting dimension lines
You can modify dimension lines from the DIMENSIONING tab of
a drawing style. The LINE fields let you adjust the dimension line
and the guides in relation to each other, although you will
probably have little need to change the defaults.
You are more likely to want to change the legend, or
measurement, positioning it in one of the ten default position
shown in the right column of the DIMENSIONING tab.

Tip
The AUTOVERTICAL check box centers the legend vertically, the
AUTOHORIZONTAL horizontally. Both must be turned off if you
want to position the legend anywhere except the default central
position.

406. Designing with LibreOffice

 Tip
If unit measurements are displayed, changing the unit may be a
convenient way of changing the scale of a drawing. The
alternative is to use TOOLS > OPTIONS > LIBREOFFICE DRAW >
GENERAL > SCALE > DRAWING SCALE.

Defining dimensioning in a graphic style.

To draw a dimension line, click the LINES AND ARROWS button

on the Drawing tool bar and select DIMENSION LINE from the
available tools.
Setting connectors
Connectors join shapes together. When you move an object
that has connectors, the connectors are modified to keep them
attached to the objects at the other end.

Drawing styles and charts 407.

 Objects at the other end of the connector remain in place
unless you select both objects, which drags the objects and the
connectors between them as though all elements were grouped.

Connectors are lines attached to two objects by means of glue points.

They keep objects attached to each other even when one is moved.

To add a connector, click the CONNECTOR button on the

Drawing tool bar. You can choose between four kinds of
connector:
• STANDARD: A connector with horizontal and vertical lines,
possibly with one right angle in it. A Standard connector is
useful in crowded hierarchical diagrams, in which several
objects are subordinate to one above them, such as directors
below executive officers in a company chart.
• LINE: A connector with a small segment at each end for adding
a change of direction. Use Line connectors in diagrams that
are even more crowded than the ones in which you use
Standard connectors.

408. Designing with LibreOffice

• STRAIGHT: A connector that consists of a single vertical or
horizontal line. Straight connectors are by far the easiest ones
to use, but you may not always have the space for them.
Extend a connector to the center of one side of a shape, and it
immediately converts to a Straight connector.
• CURVED: A connector with one curved line. Curved
connectors are most suitable when you want an informal look
to a diagram, perhaps to suggest that the relationships you are
illustrating are approximate.

The four types of connectors.

All connectors can end with an arrow or an open or filled

circle. You can adjust the shape of a connector by selecting it and
dragging on its handle, or by moving one of the objects to which it
is attached. You can also select the GLUE POINT button on the
Drawing tool bar.
To adjust a connector, go to the CONNECTOR tab of a drawing
style. For a Line or Straight connector, you can also adjust the
line skew – that is, the length of the line segments included – and
the horizontal and vertical space for the line segments.

Drawing styles and charts 409.

 These settings are especially useful when repositioning has
twisted connectors out of shape, or when you are adding the final
touches to a diagram and trying to make everything consistent
and uncluttered.
Even so, you may sometimes save time by deleting existing
connectors and adding new ones.
Setting area options
The area of a drawing object style can be formatted with
COLORS, GRADIENTS, HATCHINGS, and PATTERNS. To add a fill to a
style, go to the AREA tab and select the type of fill. See Chapter 13
for more details.

The AREA tab for graphic objects is roughly equivalent to the

BACKGROUND tab in some other types of styles. Formatting an object's
area means choosing a fill for it.

You are restricted to the fills already defined in LibreOffice.

However, you can use Draw to define custom fills.

410. Designing with LibreOffice

Setting shadows
Shadowing was popular in the early 1990s in graphic design.
It is less common today, but can still be useful in creating a quick
illusion of three dimensions.
The SHADOWING tab lists settings to help customize a shadow.
In many cases, all you need is to check the USE SHADOW box.
However, you can also set the shadow’s farthest distance from the
object, the position of the shadow in relation to the object, and
the color and transparency of the shadow for a subtler touch.
Generally, a shadow’s color should be black or a shade of gray.

Shadows are easy to over-use, but can create a 3D look.

Tip
The default position for the shadow is the lower right, assuming
a light source in the upper left. If you change the shadow’s
position, use the same position for other shadows throughout the
document.

Drawing styles and charts 411.

Setting transparencies
Transparencies are useful for creating matching shades based
on the same color, as well as for creating complex designs with
overlapping layers.

Transparencies expand your range of color.

The TRANSPARENCY tab expresses transparency as a

percentage, with 0 being an unmodified or solid color, and 100%
being completely transparent.
The TRANSPARENCY tab also includes options for creating a
gradient, similar to the options on the AREA > GRADIENT tab.

Setting text characteristics

The characteristics of graphic text are mostly the same as for
text documents, with a few minor changes. Regardless of whether
you are using regular or graphic text, the typographical
conventions remain much the same.

412. Designing with LibreOffice

For Tab See Notes
ALIGNMENT “Selecting an No options in Draw for
alignment,” page 110. last Justified line.
FONTS “Choosing basic fonts,” Choose fonts at least
page 77. the size of body text, if
not slightly larger for
diagrams.
Sans serifs often make
for clarity. If possible,
use a font used
elsewhere in the
document.
FONT EFFECTS “Font effects,” page 76. In most cases, ignore all
except FONT COLOR.
INDENTS & “Setting horizontal Use indentations,
SPACING spacing,”page 116. especially for the first
line, instead of tabs.
TABS “Setting tab stops,” Awkward with graphic
page 133. text, and not really
needed with the right
spacing. Consider
alternatives, such as
tables, especially when
the design is frequently
changing.

Drawing styles and charts 413.

Using text animation
From the TEXT ANIMATION tab in a drawing style, you can set
LibreOffice’s equivalent of the BLINK and MARQUEE HTML tags,
either making text blink off and on, or scroll in one of several
ways in the text frame. The tab includes settings for the direction
of scrolling, the number of repetitions, and other settings.
However, LibreOffice users should learn from web designers’
experience and avoid text animation in almost every
circumstance. Blinking and scrolling are usually the antithesis of
everything that a design element is supposed to do – instead of
enhancing content, they distract readers’ attention from it. In
fact, they have little purpose except to call attention to
themselves.
If you must use text animation, be merciful and set it to run
only a few times before stopping. Having readers disagree with
the opinions you express can be a natural consequence of writing,
but annoying readers with your design is simply a poor tactic.
Why undermine yourself?

Avoid text animations as obsolete.

414. Designing with LibreOffice

 Creating a flow chart
Flow charts appear to have been invented several times between 1850–
1930. They are meant to be informal documents, but you can vastly
improve their look if you use basic design principles such as repetition
and alignment to organize them.
As with any diagram, you can plan a flow chart by placing elements
outside the margin of the document until you are ready to use them.
However, sketching the design on a piece of paper might be just as easy.
Either way, when you are finished planning, turn on VIEW > GRID >
SELECT GRID and SNAP TO GRID, and follow these steps:
1 Decide what basic shapes you need, and create a style for each. In this
case, I needed a style for:

• Flow chart objects (Decision, Action, and Start/Finish). I only need

one style, because drawing styles are not concerned with shape. I
borrowed rounded rectangles from the tool bar’s RECTANGLE button.
• Text.
• Lines starting with an arrow.
• Lines ending with an arrow.
• Lines starting and ending with an arrow.
Styles should include settings for font effect, lines, area, and possibly
transparency.
2 Create one each of the basic flow chart elements. Using the grid, size
and position each shape and apply the style.

Drawing styles and charts 415.

 Tip
Expect to have to reposition objects, and possibly resize as well.
In either case, you may come to appreciate the advantages of
styles.

3 Copy and position each flow chart element as needed, making one
column for DECISIONS (diamonds) and another for ACTIONS (large
rounded squares). Use the grid to help keep elements horizontally and
vertically aligned.

4 Add text to each object by typing inside it.

5 Add lines with arrows and their captions. Keep the line length and
position as regular and as few as possible, unless you are trying for an
informal look.

A flow chart for deciding whether to use an idiomatic word.

416. Designing with LibreOffice

Adding charts and graphs
A chart or graph is a visual comparison of two or more pieces
of data, such as the unemployment rate over time, or the
distribution of results by population.
Charts and graphs are created in LibreOffice with the Chart
sub-system, by selecting INSERT > CHART.
In Calc, adding a chart opens a wizard that guides you
through formatting a chart. Unfortunately, in Writer, Draw, and
Impress, you must format manually without styles or much of
anything else to help you.
Except in Calc, the Chart sub-system works much like the one
for FONTWORK. When you select INSERT > CHART, LibreOffice adds
a default chart to your document – specifically, a 2D bar graph.
The chart uses the default chart colors, which you can adjust
in TOOLS > OPTIONS > CHARTS > DEFAULT COLORS or by right-
clicking on the chart. By changing the colors used in a chart, you
can make the chart fit with other decisions about color in the
document, or reflect corporate or project branding.
All features in a chart are editable, but LibreOffice supplies
no means to save formatting choices. If you want a chart to look
similar to another one, you must copy and paste.

Drawing styles and charts 417.

Formatting charts

A chart is ready to edit when it has a gray border.

To edit the look and structure of a chart, click twice until the
chart is outlined by a thick gray border.

Tip
When the gray border does not show, you can edit the separate
elements of the chart, but not the general structure.

