Revision as of 15:12, 26 January 2013

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The page styles organize pages on the document into "categories", each one with its own characteristics, different from the other styles. It is possible, for example, define how the pages for the table of content will look like, or the pages for the body of the document, for the appendixes... and it is possible to define/modify those characteristics without disturbing the other styles.

Page styles are of high importance on Writer: the page format cannot be done with direct formatting, only through the use of styles.

Create or Modify Page Styles

Opening the style and format editor, with a click on the fourth button on the top (Page Styles) it is possible to see several predefined styles. These styles can be modified at will (right click → Modify) or it is possible to add new ones (right click on a blank space → New).

Organize Tab

As with paragraph styles, here it is possible to give a name to the style and define which style will follow. For example, defining a page style for the first page of each chapter and a second style for the text body, calling the first one "First Page" and the second "Body of Document", it is possible to set "First Page" to be automatically followed by "Body of Document" and "Body of Document" to be followed by itself.

A limitation on page styles is that they cannot be linked: Issue 17299 - Page and numbering styles: "Linked with" blanked out

Page Tab

Here it is possible to define the page size used by the style, as well as the margins or if the page will be portrait or landscape.

Under Layout settings → Page layout there are several important options, like force the page to be "only left", "only right" or "left and right" (default option).

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Under Layout settings → Format, it is possible to choose the numbering type for that style: Arabic numerals, Roman numerals, etc.

Register-true

Selecting Layout settings → Register-true, it is possible to choose a "Reference Style". But, which is the use of that setting?

By activating these options, Writer builds on any page that uses that style with the register-true active, a "grid" of lines where the content will be forced. The reference style is thus used to define the line spacing for this grid, using the line spacing defined on the reference style: any text introduced on the page will be forced to be distributed on this imaginary grid, independently of the value configured on the paragraph style.

Even if this can be useful to distribute the text on the document uniformly, it is important to be careful with elements anchored to the paragraph that could force a non desired "jump" that left a blank line. Template:Documentation/Note

Background Tab

This menu is identical to the one present when modifying a paragraph style.

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Header/Footer Tabs

Both tabs work on a similar way, activating and configuring the header or footer for the page style, respectively. Template:Documentation/Note

The headings/footers can accept any kind of content: text, tables, frames, pictures...

To introduce the number of the page it is necessary to use a field: Insert → Field → Page Number.

Disabling the option "Same content left/right" it is possible with only one page style to have different content on the headers/footers for odd and even pages.

Borders Tab

It is possible to define a border for the text area, and set a distance from that border to the text.

Columns Tab

Almost identical to the equivalent tab on the frames and on the sections. Here it is possible to define the number of columns for that page style. The difference with the sections is that here it is not available the option for evenly distribute the text on the columns: with columns on the page style, the left column will be filled before.

Footnote Tab

The footnotes are part of the page text area. On this tab it is possible to define how the part devoted to the footnotes will be separated from the rest of the page, or force a maximum for the available space.

Applying page styles

Once a page style is defined/modified it is possible to apply this style to any page on which the cursor is present by a double click on the style name. Template:Documentation/Note

There are several ways to apply a sequence of page styles. The first one is through the option "Next Style" on the style definition: you apply one style to the first page and the other styles will automatically follow for the next pages. To exit the automatic sequence (for example, to start a new chapter), it is necessary to insert a page break.

A page break can be manually inserted with Insert → Manual Break, selecting Page Break and a page style from the drop down menu.

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Doing this it is possible, for example, insert a landscape page between two portrait pages: it is enough to apply a page proper break before and after the "anomalous" page.

It is possible to automate page breaks associating them with a paragraph style. Suppose it is needed for each chapter to start on a new page and that the style "Heading 1" will be used to start a chapter. Editing "Heading 1", under "Text Flow" tab there is a section called "Breaks": selecting Insert, "Page" under "Type", "Before" under "Position", "With Page Style" (selecting the proper style) and, if needed, changing the page number (zero means "no change"), each time the "Heading 1" style is applied a page break with a change of page style will be automatically applied.