# ODT Writer for Docutils

Author:

  Dave Kuhlman

Contact:
  docutils-develop@lists.sourceforge.net
Revision:
  9953
Date:
  2024-10-20
Copyright:
  This document has been placed in the public domain.

Abstract

This document describes the Docutils writer for OpenDocument Text (.odt) documents.

## 1 Introduction

The Docutils front end rst2odt translates reStructuredText into an OpenDocument Text (.odt) file. OpenDocument files can be opened by most modern office software. It is the native file format for LibreOffice Writer.

## 2 Requirements

In addition to the Docutils standard requirements, odtwriter requires:

- Optional -- Pygments is required if you want syntax highlighting of code in literal blocks. See section Syntax highlighting.

- Optional -- Python Imaging Library (PIL/Pillow) is required if you use the image or figure directive but don't specify width and height. See section Images and figures.

## 3 How to Use It

Run it from the command line as follows:

    $ rst2odt myinput.rst > myoutput.odt

To see usage information and to learn about command line options that you can use, run the following:

    $ rst2odt --help

Examples:

    $ rst2odt -s -g python_comments.rst > python_comments.odt

    $ rst2odt --source-url=odtwriter.rst --generator \
        --stylesheet=/myconfigs/styles.odt odtwriter.rst > odtwriter.odt

### 3.1 Configuration file

The options described below can also be set in a configuration file. Use section [odf_odt writer] to set options specific to the odtwriter. For example:

    [odf_odt writer]
    stylesheet: styles1.odt

See the Docutils Configuration document for more information on Docutils configuration files, including locations which are searched.

### 3.2 Command line options

The following command line options are specific to odtwriter:

`--stylesheet=<URL>`

  Specify a stylesheet URL, used verbatim. Default: writers/odf_odt/styles.odt in the installation directory.

`--odf-config-file=<file>`

  Specify a configuration/mapping file relative to the current working directory for additional ODF options. In particular, this file may contain a section named "Formats" that maps default style names to names to be used in the resulting output file allowing for adhering to external standards. For more info and the format of the configuration/mapping file, see the odtwriter doc.

`--cloak-email-addresses`

  Obfuscate email addresses to confuse harvesters while still keeping email links usable with standards- compliant browsers.

`--no-cloak-email-addresses`

  Do not obfuscate email addresses.

`--table-border-thickness=TABLE_BORDER_THICKNESS`

  Specify the thickness of table borders in thousands of a cm. Default is 35.

`--add-syntax-highlighting`

  Add syntax highlighting in literal code blocks.

`--no-syntax-highlighting`

  Do not add syntax highlighting in literal code blocks. (default)

`--create-sections`

  Create sections for headers. (default)

`--no-sections`

  Do not create sections for headers.

`--create-links`

  Create links.

`--no-links`

  Do not create links. (default)

`--endnotes-end-doc`

  Generate endnotes at end of document, not footnotes at bottom of page.

`--no-endnotes-end-doc`

  Generate footnotes at bottom of page, not endnotes at end of document. (default)

`--generate-list-toc`

  Generate a bullet list table of contents, not an ODF/oowriter table of contents.

`--generate-oowriter-toc`

  Generate an ODF/oowriter table of contents, not a bullet list. (default) Note: odtwriter is not able to determine page numbers, so you will need to open the generated document in oowriter, then right-click on the table of contents and select "Update" to insert page numbers.

`--custom-odt-header=CUSTOM_HEADER`

  Specify the contents of an custom header line. See odf_odt writer documentation for details about special field character sequences. See section Custom header/footers: inserting page numbers, date, time, etc for details

`--custom-odt-footer=CUSTOM_FOOTER`

  Specify the contents of an custom footer line. See odf_odt writer documentation for details about special field character sequences. See section Custom header/footers: inserting page numbers, date, time, etc for details

## 4 Styles and Classes

odtwriter uses a number of styles that are defined in styles.xml in the default styles.odt. This section describes those styles.

Note that with the --stylesheet command line option, you can use either styles.odt or styles.xml, as described below. Use of styles.odt is recommended over styles.xml as, e.g., customizing table styles does not work with an *.xml stylesheet file.

