Word to OpenOffice - what to do with styles?

[Geoff Hart <ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca>]

Kevin McLauchlan reports: <<I've got a bunch of Word documents that I  
want to bring over to OpenOffice 2.x. I've heard that it works more  
smoothly if your Word and OOo styles have the same names.>>

Haven't tried this, but as a general rule, matching style names does  
work much faster. Certainly does in other programs (e.g., InDesign)  
because then you don't have to reapply the styles. Though you can  
generally do a global search and replace or use a built-in utility to  
match up style names.

<<Naturally the Word styles don't have suitable names (the docs were  
produced by a writer  who was chopped during a merger), so them're  
the ones I want to change... When I go to Tools > Templates and Add- 
ins... in Word, and try to rename styles, it doesn't rename them.  
Instead, it keeps the old name and extends it with a comma, a space,  
and the new name.>>

There's a preference setting that governs this behavior, at least as  
of Word 2003. I don't have time to boot up the PC and check (working  
on my beloved Mac currently), but there's a checkbox for something  
like "style renaming" that you have to deselect to turn off this  
"feature". Word 2003 users should be able to provide precise details.

<<If I open the doc in OOo, does it pounce on the aliases and  
smoothly substitute its  equivalently named styles?>>

Instead of renaming the styles, try this: create new styles, entirely  
from scratch (i.e., make sure the "Based on" field for the style is  
defined as "no style" when you create the new style). Use the same  
names as the styles used in your OO template. Next, for each style in  
the OO template, do a global search for the hideous old style name  
("Heading 1 style name extended to a ridiculous length because I'm a  
creative writer not just a technical writer") and replace it with the  
elegant new style name ("H1"). Then try the import into OO.

<<I'd just go ahead and try, but when I tried to import the  
unmodified Word doc, OOo 2.1 hung.  I thought it might have been just  
laboring with the awfulness of Word docs, so I let it crawl and went  
home. Next morning, it was still and unresponsive.>>

Sometimes it really isn't Word's fault... though that's often the way  
the smart money is betting. Worst comes to worst, try one of two  
solutions: First, try breaking the Word file into several sections  
(e.g., one file per chapter), then import them separately. Second,  
try copying and pasting text, one section at a time, into OOo, and  
reimport any graphics.


----------------------------------------------------
-- Geoff Hart
ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca / geoffhart -at- mac -dot- com
www.geoff-hart.com
--------------------------------------------------
Coming soon:  _Effective onscreen editing_ (http://www.geoff-hart.com/ 
home/onscreen-book.htm)

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Create HTML or Microsoft Word content and convert to Help file formats or 
printed documentation. Features include single source authoring, team authoring,
Web-based technology, and PDF output. http://www.DocToHelp.com/TechwrlList

Now shipping: Help &amp; Manual 4 with RoboHelp(r) import! New editor,
full Unicode support. Create help files, web-based help and PDF in up
to 106 languages with Help &amp; Manual: http://www.helpandmanual.com

---
You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as archive -at- infoinfocus -dot- com -dot- 

To unsubscribe send a blank email to 
techwr-l-unsubscribe -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
or visit http://lists.techwr-l.com/mailman/options/techwr-l/archive%40infoinfocus.com


To subscribe, send a blank email to techwr-l-join -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com

Send administrative questions to admin -at- techwr-l -dot- com -dot-  Visit
http://www.techwr-l.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.