Layout Setting in Writer

[Huskey]

Hi there. I’m using the latest Windows 10 operating system, LO 7.2.04, Writer app. I was wondering if somebody could help please with the layout settings to achieve the output as in the yellow highlighted area. In my example I’ve cheated by inserting a hard break between the words “or” and “circumstances”. My goal would be that I type non-stop and the computer automatically inserts a break because it knows that the word “circumstances” doesn’t fit before the cut-off point of 15cm. How can I achieve the above output without inserting a manual hard break?

Any help or suggestion is very much appreciated.

[Grantler]

Hello,
what you need is a negative last line/right hand side indent for paragraphs. IMHO this does not exist in LibreOffice.
Additional to your own workaround (manual line break) I can suggest a second workaround. You could try a table with 2 columns; left cell of each row representing a paragraph which would get its line break right before or by 15 cm … A bit cumbersome, admittedly.

[mikekaganski]

I would say that the data is a perfect fit for tables: it represents a set of different data related to same “object”: left is its description, right is its name. Tables are specifically fit to represent such structured records - so I believe that using a table is the proper solution.

tableWithDefinitions.odt (12.7 KB)

[ajlittoz]

The only little annoyance is the necessity to define a fill-character-tab stop at right of cell. Unfortunately, such a tab stop cannot be automatically set to paragraph right indent.

Whenever you change table column width, this will be forwarded to the paragraph indents but tab stop distances will remain the same because all tab distances are relative to left indent. You must adjust the tab manually. In this case, it would be preferable to set distances relative to right indent.

Note: I once submitted a feature request so that tabs could be defined relative to a chosen origin but it was discarded because it would deeply impact ODF (and I can’t find it again because “My Bugs” in Bugzilla only shows open bugs.

[ajlittoz]

Your screenshot shows something like a definition where the description precedes the defined word.

Alternate solution

If you accept to reverse the layout, i.e. to have

 word……This is a short definition for
       "word" given in an unconstrained
       paragraph.

you only need to create a user paragraph style with a left indent and first line indent set to the negative of left indent.

After word, type a Tab. This is enough because a left indent implictly defines a tab stop. But if you want a leader line (which IMHO is not necessary when the defined word is aligned to the left margin), you must define a tab stop with fill character.

In case your “word” is wider than the left indent, type a Shift+Enter instead of the Tab.

Solution preserving the layout

Since you cannot tab beyond the paragraph right indent, the only possibility to offest the defined term is to put it outside the paragraph area. You can do that with a frame. Create a frame anchored to the paragraph with position:

• horizontal: From left relative to Right paragraph border, distance 0.5cm (to be tuned to set the distance between frame and paragraph)

  To flush right the defined word, Right relative to Right paragraph border and align text inside frame to right.

• vertical: relative to Paragraph text area either Center or Bottom

  Since there is no way to create a leader line from last paragraph line to frame, you might as well center the defined term against its definition.

Remove the default border (and eventually the padding space if you intend to have the word at bottom of its definition). Store all these settings in a new frame style for repetitive use.

This second solution is only an approximation for the initial specification. I’d rather recommend the first one which is easier to implement and much more reliable if you don’t master the style subtleties, notably frame styles.

[Huskey]

Many thanks for all the answers. I’ll go over them on the weekend. Just an additional note: I will use the layout for a German-English dictionary. I have attached one sample entry.

There are “basically 3 columns”:

• Left column: word to be translated
• Middle column (upper part of entry): definitions of word to be translated AND middle column (lower part of entry): definitions of translations
• Right column: translation

Thank you.

[ajlittoz]

This is important additional information.

As your document is basically column-oriented with each “row” being an independent item, your best option is a table. Remember that tables in Writer are not the same as spreadsheets. Every “cell” may contain a full “sub-document”, i.e. several paragraphs in their own styles, frames, images or even tables, whereas a cell in a spreadsheet can only contain one data element, i.e. a number, a formula or text.

However a Writer table will not easily allow for leading line across cell boundaries. Therefore, either you change a bit the layout to eliminate the need for leading lines or you “massage” paragraph styles by adding tab stops with fill character and manually add the tabs 1) at end of definition and 2) before the translation to give the illusion of non interrupted line (but this will remain difficult in the case of multiline definition and also with different font size in definition and translation – it will not be visually seamless).

[Grantler]

I agree to @ajlittoz - the planned layout will not be visually seamless.

@Huskey: You better use a Calc sheet or a DataBase for the contents - then generate a “mail merge document” in which a “seamless” layout could better be approached.