The default chart can be repositioned and resized by dragging

on its handles. You can insert your own data by selecting CHART
DATA TABLE from the right-click menu.

Tip
The default chart includes three Y axis values. However, many
charts only require one.

418. Designing with LibreOffice

Selecting chart types

Charts are available in ten types, many in both 2D and 3D.

You can change the default chart type by selecting CHART TYPE
from the right-click menu, and choosing from the graphs shown.
The available charts are:
• COLUMN: The data displays in vertical columns.
• BAR: The data displays in horizontal columns.
• PIE: Chart data is depicted as wedges in a round shape. This
chart type is popular for financial data and business reports.
• LINE: A graph of data points. If the data points are meant to
show a progression (for instance, over time), then the points
are usually connected.
• AREA: A line graph with several lines, and the space between
lines shaded in with colors.

Drawing styles and charts 419.

• XY (SCATTER): A type of chart for comparing the results of two
or more trials of an experiment.
• BUBBLE: A graph that displays three dimensions: the X and Y
axis and the size of the bubble that depicts the data point.
Bubble graphs are a variation of an XY chart.
• NET: A chart in which every X axis has a separate Y axis. As a
result, results are not a point or a line, but an enclosed shape.
This type of chart can be difficult to read for an audience not
accustomed to it.
• STOCK: As the name implies, a graph often used to show
changes in stock values. It is described technically as a
depiction of changes in the values of the X axis.
• COLUMN AND LINE: A chart that offers both a column and line
representation of the same data.
Most of these types of charts have sub-types as well. Often,
the differences in the sub-types are subtle, so you may have to
look twice to see the difference. The same is also true for the
three dimensional options for most types of graphs, which can
have a SIMPLE or REALISTIC rendering.
Stick with the chart types you understand – if you don’t know
the uses of a graph, or are unable to see what is useful about a
sub-type, you shouldn’t be using it. The majority of users will
probably use the COLUMN, BAR, PIE, or LINE formats for comparing
data along two axes.
Three-dimensional charts were a new feature in early office
suites. For a time, they completely replaced two-dimensional
charts, just as justified alignment replaced left alignment, simply
because they were new and seemed sophisticated.

420. Designing with LibreOffice

Choosing 2D or 3D

Two-dimensional and three-dimensional charts.

However, in the last decade or so, a reaction has set in. Part of
the reaction is a fad for two-dimensional icons and widgets on
mobile devices, and part is that 3D graphics are no longer a
novelty.
Whatever the reason, in many circles today, 3D graphs are
seen as a sign of slickness that offers nothing that a 2D graph does
not. An audience of developers may see a 3D chart as proof that
style has triumphed over substance, while an audience of
marketers might see a 2D chart as a lack of sophistication.

Editing graphs and charts

By clicking on a part of the graph or opening the right-click
menu, you can manually edit all of its pieces.
The pieces differ with the type of graph, but may include:
• LEGEND: The key that describes what the colors refer to.
• WALL: The background.
• GRID: The lines against the wall that make values in the axes
easier to read.
• AXES: The horizontal and vertical values.
• TITLE: The name of the whole graph.

Drawing styles and charts 421.

Editable parts of a chart.

Charts has no means of saving designs for later use, so copy

and paste instead. If you use charts regularly, consider a template
with samples of the charts you are most likely to use.

A 3D pie chart. The time spent writing is cut from the rest of the pie in
order to emphasize it.

422. Designing with LibreOffice

 Creating a chart
In Calc, creating a chart is easy; adding a chart opens a wizard that lets
you work through the stages of formatting.
However, in the rest of LibreOffice, creating a chart can be confusing at
first, because the options change with how you click on the chart.
Following these steps should help minimize confusion:
1 Either accept the default colors, or change them at TOOLS > OPTIONS
> CHARTS > DEFAULT COLORS. LibreOffice uses the colors in the
order they are listed under DEFAULT COLORS.

Caution
If you are printing in black and white, test colors for contrast.

2 Select INSERT > CHART. LibreOffice adds a 2D bar chart.

3 Click twice on the chart so that it is surrounded by a gray border, then

open the right-click menu to select CHART TYPE and choose the chart
design to use.

4 Right-click on the chart when the gray border is visible and select
CHART DATA TABLE to enter the data points for the chart.

5 With the gray border still visible, click an element to edit. When an
element is selected, the right-click menu contains a menu item for
formatting it, such as FORMAT LEGEND.

6 Click on the chosen elements or data series to edit their appearance.

Drawing styles and charts 423.

7 With some chart types, you can select a data series, then right-click to
select ARRANGEMENT. For example, if you are using a pie chart, you
can select a data series and drag it out of the pie.

8 Click the chart so that the gray border disappears and the object
handles appear. You can drag on the handles to move or resize the
chart, or right-click to change features such as alignment, or edit the
Line to create a border or Area to change the background.

Separating analysis and creativity

Using styles for diagrams means finding a new way to work.
Instead of plunging directly into designing, it requires taking time
first to think about what you need.
At first, this new work flow may make you impatient.
However, by taking more time to plan before you begin, you will
save time if – as is likely – you modify your design while you
work.
Even more importantly, planning styles first helps to separate
the analytic aspects of work from the creative ones. If you try to
structure as you create, you are trying to think in two different
ways at once, which means that you are probably doing both
inefficiently. By contrast, starting with styles helps you to
separate these two ways of thinking – and, chances are, do each
more efficiently.
If you have any doubts of the advantages of this work method,
try it several times. Then try creating a complicated diagram
manually, or even a chart. Once you are used to the new way of
thinking, you are likely to have far fewer false starts than if you
design manually – and, probably, wish that Chart was designed
for styles, too.

424. Designing with LibreOffice

 15
Spreadsheet design
Spreadsheets are the electronic descendants of accounting
ledgers. Yet although accounting ledgers are traditionally almost
as regular in their formatting as text documents, the idea of styles
has never caught on in spreadsheets as strongly as in word
processors. There are several probable reasons for this difference:
• Spreadsheets’ forty year history is hardly enough time for
design conventions to develop and become accepted.
• Spreadsheets are valued more for their functional computing
power than their formatting.
• Spreadsheets are not frequently revised.
• Spreadsheets often grow as needed, because they are mostly
used online. It is no accident that one of the two types of
styles in Calc is concerned with ways of squeezing the
spreadsheet on to a printed page – a special use case that is of
no relevance to many users.
• Calc styles are given only two sample defaults, making it
harder for users to imagine how they might be used.

Spreadsheet design 425.

 Don’t mistake me – styles remain useful in Calc, especially for
spreadsheets that are in constant use and maintained over long
periods of time. Cell styles in particular are essential building
blocks for a well-organized, self-automating spreadsheet.
Still, spreadsheets have less established forms than text
documents. However, you may still want to apply the basic
principles of design to your spreadsheet designs. See “Learning
design principles,” page 372.

Planning spreadsheets
Spreadsheets have a way of growing with no direction, but the
more advanced planning you do, the more easily you will be able
to find your data as you need it.
As with text documents, begin by designing a default
spreadsheet template with corporate or personal branding colors
and fonts. Then, using the default template as a basis, branch out
and develop additional templates for the kinds of spreadsheets
you use regularly.
A Calc spreadsheet includes one worksheet by default. Begin
with the first worksheet, then add other sheets as necessary, right-
clicking on the tabs to rename them to help navigation.

Tip
You can change the default number of sheets in TOOLS >
OPTIONS > LIBREOFFICE CALC > DEFAULTS.

For example, if you are a computer programmer, you might

start with a general list of potential employers, then eventually
add another sheet specifically for high-tech employees.

426. Designing with LibreOffice

 Similarly, if you are regularly manipulating data, you will find
that the pivot tables you create are added by default to a new
sheet. You can change the location of pivot tables from DATA >
PIVOT TABLE > INSERT OR EDIT > PIVOT TABLE LAYOUT > SOURCE AND
DESTINATION.

Building lists and data collections

Most spreadsheets are either a text-based list or a data
collection. Spreadsheets are usually not categorized in this way,
but the distinction is useful when you are designing one.
A list spreadsheet could be as simple as a To Do list. It might
include when each task should be completed, or be a project
management plan that includes the stages of the project, who is
assigned to each task, and the dependencies that must be
completed before another task can start. This kind of spreadsheet
is often overlooked, but it is one of the more commonly used
types.
A data collection is what most people usually think a
spreadsheet is. It is a collection of information together with
calculations that help to analyze the data.
Such a collection could be as basic as a personal monthly
account that lists income and expenses, or as complex as a
collection of raw data whose average or future growth is
projected. Occasionally, you see a data collection arranged to
serve as a tutorial.

Tip
If a data collection has more than a few hundred entries, you
may decide to switch the information to a database.

Spreadsheet design 427.

 Current versions of Calc can contain over a million rows and
1024 columns, on each of up to 10,000 worksheets. However, a
database remains a more efficient way of storing, retrieving, and
manipulating data. The tradeoff is that a database can require
expert knowledge to make the most of it.

