Switch "Tools - Options - OOo-dev Writer - Compatibility - Add paragraph and
table spacing at tops of pages" off.

closed

Sorry to bother you with this if "Ooo-dev writer" in your response means it will
work in a future release.  These options have no effect in 3.2.1.  I can provide
a sample document to show you what I mean if this does not make sense.

Yes please.

Created attachment 70573 [details]
using microsoft's Times New Roman ttf in Debian Squeeze - instructions in test file text if not lined up right

Your sample has no spaces between paragraphs but empty paragraphs.
AFAIK Word doesn't suppress either such empty paragraph (which is part of the
content of the document) but only ignores formatting in some cases.

Which Word options does suppress this empty paragraph in your document?

That's what I mean.  Maybe it is a page formatting option.  It suppresses blank
lines at the tops of pages.  I forget what it is called.  I haven't used Word
for years, I have just endured mis-aligned text at the tops of pages.

It was extremely useful when writing a screenplay, for example, because I always
type two returns between blocks.  I could spend painful time racking them by
hand for the finished draft, but then I always end up changing something and it
throws it off.

@hedges: The way you use empty paragraphs to format a document is a common miss
use of a word processor as if it was a typewriter machine.
I don't thiunk it's a great help for the user to get his bad habits supported by
the program ;)

And still I don't think such an option exists in Word, see.  

http://www.wordbanter.com/showthread.php?t=7423

@MRU: What do you think?

"Common mis-use," arguably so, but very common nonetheless, and extremely
convenient when typing.  

"Standard" screenplay format evolved with the typewriter.  It is helpful to me
as a writer to feel like I am using a typewriter.  

As far as being a "bad habit," that's subjective.  I certainly agree it should
not be the default.  

Sometimes I want to control paragraph formatting without changing settings, it
is easier just to enter the number of returns that I want.  For example, maybe I
want to format a particular block of direction by typing only one return and
then another sentence, so the previous sentence ends at the end of the line - it
looks better and reads more easily.  I don't want to amend the style's settings
in one paragraph to do that.

Also, since spacing above/below paragraph is a metric setting only, and not a
number of lines, I cannot get accurate double-space after a paragraph, which
would cause lines on different pages to be mis-aligned if compared.  Unless I
sit there figuring out how many hundredths of an inch is one line of Courier,
which varies with font metrics, etc., and is far more painful than typing two
returns after I finish a block.

Incidentally, I am separating these paragraphs in this text box with
double-spaces.  This is a totally acceptable and commonly used means of typing.
 It would be nice to have the option of typing this way in the word processor,
which could easily be smart enough to clean up the pagination.

It must have been an option in Word for Mac around 1998 or so when I had a Mac
PowerPC, which they later removed.  

Thanks for considering the suggestion.

We have something like this... In "Tools.Autocorrect options.Options" there's an
option "Remove blank paragraphs" which will be taken in mind when calling
"Format.Autocorrect.Apply".
Is this what you are looking for?

1) As I said, a word processor is not made for what you want to achieve
(paragraph spaces and hard end of lines, some people like also using tabs
instead of tables...). For this, text editors suite much better.

2) Removing at convenience empty paragraphs for formatting reasons would be a
kind of data loss (Ex: line numbering counting empty paragraphs would cause
count errors using the feature you want)

3) For the other comments (line metrics, lines matching side by side) which go
far away from the original problem, please read more about "monospace fonts" and
"register true".

Closing as WONTFIX mainly for reason 1).

closed

mru:  no, "Remove blank paragraphs" autocorrect option does not work.  It does
what you would expect (when "Replace custom styles" is off) - it removes all
blank paragraphs.  I just want to suppress blank paragraphs at the top of the
page, or leave blank paragraphs at the end of the last page below the cutoff,
whatever.  

es:  I don't care about line counting.  Using a text editor to write a
screenplay would NOT work, because I need to use styles to keep things together.
 I will look into the register true option and monospace fonts for how to make
the space after a paragraph equal one line exactly.  Since you seem to not be
open-minded to the option I suggested, please consider adding the option to
meter "space before/after paragraph" options in number of lines, or
proportional, similar to the options for line spacing.

OK OK, I changed the styles to have space after paragraph and register true and
it looks about how I want it to look.  :-)  Thanks for the banter.

And for the spacing count in lines, there is already issue 30585.

It works great to specify spacing after paragraph in pt units.  That looks
right.  However there is one aspect of screenplay formatting that I cannot
encapsulate in a style.

....

INT - WAREHOUSE - DAY

Dt. Forsythe walks up the stairs carrying the beat up trombone like it is
especially heavy.

INT - DUSTY STOREROOM - DAY

Dt. Forsythe plays a few sad minor notes on the beat-up old trombone, which
whistles and barely makes a sound.

                       FORSYTHE
              I'm gonna miss you, sweetheart.

With a sigh and a final, reticent look, Dt. Forsythe places the trombone back
into the red velvet lining of its case.
                                                MATCH CUT:
INT - NIGHTCLUB - NIGHT

The trombone shines from the red velvet lining of its case.  Young Forsythe
picks it up and goes to join THE BAND.  JIMMY starts a few taps of a jazz beat.  

                      JIMMY
            It's a hot one tonight!

PATRONS in classy digs mill about with drinks in their hands or talk over food
presented by WAITERS.


...

In my styles, the sluglines (INT/EXT - LOCATION - TIME) are a heading style so
they show up as tags in PDF export.  "Direction" and "Dialog" styles typically
have a space of 12pt after paragraph.  However, there should not be extra space
before or after the "MATCH CUT" line which is usually right-justified to specify
a special type of cut between scenes - call it an "Edit Instruction" line.  (In
this case, the trombone would remain in the same place on the screen, and the
scenery and audio would change.)  But I can't specify a negative space before
paragraph if I want to set the edit instruction line in its own style.  Because
the "Direction" style default is to have an extra space after paragraph, it
means I have to change that setting manually in Format.Paragraph to accommodate
edit instruction lines.  

This turns out to become a support thread which is not the purpose of an issue
tracking system.
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