Writer Guide

7

Chapter
Working with Styles

This PDF is designed to be read onscreen, two pages at atime. If you want to print a copy, your PDF viewer shouldhave an option for printing two pages on one sheet ofpaper, but you may need to start with page 2 to get it toprint facing pages correctly. (Print this cover page
separately.)CopyrightThis document is Copyright © 2005–2010 by its contributors as listed
in the section titled Authors. You may distribute it and/or modify it
under the terms of either the GNU General Public License, version 3 orlater, or the Creative Commons Attribution License, version 3.0 or
later.
All trademarks within this guide belong to their legitimate owners.

Authors
Agnes Belzunce
Bruce Byfield
Daniel Carrera
Peter Hillier-Brook
Peter Kupfer
Ian Laurenson
Iain Roberts
Gary Schnabl
Barbara M. Tobias
Jean Hollis Weber
Michele Zarri

Feedback
Please direct any comments or suggestions about this document to:authors@documentation.openoffice.org

Publication date and software version
Published 25 March 2010. Based on OpenOffice.org 3.2.

You can download
an editable version of this document fromhttp://oooauthors.org/english/userguide3/published/

Contents
Copyright............................................................................................... 2
Introduction........................................................................................... 5
Creating custom (new) styles.................................................................5
The Style dialog box............................................................................ 5
The Organizer page............................................................................6
Understanding linked styles...............................................................7
Creating a linked style.....................................................................8
Example: Changing a property of a parent style.............................8Working with paragraph styles..............................................................9
Settings on the Indents & Spacing page...........................................10
Settings on the Alignment page........................................................12
Text flow options for paragraph styles..............................................12
Font options for the paragraph style.................................................14
Specifying a relative font size........................................................14
Selecting a language for a paragraph style...................................15
Options for positioning text..............................................................16
Example: Rotating the text in a paragraph style...........................17
Spacing options.............................................................................18
Controlling tab stops......................................................................... 18
Using the Outline & Numbering page..............................................19
Setting up a drop cap........................................................................ 20
Setting up paragraph background and borders................................21
Working with conditional paragraph styles..........................................22
Working with character styles..............................................................23
Why use character styles?................................................................24
Creating a new character style.........................................................25
Migrating to character styles............................................................26
Working with frame styles....................................................................26
How frame styles work.....................................................................27
Planning the styles............................................................................ 27
Creating new frame styles................................................................28
Working with Styles

3

Working with page styles.....................................................................29
Creating a new page style................................................................. 29
The next style property.....................................................................30
Setting up a title page...................................................................30
General settings for the page style...................................................31
Background and Border pages..........................................................33
Header and Footer pages..................................................................33
Columns page...................................................................................34
Footnote page................................................................................... 34
Example: A book chapter sequence of pages....................................34
Working with list styles........................................................................39
Defining the appearance of a nested list...........................................40
Creating a new list style...................................................................40
Bullets, Numbering Styles, and Graphics pages............................40
Outline page..................................................................................41
Position page.................................................................................41
Options page.................................................................................. 44
Combining list and paragraph styles................................................45
Example: Creating a simple list style................................................46
Creating the CDTracks numbered list...........................................46
Applying the list style....................................................................47

4

Working with Styles

Introduction
Chapter 6 (Introduction to Styles) described the basics of how to use,
apply, and manage styles. This chapter gives a more detailed
description of how to create or modify a style, using the many options
available on the various pages of the Style dialog box. You will learn
how these options affect the appearance of the style and how to usethem efficiently. Examples and hints are also provided.
The Style dialog boxes share many of the same pages as the manual
formatting dialog boxes, so you can also use this chapter to help you
apply manual formatting (though you do not need that if you use
styles).

Creating custom (new) styles
In addition to using the predefined styles provided by OOo, you can
add new custom (user-defined) styles. In Chapter 6, two methods were
given for creating a new style: the drag-and-drop approach and the
New Style from Selection icon in the Styles and Formatting window.
These methods are very convenient because it is possible toimmediately check the visual effects that the style produces before
creating it. However, they may require you to access several different
menus, and you have a somewhat reduced amount of control on style(particularly when it comes to organizing them). The method describedin this chapter, therefore, concerns only the use of the Style dialog box.

The Style dialog box
Open the Styles and Formatting window. Select first the category ofstyle you want to create by clicking on the appropriate icon in the top
part of the Styles and Formatting window. For example, select the third
icon from the left if you want to create a new frame style.
Right-click on the main window and select New from the pop-up menu.
If you right-click on an existing style, the new style will be linked to thestyle you clicked on. If you right-click on an empty area, then the initial
settings of the style are copied from the Default style of thecorresponding category.
The dialog box that is displayed depends on the type of style you
selected. Many of the pages are the same as those that are displayedwhen manual formatting is applied. Therefore, if you are familiar withmanual formatting, you will find that you already know how to use
Creating custom (new) styles

5most of the options. The dialog box used to create a new style and to
modify an existing one is exactly the same.
Tip

An exception to the above rule is conditional styles, which havea different dialog box. See “Working with conditional
paragraph styles” on page 21.

The Organizer page
When creating a new style, the first page you need to set up is theOrganizer, which is shown in Figure 1. This page is common to all stylecategories. Therefore, it is described only once.

Figure 1: The Organizer page displayed when a new styleis created.
Depending on the style you are creating, you will find the following
information on this page:• Name: present on all the categories—use this field to give a nameto the style you are creating.
• AutoUpdate: only present for paragraph and frame styles. If it ischecked, then Writer will apply any modification made manuallyto a paragraph formatted with that style to the style itself.
Caution6

If you are in the habit of manually overriding styles in yourdocument, be sure that AutoUpdate is not enabled, or you
will suddenly find whole sections of your document
reformatted unexpectedly.

Working with Styles

• Next Style: only available for paragraph and page styles. Use it

to specify which style will be applied to the next element. It is
customary, for example, to have a left page style followed by aright page, a first page followed by a left page, a heading followedby body text, and so on. You will see in the example later how thisproperty is used. Predefined paragraph styles for lists or bullets
also make large use of the Next Style property.
• Linked with: available for paragraph, character, and framestyles; it determines the position of the style in the hierarchy.
When creating a new style and linking it to an existing style, all
the starting properties of the style are copied from the linked style.
Refer to “Understanding linked styles” on page 7 for further
information on how linked styles work.
• Category: available for all styles; use it to associate the new stylewith one of the categories. Note that you cannot change thecategory of the predefined styles. Setting this field is useful whenfiltering the contents of the Styles and Formatting window.
• Contains section: the lower part of the Organizer page shows asummary of the properties of the style.

Understanding linked styles
When creating a new paragraph or a new
character style, you may use an existing style asa starting point for its settings. In this sense,
OOo links the styles together.
When styles are linked, a change in the parent
style affects every style linked to it. You caneasily visualize the connections between styles
by switching to the Hierarchical view in the
Styles and Formatting window filter.
For example, every Heading style (such as
Heading 1, Heading 2) is linked with a stylecalled Heading. This relationship is illustrated
in Figure 2.

Creating custom (new) styles

Figure 2:
Hierarchical view oflinked styles.

