[Solved] How to divide A WHOLE document into columns?

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LeadHead
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[Solved] How to divide A WHOLE document into columns?

Post by LeadHead »

I am not asking about how to do newspaper columns format. I want to make separated columns. If I fill one, it'd go to the next page, same column format, same column, not the next column on the page. It would be like having 3 documents opened at the same time and viewing them as separate columns that were sticked together and have no other link to one another.
Hope it's not confusing. Thanks.
Last edited by LeadHead on Sun Oct 10, 2021 9:33 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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FJCC
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Re: How to divide A WHOLE document into columns?

Post by FJCC »

You can do something like that using a table with three columns. In the attached document, I inserted a table with one row and three columns using the menu Table -> Insert -> Table and then filled the first two columns with text. I don't know how stable this will be if the document is very large.
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ThreeColumns.odt
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RoryOF
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Re: How to divide A WHOLE document into columns?

Post by RoryOF »

I would also use tables, as FJCC suggests; depending on length of document (i.e., if book length) I would use tables each covering one page, and hand steer the content to break where I wished and link to the next page. Complex formatting often requires some personal supervision.
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Villeroy
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Re: How to divide A WHOLE document into columns?

Post by Villeroy »

Since Writer supports frame styles, a pair of frame styles (each one covering the left and right half of a page) may be an alternative solution.
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JeJe
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Re: How to divide A WHOLE document into columns?

Post by JeJe »

Three frames per page, appropriately linked is an option.
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3 linked frames per page.odt
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floris v
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Re: How to divide A WHOLE document into columns?

Post by floris v »

In a document with hundreds of pages, a single table will slow down Writer a lot, so in that case, start a new page at every few pages or at the start of the chapter or at another point where the document structure allows you to do so.
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Villeroy
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Re: How to divide A WHOLE document into columns?

Post by Villeroy »

A template with 2 pages, appropriate links between 6 frames and 3 frame styles "Left Column", "Middle Column" and "Right Column".
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3 column frame styles.ott
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JeJe
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Re: How to divide A WHOLE document into columns?

Post by JeJe »

If your only requirement is to have the three separate streams of text as the end result... not for continual re-editing... then another option would be to use three separate documents with narrow margins for preparation, then copy them over into a new document with appropriate tab stops for the end result like so:

line1 doc1 [tab stop]Line1 doc2 [tab stop]Line1 doc3
line2 doc1 [tab stop]Line2 doc2 [tab stop]Line2 doc3

Lines would have to be all the same height for this to work well and it would need a macro to do it.
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keme
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Re: How to divide A WHOLE document into columns?

Post by keme »

Several good suggestions. Best solution depends a little on what other formatting and styling you want for your document. A few pointers off the cuff:
  • Some automation does not work well with frames, but you could use just 2 frame chains and the third column as plain running text to circumvent that.
  • As mentioned, a table across multiple pages is a beast sometimes. Partitioning into table rows may speed things up, but it may also disrupt the flow of your content.
If you provide some detail/context, you may receive better advice.
LeadHead
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Re: How to divide A WHOLE document into columns?

Post by LeadHead »

Thanks for the answers, and sorry for being late on mine. A table seems pretty good, as it fills the length of the document automatically, whereas a frame seems (from the few I've understood about it) to need to be positioned and doesn't have a size limit (you can still write text even when one is full and reached the bottom of the page), unlike the frame which also expands to perfectly fit the other page. This opinion is a bit unfair to the frame method though, since I haven't really studied them and their possibilities. But I might get into it on my way to the perfect studies notation setup. Still, the table method is really great for quick and easy setup. For some context, my problem was to fit some teacher's course format into a document. Thanks all of you.
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