Paragraphs and styles

Paragraph formatting applies to a whole paragraph. A style is a named set of paragraph and character formatting — Heading 1, Quote, or one you make — that you can apply in one step and change in one place.

Paragraph commands act on the paragraph that holds the caret.

Alignment

1. Put the caret in the paragraph.
2. On the Home tab, in the Paragraph group, click Align left, Centre, Align right or Justify.

The button for the paragraph’s current alignment is highlighted.

Indents

In a list, the same commands change the item’s level instead. See Lists.

Left and right indents from Word documents are drawn on screen. First-line and hanging indents are kept in the file; a first-line indent is also used in an exported PDF.

Line spacing

1. Put the caret in the paragraph.
2. Click the Line spacing list in the Paragraph group.
3. Choose 1.0×, 1.15×, 1.5×, 2.0×, 2.5× or 3.0×.

The list shows the paragraph’s current spacing, or 1.15× when it has none of its own.

Space after a paragraph

1. Put the caret in the paragraph.
2. On the Layout tab, click the Space after a paragraph list in the Spacing group.
3. Choose 0 pt, 4 pt, 8 pt, 12 pt, 16 pt or 24 pt.

The list shows 8 pt when the paragraph has no spacing of its own.

From Word documents, Writer also keeps space before a paragraph and paragraph shading (both drawn on screen), “keep with next”, and “page break before” (used when you print or export).

Paragraph styles

Every paragraph has a style. Applying a style changes the paragraph’s look to whatever the style defines, and headings do more than look different:

• Paragraphs in Heading 1 to Heading 6 appear in the Navigator.
• They make up the table of contents.
• They become bookmarks in an exported PDF, and headings in an exported web page or Markdown file.
• The Accessibility checker uses them to check the document’s outline.

What counts is the paragraph’s outline level, which the heading styles set. A paragraph from Word with an outline level from 1 to 6 of its own counts too.

The status bar shows the style of the paragraph at the caret.

Apply a style

1. Put the caret in the paragraph.
2. On the Home tab, click the Paragraph style list in the Styles group.
3. Choose a style.

The list shows the styles meant for quick use: Normal, Title, Subtitle, Heading 1 to Heading 6, Quote, and any style the document marks for its style gallery — including styles you create in Writer. Normal comes first, then Title, Subtitle and the headings in order, then the rest alphabetically.

To apply any other paragraph style, use the Styles pane.

The style that follows

A style can name the style of the paragraph after it. When you press Return at the end of a heading, for example, the new paragraph is Normal. Styles you create in Writer are followed by the style they were based on.

The Styles pane

The Styles pane lists every paragraph style in the document, shows what each looks like, and lets you make and change styles.

1. On the Home tab, in the Styles group, click the Styles pane button (Styles pane — make one, or change what one means).

The pane opens at the right. Click the button again, or the × at the top of the pane, to close it.

For each style the pane shows:

Click a style’s name to apply it to the paragraph at the caret.

Normal is listed first, then the headings in order, then every other paragraph style alphabetically.

Make a style from a paragraph

Format a paragraph until it looks right, then make that look a style.

1. Put the caret in the paragraph.
2. In the Styles pane, click New from this.
3. In the New style dialog, type a name in Style name.
4. Click Create, or press Return.

The dialog tells you which style the new one is based on — the paragraph’s current style — and shows a description of it.

What happens:

• The new style takes its formatting from the paragraph and from the first piece of text in it.
• It is based on the paragraph’s old style, so it follows any later change to that style.
• It is applied to the paragraph, and the paragraph’s own direct formatting is removed, because the style now says the same thing.
• It is added to the Paragraph style list on the Home tab.

The status bar says Created the style followed by the name. If the name is already used by another style, Writer keeps your name but saves the style under a slightly different internal name.

Redefine a style to match a paragraph

Change one paragraph, then make its style match it everywhere.

1. Format a paragraph that uses the style.
2. Put the caret in it.
3. In the Styles pane, click Update.

The style is redefined to match the paragraph, and every paragraph using the style changes. The status bar says the style’s name followed by now matches this paragraph.

When the paragraph at the caret has formatting beyond its style, the pane says “This paragraph is formatted beyond its style. Update to fold that into” followed by the style’s name.

Delete a style

1. In the Styles pane, click the bin beside the style.

The tooltip tells you how many paragraphs use the style. Those paragraphs go back to Normal, and any style based on the deleted one is rebased on Normal.

You can’t delete Normal, Title, Subtitle or Heading 1 to Heading 9. Other parts of Writer — the Navigator, the table of contents and the PDF bookmarks — depend on them.

To take back a style change, use Undo.

Character and table styles

Character styles (for example Strong) in a Word document are used when drawing the text. Character styles and table styles are saved unchanged.

Styles and themes

Most Word documents describe their colours and fonts through the document theme — a heading is “accent colour 1”, not a fixed blue. Changing the theme on the Design tab changes what those references mean, so every style that uses them follows. See Themes, page colour and watermarks.

How Writer saves styles

Writer changes only the styles you created, redefined or deleted. Every other style in the file, and the file’s list of which built-in Word styles appear in Word’s style gallery, is saved exactly as it was.