Applying Styles

Getting Started with Apache OpenOffice 4

Chapter 2: Using Styles and Templates

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• What is a Template?
• What Are Styles?
• Applying Styles
• Modifying Styles
• Creating New (Custom) Styles
• Copying and Moving Styles
• Deleting Styles
• Using a Template to Create a Document
• Creating a Template
• Adding Templates using the Extension Manager
• Editing a Template
• Changing the Template Assigned to a Document
• Setting a Default Template
• Organizing templates
• Examples of Style Use

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Applying Styles

Apache OpenOffice provides several ways for you to apply styles:

• Styles and Formatting deck in the Sidebar
• Fill Format Mode
• Apply Style list on the Formatting toolbar (Writer)
• Keyboard shortcuts

Using the Styles Deck in the Sidebar

1. You can open the Styles and Formatting deck on the Sidebar in several ways: click the icon on the Sidebar, or choose Format → Styles and Formatting from the Menu bar, or press  F11 , or click the Styles and Formatting icon located at the left-hand end of the Formatting toolbar. Some of these methods will bring up the Styles and Formatting deck as a floating toolbar even if the sidebar is docked.

The Styles and Formatting deck shows the types of styles available for the Apache OpenOffice component you are using. Figure 22 shows the window for Writer, with Page Styles visible.

1. Click on one of the icons at the top left of the Styles and Formatting deck to display a list of styles in that category.
2. To apply an existing style (except for character styles), position the insertion point in the paragraph, frame, or page, and then double-click on the name of the style in one of these lists. To apply a character style, select the characters first.

At the bottom of the Styles and Formatting deck is a dropdown list. In Figure 22 the deck shows Automatic, meaning the list includes only styles applied automatically by Apache OpenOffice. You can choose to show all styles or other groups of styles, for example only custom styles.

Figure 22: The Styles and Formatting window for Writer, showing paragraph styles

Using Fill Format Mode

Use Fill Format to apply a style to many areas quickly without having to go back to the Styles and Formatting deck and double-click every time. This method is quite useful when you need to format many scattered paragraphs, cells, or other items with the same style.

1. Open the Styles and Formatting deck and select the style you want to apply.
2. Click the Fill Format mode icon. The cursor shape will change to resemble the icon.

To apply a paragraph, page, or frame style, hover the mouse over the paragraph, page, or frame and click. To apply a character style, hold down the mouse button while selecting the characters. Clicking on a word applies the character style to that word.

1. Repeat step 2 until you made all the changes for that style.
2. To quit Fill Format mode, click the Fill Format mode icon again or press the  Esc  key.

Using the Apply Style List in Writer

In Writer, after you have used a style at least once in a document, the style name appears on the Apply Style list at the left-hand end of the Formatting toolbar, next to the Styles and Formatting icon.

You can open this list and click once on the style you want, or you can use the up and down arrow keys to move through the list and then press Enter to apply the highlighted style.

Select More… at the bottom of the list to open the Styles and Formatting window.

Figure 23: The Apply Style list on the Formatting toolbar

Using Keyboard Shortcuts

Some keyboard shortcuts for applying styles are predefined. For example, in Writer  Ctrl  +  0  applies the Text body style,  Ctrl  +  1  applies the Heading 1 style, and  Ctrl  +  2  applies the Heading 2 style. You can modify these shortcuts and create your own; see Chapter 11 (Setting up and Customizing Apache OpenOffice) for instructions.