To clone direct formatting from one text to another, “Clone formatting” button is used (with Ctrl, Shift). But it works only inside one document. When I switch to window with another document, the cursor changes back to its standard form and I can’t clone formatting. Is it possible to do this w/o complex style-based procedure? I know, in Word it is possible…
Thank you.
First create your styles collection in a document as @Hrbrgr suggests. “Style” it, removing direct formatting, and save it.
You can now import the styles in existing documents:
- display the style side-pane (
F11) if not already done - click on the rightmost icon in the toolbar (the one with a down-pointing triangle) and
Load Styles) - in the dialog which pops up, check the style families you want to import (Text is preselected = paragraph and character styles) and Overwrite to replace styles with same names (this is important for modified built-in styles)
- push
From Fileto select your reference document
If your document was already correctly styled, the formatting is “magically” changed to the one in the reference document. Otherwise, just apply the styles.
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@ajlittoz ahh, so it’s easier to adopt styles of course. Now I’ve learned something new. Many thanks.
Thank you all for the explanation.
So, there is no way to quickly copy direct formatting of paragraph from one document to another. It is sad but not fatal, taking into account other benefits of LO against MS Word. So I followed way you advised.
To clone direct formatting from …
This is perhaps a way that can work in Word.
For LibreOffice this is a very bad idea (except for short notes).
I advise against it.
LibreOffice has a powerful tool, called style sheets / paragraph templates.
Many templates are already integrated in LibreOffice.
The normal way means you think about how to format paragraphs.
You can also create different style sheets / paragraph templates yourself or change existing ones.
This will format the paragraphs. (Place the cursor in the paragraph and double-click on the template.
For existing documents, it is important to create these templates in a document (Document 1). Select the full text and choose Format>Delete Direct Formatting .... Now link the individual paragraphs to the templates as described above in parentheses.
When you have finished your document 1, make a document copy. In this copy you can delete the full text. Open your document 2, copy all the text and paste it into “Document 1 Copy”. Now you can delete the direct formatting in “Document 1 Copy” and assign the styles to the paragraphs. Better see -->>
Taking over styles from other documents is best done as described by @ajlittoz.
I hope I have written it understandable.
I wish you success!
Documentation: