Apache OpenOffice (AOO) Bugzilla – Issue 59057
Online-help / searching for paragraph breaks
Last modified: 2013-02-07 22:36:05 UTC
In the help file, there is a reference to "line break", represented by \n, which is inserted with the Shift+Enter key combination. It also tells how to turn it into a paragraph break. As far as I know, this problem exists in all versions, not just 2.0. One of the features I use most often in MS Word is to "search and replace" paragraph breaks. All the years I have used Star Office, then Open Office, the inability to do this has been the most frustrating deficiency of the product. The only thing relevant I could find in the Help is the following: "\n Represents a line break that was inserted with the Shift+Enter key combination. To change a line break into a paragraph break, enter \n in the Search for and Replace with boxes, and then perform a search and replace."
Search for a paragraph break with $ The statement in the Help neglects to state what to replace the \n with, and $ for paragraph breaks is not listed in the regular expressions list.
Reassigned to SBA.
tfarlow's comment already said that searching is possible. SO this is a online help issue as it is not clearly described that a '$' sign can be used to search for paragraph markers. The current help text is as follows: "$: Only finds the search term if the term appears at the end of a paragraph. Special objects such as empty fields or character-anchored frames at the end of a paragraph are ignored. Example: "Peter$"." It should be made clear that an empty search term means just searching for paragraph markers. I have adjusted the summary, set component to "documentation/ui", set version to "2.0.1" and confirmed issue.
Correction: Changed component/subcomponent to "documentation/Online help".
Please do not mix problems into one issue. In the first paragraph you cite the help, in the second paragraph you say there is a problem. What is the problem? If you want the program code to be changed, the documentation component of Issuezilla is not the right place. The current help explains what the $ regular expression currently does: $ Only finds the search term if the term appears at the end of a paragraph. Special objects such as empty fields or character-anchored frames at the end of a paragraph are ignored. Example: "Peter$". and ^$ Finds an empty paragraph. The Search&Replace behavior is much more complicated to explain by words. The help currently does not explain this in order to not scare the readers away. Everyone is welcome to supply an addendum or a general Search&Replace guide using regular expressions (using as low word count as possible). And no, and empty search term does search for nothing. And a regular expression search for just $ (you may have meant that) does not find all paragraph markers in your document.
closed
I THOUGHT that the documentation answer had solved my problem, but I find that it really didn't. For example, for this text I would like to leave <CR><CR> but replace single <CR> by <SPACE>. In Word, I use the technique of replacing all instances of <CR> with &. I then replace && with <CR><CR>, then & with <SPACE>. Searching and replacing the regular expression "$" in OpenOffice with \& replaces both single and double <CR>s with only one &. I can do a messy work-around by only replacing the $ with & in a what should be a single paragraph (being careful not to do so for the last line). However, I would like to do this for a whole document at once. For example, my goal would be to change the first three paragraphs of this to: "I THOUGHT that the documentation answer had solved my problem, but I find that it really didn't. For example, for this text I would like to leave <CR><CR> but replace single <CR> by <SPACE>. In Word, I use the technique of replacing all instances of <CR> with &. I then replace && with <CR><CR>, then & with <SPACE>." Is there some way to do all this? Murray Strome
So you want the functionality improved? Set this to the Enhancement request owner.
The Reg-exp Howto explains in gory detail what the current functionality of Writer is in this area: http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/Documentation/How_Tos/Regular_Expressio ns_in_Writer It is shortly to be linked from the Appl Help. Does that mean that this issue (about improving the Help / documentation) can be closed? If there's a separate issue about what can be done, it could be raised separately - and join a long queue of reg-exp issues. It's probably been raised already. Most likely the new reg-exp engine when it is implemented will solve most issues. Simply trying to help reduce the number of issues...
To grep the issues easier via "requirements" I put the issues currently lying on my owner to the owner "requirements".