[Solved] Import HTML and <BR> vs <BR/>

[darren277]

I have a lot of ODT documents that I have converted to HTML and continue to modify directly, as well as by loading using Open Office Writer. Of course, I am very cautious when editing the HTML structure directly in order to maintain the ability to load with OO Writer with consistent behavior. So far, so good, except for one small thing...

The following snippet of HTML renders a new line inside of Open Office Writer:

Code: Select all

<p lang="zxx" style="margin-bottom: 0cm">
   <br>
</p>

Whereas the following snippet does not:

Code: Select all

<p lang="zxx" style="margin-bottom: 0cm">
   <br/>
</p>

The only difference here would appear to be the tag closing forward slash.

Is there some way to modify this behavior via Open Office Writer settings?

I noticed some XML files that appear to define various import and export behaviors:
C:\Program Files (x86)\OpenOffice 4\share\xslt

Is there perhaps some way to achieve what I'm after from there (or otherwise)?

Thank you,
Darren.

[Zizi64]

You can study HTML / XHTML properties here:

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/194 ... r-br-or-br

[darren277]

Thank you for the responses.

I've gone through that StackOverflow question about the <BR> vs <BR/> nuances. Unfortunately it did not really give me any actionable solutions to my situation. What I did learn, at least, is that apparently Open Office Writer uses HTML 4 to render HTML files. This may turn out to be helpful down the line.

As for the Help contents, I poked around a fair bit into the documentation that comes with Open Office Writer (which admittedly I hadn't dug around too much before posting this question). Still, though, I haven't found a way to customize how Open Office Writer renders HTML.

I can only conclude at this point (unless someone else comes along with a workable suggestion) that I have but the following two options:
1. Submit a bug/feature request.
2. "Manually" replace possibly hundreds of thousands of <br/> tags with <br> tags.

Luckily #2 can at least be automated with a Python script or something like that.

I'm going to hold out on #2 just a bit longer, though, in case anyone comes along with a fix, or even some explanatory insight as to why OpenOffice recognizes <br> but not <br/> tags.

Side note: Just to clarify, my issue is entirely centered around how Open Office Writer is displaying imported HTML content and not really at all about how it is exporting HTML content. I feel now like I may not have explained the original problem right.

Screenshot 2023-10-07 133504.png (5.3 KiB) Viewed 4402 times

[robleyd]

LibreOffice does recognise the <br/> tag as a line break. That may be an alternative for you.

[Zizi64]

2. "Manually" replace possibly hundreds of thousands of <br/> tags with <br> tags.

Every Text Editor, Code Editor(even the simplyest one) has Find and Replace function... What editor software you have edit "manually" these "HTML files"?


Alway store your important documents in the native file format of the Office suite. If you use AOO or LO Writer, the native file format is the international standard ODF (.odt) file format.

[darren277]

2. "Manually" replace possibly hundreds of thousands of <br/> tags with <br> tags.

Every Text Editor, Code Editor(even the simplyest one) has Find and Replace function... What editor software you have edit "manually" these "HTML files"?

The problem there though is that we're talking about upwards of 3,000 HTML files.

I remembered though that Nodepad++ has a "Find and Replace in Multiple Files" function, though, so, the amount of time it will take is not really the issue.

The main issue is that I use Git for version control on all these HTML files.

My Git diff for this commit is just going to be not ideal.

Alway store your important documents in the native file format of the Office suite. If you use AOO or LO Writer, the native file format is the international standard ODF (.odt) file format.

The reason I store them in HTML format is actually two fold:
1. As per what I just mentioned about managing over 3,000 HTML files using Git, when they are stored in the compressed ODT format, I don't have viewable diffs.
2. The main crux of my particular use case is being able to view (and link between) the HTML files from inside a browser.

LibreOffice does recognise the <br/> tag as a line break. That may be an alternative for you.

Interesting! You are correct.

Hmm, this does at least circumvent me having to modify all my HTML files.

I've been a user of Open Office for over 15 years though, so, even if the two are entirely interchangeable aside from this one little thing, it still feels a bit "weird" to make the switch permanently. I mean, especially over something as seemingly trivial as a singular forward slash .

This allows me to make some of the edits I was looking to make a lot more easily.

As for calling it a permanent solution, I'll have to mull over that for the next few days.

Thank you, though.

[LastUnicorn]

You are well advised to switch from OpenOffice to LibreOffice. Some information to consider on this is here: [Tutorial] Considering a Switch from OpenOffice to LibreOffice? Some Useful Information

[darren277]

You are well advised to switch from OpenOffice to LibreOffice. Some information to consider on this is here: [Tutorial] Considering a Switch from OpenOffice to LibreOffice? Some Useful Information

Oh wow, right from the get go on that FAQ:

"I think it would be fair to say that Apache OpenOffice is cruising into obsolescence and dying a slow death."

That's good to know.

I guess that has officially guided my hand.

Thanks for pointing me to that.