Page Styles

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).

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.

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.