'Flags' in a Writer Document

[DaveOT]

Just been using Writer to track a long and involved legal discussion. Where there are outstanding items that need progressing, I wanted to be able to ‘flag’ them and see these flags in the Navigator. These are then visually obvious note(s) of things remaining to be done.

It seems that the existing Reminders feature is nearly the right thing for this. However you can only have 5 in a document, and there is no way to see them in the navigator. So that wasn’t going to cut it. So I ended up using ‘dumey’ comments to act as a flag of outstanding actions.

Have I just mis-understood what Reminders are for and / or is there a butter way to ‘flag’ text in a Writer document?

Many thanks.

[ajlittoz]

What do you call “Reminders”? I don’t know anything about this. And a 5-limit is rather weird in “modern” programs. Is this a Word feature you’re accustomed to?

Perhaps you are using an outdated LO version. Which is your OS name, LO version and save format for your document(s).

IMHO, “ordinary” comments is the way to go. You can have as many as you like and they are listed in the Navigator. Don’t use them as “dummy” markers. Enumerate pending or outstanding actions in them if these actions are side-effect of text contents (by that, I mean the actions are not to be part of text but are there as tasks to be done by the team building the document).

If the actions are mentioned in text, as an integral part of it, you can also apply a specific (custom) character style over it with such typographic attributes as it becomes highlighted and you remove the character style when done. Or you attach a comment to the action with activity progress in the comment.

[DaveOT]

Hi and thanks for speedy reply.

Reminders are a standard built-in feature to Writer (https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Videos/Using_Navigator.

It’s 5 years+ since I used Word. I don’t recall if it had / now has anything comparable.

And yes, 5 is a very strange maximum - that and the inability to see them, actually makes the feature not the correct thing to use.

I’m using Writer version 7.3.2.2, on Win11, and am saving as .odt.

As far as I can see, Writer Reminders can’t be used as intended, so Comments are the only option. I ony called them ‘dumey’ because the actions are fully described in the text and I just need a way to see where outstanding actions are in the document - ie., I wanted to ‘flag’ them. (I keep wanting to say ‘bookmark’ them, but that is, of course, a different thing in Writer)

Yes, could do the character style thing. I’d probably prefer to mark any actions with a unique text, perhaps something like ‘ActionToBeDone’, and then I could search for this. But, at the moment, I think Comments are the right thing it seems. (and maybe Reminders should be properly upgraded to function as intended, or removed because they are not, in my respectful opinion, fit for purpose).

[ajlittoz]

I didn’t know about Reminders. They are not advertised in the built-in help. The Wiki says they are not saved in the document. Consequently I see little use for them if you want to flag important locations for future use. Apparently they don’t survive the current session and, considering their limited lifetime, a maximum of 5 “may” make sense.

I think the closest “permanent” equivalent is Bookmarks*. But Comments can offer more versatility and power.

[DaveOT]

Oh I didn’t spot that they don’t survive the session. There’s definitely a use for such a feature (as distinct from Comments), but only after being brought up to spec. Anyway, Comments it is for now.

Thanks for your help and advice.

[LeroyG]

@ajlittoz

they don’t survive the current session

I tested closing the document (not Writer), and they are lost.