You can modify the look of documents generated by odtwriter in several ways:

- Open (a copy of) styles.odt in OpenOffice/oowriter and modify the style you wish to change. Now, save this document, then generate your documents using this modified copy of styles.odt.

  In my version of oowriter, to modify styles, either (1) press F11 or (2) use menu item "Format/Styles and Formatting", then right-click on the relevant style and select "Modify". Modify the style, then save your document.

- Open a document generated by odtwriter in oowriter`. Now, edit the style you are interested in modifying. Now, you can extract the styles.xml file from your document and either (1) use this as your default styles file or (2) copy and paste the relevant style definition into your styles.xml.

- Extract styles.xml from styles.odt using your favorite zip/unzip tool. Then modify styles.xml with a text editor. Now re-zip it back into your own styles.odt, or use it directly by specifying it with the --stylesheet command line option. Hint: If you intend to extract styles.xml from an .odt file (and then "re-zip" it), you should turn off XML optimization/compression in oowriter. In order to this in oowriter, use Tools --> Options... --> Load-Save --> General and turn off "Size optimization for XML format".

- Open an empty (or new) document in oowriter. Define all of the styles described in this section. Then, use that document (a .odt file) as your stylesheet. odtwriter will extract the styles.xml file from that document and insert it into the output document.

- Some combination of the above.

### 4.1 Styles used by odtwriter

This section describes the styles used by odtwriter.

Note that we do not describe the "look" of these styles. That can be easily changed by using oowriter to edit the document styles.odt (or a copy of it), and modifying any of the styles described here.

To change the definition and appearance of these styles, open styles.odt in oowriter and open the Styles and Formatting window by using the following menu item:

    Format --> Styles and Formatting

Then, click on the Paragraph Styles button or the Character Styles button at the top of the Styles and Formatting window. You may also need to select "All Styles" from the drop-down selection list at the bottom of the Styles and Formatting window in order to see the styles used by odtwriter.

Notice that you can make a copy of file styles.odt, modify it using oowriter, and then use your copy with the --stylesheet=<file> command line option. Example:

    $ rst2odt --stylesheet=mystyles.odt test2.rst > test2.odt

#### 4.1.1 Paragraph styles

rststyle-attribution

  The style for attributions, for example, the attribution in a .. epigraph:: directive. Derived from rststyle-blockquote.

rststyle-blockindent

  An indented block.

rststyle-blockquote

  A block quote.

rststyle-blockquote-bulletitem

  The style for bullet list items inside block quote.

rststyle-blockquote-enumitem

  The style for enumerated list items inside block quote.

rststyle-bodyindent

  An indented block.

rststyle-bulletitem

  An item in an bullet list.

rststyle-caption

  The caption in a figure or image. Also see rststyle-legend.

rststyle-codeblock

  Literal code blocks -- A block of example code. Created with double colon ("::") followed by an indented block or with the .. parsed-literal:: directive. Derived from the Preformatted Text style in oowriter.

rststyle-enumitem

  An item in an enumerated list.

rststyle-epigraph

  The style for epigraphs, for example, the body of an .. epigraph:: directive. Derived from rststyle-blockquote.

rststyle-epigraph-bulletitem

  The style for bullet list items inside epigraphs.

rststyle-epigraph-enumitem

  The style for enumerated list items inside epigraphs.

rststyle-footer

  The style for footers. The footer content originates from the ..footer:: directive and in response to the command line flags for generator (--generator), date/time generated (--date and --time), and view source link (--source-link and --source-url=URL).

rststyle-header

  The style for headers. The header content originates from the ..header:: directive.

rststyle-highlights

  The style for highlightss, for example, the body of an .. highlights:: directive. Derived from rststyle-blockquote.

rststyle-highlights-bulletitem

  The style for bullet list items inside highlights.

rststyle-highlights-enumitem

  The style for enumerated list items inside highlights.

rststyle-horizontalline

  A horizontal line, e.g. used for transitions.

rststyle-legend

  The legend in a figure. See the Docutils figure directive. Also see rststyle-caption.

rststyle-table-title

  The style for titles of tables. See section The table directive.

rststyle-textbody

  Normal text. The style for paragraphs. Derived from the Text body style in oowriter.

