start of menu
scroll to page content | set display options
getting started with Writer
styles
standards
making it easy
site map
all pages
OnePoyle home
privacy message
links below are in current page
styles
working with styles
paragraph styles
page styles
templates
solving problems
manuscript standards
word processing
optional standards
style sequence
style definitions
final checks
cover
making it easy
keyboard shortcuts
end of menu - start of page content
scroll to menu | scroll to top | set display options
pages combined for online review and printing
for normal pages click home
Authors, like most users, rightly see their word processor as a tool. They prefer to sit down in front of a screen and create their masterpiece without needing to bother with technical niceties.
On the other hand, an understanding of styles is the most important way of making the writing task easier, saving considerably more time than it consumes. These pages aim to give both the understanding and the technical tools.
The focus here is on Libre Office Writer, a decision based on the superiority of Writer for large manuscripts. Word can be used in a similar way, but technical pitfalls make that a sub-optimal choice.
There are three sections:
* Working with Styles
Working consistently with paragraph styles
is the key skill
* Manuscript Standards
Adopting these standards
will reduce final editing
whatever the destination of your manuscript
* Making it easy
Resources to customise Writer to benefit from recommendations in the other sections
The key page is style sequence, however if you are unfamilair with using styles, you may need to refer to other pages first
pages/home.txt updated 13:04 Aug 18 2011
scroll to menu scroll to page content home
OnePoyle provides training on request. This page is the agenda for a typical 90 minute session.
At the end of the session, you will have
* a basic understanding of styles and templates
* the ability to apply the recommended style sequence
* the knowhow to install OnePoyle Writer resources
* resources
- handout
- website
- CD
* introduction to Writer styles and templates
- what they are and what they do
- using styles
- modifying a style
- creating a document based on a template
* OnePoyle Book Template
- installing resources
- basic styles and their use
- how the style sequence achieves consistent layout
- checking style sequence
- reflowing a manuscript (page styles)
* questions, suggestions, requests
Enquiries and information from mike.hall@onepoyle.net
pages/style_training.txt updated 12:17 Nov 8 2009
scroll to menu scroll to page content home
Working with styles needs a new mind set. Those brought up in the typewriter age often seem to have something of a mental block. Paragraph styles are an alternative means of managing layout with less effort and more consistency than is possible with a typewriter.
* Style The style of a paragraph is the formatting details (including font attributes [name, size, colour,...], spacing, indents...).
These details can be stored as a named style (eg Large italics). When Large italics is selected for a paragraph, the paragraph
is formatted accordingly, guaranteeing consistency.
* Template To standardise formats across several documents, text and styles can be stored in a template (eg My letter heading).
Basing new letters on the My letter heading template makes the look and feel of all your letters the same.
Using styles rather than applying specific formatting to paragraphs is a great time-saver, ensuring a manuscript is consistently formatted and allowing easy changes to layout. For more, see paragraph styles
See also getting started with Writer
pages/style_intro.txt updated 21:04 Mar 26 2006
scroll to menu scroll to page content home
The excellent implementation of Styles is a major benefit of Writer. View styles by pressing F11 and then click one of the icons at the top of the Styles and Formatting pane to show existing styles of various kinds. Single click to select a style, right click to view the detailed properties or add a new style. Double click to apply a style to the current document at the cursor location.
* With the cursor anywhere in the target paragraph, either select a style from the drop-down list in the toolbar or double-click the style in the Styles and Formatting pane (toggle on/off with F11).
* To modify a style, right-click the style in the Styles and Formatting pane and select Modify.
Select a tab and make the desired alterations.
* To create a new style, right-click in the Styles and Formatting pane and select New
To aid consistency, it is often advisable to make new styles dependent
on a suitable base style, eg default
* Copy styles between templates and documents using File > Templates > Organize
* Only one template can be attached to a document and it cannot be replaced with another. To attach a document to a different template, create a new document based on the target template and copy and paste all text from the old document.
* To review a document's style sequence do Edit > Find and Replace check More options and then check Search for styles.
Select a style and click Find All, thus making visible all instances.
pages/style_tips.txt updated 20:59 Aug 31 2006
scroll to menu scroll to page content home
The two main approaches to formatting paragraphs are explicit formatting and paragraph styles.
* Explicit formatting:
Formatting applied using Format > Paragraph, eg to justify the text or indent the paragraph
Formatting is saved with each paragraph and formats easily become inconsistent.
If formatting needs to be amended, eg to change the indent, you must select all the relevant paragraphs and use Format > Paragraph again,
time consuming and error prone.