7

Linking styles is a very powerful method to create “families” of styles
and allows you to change their properties simultaneously. For example,
if you decide that all the headings should be blue (such as in thisguide), you only need to change the font color of the parent style toachieve the desired result. Note however, that changes made to aparameter of the parent style do not override changes previously madeto the same parameter in the child styles. For example, if you changed
the Heading 2 font color to green, a change of the font color of the
Heading style (the parent style) to red will not affect the Heading 2
font color.
You can easily check which properties are specific to a style by looking
at the Contains section of the Organizer page. In case you want toreset the properties of a child style to that of the parent style, click theStandard button located at the bottom of each Paragraph andCharacter style dialog page.
Note

You cannot define a hierarchical style structure for Page,
Frame and List styles.

Creating a linked style
To create a linked style, you can either specify the parent style (the“linked with” style) in the Organizer page of the Style dialog box, or
you can start creating a new style by right-clicking in the Styles andFormatting window on the style to be linked with and selecting New
from the drop-down menu.

Example: Changing a property of a parent styleSuppose that you want to change thefont of not only Heading 1 or Heading
2, but all headings. The easiest way to
do that is to take advantage of linking.
Open the Styles and Formatting
window (press F11) and selectHeading.
Open the Paragraph Style dialog box
for the Heading style (right-click >Modify) and select the Font tab.
Select a font and click OK (Figure 4).

8

Figure 3: Select Heading style.

Working with Styles

Figure 4: Select the heading font.
Now, the fonts of all the heading styles (Heading 1 through Heading10) are changed in a single operation. Figure 5 shows to the left adocument using the headings 1, 2 and 3 and on the right the same
document after changes have been made to the Heading style.

Figure 5: Effects of changing the Heading style font.

Working with paragraph styles
Although this section describes most of the parameters scattered over
the twelve tabbed pages shown in Figure 4, you do not need toconfigure them all. In fact, in the vast majority of cases it is sufficient
to modify only a few attributes, particularly if you make use of thelinking properties of styles or when basing the new style on one whichis already similar.

Working with paragraph styles

9Settings on the Indents & Spacing pageIn the Indents & Spacing page, you can set up the parameters that
affect the position of the paragraph on the page and the spacing
between lines and between this paragraph and the paragraphs nearby.
On the right hand side of the page, you can see a preview of theapplied settings.

Figure 6: Settings on the Indents and Spacing page ofa paragraph style
Use the Indent section of the page to set up the indentation, using
these parameters:• Before text: controls the space in your selected unit ofmeasurement between the left margin of the page and theleftmost part of the paragraph area. Entering a negative value
results in the text starting on the left of the margin. This may be
useful in situations where your left margin is quite wide, but you
want the headings to be centered in the page.
• After text: controls the space in your selected unit ofmeasurement between the right margin of the page and therightmost part of the paragraph area. Entering a negative value
results in the text extending into the right margin of the page.
• First line: enter in this box the offset (either positive or negative)of the first line of the paragraph relative to the paragraph area. A
positive value increases the indentation of the first line, while anegative value makes the first line start to the left of theparagraph area.
10

Working with Styles

• Automatic: check this box to allow Writer to automaticallycontrol the indentation of the first line. The value is calculated byWriter on the basis of the font size and other parameters.
Use the Spacing section of the page to determine the amount ofvertical space above and below the paragraph. It is customary toinclude some “space above” in heading styles so that they areseparated from the text body of the previous section without the needto insert empty paragraphs. Spacing between paragraphs is also
normal in certain types of documents. The body text style of this guideis configured to leave some space between consecutive paragraphs.
The spacing between paragraphs does not affect the spacing betweenlines, which is instead controlled using the drop-down box in the Linespacing section. You can select one of the following values:• Single: the default setting—applies a single line spacing to theparagraph. This is calculated automatically based on the font size.
• 1.5 lines: sets the line spacing to 1.5 lines.
• Double: sets the line spacing to two lines.
• Proportional: this value activates the edit box next to the dropdown list where you can enter a percentage value. 100% means asingle line spacing, 200% double line spacing and so on.
• At least: this choice activates the edit box next to the drop-down
list, where you can enter the minimum value (in your selected
unit of measurement) to be used for the line spacing.
• Leading: if this value is selected, you can control the height ofthe vertical space inserted between two lines (from the bottom of
the font of the line above to the top of the font of the line below).
See Figure 7.
• Fixed: this choice activates the edit box next to the drop-down
list, where you can enter the exact value of the line spacing.

Tip

When using different font sizes in the same paragraph, the line
spacing will be uneven, as Writer automatically calculates the
optimal value. To obtain evenly spaced lines, select Fixed or At
least in the drop-down list and a value that is sufficient tocreate a spacing between the lines sufficient to account for thelargest font size used.

The last parameter that can be set in this page is Register-true. If you
have activated the Register-true for the page style in use (refer to“General settings for the page style” on page 31) then the Reference
style and all the styles hierarchically dependent on it will have theWorking with paragraph styles

11Register-True box selected, you may want however to activate thevertical grid also for other styles (or not apply it to styles dependent on
the reference style) and this is where this can be done.

Settings on the Alignment pageUse the Alignment page to modify the horizontal alignment of the text,
choosing between Left, Right, Center, and Justified. The results ofthe selection are shown in a preview window on the right-hand side of
the page.
When selecting the Justified alignment, you can also decide how Writer
should treat the last line of the paragraph. By default, Writer aligns thelast line to the left, but you can choose to align it to the center or tojustify it also (meaning that the words on the last line will be spaced inorder to occupy it fully). If you select the Expand single word option,then whenever the last line of a justified paragraph consists of a single
word, this word is stretched by inserting spaces between characters sothat it occupies the full length of the line.
The alignment page is also used to control the Text to Text verticalalignment—useful when you have mixed font sizes on the same row.
Choose the element of the fonts on the line that will be aligned
between Automatic, Baseline, Top, Middle, Bottom. Refer to Figure 7
for a graphical representation of these reference points.

Figure 7: Typographic measurements (from Wikipedia.org)

Text flow options for paragraph styles
The page of the dialog box controlling the text flow options is shown in
Figure 8. This page is divided into three parts: Hyphenation, Breaks,
and Options.
In the Hyphenation section, you can change three parameters:• Characters at line end: controls the minimum number ofcharacters to be left on a line before inserting a hyphen.

12

Working with Styles

• Characters at line begin: controls the minimum number ofcharacters that can be placed at the beginning of a new line
following a hyphen.
• Maximum number of consecutive hyphens: controls the number ofconsecutive lines that terminate with a hyphen.
If you prefer Writer to automatically control the hyphenation, selectthe Automatically option.

