I want to add a header according to APA guidelines, with page number in the header flush right and title in the header flush left.
Is there a better way to do this than simply typing the title and then using the space-bar to push the page numbers to the right?
Sure, use tabs. Modify the Header paragraph style as necessary to have tab stops at right places.
No need to modify the header style- it’s set up exactly to accommodate for that kind of thing.
The default style settings does not seem to include tab stops at certain places.
Not the Default style, the Header style. Don’t apply the Default style to the header or footer, those predefined styles are there to make life easy for you. Any tabs settings in the Default style would also pop up in all styles derived from Default, that’s to say pretty much all styles.
See [Tutorial] List of styles (View topic) • Apache OpenOffice Community Forum
Please, read carefully, paying attention to capitalization, before commenting: I mean the default style settings (of the Header style), not the Default style.
I just checked, in my version of LibreOffice the Header styles have center and right aligned tabs predefined. That’s what those styles are for. Headers and footers are special areas where you naturally want to have some text centered or right aligned, like page numbers. So, those styles come with those settings. It would be pointless to have those predefined styles without those attributes.
In my case, the Header style has not tab stops when creating a blank text document. Anyway, the asker will need to modify the style because:
a) a center tab is not necessary and will only interfere;
b) the page format (size and margins) for his/her work are, most probably, different from the default.
It doesn’t have the actual tab stops, of course not. But if you press Tab, you get a centered tab, and if you press Tab twice, you get a right aligned tab. Please, think, styles set the formatting details, not the content.
Precisely, but look at the required header layout. It does not need a centered tab stop.
The APA requires that you don’t have any centered text there, I’m not sure that it forbids a tab stop that is unused.
Enter the title first, then press Tab twice to get a right aligned tab. Enter the page number field.
You can also modify the Header style and remove the center tab, then you only have to press Tab once.