With both types of spreadsheet, you should generally organize

by column. Not only is that the convention, but, if you plan on
printing, columns are more trouble to position on the page than
rows.
As you plan:
• Decide which worksheets require what kind of design. For
example, a sheet containing raw data needs a design that is
straightforward and perhaps a single page, while a sheet
containing analysis may require several sheets and not only
headers, but also longer notes to guide users.
• Group related information on the same worksheet.
• Leave space for labels – that is, cells that describe each data
array. Labels assist users, and are often recognized
automatically by Calc.
• Use borders, backgrounds, and empty cells to set apart one
data array from another.
• Follow the basic principles of design described in Chapter 13
– formatting related types of information the same way and in
the same order, and positioning them close together.
For instance, if you are recording monthly sales figures, the
text of cells that display the sales figures should have the same
format. Cells for totals might be a different color, and should
always be placed close to the sales figures they tally.

428. Designing with LibreOffice

 Always, your main concern should be to make different
categories of information easily distinguishable, structuring so
that information is easy to absorb.
Do not worry about abstract aesthetics. Not everybody is
equipped to admire the design of a text document, but very few
have ever considered admiring the design of a spreadsheet.
Unlike text documents, spreadsheets remain extremely practical.

Tip
Unless you can visualize the format clearly, start the design by
sketching out its approximate layout on a piece of paper. The
more complex a spreadsheet is, and the longer the spreadsheet is
likely to be used, the more important planning becomes.

Designing spreadsheet lists

A list usually consists of cells formatted for text, not numbers.
Basically, a spreadsheet list is a more powerful version of a table
in a text document: its structure is meant to make information
easier to scan, and to help users see relations between items that
would be harder to see if the document consisted only of text.
For a list, assign individual colors to either the tasks or the
people assigned them. To create sub-lists, set off cells from the
rest of the sheet by blank cells, borders, or backgrounds. Make the
colors as different as possible to make the sheet readable at a
glance.
You might also want a sign-off column, either for initials or a
signature, or perhaps a check mark borrowed from a dingbat font.
Lists are likely to make little use of functions. When they do,
their functions are apt to be simple ones from the Mathematical
and Statistical categories, such as SUM or AVERAGE.

Spreadsheet design 429.

 Exercise: A trip-planning list
Don’t under-estimate list spreadsheets. Even without functions, they can
still be useful, and they are probably the most common type of
spreadsheet used
Take, for example, this simple trip planner:

A list spreadsheet for planning a trip. Sub-lists are separated by blank

cells, borders, and title, and each day of the trip is broken down into half-
hour sections. Large and colored headings help to organize information as
well.

To create this trip planner:

1 Format the DEFAULT and HEADING 1 cell styles. Make the HEADING 1
style’s FONT SIZE and FONT COLOR different from the DEFAULT
style’s.

430. Designing with LibreOffice

2 Merge the cells in row 1, and enter a total, using the HEADING 1 cell
style.

3 Using empty rows and columns as separators, create ranges of rows

for Summary, Planning, and Packing, increasing row and column
dimensions as necessary. Use the HEADING 1 cell style for headers,
and the cell’s collective BORDER tab to put a box around each clump
of information. Consider adding backgrounds, and new styles based
on DEFAULT to go with them.

4 To the right of the first column, add a summary for each day of the
trip, and a more detailed itinerary below. Copy and paste as needed.

The resulting spreadsheet can be filled out on the computer, or on

separate pages for planning and each day.
You may have to customize the resulting template for each trip, but the
result will still be quicker than starting from scratch. Much of the
Planning and Packing sections can be reused, while recycling the calendar
only requires a change of dates.

Designing data collections

Calc includes over 455 different functions for manipulating
data, and more functions are available as extensions. Many
functions are deliberately compatible with Microsoft Excel, so
that Calc spreadsheets can be easily shared.
In addition to functions, plan for column headings, totals, and
the results of the functions you will need. Format the cells for raw
data and those for manipulations of the data differently.
Functions for data collections vary widely. Each has its own
set of input variables, some entered manually and others that can
be entered by dragging with the mouse on selected cells.

Spreadsheet design 431.

 You can enter variables manually from the FORMULA BAR at the
bottom of the tool bars. However, the easiest way to add a
function is to use INSERT > FUNCTION, which opens a wizard for
building functions and previews answers and errors.
The window is also useful for browsing functions to discover
the ones you need. You can choose a category to browse, or press
a key to jump to a category starting with that letter.

The Function Wizard (INSERT > FUNCTION) is the easiest way to construct
a formula.

Exercise: Creating a mark book

A common misconception is that you need to be a mathematical wizard to
take advantage of spreadsheet functions. In fact, functions can have
simple everyday uses.

432. Designing with LibreOffice

As an example of an everyday use for a spreadsheet, here are the steps to
create a teacher’s mark book, starting with the basic setup:
1 Format the DEFAULT cell style. In addition, create TOTAL, HEADING 1,
HEADING 2, and VALUE styles. Use FONT SIZE and FONT COLOR to
distinguish them from the DEFAULT style.

2 Merge columns A-G in row 1, and use HEADING 1 to enter the course
name.

3 Set column A to a width of 12 centimeters, and column H to 1

centimeter. Column H will be used as a spacer.

4 Use HEADING 2 to name columns A-G. Starting from column A, the

headings will be: STUDENT, ESSAY 1, MIDTERM, ESSAY 2, EXAM,
TOTAL, and GRADE.

5 Use the VALUE style to format the row below the headings to enter
the value of each assignment. Make the total out of 100 so that it is a
percentage.

6 For convenience, enter the grading scale in column I. It is already set

apart by the thin column H, but you can use the borders and/or
background to further set it apart.

7 Format the TOTAL and GRADE columns with the VALUE cell style.

8 Leave enough rows for the number of students, then use the EXAM
column below the list of students for the labels of any statistics you
want to set. The TOTAL column will contain the actual statistics. A
row separates the figures from the raw data in the sample, but you
could use other formatting to set them apart. In the sample, I have
used AVERAGE, MEDIAN, MAX, AND MIN.

Spreadsheet design 433.

An excerpt from a data collection spreadsheet – specifically, a mark book
for teachers.

Adding data and functions

When the basic layout is finished, enter the marks and functions:
1 Enter all the marks for each student.

2 In the TOTAL column for the student at the top of the list, add the
function =SUM(INPUT RANGE). In the sample, the function is
=SUM(B5:E5).

3 Drag on the lower right corner of the cell in the first student’s TOTAL
column until you reach the end of the list. This step copies the
function to each row and automatically updates each copy of the
function so it works on its row.

4 Use the scale to assign the grade for each student (there is probably
some way to convert the percentage automatically, but it is not
immediately obvious).

5 Enter the function for each statistic. Use whatever functions you
choose, but the sample uses:

• The average mark: =AVERAGE(INPUT RANGE).

434. Designing with LibreOffice

• The mark midway between the high and the low: =MEDIAN(INPUT
RANGE).
• The highest mark: =MAX(INPUT RANGE).
• The lowest mark: =MIN(INPUT RANGE).
In each case, the input range is the contents of the TOTAL. column.
6 In the next column, add the grades beside each statistic.

Delete the marks and the student names, and you can save the spreadsheet
as a template.

Adding spreadsheet tools

Discussion about spreadsheets usually centers on functions.
That emphasis is natural enough, but, as you plan, consider
the available tools as well. Often, they can be as important to your
purposes as the functions themselves.
Tools are scattered through the main menus, but most are
located in the TOOLS and DATA menus. Taking a look at their
purposes can help you plan your spreadsheets.
Some tools – DETECTIVE, GOAL SEEK, MULTIPLE OPERATIONS,
PIVOT TABLES, and SOLVER – are for use as you work with a
spreadsheet. For that reason, they are not detailed here. By
contrast, the ones here can be added to the spreadsheet as you
design, either because they make using a sheet easier or because
they need space allocated to them on a sheet.

Hiding and showing cells

Each row and column heading includes options to HIDE or
SHOW. Changing these options can temporarily reduce
complexity when you scan or study data, or select the data to
print to hard copy.

Spreadsheet design 435.

A hidden column – in this case, Column B, which is for contracts paid in
Canadian dollars. You can still tell that the Anita Dibley contract is in
Canadian dollars, because its listing under American dollar is blank.

Grouping and outlining cells

As an alternative to hiding individual cells, you can select
DATA > GROUP AND OUTLINE > GROUP to hide multiple cells. This
feature clumps rows and columns together. Creating a group
adds a tree structure to show the group by expanding the tree, or
hide it by collapsing the tree.

Tip
Groups can be nested within groups.

Here, Columns B and C are grouped, allowing them to be hidden or

revealed together. The control for expanding and hiding are in the top
margin on the left.

Filtering data
DATA > AUTOFILTER and DATA > MORE FILTERS change the data
displayed in a selection of cells. Filtering does not delete the data
in the selected cell – only which cells are displayed.
By filtering, you can focus on data more carefully by hiding
information not immediately needed, or prepared different

436. Designing with LibreOffice

versions of a spreadsheet for printing or presenting to different
audiences.
Calc includes three types of filter. The standard and
advanced filters can be useful, but the most convenient filter for
everyday use – especially in lists – is often AutoFilter.
Adding an AutoFilter requires a cell at the top of a range of
cells, where it adds a permanent drop-down list for filtering. This
cell can contain a heading, or, if you prefer, remain blank so that
the control in the lower right corner is more obvious.
AutoFilters have several advantages:
• They are always on the sheet, next to the data they filter.
• Alone among filters, they can show empty and non-empty
cells.
• The menu includes buttons for hiding and unhiding cells.
• You can create a standard filter from them.

