OpenOffice Write and numbering (solved)

hvengel · Guru Joined: 18 Sep 2004 Posts: 476

I am writing a technical document using OPenOffice wirter. For the most part I am happy with OO Writer but I am having one issue. In writer there is an automatic numbering feature which I suspect would be very useful for some things. But it does not behave in a way that I can use for my document. Specifically it only does whole numbers (or at least that is all I have been able to get it to do) and I have not found a way to just turn the dame thing off to get it out of my way. How do I turn off numbering for the whole document so that it stays off and I can take care of numbering myself?

dentharg · Posted: Thu Sep 11, 2008 3:01 am Post subject:

Hmm.. does it have something to do with numbering for Header styles?
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hvengel · Guru Joined: 18 Sep 2004 Posts: 476

I'm not sure. I want to use a technical document style of numbering where sections are numbered like this.

1.0 Major topic 1.

Some text

1.1 First sub-topic about major topic 1.

Some text

1.1.1 Something about the first sub-topic of major topic 1.

Some text

2.0 Major topic 2.

Some text

and so on.

The problem I am having is that the automatic number stuff in OO writer does not handle this but there is no way that I have found to just tell it I don't want it to do anything I will handle it myself. The numbering stuff is always on and always messes with my document in ways that wast my time. For example it does stuff like this:

1 Major topic 1.

2 Some text

when what I typed in was:

1.0 Major topic 1.

Some text

It sees the number on the first section and assumes that everytime I do a line feed that I want another number which is not true. It even renumbers things and does other crap like changing the numbering format from what I entered to some default format. Again I just want a way to turn this "feature" off to get it out of my way since it is so invasive.

dentharg · Posted: Thu Sep 11, 2008 1:27 pm Post subject:

Then you certainly want this!

See Tools -> Outline numbering and attach appropriate numbering to the Heading styles.

When you write your text use Heading 1 for Major topic, Header 2 for sub-topic 1st level, Header 3 for sub-sub-topic.

Then you can style Heading X style and have consistent look and numbering throughout the doc.
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Core2Duo e6300 | Asus P5B-V | 3 GB RAM | kernel 2.6.24 | KDE 3.5.9 + 4.0.0

hvengel · Guru Joined: 18 Sep 2004 Posts: 476

Yes that is exactly what I was looking for. Thank you.