Change the default style of numbered or bullet lists?

jeanweber

By default style, I mean what you get when you click the Numbering On/Off or Bullets On/Off button on the Formatting toolbar. Can this be changed? If so, how?

I would like to set this up so that clicking on those buttons gives different styles than the built-in defaults. This is because I work with too many people who simply cannot be convinced to select list styles even when I set the styles up for them. Instead, they click those buttons.

I've looked for the answer to this, but can't find it in the help. If it's on the forum, I'm obviously not choosing the right search terms.
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foxcole · Last edited by foxcole on Fri Oct 20, 2006 7:04 pm; edited 3 times in total

swingkyd · OOo Advocate Joined: 15 Sep 2004 Posts: 479

You could re-link the buttons to a custom macro that applies your style instead of the default.
Do you need directions?

jeanweber · Posted: Fri Oct 20, 2006 7:03 pm Post subject:

jeanweber

swingkyd · OOo Advocate Joined: 15 Sep 2004 Posts: 479

This is by no means the prettiest macro b/c it was taken with the "record macro" functions built into OO.org writer:

foxcole

jeanweber · Posted: Fri Oct 20, 2006 8:15 pm Post subject:

swingkyd: Thanks! I'll give that a try.

fox: Arrrgh!! Intermittent faults drive ya nuts, don't they? Well, at least I know it's not just me doing something wrong. It's the gremlins. Smile

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Regards, Jean Hollis Weber
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sboom · General User Joined: 02 Nov 2006 Posts: 8

swingkyd, the macro you're suggesting doesn't work: it gives a syntax error. Amy amendment?

EDIT: MY APOLOGIES: NO SYNTAX ERROR, SHAME ON ME !

jeanweber · Posted: Thu Nov 02, 2006 12:55 pm Post subject:

My testing shows that you do not need a macro to n make the Bullets On/Off button use a bullet of your choice. When I first started this thread, I wasn't sure how to change the default bullet, but foxcole told me how. The "how" seems to have got lost, so I will summarise it here.

1) Place the cursor in a paragraph and click the Bullets On/Off button on the toolbar to show the current default bullet.

2) From the menu bar, choose Format > Bullets and Numbering. You can either choose a bullet from the Bullets tab of the dialog, or go to the Options tab for more choices.

3) On the Options tab, select Level 1, be sure "Numbering" is set to "Bullet", and click the [...] button next to Character. On the Special Characters dialog, choose a font and a character and click OK to return to the Bullets and Numbering dialog. Set the bullets for the other levels in a similar way, then click OK.

The new bullet character will now show on this paragraph. If you go to any other paragraph and click the Bullets On/Off button, it should display the new bullet character too. (One exception might be if the paragraph has some custom styling that over-rides the default bullet; I have not done enough testing to be sure about the possible interactions.)

Note: if you want the bullet to be a different size or colour, go to the Styles and Formatting window, choose the Character Styles icon at the top of that window, right-click on Bullets and choose Modify, go to the Font tab of the Character Style dialog and choose a size and/or go to the Font Effects tab and choose a colour.

Important
The changes made above apply *only* to the current document. To make them the default for other other documents, save the current document as a template (you can delete all the content before doing this), and make that template the default template. (See the chapter "Working with Templates" in the Writer Guide for details.
_________________
Regards, Jean Hollis Weber
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Hagar Delest · Posted: Wed Nov 22, 2006 2:39 am Post subject:

Hi Jean,

I've tried the method. It works fine if the bullet is in the document. But for a template, as soon as I remove the bulleted paragraph (for a default template, I don't need to have a bullet appearing in a new blank document), it comes back to the default OOo bullet ! Any idea ?
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ftack · Posted: Fri Nov 24, 2006 5:56 am Post subject:

The method does not work for customized spacing as well. Actually, there is something very funny: in Formats- Bullets and numbering, there is a "default" button. If you press that button, the "defaults" are loaded, and these are different from the "default" of the numbering button. In particular, Indent is restored to 0. The next time you use the numbering button again, the "numbering button" defaults are again used. This clearly isn't working as it should. Using List styles provide for the best control in bullets and remains my favorite approach. Yet indeed, the difficulty is in convincing others to do the same. After all, that clumsy button is the first thing users see.