Spreadsheet design 437.

DATA > MORE FILTERS > STANDARD FILTER sets the Columns and
conditions with which to filter information.

DATA > MORE FILTERS > ADVANCED FILTER reads filters from the
spreadsheet. Otherwise, its options are similar to those of a standard
filter.

438. Designing with LibreOffice

DATA > AUTOFILTER adds a convenient drop-down list for sorting a range
of cells.

Creating subtotals
SUBTOTAL is actually a function listed under the
Mathematical category of functions. However, because of its
usefulness, the function has a graphical interface accessible from
DATA > SUBTOTALS.
To work, SUBTOTAL requires a data array – that is, a selected
range of cells with a label. When applied, it adds labels for
subtotals and totals.

Spreadsheet design 439.

 Using the SUBTOTALS window, you can select data arrays, then
choose a statistical function to apply to them. You select where
the labels for totals appear from the GROUP BY drop-down list.
Typically, the labels appear in the column to the left of the
data array, with the totals below the data array. You may need to
add a column to your data to hold the totals unless you have
planned for them.

DATA > SUBTOTALS adds totals to a data array. However, it needs to be set
up in the correct position.

For efficiency, you can choose up to three groups of data

arrays to which to apply a function. When you click the OK
button in the window, Calc adds subtotals and grand totals to the
selected arrays.

440. Designing with LibreOffice

 Tip
Edit the labels for totals by modifying the RESULT and RESULT2
cell styles so that they stand out and readers can go directly to
them.

You can also arrange the subtotals according to choices made

on the window’s OPTIONS tab, including ascending and
descending order or using one of the pre-defined custom sort lists
defined in TOOLS > OPTIONS for Calc.

DATA > SUBTOTALS performs a function upon a data array, and adds
labels for the totals.

Defining cell content and adding help

DATA > VALIDITY defines the type of contents that can be
entered in a cell. Basically, it is a form of online help, either to aid
your memory, or to assist others who are using the same
spreadsheet.
You create your own messages. Imagine what you might need
to know if you are using the spreadsheet six months from now,
and provide as much detail as possible in the message. Point form
or short phrases may be cryptic to your future self and other
readers, so test your messages on somebody else.

Spreadsheet design 441.

 Be as concise as possible, and revise your messages carefully.
Remember, though, that too much detail is more useful than too
little.
Contents for VALIDITY can include:
• The range and type of contents that can be entered (on the
CRITERIA tab).
• The purpose of the cell contents.
• The proper formatting of contents.
• An explanation of the content rules you decide upon for the
cell.
• A definition of invalid content, whether it will be accepted,
and how to correct it (on the ERROR ALERT tab).
• A macro that starts when invalid content is entered.
Unless otherwise stated, most of this information can be
entered on the INPUT HELP tab.

Tip
A validity rule is part of a cell’s content. Selecting FORMAT or
DELETE ALL from the DELETE CONTENTS window removes it.

To copy a validity rule along with the rest of the cell’s content,
use EDIT > PASTE SPECIAL > PASTE FORMATS or PASTE ALL.

442. Designing with LibreOffice

DATA > VALIDITY is a form of online help.

You create your own Validity error messages. At the very least, explain in
the first sentence what is wrong and in the second what needs to be
corrected.

Creating pivot tables

A pivot table is a rearrangement of an existing range of data to
give new insight.
At its most complicated, a pivot table can be used to analyze
raw scientific data, showing the correlations between different
fields. However, it can also be used in simpler cases, such as sales
figures.

Spreadsheet design 443.

 To create a pivot table:
1 Select the range of data on the spreadsheet, including the
headings.

A data range showing tourism expenditure, according to nationality,

gender, and age, selected to create a pivot table.

Tip
You can use a database as the source for a pivot table.

Select from the main menu DATA > PIVOT TABLE > INSERT OR
EDIT, then select DATA SOURCE REGISTERED IN LIBREOFFICE
from the SELECT SOURCE dialog, then make a selection from the
SELECT DATA SOURCE dialog.

2 Click DATA > PIVOT TABLE > INSERT OR EDIT and choose
CURRENT SELECTION. The PIVOT TABLE LAYOUT window opens.
The headings in the original data are listed in the AVAILABLE
FIELDS pane. They can be added to any of the other panes, but
not all combinations will be relevant or make sense.
Visualizing the results of a pivot table takes practice. You may
need to experiment to get the results you want.

444. Designing with LibreOffice

The layout window for a pivot table.

3 Drag the available fields to the other panes to change their

relationships. You do not need to use all the available fields.
Choices are:
• FILTERS: Creates a drop-down list to filter what the Pivot table
displays.
• COLUMN FIELDS: Creates columns from an available field.
• ROW FIELDS: Creates rows from an available field.
• DATA FIELDS: Information to manipulate in the pivot table.
You need at least one column or row field, plus at least one
data field. Filters are optional.
4 Click the OPTIONS arrow to select any other layout options.
TOTAL COLUMNS and TOTAL ROWS are selected by default.

Spreadsheet design 445.

5 If necessary, click the SOURCE AND DESTINATION arrow to make
any modifications. For example, by default, a new pivot table
opens in a new sheet called something likE $'PIVOT
TABLE_SHEET1_1'.$A$1, which would create a new sheet and
place the first cell of the pivot table in the first cell of the new
sheet. However, you might give the destination a more
meaningful name, or place the pivot table on the same sheet as
the source data.
6 Click the OK button to create the pivot table. The pivot table
appears in the destination entered by default or edited by you.

A pivot table that takes the source data and rearranges its information
to show tourist spending by gender. Here, those tourists who identify
as female are shown to spend the most money when traveling.

Tip
Pivot tables are uneditable, and do not refresh automatically.
Click DATA > PIVOT TABLE > REFRESH to update pivot tables
with the latest data or to correct a mistake.

Deciding on the styles

Calc offers only a few sample cell and page styles. However,
you can create other styles. An analysis of your purposes can help
you decide what styles to create. For instance, consider a separate
cell style for:

446. Designing with LibreOffice

• Column headings.
• Sub-totals and/or totals.
• A different cell color for each task or person in a list.
• Each cell of a different category on the NUMBERS tab for cell
styles.
• Cells to be hidden when printing.
Page styles set how sheets are printed. They define page
dimensions, format headers, footers, and margins, and how wide
sheets are printed on multiple pages. Often, you may need only
one style, selecting colors for branding or other purposes and
choosing the tactic for printing hard copy. At other times, pages
may be color coded by purpose or customer, or include a sheet
used as a title page.

Applying spreadsheet styles

To apply cell styles, you can select:
• Individual cells or a range of cells.
• One or more columns.
• One or more rows.
• An entire sheet (select the cell above row 1 and to the left of
column A).
When the cells are selected, click the style in the STYLES AND
FORMATTING window in the sidebar.
To apply a page style, you technically need only to place the
cursor anywhere on a sheet. However, to avoid printing blank
pages, place the cursor in the last cell that has content, then click
the style in the STYLES AND FORMATTING window. All cells above
and to the left of the selected cell are formatted using the style.

Spreadsheet design 447.

 Tip
Page styles are not visible in the editing window. You can view
them from FILE > PRINT PREVIEW.

Setting up cell styles

Cell styles are the spreadsheet equivalents of paragraph styles
in text documents. In other words, they are basic units for format
and content.
The resemblance is so close that over half the tabs on cell
styles are nearly identical to those on paragraph styles. You can
read more about paragraph styles in Chapters 4–7.

Selecting fonts for spreadsheets

Choose fonts and font effects by the same criteria as you
would for text documents. Most spreadsheets should follow the
suggestions for online documents in “Other considerations for
fonts,” page 79.
A common fault in spreadsheets is to choose a small font size.
However, a font size that prevents easy reading goes against the
main purposes of putting information in a spreadsheet.
Generally, you should also avoid old style figures in favor of
lining (monospace) figures. Old style figures, each with its own
baseline, can be easier to read in text documents, but modern
readers are likely to find them harder to read in rows of figures.

448. Designing with LibreOffice

Left: Old style figures. Right: Lining figures. Old style figures look more
polished in text, but are harder to read than lining figures in a spreadsheet
or table.

Selecting borders
Borders in spreadsheets help to mark data arrays as separate
from other figures on the sheet. However, blank cells or
backgrounds can be used instead. Similarly, thicker than normal
borders can set off totals or statistics from raw data.
You rarely see spreadsheets using any color except black for
ordinary purposes, regardless of whether the sheet is used online
or printed to hard copy. Other colors can be easily confused with
the colored lines that Calc uses for display purposes but does not
print.

Selecting backgrounds
Unlike text documents, spreadsheets use backgrounds freely
for purposes such as classifying tasks or who does them in a list.
Sometimes, they distinguish calculations and formula results in a
data collection.
Go wild – if the background makes a useful distinction, no
one will care if it is gaudy.
However, make sure that backgrounds contrast with
foregrounds, so that cell contents can be easily read.

Spreadsheet design 449.

