Finding & Replacing Special Characters \ Default Margins

ThingInTheCoat · Newbie Joined: 27 Nov 2006 Posts: 4

I'm often having to import files written entirely in Notepad or Wordpad, so they lack the special formatting that the higher end Word Processors are capable of (e.g. automatic hyphens and quotation marks). Is there any way to have OpenOffice Writer scan and automatically replace the plain quotation marks with their more aesthetically-pleasing special character brethren, so that a phrase such as "The end is e'er near," would appear as “The end is e’er near”? Microsoft Word can do this with a simple Find & Replace function, but OpenOffice cannot, it seems.

Also, how can I change the default margin values from 0.79"? I cannot find a way in any of the options screens, and manually changing it to 1.25" every time I create a new document can get tedious at best.

It may just be my own stupidity, but I can't find any of these issues discussed in the online documentation.

JohnV · Posted: Mon Nov 27, 2006 9:07 am Post subject:

Find & Replace:
In the imported document type the beginning and end curly quotes, and in the Replace box tap the spacebar then copy & paste the beginning curly in. Search for spacebar”. Copy & paste end curly quote in the Replace box and just search for “.

Margins:
When you open a file with a .txt extension OOo will always use its internal default template which has the margins you don’t want. This will happen without regard to what your default template looks like. The solution is to copy and paste the contents of the Notepad doc into your template with margins set as desired.

BillP · Super User Joined: 07 Jan 2006 Posts: 2702

The quotes can be replaced in existing documents with Format > Autoformat > Apply. For this to work, the option "Replace straight quotes with custom quotes" must be turned on in Tools >Autocorrect > Options. The custom quotes are defined in Tools > Autocorrect > Custom Quotes.

Bhikkhu Pesala · Posted: Mon Nov 27, 2006 9:47 am Post subject:

BillP · Super User Joined: 07 Jan 2006 Posts: 2702

JohnV · Posted: Mon Nov 27, 2006 3:18 pm Post subject:

BillP,

Nice solution! Sure beats my Find & Replace offering.

Bhikkhu Pesala · Posted: Mon Nov 27, 2006 3:24 pm Post subject:

That works, but confuses me even more. I pasted this text ("The end is e'er near,") and apply body text style, but nothing happens. I try Heading 1 style, and nothing happens. I try default style and it works. Confused

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BillP · Super User Joined: 07 Jan 2006 Posts: 2702

Applying changes with Format > Autoformat >Apply is limited to paragraphs with the Default paragraph style. It has no effect on paragraphs with any other style. The only documentation I have found for this behavior is in this issue:

http://qa.openoffice.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=12203

foxcole · Posted: Mon Nov 27, 2006 4:35 pm Post subject:

It also helps to be sure the font you're working with supports curly quotes. Not all of them do, so it won't matter if you replace the straight quotes.
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ThingInTheCoat · Newbie Joined: 27 Nov 2006 Posts: 4

Hmm. Well, the Apply Format thingy works like a charm in respect to my problem, but it ends up destroying any and all formatting I've set up already. Oh well. Anyway, thanks.