Very Slow Opening of Large Writer File

English
#24

This seems to be a different question though related to it. IMHO, it is better to ask a new question (with all necessary details as you did) with a reference (a link) to this question. Thus, you’ll have more relevant answers and comments and contributors won’t need to scroll down to find your topic.

No. This is not the best way to do it but it does not mess the file. Schematically, when you format a document, you have three layers (this is over-simplified):

  • paragraph style at deepest level,
  • character style (which overrides paragraph style default character properties),
  • direct or formatting (which overrides both paragraph and character styles properties) at shallowest level.

Direct formatting is everything you modify with keyboard shortcuts, toolbar buttons or mouse drags. This is the first step of your own procedure.

When you request to modify Body Text, you transfer direct formatting (DF) from the current selection into the paragraph style, thus removing DF. But, beware! if you have inconsistent DF in your paragraph (and it is the common rule with DF) and the selection does not cover the whole paragraph, some DF may remain. In this case, your document rapidly becomes an unmanageable mess.

The “correct” procedure is to modify directly the style. There is a, Apply button to test the changes and a Reset button to revert to state when you entered the dialog.

EDIT:
Your sample file is full of direct formatting:

  • no use of character styles
  • no configuration of Default Paragraph Style
    You seem to have chose Nimbus Sans L;Arial for your preferred font and added it over your text (but not the footnotes). You could have modified Default Paragraph Style (DPS) so that the font configured here is forwarded to all other styles (because all others inherit ultimately from DPS).
  • no use of list styles
    You pressed a toolbar button to create your bullet lists which are still styled Body Text. Usually, list items belong in a different semantic meaning than the main discourse and therefore should have a different paragraph style.

On a 300-page document, the quantity of DF should have an important impact.

LO Writer very slow to open files
#25

I didn’t know anything about character styles. So what is the most painless way to fix it? And why has the pb just appeared recently? I use a lot of bold plus italics. Should that be defined as a style? There are LOTS of them in the file.

#26

At least read the Writer Guide downloadable from the documentation page.. If you scroll down there, you’ll find the excellent Bruce Byfield’s Designing with LO which explains the benefits of styling.

Adopting semantic styling approach then requires a personal introspection about document structure (the various shades of significance of the discourse; paragraphs globally, details or divergences inside paragraphs, architecture or backbone in the development of your discourse, …). Every significance is attached to a style.

Thus, you can centrally control the look of a significance by modifying the corresponding style. It is extremely powerful, reliable, predictable and stable.

You already have built-in Strong Emphasis and Emphasis for this. Note that the name are not “bold” or “italic” which would “lock” the name to a look. The names hint at semantics, so that you can choose any formatting you deem appropriate to your case (e.g. forcing red for Strong Emphasis)

#27

Suppose I have a good style. How do I go about applying it to my current file? It ain’t small…

#28

It’s so handy to just click the B or I button at the top or, better yet, do ctl-B or ctl-I.

#29

Restyling an existing document is not a quick’n’dirty task. It must be carefully prepared.

First step is to abstract the document to determine needed styles.

  • existing built-in styles: they provide ~75% of the necessary ones
    • headings: Heading 1 to 10
    • main topic development: Body Text or variants Body Text, Indented, First Line Indent or Hanging Indent
    • list items: List 1 for bullet lists and Numbering 1 for numbered lists
      Note that in the factory configuration they don’t provide list items but ordinary paragraphs. You must attach either Bullet ⋅ or Numbering 123* list styles to these paragraph styles to get list behaviour.
    • header and footer: Header and Footer – if you need separate formatting for left and right pages, use xxx Left and xxx Right
    • notes: Footnote and Endnote (automatically applied when you create a note; so, no problem)
    • quotations: Block Quotation for a full paragraph, (character) Quotation for a sentence inside a paragraph
    • (character) Emphasis and Strong Emphasis for varying degree of emphasis
    • (character) Source Text for computer data inside a paragraph or, since word “Source” is not specified, source information within a discourse paragraph (it is up to you to decide which semantic you give to “Source” and to modify the style accordingly)

You also have the built-in page styles. IMHO, they are less “polished” than the other styles because there is more dispersion/liberty in page layout than in text semantics.

