[Solved] How do I delete pages?

[MarshaS]

I'm fairly new to OpenOffice Writer.

I created a book from a template created by a designer I'm taking a class from. The template has several pages already included: Cover, Table of Contents, Standard Page (2-column) and Back Cover.

In order to keep the design from the finished book, I created separate worksheets in several new documents with the same template, using only the Table of Contents page template.

Now I'm ready to make PDFs of my worksheet documents and I need to know how to DELETE the pages I don't need -- the cover, standard pages, and back cover. Or, COPY the pages I want into a new document so I can make a PDF of just the pages I need.

I realize this is the long, laborious way to get the task done. I'll be smarter next time.

I searched OpenOffice Help and the Wiki and can't find info on either deleting pages or copying pages. Please direct me to where I can find what I need.

Many thanks for your help.

[floris v]

Just select everything on the pages you want to delete, then press the Delete key. Word processors don't work with entities like pages, they treat your text as a stream of characters and objects. The text and objects wrap into and out of pages according to need, if you add text in the middle of what looks like a page, the text at the bottom doesn't disappear, it just moves to the next "page".

If your problem has been solved, please edit the first post in this thread and add [Solved] to the title bar.

[MarshaS]

Thank you very much. I still have to reformat the first page in the doc, but that's OK. I'll set it up differently next time.
Many thanks for your quick reply.

[Jack Foreigner]

Just select everything on the pages you want to delete, then press the Delete key. Word processors don't work with entities like pages, they treat your text as a stream of characters and objects. The text and objects wrap into and out of pages according to need, if you add text in the middle of what looks like a page, the text at the bottom doesn't disappear, it just moves to the next "page".

Well, the problem I'm having is that the "moved text" simply winds up adopting the styles set by that page -- which is exactly the reason I want to have specific pages in a template deleted in the first place, on account of their styles!

Is there a way to "really delete" pages???

[Bill]

Well, the problem I'm having is that the "moved text" simply winds up adopting the styles set by that page -- which is exactly the reason I want to have specific pages in a template deleted in the first place, on account of their styles!

I don't understand. Pages don't set text styles. Text formatting (language, indents, spacing, font, etc.) is defined by paragraph and character styles. Page formatting (page size, margins, headers, footers, etc.) is defined by page styles. Maybe the text is moving to a page with a different page style and you just need to change the page style. Pages aren't objects that the user can delete.

[RoryOF]

OpenOffice is not page oriented, unlike for example Adobe Page Maker. OO inserts page breaks into the stream of text as required by the text flow or as manually instructed. As floris v said, if you need to delete the text, you must select it and then delete.

It can be useful to turn on /View /nonprinting characters (same command turns this display off). As this is a word processor, the text is sacrosanct; the pages are a display option.

If you can post a short file perhaps we can guide you more.

[Jack Foreigner]

Ah, hmmm, okay, so it ain't "page-oriented"...pages aren't objects but a form of display...hard to wrap my head around that, considering how everything's so WYSIWYG -- and otherwise editable in a WYSIWYG manner!!

Anyway, here's the file I'm working on, thank y'all very much: I'm trying to "delete," as I say, Pages 3/22 through 20/22...much obliged if I could be taught how to do whatever it is that needs doin' here!

[RoryOF]

I need to get this clear. Do you wish to delete the text from pages numbered from 2 to 22, or do you wish to maintain the text and change the page layout of those pages?

If you wish to delete the text simply click repeatedly in the box in the middle of Status Bar (bottom of OO window). It should change through STD, EXT, ADD, BLK. Stop at ADD. Click where you want your delete to start, then move to the end of the delete (Page Down Key is useful) and click where you need the delete to stop. The intervening area should highlight. Hit Delete key and it's gone! You will notoce that the pages used are are also removed, as there is no no requirement (i.e., text) for them.

If on the other hand you don't like the page formatting but wish to keep the text, pgs 2-22 use Default page style. Use /Format /Styles and Formatting, click on fourth icon from left to select Page Styles, right click on Default and choose Modify. Now make whatever changes to that format you require.

When cursor is on a page, that Page Style is shown bottom left of OO window. I suggest (at first) that you use a copy of the file until you are happy with what is happening. Come back if you need more help.

