Videos/Character Styles in Writer

Foreword
The video shows how ″character styles″ can be used in Writer and links to this page here, which provides further information and details.

This description refers to the version LibreOffice 6.4 under Windows 10.

Styles of the type character styles are used to format the font for letters, individual words or groups of words within paragraphs of a document uniformly differently.

You will learn how to optimally format paragraphs with character styles.

With the use of character styles, the formatting of your documents will be easy for you.

Link to the video
Link to the video (in German [DE]):

Zeichenvorlagen in writerl

Overview of the types of styles available in Writer
Different types of styles are already integrated in LibreOffice.


 * Paragraph styles
 * Character styles
 * Frame styles
 * Page styles
 * List styles
 * Table styles

Most styles can be changed or created.

Table styles are an exception.

LibreOffice already comes with styles of every type of format that can be used.

Paragraph styles
Paragraphs are formatted with paragraph styles.

You may use your own paragraph styles or document templates for your paragraphs, in which you have created customized paragraph styles.

See also: Styles in Writer

Character styles (CS's) general
The character styles can have changed attributes compared to paragraph styles.

You can only assign one style/paragraph style to a paragraph.

If you want [[Media:202005_LOENHB_Example - Dialog box Character Style.png|to have something different]] within a paragraph, such as font, size, color, background, and so on, use character styles.

Note It is recommended to derive self-made character styles from the default character style. In the derived character styles, you can adjust the attributes you want to have differently.

The manually entered attributes in character styles are applied with priority over the attributes of paragraph styles.

What is meant by derived character style?


Open the sidebar from the menu.

For character styles, click the character styles icon.

Right-click on the character style (CS) Default Style and select.

The dialogue box opens with an "Untitled1" character style.

Enter a meaningful name for the character style.

All attributes (values) in the new character style are taken from the Default Style character style.

You can now change the attributes you need and click, see Scheme: Derived character style simple.

You can create as many different CS's as you need.

Example of a derived character style
Enter A_Light Purple 3 for the name in the new CS.

Change the attributes as shown in the [[Media:202005_LOENHB_Character style A_Light Purple 3.png|this figure]].

Click on.

The CS A_Light Purple 3 now has all changed attributes and all others like the CS Default Style.

To add letters, words or word groups to the new character style, select them and double-click on the character style A_Light Purple 3.

The CS A_Light Purple 3 can be used as required.

Note In the CS A_Light Purple 3, "Based on" means "- None -". As soon as you have saved a new CS derived from Default Style, this entry is automatically entered.

Example hierarchically derived character styles


Schematic representation of hierarchically derived character styles, see Scheme: Derived character style hirarchical.

Create Hierarchically Character Styles


If you need more than one CS's, which for example should have changed the same font and each of these CS's should also have changed a different attribute, you can proceed as follows, see [[Media:202005_LOENHB_Character style A_Default bold.png|this figure]].

Right-click on the character style (CS) Default Style and select.

The dialog opens with a "Untitled1" character style.

Give the CS a meaningful name, e.g. A_default bold.

All attributes (values) in the new CS are taken from the CS Default Style.

Set the font as "Liberation Sans" and the font style to "Bold".

Now click on.

Now derive two more CS's from A_default bold (A_Emphasis and A_Menu) and change the attributes in the respective CS according to [[Media:202005_LOENHB_Character style A_Default bold.png|this representation]].

Note In addition to the font attributes shown in the illustration, you can change all attributes in new CS's according to your wishes.

Hierarchical representation of the CS's
You can set a hierarchical display in the sidebar at the bottom under "Show Previews", see Displayed Hierarchically Character Styles.

Don‘t use direct formatting
If you want to undo the formatting for a text that has been formatted with a CS, you should never do this manually using the Formatting toolbar.

Do not perform formatting directly.

This can lead to major problems in further text editing.

To remove formatting of character styles from the text


Open the Sidebar and click the character styles icon.

Select the text for which you want to remove formatting.

In the window, double-click the Default Style character style.

Use the button
(German [[Media:20200602_Zeichenvorlage_zuruecksetzen - von Robert Grosskopf.odt|original]] text by Robert Grosskopf)

Like paragraph styles, character styles can always be undone in certain areas (tabs).

[[Media:Character style DB_Yes_01.png|In the tab "Organiser"]] you can see the definitions of the respective style.

For this style the selection of Small caps + Green would have been sufficient.

Western text: Liberation Sans + normal should therefore be removed.



Note A click on the button does not create a change at this point!

[[Media:Character style DB_Yes_02.png|In the tab "Font"]] only the properties displayed under this tab are reset by clicking the button.

Since the basic font was different here, the dialog now shows the [[Media:Character style DB_Yes_03.png|default font "Times New Roman"]] instead.

But this is a bit deceptive, because the font is no longer specified by the character style.

The font from the paragraph style is passed through again.

The font color as well as the setting of Small caps has been left.

The character style now only shows the conditions that should really be defined:

[[Media:Character style DB_Yes_04.png|Small caps + Green]].



Working files
[[Media:Character Styles in Writer V6-4.odt|Character Styles in Writer V6-4.odt]]

[[Media:Template - Character Styles in Writer V6-4.odt|Template - Character Styles in Writer V6-4.odt]]

[[Media:Character Styles for documentation EN.ods|Character Styles for documentation EN.ods]]

Related topics
Professional text composition with Writer

Styles in Writer

Inheritance in paragraph styles in Writer

Document templates Letter template in Writer

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

Documentation / Manuals

Any questions?
For questions on this topic go to:

Ask.LibreOffice

Get Involved
Join us today and help us to make it even better!

Get Involved

Donate
LibreOffice is Free Software and is made available free of charge.

Your donation, which is purely optional, supports our worldwide community.

If you like the software, please consider a Donation.