Tab defaults change when pasting into Writer from some other applications

users
#1

I agree with your method ... & congratulate you on obviously being a
bright teacher.

       Now ...
           I'm curiously wondering how using 'styles' differs from the
'select all' then changing the font, or whatever;
               that method takes me mere seconds as well :wink:

       Also, I'm curiously wondering what method(s) your students would be
using which would take them so long ???

#2

Hi :slight_smile:
"Select All" and just changing the font only does the 1 thing and it does
it to everything.

My guess is that the students go through the document applying different
bits of formatting as they go along. Then they have trouble being
consistent. Bullets and numbering is probably a bit more sophisticated in
legal documents so if they are re-doing those or <shudders /> typing them
in directly each time it could be troublesome. Inconsistent indents and
messing with the ruler at the top can quickly make a right mess of things
too.

It might be fun to hear about specific cases and/or things that almost all
of them do.
Regards from
Tom :slight_smile:

#3

If the *only* thing you want to change is the font document-wide, then your "select all" method will work. But formatting goes far beyond changing a font.

The documents I typically create (as simple as they are) have many different types of paragraphs including the following:

- A Title, set in 20 point, bold, Linux Biolinum G, centered, with 12 points of white space below the paragraph.

- A Subtitle, the same as the Title, except with 16 point, bold type.

- Several Section Heading paragraphs, each with Linux Biolinum G in ever reducing sizes, flush left, with 12 points of white space above the paragraph, and with automatic numbering through the Outline Numbering. Also, I have them set to "keep with the next paragraph," which is important when creating heading styles to ensure that you don't have a random heading by itself at the bottom of the page with the following paragraph on the next page. If I need a "Chapter Title" paragraph, I can create it to always begin on a new page.

- A main Body paragraph, with 12 point Linux Libertine G, set flush left, single spaced, with 12 points of white space above it.

- A main Body paragraph, the same as the above, but with an indented first line (2 picas) and no white space above the paragraph.

- Main Body paragraphs set double-spaced for legal briefs and scholarly paragraphs.

- A Blockquote paragraph, which is single spaced and indented 2 picas on the left margin with additional white space above and below the paragraphs.

To generate all of this formatting without styles requires the user to format each paragraph or set of paragraphs directly, selecting each formatting characteristic separately, including font, size, line spacing, paragraph indents, and on and on. Doing it directly takes a lot of time, and then you have to be careful to make sure all your section headings are formatted consistently (was that 16 points or 18 points?). But, to do it with styles is super quick. And the consistency throughout the document almost brings tears of joy to my eyes.

Virgil

#4

Oh, and I forgot to mention that, if you want LO (or in the case of my class, MS-Word) to automatically generate a table of contents you *must* use styles as the program searches for specific styles (typically Heading 1, 2, 3, etc.) to put into the contents.

Virgil