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Vertically Centering a Page in OpenOffice.org Writer

Just because there isn't a page vertical centering command in OpenOffice.org Writer doesn't mean you can't vertically center the page. Here's a workaround you can set up once then save as a template to use for all your vertically centered documents.

1. Open a new text document.
2. Select View | Zoom | Entire Page to see the entire page on your screen.
3. From the Table menu, select Insert | Table.
4. In the Insert Table dialog under Size, select 1 column and 1 row.
5. Under Options, uncheck Heading and uncheck Border.
6. Click OK.
7. Right-click on the table row and select Row | Height from the menu that appears.
8. Enter 9.92 inches in the row height specification box if you are using the default page settings. If you have changed your margins, determine the correct row height by calculating Row Height=Page Height-(top margin+bottom margin).
9. From the Table toolbar select the Center (vertical) button.
10. Begin typing the contents of your vertically centered page.

Becuase of the nature of inserting a table row that is the same size as a page, an extra page will automatically be added to your document. When you are printing your document, remember to set your printer settings to only print the page with content.

To
see a flash demonstration of this tip, click the play button below.

You can watch for more BrainStorm Cool Tips on OpenOffice.org 2.0 in upcoming editions of SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 Cool Solutions.

Watch for more BrainStorm Cool Tips on SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 in upcoming editions of SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 Cool Solutions.

Disclaimer: As with everything else at Cool Solutions, this content is definitely not supported by Novell (so don't even think of calling Support if you try something and it blows up).

It was contributed by a community member and is published "as is." It seems to have worked for at least one person, and might work for you. But please be sure to test, test, test before you do anything drastic with it.