Hi, I regularly use an outline format for meeting minutes, planning, and lots of other uses. Suddenly tonight, the template won’t work correctly any more, nor can I edit things to make it work. I used to have a title at the top, and then an outline whose initial line was indented from the left. In outline mode, if I hit enter, a new number would show up at the same indentation as before. If I hit tab, the next entry would show up as the next lower outline level, and would be indented from the first one, and so forth. Now, if I hit enter, the first outline entry shifts all the way to the left. If I hit tab, the next outline h level is at the same left point as the higher outline level. What happened? How can I fix this to get back to the previous behavior? Thanks in advance.
Can you upload a small sample document.
Also please add details, click Help > About LibreOffice and click the icon immediately after the words Version information to copy the details and then paste in you question. Cheers, Al
EarnestAl, thanks for your prompt response! I unfortunately deleted the defective document, but I’m running
Version: 7.3.7.2 / LibreOffice Community
Build ID: 30(Build:2)
CPU threads: 8; OS: Linux 5.15; UI render: default; VCL: gtk3
Locale: en-US (en_US.UTF-8); UI: en-US
Ubuntu package version: 1:7.3.7-0ubuntu0.22.04.4
Calc:
on Linux Mint 21.2 with Cinnamon.
The template I created has a bold title at the first line, followed by content formatted for Outline, one space after hitting Enter, 1.15 line spacing, and double space after finishing an outline entry. What I’ve learned as of this morning is that first, for whatever reason, LO could not find my default Outline template, although it was indeed stored. It looks like it had somehow lost its Default status, and in addition, Manage Templates did not show it. I recreated it, stored it as default, and LO told me that it was there and I needed to overwrite it. I did, and now that works. Why or how LO lost its indenting algorithm and would not allow them to be corrected I don’t know.
I don’t know how my template got corrupted or lost, but with a correct template in place as the default, things are working properly. Thanks again for responding.
What are you calling “Outline formatting”? Your explanation seems to describe a numbered list. Vertical spacing is stored in paragraph style Indents & Spacing tab. Indent is trickier: the associated list style takes ownership of the indent and you tune it in Position tab of the list style.
Things may become complicated if you used numbering toolbar button or Format>Bullets & Numbering because this is a very contorted direct formatting intended to “facilitate life” of Word switchers. But since this is a one-size-fits-all feature, it introduces bad twists to compensate for Word idiosyncrasies.
I am personally interested by a look at your template or a sample produced by it. If you don’t want to attach it publicly here, send it to me through private message.
ajlittoz: I’m happy to share the template;
Outline.ott (9.6 KB)
I used to use an outline processor with my Apple II, but that kind of software seemed to go away with DOS. LO gave it back to me with this template, and I’ve put it to good use.
Your template is useless for me. The only style used is Default Paragraph Style, some hard formatted parts in it (“Title”; ordered list).
For this is an ask site: Answer only if you have a solution. Otherwise use the comments function. - Cheers
As already mentioned by @Grantler, your template is more harmful than useful: it contains exclusively direct formatting over Default Paragraph Style. This style has a special role in Writer. It is the ultimate ancestor of all other styles which inherit from it. All its properties are forwarded to the styles which may or not override selected attributes. It is intended to set shared properties document-wide. It is a way to easily confer a personal look to your document. As a consequence, it should not be used for any text because you’ll be tempted to customise it for your discourse with unexpected side-effects on other parts of the document (headings notably). The various components of your document (title, headings, main topic, …) must be formatted with ad-hoc styles (e.g., Title, Heading n, Body Text, …).
You don’t use character styles either. Your title is made bold with toolbar button or Ctrl+B. This is not esy to change globally; you must edit your text.
You vertically space with empty paragraphs. This is mechanical typewriter era procedure. Paragraph styles have parameters to define spacing above and below it. You then create or configure one paragraph style per type of paragraph (main topic, normally Body Text, comment, explanation, note, quotation, heading, title, …). Applying a paragraph style automatically activates all the attributes (spacing, indents aka. margins, font attributes, colour, background, …). You can even automation style transitions: Heading n are automatically followed by Body Text when you hit Enter.
You created a list with the toolbar button instead of using a list style. This is a vicious form of direct formatting because it is totally wild: being a “one-size-fits-all” compatibility feature (with Word badly designed one), it can’t participate in formal definition of a logical list. You can’t tell if an item belongs in abstract list A or B. Only usage of a list style rigorously specifies list membership.
A list style can be applied manually over any paragraph style. This may seem simpler for newbie but has a manual aspect. You can go a step further in automation by attaching a list style to a dedicated paragraph style. Doing so, just applying the paragraph style turns text into a list item in a single operation.
Your template as it is has no added value because of its direct formatting. In Writer, a template file has two purposes: providing customised styles and inserting initial contents on first activation.
Additionally, it is not consistent: the last paragraph is an unnumbered list item. But when yiu hit Enter, you revert to numbered item. However, the number is emphasised bold which is different from your choice in the item below your title.
I recommend you read the Writer Guide for an introduction to styles.