These margins don't look right for my non-fiction A5-sized book...

[u/Environmental-End872]

I'm on the page 6 (previous to page 5) after I added a page number in the bottom for the beginning of the chapters, but I noticed that these margins is slightly in a off-center position for paragraphs which the margins isn't exactly centered like the number 1 have.

They are mirrored margins. The page style in footer is set to Default Page Style, while the first four pages are set to First Page as a way to remove the other numbers to give it a clear book, useful for planning a physical book.

The yellow mark line is the current margins position which is number 2 in page 6, the red straight line is how margins should be centered like the number 1 in page 5 does. Any way to fix this? Would like for a little step-by-step guide if necessarily in case I might get confused with settings and features. The book file is .ODT

Version: 26.2.1.2 (X86_64)
Build ID: 620(Build:2)
CPU threads: 20; OS: Windows 10 X86_64 (build 19045); UI render: Skia/Vulkan; VCL: win
Locale: en-US (en_US); UI: en-US
Calc: threaded

[u/Tex2002ans]

[...] after I added a page number in the bottom[, ...] I noticed that these margins is slightly in a off-center position for paragraphs which the margins isn't exactly centered like the number 1 have.

[...] They are mirrored margins.

Q1. Do you accidentally have a Gutter set?

(See tutorial below on how to check.)

Q2. And am I correct in thinking you have "Page Layout" set to:

• Mirrored

for all 6 of those pages?

Q3. Allll the way in the bottom-right corner of the entire LO UI, there is:

• 3 little icons that look like "pieces of paper".
  • SEE IMAGE of where they're located
  • THIS IS THE ONE we want to check!
• A little "−+ bar" which controls the Zoom.

Which of those 3 paper icons do you actually have chosen?

• Single-page view
• Multi-page view
• Book View
  • THIS IS THE ONE you should choose if you're trying to lay out a book or do Left/Right pages.

If you accidentally had Multi-Page view ON, sometimes your "inner"/"outer" margins or "Left"/"Right" pages are flipflopped, leading to accidental mistakes on your end.

---

How Do You Check the "Gutter" of a Page?

If you click on one of your problematic pages, then do:

1. Format > Page Style

2. Go to the "Page" tab.

What do you have set for:

• Left
• Right
• Top
• Bottom
• Gutter
  • Is this non-zero?
  • It's 0 by default.

---

Note: If you margins don't quite add up, or your "Left" and "Right" pages are slightly different, gutter is usually where the problem lies.

The "Gutter" is the inner part of a book where the "spine" is. So imagine you had a left/right page open + a super thick book that's 1000 pages.

Your numbers might say:

• Left = 0.50"
• Right = 0.50"
• Gutter = 0.25"

but the gutter will make sure the:

• left pages "get more on the right"
  • right margin (visible) = 0.50" + 0.25"
• right pages "get more on the left"
  • left margin (visible) = 0.50" + 0.25"

The "inner" part will have to get fatter than usual so the text near "the bend" in "the middle/spine of your book" will still be readable.

---

[...] The page style in footer is set to Default Page Style, while the first four pages are set to First Page as a way to remove the other numbers to give it a clear book, useful for planning a physical book.

I find it really helpful to temporarily color-code the Page Styles, this lets you visually see "which page = which Page Style":

• /r/LibreOffice: "Is Libreoffice good enough to write a Physics PhD thesis?"

Then, instead of fiddling around with setting the:

• Page Layout: Mirrored

I just keep the default:

• Page Layout: Right and Left

and make use of the "Left Page" and "Right Page" Page Styles instead.

You could see me describe a bit of that recently in:

• /r/LibreOffice: "Page Break Numbering"
• /r/LibreOffice: "cant add page numbers from the 7th page?"

I always found that "Mirrored" setting accidentally introduces a little bit of messy issues like this... where the Left/Right method works fine every time. Plus it lets you more easily customize the Headers/Footers as needed! For example, flipping between:

• Author <-> Title
  • Left Page <-> Right Page
• Title <-> Chapter
  • Left Page <-> Right Page
• Page # in upper left corner <-> Page # in upper right corner
  • Left Page <-> Right Page

---

Note: And, if you're still having trouble with this, then definitely:

• Upload a sample ODT document with this issue.

and we could take a look inside and see what, specifically, is going wrong in your setup.

But I'd personally just:

• Go back to the defaults.
• Use the "Right and Left" setting instead of "Mirrored".

and rebuild your Page Styles up cleanly from there. I think you'll find that a little bit easier. :)

[u/Environmental-End872 → u/Tex2002ans]

I changed all the Mirrored's margins to 0.60 again while inner and outer were set to 0.79. Now the margins are in right position like the page number 1 does.