TC wrote:Does Open Office have section breaks or an equivalent? I can't see them.
(I want to change between landscape and portrait pages within a text document and have always used section breaks in Word to do this.)
To have landscape and portrait pages in OOo, what you need to do is define a Page Style (e.g. Landscape or Portrait) using the Stylist, then use Insert > Manual Break > Page break and select your desired style in the "Style" box below to change to a different page style in the next page.
Here are some step by step instructions for inserting a Landscape oriented page:
- Create a new page style (Stylist (F11) > 4th icon from left > Right-Click "Default" > Select "New") named "Landscape" (make sure you modify your style so the page is landscape!
) - At the end of page 1 insert a Manual Page break and choose "Landscape" as the Style below the Radio Button.
- At the end of page 2 insert another Manual Page break and but this time choose "Default" as the Style in the drop down box.
Page 1 = Portrait
Page 2 = Landscape
Page 3 = Portrait
If you always folllow a particular page style with the same alternate one (e.g. Default, Landscape, Default, Landscape) you can set this in the stylist:
- Right-click on a page style e.g. "Default"
- Select Modify
- On the Organizer tab go to "Next Style" and choose the style you want to follow the "Default" page style (or whichever one you're editing) e.g. "Landscape"
Now, whenever you get to the end of a page that is the "Default" page style, you will automatically get a "Landscape" page - without having to insert a manual break.
I hope this helps. The Stylist is a really useful tool, IMO much better than styles in M$W. It's worth taking 15mins to understand what the Stylist can do for you
This is how I think about it:
Your text is the content of your document, the Stylist controls the format.
This means that using the Stylist (instead of formatting on-the-fly), your files become better structured, more consistent documents.