Edit: Correction: Page Style is shown bottom left of OO window

[Jack Foreigner]

Actually, both! Both delete the text as well as the "pages" themselves -- that is, the styling/formatting, etc.

Sorry I wasn't clear...I'm actually tickled at this new way of thinking for me. I'm coming from a CSS/HTML kind of WYSIWYG mentality here, so your now-understandable distinction just never occurred to me!

[RoryOF]

Delete your text (as I outlined) and the pages are gone! It takes a bit of thinking to get the idea, then it becomes very obvious!

[Jack Foreigner]

But the styling/formatting remains, "infecting" the text not cut out! For example, what happened to the headers and footers? The text that wasn't deleted now takes on and/or is subjected to that accursed styling/formatting which had governed the text that was taken out!!

[RoryOF]

The basic formatting of the text comes from Paragraph styles. These you can modify by the above /Format /Styles and Formatting, using the first icon from left for Paragraph Styles. The paragraph style in use for a particular paragraph is shown by the drop down towards top left of OO window, or when you go to /Format /Styles and Formatting, selecting first icon from left, the para style in use under the cursor is highlighted.

The Headers and Footers are Page Style options. What has happend is that the Page Style in use has probably changed to that of p1 (First page of Chapter). If you select that style (as above indicated) and look at the Organiser tab, you will see that it invokes Default Page Style as its next page style. When your (new) text at the foot of p1 fills out p1, Default Page Style will be invoked for subsequent pages, which styles will have Headers/Footers etc, as defined for Default Page Style. You won't have to insert appropriate information into such Headers/Footers (/Insert /Fields) as Page Style Default is already in use (p2 or your Prologue).

This is a bit of a learning curve, but don't panic! We are getting there!

When I write extended works, I have a setup where I choose a heading for my chapter headings (Heading 1, modified by me). I enter a newline, select Heading 1, and automatically get my first page of chapter on a righthand new page), The text styles then cascade to Heading 2 for Chapter title, then to a drop cap paragraph for first para of a chapter , then to body text for the rest of the chapter. It couldn't be simpler - fully automated once I chose Heading 1!

I'll be offline for a few hours now.

[Jack Foreigner]

Hmmm...any such thing as a word processor that works along CSS/HTML principles?? Those I understand. Maybe I'll create HTML documents styled with CSS stylesheets and Open Office can convert 'em???

Anyway, a learning curve, to be sure. I'll have to look for the manual after all!

Thanks, Rory, for all your time and help. (You too, Bill!)

[RoryOF]

I won't try to talk you out of reading the full manual, but before you start that I would like to draw your attention to
Apache Openoffice Writer for Students
which is a much shorter and succinct work (about 50 pages) which covers most common requirements.

[siiverlce]

I hate to revive an old thread, but I found a way to do what the original author was asking. I had many problems trying to delete a cover page without changing the rest of a document. Every time I deleted something on the page, the rest of the document would shift up into the cover page; and this would change the alignment of texts, tables, and pictures in the rest of the document. This is extremely tedious when you're working on a restaurant menu, and you're trying to align everything perfectly (like pictures of menu items, et cetera).

In order to delete an entire page without the rest of the document shifting up into the said page and incorporating its format:

Add a Page Break at the end of the page desired to be deleted.
Proceed to delete everything manually, such as tables, pictures, and texts.
Place cursor at the top of the page and simply use the DELETE key until the rest of the document shifts up into the blank page.

This effectively deleted the page, and the rest of my document did not change its formatting.

Hope this helps the next person with a similar issue!

Thanks for the open sourced program! I always recommend it, and I always read this forum. I just never had a need to actually sign up and partake in conversations.

[siiverlce]

That was already mentioned, but it does not always work that easily. If you have ONLY text/words, then that may work as you outline; but it does not work that easily when you have tables, frames, pictures, and other things. When you delete something WITHOUT the Page Break, the rest of the document will move into the emptied space left by the deleted objects. This causes things to become out of place and misaligned.

However, the rest of the document will not shift around and become out of place if you use Page Breaks before deleting items on the page that is desired to be removed.

You are correct in what you say, but not so much in the situation of the original poster or myself.