Tabs when copying a Word text to OpenOffice

[Colettem]

I am trying to format tabs in Open Office 3,3 when I copy a Word text into Open Office. (the Word text is Word 2003 and was formatted to a tab stop of 0.5). When copied into Open Office it goes to the default tab setting, even if I set the page up before copying.This is an 80,000-word novel, which following Chicago Manual of Style guidelines, has to have a 0.5 indent for new paragraphs and direct speech. I can set the tab, but I can't see a way of selecting the entire manuscript to alter the tabs in one go - it seems the only way is to do this is manually, which will take hours. Sorry to be so ungeeky, but I hope someone can help me. Many thanks in advance.

[acknak]

Greetings and welcome to the community forum!

Have you tried Tools > Options > OO Writer > General > Settings > Tab stops: 0.5"

I prefer to avoid using physical tabs for such formatting, but that's just me.

[Colettem]

Many thanks for your prompt response Acknak. Yes I have tried that, and I have also tried modifying the tab style, but it only works paragraph by paragraph (even when I have "selected all"). It wouldn't be so bad if it were just a document, but this is a novel, so all dialogue has to be indented. What I really wanted was eventually to convert this to a PDF. But the formatting has to be more or less the same. The margins and top and bottom of page, are less important as it won't take too long to fix the text manually, but the tabs will take for ever!

[RoryOF]

If you are using a consistent Paragraph Style for most of your paragraphs, you can edit the style definitions to set the first line indent. For dialogue, if you wish that indented differently, you can set the before and after text indents in the appropriate paragraph style. When all is done to your liking, you can then globally remove the tabs.

[Villeroy]

What is a "Word 2003" document? Is it binary or XML? Open the file with either one of WinWord or OpenOffice and then copy the paragraphs within the same application.

I can set the tab, but I can't see a way of selecting the entire manuscript to alter the tabs in one go

This is what styles do, paragraph styles in this particular case. Normally you would paste the raw data (paste-special unformatted text) into your prepared style settings in order to apply your own settings for particular types of paragraphs. But this is obviously not what you want. If you want to carry over the same formatting attributes you better do not copy across different applications.

[Bill]

I am trying to format tabs in Open Office 3,3 when I copy a Word text into Open Office. (the Word text is Word 2003 and was formatted to a tab stop of 0.5). When copied into Open Office it goes to the default tab setting, even if I set the page up before copying.This is an 80,000-word novel, which following Chicago Manual of Style guidelines, has to have a 0.5 indent for new paragraphs and direct speech.

Paragraphs should be indented by setting the indent in the paragraph style(s), not by using tabs.

I can set the tab, but I can't see a way of selecting the entire manuscript to alter the tabs in one go - it seems the only way is to do this is manually, which will take hours.

Setting the indent in the paragraph style is the way to do it. If the indent is set in the Default paragraph style, it should be inherited by all other paragraph styles and indent all paragraphs. If a tab stop is used, then tabs have to be inserted manually in every paragraph.

To change the indent setting in the Default paragraph style, on the sidebar click the "Styles and Formatting" icon to display Styles and Formatting in the Sidebar. Select the Paragraph Styles icon (leftmost icon below the Styles and Formatting title). At the bottom of the Sidebar, select "All Styles". In the list, right-click "Default" and select Modify. On the Paragraph Style dialog, select the Indents & Spacing tab. Set the indent(s) and OK out. All paragraphs should now have the indent.

[Colettem]

Many thanks for your time everyone, I have tried all you have suggested, but the default indentation will not budge. I am probably going to have to give up on this one. I haven't actually had this problem of swinging between Word and OO before; I'm just wondering if I should uninstall and re-install?

[Villeroy]

I'm just wondering if I should uninstall and re-install?

This would not change anything. As always, the problem lies in the incoming data. Without having the actual file at hand, everything is mere guessing.

[FJCC]

There is an Upload Attachment tab just below the box where you type in a response. If you can upload just a few paragraphs of the document, there will be a much better chance of figuring out what is wrong.

[Villeroy]

If you can upload just a few paragraphs of the document,...

Do not copy&paste the paragraphs. Open a copy of the original document and remove all content except for a few non-confidential paragraphs, save the shrinked copy, start a new posting and attach the shrinked copy to it.