Styles in Writer

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Foreword

The Video "Styles in Writer" links to this page here, which offers further information and details. This description is based on the "Toolbars" (Standard) user interface. The standard user interface "Toolbars" with Menu bar, toolbars and a collapsed sidebar is made for users who are familiar with the classic interface.

Link to the Video

The order in the video is slightly different. Link to the Video: Styles in Writer

What Are Styles?

Styles are containers in which a set of properties for the text to be formatted has been bundled together.

Direct Formatting

Many people who work with word processors are accustomed to creating documents based on individual properties. For instance, you specify the font family, font size, and font style—for example, Helvetica 12pt, bold. These are, therefore, three properties that must be selected individually. This approach is also referred to as direct (or hard) formatting.

Note:
Legend (Wikipedia):
Typeface
Font

Indirect Formatting

In contrast, styles encompass multiple properties simultaneously. For example, you can define a set of font properties—designating them as "Title" or "Heading 1"—and establish them as a "package" within a corresponding style. Formatting using styles is also referred to as indirect (or soft) formatting.

The Difference between Direct and Indirect Formatting

Direct (or hard) formatting consists of defining individual properties of a physical nature (font, size, style, etc.). This means that you apply the formatting directly to the text itself.
Indirect (or soft) formatting focuses on the functional role of the text (title, heading, body text). Thus, instead of assigning individual properties to the text one by one, you can use styles to apply entire sets of properties to the text all at once. This means that you do not apply the formatting directly to the text; rather, you define it within the styles and subsequently assign those styles to the text.

What are the advantages of styles?

Using styles instead of direct formatting offers a number of advantages.
Using Styles means that you do not apply the formatting to the text, but define it in the Styles and then assign it to the text. Styles help to standardize the appearance of documents. This means, for example, that normal text, headings, and other text formatting elements look consistent throughout the document. This ensures that your documents look polished and professional.
With styles, multiple (or all desired) formatting properties can be applied instantly in a single step.
Styles simplify extensive formatting changes. For instance, you might decide to change the indentation of all paragraphs or the font of all headings. In a long document, this seemingly simple task could prove to be very time-consuming without the use of styles.
Figure 1 illustrates, for example, how using the paragraph style "Heading 1" allows multiple formatting properties to be applied simultaneously.

Where can I find the styles and which ones?

The Sidebar

All styles can be found in the sidebar, which can be turned on or off via View ▸ Styles menu or {{key|F11}.

Legend for Styles
1 Paragraph Styles	2 Character Styles	3 Frame Styles	4 Page Styles
5 List Styles	6 Table Styles	7 Fill Format Mode	8 Styles Actions

The Menu "Styles"

Here you can choose one from a selection of frequently used Styles to assign from the Styles menu.

The "Formatting" toolbar

The "Formatting" toolbar displays the paragraph style applied to the paragraph where the cursor is currently located. "Body Text" means that the text has the "Body Text" style. However, the display of Style here depends on the position of the cursor and which Style was used at this position.

Legend to "Formatting" Toolbar
1 Set Paragraph Style	2 Update Selected Style	3 New Style from Selection	4 Font
5 Font Size	6 Bold	7 Italic	8 Underline
9 Strikethrough	10 Superscript	11 Subscript	12 Clear Direct Formatting
13 Font Colour	14 Character Highlighting Colour	15 Align Left	16 Align Centre
17 Align Right	18 Justified	19 Toggle Unordered List	20 Toggle Ordered List
21 Select Outline Format	22 Increase Indent	23 Decrease Indent	24 Set Line Spacing
25 Increase Paragraph Spacing	26 Decrease Paragraph Spacing	27 Left to Right	28 Right to left

Toolbar Overflow and push together

Styles - Built-in and user defined

All Styles can be found in the Sidebar. If the Sidebar with styles is not available, select View ▸ Styles ( F11 ) from the menu. An open Writer document always has at least one Style/Paragraph style associated with it.

Styles - Built-in

Once you have installed LibreOffice correctly, you will find the Styles in the open Writer document. You can find them in the Sidebar. You can customize the properties of Built-in Styles. However, you cannot rename or delete these Styles. However, you can hide most of these Styles.

Styles - user defined

You can create your own user-defined Styles or derive them from existing Styles. Right-click on an existing Style, for example "Default Paragraph Style" or "Body Text" and choose New. Then click the "General" tab and enter a name for the new Style. Change the properties (for example Font size and color) that you want to assign to the text. Then click OK. The Paragraph Style tabs, for example "Body Text":

Further tabs

Applying Styles to Text

First, Writer needs to know where you want to apply the style. For paragraph styles, simply placing the cursor within the desired paragraph is usually sufficient. For character styles, select the range of characters you wish to modify. Once the cursor is positioned, double-click on the style (the style name) in the sidebar. If the sidebar containing the styles is not visible, open it by pressing F11. The text should now display the modified and desired appearance. The applied style can be changed again at any time by applying a different style.

Warning:
Don't use the "Standard" paragraph style for your text; it is the source of all other paragraph styles.
Normally, the "Body Text" paragraph style should be used for normal text.

