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Miriup
Blue Pill
Joined: May 12, 2010
Posts: 3
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 Posted: Sun May 16, 2010 8:49 am Post subject: "Save Copy As" in "File" menu |
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Hi there,
on usage pattern that frequently appears with me is that I edit a file in ODT format. For collaboration with others I export it into DOC format. Once I receive it back I manually merge the changes done by these 3rd parties back into my ODT.
What would be cool is to have a "Save Copy As" in the "File" menu that does the same as "Save As", but doesn't change what NeoOffice thinks is my current document.
That means that when I save the DOC using "Save Copy As" and then I make more changes and do "File"->"Save" I want these changes be saved to my ODT file.
Dirk. |
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pluby
The Architect
Joined: Jun 16, 2003
Posts: 11949
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| Posted: Sun May 16, 2010 10:20 am Post subject: |
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The good news is that I am pretty confident that this feature is feasible to implement since we currently have some code in NeoOffice Mobile that saves a copy of the current document to a temporary file as part of NeoOffice Mobile's file upload process. The bad news is that I suspect that the engineering work to modify NeoOffice's underlying OpenOffice.org code to add this feature is not trivial.
Our donations only support one full-time software engineer (me) so we can only devote our limited engineering time to features that are likely to generate enough new donations to reimburse the NeoOffice project for the time spent implementing them.
In order for us to feel comfortable that we will recoup the engineering cost that is needed to implement this new feature from future donations, we need to see at a reasonable number of NeoOffice donors post that they also want this feature added to NeoOffice.
If we see at least 15 other NeoOffice donors post support for this new feature, then we will have a pretty good level of confidence that the new feature will generate the necessary donations and I will then start working on the new feature.
Is this a feature that any other NeoOffice donors want to see added to NeoOffice? If so, please let us know.
Patrick |
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Jim
Councilperson
Joined: Jun 21, 2003
Posts: 173
Location: Selmer, Tennessee
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| Posted: Wed Jun 02, 2010 11:52 am Post subject: |
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This would be handy for me, since I frequently do something similar to the OP's work flow. Everybody I with whom I correspond and collaborate uses Word, so I have to send their copies in .doc format. Sometimes I forget, and send them an ODF instead. Makes for lots of fun.
However, it's not worth $10-20K worth of engineering, IMO.
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Jim Plante
MacOS X 10.6.34, MacBook 2GHz C2Duo, 2gb, Neo 3.1.1 p 1 |
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PGAGA
Captain
Joined: Jan 22, 2009
Posts: 50
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| Posted: Tue Sep 14, 2010 8:23 pm Post subject: Re: "Save Copy As" in "File" menu |
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Wednesday, September 15, 2010
The Writer's Tools extension allows a user to save an open file (ODT) in three formats (DOC, RTF, TXT) in a zip in the same folder as a file is being edited. The option is multi format backup.
I suspect this extension could be modifed to create the save copy as feature.
Phil |
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pluby
The Architect
Joined: Jun 16, 2003
Posts: 11949
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| Posted: Sun Sep 19, 2010 4:33 pm Post subject: Re: "Save Copy As" in "File" menu |
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| PGAGA wrote: | | I suspect this extension could be modifed to create the save copy as feature. |
I have already stated that I would use the existing, well-tested NeoOffice Mobile code to implement this.
Using someone else's extension code is likely to be more expensive than less as we would have to learn (and debug) someone else's code instead of using code that Ed and I wrote ourselves. Also, extensions cannot modify the File menu so that work would have to be done from scratch.
Patrick |
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PGAGA
Captain
Joined: Jan 22, 2009
Posts: 50
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| Posted: Sun Sep 19, 2010 9:12 pm Post subject: |
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Monday, September 20, 2010
Actually the extension code is a front end to a series of basic macros which are accessed through a menu. Having created a similar file menu macro using the original (?) Star Basic (part of WordStar for Windows), I would not expect it to be a difficult job. But, I have not bothered to learn the OOo basic so as tempting a challenge as this is, I likely will not create one in the near future. -- That said I have looked at the code as I have written this and it really is simple.
The advantage of using a macro assigned to a menu is that the calls already exist in the current OOo macro code. Adding them to the underlying code could create problems (although the ability of the NeoOffice crew to do this is admirable). Since the feature being added is a call to an export filter, whether it is done by a macro or internal code seems to me to make little difference.
Phil |
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pluby
The Architect
Joined: Jun 16, 2003
Posts: 11949
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| Posted: Sun Sep 19, 2010 9:48 pm Post subject: |
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| PGAGA wrote: | | The advantage of using a macro assigned to a menu is that the calls already exist in the current OOo macro code. Adding them to the underlying code could create problems (although the ability of the NeoOffice crew to do this is admirable). Since the feature being added is a call to an export filter, whether it is done by a macro or internal code seems to me to make little difference. |
I disagree as my experience is that the macro language is far courser than the OpenOffice.org C++ API. But since you have confidence that the macro approach is good enough, why not write your own extension and publish it for download on OpenOffice.org's extensions site?
As an extension, it is not part of the core NeoOffice code so you would have a likely much more lower threshold of support than we have when we push changes to all NeoOffice users.
Patrick |
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PGAGA
Captain
Joined: Jan 22, 2009
Posts: 50
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| Posted: Mon Sep 20, 2010 10:27 am Post subject: |
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Monday, September 20, 2010
| pluby wrote: | I disagree as my experience is that the macro language is far courser than the OpenOffice.org C++ API. But since you have confidence that the macro approach is good enough, why not write your own extension and publish it for download on OpenOffice.org's extensions site?
