I have my columns set up, but I need to write on both sides of paperl I can figure that out, if I just get the correct setting to write a book.
Write it as you would any book.
What do you mean? When you print duplex (double-sided), text is printed on both “sides”, recto and verso.
To get really useful help, mention OS name, exact LO version and save format (.odt vs .doc(x)). The latter is very important because you’ll really benefit full comfort and automation if you save native, i.e. .odt.
Children’s books don’t normally have columns so I suppose that you want a booklet layout, that is normally done when printing and you select Booklet in the print dialogue. If you are printing the book yourself on a home printer and it has only 20 or so pages and will only ever print a few copies, then you could write the book on A4 pages and then print as Booklet so it will come out in A5 (half size) folded.
If you are having the book commercially printed, make the page size the correct size and leave the printing to the printing company. If you will have images that have to print to the edge, then you will need to make the page larger and add crop marks. LibreOffice does not do crop marks, however you can add them later in Scribus although you would have to increase the size of the images in Scribus to cover the bleed area, see this comment to another question, Can’t print the exact size of my Layout in Draw - #11 by EarnestAl
For simple printing without needing crop marks, just use a normal portrait page at the size you want. Normally, you want the binding margin to be larger than the outer margin. For the main body of the document, you have a choice of Mirrored pages in which you set the inner margin and outer margin, or Right Page (with a larger left margin) followed by Left Page with a larger right margin.
To create a simple A5 page layout
- Open a new document and click Format > Page style. In the dialogue:
- Select A5
- Under Layout Settings, in Page layout, set Mirrored
- Under Margins, set Inner to 2.50 cm and Outer to 1.50 cm. Click Apply
- Select the Footer tab on the left of the dialogue and tick the box Footer on and untick the box Same content on first page. Maybe untick Same content on left and right pages if you want the page number to be other than centered.
- You probably want a different front page so at the bottom of the screen, in the Status bar, right-click on Default Page Style and select First page from the list of page styles. You could add a Title to this page.
- Press Ctrl+Enter to insert a page break and you will see your Default Page that you specified before. Add a page number, Insert > Field > Page Number. When you get to the next page and you have unticked Same content on left and right pages then insert a page number again then tab it to the other side of the footer.
BookSimpleA5Mirrored.odt (14.7 KB)
Or with left and right pages
BookWithLayout125701.odt (25.8 KB)
Thank you so much. That was exactly what I was looking for! Appreciate your help!