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blooper Guest
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Posted: Tue Mar 21, 2006 10:21 am Post subject: Finding & changing paragraph marks to tabs in a macro |
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Hello Group,
I need help in creating a macro which would be able to convert (invisible) paragraph marks (lf) into tab marks so I can import the file into a database (FMP).
Using Tiger 10.4.5 on an iBook G4 & the latest version of NeoOffice with the latest patch.
Thanks for any assistance.
Blooper |
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ovvldc Captain Naiobi
Joined: Sep 13, 2004 Posts: 2352 Location: Zürich, CH
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Posted: Tue Mar 21, 2006 10:36 am Post subject: Re: Finding & changing paragraph marks to tabs in a macr |
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blooper wrote: | I need help in creating a macro which would be able to convert (invisible) paragraph marks (lf) into tab marks so I can import the file into a database (FMP). |
Blooper, can you show us what you've got so far or is this a 'can someone please write me a macro' question?
It helps knowing where you are stuck.
Thanks,
Oscar _________________ "What do you think of Western Civilization?"
"I think it would be a good idea!"
- Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi |
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blooper Red Pill
Joined: Mar 21, 2006 Posts: 5
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Posted: Tue Mar 21, 2006 10:46 am Post subject: |
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Oscar,
Thanks for your rapid response.
I'm completely new to NeoOffice.
I haven't yet tried to make a macro because I don't yet know how to find "invisible characters" - hope that's what they're called. My main problem is that Appleworks got rid of Macros in the upgrade needed for the osx & my classic environment keeps trashing.
Blooper |
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jakeOSX Ninja
Joined: Aug 12, 2003 Posts: 1373
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Posted: Tue Mar 21, 2006 11:45 am Post subject: |
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if you want to poke through someone's code, the 'reveal codes' macro may be of some help.
also, there are macro writers who hang out in the oooforums.org
i did a quick look around (sorry no time for a long look) on the oo.o website, i think there should be info there (at least there _should_ be) |
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yoxi Cipher
Joined: Sep 07, 2004 Posts: 1799 Location: Dawlish, Devon
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Posted: Tue Mar 21, 2006 12:41 pm Post subject: |
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Save yourself some time (unless you want to learn to macro) and use Iannz's Find & Replace - this extended find/replace macro allows you to find using regular expressions (including finding the various different flavours of line break you might find in an OOo doc), and replace them with tabs or whatever you like. It's good stuff, and recently updated.
- yoxi |
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Guest
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blooper Red Pill
Joined: Mar 21, 2006 Posts: 5
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Posted: Wed Mar 22, 2006 8:04 am Post subject: |
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Thanks everybody for your help.
I didn't realize that such a task would prove to be so difficult.
- Isn't there any way to simply find & replace the invisible characters (paragraph return & tab) through a micro like in Appleworks 6 or in Word ?
- If not, is there a way to do it manually, without a micro ?
Thanks again for your replies,
Bloop. |
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Glenner Oracle
Joined: Feb 03, 2004 Posts: 241 Location: Scotland
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Posted: Wed Mar 22, 2006 8:36 am Post subject: |
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yoxi wrote: | Save yourself some time (unless you want to learn to macro) and use Iannz's Find & Replace - this extended find/replace macro allows you to find using regular expressions (including finding the various different flavours of line break you might find in an OOo doc), and replace them with tabs or whatever you like. It's good stuff, and recently updated.
- yoxi |
Did you try to use the above macro? It is in fact very straightforward to use and takes about 20 sec to install.
Without the macro there is no other way I know of to do what you want to do in NeoOffice. The reason is that this is not part of the underlying OpenOffice code. The next version of NeoOffice has extended features and functionality but I am not certain if the find and replace function is one of the them. |
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yoxi Cipher
Joined: Sep 07, 2004 Posts: 1799 Location: Dawlish, Devon
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Posted: Wed Mar 22, 2006 11:57 am Post subject: |
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In case it's not clear what you need to do:
Click on the link above (mine or guest's, they're the same...) and scroll down the page that opens until you find Iannz's Find & Replace macro. Then you download that e.g. to your desktop, and you've got a doc called IannzFindReplace.sxw - open that doc in OOo and when it asks if you want to run the macro, say Yes.
