Documentation/OOoAuthors User Manual/Writer Guide/Working with list (numbering) styles

OpenOffice.org 2.x Writer Guide

Chapter 7: Working with Styles

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• Applying styles
• Modifying styles
• Creating new (custom) styles
• Copying and moving styles
• Deleting styles
• Working with paragraph styles
• Outline numbering
• Defining a hierarchy of headings
• Working with list (numbering) styles
• Working with conditional paragraph styles
• Working with frame styles
• Working with page styles

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Working with list (numbering) styles

You can define the appearance of lists by using list (numbering) styles, which include styles for bullet lists as well as numbered lists.

OOo uses the terms “numbering style" and “list style" inconsistently, but they are the same thing. For example, the tooltip in the Styles and Formatting window says “List Styles", but its style dialog box says “Numbering Style".

After setting up a list style, you can associate it with one or more paragraph styles. To create a hierarchy of numbered paragraphs, use a series of list styles and define other (unnumbered) paragraphs to fit the indentation or spacing patterns of the numbered paragraphs.

Example of list style usage

This example shows how to have Arabic numbers (1, 2, 3) with no following punctuation, lined up as shown in the illustration below:

List example

1. In the Styles and Formatting window, select List Styles (top), and either All or Hierarchical in the box at the bottom. If you want to create a new style, right-click on the window and select New; then define the style. However, the following example uses one of the OOo-supplied style names: List 1.
2. Select List 1, right-click and select Modify. On the Numbering Style dialog box, either choose a predefined style on the Numbering Style tab or design a new style on the Options tab. We will use the Options tab.
3. Choose 1, 2, 3 in the Numbering box and delete anything in the Before and After boxes. In the Level box, leave 1-10 (the default) highlighted.

List-numbering style
Designing a list-numbering style.

4. On the Position page, increase Spacing to text from the default to, say, 0.65cm and change Numbering alignment to Right. Increase the Minimum space numbering <-> text value, if necessary. The values depend on the typeface, type size, and personal preference. Try a few combinations to see what looks best.
5. Click OK to set the changes. Now the modified style can be used. If the style has already been used in the document, those paragraphs in this style will now reflect the changes.

Positioning a list
Setting spacing and alignment in a list-numbering style.

You can apply this numbering style directly to any paragraph or assign it to a paragraph style.

To assign a numbering style to a paragraph style, open the Paragraph Style dialog box (see page 5), go to the Numbering page and choose the numbering style defined. (The name of the paragraph style does not have to match the name of the numbering style.)

Apply numbering style
Choosing a numbering style for a paragraph style