#### 4.1.2 Character styles

rststyle-emphasis

  Emphasis. Normally rendered as italics.

rststyle-inlineliteral

  An inline literal.

rststyle-strong

  Strong emphasis. Normally rendered as boldface.

rststyle-quotation

  In-line quoted material.

rststyle-codeblock-classname

  Syntax highlighting in literal code blocks -- class names.

rststyle-codeblock-comment

  Syntax highlighting in literal code blocks -- comments.

rststyle-codeblock-functionname

  Syntax highlighting in literal code blocks -- function names.

rststyle-codeblock-keyword

  Syntax highlighting in literal code blocks -- Python language keywords.

rststyle-codeblock-name

  Syntax highlighting in literal code blocks -- other names, for example, variables.

rststyle-codeblock-number

  Syntax highlighting in literal code blocks -- literal numbers, including integers, floats, hex numbers, and octal numbers.

rststyle-codeblock-operator

  Syntax highlighting in literal code blocks -- Python operators.

rststyle-codeblock-string

  Syntax highlighting in literal code blocks -- literal strings.

#### 4.1.3 List styles

rststyle-bulletlist

  Bullet lists (but not in the table of contents)

rststyle-blockquote-bulletlist

  Bullet lists in block quotes.

rststyle-blockquote-enumlist

  Enumerated lists in block quotes.

rststyle-enumlist-arabic

  Enumerated lists, arabic (but not in the table of contents)

rststyle-enumlist-loweralpha

  Enumerated lists, lower alpha (but not in the table of contents)

rststyle-enumlist-lowerroman

  Enumerated lists, lower roman (but not in the table of contents)

rststyle-enumlist-upperalpha

  Enumerated lists, upper alpha (but not in the table of contents)

rststyle-enumlist-upperroman

  Enumerated lists, upper roman (but not in the table of contents)

rststyle-epigraph-bulletlist

  Bullet lists in epigraphs. See the .. epigraph:: directive.

rststyle-epigraph-enumlist

  Enumerated lists in epigraphs. See the .. epigraph:: directive.

rststyle-highlights-bulletlist

  Bullet lists in highlights blocks. See the .. highlights:: directive.

rststyle-highlights-enumlist

  Enumerated lists in highlights blocks. See the .. highlights:: directive.

rststyle-tocbulletlist

  Lists in the table of contents when section numbering is off.

rststyle-tocenumlist

  Lists in the table of contents when section numbering is on.

#### 4.1.4 Admonition styles

rststyle-admon-attention-hdr

  The style for the attention admonition header/title.

rststyle-admon-attention-body

  The style for the attention admonition body/paragraph.

rststyle-admon-caution-hdr

  The style for the caution admonition header/title.

rststyle-admon-caution-body

  The style for the caution admonition body/paragraph.

rststyle-admon-danger-hdr

  The style for the admonition header/title.

rststyle-admon-danger-body

  The style for the danger admonition body/paragraph.

rststyle-admon-error-hdr

  The style for the error admonition header/title.

rststyle-admon-error-body

  The style for the error admonition body/paragraph.

rststyle-admon-hint-hdr

  The style for the hint admonition header/title.

rststyle-admon-hint-body

  The style for the hint admonition body/paragraph.

rststyle-admon-hint-hdr

  The style for the hint admonition header/title.

rststyle-admon-hint-body

  The style for the hint admonition body/paragraph.

rststyle-admon-important-hdr

  The style for the important admonition header/title.

rststyle-admon-important-body

  The style for the important admonition body/paragraph.

rststyle-admon-note-hdr

  The style for the note admonition header/title.

rststyle-admon-note-hdr

  The style for the note admonition header/title.

rststyle-admon-tip-body

  The style for the tip admonition body/paragraph.

rststyle-admon-tip-hdr

  The style for the tip admonition header/title.

rststyle-admon-warning-body

  The style for the warning admonition body/paragraph.

rststyle-admon-warning-hdr

  The style for the warning admonition header/title.

rststyle-admon-generic-body

  The style for the generic admonition body/paragraph.

rststyle-admon-generic-hdr

  The style for the generic admonition header/title.

#### 4.1.5 Rubric style

rststyle-rubric

  The style for the text in a rubric directive.