What is a Paragraph?

A paragraph is always created when the ↵ Enter key is pressed while writing in the word processor. The end of the paragraph is represented by the character ¶ ("pilcrow" = translated "mushroom head"). The end of a paragraph is also the beginning of a new paragraph. If the formatting characters are not visible, click on the symbol (Pilcrow) "Toggle Formatting Marks" ( Ctrl + F10 ) in the "Standard" toolbar. So a paragraph (text) is delimited by a pilcrow at the beginning and at the end. When you open Writer with an empty document, the first thing you see is a pilcrow, which is the end character of a paragraph. A heading is also just a paragraph. So, for example, if you see a pilcrow at the end of the line above a heading and at the end of the heading, that heading in a line represents its own paragraph.

Note:
Paragraph switching with ↵ Enter
Line feed with ⇧ Shift + ↵ Enter

Document Templates

To avoid having to create styles every time: You should create a Document template for your most frequent applications (letters, delivery notes, etc.) that already contains the desired styles.

Exercise - Create, modify and assign Styles

The Originals "Aufgabe_Formatvorlagen" and "Protokoll_Übungsdatei" in German language
come from the Author: Ellen Pape, E-Mail: ellenpape@libreoffice.org Please refer: Writer-Übungen Teil 1 - Arbeiten mit Formatvorlagen An already written "Protocol model school" protocol is used for this task. The protocol will be formatted with styles. It should look good after formatting. - Used working documents -

Abbreviations

P = Protocol
TC = Teachers conference
IA = Item of the Agenda

Style names

P_Header (Protocol Header)
P_IA (Protocol Item of the Agenda)
P_Text (Protocol Text)

Note:
For the following tasks ( Part 1 to 7 ), you need an overview of the styles in the sidebar that you receive via View ▸ Styles menu or F11.

To do this, you first create the new styles. You change styles. Then you assign the styles to the Text and Headings.

Open the File

You can use the existing protocol ″Protocol model school″, see Used working documents. Now open the File.

Part 1 – create style "P-Header"

For the formatting of the protocol header, you will now create a new style/paragraph style "P-Header". Right-click on the paragraph style "Heading". Click then on New, then on tab "General" and enter name "P-Header". Give the new paragraph style the properties the header should receive:
Font: Noto Sans | Fontsize: 14 pt | Fontstyle: bold | Font colour: black
Spacing: Above paragraph 0,0 cm and Below paragraph 0,3 cm.
Click on OK

Part 2 – create style "P-IA"

Create a new style "P-IA". Right-click on ″Heading″, then on New, then on tab "General" and enter name "P-IA". Furthermore, in the "Paragraph Style" dialog, specify the properties that should be included for the agenda items:
Font: Noto Sans | Fontsize: 14 pt | Fontstyle: regular | Font colour: Light Blue 2
Spacing: Above paragraph 0,4 cm and Below paragraph 0,2 cm.
Then click on OK

Part 3 – create style "P-Text"

Now, starting from style "Body Text", create the "P-Text" style. Click on "Body Text" with the right mouse button and choose New, then on tab "General" and enter name "P-Text". Give the new paragraph style the properties the text should receive:
Font: Noto Sans | Fontsize: 11 pt | Fontstyle: regular | Fontcolour: black
Spacing: Above paragraph 0.0 cm and Below paragraph 0.2 cm.
Click on OK

Part 4 – modify style "P-IA"

The style "P-IA" should be provided with numbers:

Right-click on the style "P-IA".
Then select Modify. Then, in the "Paragraph Style: P_IA" dialog, select the "Outline and Numbering" tab.

For Numbering/Numbering style, select: Numbering 123. As soon as you press OK, all items of the agenda change.

Part 5 - Remove all hard line breaks

Remove all hard line breaks feeds or returns, as they are unnecessary as a space between paragraphs.

Part 6 - Clear Direct Formatting

In the Menu click Edit ▸ Select All. The click in the Menu Format ▸ Clear Direct Formatting or press the keys Ctrl + M.

Part 7 - Assign styles

Now, the header, the items of the agenda, and the text are each assigned the style, as follows. Click inside the heading or paragraph, and double-click the desired style.

Part 7.1 – P_Header assign to the header

Mark the header or put the cursor in. Double-click on the style "P_Header".

Part 7.2 – P_IA assign to the items of the agenda

Place the cursor within each individual agenda item and double-click on the "P_IA" style.

Part 7.3 – P_Text assign to the text

Place the cursor in each paragraph and double-click the "P_Text" style.

Do exercises on your own

Try applying alternative values in the styles. Especially for styles with Indents and Spacing - Spacing Above paragraph respectively Below paragraph.

Note:
The exercise is deliberately chosen in this process. In daily use, you can save some steps by first formatting the entire text with the "P-Text" style. And then bring the Protocol header and the items of the agenda into the appropriate form.

Further Information

Used working documents

The working documents can be downloaded here:

Documentation / Manuals

Here you will find the Documentation / Manuals: Documentation / Manuals

Any questions?

For questions on this topic go to: Ask.LibreOffice

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