Chapter 3. Formatting
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Chapter 3. Formatting

Text Formatting

Change text appearance: font sizes, font types

Fonts

The term font refers to the style of the type face. Here are some examples:

The size of fonts is measured in points. A point is 1/72”. The size is determined by the distance from the bottom of the descender to the top of the ascender.

The central part of the letter is called the body. Fonts vary in the relative sizes of their ascenders, descenders and body as well as their thickness.

Another difference between fonts are those which have small tails or feet attached to the vertical strokes. These are called serif fonts. Examples are Times New Roman and Bookman Old Style. The fonts without these are called sans serif fonts. Examples are Arial, Tahoma and Verdana.

Default fonts

The default font is the font that Writer chooses for you unless you specify otherwise. To set the default font:

  1. Tools->Options

  2. Expand Text document

  3. Double click on Basic fonts.

  4. Click on Default.

  5. Select the font from the drop down window.

  6. Click OK.

    This is shown in the following screen. If you click Default in this dialogue, the fonts will be set to the original Writer defaults.

Use fonts when typing new text

The current font style and size are shown on the object bar as in the following example where the font is Arial 11 point.

Any text you type will automatically assume this font.

Change fonts of existing text

You may change the font type and size of existing text as follows:

  1. Highlight the text you wish to change.

  2. Click on the font drop down window to display the available fonts and select a font.

  3. Click on the size drop down window to select a font size. As you complete these operations the text in your document will assume the new font immediately.

Undo the changes

  • Edit->Undo or Ctrl-Z will undo the changes you have just made.

Available fonts

The fonts that are displayed could vary from installation to installation. Certain fonts are installed when you install the operating system, whether Linux or Windows. Further fonts can be added at a later stage, but this must be done through the operating system interface.

Apply text formatting such as: bold, italic, underline

Attributes

Changes we make to fonts are called attribute changes. Examples include bold, underlining and italics. Further, we can add combinations of these as shown in the following table.

Attributes can be set before new text is typed or they can be added to existing text. The object bar contains icons for setting bold, italic and underlined.

When an attribute is set, the corresponding icon on the object bar will have a border around it. In the above illustration, bold is on but italic and underline are off.

Set attributes for new text

Each of the attribute icons on the object bar acts as a toggle. If the attribute is on, clicking the icon will switch it off. If the attribute is off, clicking the icon will switch it on.

  • Before typing new text, set each of the attribute settings using the object bar icons as described above. These settings will hold for further text until you change them.

[Note] Note

If you now move to another part of your document where the settings were set previously, the icons on the object bar will change to reflect the settings of this text.

Change attributes of existing text

  1. Highlight the text whose attributes you wish to change.

  2. Click on the appropriate icons on the object bar to change the attributes.

[Note] Note

Where you highlight text that contains a mixture of the same attribute, for example, some bold and some unbold text, the situation becomes slightly more complicated. You will need to click the icon two or three times to achieve the desired state.

Apply subscript, superscript to text

Superscript and subscript refers to text, usually in a small font, slightly above or below the body of existing text. The following table illustrates superscript and subscript.

a2 – 2ab + b2 = (a – b)2

Area of house is 129 m2

H2SO4 + Cu => CuSO4 + H2

The term position is used to describe the three options of subscript, superscript and normal.

Create new text in superscript or subscript

The quick way of creating superscripts or subscripts is to use the keyboard shortcuts:

  1. Type your normal text.

  2. When you wish to start text in superscript, press Shift+Ctrl+P and type the superscript.

  3. Press Shift+Ctrl+P a second time to revert to normal text.

  4. Type your normal text, then press Shift+Ctrl+B and type the subscript.

  5. Press Shift+Ctrl+B a second time to revert to normal text.

Convert existing text to superscript or subscript

  1. Highlight the text you wish to convert to superscript or subscript.

  2. Press Shift+Ctrl+P to covert the highlighted text to superscript or Shift+Ctrl+B to convert the text to subscript.

Use the Format menu

  1. Highlight the text you wish to convert to superscript or subscript.

  2. Format->Character

  3. Click the Position tab.

  4. Under Position, select either Normal, Superscript or Subscript.

Use icons

If you use superscript and subscript frequently, you might like to add appropriate icons to the object bar.

The object bar can be customised as follows:

  1. Tools->Configure

  2. Click the Toolbars tab.

  3. Click Customize.

  4. Click on the Toolbars drop down window and select Text ObjectBar.

  5. In the Buttons in use window, tick the Superscript and subscript check boxes as shown on the following screen.

  6. Press OK.

    The superscript and subscript icons will be added to the object bar as shown below. Instead of using the keyboard combinations, you can now use these icons in the same way that you use bold, italic and underline icons.

Apply case changes to text

Once you have typed a block of text you are able to change its case. You may, for example, wish to convert a block of text to upper case (capital letters).

  1. Highlight the text you wish to convert.

  2. Format->Case / Characters

  3. Select either Uppercase or Lowercase as needed.

Apply different colours to text

The colour of text can be changed just like the other attributes.

  1. Format->Character

  2. Click the Font effects tab.

  3. Click on the Font color drop down window to display the available colours.

  4. Select the colour you wish to apply to the text.

  5. Click OK.

As in the case of the other text attributes, you can set the colour of new text before you type it or change the colour of existing text. In the latter case, first highlight the text and then use this procedure.

You may also change the font colour by using a long click on the Font colour icon on the object bar (Hold the left mouse button down until the colour palette is displayed).

Copy formatting from a piece of text to another piece of text

Suppose you have written quite a long document. During a final editing you decide to change the formatting of certain key paragraphs. This could involve, font type, size, colour and other attributes. The long method would be to repeat the formatting procedure manually on each paragraph.

