Chapter 5 Formatting Pages: Basics

Writer 6.0 Guide

Chapter 5

Formatting Pages: Basics

Page styles and related features

below. You may distribute it and/or modify it under the terms of either the GNU General Public

License (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html), version 3 or later, or the Creative Commons

Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), version 4.0 or later.

All trademarks within this guide belong to their legitimate owners.

Contributors

Jean Hollis Weber Bruce Byfield Gillian Pollack

Acknowledgments

This chapter is updated from previous versions of the LibreOffice Writer Guide. Contributors to

earlier versions are:

Jean Hollis Weber John A Smith Ron Faile Jr.

Jamie Eby

This chapter is adapted from Chapter 4 of the OpenOffice.org 3.3 Writer Guide. The contributors to

that chapter are:

Agnes Belzunce Ken Byars Daniel Carrera

Peter Hillier-Brook Lou Iorio Sigrid Kronenberger

Peter Kupfer Ian Laurenson Iain Roberts

Gary Schnabl Janet Swisher Jean Hollis Weber

Claire Wood Michele Zarri

Feedback

Please direct any comments or suggestions about this document to the Documentation Team’s

mailing list: [email protected]

Note

Everything you send to a mailing list, including your email address and any other

personal information that is written in the message, is publicly archived and cannot be

deleted.

Publication date and software version

Published July 2018. Based on LibreOffice 6.0.

Note for macOS users

Some keystrokes and menu items are different on macOS from those used in Windows and Linux.

The table below gives some common substitutions for the instructions in this book. For a more

detailed list, see the application Help.

Windows or Linux macOS equivalent Effect

Tools > Options

menu selection

LibreOffice > Preferences Access setup options

Right-click Control+click and/or right-click

depending on computer setup

Open a context menu

Ctrl (Control) ( Command) Used with other keys

F5 Shift+ + F5 Open the Navigator

F11 + T Open the sidebar Styles and Formatting deck

Documentation for LibreOffice is available at http://documentation.libreoffice.org/en/

Contents
Copyright..............................................................................................................................2
Contributors.................................................................................................................................2
Acknowledgments........................................................................................................................ 2
Feedback.....................................................................................................................................2
Publication date and software version.........................................................................................2
Note for macOS users................................................................................................................. 2
Introduction..........................................................................................................................4
Setting up basic page layout using styles........................................................................4
Inserting a page break without changing the page style..............................................................5
Inserting a page break and changing to a new page style...........................................................5
Changing page margins......................................................................................................6
Creating headers and footers.............................................................................................7
Using fields in headers and footers..............................................................................................8
Formatting headers and footers...................................................................................................8
Numbering pages.................................................................................................................9
Simple page numbering.............................................................................................................10
Combining header text and page number..................................................................................10
Changing the number format...................................................................................................... 11
Numbering pages by chapter.....................................................................................................11
Numbering the first page something other than 1......................................................................12
Defining a different first page for a document................................................................13
Adding title pages...................................................................................................................... 13
Restarting page numbering........................................................................................................14
Example: Restart page numbering: a preface.......................................................................15
Formatting footnotes and endnotes................................................................................16
Defining footnote location and separator line.............................................................................16
Defining borders and backgrounds.................................................................................17
Adding a border......................................................................................................................... 17
Adding a color to the background..............................................................................................18
Adding a gradient to the background.........................................................................................19
Adding a bitmap (i,age) to the background................................................................................19
Adding a pattern or hatching to the background........................................................................20
Deleting a color, gradient, bitmap, or other background.............................................................21
Adjusting the transparency of the background...........................................................................21
Chapter 5  Formatting Pages: Basics | 3

Introduction

Writer provides several ways for you to control page layouts.

This chapter describes the use of page styles and some associated functions:

• Headers and footers

• Page numbering

• Title pages

• Footnotes and endnotes

• Borders and backgrounds

Chapter 6 covers the use of columns, frames, tables, and sections, as well as changing page

orientation within a document.

Note

All pages in a Writer document are based on page styles. The other layout

methods (described in Chapter 6) build upon the underlying page style.

Tip

Page layout is usually easier if you select the options to show text, object, table, and

section boundaries in Tools > Options > LibreOffice > Application Colors and the

options for paragraph ends, tabs, breaks, and other items in Tools > Options >

LibreOffice Writer > Formatting Aids.

