[prev in list] [next in list] [prev in thread] [next in thread] 

List:       openoffice-users
Subject:    Re: [users] conditional page breaks and non-breakable blocks -- formatting for books, like XyWrite
From:       dave192 () burtonsys ! com (David Burton)
Date:       2003-03-04 12:57:17
Message-ID: ou48BHvcwapi () burtonsys ! com
[Download RAW message or body]

Rats.  Thanks for the answer, Robert & Yvan.  (Not the answer
I was hoping for, of course.)

It looks to me like it wouldn't take much to make this work.
If there were just a few more "variables" exposed for use with
conditional text, then I think that conditional page breaks
could be simulated, by embedding a page break in conditional
text.  We'd need a variable with the current page number (so
that we could test for odd/even), and some sort of indication
of how far down we are on the current page.

This seems strange to me.  The PAGE variable (the total number
of pages in the document) is available for use in the the
condition-calculation for conditional text, even though the
number of pages in the document might depend on whether or not
the text is hidden -- which seems like a chicken and egg problem.
But there is no current page number or current line number
variable available, even though there would be no chicken & egg
problem for such variables, since they would only depend on the
part of the document preceeding the conditional text.

Oh, well.   :-(

-Dave



rbe@flash.net (Robert Black Eagle) wrote:
> XyWrite had a number of extremely useful features, but remember, it was
> designed for professional writers and not for ordinary mortals or
> techies.  It would make me more than just a little happy if OOo would
> at least attempt to introduce some of these easy features into OOo,

yvan@shank1.com (Yvan Shank) wrote:
> MS word has somewhat limited variants of these fuctions. But I agree
> that OOo should introduce these features for those who need them.


dave192@burtonsys.com (David Burton) wrote:
> > XyWrite (R.I.P.) had what they called a "conditional page break."
> > You could say, for example,
> >
> >   <PG 6.5>   (break if there is at least 6.5 inches of text on current page)
> >   <PG ODD>   (break if current page is odd-numbered>
> >   <PG EVEN>  (break if current page is even-numbered)
 . . .
> > These two features, conditional page breaks and non-breakable
> > blocks, were very useful when laying out books, and much more
> > flexible than simple widow and orphan control.
> >
> > I can't find anything similar in OpenOffice Writer's help.
> >
> > I thought perhaps that inserting conditional/hidden text
> > containing a page break would work, but there doesn't seem
> > to be a "variable" that indicates how much text there is
> > on the current page (or how much room is left on it).
> >
> > Is there a way to do something like this in OO Writer?


[prev in list] [next in list] [prev in thread] [next in thread]