Posted by: Anonymous Coward
on February 01, 2006 03:32 AM
I use Lotus Word Pro. The interface has a MUCH better metaphor for divisions and sections. I have tried in vain and to the point of utter rage trying to ask OO.o to mimic Lotus Word Pro.
Here is my dillema. I write, own, or otherwise obtain multiple document the content of which I cannot or do not want to change. But, I can change the format, and/or I can choose to LINK to the document OLE-sytle.
Now, I create several pages: TOC, glossary, index, etc. I want to SEE and manage these files in ONE space, not multiple instances of a word process. Try that in OO.o.
Well, you CAN link/create sections of a document, but then the inserted document is "inserted" in some half-baked, assinine, maddening way. Not in print preview and not in draft mode can you SEE the document in a manner that looks like separate pages. There is only a "margin line" for a divider. When I imported docs (the "contained" doc), their formatting and layout got hijacked by the master or containing document.
Now, in LWP, I open a master doc. Name it. Save it. I decide to insert or link other docs and leave their layout, fonts, etc. UNDISTURBED. So, I go to the menu, select Create, Division, and then create from an existing document, create a file or just make a place holder which is essentially a BLANK file until I go back and put something in it. I then watch a TAB (like on spread sheets) get inserted and then I name the tab or accept the default name.
As I want to insert external docs, I just add more tabs and associate those tabs with docs that I edited previously or link to from other docs.
At this point, if I want to look at the doc I can choose from over 5 different themed layouts with the files in various magnifications: horizontal, split-screen, 1 on top and all the pages in another layout at the bottom.
Best of all: those pages are EDITABLE AND WYSIWYG even in print preview, page walker, panorama, zoomer, or docskimmer. AND, EACH and every division that I insert retains it own layout. So, my painstakingly-created and shrunk spreadsheets pasted into a landscape document don't get butchered into a portrait file. Section and Division footers apply to ONLy their section or all as I choose; page counts and other information can apply to all division or just the ones I say, and renumbering can be done as well.
Now, this is simply not possible in OO.o, at least not to the polished, pleasing, intuitive manner that is present in LWP. OO.o is seriously in remiss for not having taken the darn time to LOOK at LWP and just mimic LWP. They've squandered resources mimicing ms orifice so much that now the almost defunct LWP cannot even be mimiced without SO/OO.o looking wayward or mismanaged. This is yet ANOTHER PERFECT case of where FLOSS copying ms is NOT the best or smartest idea.
Now, if only IBM/Lotus and SUN/OO.o would collaborate on a quasi OpenSmartSuite... It would be a KILLEr office suite....
David Syes, posting as anonymous (forgot my pwd) and don't want to log into my e-mail acct at work)
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I use Lotus Word Pro
Posted by: Anonymous Coward on February 01, 2006 03:32 AMHere is my dillema. I write, own, or otherwise obtain multiple document the content of which I cannot or do not want to change. But, I can change the format, and/or I can choose to LINK to the document OLE-sytle.
Now, I create several pages: TOC, glossary, index, etc. I want to SEE and manage these files in ONE space, not multiple instances of a word process. Try that in OO.o.
Well, you CAN link/create sections of a document, but then the inserted document is "inserted" in some half-baked, assinine, maddening way. Not in print preview and not in draft mode can you SEE the document in a manner that looks like separate pages. There is only a "margin line" for a divider. When I imported docs (the "contained" doc), their formatting and layout got hijacked by the master or containing document.
Now, in LWP, I open a master doc. Name it. Save it. I decide to insert or link other docs and leave their layout, fonts, etc. UNDISTURBED. So, I go to the menu, select Create, Division, and then create from an existing document, create a file or just make a place holder which is essentially a BLANK file until I go back and put something in it. I then watch a TAB (like on spread sheets) get inserted and then I name the tab or accept the default name.
As I want to insert external docs, I just add more tabs and associate those tabs with docs that I edited previously or link to from other docs.
At this point, if I want to look at the doc I can choose from over 5 different themed layouts with the files in various magnifications: horizontal, split-screen, 1 on top and all the pages in another layout at the bottom.
Best of all: those pages are EDITABLE AND WYSIWYG even in print preview, page walker, panorama, zoomer, or docskimmer. AND, EACH and every division that I insert retains it own layout. So, my painstakingly-created and shrunk spreadsheets pasted into a landscape document don't get butchered into a portrait file. Section and Division footers apply to ONLy their section or all as I choose; page counts and other information can apply to all division or just the ones I say, and renumbering can be done as well.
Now, this is simply not possible in OO.o, at least not to the polished, pleasing, intuitive manner that is present in LWP. OO.o is seriously in remiss for not having taken the darn time to LOOK at LWP and just mimic LWP. They've squandered resources mimicing ms orifice so much that now the almost defunct LWP cannot even be mimiced without SO/OO.o looking wayward or mismanaged. This is yet ANOTHER PERFECT case of where FLOSS copying ms is NOT the best or smartest idea.
Now, if only IBM/Lotus and SUN/OO.o would collaborate on a quasi OpenSmartSuite... It would be a KILLEr office suite....
David Syes, posting as anonymous (forgot my pwd) and don't want to log into my e-mail acct at work)
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