Is it possible in LibreOffice Writer to make a style out of an element that has been manually formatted?

I have a frame that I have worked on to be positioned and styled exactly how I want it to look. In the same document, I want to make many other frames with the exact same parameters.

However, I can't find any clear way that I can use the frame that I've built and turn it into a template to apply to all the other frames.

How do I save all the formatting I've created for this frame so that I can easily make all the other frames look the same?

If it makes a difference, the other frames have not yet been created, so if there's a way to apply a template at the moment I create a frame, all the better.

Questioner

Posted 2016-05-06T07:41:09.733

Reputation: 618

Answers

Yes - you can update the default frame style with the parameters of your custom-styled frame, so it gets applied to every new frame inserted afterwards.

First, select the frame you've created and styled, and that should act as "template" for the other frames. If it's selected, there are small green rectangles over the frame's border:
Now, make sure that the Styles and Formatting window is available: if it's hidden, you can call it using the F11 key. It looks like this:
Then, select the frame styles - it's the third button from the left:
Select the first list item "Frame" (this is the default frame style for the current document).
Finally, update the default style with your custom settings. To do so, double-check that your "template" frame is selected, and that the "Frame" default style is selected. Then, on the rightmost button in the Styles and Formatting window, click on the small arrow pointing downwards (see below - dark green), and select "Update Style" (below, light green):

Now, you've updated the default frame style with your custom settings. Every new frame will inherit those settings.

The frame style won't get modified automatically if you modify any of the frames in your document. But you can easily update the frame style manually by selecting the frame and using "Update Style" again as explained above.

If you want to leave the default frame style intact, you may easily create a new custom frame style, following the same steps as above. The only difference is, that in the last step, you'll have to select "New Style" instead of "Update Style". "New Style" will create a new frame style, based on the settings of the currently selected frame. It won't get applied to a new frame automatically, but you can assign that style easily to a new frame by selecting the frame and double-clicking the new frame style name.

tohuwawohu

Posted 2016-05-06T07:41:09.733

Reputation: 8 627

I usually prefer to create a new style instead to modify the default one in order to avoid any eventual problem that can occur merging pages from different documents. OT.: "what did you use to take the screenshot and put the arrows?" – Hastur – 2016-05-06T14:32:23.023

Regarding the default style: me too :-) - i explained modifying the default style solely because this way, the custom style gets applied to every new style automatically. I simply don't know any other way to achieve this, so i choose this way. Generally, i prefer creating and using custom styles, too, leaving the default style with default settings. Regarding the arrows: I've cropped and edited the screenshots using Microsoft Paint. I think LO Draw would be a good alternative for that, too. – tohuwawohu – 2016-05-06T16:28:18.433

2...instead I know one... ctrl c ctrl v... when it is still empty. :) maybe this should be considered as an aswer too :-/ – Hastur – 2016-05-06T18:12:42.937

:-)) very nice - just feel free to add as answer, i'll upvote it! – tohuwawohu – 2016-05-06T18:36:50.407

done :)) Added some words too :)) – Hastur – 2016-05-07T12:57:04.160

A quick workaround.

This is a quick workaround valid not only for the frames but for each section of a document with specific characteristics. This trick is not limited to the libreoffice suite:

You can prepare your custom part, select all this part, press Ctrl-C then move the cursor to an empty part of the document, press Ctrl-V and keep it there for a future use.

^{I agree: innovative and difficult as the discovery the warm water ^[1].}

You can do a list of "quick templates" at the end of the document and use them each time that you want. If you find cosy you can create a separate document with those templates... but when you arrive to this point you may prefer to create them as New Styles in the document ^[2].

Note:
Sometimes it can be cosy to have the template already filled and modify it. In some application you can paste an image in memory directly in place of another with all the values just set.
The new image will take that values and the place of the old one (size position...).
You may need to paste with Ctrl-Shift-V and to choose the right option; it could be program dependent.

Hastur

Posted 2016-05-06T07:41:09.733

Reputation: 15 043