I have several documents I created with three columns of text. Over time, maybe years, I am now going back to these documents to make some slight formatting changes. But when I open the document the number of columns in “Layout; Columns” shows 1, but I have 3 columns displayed. Changing the count to 3 I get 9 columns displayed! Since I want to change the column spacing I am at a standstill. My only solution has been to copy the document and paste it into a new document with the correct formatting. Any solution on how to get the number of columns displayed to match the count in the dialog boxes?
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What version of LibreOffice and operating system? Click Help > About LibreOffice then, in the dialogue, click the icon immediately after Version Information to copy to clipboard ready to paste here.
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Can you provide a sample single document showing the issue? Cheers, Al
Mote that you can set columns in different places. E.g., you may define them as a property of a page style; or a property of a section. The latter method allows you to have different number of columns in different parts even on a single page.
What you experience highly suggests the presence of a section in your page.
Nesting a section in a page results in the “section geometry” being applied to the “container”, i.e. the elementary columns of the page.
In other words, a 3-column section in a 1-column page gives a 3-column layout. If you change the page style to 3-column, you now get a 9-column layout (3-column layout in each page column).
Enable the various visual clues for text boundaries in the |View` menu to see your current “geometry” configuration.
Read carefully the Writer Guide and experiment to understand the relationship between the various layout layers.
I’m using:
Version: 24.8.4.2 (X86_64) / LibreOffice Community
Build ID: bb3cfa12c7b1bf994ecc5649a80400d06cd71002
CPU threads: 6; OS: Windows 11 X86_64 (10.0 build 22635); UI render: Skia/Vulkan; VCL: win
Locale: en-US (en_US); UI: en-US
Calc: CL threaded
I have documents that were created over four years ago to just in the last month. Since I posted this message yesterday I did another factory reset. I also checked the documents for section formatting (see other replies) and found some wonky section settings. I cleared those up and I recreated my style sheets now documents that were goofy appear to be fixed! Thanks to EarnestAl, Mikekaganski, and Ajlittoz for where to look. I don’t remember using section formatting, but evidently I did some funny things when first starting. Thanks again!! Tim.
I’m using:
Version: 24.8.4.2 (X86_64) / LibreOffice Community
Build ID: bb3cfa12c7b1bf994ecc5649a80400d06cd71002
CPU threads: 6; OS: Windows 11 X86_64 (10.0 build 22635); UI render: Skia/Vulkan; VCL: win
Locale: en-US (en_US); UI: en-US
Calc: CL threaded
Here is some more info. If I pull down the Format menu in Writer and then select Page Style I get a dialog box with nine tabs. Selecting the “Columns” tab I almost always get one column as the current setting even though I may actually have three or four. But from the Format menu if I select “Columns …” I get a similar dialog box but with the correct number of columns set every time.
This dialogue box which allows you select either “Current Section”, or “Page Style: Default Page Style” (or whatever page style you are in)?
Your page has a single column but at some time you inserted a Section and set the number of columns to 3 so you could keep the single column for the page but have three columns for something that would be better in three columns.
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If you want to remove the section, right click in it, select Edit Section and click the button Remove. The text will remain but the 3 column layout will be gone.
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If you want to add another 3 column section where there isn’t already one, click in the page at that point or select the text you want to be in the section. Click Insert > Section, in the dialogue, select the Columns tab and set columns to 3.
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If you want to get outside the section. Turn on View > Formatting marks if it isn’t already highlighted, ensure that Text Boundaries is also highlighted. Click the paragraph mark below the Section and start typing. If there isn’t a paragraph mark below the section, click right at the end of the section and press Alt+Enter to start a new paragraph below the section.
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