Figure 8: The options on the Text Flow page of theParagraph dialog box
In the Breaks section, you can require a paragraph to start on a newpage or column, as well as specify the position of the break, the style ofthe new page, and the new page number. A typical use for this option isto ensure that the first page of a new chapter always starts on a new(usually right-hand) page.
To always start a style on a new page, choose the following settings on
the Text Flow page of the Paragraph Style dialog box:
1) In the Breaks section, select Insert. Make sure that Type is set toPage and Position is set to Before.
2) Select With Page Style and choose the page style from the list.
3) To continue page numbering from the previous chapter, leave
Page number set at 0. To restart each chapter’s page numbering
at 1, set Page number to 1. Click OK.
Working with paragraph styles

13

Note

If you want the first page of a new chapter to always start on aright (recto) page, make sure that the page style for the firstchapter page is set for the right page only by making thisselection in the Layout settings field on the Page page of the
Page Style dialog box.

The Options section of the Text Flow page provides settings to control
what happens when a paragraph does not fit on the bottom of a page:• Do not split paragraph means that the paragraph is never split
across two pages. If it does not fit on the bottom of one page, theentire paragraph moves to the top of the next page.
• Keep with next paragraph is appropriate for headings or thelead-in sentence to a list, to ensure that it is not the lastparagraph on a page.
• Orphan control and Widow control. Widows and orphans are
typographic terms. An orphan is the first line of a paragraphalone at the bottom of a page or column. A widow is the last lineof a paragraph that appears alone at the top of the next page orcolumn. Use these options to allow paragraphs to split acrosspages or columns but require at least two or more lines to remain
together at the bottom or top of a page or column. You can specify
how many lines must remain together.

Font options for the paragraph styleThree pages of the Paragraph Style dialog box are dedicated tosettings controlling the appearance of the font, namely, the Font, Font
Effects, and Position pages. The use of the first two pages should bestraightforward. Many of the options used when creating a characterstyle are discussed in “Creating a new character style” on page 25.
Options that can be used when creating a paragraph style aredescribed here.

Specifying a relative font size
If you are creating a style based on another style (linked style), you canspecify a font size relative to that other style—either as a percentage
or as a plus or minus point value (–2pt or +5pt). Relative font sizes arecommonly used for Web pages.
For example, the paragraph style Heading 1 is based on the paragraphstyle Heading. The font size of the paragraph style Heading is 14pt,
and the font size of paragraph style Heading 1 is specified as 115%.

14

Working with Styles

Thus, the resultant font size of text in a paragraph formatted with the
Heading 1 paragraph style is 14pt times 115% = 16.1pt.
To specify a percentage font size: in the Paragraph Style dialog box,
select the Font tab. In the Size box, enter the percentage amountfollowed by the symbol % (see Figure 9). Similarly, you can enter a plus
or minus sign followed by the number of points to be added or
subtracted from the base font size.
To change from a relative font size back to an absolute font size, enter
the desired font size in points followed by the letters “pt”.

Figure 9: Selecting a type size based on a percentage
It is also possible to use a Percentage Font size for character styles.

Selecting a language for a paragraph style
The language you select for a document (on Tools > Options >Language Settings > Languages) determines the dictionary used forspell checking, thesaurus, hyphenation, the decimal and thousandsdelimiter used, and the default currency format.
Within the document, you can apply a separate language to any
paragraph style. This setting has priority over the language of thewhole document. On the Font page of the Paragraph Style dialog box,
languages with installed dictionaries are marked in the Language listby a small ABC icon (Figure 10). When you check spelling, Writer will
use the correct dictionary for paragraphs with this style. If you write
documents in multiple languages, you can use the linked styles tocreate two paragraph styles that differ only in the language option. If
you then want to change some of the other properties of the paragraphstyle, all you need do is to change the parent style.
To insert occasional words in a different language and avoid their
being picked by mistake with the check-spelling function, it is moreconvenient to use a character style.
Working with paragraph styles

15

Figure 10: Selecting a language for a paragraph style

Options for positioning text
The Position page of the Paragraph Style dialog box collects all theoptions that affect the position of the text on the screen or printed
page. This page is divided into three sections, plus a preview area.
They are: Position, Rotation, and Scaling.
Use the Position section to control the appearance of superscripts andsubscripts. However, you will normally apply superscript andsubscripts to groups of characters rather than to entire paragraphs.
Therefore, it is strongly recommended to change these parameters
only when defining a character style and, instead, leave the default
settings for the paragraph styles.

Figure 11: The position page of the Paragraph Style(default options)

16

Working with Styles

The second section of the Position page controls the rotation of theparagraph area. Two common uses for rotated paragraphs are (a) toput portrait headers and footers on a landscape page and (b) to fit
headings above narrow table columns (as shown in Figure 12).

Figure 12: A table with rotated headings
The Scale Width box controls the percentage of the font width bywhich to compress or stretch the rotated text horizontally.
Chapter 4 (Formatting Pages) describes how to create portrait headersand footers on landscape pages by rotating characters. You canachieve the same effect by defining a separate header or footer
paragraph style specifically for landscape pages.

Example: Rotating the text in a paragraph style
As an example, we will apply rotated table headings to a pre-existingtable.
1) Create a new paragraph style. Name it Table Heading Rotated.
2) On the Position page of the Paragraph Style dialog box, in the
Rotation / scaling section, select 90 degrees. Click OK to savethe new style.

Figure 13: Rotating a paragraph 90 degrees
3) Select the heading row of the table and apply the new style. Any
text in the cells of the heading row is now rotated.

Working with paragraph styles

174) If the headings are aligned to the top of the cells, you may want tochange the alignment to the bottom of the cells, as shown in
Figure 12. To do this, click the Bottom button on the Table
toolbar or select Format> Alignment > Bottom from the mainmenu.

Spacing options
Use the Spacing section of the Position page to control the spacing
between individual characters in the paragraph. When selecting an
option other than default in the drop-down menu, use the edit box toenter the value in points by which you want to expand or condense thetext.
The Pair Kerning option (selectedby default) increases or decreases
the amount of space between certain
pairs of letters to improve theoverall appearance of the text.
Kerning automatically adjusts the
Figure 14: Kerning disabledcharacter spacing for specific letter(left) and enabled (right).
combinations. Kerning is only
available for certain font types and, for printed documents, only works
if your printer supports it.

Controlling tab stops
Although borderless tables are generally considered a much better
solution to space out material across a page, there are still many
situations where tabulations are sufficient to do what you need withthe added advantages of being simpler to manage and quicker to apply.

Tip

If you need to use tabs, and you will be sending a document toother people, do not use the default tab stops. If the recipientsof the document have defined default tab stops that are
different from the ones you are using, the paragraph may lookvery different on their machines. Instead, define the tab stops
explicitly in the paragraph or the paragraph style; then you
can be sure that everyone will see the same layout.

To define tab stops in your paragraph style, use the page shown in
Figure 15. Here you can choose the type of tab: left, right, centered, or
decimal; the character to be used as a decimal point; and the fillcharacter—the characters that appear between the end of the text
before the tab and the beginning of the text after the tab. You can also
18

Working with Styles

create a custom fill character by entering it in the corresponding box.
Common use of a fill character is adding dots between a heading and apage number in a table of contents or underscore character whencreating a form to fill in.
Creating a new tab stop, therefore, is just a matter of deciding its
position relative to the left margin, the type, the fill character andclicking the New button. The tab stop will be entered in the Position
list on the left hand side. Unfortunately, the only way to modify the
position of a tab stop is to create a new one in the desired position anddelete the old one using the buttons on the right-hand side of the page.

