Whoopee! The absence of reveal codes is up for discussion again, and we continue to have defenders of the absence of this great WP tool.
It allows SEEING where things happen and CHANGING them by deleting the codes. It is an ADDITIONAL convenience, not a requirement. Nobody is forced to display the reveal codes window. --- On Fri, 6/21/13, Virgil Arrington <cuyfa...@hotmail.com> wrote: > From: Virgil Arrington <cuyfa...@hotmail.com> > Subject: Re: Codes > To: users@openoffice.apache.org > Date: Friday, June 21, 2013, 2:24 PM > There *is* a "reveal styles." It's in > the Formatting Toolbar, where the style for the paragraph > containing the cursor is clearly displayed. Press F11 and > you'll get a list of all the available paragraph styles. > Right click on any one of them, click "Modify" and you can > see all of the formatting characteristics applying to that > style. Make any formatting changes you want and they will > apply to any paragraph having that particular style. > > As for other formatting parameters, you don't need a code to > tell you that a word is in Boldface as it will appear in > Boldface on the screen. Blue text will appear blue, and you > won't need a code to tell that. Now, you may not know *why* > the text is blue, but if you simply right click on the > applied paragraph style in the style list, you can then > change the character formatting to any color you want (the > same as you would with direct formatting, just within the > style itself). Once changed, all paragraphs having that > paragraph style will automatically change to the new color. > With WordPerfect, you'd have to go into each and every > paragraph or column frame and manually change each one to > the color you want. And, if you made a mistake in one of > them, you'd end up with inconsistent formatting. Of course > you could track it down with your reveal codes, but with > styles, you wouldn't have to. > > It's not rocket science, but I'll agree that it is not > intuitive to the typewriter model followed by WordPerfect. > > Let me give an example of the benefit of styles. Several > years ago, my 14 year old son challenged himself to type a > 50,000 word novel in November, which is National Novel > Writers Month. He met his goal, and quickly dropped the > project. > > As a proud papa, I wanted to put his document to paper. He > wrote the original in WordPerfect, and it was a formatting > mess, with stray tabs, carriage returns, and inconsistent > formatting across chapter and section headings. Using WP's > beloved reveal codes, I began the task of reformatting his > 127 page novel. It didn't take long for me to realize it > would take days and days to wade through all of the > formatting codes inserted by WP. > > Instead, I saved the document as a plain text file, > stripping all formatting. I then loaded it into LyX, which > is a GUI LaTeX editor. LaTeX is the ultimate in styles-based > document processing as there is no other way to do things. I > applied the Part and Chapter styles, (called "environments" > in LaTeX speak) to the part and chapter titles, and then > inserted a fully formatted, numbered, and typed table of > contents with a couple mouse clicks. I set NO page > formatting parameters such as page margins, page numbering, > etc., as those were handled entirely by the Book template > (called "document class"). I then compiled the book and had > a fully formatted novel, complete with Title page, Table of > Contents, properly formatted right and left hand pages with > fully formatted headers with page numbers, etc. The entire > process took about a half hour. I surprised even myself. > > I could have done the same thing with OpenOffice's styles, > but they're not quite as fully automatic as LyX/LaTeX, so it > would have taken a bit longer, but not much. > > Yes, styles can be difficult to learn, much the same as > learning a new cable TV remote control. But once learned, > you'll appreciate all you can do with them, and you won't go > back to the typewriter (or it's only begotten son, > WordPerfect), just like I won't go back to rabbit ears for > my TV. > > Virgil > > > > > > -----Original Message----- From: Tamblyne > Sent: Friday, June 21, 2013 5:29 PM > To: users@openoffice.apache.org > Subject: Re: Codes > > Hi, Patricia -- > > Of course, you're going to be told -- and I can see that you > already > have -- that "you're not doing it right." Use > styles. Styles will, > apparently, take care everything, including promote world > peace, as well > as fix all that's wrong with your document. > > Perhaps if we asked for "reveal styles" instead of "reveal > codes," we > could get some progress on this issue. The View > > Non-printing > characters doesn't help much unless what you're looking for > is carriage > returns/line-feeds, as far as I can tell. It certainly > doesn't tell me > what styles are being applied to any given portion of the > document. And > it doesn't show formatting codes, either. > > As an "old" WP user (and aren't we all, at this point?), I > argued > passionately for this "enhancement" long ago. The fact > that we were > blown off then, and still are, is the reason I don't > volunteer my time > to this project anymore. > > The response to "use styles" doesn't solve the problem -- > that being > that you can't tell where an applied style begins or ends > when you have > a problem. Wait until you get a horizontal line under > all of your > paragraphs that you can't get rid of. That's even more > fun! :-D You > can spend time playing Document Detective -- or just CTRL-Z > out of it > and come up with some other way to format your document the > way YOU want > to. > > As to your particular issue, this blue text is often > automatically > applied to email addresses and hyperlinks, and you can > change that under > "character styles." > > As for reveal codes -- don't hold your breath. :-) > > Tam > > On 6/20/2013 6:54 PM, Patricia Hickin wrote: > > Is there any way to reveal codes in OO (the way you can > in WordPerfect)? > > > > I am having a problem with the following: > > > > I am preparing a list of books as follows: > > > > In a table of two columns, I insert an image of the > book cover in the first > > (a narrow) column. In the 2nd column I put info > about the book: title, > > author, publisher & date. > > > > I have obtained the info from www.worldcat.org, > compiled a list of the > > books, copied the list into Notepad to strip it of > formatting. Next I > > copied the list into an OO text document and formatted > it as follows: > > > > font Calibri color black > > title: 18 point bold italic > > author & publishing info (two separate > lines): 15 point regular. > > > > For some reason, OO is changing the color of the > publishing info to blue. > > I change it to black. but when I save > it the color switches to blue!! > > > > It is driving me crazy!!! > > > > Any ideas?? Thanks!! > > > > Pat > > > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > To unsubscribe, e-mail: users-unsubscr...@openoffice.apache.org > For additional commands, e-mail: users-h...@openoffice.apache.org > > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > To unsubscribe, e-mail: users-unsubscr...@openoffice.apache.org > For additional commands, e-mail: users-h...@openoffice.apache.org > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: users-unsubscr...@openoffice.apache.org For additional commands, e-mail: users-h...@openoffice.apache.org
