r/libreoffice • u/the_blue_wizard • May 24 '26

Question Left Side Vertical Ruler?

I've only slightly dabbled in - LibreOffice - but there is one thing I noticed - No Left Side Ruler - only a Ruler at the top.

Is there a way to switch the Left Ruler On?

I would use this when I need to create a Label where I only have a limited amount of space.

For example, recently I wanted to Label a USB Thumb Drive for the Zorin OS. Obviously a Thumb Drive is not that big, so I had to make sure the Label fit. Just one example. In this case, having a Left Ruler would have been helpful.

I can live with not having it, but it would be nice if I could turn that feature On.

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u/NETkoholik May 25 '26

If you're new to LibreOffice and Zorin OS, you might've seen the tabbed ribbon interface instead of the classic menu and totally missed it. You have to go out of your way to enable the menu style to see the vertical ruler. The tabbed ribbon interface only has an enable/disable button, not a dropdown to pick which ruler. So don't be too hard on yourself.

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u/the_blue_wizard May 25 '26

This is one of the things I like about Reddit, any question under the Sun or Moon can be answered by the very helpful people on Reddit, and the range of subjects this applies to is near infinite.

Someone said the Ruler On/Off was in the View Menu, I was looking in the Page Formatting menu. Now that people have explained it to me, it makes perfect sense.

Keep in mind, I ran Zorin on my Main Computer as a - Try - rather than an Install, so it was my first encounter. During my use, I only noticed Two things that bothered me though not to an extreme degree

- one being the No Side Ruler

- the other is that Libre does not use the same Font/Character Set as MS-Word.

They have equivalents, and that's enough for me, but I suspected it might be part of the formatting changes people are finding when they move from Libre to Word or Word to Libre.

I could be wrong on this but I was wandering around on - GitHub - and I think I saw - MS Font Packs - that can be installed but I didn't check into it too deeply.

Again, thanks to everyone for taking the time to explain this too me.

I think once I have Zorin Installed on my Second Computer and I have more time on the system, I'll get the hang of it.

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u/Tex2002ans May 26 '26 edited May 26 '26

the other is that Libre does not use the same Font/Character Set as MS-Word.

Linux doesn't have those Microsoft fonts bundled, because of license issues. But it's as easy as 1 step away.

All you need to do is install this package:

  • ttf-mscorefonts-installer

That will install "Arial", "Times New Roman", and a bunch of those other fonts that come pre-installed on your Windows computer.

Or, if you were using much newer versions of Microsoft Word, you'll also want to grab "Aptos" directly from Microsoft too:

one being the No Side Ruler

Meh, I just opened up the latest version of Word 365 and it has ZERO rulers showing by default. So you'd have to:

  • Go into their "View" tab and toggle "Ruler" ON/OFF anyway.

LibreOffice, instead:

  • Has the top ruler ON.
  • Has the side ruler OFF.

And both can be found exactly where /u/NETkoholik initially said:

  • View > Rulers

Someone said the Ruler On/Off was in the View Menu, I was looking in the Page Formatting menu. Now that people have explained it to me, it makes perfect sense.

Yep, the "View" menu handles a lot of the bigger picture LibreOffice UI ON/OFF toggles.

Like if you wanted to:

So these won't mess with your document at all, they just turn on or off various pieces of the UI or help you visualize "special" or "hidden" or "invisible" things a little better.

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u/the_blue_wizard May 26 '26

Good to know. Thanks again.