3.x new outline numbering compatibility with old docs

[omara007]

Hi folks ..
I have suffering the same problem for quite sometime .. yet, I couldn't get to understand how the (Tools -> Outline numbering -> Position tab -> "Numbering followed by": tab stop -> "at") would solve it ..
I'm trying to follow that, but I can't get to reach how to set a Tab stop !! ..
Please help me regarding this as I'm a newbie ..

Regards

[Hagar Delest]

It seems that option has been removed in latest versions!

[acknak]

Eh?

I still see it in 3.2.1 and the current 3.3 snapshot.

I can't get to reach how to set a Tab stop

You don't set a normal tab stop; instead, the tab position is set by entering a number in the "at" field of the dialog:

[Hagar Delest]

Outline numbering 3.2.1 W2k.png (6.61 KiB) Viewed 5366 times

[acknak]

That looks like the old-style numbering dialog.

Are you starting with a document created with an older version of OOo? Maybe a custom template?

[Hagar Delest]

Are you starting with a document created with an older version of OOo? Maybe a custom template?

Indeed. Old custom template, thanks! It means that I need to update all my templates!

Edit: Hmm, it also means that I've to update all my old documents!

[omara007]

That looks like the old-style numbering dialog.

Are you starting with a document created with an older version of OOo? Maybe a custom template?

Yes, I started my document with an older version of OOo .. so, how to make all new features available for my document ? .. and how to update the templates ?

[acknak]

Hopefully, Hagar can suggest a better strategy because none of my quick tests trying the obvious methods worked. I could get a numbered list updated, but I couldn't find any way to convert numbered headings to the newer version.

You can use a similar approach with the old numbering setup, you just have to manually enter the tab character between the numbering and the title, and configure the paragraph style you use for the titles to provide the wide tab stop.

I expected that the tab character would cause problems where the titles appear in the ToC, but it seems ok in a quick test. You might have to configure a special tab stop for the ToC entries but that shouldn't be a big deal.

[acknak]

Oops, scratch that, there is at least one way that works to convert older headings to the newer style.

Start a new, empty document, in a current version of OOo.

Do Insert > File, and select your old-style document.

The headings will be imported with their paragraph styles intact, but the outline numbering will come from the empty starting document. You have to re-configure the outline numbering, but you can use the new properties to do it.

This may not work for all documents; I'm not sure exactly what styles and settings come from the inserted document and what is taken from the empty starting document. Some important styles may get lost.

Maybe there is a better way?

[Hagar Delest]

Very good question I've just faced these last couple of days after this discussion. I also tried the insert file trick but it didn't work for me (with documents up to 400 pages with a bunch of headings).

I've found 3 ways:
1. Copy and paste the content of the old document in a new one made from the new template. It seems to have worked fine, my greatest fear was to lose pics or location of drawing shapes above pics. The only remaining problem is that you lose the meta data (number of save operations, edited time) ; but you can fix it by replacing the metadata from the old file to the new, quite cumbersome however.

2. Copy the styles.xml from a new file to the old one. But I don't really know if there is any collateral damage. I'm not sure about new styles created in the original file: are they also registered in the styles.xml and will some part of the document lose their formatting if they don't match the correct entry from the new declaration?
Another potential problem would be the hidden changes: we know about this one, but are they other changes we are not aware of? That's the reason why I don't really trust this method.

3. Copy only the styles.xml part about the headings formatting (identified very clearly near the end of the file). But again, any other changes we would miss?

In conclusion, method 1 is the more reliable IMHO. That WONTFIX bug mentioned by RGB at the beginning of the tutorial is really a problem. I'm not that bothered by this change but what if it had been another critical feature which can't be applied to old documents???

Since the topic is mostly talking about the compatibility issue, I've split it form the tutorial.