[Solved] How to make single paragraph break look bad

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petercordia
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[Solved] How to make single paragraph break look bad

Post by petercordia »

Problem:
I need to be able to use both double paragraph breaks (^p^p) and single line breaks (^l), and I'm looking for a way to prevent myself from accidentally using single paragraph breaks (^p) (or at least make it obvious to myself when I've accidentally used one).

Solution attempts so far:
1. setting the paragraph spacing to -30% would solve this problem. Unfortunately LibreOffice Writer doesn't accept negative paragraph spacing.
2. setting the paragraph spacing to +50% would also solve this problem. However it makes the double paragraph break look ridiculous, and at present the problem isn't severe enough for me to prefer this solution to the status quo.

Reasons for problem:
I'm writing a document to export to FictionPress, where double paragraph breaks get interpreted as 'proper' paragraph breaks (shown by leaving a gap between paragraphs) and line breaks result in the occasionally-useful line-break-without-gap, but single paragraph breaks get completely ignored.
Last edited by petercordia on Thu Jul 29, 2021 10:31 am, edited 3 times in total.
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Villeroy
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Re: How to make single paragraph break look bad

Post by Villeroy »

Styles are a central concept of this office suite. In this particular case you want to use paragraph styles.
I'm writing a document to export to FictionPress,
FictionPress is not a file format.
Please, edit this topic's initial post and add "[Solved]" to the subject line if your problem has been solved.
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robleyd
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Re: How to make single paragraph break look bad

Post by robleyd »

I'm not sure what you mean by double and single paragraph breaks. You can see the paragraph markers and line breaks (and other non-printing characters) by turning on View | Non-printing characters or via Ctrl+F8.

I note your signature mentions OpenOffice with a version number that doesn't yet exist, but you talk about LibreOffice in your question. Perhaps you might consider updating your signature.
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JeJe
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Re: How to make single paragraph break look bad

Post by JeJe »

You could use single paragraph breaks and when you've finished do a Find/Replace to change them all to doubles

search for: $
Replace with:\n\n

Regular expressions option ticked

If you turn on view formatting marks you can see whether you have double or single paragraphs from the ¶ symbols
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petercordia
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Re: How to make single paragraph break look bad

Post by petercordia »

FictionPress is a website which uses it's own file format, which I haven't been able to find the name of.

With "double paragraph break" I mean 2 consecutive paragraph breaks, which you could denote as "\n\n" in regex, or "^p^p" in MSWord terms. It contrasts with the single paragraph break ("\n" or "^p") and the single line break (also "\n" in regex afaik, but "^l" in MSWord) which I type with shift-ENTER.
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JeJe
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Re: How to make single paragraph break look bad

Post by JeJe »

You could use a macro method so that when you press return two paragraph breaks are entered instead of one.
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Villeroy
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Re: How to make single paragraph break look bad

Post by Villeroy »

If FictionPress accepts odt or pdf or docx, working with paragraph styles is the way to go.
If FictionPress accepts some flavour of marked plain text, it would be essential to know what the rules are. Do they accept Markdown?
Please, edit this topic's initial post and add "[Solved]" to the subject line if your problem has been solved.
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petercordia
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Re: How to make single paragraph break look bad

Post by petercordia »

@JeJe
thanks, I might use one of your work-arounds if nothing better comes up.

@Villeroy
How could I use a paragraph style to make separating paragraphs with /n/n look good or natural, whilst making it look bad or unnatural when paragraphs are separated with /n ?
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John_Ha
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Re: How to make single paragraph break look bad

Post by John_Ha »

Using 12pt text I get ...
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See the Writer Guide, the Writer FAQ, the Writer Tutorials and Writer for students.

Remember: Always save your Writer files as .odt files. - see here for the many reasons why.
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RoryOF
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Re: How to make single paragraph break look bad

Post by RoryOF »

The best way is to use single paragraph marks; when document is finished, Find and Replace, in Find, enter $, in Replace enter \n\n, drop more options and check Regular expressions, press Replace All button.
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Re: How to make single paragraph break look bad

Post by Mountaineer »

As a paragraph-style can set the style of the following Paragraph you may use two of them.

The first "fiction" is set as before as the text-body, but
has no vertical space below and
defined "empty" as the next paragraph .

The other style "empty" you set up - as to JohnHas suggestion - so you paragraph spacing looks good for you.
But I suggest to add bolding and red colour to the text, so you see immediately, if you try to put Text in this area.
Then you define "fiction" as the next style to follow empty.

Now you can write as before,
get a red, bold warning, if you used only one Enter-Key,
and can even search for text in "empty" if necessary.
Also you could get rid of this unusual formatting anytime by replacing everything in "empty" with nothing.

If you write fiction you may not need to many headings, but you should define "empty" also to follow your headings, if I understood your system right.

J.
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petercordia
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Re: How to make single paragraph break look bad

Post by petercordia »

@Mountaineer, thanks for the explanation! Using paragraph styles in this manner does indeed solve my problem.
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