Greetings
I am finding the concept of setting up headers/ footers to be difficult, especially with going to:
insert > header / footer > header > and the LONG list of options to assign? like default page style, first page style and the 8 or so more?
How do I know which one to pick?
You’re taking the feature by the wrong side (and the menu command is clumsy by itself because it does not try to educate users).
A part from the text in your document, you have ideas about layout and appearance. The document is then structured into “parts” which have their own “personality”. This “personality” is embodied in a page style. A page style defines all the geometric properties of a page: margins, of course, background, parity (left or right), header/footer, footnotes and several others.
As you can see, header and footer are intrinsic properties of a page style.
Insert>Header & Footer>Header/Footerxxx is in fact a shortcut to a specific checkbox in page style configuration dialog. It is a quick’n’dirty command to enable or disable header and footer of the selected page style. It does only that. To fine tune your header or footer, such as its height or distance to text, you must anyway enter the configuration dialog.
To answer your question, select the active page style.
Since you’re asking, I assume you never heard of page styles. Look at the bottom status bar. The currently active page style is reported in the center of the bar. It is likely to Default Page Style. Consequently tick Default Page Style in the menu command list.
For smarter use of Writer, I recommend you read at least the Writer Guide, notably the chapters dedicated to styles. Read also Bruce Byfield’s Designing with LO (available from the same link after pressing “More” and scrolling down a bit) which clearly explains all the benefits you can draw from styles.
PS: when asking here, always mention OS name and exact LO version (and when relevant, save format because most answers on this site are valid only for .odt).
Thx for reply but I am still confused
WHat do you mean by your saying:
"Choose the active page style?
I am looking at my page and it says “default page style” in the middle bottom bar at the bottom?
If the bottom bar says Default Page Style, this page style is active.
Thx agai
question:
From the HELP
To Apply a Page Style to a New Page
Click in the document where you want a new page to start.
Choose Insert - More Breaks - Manual Break.
Select Page break.
In the Page Style box, select the page style that you want to apply to the page that follows the manual break.
Click OK.
Yes this I know – but it seems confusing with all the options
FOr instance: do I change the page number? What use does that serve?
You can of course ignore options you don’t need.
You might want to change page number if say your first page is to have no numbering and the second page is to show as page 1. Or you might use Roman numerals for the first part of a document - e.g. table of contents - and start numbering the next page in Arabic numbers from a specified number.