On 06/25/2015 08:26 PM, Anthony J. Rudgers wrote:
What do you do if most every document you create with your word
processor (WP) is in a different "style," & you don't know its "style"
until you finish creating it? For my personal use, I create a lot of
specialized lists & inventories w/ my WP, in addition to creating
documents & written articles in many & varied formats. To address
the responder of my initial posting, let me say: I've invested a lot
of time in trying to become proficient in Writer "styles" w/o much
success. Also, I bought every reference I could find on 'Writer,' but
still couldn't get that Writer WP to produce the documents I needed in
the format I wanted. What is more, when I was required to re-edit a
Writer document at a later time, I found the re-editing often undid
all the formatting I thought I had built into the Writer document. I
don't mind investing in computer programming technology that serves my
needs. (For a "selfie" "aside," I started in the computer business
in 1961, & was, at various times, fluent in 7 ea. different computer
languages. So I know what it means to "invest" one's time & effort to
acquire proficiency w/ a particular software product.) I decided w/
Writer that I wasn't making progress getting my work done. Therefore,
I decided to invest my time & eanergy elsewhere. In consistency w/ my
previous experience, I chose to invest my time & energy in the
so-called "tried & true"--in this case MS Word. My priority has
always been on getting my work done efficiently, & not on learning to
become proficient w/ any particular software product.
Best wishes,
Anthony J. Rudgers
Orlando, FL
Posted: June 25, 2015; 8:25 pm
It is clear from what you just wrote that you do not understand the
difference between using styles and using a template. When you speak of
a document having a "style," you are really meaning it has all of the
individual styles that you want it to have. If you had several documents
that used the same styles, it would be worthwhile to create a template
with those styles. Then you would not have to create the same styles
each time.
When the Styles and Formatting window is open, you are given lists
of styles: paragraph, character, frame, page, and list. Each paragraph
style defines the formatting to be applied to the selected paragraph;
character styles define the formating of a single or group of characters
within a paragraph; page style defines the layout of the selected page; etc.
When I create a document, I will use a variety of paragraph styles
depending upon what I want the paragraph to look like. I will also add a
character style in some paragraphs to add a color and italics to some of
characters in these paragraphs.
One thing that I *do not* do is use the styles list across the top
of Apache OO. (*B*,/I, /_U_) There are character styles for the first
two (strong emphasis, emphasis respectively). An underline character
style can quickly be created.
Full disclosure: I wrote the original "Getting Started with Base"
chapter for the Getting Started Guide for OOo.org 2.0 in 2003 or there
abouts. I was involved with writing "Getting Started with Impress around
that time as well. My help with documentation goes back to OOo.org 1.03
and probably earlier. During all of this time, I learned how to use
styles to accomplish what I wanted to do.
It takes time and commitment to learn how to use styles in AOO just
as it takes time to learn how to use Word Perfect or MS Word. But once
one learns how to use a given word processor, he can do many things that
he could not before. Remember, it is always easier to do something the
same way you did before than to do it in a different way.
I have been using styles for probably 15 years, so I am very
comfortable with using them. Recently, I completed a book in ePUB format
with 196 pages of text (89,000+ words) and illustrations. I used a wide
number of styles in the process. It has the look that I wanted it to
have. It was basic second nature.
Dan
ITo: users@openoffice.apache.org
Cc: Anthony Rudgers
Subject: Re: warning - Editor Wars!!!--how about some heresy on behalf
of the "Joe 6-Pack" word processor user
On 6/23/2015 10:53 PM, Anthony J. Rudgers wrote:
As to word processors suitable for the general user, my vote is for
Microsoft Word. While, like most everyone on our Planet, I'd like
the proverbial "free lunch," I don't expect to get one. However, I
found I can get MS Word to give me the text I want to type almost
always. But when I use Writer, I keep getting something I have to
constantly diddle with to get it to appear in the form I want. And,
if I want something fancier than simple text, I can get that too with
MS Word. I'd like Writer fine if only I could sit down at my
computer & prepare a document using it without constantly undoing all
the things built into Writer that I've never figured out how to turn
off or to modify. Of course I had to pay a somewhat steep price to
get a WP that served my needs, but my time is valuable to me too, so
the ease of use & the reliability of MS Word seems well worth the
cost in the long run.
I think if you would take the time to learn how to use styles you would
find that Writer can be just as versatile as Word, if not moreso. I
struggled against it for a long time before I finally broke down and
made the time to learn how to use them.
Dale Erwin
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