[Solved] Formatting and Moving Docs

[Jennifer15]

Hi all,
I'm new to Open office and I would like some advice please. When I opened a new text doc. I tried to change the font and font size which seemed to work OK, but when I started to type the letters and words were very small and not the same size as my format which was Arial 14. Also The document moved over to the left hand side of the screen and I wondered why this would happen. I have been using Microsoft word for years and I would now like to master this programme too. Your help would be appreciated. Thanks, Jennifer

[RoryOF]

You may find it helpful to read
Writer for students (several languages)

You should change the font and font size in the Default paragraph style (read the above); changing this by /Format /Paragraph only changes the selected text. There are three little icons on Status bar at bottom right of the OO Window. pick the leftmost one, which is of a single page. Then, either double or right click in the % box at bottom right corner and choose a scaling factor that suits you - 100% or Page Width are good starting points.

[John_Ha]

Jennifer

As a new poster you will find much useful information in the Writer FAQ, the Writer Tutorials, the up to date Writer guide and the Writer Manual. May I suggest you bookmark the pages.

Press F1 to access the Help screen and search for your problem

The chapter headings in the manual are:

1 - Introducing Writer
2 - Setting up Writer
3 - Working with Text
4 - Formatting Pages
5 - Printing, Exporting, Faxing and E-Mailing
6 - Introduction to Styles
7 - Working with Styles
8 - Working with Graphics
9 - Working with Tables
10 - Working with Templates
11 - Using Mail Merge
12 - Tables of Contents, Indexes and Bibliographies
13 - Working with Master Documents
14 - Working with Fields
15 - Using Forms in Writer
16 - Customizing Writer – Keyboard shortcuts.

When a pop-up window opens, click the Help button for extensive help on that function - it is often more comprehensive than the manual.

See [Tutorial] Differences between Writer and MS Word files for why you should always work in and save files as .odt.

[Jennifer15]

Thanks. I have managed to change formatting BUT when I write the text the writing is so small I can hardly read it. I need to know how to make the text the same size on the document as I have instructed within the font size.

[Bill]

Did you check the settings in View > Zoom? I believe that MS Office also has similar settings. Zoom affects the size of the document as it appears in the window. If the zoom is set too low, the entire page will appear smaller and move to the left side of the window.

[RoryOF]

You can zoom your display by double left click or one right click in the % box at bottom right of OO window. How did you change your formatting?

[Jennifer15]

Thanks. I changed the formatting as your previous instructions. This is a learning curve for me a very old woman now! After using word for most of my working life, I'm still trying to grasp the rudiments of OO, so thanks again for your help!

[RoryOF]

Do please read the document I indicated and play with a trivial file to get the hang of formatting using Styles.

If you changed the formatting as I mentioned above, using /Format /Paragraph or /Format /Character, it only changed the formatting of the selected text, not the formatting of the Paragraph style in use. You should use /Format /Styles and Formatting, click on first icon from left to select Paragraph styles, right click on the Style in use (probably Default) and choose Modify. make any changes you wish to that style (probably on the Font tab, selecting your desired Font and font size). This will now apply to all instances using that style in the current document. If you wish such changes to apply to all future documents, you should save that document as a new default template, as described in
[Tutorial] Creating a new default template

[Jennifer15]

Thank you so much for taking the time to explain to me. Jennifer

[RoryOF]

If you have directly modified text in your file, by selection of text and /Format /Paragraph or /Format /Character, that modification overrides the formatting defined in the underlying paragraph or character style, so subsequent changes to these styles will not show in that area of text. To show such changes in the underlying style one must remove the direct formatting; do this by selecting the directly formatted text and pressing Ctrl M; the formatting will then revert to that defined in the underlying style.

Formatting with Styles is very powerful and worth the little effort to master. Using it, one can write a paper, then in a few simple operations change the formatting of that paper to conform to some different format from the original for submission in a different area, using a different standard of formatting.

[John_Ha]

After using word for most of my working life, I'm still trying to grasp the rudiments of OO ...

An hour or two spent reading the Writer FAQ, the Writer Tutorials, the up to date Writer guide and the Writer Manual will save you hours in future.