protecting a section / paragraph in a document

Here are the two ways which I protect portions of a document:

 ...wanting to protect it often occurs for important content which I'll also frame (hence protecting frames)

But sometimes I just want to protect a block of text to prevent accidental overtyping...

 Create a section, then paste in your text, and then 'protect' the section. Example...

Don't let the actual text (gcc / pthread, etc) put you off, I just wanted to show a real world example.

Here I have included in my document some commands, which I will later use as reference. What I don't want to happen is to accidentally overtype some of those commands whilst editing my document, and losing the concrete reference.

Frames or Sections, both will do a job for you in protecting a block of content - choose whichever you find most convenient :)


Notes and Further Reading:

How to protect a section is discussed in Chapter 4 of the LibreOffice / OpenOffice documentation (links below)

• Chapter 4 "Formatting pages" (as .odt file) [ wiki.documentfoundation.org ]
• Chapter 4 "Formatting pages" (as .pdf file) [ wiki.documentfoundation.org ] 
• LibreOffice documentation homepage [ libreoffice.org ]

 Chapter 4 pdf is 1.4MB and the .odt version is much smaller.

If you have LibreOffice or OpenOffice installed then you might have local copies accessed by pressing F1 (help)

LibreOffice and 'variant' OpenOffice writing formats

In truth, I know very little about LibreOffice as it is a new project, with new sign on, and has yet to decide it's own goals and morals.

What I would like of LibreOffice is a non-Oracle managed, truly free office suite.

I feel that instead I will be disappointed, however, that is probably my faulty expectation, which already is likely out of step with the project.

Reading the LibreOffice 'ooxml writing' discussions last night was useful, I learned something that raised some questions for me.

Seems that it is the go-oo.org version of OpenOffice that is now in debian (with ooxml write capability).
Did this happen just because somebody complained about the 'Oracle' logo on startup screen? I do not know.

What I do know is the result: Now that go-oo.org variant is in Debian, this fact is now being used by some, as argument for ooxml writing to be included in the default install for LibreOffice (argument not won quite yet).

LibreOffice has Google and Canonical ?financial? backing, and whilst I like some of what Google does, I do not forget that they are a huge corporation with billion dollar revenue. Compatibility is utmost probably in what both Canonical and Google want, and software freedom, probably lists somewhere lower down.

In the last couple of months there have been two mistakes I think:
  (1) Debian project being so eager to pull code from go-oo.org, without considering that in providing ooxml writing code by default, the project has made a choice on behalf of users.
  (2) My expecting LibreOffice to be more resistant to taint than existing free office projects.

If debian can have an emacs23-nox and a full fat emacs23, can it not simply have openoffice.org-dfsg and openoffice.org-odf-ooxml, with the later including provisional ooxml writing support?
In my opinion this would be much more convenient than having a user fiddle with xcu/xcs config files.

Should the existing debian packages be renamed go-oo.org rather than openoffice.org, seems that it might be a more appropriate name.

*go-oo.org contact email is kendy at novell.com and here is an extract from the main page

Go-oo has built in OpenXML import filters and it will import your Microsoft Works files. Compared with up-stream OO.o, it has better Microsoft binary file support (with eg. fields support)

Back to LibreOffice and it's goals, this message seems to read like a manifesto:
    http://listarchives.documentfoundation.org/www/discuss/msg03870.html
I can find no repeat of these goals as a list of objectives on documentfoundation.org
Is Italo solely responsible for setting goals for tdf, probably not. Was he shooting from the hip in an attempt to curtail a monster thread ... possibly.

The difficulties with what choices to make regarding writing ooxml output are highlighted in this message:
     http://listarchives.documentfoundation.org/www/discuss/msg03880.html
and I repeat an extract below:

"It leaves Libre Office with three choices when it comes to these
formats. It can either:-

1. Write in the format as used by Microsoft.
2. Write in the format as specified in the ISO standard.
3. Refuse to write in the new formats at all."

The above are exactly that - choices. To just say "want docx" without being aware of the choices involved, is something you might excuse a child of doing.
However adult computer users cannot sidestep responsibility for those choices.

Having written on a pretty dry subject I include a funny (or despairing?) extract from slashdot:

Fool me 48 times, shame on you, fool me the 49th... Shit! You did it again!

But you won't fool me 50 times. I'm sure you wouldn't do that.

LibreOffice / OpenOffice - Where did my 'Formatting' toolbar go?

The toolbars in LibreOffice / OpenOffice are unlocked by default.

Whilst this is great for usability, it makes it easy to lose a toolbar also.

So you go into your application Writer and here is what you see:

When you would normally have above the "1 2 3 4 5" ruler something that mentioned Fonts and Font sizes???

...and here is what you are missing:

In most cases it is just a case of ticking the checkbox in View -> Toolbars -> Formatting
and hopefully it reappears.

But what if View -> Toolbars -> Formatting is already checked?

Well as toolbars are unlocked by default, it is all too easy to drag them off somewhere by mistake.
Maybe the family were around and little Bernard clicked on the Word Processor icon and had a little play around. Or perhaps you had your finger pressed on the mouse and somebody talked to you from the side.
It is easily done.

