May 15, 2008

Table and table-text flow control features for OpenOffice Writer

I've been doing some table-based layout recently, in my quick-reference cards. I got to know the table flow options real well. Here are some good solid table control features.

Text Flow tab

Get to know this one. Click in the table and choose Table > Table Properties. Click the Text Flow tab.

Tableflowsettiings

Break: If you want a cell to start at the top of a new page or column click in that cell, and then in this window select Break and Column or Page. Conversely, if you've got a table that starts at the top of a page or column and don't want it to, unmark the Break option.

Allow Table to Split Across Pages and Columns: You're going to have some weird layout with your longer tables if you don't let the table at least split across columns.

Allow Row to Split Across Pages and Columns: However, I think it looks a little weird, at least in some circumstances, to let the row split. So I don't mark that.

Repeat Heading: Here's how you get the first, or first and second, and so on, rows of a table to repeat on each additional page. Helps readers to know what each column of information is about.

Putting a Carriage Return Above a Table at the Top of a Page

If you've got a table at the top of a page and you want a blank line above it, just click in the upper left cell of that table and press Return.

Getting Rid of a Carriage Return Above a Table at the Top of a Page or Between Tables

Click on the line where the carriage return is and press Delete. 

2tables_3

Bam, the two are consecutive. Not the same table, but consecutive.

2tablesconsecutive

Split/Merge Options on the Table menu

Let's say you've got a long table, and you want to split it into two. Just click in the line where you want the 2nd table to being, and choose Table > Split Table.

Tablesplit_2

If you've got two tables and you want them to be one, then click in the top line of the second table and choose Table > Merge Table.

2tablesmerge

If there's just one to choose from, the merging will just happen with the  table above it. If there's a table above and below, you'll get this window. Make the choice you want and click OK.

2tablesmerge21_2


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May 13, 2008

"Classic" Posts continuing

Hi all,

I've been away for a while, dealing with a death in the family. I have set up some "classic" posts and have not been able to respond to email inquiries. The repeat posts and low blog response will continue through Fourth of July weekend.

Solveig

May 12, 2008

Copying only the unique values from a set of cells in OpenOffice.org Calc spreadsheets

So there you are. You've got a whole bunch of people signed up for various events you're planning. Or they've ordered a bunch of your products. Some have signed up for more than one event; some have ordered more than one product.  You want to just get a list of the customers who've signed up. If a customer has signed up for three events, you just want her name to appear once. You just want the unique values.

Un1

One thing you can do is use the Standard Filter.

Select the column of data, either with the heading or without.

Un2


Choose Data > Filter > Standard Filter.

Un3

Select None as the Field Name then click More.

  • If you didn't select a column heading like Customer, deselect Range Contains Column Labels.
  • Select No Duplication
  • Select Copy Results To, click in the empty field, then either type the sheet and cell where you want it copied, or click in the cell in your spreadsheet where you want it copied.

Un_thewindow2

Click OK.

You'll get only the unique values from that cell range, pasted starting at the cell you specified.

Un5_2


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May 08, 2008

Having different layout and page numbering within a document

See also my post on the pagination extension.

All right. It's the elephant in the room, and it's time to address it.

How do you have no page number on the first page, then have the second page start with the page number 1 in the footer? Or with page number 42, or 623?

(Or how do you have a landscape page in a portrait document?)

Good question. It's a common one. It's actually not more complex than the tax code, but there's some setup you need to do that's a little more complicated than the task at hand. I would like to see a checkbox/field combination somewhere  that would let you specify "For this document, start the page footer on page __ and make the first page number be ___". However, for now, we do it this way.

There are two things to control in this situation:
- Whether there is a page number in the footer--i.e. whether there is any number at all in there, regardless of what it is.
- If there is a page number in the footer, what that page number is.

You control the first with page styles: you set up the page style, say "yes, there's a footer and a page number in it" or "no, no stinkin' page numbers here" and then apply that page style.

You control the second a few different ways. I'm going to show you the most straightforward which is just to create a page break, switch to a different page style, and specify what the page number for that page is.: 1, 42,  623, or anything else.

Let's look at part 1 first.  Page styles are actually a really nice, useful feature.

Part 1: Setting Up Page Styles

Bring up the document you're working with.  Remove any page breaks you've put in between the first and second pages. This sample  document I'm using has some text that clearly goes on a cover page, and then it runs immediately into the content text that should start on page 2.

For any of these images, just click on any of them that are too small for you to read. (They mostly all are, but you might not need to get more detail on all of them.)

Here's my sample document. I want no page number on the first page and page number 1 on the 2nd page.

Page_1

Choose Format > Styles and Formatting. In that window, click the Page Styles icon at the top.