Setting how numbers are handled
By default, cells are set to contain any sort of information.
Alphabetical characters are assumed to be text, aligned to the left,
and numbers are assumed to be ordinary numbers, aligned to the
right for convenience when reading.
Other formats, such as dates or currency, must be specifically
set from the NUMBERS tab.
When you select another format, the behavior of the cell
becomes fixed. For instance, selecting TEXT means that numbers
are treated as text characters, which might be handy in a list of
numerical addresses that you did not want aligned to the right.
Similarly, selecting DATE means that today’s date is always
presented in the format you select. Currency and other symbols
are added automatically, depending on the format.
The available formats depends on the category. However,
note that:
• Formats are often available with and without decimal places.
If you choose a format without sufficient decimal places, your
spreadsheet may read inaccurately when you use formulas.
• The default Date format for US English is MM/DD/YY. For
instance, 01/31/22 is January 31, 2022. However, this format
means that whether the month or the date comes first is
unclear for days 1-12 of any month.
To avoid ambiguity, use the format YYYY-MM-DD, which is
becoming increasingly common as an international standard.
• Most time formats assume a 24 hour clock, unless they end
with PM.

450. Designing with LibreOffice

The NUMBERS tab sets how cells treat numbers (and text, too). The
available default formats depend on the locale to which LibreOffice is set.

You should also keep in mind the general options that may or
may not apply to a particular number format option:
• Make sure you set the number of decimal places that you
need. Otherwise, Calc rounds up or down, which may display
imprecise results for formulas.
• Leading zeros set the digital places to the left of the decimal
point. The default is 1, which means that you need to change
it to 2 if you want to display 01 rather than 1.

Spreadsheet design 451.

• Negative numbers are red. This is a traditional setting for
accounting, but make sure that your cell backgrounds and font
color do not conflict with it.
• Thousands separator: Whether a character will be used to
separate numbers larger than a thousand for easier reading.
The separator used depends on the locale. In English locales,
the separator is usually a comma (for instance, 1,000), but in
German it is a period (1.000) and in France a space (1 000).

Setting alignment
The ALIGNMENT tab has the options you might expect: LEFT,
CENTER, RIGHT, and JUSTIFIED, all of them referring to how a line is
positioned in a cell. However, the alignment options also include
FILLED, which repeats contents so that the entire cell is filled, and
DISTRIBUTED, a close relative of JUSTIFIED that distributes contents
evenly across the cell. It also contains the equivalents for vertical
alignment.
These options are useful if you care about the look of your
spreadsheet. However, in practice, most people are focused on
the information rather than the design, and tend to leave the
defaults unchanged. In practice, most users are interested in the
other options on the tab.

452. Designing with LibreOffice

The ALIGNMENT tab also sets hyphenation and text wrap inside cells.

Rotating text
Settings for how text displays are on the ALIGNMENT tab for cell
styles. TEXT ORIENTATION is useful largely for headings. By angling
headings, you can often squeeze the entire text into a column that
would otherwise be too small for it.
You can adjust text with the dial counter, or more precisely by
entering an angle in the DEGREES field.
Rotate text as little as possible, turning the TEXT ORIENTATION
dial counter-clockwise, so the text starts at its lowest point. More
than a 45-degree angle should generally be avoided, and even
more so VERTICALLY STACKED, which displays text vertically,
character by character. Rotating text may allow more to be
squeezed in, but often at the cost of reduced readability.

Spreadsheet design 453.

 You can adjust rotated text by selecting its REFERENCE EDGE –
that is, where the text starts. TEXT EXTENSION FROM LOWER CELL
BORDER gives you the most space, and is usually a reasonable
default. At times, TEXT EXTENSION INSIDE CELL may be reasonable,
since it confines text to within the cell border, although it can
quickly become too small to read easily.

Rotating text. From left to right: a 45-degree angle, a 90-degree angle,

and vertically stacked.

Adding hyphenation and text wrap

Like text orientation, hyphenation and text wrap settings are found on the
ALIGNMENT tab.

When spreadsheets first became popular, most users were

satisfied with text appearing in a single line, extending into the
next cell. This presentation is known in LibreOffice as text
extension. It is still the default way to display cell contents, and
die-hards insist that it is the only way.

454. Designing with LibreOffice

 Tip
Text extension is used regardless of whether text is rotated or
not.

Text extension overlaps text into other cells as necessary.

However, the ALIGNMENT tab provides alternatives that many

people today prefer.
The first is SHRINK TO FIT CELL SIZE. This option is useful
largely for contents that almost but not quite fits into a cell.
However, be careful: even with a zoom, it can result in text that is
too small for easy reading.
A more readable solution is WRAP TEXT AUTOMATICALLY. This
option makes text in a cell act like text in a Writer document,
making it easier to read at the cost of changing the dimensions of
the cell, which may not be practical if the cell needs to align with
other cells.
Wrapped text can also cause unusual breaks in words.
Generally, if a cell is set to use text, you should check
HYPHENATION ACTIVE as well to make the text more readable.
Together, these two choices make cell content visible at a
glance. They work best online, where cell width is not an issue,
and you can use as much space as you want.

Spreadsheet design 455.

TEXT WRAP presents spreadsheet text in a more conventional format than
text extension, displaying contents without spilling over into another cell.

Setting cell protection

Cell protection either protects cells from editing or causes
Calc to skip over flagged cells when printing or performing other
operations.

The CELL PROTECTION tab helps to control editing.

• The CELL PROTECTION tab offers four options:

• HIDE ALL: Formatted cells are protected from editing, any
formula in them is hidden, and the cells are not printed.
• PROTECTED: Formatted cells cannot be edited.
• HIDE FORMULA: Any function in a formatted cell is invisible.

456. Designing with LibreOffice

• HIDE WHEN PRINTING: The contents of formatted cells are not
printed. You should only make this choice when you know
that you will always be printing the spreadsheet in the same
way.

Caution
Cell protection is not activated unless you select TOOLS >
PROTECT SHEET. Selecting this item a second time turns off all
protection features.

Caution
Cell protection is useful mostly against accidental changes. For
example, the spreadsheet might be used by clerks who need to
enter data into specific cells, but who should not change
anything else.

If you are seriously concerned about preventing other users from

editing your spreadsheet, password protect the document, and/or
limit the permissions on the file.

Setting conditional formatting for cells

Conditional formatting in Calc automatically changes the
appearance of selected cells. The automatic format can be the
application of a cell style, or of an indicator that visually presents
data in much the same way as a graph or a chart.
Conditional formatting is an extension of sparklines, which
are small, undetailed graphs popularized by the information
designer Edward Tufte. You can create a sparkline by shrinking a
chart and removing the legends. However, conditional formatting
gives other graphical representations of data as well.

Spreadsheet design 457.

 To use Calc’s conditional formatting, select the cells to work
with, then click FORMAT > CONDITIONAL > CONDITION, and select an
item from the sub-menu. All types of conditional formatting can
be configured from CONDITION. COLOR SCALE and DATA BAR are
shortcuts to options available under CONDITION. If necessary, you
can edit the range of cells affected at the bottom of the
CONDITIONS window.

FORMAT > CONDITIONAL FORMATTING > CONDITION > CONDITION.

The CONDITIONS area has three fields. From left to right, they
are:
• The general condition.
• The filter to refine the condition.
• The numerical value that must be present to activate the
conditional formatting.

458. Designing with LibreOffice

 By changing the general condition, you can set the following
types of conditional formatting:
• CELL VALUE: Applies the selected cell style when the
numerical value is met. This type is useful for emphasizing
target values in a range of cells. It cannot be used for cells
formatted for text.
• FORMULA IS: Applies the selected cell style to cells in which
the designated formula is used. The formula is typically one
that viewers of the sheet wish to find easily.
• DATE IS: Applies the selected cell style to cells in which the
designated filter is used, from Today to Last Week. This type
is especially useful for locating recent information.
• ALL CELLS > COLOR SCALE (2 ENTRIES). Creates a gradient of two
colors. The fields refer not to formulas, but to target values.
The color scale is especially useful for showing high and low
values in a range of cells at a quick glance.

A color scale, with yellow indicating the lowest value and cyan the
highest. Mid-ranged values are different shades of green.

• ALL CELLS > COLOR SCALE (3 ENTRIES): Like a color scale for two
entries, except that a third target value is added, often a
midpoint using the value PERCENT.
• ALL CELLS > DATA BAR: A gradient that creates a graph-like
representation, typically showing how far above or below a
cell value is of a designated norm.

Spreadsheet design 459.

 A data bar in which high values are indicated by more blue,

• ALL CELLS > ICON SET: Adds a set of icons to summarize the
contents of cells. For example, traffic icons or emoticons might
designate if results were above, below, or equal to projections.
Choose from a drop-down list of available icons.

An icon set annotates results. Here, emoticons indicate that two

results were neutral, and two results better than neutral.

Once you have set conditional formatting, you can select

MANAGE from the sub-menu to see a summary and add, edit, or
remove the selections.

Tip
If conditional formatting does not work, check that DATA >
CALCULATE > AUTOCALCULATE is selected. It should be on by
default.

