Help me understand page-break-before and page styles

[EvilOverlord]

I’m converting from Word to LO, and am largely happy. I’m a big fan of styles, and am still working out how to properly use page styles in LO.

In particular, in Word, I can set a paragraph style to page-break-before. In LO, I can also do this, but I have to choose a page style to do it. Is there a way to set a paragraph so that it is preceded by a page break, but the page style doesn’t change - that is, the new page uses whatever style was in effect previously? Or is this poor formatting? What should I do for a paragraph style that could be used on either of two page styles?

[mariosv]

If you don’t tick ‘With page style’, it doesn’t change, and you don’t need to select one.

[EvilOverlord]

That’s an incredibly simple and incredibly embarrassing answer. Thanks. I got so caught up in planning out styles, etc that I forgot the obvious.

[mariosv]

Don’t worry, it’s like when you forget the keys in your pocket.

[AlexKemp]

Hi Evil Overlord

The simplest way to do what you want is to use the keyboard to enter a page-break. The paragraph (and page) style in force before the break will remain the same. Here are the 3 possible breaks from the keyboard (same keys for both Windows & Linux):

1. Shift-Return / Shift-Enter keys NL (U+000A) Line-break; (any style change will affect the paragraph before & after this break)
2. Return / Enter key CR (U+000A) Paragraph break (any style change will now only affect current paragraph)
3. Ctrl-Return / Ctrl-Enter keys FF (U+000C) Page break (style change restrictions now extend to pages)

Evil Overlord: I can set a paragraph style to page-break-before … but I have to choose a page style to do it

You do not specify the option that you are using to do this, but I suspect that it is Menu:- Insert Manual Break.... I did not know about the Horizontal Line option (thanks, m.a.riosv) so there may well be one, but I do not know of it. My question to you would be “Why do you want to do that?”

The ‘Manual Break’ is designed to allow a change in Headers/Footers through change of page style, and that is one reason to use it. If all that you want is another page, then use the keyboard.