Apache OpenOffice Community Forum

Hi all,
I'm having trouble getting rid of some blank pages. It's not the problem with the text flow related auto page break paragraph attribute which others have been running into. This is something completely different!

This is how to duplicate my problem (or my stupidity, whichever the vase may be):

create new blank doc. insert a couple of hard page breaks, or fill it up with "enters" until you have two or three pages.
Go to the last page and insert a frame. Anchor the frame to the page.

What I need to know is how do I later remove the preceding pages without destroying my layout on the page containing the anchored text boxes? It appears anchoring objects to a page locks the objects to that exact page number. Anchoring to a page is vital for my layout (envelopes), which needs to be exact, but the page position in the "stack" should be relative!

Any better way of achieving this?
Thanks for any tips,
Dennis

I can confirm the problem. The frame seems to be stacked on the last page even though the previous pages contain nothing (eaven empty paragraphs). Solution is simple click on the anchor sign - writer will check the positioning and remove the redundant pages. the frame will still be anchored to the page (at least it worked on my OOo 3.0.1 under XP).

The anchor symbol will free the frame from its location allowing everything to move back on to one page.
But I lose my exact positioning when I do this, which is why I use frames in the first place.
Any other ideas?

It appears anchoring objects to a page locks the objects to that exact page number.

Yes, that is exactly what "Anchor to Page" does.
If you want something to be positioned relative to the page, but not to the specific page number, you have to use one of the other anchoring options.

In the positioning configuration for the frame, you can specify the position relative to the page, if you want.

Note that using the mouse to position things is incompatible with an exact position relative to the page (or anything else, other than the anchor itself). If you want to position something relative to the page, you always have to adjust its position through the properties dialog. If you use the mouse, Writer will change the position back to anchor-relative coordinates.

Drives me nuts.

Thanks for that sobering explanation...
Looks like I'll have to fire up Scribus more often... There goes my mail-merge capabilities...

Dennis

Perhaps if you can describe exactly what you're trying to accomplish, we can suggest a way to do it.

I find Writer's positioning interface awkward and frustrating, but almost always capable of doing what I needed.

Well,
what I'm trying to do is anchor objects to whatever page they happen to be on... Depending, I guess, on the nearest page break. Does that sound logical?

I use these frames for positioning the sender and receivers on envelopes and A4 prints. Making the document is not hard and I can also do it with paragraph styles, but frames are more exact. I normally use the properties dialogs for exact positioning which works fine.

The problems ensue when I need to delete envelopes (pages) afterwards. That leaves lots of blank pages all over the place, which is a waste of paper when printing.

Dennis

Sorry, I still don't see what you're after that isn't easily done with the normal frames.

I followed the steps in your first post, except that the frames on the last page are anchored "To Paragraph"; the result is attached below. You can see that deleting pages ahead of the last does not disturb the position of the frames.

You can't have a page without a paragraph, so there will always be a place you can anchor to.

It seems I'm still missing something.

Ok, looks like you found the solution. THANKS!

I tried that a couple of times but my frames kept getting pulled to the left of the page. I did some tests and it seems I must have just got spooked when the frames jumped to the left after switching the anchor mode. They stay put once I switch them to paragraph anchoring. So that is what I'll do from now on. Check that they are anchored to a paragraph first and only then position them correctly.

Thanks for finding this out for me and taking the trouble to post your example document!

Regards,
Dennis

No problem--glad it works for you!