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NeoOffice :: View topic - document stylesheet help
document stylesheet help
 
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jnewman
Blue Pill


Joined: May 24, 2006
Posts: 3
Location: Halifax NS

PostPosted: Wed May 24, 2006 8:45 am    Post subject: document stylesheet help

I want to use NeoOffice - I keep downloading updates - but I always return to Word because of the relative ease of using the stylesheets. Does anybody have suggestions for an easy way of setting up stylesheets? That's really got me flummoxed.
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iking
Operator


Joined: Apr 26, 2006
Posts: 49
Location: Vancouver, BC

PostPosted: Wed May 24, 2006 1:24 pm    Post subject:

Neo (like OO.o ) has extensive support for styles. Select Tools -> Styles and Formatting... from the menubar; the window that pops up will give you quick access to paragraph, character, frame, list, and page styles. In addtion, recently used styles will show in the pulldown menu (located to the left of the font face pulldown) so that you don't need to keep the styles window open all the time. Beyond that, the easiest way to get things going is to adjust the parent styles (Default, Heading, Body Text, etc) and let inheritance do its thing. Then (for me, anyway) tweaking child styles as necessary and setting up keyboard shortcuts (Tools -> Customize... -> Keyboard) for frequently used styles gives a pretty usable setup.

Personally, I find that Neo's support for styles to be quite good, and the styles window is quicker than Word's stylist once you get the hang of it.

Ian
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doctype
Oracle


Joined: Dec 08, 2005
Posts: 291
Location: Berlin, Germany

PostPosted: Wed May 24, 2006 1:54 pm    Post subject:

iking wrote:
Personally, I find that Neo's support for styles to be quite good, and the styles window is quicker than Word's stylist once you get the hang of it.

I agree very much, indeed. The last time MS Word on Mac has been that logical with styles was the old version 5.1 (after that, they switched the Mac version to the Windows "logic", which was IMHO a crime).

Some additional hints:

- If you have collected a nice suite of styles in a document, you may save the whole thing as template via menu File > Templates > Save...

- You may load some or all the styles from said or another template via the pop-up menu on the right in the "Styles and Formatting"-window (button on the left on the Formatting toolbar or menu Format > Styles and Formatting)

- You may set via menu Files > Templates > Organize... one of your own templates as default style for new pages (menu Commands)

Martin
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sardisson
Town Crier
Town Crier


Joined: Feb 01, 2004
Posts: 4588

PostPosted: Wed May 24, 2006 2:28 pm    Post subject:

Some of these tips would probably improve the Styles and Templates article in the wiki, when the wiki returns from the missing....

Smokey

_________________
"[...] whether the duck drinks hot chocolate or coffee is irrelevant." -- ovvldc and sardisson in the NeoWiki
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jnewman
Blue Pill


Joined: May 24, 2006
Posts: 3
Location: Halifax NS

PostPosted: Wed May 24, 2006 3:55 pm    Post subject: styles 'n stuff

[quote="doctype"]
iking wrote:
Personally, I find that Neo's support for styles to be quite good, and the styles window is quicker than Word's stylist once you get the hang of it.


I'm having a tough time getting the "hang" of it!
I've just spent the past 2 hours trying to set up a template document with the styles as I want them to look - There are some aspects - underlining of a heading - that I can't figure out how to implement.
I think I've figured out that to "save" a style once I've got it looking the way I want it is to "Update Style"
I had no luck importing styles from a Word.doc. The default styles overrode my styles - so one day, I'm going to have to spend a ton of time trying to replicate that complex stylesheet!

- If you have collected a nice suite of styles in a document, you may save the whole thing as template via menu File > Templates > Save...

that's only effective if I've created the document in NO.

- You may load some or all the styles from said or another template via the pop-up menu on the right in the "Styles and Formatting"-window (button on the left on the Formatting toolbar or menu Format > Styles and Formatting)

Yes, once I've got a bunch of documents - but at the moment, all the documents I have come from Word - the reason I'd like to get some NO documents set up has to do with how Word screws up lists! I've got several complex documents to create that are complex lists...

- You may set via menu Files > Templates > Organize... one of your own templates as default style for new pages (menu Commands)

My problem is that I can't find where NO stores the templates - I tried creating a Template folder in the Contents folder but that clearly isn't where they're kept - since when I try opening a document from a template the MY Temlates folder is empty!

Steep learning curve with this - not sure I have the time to invest. That's why I keep going back to Word and trying to fight with it!

thanks for the suggestions.
Judith
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LemonAid
The Anomaly


Joined: Nov 21, 2005
Posts: 1285
Location: Witless Protection Program

PostPosted: Wed May 24, 2006 6:09 pm    Post subject:

sardisson wrote:
Some of these tips would probably improve the Styles and Templates article in the wiki, when the wiki returns from the missing....

Smokey

Long message follows -
I gathered some of the links I've gathered about OOo Styles (Found while I tried to figure out MS Word styles - the joke was on me as MS Styles don't reliably work Embarassed Crying or Very sad )

Important OOo Styles references:

First, Look what is available at the OOo Documentation site: http://documentation.openoffice.org/

User Guides
http://documentation.openoffice.org/manuals/index.html

OpenOffice.org2.x User Guide Available as one huge .PDF file (apx 7MB, 463 pages, and it's still a draft! ),

User Guides from OOoAuthors
The OOoAuthors User Guides supplement the OOo User Guide listed above.
OOo2.0 Getting Started Guide (2nd edition, 24-Mar-2006)
OOo2.0 Writer Guide (compiled 6-Mar-2006; most chapters published in 2005)

