I would like to automatically select every other line in Writer to copy the text and move it to another column. There are hundreds of lines. Is that even possible?
Alternatively, what's the easiest way to automatically put every other line of text in another column?
An all-Writer answer (assuming that text is in a table).
Add columns B¹ and C, and copy the text to column B:
Ctrl+Shift+End)Ctrl+C)Table - Insert - Columns After or click twice on the Columns After icon)Ctrl+V) (last cell will remain empty)Add alternate content in column C and sort table by content in column C:
Shift+Down Arrow)Ctrl+C)Ctrl+Shift+End)Ctrl+V)Ctrl+A)Table - Sort…, check Key 1, and choose 3 for Column, OK)Delete the rows and column with the now unnecessary text:
Ctrl+Shift+Home)Table - Delete - Rows, or click on the Delete selected rows icon)Table - Delete - Columns or click on the Delete selected columns icon)¹ You can see table and cell names in the status bar: 
Tested with LibreOffice 6.4.7.2 (x64); OS: Windows 10.0.
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The easiest way, well, the way I would do it would be to copy the list to Calc and paste it at A1.
In Calc, cell B1 enter the formula =IF(MOD(ROW();2);A1;""), in Cell C1 enter the formula =IF(MOD(ROW();2);A2;""). Drag the two formulas down to the end of the list, or copy and paste.
Copy all the cells in columns B & C containing the formulas and press Edit > Paste Special Paste unformatted text.
In the menu press Data > AutoFilter (say no if it wants first row as column headers). Click on the filter arrow by one of the columns and untick the box Empty Cells, click OK.
With the cells still selected copy and paste into Writer as unformatted text to get just tabs between the words and convert to table if needed. Cheers, Al
@Earnest Al, Adding my ideas to yours (second paragraph):
In cell B1 enter the formula =A1, in Cell C1 enter the formula =A2. Select B1:C2 and drag the two formulas down to the end of the list, or copy and paste, or double click on the fill square (highlighted with red in the next image).
Asked: 2021-01-06 17:10:31 +0200
Seen: 38 times
Last updated: Jan 07
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What's a line in your diction here?
Writer doesn't know lines generally. What we call lines in a view is mostly the result of automatic wrapping.
You surely mean "lines" created by paragraph breaks (
Enter) or by hard line breaks (Shift+Enter) explicitly.Or are you actually talking of subsequent cells in a column of a TextTable? If not, what do you mean by "another column" then?
It's very easy to waste lots of time by exaggerating supposed conciseness. And it's not just your time!
As always: Upload an example showing
-1- What you start with
-2- What you want to get.
Any ambiguities should be resolved by additional explanations (probably inside the example).
Your "karma" is sufficient for uploading.
A multiselection of text regions can only be created in the view manually or by a
Find Allusing F&R (UI means).Concerning F&R with regular expressions there is no RegEx finding every other paragraph break. Even resorting to user code, I don't know a way to create the needed object.
However: If all the "lines" actually are paragraphs of one flowing text, it can be done inside Writer by a sequence of steps using UI tools. It's only efficient if there are (at least) dozens of "lines" per case.
If this is your situation, please tell. I will take the time then to desribe the proceeding.