Autoformatting
Writer can be set to automatically format parts of a document according to the choices made on the Options tab of the AutoCorrect dialog box (Tools > AutoCorrect > Options). See Figure 56.
The online help describes each of these choices and how to activate the autoformats. Some common unwanted or unexpected formatting changes include:
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Horizontal lines. If you type three or more hyphens (---), underscores (___) or equal signs (===) on a line and then press Enter the paragraph is replaced by a horizontal line as wide as the page. The line is actually the lower border of the preceding paragraph.
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Bulleted and numbered lists. A bulleted list is created when you type a hyphen (-), star (*), or plus sign (+), followed by a space or tab at the beginning of a paragraph. A numbered list is created when you type a number followed by a period (.), followed by a space or tab at the beginning of a paragraph. Automatic numbering is only applied to paragraphs formatted with the Default, Text body or Text body indent paragraph styles.
TIP
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If you notice unexpected formatting changes occurring in your document, this is the first place to look for the cause.
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To turn autoformatting on or off, go to Format > AutoFormat (Figure 57) and select or deselect the items on the submenu.
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While Typing automatically formats the document while you type.
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If While Typing is deselected, you can select Apply to automatically format the file.
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Apply and Edit Changes automatically formats the file and then opens a dialog box where you can accept or reject the changes.