Designing Pages in OpenOffice.org Writer

"I'm sure that most people hardly think about page options in OpenOffice.org Writer. The average person may change the paper orientation from portrait to landscape, or narrow the margins to squeeze more words into a page, but not much else. Nothing is really wrong about such an attitude, but if you want to make to make your documents easier to read and more professional-looking, there are a lot more typographical tricks that you can do.

"You can find page design features in Format -> Page, or Format -> Styles and Formatting -> Page Styles. However, the first choice limits you to two page designs, one right and one left. By contrast, page styles allow unlimited designs, and, by using the Next Style feature in the Organizer tab, you can have them applied automatically; for instance, you can have a first page style followed by a right page, a right page by a left page, and a left page by a right page.

"But, whatever tool you use for page designs, the first step is to check the Register-true box on the Page tab. This feature assures that each line on every page is the same distance from the top as the same line on other pages. This feature improves the look of a two page spread, and, on thinner paper, assures that lines on the back of the paper are not visible and obscuring the current page."

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