This doc contains the macro, and is also the instructions on how to install it and use it. The installation instructions are on the last page. Note that there's a mistake in his instructions for installing it as a menu item - where he says:
3.In the category list box: Click the + next to “OpenOffice.org BASIC Macros†(towards bottom of list), the plus next to “IannzFindReplaceâ€, then click “modIannzFindReplaceâ€.
4.In the function list box: Click “IannzFindReplaceâ€
what I've put in bold corrects the instructions.
- yoxi |
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blooper Red Pill
Joined: Mar 21, 2006 Posts: 5
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Posted: Thu Mar 23, 2006 7:02 am Post subject: |
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Thanks for the new responsers ...
I'd still like to know if there is a way to do manually what I need done.
If we forget the macro, is there a way I can find a tab & change it into a line feed (carriage return) ?
Thanks again,
Blooper |
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Glenner Oracle
Joined: Feb 03, 2004 Posts: 241 Location: Scotland
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Posted: Thu Mar 23, 2006 7:47 am Post subject: |
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Sorry, blooper. I may be missing something here. Initially you asked for help to put a macro together. Now that there is a macro readily available you do not want to use it. I don't want to be facetious but can you tell me what this is about? |
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blooper Red Pill
Joined: Mar 21, 2006 Posts: 5
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Posted: Thu Mar 23, 2006 8:19 am Post subject: Macro Confusion |
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Glenner wrote: | Sorry, blooper. I may be missing something here. Initially you asked for help to put a macro together. Now that there is a macro readily available you do not want to use it. I don't want to be facetious but can you tell me what this is about? |
I'm sorry also, Glenner - thanks for your rapid response.
I don't want to install any new applications for the moment. All I want to do is to replace some invisible characters. I'm still trying to determine if I should use Neo Office; the answer to my question to the group will help me. In addition, I am losing precious time in getting this job done.
Hope this clears up the confusion.
Blooper. |
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jakeOSX Ninja
Joined: Aug 12, 2003 Posts: 1373
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Posted: Thu Mar 23, 2006 10:21 am Post subject: |
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what kind of files are these?
if they are oo.o files, then the easiest thing to do will be to install the macro.
or, like i did with 'a mid summer's night dream' just do it manually.
if they are text, i could wip up a perl program to do it, but you'd need to know how to use a command line program. |
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yoxi Cipher
Joined: Sep 07, 2004 Posts: 1799 Location: Dawlish, Devon
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Posted: Thu Mar 23, 2006 10:25 am Post subject: |
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Okay, all this talk of macros threw us all off the scent, I think. So you've got a text doc open in Writer which consists of
text lf text lf text etc. and you want to end up with
text tab text tab text etc.?
Yes, you can do that with OOo 2 straight out of the box:
• select the text to be searched (ctrl-A to select all of it)
• call up the Find & Replace dialogue - ctrl-F
• click on the More Options button, and then check the Regular Expressions box
• in the Search For field, put a $ (OOo regular expression-speak for para break)
• in the Replace With field, put a \t (OOo regular expression-speak for tab)
• hit the Replace All button and it's done
I hope this answers your deeper question, macros notwithstanding...
- yoxi |
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blooper Red Pill
Joined: Mar 21, 2006 Posts: 5
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Posted: Thu Mar 23, 2006 10:45 am Post subject: |
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Thanks, Guys - I'm going to try to do it manually, as suggested.
Sorry, again for the confusion but there are reasons why I opted for this method; I didn't want to bore all of you with my "personal" problems concerning adding applications. I'll certainly try the other suggestions when the situation permits it.
Blooper. |
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