Changing Page Orientation
All page properties for Writer text documents, like for example the page orientation, are defined by page styles. By default, a new text document uses the “Default” page style for all pages. If you open an existing text document, different page styles may have been applied to the different pages.
It is important to know that changes that you apply to a page property will only affect the pages that use the current page style. The current page style is listed in the Status Bar at the lower window border.
To change the page orientation for all pages that use the current page style:
If your text document consists only of pages with the same page style, you can change the page properties directly:
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Choose Format - Page.
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Click the Page tab.
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Under Paper format, select Portrait or Landscape.
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Click OK.
To change the page orientation for all pages that use the current page style:
LibreOffice uses page styles to specify the orientation of the pages in a document. For example, to change the page orientation of one or more pages in a document from portrait to landscape in a document, you need to create a page style that uses the landscape orientation, and then apply the page style to the pages.
At the end of this help page, we'll discuss the scope of page styles in detail. If you are unsure about the page style concept, please read the section at the end of this page.
Unlike character styles or paragraph styles, the page styles don't know a hierarchy. You can create a new page style based on the properties of an existing page style, but when you later change the source style, the new page style does not automatically inherit the changes.
To change the page orientation only for the current page, you first need a page style, then apply that style:
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Choose View - Styles.
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Click the Page Styles icon.
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Right-click, and choose New.
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On the Organizer tab page, type a name for the page style in the Name box, for example "My Landscape".
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In the Next Style box, select the page style that you want to apply to the next page.
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Click the Page tab.
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Under Paper format, select Portrait or Landscape.
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Click OK.
Now you have defined a proper page style with the name "My Landscape". To apply the new style, double-click the "My Landscape" page style in the Styles window. All pages in the current scope of page styles will be changed. If you defined the "next style" to be a different style, only the first page of the current scope of page styles will be changed.
The Scope of Page Styles
You should be aware of the scope of page styles in LibreOffice. Which pages of your text document get affected by editing a page style?
One Page Long Styles
A page style can be defined to span one page only. The “First Page” style is an example. You set this property by defining another page style to be the "next style", on the tab page.
A one page long style starts from the lower border of the current page style range up to the next page break. The next page break appears automatically when the text flows to the next page, which is sometimes called a "soft page break". Alternatively, you can insert a manual page break.
To insert a manual page break at the cursor position, press Ctrl+Enter or choose and just click OK.
Manually Defined Range of a Page style
The “Default” page style does not set a different "next style" on the tab page. Instead, the "next style" is set also to be “Default”. All page styles that are followed by the same page style can span multiple pages. The lower and upper borders of the page style range are defined by "page breaks with style". All the pages between any two "page breaks with style" use the same page style.
You can insert a "page break with style" directly at the cursor position. Alternatively, you can apply the "page break with style" property to a paragraph or to a paragraph style.
Perform any one of the following commands:
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To insert a "page break with style" at the cursor position, choose , select a Style name from the listbox, and click OK.
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To apply the "page break with style" property to the current paragraph, choose . In the Breaks area, activate Enable and With Page Style. Select a page style name from the listbox.
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To apply the "page break with style" property to the current paragraph style, right-click the current paragraph. Choose from the context menu. Click the Text Flow tab. In the Breaks area, activate Enable and With Page Style. Select a page style name from the listbox.
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To apply the "page break with style" property to an arbitrary paragraph style, choose . Click the Paragraph Styles icon. Right-click the name of the paragraph style you want to modify and choose Modify. Click the Text Flow tab. In the Breaks area, activate Enable and With Page Style. Select a page style name from the listbox.