On Saturday 28 October 2006 2:48 pm, Dan Lewis wrote: > On Saturday 28 October 2006 12:23 pm, William Case wrote: > > Hi All; > > > > I didn't want to write this post. I have been using OOWriter for > > over two years and I still haven't figured out how to use styles. > > I have just read the help manual one more time. I got no > > elucidation; I do get frustration. > > > > Here are a set of questions that, if answered, might help me. > > > > What am I doing? This is not a joke. I understand and can make > > changes that I want at the category level, but I am left with the > > feeling that I have just participated in a lucky accident rather > > than having accomplished what I set out to do. > > > > For example, I want to create an overall style called 'Speeches' > > that I can use to replace 'default' when I first start a > > document/speech. > > > > In fact, I would like to set up a special OOWriter template in the > > Gnome context menu (right-click) that would start blank with the > > 'Speeches' template and styles pre-selected. But this is a side > > issue. > > > > Whenever I create a style like 'Speeches' I end up changing my > > 'default' or losing the new style. I have tried to I set my speech > > configuration as a template. When I reopen the template I always > > seem to end up with text or some special formatting from a previous > > speech. > > > > Perhaps, a bit defensively, its because I really haven't grasped > > what I am trying to do, or grasped what OOWriter can do, or grasped > > what OOWriter can't do. > > > > I expect that 'default' in the upper left corner of OOWriter's > > format bar will be replaced with 'Speeches' or whatever; that the > > drop down menu will show things like 'Title' a style which I can > > create and then select; 'Release Date'; 'Body' in small and large > > caps; 1.5 line spacing; new margins etc. > > > > F11 gives me a long list of the 'default' style components or > > categories. Where did my 'Speeches' style go? > > > > Therefore, what am I doing and what am I doing wrong? > > Have you read the documentation on Styles? > http://documentation.openoffice.org/manuals/ is a good source. > http://documentation.openoffice.org/manuals/oooauthors2/ had a listing > of several chapters on Styles.
Lets see if I can help here.. First separate CONTENT from the look IE the style of the document. One has nothing to do with the other. Then separate what is in styles with how to apply styles. to apply a style you simply turn on the stylist <F11> select the type of style you want IE character, paragraph, page etc... then double click inside the document where you want the style applied.. Now that we know how to apply one lets talk about the style which is simply a container of information describing what you want something to look like. First we look at what a standard page should look like in this case we are dealing with PAGE STYLES.. If our standard page is going to be 8.5 x 11 then the page style reflect this. If our standard page is going to have 1" right borders, 2 inch left boarders etc.. fine.. If the page is going to have multiple columns fine.. what ever is standard about the page gets stored in what you should call STANDARD or DEFAULT etc.. We then have paragraph styles and charactor styles.. the default paragraph style could be DEFAULT and could use a 12 point font (times-roman) first line indented .5 inches. one line before the paragraph, 1.5 lines after the paragraph.. So why should you use styles let me give you a quick example you want something like this.. this line is large and bold (a heading) this is line one of a paragraph this is line two of a paragraph So what I have just said is the large bold line is a header.. so select the H1 or H2 paragraph style, double click inside the first line and suddenly it changes to all of the styles defined by the H1 style. if you want the following paragraph to be default select the paragraph style and double click inside this style. After you play with this for a while you will notice some interesting things.. if you edit the h1 style you will see a heading "next style" This says if you set a line to H1 the next time you hid a hard cr automatically the next style will be applied... You most likely want to know why do all of this.. first off it is fast.. second if you want to change the look of the entire document you only need edit the styles you are using.. hope this helps.. style is all about overall look, being able to generate tables of contents, and fast editing.. When I write a document I write the whole thing and never think about the style.. if I know something is a heading I just type it on a standard line.. later I select my header style scroll through the document double clicking all headers.. hope this helps.. Fred > > Dan > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
