Formatting problems on re-opening

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fremp31
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Formatting problems on re-opening

Post by fremp31 »

Medium length document (64-odd pages) which is a play script, so there is a constant indent after the first word. The tabbing is not always regular on reopening the document - particularly so, it seems if the line is mixed with an instruction in italics ! It's a pain to have to page through 60-odd screens to correct badly-wrapped text... I regularly 'save' as I'm going along, but closing and opening causes the error. What am I doing wrong, and how do I correct it.?
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Zizi64
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Re: Formatting problems on re-opening

Post by Zizi64 »

What am I doing wrong, and how do I correct it.?
Always use the native fileformats of the AOO/LO. The ODF (odt, ods...) is an International Standard fileformat.


Please upload your example file here.
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fremp31
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Re: Formatting problems on re-opening

Post by fremp31 »

I *do* use .odt as file save format... so it's not that.
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RoryOF
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Re: Formatting problems on re-opening

Post by RoryOF »

Remove any Direct Formatting (Ctrl M when text is selected) and apply correctly formatted styles, using a different style for each required type of formatting. For incidental italics or bold apply Character styles (quotation for italic, strong emphasis for bold).
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acknak
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Re: Formatting problems on re-opening

Post by acknak »

fremp31 wrote:... The tabbing is not always regular on reopening the document - particularly so, it seems if the line is mixed with an instruction in italics ! It's a pain to have to page through 60-odd screens to correct badly-wrapped text...
It's hard to make any specific suggestions without knowing what specific format you're aiming at and without seeing your document.

I can say, from your description here, that you're almost certainly managing the formatting in a way that doesn't work well with OO Writer. For robust columns of text, a table is better suited. If you can't use a table, then at least use paragraph styles with specific tab stops and avoid using default tab stops at all costs.
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Bill
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Re: Formatting problems on re-opening

Post by Bill »

fremp31 wrote:...there is a constant indent after the first word. The tabbing is not always regular...
If you're trying to use a hanging indent, then apply the "Hanging Indent" paragraph style and modify the indent settings of the paragraph style to suite your needs. A properly specified indent in the paragraph style will be consistent. Tabs should never be used to "indent" paragraphs.
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acknak
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Re: Formatting problems on re-opening

Post by acknak »

You may also want to check around for specialized resources for creating scripts with OO Writer. I know it's come up here several times; I believe there's a template; maybe more.
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Re: Formatting problems on re-opening

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Sageylee
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Re: Formatting problems on re-opening

Post by Sageylee »

fremp31 wrote:Medium length document (64-odd pages) which is a play script, so there is a constant indent after the first word. The tabbing is not always regular on reopening the document - particularly so, it seems if the line is mixed with an instruction in italics ! It's a pain to have to page through 60-odd screens to correct badly-wrapped text... I regularly 'save' as I'm going along, but closing and opening causes the error. What am I doing wrong, and how do I correct it.?

Sorry I can't help, but want to let you know I'm having a similar problem. I have to check almost every page for indents that I'd fixed before, but came back after saving. Creating frames or tables doesn't help either. Neither does setting styles. It's as though the program doesn't know where the horizontal centre of the page is.
It's really irritating and time consuming to have to check and recheck each the text on each page every time. Looking forward to finding a fix.
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RoryOF
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Re: Formatting problems on re-opening

Post by RoryOF »

The fix is to use Styles and eschew direct formatting.
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Bill
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Re: Formatting problems on re-opening

Post by Bill »

Sageylee wrote:I have to check almost every page for indents that I'd fixed before, but came back after saving. Creating frames or tables doesn't help either. Neither does setting styles. It's as though the program doesn't know where the horizontal centre of the page is.
How are you setting the indents? Indents are measured from the left and right page margins, not the page center.
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Sageylee
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Re: Formatting problems on re-opening

Post by Sageylee »

Bill wrote:
Sageylee wrote:I have to check almost every page for indents that I'd fixed before, but came back after saving. Creating frames or tables doesn't help either. Neither does setting styles. It's as though the program doesn't know where the horizontal centre of the page is.
How are you setting the indents? Indents are measured from the left and right page margins, not the page center.
Thanks for your reply.

I'm not setting indents at all. I'm opening a new document, maybe setting headers/footers but not every time, writing something, maybe adding an image, creating paragraphs using the enter key, centering the text and saving the work.

The next time I open the doc, the text is not centred on the page, but is offset (usually) by one tab stop and the space between paragraphs show the centre line one, and sometimes two tab stops to the left of where it should be relative to the margins.

