Can I edit existing word doc with custom paragraph and list style

My office has some computers with microsoft word and others with libre. We have a word document that gets customized for each project and then sent out to contractors (who use word). It’s a simple numbered list but it has some customized formatting. Specifically there are two different paragraph styles and a customized list format linked to one of the paragraph styles that are used for various parts of the document.

I’d like to be able to open it in Libre, edit it with the same formatting (ie, add new items to the list using the existing paragraph style formatting) and then save it as a word document to be used with Microsoft Word.

Is there a good way to do this? I can’t seem to figure it out…

Thanks

My experience is that LibO is very good for adjusting formats with styles. I would create a document or template with all what I need (list style, paragraph style) and then import the styles into the document I need to reformat and reformat the document or the part(s) you need to do.

You can either save the new styles in the template of the file or import it into a new document either from a template or the previous file.

I don’t entirely understand your question. Writer can generally handle styles in the same manner that Word can. It is this part of your question that I would like greater clarity on:

It’s a simple numbered list but it has some customized formatting. Specifically there are two different paragraph styles and a customized list format linked to one of the paragraph styles that are used for various parts of the document.

I presume by this you mean you have paragraph styles, for example “Numbering 1 custom” and “Numbering 2 custom”. Paragraph style “Numbering 1 custom” is associated with list style “Numbering 1 custom” (in order to give it a leading identifier). Paragraph style “Numbering 2 custom” is not associated with a list style (thus it is a basic text style). I am not sure why you would want this second arrangement for a list unless identifiers are being manually added, which sort of defeats the purpose of using a style.

If you could provide greater detail about the lists in question as well as where and how the styles are used in each that would be helpful. Also include details of what it is that Writer is not handling well. Upload or link to a screenshot if necessary. An example file (constructed if necessary) would be ideal.

word screen shot.jpg
Libre screen shot.jpg

I’ve attached a screen shot of the original word file as well as the same file opened in Libre. This may give you a better idea of what I’m trying to accomplish.

Notice that there is a numbered list, however, within some of the items there is a secondary list which is not part of the global numbered list. ie. note 2 contains an un-numbered list. I accomplish this in Word by having two paragraph styles. One style is for the numbered list and the other is for the internal lists.

I realize now that the styles from word show up in Libre under the custom styles list and basically work. However, they do not seem to preserve the tab stops that are being used to format the interior list. You can see this in the Libre screen shot where the interior list in item 2 is formatted incorrectly.

In the end, this file has to work correctly in MS Word because it gets sent to independent contractors who don’t have/won’t have Libre. If there’s no way to get Libre to preserve the formatting, edit within the formatting and then save in a way that Word can open correctly then we’ll be forced to upgrade to MS Office throughout the office. At the end of the day, the MS Office license is relatively cheap but I’d rather give my support to an open source project if possible…

Thanks for your help.

You problem is not with lists (as originally indicated) but with tab stops not being correctly set / supported. Which version of LO are you using? Bugs fdo#40104 and fdo#59671 appear to be the related bugs that deal with tab stops not being exported to the DOC format correctly. This still seems to be an issue under LO v4.1.