hot keys for drop caps

[21stCenturyAuthor]

These are the two instructions for using ‘Drop Caps’ (Given in the current Help pages.)

To access this command:

Choose Format - Paragraph - Drop Caps tab.
Choose View - Styles - open context menu Modify/New - Drop Caps tab.

Due to automatic file locking not working* with L/O 6.4… (64-bit) I’ve uninstalled it and
use ver 6.3.5… BUT the above directions do not appertain to this version i.e can’t/
don’t find the instructions leading to a resolution nor do they match the screens
I am seeing trying to follow them. The object is to SET the drop caps to be automatic with
a hot key combination to facilitate book chapter 1st paragraph headings. Otherwise it is a boring
repetitive action to change 29 chapter heading 1st paragraphs to ‘Drop Caps’. Please see images attached.

*renders any file I open to not be editable or savable with out copying over to another file.

[uglybug]

would you explain what you mean by “hot key combination”.
if you mean ShortCut keys that perform a customized action say for example, pressing the sends the document to a printer. then you need to do a two step process; first creating a macro then secondly assign a ShortCut key to the macro.
am i on the correct track ?

[Vanadium]

To proceed with automatic formatting of drop caps for the first paragraph, you will need to work with paragraph styles. Unfortunatelly, it is not possible to have conditional formatting in a paragraph style with respect to the drop caps, so you will need to work with a separate style that will be applied to the first paragraph that follow a caption.

Have your regular “Text Body” style (or any style you use for regular text) set up without drop caps. In the style dialog, create a new paragraph style “Text Body Drop Caps” (or any name you want). Hierarchically, it will depend on “Text Body” and inherit all its properties. Activate the Drop Caps for that paragraph style.

On the Organizer tab in the “Paragraph Style” dialog, make sure to set “Next style” to “Text Body”. Also edit your Caption style that preceeds a first paragraph to have “Text Body Drop Caps” as “Next style”.

This setup will automatically apply a “Text Body Drop Caps” style after you entered a heading. After pressing Enter to start the next paragraph, that will automatically be one without Drop Caps.

You still can, if desired, assign a hotkey to that style so you can quickly format a paragraph to have a drop caps. You can use the default hotkey, Ctrl+0, to quickly revert to the default “Text Body” style without drop caps.

Hot keys for the application of paragraph styles can be set under Tools - Customize. Locate and find your custom style under “Styles” in the "Category pane of the “Keyboard” tab in the “Customize” dialog.

This answer was verified and tested on a LibreOffice 6.3.5.2 install.

[ajlittoz]

@21stCenturyAuthor: This the correct and recommended way of formatting text with LibreOffice Writer. Any other idea about “hotkey” or shortcut key targeting only dropcap (and not the paragraph style containing dropcap parameters) is akin to direct formatting and the most famous and reliable method to head into formatting hell when time comes to review/edit the document.

[21stCenturyAuthor]

Well I want to revive this topic since Microsoft Word and I have permanently parted ways. Where I used Word which has a more friendly user interface to make Drop Caps. So, I have followed the advice given and still with the Drop Cap Style sheet I am not finding that when I type an initial letter to a paragraph in my book it remains the same font and font size. I set the Drop Cap Style to Segoe UI, font-size 12 and saved it as such. Over to you or any other Forum member who cares to enlighten me more about this facility in LO.

[EarnestAl]

If the Chapter heading is Heading 1 for example, you should set the next paragraph style to be the one that has the drop caps, let’s call it First Paragraph
You need the First Paragraph style to have Drop Caps set in the Drop Caps tab.
You can specify to use the Drop Caps Character style in that tab if you wish to use a different font.
The first paragraph needs to have Body Text set as the next paragraph style in the Organiser tab.

Here is a sample, click in the last line of the text and press Ctrl+1, then do a return and start typing.
BookWithLayout&DropCaps.odt (14.8 KB)

BTW Segoe fonts have restrictive licensing as they are closely associated with Microsoft. I seriously suggest using a different font. “Segoe UI is both our user interface and corporate branding font, it is not available for use outside of Microsoft products on non-Windows platforms.”