Setting up basic page layout using styles

In Writer, page styles define the basic layout of all pages, including page size, margins, the

placement of headers and footers, borders and backgrounds, number of columns, page numbers,

and so on.

Writer comes with several page styles, which you can build on or modify, and you can define new

(custom) page styles. You can have one or many page styles in a single document. If you do not

specify a page style, Writer uses the Default Style.

To change the layout of individual pages, either define a new page style or use one of the

techniques (sections, frames, or tables) described later in this chapter.

Note

For some documents, all layout changes (such as the position of page numbers and

other elements in a header or footer on facing pages) can be defined in a single page

style.

This chapter describes some uses of page styles. Some other uses are discussed in Chapter 8,

Introduction to Styles. The Page Style dialog is covered in detail in Chapter 9, Working with Styles.

Tip

Any modifications of page styles, including the Default page style, apply only to the

document you are working on. If you want the changes to be the default for all

documents, you need to put the changes into a template and make that template the

default template. See Chapter 10, Working with Templates, for details.

4 | Chapter 5 Formatting Pages: Basics

Inserting a page break without changing the page style

In many documents (for example, a multi-page report), you want the text to flow from one page to

the next as you add or delete information. Writer does this automatically, unless you override the

text flow using one of the techniques described in this chapter.

If you want a page break in a particular place—for example, to put a heading at the top of a new

page—you can position the cursor at the point where you want to start the new page and select

Insert > Page Break from the Menu bar.

However, there are other methods to put a heading at the top of a page. For example, you can

define the paragraph style for a heading to include a page break; see “Text flow options for

paragraph styles” in Chapter 9, Working with Styles, for more information.

Inserting a page break and changing to a new page style

If you want the new page to have a different page style—for example, to change from a Default

page style to a First Page style—use either of these methods.

Caution

Do not try to change a page style for a single page without inserting a page break. If

you do, the page style of some or all of the other pages may also change.

Method 1

1) Position the cursor at the point you want to start the next page. Select Insert > Manual

Break.

2) In the Type section of the Insert Break dialog (Figure 1), Page break is preselected, and

Style is set at [None]. From the Style drop-down list, select the page style for the next

page. Click OK.

Method 2

1) Position the cursor in the paragraph you want to be at the start of the next page. Right-click

and choose Paragraph in the context menu.

2) On the Text Flow page of the Paragraph dialog (Figure 2), in the Breaks section, select

Insert and With page style. From the Style drop-down list, select the page style for the next

page. Click OK.

Figure 1: Inserting a manual page break and changing the page style

Setting up basic page layout using styles | 5

Figure 2: Inserting a manual page break using the Paragraph dialog

Tip

See “Restarting page numbering“ on page 14 for information on the use of the page

number fields in these dialogs.

Changing page margins

You can change page margins in these ways:

• Using the page rulers—quick and easy, but does not have fine control.

• Using the Page Style dialog—can specify margins to two (fractional) decimal places.

• Using the Page panel of the Properties deck in the Sidebar.

Note

If you change the margins using the rulers or the Sidebar, the new margins affect the

page style and all pages that use that style. The new margins will be shown in the

Page Style dialog the next time you open it.

If you want to change the margins on some pages, but not others, you must use

different page styles.

To change margins using the rulers:

1) The shaded sections of the rulers are the margins (see Figure 3). Put the mouse cursor

over the line between the gray and white sections. The pointer turns into a double-headed

arrow and displays the current setting in a tooltip.

2) Hold down the left mouse button and drag the mouse to move the margin.

Caution

The small arrows on the ruler are used for indenting paragraphs. They are often in the

same place as the page margins, so you need to be careful to move the margin

marker, not the arrows. The double-headed arrows shown in Figure 3 are actual

mouse cursors placed in the correct position.

Figure 3: Moving the margins

6 | Chapter 5 Formatting Pages: Basics

Tip

After making a change, passing the mouse over the new margin will show its new

measurement.

To change margins using the Page Style dialog (Figure 15):

1) Right-click anywhere on the page and select Page from the context menu.

2) On the Page page of the dialog, type the required distances in the Margins boxes.