Figure 15: Specifying tab stops for a paragraph style
Note that it is not possible to define tabulations that exceed the pagemargin. In the rare cases where it may be needed, use a borderlesstable instead.

Using the Outline & Numbering pageUse the Outline & Numbering page if you want to number theparagraph, for example if this style is used for a heading or list item.
Beginning with OpenOffice.org 3.1, you can assign an outline level toany paragraph style. This feature enables you to create a table ofcontents that includes those headings along with the headings using
styles listed in Tools > Outline Numbering. For example, you might use
a different sequence of styles for annexes (appendixes), but you want
the annex headings and subheadings to appear in the TOC at the samelevels as the chapter headings and subheadings.
Working with paragraph styles

19

To assign an outline level to a paragraph style, go to the Outline &Numbering page for the style, and select the required outline level.
Click OK to save this change.

Figure 16: Specifying an outline level on the Outline &Numbering page for a paragraph style
This page should be used in combination with list styles when you needto associate a certain paragraph style with a list style. Refer to“Combining list and paragraph styles” on page 45 for additional
information on how to use this page, as well as an example.

Setting up a drop cap
If you want your paragraph to use drop caps (usually this is suitable fora first paragraph style), then you can predefine the properties in thepage shown in Figure 17. Checking the box to display drop caps alsoenables the subsequent options where you can fine tune theappearance, such as the number of lines occupied, the number ofcharacters to enlarge (if you want the whole first word, check thecorresponding box), and the space between the drop caps and the text.

Figure 17: Options for adding a drop cap to the paragraph style
Drop caps use the same font and have the same properties of the restof the paragraph; however, you can easily modify their appearance by
creating a specific character style and using it. For example, you may
20

Working with Styles

want the drop caps to be of a different color or apply an outline effect.
Select the character style you want to use in the corresponding dropdown menu.

Setting up paragraph background and borders
Adding a background color and a border to a paragraph is a good way
to make it stand out without having to insert a frame. You cancustomize the background and border of the paragraph areas using thecorresponding pages of the paragraph style dialog box. In addition tohighlighting, borders are also often used to separate header and footer
areas from the main text area (such as in this guide) as well as
decorative elements in some heading styles.
The two pages are fairly intuitive. You may want to pay attention to thefollowing points when working with the Background page:• In case you do not find the desired color in the list of predefinedones, you can define your own by selecting Tools > Options >OpenOffice.org > Colors.
• You can use a graphic instead of a solid color as background.
Select Graphic in the drop-down menu, then select the graphic
object you want to use and adjust the parameters, as required.
Detailed instructions on working with graphic backgrounds canbe found in the Impress Guide.
• The background is applied only to the paragraph area. If you havedefined an indented paragraph, the space between the paragraphand the margin does not have the paragraph’s background color.
On the Borders page, the following points are worth considering:• Watch out for the effects that the spacing between borders andparagraph area produces on indentations and tabulations.
• If you want the border to be drawn around multiple paragraphs,
leave the corresponding option at the bottom of the page marked.

Working with conditional paragraph styles
A conditional paragraph style is another way of formatting text
differently in different parts of your document. In some cases, you may
find it saves time to use conditional styles rather than switching
between styles as you type.
Making a paragraph style conditional means it changes its formatting
depending on where it is used. For example, you may want the style

Working with conditional paragraph styles

21

MyTextBody to be black by default but turn white when inside a framewith a blue background.
Probably the most common use for conditional formatting is withsingle-style outlining. Single-style outlining is a type of outline
numbering designed with a Numbering style, rather than with Tools >Outline Numbering. Instead of using different styles, it changes thenumber formatting whenever you press the Tab key to create asubordinate heading.
The only trouble with single-style outlining is that all levels look thesame. That is where a conditional paragraph style comes in handy.
Assign the paragraph style to an outline numbering style in the
Numbering page and then open the Condition page. There, you canassign the levels of the outline numbering style to other paragraphstyles. Then, when you press the Tab key while using the paragraphstyle, each level of the outline takes on different formatting, making
single-style outlining even more convenient than it is on its own.

Figure 18: Condition page for paragraph styles
Note

Caution22

Predefined styles (other than Text body) such as Default,
Heading 1, and Heading 2 cannot be set to be conditional.
If you want to make a style conditional, you have to do it while
the style window is still open for the first time. After thewindow closes, the Condition tab no longer appears in thewindow.

Working with Styles

When you create a conditional style, you are saying “in this condition
make this style look like that other style”. For example, “When typing
into a footer, make this style look like the my_footer paragraph style;when typing into a table, make this style look like the table_text
paragraph style”.
In addition to setting the normal (unconditional) properties of the style,you need to define which other style it will look like in different
situations. You do this on the Condition tab.
To set up a conditional paragraph style:1) Define a new paragraph style.
2) Select all the paragraph properties for the style. Do not click
OK!
3) Click the Condition tab.
4) Select the Conditional Style option.
5) Select the first condition in the Context list (left side of the dialogbox) and select the style you want for this condition in the righthand list.
6) Click Apply. The name of the paragraph style appears in the
middle list.
7) Repeat steps 5 and 6 for each condition you want to have linked
to a different style.
8) Click OK.
When the style is selected, you will see that the formatting of your text
depends on the context.

Working with character styles
Character styles complement paragraph styles and are applied togroups of characters, rather than whole paragraphs. They are mainly
used when you want to change the appearance or attributes of parts ofa paragraph without affecting other parts. Examples of effects that canbe obtained by means of character styles are bold or italic typeface orcolored words.
Two of the character styles used in this document are:• Keystrokes use the custom OOoKeyStroke style. For example:
to set Writer to full screen, press Control+Shift+J.
• Menu paths use the custom OOoMenuPath style. For example:
to turn field shadings on or off, choose View > Field Shadings.

Working with character styles

23

Other ways of using character styles are described elsewhere in the
Writer Guide. These uses include making chapter numbers, page
numbers, or list numbers larger than the surrounding text andformatting hyperlinks. When inserting words in different language orwords you do not want the spell checker to detect as mistakes (forexample procedure names in some programming language), characterstyles are quite useful because you can define the language to be
applied in the character-style properties.

Why use character styles?
Beginning Writer users often wonder, “Why use character styles?” or“How is this different from clicking the bold icon to change the font
typeface?” The following real-life event illustrates the difference.
Jean is a technical writer from Australia. She learned thevalue of character styles after her publisher told her tounbold menu paths in her 200-page book. Jean had notused character styles. She had to edit all 200 pages byhand, with some help from Find & Replace. This was
the last time Jean failed to used character styles.
Character styles do not have as many options as paragraph styles or
page styles. Their benefits are of a different nature:• Formatting changes
As Jean’s story illustrates, the ability to make formatting changes
throughout a document can be important. Character styles
provide this.
• Consistency
Character styles help ensure that typesetting guidelines areapplied consistently.
• Focus on content“Was I supposed to bold keystrokes? How about menus?”
A writer should not have to remember the answers to thesequestions. Typesetting details distract you from the real content
of your work. A properly named custom character style (such as
OOoKeyStroke or OOoMenuPath) will remove this burden from
you.

