Chapter 1: Applying Styles in a Document

🎨 What are Styles?
➥ A style is a predefined combination of formatting characteristics like font, size, color, and alignment that you can apply to text or paragraphs in your document.
➭ Styles help in maintaining consistency throughout the document.
➭ They can be reused and updated easily.
➭ Makes editing faster and more professional-looking.
📚 Style Categories
➥ In Writer, styles are divided into five main categories:
➭ Paragraph Styles: Control the appearance of paragraphs (alignment, spacing, etc.).
➭ Character Styles: Format selected text within a paragraph (font, bold, italic).
➭ Frame Styles: Apply styles to graphic objects and text frames.
➭ Page Styles: Control page formatting like size, margins, header/footer.
➭ List Styles: Manage bullet and number list appearance.
🖱️ Applying a Style
➥ Styles can be applied by selecting the content and choosing a style from the Styles toolbar or pane.
➭ It saves time and ensures that all similar elements look the same.
➭ You can use shortcut F11 to access the Styles window quickly.
📋 Using the Styles Pane
➥ The Styles Pane (F11) lists all styles grouped under categories.
➭ You can right-click to modify, update, or create new styles.
➭ It gives a central control to manage document styling effectively.
🎨 Using Fill Format Mode
➥ This allows you to apply a style to multiple elements by clicking on them one by one.
➭ Activate it by selecting a style, then clicking the 'Fill Format Mode' icon (paint bucket).
➭ Click on each text where you want the style to apply.
➭ Click again to exit Fill Format Mode.
🆕 Creating a New Style
➥ You can create a custom style by clicking 'New Style' in the Styles pane.
➭ Assign a name to your style and define its formatting.
➭ Once saved, you can apply it like any default style.
🧲 Creating Style from Selection
➥ Format some text manually, then select it.
➥ Click 'New Style from Selection' in the Styles pane.
➭ Enter a name and save it for reuse.
➭ This saves time by capturing your manual formatting into a reusable style.
🖱️ Creating Style by Drag and Drop
➥ You can drag formatted text into the Styles pane.
➭ It will create a new style based on the formatting of that text.
➭ You will be prompted to name the style.
🔧 Modifying a Style
➥ Right-click on an existing style and choose 'Modify'.
➭ You can change any attribute like font, size, color, spacing etc.
➭ All content using that style gets updated automatically.
♻️ Updating Style from Selection
➥ Format a paragraph or text manually.
➥ Right-click on the target style and choose 'Update Style from Selection'.
➭ This updates the style based on the current formatting of the selected text.
📂 Load Style from Template or Another Document
➥ Click on 'Load Styles' in the Styles window.
➭ You can load styles from another ODT file or a template.
➭ Select the style categories you want to import (like paragraph or page styles).
➭ Click OK to apply them to your current document.
Important Shortcut Keys
Function | Shortcut Key |
---|---|
New Document | Ctrl + N |
Open Document | Ctrl + O |
Save Document | Ctrl + S |
Ctrl + P | |
Cut | Ctrl + X |
Copy | Ctrl + C |
Paste | Ctrl + V |
Undo | Ctrl + Z |
Redo | Ctrl + Y |
Bold | Ctrl + B |
Italic | Ctrl + I |
Underline | Ctrl + U |
Find | Ctrl + F |
Replace | Ctrl + H |