Apache OpenOffice Community Forum

Hi Everyone,
I have just started using OpenOffice Writer software yesterday. Fantastic software !!!
Would anyone be kind enough to help me. Thank you so much in advance.

All my old word docs are from word 2003. I often used the Bottom Border button to place a thin black horizontal line across the page to separate topics . I have attached an image of the line and also the button I use to click to do this.

My problem is when I open my old Words 2003 docs in OpenOffice I can’t get rid of these lines when I try to edit the doc? I have tried deleting to no avail and also highlighting the whole line and pressing delete.

For the life of me I can't figure out how and I have been busy doing a lot of searching for a solution but to no success.

Any help is so much appreciated.
Take care.
Bob.

I think you have a paragraph border. Right click just above the border and select Paragraph. Go to the Borders tab. Near the upper left there is a region labeled Line Arrangement and just below that the word Default with five small icons. Click the leftmost icon which is for No Borders.

Hi FJCC,
Thanks a million for your assistance.
I have done what you kindly suggested and unfortunately nothing happens and the original line created with word 2003 does not vanish. But it does allow me to draw a brand new line but this new line created using Open Office I can just delete easily.
I also tried highlighting the whole line and followed your instruction but still no success.
These lines are proving resilient!!
Do you have any more ideas.
Thanks so much.
Bob.

Please upload a document demonstrating the problem. To do that, click Post Reply then look for the Upload Attachment tab just below the box where you type a response.

Thanks I hope I have understood you.
Best wishes.
Bob.

Hi
This is weird your advice works with this newly created doc I have just done?
If I take an older doc created in the past with word 2003 and open it in OpenOffice then save it as a .odt files then open it in OpenOffice and try your suggestion the line does not disappear?
Any thoughts? Sorry about this.
Thanks
Bob.

Those are indeed paragraph borders and I removed them using the method I explained previously. Perhaps you were right clicking in the wrong place. You can turn on the menu item View -> Nonprinting Characters to help guide you. I have done that in the attached image. You can see that there is a paragraph consisting of just two or three spaces, shown as dots, just above each border. You need to right click on that paragraph to eliminate the border.

Hi here is a old doc as another example, I was able to delete all lines in this doc except this last one. The others were deleted by just pressing delete? This didn't work before? Anyway this last line I can't get rid of.
Thanks again .
Bob.

Hi, I have done what you kindly suggest but unfortunately it looks different to your image and I cant see 3 dots?

Thanks again for all your help.

The three dots are not essential. I only mentioned them to make clear what I was referring to in the document. The important feature is the pilcrow, the symbol that looks like a backwards P. That marks the end of the paragraph. You have to right click between that and the next paragraph above that. Since you have empty or nearly empty paragraphs, that does not leave a lot of room. Try the following. Place the cursor just to the left of the pilcrow that is just above the border and press the space bar several times. If you are viewing nonprinting characters, these spaces will appear as dots. You can then right click in that set of spaces and remove the border.
I will be off line for a couple of hours but I will check this thread when I get back.

O.k I have done what you recommend and have attached the doc with the changes that reflect what you say but when I click in the set of spaces and then follow your advice in your previous message the line in the attached doc doesn’t disappear it jumps up? Does it do this for you?

I have been going through other old word 2003 docs and it is weird because your solution works on about 70 % of the lines but there are some stubborn ones like the one in the attached that I can’t get rid off? Because it works most of the time for me I must be doing something correctly and all these lines were created the exact same way in word 2003 in the past so I wonder why OpenOffice is being selective on which ones it will allow me to get rid of and which ones it wont.

Can you get rid of the line in the attached doc? If you can It is obviously something I am doing wrong because unlike the other lines this is an example of one I cannot get rid of.

Thanks so much again I really appreciate it
Bob

Quick method: select the text between your 2 headings (underlined) and hit Ctrl+M.

Please add [Solved] at the beginning of the title in your first post (top of the topic) with the *EDIT button if your issue has been fixed.

Hi,

Yes that worked a treat thank you very much Hagar for that very helpful suggestion.
I will edit the original post now and place (Solved) at the beginning like you asked.

Thank you again FJCC your solution worked great too on almost every case and those that didn’t was probably down to me not understanding not your suggestion. You spent so much time helping me thank you very much !

It is great I have two solutions now if I ever get stuck.

Great software and great forum.

Thank you both so much again !!!

Bob

I don't think I can like your messages? If I can please let me know how.
Cheers
Bob.

No, you can't. We run an old version of phpBB.
Anyway, that's great to have a feedback. Very often users dont bother to report if it worked well.

See [Tutorial] Automatic functions in Writer - enable / disable which explains why it happens.

it's a shame I can't like helpful posts but I underdstand.
At least I can post a thank you message

Thanks a million for that link to the tutorial John_Ha
Very interesting.
Best wishes.
Bob.