Mr. David C. Thewlis reports difficulty, particularly by comparison with
WordPerfect, in the creation of templates that include the features that
he prefers and that "persist". Even within the same document, he says,
the changes that he tries to include do not persist.
I myself think highly of WordPerfect, as I do of Writer. I use both
regularly. I must admit that generating templates that will work
properly is more difficult -- is more challenging, perhaps I should say
-- in Writer than in WordPerfect. I would offer the following
suggestions and observations.
1. Changes in paragraph format, unless they are embedded in a paragraph
style, will not persist if they are made to the paragraph that one is
currently typing. Such changes will apply only to the current paragraph,
and not to those that follow. That is the default behavior for such
changes. One way around this problem, or feature, is to make changes in
the paragraph format at the beginning of a new document, before any
actual paragraphs yet exist. In this case, the changes become the
defaults, and will apply to all succeeding paragraphs unless those
paragraphs are individually changed or unless a named style is applied
to them.
For example: if, at the beginning of the document, when no paragraphs
have as yet been typed, I select Format ==> Paragraph ==> Text Flow, and
check the "Automatically" box under "Hyphenation", I turn hyphenation on
for the words within the still nonexistent paragraphs that I will be
typing shortly. Further, since this setting is now a part of the default
paragraph format for this document, hyphenation will remain on,
paragraph after paragraph.
2. There is no File ==> Save or File ==> Save As that will preserve as a
template the preferences set in the current document. In other word
processors, I could save preferences as a template in that way, but not
in Writer. In Writer I must set the preferences (as, for example, in a
blank document) and then select File ==> Templates ==> Save. _Then_ I
can select the folder within which the current preferences can be saved
as a named template.
3. Writer is _really_ tough on me when I want a header area to be
defined on page two and on succeeding pages but not (as is the norm) on
page one. To accomplish this feat in Writer, I have to create two page
styles within a given template, one for the first page of a document (no
header area) and one for the second and succeeding pages (header area).
Within a blank document, I begin with Format ==> Page, and create a page
style for the second and succeeding pages -- the ones for which a header
area will be needed. I turn on the header area within it; set the page
style which follows it to be itself (I can do this only within a page
style); and save it under a name like "followon_page".
Then I create another page style, also within the blank document within
which I am working. I do _not_ turn on the header area within this
second page style. Where I may indicate what page style follows the
current page style, I specify the _other_ page style ("followon_page").
I save the second style under a name like "first_page". I then apply the
_second_ page style -- that is, "first_page" -- to the blank document.
(Why? Because the blank document begins with its first page. The first
page does not have a header area. The page style for a page that does
_not_ have a header area is the one that I named "first_page".)
Then I save the blank document, including any other preferences that I
wanted, as a template. I would suggest using a name for this template
like "mydoc1", which suggests that this template begins with the special
page-one page style (no header area) and then, on the second and
succeeding pages, switches to the normal page style (header area).
Is that complex enough?
4. If I have managed the above, then, when I want to begin one of "my"
documents, I start work with File ==> New ==> Templates aNd Documents,
perhaps using the key strokes alt-F + N + N. Then I select "mydoc1" as
my template. I will have no header area on page one; but I will have one
on pages two and beyond. If I fill in the header area on page two, when
I reach it, that header text will be used on page three and all
succeeding pages.
5. The upshot of all of this is that Writer will not be compatible with
WordPerfect in the means provided for the creation of document
templates. The equivalent means are provided, if only one can access the
information that indicates how they work in Writer as distinct from
WordPerfect.
6. These complexities are explained in documentation that accompanies
OpenOffice; it can be printed at any time. Such problems are explained
even better in the book
Solveig Haugland; _OpenOffice.org 2 Guidebook_; [published by]
Solveig Haugland; 2 ed pap 2006
To get a copy of this indispensable book, send an e-mail message to
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
or look at the web sites
http://openoffice.blogs.com
or
http://www.getopenoffice.org
Ms. Haugland's book does not always make the easiest reading, and
sometimes a topic is concealed under a synonym that one does not easily
think of. In general, however, one can find crucial information more
quickly in her book than in any other way known to me. It is possible,
for example, to figure out how to construct a working template from her
book, when otherwise one might give up in despair.
Hoping that these comments are useful, I am
-- Lee Valentine
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