How Tos http://documentation.openoffice.org/HOW_TO/index.html

Write and Manage OpenOffice.org text Documents using Common Features and Styles.
http://documentation.openoffice.org/HOW_TO/word_processing/writer1_EN.html

How To Change A Paragraph Style .SXW (90KB)


After you have read the sections that you needed on the OOo Documemtation site, then you can find even more detailed information at the following sites:


Collected Articles & Reviews http://documentation.openoffice.org/articles/index.html

OpenOffice.org Off the Wall - List of the columns written by Bruce Byfield
I would strongly recommend any articles by Bruce Byfield Exclamation that interest you. If you have not read (RTFM), at least the following three articles, then you are not really using the resources that you have available ( "OOo Off the Wall: What New Users Need to Know About OpenOffice.org", "OpenOffice.org Off-the-Wall: Style Is Everything, Right?", "Eleven Tips for Moving to OpenOffice.org")

OOo Off the Wall: What New Users Need to Know About OpenOffice.org By Bruce Byfield on Thu, 2005-07-14
OOo does some things quite differently than other office applications, so what should you know going in for the first time?
http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/8443

OOo Off the Wall: Setting Up Page Styles in OOo Writer By Bruce Byfield on Sun, 2004-07-25
A little planning ahead will make your word processing tasks easier and keep your documents looking consistent as they grow.
http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/7203

OOo Off the Wall: Paragraph Styles, Part II By Bruce Byfield on Wed, 2004-06-16
Writer offers a bag of tricks for when you want to do a bit more than the normal with paragraph styles and formatting.
http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/7634

OpenOffice.org Off-the-Wall: Style Is Everything, Right? By Bruce Byfield on Wed, 2004-03-31
A guide for when and how to use styles instead of manual overrides in OpenOffice.org documents.
http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/7488

Eleven Tips for Moving to OpenOffice.org By Bruce Byfield on Mon, 2004-03-01
Replacing a complicated piece of software like an office suite can be a major undertaking. But, if you apply a few simple rules to make sure your needs are met, you'll be ready to be productive on the new software right away.
http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/7158


Third Party Sites http://documentation.openoffice.org/thirdparty.html

http://www.taming-openoffice-org.com/

OpenOffice.org Training, Tips, and Ideas http://openoffice.blogs.com/openoffice/
Information on the free Microsoft Office compatible office suite.
OpenOffice training, tutorials, and discussions. By Solveig Haugland
Read anything by Solveig Haugland Exclamation that you can find. An Outstanding Source of OOo knowledge

STYLES http://openoffice.blogs.com/openoffice/styles/index.html

All About Styles in OpenOffice.org Writer http://openoffice.blogs.com/openoffice/2005/12/all_about_style.html
Solveig Haugland wrote:
Styles are like wearing your seatbelt, eating your broccoli, and apologizing to your honey even when you think you're right. They might be a bit of a pain to make yourself do, but they will so save your butt in the long run.

This is going to be a big ol' post, grouped into a few different ones.

* What are styles?
* Why should everyone absolutely use styles?
* How do you create and modify styles?

Philip (up to his .... assets in Styles Wink )
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Guest






PostPosted: Thu May 25, 2006 12:35 am    Post subject:

If you have a very complicated stylesheet lay-out in Word (e.g. for publication) the transition to Neo may take a bit longer if you need to recreate the exact replica stylesheet. But you can replicate Word styles by using your existing Word document, delete the text (section by section) and save the result as a Neo template. You should end up with the same layout and style commands as in the Word document.

Your templates are stored in ~/Library/Preferences/NeoOffice 2.x\user\template. You can always check that within NeoOffice if you go to Preferences/NeoOffice/Paths.
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Luhmann
Red Pill


Joined: Sep 25, 2006
Posts: 8

PostPosted: Fri Nov 24, 2006 11:22 pm    Post subject:

I'm a little confused.

I followed the directions and made a "default" document template in my usr folder, but the styles I added to that document don't appear when I open a new document ... what am I doing wrong?

What I really want is for these styles to also appear when I open an existing document created by someone else. Is that possible?
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jgd
Agent Smith


Joined: Feb 27, 2005
Posts: 1531
Location: France

PostPosted: Sat Nov 25, 2006 1:31 am    Post subject:

Luhmann wrote:
I'm a little confused.

I followed the directions and made a "default" document template in my usr folder, but the styles I added to that document don't appear when I open a new document ... what am I doing wrong?


You may look at this page in NeoWiki :
http://neowiki.sixthcrusade.com/index.php/Editing_Default_Styles_and_Using_Templates

Quote:

What I really want is for these styles to also appear when I open an existing document created by someone else. Is that possible?


I'm afraid it's impossible Sad. But maybe I am wrong ?

Jacqueline
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Lorinda
Captain Mifune


Joined: Jun 20, 2006
Posts: 2051
Location: Midwest, USA

PostPosted: Sat Nov 25, 2006 12:30 pm    Post subject:

jgd wrote:
Luhmann wrote:

What I really want is for these styles to also appear when I open an existing document created by someone else. Is that possible?


I'm afraid it's impossible Sad. But maybe I am wrong ?

Jacqueline


It is possible to import styles from one document into another. While running NeoOffice, chose Help>NeoOffice help and type "importing" into the search box: one of the categories under import is "styles from other files" and provides step by step instructions for doing this.

If I understand you correctly, you would like this to happen automatically, without having to go through all the steps each time. Like Jacqueline, I don't think this is possible when working with documents created by others. But it ought to be possible to write a macro that imports your default styles. Then you could assign a key stroke to the macro and at least pull up the styles with only a keystroke. Unfortunately I don't know anything about creating macros. But there is information about macros in help files of Neo and (I think) in the wiki.
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