[Solved] Page and style formatting in Writer

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brian.riches
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Joined: Sat Nov 13, 2010 12:58 pm

[Solved] Page and style formatting in Writer

Post by brian.riches »

I've read the 'relevant' Help pages but the guidance is limited in that the described function cannot be found.

Here's what I want to do.

Create a record page for medical conditions.

I have set the orientation to landscape.
Having used both headers and footers to include various information, I moved on to the main body of the document. In this I wanted to start by entering more information across the whole width of the document. Then move on to a column format. That I could apparently get by inserting 'Manual break with style'. Couldn't find that. I want columns for 'Condition', 'Symptoms', 'Treatment' and 'Medication'.

Can anyone advise with step-by-step guidance on how to achieve the result I want please?

In addition, I'm now using OpenOffice 4.1.3 on Windows 10
Last edited by floris v on Sun Dec 18, 2016 10:04 am, edited 2 times in total.
Reason: Added Solved icon, floris v, moderator
OpenOffice 4.1.5 on Windows 10
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robleyd
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Re: Page and style formatting in Writer

Post by robleyd »

Cheers
David
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floris v
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Re: Page and style formatting in Writer

Post by floris v »

brian.riches wrote: Create a record page for medical conditions.

I have set the orientation to landscape.
Having used both headers and footers to include various information, I moved on to the main body of the document. In this I wanted to start by entering more information across the whole width of the document. Then move on to a column format. That I could apparently get by inserting 'Manual break with style'. Couldn't find that. I want columns for 'Condition', 'Symptoms', 'Treatment' and 'Medication'.
The "manual break with style" is found in Insert - Manual break.

Columns in Writer work like newspaper columns, unless you force a column break in the first columns. In practice it's easier to use a table, especially if you want to group data by date, in horizontal rows.
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RoryOF
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Re: Page and style formatting in Writer

Post by RoryOF »

Defining columns on a Page Style in OpenOffice defines the columns for the entire page. If you want columns not starting (or finishing) on a page boundary, you must use OO's Sections (/Insert /Section)/

However, as floris v points out, OO's columns are "newspaper columns", and text flows from one to the next. For your use I think a Table would be better, as in a medical case, the alignment of the data is likely to be critical. By that I mean that the first column might hold a category title, the second column a description of the case, the third column treatments applied, the fourth column general comments on this aspect of the patient's history.

If such data is entered using the normal "newspaper columns", any subsequent entry in column one for some new condition will push the associated column 2,3,4 data out of alignment. If a table is used, the new condition is entered to the next row of the table and everything holds its alignment.
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brian.riches
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Re: [Solved] Page and style formatting in Writer

Post by brian.riches »

Very useful responses. Have to admit that I hadn't thought the 'columns' would result in newspaper-style columns until I saw that response. Then it was obvious! I found my way to using sections all by myself. Just goes to show how long it's been since I did anything besides simple letters.

Anyway, many thanks to those that responded.
OpenOffice 4.1.5 on Windows 10
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