Master Document

users
#1

Well, I'm confused by your problem -
           I've been using LO since it was OO; merely using 'save as' when
I'm finished writing for the moment, then when I re-open it, I just start
writing again.

       Are you perchance, plopping some text - written in another style -
into the document?;
           if so, then that document's style will retain it's formatting
unless you first place it into a non-formattable document, as notepad.

       If you're plopping other text into the document, then this is not a
bug;
           it's designed in order to allow indentions, etc. within the
framework of the document - a nice touch which I like re. LO :wink:

       If you're not plopping other text into the document, then I still
haven't a clue :wink:

#2

Since no one else has answered, I can only assume that no one here knows the answer.

Er, there have been five responses to your message (all archived on the web). You may not have liked them, but it's not true that no-one answered.

I think it must surely be a bug and I might file a bug report later.

I suspect you'll be told that subdocument text is meant to be reformatted according to the master document's insistence. Isn't that the function of the master document?

I am attempting now to copy all the files into one large document with the hope that I can circumvent the problem in that way, but it's a lot of work.

You may find that improving the structure of your subdocuments obviates this. What you are now doing is merely choosing not to use the master document functionality.

I am a little embarrassed by all this because I had quite a bit of opposition to using OpenOffice back at the start of this project.

I think we are talking about LibreOffice, in fact. And I suspect that it will do what you need.

I trust this helps.

Brian Barker

#3

I'm wondering if there is a way to define a field as the first word on the page and the last word on the page (like in a dictionary). If that could be done, then the desired information could be placed in a header, as Dale wants to do. That would obviate the manual gymnastics that he's trying to do.

I just glanced through the "fields" dialogs and nothing jumped out at me.

Virgil

#4

I'm wondering if there is a way to define a field as the first word on

  the page and the last word on the page (like in a dictionary).

In the last decade, there have been roughly a dozen requests to various mailing lists for a feature along those lines. Usually, but not always, it is related to dictionary construction.

The workarounds I'm aware of, have placed either the first word of the first new paragraph, or the first word of the last paragraph of the previous page, in the page header.

One workaround also managed to place the last word of the page in the header field, but it required:
* Triple Spacing between paragraphs;
* Manually setting things for every page;
* Manually changing things every time there was any textual _or_ formatting changes anywhere in the document;

I just glanced through the "fields" dialogs and nothing jumped out at me.

It is done by a combination of styles, and outline headers.
(Incidentally this use case is one of the reasons why there should LibO should allow users to construct more than ten levels of headers.)

jonathon

#5

The only way I see possible to do this is to have a separate style for each page of the book. Otherwise, every header of every page within a particular style always has the same text and formatting. If you change it on a succeeding page, all previous pages are also changed as long as they are governed by the same page style.

Dale Erwin

#6

Not if there could be a field defined as the first (or last) word on the page. You would insert the appropriate "Field Name" in the header, and then the actual text would change from page to page without a need for a new style. That's what fields do, like page numbers.

Virgil

#7

Yes, but there is more to it than just the first word and the last word. The first word is straightforward enough, except that sometimes it might consist of more than just one word. But the last word does not refer to the actual last word on the page, but the last "headword" of a dictionary entry which also might sometimes consist of more than one word. But it's moot since there are no such fields available.

Dale Erwin

#8

Now, you're getting way beyond my capabilities. Your situation seems difficult. Sorry I can't be more helpful.

Virgil

#9

You need to:

1. Set a character style to the dictionary "headwords" as already
suggested in this thread,

2. Then, using a macro (can't see any way to do that with standard tools
in Writer),

2.a. search forward from the beginning of the page for the very first
character sequence on a page with that style
-> you've found the "first" word

2.B. similarly from the end of the page, search backwards for the very
last character sequence formatted using that style
-> you've found the "last" word.

And that's it. Well, I'm completely unable to write any such piece of
code but no doubt this can be done, though the devil might be in some
details.