Writer: Documentation about margins

[markroth]

I’m using LO 5.0.4.2 on Win7.

I’m in the process of writing the preliminary material for a high school course teaching the use of LO.

The Getting Started Guide (GS50) cautions regarding “Changing Page Margins”:

If you change the margins, the new margins affect the page style and will be shown in the Page Style dialog the next time you open it.

Because the page style is affected, the changed margins apply to all pages using that style.

Originally, I had taken that to mean that if I changed the margins in any document, the page style in use would be affected in any other document (existing or new) using that same page style.

Apparently that’s not what it means. (Judging by how Writer behaves for me.)

I gather the above caution has to do only with the existing document and not with any other. If I gather correctly, it seems it’d be beneficial to make the official documentation more clear on this point. (You know, for the benefit of people like me. grin)

Anyway, I’m posting this here, hoping to get some confirmation or correction on this matter.

Thanks for reading this.

-Mark

[ajlittoz]

Sorry to answer only now: ran into your question while looking for something else.

You’re right, any change in styles affects only current document. This is what’s intended and it is safe (think of what mess would result if this was not the case).

There are, however, two ways to affect other documents, which basically rely on the same mechanism: templates.

• For documents based on a custom template: modify and save the template

  Next time you open your document, you’ll be asked if you want to apply the changes (from template).

• For documents without custom template, you need to alter the default template

  I have not experimented to see if it affects already existing documents or only new ones.

If this answer helped you, please accept it by clicking the check mark to the left and, karma permitting, upvote it. If this resolves your problem, close the question, that will help other people with the same question.