Hi,
To stay organized, I am trying to create a style to use for headings. However, I do not know how to tell LibreOffice Writer “this style is a heading, please use anything I type with it as a heading in the navigator.”
To be short, designating a style to Writer as a heading is done by assigning an outline level in Outline & List tab (prior to 7.2 Outline & Numbering) of the style.
Thus you can have several different styles to the same level. This is useful to make a difference between chapters and appendices.
Things become more complicated if you want this non built-in style to be numbered. Numbering properties are configured with Tools>Chapter Numbering. There, your styles are attached to a specific level of the internal list. You can have only one style at each level. Therefore, you must choose between built-in Heading n and your custom heading.
Creating your own heading hierarchy with numbering is a bit tricky. This is necessary only, for example, to number numerically the chapters and alphabetically the appendices. In this case, your new heading hierarchy is totally independent from the built-in one.
The paragraph styles are created “as usual”, with an outline level assignment.
You also need a list style which, despite its name, only defines a multi-level list counter and its formatting. When this list style is created, you link your heading styles to it in their Outline & List tab, Apply List Style section.
Note that contrary to built-in Heading n, using an “Appendix n” does not automatically “positions” the heading at level n of the list. You must additionally press n-1 times the Tab key before the first character of the heading to get the correct number.
Unless you have specific needs, master first all the possibilities offered with customising the Heading n family before tackling the challenge of a new heading style hierarchy. In order to succeed, you must practice paragraph styles and, most difficult, master the subtleties of list styles. So start with “simple” things (oh, really, not that simple) like creating your own paragraph style for a list = combination of a paragraph and a list styles. It is fundamentally different from direct-formatting a list.
Thank you,
I want to make one to gain a better understanding of how it works. Copying an existing style is giving a man a fish, making a new style is teaching a man to fish.
Sorry, I deleted my answer because I saw I was all wrong before noticing your reply.