(Writer) How do I split my heading into three columns?

There is a setting in Microsoft Word in which you can make a heading auto split into three (pic included).

Is there a way to do this in LibreOffice Writer? I like to use it when writing essays for uni.

The term “heading” is used for headings (paragraphs introducing a new chapter, subchapter or the like and hvaing a level assigned usable for a table of contents and for numbering, e.g.).
What you are talking of are page headers.

2021-06-28 EDIT just removed a misspelling, nothing new below

LO Writer is much more versatile than M$ Word and you can do anything you want with your headers. Of course, this requires you read the Writer Guide and practice a bit the styles concept to master the resulting formatting.

That said, the default header (and footer too) is already configured for three parts (not 3 columns, see below). The built-in Header paragraph style defines 2 tab stop positions with various attributes. Thus:

  • start typing in the header: text is left aligned,
  • press Tab and type: this portion of text is centered,
  • press again Tab and type: the remaining text is right-aligned on the right margin.

The tabs split the line in three areas.

In Writer, word column refers to a more complex layout where multi-line text will use the available space in one column before flowing to the next column. This is also possible in headers, but usually headers tend to be one line long. If you really want a lengthy, dense header with a lot of text in multi-columns, Insert>Section while in the header and choose your number of columns. But this is very unusual and you’ll probably need to add column breaks to force text to next column. Don’t do it; it is rather ugly.

Note also that word section in Writer is not the same as in Word. Here it means a portion of a page with a different number of columns. A section is supposed to be smaller than one page (though multi-page sections are also possible) and anyway have only a temporary extension in a document.

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A header has by default set one of the pargaraph styles Header, Header Left, Header Right. The paragraphs come with two tabulators, one aligned centered,and one right. If they aren’t positioned where you want/need them, you can change the positions, and/or define respective additional heder styles. There is no predefined content.