Forum: Author Hangout

Open Office Question - CRS!

awnlee jawking 🚫

I use Open Office mostly as a plain-text editor.

In the novel I'm working on, I've sometimes amalgamated multiple scenes into a single chapter separated by a SOL scene break, a line of five asterisks.

Open Office loves to convert those into two black lines. I'm pretty sure I found out how to switch that off from the internet. But today it started converting them again. I can no longer find the website telling me how to switch it off, and I've trawled through all Open Office's autocorrect options but can't find it anywhere.

Can anyone help?

AJ

Replies: Keet Dominions Son Switch Blayde Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

Keet 🚫
Updated:

@awnlee jawking

You'll probably find it under tools>autocorrect>replace:

https://wiki.openoffice.org/wiki/Documentation/OOoAuthors_User_Manual/Getting_Started/Using_AutoCorrect.

You should really consider switching to LibreOffice. It's virtually the same but it is very well maintained where Open Office is virtually a dead project.

ETA: In your case it might be a paragraph border instead of a line: https://wiki.openoffice.org/wiki/Documentation/FAQ/Writer/AutomaticFunctions/How_do_I_stop_OpenOffice.org_from_generating_a_black_line_from_hash_characters%3F.

Replies: Dominions Son Ernest Bywater awnlee jawking

Dominions Son 🚫
Updated:

@Keet

where Open Office is virtually a dead project.

The current version of OO was released 2020-11-10. It is no where near being a dead project.

LO proponents keep saying OO is dead, but not matter how many times you say it, that won't make it true.

https://blogs.apache.org/OOo/

Replies: Keet

Keet 🚫

@Dominions Son

LO proponents keep saying OO is dead, but not matter how many times you say it, that won't make it true.

I didn't know it was recently updated, the previous update was over a year(!) ago. Sorry, but a project that updates once a year is not exactly what I call a well maintained project. My opinion remains that LibreOffice is by far the better choice between the two.

Replies: Dominions Son Ernest Bywater

Dominions Son 🚫

@Keet

I didn't know it was recently updated, the previous update was over a year(!) ago. Sorry, but a project that updates once a year is not exactly what I call a well maintained project.

How often do you think Microsoft does version releases on MS Office?

Your opinion on what constitutes a well maintained project is noted.

In my opinion, a "well maintained" project is going to have a fair bit of stability and won't be doing monthly version releases.

Replies: Keet Mushroom

Keet 🚫

@Dominions Son

How often do you think Microsoft does version releases on MS Office?

Your opinion on what constitutes a well maintained project is noted.

In my opinion, a "well maintained" project is going to have a fair bit of stability and won't be doing monthly version releases.

How many bug fixes in the W10 monthly update do you think are for Office?

Stability is arguable if you maintain stability by running behind in common features. But in my opinion OpenOffice is lagging so far behind that the preference for LibreOffice is easily justifiable.

Replies: Dominions Son awnlee jawking

Dominions Son 🚫

@Keet

But in my opinion OpenOffice is lagging so far behind that the preference for LibreOffice is easily justifiable.

Maybe, but calling OO a dead project is entirely unjustifiable.

awnlee jawking 🚫

@Keet

the preference for LibreOffice

I really ought to upgrade. Open Office seems rather buggy - minor annoyances perhaps, but they should have been sorted. And needing to install Java to access the help system ...

AJ

Replies: Mushroom Dominions Son

Mushroom 🚫

@awnlee jawking

I really ought to upgrade. Open Office seems rather buggy - minor annoyances perhaps, but they should have been sorted. And needing to install Java to access the help system ...

I actually use both. Open Office on my laptop, Libre on my desktop. Nothing planned, I just decided when I reloaded my desktop last month to try the other one. And I use both of them with absolutely no problems.

Dominions Son 🚫

@awnlee jawking

I really ought to upgrade. Open Office

I've not had any problems with OO.

Mushroom 🚫

@Dominions Son

How often do you think Microsoft does version releases on MS Office?

On average, a major revision every 2-3 years. It has been that way for over 30 years. The current version (Office 2019) came out in September 2018.

