How to add text between double spaced line document

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#1

I am editing a double spaced document and want to add comments (in color) between existing lines

(Mar 21 2021 update):
Hello all. I was unavoidably absent for some days due to local situation. Here are some more details of what I was trying to do.

I was sent a 30 page double-spaced draft of a proposed legal document. It was in Word but opened fine in LibO. I had wished to insert comments/text/whatever within the confines of the margins and in the blank lines between existing text.

From earlier helpful suggestion here, I was able easily to learn how to Insert a Comment box in the right margin containing my remarks, connected by a dashed line to the reference point within the document.

I was then able to save the LibO document in Word format and send that document back to the other party.

Main problem with that, as helpful as it was, is that I couldn’t (figure out how to) print it out at either sender or receiver. I do know how to do screenshots, but…

So it would still be better all round if the inserted text/comment could appear between the lines and margins.

Pardon my absence. My first venture with this forum.

#2

You cannot add anything into the space between lines (paragraphs?) created only for the layout based on the respective paragraph settings.
Are you talking of comments inserted by >Insert>Comment ? Such annotations in Writer documents are TextField objects with an anchor inside the text.

#3

In Writer you can insert comments directly via the menu Insert>Comment (Ctrl+Alt+C).


You can show and hide them via the `View>Comments` menu.

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#4

That makes me think of interlinear translations of, for instance, the Bible. There are interlinear text editors, mainly meant to add linguistic comments, but I suppose that nobody will object if you use it for something else.

#5

@anon87010807 A comment is a comment.

#6

@Hrbrgr: I’m aware of that, on the literal level. I meant to say, but didn’t say, that, maybe, @Gpar needs another tool for this. There is an open question here: is the text that needs comments finished, and formatted to his/her satisfaction, so that you could for instance use it as a background image over which you write the comments, in text with the same line height as the original? Or can it still get updates so that the comments have to be inserted in such a manner that they will move with the text that they refer to? Sorry, I’m in a wordy mood.

#7

@anon87010807


> Sorry, I'm in a wordy mood.

All is well. I try not to guess many thoughts of an OP. It is best if OP describes everything as well and extensively as possible. Oh, what dare I hope.

#8

(Wordy mood? Me too!)
“Comment” is used as a technical term by the Englsh(-some) UI menus of LibreOffice. It is also a term in everyday English. This may cause conflicts:
-1- The content of an inserted Comment (UI-language) may not be a comment (everyday language) in a strict sense, but just “additional information” (DOB e.g. for disambiguation outside of the printable text).
-2- A piece of text commenting on another piece of text may not be content of an inserted Comment field.
-3- The LibreOffice API names the technical thing Annotation, and nobody can make me understand for what reason this term is not used in the UI.

By the way: There is a property Tag of FormControl objects which is named “Additional Information” in the English-based UI languages when such an object gets edited. When I first needed to use it, it took me an hour to “understand” that joke. Are we crazy? Yes! It’s human. Erring is a reather casual capability of humans by comparison.

#9

The OQ doesn’t seem to be too much interested in the topic, and I still don’t clearly see what he (f/m) actually wants to achieve.
Some contributors, however , are obviously interested, and may consider the question to aim at a demanding and -sometimes- useful feature. If we reduce the scope of the feature from a complete document to single paragraphs it actually may be of value.
I therefore attach an example of what’s my stage of related considerations.
(Always: Interested in criticism.)
interlineCommentableParagraphs.odt

#10

Nice, very nice.

#11

You surely see the “unsolvable” problem of keeping the lines automatically synchronized when either the main text or the interline text is edited.

#12

That’s why I believe that the best solution here would be an interlinear text editor. Of course, if the OP doesn’t deign to return to offer more insight in his/her problem, we will never get any wiser about it.

#13

Did you actually use such an editor, particularly the softpedia interlinear text editor, which should be a rather simple and slim tool in java - as compared to full-grown software like Interlinear - FieldWorks (500 MiByte download).
I would suppose there are users wanting simply a second “layer” of text in interlinear layout without special linguistic tools and the like, but usable for special parts of a Writer document.
Unfortunately I didn’t find a useful description (including a few screenhots) of the softpedia thing. Can you tell me something?
Decades ago there was a software LayerText (I also never saw) aiming at teachers as users …

#14

I didn’t. I just know of their existence. And a possibly simplified version would come in handy here for keeping text and comment together, should text be added or the formatting be much changed.

But a frame with transparency set to 100%, positioned a bit lower than the text area top, with the same line spacing, would do just fine.

#15

To print comments. In the Print dialog, click on the LibreOffice Writer tab, under Contents there is a drop down box labelled Comments. In that box there are options for printing the comments:

None (document only)

Comments only

Place at end of document

Place at end of page

Place in margins

#16

If you want to insert a single-spaced comment between 2 double-spaced sentences, one (admittedly awkward) way to accomplish this would be to:

  1. Select the sentence above where you want to insert a comment and do Format > Paragraph> Line spacing > Single.
  2. Press Enter at the end of this sentence, giving you a single-spaced blank line below it.
  3. Key your comment into this blank line, then select the comment and change its font color.

With a manual typewriter, this could have been accomplished by putting the page back into the typewriter and adjusting the paper down one line, then switching to the red half of the ribbon and keying in the comments. Anyone got a manual typewriter in the attic? (smile)

#17

To print comments, open the print dialog File>Print. At the bottom of General tab, there is a Print section with a Comments line and a drop-down menu. Select the desired setting from it.

No idea about Word.

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#18

In which version of LO? Not working for me (LO 6.4 on W7), can’t see in preview. Tried Tools - Options - LibreOffice Write - Print, and selected In margins or Comments only (below Comments). No option in the General tab of the Print dialog.

Thanks in advance.

EDIT: I just finded the drop down Comments: field in the LibreOffice Writer tab of the Print dialog. Choosing Place in margins shrinks the page size. Place at end of page seem that don’t work (at least in the preview). More to investigate later.

#19

Choose menu Insert - Text Box, drag, write, set line spacing to double, anchor to paragraph, move to adjust.

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