To change margins using the Page panel of the Properties deck of the Sidebar:

1) On the open Sidebar (View > Sidebar) select the Properties tab.

2) Open the Page panel if is not open by clicking the plus (+) symbol in the panel title.

3) Click the Margin icon to open the sub-panel and enter the required dimensions in the

Custom size boxes (clicking the More Options button will open the Page Style dialog).

Creating headers and footers

Headers are portions of a document that appear at the top of every page; footers appear at the

bottom of a page. They typically include a page number and sometimes document information

such as the title. In Writer, headers and footers are specified in page styles; therefore, all the pages

with the same page style will display the same header and footer, although the contents of the

header/footer may vary. For example, the header/footer on the first page of a section, chapter, or

document may contain different information, even though the page style is the same.

Chapter 9 describes how to format a header as part of the page style formatting. This example

shows how to insert a header in the Default pages using manual formatting.

Terminology

A heading is a paragraph that introduces a chapter or section of a document, for

example “Creating headers and footers” above. A header (also known as a running

header) appears on each page and typically displays information about the document.

There are two ways to insert a header. The simplest method is to click above the top of the text

area, then when the Header marker appears, click the +. (To insert a footer, click below the bottom

of the text area to display the Footer marker, and then click the +.)

Figure 4: Header marker at top of text area

Headers can also be inserted from the Menu bar by selecting Insert > Header and Footer >

Header > [Page Style]. The submenu lists the page styles used in your document. In addition, the

submenu includes the entry All, which activates headers on all the pages of the document

regardless of their page style. Similarly, to insert a footer, choose Insert > Header and Footer >

Footer > [Page Style].

For our example, select the Default menu item to activate the headers only on the pages that use

the Default page style. An area will appear at the top or bottom of the page (Figure 5).

Creating headers and footers | 7

Figure 5: A page with a page header

Using fields in headers and footers

You can type information into headers and footers, but some items such as document titles and

chapter titles are best added as fields. That way, if something changes, the headers and footers

are all updated automatically.

Fields are covered in Chapter 17, Fields, but one example here may be useful. To insert the

document title into the header on a Default page style:

1) Select File > Properties > Description, enter a title for your document in the Title area,

and click OK to close the dialog.

2) Add a header (Insert > Header > Default).

3) Place the cursor in the header part of the page.

4) Select Insert > Fields > Title. The title should appear on a gray background (which does

not show when printed and can be turned off).

5) To change the title of the document, reselect File > Properties > Description and edit.

Also, you must use a field for the page number so it changes from one page to the next. See

“Numbering pages” on page 9.

Formatting headers and footers

In Writer, headers and footers are paragraphs; therefore, you can format the header or footer text

using the same techniques you use for formatting text in the main body of the document. See

Chapter 4, Formatting Text.

You can also add images to headers and footers using any of the techniques described in Chapter

11, Images and Graphics, and you can line up information using tables as described in Chapter 6.

Tip

Writer provides paragraph styles for headers and footers, which you can modify and

use in the same way as other paragraph styles. See Chapters 8 and 9.

To format the layout of headers and footers manually:

1) Use any of these methods to open the relevant page style dialog:

– Click anywhere on the page and choose Format > Page from the Menu bar.

– Right-click anywhere on the page and choose Page from the context menu.

– Click the top of the page. When the Header marker appears, click the plus sign or down

arrow and select Format Header.

2) On the Header or Footer tab of the page style dialog (Figure 6), you can change the

margins, spacing, and height.

8 | Chapter 5 Formatting Pages: Basics

3) Click More to open the Border/Background dialog (Figure 7), where you can add borders,

background colors, and background images to the header or footer.

Caution

Do not attempt to use the Area or Borders tabs on the Page Style dialog itself to format

headers or footers. Style choices selected from those tabs apply to the entire page.

Figure 6: Footer tab of Page Style dialog

Figure 7: Border / Background page for header or footer

Numbering pages

This section describes techniques to insert page numbers and related information in headers or

footers of a document.

If you place a page number field in a header or footer, the number appears on every page and

changes from one page to the next. The page number appears with a gray background. This gray

background denotes a field; although it is visible on screen, it is not printed.

Numbering pages | 9

Tips

If you wish to turn off the gray background, choose View > Field Shadings (or press

Ctrl+F8).