460. Designing with LibreOffice

Using page styles
Page styles tend to be used less in spreadsheets than in text
documents because spreadsheets are mostly online documents.
Often, spreadsheets are made with no thought of them
conforming to any printed page size.
Moreover, if you plan to print to hard copy, you may want to
pay more attention to typographical standards than you would if
a sheet is used entirely online. Users tend to apply the standards
of text documents to any printed page, and what is acceptable
online may not be on paper.
In addition, you may need to worry about how the sheet will
look when printed. Often, colors that contrast well look too
similar when reduced to black and white.
Conversely, if you are printing in color, a contrast that works
well online may look distractingly garish on paper, because the
color models for printers and monitors are different.
To help cope with such considerations, Calc page styles have
many of the same options as Writer documents, giving you the
versatility you need for printing well-formatted sheets. Borders,
backgrounds, headers, and footers can all be designed with the
same considerations as pages in a text document, although if the
printed spreadsheet is meant for informal use, you might omit
headers and footers. For more detailed information, see
“Planning page styles,” page 190.

Printing sheets
Online, the dimensions of a spreadsheet have few restrictions.
However, translating a spreadsheet from online to hard copy is
frequently an onerous task, full of false starts as you try different
solutions.

Spreadsheet design 461.

 One way to make printing easier is to keep careful track of
column widths to make sure that they fit comfortably on a page.
For instance, allowing for margins of 2.5 centimeters on portrait-
oriented, letter-sized paper, columns should have a combined
width of no more than about 17 centimeters.

The SHEET tab has options for printing to hard copy.

Unfortunately, this practice would limit you to no more than

half a dozen columns, which is often impractical. Sometimes, you
can hide some columns or print only selected columns, but not
always. In many cases, page styles are the only alternatives.
Most of the options for spreadsheet pages are similar to the
page styles for text documents (see Chapter 8). However, the
SHEET tab has options that deserve a closer look.

462. Designing with LibreOffice

Scaling spreadsheets
The scaling options on the SHEET tab should be your starting
point with page styles. It may even be your only point.

The SHEET tab includes options for fitting a spreadsheet on a printed

page.

Begin by experimenting with the REDUCE/ENLARGE PRINTOUT,

entering either a percentage of the original size, or FIT PRINT
RANGE(S) TO WIDTH/HEIGHT or FIT PRINT RANGE(S) ON NUMBER OF
PAGES.
However, for all of these solutions, you are limited to no more
than about one-third reduction in size if you are interested in
readability. Anything more, and the contents will be less than 8
points high, and hard to read. At 300dpi or less, the result may
not be printable, either.
For many spreadsheets, the most practical solution is to select
from PAGE ORDER, choosing TOP TO BOTTOM, THEN RIGHT or LEFT TO
RIGHT, THEN DOWN. These selections can be confusing, but the
diagrams beside the selection may keep things clear.

The page order options on the SHEET tab help to squeeze a spreadsheet
onto a page.

Spreadsheet design 463.

 If you continue to have problems, you might be able turn off
the printing of elements such as comments or charts to save
space.

Caution
Whatever combination of solutions you decide to use, plan and
test in advance. Don't rely on printing a spreadsheet five minutes
before you need it unless you have done so before and know
how to get the results you want. You are likely to need several
tries to print satisfactorily.

In the end, you may even want to tape pages together to

reproduce the spreadsheet more accurately in hard copy.

Other options
The SHEET tab’s PRINT pane includes selection boxes for what
is printed. Most of these options are of limited use, except
perhaps for comments on unfinished drafts or trial attempts at
printing – after all, if the spreadsheet doesn’t need objects, why
add them?
The two possible exceptions are COLUMN AND ROW HEADERS
(the alphabetical identifiers for columns and numerical ones for
rows) and GRID (the cell borders). Printing them is only a matter
of turning options on, but people have strong feelings about the
choice.
Many users – especially inexperienced ones – feel that a
spreadsheet requires borders for each cell and the row and
column headers, and that a spreadsheet simply isn’t a spreadsheet
without one.

464. Designing with LibreOffice

 Others argue that such things distract from the contents.
Sometimes, too – for instance, when you import into Writer –
you may want the cells to look like a table rather than a sheet.
How you format printed spreadsheets may be a matter of
personal preference or corporate style. Or perhaps you have a
practical reason for certain choices. For example, if you are
writing a how-to about using a spreadsheet, you may want to use
snippets of spreadsheets that look like an online spreadsheet. No
firm conventions exist, except for one: once you have chosen the
formatting, use it consistently.

Printing with (above) and without (below) cell borders and row and
column headings.

You may especially want spreadsheets to look like tables when

you use Calc to create a tutorial because, when you already have
a collection of pictures and charts on the sheet, the grid may do
nothing except add to the clutter. Like printing in general,
whether you print the grid or the header may be an exercise in
trial and error.

Spreadsheet design 465.

Formatting spreadsheets automatically
When you want to format only part of a sheet, you can use
FORMAT > AUTOFORMAT STYLES. However, many of these pre-
defined styles look dated, such as the 3D ones.
Instead, use the ADD button to apply your own formatting.
You may find AutoFormat more useful than using page styles for
creating a general look.

Tip
You can apply an AutoFormat to an entire sheet by clicking the
cell above the row 1 header and to the left of the column A
header.

AutoFormats are an alternative to page styles for formatting some aspects

of a spreadsheet.

466. Designing with LibreOffice

Adding other elements
Spreadsheets are primarily lists or ledgers. However, you can
also add other elements, such as pictures, charts, and formulas,
especially when you are turning a spreadsheet into a tutorial.
Unfortunately, just as with frames in text documents,
additional elements in Calc do not always stay where you place
them. Even worse, nobody has found a workaround for the
problem in Calc.
The best advice is to follow the precautions suggested in
Chapter 10 for Writer frames. If you still have problems, consider
not adding any other elements. They are almost always
enhancements rather than necessities on a spreadsheet.

Working with conventions

Spreadsheet conventions differ greatly from those of text
documents. Some of these conventions are expectations, worth
noting because they affect how others will judge your work.
Other conventions, however, are what have been found to
work – usually, when reading a spreadsheet online.
However, despite the differences from text documents,
spreadsheets still benefit from the use of styles. You may not use
the page styles regularly, but cell styles – like all styles in
LibreOffice – will make revising your spreadsheets and using
them over long periods of time much easier than manual
formatting.

Spreadsheet design 467.

 16
Putting everything together
Using styles, templates, and the tools associated with them
makes formatting and writing a document easier. However, the
last edit before you finish a document is also an important part of
the design and composition processes.
By the time you finish designing and writing even a short
document, you have probably lost perspective on it. You may be
so familiar with the document that you are unable to notice if you
have expressed everything you meant to say. In extreme cases,
you may loathe the sight of the document.
Yet regardless of how you feel, you need to regain perspective
so you can do the final edit.
One way to regain perspective is to get a second opinion from
someone who is interested in your topic and willing to take the
time to read thoughtfully and respond honestly.
However, in practice, such people are rare. You might have to
settle instead for reading your document aloud, reading it from a
printout, or leaving it alone for several days. All these possibilities
can help to distance you from your work enough to criticize it.

Putting everything together 469.

 Start your final edit systematically, focusing first on content,
then moving on to structure and design. The headings in this
chapter will give you a checklist of steps to follow.

Checking copy
Ask yourself: Is your discussion complete? Are there opposing
views you could include? Counter-arguments that you could
answer? Terms, assumptions, procedures, or background that you
have left out?
Are paragraphs the right length? If you are publishing online,
then paragraphs should be no more than four or five sentences
long for easy comprehension. In hard copy, paragraphs can be
longer, but only if you need the extra length for a detailed
argument. A paragraph that takes up more than half a page
should usually be divided up regardless of the publishing format,
because extremely large paragraphs can make readers skip them.
Check, too, for clarity. The ultimate test is to read a passage
out loud at a regular, medium-quick pace. If you have trouble
reading the passage, or a listener has trouble understanding it,
you may want to reword or shorten sentences.
As you get down to the word level, consider whether every
piece of jargon is necessary. Does a word convey precisely what
you mean, or could you use a better one? Are you using the type
of language and jargon that your readers would use?

Your favorite things

All writers have their favorite words and expressions. As you
work, develop a list of yours, and watch for each of them as you
edit copy. Consider alternatives so that they do not become too
noticeable.

470. Designing with LibreOffice

 You may also find that you have become proud of some
expressions or a single passage. Some writers believe that “a
writer’s best friend is the waste basket” and delete anything they
are too proud of because they cannot be objective about it. That
is probably extreme in some cases, but you should certainly
consider the possibility.

Checking structure
How does your document develop? If you suspect that readers
may not read the whole thing, you will want your most important
points first, so they at least are read. By contrast, if you can count
on readers to finish the document, you can put your most
important point last, building up to it with less important points
first.

Tip
If the document uses headings, select VIEW > NAVIGATOR or
press the F5 key.

Using the Navigator's controls, you can move headings and the
sections of body text below them anywhere in the document
much more quickly than you can copy and paste.

If you change the position of topics, their opening and closing

sentences and transitions may need rewording.

More formal documents will probably have an opening

paragraph or passage that sets up the topic and gives a little
background. They will also have a conclusion that emphasizes
the main points or what readers should get from your discussion.
This exercise can show you the value of choosing accurate
headings. The more accurately that a document’s headings reflect

Putting everything together 471.

its contents, the more easily you should see the order in which
passages should go. When the order looks clear to you, the
chances are that it will be logical to readers, too.
One more point: LibreOffice automatically names tables,
images, and other elements with numbered names like TABLE11 or
IMAGE22. A counsel of perfection would be to give each element a
distinctive name to help clarify the structure of the document.
However, giving names to every element is hard work. You
may decide to give distinctive names to only key elements or
those you may wish to be able to find again quickly. If your
document will be published online, you may find some SEO
(search engine optimization) advantages as well.

