write frustrations

users
#1

Below is why I still use WordStar 5.5 in my office:

I am creating a form (an invoice for my ebay purchases because many sellers don't send one).

1) ebay lower cases their name. I type 'ebay'. LO "corrects me to make it "Ebay".

2) I type seller:. on the next line I create an underline about 3 inches long for the name, etc. of the seller. LO changes my 3" underline to all the way across the page. In addition, it is not a character based underline. I cannot delete it, shorten it, etc. I cannot select it, as if it were an object. My only solution is to delete the file and start again.

3) I have tried in the past to create a outline structure, kinda like this doc. LO kept changing my text in the same way. I ended up using WordStar to get the job done.

I want to integrate LO into our office ops so the employees feel they are part of the 21st century, but its issues like this that keep that from happening.

Help?

John

#2

Hi John,

Below is why I still use WordStar 5.5 in my office:

I am creating a form (an invoice for my ebay purchases because many
sellers don't send one).

1) ebay lower cases their name. I type 'ebay'. LO "corrects me to make
it "Ebay".

In Writer go to "Format > Autocorrect > Autocorrect Options". On the Tab
"Options" you can uncheck the "Capitalize first letter of every sentence."

2) I type seller:. on the next line I create an underline about 3 inches
long for the name, etc. of the seller. LO changes my 3" underline to all
the way across the page. In addition, it is not a character based
underline. I cannot delete it, shorten it, etc. I cannot select it, as if
it were an object. My only solution is to delete the file and start again.

There is an option in the same tab that reads "Apply border", I believe
that is what is happening here. Writer is changing the underline to a
border at the bottom of the paragraph. If it happens, you could just press
the backspace and then Writer should undo the change. Alternatively, you
can check "Format > Paragraph" and delete the border from there.

3) I have tried in the past to create a outline structure, kinda like this
doc. LO kept changing my text in the same way. I ended up using WordStar
to get the job done.

I'm not sure, what you mean here. If you mean, that Writer automatically
indents your text, then just hit backspace again. There should also be an
option there on the Autocorrection Options menu as well.

I want to integrate LO into our office ops so the employees feel they are
part of the 21st century, but its issues like this that keep that from
happening.

I hope, I could be helpful?

Sigrid

#3

John R. Sowden wrote:

Below is why I still use WordStar 5.5 in my office:

I am creating a form (an invoice for my ebay purchases because many
sellers don't send one).

1) ebay lower cases their name. I type 'ebay'. LO "corrects me to make
it "Ebay".

(Note that while eBay's logo is all lower case, in text they write it with a capital B)

A couple of solutions:

1. Undo immediately after it "corrects" to "Ebay" (menu Edit > Undo, or Ctrl+Z or whatever your favourite way of undoing is). It will undo the autocorrect, but not whatever you typed to trigger it.

2. If you'd rather disable automatic capitalisation entirely, go to Tools > AutoCorrect Options > Options tab and untick the box under [T] and next to "Capitalise first letter of every sentence.

While there, you can also disable any others you don't want. The ticks under [M] control what happens when you use Format > AutoCorrect > Apply, while those under [T] control what happens as you're typing.

I've just noticed that you can also completely disable AutoCorrect at Format > AutoCorrect > While Typing (I think someone was asking for this a couple of weeks ago...)

2) I type seller:. on the next line I create an underline about 3
inches long for the name, etc. of the seller. LO changes my 3"
underline to all the way across the page. In addition, it is not a
character based underline. I cannot delete it, shorten it, etc. I
cannot select it, as if it were an object. My only solution is to
delete the file and start again.

Similar to above, you can undo immediately after it happens, or disable the option under Tools > AutoCorrect Options > Options > Apply border.

If you already have one of these borders you want to get rid of, place the cursor in the paragraph just above and go to Format > Paragraph > Borders tab. You'll notice it is set to draw a border below the paragraph. Click the left-most icon just under "Line arrangement" to get rid of all borders.

Rather than using the underscore character to produce lines to fill in, a more controllable way may be to use a tab stop with an underline fill:
- Place the cursor on the line where you want to produce the underline.
- Click on the ruler to place a tab stop by clicking on the ruler (or add a new one under Format > Paragraph > Tabs).
- Double-click the tab stop on the ruler (or go to Format > Paragraph > Tabs) to set its properties.
- Select the required tab stop in the Position list, and set the "Fill character" to the underline.
- Click OK.
- Now position the cursor at the end of the line and press tab. The space between the last character and tab stop will be underlined.

That may or may not achieve the effect you want; it's just another idea.

3) I have tried in the past to create a outline structure, kinda like
this doc. LO kept changing my text in the same way. I ended up using
WordStar to get the job done.

I'm not sure know what you're referring to. The mailing list removes attachments, so if you attached an example document it won't get through. "LO kept changing my text in the same way" sounds like more AutoCorrect options, which you can disable as above or undo immediately after they happen.

Some people find AutoCorrect useful, some don't. Personally I disable most of the options because it gets in the way as much as it helps. About the only one I use is "Replace Dashes" which replaces hyphens with longer dashes when there's a space each side of the dash - because that's one I do find useful.

I want to integrate LO into our office ops so the employees feel they
are part of the 21st century, but its issues like this that keep that
from happening.

Help?

John

Hope that helps.

Mark.

#4

I love it. I did each, I then tried them, each worked. Thanks. I see what I am doing. I am dumbing down LO to fit my wp style. I'm sure as I get more comfortable with LO writer, I will turn some of these back on.

Thanks again,

John

#5

Rats - I meant to send this to the list. And someone already said this.

#6

I hadn't even thought of/tried the undelete feature. I was unaware of Ctrl Z, but, as hex 26 is an end of file marker, in my mind I block that out. That was a trick that I have used to make part of a file unreadable, based on which editor was being used to view the file.

Thanks,
John

#7

Hi :slight_smile:
It is still a good answer though! :slight_smile: It shows that answers can be short!

I am not sure that everyone knows ^ as a short way of writing "Ctrl" but it
is in fairly common usage. I don't think we always need to dumb everything
down to a ridiculous level all the time.

@ John, yes you are "dumbing down" LO but that seems to be to deal with a
very specific use-case where it is necessary to do that.

Other people also tweak LO to fit their cases and being able to do so
fairly easily is one of the strengths of LO (and AOO and the rest).
'Hacking' the autocorrect is done by a fair few other people! :slight_smile:

For your case it makes me wonder if there is an easy way to run 2 "User
Profiles" and easily or even automatically switch between them but for now
i wouldn't worry about that sort of thing!
Regards from
Tom :slight_smile: