Apache OpenOffice Community Forum

I am attempting to replace a stand-alone label printer, with sheets of labels using an appropriate template and .odt file.

The label printer has an option to reduce the line spacing to less than one, so I can use a larger font in an address label.

I am unable to do this in Apache Open Office Writer, and have researched line spacing to see that I do not believe anyone has found a solution.

MY (horrible) solution is to create the label, screen print it, go into Paint, and cut/paste lines to decrease the line spacing, then past this GRAPHIC in as a label and print it.

SO I would like to make a REQUEST to have line spacing able to be reduced less than 1, preferably by some tiny unit - picas, points, hundredths of an inch, etc.

Thank you!

HAHA a HACK: Load the label software for the label printer, create a label. screen print it - with its reduced line-to-line spacing, and paste it in as a graphic in A-OO.

Can you not use fixed line spacing set to an amount that works for you? Right click on the paragraph to adjust, select Paragraph... and use the Indents and Spacing tab to adjust.

WardXmodem wrote: ... reduce the line spacing to less than one, so I can use a larger font in an address label.

That does make the text more difficult to read.

Incidentally, you can choose Proportional instead of Fixed, and set it to, say, 98% of normal.

HAHA a HACK: Load the label software for the label printer, create a label. screen print it - with its reduced line-to-line spacing, and paste it in as a graphic in A-OO.

Reminds me of;

" I need to send a document to someone - I'll create it in a WP app, print it, scan it and export as PDF and send it to the recipient." Don't laugh - have seen it happen.

You can also use the "proportional" line spacing mode and enter a percentage less than 100%.

> You can also use the "proportional" line spacing mode and enter a percentage less than 100%.

Wow, thanks! ... well I had high hopes for it anyway. Alas no.

I see you're on Linux. Perhaps only the Linux version supports < 100%

The windows version either ignores < 100%, or MEANT to support it but the code is broken.

I know the code isn't COMPLETELY broken: > 100% does work. Just not < 100%.

On my Xubuntu computers I can take Proportional down to 50%, also on my Windows XP machine. I suggest you try again. You might also experiment with Fixed. I suppose it is a case of finding a compromise you can live with.

I too can use proportional down to 50% on my Windows 10 machine with AOO 4.1.3.

Here's a sample document you can try:

Thanks! That sample showed me:

- Yours works
- Mine doesn't

So analyzing what's different: Carriage Returns!!

If a line ends in a C/R, a full line spacing is forced.

Since labels are like
first name last name
street address
city, state, zipcode
every line has a C/R ending, so it will take some doing - like putting spaces until a line wraps then indenting with spaces then typing the next line, etc.

But at least it is a work around for those labels that need it!

Time to go experimenting!

P.S. your screen name "acknak" is pretty cool to me - as my Xmodem protocol was simply based upon an ASCII reference card with "ACK, NAK, SOH, EOT" on it.

YAY! It worked (not having line ends in the label!)

BONUS: When spacing out to force a line to wrap to the next line, IT CENTERS OK,
i.e. I don't have to manually put the same # of spaces to the left and to the right to keep centering going! YAY!

You can use Shift-Enter to force a new line in Writer. And of course Ctrl-E to centre a paragraph rather than fiddling with spaces.

You're not working on a VT100 now

That's good investigation to locate the problem; it hadn't occurred to me that you might be working with separate paragraphs. You can always check with View > Nonprinting characters: ON, paragraph breaks will be shown as ¶, line breaks as small arrows (down+left). The line spacing property applies to lines within the paragraph, so a line break (Shift+Enter) will force a new line and follow the paragraph's line spacing.

You can adjust the spacing between paragraphs (space above/below) but they can't be less than zero, so single space between paragraphs is the closest available spacing.

I remember Xmodem quite well; used it every day for quite a long time. Very cool. I settled on "acknak" because I'm an old timer who can never make up his mind.

acknak wrote: I remember Xmodem quite well; used it every day for quite a long time. Very cool. I settled on "acknak" because I'm an old timer who can never make up his mind.

"Ah yes, I remember it well", as Maurice Chevalier sang in Gigi.

One piece of advice about using line breaks (which I doubt will arise in your case): within OpenOffice they do not count as paragraph ends (only Enter does that), so in some circumstances, often with users migrating from old editors, one can end up with an entire document using line breaks. But this can be seen by OO as one gigantic paragraph and when it reaches OO's internal limit of 64k characters in a paragraph OO won't accept any more entry (typically 15 or so pages of text).

To convert line breaks to paragraph marks, use Find and Replace: Find \n, Replace \n (different meanings in each case), and enable Regular expressions from the dropdown.

Going further off topic, I make an allowance to myself (i guess the issue is solved, so digression damage is minimal...)

robleyd wrote:

HAHA a HACK: Load the label software for the label printer, create a label. screen print it - with its reduced line-to-line spacing, and paste it in as a graphic in A-OO.

Reminds me of;
" I need to send a document to someone - I'll create it in a WP app, print it, scan it and export as PDF and send it to the recipient." Don't laugh - have seen it happen.

I do not doubt it for a second. This is why:

Most of our suppliers use electronic invoicing which communicates directly with customers' accounting software, so we rarely see invoices as physical documents any more. Still, an invoice is sometimes received at my workplace, and then routinely scanned to import into accounting software.

The "half assed" solution is when a supplier sends the invoice by mail, as a PDF attachment. That attachment is then printed and the printout is run through the import sequence. So, you may ask, what file format does the accounting software require? No surprise there: PDF.

Have I pointed out the absurdity? Yes.
Did I suggest simplified workflow? Yes.
Has the procedure changed? No.