On Mon, 30 Jan 2006 14:45:37 -0700
Robin Laing <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

> David Clark wrote:

> > Most important question -- Where is Reveal Codes????
> 
> 
> 
> Now remember that OOo is a MS Office replacement and thus follows 
> their techniques closely.
> 
That's actually not true! OO does things quite differently from MS in
many ways, although I believe the user-interface is pretty similar.
Application of styles is one of those things that OO actually does much
better, I'm told.

> Many on this list have never experienced the freedom of Reveal Codes 
> so they don't understand the joy and ease of fixing formatting 
> problems in two or three seconds instead of trying to edit a style to 
> get the effect you want.
> 
> Of course, once you get the Styles created and configured the way you 
> like, they are very powerful formatting tools.  Much more powerful
> and controllable than the Microsoft versions.
> 
> Good luck and I hope that the lack of Reveal Codes doesn't turn you
> away.

Reveal codes and styles are useful in two very different circumstances
(and I've actually used both).

For short or fairly simple documents such as letters, news letters etc.
the "on the fly" formatting of pressing Ctl-B for bold and then having
the text qualities visible with "reveal codes" can be reasonably
helpful... although I've lived without the feature quite happily for
several years now since I switched from Windows to Linux.

On the other hand, if you regularly create reasonably complex
documents, the ability to set out different headings, text formats into
a style is huge. Want italics or bold for every level 2 heading? Just
edit the style and it's done.

Even relatively simple things like song sheets where you might have
different formats for title, author, verses, choruses, copyright
attribution, benefit under styles. Just import the text, highlight a
section, apply the styles and you're done. You can't do it that easily
with on-the-fly formatting.

The only justification for reveal codes that I can see is when you
expect something to happen that doesn't (such as underlining a section
of text, and it does more or less than you want). I've found in those
cases that highlighting the section then pressing, say the underline
button, a few times to cancel out whatever the previous state was then
apply the state I want usually does the job.


-- 
God bless you,


Keith Bates
4 Mooloobar St
Narrabri NSW 2390

Phone: 02 67924890
Fax: 02 67925418

www.new-life.org.au

If you don't have a reason to live

JESUS IS THE ANSWER!

Ask him into your life today...
He really does make a difference.

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