Apache OpenOffice Community Forum

I have a lot of writing on my computer-- short stories, novels, etc. I would like to convert everything to a single format:

Times New Roman 12pt.
margins set at 1" on all sides of the page
main text paragraphs double-spaced, left justified
first line of each paragraph indented .5",
no extra spacing before or after the paragraph
MS Office format

I am having a lot of difficulty with this-- after many attempts (and much reading in this forum) I can't even ascertain what the "default formatting" on OO is. My existing documents have margins of 1.5", for example. I would like to create a template that has what I want, and can easily convert what I already have into that format.

Maybe we could just start with this: What exactly is the "default formatting?"

You should access all formatting by /Format /Styles and Formatting or F11 key. There will be five small icons on the top bar of this window. Click on the first to select Paragraph Formatting. Then Right Click on Default, and adjust formatting as you require. Do similar for Text Body. Now click on the fourth Icon for Page Styles. right click on Default and there adjust the page size and Margins . Tweak away to your heart's content until you have things as you want them, but try it gently, a few steps at a time.

Then look at
Tutorial: setting up a default template

Edit: I should stress that it is best practice to work in OpenOffice's native format (.odt for text documents) and save out to .doc format only when necessary for transfer.

You may also want to try the template changer extension http://extensions.services.openoffice.o ... %20changer once you have set up your template. This extension allows you to apply templates to existing files.

Just to be clear, OOo does not really provide any way to change the formatting of existing documents. You can change the default formatting for new documents, but the settings are copied into the document when it is created, so if you later change the default settings, it won't apply to existing documents.

If you work from a template, as mentioned already, OOo can prompt you if the template changes, but that will only happen when you open a document based on that template. It still does not change anything without your input/approval.

Okay, I'm still really confused. I've been editing a lot of older documents lately that were originally written in .doc, and saving them in .odt. I guess that was a mistake, since I now need to correct the format. For instance, the one I'm looking at now insists on keeping the break between paragraphs that I had originally put in, even though at Format/paragraphs/Indents and Spacing/Spacing, all the values read 0.00".

Turn on /View /Nonprinting Characters (a toggle command). This will show you inserted page breaks as a backwards P (a Pilcrow), line breaks as a left hooked arrow, tabs as a right arrow, and spaces as a dot. If there is no Pilcrow in the blank line after a paragraph, then the blank line is caused by Spacing Below Paragraph being non zero in the Style definition for that Paragraph, or Spacing Above Paragraph definied in the style for the next paragraph. These should be adjusted to remove the unwanted spacing.

Edit: If the paragraph break was inserted by direct formatting (i.e., by modifying /Format /Paragraph), this overrides the formatting in the Style defined for that Paragraph. One has to remove any direct formatting before the defined Style formatting takes over. This is best done by selecting "Clear Formatting" from the styles dropdown on the Formatting bar.

Okay, I have made myself a template, and named it and saved it, and downloaded the template changer, which does seem to be modifying old documents, for the most part. (It didn't change the font in one, but most of the documents are already in the font I want, so that's not a big problem. Is there a way to test what these documents will actually look like, after I convert them to .doc? (Without sending them to someone else?)

Yes, Microsoft make available for free download an MS Word Viewer. I'm sorry that I have no URL to give you, but a quick search of their site should find it.

If your template didn't change the fomt in one, it may be that it had direct formatting applied for the font sty;e. Try selecting All (Ctrl A) , then selecting Clear Formatting from the styles dropdown.

Edit: If the paragraph break was inserted by direct formatting (i.e., by modifying /Format /Paragraph), this overrides the formatting in the Style defined for that Paragraph. One has to remove any direct formatting before the defined Style formatting takes over. This is best done by selecting "Clear Formatting" from the styles dropdown on the Formatting bar

I don't see a "Clear Formatting" option. Can you be more specific? Thanks.

Select Format--->Clear Direct Formatting with your document open. Format is in the Tool bar at the top.

I do not have anything like that under Format. Nor do I see it in Styles and Formatting, under Format.

Should I download the new Apache version to try to correct this?

SusanH wrote:

Edit: If the paragraph break was inserted by direct formatting (i.e., by modifying /Format /Paragraph), this overrides the formatting in the Style defined for that Paragraph. One has to remove any direct formatting before the defined Style formatting takes over. This is best done by selecting "Clear Formatting" from the styles dropdown on the Formatting bar

I don't see a "Clear Formatting" option. Can you be more specific? Thanks.

Interesting. Not under "Format" at all. Thanks. I have found it, and it worked. I appreciate all the various avenues of help. I will probably be back, but for now, I'll say "Solved."