Character formatting

Character formating refers to the formating you can apply at the character level, meaning that you can even format an individual character besides a word or any part of a text.

Basic character formatting

The following table lists all the formatting commands and their result on the applied text

Apply character formatting

You can apply character formating using the

• Formatting Toolbar
• Sidebar or
• Character Formatting dialog window

In any case before formatting you must select the text and then apply the formatting command. If the text you want to select is a single word then you can just click inside the word instead of selecting all the word.

The Formatting Toolbar

The quickest way to apply character formatting is the Formatting Toolbar.

To apply character formatting

1. First select your text and
2. Click one of the available formatting buttons.

When you click inside a formatted text the toolbar's icon is highlighted indicating the formatting.

You can also combine formatting styles, for example you can apply bold, italic and strike-through to a text.

Sidebar Character section

You can also use the Sidebar's Character section in properties tab to format characters. The panel contains some extra buttons not found in Formatting toolbar.

Character Formatting dialog window

To open the Character formatting window click the icon in the sidebar or use the context menu item. In this window you have all the character formatting options available such as font effects and borders

Clear direct formatting

Direct formatting refers to the formatting you apply manually in a text. Later in this course you will learn how to apply formating using styles which is the recommended method.

When you need to clear all formatting and start over, select the text and click the icon on the Formatting toolbar. This is will set all formatting to the default values.

Clone Formatting

You can quickly copy or clone a set of formatting commands that has been applied to a text to another using the Clone Formatting  tool.

1. Click anywhere inside the source text
2. Click on the Clone Formatting  button, or double click to make multiple clones
3. Click or drag with the clone brush to the destination text to clone the source formatting

Tips about fonts

• A font style can applied to a document only if installed in your system. LibreOffice lists all available fonts installed in your system. However Writer can display fonts not installed in your system when these are embedded inside a document.
• Some fonts are only available for specific languages, therefore setting a font to a text in a non supported language will not have any effect.
• Use simple and readable fonts on your documents.
• Avoid the use of multiple fonts inside a document.