The rubric directive recognizes a "class" option. If entered, odtwriter uses the value of that option instead of the rststyle-rubric style. Here is an example which which attaches the rststyle-heading1 style to the generated rubric:

    .. rubric:: This is my first rubric
       :class: rststyle-heading1

#### 4.1.6 Table styles

A table style is generated by oowriter for each table that you create. Therefore, odtwriter attempts to do something similar. These styles are created in the content.xml document in the generated .odt file. These styles have names prefixed with "rststyle-table-".

There are two ways in which you can control the styles of your tables: one simple, the other a bit more complex, but more powerful.

First, you can change the thickness of the borders of all tables generated in a document using the "--table-border-thickness" command line option.

Second, you can control additional table properties and you can apply different styles to different tables within the same document by customizing and using tables in your stylesheet: styles.odt or whatever you name your copy of it using the --stylesheet command line option. Then, follow these rules to apply a table style to the tables in your document:

- The default table style -- Optionally, alter and customize the style applied by default to tables in your document by modifying table "rststyle-table-0" in your stylesheet (styles.odt or a copy). Caution: Do not change the name of this table.

- User-created table styles -- Add one or more new table styles to be applied selectively to tables in your document by doing the following:

  1. Using oowriter, add a table to your stylesheet and give it a name that starts with the prefix "rststyle-table-", for example "rststyle-table-vegetabledata". Customize the table's border thickness, border color, and table background color.

  2. In your reStructuredText document, apply your new table style to a specific table by placing the ".. class::" directive immediately before the table, for example:

         .. class:: rststyle-table-vegetabledata

The default table style will be applied to all tables for which you do not specify a style with the ".. class::" directive.

Customize the table properties in oowriter using the table properties dialog for the table (style) that you wish to customize.

Note that "--table-border-thickness" command line option overrides the border thickness specified in the stylesheet.

The specific properties that you can control with this second method are the following:

- Border thickness and border color.

- Background color -- When you change the background color of a table to be used as a style (in styles.odt or whatever you name it), make sure you change the background color for the table and not for a cell in the table. odtwriter picks the background color from the table, not from a cell within the table.

#### 4.1.7 Line block styles

The line block styles wrap the various nested levels of line blocks. There is one line block style for each indent level.

rststyle-lineblock1

  Line block style for line block with no indent.

rststyle-lineblock2

  Line block style for line block indented 1 level.

rststyle-lineblock3

  Line block style for line block indented 2 levels.

rststyle-lineblock4

  Line block style for line block indented 3 levels.

rststyle-lineblock5

  Line block style for line block indented 4 levels.

rststyle-lineblock6

  Line block style for line block indented 5 levels.

Notes:

- odtwriter does not check for a maximum level of indents within line blocks. Therefore, you can define additional line block styles for additional levels if you need them. Define these styles with the names rststyle-lineblock7, rststyle-lineblock8, ...

- Since the line block style is used to create indentation, a line block that is inside a block quote will use rststyle-lineblock2 as its first level of indentation.

#### 4.1.8 Footnote and citation styles

rststyle-footnote

  The style for footnotes. This style affects the footnote content, not the footnote reference in the body of the document.

rststyle-citation

  The style for citations. This style affects the citation content, not the citation reference in the body of the document. You might need to adjust the indentation in this style depending on the length of the label used in your citations.

#### 4.1.9 Heading and title styles

rststyle-heading{1|2|3|4|5}

  The styles for headings (section titles and sub-titles). Five levels of sub-headings are provided: rststyle-heading1 through rststyle-heading5.

rststyle-title

  The style for the document title.

rststyle-subtitle

  The style for the document sub-title.

#### 4.1.10 Image and figure styles

rststyle-image

  The style applied to an image, either an image by itself or an image in a figure.

rststyle-figureframe

  The style applied to a figure (actually to the frame that surrounds a figure).

### 4.2 Defining and using a custom stylesheet

You can create your own custom stylesheet. Here is how:

1. Make a copy of styles.odt, which is in the distribution.

2. Open your copy of styles.odt in oowriter. Modify styles in that document. Then, save it.

3. When you run rst2odt, use the --stylesheet command line option to use your custom stylesheet. Run rst2odt --help to learn more about these options.

