I am writing an autobiography that features several key players. I want to create an Annex for each key player and one for myself. What is the best way to create the annexes with their own TOC, page numbering, headers and footers, etc. Each annex will contain images and captions. Is there a consistent way to create a "style Sheet or other aid to replicate the same layout for each image?
Rick
Create a document that meets your requirements and save it as a document template (OTT).
Use the document template for each person you want to create as an attachment.
Document Templates in Writer
English documentation
Your question is so generic, it is next to impossible to answer.
Do you want your annexes to look differently from the rest of the document? Do you want to have a TOC for the main part and a separate TOC for the annexes?
In general terms, such a work is made consistent and easier if you apply styles to your document. Styles exist for paragraphs, words (called character styles), pages and frames. The latter word frame covers “inserts” independent of the main text flow: side note or remarks, images, drawings, … Layout of this frames is made consistent by use of style frames. However these styles are quite whimsical and difficult to tame compared to others.
Styling will give you your expected layout and formatting only if you follow a strict workflow where you abandon the “mechanical typewriter paradigm”, i.e. you never format your text directly for bold, italic, font size change, any geometric/visual/typographical attribute. Only apply styles. This is particularly true for frame styles which seem to be your concern because frame styles are very very sensitive to any manual fiddling (where they lose what you have so painfully crafted).
Of course, all your style-based formatting will be preserved only if you save .odt. Any other format will result in loss of information and approximate conversion. This will not be noticeable at first but has unrecoverable cumulative destructive effects with the number of edits.
For an initial introduction to style, read the Writer Guide. Further recommended reading is Bruce Byfield’s Designing with LO available at the same location.
PS: when asking here, always mention OS name, LO version and save format.
First, OS-Win11,LO, 24.2.2.2, Save format,-.odt.
I have already created the styles and I am not using any additional formatting codes. I want a TOC for the main body, and a TOC for each Annex. All TOCs will be at the end of the main body. Thus far, I have used sections to create each TOC annex and added the styling for a TOC.
Would it be a good practice for a lengthy document to break up clearly defined parts (e.g. intro, Preface, Chapters, Annexes, TOC, etc) into sections as a means of organizing all parts of a document?
How do I associate a particular Annex and by extension its TOC with the specific chapter for that person. If we start there and solve that issue first then I will be on track to move to the next issue Frames.
Rick
Conceptually, a global TOC will do what you’re looking for. Transition from main body to an annex TOC is simply the top-level Heading 1 of the Annex. Annex contents is echoed in the TOC by mention of the Heading 2-n of the annex.
So, I don’t see why you would go into trouble to segregate the annexes from the rest. This may be motivated by some other concern (different aesthetics, change in Numbering, …). Give an example and I’ll suggest a solution.
It depends on what you call “organizing all parts”. Structuring a document into chapter (Heading 1 style) is the starting point. Your tool to “shuffle” and reorder the chapters is the Navigator (with drag-and-drop). It does a very good job and if you rely on the built-in Writer features, you chapters are automatically renumbered.
I don’t recommend the use of sections if your only goal is to slice your document. Sections are meant for a temporary change of “geometry” (mainly number of columns) against the geometry of the page. It is also used to force notes to some explicit location, instead of at end of document.
Other usages are not “legitimate”. If you come from Word, pay attention to the fact that Word sections are somewhat akin to page styles while Writer sections are either page sub-part or a “logical” sub-document.
There is another “slicing” feature: master document + sub-documents. It is intended to manage “monster” documents. With nowadays computer performance, you can go by standard single document up to 800-1000 pages. Master+subs introduce other difficulties and if you’re not yet versed in Writer usage and, most important, style mastering, you’ll get quickly confused.
Writer has the possibility to create chapter-only TOCs. TOCs are built from information mainly controlled by special paragraph style attributes. Heading n styles are so configured. When you need a TOC, you simply Insert>TOC & Index>TOC, Index or Bibliography and the engine does the rest. You can request a limited range for data collection. If you insertion point is within the “domain” of some Heading n, the TOC can be coerced to contain only entries for level ≥ n.
Therefore, if you want to build a TOC in a annex, only for this annex, you insert the TOC below the corresponding heading and request the limited version of it.
For more targeted suggestion, give an overview of your outline.