I have two sections in a document. Is there a ways so that when I edit Section 1, it will also make the same changes in Section 2, without having to Tools > Update> Link?
Thank you.
Be more descriptive! What is the structure of your document? Are you working with a master document and included slave documents? When you write “section”, do you really mean an LO Writer section and not any subpart of your document?
Thank you for taking the time to respond.
I have a paragraph, “The quick brown fox jump over the lazy dog……. (Par. A)” in the beginning of a document and this also appears in several other parts of the document (Par. B, and C) .
I wanted to find a way such that when I edit the first paragraph (Par. A) to, “The lazy black dog jump over the quick fox ……,” it will also make the same changes to Par. B and C.
I found a solution by placing Par. A in a Libreoffice Writer Section and linking Par. B and C to it. But my problem is you have to manually update the link (Tools > Update> Link), every time you make the changes.
Is there another way to make changes in Par. A that will automatically/simultaneously make also the same changes in Par. B and C, without the extra step of “updating the link?”
I hope I explained it better.`
Using linked sections is the best way to duplicate whole paragraphs across a document.
An alternate method would be to use bookmark/cross-references which allows for partial paragraph duplication. However it has the inconvenient to risk to “lose” the exact bookmark extent when updating the source text.
In both cases, you need to Tools>Update>Update All because Writer does not update automatically links, indexes and other references. I think this is a performance issue. Tracking updates would need to check state after every key press and this would have a huge impact on global application reactivity.
A workaround to simplify manual update is to create a keyboard shortcut with Tools>Customize, Keyboard tab, Category Edit, Function Update All. This way, you need only one keystroke to update the duplicates.
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I am not sure it’s a performance issue; it must be something else (because (1) we have means to listen to specific changes in specific objects only; and (2) we don’t refresh indexes even when printing, which would be a natural moment to refresh it all) - but I don’t know the actual reason behind this.
Thank you for the explanation. I guess it is not possible that the updating of similar sections across a document be “real-time.” You will have to do an extra step of manually updating the links.
I am making a template for our office and one of the users sometimes forget this crucial last step of updating the link.
But I will try to teach her this keyboard shortcut.
Acoording to @ajlittoz I propose to start your document as a synchronized label sheet. There you will find the bar Synchronize and each click on it will refresh your texts. There is an in-built master label (section in frame) and (some) derived section(s) in other label(s). You easily can use this function. See attached file.
If frames are not desired: Delete them and create new sections.
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EDIT
Sections: Be aware that numbered lists will continue numbering and it’s cumbersome to manage that especially when editing and altering the contents of the sections. For that case other work-arounds have to be found, e.g. print-out of same page as two pages on one sheet…
This is interesting. Although this would still an take an extra step of clicking the “Synchronize Button,” this might work for my forgetful co-worker because the button is floating right there “in her face.”
How would I do this?