Support for Indie Authors discussion

Not sure how many here use LibreOffice, but it seems to have developed a glitch and can no longer transfer hyperlinks to HTML. Not only that, but even setting up hyperlinks to bookmarks has become glitchy. I spent the day with it yesterday trying to resolve what I thought was my error, and then gave up and downloaded OpenOffice. That worked. It's definitely a glitch with LibreOffice, and I haven't found any mention of it in their help or community topics. So, using OpenOffice now.

Oh wow. I use OpenOffice, but I have heard good things about LibreOffice. Yikes.

I had fun today with MS Word inserting a phantom page into my document so everything kept getting messed up when I uploaded it to Createspace. Do OpenOffice or LibreOffice do that same thing?

Joe, I haven't had that happen with OpenOffice.

I use Libre but I haven't had the need to use hyperlinks so I can't say for sure.

What I can say is that I switched to Libre after the latest update for Office came with a bug that caused it to freeze up after a few minutes, and nothing I did could resolve it. I talked to some other people about it and apparently they were having the same problem. So if you're using Office 2013, whatever you do, don't update it :/

Joe wrote: "I had fun today with MS Word inserting a phantom page into my document so everything kept getting messed up when I uploaded it to Createspace. Do OpenOffice or LibreOffice do that same thing?"

Did you convert the file to a PDF file before loading? Having it in PDF usually keeps things nice and tidy.

I'm still using open office 2.4 (compatible with ms 2k3). so far no real need to update :D

Erin wrote: "Oh wow. I use OpenOffice, but I have heard good things about LibreOffice. Yikes."

Question: Do you convert to .pdf before uploading to Createspace?

Joe wrote: "I had fun today with MS Word inserting a phantom page into my document so everything kept getting messed up when I uploaded it to Createspace. Do OpenOffice or LibreOffice do that same thing?"

Pagination problems are common. Use MS Word Pagelayout tab, Breaks, Section Breaks (either odd or even page -- usually odd page for print books)

This is exactly the problem I encountered with Open Office, but MS Word does fine with section breaks

I upload PDF to Createspace, and once I got the hang of it I had no problems. However, I've now encountered another problem with updating one of my books, and it has to do with the cover. They rejected it after review, saying that I need to be sure that the text on the cover doesn't encroach on the border. It's virtually the same cover I've used for more than a year now, and I added three words to it--nowhere near the edge. Not sure what's going on with it, but I resubmitted it with no changes to see if maybe it was their error.

I have Open Office on one PC and Word on another. Headers are easier for me to manage with Word. My even page headers carry the book title while odd pages carry chapter title. In Word, the chapter title is automatically picked up and inserted into the header but that feature doesn't work with Open Office. At least when I set it up on Word, Open Office accepts it and continues the header format.

Ken wrote: "I've now encountered another problem with updating one of my books, and it has to do with the cover. They rejected it after review, saying that I need to be sure that the text on the cover doesn't encroach on the border. It's virtually the same cover I've used for more than a year now, and I added three words to it--nowhere near the edge. Not sure what's going on with it, but I resubmitted it with no changes to see if maybe it was their error..."

UPDATE: The cover went right through the second time. I made no changes, so it must have been their error.

That happened to me too once. It said my cover didn't meet the standard because it was 299DPI and not 300. I just re-uploaded the same picture without any changes and it passed the second time around. I guess their program do have glitches.

libreoffice looks like a decent alternative to openoffice.org. i'll check it out. although openoffice.org 4.1.1 crashes once in a while, it's pretty stable. just gotta remember to save often. i see on their website that 4.1.2 came out in july 2015. i think i'll upgrade.

they're both free, so you get a lot of bang for your buck w/either one.

Encountered a problem with OpenOffice while trying to format print books. It seems unable to set the headings and footings properly, and that makes it impossible to get the page numbers just where you want them. It seems that with these two free WP programs you now need both: OpenOffice to format ebooks with a hyperlinked TOC, and LibreOffice to format paperbacks and hardcovers.

Ken

Here’s another option for ebooks, especially TOC or hyperlinked chapters, front & back matter.
Sigil is an excellent free open source program.

Convert your print book to HTML and open in Sigil.
You can split chapters and front/back matter with H1, H2 etc.
One click to create the TOC, in fact there are two choices. I have both for kindle mobi

Save it as an Epub.

Use kindle generator to convert Epub to mobi

These are just some of the features. Side by side text/html definitely helpful. It also allowed me to ‘batch’ change the paragraph indents [indent 16px] using the search and replace feature, so that it appears the same on all kindle readers. Excellent manual.

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I have WordPerfect 10. I spent 2 weeks trying to resolve alternating the headers on even/odd pages, gave up and did each of 400 pages manually. I was hoping OpenOffice would provide a fix.

