Navigating Style

With Writer open, click Format on the menu bar, and then select Styles and Formatting; a window labeled Styles and Formatting will appear, floating above your document. Pressing F11 will also bring up the stylist. Clicking the x in the corner of the window will banish it. I'd like to give you some idea of how useful this little tool can be in formatting your documents. If you've banished the Stylist, bring it back by clicking its icon or pressing <F11>.

Great Time-Saving Tip

Here's a good trick you might want to keep in mind if you start using styles in a big way. Click on the stylist's title bar with your left mouse button and slowly drag the stylist window over to the right edge (or the left edge) of your Writer window. As the stylist starts to go beyond the edge of the Writer window, you should see a gray vertical outline appear under the stylist. Release the mouse button and the stylist will dock into the main writer Window (Figure 13-11).

Figure 13-11. Styles make paragraph formatting easy and consistent. Note that the stylist is docked on the right.

Whenever you start a new document, it loads with a default style. That style is actually a collection of formatting presets that define how various paragraphs will look. These include headings, lists, text boxes, and so on. All you have to do is select a paragraph, double-click on a style, and your paragraph's look including font style and size is magically updated. As an example of how to use this, try the following.

Start by reloading your Dark and Stormy document, and then highlight your title text to select it. At the bottom of your Stylist, it says Automatic. With your title highlighted, double-click on Heading 1. The heading changes to a large, bold, sans serif font. Now click the arrow at the bottom of the list, and change from Automatic to Chapter Styles. Double-click on Title, and your title is suddenly centered with the appropriate font applied (Figure 13-11).

The Stylist is pretty smart, really. Look back to the bottom of the list at those categories HTML Styles, Custom Styles, List Styles, and so on. Depending on the document type you are working on, the Stylist will come up with a pretty sane list for that Automatic selection. If you call up an HTML document, HTML formatting will show up in the Automatic list.

Quick Undo Tip

To remove a docked Stylist, just drag it out of its dock and drop it above the document itself. It turns back into a floating window. You can also press <F11>, and it will promptly vanish from the dock. The great thing about doing it with the function key is that the Stylist remembers where it was. If it was docked when you pressed <F11>, it will be when you press it again.

Navigating the Rivers of Text

The second floating window is called the Navigator. This is a great tool for the power user or anyone who is creating long, complex documents. When you start up the Navigator by clicking Edit and then Navigator (or by pressing <F5>), you'll see a window listing the various elements in your document (Figure 13-12). These will be organized in terms of headings, tables, graphics, and so on.

Figure 13-12. The Navigator gives you access to all your document elements.

Quick Tip

You guessed it! Just like the Stylist, the Navigator can be dragged to either edge of the document and docked into the main Writer window. Just make sure you drag it far enough so that it isn't another vertical window next to the Stylist, but rather sits above or below it.

What makes this a great tool is that you can use it to navigate a document quickly. Let's say that (as in this chapter) there are a number of section headings. Click on the plus sign beside the word Headings, and a treed list of all the headings in the document will be displayed. Double-click on a heading, and you will instantly jump to that point in the document. The same goes for graphics, tables, and other such elements in your document.