Page2_1

Right-click in the blank part and choose New. You're going to make the page styles you need.

Page3_1

In the Organizer tab of the page styles window, just name the style  something like Cover Page. This is the one with no footer and no page number.

Page4_1

You actually don't need to do anything else. But just to make sure it's clear when we're applying the styles in this procedure, I'm going to suggest that you  click the Background tab and give it the  light gray background.

Page5

Click OK.

Now, right-click in a blank part of the Styles and Formatting window again, and choose New. This time you're creating the other page style, the one for the main body where you're going to have a page number and start it at 1. Call it Main Body or something, in the Organizer tab.

Page6

Then click the Footer tab and turn it on by marking the checkbox.

Page7

That's all you really need to do, so click OK.

Part 2: Applying a Page Style, Then Switching to Another

Click in the first page of the document, where you want the Cover Page page style. In the Styles and Formatting window, double-click the Cover Page style you created. The style will be applied, as you can tell from the gray background.

Page8

The style is applied not only to that page, but to the entire document. That's what's supposed to happen at this point.

Now you're ready to switch. So click to the left of the first word where you want to switch, the first word of the next page usually. Or click to the right of the last word on the current page. Whatever works. Here I've clicked to the left of "Why".

Page9

Choose Insert > Manual Break. In the window that appears, just tell it that now you want to switch to the Main Body page style by selecting it in the list.

Page10

That second page is also really the first content page of the document, so you'd like it to be page 1. So select the page numbering checkbox and specify 1. (Or any number you want.)

Page_changepagenumber

Click OK.

A page break will be inserted where your cursor was, and the new page style you specified, Main Page, will be applied from that page on in the document.

Page_showingchange

Now, there's one more step. You've already created the footer for that Main Page style, but it's time to put content in it.  I.e., the page number. This is easy. Just scroll to the bottom of the first content page (the second page), type the word page and a space if you want, then choose Insert > Fields > Page Number. The page number will appear. And  you already specified that on this page where the page style switches to MainPage, the page numbering should restart at 1.  So it restarts at 1. (If you had specified page number 42 earlier, this number would be 42.)

Page11

That's All There Is To It

Just create the styles you want, apply the first style, then just switch page styles the way we did in this example.

Tips for Landscape and Portrait in the Same Document

To have a landscape page in a portrait document, just create a page style and select the Landscape option of the Page tab. So in this example, you could create a third page style, call it Landscape or Horizontal. Switch to it the way we did here with the manual break, but just don't change the page number.

Tips for Automatic Switching From One Page Style to Another

If you want to automatically switch from one page style to another, you have two options.

In the page style definition window, click the Organizer tab and find the Next Style list. You'll still need to insert manual page breaks sometimes but you won't have to switch styles as we did earlier.

Tip1_1

In the paragraph style definition window, click the Text Flow tab and find the section in the middle dealing with creating a page break with a particular page style on the next page.

Tip2_1

Or try using all three approaches together.



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May 05, 2008

How to make sure that your graphics are embedded (not linked) in your documents, especially for templates

When you add a graphic to a document, you can either plop it straight in so it's stored in the document, or you can link the graphic so that the document just points to where the graphic is stored.

It looks the same either way, but here's the thing. When you email your document to someone, or post your template in a network directory, what happens to that link pointing to the graphic?

The link points back to your directory at home\documentdrafts\2008\graphics\teamphoto.gif  or whatever the path is. And your cousin in Phoenix or the other people on your team can't get to that graphic.

So what you want to do, typically, when you're sending documents or templates to other people that those people need to work with, is to make sure that your graphics are embedded in your document.

NOTE: If you're doing large books or other documents where there are significant benefits to just linking to graphics, or if you have really big graphics of a few hundred KB or more, think hard before doing only embedded graphics. You'll have some issues, including really really big documents. Consider working with the documents only on the network so that the graphics are there on the network too and you don't have path issues. You might want to link as you work with the document, then if necessary break the links (see the last section here) or even better, make a PDF, before distributing the document.

How to Insert Graphics in Documents so They're Not Linked

When you drag a graphic from the Gallery (Tools > Gallery) into your document, it's automatically embedded. But when you choose Insert > Picture > From File, then you can choose to link or to not. If you want the graphic embedded, then don't select Link.

Insertheader_2

How to Add Graphics to the Background of Headers, Footers, or Pages So They're Not Linked

You can just click in a header or footer and choose Insert > Picture > From File. But you can also set up headers, footers, and pages with a graphic in the background.

Choose Format > Page.

Click the Header, Footer, or Background tab.

For Headers or Footers click the More.

Then you'll see this window. Select Graphic then click Browse. Find the graphic. Again, just be sure you don't click the Link checkbox which in this case is next to the Browse button.

