A Big, Big Deal: Inline Styles in Writer version 25.2

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What's the Big Deal?

For years, I and others have lobbied TDF to add Inline Styles to Writer, a feature that long has been available in Microsoft Word. Why this feature? In my case, it was because I worked with a lot of legacy contracts and other legal documents that needed to be revised and updated. It was important that the structure of the new document should look exactly like the structure of the old document, which meant in many cases that the header for a paragraph should be on the same line as the first line in the paragraph. I also do a lot of conversions of public domain books to LO Writer format, and had the same problem of not being able to match the original text and Table of Contents because I could not mix styles in the same line or paragraph.

Example Sentence / Paragraph:

Item 1. An "inline heading" in LibreOffice Writer refers to a heading that is not presented on a separate line, but rather integrated within the running text itself, essentially acting as a heading within a paragraph, often used to comply with specific formatting guidelines in academic reports where headings need to be "run-in" with the text. [1, 2, 3]

In the sentence above, I want the words "Item 1" to be on the same line as the text that follows it, AND I want the words "Item 1" to appear automatically in my Table of Contents. but I do not want the remainder of the text to appear in my TOC. Prior to LO Version 25.2, I could not make that happen. As a result, prior to LO 25.2 the Heading style had to be on a line separate from the first paragraph, like this: 
Item 1. 
An "inline heading" in LibreOffice Writer refers to a heading that is not presented on a separate line, but rather integrated within the running text itself, essentially acting as a heading within a paragraph, often used to comply with specific formatting guidelines in academic reports where headings need to be "run-in" with the text. [1, 2, 3]

But as I said, some contracts and other legal documents actually required that the Heading and the text of the first paragraph must be on the same line. Like this: 
Item 1. An "inline heading" in LibreOffice Writer refers to a heading that is not presented on a separate line, but rather integrated within the running text itself, essentially acting as a heading within a paragraph, often used to comply with specific formatting guidelines in academic reports where headings need to be "run-in" with the text. [1, 2, 3]

How to create an inline heading in LibreOffice Writer: [1, 2, 4] (from Google Search, (third and fourth bullets added by Luke, your friendly blogger)
  • Select the text: Highlight the text you want to format as an inline heading. [1, 2, 4]
  • Apply style: In the formatting toolbar, choose the appropriate "inline heading" style from the paragraph style drop-down menu. [1, 3, 4]
  • After applying the inline style, the remaining text on the same line might look like normal or default text, but it actually reflects the Heading style when you right-click on it, which means, among other things, that it will be included in the Table of Contents. To prevent that, simply click on or highlight the first word that SHOULD NOT be a part of the Heading, then select Default Paragraph style from the Style Menu. In our example, now when you right-click on List 1 it should reflect Heading 1 as the style. But when you right-click on the next word—"An"—it should reflect Default Paragraph style. Again, at this point, only the words List 1 should show up in your Table of Contents.
  • IMPORTANT NOTE from Luke, your friendly Blogger. When you do the above, what actually happens is that the text you highlighted for inline style is turned into a Frame . Note that in your Writer Navigator box the inline style will appear as a frame (usually, but not always). This is kinda' weird, but the whole thing works...for now.

Blog Bonus: What It Looks Like When You Do It Correctly

P.S. Don't like the over-sized words in the inline Heading? After applying the inline heading, highlight the inline words and change the font size. CAUTION: If you change the inline Heading text size, DON"T update the Heading Style.

And finally, below are some stray links from the Google article on this topic.
Key points from Google Search about inline headings: [1, 2, 3]
  • "Run-in" synonym: Inline headings are also commonly called "run-in headings".
  • Formatting with styles: To create an inline heading, you would typically apply a specific paragraph style that alters the formatting of the heading text while keeping it within the same paragraph.
  • Use cases: This feature is particularly useful when following style guides like APA (American Psychological Association) that require certain heading formats where the heading appears directly within the paragraph. [1, 2, 3]

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