Difference between revisions of "Documentation/Writer for Students/Headings"

Revision as of 12:02, 18 May 2014

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As mentioned above you have to tell the programme what is a Heading and what is Text Body.

For that you use the following keyboard shortcuts:

• Ctrl + 0 for Text Body (ground level)
• Ctrl + 1 for Chapter Headings (level 1)
• Ctrl + 2 for Section Headings (level 2)
• Ctrl + 3 for Subsection Headings (level 3)

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For those of you who use Macs: it’s not the Ctrl-Key but the Cmd-Key instead. But I’ll leave it up to you to figure out the variations. Linux machines use the same keyboard shortcuts as Windows.

Format your Headings

To control the appearance say of all your chapter headings (Level 1), simply right click on any one of them and choose the optionEdit Paragraph Style. Any changes made here will apply to all other Level 1 Headings. Same goes of course for the other levels, indeed for any paragraph style.

Generally headings should meet following criteria:

• left alignment
• hyphenation turned off
• single line spacing
• conciseness
• avoid several titles in succession with no text in between

Here my formatting suggestions for the first three levels of headings:

Table 1: Styles for first three levels of headings based on font Garamond (just a suggestion)

Blank Lines?

When in a hurry it’s tempting, instead of using this method, to simply add a couple of blank lines before a heading and another blank line following itin order to influence spacing. That would be a mistake. For one it would destroy the “sticking” effect, i.e. the property of headings to always keep together with the next paragraph, and second it would lead to inconsistent spacings above and below the title. The desired spacings must be recorded in the header styles.

How Many Levels?

I would recommend a maximum of two numbered heading levels:

1 Chapter
   1.1 Section
   1.2 Section
   1.3 Section

2 Chapter
   2.1 Section
   2.2 Section
   2.3 Section
   etc.

Per level you should have at least two headings. A 2.1 heading with no 2.2 heading makes no sense.

If you are going to use a third or even fourth level, then leave theseunnumbered and don’t include them in the table of contents. Thinkabout it: a finespun numbering structure suggeststo the reader an equally finespun logic which might not actuallyexist in the social reality you are trying to describe. For technicalpublications on the other hand that would be fine.

Avoid overlong chapter headings. Short headings with some explanatory textimmediately following are preferable. Don’t forget that headings also appear in the table of contents in their full length.

New Page for Each Main Heading?

If you want chapters to begin on a new page, then right-click on any chapter heading and choose Edit Paragraph Style; under the tab Text Flow check box Breaks › Insert › Type › Page.

If you would like to avoid chapter headings near the bottom of the page, you can insert a pagebreak right before the heading using the shortcut Ctrl+Return.

A more elegant alternative would be to right click the paragraph immediately following the heading and choose Paragraph… (not Edit paragraph style) and there under the tabText Flow choose Do not split paragraph. The paragraph in question willpull the heading immediately above it along to the next page should there not be enough room for both on the present page. Using this method consistently spares you the ordeal of a final check for any misplaced headings.

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Some Settings

Under Tools › Options › OpenOffice.org Writer › Compatibility I would recommend unchecking three choice boxes:

• Add spacing between paragraphs and tables; unchecking this option ensures that the set spacing below a paragraph and the set spacing above the paragraph immediately following it do not get added together; instead only the larger of the two spacings takes effect
• Add paragraph and table spacing at tops of pages; unchecking this option ensures that headings appear right at the top margin, without the usual set spacing separating them from a previous paragraph
• Expand word space on lines with manual line breaks in justified paragraphs; unchecking this option ensures that inserting a new line using short cut Shift + Return will not expand the words on the previous line right up to the right margin; instead they will be left aligned even in a paragraph with justified alignment

Having removed these three ticks don’t forget to press the button Use as Default so that these changes apply also to any future documents.

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