Background

 

How to Un-Link (Embed) Graphics When They're Already In Your Document

Let's say you've got a document chock full of linked documents and you reallllly don't want to re-insert them. It's easy to fix; just break the link and the graphics will be embedded.

Under the Edit menu, look at Links. If it's dimmed as shown, then you don't have any linked graphics and you're good.

Editlinks1_2

If it's not dimmed, then choose Edit > Links. In the Edit Links window, just select the graphics listed and choose Break Link. The graphics stay, but now they're embedded and you can mail the document wherever you want or store it in another location.

Editlinks2

(You could also select a graphic link and choose Modify to change where it's pointing to.)



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Printing handouts in OpenOffice.org Impress (repost)

Note: See also a related article I wrote for TechTarget.com on creating presentations in OpenOffice.org 2.0.

Printing handouts is a little more complicated than it needs to be.

Here's the quick description. With a presentation open,  choose File > Print, then click the Options button. In the upper-left Contents quadrant of the Printer Options window, make sure only the Handouts option is marked. Then click OK and print from the Print window.

Printoptionshandoutsonly_1

Here's the full answer, however, to how to print handouts from soup to nuts in 1.x and 2.0 versions of the software.

 

Printing Handouts, 2 to 6 to a page, in OpenOffice.org 1.x and StarOffice 7 and before
First, create your presentation and get it how you want it.

Specifying the Number of Slides Per Page

Choose View > Master > Handout or click the Handout View icon on the right side of the work area.

You'll see the layout window where you can see how many slides you'll have on  a page. Hand1a

Choose Format > Modify Layout. You'll see the Modify Slide window where you can change the number of slides on a page. Select a different number if you want and click OK.

Hand1b

Setting Up and Formatting Handouts

The default page layout is Landscape. If you want Portrait (vertical), choose Format > Page and select Portrait, then click OK.

 Hand1c

Back in the main layout window, drag the slide placeholders to different locations if you want to change where they are.

If you want horizontal lines for people to take notes on, you'll need to use the line tool to draw a set of 3-4 lines by the first slide yourself. To make them even after you've drawn them, select them all and choose Alignment > Right (or Left, or Center).  Click the image to see a bigger version if you want.

Hand1d

To distribute them evenly after you've drawn them, select them all and choose Distribution. Choose Vertical and Center. Then copy that group of lines when they're how you want them (might want to group them first), and copy the lines to the other slides on the page.

When you're done, it should look something like this.

Hand1e

If you want a page number at the bottom of each piece of paper (not every slide), use the Text tool to draw a text box at the bottom of the page, and type the word page if you want. Then choose Insert > Fields > Page Number to add an automatically incrementing page number.

Hand1f_1

Printing Handouts

Now that you've done the setup, you're ready to print.

Choose File > Print.

Click the Options button.

In the Contents section of the Printer Options window, make sure that only the Handouts option is selected.

Hand1g

The default is for Drawing to be selected and that's all. That means you get one big slide per page. You absolutely must select Handouts here to print handouts. If you leave Drawing selected, your printer will also spit out a printout of your presentation with one slide on every page.

Click OK in the Printer Options window to save the changes and close the window.

If you want to print just a subset of the pages, in the Print window, select the Pages option and type 1, 1-6, etc. The page count refers to slides, not pieces of paper. Also, if you want to print slides 1-6 and 13-18, you need to type a semicolon between the ranges, as in 1-6;13-18

Printwindow_howmany_1

That's all! That last part is the secret. Getting to the layout window was too complicated, and setting up the note-taking lines was a bit of a pain to do manually, though at least those lines will stay there now that you've done them. But the last part, marking Handouts, is the main tricky thing that is really hard to find.

Printing Handouts, 2 to 6 to a page, in OpenOffice.org 2.0 and StarOffice 8
It's a lot like printing handouts in 1.x. Read through that section if you haven't already. I'm going to go over the few differences here.

Specifying the Number of Slides Per Page

This is simpler and different than 1.x. In your open presentation, just click the Handouts tab above the slide view.

Hand2_1

In the slide layout view that appears, you want to look to the right and find the Layouts tab.

Hand2b_1

Now choose the number of slides you want per page.

Setting Up and Formatting Handouts

This is the same as 1.x. See the 1.x setup and formatting section.

Printing Handouts

This is the same as 1.x. See the 1.x printing section. As before, be sure to select just the Handouts option in the Printer Options window.

Printoptionshandoutsonly

 


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May 02, 2008

My article on transitioning to OpenOffice.org from Microsoft Office

I really thought that I had posted this article, but I have not seen it in a quick page through.

http://www.fanaticattack.com/2008/switching-office-suites-from-microsoft-office-to-openofficeorg.html

It is a big, big article with most of what I recommend about setting up and switching, with the primary focus on individual users. But it applies to transitioning groups, as well.