  • First Page: I use it for my cover page, but can also be used as the first page of some sequence, e.g. first page of chapter; by default switches to Default Page Style at page bottom
  • Default Page Style: the “common” style for the discourse without distinction for left/right page
  • alternating Left Page and Right Page: used for “bulk” discourse when you want a different layout between left and right pages
  • Landscape when you insert a landscépe page in an otherwise portrait document

You may need additional styles. For example, paragraph styles can be augmented with Comment, Recommendation, Definition, Rule to denote paragraphs with a different meaning in your text. Similarly with character styles: Trademark, Foreign Word, Irony, Confidential. With the latter one, you can design documents which rendering is different according to some condition. You then have a single source but what recipients see can be different.

Once you have designed you style set, I recommend you store them into a template to facilitate maintenance and evolution. However, you’ll need TemplateChanger extension to “rebase” your existing document on the newly created template.

You can now review your document paragraph per paragraph. Apply the ad hoc paragraph style. Select the paragraph (quadruple click) and Ctl+M to remove direct formatting. Global paragraph layout should not change (or should change to you new preference). Highlighted words inside the paragraph will lose their highlight. Ctl+Z to revert to the previous state. Hunt for highlighted words and apply corresponding character styles. Reapply the paragraph style and remove DF. Undo/Redo commands allow for comparison between styled and unstyled state. When you’re satisfied, remove DF and proceed with next paragraph.

You might find it lengthy at the beginning but you’ll soon find shortcuts with selection of multiple identical paragraphs.

Cheat. LO, and Writer, is highly customisable. Re-assign Ctl+B to character style Stong Emphasis. Unfortunately you need also to assign Alt+0 (zero) to No Character Style because style application is not “toggling” like attribute application. I chose Alt+0 (zero) by symmetry with Ctl+0 (zero) which is the shortcut to “return” to standard Body Text.

With smart customisation, styling can be as handy as keyboard attribute shortcuts.

1 Like
#30

I have a paragraph where I used the B button (actually, control-B, which is extremely handy; I wonder if that could be set to Emphasis) on a word. Now I can’t get back to normal. I deleted DF and that left me with Bold word normal and all the rest Bold. It’s the 2nd paragraph on page 2 of the 3-page example. How do I fix that without copying it to a simple text editor (Kate), deleting the para and then copying it back in? (Or should this be a new post?)

#31

How do you/I see the direct formatting?

#32

Bryfield’s book doesn’t seem to be there anymore. It’s been published and he – very reasonably – wants you to buy it.

#33

Click “More …” and scroll down a bit.

Two ways:

  • click on the Style Inspector icon in the vertical toolbar of the style side-pane
    It will list applied styles and direct formatting at the cursor location. Very detailed but you must be spot on the checked location.
  • use the Spotlight feature
    At bottom of style side pane, there are two checkboxes: Show previews and Spotlight. You can (need to) activate separately Spotlight for paragraph and character style.
  • spot-lit paragraphs:
    A coloured vertical strip appears in the left margin labelled with a number. Applied styled are “annotated” with a small rectangle in the same colour and number as the one applied. If some DF is added on the paragraph style, the strip is a bit darker.
  • spot-lit characters:
    The range of a character style is highlighted by a coloured background labelled with a number. The number seems to be formatted by the corresponding style. A small rectangle with the number flags the applied style.
    If you see a sequence not in the default style for the paragraph without a numbered highlight, you have DF. Same in the middle of a character-styled sequence if the number is not formatted the same as the style.

Not immediately obvious but helps a lot.

#34

This is great! Thank you. I can’t find out how to customize ctl-X keys.

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