If you see the words “Page number” instead of a number, press Ctrl+F9. This shortcut

key toggles Writer between displaying the Field Name and the actual page number.

Simple page numbering

The simplest case is to have the page number at the top of every page and nothing more. To do

this, put the cursor on the header and choose Insert > Page Number.

Figure 8: Page number inserted in the header

Combining header text and page number

You can apply a lot of interesting variations without further knowledge of page styles. Here are

some suggestions:

• Right-align the header to make the page number appear on the top-right.

• Type the word page before the page number field so the header reads page 1, page 2, and

so on.

• Add the document title so the header reads, for example: Peter’s Favourite Poems, left

justified, and page x with right justification, where x is the value of the Page Number field.

Consider using a (right-aligned) tab to separate the title from the page number.

• LibreOffice also has a Page Count field (Insert > Fields > Page Count). Using it and the

page number field, you could, for example, have a header that reads page 2 of 12.

These variations are all illustrated in Figure 9.

Figure 9: Variations on the simple page numbering method

10 | Chapter 5 Formatting Pages: Basics

Changing the number format

Many more variations are possible. For example, you can set the page number to display in

Roman numerals. One way to do that is to double-click the page number and select the desired

format; a better choice is to specify the format of numbers in the page style as explained here.

Right-click in the text area of the page and select Page from the context menu.

On the Page page of the Page Style dialog, in the Layout settings section, select i, ii, iii, …. from

the Format drop-down list to use lowercase numerals.

Figure 10: Changing format of page numbers

Any change in the number format affects the page numbers on all pages using that page style,

regardless of the method used to change the format.

Numbering pages by chapter

Technical documents often include the chapter number with the page number in the header or

footer. For example, 1-1, 1-2, 1-3, ...; 2-1, 2-2, 2-3, ... To set up this type of page numbering in

Writer, you need to do three things:

1) Ensure that your chapter titles are all identified by the same paragraph style, for example,

the Heading 1 style.

2) Use Tools > Outline Numbering to tell Writer what paragraph style you are using for Level

1 in your outline, and specify “1,2,3” in the Number box.

Figure 11: Specifying paragraph style and numbering for chapter titles

3) Insert the chapter number in the document. To do this:

a) Place the cursor in the header or footer just before the page number you inserted

earlier, and choose Insert > Field > More Fields from the Menu bar.

Numbering pages | 11

b) On the Fields dialog (Figure 12), go to the Document page. Select Chapter in the Type

list, Chapter number in the Format list, and 1 in the Level box. Click Insert.

c) Type a hyphen or other punctuation between the chapter number and the page number.

Figure 12: Inserting a chapter number field

Numbering the first page something other than 1

Sometimes you may want to start a document with a page number greater than 1. Follow these

instructions to do that. (These instructions are for a page number in a footer, but you could use a

header instead.)

1) Click in the footer. To insert the page number, choose Insert > Fields > Page Number. The

page number will be 1.

2) Click in the first paragraph in the text area. Choose Format > Paragraph (or right-click and

choose Paragraph from the context menu), to display the Paragraph dialog.

3) On the Text Flow page, in the Breaks section (Figure 13), select Insert and select Page in

the Type drop-down list. Select With Page Style and the page style you are using for the

first page of the document.

4) Select Page number to make the field active. Type the page number you want to start with.

Click OK to close the Paragraph dialog.

Figure 13: The Breaks section of the Text Flow page of the Page Style dialog

Tip

If you set a starting page number that is an even number, you will end up with a blank

page before the first page. However, you can suppress this blank page when you print

the file or export it as a PDF. See Chapter 7, Printing, Exporting, E-mailing, for more

information.

12 | Chapter 5 Formatting Pages: Basics

Defining a different first page for a document

Many documents, such as letters and memos, have a first page that is different from the other

pages in the document. For example, the first page of a letterhead typically has a different header,

as shown in Figure 14, or the first page of a report might have no header or footer, while the other

pages do.

Using the Default (or any other) page style for your document, you can add a header/footer as you

wish to the first page by deselecting the Same content on first page option on the header/footer

pages in the Page Style dialog, and then adding the header/footer. You can then add a different

header/footer to the other pages of the document. See “Creating headers and footers” on page 7

for more information.

