Trouble with Text Width in Imported Excel Table - Pls. Help

[Not_Registered]

Hi everyone,

I have an annoying problem with editing tables in OpenOffice and I was hoping to find some advice here. I have imported a blank Excel table into my OpenOffice document (didn´t know how else to create an appropriate table in a normal .sxw-file), but I can´t change the text width, i.e. the adjustments keep getting set back as soon as I change the "active" field (the one I am editing) by clicking on another field or "exiting" the table by clicking on the document´s border. I hope you can understand my problem (sorry for my bad language, but I´m Korean and English is not my mother tongue). Can anyone help me with this? I would be glad to get any advice, since I´m in a bit of a hurry with this. Thank you so much!

[Note:] This is how I (tried to) change the text width: Right-Click on active field -> Characters -> Character Position -> Scaling. I´m not sure if these are the terms used in the English version of OpenOffice, but I hope you know what I mean.


Kindest regards
Tolllike

[Not_Registered]

No one?

[jrkrideau]

[Not_Registered]

Hi jrkrideau,

I´m using WinXP and OpenOffice 1.0.1. The program might be a bit out of date, but, frankly, I am not the type who constantly updates such programs. As long as the respective version works, it´s OK with me.

I have imported the Excel table because there are some .pdf-documents I converted into .xls-files to edit their content in OpenOffice (I have no idea how else to edit .pdf-content and it´s mostly tables anyway).

I am using the German version. I´ve already asked around in a German forum, but no one has replied so far.

Can you help me out?



Regards
Tolllike

[foxcole]

[Not_Registered]

Hi,

thanks for the advice, I´ll get v3.0 as soon as it is released. Though, I don´t think that my problem is caused by an inherent flaw of the program itself. I rather assume that I have made some settings that now prevent the text width from being changed. So I was hoping that, maybe, some of you guys have encountered the same or similar difficulties and know how to solve this issue.

The .pdf-documents are not copyrighted in the sense that one couldn´t edit it, I just don´t have the appropriate program to do it. So I decided to convert it and copy & paste its content into my OO document (for the converter just search for "PDF to Excel Converter"). The conversion itself, in this case, is not that complicated since the original .pdf-document mainly consists of tables, too.

If anyone knows a way to solve this, please let me know.

[jrkrideau]

[Not_Registered]

Hi,

you can find the documents here, just download the six .pdf-files under "Teilkataloge". I´ll post the converted Excel tables later, I can´t access them right now. Meanwhile, I will give Calc a try.

Btw, do you know how I can insert a "table-free" space into a table document created with Calc?

Thanks a lot for your help.

[DiGro]

Just had a quick look at the PDF2XL converter.

It retracts all text from the PDF and puts them into one (1) columm of Excel, with every new line on a new row. That is what I've seen on my try. That only concerned straight forward text, like a book

However, it seems possible, with tables I presume, to get those data in more columns, but I couldn't get the converter to save my testing so I deleted all of it.

Just to give you a faint idea
_________________
DiGro

Windows 7 Home Premium and OOo 3.3 NL (Dutch)

[foxcole]

[quote="jrkrideau" Someone may have a 1.5 version. [/quote]
That still could be comparing apples and oranges... 1.5 had significant changes over 1.0, from what I understood when I first installed 1.5. I'm not sure how much good it can do to look at the problem with anything other than 1.0.1.

I also think Tollike should not wait for 3.0 to be released but should go ahead and upgrade now, so everyone will be on the same page when examining this problem... but also, it's quite likely the problem will disappear and we will have all been conversing toward no end except to get to know each other better.
_________________
Cheers!
---Fox

WinXP Pro SP2, OOo Portable 2.3.1, OOo local 2.4 RC4
New OpenOffice forum: http://user.services.openoffice.org/en/forum/
Manuals: http://documentation.openoffice.org/manuals/index.html

[Not_Registered]

Alright...I just tried to download OpenOffice 2.2.1, but my browser seems to have a problem with JavaScript on that site. Damn. Why can´t they just make a direct download link instead of all this "which OS do you use"-rubbish?

Anyway, I´ve tried the whole thing with Calc now, same problem. Even in Calc I cannot change the text width, it just keeps getting set back to standard. Man, I´m beginning to hate these darn programs. It was worse with Microsoft Word, but even now I am spending more time to figure out some annoying settings than with actually working.

Just curious, but don´t you guys have the same troubles with your versions? Adjusting text width in tables should be a standard task, I wonder if I am the only one here encountering this problem...


Btw, thanks so far for all your replies, I´m glad that I have found this board. It´s no comparison to the German counterpart (where I´m still waiting for the first comment).

[Stephan_02]

[Not_Registered]

My apologies.

You´re right about that bug! I just tried it and it works, finally. Thanks a lot!


For those who are reading along, Stephan suggests the following workaround: Just put a blank space at the end of the text passage, then mark the passage without the blank and change the text width. This should avoid the width from getting reset.