Issue 19292

reassigned to bh@openoffice.org

As this Issue is about Master Doc it mightz not be covered by Issue 4508. RBE,
could you check whether the Instructions on opening new copies of the sam efile
as found in Issue 4508 solve your problems related to MDs?

To get what I am suggesting (sorry for the long pause), I can shrink one window,
then open another window on the same file, shrink that one and now I can see
both windows and navigate in each separately.  I can also open another file and
shrink it to have both files visible and accessible on one screen.  Neither
solution works, however, as closing one window leaves the other shrunk and I
must then resize it again.

A split window is a single window with a line separating either two views of the
same document or two files with the ability to jump from one to the other
(normally with Shift-Tab).  This allows a greater area of viewing per file or
view and much easier editing where one section of a document MUST be consistent
with another (or needless duplication needs to be removed) or where the contents
of one file must be consistent with the contents of another file.

It is also helpful to verify the accuracy of references, quotations and sources.

A split window has proven a godsend in so many situations the I normally expect
it.  It is a common feature of editors and many word processors, which is why I
assumed it would be understood with a simple description.  I reference a Master
Document as that would be a situation where cross-references and consistency
issues are most critical, but they also crop up when one document references
another article and a reviewer would slam the writer if the references were not
correct.

It CAN be done by jumping from one window to another, but other than the
simplest references, it is not as easily done.  What I have done where I needed
to compare one section to another document is to copy the sections from the
second document and then past them into the first one and draw a frame around
the pasted section.  Now I could make appropriate changes with the "other
document" present by proxy, so to speak.  It is a VERY clumsy arrangement, but
it is a workaround for the missing split window feature.

One last note (just to make sure it's not dropped because of no new comments).

The split windows feature is common to our competing Office software -- the vast
majority of them I have looked at recently, and is one that would add a bit to
our status overall vis-a-vis competitors.

Please set target: 2.0 or Later ?

I think the OS and version must be change to ALL

This issue is very similar to Issue 19291 (superceeding Issue 4508). Issue 19291
has over 20 votes.

I'd like to say how many people may be affected by this feature: my mother is a
translator. She usually works with the original document and the translated one
on split windows and cannot work in OpenOffice because there is no way she can
see the original document while editing the translation. ALL translators I know
love this split screen thing so they don't need to stop editing some document to
look at the original. I think this should be included in Open Office 2.0 Final. 

setting keywords, reassigning
comment from nigelenki to issue  54578:

I'm trying to take two documents and basically transplant data from one to the
other.  This involves much window switching, screen real-estate usage, or any
number of things due to stacking one window atop another or simply fullscreening.

It would be nice if it were possible to multi-pane a window, basically split
between two documents:


 ===TitleBar============
|Menus                  |
|Toolbars               |
|-----------------------|
|Doc1            |Styles|
|                |      |
|________________|      |
|Doc2            |      |
|                |      |
|________________|______|

Of course this requires a working MDI model (tab based seems to be a stock
idea), and some fudging with being able to transplant styles directly between
documents (click in Doc2, drag styles to Doc1?).

*** Issue 54578 has been marked as a duplicate of this issue. ***

This is a feature which I miss very much in OpenOffice since I type up many 
reports and it's quite handy to be able to split the view in order to make 
inner-document cross-referencing easyer (ie: entering data from different 
sections into a single summative table). This feature has existed for a very 
long time in other word processing tools, even vim permits such an approach ;) 
I was actually surprised it wasn't in OOWriter. 

Hi all,
I also need this feature, since I often have to compare documents, and using
multiple windows gets cumbersome when:
1.I have to resize windows
2.I switch to other applications
3.Documents get numerous (in fact, I can get nuts trying that with 3 of them)
Also, the multiple buttons in the taskbar also make it too polluted (this is a
problem in Windoze, dunno if other OSs also suffer from this).
So I'd like to join the choir and ask for this enhancement.
Anyway, OOo rocks!
Thanks all,
Grillo

Ah, I'd also like to ask that the request be applied to all platforms, instead
of PC only.
Thanks again,
Grillo

Sorry by flooding, but I'd just like to add one point. Since OOo is an
integrated suite, as soon as we have the capability of splitting windows, we'll
be able to do something new: compare, drag and drop between files of different
kind. For example, drag a text into a presentation or a spreadsheet value into a
text file. This would be really a killer feature, given the main competitor
can't do it so far. Sad none jumped in yet, 3.0 won't be complete without this
enhancement. I hope I was a programmer...
(I wonder if Issue 19291 couldn't be merged into this one, since split windows
for documents would probably contain split windows for a single document. Just
guessing, I'm not a developer.)
Many thanks

Please have a look at

http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/Architecture/To-Dos#Framework_Improvements

where a concept is explained that should solve this issue and issue 19291. 

