[Solved] OpenOffice vs LibreOffice

[GridLok]

I recently had occasion to consider using LibreOffice; downloaded and installed it, had a look. It looks 'pretty' and I'm sure I could get used to the different layout. BUT when it comes to orderly presentation and clear comment in the Community Forum, OpenOffice wins hands-down. Three cheers for "acknak", "Zizi", "Hagar", "MrProgrammer" and all the other contributors who so promptly give of their time, in facilitating my use of OO.

If I could wave a magic-wand and effect a change to OO: Find a way to give users access to the "Default" settings - give us a way to 'set-and-forget' such things as Font, Numbering & Bullet settings … all the things that one later attempts to set-up by modifying the Default Template, but in some cases cannot. The Default setting for the position of bullets & numbering is one issue I frequently have occasion to wish I could change. Oh dear, I don't think I've expressed that very well, but I hope the reader gets the idea.

While I'm waving a magic-wand … It would be good if one could Update Document Style - for ALL documents at once - without having the Header contents erased. I no longer agree to updates - when the message is shown on opening a document - because doing so wipes-out the Header contents.

Still I love OO and its people!!

[RusselB]

If you have some settings that you use frequently, but not all of the time, you can make other templates and then call up the template before doing your writing.
By calling up the template, it will be used in place of the Default template until such time as another template is loaded or Open Office is closed (in which case the Default template will be used again upon reopening of Open Office)
*Open Office, in the above, refers to the Writer application.

To my knowledge, any updates should not affect the content of your document, of which the Header is part of.
Open Office does not do automatic updates, and any updates of Open Office require the download of the updated Open Office program, and installation of the new download. The download and installation is the full program. Open Office does not do supplemental updates.
The other updates, which I see more often (about once a month), is for the dictionary file, which again has to be downloaded, and then installed into Open Office.

Do you have a small anonymous file that contains a header and some text, and has shown to be affected as you state, that you can upload to the forum so that we examine the document and, maybe, figure out why the header contents are being affected?
If so, please upload it so that we can check it.

[GridLok]

Hello RusselB. I have taken a screenshot of the message to which I was referring and (I hope) attached it to this post.

Also:
A specific example of a Default setting I would like to be able to change is that associated with the Numbering & Bullet icons in the tool-bar. When I click on either of these I get a default setting of 1.27/0.64 cm. … clearly metric conversions of inches settings. It's a purely idiosyncratic thing, but I would prefer 1.5/0.75 cm or 1.3/0.65 cm. As far as I have been able to discover, the Default setting in this instance is not able to be changed by the user. I am quite familiar with how to change the various Style settings and saving them as the "Default" Template, and have successfully done so.

The other 'wish' I would make is that, if I make a change to the Default Template - e.g. I decide to change the font I use, I would like to be able to have the "Update Styles" pop-up occur every time I open a document created with an 'old' template. Thus I would be able to eventually standardise my Styles across all documents … without wiping out the Headers in the process.

[Hagar Delest]

Thanks for the kind words!

A specific example of a Default setting I would like to be able to change is that associated with the Numbering & Bullet icons in the tool-bar.

It has been requested, you should vote for it: [relviewtopic.php?f=7&t=304][Issue] Default Bullet Point Settings[/rel] (Issue 9437).

For your header issue, that's strange. Is the new template configured with a similar header?
I sometimes change my template styles and I don't lose any header.

The change of font should trigger a pop-up, except if the template was too old. In such case, you can try to reassign the template before making the change to the new template.

[GridLok]

OK. Hagar. Have voted.

Changes made to the 'new' template will almost certainly include a change of font - e.g. After reading on the desirability of particular fonts, I settled on Verdana, having previously gone through phases of using Lucida Bright and Georgia. Changes have included margins. I have not been able to recognise a pattern to the circumstances under which the "Update Styles" pop-up appears. It would make sense - to me, at least - that once there had been a change to the Default document template, all documents created under previous iterations of the "Default" template would, when subsequently opened, trigger an Update Styles notice. Ideally, the update-notice would be set to occur every time a document with a prior 'creation date/time element' was opened, unless "Keep Old Style" was clicked, OR a check-box for "Do Not Notify Again" was clicked - of course, that would require there to be such a provision. Is there an Issue about this matter? Sorry to have to ask; I am currently wrestling with the ASF Bugzilla site … I could not login … went through the password changing procedure - had a new password approved … but then couldn't log back in … suspect it has something to do with Safari's password management!

In any event, as things stand, when the "Update Styles" pane appears, if I click on it, I lose the Header contents. By the way, what exactly do you mean by "reassign the template before making the change to the new template"?

[Hagar Delest]

The "Update Styles" pop-up appears when the file timestamp is older than the template timestamp from which it is based. But if the template is different, then no change is detected. You may have used another one in the past with the same name perhaps.

You can change the template, see: [Solved] Applying a different template. Try to set the template of your document to the current template, then save the file and close it. Open your default template and save it, then open again your file, you should see the update styles pop up.

[GridLok]

Hagar, you're a 'beaut', a real 'corker' (Australianisms for excellent). I will not be able to explore your suggestions immediately, as I have a very busy week.

By the way, might it be possible for OO Writer to be set to open a document to the dimensions it last occupied? At the moment, it seems as though documents are opened in a window that is the same size as the last document opened. I can't see the logic of this. If I had previously opened a document that was to be viewed in 'portrait', and next open one that is to be viewed in 'landscape', I have to manually adjust the viewing window to suit the second document. Similarly, I have one document that occupies almost the full width of my screen (it has a width of 40 cm.) - because I want to be able to quickly scan all columns. But of course, when I open a subsequent document that is a 'normal' A4 (portrait) dimension, it opens in a window that has the width occupied by the previous very wide item. This means there is a much grey space on either side and I have to frequently use F9 to access other panes. When I open the very wide window it is usually for a brief time, during which it is the only document I need to access. Anyway, it's just a suggestion … not something that would cause me to abandon OO!

Once again my heartfelt thanks for your dedication.

[Hagar Delest]

If I remember correctly, the size of the window depends on the application and is not set in the document. Not sure if ODF allow such setting per document.

[GridLok]

Where do I go to suggest ODF allow my proposed behaviour? Bugzilla?

[RusselB]

Bugzilla is for bugs and suggestions for improvement to Open Office. I'm not sure if improvements to the protocol standards are reported/requested at the same place or not.

[GridLok]

Once again, my heartfelt thanks, Hagar. Things are working pretty well … I've recently managed to successfully use the Macro Recorder to set-up a keyboard shortcut for adding a row to a table I have been using daily. So, I'll mark this thread as "Solved".