The Navigator is an ideal tool for restructuring material if your document

has headings or descriptively named objects.

472. Designing with LibreOffice

Checking design
To check your design, you can print out a copy, export to PDF
or EPUB and view that, or use BOOK VIEW (found on the Status
Bar) or FILE > PRINT PREVIEW to see how the document will look
when printed. Better still, use more than one method. No matter
how carefully you have developed and modified your template, it
is still easy to miss problems in the design unless you look at
pages as a whole – or, better, in a two-page spread.
Among the things you should check are that:
• Page styles follow in the order that you intend.
• Page numbering and different page numbering styles begin
where you intended.
• New chapters start on a right page. PRINT PREVIEW does not
display two-page spreads accurately, so other methods are
better for this purpose.
• Footers and headers arrange information in the intended
order. For example, page numbers will be more noticeable if
placed by the outer margin of each page.
• Paragraph styles for tables of contents or indexes, which you
may have only created as a final step, are compatible with the
rest of the design.
• When documents have been added to a master document or
pasted together, the numbering of the first numbered list in
each document may need to be restarted manually.
• If you are importing to HTML or EPUB, be sure that your
format makes allowances for the limitations of your chosen
format.

Putting everything together 473.

Positioning objects
Graphics, tables, charts, and other objects should be
positioned as closely as possible to the text to which they refer.
Check, too, that formatting such as the structure of captions
and the space above and below objects is consistent throughout.
The most common trouble spots are cases where a paragraph
with space below is followed by a paragraph with space above,
which results in more spacing than you may have intended.
Use the Navigator so that you go through the objects
systematically, and you can recognize departures from the
formatting conventions you have set.

Adjusting hyphenation
If you decide to hyphenate the body text, LibreOffice does the
best it can while you work. But by the time you are finished
editing and making changes, this on-the-fly hyphenation can be
far from the best job that LibreOffice can do.
As you make your final check of the document, click TOOLS >
LANGUAGE > HYPHENATION. This tool lets you choose where each
line will break and what syllable each hyphen will follow. More
hyphenation tools will be available in forthcoming releases.

Tip
Some versions of LibreOffice include spelling dictionaries, but
not hyphenation dictionaries, so you may have to download and
install a hyphenation dictionary before you run a check.

You will need a separate hyphenation dictionary for each

language or locale in a document.

474. Designing with LibreOffice

 Caution
Running the hyphenation tool will add hyphens, even if none of
your styles are set to use hyphens. Skip this step if you want to
avoid all hyphenation and keep a ragged right margin.

Running the Hyphenation Tool fine-tunes the hyphenation created in a

work in progress.

Checking the spelling

Run TOOLS > SPELLING for each language used in the
document. You can check the languages by looking at the FONTS
tab of all your paragraph styles. LibreOffice also checks some
grammar and layout, such as enforcing one space after a period
instead of two.
However, always remember that a spell check is not a
substitute for your own judgment. Not everything Writer flags is
mis-spelled, and the grammar check is far from complete.
What the spell check can do is reduce the drudgery of
catching typos and routine errors. Never think, though, that you
have caught all the problems when you have run it. Spell
checking should always be followed by at least one manual check.

Putting everything together 475.

 As you spell check, make a note of your regular typos, and use
EDIT > FIND AND REPLACE to help you correct every instance of it.
Finding and replacing common mistakes is much faster than spell
checking, and allows you to see more of the context in which the
mistake occurs.

Check the spelling once for each language used in the document.

Tip
If you have any last-minute additions, highlight the new
material, and the spell check will review only it.

Checking the diction

The Spelling tool will catch some common mistakes, such as
duplicate words or two spaces after a period. However, for a more
thorough check of your writing style, download the Angry
Reviewer extension from:
https://extensions.libreoffice.org/en/extensions/

476. Designing with LibreOffice

 Angry Reviewer is a Grammarly-like tool intended primarily
for academic writing. However, its suggestions tend to increase
clarity, conciseness, and originality, so it can aid with any sort of
writing. The Angry Reviewer web page lists its major rules,
giving examples of them:
• Don’t hype. Avoid words like novel, highly, clearly, greatly.
Better still, avoid all adverbs.
• Don’t use clichés. In a nutshell, by and large, they are clear as
mud.
• Don’t use “very” very often. Usually, there is a better word for
it.
• Be concise. Avoid phrases like by means of, despite the fact
that, in order to.
• Avoid negatives. For example, use unable instead of not able.
• Avoid redundancy. For example, use investigate instead of
conduct an investigation of.
• Use active voice. Although not always possible, most of the
text should be in active voice.
• Avoid inappropriate language. Keep words like really,
actually, pretty much for social networks.
• Avoid rare words and latinisms. Non credo all readers know
the meaning.
• Keep abbreviations to minimum. Abbreviations are hard to
read; consider just spelling it out.
• Beware of zombie nouns [nouns made from verbs].
Utilization of nominalization is causation of distraction.

Putting everything together 477.

 Angry Reviewer installs a top-level menu item. When you are
ready to check a document, click ANGRY REVIEWER > CHECK THIS
TEXT. A second Writer document is opened with feedback for
each paragraph, worded as suggestions rather than absolutes and
with brief explanations. The two documents can then be placed
side by side as you evaluate the feedback and make changes. At
times, the feedback may be out of context. You should also ignore
the feedback when you have a good reason to do so.

A sample of Angry Reviewer’s feedback.

Checking page breaks

Reduce the zoom to 75% or less, and see where pages end. No
matter how you format, if you include graphics, tables, and other
objects, you are likely to have pages that end more than a few
lines before the bottom of the page.
Often, you can improve the page breaks by rearranging
elements such as images and tables, or by dividing paragraphs so
that another line or two are used. Perhaps you may decide that a
comment you omitted is worth adding after all, or that a
paragraph can be cut, although changing the content only to
improve the design is a case of misplaced priorities.

478. Designing with LibreOffice

 In extreme cases, you might even add manual page breaks.
However, like any manual formatting, the more you add, the
harder the document is to maintain.
You will be extremely lucky (or painstaking) if every page
breaks exactly at its final line. Instead, be satisfied with being 4 or
fewer lines from the bottom of every page. The more manual
changes you make, the more you are likely to require in the next
editions of the document.

Problems with master documents

Master documents can paginate differently from stand-alone
sub-documents, even when using the same page styles. You can
sometimes see this problem by printing a range of pages to PDF
first from the sub-document and then from the master document,
and comparing the page breaks.
Pagination differences are often caused by cross-references:
• If you have cross-references between two sub-documents, the
target sub-document shows the message “Error: Reference
source not found” when you open the sub-document. The
cross-reference only displays correctly from the master
document.
• When you have a cross-reference between two sub-
documents, the error message in the target sub-document can
be much longer than the cross-reference in the master
document. This discrepancy can cause the page break to
change between the sub-document and the master document.
To overcome these problems, avoid tight pagination, leaving a
line or two empty. Alternatively, use a master document when it
is convenient in long documents or in group projects, and copy
and paste a single long document after your final editing.

Putting everything together 479.

Updating
Select TOOLS > UPDATE > UPDATE ALL to ensure that all fields
are up to date. This check is especially important for cross-
references, which may have been repositioned as you edited.

Making the final check

Before you publish, set your zoom to 75% or select FILE > PRINT
PREVIEW and take one last high-level look at the document.
At this point, you should see very few problems. If you do see
problems, consider repeating the final editing process. However,
if you have already done so several times, ask yourself at some
point if you are tinkering in the hope of an impossible perfection.

Caution
In some releases of LibreOffice, PRINT PREVIEW appears to
show borders around a table even if you have turned them off
entirely. These “borders” are actually table boundaries, which do
not print; to view the tables properly, uncheck TABLE
BOUNDARIES in TOOLS > OPTIONS > LIBREOFFICE >
APPLICATION COLORS.

When you see nothing to change, you know that your

document is ready to print or post online.
At this point, your work is ended and so is this book (or very
nearly).

480. Designing with LibreOffice

 A
Downloading LibreOffice
LibreOffice has versions for Linux, macOS, and Windows.
Most Linux distributions include a copy in their package
repositories, sometimes with extensions and distinct icon sets.
The official page for downloading the latest release is:
https://www.libreoffice.org/download/download/
The site detects your operating system and language and
offers to download the appropriate version. Use the links at the
right or near the bottom of the page to download versions for
other operating systems and languages.

Extensions and templates

Hundreds of extensions and templates are available for
LibreOffice. Extensions can add much-needed features and
resources, while templates can save you designing time. However,
be aware that some extensions may not be kept updated and may
not always work with the latest release. Similarly, just because a
template is posted does not mean that it is well-designed.

Downloading LibreOffice 481.

 To get extensions and templates for LibreOffice, go to this
link:
https://extensions.libreoffice.org/
You can select the Templates filter and other filters for Writer,
Impress, Calc, and so on, to make the list more manageable.
Apache OpenOffice’s collection of extensions and templates
often (but not always) work in LibreOffice as well:
https://extensions.openoffice.org/
https://templates.services.openoffice.org/
Many extensions and templates work on both LibreOffice and
Apache OpenOffice. However, the two programs are now
different enough that compatibility is lessening as each version of
LibreOffice is released.

