# OpenOffice document: Which chapter am I editing?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/openoffice-document-which-chapter-am-i-editing/527054>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [January 30, 2010, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/openoffice-document-which-chapter-am-i-editing/527054 "2010-01-30T20:52:42Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Ponderoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponderoid/32/19221_2.png) [@Ponderoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponderoid)\
**Post date:** [January 30, 2010, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/openoffice-document-which-chapter-am-i-editing/527054/1 "2010-01-30T20:52:42Z")

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I’m working on a huge 20+ chapter document in OpenOffice. I frequently need to know which chapter I’m currently revising, and it’s a bit of a pain to have to page up or down to find one of the bolded chapter titles to see. Is there a way for me to set up the document so that I can activate some kind of shortcut that tells me the current chapter?

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**Author:** ![chorpler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chorpler/32/2888_2.png) [@chorpler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chorpler)\
**Post date:** [January 30, 2010, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/openoffice-document-which-chapter-am-i-editing/527054/2 "2010-01-30T22:32:45Z")

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Does OpenOffice have a feature like Word’s “Document Map” that displays a little panel on the left showing which document section you’re in?

A quick googling shows people mentioning OpenOffice having something called “Navigator,” brought up by pressing the F5 key. Like Document Map in Word, you have to tell it where the sections/chapters are before it works, though, apparently.

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**Author:** ![si\_blakely](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@si\_blakely](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/si_blakely)\
**Post date:** [January 31, 2010, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/openoffice-document-which-chapter-am-i-editing/527054/3 "2010-01-31T00:27:07Z")

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Chapters can be defined using the default **Heading 1** style and numbering, and displayed in Headers/Footers.

Otherwise, mark each chapter as a section - this is displayed in the status bar.

Si

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**Author:** ![Ponderoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponderoid/32/19221_2.png) [@Ponderoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponderoid)\
**Post date:** [January 31, 2010, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/openoffice-document-which-chapter-am-i-editing/527054/4 "2010-01-31T01:53:36Z")

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> [@si\_blakely](#):
>
> Otherwise, mark each chapter as a section - this is displayed in the status bar.

Thanks, that’s exactly what I needed, and it was an easy painless change. I was able to highlight each chapter in turn, and do insert-\>section from the menu, and poof, it was a section I could then name.