Online, it is following the pattern of most online software, ditching the old "version number" model, and just going with constant updates.

Ernest Bywater 🚫

@Keet

My opinion remains that LibreOffice is by far the better choice between the two.

Some interesting info I found:

A detailed 60-page report in June 2015 compared the progress of the LibreOffice project with the related project Apache OpenOffice. It showed that "OpenOffice received about 10% of the improvements LibreOffice did in the period of time studied."

............

Another important aspect is when LO forked from OO it was the majority of the long term OO programmers who created the fork due to conflicts with Oracle who owned OO at that time.

There also appeared to have been some on-going issues with the acceptance of volunteer community involvement and submissions with the OO project for a few years prior to the split.

.................................

From the start LO has been transitioning away from the use of Java code within LO due to concerns about Oracle's actions in the lawsuit against Google on the use of Java code might be extended to the LO project.

Replies: Dominions Son

Dominions Son 🚫

@Ernest Bywater

A detailed 60-page report in June 2015 compared the progress of the LibreOffice project with the related project Apache OpenOffice.

By whom? Someone impartial, or someone invested in the LO project?

Why not include a link to it?

Replies: Ernest Bywater

Ernest Bywater 🚫

@Dominions Son

By whom?

The source document was:

Linton, Susan (5 June 2015). "Apache OpenOffice versus LibreOffice". OStatic. Archived from the original on 16 August 2016.

https://www.linuxjournal.com/users/susan-linton

Ernest Bywater 🚫

@Keet

You should really consider switching to LibreOffice. It's virtually the same but it is very well maintained where Open Office is virtually a dead project.

Both projects are still alive and well, with Libre Office being much more active and robust as it has the people who were the major coders behind Open Office for many years.

The main difference between the two today is that LO has moved very strongly to the newer open source codes and replaced a lot of the older code with newer routines that work faster.

awnlee jawking 🚫

@Keet

If I deleted the autocorrect entry the first time I fixed it, that would explain why I couldn't find it again. But it doesn't explain why it started happening again. Grrrrr!

AJ

Replies: bk69

bk69 🚫

@awnlee jawking

Perhaps a software update restored it?

Dominions Son 🚫

@awnlee jawking

el I'm working on, I've sometimes amalgamated multiple scenes into a single chapter separated by a SOL scene break, a line of five asterisks.

Open Office loves to convert those into two black lines. I'm pretty sure I found out how to switch that off from the internet. But today it started converting them again. I can no longer find the website telling me how to switch it off, and I've trawled through all Open Office's autocorrect options but can't find it anywhere.

From the OO help under Turning Off Auto Correct.

To Stop Drawing a Line When You Type Three Identical Characters
OpenOffice automatically draws a line when you type three of the following characters and press Enter: - _ = * ~ #
1. Choose Tools - AutoCorrect Options.
2. Click the Options tab.
3. Clear the "Apply border" check box.

Switch Blayde 🚫

@awnlee jawking

If you don't want to turn it off for everything (maybe you want that to occur if not for SOL), try hitting the "undo typing" or whatever OO calls it (in Word it's the little back arrow that undoes typing).

So you (1) type the asterisks, (2) hit enter, (3) OO does the change, (4) hit the undo typing, (5) OO undoes the change and you have the asterisks back.

Replies: awnlee jawking

awnlee jawking 🚫

@Switch Blayde

Thank you.

It surprised me when I tried it, but it works.

AJ

Replies: Switch Blayde

Switch Blayde 🚫

@awnlee jawking

It surprised me when I tried it, but it works.

Yeah, there are things I want to automatically change, like the (c) to the copyright symbol. So I don't want to take it out of the autocorrect.

But sometimes I don't want to convert it, like when I'm writing (a) … (b) … (c) … In those cases I simply use the "undo typing."

Replies: Ernest Bywater Mushroom Keet

Ernest Bywater 🚫

@Switch Blayde

Yeah, there are things I want to automatically change, like the (c) to the copyright symbol. So I don't want to take it out of the autocorrect.