Andrew wrote: "Ken

Here’s another option for ebooks, especially TOC or hyperlinked chapters, front & back matter.
Sigil is an excellent free open source program.

Convert your print book to HTML and open in Sigi..."

I already do that, but instead of Sigil I use Calibre. The current problem with LibreOffice is that it loses the hyperlinks in the conversion to HTML. OpenOffice retains the links. So until they fix the problem in LibreOffice I can't use the HTML it generates. If I was a code expert, I could probably fix it, but for now it's just easier to use OpenOffice.

Andrew wrote: "I have WordPerfect 10. I spent 2 weeks trying to resolve alternating the headers on even/odd pages, gave up and did each of 400 pages manually. I was hoping OpenOffice would provide a fix..."

I've never used WordPerfect but both LibreOffice and Open Office give you the option of alternating headers for even/odd pages. Under format you pull up "page" and go to the header tab. There you can uncheck "same content left/right."

Ken wrote: I've never used WordPerfect but both LibreOffice and Open Office give you the option of alternating headers for even/odd pages. Under format you pull up "page" and go to the header tab. There you can uncheck "same content left/right."

Thanks. That will save time with the headers.

technology can change pretty rapidly. you might want to update to the latest versions and give them a go. calibre "should" be able to convert a pretty basic libreoffice doc. ymmv.

i noticed that libreoffice is up to v.5.0.2 (their lates released back in sept) and openoffice just had a minor release, 4.1.1, back in aug.

http://www.libreoffice.org/download/r...
http://www.openoffice.org/download/in...

I have the latest version of both. I don't know when the LibreOffice glitch occurred, but I'm pretty sure it was with a recent update.

LibreOffice now has a new update that appears to fix the problem.

Another suggestion: try Scrivener. It is a terrific solution for writers.

Oh, argh. I had an anxiety attack when I tried to use Scrivener. So many things to learn about before you can really use it.
Or am I wrong? Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Ken wrote: "Encountered a problem with OpenOffice while trying to format print books. It seems unable to set the headings and footings properly, and that makes it impossible to get the page numbers just where ..."

Hi- will Office Libre fix headers and footers? With OpenOffice, I am having a huge problem trying to get books printed for createspace because I can't seem to keep the headers and footers off of the front matter (title page, copyright page etc.), and trying to start my page humbering on page 7. Hoping Office Libre will make this possible!

I use Jutoh for ebook conversion- they make TOC links extremely easy. There is a fee for joining (maybe $30?) but seemed easier than trying to learn scrivener or Evernote, etc.
My biggest problem is trying to format page numbering for createspace -driving me bonkers. I will try office libre to see if it helps!

Tami, you're not wrong. Scrivener is complex, but it was made for writers so it has a ton of tools that will eventually make the process easier. I would start with using the novel template and just start typing. You'll learn as you go.

One such tool is the ability reorder your scenes, chapters around with a simple drag and drop, so you don't have to write in sequence.

As this is a discussion about openoffice and libreoffice, I will leave it at that. I just didn't want you to think scrivener wasn't worth the effort to learn it. For me, it's exactly what I want in writing software.

Hadley wrote: "Hi- will Office Libre fix headers and footers? With OpenOffice, I am having a huge problem trying to get books printed for createspace because I can't seem to keep the headers and footers off of the front matter (title page, copyright page etc.), and trying to start my page humbering on page 7. Hoping Office Libre will make this possible!..."

I think both allow headers and footers (I know LibreOffice does)--but it's tricky! You can specify how many title pages you have up front and then start the numbering right after those. I usually also specify the Chapter One page as a title page to keep the header/footer off, and start numbering the following page at two. Most people say no page with a chapter heading should have a header, but I don't think OO or LO are capable of that without introducing glitches in the last page of the previous chapter. For any bio notes at the end I specify the page as an index page instead of default, and that keeps the header/footer from showing.

Judy wrote: "Another suggestion: try Scrivener. It is a terrific solution for writers."

Don't you have to pay for Scrivener? OpenOffice and LibreOffice are free.

Thank you for your advice!

I downloaded Office Libre today- page numbering issues resolved! Thank you very much for the tips! I designated my front matter as title pages and had numbering begin thereafter. So much easier for this issue than Open Office!
I think from now on I'll write in open office and move everything to office Libre at the end.

I use OpenOffice, then copy document text and open html document with clean, unformatted text paste. Then save as PDF. It has worked perfectly. I know in a regular OpenOffice doc, the hard returns CAN create blank pages...since Joe asked...but by pasting it "special" into the html doc, you can make sure all the spacing, URLs, etc. show up correctly and then turn it into PDF.