Styles

The more elegant and efficient method would be to format one paragraph very carefully and then copy the formatting to other paragraphs. In order to achieve this, Writer makes use of styles. A style is a set of attributes that can be applied to characters, paragraphs and pages. Each style is given a name.

Writer has styles for characters, paragraphs or pages. The next section will look at styles in more detail. This section will consider the basic use of the character style to copy formatting from one block of text to another.

A character style is a set of attributes that can be applied to individual letters, numeric digits and symbols. The attributes could include font style, size and colour, and bold, italic or underlining.

Copy formatting using character styles

  1. Format the block of text that will serve as the model.

  2. Highlight this text.

  3. Format->Stylist or press F11.

  4. Click the character styles icon, (the second icon) .

  5. Click Default in the list of styles.

  6. Click the New style from selection icon (the second from the end), .

  7. Give the new style a name and click OK.

  8. Click the Update style icon (the last icon), .

  9. Click on the Fill format mode icon (the paint can).

  10. Drag this over the text whose format you wish to change.

  11. Click on the Fill format mode icon or press Esc to stop copying the formatting.

Apply an existing style to a word, a line, a paragraph

Writer offers the user a number of different styles. The following table provides a brief description of the different styles and functions associated with the stylist. This summary is derived from the Writer help system.

Icon

Paragraph styles: Displays formatting styles for paragraphs. Use paragraph styles to apply the same formatting, such as font, numbering, and layout to the paragraphs in your document.

Icon

Character styles: Displays formatting styles for characters. Use character styles to apply font styles to selected text in a paragraph.

Icon

Frame styles: Displays formatting styles for frames. Use frame styles to format frame layouts and position.

Icon

Page styles: Displays formatting styles for pages. Use page styles to determine page layouts, including the presence of headers and footers.

Icon

Numbering styles: Displays formatting styles for numbered and bulleted lists. Use numbering styles to format number and bullet characters and to specify indents.

Icon

Fill format mode: Applies the selected style to the object or text that you select in the document. Click this icon, and then drag a selection in the document to apply the style. To exit this mode, click the icon again, or press Esc.

Icon

New style from selection: Creates a new style based on the formatting of the current paragraph, page, or selection.

Icon

Update style

Once the new style has been created, you can open the Stylist at any stage use the Fill format mode to change the format of text. The following method can be applied to a character, a word, a line of text or a much larger block of text.

  1. Format->Stylist or F11.

  2. Click the Character style icon.

  3. Click the style you wish to apply.

  4. Click the Fill format mode icon, .

  5. Move the mouse pointer to the starting point of the text you wish to format. The mouse pointer will have the form of the paint can, .

  6. Click and drag (hold down the left mouse button) over the text you wish to change.

  7. Release the left mouse button and repeat on other text you wish to change.

  8. Press Esc when done.

An alternative method is as follows:

  1. Format->Stylist or F11.

  2. Click the Character style icon.

  3. Double click the style you wish to apply.

Paragraph styles

Paragraph styles have additional features associated with them. These features, which include margins, justification and line spacing, will be covered in detail in the following sections.

Create a paragraph style

Suppose you regularly create a heading which is centred on the page and uses 14 point bold red Franklin Gothic Medium. The centring on a page is a feature which applies to paragraphs and not to characters. The following example illustrates how to create a paragraph style called Gothic Heading.

  1. Format one of the headings according to your specification.

  2. Highlight the heading.

  3. Format->Stylist or F11.

  4. Click Paragraph styles, .

  5. Click New style from selection, Icon.

  6. Enter a Style name.

  7. Click OK.

Modify a paragraph style

You can modify the attributes of a paragraph style using the Paragraph styles dialogue.

  1. Format->Stylist or F11.

  2. Click Paragraph styles, .

    This will display the dialogue.

  3. Make the changes.

  4. Click OK.

Use a paragraph style

  1. Click anywhere in the paragraph you wish to format.

  2. Format->Stylist or F11.

  3. Select Paragraph styles.

  4. Double click on the style you wish to apply.

  5. Repeat the process for other paragraphs you wish to format.

  6. Press Esc when you have finished.

Use automatic hyphenation

Where a word will not fit at the end of a line, by default it will be moved to the next line. It is possible to break longer words up between lines. This can be done using either automatic or manual hyphenation. Hyphenation splits words between syllables based on OpenOffice.org's internal dictionary.

When you make use of automatic hyphenation, Writer does all the work for you. This option can be applied to individual paragraphs or to paragraph styles.

Apply automatic hyphenation to an individual paragraph

  1. Click anywhere in the paragraph.

  2. Format->Paragraph.

  3. Click on the Text flow tab.

  4. Tick the Automatically check box in the Hyphenation area.

  5. Click OK.

    The current paragraph will be hyphenated automatically by Writer.

Apply hyphenation using styles: Modify the style

  1. Format->Stylist

  2. Select Paragraph styles.

  3. Right click on the paragraph style you wish to modify.

  4. Select Modify in the context sensitive menu that is displayed to display the Paragraph styles dialogue.

  5. Click on the Text flow tab. This is the same as in the Paragraph dialogue shown above.

  6. Tick the Automatically check box in the Hyphenation area.

  7. Click OK.

Apply the style

Whenever you apply a style which has been modify to include automatic hyphenation, Writer will automatically hyphenate the paragraph.

As you insert text into or delete text from a paragraph that has automatic hyphenation, Writer will adjust the hyphenation to the changes.

Apply styles using the object bar

The first window on the object bar contains a list of available styles.

  1. Click on the paragraph you wish to change.

  2. Click on the styles window on the object bar.

  3. Select the style you desire.

    The paragraph will be formatted immediately to the new style.

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