Apache OpenOffice Community Forum

I cannot figure out how to do away with formatting. Sometimes I want the number formatting to work sometimes I do not. This is about as basic as you can get - how do I fix this? The whole program is useless if I cannot go all the way to the left! Edit Undo does not get me all the way to the left. Please help! Again, the whole program is pretty useless if you cannot stick the cursor where I want it to go - not where the computer tells me I have to put it!!!!!!!

Apache OpenOffice contain a number of components - a spreadsheet, word processor, presentation tool and others.

Without knowing which component you are using, and exactly what you are doing when you are encountering the problem, we can only guess. Please provide specific details of the component you are using and exactly what you are doing.

If you are talking about the spreadsheet application, Calc, , you may find the following to be useful resources.

[Tutorial] Ten concepts that every Calc user should know

OpenOffice Spreadsheet Tutorial for Beginners with Examples

For the word processor, Writer, see the Writer guide

If you are new to Mac and AOO, [Tutorial] Mac FAQ is a useful resource.

Sometimes I want the number formatting to work sometimes I do not.

Which numbers? Dates? Please give us more details about your problem.

And use the most valuable feature of the AOO/LO: the Styles.

mnm64 wrote:I cannot figure out how to do away with formatting. Sometimes I want the number formatting to work sometimes I do not. This is about as basic as you can get - how do I fix this? The whole program is useless if I cannot go all the way to the left! Edit Undo does not get me all the way to the left. Please help! Again, the whole program is pretty useless if you cannot stick the cursor where I want it to go - not where the computer tells me I have to put it!!!!!!!

Please explain which program you're using, what type of numbering you want to "fix" and exactly what "Sometimes I want the number formatting to work and sometimes I do not" means.

If you require an editing program that is basically a computer typewriter, then Microsoft's WordPad might better suit your needs than OpenOffice.

mnm64 wrote:I cannot figure out how to do away with formatting.

I interpret this to mean that you want to remove some formatting in a particular document. If you mean that you want to turn off all automatic formatting in Writer for all future documents, then uncheck the "While Typing" option under Format > AutoCorrect.

If you want to remove formatting in open office document, then switch off the automatic formatting in the writer then uncheck the "While Typing" option under Format > AutoCorrect.

You can also try :
To turn to autoformat on or off, go to Format > AutoFormat and select or deselect the items on the submenu.

While Typing automatically formats the document while you type.
If While Typing is deselected, you can select Apply to automatically format the file.
Apply and Edit Changes automatically formats the file and then opens a dialog box where you can accept or reject the changes.