24

Working with Styles

Creating a new character style
This section illustrates the use of the style dialog box for creating a
new character style.
The pages used to configure the character style have already been
seen in the previous section on paragraph styles. Therefore, once you
are familiar with creating paragraph styles, it will only take a few
minutes to create a character style.
• Use the Organizer to set up the hierarchical level of the new
character style (if needed) and to give it a name.
• Use the Font page to determine the font, typeface, and size foryour character style. As with paragraph styles, you can specify
the size as a percentage rather than providing the absolute value.
For example, 150% means that when the character style isapplied to a 10pt font size, the new font size will be 15pt, while if
applied to a 14pt font size, the new size will be 21pt. You can also
specify the Language of the text to which a certain characterstyle is applied, so you can insert words in a different language
and have them spell checked using the correct dictionary.
• In the Font Effects page, you can set up attributes such as fontcolor, underlining, relief, or other effects. If you frequently use
hidden text, for example, it is very convenient to define acharacter style where the Hidden option is marked. This way you
only need a few mouse clicks to hide text. Relief effects may beappropriate for a drop cap or to give more emphasis to thechapter number or other parts of the title (as it is the case of thisguide).
• You can use the Position page to create a subscript in case you
are not satisfied with the default one or even a sub-subscript
which may be useful for certain scientific publications. In thesame page, you can create rotated, condensed, or expanded text.

Note

When rotating a group of characters, you also need to specify
whether the rotated text should fit in the line or if, instead, it isallowed to expand above and below the line. This property only
becomes active for character styles.

• Finish creating a character style by assigning a background, if sodesired. Applying a background to a character style yields thesame effect as using the highlighting tool on the standard toolbar.

Working with character styles

25

Migrating to character styles
For people accustomed to formatting text manually, character styles
can take some getting used to. Here are some suggestions for making
the transition easier:• Never mix character styles and manual formatting. Manual
formatting supersedes character styles. If you combine them, you
may end up wasting hours in frustration trying to figure out why
your character styles don’t work.
• Right-clicking and choosing Default Formatting removes any
text formatting (both manual and character styles).
• Realize that clicking the Bold icon in the toolbar is not easierthan double-clicking on a character style that is preset for bolding
the font typeface.
• Leave the Styles and Formatting window open to make characterstyles easy to access.

Working with frame styles
Frames are often used as containers for text or graphics. To provide
consistency in the appearance of frames used for similar purposes, it isa good idea to define styles for frames. For example, you might wantphotographs to be enclosed in a frame with a drop-shadowed border,line drawings in a frame with a plain border, marginal notes in a frame
without a border but with a shaded background, and so on.
Writer provides several predefined frame styles, which you can modify
as needed; and you can define new frame styles. The technique fordefining and applying frame styles is similar to that for other styles.

Tip

There is considerable overlap between the uses of frames andof sections for some page layout purposes. You may find it
useful to take a look at Chapter 4 (Formatting Pages) for
information about the use of frames and sections.

How frame styles work
When an object is added to Writer, it is automatically enclosed in aframe of a predetermined type. The frame sets how the object is placedon the page, as well as how it interacts with other elements in the
document. You can edit the frame by modifying the frame style it uses
or by using a manual override when a frame is added to the document.

26

Working with Styles

Because frames and objects are used together, it sometimes is easy toforget they are separate elements. In some cases, such as charts, you
can edit the frame and object separately, so the distinction is worth
remembering.
Unlike other elements that use styles, frames can be defined only
partly by their style because their use can vary so much. Several
elements of frames, such as the anchor and protected elements, need
to be defined manually for individual frames.
You can format a frame manually when you select Insert > Frame.
The dialog box that opens contains all the settings available whenframe styles are set up, as well as some only available when the frame
is inserted. As with other styles, the most efficient way to format
frames is in the Styles and Formatting window.

Planning the styles
If you are using a mix of graphics, you may want to define two related
styles, one with a border line for graphics with white backgrounds andone without a border for all other backgrounds. You also may want todesign one or more frames for text only.
Otherwise, the default frame styles (listed in Table 1) cover most users’
needs. The only significant addition that many users might need is one
or more styles for text frames.
Table 1. Various frame styles and their uses
Style

Comments and Use

FormulaThe frame style used for formulas. The default includes
AutoSize, which adjusts the size of the frame to theformula.

Frame

The default frame style.

Graphics

The default style for graphics. The defaults include
autosizing to fit the graphic, no text wrap, and a thinborder around the frame. These are reasonable defaults,
except for the border. Unless the background of thegraphic is white and the document’s background also iswhite, the border usually is unnecessary.

LabelsThe default style for use with File > New > Labels. It
seems to be used by OpenOffice.org automatically and is
not intended for users at all.

Working with frame styles

27

StyleComments and Use

Marginalia

A style for placing a frame beside the left margin. As thename suggests, the Marginalia style is intended forcomments added in the margin of text. The style also isuseful for creating sideheads—headings against the left
margin, which often are used in technical documentation.
To set up sideheads, create body-text paragraph styles with
two inches or more indentation from the left. Then, place
the cursor at the start of a body-text paragraph, add theframe, and apply the Marginalia style.

OLE

The default style for OLE objects and floating frames. The
default places the frame at the top and center of a body oftext.

WatermarkThe default style for a watermark, a graphic placed as the
background to a body of text. The default is a Throughwrap, with text passing over the frame and anything in it.
The graphic should be faint enough that text still isreadable over top of it.

Creating new frame styles
You can access frame settings by selecting New or Modify in the
Styles and Formatting window for a frame style.
Frame settings are available from the following tabbed pages:• Type page: sets the size and position of the frame. One of themost useful options here is AutoSize, which automatically adjusts
the frame to the object it contains. If the frame style is one usedautomatically, then this option should be selected.
• Options page: sets whether the contents of the frame are printed
and able to be edited in a read-only document. The tab also sets
the text direction, which is useful if you are using the frame forcontents in a language that uses right-to-left text direction.
• Wrap page: sets how text is positioned in relation to the frame
and how close text comes to a frame. If you want the frame
contents to stand out from the paragraphs around it, set the wrap
to None. This probably is the single most important tab forframes.
• Background page: sets the background color or graphic. This tab
is useful mostly for text frames in complex page layouts, in whicha text frame has an appearance different from the generalbackground of the page.

28

Working with Styles

• Border page: sets the line around the frame, if any. Many

beginning designers make the mistake of adding a border toevery frame. However, when a colored background distinctly
marks the division between the frame’s contents and the rest of
the page, borders are unnecessary.
• Columns page: this tab can be ignored unless the frame is being
used for text. The page is the same that is used to set up a pagestyle, and its parameters are described in the section “Columns
page” on page 33.
• Macro page: sets a macro to use with the frame in order totrigger some action when the user interacts with the frame. These
options are useful only in an on-line Writer or HTML document.