Hitting 'backspace' can move a line back to where it's supposed to be, but sometimes I'll have to click it twice in the space between paragraphs because the first click gives the line another tab stop "up" to the left - I have no idea why that happens - and then the next backspace click will centre that line.

Sometimes I can align everything by going to the end of the line and 'deleting' the space between it and the next line, and then hitting 'enter', which will re-align everything properly again. This needs to be done with each individual line, though, and I really have no idea why. Saving the work sometimes makes a difference, and other times doesn't, and I have to go through the whole rigmarole again.

I have tried styles, tables, frames, setting margins - everything I can think of, but nothing seems to work for this.
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RoryOF
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Re: Formatting problems on re-opening

Post by RoryOF »

Please upload a short sample file.
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Sageylee
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Re: Formatting problems on re-opening

Post by Sageylee »

RoryOF wrote:Please upload a short sample file.
It's an intermittent problem, and I can't guarantee that anything I upload here will replicate the situation on another computer.
The description I gave explains what happens at my end - almost every time. That's the best I can do to explain things. The OP seems to be having similar problems, so one good thing to come out of this so far is that I'm not the only one experiencing this glitch.
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RoryOF
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Re: Formatting problems on re-opening

Post by RoryOF »

Without a sample file we are guessing in the dark. Check that in affected formatting "Automatic" is not checked on the paragraph style's "Indents and Spacing" tab.
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Sageylee
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Re: Formatting problems on re-opening

Post by Sageylee »

RoryOF wrote:Check that in affected formatting "Automatic" is not checked on the paragraph style's "Indents and Spacing" tab.
Thank you. Here's a screenshot of default 'Indents and Spacing" for all my documents.
OpenOffice Indents and Spacing 15 oct 17.JPG
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Sageylee
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Re: Formatting problems on re-opening

Post by Sageylee »

For anyone following this thread, I found this on a bug report forum from 5 years ago.
After experimenting with some of the suggestions I've received here, my problem seems to be: "2. Indentation for paragraph heading styles", which manifests as "always defaults to .76cm" for the First Line. The image above doesn't show this because I'd manually fixed the paragraph and taken the screen shot before realising what the problem was - plus at the time I was aiming to show that 'automatic' hadn't been checked.
I'm currently using v4.1.3, which apparently hasn't resolved this bug.
Hoping someone might know more about it, or has found a fix.


"https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=58611

--- Comment #5 from y3kcjd5 <***@gmail.com> ---
There are apparently 3 different issues in this bug (I initially thought they
were all one problem):
1. If indentation for a paragraph heading style is specified, spacing values
are also automatically specified (and can no longer be inherited). This issue
seems to be resolved as of v4.0.0.3, so this may be the duplicate.
2. Indentation for paragraph heading styles does not inherit correctly, it
always defaults to .76cm before and -.76cm first line (see demo document). This
issue still exists as of v4.0.0.3.
3. Percentage sizes (e.g. 150%) for character styles do not inherit correctly,
they are always based off of 12pt (so 150% always produces 18pt font). See
first comment for details. This issue still exists as of v4.0.0.3."
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fremp31
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Re: Formatting problems on re-opening

Post by fremp31 »

I'm on 4.1.1. and something is definitely flakey: I've just saved and reopened and wondered why my 64-page doc play script is now 70. turns out it has a random block of chinese (?) characters some 6 pages long, which -although both decorative and amusing to encounter - if sight-reading, is going to present a problem to some unsuspecting actor!
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RoryOF
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Re: Formatting problems on re-opening

Post by RoryOF »

This is almost certainly a corruption caused by over-hasty close down (or hibernation) of the computer after editing a file with OpenOffice.
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Re: Formatting problems on re-opening

Post by John_Ha »

Until you upload a file everyone is just wasting time guessing ...
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See the Writer Guide, the Writer FAQ, the Writer Tutorials and Writer for students.

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fremp31
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Re: Formatting problems on re-opening

Post by fremp31 »

Well since this is the text of an unpublished play still in rehearsal, I'm a bit reluctant to post chunks of it before the first night... December, perhaps? I would like to resolve the problem for the future.
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Zizi64
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Re: Formatting problems on re-opening

Post by Zizi64 »

Well since this is the text of an unpublished play still in rehearsal, I'm a bit reluctant to post chunks of it before the first night... December, perhaps? I would like to resolve the problem for the future.
Change the all of the characters to the character "a" by the F&R function and the RegExp option in a copy of your document. This method will leave untouched the formatting properties. Then you can upload the copy of your document.
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Please, edit the initial post in the topic: add the word [Solved] at the beginning of the subject line - if your problem has been solved.
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