Multiple problems

[crawford1939]

I am almost finished with a 85k+ word manuscript. I need to embed fonts and number the pages - Roman numerals for the front matter and Arabic numerals for the body of the book. I also have a problem with the program disappearing 2 to 4 times per hour.

Although frustrating, I can live with that instability in the short term. Some information on the embedding of fonts gives a few variations while some say it is unnecessary. I am using Palatino Linotype, Tahoma and Pristina fonts.

The page numbering seems to be the first that I need to address. I found the extension in another thread dated 2 days ago. I tried to install it but it was notified that I needed to install Java Runtime. I installed JRE and tried to install the numbering extension. Again, I received the error message to install JRE. I restarted and tried again to restart OpenOffice but now it will not load. In fact, the only way to rid myself of these continuous error messages is to click a few times on the X in the upper right-hand corner.

Two more questions: why do all of the pages have a red border and why does it always default to a red font?

[robleyd]

Please, avoid posting several questions in the same post if they are not tightly related. The discussion will be difficult to follow afterwards because multiple answers will be posted sometimes without saying to what issue it is related. See the Survival Guide for more information.

For your Java problem, please see Troubleshooting Open/LibreOffice and Java At a guess, you need to instal a 32 bit version of Java.

For page numbering, please see [Tutorial] Page numbering

Your problem with borders and font colours may be due to a modified default document template - please see [Tutorial] Creating a new default template for information on how to remedy that.

If the above links don't help you to resolve the individual problems, please create a new topic for each separate issue.

[crawford1939]

Your admonition is well-taken. My (poor) excuse is that this is my first post in this forum.

Does your advice on Java still hold even if my computer is 64-bit?

I wanted the disc so I purchased the program from amazon and the red borders and font have been there since I first opened the program.

As I cannot open the program anymore, should I reinstall from the disc or download a new copy?

Many thanks.

[robleyd]

Does your advice on Java still hold even if my computer is 64-bit?

The first sentence of the link on troubleshooting Java and AOO I gave you answers that question; I'll copy it here for you:
"On a 64-bit Windows system you've got to install a 32-bit Java because OpenOffice for Windows is a 32-bit application. There is nothing wrong with installing as many Java runtimes as needed to run all your applications. "

I wanted the disc so I purchased the program from amazon

That will not be an official version - uninstall it and get the official version via the link at the bottom of each page here in the forum. Before you do that however, note that Apache OpenOffice does not have the capability to embed fonts. If this is an essential for you, consider using LibreOffice which does have that functionality.

Be aware that there may be copyright issues with sharing some fonts.

[Zizi64]

why do all of the pages have a red border and why does it always default to a red font?

The default template newer had such properties.
- Where you downloaded the installer file of the office suite from? (Use the official download pages of the Apache OpenOffice or LibreOffice)
- What file type are you using for your documents? Always use the native, International Standard ODF file formats (.odt to the textual documents) because there is not - never was and never will be - 100% compatibility between the different file formats. The AOO and LO can work perfectly with the native fileformats only.

I wanted the disc so I purchased the program from amazon and the red borders and font have been there since I first opened the program.

What program did you purchased??? The Apache OpenOffice and the LIbreOffice are cost free, open source softwares. Just download their installer from the official downloading pages. Not needed to purchase anything if you want to use the AOO or the LO.


The default fonts in the Windows environment are commercial products, and they have a licence. If you want to embed the font to the ODF type document, then you must use
1. - commercial fonts which will give you authorization to embed them into YOUR documents and which will give you authorization to SEND those documents to others.
2. - free, and open source fonts.
The second option is much easier...

The installer file of the LibreOffice contains many free, open source fonts too.

[RoryOF]

The red border and the red type may arise from a number of causes: do they print?

Can you select an area of type and use /Format /Character : Font effects tab to turn off the red colour for the type?

If you select /Format /Page : Borders tab is a Border selected and a colour for it? If so, turn them off on that tab.

Is /Edit /Changes /Record checked? Also Edit /|Changes /Show?