Working with page styles
Page styles control page properties (margins, page size, header andfooters, among others). However, unlike paragraphs, which can havedirectly applied properties, pages only have a page style and no
directly applied properties.
Christian is a lawyer from California, USA. For his letters,
the first page has his letterhead, and subsequent pages only
identify the recipient, the date, and the page number.
Christian does this using page styles. He also uses pagestyles to comply with the spacing requirements (such as
margins) for legal briefs in California State courts.
This section describes how to create a new page style, explains themeaning of some of the options in the Page style dialog box, andillustrates their usage.

Creating a new page style
Unlike other styles, page styles can be created or modified only byusing the Styles and Formatting window. Open the Styles andFormatting window and click the Page Styles icon . Right-click
anywhere in the main window and select New.
The Page Style dialog box consists of the eight pages shown in
Figure 19.

Working with page styles

29

Figure 19: The tabbed pages for the Page Style dialog box

The next style property
As for the other styles, use the Next style property (described in “The
Organizer page” on page 6) to specify the style for the subsequentelement of the category of style you are working on. This property isparticularly important for a page style, as the following example
demonstrates.

Setting up a title page
Consider a common scenario: you want the document to have a title
page that is different from the rest of the document:• It should not have a header or page number.
• The left and right margins should be the same.
For the title page, we can use the predefined First Page page style thatcomes with OOo, and for the rest of the document, we can use theDefault page style.
Figure 20 shows the required flow of page styles. On the Organizer
page of the Default page style, leave the Next Style property set to
Default. On the Organizer page of the First Page style, make surethat the Next Style property is set to Default.

Figure 20: Flow of page styles

30

Working with Styles

General settings for the page style
The Page page of the Page Style dialog box is where you can control
the general settings of the page. The page shown in Figure 21 consistsof three sections, plus a preview area in the top right corner.
In the Paper format section, you can specify the size of the paperchoosing from one of the many predefined formats. Selecting “user”,
you can use the Width and Height fields to define your own paper size.
If using a predefined format, select the orientation of the paper
between portrait and landscape. If your printer has more than one tray,
you can specify the tray from which to print pages in the new pagestyle.
In the Margins section, specify the size of the margins in yourpreferred unit of measurement. If you select Mirrored margins in the
Page layout settings, the left margin becomes the Inner margin, while
the right margin becomes the Outer margin.

Figure 21: The Page page for the Page Style dialog box
In the Layout settings section, choose the desired Page layout from thefour available options. Decide whether the page style being defined
applies to both left and right pages (default) or if instead it should beapplied only to one or the other types. Some considerations:• If you plan to bind the printed pages using this style like a book,select a mirrored layout. Use the Format drop-down menu todetermine the page numbering style to apply to this page style.

Working with page styles

31• A common practice in page layouts is to have asymmetrical pagemargins—both for left and right margins and for top and bottom
margins. There are various schemes for accomplishing this. The
most common of them follow these two general rules for printed
page layouts: (a) The outer margin (right margin on a right-handpage) would have a wider margin than an inner margin (leftmargin on a right-hand page); (b) The bottom margin would belarger than a top margin. The rationale for an asymmetrical pagelayout is allowing more space for readers to place their hands
while holding the books or other printed documents. About.com
describes some page layouts on their Web site: Perfect
Proportions Using Page Margins in Desktop Publishing.
• If you want the first page of a new chapter to always start on aright (recto) page, make sure that the page style for the firstchapter page is set for the right page only by making thisselection in the Layout settings field. The typical procedure forthe rest of a chapter is to define a single “mirrored” page style forboth left and right pages. A mirrored page can have different
headers and footers. If done this way, every chapter will use two
page styles.
• You can choose to define separate page styles for left and rightpages, if you want the pages to be very different in appearance(for example, different margins or headers and footers only onright pages but not on left pages; imagine a book with a full-page
photograph on the left pages and text on the right pages). In thatcase, make sure that the Next Style field for the first page style isthen set for a left-only page, which, in turn, is then set to befollowed by a right-only page style. If done this way, every chapter
will use three page styles. A hypothetical case might have thesepage-style names: First page, Left, and Right.
If you check the Register-true box, Writer will create a vertical gridon the page with a spacing between grid points that depends on theselected Reference Style. The vertical grid makes sure that text
printed on adjacent columns, opposite pages, or even both sides of thesame sheet of paper, is aligned—making it easier to read as well as
being more pleasant to see.

Background and Border pages
Use the Background page to apply a background or the Border page
to draw a border around text area of the page. You can choose between
a solid color or a graphic image for the background and several stylesof line for the borders. Note that the page area affected by these32

Working with Styles

changes does not include the area outside the margins. If you plan toprint on colored paper and want to have a feel of the final result you
will obtain or want to use a light color for the font, rather thanchanging the background,then go to Tools > Options >Openoffice.org and in the Appearance section, change the Document
background color.

Header and Footer pages
You can associate a different header or footer to each page style. This
property makes it very easy to have different headers on left and rightpages, to avoid headers on pages at the start of a new chapter, and soon.
Setting up the header and footer pages is straightforward. The
instructions here refer to the header, but the footer page has the same
options. Activate the input boxes by selecting Header on, then specify
the left margin, right margin, and spacing to the main text area. For
the height of the header area, you can either select the AutoFit
height box, which will make Writer adapt the size to the contents, or
specify the height manually. Clicking More opens a new dialog box,
where you can set the borders and background of the header area.
If you deselect the Same content left/right box, you can specify adifferent header for left or right pages, even if you use a single stylefor both. Figure 22 shows an example.

Figure 22: Different content on left and right pages

Columns pageUse this page to create the desired column layout for the page style.
The page is subdivided into three sections: Settings, Width andSpacing and Separator Line. The Settings section contains thumbnails
of predefined columns settings you can select, as well as a text box
where you can enter the desired number of columns if you need tocreate a customized one.
After you select more than one column, the Width and Spacing section
becomes active. If you are not satisfied with the predefined settings(equally spaced columns), deselect the AutoWidth option and enter
Working with page styles

33the parameters manually. When you work with multiple columns per
page, you can also fine tune the position and size of a separator line
between the columns.

Footnote pageUse this page to adjust the appearance of the footnotes. Keeping thedefault setting Not larger than page area, the footnotes area iscalculated automatically on the basis of the number of footnotes. If you
prefer to control manually the maximum space that footnotes can take,select the Maximum footnote height option and enter the value inthe preferred unit of measurement. Use the second section of the pageto customize the separator between the footnotes and the main area.

Example: A book chapter sequence of pages
Book chapters typically start on a right-hand page, with the first pageof the chapter having a different layout from the rest of the pages. The
other pages in the chapter are “mirrored” for double-sided printing.
For example, page numbers in the header or footer may be positionedon the outside edge of pages and a wider margin (allowing for binding)may be placed on the inside edge.
Table 2 shows the properties of two page styles (Right Page andDefault) set up for a typical book chapter’s sequence of pages.
Table 2. Properties of customized page styles for book chapter
Page Style

Desired effect

Property: setting

Right Page

First page always on theright (an odd-numbered
page)

Page > Page layout > Onlyright

No header or footer

Header > Header >Header on: Not selected

Top margin of page larger
than on other pages

Page > Margins > Top:
6.00cmMirrored margins

Page > Page layout:
Mirrored

Header with page number on
the top outside of the pageand chapter title in the top
middle center of the page

Header > Header on:
Selected
Header > Header > Same
content left/right: Not
selected

Default

34

Working with Styles

Figure 23 illustrates the transitions from the Right Page to Default
page styles, with the change of header between left and right pages
shown by the # symbol.

