Double space? (OpenOffice formatting)

Set your line spacing to "double" in whatever program you're using, then forget about hitting return except for a new paragraph.

It will then look similar to your second paragraph.

Does that make sense?

What are you using? MS Office (Word)?

Just let the computer do the double spacing. Do not hit enter twice at the end of each line or you are asking for a headache. Unless you have stock in Advil, let the computer double space.

In OpenOffice-- go to Format--> Paragraph. You'll see a drop box with "Line Spacing." Select double. Easy. =)

Already some good advice here. Also, check out Cathy_C's thread above about formatting manuscripts. It is very helpful and explains a lot, including the double spacing thingy.

The link is here: http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=26126

Jennasis said:

Thank you for that. I'll have to check the settings, but (God help me) I am using Openoffice. My husband INSISTS on us being a Linux household, so I'm stuck with it. I even begged for a laptop of my own (so I could use windows Word/MS office like a normal person) and the very first thing he did when the new laptop arrived was to install Linux. I was hopping mad. But on the plus side, the laptop can "see" our PC through our wi-fi so I can work on my projects on either computer.

Click to expand...

There were a few other settings I was going to suggest to make your life easier, but I don't know anything about OpenOffice. Maybe someone who uses it will comes and along and offer whatever tips they have.

If you can, be sure you don't have Widow/Orphan control on (it should be somewhere near the line spacing setting). This is one you can always change later if it's on.

This Webpage is a very good resource for OpenOffice. I basically spent a day fiddling with my settings for OpenOffice instead of writing a couple weeks back and I've been very happy. Honestly, I've used it and Word, and I muchly prefer this program over all.

When I got Erebus (my new laptop) just last month, I decided to do an open source experiment and avoid Microsoft products (though I'm still running WinVista 64). I gotta say, I'm a lot happier with it, and none of my antivirus software mistakes it for malicious programming.

I am assuming that you're using OpenOffice 3.

In OOoWriter (the word processing program), in the upper left corner is a little button that, when you hover over it, says "Styles and Formatting". If you click on that, a menu pops up, and towards the bottom is an option that says "Text body indent." This is the option I use for manuscript formatting. Click with the right mouse button, go to "Modify", and it'll open a multi-tabbed dialogue box. You'll have options to set your font and all that (I like using Calibri, which I understand is on the "short list" of acceptable fonts now).

Click on the "Indents and Spacing" tab. Set the number in "Before text" to 0.00". Set the "First line" to 0.50" for a half inch, 0.75" for three-quarters inch indent. Below this in the third section, set your line spacing to "Double".

You can also go over to the "Text Flow" tab and make sure there are no checkmarks on this page, especially below where the "Orphan control" and "Widow control" boxes are. This is the option that makes the program move a couple of lines down to or from new pages as you type, trying to keep at least two sentences of a paragraph together. Some people don't mind it, but I find it bloody irritating.

Everything else should be pretty normal and pre-set to standards. You will have to make this adjustment for new documents, just so you know, unless someone else knows how to change the automatic pre-sets (although, really, if you're using this for more than just writing books, keeping the standards are fine).


Also, with Script Frenzy right around the corner, you might wanna check out the Screenplay template, plus what that guy had to say about OOo versus MSWord.


ETA: Oh, I see how it is now... I type it all out, and meanwhile you're off taking someone else's advice? (Totally kidding! )