Text for novel

[loanmaker]

HI. I am not very computer literate - manage the basic things.

I have starting writing novels and I use Open Office. Each chapter is saved as a text document - but it is becoming messy, At the moment I have lots of chapters and other files relating to a book.

How do I transfer the chapters into one file, how do I access the fill and how do I add to the file?
Thanks

[RoryOF]

You can use the Master document structure, but if you are not computer aware, that might not be the best course. I have never needed to use it in 10 years of heavy OpenOffice use.

Instead, open a new Writer document: call it something unique such as "Complete_novel.odt", Saving As type .odt. Click in the file, then use /Insert /File to insert the first chapter. At bottom of first chapter, click cursor, then /Insert /File second chapter. Repeat until all chapters are inserted. Then just edit that Complete_novel.odt file as normal.

OpenOffice can handle very large files - I have regularly edited files of over one million words without problems. Press Ctrl S to save whenever you are thinking; always work in .odt format. Always close your file, then wait a few seconds for all disk activity to cease before powering down (or closing lid on) your computer.

[FJCC]

And make back up copies of this and any other important files! Preferably on a drive not permanently connected to your system.

[jrkrideau]

@ FJCC
+1

@ loanmaker
As well as following FJCC's advice you may want to look into something like Dropbox.

[robleyd]

You might want to consider using Timestamped backup for your backups

[RoryOF]

You might want to consider using Timestamped backup for your backups

I always overlook that, as my routine is to manually make daily timed/dated backups while I am thinking about today's writing.

[loanmaker]

thank you all for taking time to assist me. I do appreciate it.

[RoryOF]

If you are not very computer aware or familiar with OpenOffice, waste no time on fine formatting using OpenOffice. Write, write, write! Separate your chapters with a simple header such as "CHAPTER" and Chapter title (I suggest using Heading 1 and Heading 2 styles respectively). These will show up in navigator (F5 key), which allow you quickly move about your document. Use Comments (/Insert /Comment) to insert reminders beside your text of what needs to be done (revision, check source, rewrite etc)

Once you have a complete text, with simple organisation as I have outlined, it can then speedily be formatted.

[John_Ha]

... waste no time on fine formatting using OpenOffice. Write, write, write!

You will get no better advice than that.

Give me (or indeed give Rory) a Notepad .TXT file of a 200 page book and I (or he) will lay it out in an hour or two at the most.

A big problem with "laying out as you write" is that it is easy to make errors which you then "correct" so it looks OK on the screen. You then edit something and the "corrected error" spills to another page and promptly shows up. The more you fiddle with it the messier it gets - you are busy "painting yourself into a corner".

If you write all the text, and then lay it out starting from the front, it can be done very quickly and without error. In fact, it is almost always quicker and easier to remove all the formatting from what you have written so as to get just flat text. Now do the layout from scratch - it will be far quicker than trying to diagnose and then fix all the problems.

[loanmaker]

thank you for taking the time to advise