"elements" in Write?

[wm777]

I quoted “elements” in my title because it is the wrong word, since “elements” in writer are usually like components to a form, if I have it correctly.

The reason for my question in the forums is a semantic issue. I don’t know how to identify what I am seeking, so I don’t know how to look it up in the manual.

Back in like 2000, when Dreamweaver was owned by Macromedia, it had a feature called “elements”. I do not use Dreamweaver any more, so the term may or may not be used the same today; but, in any case, “elements” were a little like templates, but they were used to section out parts of a document, which were repeated. Thus, if someone wanted to reuse a part of a document, they would just make an “element” out of it, and then drag and drop it into new documents without having to rewrite it all over again.

They were usually used for headers and footers.

I know we can do something similar in LO (Writer), but I see a number of options, and I am either not sure of what they are called, or which one might be best.

Can someone clarify the terminology and/or techniques used in LO Writer, please, so I know where to look in the docs for help?

[wm777]

I didnt ask where the documents were.

I asked what the technique was called. Please see the unedited last line of my post.

“Can someone clarify the terminology and/or techniques used in LO Writer, please”

[wm777]

I will stop posting altogether at this point.

I appreciate the freeware and the helpful feedback,but - to be clear - I have a disability with asperger’s, and when I try to talk with people for help, I end up confusing people, frustrating those who don’t like my questions and basically now “wasting time”.

Generally, when someone asks a question, its already been answered in the manual or in the forums, so a customer (even free users are still customers) get slammed for not reading the manual in the first place, or for asking a question that has already been asked.

Very well. I appreciate the free software. LO is a great suite - even above MS Office. I came tryng to be nice and polite and ask the questions as clearly as possible; and, if unclear, I try to make it known why.

I apologize. I didnt mean to “waste your time”. I thought - as a free and opensource community, you’d be open to discussion. But I’ll stop posting at this point, as not to waste your time.

[ajlittoz]

Not sure to fully understand your purpose.

Headers and footers

These are attributes of page styles. They are managed internally so that header/footer contents is stored only once and repeated on every page. Don’t worry about it. Just type your header/footer in the page area for them once header/footer has been enabled in the page style definition.

Repeating some text over and over

There are two ways to do that:

• short text

  Define an AutoText entry for that and give it a name. Contents of the AutoText is contents of the document selection when defining the entry. Everything in the selection is stored, including formatting.

  To “replay” the entry, type its names and immediately F3. As an example type lorem + F3.

  The AutoText dictionary is saved in your user profile and is automatically shared across all documents.

• long text

  A very long text is better stored in a file. You include it in your current document with Insert>File.

To show the community your question has been answered, click the ✓ next to the correct answer, and “upvote” by clicking on the ^ arrow of any helpful answers. These are the mechanisms for communicating the quality of the Q&A on this site. Thanks!

[wm777]

I understand how to use headers and footers, but I think from what you are saying the answer is something to do with page styles, which I only sort of understand.

Reusable text is not the completely my concern, although it is helpful.

I have a series of tables that need to be repeated. The different tabular structures stay the same, but their contents differ. So I just need to be able to create the tables, and then drag and drop them into place for editing.

This is much like the way a header or footer works, but it is another type of piece in the puzzle.

[wm777]

Also, fwiw, when you said you didn’t understand my question, I can appreciate your concern.

The problem is, when someone doesn’t know the correct terminology, they cannot identify what it is they are looking for, even if it is in the manual. If one went to the manual (or Google) without knowing what to ask, they’d be looking for hours. In such case, one comes to the forums when one can only describe a technique in hopes someone will be able to identify what it is called. So my question was an identity question, so I could look it up.

I guess it is probably normal that others might not know what I was asking, as I wasnt sure myself; but - I am appreciative of for all the help… even if it is not 100% dead on… it is still helpful…

[EarnestAl]

Help page Autotext

[ajlittoz]

If basically your question was about terminology, I don’t know how to call these “elements”. Some name them “snippets”, others “blocks”. And there are variants of use. The “snippets” can be inserted literally, i.e. if you change the definition, existing blocks don’t change but future insertions will reflect the new definition. In other cases, you might want to insert a “reference” to the definition so that the block automatically updates when you change the definition. This leads to another procedure. I can update my answer if you’re interested but be aware that this will not copy formatting and intra-formatting (as opposed to a single homogeneous formatting for the whole sequence) is not possible.