Apache OpenOffice Community Forum

Hello, all!! Newbie to the forum here.

I'm using OOo 2.3.0 on WinXp, WinVista and Kubuntu.

I find that, when clicking on PAGE PREVIEW, Calc shows a "FORMAT PAGE" button next to "CLOSE PREVIEW" that allows me to set the page layout to Landscape or back to Portrait, among other choices.

But Writer does not have that button on PAGE PREVIEW. Indeed, in order to turn the layout to Landscape, I need to first CLOSE PREVIEW and then go to menu "Format/ Page". Which is not the most obvious place for me, ex- MS-Office user, to go and look for it.

Since most of us, MS Office users, expect to have the page formatting menu under "File", why doesn't the default Writer configuration:
- keep menu "Format / Page...";
- duplicate same as above under "File / Page format...";
- include a "FORMAT PAGE" in PAGE PREVIEW, just like Calc does?

Thanks for your consideration, and VIVA OOo!!

OpenOffice.org is NOT supposed to be a clone of MS Office. Since Page Formatting is Formatting, the logical place for it is under the formatting menu. Duplicating menu items is not good practice in a user interface.

With that said, you can easily add Format - Page to the File menu on your own.

View - Toolbars - Customize
Click on the Menu tab
With File selected up top
Click on Add
Go to Format on the left
Scroll to Page Settings on the right to Page Settings
Click on Add then Close
Use the up and down arrows to place it where you want it on the File menu.

This way you can actually put any command you want in whatever menu you want. Making the application exactly what YOU want it to be.

However, I would recommend you just get used to going to the Format menu for all your formatting needs.

Please read the Survival Guide for the forum for next threads.

Because the MS Office layout is completely inconsistent for that item, the others should do the same ??? The format menu gives access to paragraphs, characters, why the page format should be in the file menu ???

On the other hand there is a difference between which menu the functionality is found at and the ability to do this during the page preview function itself.

In the later case this could be a Request For Enhancement - if you felt that it should be included in the package the way to go is to open this request at the Issue Tracking system within OpenOffice.org.

You can specifics regarding this subject at
Issue writing guidelines

Yes Drew, I was only addressing one part of this post. I agree, having the Format commands available from the Print Preview would be convenient.

I was just wanting to point out that for this type of thing if no-one enters a RFE then it never has a chance - and the fact we can enter an RFE is a feature of OSS that more folks should be taking advantage of, IMO.

You may wish to register and add a vote or comment to Issue 65946: Enable Format / Page menu in preview mode.

Thank you, everyone!
You're the reason why OOo keeps growing, I believe!