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I want to change the page orientation of one particular page in my LibreOffice document. I have followed the instructions given on the LibreOffice wiki, specifically

To change the page orientation for all pages that share the same page style, you first need a page style, then apply that style:

  1. Choose Format - Styles and Formatting.
  2. Click the Page Styles icon.
  3. Right-click a page style and choose New. The new page style initially gets all properties of the selected page style.
  4. On the Organizer tab page, type a name for the page style in the Name box, for example "My Landscape".
  5. In the Next Style box, select the page style that you want to apply to the next page that follows a page with the new style. See
  6. the section about the scope of page styles at the end of this help page.
  7. Click the Page tab.
  8. Under Paper format, select “Portrait” or “Landscape”.
  9. Click OK.

Following the same instructions multiple times, sometimes the first page of my document is rotated, sometimes there is no apparent effect. I am unable to rotate a page in the middle of the document (in this case, page 98).

I want to change the page orientation, because I have one table that should be printed in landscape format, while all other tables and text should be printed in portrait format.

What is the correct way to apply a different page orientation to a page in my document that isn't the first page of the document?

A different option would be to rotate the table (i.e. the text would be rotated too) and keeping the page orientation in portrait mode, if changing the page orientation would appear impossible.

Note: this is neither a question about printing not about working with PDF's; this is about on-screen display within LibreOffice.

Currently, I'm using LibreOffice 4.1.0.4 on Mac OS X and LibreOffice 4.3.7.2 on Windows.

Mark
  • 281

1 Answers1

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I believe the first comment already points to some answer, but you had read and pointed at "wrong" part of the Wiki. You should look further below in the Wiki, neatly titled Manually Defined Range of a Page style.

Perform any one of the following commands:

  • To insert a "page break with style" at the cursor position, choose Insert - Manual Break, select a Style name from the listbox, and click OK.
  • [...]

What @Lyrl has explained is the quoted first point in Wiki, "Insert - Manual Break".

[...] I am unable to rotate a page in the middle of the document (in this case, page 98).

It is important to place the cursor at correct position.

Change page 98 to landscape

First, put the cursor at the end of paragraph in page 97.

Then, do Insert > Manual Break... and choose Page break and Style: Landscape and click OK button. At this point, page 98 and onwards would appear in landscape orientation. So user must limit to which extent the Landscape style would be applied. Continue below.

Next, put the cursor at the end of paragraph in page 98.

Then, do Insert > Manual Break... and choose Page break and Style: Default and click OK. That is all.

Notice the difference when applying the style for the second time? If you follow above steps properly, the landscape orientation is applied to page 98 only.

If Manual Break failed

Try other methods as explained in the Wiki (besides Manual Break, there are three more methods for you to try under this subtopic). Besides these, whatever method you use, take note that the page orientation usually should be handled by page style.

Why it didn't work

Frankly speaking, Manual Break is the most common and easiest method (at least for me) and it had worked for me regardless I use LibreOffice on Windows or LibreOffice on Linux. There is very slim chances for anyone to make mistake when using Manual Break (It should work for anyone).

I'd think one possible cause it didn't work is that, the existing document might not be using the Default style and using custom/self-defined style instead. This is estimated based on your explanation that "only the first page of document rotates".

If custom/self-defined styles are used, then typical instructions would be invalid. The question has not much clues, so this is as far as I can estimate.