Often a cell area of your Calc sheet or a table inside a Writer text document needs to be formatted. The first row and/or column should have a different background, the font should look bold or italic, the values should get some numbering formats.
And you have at least three wishes when applying the formatting:
Fast and easy, with as few clicks as possible.
Always the same style.
Looking nice.
The answer is easy: It is called AutoFormat. AutoFormat defines a set of different formatting rules and properties with a distinctive name. Several AutoFormats are already supplied and installed in Calc and Writer.
If you don't like the supplied AutoFormats, you can add your own AutoFormats and give them the names you want. Format a table as you like, select all the formatted cells, then open Format-AutoFormat to add your formatting as a new style. Easy, isn't it?
You can add backgrounds, borders, set automatic cell width and height, use currency formats, and more. You can even apply patterns, which means defining alternating colors for alternating rows or columns.
To apply an AutoFormat
Select an area of cells.
Choose Format - AutoFormat.
Select a name from the left list and watch the preview in the dialog.
Click OK to apply the AutoFormat.