In my case, the toolbar had been moved to the right of the main toolbar and was not easy to see at first glance. But having located it, then it is just a case of dragging it back to where it should be (below the main "File | Edit | View" toolbar.

The little grabber  is marked as 5 horizontal lines on top of each other, and if you hover over it then you should see a four pointed symbol, which indicates that you are about to perform a move.

So you have used the grabber (shown above) and pulled the toolbar back to where you usually like to see it.


Locking toolbars - a must really:

I have used OpenOffice for many years, and have never felt the need to move toolbars about. However, I know some folks like to move them to be down the sides or whatever their preference is.

So for me personally, unlocked toolbars are a waste.

Unless you feel the need to move things about then I would recommend for each of the toolbars, that you 'Lock Toolbar position' as shown here:

To the right of each toolbar there should be a little icon which has an arrow at the base and is clickable.
When you click it then the drop down menu (shown above) should appear, and you should 'Lock Toolbar Position'

Having the toolbars locked, means you can leave the computer on, and little Bernard at the controls, and your toolbars will still be there when you check later :)


Ubuntu and LibreOffice / OpenOffice:

Ubuntu have their own desktop 'look and feel', which gets tweaked slightly with each release.
The default themes are pretty usable by my reckoning, however when the application themes are touched up to bring them into line with the desktop themes, then sometimes there is an oversight.

What I found when I used an Ubuntu Lucid machine recently, was that OpenOffice had been touched up to bring it into line with the desktop theme, and in the process the little grabber was either hard to see or missing.

To reiterate: If you are using Ubuntu and cannot find the little grabber (shown below)...

...then just grab a bit of greyspace where the grabber should be, and you should be able to move that way.

Whilst this is not ideal, it is the price you pay for using a Linux Distribution which puts a high priority on Desktop themes and consistent look and feel.

I prefer Debian, where the defaults do not involve tinkering with the Application look and feel, (although I am free to switch on a different application theme (say crystal) from within Writer itself)

LibreOffice / OpenOffice and repeating without 'cut paste'

Working on a recent document that involved some figures had me wondering how to have the same figures repeated.

I have used the Free Open Source Office Suite for 7 years, and wondered how to get the result without using 'Cut and Paste'

The particular section I will be repeating, is unusual in that it includes many numeric results, but not enough to really justify living in a separate spreadsheet.

Conceptually here is what I want:

One way to achieve this is to use Sections and the Navigator

( My icon looks more like a four pointed star. Compass or Star will do and hovering should say 'Navigator' )

Page2 in that concept diagram I show the repeated text in grey, as it is important that it is non-editable

( Just too easy otherwise to fall in and edit things in the wrong place! )

I list the steps involved and then run through with some screenshots:

1. Insert -> Section          and give the section a name say 'Section1'
2. Open Navigator and Right Click on 'Sections' to get a drop down menu
3. From that drop down menu select 'Drag Mode' then 'Insert as Link'
4. In your document move to where you want the copied section to go, and then drag 'Section1' from the Navigator into place.
5. Right click the new entry in 'Sections' within Navigator and select 'Rename'. Make name Section1copy 
6. Right click the new entry in 'Sections' and select 'Edit' and understand what the padlock symbols say

1. Insert -> Section

2 & 3 in Navigator:

6 ... padlock symbols:

If all went well then you should see something like the above. Section1 is unlocked (editable), whereas Section1copy is locked and will show as 'read-only' in the bottom status bar.


The quicker way of achieving the same result:

Having already created a section and populated it with the text which you will be repeating, just do Insert -> Section and check the 'link' checkbox.

It is not necessary to use the Navigator at all. However once you begin repeating sections and including links in your documents, then it is probably worth knowing your way around the Navigator feature.


The ultra fast way of achieving a similar result (Paste Special):

Copy and Paste but keep your finger on Shift when you Paste.

Select 'DDE link' from the 'Paste special' menu that pops up.

In order for the DDE link to work, a new Bookmark will have already been created in Navigator like so:

This type of link is marked 'soffice' internally and has details that look similar to the following example:

The advantage of using this 'Paste Special' DDE link way is speed obviously, and you do not have to create a Section around your text in preparation.

Where using Sections wins out is in complex documents, where perhaps you have repeated different blocks of text. Having the Sections clearly identified in Navigator can be a real win for that complex case.


Avoiding the startup 'Update all links' prompt:

Having setup a document with a repeated Section as described, you may then see this on opening your document:

And switching that off can be achieved in Tools -> Options -> Writer -> General

so that 'Update links when loading' is set to 'Always'


Deleting Sections and clearing up:

Use the Navigator and right click 'Edit' the section you want to remove.

Within 'Edit' you have a 'Remove' button which will do the trick.

Clearing up:
The text block I was copying was prepared as a table by me.

What I noticed was that removing the section did not delete the text copy itself, but merely reverted it to being 'standalone' typical text. A handy feature perhaps but do manually delete the text if that is not what you wish to be left with.


Links and further reading:

• Using the Navigator [ openoffice.org ]
• Master Documents [ for when you outgrow Sections and DDE :)  ]