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SciFiWriter
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Joined: 29 Nov 2009
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 Posted: Sun Nov 29, 2009 1:54 pm Post subject: Converting MS Office Novels to Open Office file problems |
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I need your kind advice. I am trying to convert a number of my full length novels from MS Word .doc files to Open Office Writer files.
I open the .doc file in the latest version of Writer. I look it over very carefully and it looks fine. Then I say save as .ODT and still everything appears fine. But now when I reopen the new .odt file it is not showing the page numbers, left page headers, right page headers and footers. All of this formatting is very important, needless to say, for my novels.
I am hoping that someone can help me with just a bit of guidance to regain the formatting.
Thank you for your help on my conversion issue. I am hoping there is a simple solution.
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SciFiWriter
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Joined: 29 Nov 2009
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| Posted: Tue Dec 01, 2009 10:35 am Post subject: Still working on this problem |
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I am still working on this problem. Somehow the data for the headers and footers is there but not visible. I also had formatted the even and odd pages with different left and right margins to accommodate the printing and now find that information is also not transferred to the ODT file or maybe just not displayed.
Any help with this greatly appreciated.
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jrkrideau
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Joined: 08 Aug 2005
Posts: 6733
Location: Kingston ON Canada
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| Posted: Tue Dec 01, 2009 1:13 pm Post subject: Re: Still working on this problem |
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| SciFiWriter wrote: | I am still working on this problem. Somehow the data for the headers and footers is there but not visible. I also had formatted the even and odd pages with different left and right margins to accommodate the printing and now find that information is also not transferred to the ODT file or maybe just not displayed.
Any help with this greatly appreciated. |
First what OS and what version of OOo are you using? The 'latest' does not always mean the same thing to each person.
What versions of Word did you use to produce the novels originallly?
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jrkrideau
Kingston ON Canada
Currently using Windows 7 & OOo 3.4.0 and Ubuntu 12.04 & LibreOffice 3.5.2.2 |
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JohnV
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Joined: 07 Mar 2003
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Location: Lexinton, Kentucky, USA
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| Posted: Tue Dec 01, 2009 3:52 pm Post subject: |
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I suspect that you will be better off forgetting about the the header/footer information and simple go to page 1 and change it to OOo's Right Page style. I don't know how familiar you are with OOo's Stylist but you can press F11 to open it, then click the Page Style icon and double click Right Page to apply it. Then right click that style > Modify > Organizer tab and change Next Style is Left Page. The Left Page style needs to be likewise edited. While you are editing you can set the page margins at the Page tab and open headers/footer at the obvious tabs.
Once done all page will now be Right Page or Left page without any further editing.
Now if you change your chapter titles to use the Heading 1 paragraph style then that can be reflected in the header or footer by inserting the Chapter field (Ctrl+F2 > Document tab). You will also find the Page field for your page numbers in the same location.
I think there is a lot more to this question than meets the eye so I'm going to stop here. If you are with me so far we can go on to other questions later. |
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SciFiWriter
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Joined: 29 Nov 2009
Posts: 4
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| Posted: Tue Dec 01, 2009 4:36 pm Post subject: Latest info |
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MS Vista 64-Bit
MS Office 2007, current w/ all updates from MS
OpenOffice 3.1.1 OOo310m19 Build:9420
Latest attempt was to use MS Office to export the .odt file. Now I see my headers, footers and page numbers... but odd/even page margins lost. Then I used F11 to open the style utility. I went to page 1 and tried to make it a right page but now lost header and footer and page number.
I may have to reformat the whole document by hand. Not easy. I have frontispiece with title page and publishing page with separate formatting and no page numbers. Then Novels begin page 1 as the first page of the story. I am very new to Open Office. I was fortunate in that a pre-formatted template was available for a novel in 6X9 format for MS Word. Maybe such a thing also exists in Open Office.
I am experimenting now with the formatting.
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JohnV
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Joined: 07 Mar 2003
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Location: Lexinton, Kentucky, USA
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| Posted: Tue Dec 01, 2009 5:50 pm Post subject: |
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| Quote: | | I have frontispiece with title page and publishing page with separate formatting and no page numbers. Then Novels begin page 1 as the first page of the story. |
We can walk you through all this. Lets start with, "Then Novels begin page 1..."
Start by editing the Right Page & Left Page styles as I indicated above. Then go to page 1 of the actual novel. Put your cursor in the 1st paragraph and do Format > Paragraph > Text Flow tab. In the Breaks section check both boxes and by 2nd one select the Right Page style in the middle and set the page number to 1* on the right.
For your information the Header and Footer paragraph styles, unlike most, have only two Tabs. The first is centered and the second is right aligned. You can use this to insert the Page field where you want the page numbers. You will need to add the Page field to both pages 1 & 2 of the novel because we have two different headers and/or footers.
* You may not run into this but OOo is very fussy about odd physical pages having an odd number. If page 1 of the novel is physically an even number then OOo will insert a blank page before it. You will only see it at File > Page Preview.
Last edited by JohnV on Wed Dec 02, 2009 6:56 am; edited 1 time in total |
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SciFiWriter
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Joined: 29 Nov 2009
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| Posted: Tue Dec 01, 2009 7:04 pm Post subject: Thanks for the heads up |
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OK I arranged the pages to make page 1 of the novel fall onto an odd page.
It took me a bit to get used to the differences in formatting from MS Word.
Its a royal pain formatting a novel for printing. I will be printing it in 6 x 9" size. The margins shift to allow for the gutter (print binding). You need to be very cognizant where items hit the page. Right now I have a simple title page. I need to put a proper cover art in its place. Is that what the background tab is for?
I tried some cut and paste and ended up with some grayed out spaces where I used double space after the period... standard format. Somehow OOo didn't like it. More new formatting differences?
Real pain in the butt to have to do all of this reformatting by hand. For my other novels I am wondering if I need to maybe export from MS in a different file format such as .docx?
Current novel is only half done. It can be a real pain working it up in both formats.
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JohnV
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Location: Lexinton, Kentucky, USA
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| Posted: Wed Dec 02, 2009 7:32 am Post subject: |
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| Quote: | | . Right now I have a simple title page. I need to put a proper cover art in its place. Is that what the background tab is for? |
I suggest that you put the cursor in the title page, open the Stylist (F11), click the Page Style icon and double click First Page.
The First Page style, by default, is followed by the Default page style so you will need to Modify both styles to your liking. And yes, the Background tab will allow for the insertion of a graphic. Change Color to Graphic, put the bullet in Area (fill to the page margins) and go get it. Graphics can also be inserted with Insert > Picture but I think the Background tab will serve you better for a title page.
You haven't indicated, although you have implied, that have done the things I have suggested. If so then you should now have only 4 page styles active. One First Page, several Default for the rest of your front matter and then only Right Page and Left Page for the remainder. Is this true? Have I supplied enough information for you to complete your headers and/or footers?
I'm curious, why 6 x 9? |
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