First remember that styles are a matter of personal taste: what you consider nice might be ugly for somebody else. AS a consequence there is no automatic application. To some extent, only styles Heading n are suggested and recommended because there are already linked to TOC construction. The only case of automatic application I know is in parts generated by Writer, i.e. the various indexes (TOC, indexes and bibiography) where the internal engine uses styles Contents n, Index n, User Index n, Bibliography 1, Illustration Index 1, Object Index 1, Table Index 1. Also the notes are also automatically styled.
For real user contents, use of style is highly encouraged but not standardised. The names in the style list tries to hint at usage, e.g. Text Body is for bulk text while Addressee suggests this can be the recipient of the letter or the “salutation” at the beginning and Complimentary Close for that formal sentence at the end.
Unfortunately, there is no “official” document describing the intent meaning diverging interpretation may be given to “built-in” styles (see for example the answer to this question).
Now back to your question. You show above the hierarchy for styles aimed at formatting lists (I don’t write list styles because list styles in Writer are only involved in numbering/bulleted formatting). All List n and Numbering n styles derive from List so that modifying List changes simultaneously all non-overridden attributes. All the same, since lists are part of “main text”, style List derives from Body Text so that a change in the latter, e.g. change of typeface, also applies to lists.
Well the picture is great, but for a glitch.
Out of the box, List n/Numbering n do not result in list formatting as you show in your example because they are mere paragraph styles. To get the required behaviour, you must associate the List n paragraph style with a list style (once again, I remind you this an ill-named style category which is better described with “numbering style”). The link is in Outline & Numbering
tab of style dialog where you choos a Numbering style. List styles and paragraph styles live in different name spaces and there is no restriction on the association: linking List 1 with List 1 may seem natural but you can also link (paragraph) List 1 with (list) Numbering 1 to get a numbered list instead of a bulleted list.
Hierarchical lists are formatted with a single paragraph style. To change level of a list item, put the cursor at the beginning of the paragraph (after the number/bullet/ and type Tab
to increase level ou Shift
+Tab
to decrease level.
As you noticed, the list paragraph styles come in four flavours: List 1, List 1 Start, List 1 End and List 1 Cont. You have to decide how you’ll use them. My choice is List 1 start for the first item of anew list and similarly List 1 End for the last item. I modify these styles to have more spacing above and below the list as a whole so that it stands out of the “main text” despite the presence of numbers/bullets. The “middle” items may be formatted with List 1 or List 1 Cont. according to personal choice.
Tuning the properties of the respective paragraph styles you can set the spacing above/below or the flow attributes of the list item (keep with next, page break, etc.). Indent is tuned in the list style where you set also the type of numbering and the level-dependent indents.
There are lots of parameters for formatting lists and the initial difficulty is caused by the fact that the parameters are spread between the base paragraph style and its associated list style. Mastering it is quite long, you need to experiment to become familiar with it.
Also, it is necessary push on button Restart Numbering when you start a new list with an already used style. But remember this is direct formatting so that this restart flag can only be removed with Format
>Clear direct formatting
. One limitation of the list engine is the “restart numbering” flag cannot be set through a style, e.g. it would be convenient in List 1 Start.
Lists are, maybe, the most difficult feature in Writer. Do not hesitate to ask further information (edit your question for that, do not answer, or use comments).