Advanced use of headers / footers in Writer (right page, left page)

Hello -
I warn you this question is complex and perhaps need the help of an expert in Writer.
My problem is this: what I want to do… is, to apply a certain page style for a certain range of pages, BUT… discriminating between left page and right page. To understand perfectly what I want to do, I recommend you to read my message in full.

I want to apply a certain header / footer style to a certain part of of my document (I already know how to do this) but, and here is where the problem begins, I want to discriminate between left page and right page, applying a certain header and footer for the left page and a certain header and footer for the right page, but, just only for a certain part of the document, not the whole document, okay?

This is a bit complex, so I will try to explain this little by little…

Okay Let’s imagine I want to apply a certain header / footer for a certain range of pages… and let’s imagine I have my writer opened and I am in the first page, blank one, and I am with the default style… If you press F11 - styles and formatting, you’ll see the window with all the available styles, if you press over the little icon in that window (Page Styles), you’ll see the page styles available for your document fine… okay so if I write 2 or 3 pages… and I am using the Default Style format… I can apply my header and also my footer, add my page number, etc. fine…

Now let’s imagine I want to create the header and footer for the next pages, which will be CHAPTER 1, ok? In the page styles windows (F11) I create, let’s say, 2 different new styles… the style CHAPTER 1 and the style CHAPTER 2 I create the styles in a simple way… right mouse button… new… I see the window page style… and then in the Organizer tab I just simply type the name of my new style, for example CHAPTER 1 Then I do the same to create the CHAPTER 2 style… Okay, so now I did this… I repeat…

Now let’s imagine I want to create the header and footer for the next pages, which will be CHAPTER 1, ok? I have already created my new styles CHAPTER 1 and CHAPTER 2 What I do is the following: I go the the writer menu and select Insert Then Manual Break Then Page Break in the prompted window… and there, in Style deployable menu… I select the style I want to apply for the next pages… which will be CHAPTER 1… okay, fine now I can apply my header and footer for the next pages these pages, will maintain the format of the chapter 1… when I finish this, I can repeat the procedure… for the next set of pages, which will be chapter 2 and will have a certain header and footer, and I will do the same with the Insert… Manual Break… Page Break… select the style and so on…

What I get with this is a document, which have clearly and well defined, page styles that are applied to several parts of the document, I get with this a fractional document, with parts and styles applied to those parts, pages. For example page 1 to page 3 Default Style Page 4 to page 6 CHAPTER 1 style (with its header and footer) Page 7 to page 10 CHAPTER 2 style (with its header and footer)

Okay, that’s fine BUT HERE IS THE CHALLANGE… what I want to do… is, to apply a certain page style for a certain range of pages, BUT… discriminating between left page and right page. So when I apply the style CHAPTER 1 with the page break… what I want is this style can differentiate between right page and left page, allowing me to define the header and footer for the left pages of this style and the same for the page pages of this style.

How on earth could I do this? Thanks

In the properties dialog ‘Page Style’ go to the tap ‘Page’. Find the section ‘Layout settings’ in the right part. There is drop down list for ‘Page layout’ with the items ‘Right and left’, ‘Mirrored’, ‘Only right’, and ‘Only left’.

If you use ‘Only right’ and ‘Only left’ you need a pair of page styles. In the organizer tab you set in the field ‘Next style’ the right-page-style for the one with ‘Only left’ and for ‘Only right’ the other way round.

If you use ‘Mirrored’, right and left will switch automatically.

In case of ‘Mirrored’ go to the tab ‘Header’ or ‘Footer’ respectively. You will find the checkbox ‘Same content left/right’ active. When you uncheck it, you will later on be able to write a right-side header/footer, when your cursor is on a right side and a left-side header/footer, when your cursor is on a left side.

BTW. You can use Fields from Category ‘Document’ to get the actual headings into the header, similar to inserting page numbers. Perhaps do you need not a new page style for each chapter.

EXCELLENT REPLIED, YOU SOLVED MY PROBLEM. THANKS !

Please Note: to do this trick, make sure you have enabled CLT UI Elements from Tools > Options >Language Settings > Show UI elements for Bi-Directional writing. (find this under “Enhanced language support”)

let’s make it easy and simple…

just imagine; you want mirrored page numbers on even and odd pages, right aligned page numbers for EVEN pages, and left aligned page numbers for ODD pages…
To do this, follow these steps:

First insert page numbers and…

1- right click in your document, choose “PAGE” and then navigate to “Page” tab.

2- From “Layout Settings” point to “Page Layout” and choose “Mirrored”.

3- Now, being in the same dialogue box, navigate to “header” tab, and uncheck “same content left/right” and click “OK”.

4- now click in the header of any ODD page (1, 3, 5 etc) and make it “left to right” or just press CTRL+Shift (The left “shift” on your keyboard).

5- and click in the header of any EVEN page (2, 6, 8 etc) and make it “right to left” or just press CTRL+ShiftGr (right Shift on your keyboard).

Now you have Even and Odd page numbers on different sides.
Hope this works for you.

AtaRafi