Help with Columns please.

[RSKimsey]

I have finished a first page of my document. Every page EXCEPT the first page needs to be in two-column format. Whenever I make columns, however, it changes the first page. I've tried a few things, but obviously none of them worked. I know I can do this in Word in about 2 seconds, but I prefer to use OpenOffice, so I thought I'd try to get some help here. The help file that comes with OpenOffice hasn't been useful in this regard.


Thanks,

RSK

[David]

[RSKimsey]

Thanks, David. I've been looking at Styles - I even tried creating one - but I can't seem to apply it to the part of the document I want.

I'll have to experiment with it a bit more. I appreciate the input!

Scott

[8daysaweek.co.uk]

Hi Scott,

You may find some useful tips here:
http://www.8daysaweek.co.uk/forums/viewtopic.php?t=34

As already suggested Page Styles & a Manual Page Break is probably the way to go. You could probably also achieve the desired affect using sections.

HTH ,
_________________
James
www.8daysaweek.co.uk - A User-Focused OOo site

[ftack]

You indeed know about Format - Page, columns tab. With Format - Page, you are actually editing the current Page Style: page formatting in Writer is governed by styles only. If you want a page without columns, then indeed you need a different page style. You will need to learn a bit about page styles. It can look a bit complicated at first, but once you grasp the concept, there will be a lot more you can control than just that what you are looking for now.

You probably can quicly achieve what you want using the default styles of OOo:


* Open "Stylist and formatting" and click the "Page Styles" button.
* Double-click the First Page style to apply it to your first page.

That should already do the trick. Right-click the First Page style and select "Modify". You see that that style is set up with "Default" as the next style. That means that, as soon as a new page is about to start, it will assume the Default page style. If your Default style is defined to have columns, the subsequent pages will indeed have columns, the first one not.

If you want a new "First page" somewhere, you need to insert a manual page break with change in page style: Insert - Manual Break. For big documents, it is better to have Ooo handle this automatically. In a well structured document, a new page will start with a particular style. For example, new chapters usually start on a new page and start with a caption formatted with "Heading 1". You can now edit the "heading 1" PARAGRAPH style (click the Paragraph button in "Styles and Formatting" to see these) and on the Text flow tab, specify that before this heading a page break with "First Page" style should automatically occur.When you have set up this once, you never have to worry about page breaks and columns again in your entire document. This is where the real power of Writer comes in.

If columns do not need to be part of the page style, you can use "Sections". Using "Sections", you can apply a column layout to a part of the page.

[David]

[RSKimsey]

Thanks for the replies. I thought of doing two documents as well, David, but I want to have a single PDF when I'm finished Good idea, though.

James - thanks for the link. Looks like a helpful site indeed. I've added it to my bookmarks.

Ftack: your advice worked perfectly. My document is now formatted the way I want it. Thank you!

Scott

[David]