Hi,
When writing a writer document, the paragraph style keeps switching between “default paragraph style” and “body text”. Please let me know if it is possible to set one thing as fixed?
Mallikarjun.
What do you mean??? Please edit your question to make it more descriptive (press … below it, then the “pencil” tool). Don’t forget to mention OS name, LO version and save format.
Meanwhile here are some clues.
When you start up in a blank document, Writer knows absolutely nothing about your future document. Then its state is “empty” which results in nothing activated and paragraph style defaults tp Default Paragraph Style which is at root of all styles.
Don’t be fooled by Default in the name. This paragraph style is not intended to be the “standard” or “common” one to write text. In fact, its use is setting “Default(s) [for all other] Paragraph Style(s)”. It defines attributes that will be inherited by all other paragraph styles. The style should not be used in any document.
What you experience is probably the consequence of automatic style switch when you hit Enter. Styles for headings (Heading n family) are configured so that the next paragraph reverts to Body Text style, which is the “standard” style for the main topic.
Thus, the few head paragraphs are Default Paragraph Style if you don’t force any style (which is bad practice). Then you enter a (chapter, …) heading with Heading 1 and as soon as you hit Enter you land into a Body Text paragraph.
The style switch feature can be use to highly automate your formatting. Think of letters where you start with a date paragraph, followed by an address (“Dear Mr., Mrs. X.” with Addressee style), a topic, a reference then the topic itself (with Body Text style). You end with a salutation (with Complimentary Close style), a signature and optionally sender name and coordinates. All you have to do is to configure the Next setting in the style Organizer tab.
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If you know for certain the type of document you’ll write, you can configure it to open with the first needed style. This is called a template. In Writer parlance, this is a special type of document (extension .ott) filled with customised styles and initial contents. This initial contents can be empty but the paragraph style has been set to Body Text or any other style.
Then you no longer use File>New>Text Document to create a new document but Open>New>Templates to choose which template to activate. You can also put a shortcut to the template on your desktop and double-click it. Or you can replace the default template by your own so that Writer opens by default this user template without the need to go through the described procedures.
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