See also this blog post, which has some really specific info about how to distribute clip art to many users on a network.


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May 01, 2008

Big post with links to favorite entries

Templates, Writer, general setup and toolbars

Calc spreadsheets and charts

Draw, Diagrams, Impress presentations

Web publishing and PDF

  • What I did with the web tools, creating colors, image maps, etc. to redo my getopenoffice.org StarOffice and OpenOffice Training page
  • PDF, with linked articles on PDF presentations, and using hyperlinked PDFs. That post is particularly interesting since you can generate PDFs from linked OpenOffice.org documents, and the links carry over to the PDF.
  • Using the wonderful Web Wizard (that's the techtarget article, here's the blog link) for creating web sites from existing OpenOffice, Microsoft, and graphics documents. You can also use it for  PDF batch convert.

Mail merge, labels, envelopes, and databases

Openoffice training, change management, and general discussions



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April 28, 2008

Searching and replacing for carriage returns, tabs, and other characters, using regular expressions

Call them carriage returns, line breaks, paragraph marks, whatever, sometimes you want fewer of them. Maybe you've brought in some ASCII text that had a line break or two after every paragraph and now with formatted text you don't need it. Or you're turning a spreadsheet or database into text or vice versa.

At any rate, it would be nice to use the Find and Replace window to quickly find'em and change them to whatever you want: nothing at all, or the phrase "el elegante" or whatever.

Note: If you're a macro kind of person, see this page on the ooo forum.

Searching and Replacing, Step by Step

In your OpenOffice.org document, choose Edit > Find and Replace or press Ctrl F. The Find and Replace window will appear.

Sea1

In the Find and Replace window, enter the symbol for what you want to search for, in the Find field. Here's a quick reference to the symbols to enter for what you're looking for.

  • Regular carriage returns  are $
  • Soft returns inserted with a Shift Return, are \n
  • Just an empty paragraph, i.e. a carriage return but with no text on that line, is ^$
  • Tabs are \t

In the Replace field, you typically don't enter anything since you're probably just trying to get rid of whatever you're searching for.

  • If you want to replace something with a carriage return, put \n in the Replace field.
  • If you want to replace one carriage return with two, put \n\n in the Replace field.
  • One thing--you can't replace something with soft returns. As you see, a \n in the Replace field turns into a normal hard return.
  • Just use \t normally, in both the Search and the Replace fields, for a tab.

Once your Find and Replace fields contain what they should, click the More Options button. Select the Regular Expressions checkbox. This will make the program look for what those codes represent, rather than literally those characters.

If you're using a mix of regular expressions and normal characters, you might need to use a \ in front of anything you want evaluated normally. For instance, if you really are looking for the symbol $ but you want to replace it with a carriage return \n, then you need to actually search for \$ in the Search field and replace it with \n because $ is a special character.

This illustration shows you're looking for a carriage return (any carriage return), and you're going to replace it with nothing.

Sea3

Click Find. The first instance (from where the cursor was) of the thing you're looking for will be highlighted.

Click Replace to do the replacing.

And so on. Keep going until you're done. Use Replace All only when you're absolutely positive you'll get the results you want.



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April 24, 2008

New book about a Medicare whistle-blower

Schilling My cousin's son-in-law book about his whistle-blowing experience is out today!

The title is Undercover and it's by John Schilling.

"When John Schilling, an unassuming mid-level accoun­tant, went to work for the Columbia Hospital Corporation, he never expected to become the catalyst for the series of "whistleblower" cases that ripped through the healthcare industry in the late 1990s. But when he unwittingly discovered that the company was siphoning billions of dollars away from Medicare and stealing from American taxpayers, he was faced with a choice: Speak up for what he believed to be right, or remain silent. Undercover tells the story of Schilling's harrowing journey from ordinary citizen to federal informant. The book recounts how Schilling allied himself with the FBI and the Justice Department and--unable to confide in friends or family--journeyed into an undercover world in which he carried a wire and mapped out offices for secret government raids. Suspenseful and provo­ca­tive, Undercover chronicles Schilling's nine-year ordeal that eventually led to the resignation of high-level executives and forced Columbia to return $1.7 billion dollars to the federal government. A compelling account of one man's decision to risk everything for the greater good, this book reveals the personal side of a thankless role that resulted, ultimately, in justice."

My family pretty much just has nice basic jobs, drinks coffee, and occasionally gets wild and crazy and organizes a family reunion. ;>  This is huge and amazing. I'm very excited, and I hope that anyone who likes to see justice triumph over power will enjoy reading it.