Frame Scrolling - Using floating frame for display section as popup window

In a document writer I am trying to use a frame as a replacement for a popup windows with the same formatting potential as a writer document (tables, lists, images, etc.)

  1. Are there alternative ways to achieve the same purpose?

  2. I cannot in any way scroll through small fixed-size frames (hidden during printing) when the content exceeds the available space. No scrollbars are displayed and it doesn’t seem possible with the keyboard, even using the arrows as the help suggests (*). Is it possible to perform horizontal and / or vertical scrolling in a frame? I have not found anything on the net

Libreoffice writer : 6.2.6.2
Ubuntu 16.04

(*) Frame - LibreOffice Help … If you see small red arrows at the beginning and the end of text in frame, use the arrow keys to scroll through the remaining text. … do not work

I gave a answer to the first question after further research. What I’m looking for can be replaced by floating frames.
When the mobile frame is selected (hereinafter FF), two different types of properties are provided in the list of functions provided by the context menu.

The last one in the list is specific to the FF (it does not appear in the context of the normal frames) and among the available properties there is the selective enabling / disabling of the scrollbars.
You can also provide a name to the FF, a name that does NOT appear, apparently, in the navigator even if this name seems to identify the FF as a frame

The third last line of the contextual list allows you to access the same properties as for normal frames.

Here, for example, you can define the colors and characteristics of the border (important because increasing the size of the border on at least one visible side makes it easier to drag the window)
In addition, a name can also be defined here, but this seems to refer to OLE objects, and these are visible in the navigator, important when the FF is inserted in a large document.

The advantage of the FF is the possibility of dragging the whole document without being tied to a page and of having a second writer document online, write protected but if necessary enabling the modification with the contextual menu.
The main disadvantage I see for now is the constraint to use an external file, while it would be much more useful to be able to view any content defined in the document hosting the FF.

The simplest solution seems to me to insert in the current document (docA) a hidden section sectA in which to insert from time to time the content to be displayed in the FF inserted in the docA.
The FF is linked with an external service document docB containing only one section sectB linked with sectA
Any change in the sectA (for example with a macro) affects the sectB and chain in the FF.

A second solution is to use a macro that reads the content to be displayed in the docA and writes it to the docB, but it seems more complicated.

I have not tried either solution yet, I have only tried the FF with an external file, it works both in reading and in modification, but they both seem technically feasible

The second question remains open, if scrollbars can be activated in a normal frame, but I suspect that it is not foreseen, even if the help I mentioned the link seems to say otherwise

I am interested in other solutions

Edit 18/1/2020

From the new tests I did, the link from sectA and sectB to FF works. The procedure to follow is:

  1. Change sectA

  2. In docB with Tools-> Update all updates the content of sectB to display the new content of sectA

  3. Now docB must be saved

  4. By reloading from the context menu the FF in doctA is refreshed FF to reflect the content of sectA.

I think the whole procedure can be automated with a macro

SectA basically becomes a resizable popup window that can be moved around the whole document

1 Like