I use (c) for lists much more often than I do for the copyright symbol, so I removed it from the autocorrect list and use the 'Insert' - - 'Special Character' process to include the copyright symbol where I want it. I also have a story template in which I have the copyright symbol already inserted on the title page and copyright page, so I rarely need to add it in anywhere else.

Replies: Switch Blayde

Switch Blayde 🚫

@Ernest Bywater

'Insert' - - 'Special Character'

I never knew that existed. In Word it's Insert -- Advanced Symbol

Mushroom 🚫

@Switch Blayde

Yeah, there are things I want to automatically change, like the (c) to the copyright symbol. So I don't want to take it out of the autocorrect.

Alt-0169 is your friend. I use quite a few ascii codes (½, ¼, ñ, Ñ) on a regular basis. They are really easy to use, and it is not hard to remember 3 or 4 that you use on a regular basis.

Replies: Switch Blayde bk69

Switch Blayde 🚫
Updated:

@Mushroom

Alt-0169 is your friend.

bk69 🚫

@Mushroom

They are really easy to use, and it is not hard to remember 3 or 4 that you use on a regular basis.

Yeah, but LibreOffice allows you to create keyboard shortcuts, so you can always just make each symbol you regularly use a quick three-finger keypress.

Replies: Mushroom

Mushroom 🚫

@bk69

Yeah, but LibreOffice allows you to create keyboard shortcuts, so you can always just make each symbol you regularly use a quick three-finger keypress.

But there is another advantage of learning the ASCII codes. And that is they work anywhere.

Want to name a document "Mañana.txt", or a photo "3½ disk drive", they work in DOS also, as well as on web browsers. 255 is even a code that many of us used back in the day. Make a folder called say "folder ", the ASCII for 255 is a blank space. DOS did not like spaces, but saw that as another character.

Perfect in the days of a text based operating system for creating a folder nobody else could get into. As "CD folder" would not work. You had to add the 255 character at the end.

I admit, I never use special characters with mapping and shortcuts in a program, I always do it old school because I have been doing it that way for over 30 years. And it just works.

Replies: bk69

bk69 🚫

@Mushroom

Yeah. I remember driving people crazy with files I'd saved on a Commodore PET that had names with 'spaces' in them. It wasn't actually a space, just a character that on screen only displayed as a space. IIRC the keyboard shift key just added a set value to whatever key was pressed and sent the resulting ASCII value...

Replies: Mushroom

Mushroom 🚫

@bk69

IIRC the keyboard shift key just added a set value to whatever key was pressed and sent the resulting ASCII value...

We called that PETSCII. It was an offset of a standard ASCII code.

Keet 🚫

@Switch Blayde

But sometimes I don't want to convert it, like when I'm writing (a) … (b) … (c) … In those cases I simply use the "undo typing."

Set auto correct not for ( c ) but use /c, %c, or something alike to autocorrect to a copyright symbol. A character less to type and no interference with a,b,c lists.

shinerdrinker 🚫

I've been meaning to change from Open Office but I'm too pigheaded to admit I picked the wrong one when I originally decided between the two.

I'm still thinking about it. I'll probably do it whenever it is time to get a new laptop and then I'll get caught up.

Maybe. Maybe not. Who knows?

Replies: richardshagrin

richardshagrin 🚫

@shinerdrinker

Maybe. Maybe not. Who knows?

God knows. But he probably won't tell you.

Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)
Updated:

@awnlee jawking

SOL scene break, a line of five asterisks.

Just for reference: SOL's story formatting script converts a bunch of stuff to < hr>.

Any combination of the following characters, if on a line of its own, will be converted to < hr> :

@ # _ = ~ + • x — > < * 0 o -

for example:

@@@@@

-=-=-=-=-

#####

x-x-x-x-x

o0o0o0o0o

etc...

will result in a horizontal rule if they are on a line of their own.

Replies: madnige

madnige 🚫

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

result in a horizontal rule if they are on a line of their own.

If there's a trailing space, do they still get converted? Adding a trailing space in LO suppresses the above behaviour, so if SOL strips trailing whitespace, that would be another way round the problem.

Replies: Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

@madnige

If there's a trailing space, do they still get converted?

Yes.

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Open Office Question - CRS!

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