Heading Style Problem

[Jeff Root]

I caused this problem, but don't remember how.

In the book I'm laying out, The half-title page has a style of
"First Page", and after that the page style alternates between
"Left Page" and "Right Page". I want each chapter to begin on
a new page, but it can be either left or right.

Chapter titles are paragraph style "Heading 2". When I put the
cursor in the line of text that is a chapter title and select
"Styles and Formatting", then double-click "Heading 2", the text
is given the correct font and size, and it correctly starts a
new page, but instead of the new page having a style of either
"Left Page" or "Right Page", it has a style of "Default".

The "Organizer" tab for Paragraph Style: Heading 2 says:

Next Style - Text body
Linked with - Heading
Category - Text Styles

Contains

Western text: Arial Black + 24 pt + Not Italic + black + Orphan
control 0 lines + Widow control 0 lines + Numbering(Outline) +2 +
Indent left 0.0 inch, Indent right 0.0 inch + From top 0.0 inch,
From bottom 0.08 inch + Break before new page +
Page Style: Default + Page number: 1

Notice that last line. Apparently it overrides the rule that
the page style alternates between left and right. It also sets
the page number to 1. I think this came about because I was
trying to tell it to begin numbering the pages at the start of
chapter 1.

Also, I don't know if that bit about "Numbering(Outline) +2"
has any significance. I am not using any kind of outline.

-- Jeff, in Minneapolis

[keme]

If you don't want the new chapter to specifically start left or right, then don't set the page style specifically "Left" or "Right" in the paragraph style.
Editing the Heading 2 paragraph style, select the Text flow tab. Untick "With page style", or if you want a special page style for the first page of your chapter, set page number to zero.

Using separate styles for left and right pages requires a bit more manual checking, and usually you don't need it. If the differences between left and right pages are only in page headers and mirrored margin settings, it may be better to use a single page style.
Editing the Default page style or create your own, select the Page tab and pick layout "Mirrored", then untick "Same content" in the Header and Footer tabs, if you use them.

The Numbering (Outline) setting is the outline level. "+2" means level 2, which is the default level for the Heading 2 paragraph style.

[John_Ha]

See Chapter 4 - Formatting Pages and Defining a hierarchy of headings in Chapter 6 - Introduction to Styles in the Writer Manual.