Page Numbering, Fields, Variables and Cross References

As we have already seen on the section devoted to the headers/footers the page number must be inserted as a "field" with Insert → Field. On this menu other fields are available (Date, Author...), but what fields are?

Fields can show not only the page number or the total count of pages on the document, but also they are able to show cross references to a heading or a footnote, information about the document (the chapter name or its number, the template in use, editing time, number of revisions...) as well as set a condition to hide a part of the content. With fields it is possible to set sequences to use to automatically number figures or tables, or even show information taken from a database.

Because the content is automatically generated, during the edition of the document Writer show the fields with a grey background that will not print nor will be exported to PDF. This background, which colour can be changed (or even completely eliminated) on Menu → Options → Apache OpenOffice → Appearance → Text Document → Field shadings is very useful during edition because it allows to distinguish between normal and automated text.

Now, we will review all the possibilities offered by fields on Writer. To this, we need to open the menu Insert → Fields → Others