Figure 23: Right Page and then the Default pagestyle with different headers for alternate pages.
Step 1. Set up the Right Page style.
1) On the Styles and Formatting window, click the Page Styles icon
(fourth from left) to display a list of page styles.
2) Right-click on Right Page and select Modify from the pop-up
menu.
3) On the Organizer page of the Page Style: Right Page dialog box,
change Next Style to Default.

Figure 24: Specifying the next style after the first page of a chapter4) On the Page page, specify a larger left margin for binding, and alarger top margin to move the chapter title down the page.

Working with page styles

35

Figure 25: Setting page margins and layout for the Right Page style5) On the Header and Footer pages, be sure the Header on andFooter on options are not selected. Click OK to save yourchanges.
6) On the Styles and Formatting window, in the list of page styles,
right-click on Default and select Modify from the pop-up menu.
7) On the Organizer page of the Page Style: Default dialog box, be
sure Next Style is set to Default.
Step 2. Set up the Default page style.
1) On the Page page of the Page Style: Default dialog box, selectMirrored for Page layout and set the Inner and Outer margins tothe same width as the Left and Right margins, respectively, on the
Right Page style.

36

Working with Styles

Figure 26: Setting page margins and layout for the Default
page style2) On the Header page of the Page Style: Default dialog box, selectthe Header on option and deselect the Same content left/right
option. Click OK to save your changes.

Figure 27: Setting up the header properties for the Default
page style
Step 3. Set up the Heading 1 paragraph style to start on a newright-hand page.
1) In the Styles and Formatting window, on the Paragraph Styles
page, right-click on Heading 1 and select Modify.
2) On the Text Flow page of the Paragraph Style dialog box, in the
Breaks section, select Insert, With Page Style, and Right Page.
Click OK to save your changes.

Working with page styles

37

Figure 28: Setting a paragraph style to start on a page of a
selected style
Step 4. Start a new chapter.
Apply the Heading 1 paragraph style to the first paragraph, which willbe the title of the chapter.
Note

By default, the Heading 1 paragraph style is assigned to
Outline Level 1. The assignment of paragraph styles to outline
levels is done through Tools > Outline Numbering.

Step 5. Set up the page headers.
1) On a left page, put the cursor in the header and insert a page
number field on the left (Insert > Fields > Page Number).
2) Press Tab to put the cursor in the middle and insert a Chapter
reference:
Press Control+F2 (or choose Insert > Fields > Other from themenu bar) to display the Fields dialog box (Figure 29).
On the Document page, for Type, select Chapter and for Format,
select Chapter name. Make sure that Layer is set to 1 and thenclick Insert.
3) On a right page, put the cursor in the header, press the Tab key,insert a Chapter reference, press Tab again, and insert a page
number field.
4) If you need to adjust the tab stops for the header, modify the
Header paragraph style. Do not manually adjust the tab stops.

38

Working with Styles

Figure 29: Inserting a chapter title into the header of a page

Working with list styles
List styles (also called numbering styles) work together with paragraphstyles. They define indentation, alignment, and the numbering or bullet
characters used for list items. You can define many list styles, from
simple bulleted lists to complex multi-level (nested) lists.
As with other styles, the main reasons for using list styles are
consistency and speeding up your work. Although you can create
simple lists quickly by clicking the Numbering On/Off or Bullets
On/Off icons on the Formatting toolbar, and create quite complex
nested lists using the icons on the Bullets and Numbering toolbar, theappearance of the resulting lists may not be what you want—and you
might want to have more than one style of list. You can use the Bullets
and Numbering choice on the Format menu to manually format theappearance of some or all of the lists, but if you later need to change
their appearance, you will have a lot of manual work to do.

Note

OOo uses the terms “numbering style” and “list style”
inconsistently, but they are the same thing. For example, thetooltip in the Styles and Formatting window says “List Styles”,
but its style dialog box says “Numbering Style”.

Working with list styles

39

Defining the appearance of a nested list
A nested list is a numbered or bulleted list with subordinate (usuallyindented) numbered or bulleted lists. Rather than just a list of
numbered items (1,2,3...), a nested list may have item 1, then indented
items numbered a,b,c or i,ii,iii or some other numbering method before
the main number 2. With numbering styles, you can achieve any
combination of numbering formats you want. A nested list may evencombine numbered items with bulleted items.
There is no difference between defining a nested list style or a simple
list, although nested lists require more work. An example of a nested
list is given in Chapter 3 (Working with Text). In that case, the list was
built using one of the predefined outline schemes as a starting point,
while in this section we follow a more general approach so that the list
can fully suit your needs.

Creating a new list style
The dialog box to create a new list style consists of six pages, inaddition to the usual Organizer page discussed in “The Organizerpage” on page 6.

Bullets, Numbering Styles, and Graphics pages
The Bullets, Numbering Style, and Graphics pages contain predefinedformatting for list item symbols (bullets or numbers). To use one ofthem for your style, click on the image. A thick border indicates theselection. The bullets on the Bullets tab are font characters; those on
the Graphics tab are graphics.
If you choose a graphics bullet, you can select the Link Graphics
option to create a link to the graphic object rather than embedding itin the document. If you decide to link the graphic, keep in mind thatthe bullet will not be displayed when the document is opened on adifferent computer (unless the same graphic file is located in the same
location on both computers) or if the graphic file used is moved to adifferent location on the computer.

Outline pageUse the Outline page to select from eight predefined nested lists. You
can also select one and use it as a starting point for your own style,customizing the list using the Position page and the Options page, as
described below.

40

Working with Styles

Position pageUse the Position page to fine tune the indentation and spacing of thethe list item symbol and the text of the list item. This page isparticularly effective when used in combination with the Options page.

Figure 30: Position settings for a List style
You can adjust the following settings for each individual level or all at
once (to make them all the same). It is generally easier to adjust thesettings in the order given below, instead of the order on the dialog
box. That is, start from the overall indentation for the list elements,
then fix the position of the symbols, and finally adjust the alignment of
the symbols.
• Numbering followed by: the character to follow the numbering
symbol (plus any characters—for example a punctuation mark—chosen on the Options page to appear after the number). Choose
between a tab stop, a space, or nothing. If you select the tab stop,
you can specify the position of the tab.
• Indent at: how much space is reserved for the numbering
symbol, measured from the left page margin. The alignment of
the first line of the list is also affected by any tab you may have
set to follow the numbering.
• Aligned at: the position of the numbering symbol, measured fromthe left margin of the page.

Working with list styles

41• Numbering alignment: how the numbering (including any text

before or after as set in the Options page) will be aligned. The
Aligned at value determines the symbol alignment.
Note

When defining an indentation different from 0, the position of
the tabulation is not considered.

