Why use styles?

Styles help improve consistency in a document. They also make major formatting changes easy. For example, you might decide to change the indentation of all paragraphs or change the font of all titles. For a long document, this simple task can be prohibitive. Styles make the task easy.

Example: The time is 9:50 AM and Jane is finishing the 30-page paper for school that is due at 10:00 AM She looks over the assignment one more time, and suddenly she realizes that:

• The text must use Arial font instead of Times New Roman.
• The headings must be dark blue and indented.
• The title must appear at the top-right of every page except the first.
• Even-numbered pages must have a wider right margin, and odd-numbered pages must have a wider left margin.

Thankfully, Jane used OOo Writer and styles. She makes all the changes in two minutes and hands in the paper on time.