* Paragraph styles:
Formatting applied by selecting a style from the drop-down list on the toolbar or in the Formatting and Styles pane (click F11 to show)
If the required formatting is not available, create a new style.
Thus, formatting details are stored only in one place.
If formatting needs to be amended, eg to change the indent, modify the style and all linked paragraphs will change.
Paragraph styles is by far the best option. Consistency is guaranteed because the format definition is in a single place. You do not need to select paragraphs to amend formatting. Simply modify the paragraph style and all dependent paragraphs automatically adopt the changes.
pages/style_para.txt updated 18:04 Feb 5 2006
scroll to menu scroll to page content home
The availability of Page Styles is a major benefit of Writer. View page styles by pressing F11 and then click the fourth icon at the top of the Styles and Formatting pane to show existing styles. Until you change them, most documents use two page styles, First Page for the first page and Default for all the others.
You can control which styles are applied to pages in two ways, either by adjusting the page style sequence in the Organizer tab (eg if you want a document with right and left pages) or by inserting a manual page break in a document and setting the page style. (Page breaks created with Ctrl+Enter do not work this way, you must use Insert>Manual Break>Page Break.)
* To apply a page style, click anywhere in the page to which you want to apply the style to position the cursor
* In the Styles and Formatting pane, double click the style
* When a page is full [Next Style]
* When a paragraph style is set with Page Break before [Next Style or Set Style]
* After a page break is inserted either with Ctrl+Enter [Next Style] or Insert>Manual Break>Page Break [Next Style or Set Style]
At the start of a new page, the page style will be the Next Style set in the page style of the previous page (shown as [Next Style] above) unless a specific style for the new page has been set (shown as [Set Style] above)
As an example of the use of page styles, for books, it is common to have the first few pages Roman numbered (i,ii,iii...) and the main book content Arabic numbered (1,2,3...). Here is what you need to do:
* remove any existing page numbers completely (select the surrounding box on any page and click delete)
* click F11 to show styles
* select page styles (4th icon in pane)
* right click on default page style and click Modify...
[image - modify page style]
* on page tab, make sure Format i,ii,iii... is selected
[image - set page style format]
* on footer tab, make sure Footer on box is checked
[image - set page style footer]
* click OK
* right click on default in the panel and select New...
* type a name for the page style, say Main
* on page tab, make sure Format 1,2,3... is selected
* on footer tab, make sure Footer on box is checked
* click OK
* immediately before main book content (eg Chapter 1) do insert>manual break>page break>
* under Style select Main
* check Change page number and set the number to 1
[image - insert manual page break]
* click OK
* click in the footer beyond the Chapter 1 heading to position cursor
* do insert>field>page number
[image - insert page number]
* click OK and do whatever other formatting you want (eg centre and
type other characters to create say - 1 -)
* click OK
* above chapter 1, click in the footer to position cursor
* do insert>field>page number
* click OK and do whatever other formatting you want (eg centre and type other
characters to create say - iii -)
* click OK
* click save!
The template includes suitable page styles First Page, Roman and Main for normal editing and Book First Page, Book Roman and Book Main for book layout. If you change the page style you may have to re-insert page numbers.
pages/style_page.txt updated 22:59 Apr 15 2007
scroll to menu scroll to page content home
Templates are special documents in which style is pre-defined.
Any document can be saved as a template. Do File > Templates > Save and type a suitable name. (Note: File > Save as and selecting Text Document Template does something slightly different and is not what you usually want)
* do File > New > Templates and Documents and select the target template
For the best results, follow this procedure:
* open an old document which is to be converted
can be a Word document, opened directly in Writer
* create a first new document based on the OnePoyle Book template
* copy and paste all text from the old to the new
text keeps its original style, but template styles are now available
* close the old document
* set the style sequence
* create a second new document based on the OnePoyle Book template
* copy and paste all text from the old to the new
this step removes any vestiges of the styles from the old document
* save the second new document with any name, but the same name as the old may help
type should be OpenDocument text. You may prefer to save into a new directory.
* close the first new document without saving
pages/templates.txt updated 13:50 Feb 8 2006
scroll to menu scroll to page content home
Even when you have done your best, it’s likely minor problems will remain. Here's how to find and correct them. Correction is straightforward and not particularly time consuming. Once done, you will have a high technical quality manuscript.
Make a list of the paragraph styles you intend to use and what they are for in a separate document (your standard styles). This should be a short list.
