Choosing a Layout Method

Apache OpenOffice 4.1 Writer Guide

Chapter 4: Formatting Pages

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• Introduction
• Choosing a Layout Method
• Setting up Basic Page Layout Using Styles
  • Inserting a Page Break without Switching the Style
  • Defining a Different First Page for a Document
  • Changing Page Orientation within a Document
    • Setting Up a Landscape Page Style
    • Inserting a Landscape Page into a Portrait Document
• Changing Page Margins
• Using Columns to Define the Page Layout
  • Defining the Columns on a Page
    • Specifying the Number of Columns
    • Formatting Column Width and Spacing
    • Formatting Separator Lines
    • Reverting to a Single-Column Layout
  • Changing the Number of Columns for Existing Text
  • Distributing Text Across Columns
• Using Frames for Page Layout
  • Creating Frames
  • Moving, Resizing, and Changing Frame Attributes
  • Anchoring Frames
  • Linking Frames
  • Other Frame Options
• Using Tables for Page Layout
  • Example: Creating Sideheads Using Tables
• Using Sections for Page Layout
  • Creating Sections
    • Naming Sections
    • Linking Sections
    • Write Protecting Sections
    • Password Protecting Sections
    • Hiding Sections
    • Formatting a Section into Columns
    • Indenting the Section from Margins
    • Changing the Background of the Section
    • Customizing Footnotes and Endnotes in a Section
  • Saving a New Section
  • Editing and Deleting Sections
    • Deleting Sections
    • Editing Section Attributes
    • Editing the Format of a Section
• Updating Links
  • Updating Links Automatically
  • Updating Links Manually
• Creating Headers and Footers
  • Formatting Headers and Footers
  • Portrait Headers on Landscape Pages
• Numbering Pages
  • Preliminaries: Fields
  • Preliminaries: Insert and Format a Header
  • Simple Page Numbering
  • Combining Header Text and Page Number
  • Changing the Number Format
  • Numbering the First Page Something Other than 1
  • Numbering Pages by Chapter
  • Restarting Page Numbering
    • Example: Restart Page Numbering: a Preface
  • Problems with Restarting Page Numbering
    • Solving the page count problem
  • Numbering Portrait and Landscape Pages
• Defining Borders and Backgrounds
  • Adding a Border
  • Adding Color to the Background
  • Adding a Graphic to the Background
  • Deleting Color or Graphics from the Background

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Choosing a Layout Method

The best layout method depends on what the final document should look like and what sort of information will be in the document. Here are some examples. Do not worry if all this does not mean much to you now. The techniques mentioned are all described in this chapter.

For a book similar to this user guide with one column of text, some figures without text beside them, and some other figures with descriptive text, use page styles for basic layout, and use tables to place figures beside descriptive text, where necessary.
Use page styles (with two columns) for an index or other document with two columns of text where the text continues from the left-hand column to the right-hand column and then to the next page, all in sequence (also known as snaking columns of text). If the title of the document (on the first page) is full-page width, put it in a single-column section.
For a newsletter with a complex layout, two or three columns on the page, and some articles that continue from one page to some place several pages later, use page styles for basic layout. Place articles in linked frames and anchor graphics to fixed positions on the page, if necessary.
For a document with terms and translations to appear side-by-side in what appear to be columns, use a table to keep items lined up, so you can type in both “columns”.