As an extension, it is not part of the core NeoOffice code so you would have a likely much more lower threshold of support than we have when we push changes to all NeoOffice users. |
I will admit that the OOo macro implementation is not as "eloquent" as that for WSWin or Lotus AmiPro or WordPro. I would call it cumbersome. But, the feature being asked for is one which I would use (I use OOo and branches such as NO on four different operating systems and have to give work at my office in DOC format.) Thus, I may take a shot at a macro.
Phil |
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pluby
The Architect
Joined: Jun 16, 2003
Posts: 11949
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| Posted: Mon Sep 20, 2010 10:34 am Post subject: |
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| PGAGA wrote: | | I will admit that the OOo macro implementation is not as "eloquent" as that for WSWin or Lotus AmiPro or WordPro. I would call it cumbersome. But, the feature being asked for is one which I would use (I use OOo and branches such as NO on four different operating systems and have to give work at my office in DOC format.) Thus, I may take a shot at a macro. |
Just a couple of things to watch for when using OOo macros: eloquence wasn't the issues that made us use the OOo C++ API. Instead, we found that in some cases you could not rely the OpenOffice.org code to prevent change of the focus window, selected text, etc. throughout the execution of a macro whereas when we write code within the NeoOffice core (like we did for NeoOffice Mobile), we can use the internal global C++ lock object to ensure that no document changes are allowed to happen while we are exporting any document data.
This type of problem should hopefully be rare or non-existent for you, but if you do find that your macro errors or behaves oddly for no apparent reason, the above is one possible cause that you might want to look at.
Patrick |
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PGAGA
Captain
Joined: Jan 22, 2009
Posts: 50
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| Posted: Wed Sep 22, 2010 6:30 pm Post subject: |
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Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Thanks for the advice.
Using Writer Tools code to guide me, I have managed to create a macro which exports an open ODT file as Word 97 file in the same folder as the ODT file is saved and have added Export As Doc to my file menu and created a toolbar button.
More testing to do.
Phil |
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PGAGA
Captain
Joined: Jan 22, 2009
Posts: 50
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| Posted: Fri Sep 24, 2010 10:18 pm Post subject: |
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Saturday, September 25, 2010
Well this has been a good learning experience. I now have an extension which installs two macros, one which exports an open ODF file as Doc to the same folder and one which allows one to select the folder for saving the Doc file. A toolbar and a sub menu in Tools>Addons are installed to access the macros.
The installation includes a third macro for automatic saving to a single folder other than the one in which the open file is saved - but I am still working on bugs in that macro.
The extension has been tested under OS X, WinXP, and Ubuntu Linux. The macros also work on OS/2/eComStation.
Phil |
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pluby
The Architect
Joined: Jun 16, 2003
Posts: 11949
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| Posted: Sat Sep 25, 2010 9:32 am Post subject: |
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| PGAGA wrote: | | Well this has been a good learning experience. I now have an extension which installs two macros, one which exports an open ODF file as Doc to the same folder and one which allows one to select the folder for saving the Doc file. A toolbar and a sub menu in Tools>Addons are installed to access the macros. |
Congratulations to you on your success! Your second extension sounds exactly like the new feature that Miriup was requesting at the start of this forum topic.
Do you have any plans to make this available for download anywhere? If so, and when you are ready to release it, feel free to post a link to the extension in this forum topic so that other users can find it easily.
Patrick |
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PGAGA
Captain
Joined: Jan 22, 2009
Posts: 50
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| Posted: Sat Sep 25, 2010 10:31 am Post subject: |
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Saturday, September 25, 2010
| pluby wrote: | | Congratulations to you on your success! Your second extension sounds exactly like the new feature that Miriup was requesting at the start of this forum topic. |
It is something I also would use daily, so when I discovered code I could build on, I did. The third included macro will the one I will use most. Its purpose is to save to a folder on my administrator's office drive.
| Quote: | | Do you have any plans to make this available for download anywhere? If so, and when you are ready to release it, feel free to post a link to the extension in this forum topic so that other users can find it easily. |
I think I have attached it since the original interest is from thread. I want to contact the authors whose code I built on before I upload to the extensions to the regular location.
Also I would like to see it tested on other systems. I have tested on three machines and four operating systems on OOo derivatives from 2.4 to 3.4dev. But a broader test would be good.
Phil
Last edited by PGAGA on Sun Sep 26, 2010 6:58 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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rays
The Anomaly
(earlier version)
Joined: Sep 23, 2004
Posts: 475
Location: Geneva, Switzerland
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| Posted: Sun Sep 26, 2010 4:54 am Post subject: |
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It seems necessary to mention that the NeoOffice document itself must already be saved beforehand. That is, the macros don't work with an Untitled NeoOffice document. An empty dialog box with just "OK" appears when this is attempted. Maybe a line of explanation could be displayed when the user attempts this?
Trust this observation helps with describing the functionality of your macros.
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Ray Saunders
World Scout Bureau |
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PGAGA
Captain
Joined: Jan 22, 2009
Posts: 50
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| Posted: Sun Sep 26, 2010 5:26 am Post subject: |
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Sunday, September 26, 2010
| rays wrote: | It seems necessary to mention that the NeoOffice document itself must already be saved beforehand. That is, the macros don't work with an Untitled NeoOffice document. An empty dialog box with just "OK" appears when this is attempted. Maybe a line of explanation could be displayed when the user attempts this?
Trust this observation helps with describing the functionality of your macros. |
For some reason, perhaps a function dependency I have not added to the macro, the error message is blank - I will change that. Thanks for catching that.
I have the custom folder macro now working and will hopefully build a generic extension with instructions of how to export every time to a specific folder.
Once that is working, I will look at an automatic export and email version.
With left hand shake,
Phil |
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