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L) frustration -- trying to write a letter for the national office of an
organization. I have five items that I want to number. LO insists upon
giving me a number I don't want every time I hit "return" and it also
insists upon indent in places I don't want. I backspace to remove the
indent and it then won't let me have a return-line space. How can I turn
off all automatic formatting?
Define two styles - one with numeration, other without. Make both look the same, except one has numeration, other don't. When you wont numbers - apply that style, when you don't apply that other style. You can make that style without numbers stars automatically after numbered on pressing return.
Kruno
You can't, but you can modify default style as you wish and save that document as a template _and make that template default_ so when ever you open LibreOffice you'll be working with your custom styles.
Kruno
Maybe you should walk this poster through "design a style".
I have been using LO since "day one" but never designed a style and really never looked into it.
Thank you, yes, I have never defined a style and felt discouraged to read
that I can't just turn
that feature off -- I don't know how to define a style that has no
automatic formatting.
L) frustration -- trying to write a letter for the national office of an
organization. I have five items that I want to number. LO insists upon
giving me a number I don't want every time I hit "return" and it also
insists upon indent in places I don't want. I backspace to remove the
indent and it then won't let me have a return-line space.
If you formatted one paragraph as numbered via click onto the symbol for "numbering" (don't know, if it is the right name for the symbol in english...), the next paragraphs will be formatted with numbers and indents. If you want a line-space within a paragraph without an new number, use "shift-return". If you want to disable formatting as "numbering" click again onto the symbol for "numbering".
Hope, this helps...
How can I turn
off all automatic formatting?
See the other posts.
Uli
Well, I think there's always some kind of formatting enabled, you can't kill styles.
But - if I understood right you are trying to have some lines (those five items) numbered but after hitting enter you wont to write normally until that second item, right? Then you wont a number again, is that right?
I done it by hitting F11, docking the new window by dragging it to the left, going to Paragraph style (first icon) and right clicking to a Default style then choosing Modify. Next you should go to Indents & Spacing tab and remove tick from Automatic.
Then click OK. Again right click on Default style and now choose New. Name the style, go to Outline & Numbering tab and from Numbering style drop-down menu choose Numbering 1. Go to Organizer tab and for Next style choose Text body.
When you need to number a paragraph you choose newly made style, you write what you wont and when you click enter it will make new paragraph Text body so it will look just like newly defined but without numbers.
When you would like to have numbers again - just double click newly defined style.
That's the way I'm doing it because I like to have paragraphs instead hitting shift + enter. So, all you need is two styles...
A hope I understood right what you are trying to achieve.
Kruno
Hi 
You were nearly there but just missed slightly! There are 2 ways, one
is a bit different from what you are doing but is more elegant.
Your way, because you are nearly there already. Do the back-space at
the end of the list to get rid of the new number and press enter
again. That drops you back to the far left so you can carry on
without the indent. After you have finished typing a few more lines
then go back and select the whole of the numbered area and use the
ruler-bar at the top of the document to adjust the amount of indent.
The other way (well, one of the other ways) is to leave numbering
until the end. Do the typing first until you have gone past the area
you wanted to number. Then go back to select that area to apply
numbering and do all the adjustments you want all in one go.
In general LibreOffice is designed with a different ethos from Word.
If you try to use it as you would use Word then you miss out on many
of the things that makes it more efficient and faster to produce far
better quality documents than you would to produce comparatively
rubbish ones in Word.
In Word the whole idea of styles is a pain that you have to fight
against all the time. You constantly have to stop typing in order to
reach for the mouse and make some stupid little change or apply
formatting directly. It reduces great typists from upwards of 75wpm
to as slow as me!
In Writer it's better to just do lots of the typing first and then
apply headings or any of the different formatting bits&bobs
afterwards. Generally you do this by using styles.
Say you type all your document in the style called "body" or
"default". When you do headings you apply style 1 for the main and
then 2 for sub-headings and so on. You can then edit/modify the
settings of the styles and the changes you just made to the style
ripples through the whole document. So lets say you were typing most
of it in Arial 10 point but 3/4 the way through decided to change it
all to Times New Roman 11pt. All you need to do is edit the style
called "default" without even needing to select any of the text in the
document.