Figure 14: Letterhead with different headers for first and following pages

Adding title pages

Writer provides a fast and convenient way to add one or more title pages to a document and

optionally to restart the page number at 1 for the body of the document.

To begin, choose Format > Title Page from the Menu bar. On the Title Page dialog (Figure 15),

you can make the following choices:

• Convert existing pages to title pages, or insert new title pages.

• How many pages to convert or insert.

• Where those pages are located.

• If and where to restart page numbering, and what number to start with.

• What page style to use for the title page.

Using this technique, you can insert several “title pages” at different points in your document, for

example to add decorative pages between chapters as well as title, copyright, and other pages at

the beginning of a book.

Defining a different first page for a document | 13

Figure 15: Adding title pages to a document

Restarting page numbering

Often you will want to restart the page numbering at 1, for example, on the page following a title

page or a table of contents. In addition, many documents have the front matter (such as the table

of contents) numbered with Roman numerals and the main body of the document numbered in

Arabic numerals, starting with 1.

If you chose not to add title pages as described above, you can restart page numbering in two

ways.

Method 1:

1) Place the cursor in the first paragraph of the new page (a heading is a paragraph).

2) Choose Format > Paragraph.

3) On the Text Flow page of the Paragraph dialog, select Insert in the Breaks area (Figure 13

on page 12).

4) In the Type drop-down list, select Page.

5) In the Position drop-down list, select Before or After to position where you want to insert

the page numbering break.

6) Select With Page Style and specify the page style to use.

7) Specify the page number to start from and then click OK. This does not insert a new page.

Method 2:

1) Place the cursor in the first paragraph of the new page.

2) Choose Insert > Manual break.

3) Page break is the default selected on the Insert Break dialog (Figure 16).

4) Choose the required page in the Style drop-down list.

5) Select Change page number.

14 | Chapter 5 Formatting Pages: Basics

6) Specify the page number to start from and then click OK. This does insert a new page.

Figure 16: Restarting page numbering after a manual page break

Example: Restart page numbering: a preface

A standard book preface has the following properties:

• Page numbers are displayed in Roman numerals (i, ii, iii, iv, …).

• After the preface, the page number resets to 1, and the number format becomes Arabic (1,

2, 3, 4, …).

Resetting the page number requires page breaks.

First, do the preliminary work for the Preface style:

1) Create a new page style and name it Preface.

2) Set its Next Style to Preface because a preface could span multiple pages.

3) Add a header to Preface and insert the Page Number field. Make the page numbers display

as Roman numerals (i, ii, iii, iv, …):

4) Open the page style window for Preface (if not already open) and click the Header tab.

Select Header on under Header.

5) Click the Page tab (Figure 17). Under Layout settings, in the Format drop-down list, set the

format to i, ii, iii, …. Click OK to close the dialog.

After the preface is written, we are ready to restart the page numbering in the main body of the

document to Arabic numerals. Follow these steps:

1) Make an empty paragraph at the very end of the preface.

2) Put the cursor on the blank line.

3) Choose Insert > Manual Break.

4) Select Page break and choose the Default Style.

5) Select the Change page number option and set the new value to 1. Click OK to close the

dialog.

These settings are shown in Figure 16.

Note

You cannot assign an odd page number to a left page or an even page number to a

right page. LibreOffice strongly adheres to the convention that odd page numbers go

on right-hand pages and even page numbers on left-hand pages.

Defining a different first page for a document | 15

Figure 17: Set page number format to Roman numerals

Formatting footnotes and endnotes

Footnotes appear at the bottom of the page on which they are referenced. Endnotes are collected

at the end of a document.

To work effectively with footnotes and endnotes, you need to:

• Insert footnotes and define their format, if the default does not meet your needs (see

Chapter 3, Working with Text: Advanced).

• Define the location of footnotes on the page, and the color and line styles for separator

lines, if the defaults do not meet your needs.

Defining footnote location and separator line

The location of footnotes on the page, and the color and style of the line that separates the

footnotes from the text, are defined in the page style. If you are using several page styles, and may

have footnotes on any of them, you need to define the footnote location and separator line on each

of the page styles.

Choose Format > Page from the Menu bar or right-click a page and choose Page from the context

menu, to display the Page Style dialog. Go to the Footnote tab (Figure 18) and make your

selections, then click OK to save the changes.

