Ok, so I am using libreoffice writer and I want to change the style of the current page to one of the presets, lets say the first page preset. But when I right click the page and click on page… I get a box where I get the name of the style of the current page (It is called Default Style and I cannot change it) and I can select one of the presets for the next page. Like, I understand that I can change the style of the current page by changing the settings of that page style in the other tabs, but i am still editing Default style, which is a style I’d like to use for the other pages. Like, isn’t it possible to use the “first page” preset to be used on the first page, that wouldn’t make any sense would it?
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Display the style sidepane if not already on screen with
F11orStyles>Manage Styles. -
Click on the fourth little icon from left in the toolbar to access page styles
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Double-click on one of the names: this will change the page style for the part of your document where cursor is presently located.
Alternate procedure:
- Right-click in the bottom status bar where it reads Default Style (or the current page style) and select the new page style from the menu.
The page style change takes effect from the last manual page break forcing the current page style to the next forcing page break. If you have none, the whole document is changed. Therefore, Insert>More Breaks>Manual Break where you want to revert to another page style.
This can be further automated with a smart use of paragraph style in their Text Flow tab.
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What if there is a paragraph which spans two pages that I want to be with different page styles? I can´t insert a page break in the middle of the paragraph.
Then you must configure the initial page style to automatically switch to another one when the end of page is reached. This is the Next style attribure in the Organizer tab. Note you have pre-set configurations in simple cases so that you don’t need to set this attribute. See the Header and Footer tabs for different headers in left/right pages (most frequent case).
You also have built-in styles Left Page and Right Page which alternate.
In case you need more specific information, ask your own question with all the details of your goal and don’t forget to mention this one.
The problem with this procedure is that selecting the page for the new page style doesn’t work properly.
I have a document of several pages, all separated by CTRL-ENTER page breaks as normal. If I click somewhere within the page where I want to apply a new page style, then double-click on the name of the new style in the style selector window, the style isn’t applied to the page the cursor is in, but to the first page of the document.
It seems that following this procedure returns the text cursor to the start of the document before applying the style.
I am aware that there is a workaround using the ‘manual break’ dialogue, but the problem is that the procedure outlined in the official help file doesn’t work.
No wonder newbies get confused!!
Chris
Page styling works perfectly as soon as you understand it is different from Word. In Writer pages don’t exist per se. They are only the consequences of the limited size of sheets.
A page style applies between two user-defined boundaries (a start and an end one). Within these boundaries all pages will share the same style. Therefore, applying a style on one of the pages will be shared by all the pages.
“User-defined” boundaries are created by Insert>More Breaks>Manual Break where you have access to all properties of a break, amongst other the page style to activate after the break. So, this no workaround at all, this is the standard procedure.
If your document is fully styled (and I should emphasise strictly and consistently styled), you may notice that some page breaks with change of page style always occur in the same context, e.g. a page break at beginning of a chapter for right page. In this case, the page break can be included in the definition of the paragraph style to automatically cause page style change. This is user-friendly.
Newbies get frequently confused because they assume that Word workflow is universal and “THE” Truth. They neglect to read the Writer Guide to get introductory ideas on the applications. But, above all, there is the general tendency (newbies and power users) to refuse to change one’s habits even in front of a new thing.