Open the Styles and Formatting pane (F11) and select Applied styles at the bottom. You may find it helpful to display paragraph marks on screen (click the ¶ icon). Inspect each of your standard styles to check they are defined as you expect and make any corrections.
Inspect any styles not on your list and investigate any that you don’t expect to see. (Note: The list may include styles not in use that other styles depend on, eg default You can select all instances of a particular style with the Edit > Find and Replace To change the style of a selection, select the new style and click Replace all. When you have finished, there should be no paragraphs styles other than your standard ones.
pages/style_final.txt updated 17:55 Feb 14 2009
scroll to menu scroll to page content home
To minimise manual editing prior to typesetting, manuscripts need to have a high electronic quality
Following the general approach set out here will benefit all authors, irrespective of the destination of a manuscript.
As an introduction, first, make 'invisible' layout characters visible by clicking the ¶ icon on the toolbar. Type a few spaces and tabs and press return to see how these 'characters' are displayed.
Next, open a long document and click the ¶ icon. If there are tabs, empty lines with just a paragraph mark or multiple consecutive spaces, it's likely you are not making the best use of styles. If you use styles well, layout does not depend on pressing the tab key or space bar.
For Goldenford authors, the standards on the following pages are mandatory
* word processing
* style sequence
* cover
pages/technical.txt updated 00:57 Feb 6 2006
scroll to menu scroll to page content home
Standards on this page are mandatory for Goldenford authors
* the same style sheet and styles for all documents comprising the book
* consistent layout and headings set by paragraph styles, not by formatting individual paragraphs
* A4 portrait page layout
* language set to UK English
* no page or section breaks (apart from those controlled by paragraph styles)
* no blank paragraphs (no empty lines)
* no additional spaces or tabs to control layout
* single spaces at the end of sentences and between words
* smart quotes, used consistently
* consistent use of continuation characters, eg ...
* never more than three consecutive periods... with or without spaces
* no full stops in acronyms etc, eg Mrs Jones's CD, not e.g. Mrs. Jones's C.D.
A single electronic document saved in ODF (eg Libre Office) format
What's the right time to apply standards?
pages/general.txt updated 13:05 Aug 18 2011
scroll to menu scroll to page content home
These recommendations are in addition to the mandatory standards. Whatever your choices, the formatting of your manuscript needs to be 100% internally consistent.
* Single speech quotes
* The standard is single spaces between words and sentences.
If you really need extra spaces (eg for emphasis) use hard spaces (Ctrl + spacebar).
In sequences like . . . use hard spaces to prevent the sequence splitting across lines.
* In fiction, we prefer three consecutive periods... rather then the ellipsis…
(they look similar, but in most fonts the single character ellipsis is less prominent)
* Take care with vernacular smart quotes. Use ’im for him, the
opposite of what smart quotes generates if you type normally [ ‘im].
To create the proper form, type h’im and remove the h.
Note than a global replacement of the quote character ['] changes vernacular words to the wrong form.
pages/options.txt updated 00:57 Feb 6 2006
scroll to menu scroll to page content home
Standards on this page are mandatory for Goldenford authors
The style sequence below works well and is easy to apply to an existing manuscript. These styles are likely to cover the majority of your needs. Style names start with 'S', standing for Section, adopted to shorten the names. You can invent other paragraph styles if the need arises. See style definitions for details of how the styles below are defined.
Although the style sequence standards are set out in the context of OpenOffice Writer, identical techniques can be used in Word and many other modern word processors. We recommend Writer because it handles styles and templates particularly well.
What's the right time to apply standards?
Having the right sequence means that your manuscript will 'reflow' correctly when font or page size changes are made during the book production process.
Apply paragraph styles in the sequence shown. The OnePoyle Book Template supporting the recommended style sequence can be downloaded
description
paragraph style
Chapter title
Heading 2
First paragraph
of chapter or section
S first
All subsequent paragraphs
except immediately
before a section break
Use S normal style for the last
paragraph before a new chapter
and at the end of the book
S normal
...
...
...
...
...
S normal
Last paragraph of section
[except at end of chapter]
S last (before separator)
or
S last (space separator)
Visible section break
eg * * *
[except at end of chapter]
S separator
Sections consisting of a single paragraph require additional styles, included in the Template.
Different names for the section ('S') styles are fine providing they conform to this structure, but if you use the Template it's best to keep our names.
Chapters can be in separate documents. When combined, the page break in 'Heading 2' gives correct pagination (see style definitions)
pages/style_sequence.txt updated 22:24 Feb 12 2006
scroll to menu scroll to page content home
Style settings are modified in the Formatting and styles pane. Right click to modify a style.
