On Monday 29 November 2010 05:03, Harold Fuchs wrote: > I've read some of the documentation on Sections in OOo Writer but I've > decided I don't understand the thinking behind them. Perhaps some would > explain it to me: > > If I create a new blank Writer document, type a few lines and then > insert a section, a few things are puzzling: > > 1. The new section is named "section 1". Why not "section 2"?
You can call a section anything you like, just rename it where it suggests the section name. > Why isn't > the text *before* the new section considered to be Section 1? It is a section within a document you are creating. any text outside sections is just part of the default document. > Of course, > programmers prefer to count from zero ;-) but the text above the new > section isn't "Section 0" either ... Programmers use whatever the default of the programming language is. IIRC correctly Delphi starts counting array elements from one. It is just that zero is a valid number in binary storage. > 2. The text before the new section doesn't seem to belong to any > section. I don't seem to be able to format it like I can the new > section. What is happening here? Any text below your new section behaves this way to. You can format it exactly the same as any section text. You just cannot format it from the section dialogue box. Sections within a document are optional parts of that document. > 3. When I create the new section, a faint box appears on the screen and > the cursor jumps to a point *below* the bottom of this box. But where > the cursor is doesn't seen to be a section (section 2?) either. You are right, the cursor is not in the section. Before you created the section the cursor (i call it the blinker) was not in a section. After creation the blinker is not in a section. > 4. If I set the Navigator to select Sections then "Next section" and > "Previous section" behave strangely (to my eyes): If the cursor is > *inside* the new section then Next Section and Previous Section do > nothing. If the cursor is in the text above the top (below the bottom) > of the new section then Next (Previous) Section jumps into the new > section. So the cursor can be made to jump into the new section but not > out of it:-( Depends on how many sections you have created. > 5. If I new insert a new section *inside* the one I just made then it is > named Section 2 and the old Section 1 seems to have divided into two - > part above and part below the new section. If I format Section 1 (say by > making it into multiple columns) then both "halves" of the section > acquire the new format. Correct, you have created a section within a section, Just like "Section 1" was created within the document. Think of it as the creation of a margin to margin container or box. > 6. If the cursor is inside Section 2 then Previous Section moves it into > the top half of Section 1 but Next Section does nothing. "Section 2" as you have created it is a child of "Section 1". I don't know of any valid use for this layout at this stage. "Next Section" may not be programmed to understand the child-parent relationship. If you create 2 or more independant sections with the document as the parent, Next and Previous Section behave as i would expect. > There's obviously a fundamental something which I'm misunderstanding. > Please ... A document does not need any sections at all, they are optonal like line numbers or bullets. Sections have a specific use, for me the best use is column control. The attached document may help you understand it better. I have labelled each paragraph and section name by it's place within the docoment. I can navigate by clicking a section name in the navigator and using the up [↑] and down [↓] arrow keys. Then to place the blinker in the section i tap enter. HTH -- Michael
Sections.odt
Description: application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.text
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