formatting

[GregCamp]

The default formatting of a writer document includes widow and orphan controls turned on. Is there a way to reset this so that they are turned off by default? And in a similar vein, is there a way to set the line spacing to double by default?

[gabix]

Learn to use styles and templates.

[ajlittoz]

Writer formatting is based on styles. Styles allow you to control nearly every aspect of document composition. Styles target different “layers” of a document:

• page styles define the “geometry” of a page (its orientation, margins, parity i.e. odd, even or both, registration, number of columns, …) and various attributes such as header and footer
• paragraph styles control global paragraph formatting (indents i.e. additional margins to those defined in the page style including special first line indent, alignment, spacing above and below, line spacing, …), default character attributes (font face, size, weight, …) and structure properties (page break before/after, outline level, “keep with xxx”, widow, orphan, …) or list processing
• character styles define character attributes to be used to override in a consistent way the paragraph default attributes
• frame styles control various how “frames”, i.e. pieces not part of the main flow like images or side notes, interact with main text (how text wraps around them or not, how they are related to text so that they may follow text when it is edited, …)
• list styles, which have an unfortunate name, create a multi-level sequence counter which can be attached to a paragraph style so that it is automatically numbered, thus creating a list; the style also defines how the number is formatted and aligned and changes some geometric attributes of the paragraph style

This is the general picture. You are encouraged to read more. The built-in help is a very concise source of information, rather a reminder of the feature. The freely downloadable Writer Guide has two chapters dedicated to styles.

For a newbie, styles may appear daunting. This is only because the other office suites do not push the notion of styles this far. For example, M$ Word only has a rather coarse paragraph style concept.

Of course, you are not forced to use styles from the start. You can do nearly everything with the buttons, menu commands and keyboard shortcuts. But you are warned that this approach is called direct formatting and overrides any applied by styles. You also have no visual feed back that direct formatting is present. When you’re working on elaborate document (the threshold is rather low: it is something like 5 pages in my opinion), direct formatting is your worst enemy and you’ll dive hopelessly into formatting hell. So learn how to use styles and be consistent: either you’re full direct formatting or you’re full styles absolutely without any direct formatting. I speak with experience, I’ve been caught more than my share.

Now back to your questions.

• widow and orphan: set in Text Flow tab of paragraph style

  As you are probably direct formatting, access is through Format>Paragraph. Doing so will affect only the current paragraph. With styles, you customise the style and it has effect on all paragraph so styled.

• line spacing: set in Indents & Spacing tab of paragraph style

  Same remark.

You also asked to configure these properties as default.

Paragraph styles are hierarchical by nature. They form an inheritance true (a descendant chart in genealogy). They are all derived from Default Style. In Writer, Default Style is not the common style to use to type text (the role is imparted to Text Body). Default Style sets defaults for all other styles: its attributes, unless forced in other styles, are transmitted to all others.

Consequently, if you want your widow/orphan and line spacing settings to be shared by *all styles, make your customisation in Default Style:

• display the styles with F11 (except on MacOS X) or Styles>Manage Styles; the sidepane opens with a view on paragraph styles
• right-click on Default Style and Modify
• customise the style

This change is done in the current document. To make the change permanent for all future documents, you need to modify the default template. This is not that difficult but if you’re a newbie you need first to familiarise yourself with Writer and practice a bit.

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