No "overwrite" on Status line

[rovf]

I’m using LibreOffice 6.3.1.2 on an iMac running MacOS Catalina, I am editing a PDF, and can’t toggle between insert/overwrite mode. According to what I found on this topic, there is supposed to be a “overwerite/insert” field in my status line, but there is none. The status line (which, I guess, is the bottommost line of the window) just has the following panels (from left to right):

-Slide x of y

• paragraph number, row and column number

• a “page name” (for instance “master-page3”)

• coordinates of the cursor

• size information of the selected element

• an indicator whether the document has been modified

• 3 small panels related to zooming

I also tried the combination of the “fn” key together with the “enter” key, as this is suggested sometimes, but this just seems to open a new paragraph, just like “enter” by itself would do.

How can I switch from “insert” mode (default) to “overwrite” mode and back?

[PKG]

Your description refers to Draw.
There is no overwrite mode in Draw.

[ajlittoz]

A PDF is considered a graphic file and therefore handled by Draw, the drawing application. Even if you are in Writer, when you open a document, the file is automatically ans silently rerouted to the appropriate application of the suite, i.e. Draw for a PDF.

A PDF is seen as a series of graphical objects positioned on a page. In the case of text, it is a series of homogeneous character sequences (all Roman or all bold or all italic – exclusive of each other – and same font face and size, …) in single line text boxes. Whenever one attribute changes, a new text box is create.

In Draw text box, there is no notion of overwrite or not (at least in the status bar) because there is no general setting for it, although you can have the same effect in some OS’s after pressing the Ins key but this will not be reported in the status bar.

Editing a PDF in Draw is marginally possible but don’t expect to be able to make deep modifications because the document will not be “reflown” (= not reformatted nor laid out). The original text structure and organisation is lost. You are confronted to a graphics file which atoms are characters instead of shapes.

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