Tip

In normal circumstances, setting the Numbering followed bydistance to be equal to the Indent at distance works well. See
Figure 31 for a graphic representation of the effects of theabove parameters.

Figure 31: A numbered list of CD tracks highlighting
the various elements
Position page for earlier versions of OOo
If your document was created with an earlier version of OOo, or if the
document was saved for compatibility reasons using the ODF fileformat version 1.1 or earlier, the position dialog will appear as in
Figure 32.

42

Working with Styles

Figure 32: The Position page for documents created withearlier versions of OOo
In this case you can adjust the following settings:• Indent: the indentation of the number or bullet area, measured
from the left margin of the paragraph linked to the numbering
style. In other words, if the paragraph style already has anindentation, when the list style is applied the indentations areadded together.
For any level other than Level 1, the Relative option causes theindentation to be measured from the start of the previous level
rather than from the page margin.
• Width of numbering: how much space is used by the numbering
symbol. Writer reserves this space, even if only part of it is used.
• Minimum spacing numbering <-> text: the spacing between
the right edge of the numbering symbol and the text. If thespacing to text is not sufficient, Writer will honor this setting by
expanding the numbering area. Setting the minimum spacing
between numbering and text is very useful when right-aligning
the numbering or when there is much text before or after thenumbering.
• Numbering alignment: how the numbering (including any text
before or after) will be aligned.

Tip

To fully appreciate how the Numbering alignment works, try tocreate a numbered list with more than ten elements and makesure that enough room has been made for numbers with two or
more digits. You may also wish to right-align numbers 10 orgreater, as in Figure 31 on page 42.

Working with list styles

43Options pageUse the Options page, shown in Figure 33, to define the style of theoutline levels. The options available on this page depend on the type ofmarker selected for the list. First, on the left side, select the level you
want to modify. To modify all ten levels at once, select 1 – 10 as thelevel. If you started from a predefined outline, some of the levels will
already have settings.

Figure 33: The Options page for a list styleDepending on the numbering style selected in the Numbering box(bullet, graphic, numbering), some of the following options become
available on the page:• Before: any text to appear before the number (for example,
Step).
• After: any text to appear after the number (for example, apunctuation mark).
• Color: the color for the list marker (number or bullet character).
• Relative size: the size of the number relative to the size of thecharacters in the paragraph of the list.
• Start at: the first value of the list (for example, you might want
the list to start at 4 instead of 1).
• Character Style: the style to be used for the number or bullet.
• Character button: click to select the character for the bullet.

44

Working with Styles

• Graphics selection button: opens a list of available graphics(Gallery) or allows the selection of a file on the hard disk to be
used as the list marker.
• Width and Height: the dimensions of the graphic marker.
• Alignment: the alignment of the graphic object.
• Keep ratio option: fixes the ratio between the width and theheight of the graphic marker.
The right-hand side of the dialog box shows a preview of themodifications made.
To revert to the default values, click the Reset button in the bottom
right corner. Finally, if you wish to use consecutive numbers regardlessof the outline level, check the Consecutive numbering box at thebottom of the page.

Combining list and paragraph styles
When applying a list style, the underlying paragraph style remains
unchanged. If your list must also have a certain font size, indentations,and so on, you might expect to first apply a paragraph style and then alist style (or vice versa). However, you can embed a list style in aparagraph style using the Numbering page of the Paragraph Style
dialog box, and then apply only the paragraph style to the list.
This section gives an example of combining list and paragraph styles.
1) Create a list style you want to use for the paragraph. For
example: MyNumberedList.
2) Create a new paragraph style.
3) On the Organizer page of the Paragraph Style dialog box:a) Give the new paragraph style a name, say
NumberedParagraph.
b) For the Next Style, choose NumberedParagraph (this will
make the following paragraph also be in this style, until you
choose a different style).
c) In Linked with, choose None.
d) Leave Custom Styles, in the Category field.
4) Set up this paragraph style to your liking. Because theindentation is controlled by the List style, to avoid undesiredinteractions do not change the indent settings on the Indents &Spacing page. (You might want to change the spacing above andbelow the paragraph.)

Working with list styles

455) On the Outline & Numbering page, choose the
MyNumberedList style created in step 1.
6) Click OK to save this style.
To have full control, it is common practice to define three baseparagraph styles for lists: List Start for the first element of the list, List
Continue for the subsequent elements of the list, and List End for thelast element of the list. You should also define a paragraph style to be
used for unnumbered list items (one for each nested level you intend touse) as well as an introductory style for the paragraph preceding thestart of the list (to allow for keeping the introductory paragraph withthe first list item, or for specifying spacing before the first list item thatis different from the spacing between other paragraphs).

Example: Creating a simple list style
In this example, we will create a numbered list that is used to number
the songs on a CD. The numbers are right aligned, and some space isleft between the number and the title of the track.
As we want to reuse the same numbered list for other CDs, we willdefine a new list style and then apply it to the tracks list.

Creating the CDTracks numbered list
As for the previous example, start by clicking the List Styles icon (fifthfrom the left) in the Styles and Formatting window. Then right-click
anywhere in the list box and choose New.
The Numbering style dialog box is displayed. For the CDTracks style,we need to customize fields in the Organizer, the Options, and the
Position pages.
Style fields

Description

Name

Enter CDTrack

Category

Custom styles will be OK for us.

Modify the options of the Options page as follows:
1) In the Level box, choose 1.
2) In the Numbering list, choose 1, 2, 3, ....
3) Leave the Before and After boxes unchanged, or delete anythingthat is in them.
4) Leave the Character Style field as None.
5) Make sure Start at is set to 1.
46

Working with Styles

6) Show sublevels should be grayed out. Do not select Consecutive
numbering.
As discussed above, the numbering list will adopt settings of theunderlying paragraph style. If you want to use a special font, size orcolor for the numbering, you can create a character style and apply itin the Options page.
If you want the word Track to appear before the number, just add it to
the Before field in the Options dialog box. Do not forget to add a spacecharacter to separate the word from the number.
Set up the final parameters of the CDTracks list style in the Position
page.
1) In the Level box, choose 1.
2) For Numbering followed by, choose tab stop and set it at 4.0cm.
3) For Numbering alignment, choose Right.
4) For Aligned at choose 1.5cm. (this refers to the alignment of thenumbers)5) For Indent at choose 4.0cm. (This sets the indentation of thewhole list.) Click OK to finish.

Applying the list style
Now that the list style is available, it can be quickly applied to any listin the document:
1) If starting a new list, before pressing Enter to start a new line,
double-click on the desired list style name in the Styles andFormatting window.
2) If you already have a list, select it and then double-click on thedesired list style name in the Styles and Formatting window.

Note

Remember that applying a list style does not affect thecharacteristics of the underlying paragraph; therefore you may
want to check if you are satisfied with the paragraph style
before applying the list style.

If you have more than one list in a document, the second andsubsequent lists with the same style continue their numbering from theprevious list. To restart at 1, place the cursor anywhere in theparagraph you want numbered 1, right-click, and choose Restart
numbering.
To stop using numbering, press the Numbering On/Off icon on theStandard toolbar. The final result is illustrated in Figure 31.
Working with list styles

47