If you can give us these informations we may then be able to advise on how to permanently remove the red, both from this and future documents.

Edit: Undoing any of the above settings may cause the problem to disappear, either globally or locally, but that may only be a temporary solution. You may need to apply the cause to the default template; once we have the information we can advise in a more directed way.

[John_Ha]

I am almost finished with a 85k+ word manuscript. I need to embed fonts

You cannot embed fonts in a word processing file like .odt. You do not need to. Incidentally, see [Tutorial] Differences between Writer and MS Word files for why you should always work in and save files as .odt.

Two more questions: why do all of the pages have a red border and why does it always default to a red font?

Because you have done something strange and set it to red. Check the Paragraph Style for your text - have you set it to red? Does it have a red border? Check the Page Style - have you set a red border?
Or are you applying Direct Formatting to your document? If so remove it.

The page numbering seems to be the first that I need to address.

You may find this explanation helps your understanding.

You can get full information on Page Styles, Page Breaks and Page Numbering in Chapter 4 - Formatting Pages of the Writer Manual. Also see the Writer Tutorials where you will find [Example] Document structure and numbering and [Tutorial] Page numbering.

Be sure to download the two files in [Example] Document structure and numbering and format the example file - it will help you immeasurably.

It's all about Page Breaks.

It is very useful to make Page Breaks visible by Tools > Options (Preferences on Mac) > OpenOffice > Appearance > scroll to Text document > tick Section boundaries > choose a colour for Page and column breaks. Page Breaks now show on the screen as a thin coloured line and identify all Page Breaks. This is the default setting on later installations where Page Breaks appear as a thin blue line.

Also be sure to Set View > Non printing characters ..., to ON to see the paragraph breaks.

Page numbers

Page Numbers follow on sequentially from the previous page and there is nothing stored in the document to tell you what a given page number is because, apart from where a change is made, each page number is calculated by how far away from "its start" it is.

If you want to change the Page Number you must insert a Page Break and set the new Page Number. Go Insert > Manual Break > Page Break..., and a small pop-up window allows you to change the Page Number for the first (and hence subsequent) page(s) following the Page Break.

The Page Number you set is stored as an attribute of "the first paragraph on the page following the Page Break where the change in number is made". It can be seen, and changed, by placing the cursor in "the first paragraph on the page following the Page Break" and going Format > Paragraph > Text Flow .... The value " 0 " here means "page number follows on from the previous page number". Any value 17, 23 … etc means that this page starts at 17 or 23 etc.

There is an exception. If you define Page Style Fred to have a "Next Style Bill" then when you insert a Page Style Fred, the next page will automatically become Bill. In this case there is no Page Break between Fred and Bill, and Bill's "start" for numbering is Fred. Format > Paragraph in the first paragraph of Bill has no pagination information.

Page Styles – changing headers, footers and/or page formats

The Page Style following a Page Break can be exactly the same Page Style as the page before the Page Break or it can be a different Page Style.

If you want to change a header, change header text, change a footer, change footer text, change the page number, hide page number etc, you must insert a Page Break and you must select a Page Style which makes the change you want.

If you want to change the Page Style you must insert a Page Break and set the new Page Style. Go Insert > Manual Break > Page Break..., and a small pop-up window allows you to choose the Page Style for the first (and hence subsequent) page(s) following the Page Break.

Page Styles (and hence changed headers and footers); Page Breaks and Page Number are an attribute of "the first paragraph on the page following the Page Break where the change in number is made" even if the paragraph is empty or is a Heading (or is a table at the very top). Note that Heading means a Heading 1 or a Heading 2 etc, and not a Page header as in header/footer.

You can also manually insert or delete a Page Break; manually choose the Page Style (and hence change headers and footers); and manually change the Page Number; by placing the cursor in "the first paragraph on a page following a Page Break" and going Format > Paragraph > Text Flow > Breaks ... (or in the table, and going Table > Properties > Text Flow...) where all these options can be changed.

You can also delete a Page Break by Backspace, or by deleting highlighted text which includes the Page Break.