Adjust style settings and sequence so your manuscript looks good.
The sequence is much more important than the detailed settings.
These settings are used in the style sequence and in the Template, for reference and in case you prefer to create your own styles
* S normal: for most text, first line indented, colour automatic, widow control, language UK English, following style S normal
other styles dependent on S normal, settings thus inherited unless explicitly changed
* S first: S normal + no indent, following style Section normal
* S last (space separator): S normal + desired spacing after, following style S first
* S last (before separator): S normal + keep with next, following style S separator
* S separator: S normal + centred with desired spacing before and after, following style S first
* Heading 2: for chapter headings, S normal + page break before + spacing before and after 30pt + font size increase, following style S first
* Heading 3: for sub-headings only if these are to be included in the table of contents, settings similar to Heading 2 without the page break. You may need to adjust spacing in both headings.
pages/style_define.txt updated 15:29 Feb 6 2006
scroll to menu scroll to page content home
Here are some of the checks needed before submitting a manuscript
* Have all multiple consecutive spaces been replaced with a single space?
* Have all tabs been removed?
* Have all spaces at the beginning of lines been removed?
* Have periods been removed in acronyms etc?
* Is the use of smart quotes 100% consistent throughout the manuscript
* Are style sequences set correctly?
* Are applied paragraph styles limited to standard names plus additional ones you have defined?
* Is layout 100% consistent throughout the manuscript?
pages/check.txt updated 00:57 Feb 6 2006
scroll to menu scroll to page content home
Standards on this page are mandatory for Goldenford authors
For the final cover we need the original components of the cover (photographs, font names etc) or alternatively a layered document with the components that Photoshop can read (Paint Shop Pro and Photoshop* can save layered documents). Also supply a merged document with the cover layout shown as you want it to appear. You may be responsible for additional costs if you use a non-standard font.
The electronic document comprising the cover should be approximately full size and ideally at 600 dpi, minimum 300 dpi. The final cover is prepared at 300 dpi.
To maximise quality, keep original un-amended documents (ie the original electronic objects) for use as the basis of the final cover. This prevents the loss of quality usually associated with saving a succession of drafts. Reduction in quality may not show up on screen, but may do so at the higher quality used for printing covers.
* For background on image editors, see the online tutorial [www.onepoyle.net/art/tutorial/text.pl?image_tech] [new window].
pages/cover.txt updated 00:57 Feb 6 2006
scroll to menu scroll to page content home
These tips help you benefit from Writer's strengths with minimum technical knowledge
* use keyboard shortcuts to work easier and quicker
* download resources
- apply the recommended style sequence with the OnePoyle Book Template
- configure the keyboard to work hand-in-hand with the Template
pages/tips.txt updated 12:34 Nov 8 2009
scroll to menu scroll to page content home
Once you have a template with suitable styles and a style sequence, use keyboard shortcuts to speed up re-assigning styles. (In many cases, style sequence will be set automatically by the template).
The following work well with the OnePoyle Book Template, (chosen as the only continuous group of shortcuts available).
Referring to the shortcuts below, the most common style sequences for a section are likely to be:
* 1,2,3 [1,2,2,...,2,3 - a section of several paragraphs followed by space]
* 1,2,4,8 [1,2,2,...,2,4,8 - a section of several paragraphs followed by a visible separator]
paragraph style/macro
shortcut
mneumonic
Heading 2
Ctrl+2
2 [default shortcut, NB no shift]
S first
Ctrl+Shift+1
1 for first
S normal
Ctrl+Shift+2
2 is Normal on its side
S last (space separator)
Ctrl+Shift+3
last in sequence 1,2,3
S last (before separator)
Ctrl+Shift+4
in sequence 1,2,4,8
S single p (space separator)
Ctrl+Shift+5
S single p (before separator)
Ctrl+Shift+6
S separator
Ctrl+Shift+8
last in sequence 1,2,4,8
Create Separator
Ctrl+Shift+0
macr0
Default formatting
Ctrl+Shift+Space
[default shortcut]
A configuration file with these shortcuts can be downloaded. Use Tools > Customize > Keyboard > Load to install in Libre Office, or Tools > Customize > Keyboard to set your own shortcuts.
pages/tips_keyboard.txt updated 13:02 Aug 18 2011
end of content - start of footer
scroll to page content | scroll to menu | scroll to top
normal version of this page with images
If you have comments, please email the webmaster@onepoyle.net
(text.pl 12.0.50/c utility 13.0.16/c)