Background Colours

[Gemma09]

It’s been a very long time since I asked this, long ago in the days of Open Office.

Can anybody tell me how to cover the entire page with a colour, rather than just the active area where we type?

When I asked this - ten years ago? - it was suggested that it would be dealt with in the next update.

Now it just feels like a hint that we should be using Microsoft Office.

[stanton]

Format > Page, change to the Area tab, then select your desired fill style (Color). This will, however, not color the margins, only the area inside them.

[Platterbaff]

I often want to use Writer to produce a PDF document with black text on a tinted background – the reduced contrast seems to help legibility for those with some kinds of eye problems. And, for producing a PDF to show off photos which demand a dark background mount.

The following seems to work in Writer, adding background colour up to the page edges. I don’t know if it can be used in the other LO applications.

Go to: “Format” > “Page” and using this-

1. Select “Page” tab. Set all margins to 0;
2. Select “Area” tab (click YES when warned about printer margins). Select your desired background colour.
3. Select “Borders” tab.
4. Select “Line Arrangement – Set all Four Borders” (second option from the left under. “Default”) with a solid border line
5. Set line “Colour” to exactly the same as the background selected for the area fill;
6. Set “Spacing to Contents” to your desired page margins (say 0.5 ins);

7 Click on the “Apply” button, the “OK”.

I always feel doing this means I am not using LO as its designers intend and would like to suggest to them that the user need is a common enough for something better to be officially built into the application or at least covered in the manual. But thus far I fear I have been unable to follow the instructions for putting suggestions forward – due to my failure to learn the language of IT I am sure.

I hope this works for you.