In Word after you have finished typing you generally notice some areas
where the font changed randomly without you telling it to, perhaps
even switching from English (Uk (or whatever)) into English (US) and
back again at random. It takes a bit of messing around to try to get
all the text the same and usually people give up resulting in quite
odd changes mid-way through. Bullet-pointed lists where the size and
shape of one of the points is different. Numbered lists that
mis-count.
Tbh i didn't take much notice of styles for ages either and just used
Writer the same way i had used Word. When i did read-up the chapter
in the guides i found my efficiency rocketed even though i didn't
understand it all or do all of it. Later i re-read that chapter and
each time found another boost in productivity for each new thing.
See the "Getting Started Guide" Chapter 3
https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Documentation/Publications
but don't try to understand it all. Just skim it first time.
Regards from
Tom
I have five items that I want to number. LO insists upon giving me a number I don't want every time I hit "return" and it also insists upon indent in places I don't want. I backspace to remove the indent and it then won't let me have a return-line space.
Are you happy with Writer's attempts at numbering the five items but are merely having difficulty terminating the process? If so, when you see the automatic "6." which is one too many, just press backspace *twice* to get back to the normal structure. (Incidentally, you shouldn't think in terms of a "return-line space": that's typewriter thinking. Instead, use vertical spacing applied to the paragraph or the paragraph style.)
How can I turn off all automatic formatting?
You may indeed want to suppress Writer's automatic numbering and handle everything yourself. There are two ways to do this, and it is useful to be aware of both.
o You can leave the automatic facility on but disable it locally when it happens. The automatic formatting is applied when you press Enter to terminate the first numbered paragraph. (It is a paragraph if it is terminated by Enter, even if it is only one line.) Immediately you see the change, go to Edit | Undo (or Ctrl+Z). This undoes the automatic effect whilst leaving the paragraph break you wanted.
o Alternatively, if you simply want to disable these attempts by Writer to be helpful, go to Tools | AutoCorrect Options... | Options and remove the tick from "Apply numbering - symbol: *".
I trust this helps.
Brian Barker
This list may not like the suggestion, but Softmaker has a free version
of its word processor and spreadsheet. You might find it less fiddly
than LO.
--doug
o Alternatively, if you simply want to disable these attempts by Writer
to be helpful, go to Tools | AutoCorrect >Options... | Options and remove
the tick from "Apply numbering - symbol: *".
I trust this helps
Exactly, yes! That worked. Thanks to all for the good help.
Hmmm...No Mac version and not free--unless I overlooked something on the website.
Charles
No, not for Mac, but it sure is available for Linux. Look here:
AFAIK, it is only short a few fonts compared to the paid version.
I have it on my laptop, and it works great.
--doug
Checking the website, I only saw Windows and Linux versions.
That's what I said. I didn't realize you need a Mac program.
--doug
Thanks for the link. I searched for Softmaker and just found the commercial site.
Charles
FreeOffice is interesting. In many ways, it resembles LO or OOo. Does anyone know if it was some form of fork or dirivative?
Virgil
FreeOffice is interesting. In many ways, it resembles LO or OOo. Does anyone know if it was some form of fork or dirivative?
Virgil
Virgil
I believe FreeOffice is proprietary and is the free version of SoftMaker's office suite.
Jay
On Tue, 19 Nov 2013 19:30:24 -0500
"Virgil Arrington" <cuyfalls@hotmail.com> dijo:
FreeOffice is interesting. In many ways, it resembles LO or OOo. Does
anyone know if it was some form of fork or dirivative?
You can download a free version for Linux or Windows; I didn't see a
Mac option.
It appears to be a completely independent creation, not a fork of
LO/OO. It's main claim is that it imports/exports MS Office files more
faithfully than LO/OO. Also, there are programs for the functionality of
Writer, Calc and Impress, but nothing for Base.
I downloaded the free version, and then decided not to bother
installing it. After all, LO does everything I need, so why bother?
Still, it would be interesting to read a detailed comparative review.
For example, I bet there is no plugin for Zotero and other tools that
I rely on, but I'd like to read the good and the bad without having to
install it and spend hours poking around.
There is an almost 700 page pdf manual here:
http://www.softmaker.net/down/pm2012manual_en.pdf
Regards, Jim