Advanced layout features

1.Flows

Complex documents often contain footnotes or floating objects, which appear differently on pages as the main text. In fact, the content of such complex documents use several flows, one for the main text, one for the footnotes, one for floats, and still another one for two column text. The different flows are broken across pages in a quite independent way.

In order to insert a footnote, you may use Insert→Page insertion→Footnote. The number of columns of the text may be changed in Paragraph→Number of columns.

2.Floating objects

Floating objects are allowed to move on the page independently from the main text. Usually they contain figures or tables which are too large to nicely fit into the main text. A floating object may be inserted using Insert→Page insertion→Floating object.

You may also create a floating object and directly insert a figure or table inside it using Insert→Page insertion→Floating figure resp. Insert→Page insertion→Floating table. However, sometimes you might want to insert several smaller figures or tables inside one floating object. You may do this using Insert→Image→Small figure resp. Insert→Table→Small table.

After creating a floating object, you may control its position using Insert→Position float (when inside the float). You may specify whether you allow the floating object to appear at the top of the page, at the bottom, directly in the text, or on the next page. By default, the float may appear everywhere. However, a floating object will never appear inside the main text at less than three lines from the bottom or the top of a page.

3.Page breaking

The page breaking may be controlled very precisely by the user inside Document→Page→Breaking. In the submenu Algorithm, you may specify the algorithm being used. Professional page breaking is best in print, but may slow down the editing when being used interactively in paper mode. Sloppy page breaking is fastest and medium is professional except for multicolumn material, for which the professional algorithm is significantly slower.

You may also allow the page breaking algorithm to enlarge or reduce the length of pages in exceptional cases in the submenu Limits. The stretchability of vertical space between paragraphs and so may be specified in Flexibility. The factor 1 is default; a smaller factor enforces a more rigid spacing, but the quality of the breaks may decrease.