On 7/4/2019 10:32 PM, jomali wrote:
> I don't remember the details of the sxw format. Perhaps reveal codes were
> appropriate then. However, ODF files have a complex SGML or HTML or XML
> type format, along with a form of CSS, unlike WordPerfect and similar
> programs, which used embedded code to delineate format changes. That is,
> there are no format codes to reveal in ODF documents. Any program that
> pretended  to show some kind of "format code" would be hopelessly
> misleading.
>

Some 25 years ago, the government law office where I worked used 
WordPerfect exclusively and we all relied on Reveal Codes, which was a 
necessity because of the way we worked with WP. Although it had some 
style functionality, we never used it; instead we used WP like a digital 
typewriter, inserting formatting codes as we typed. Because of the way 
WP inserted formatting codes, one could do all sorts of things that 
today's word processors might forbid, such as changing line spacing or 
margins in the middle of a paragraph. It wasn't unusual that, after a 
while, a document would get full of formatting codes that were neither 
needed nor desired, so reveal codes was necessary to sort it all out and 
clean things up.

Then, one weekend, our IT department came in and blew off WP and 
installed Word. At first, we all rebelled, in part because we no longer 
had our beloved reveal codes. But, after a while, I learned how to use 
Word's style functionality and, then, when I began using StarOffice, 
then OpenOffice, then LO, I transferred the style mentality to those 
programs as well.

Now that I have learned page, paragraph, and character styles, I would 
never dream of returning to a program like WP. More importantly, I find 
I never need reveal codes because it is simply unnecessary considering 
the way LO works.

Virgil


-- 
To unsubscribe e-mail to: [email protected]
Problems? https://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/mailing-lists/how-to-unsubscribe/
Posting guidelines + more: https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Netiquette
List archive: https://listarchives.libreoffice.org/global/users/
Privacy Policy: https://www.documentfoundation.org/privacy

Reply via email to