Keeping the default setting Not larger than page area, the footnotes area is calculated

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 in the preferred unit of measurement. A footnote higher than the maximum height will spill

over on to the next page. Use the second section of the page to customize the separator between

the footnotes and the main text area.

16 | Chapter 5 Formatting Pages: Basics

Figure 18: Defining footnote location and separator line

Defining borders and backgrounds

You can apply borders and backgrounds to many elements in Writer. Paragraphs, pages, frames,

sections, page styles, paragraph styles, character styles, and frame styles can include both

borders and backgrounds; tables of contents and indexes can include backgrounds only. Text can

have a border applied, either to individual characters or to selected text.

The dialog pages for borders and backgrounds are similar in each case. To illustrate their use, we

will define a border and background for a frame.

Tip

Page backgrounds fill only the area within the margins, including the header or footer

(if any). To extend the background color or graphic into the margins, define a frame of

appropriate size and position, anchor it to the page or to a paragraph, and send it to

the background. For more about frames, see Chapter 6.

Adding a border

To begin, select the frame, right-click, and choose Object from the context menu. Select the

Borders tab (Figure 19).

Borders have three components: where they go, what they look like, and how much space is left

around them.

• Line Arrangement specifies where the borders go. Writer provides five default

arrangements but you can click the line you want to customize in the User-defined area to

get exactly what you want. Each line can be individually formatted.

• Line specifies what the border looks like: the style, width, and color. Each parameter has a

number of attributes to choose from. The attributes selected will apply to those borders

highlighted by a pair of black arrows in the User-defined thumbnail on the left side of the

dialog.

Defining borders and backgrounds | 17

• Spacing to Contents specifies how much space to leave between the border and the

contents of the element. Spaces can be specified to the left, right, above, and below. Select

Synchronize to have the same spacing for all four sides.

• Shadow Style properties always apply to the whole element. A shadow has three

components: where it is (Position), how far from the element it is cast (Distance), and what

color it is.

Figure 19: Frame dialog: Borders page

Adding a color to the background

To begin, select the frame, right-click, and choose Object from the context menu. In the Frame

dialog, select the Area tab (Figure 20), then choose Color. Select from the color grid or create a

new color to use for this frame, and then click OK to apply it to the background.

Figure 20: Frame dialog: Area page showing color choices

18 | Chapter 5 Formatting Pages: Basics

Adding a gradient to the background

To add a gradient to the background, choose the Area page, then choose Gradient. The page now

displays the gradient options (Figure 21), with an example in the preview pane to the right. Select

the required gradient from the list or create a new gradient to use for this frame. Click OK to apply

it to the background.

Figure 21: Frame dialog: Area page showing gradient choices

Adding a bitmap (i,age) to the background

“Bitmap” is a term that covers photos and other images that are made up of dots of color; the

image may be in several formats. To add a bitmap to the background, choose the Area page, then

choose Bitmap. The page now displays the bitmap options, as shown in Figure 22.

Figure 22: Frame dialog: Area page showing bitmap choices

You can choose one of the supplied bitmaps from the list on the left, or you can add your own.

Defining borders and backgrounds | 19

To add a bitmap:

1) Click the Add/Import button. The Import dialog opens.

2) Find the file you want and then click the Open button. The Import dialog closes, and the

selected bitmap appears in the list of thumbnails on the left and in the preview box on the

right of the Area page.

3) Choose the new bitmap in the list on the left.

In the Options area, choose how you want the bitmap to appear, then click OK to apply it to the

background.

Adding a pattern or hatching to the background

Adding a pattern or hatching is similar to adding a gradient.

Figure 23: Frame dialog: Area page showing pattern choices

Figure 24: Frame dialog: Area page showing pattern choices

20 | Chapter 5 Formatting Pages: Basics

Deleting a color, gradient, bitmap, or other background

To delete a color, gradient, bitmap, or other background, select None near the top of the Area page

of the Frame dialog.

Adjusting the transparency of the background

Transparency is useful for creating watermarks (a logo or text in the background of a page,

typically showing the company name or a statement such as Draft) and making colors or

images more pale (for more contrast with the text). The available choices are covered in detail in

the Draw Guide.

Figure 25: Transparency options

Defining borders and backgrounds | 21