Open Office Writer Problems

[echnidna]

Open Office Writer Problems
I'm updating the Wombat Sawmill Plans which is frustratingly difficult because of ongoing problems with open office writer.

Occasionally while I'm scrolling up or down a page by putting the cursor on the up or down arrow in the vertical sidebar the scrolling takes off automatically and it will scroll to the end of the document. As it takes about 7 seconds to scroll each page and there are some 80 pages it takes some time for the auto scrolling to finish. Its a real pita.

I insert graphics into the document by pasting from the clipboard as its the only way I can transfer graphics into writer from my cad program.

Some graphics are small and mixed in with text.
These small graphics move with the text if I insert more text above them, including inserting new page. I regard this as normal.

However the large graphics which take up a full page do not move if I add more text above them. If I insert a new page (ctrl/enter) it turns up below the large graphics and I must move each large graphic by cutting and pasting into the desired location.

I couldn't make sense of the OO master document systemn as it doesn't seem to work with included graphics.

I thought of writing each section as a separate document, but this does not work as Select All only selects text and doesn't select included graphics. So I cannot cut and paste chapters into a complete document

If I wish to insert another page of info in the document it currently means I have to manually edit every following page manually to keep all the information in the correct relationship with the graphics.

I just realised this latest revision which has taken almost a week to do is done in A4 page setup whereas I should have done it in US Letter format so I may have wasted an entire week doing an Inch version of my existing Metric plans.

Looking for suggestions

[wheelinround]

Bob over the years the scrolling mouse problem has popped up for me in Word, Wordperfect , Web pages, e-mail programs

Check the setting of your mouse through its own software or Control panel settings

Similar with including graphics as above programs sorry not used Open Office as yet

[echnidna]

I was advised in another forum that it is a windows problem and the fix for it.
So I've done as advised its now wait and see.

[Ian Smith]

Bob,
Don't know what your setup is but if you have a laptop with one of touchy-feely mouse pads you will find that it sometimes interferes with your desktop mouse.

You can try disabling it in the Control Panel but I've found that the best way to resolve this problem in my situation was just to run my finger over the pad to get the mouse to respond and the problem goes away ( till next time ...which might be hours or days away)

Can't help you with your graphics problems though

Ian

[rrobor]

I get the odd funny thing with word where if you say you spell a word incorrectly etc, you cant take your curser and make a space. If you spell groove say and in error put grove, if you try to add the o it writes on top of the V. That isses me right poff.

[Master Splinter]

Here's my 10 cents worth...

Don't use word processing packages (Word, Open Office, whatever) for doing page layout. It's like teaching a pig to sing - not only does it annoy the pig, it's ultimately an exercise in frustration.

The open source/free alternative to desktop publishing packages like InDesign is Scribus - you can download it here - http://www.scribus.net/

Yes, a windows version is available. It's worth taking the time to learn it - it's quicker than trying to get nice layouts in word processing software, especially for long and complicated documents, and it will make printing it a lot more fun.

If you are using the clipboard to get images out of a CAD program, you'll probably find that they will be low (72 dpi) resolution; if possible, export them from the CAD package (as an eps or pdf file) as this will keep it as a vector image which doesn't have resolution limitations.

[echnidna]

Here's my 10 cents worth...

Don't use word processing packages (Word, Open Office, whatever) for doing page layout. It's like teaching a pig to sing - not only does it annoy the pig, it's ultimately an exercise in frustration.
absolutely


If you are using the clipboard to get images out of a CAD program, you'll probably find that they will be low (72 dpi) resolution; if possible, export them from the CAD package (as an eps or pdf file) as this will keep it as a vector image which doesn't have resolution limitations.

my clipped images are vector images.

Thank you for the advice, I'll try scribus and hope it isn't another exercise in futility

[Master Splinter]

For a frustration free experience, I'd actually recommend Adobe InDesign CS4 - a delight to work with, but it'll cost you in the region of $1,200 - $2,000...