Are developers working on any of this? Or are there ways I have not found?

I am not a developer. I write. As an author, I would like the following. Perhaps there are ways around some of these things I do not know?

  1. To be able to cut a file up not using copy and paste to make separate files.
  2. To have a way of seeing pages and moving them around by dragging them. (Not the current method, I want visual pages I move around on a screen.)
  3. To have a shortcut that applies quotation formatting. (Could I do this anyway?)
  4. To find if I press boldfor a sentence, half a document does not suddenly bold itself.
  5. To have the view function for web moved so I don’t keep ending up in it!

Do not mix several topics into one question. Ask a question about a topic and describe exactly what you want to achieve. To do this please read the guidline. Thanks.

Ok - new user here and getting used to how this works. Noted ask a single question. (To me it was all kind of one but I tend to be a bit global in thinking,)

It’s good to think globally. But in this system, it’s better to concentrate on something essential. If multiple users respond, it’s difficult to understand where each response and comment should be assigned.

ah…I get you. The information below would really help a self-publisher like me. Not sure how to do it, but can the question be re-edited to make four separate questions? I am not sure how to do that without you thinking I repeated myself.

You have perfect answers from @ajlittoz now. I wish you great success.

  • Partial answer for item 2.

LO Writer is not a DTP (desktop publishing) application like Scribus or Quark XPress®; In Writer, basic material is text organised in paragraphs. This material is flown on a sequential quantized output medium, aka. pages. Pages are allocated as needed to accommodate text. They have no existence by themselves and are really the last step in document output. Page content depends on text flow and is rather unpredictable.

The only way to restrict page content is to insert manual page break. But even there, you can’t assert if content between two manual breaks will need one or more pages. Consequently, you can’t reorganise your document as you would do it with DTP applications.

The closest equivalent method operates on logical groups of paragraphs (since paragraphs are primary material for Writer) provided you have structured your text with Heading n paragraphs. Then, using the Navigator (F5 or equivalently the right sidepane), you move up or down a whole “section” under a Heading n or also promote or demote it to another level.

But, beware! if you added manual page breaks to synchronise some paragraph with page top, the manual page breraks may not follow the movement. This is why a page break should always be specified in a paragraph style to make structuring consistent and immune to text reorganisation.

  • Partial answer for topic 3.

I don’t know what you call quotation formatting. The appearance of it is a personal choice. However, a quotation is usually a paragraph with a dedicated appearance. Then use built-in paragraph style Quotation. If you don’t like the built-in formatting, just customise it. Your changes will be automatically applied to all instances.

  • Partial answer to topic 4.

In any serious, elaborated work, never use direct formatting and its avatars (toolbar buttons, keyboard shortcuts or menu items). Prefer a specific character style. Give the character style a meaningful name. Remember that visual variants are rather limited in number and “bold” may mean “important” somewhere and “quotation” elsewhere. Thus, having 2 character styles allows to change the attribute independently from the other (e.g. changing bold to red for important and italics for quotation without having to track the occurrences and remembering which category was intended).

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And having mass of text reformatted when applying some direct formatting to part of a text might indicate that there’s AutoUpdate of the style(s) active.

Thank you, this is very useful. I think I am defeated and going to accept the limitations. I will not get the look I want from what you say; ever. It is useful to know this.

I think the flourish will have to go in the interests of ever getting this book formatted. A shame, but at least I know.

I now understand why LibreOffice cannot have the move the page around the screen function. I think. I have moved things using the way you describe, but sometimes get lost doing so as I cannot see the full copy. I use the book view function, but that can mean the writing gets too small to see.

Guess have to find a DTP and stop trying to do the impossible!

However, the information itself is helpful for other projects and I know what not to do now. It seems LibreOffice works fine for an Ebook or a smaller book, but not for the complicated format I have. Perhaps I have to stop thinking like a writer and think like a designer where formatting is concerned.

Formerly, I have written books with a simple chapter heading and text. These seem to be fine with LibreOffice. It got complicated when I wanted to make things look professional. Shame though as I like LibreOffice. I was hoping not to have to learn Scribus, but the two together probably make a great team.

By quotation formatting, I meant it would be useful to press control q and apply the formatting, but I would want that just to write an ordinary file with; not for book formatting. I made styles for a scripture reference and one for the scripture for the book and a lot else. However, when writing a first draft or an essay, it would be useful to have a quotation shortcut.

I did make styles for all the formatting. Took me ages to get everything sorted and then they all disappeared! No idea what happened. I saved the document

Warning, DTP and document applications are based on different paradigms. A DTP app is fine up to 10 pages or so (think of a magazine or ad leaflet where each page or pair of pages are about a different topic). When you come to 100s-page books divided into chapters, not every page is different (otherwise the book looks ugly and definitely not professional). You can get what you want with a cover page, a page for tables (TOC, indexes, …), a page for first chapter page, a page for running page of a chapter. Here by “page” I mean some kind of formatting design which can be collected in a page style. This is yet another layer in LO Writer concepts. The page styles partly bridge the gap between document app and DTP.

I’ve already written technical books in the 200-page range. I think the requirements are higher demanding than novels, diaries or memorabila. You should be able to achieve your goals with page styles.

And, very handy, transitions between page styles can be automated.

Quotation: if all you need is a shortcut for formatting, customise your Writer copy to add a keyboard shortcut to paragraph style Quotation (or any other you choose). You can do that with Tools>Customize. Press Help for details.

I think the flourish will have to go in the interests of ever getting this book formatted. A shame, but at least I know.

If this is related to this question, see my answer. It’s only a matter of configuring paragraph and frame styles.

In Writer, nearly everything can be solved and automated with styles. Therefore, it is fundamental to learn styles, mainly the “unusual” categories not present in M$ Word.