Apache OpenOffice Community Forum

Dear AOO members,

First, I want to thank you for reading this. You always help whomever needs it and that is not a small thing.

I haven't logged in here for a long time because I haven't been writing for a long time.

So, now I am working on another book, and it is all going along well, until today.

It was updated to .15, but when this issue popped up I updated to .16, so it's all up to date, but it persists.

The book so far has about 65 pages, but will be much longer. I have written larger books with no issues. It's like it ran out of paper and anything I type just goes into space. When it reached the end of the "paper" a red arrow appeared. I tried adding pages, and I restarted the program. I don't know what to do. I made an image of it, but I don't know how to insert it in here. I can't work until it is fixed.

Thank you!

cmlivengood wrote: ↑Wed Feb 18, 2026 1:48 am It's like it ran out of paper and anything I type just goes into space.

Enable View → Nonprinting characters. The ¶ character is called a pilcrow. Pilcrows don't exist in your document, but with nonprinting characters displayed OpenOffice uses the pilcrow to show the ends of paragraphs. You mark the end of a paragraph by pressing the Enter key. If you never do that, either because you just type and type, or because you use Shift+Enter instead of Enter, all your text is in one enormous paragraph. Your document won't show any pilcrows, except one at the end.

The maximum length of a paragraph is about 65000 characters. To continue typing after reaching that limit you will need to start a new paragraph, or you will need to insert paragraph marks in your existing paragraph by clicking at that spot and pressing the Enter key. Here's a sample of a document will pilcrows. I've highlighted them in blue.

cmlivengood wrote: ↑Wed Feb 18, 2026 1:48 am I made an image of it, but I don't know how to insert it in here.

We do not want an image of your document. It will be useless because it won't show the problem. Telling us about the problem but not attaching your document is like walking to your neighborhood mechanic and saying: Hey, I have this problem with my car at home. What do you think is wrong? Attaching a picture of the document is like taking a picture of your car to the mechanic. The mechanic wants the real car, not its picture. We want the real document, not its picture.

MrProgrammer wrote: ↑Wed Feb 18, 2026 4:01 am

cmlivengood wrote: ↑Wed Feb 18, 2026 1:48 am It's like it ran out of paper and anything I type just goes into space.

Enable View → Nonprinting characters. The ¶ character is called a pilcrow. Pilcrows don't exist in your document, but with nonprinting characters displayed OpenOffice uses the pilcrow to show the ends of paragraphs. You mark the end of a paragraph by pressing the Enter key. If you never do that, either because you just type and type, or because you use Shift+Enter instead of Enter, all your text is in one enormous paragraph. Your document won't show any pilcrows, except one at the end.

The maximum length of a paragraph is about 65000 characters. To continue typing after reaching that limit you will need to start a new paragraph, or you will need to insert paragraph marks in your existing paragraph by clicking at that spot and pressing the Enter key. Here's a sample of a document will pilcrows. I've highlighted them in blue.
202602171944.gif

Thank you. I had looked at it before, but I didn't understand that the pilcrow was the culprit. It is fixed. Again, thank you!