I can collapse several rows/lines in Calc by using the Group function. But what about in Swriter?

In Writer, Format/Group is grayed out. I’ve highlighted an area of text but Group is always grayed out. I just want to be able to collapse and expand areas of text like I can do so easily in Calc (Data, Group and Outline, Group/F12).

I cannot understand why they wouldn’t want to be consistent with their programs.

You need a condition to hide it. This help for Section, look at Hide and With Condition might help Section

In the attached document double click the field at the top of the page and enter 1 or 2
Note that the hidden section (enter 1) is more successfully hidden than the paragraph text (enter 2)

HiddenText.odt (25.3 KB)

@EarnestAl: Hiddent text does exactly what it claims, i.e. hides only controlled text. To also hide the paragraph mark, use field Hidden paragraph. Hiddent text is at its best to display alternate text within a paragraph while Hidden text should be preferred for full paragraphs like alternate clauses in a contract.

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I have no idea what you’re trying to say. “enter 1 or 2”???

I’m not trying to hide text, rather make it collapsible. I want a vast amount of text on one single page where things can collapse and expand. Like subfolders. I need things to collapse within others that are collapsed. You see this done all the time on websites. I just want to do it in a document. Its a great way of presenting a large volume of information in a summarized fashion.

Writer is not suited for that. It is primarily a tool to compose a document intended to be printed. Try some other mind-mapping application.

Conceptually, that may be different, but in practice, it’s very much the same. When you collapse some text, so it’s no longer visible, you basically hide it. You can do that on a limited scale in Writer, but as @ ajlittoz says, Writer is not the right tool for that kind of work, especially when you start nesting collapsible text.

Of course, selective hiding can be achieved in Writer. But this means designing a consistent set of variables you will set through a bunch of fields. Designing the UI (layout + format) for these fields is a huge task not worth the pain considering you can find free mind-mapping apps.

Strange why they don’t make this easy. I would think this is a very common feature people would use. Maybe not. So should I use a web design program?

“In the attached document double click the field at the top of the page and enter 1 or 2”
What field? There’s about 30 different icons at the top of the page. If I double click outside of those nothing happens. Double clicking the text does nothing. Right clicking doesn’t bring up anything relevant. We should just be able to right click the text we want to hide then click HIDE. Logic and software design do not seem to coexist!

Can I do this in Microsoft Word 2003 or 2007?

The first line at the top of the page (not outside the page) contains only a field containing 0. Double click it.

In the dialogue that opens replace the 0 with a 1 and OK. See what happens.

Repeat but replace the 1 with a 2, OK and see what happens

I usually work in Web View. I tried Normal View as well.
I see “0” nowhere in any field. What do you mean by field? There’s the area where we type and all the rest.

The first line contains nothing but a field with a zero inside it. If you can’t see the grey field background then toggle on View > Field Shadings (Ctrl+F8); it is on by default in a new install. Did you try double-clicking any 0 on the first line?
FieldContaining0

When you double-click on the 0 this dialogue box will appear, in the field Value (where the cursor is pointing) change the 0 to a 1 and click OK. Then try with a two.
EditField

The Getting Started Guide is a good place to start learning about LibreOffice, it also uses terminology common to most other programs. The Writer Guide is focused on Writer, both can be downloaded from English documentation | LibreOffice Documentation - LibreOffice User Guides

The first line contains nothing but a field with a zero inside it.
Sorry but there is no zero anywhere like in your image. I tried Field Shadings. Made no difference.
Here’s a screenshot. I’m using Web view of course as I use all of my screen width.
LibreOffice 7.4.1.2 - Album on Imgur

And here is the same page in Normal View.

I opened EarnestAl’s document and it worked like a charm. Your screenshot is of something completely different.

I am, of course, still referring to the Writer document I uploaded in the very first comment, I can collapse several rows/lines in Calc by using the Group function. But what about in Swriter? - #2 by EarnestAl

I am working with a blank page and just copied and pasted text into it. Its pretty simple and basic.

What applications would you suggest for doing this?

Use Google, DuckDuckGo, Yahoo, etc.
Goodbye