[moved to Support] Need help with tables

KageTora · Red Pill Joined: Nov 24, 2008 Posts: 8 Location: Japan

I asked a question yesterday about placing multiple tables next to each other in Neo Office Writer. I was advised by some kind soul to use frames, which I did. I am a translator and need to keep the original format of the document, so this is crucial to me. I did it, and it looked perfect..... until I saved and re-opened the document, when I found that all the tables were all over the place, some were on top of others, and some were going off the page.

How can I avoid this? Thanks in advance. KT.

yoxi · Posted: Sun Dec 14, 2008 5:13 am Post subject:

Hi - first of all, please post support requests in the NeoOffice Support forum - that means other people can benefit from any useful replies Smile

.

Are you saving your document as a NeoOffice file, or as an MS Word file? If you save as a Word doc, that could be why you're losing your formatting.

- padmavyuha

KageTora · Red Pill Joined: Nov 24, 2008 Posts: 8 Location: Japan

Sorry, and thanks. Yes, I am saving as .doc file. I opened it in MS Word 2003 on a Windows PC to make sure (by sending it to myself by email then opening on the other machine so I have two copies now), then re-opened the original in Neo-Office on my Mac, and got the same results, so I can't understand this sudden issue. It works on neither machine.

I don't have the option of saving as .pdf, as the next stage is that this goes to a proof-reader, and they need to be able to edit. We have a standard procedure, and I don't want to deviate from that.

Is there anything I can do to sort this out? My deadline is Tuesday, 9AM GMT.

KT.

narf · The Anomaly Joined: Jan 21, 2007 Posts: 1075

As yoxi mentioned, when saving a document in Word formatting can be lost.

If tables are not displayed correctly when viewed in NeoOffice, then most likely the problem is that NeoOffice cannot fully convert your document to Word format. While NeoOffice can accurately convert most documents, there are some documents that it cannot. Microsoft Word is a set of proprietary file formats so non-Microsoft applications like NeoOffice have had to reverse engineer Microsoft's file format. As a result, the native format of NeoOffice is .odt format and there can be a loss of formatting when saving as Word format.

If you can not afford Microsoft Officed, your options are limited, but here are a few things to check which may help;

1. When saving from NeoOffice, select the File Type, Microsoft Word 97/2000/XP (.doc) This is the most robust Microsoft Office export filter in NeoOffice.

2. Make sure you are at the latest version of NeoOffice. To check this, select the menu Help :: About NeoOffice. The current version is 2.2.5 Patch 4.

3. You can also try saving from TextEdit. It has a Microsoft Word export filter as well and may handle your file a little better.

--fran

pluby · The Architect Joined: Jun 16, 2003 Posts: 11949

KageTora · Red Pill Joined: Nov 24, 2008 Posts: 8 Location: Japan

So, the best thing to do is reset the layout to the way it was before I saved in .doc (I did choose XP, and I do have 2.2.5, Patch 4), then try to save it in .txt format for use in TextEdit, then export to MS Word? Will this keep all my tables and frames as they are?

pluby · The Architect Joined: Jun 16, 2003 Posts: 11949

James3359 · Posted: Sun Dec 14, 2008 10:39 am Post subject:

OK this is likely to be a problem when passing between one OS and another and/or when passing from NeoOffice to Word and back again. My experience is that the handling of objects like tables and graphics is particularly tricky. Also you should be aware that because of different font metrics between systems (e.g., Times New Roman 10 pt, say, on Windows is not identical to Times New Roman 10pt on Mac) you are likely to run into layout issues whether you use frames or not.

I have two suggestions which may help.

Can you set up your tables using columns instead of frames as I suggested on the other thread. This may be a slightly more robust way of transferring between Word and NeoOffice?

When you send files to your proof reader (if you are not able to check them yourself on a Windows PC) can you send the proof reader a PDF version of your file as well as a Word version so that they can tidy up the layout?

KageTora · Red Pill Joined: Nov 24, 2008 Posts: 8 Location: Japan

Thanks for the ideas. TextEdit does not seem to be an option, though. I have just tried it, and the format is even more messed up. All the frames/tables appear as a list, with each one below the other, and so on, and nothing can be moved around.

The proof reader would not need a .pdf version, as he/she will get the original Japanese .pdf, as well as my translated document, but I think I will send one anyway. This means I basically have to re-open the file in Neo Office, clean it up, and export to .pdf, then send both versions.

Setting up columns would be very hard on this particular document, as I need the whole left hand side as a section by itself, then from centre to far right I need a title bar, then from centre to far right below the title bar I need three tables (or three columns), then a comments box right along the bottom.

I'll try to sort it out. Thanks for the suggestions, anyway. KT.