482. Designing with LibreOffice

 B
Learning more about typography
You can find dozens of books on typography, including ones
from modern masters such as Frederick Goudy and Adrian
Frutiger. Many are concerned with hand-lettering, or typography
in branding.
The books listed here are focused on typography as a practical
art. They are on the conservative side, but together they show the
foundations of modern typography and teach its basic principles.
They vary from introductory books to advanced essays.
The most useful books I have found are:
• Robert Bringhurst. The Elements of Typographic Style. 2nd
ed. (Hartley and Marks: Vancouver, 1996): Widely regarded
as the Bible of typography, because most of Bringhurst’s
opinions are reasonable ones.
• Eric Gill. An Essay on Typography (David R. Godine: Boston,
1998): Thoughts by one of the shapers of modern design. Also
available on Google Books.
• Jan Tschichold. The Form of the Book: Essays on the Morality
of Good Design. Trans. by Hajo Haedler (Hartley and Marks:

Learning more about typography 483.

 Vancouver, 1991): Thoughts about page design from the
master typographer who designed Penguin’s post-war cover
format (and the only person known to be persecuted
politically for his typographical standards).
• Jan Tschichold. The New Typography. Trans. by Ruari
McLean (University of California Press: Berkeley, 1995): The
classic statement of the principles of asymmetrical design that
shape modern typography.
• Robin Williams. The Non-Designer’s Design Book (Peachpit
Press: Berkeley, 1994): By far the quickest, clearest, and most
insightful introduction to typography that I know.
• Robin Williams. The Non-Designer’s Type Book (Peachpit
Press: Berkeley, 1998): A sequel to The Non-Designer’s
Design Book, focusing on the details of typefaces and how to
use them.

484. Designing with LibreOffice

 C
Where to get free-licensed fonts
Like free or open source software, free-licensed fonts are ones
that you can use, share, and edit as you please. Most are also
available at no cost.
Free-licensed fonts barely existed before 2000. By contrast,
hundreds are available today, although their numbers are still
small compared to the thousands of proprietary fonts available
from font foundries such as Adobe.
Many are clones or near-variations of classic fonts, but some
are original fonts that are outstanding by any definition. Both
clones and originals help you work without using proprietary
fonts.
Free-licensed fonts are available under the SIL Open Font
License (OFL) or the GNU General Public License (GPL) with
font exception. Some are also in the public domain. Other
licenses exist, but not all have been evaluated by the Free
Software Foundation or the Open Source Initiative, and should
be used cautiously.

Where to get free-licensed fonts 485.

 If you use Linux, some of these fonts can be installed as
packages from your distribution’s repositories. Many of the others
can be downloaded online, regardless of operating system.
Arkandis Digital Foundry
(https://arkandis.tuxfamily.org/adffonts.html)
The Arkandis fonts are meant to provide free-licensed versions of
fonts for Linux. The selection includes Baskervald (Baskerville),
Gillius (Gill Sans), and Universalis (Univers), as well as original
fonts such as Mint Spirit, which was originally designed as the
unofficial font for the Linux Mint distribution.
Barry Schwartz
(https://crudfactory.com/#fonts)
Barry Schwartz is one of the outstanding designers of free-
licensed body text fonts. His work includes three fonts based on
the designs of Frederick Goudy, as well as Fanwood, an
understated font which closely resembles Eric Gill’s Joanna. You
can get also get some of his fonts from The League of Movable
Type (see below).
Cantarell
(https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/cantarell-fonts)
The official font for GNOME 3. Originally criticized for some of
its letter forms, Cantarell has evolved into a modern humanist
font that can be used for body text and headings alike. Also
available from Google Fonts (see below) and other sources.
Dover Books
(https://www.doverbooks.co.uk/fonts-lettering-typography)
Dover Books publishes about 30 books with CDs of fonts and
dingbats from Victorian times and earlier. They are marked as
“permission free,” which presumably means public domain.

486. Designing with LibreOffice

Google Fonts
(https://fonts.google.com/)
Featuring over 630 font families, Google Fonts is intended
mainly for online use. However, you can also download fonts for
print use. Updates are regular, so check regularly for new releases
of updates of existing fonts.
The League of Moveable Type
(https://www.theleagueofmoveabletype.com/)
Describing itself as “the original, the first, the open-source type
foundry,” The League of Moveable Type offers a small but select
library of original font designs. If you find yourself getting lost in
the sheer number of free fonts, anything from The League can be
counted on to be of high quality, and usually includes small
capitals and old style figures.
Liberation Fonts
(https://pagure.io/liberation-fonts)
Liberation fonts are designed to be the metrical equivalent of
standard proprietary fonts. In other words, they occupy the same
vertical and horizontal space, although they may otherwise be
designed differently. Liberation Sans is meant to substitute for
Arial and Helvetica, Liberation Serif for Times New Roman, and
Liberation Mono for Courier.
Font Library
(https://fontlibrary.org/ )
With over 400 font families, the Font Library is second only to
Google Fonts in its selection. Its front page includes a list of the
most recently uploaded fonts.
Oxygen
(https://www.fontspace.com/oxygen-font-f13936)
Created for the KDE desktop environment on Linux, Oxygen is a
modern geometric font, made of simple shapes, but highly
readable and pleasing to the eye.

Where to get free-licensed fonts 487.

Raph Levien
(http://levien.com/type/myfonts/)
A former Google employee, Levien develops fonts in his spare
time. Although not all the fonts displayed on this page are
complete, their consistently high quality makes them worth
considering. Most must be exported via the free-licensed font
editor Fontforge to a usable format .
SIL International
(https://software.sil.org/fonts/)
SIL International is a missionary organization that specializes in
fonts for minority languages. It also developed the Graphite
system for the automatic use of ligatures, small caps, old style
figures, and other advanced typographical features. The SIL Font
License is the most widely used license for free fonts, and
responsible for much of the spread of free fonts.
Ubuntu
(https://design.ubuntu.com/font/)
Designed for the Ubuntu Linux distribution, this is a modern
humanist font. It is versatile, although its use in branding may
mean that a document that uses it will be automatically be
identified with Ubuntu.

488. Designing with LibreOffice

 D
Free-licensed equivalents for
standard fonts
Like Linux desktops, free-licensed fonts started as imitations
of proprietary equivalents. Today, original free fonts are
becoming increasingly common, but the demand for free
equivalents of proprietary fonts remains. This demand is unlikely
to disappear because, although most professional designers think
in terms of proprietary fonts, clients are often unwilling to pay for
them. Moreover, free software advocates prefer free fonts to go
along with their free applications.
Exact equivalents are rare because of fear of copyright
restrictions. A match as high as 75% is rare. Some equivalents,
such as the Liberation fonts, are only metrical – that is, they take
up the same space as their proprietary equivalents, but the letters
themselves are different. In other cases, the free fonts are inspired
by their proprietary counterparts, but the designer never
intended exact copies, and the most you can expect is a general
resemblance. A few proprietary fonts, such as Optima, have no
free equivalent at all, so far as I can see. For this reason, the

Free-licensed equivalents for standard fonts 489.

listings in the table below are mostly the closest equivalents, and
rarely exact replicas.
All of these fonts can be found from the sources listed in
Appendix C.
Proprietary Free Licensed
Alternate Gothic #1 League Gothic
Arial Liberation Sans,* Pt Sans, Open Sans
Condensed, Lato
Arial Narrow Liberation Sans Narrow*
Avenir Mint Spirit No2, Nunito
Baskerville Baskervald ADF Standard, Libre
Baskerville
Bembo EB Garamond
Bodoni Accanthis-Std, Oranienbaum, GFS
Bodoni, Libre Bodoni
Cambria Caladea*
Calibri Carlito*
Caslon Libre Caslon
Centaur Coelacanth
Century Gothic Muli
Comic Sans Comic Relief
Courier Liberation Mono*
Courier 10 Pitch Courier Code
Courier New Cousine
Didot GFS Didot
Eurostile Jura
Frutiger Istok Normal 400
Futura Mint Spirit No2, Nunito

490. Designing with LibreOffice

Proprietary Free Licensed
Futura Light Futura Renner Light
Garamond** Crimson Text, EB Garamond
Georgia Nimbus Roman No. 9
Gill Sans Cabin, Gillius ADF, Hammersmith One,
Railway Regular, Raleway
Goudy Old Style** Goudy Bookletter 1911, Linden Hill, Sort
Mills
Helvetica Liberation Sans,* Pt Sans, Open Sans
Condensed, Lato
Helvetica Narrow Liberation Sans Narrow*
Joanna Fanwood
Letter Gothic Josefin Sans, Josefin Slab
Myriad Junction, Pt. Sans
News Gothic News Cycle
Stone Sans Nunito
Stone Serif Lustria
Tahoma Lucida Sans, Nimbus Sans
Times New Roman Liberation Serif, Linux Libertine
Trajan Cinzel
Univers Universalist-std
Verdana DejaVu Sans

* Metrical equivalents.
** “Garamond” and “Goudy” are generic names for fonts
inspired by particular designers, so the actual typefaces with
these names can be very different from one another.

Free-licensed equivalents for standard fonts 491.