Writer: how to set margins with columns?

[OlivierStas]

On a page I created a section with 2 columns, fixed width, with a line as column separator.

Left column: I want to set the same margin between left page border and beginning of column, and right part of column and column line separator so the text which is justified is at equal distance of left border of the page and vertical column separator. And same for the right column, in mirror.

Is that possible? I’ve not seen any margin in column widget.

Using LibreOffice Version: 5.1.6.2 under Ubuntu 16.04

Thanks for your help.

[khanson679]

If I’m understanding you correctly, you want the same amount of whitespace on to the left and right of the text in each column.

As long as you want the same amount of whitespace around each column, you can achieve this by changing the column spacing to be double that of the margin width. LO will put the separator line in the middle of this area.

If you want a different amount of whitespace in each column (e.g. 1 cm for the left column and 2 cm for the right column), this method will not work, because it doesn’t seem to be possible to control the horizontal position of the separator line within the column space.

[OlivierStas]

Perfect, that is exactly what I was looking for. Many thanks.

[ajlittoz]

Outer margins for the section are set by Format → Sections..., button Options..., tab Indents.

As @khanson679 points out, the separator line is centered inside the gutter (the space between the columns). This is compliant with traditional typographic rules without any way to override it.

Note: it is not recommended to post as wiki because you won’t earn any karma points allowing you to access advanced features.

[OlivierStas]

Thanks for the precision, Those rules make sense, I’ve got what I wanted.