I want to structure my book.
Of course the book itself.
Concerning LO, is it right to print the main pages of my ‘old’ book and then write on them what kind of styles I’ll use with this pages?
Any method is good to prepare the real work. Since the key point in your goal is a better use of LO as I understand it, having a proof copy of your book to annotate it is a good idea. Sheets of paper spread over your desk will give you an overall idea of the book and you may see more clearly the “significance” of various paragraphs.
Don’t hurry to work with Writer. The most boring part of the job is the design of your styles. The deeper you think over them, the easier your later task. And don’t be ashamed or feel guilty if you find the result is visually not satisfactory once you start in Writer. Having a nice book is an iterative process when it comes to appearance. The most important point is to correctly style your data (paragraphs, word, pages, images). Significance should be considered “immutable”. After all, it is the product of your author’s creativity. And significance can be dramatically boosted for a reader by an aesthetic look.
Look optimisation is an iterative process.
Many thanks!
Hi Ajilltozz,
I’m sorry to write you in this way, but I’ve a question about my book!
I get confused about the structure of my book and learning LibreOffice?.
Should I first learn the about the structure of my book and after that learn more of LibreOffice?
Best regards,
Luchador
The answer is difficult because both tasks can be considered relatively independent. Your book is your fuel and Writer is simply a tool but, indeed, there is some interaction between them.
Thinking about your book contents is a personal introspection. What message do you convey to your readers? Which are the main points? How do the argumentation flow from one point to the next? What is important? What is accessory (illustration of your main points, examples, notes, …)?
This should give you an idea of the different levels of significance present in your book.
Of course, translating accurately these levels of significance in Writer styles requires that you know what can be expected from the style expressiveness. So, before using Writer, you need to have learnt what styles are for, how they relate to each other, how they interfere (or not), …
Analysing your book or synopsis and learning Writer styles can be considered independent tasks. I then recommend that while learning you practise on small examples (you’d throw away afterwards) just to become familiarised with the effect of configuration settings.
But when you begin restructuring your book, you’ll need your fine knowledge of the book contents and its significance for you, the author, (coming from your analysis) and your skills in designing/modifying styles. The first outcome of your analysis and learning should be the design of your collection of styles (don’t reinvent the wheel: Heading n and Text Body plus many other built-in styles just wait for your customisation). Remember: those styles should parallel the significances, not the visual aspect. Next, you can modify your contents and style it.
Hi Ajilltoz,
Many thanks for your reply!
I’m very sorry, but sometimes I get in panic!
Something about myself:
- my book is an auto-biography (I had a very difficult life until now).
- I use a wheelchair
- I live alone
- I scarcely have help (last week I got a letter from the municipality that they stop my subsidary for household support?)
- my life now is very hard (06.00 - 23.00)
- my earnings are little
- etc.
I’m writing this book because I’m fed up with the present conditions!
I hope to make money with this book, because I want to emigrate to Spain (I now live in The Netherlands).
Best regards,
Luchador
- Make a backup copy.
- Select all (Ctrl+A)
- Reset formatting (Ctrl+M)
- Apply paragraph style “Text body” (Ctrl+0)
- Walk through the text and apply paragraph style “Heading 1” to first level headings (Ctrl+1), “Heading 2” (Ctrl+2) to second level headings and so forth.
DO NOT correct the formattings with the formatting tools (point and click). Call the stylist window instead (F11). Simply modify the paragraph style “Text body” in order to change all text body paragraphs in one go (right-click>Modify…). A paragraph style determines the look and the role of a paragraph. A heading style marks a paragraph as a heading, so it can be used for the automatic table of contents. The navigator window (F5) shows the structure of your document according to the applied heading styles.
Use character styles for consistent formatting within a paragraphs.
Finally (before printing), take notice of page styles.
P.s. As I wrote, I use a wheelchair.; However, I’m not a ‘victim’.
I’m a human being!
I hope you’ll treat me like this!
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Sound advice already given. Some things to be aware of (for asker as well as for helpers):
- Structure may refer to both visual structure (e.g. layout) and logical structure (e.g. subdivisions).
- Of course they influence each other, and I take it that you are addressing both in the task you have before you.
- Writer’s styles, and paragraph styles in particular, have elements pertaining to both visual and logical structure.
- Writer’s styles are more rigidly structured, and plays a greater role, than the style regimen you may find in other word processing applications (notably MS Word).
Helpers here usually address (and express our opinions about) the problem at hand, not the person presenting the problem. As such, I believe your request for “humane treatment” has been, and will be, honored. 
As for the advice already given - @ajlittoz’ thoughts about writing/editing/design strategy and mindset, and @Villeroy’s more practical guidance - they are both important and should be useful. We don’t know you, so the kind of “middle of the road” level of advice given there is mostly standard practice. It is not intended as condescending, I am sure. Neither are my comments here.
If you find that the advice given “states the obvious”, or the opposite ; that it is difficult to understand, just say so, and we try to adapt the advice accordingly. As far as I can tell, neither of us have English as our first language, so misunderstandings and unfortunate wordings may occur. We should all make allowances for that.
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Thank you very much!
Here, I’m sure they are willing to help me!
Unfortunately, in the ‘outside world’ disabled people are often neglected.
The advantage of written media (this AskLO site belongs in this category) is that we can’t see anybody. Thus, all askers are treated the same: young vs. old, experienced vs. skilled, disabled vs. “enabled”, … The only distinctive feature may be fluency in English. We try to cope with it with humility (after all, how many mistakes did we make when we started using Globish?). To mitigate this, AskLO has several (many?) language-dedicated legs. But, I grant you this, not all have the same level of LO-mastering skills. It highly depends on the count of the population.
Ok, thanks!