Looks like I’ve cracked paragraph styles, thanks to help here. 
The default styles are blocky and functional.
Are there any templates available with attractive typography?
I want a document pre-styled from which I can copy styles into my own documents.
But not mastered. Time to read Designing with LibreOffice, download link on English documentation II | LibreOffice Documentation - LibreOffice User Guides
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And reread the chapter on styles in the Writer Guide
Attractive typography is a matter of personal taste. What is attractive for someone will be considered ugly by somebody else. So better define your own preferences.
This is not the “Writer way” of doing things.
You have two main venues.
Go to Tools>Options (if you’re under MacOS, this is the Preferences menu – when asking here, always mention OS name to cope with variations across platforms), LO Writer>Basic Fonts (Western).
Change font face and size for the various targets (text contents, headings, …).
The changes are saved in your user profile. So if all you need is to opt for a face and size, you’re done.
Copying anything from one document to another one is a source of errors or mistakes like overwriting your reference. Writer provides a special type of document called a template with extension .ott. You can store in this template styles and initial contents.
When you create a document from an .ott, it is initialised with template contents, i.e. initial text and styles. The created document is typed .odt so that even if you File>Save, you never overwrite your template.
The created document remains associated with the template. Whenever the template styles are modified, you’re asked if you want to forward these changes to your document when you later open it. This feature allows your layout and formatting to remain synchronised with the template (if you accept the changes). Note the template text will never be forwarded because it would otherwise replace or erase your document-specific text. You’re always safe.
Create a standard document into which you configure your styles. Optionally you can also define a skeleton for the documents with a cover page, empty TOC, empty chapter, … Apply the styles to these elements and don’t direct format. The goal of a template is to provide you with styles. So, don’t spoil it with initial direct formatting which cancels all benefits from styles. Remember that you have also character, page, frame and list styles at your disposal beyond paragraph styles.
When your style collection (and initial text) is complete, File>Templates>Save as Template.
File>Templates>Manage Templates. Right-click on a template icon and Set as Default.
File>Templates>Edit Template
File>New>Text Document
File>New>Templates and click on the needed templateReminder: what is written here is valid only for .odt documents. If you plan to create .docx documents, it won’t work (you didn’t mention your save format).
Thanks, and apologies for my poorly worded question.
I’m aware of templates, so perhaps what I was asking for is a template that has been designed by a typographer for visual appeal, as well as being technically sound.
I’ve been assuming styles work rather like stylesheets on a webpage: once the doc has been written and structured with the right styles is the right places, it could be ‘skinned’ with a set of styles to render each style in a particular way - so the structure of the page remains the same, but the particular presentation of the styles is changed.
I’ve ordered the Designing With… book and will look again at the Writer PDF.
If I’m miles off with my understanding and if it’s quick and easy to say how, here, that might be helpful. Thanks for the support.
PS ok, maybe I’m getting this
Whenever the template styles are modified, you’re asked if you want to forward these changes to your document when you later open it.
So I can create a template, leave the default values in for each style untouched - i.e., I can start structuring documents straight away without worrying about typographic design. Then I can change the template for presentational purposes later, and this will (if I choose) update every document built from that template?
I find the majority of templates on https://extensions.libreoffice.org/ rather disappointing compared to the capabilities of the software. You may find something useful anyway.
The ultimate guide (IMHO): Second edition of Designing with LibreOffice available for free download |
Thanks. Exclusively .odt, which I turn into PDFs for sharing with hoi polloi
That’s more or less the idea. But you must be aware there are 3 layers, from lowest to highest precedence:
Any attribute you force in one layer will mask or hide the same attribute in shallower layers.
Except you can’t simply apply a “stylesheet” over it. To do so, your document must have been “templated”, i.e. created from a template (file with extension .ott). The links between the document and the template are style names.
However, to allow for advanced effects, you again have a precedence rule: you can redefine a style in the document and it overrides the definition in the template. Consequently, if you want to “skin” the document and keep the possibility to change radically the look, never redefine or modify a style in your document. Do it only in the template. This imposes a strong constraint on your workflow when you’re trying to tune the appearance.
You can have both the template and the document open simultaneously on your screen(s). Change a style in the template and File>Reload in the document to update the style dictionary.
The page layout does not necessarily remains the same because paragraph styles can change indents (lateral spacing) and spacing (vertical distance above and below) which can shift your paragraphs. Page styles will also impact your layout through margins, header, footer and footnote area geometry. You can also change number of columns. You can also modify frame styles changing the way images or side blocks of text interact with main text, notably through wrap property.
As you can see, styles are a very powerful tool. I said previously changes can be dramatic: the same text can be displayed as a boring, austere, ascetic old-fashioned book or as a flashy, colourful, eccentric work.
To achieve this, your styles should be thought in “semantic” terms. Consider style application as a meta-markup trying to communicate to Writer (and indirectly to your reader) author’s significance. Styles will be named Comment, Quotation, Footnote, Explanation or Body Text when you’re in your main topic. Have a look at built-in paragraph and character styles. You won’t find any names “Red Paragraph”, “Bold Yellow”, … And, above all, don’t apply direct formatting because it is outside style control (and therefore cannot be replaced when you update your template).
Writer, out of the box, can’t associate a template after a document has been created. Fortunately, Template Changer extension allows to do that and also to change an existing template.
If you want to get an idea about a very sophisticated use of templates and master documents against a single text, look at my answer to In book publishing, how best to change the page size for a new edition? - #5 by ajlittoz
The diagram on the linked post summarises exactly what I’m looking to do - thanks.
If I want a quick, versatile template, would it be as simple as opening a default .odt file and saving it as .ott? Could I then do all the presentational tinkering I want to do later?
If you want it to be recognised as a full-fledged template, use File>Templates>Save as Template instead of usual Save with extension change.
It will be saved in a location declared in Tools>Options, LO>Paths. Consequently, if you want in an easily accessible directory, register your custom directory first.