Locking Paragraphs to Prevent Page Creep

[JMarcus]

Hi there, is there a way to “lock” Page breaks?

I am creating a writer document and when I run the document in a 3rd party application typically the paragraphs will shorten (the application will usually decrease font size for example) pushing the paragraphs out of order.
Is there a way to “lock” the pages so that when I print my document a paragraph that should start and end on page 2 does not crawl up and start on page 1?
It was suggested to me to frame each paragraph. So that those that belong on page 2 will remain there, however this is a very time consuming / complex process.

Thanks

[EarnestAl]

Make sure the same font is available to both applications. Liberation Serif has same metrics as Times New Roman, as does Liberation Sans/Arial, but if you use a less standard font that is not available then a font substitution might reflow the text.

Word 2010 is prone to starting a new page one line earlier than Writer does.

If you are collaborating with another person then it is best if you both use the same application and keep the file in that application’s native format. If the file is being converted all the time then you will lose some formatting/functionality at some stage as those attributes not supported by one format or the other format are dropped out.

I prefer to use Writer as it has more useful functionality but if I need to work with MS Office files for compatibility reasons I use Word

[JMarcus]

Its expected behaviour for the writer document to shorten due to the equations shortening. If there was a way to just lock or freeze a paragraph in a certain part of a document (if I try to use enter that spacing will still decrease) that would be best, right now I’ve only been able to do it with framing which is quite difficult.

[EarnestAl]

You could enter a manual page break at the end of each relevant page with Ctrl+Enter. The drawback is that if the text goes a line or two beyond a page then the page break will be pushed to that page and you will have a mostly empty page.

As you have found, you can anchor a frame to a specific page but it risks getting marooned amongst the wrong text if more text is added earlier in the document.

The only solution for editing collaboratively is to choose a common application and use that.

[mikekaganski]

@JMarcus

when I print my document

PDF⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

[ajlittoz]

Writer is not page-oriented but flow-dependent. This means that pages are automatically allocated to accommodate your text and its ornaments (pictures, frames, …). If your document is page-oriented, i.e. you define pages and then add contents to them not allowed to overflow, Writer is not the adequate tool. You should consider DTP (desktop publishing) applications like Scribus (FOSS) or Quark XPress (commercial).

Provided your contents is not too sophisticated (not requiring advanced formatting features), you could have a try with Impress.

Otherwise, as @EarnestAl suggested, you can manually force page breaks but this imposes no constraint on contents size which may still need more than one page between two breaks.

Also avoid a common pitfall: never anchor frames To page until you know perfectly the consequences (which confuse users because it is not what a newbie would expect). It is much better to anchor To paragraph. This paragraph will move according to edit history and your frame will follow without “surprise”.

[JMarcus]

Thank you for the advice I will give anchoring to paragraph a go.