#### 4.2.1 Why custom stylesheets

Here are a few reasons and ideas:

- The page size is stored in the style sheet. The default page size is US Letter. You can change the page size (for example, to A4) in your custom stylesheet by opening it in oowriter, then clicking on menu: Format/Page..., then clicking on the Page tab.

### 4.3 Defining and using custom style names

[Credits: Stefan Merten designed and implemented the custom style names capability. Thank you, Stefan.]

You can also instruct odtwriter to use style names of your own choice.

#### 4.3.1 Why custom style names

Here are a few reasons and ideas:

- Suppose that your organization has a standard set of styles in OOo oowriter and suppose that the use of these styles is required. You would like to generate ODF documents from reST text files, and you want the generated documents to contain these styles.

- Suppose that your company or organization has a policy of using a certain MS Word template for some set of documents. You would like to generate ODF documents that use these custom style names, so that you can export these documents from ODF oowriter to MS Word documents that use these style names.

- Suppose that your documents are written in a language other than English. You would like the style names visible in the "Styles and Formatting" window in OOo oowriter (menu item Format/Styles and Formatting) to be understandable in the language of your users.

- odtwriter maps single asterisks/stars (for example, *stuff*) to emphasis and double stars to strong. You'd like to reverse these. Or, you would like to generate headings level 3 and 4 where headings level 1 and 2 would normally be produced.

#### 4.3.2 How to use custom style names

In order to define custom style names and to generate documents that contain them, do the following:

1. Create a configuration file containing a "Formats" section. The configuration file obeys the file format supported by the Python ConfigParser module: ConfigParser -- Configuration file parser -- https://docs.python.org/3/library/configparser.html.

2. In the "Formats" section of the configuration file, create one option (a name-value pair) for each custom style name that you wish to define. The option name is the standard odtwriter style name (without "rststyle-"), and the value is your custom style name. Here is an example:

       [Formats]
       textbody: mytextbody
       bulletitem: mybulletitem
       heading1: myheading1
           o
           o
           o

3. Create a styles document that defines the styles generated by odtwriter. You can create and edit the styles in OOo oowriter. It may be helpful to begin by making a copy of the styles document that is part of the odtwriter distribution (styles.odt).

4. When you run odtwriter, specify the --odf-config-file option. You might also want to specify your styles document using the --stylesheet option in order to include your custom style definitions. For example:

       rst2odt --odf-config-file=mymappingfile.ini \
         --stylesheet=mystyles.odt mydoc.rst mydoc.odt

### 4.4 Classes

odtwriter uses the following Docutils class to provide additional control of the generation of ODF content:

- Class wrap -- Use this to cause the wrapping of text around an image. The default is not to wrap text around images. Here is an example:

      .. class:: wrap
      .. image:: images/flower01.png
          :alt: A bright yellow flower
          :height: 55
          :width: 60

### 4.5 Roles

You can use a Docutils custom interpreted text role to attach a character style to an inline area of text. This capability also enables you to attach a new character style (with a new name) that you define yourself. Do this by defining your role in a stylesheet as a character style with "rststyle-" prefixed to your role name, then use the role directive and inline markup to apply your role.

In order to use this capability, do the following:

- Define the character style for your custom role in a stylesheet (a copy of styles.odt) with the prefix "rststyle-". Remember: (1) If the name of your custom role is "pretty", then define a character style named "rststyle-pretty". (2) Define the style as a character style, and not, for example as a paragraph style.

- Declare your role in the source reStructuredText document in a role directive. Example:

      .. role:: pretty

- Use inline markup to apply your role to text. Example:

      We have :pretty:`very nice` apples.

Here is another example:

    .. role:: fancy

    Here is some :fancy:`pretty text` that looks fancy.

For more on roles see: Custom Interpreted Text Roles -- https://docutils.sourceforge.io/docs/ref/rst/directives.html#custom-interpreted-text-roles.

Note: The ability to base a role on another existing role is not supported by odtwriter.

## 5 Hints and Suggestions and Features

### 5.1 Table of contents

The ..contents:: directive causes odtwriter to generate either:

1. A static, outline style table of contents, if the --generate-list-toc command line option is specified, or

2. An ODF/oowriter style table of contents containing dynamically updated page numbers and with the formatting control that oowriter gives you. This is the default, or use the command line option --generate-list-toc. Note: odtwriter is not able to determine page numbers, so you will need to open the generated document in oowriter, then right-click on the table of contents and select "Update" to insert correct page numbers.

