Libreoffice Writer - PDF Export with Bookmarks or Contents

[user0365364]

I am trying to export my document to pdf. I would like the pdf to have the links embedded in it for bookmarks or contents.

One way to do this is, for example, if I have a subtitle or section heading, say “introduction”, then I can select the text and set the style to “Heading 1” or “Heading 2”. Then when I export to pdf, and open it with my pdf viewer, then the contents are shown on the left hand side. There will be an entry called “introduction” which when left clicked on will jump you to the “introduction” section.

I don’t want to use this method, because the styles change the font, size and position of the text, which I then have to change back manually, which is probably going to take a long time since I have a lot of sections to change…

I have tried adding bookmarks to do allow this same feature in pdf viewers, but even with the “export bookmarks” checkbox ticked, I don’t get any links in the contents tab of the pdf viewer. Not that it should matter, but I am on KUbuntu, and so my pdf reader is Okular.

Am I barking up the wrong tree with bookmarks? Should I be using something different?

I do not want to change the styles one at a time.

[razon_22]

The styles can be modified. You can change the font, size and position of text for dozens of paragraphs just by modifying the style that they have applied to them. Click on the Styles and Formatting icon on the Formatting toolbar. This opens the Styles and Formatting window. Find Heading 1 and right-click on it, choose Modify. Using this window, change the style to your liking. Click Apply then Ok. Apply this style to your text by selecting a heading in your document and double-clicking Heading 1. When you have this style applied to dozens of headings, they can all be changed at once by adjusting the settings in the style. And they export nicely to PDF.

See Chapter 6 - Introduction to Styles and Chapter 7 - Working with Styles of the latest Writer guide on the documentation page [1].

[1] https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Documentation/Publications

[user0365364]

Is there a way of doing it without having to change all the styles?

[razon_22]

There are many styles in a blank Writer document. You don’t need to change all of those. Just change the ones you want to apply to that document. Changing the Default Style, as it may be applied to most of your text, is a start, but you will need to change and manually apply any heading styles you wish to use.

[dajare]

Do what @rmfaile says. IT’S WORTH IT! (Sorry … didn’t mean to shout.

Actually, simply to modify the styles you USE will not take that long. Save the result as a template. Then in turn save yourself countless hours in the future. You can export/import templates, too, making things easier if you use LibO on different machines.

In the end, you’ll have a painless and effective means of producing well-structured, easy-to-navigate PDFs. Well worth the effort up front, I reckon.

There are plenty of good Q&A’s about templates if the concept is new to you.