[Issue] Footnotes

[fes23]

Hi,

I use a LOT of footnotes and a couple of things continually niggle me about OpenOffice.
1. The indenting on the second and subsequent line of each footnote increases substantially when I save as a .doc (my supervisor can't open OO documents) and reopen using Microsoft Word on a communal computer, while the space after the number disappears. This means I have to manually sort out the formatting of the footnotes each time. Annoying.

2. I need to run a word count on each document excluding footnotes. This is not directly possible in Microsoft Word or OO, but in Word I would select all the footnotes (by simply clicking on the first and scrolling down), copy and paste into another document, count the words in that and deduct that from the overall total. Laborious, but not unreasonably so. In OO I can't seem to select only the footnotes at all - selection stops at the end of each note - nor is there a way to exclude them from the Statistics function. I can't see any way to find out how many words there are without re-opening in Word - on another computer, in another part of the building - and following the procedure above. This I find VERY frustrating.

3. How do you stop them splitting across page breaks? This is a big no-no in the style guide I follow and I can't find out how to stop it happening.

I have other things that drive me crazy about OpenOffice - columns are an absolute nightmare, I can't work out how to paste a drawn object (!!!), tables are ick - but it's the footnote thing that really grates. Perhaps there are ways round my issues - if so please tell me! If not, please could someone flag them to be put in the next edition?

Thanks...

Edit: Sorry! Forgot to specify - I run Microsoft Windows 2000 on an old and clunky laptop. I bought it in 2005 with OpenOffice installed and to my knowledge I haven't upgraded it since (so if there are newer versions of OpenOffice out there, I haven't got them - I'm on whatever was the release in late summer 2005).

[Hagar Delest]

Hi,

Sorry, I've no time to give a full answer right now but I'm quite sure it has been discussed already in this forum, have you searched it?

The indenting for .doc is a known issue IIRC, there are tips to prevent the footnotes to spread on pages by modifying the footnote paragraph style.

Statistics with footnotes is also a known issue IIRC.

[Bhikkhu Pesala]

1. I don't use Word, so cannot help.
2. Find, Styles, Footnote paragraph style, Find All, Word Count
3. Right-click in any footnote, Edit Paragraph Style, Text Flow.

[Hagar Delest]

About the Word compatibility, there was a similar thread on oooforum: Footnotes look different in in Word than in OOo.

For word count, you should subscribe and vote for that enhancement request (up to 2 votes per issue) : Issue 14410 - word count: list by main doc, headers, footers, endnotes, etc.

[Flaxthejute]

It's also worthwhile upgarding to the latest version of OpenOffice. There have been a lot of changes since 2005.

Flax

[fes23]

Thanks for that! I did try to search for a previous discussion but couldn't find one. Maybe I did it wrong. Anyway, I haven't managed to make any of your tips work so far, but I'm hoping that might be due to having an old copy of OO (e.g. I don't have a Find function anyway, just a Find and Replace).

Thanks for all the help...

[Bhikkhu Pesala]

I haven't upgraded it since (so if there are newer versions of OpenOffice out there, I haven't got them - I'm on whatever was the release in late summer 2005).

If you're unable to solve the problems, the obvious thing to do is upgrade your version of OpenOffice. Version 2.4 will be released soon. The current latest version is 2.3.1.

[Caracalla]

1) If the supervisor does not need to change the documets sending him PDF files would be a solution. That way your layout stays intact.
2) Why don't you simply select all the text, excluding headers, footers and notes, and do a word count on that? Just put the cursor somewhere in the text and click CTRL+A
3) I've never worked with long footnotes but i just did some tests and noticed no splitting. Still, mayeb the settings were different in 2005. Look at the footnote and page style to see if anything is telling it to break. (could be the maximong hight of the footnote area is set too low for your purposes).

[jonathon]

2. I need to run a word count on each document excluding footnotes.

I had a macro for OOo 1.1.3-ZA that did that. I'm not sure what happened to it.

3. How do you stop them splitting across page breaks? This is a big no-no in the style guide I follow and I can't find out how to stop it happening.

Open Stylist.
Select "Footnote" using the Modify heading.
Switch to "Text Flow".
Check all three buttons:
* Keep with next paragraph;
* Widow Control;
* Orphan control;

The default setting for orphan and widow control is "2". You may want to increase that to three or four.

Repeat those steps with your usual text paragraph styles.

columns are an absolute nightmare,

Describe in detail in another question the problems you have with columns, tables, and drawings.

xan

jonathon

[RevNomad]

Describe in detail in another question the problems you have with columns, tables, and drawings.

Yes, please. I find columns dead easy nor have I had issues with columns. But I use only OpenOffice so have no basis for comparison.
NTP

[Berwyn]

I have written this extension that does the word counting by sections that you are asking for.