In fictional books, it is customary for every page to have a header, for the left header to be separate from the right one, and for the footer to be a page number. It is also customary for the first page of each chapter to have no header. This is because the header just doesn’t look good above the chapter heading. How is this accomplished? I saw other threads talked about a lot of stuff I didn’t understand and that the people on the threads didn’t seem to understand, either, but page breaks were mentioned the most. But page breaks won’t work for the first page of a section because the text needs to flow over to the next page. Therefore, I would like a step by step description of how the first page of every chapter, or else, any page containing a header, will have no header, that does not include page breaks or a lack of any headers on any of the other pages.
I’ve figured it out! Eureka!
Alright, so, step 1: Slide your cursor up to the top of the page and click on the format tab.
Step 2: With the format tab open, go down to “Title Page,” and click it.
Step 3: Choose “Convert existing pages to title pages.”
Step 4: Set the number of title pages to 1.
Step 5: Set the page number of the title page as the page number of the first page of your chapter.
Step 6: Do this to the first page of each chapter separately. (You CAN have multiple separate title pages.)
Step 7: You should have already put a page break at the end of each chapter, which will make the first page of each chapter the first page of each chapter.
Formatting the heeader:
Step 1: Right click on your header and click on page style.
Step 2: In the header tab of the page style menu, you should have same content on left and right pages unchecked and same content on first page checked because the first page of your chapter is now actually the first page after the first page, which is now the title page of the chapter.
Step 3: Do not be stupid. Do not uncheck header on.
The page break at the end of the chapter will separate the headers into different sections.
Warning: You have to set the title page number for your pages at their original page number because it is pg 1 by default. Might reset page numbers afterward starting at next page’s original number for good measure.
This is not THE solution. It is a quick’n’dirty one involving a lot of direct ormatting which will play nasty tricks on your back, sooner or later.
In particular, you may stumble on header conflict (setting a header in a chapter replaces the header of a former chapter); expanding a chapter and creating new pages will require you to review manually your starting page numbers.
The correct solution is based on page styles configuration with the assistance of paragraph styles adjustments to automate the process. And inserting fields in the headers allows to automatically set header contents to the desired heading title.
If all this sounds Klingon to you, I recommend you read the Writer Guide for an introduction to the meaning of these words and the features behind them.
Please use a comment bubble when making a comment or replying to someone. If you use Suggest a solution it makes it hard to follow.
I have attached a sample layout. It uses:
- Different page styles for different types of page
- A cross-reference for the repeated book title (Insert > Field > More fields or Ctrl+F2)
- A Document reference for the chapter title (Ctrl+F2)
- Heading 1 paragraph style is used for Chapter name. When Heading 1 style is applied to a paragraph it inserts a page break before and places it on a First Page style of page.
- A Copy of Heading 1 paragraph style has been used for the preface contents
- Heading numbering is used to add Chapter number before the Chapter name. It can be switched to None
You might find it easier to inspect the document in tandem with the Writer Guide already linked by ajlittoz to understand how the parts work together. It is unlikely to fulfill your needs so knowing how to create these parts will allow you to set up a template and then forget about layout while you write. The layout will take care of itself. Cheers, Al
BookWithLayout.odt (14.2 KB)
This topic is dealt with fully in the book Boring but Essential
A Handbook for Authors
https://guyrolands.com/?page_id=223