Is there a way to create custom numbering/bullet point options? I like using writer to type up crochet patterns I create, and I find it takes twice as long to type patterns up when I have to individually format each line with “Row 1:, Row 2:, Row3:,” etc. and would love to have a way to just hit enter instead.
Yes, I know I could have just the standard 1, 2, 3, etc but it gets a little confusing with the direction so close and I don’t like the format of that. I’ve played around in the custom settings but haven’t found a way to create what I’m looking for. Is there a way to do this without having to learn how to code?
What you are looking for is the list style feature. However, your specification in the question is not detailed enough to give you immediately usable directives. We don’t know what you do presently (Do you use Format → Bullets & Numbering? What is your knowledge and skill with styles"?). It would also be helpful to have some context about your computer (OS name and exact LO release) because of not-so-subtle differences between platforms. Last and most important, the solution I can suggest is valid only documents saved as .odt because there is no list style in DOCX.
Why have you tagged conditional-formatting? This kind of numbering formatting is not conditional at all (at least in what Writer calls conditional formatting).
I apologize for not having the proper language for this, I know conditional formatting is generally a spreadsheet term, I just don’t know what the right term for this is. I’m low key an 80 year old trapped in a 30 year old’s body. 
As of right now what I’m doing is hitting enter, ctrl b, typing “R1:” or “Row1:”, ctrl b again, then typing the instruction to follow. I was wondering if there’s a way to create a shortcut (which to me would make sense to go through bullets & numbering) that would create what I want, which is each line to start with a bolded “R” or “Row” followed by the corresponding number, similarly to how numbering would work, only with the R or Row in front of the number. I’ve tried playing around in the Bullets&Numbering formatting but have not found a way to do this (again, not the most savvy at this, obviously).
I don’t have a lot of knowledge with styles, though I have tried messing around with the options a little while trying to figure this out (with little success). I’m not opposed to learning more about it.
I have an ASUS Vivobook that runs windows 11. The OS build is 26200.8875 (if that’s important?)
LO release:
Version: 7.4.7.2 (x64) / LibreOffice Community
Build ID: 723314e595e8007d3cf785c16538505a1c878ca5
CPU threads: 16; OS: Windows 10.0 Build 26200; UI render: Skia/Raster; VCL: win
Locale: en-US (en_US); UI: en-US
Calc: CL
I do save/work on all of my documents in an .odt format and have never tried anything else.
Below is a screen shot of a pattern I’m working on with sort of what I’m looking to do, if possible.
I hope this is helpful. Thank you for your reply.
First of all, I recommend you download and read the Writer Guide for an introduction to styles. A bit hidden in the same documentation page, you’ll find Bruce Byfield’s Designing with LO which clearly explains the philosophy of styles and the benefits you can get from them.
Your problem sums up to configuring a list style to your taste. In the attached example, I chose to customise built-in Numbering 123 instead of creating one from scratch.
The general look of numbering is defined in the Position tab. I only added separators as “R” Before and “:” (without any space) After. To highlight the list from surrounding text, I went to Customize tab to align the number at 0.5 cm, request a tab character after the number and set both stop and indent at 1.50 cm. Note that this distance may be too small if your numbers need 2+ digits.
As shown in Position tab, numbers are highlighted with character style Numbering Symbols. Since you want the numbers bold, I customised said style for bold.
The finishing touch is to customise built-in paragraph style Numbering 1 (again personal decision to avoid creating a user style) in order to attach list style Numbering 123 to it so that numbering is automatic.
How to use the styles?
I remind you that your discourse/main topic is normally styled Body Text (which you can apply by pressing Ctrl+0 – digit “zero”, not letter “Oh”). Paragraph style Default Paragraph Style has special technical role in Writer: it stores your preferred typographical and “geometric” (indents, spacing, …) defaults which are forwarded to other styles. Tuning it for your discourse has adverse side-effects on other styles.
When you want to start a new list item, switch to Numbering 1 paragraph style. This automatically prefixes your paragraph with the decorated number. This styles remain in effect until you switch to another one. You no longer need to manually add your number and your list is always correctly sequenced should you permute or reorder items.
You can also apply a posteriori Numbering 1 to turn any paragraph in a list item. Applying Body Text to an existing list item reverts it to ordinary paragraph without number.
Sample file: AskLO-ListStyle-example.odt (36.6 KB)
Sorry for the brevity of this answer. Automatic list numbering often “terrifies” newcomers. I admit that the need to mix one paragraph style and one list style is bewildering at first. This is why I recommend you read the Writer Guide to have hints on what I did.