Re: [libreoffice-users] putting text in 2 or 3 columns on a single page

[Keith Jackson]

Remy, merci beaucoup, thank you very much.
Your instructions were a bit more detailed and I followed them and was able to 
accomplish 2 and 3 columns on some pages just as I hoped.
Thanks to you and all the other folks who suggested solutions and helped me out.
Much appreciated,
Keith


> On Mar 19, 2024, at 8:37 PM, Remy Gauthier  wrote:
> 
> Greetings,
> 
> Your easiest solution is sections. To create them, highlight the text you 
> want to place in columns and then use Format > Columns... Enter the number of 
> columns you want, with optional spacing (I suggest 0,1 cm), and the format of 
> a separator line if you want. Then hit OK. You can force a column break by 
> using Insert > More Breaks > Insert Column break (this will make the text 
> move to the next column). If you want to change the look & feel of your 
> columns after, you can use Format > Sections, then select your section and 
> click Options.
> 
> I hope this helps.
> Rémy.
> 
> Le mardi 19 mars 2024 à 17:10 +, W. Robert J. Funnell, Prof. a écrit :
>> The detail is interesting, and also helps to understand the context. I'm 
>> more familiar with page styles than with sections, but a quick search 
>> suggests that sections will do what you need. If your changes in the number 
>> of columns always occur at page breaks, page styles might be more elegant, 
>> but whatever works for you ... :-) Good luck with getting your father's 
>> poems printed the way you want them.
>> - Robert
>> 
>> 
>> From: Keith Jackson mailto:kmjack...@sympatico.ca>>
>> Sent: March 19, 2024 12:55
>> To: W. Robert J. Funnell, Prof. > >
>> Cc: users@global.libreoffice.org  
>> mailto:users@global.libreoffice.org>>
>> Subject: Re: [libreoffice-users] Re: putting text in 2 or 3 columns on a 
>> single page
>> 
>> I wanted to avoid defining page styles since this requires, I assume, 
>> switching back and forth between styles on some pages and is more 
>> sophistication than I want to get into.  Also it would require me to 
>> thoroughly understand styles.
>> 
>> My father, or maybe my stepmother, had typed in his collection of poems 
>> years ago on a semi-fancy paper and assembled them into a “book” held 
>> together by a cerlox binding.  He gave copies to his sons and daughter and 
>> possible to one or two other family members or family friends.  I’m trying 
>> to retain the appearance of his pages in my digital copy.  Unfortunately, my 
>> father died in 2018 so asking him about any of this is impossible.
>> 
>> I had planned to type and enter his poems into a text document of some kind 
>> years ago but entering it all by hand was onerous since I’m not a touch 
>> typist and I stopped this endeavour.
>> 
>> But more recently I have discovered that OCR (optical character recognition) 
>> has improved vastly since the last time I tried it.  I discovered, while 
>> doing something else, that I could photo the pages of his book with my cell 
>> phone, then use Google Lens to select and copy just the text from these 
>> pages. I mailed the text to myself. Then saved the text into page files (rtf 
>> (rich text format) files) and the text was preserved and there was almost 
>> never any extraneous characters.
>> 
>> Because this capture process lost the line structure of the poems, I had to 
>> edit every page file and re-establish the poem line structure.  That’s all 
>> done (including correcting some minor spelling and grammatical mistakes in 
>> the process) and I am now trying to assemble the poems into a single Word 
>> document using LibreOffice.
>> 
>> My ultimate plan is to use this file to print copies of his poems into 
>> hardcover book copies.  One of my brothers has lost or misplaced his copy of 
>> the cerlox book already.  I know there are relatively inexpensive places to 
>> get a small number of books like this printed so I will distribute his poems 
>> to family members and possibly friends as a more durable medium for his 
>> poetry.
>> 
>> Sorry for the detail but just thought you might be interested.
>> Another person was very helpful and suggested using sections for the 2 and 3 
>> column pages.  So, I’m going to try that approach since it sounds excellent.
>> 
>> Keith
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> On Mar 19, 2024, at 12:18 PM, W. Robert J. Funnell, Prof. 
>> > > >> wrote:
>> 
>> Keith -
>> 
>> Have you considered defining 2-column and 3-column page styles? Press F11 to 
>> see the Styles dialogue; click on the icon for Page Styles; right-click on 
>> 'Default Page Style'; and click on 'New'. There's a tab for Columns. When 
>> you want to switch page styles, you can do Insert > More Breaks > Manual 
>> Break. Then select 'Page break' and the desired style for the next page.
>> 
>> - Robert
>> 
>> 
>> From: Keith Jackson > 

[libreoffice-users] putting text in 2 or 3 columns on a single page

[Keith Jackson]

You may have seen this question many times so I will apologize in advance for 
asking it.

I have a Writer document formatted as docx.  It will contain some of my 
father’s poems but I have a need on a few pages to have the poem appear in two 
or three columns on a page continuing from the bottom of, or a specified point 
in, the first column to the second column and, in one case, to a third column.  
The text must not wrap within each column because it is lines of poetry.

Can you tell me the best way to do this?   I’ve checked the manual and have 
some ideas but would appreciate someone guiding me to the best  method to do 
this.

Thank you for your time in advance.   Oh, and in case it is important, I am 
using LibreOffice 7.3.7.2.

Keith Jackson
Toronto, Ontario, Canada


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