### 5.2 Syntax highlighting

odtwriter can add syntax highlighting to code in code blocks. In order to activate this, do all of the following:

1. Install Pygments and ...

2. Use the command line option --add-syntax-highlighting. Example:

       $ rst2odt --add-syntax-highlight test.rst > test.odt

The following styles are defined in styles.odt and are used for literal code blocks and syntax highlighting:

- Paragraph styles:

  - rststyle-codeblock -- The style for the code block as a whole.

- Character styles:

  - rststyle-codeblock-classname -- class names.

  - rststyle-codeblock-comment -- comments.

  - rststyle-codeblock-functionname -- function names.

  - rststyle-codeblock-keyword -- Python language keywords.

  - rststyle-codeblock-name -- other names, for example, variables.

  - rststyle-codeblock-number -- literal numbers, including integers, floats, hex numbers, and octal numbers.

  - rststyle-codeblock-operator -- Python operators.

  - rststyle-codeblock-string -- literal strings.

Each of the above styles has a default appearance that is defined in styles.odt. To change that definition and appearance, open styles.odt in oowriter and use menu item:

    Format --> Styles and Formatting

Then, click on the Paragraph Styles button or the Character Styles button at the top of the Styles and Formatting window. You may also need to select "All Styles" from the drop-down selection list at the bottom of the Styles and Formatting window.

### 5.3 The container directive

There is limited support for the container directive. The limitations and rules for the container directive are the following:

- Only the first class in the list of classes (arguments) is used.

- That class/style must be a paragraph style and not (for example) a character style.

- The style/class given to the container directive will have a "rststyle-" prefix in the odt file.

So, for example:

    .. container:: style-1 style-2 style-3

        a block of text

- Only style-1 is used; style-2 and style-3 are ignored.

- rststyle-style-1 must be defined. It should be an existing, predefined style, or you should define it in your stylesheet (styles.odt or the argument to the --stylesheet command line option).

- rststyle-style-1 must be a paragraph style.

To define a paragraph style, use the following menu item in oowriter:

    Format --> Styles and Formatting

Then, click on the Paragraph Styles button.

The following example attaches the rststyle-heading2 style (a predefined style) to each paragraph/line in the container:

    .. container:: heading2

       Line 1 of container.

       Line 2 of container.

More information on how to define a new style (for example, in your styles.odt) can be found in section Defining and using custom style names.

### 5.4 The table directive

The table directive can be used to add a title to a table. Example:

    .. table:: A little test table

        =========== =============
        Name        Value
        =========== =============
        Dave        Cute
        Mona        Smart
        =========== =============

The above will insert the title "A little test table" at the top of the table. You can modify the appearance of the title by modifying the paragraph style rststyle-table-title.

### 5.5 Footnotes and citations

Footnotes and citations are supported.

There are additional styles rststyle-footnote and rststyle-citation for footnotes and citations. See Footnote and citation styles.

You may need to modify the citation style to fit the length of your citation references.

Endnotes -- There are command line options that control whether odtwriter creates endnotes instead of footnotes. Endnotes appear at the end of the document instead of at the bottom of the page. See flags --endnotes-end-doc and --no-endnotes-end-doc in section Command line options.

### 5.6 Images and figures

The ODT Writer only supports fixed length units ("cm", "mm", "in", "pc", "pt", "px) for the size attributes "width", and "height". The fallback unit (used for attribute values without unit) is "px".

If on the image or the figure directive you do not provide the width and height options, then odtwriter will attempt to determine the size of the image using the Python Imaging Library (PIL/Pillow). If odtwriter cannot find and import the Python Imaging Library, it will raise an exception. If this ocurrs, you can fix it by doing one of the following:

- Install the Python Imaging Library or

- Add both the width and the height options.

For more information about PIL, see: Python Imaging Library.

### 5.7 The raw directive

The raw directive is supported. Use output format type "odt".

You will need to be careful about the formatting of the raw content. In particular, introduced whitespace might be a problem.

In order to produce content for the raw directive for use by odtwriter, you might want to extract the file content.xml from a .odt file (using some Zip tool), and then clip, paste, and modify a selected bit of it.