Debugging problems with page numbers or page styles, headers and footers

Debug Page Style changes / changed page numbering / changed header problems by placing the cursor in "the first paragraph on the page following the Page Break where the change in number is made" and going Format > Paragraph > Text Flow > Breaks .... What is the document telling Writer to do following the Page Break? If you see nothing there to cause the change, the document has become corrupted and (much!) more diagnosis is required. Remember if the Page Number here is " 0 " it means “page number follows on from previous page ...”

Be aware that there is no Page Break between different Page Styles if the second Page Style (Bill) is defined as the Next Style in the first Page Style(Fred). See Fred and Bill above.

Two words of caution

1. You can go Format > Page ..., and edit the format of the page in which the cursor is currently located. However, you are actually editing that page's Page Style, so all other pages which use that same Page Style will also have their formats changed.

2. Do not manually change the page number by editing any paragraph, not even the first paragraph on a page. You must only edit "the first paragraph on the page following the Page Break where the change in number is made". If you edit any other paragraph to change page number your document will go horribly wrong.

You will find much useful information in the Writer FAQ, the Writer Tutorials, the up to date Writer guide and the Writer Manual. May I suggest you bookmark the pages.

Press F1 to access the Help screen and search for your problem

The chapter headings in the manual are:

1 - Introducing Writer
2 - Setting up Writer
3 - Working with Text
4 - Formatting Pages
5 - Printing, Exporting, Faxing and E-Mailing
6 - Introduction to Styles
7 - Working with Styles
8 - Working with Graphics
9 - Working with Tables
10 - Working with Templates
11 - Using Mail Merge
12 - Tables of Contents, Indexes and Bibliographies
13 - Working with Master Documents
14 - Working with Fields
15 - Using Forms in Writer
16 - Customizing Writer – Keyboard shortcuts.

When a pop-up window opens, click the Help button for extensive help on that function - it is often more comprehensive than the manual.

[RoryOF]

I am almost finished with a 85k+ word manuscript. I need to embed fonts and number the pages - Roman numerals for the front matter and Arabic numerals for the body of the book. I also have a problem with the program disappearing 2 to 4 times per hour.

As John_Ha says, one cannot embed fonts in an OpenOffice Writer file. There are two stages - the writing and rough formatting of a file, and then the layout of the file for print (the fine formatting).

The rough formatting - the breaking of the file into chapters/paragraphs - is merely to aid the process of composition. The fine formatting - the structuring of the file into a book layout - is more properly the province of a book designer or compositor (who has trained for years to learn his craft); that one can attempt such a task using a powerful word processor does not mean that one can do it well.

However, given that one is satisfied with one's efforts at that, the best way to send the file for printing using OpenOffice is to /File /Export as PDF, choosing to use format PDF/A-1a to embed the fonts (select this on the General tab of Export as PDF). Note that a PDF file is an output medium and is intended not to be edited; make all changes to your existing .odt file, and regenerate the PDF to incorporate such changes. Keep your .odt file even after your work has been printed, in case a later edition is needed.

[John_Ha]

... choosing to use format PDF/A-1a to embed the fonts

A minor clarification.

While it is mandatory to embed fonts in a PDF/A-1, it is optional to embed fonts in a normal PDF.

However AOO exercises the option and always embeds fonts in a normal PDF so you don't need to select PDF/A-1. AOO even embeds them if you do not tick the Embed fonts box!

[RoryOF]

... choosing to use format PDF/A-1a to embed the fonts

A minor clarification.

While it is mandatory to embed fonts in a PDF/A-1, it is optional to embed fonts in a normal PDF.

However AOO exercises the option and always embeds fonts in a normal PDF so you don't need to select PDF/A-1.

As John_Ha knows, I go back to when PDF was invented and one had font problems if they were not available on the target computer, so instinctively I embed fonts when generating a PDF.

Isn't there an old saying about not teaching old dogs new tricks?

[John_Ha]

Isn't there an old saying about not teaching old dogs new tricks?

True - but I wrote it for the dogs who are younger than both you and I