Apache OpenOffice Community Forum

Hi,

I can't centre some text on a poster (90cm wide x 44cm high). I'm hoping to print this onto A4 pages and tape them together.

See attached file.

TIA,
Matt

You have a lot of spaces following DONATIONS TAKEN HERE. Removing them seems to improve matters.

Thanks, but the "for the" still cannot be centred.

Can't see why, but if you put some spaces/tabs or a combination in front of it you can manually centre it.

Or you could align left and put in one tab in front and move the tab indication on the ruler to manually centre it that way.

I've tried that, but it gets part way then jumps much too far to the right.
Try one more space in the attached file.

Put some spaces after as well as before and you can center it with spaces

Spaces and tabs don't work. Either nothing changes, or it jumps too far with one extra space. Try it!
There's something strange going on and it just won't centre.
I'm at the stage where I'll get the real scissors and paste out for some good old fashioned cutting and pasting!

add some spaces after

I take that the "for the" is the problem. I just deleted all the spaces in front of "for the" then (direct formatting) it as 'centred text' — looks to have worked for me. Can't see why you are using Default Character Style throughout the poster — I don't think that is advisable. Best to use Body Text and format each paragraph using Body Text (Style). I thought this was a golden-rule for ODT documents.

Oh, I'm using LibreOffice 25.8.0.2 to do this, not OpenOffice. So you might want to try in LibreOffice.

left align and one tab

I just tried doing the modification in OpenOffice 4.1.15 and it doesn't work in that. LibreOffice seems way to go.

You might also use Draw instead - there are fewer text formatting choices, but there are other options such as printing on multiple sheets of paper which aren't available in Writer.

@MatthewH
I opened your file on LibreOffice Version: 25.2.5.2 (X86_64); OS: Linux 5.15 for more than one time and in the end the result was okay. I saved the file and tried to open on OpenOffice 4.1.15. The layout was damaged (and message about ODF version).
Again opened on LibreOffice and the file was okay.
Obviously OpenOffice cannot handle the problem, LibreOffice can.
I did not erase the wrongly set spaces of the first line, nothing.

See screenshot and your file again (saved in ODF 1.4 extended).
. .

Thanks everyone for your help.
Looks like Libre Office is the way to go.

There are several good reasons for making the switch anyway, some of which are mentioned here: [Tutorial] Considering a Switch from OpenOffice to LibreOffice? Some Useful Information

Note that if you are on Windows 7, Windows 8 or Windows 8.1 then support for those systems is removed as at LibreOffice 25.8. LibreOffice 25.8 should be on general release some time during this week.

In any case please remember to update your forum signature to accurately reflect, at minimum, LibreOffice version being used and Operating System.

The reason some lines won't centre is because they are single line paragraphs, and are governed by the default style setting not to align the last line of a paragraph.

Edit the Default style to remove that restriction.

MatthewH wrote: ↑Mon Aug 18, 2025 1:45 pm I can't centre some text on a poster (90cm wide x 44cm high).

Thank you for the attachment. I find that if I use add ten spaces before and after for the, then that paragraph is centered. It seems as if the last character of the paragraph must extend far enough to the right side of the page for centering to take effect. For this specific document, far enough seems to be about 27 cm from the left margin. Perhaps that number somehow related to the margin dimensions, or to the page size dimensions, or to some inaccessible default in the Writer component. I do not know of any documentation which explains this behavior in OpenOffice.

RoryOF wrote: ↑Mon Aug 18, 2025 6:19 pm The reason some lines won't centre is because they are single line paragraphs, and are governed by the default style setting not to align the last line of a paragraph.

Where, specifically, does one find a setting for alignment of single line paragraphs in the Default style? Is there a trick to changing it? I see Alignment → Options → Justified → Last line, but setting it to Centered didn't help the for the paragraph. It remained left aligned on the page until I added ten spaces on the left and right side. Nineteen total spaces: left aligned. Twenty total spaces: center aligned.

MatthewH wrote: ↑Mon Aug 18, 2025 1:45 pm I'm hoping to print this onto A4 pages and tape them together.

Perhaps Draw is better suited to this task than Writer. File → Print → OpenOffice Draw → Size has a Distribute on multiple sheets of paper option. That option is not available in Writer. I seldom use Draw, and never for that purpose. You would need to learn how to use Draw. Text layout in Draw is quite different than in Writer. Open a topic in the Draw forum if you need help with it. Asking about Draw in the Writer forum will cause this topic to be locked. Some printers are not physically capable of printing to the very edge of the page, because they need to use a narrow portion of the sheet near the edge to hold the paper. If this solved your problem please go to your first post use the Edit ✏️ button and add [Solved] to the start of the Subject field. Select the green checkmark icon at the same time.

If you change the page orientation to Portrait or increase the page margin accordingly (for example, the right one), "for the" will be centered correctly. I wonder whether is somehow related to Issue 118013 – "lines do not center on large pages".
⠀

There was something funny about the "for the" line; when I removed direct formatting (Ctrl M) it shrank to two points (or thereabouts); I was called away and didn't investigate further.