Need help applying styles

Hi Team,

I am currently working with the Getting Started with Math chapter. However,
I am having a lot of trouble applying styles to this document.

Because this guide consists of copying and pasting some paragraphs from the
Math Guide, when I paste text into the document the pasted paragraph
inherits a different style than the one that was previously there. To fix
that, I select the pasted text and apply the style I want, for example
"Text Body". The problem is that the style has no effect on the document.
If I double click the style, it simply doesn't get applied to the selected
text. This has happened many times in this document.

I attached the file I'm working on now. On page 18, the first paragraph in
the "Writing derivatives" section is using the style "Definition Term", but
I want to change it to "Body Text". No matter what I do, I cannot apply the
desired style to this paragraph. I tried using 2 different machines and
operating systems, but the problem is still there.

I am using LO 7.0.3. Can anybody help me?

Rafael Lima

Have you read the Getting Started with Styles chapter (in the Getting Started Guide)? There are two important chapters in the Writer Guide as well.

It looks like your problem is that you use copy (Control+C) and paste (Control +V). Doing this will paste unwanted styles into the new document. What you should be using is copy and paste special unformatted text (Control Shift+Alt+V). Doing this will apply the style that already exists in the position where you want to paste your text, table, graphic, etc.

Dan

Hello Rafael

One very easy solution when copying and pasting, is to use paste special. Not sure what system you are using, but in macOS the command is Paste Unformatted Text. This means the paragraph and character styles are not pasted into the target file. After pasting the text uses the paragraph style you pasted into. You have to reapply any character styles if necessary.

This is the method I use when updating chapters to the 7.0 template.

Hope that helps.

Peter Schofield

Just for a recall...

The 7.0 template lists only 4 characters styles
(LibreOffice_7.x_Template.ott)

Emphasis
Strong emphasis
Keystroke
Code

Any other character style or character direct formatting should be
avoided/removed/replaced wherever possible.

(The same applies to paragraph styles, frames and lists...)

Cheers
Olivier

Rafael,
This list removes any attachments. You’ll need to put the file in NextCloud
so we can look at it. I’m happy to do that.

To change a *paragraph* style, place the cursor in the paragraph (don’t
select the text) and double-click the new style. If that doesn’t work, it’s
possible that a manual Bold or other character style has also been applied
to the text of the paragraph. Our files are old and have some odd
formatting in them.

Others have given answers for the character style/manual formatting problem.

Jean

Hi! Thanks for everyone's support! I followed the recommendations and
started pasting as Unformatted text. This way it always works.

I think Jean is right. The documents have undergone so many revisions that
maybe there is some odd formatting in their "internal code".

Dan and Jean, thanks for being willing to look further into the original
files, but I think it is not going to be necessary anymore. I am now
finishing the chapter and I think now I can fix problems like these.

Thanks!

Rafael Lima