Here is an example:

    .. raw:: odt

        <text:p text:style-name="rststyle-textbody">Determining
        <text:span text:style-name="rststyle-emphasis">which</text:span>
        namespace a name is in is static.  It can be determined by a
        lexical scan of the code.  If a variable is assigned a value
        <text:span text:style-name="rststyle-emphasis">anywhere</text:span>
        in a scope (specifically within a function or method body),
        then that variable is local to that scope.  If Python does
        not find a variable in the local scope, then it looks next
        in the global scope (also sometimes called the module scope)
        and then in the built-ins scope.  But, the
        <text:span text:style-name="rststyle-inlineliteral">global</text:span>
        statement can be used to force Python to find and use a global
        variable (a variable defined at top level in a module) rather
        than create a local one.</text:p>

### 5.8 The meta directive

odtwriter supports the meta directive. "keywords" and "description" are set in their respective odt fields. Other meta fields are set as "Custom Properties". Here is an example:

    .. meta::
       :keywords: reStructuredText, docutils, formatting
       :description lang=en: A reST document, contains formatted
           text in a formatted style.
       :custom_var: Value

To see the results of the meta directive in oowriter, select menu item "File/Properties...", then click on the "Description" tab ("keywords" and "description" fields) and the "Custom Properties" tab.

### 5.9 Footnote references inside footnotes

Not supported.

Get a grip. Be serious. Try a dose of reality.

odtwriter ignores them.

They cause oowriter to croak.

### 5.10 Page size

The default page size, in documents generated by the ODT writer is "US Letter". You can change this (for example to A4) by using a custom stylesheet. See Defining and using a custom stylesheet for instructions on how to do this.

On machines which support paperconf, the ODT writer can insert the default page size for your locale. In order for this to work, the following conditions must be met:

1. The program paperconf must be available on your system. odtwriter uses paperconf -s to obtain the paper size. See man paperconf for more information.

2. The page height and width settings must be absent from the stylesheet used to generate the document.

   You can use the Python script prepstyles.py distributed with Docutils to remove the page height and width settings from a stylesheet file STYLES.odt with

       $ python3 -m docutils.writers.odf_odt.prepstyles STYLES.odt

   (the command changed in Docutils 0.20.1).

Warning

If you edit your stylesheet in oowriter and then save it, oowriter automatically inserts a page height and width in the styles for that (stylesheet) document. If that is not the page size that you want and you want odtwriter to insert a default page size using paperconf, then you will need to strip the page size from your stylesheet each time you edit that stylesheet with oowriter.

### 5.11 Custom header/footers: inserting page numbers, date, time, etc

You can specify custom headers and footers for your document from the command line. These headers and footers can be used to insert fields such as the page number, page count, date, time, etc. See below for a complete list.

To insert a custom header or footer, use the "--custom-odt-header" or "--custom-odt-footer" command line options. For example, the following inserts a footer containing the page number and page count:

    $ rst2odt --custom-odt-footer="Page %p% of %P%" f1.rst > f1.odt

#### 5.11.1 Field specifiers

You can use the following field specifiers to insert oowriter fields in your custom headers and footers:

%p%

  The current page number.

%P%

  The number of pages in the document.

%d1%

  The current date in format 12/31/99.

%d2%

  The current date in format 12/31/1999.

%d3%

  The current date in format Dec 31, 1999.

%d4%

  The current date in format December 31, 1999.

%d5%

  The current date in format 1999-12-31.

%t1%

  The current time in format 14:22.

%t2%

  The current time in format 14:22:33.

%t3%

  The current time in format 02:22 PM.

%t4%

  The current time in format 02:22:33 PM.

%a%

  The author of the document (actually the initial creator).

%t%

  The document title.

%s%

  The document subject.

Note: The use of the above field specifiers in the body of your reStructuredText document is not supported, because these specifiers are not standard across Docutils writers.

## 6 Credits

Stefan Merten designed and implemented the custom style names capability. Thank you, Stefan.

Michael Schutte supports the Debian GNU/Linux distribution of odtwriter. Thank you, Michael, for providing and supporting the Debian package.

Michael Schutte implemented the fix that enables odtwriter to pick up the default paper size on platforms where the program paperconf is available. Thank you.