And it will also address the latest comment: have views to documents or
different type in one window.

Here's an example how it could look like (it's borrowed from StarOffice 5.2):

http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/Tabbed_Windows_Extension_Discussion#Should_users_be_allowed_to_reorganize_tabs.3F

I posted in Issue 19291 the question on merging it into this one, and another
question arose, so I'm bringing it here:
Is this issue about a single split, hence for two files only, or a free number
of splits and files (within reasonable)? The reporter mentions a single split,
and I commented on more than two files some ago, but I'm not sure what is the
exact intent.

If we followed the road that I have outlined, the number of sub windows wouldn't
be limited.

I think tabbed windows, split windows for a single document ans split windows
for multiple document should be considered together. (sorry i'm french speaking)

I was proud to use OOo and i recommend it to many people, but i start to become
ashamed, when MS users show me the split windows feature of Word.

It is not a gadget but a feature that increase productivity dramatically when
working with multiple and long documents.

The 3 features are not necessary in only one case : if you have two screen witch
is pretty rare !

But with increasing screen resolution and size, and adoption of 16/10 or 16/9
format, a modern software should be split and handle multiple document in a fast
and easy way.
To me priority of the 3 features are
1st: window splitting for single doc
2nd window splitting for to docs
3rd tabbed window

Firefox which is used for reading had implemented tabs at first and secondly a
add-on had allowed to split the window to compare two docs.

For OOo Writer it should be inverse as it is used to write ! You should be able
to read right and write left. At first you'd have to be able to work with two
docs or a long doc in one unique splitted windows. Secondly, cosmetics could be
increased using tabs to avoid using windows manager of the task bar.

Nevertheless, each doc should be opened either in a split windows, a tab or a
new windows. Using OOo in Ubuntu nead this, because, as you can use multiple
virtual desktop (compiz cube) and start a new work on a new virtual desktop,
forcing tabbs isn't a good choice. You should be able to open a new windows if
needed.

Adjacent viewing and editing (at least) two documents is very useful and 
sometimes even important since it greatly simplifies such kind of work. Imagine, 
how many mouse movements and clicks it needs to make, editing some long document 
and visually comparing it with another one (clicking, moving mouse, scrolling, 
etc.) without two synchronized and ajacent views, but having only different and 
independent of each other windows.

Many thanks to OpenOffice developers for their great work.
Look forward for this feature to be implemented.

Does Bug 102365 block this one?

Hello new to this - but realised that am not alone as new user to Open stuff my experience in various offices is that splitting the screen for word processing is very very very common
original doc in one and current editing doc. in other part - but both on same screen with ability to scroll up and down - as this thread seems to have been open more or less since 2004 thats a good 8 years i am surprised that no fantastically capable or even averagely capable programmer has managed to solve it!
obviously for the moment i open two documents resize them (which on lap tops touch pads take time) align them get rid of tool bars on original doc. and then try and get on with scrolling up and down clicking etc
having to get rid of toolbars is annoying as sometimes As a Translator (i notice one of original users posting also was/is translator) i obviously use thesaurus one both docs.
My shortcut - apple or squiggle+F7 as indicated on pulldown menu does not work and has never worked so i have to go to toolbar menu and do it the 'long way round' 
obviously having come from a time of Real Copy And Paste (then copy and tipped and copy again) i love computers and what they are capable of doing
Now that Apple has dumped any access to MS word (older versions) something i didn't know they were going to do - i am gallantly  going with Opensource (which i had planned to do anyway)
am surprised as next person that two diff. docs can't be views on a 'split screen'
thanks for advice


(In reply to comment #20)
> Adjacent viewing and editing (at least) two documents is very useful and 
> sometimes even important since it greatly simplifies such kind of work.
> Imagine, 
> how many mouse movements and clicks it needs to make, editing some long
> document 
> and visually comparing it with another one (clicking, moving mouse,
> scrolling, 
> etc.) without two synchronized and ajacent views, but having only different
> and 
> independent of each other windows.
> 
> Many thanks to OpenOffice developers for their great work.
> Look forward for this feature to be implemented.