LibreOffice Writer format options for Holy Bible Verses?

[NerdyVideoGamerGeek]

I am new to LibreOffice and its programs. I am trying to write certain text within “LibreOffice Writer” with the same format as Holy Bible NIV. The research I have done recommends either “Superscript” or “Subscript”. After trying for some time and applying both at separate times to the text, it’s not giving me the same format or what I am thinking of. If its not the two options I mentioned above does anyone have recommendations?

UPDATED-1-18-2025: Image below of sample text. Where the numbers are smaller and offset.

[EarnestAl]

Have you got a sample of what you want? Edit your question by clicking on the pencil icon. If you can’t do that, then click on the comment bubble to reply to my comment. Click the upload icon, or drag a file onto the open comment to upload.

[NerdyVideoGamerGeek]

I was successfully able to find a image online real quick of how I would like the text to be. Hope this will help identify what the option is called or would be within “LibreOffice Writer”.

[EarnestAl]

So we have the Old Testament, Book of Genesis, Chapter 1, verse 1.

• Old Testament is a complete work in itself but if you wanted it could be Heading 1 and then demote the other headings.
• Book of Genesis could be Heading 1 paragraph style
• Chapter 1 could be Heading 2 paragraph style
• Each verse would be Body Text paragraph style as it comprises the main body of the work.
• The verse number itself would need a character style, create new one called Verse Number.

Looking at the font, I see it isn’t Liberation Sans nor Arial, so try Roboto (download from Roboto - Google Fonts and then close LibreOffice and install it before re-opening LibreOffice).

1. In the Sidebar, open the Styles pane and select Paragraph styles. Right click Default Paragraph Style (not to be used in text but to be used to set attributes for child styles) and select Edit style. Select the Font tab and in Western change the font to Roboto. OK.
2. Body Text has an indent of about 5 mm I guess so Right click Body Text paragraph style and select Edit style. In the Indents & Spacing tab set the before text field to 5 mm. OK
3. Select the Character style icon at the top of the Styles pane. Right click on No Character Style and select New. Give it a relevant name like Verse Number, click Apply. Then select the *Position tab, select Superscript (Super means over) . The number looks bigger and raised higher than standard so untick Automatic, then in “Raise/Lower” set it to 40%. In Relative Font size field set that to 70%. OK.

Now you are ready to apply the character style. It can be done manually but it is easier to do with find and replace. Rather than using the built-in Find and Replace, you might find it easier to install the extension Alternative Find & Replace for Writer

Using Alternative Find & Replace

1. Under Search for, click the Regular button and choose Any decimal digit [0-9] \d
2. Under Replace, select Character style \C(Quotation). You will get a new dialogue, scroll down to Verse Number that you created earlier and double-click it.
3. Click Replace All. All numerals in the document will be set to the Verse Number new character style.
   

Be aware that it will change all numerals so if you have any other numerals then you might want to step through one at a time by clicking Replace

Gives us
StylesForBibleNIV.odt (12.9 KB)

[NerdyVideoGamerGeek]

Thank you all for helping! I will try this very soon. Thanks for quick responses and helpful guides. Take care

[robleyd]

What you show in your example is superscript.

I quickly threw together an example document using a style named bibver applied to the verse numbers. You can modify the style to e.g. vary the superscript font size or manage the height of the superscript, among other things.
bibver.odt (32.6 KB)

[ajlittoz]

Trying to accurately imitate an existing book is a challenging endeavour. You won’t succeed if you don’t use styles. Direct (=manual) formatting will soon become a nightmare (all the more since a Bible is at least 1000 pages-long).

Imitation requires playing with all geometric and typographical parameters.These are grouped in what is called a style. Styles are ubiquitous in Writer.

A page style describes the geometry of a page and its “decoration”.

A paragraph style defines the geometry and bulk text appearance (through an embedded character style).

A character style configures look and position of text. It allows to change the default look when applied inside a paragraph.

There are other styles for images and list (bullet and numbers) but you’ll probably don’t need them in a Bible.

You may also find references to table “styles” which are not styles in the usual Writer meaning, rather a collection of macros which take over and replace whatever formatting you apply to table cell contents. My recommendation is to not use them unless you accept the imposed formatting without modification.

First task for you is to read the Writer Guide and practice before undertaking the transcription.

Here is an example from a similar question on this site:

The verse number is styled with a specific character style Verse Number. Vertical position and size have been adjusted in the Position tab of the style configuration dialog. There was a specific request to separate more the number from the verse. This has been done by increasing horizontal character spacing in the same tab.

For more reliability, the value of the verse number is automatically generated with a field of type Number range (which is reset at start of book or chapter).

Thus the verse number is created with Insert>Field>More Fields, choosing the specific Number Range and Verse Number style is applied.

The automatic numbering is particularly interesting if you forgot to number a verse or added a spurious one. You simply fix the mistake and text is automatically renumbered. Compare this with manual numbering.

The asking user also requested both footnotes (commenting words) and margin notes (annotating verses, with automatic placement). The latter are implemented with frame styles (the type of style used for images).

There is much more is this mock up than in your question, but you should think about the ultimate goal before diving into the task. A good thorough preparation is your key to success.

PS: since this is a only a proof-of-concept mock up, many details are still to be tuned.