Apache OpenOffice Community Forum

[mod: split from viewtopic.php?f=7&t=8985 ]

I gotta agree this is hardly solved. I'm writing a paper in APA style right now and none of the solutions offered here make any sense. Explain the issue to me like I was 5.

Like the original poster, all I want is a title page that has a header that says Running Head: Title and a page number. The rest of the pages should read Title and page number in the header.

In the current set up, every odd page has the Running Head: Title header, the even pages have Title and page number. This is even when I have Same Content left/right unclicked.

Why is it so hard to be able to put in a manual header every page? Why have it set up that you have to modify the page format every time you want to change the header? And why have that process so complicated? Give us an option to MANUALLY put in a specific HEADER every page! It's not that difficult. There's no way this should be so confusing.

Details are given in
[Tutorial] Page styles and headers/footers
with more advanced information in
[Tutorial] "In-line" or "run-in" headings

Psych23 wrote:... I'm writing a paper in APA style ...

You may do better to find an APA template and start with that. Copy/paste your text into the template.
...

Why is it so hard to be able to put in a manual header every page? ...

If you want to do it manually, like a typewriter, you just have to add page breaks (Insert > Manual Break ... or Ctrl+Enter) and type your headers.

OO Writer's defaults don't match the APA requirements making it a bit difficult to handle for a beginner. OO really should include better support for it out of the box.

Here's a template from a previous thread here:
viewtopic.php?p=176975#p176975

Edit: PS:

Here's a newer one:
viewtopic.php?p=288078#p288078

Page Styles (and hence changed headers and footers), Page Breaks and Page Number are an attribute of the first paragraph on a page even if it is empty or a Heading (or a table at the very top). Note that Heading means a Heading 1 or a Heading 2 etc, and not a Page header as in header/footer.

You can manually insert and delete Page Breaks, manually choose the next Page Style, and manually change the Page Number, by placing the cursor in the first paragraph and going Format > Paragraph > Text Flow > Breaks ... (or the table, and going Table > Properties > Text Flow...) where all these options can be changed.
When you Insert > Manual Break > Page Break..., the small pop-up window allows you to choose the Page Style for the first (and hence subsequent) page(s) following the break; and also the option to change the Page Number for the first (and hence subsequent) page(s) following the break.

You can also delete Page Breaks by Backspace, or by deleting highlighted text which includes the Page Break.

It is very useful to make Page Breaks visible by Tools > Options (Preferences on Mac) > OpenOffice > Appearance > scroll to Text document > tick Section boundaries > choose a colour for Page and column breaks. Page Breaks now show on the screen as a thin coloured line and identify where the problem lies. This is the default setting on recent installations where the Page Break appears as a thin blue line. Set View > Non printing characters ..., to ON to see the paragraph break as below.
So, debug page style changes / changed numbering / changed header or footer problems by placing the cursor in the first paragraph following a page break and going Format > Paragraph > Text Flow > Breaks .... What are you telling Writer to do following the break?

A word of caution. You can go Format > Page ..., and edit the format of the page in which the cursor is currently located. However, you are actually editing that page's Page Style, so all other pages which use that same Page Style will also have their formats changed.

You can get more information on Page Styles, Page Breaks and Page Numbering in Chapter 4 - Formatting Pages of the Writer Manual.

Psych23 wrote:... Like the original poster, all I want is a title page that has a header that says Running Head: Title and a page number. The rest of the pages should read Title and page number in the header. ...

If you only need one single leading page to differ from the rest, you do not need much adjustment from the default document setup. Use the "First page" style for the title page. That page style has a particular "next page" setting, so when content flows to a new page (or you insert a manual page break by ctrl+enter) the subsequent pages will automatically be set to "Default style". You can then alter the page headings for the first page and for one of the subsequent pages, and all should be well.
Note that if you need more complex sequence of page layouts, you will need to make one page style for each layout, and the best approach is probably to change between them by "insert - manual break - ...", like others have advised.

If you need a new section in your document to start with a title page as indicated above, insert a page break from the "Insert - Manual break" menu item and select "First page" again for the new page. If you want the "Title" in the header to change for the new section, you can use "Header 1" style to mark the content to use for header and insert "Chapter" field in the header, or you set a variable if the title does not occur in running text. If the title is constant throughout the document, set it in "File - Properties" and insert the "Title" field in your headers.

For automated source citation, the Zotero plugin is useful. AFAIK it provides APA style references without any additional adjustment.

acknak wrote:

Psych23 wrote:... I'm writing a paper in APA style ...

You may do better to find an APA template and start with that. Copy/paste your text into the template.

Here's a template from a previous thread here:
viewtopic.php?p=176975#p176975

Edit: PS:

Here's a newer one:
viewtopic.php?p=288078#p288078

Thank's for the plug

@Psych23
Definitely consider using a bibliographic management system with the suggested template. According to a student friend, https://www.zotero.org/ can save 2-3 hours a paper in setting up the reference list for even a realatively sort 6-10 page paper.

Use https://www.zotero.org/ or another bibliographic management system in any case. It makes life a lot easier.

jrkrideau wrote:... Thank's for the plug

NP!

Have you thought about posting something in the tutorial section? A tutorial post with the latest version and your other tips would make it even easier.

keme wrote:[...] or you insert a manual page break by ctrl+enter [...]

Ctrl+Enter does not insert a manual page break (with page style change). It just inserts a hard page break.

floris v wrote:

keme wrote:[...] or you insert a manual page break by ctrl+enter [...]

Ctrl+Enter does not insert a manual page break (with page style change). It just inserts a hard page break.

A hard page break is the simplest form of manual page break. When a page break (manual or automatic) does not have an explicit selection for "next page style", the new page will have the page style listed as "next page style" in the style setting for the preceding page.

IOW, if you set page style to "First Page" and insert a simple, hard page break, the next page will change to "Default Style", just like it does if text flow generates a page break.

Edit: Upon second reading I must admit that it is easy to misunderstand my previous posting. Made a few amendments (set in italics) which, in conjunction with floris' comments, should clarify the issue. Thanks, floris_v!

acknak wrote:

jrkrideau wrote:... Thank's for the plug

NP!

Have you thought about posting something in the tutorial section? A tutorial post with the latest version and your other tips would make it even easier.

Never occurred to me. I'll give it some thought and have a look at some examples in the tutorial section.

It might even make me give the template a good review. It, combined with something like Zotero, is just about 99% APA compliant---no one is ever 100% compliant.

When I ask Mrs Google what she knows about APA openoffice she finds 370,000 hits.gets

As usual, lots of information but none of it helpful. I went over to LibreOffice and had it fixed in 5 minutes!

Psych23 wrote:As usual, lots of information but none of it helpful. I went over to LibreOffice and had it fixed in 5 minutes!

Great!
Would you care to share your solution with others? A few pointers in this thread would really help.
Knowing the strengths and weaknesses of the different suites is useful also to experienced helpers. You seem to have found some solution we don't know about..

Psych23 wrote:In the current set up, every odd page has the Running Head: Title header, the even pages have Title and page number. This is even when I have Same Content left/right unclicked.

A thought - do you have Format > Page > Page Layout > Layout settings > Page Layout ..., set to Left and Right, or set to Mirrored?

What you want to do is actually quite easy. It would assist us a lot if you uploaded a small example .odt file with two or three pages as someone could then set it up correctly for you. It is quite difficult trying to guess what you have done and try to offer a solution when we are not sure what you may have done.