Advanced page formatting for PDF export

[Nascent]

Hey all, I'm hoping some of the more seasoned OpenOffice users can help me sort out a struggle with the program I've been having. I'm currently using OpenOffice Writer to design and publish issues of a free online magazine, however there are some things I just can't figure out how to do with it. Just for technical info I'm running on Windows 7 and doing a process of exporting to PDF and then converting via a separate tool into HTML5. My target platform is mobile.

I have two main issues thusfar. First, it seems that regardless of the settings I use for export the PDF (and subsequent HTML5 page) doesn't size properly to the screen it's on. It should enlarge such that the first page (cover graphic) fills the screen, however instead it comes out tiny -- at launch it scales down to roughly 3/4 of the screen at most with the top of page 2 poking out at the bottom.

My second issue may be more of a trick to solve, and I admit may not even be possible, but... is there some way to set it up so that the pages of my document will display horizontally instead of vertically? Scrolling (swiping) down for the next page is fairly counter-intuitive for a magazine publication, even online, and if I could correct this it would be a huge boost to the stylistics of the publication.

Thanks in advance to anyone who can help!

[keme]

Initial thought: The PDF format is not created for dynamic layout (adapting to various display formats), so you may be "going against the current" when you use that for an intermediate stage.

Display of PDF depends on the receiving application. The originating app (Writer in this case) can provide hints of the preferred output, but the receiving app (PDF viewer, file conversion tool) does not always respect (or even understand) those hints.

A few settings which may help towards your request (taken from LibreOffice 4.3, options may differ slightly in OpenOffice Writer):

• Use a page size which corresponds to the target screen format.
• File - Export to PDF... , the General tab
  • Untick PDF/A-1a
• Initial View tab
  • Panes: Page only
  • Magnification: Fit width
• User Interface tab
  • Tick Full screen mode
  • Tick all "hide" options

Horizontal scrolling may also be available in the conversion tool. In one PDF viewer I tried once, default transition for "presentation view" was horizontal. You might try creating your publication in Impress instead, and see what happens...

[RoryOF]

i have very little experience in formatting for eBooks, but I have always found Calibre very satisfactory for this. It can read .odt files directly and offers (at the cost of reading the manual and experimenting) a very wide range of formatting options.

[Nascent]

Unfortunately, the advice provided so far hasn't really helped. Keme, it seemed at first that you were on the right track but, ultimately, I got the exact same results. Like you suggested, the conversion tool must not recognize the settings I'm trying to put in place. I may need to start thinking differently about this.

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i have very little experience in formatting for eBooks, but I have always found Calibre very satisfactory for this. It can read .odt files directly and offers (at the cost of reading the manual and experimenting) a very wide range of formatting options.

This is for direct-to-web, so an ebook reader isn't really of any help unfortunately.

[RoryOF]

Calibre is not merely an eBook reader; it offers extensive eBook generation facilities, as you will find if you read the manuals.