Re: [libreoffice-users] INCLUDETEXT

Hi Joseph,

On 05/04/11 17:38, Joseph Nierenberg wrote:
> Unfortunately, the solution does not seem to work.

Hm. I tried it again, and it's working for me! I'll write below exactly 
what I did to test it. First though...

> I played around with inserting sections, both as links and as 
> links/DDE, but that didn't seem to work, either.

Yea, I couldn't get that one to work. Specifically, the conditions in 
the source document don't get applied automatically to the target 
document. So let's stay with conditional fields rather than sections.

> Source document = where the text I want to include resides
> Target document = where I want the included text to appear
>
> When I copied the text of the source document and special pasted it 
> into the target document, doing so as a LO Writer object inserted the 
> whole text.  But doing so as a DDE object, which is what you 
> suggested, does... nothing.  Nothing appears in editing mode, nor in 
> page preview mode.  (I didn't look at the XML, because if the 
> functionality isn't there, I don't really care what's under the 
> hood.)  Special pasting the DDE link onto an existing piece of text in 
> the target document deletes the pre-existing text but replaces it with 
> nothing.

Here's what I just did to test:

1. Ctrl-n to create a new document in Writer.
2. Ctrl-F2 for Insert Fields, tab over to the Functions tab, going for a 
Conditional Text.
3. Say my username (hence the name to which Writer attributes documents 
by default) is "Ryan". To test, first put in an erroneous username:
    Condition: user_firstname == "alf"
    Then: Hi Ryan!
    Else: You're not Ryan.
4. Insert, Close.

For me, this now shows: You're not Ryan.

5. Put cursor to start of the field, then Alt-E, i for Edit > Fields...
6. In the Condition input box, change "alf" to "Ryan", hit Enter

Text in the document now shows: Hi Ryan!

7. Save document as "doc1.odt".
8. Ctrl-n for new document.
9. Save it as "doc2.odt".
10. Go back to doc1, select all, Copy.
11. Go back to doc2, Ctrl-Shift-v to bring up the Paste Special dialogue 
box. "DDE Link" is the last option, select it and hit enter.

doc2 now says this too: Hi Ryan!

12. Save and close doc2.
13. In doc1, edit our field again so that the Then text field reads 
simply: Salutations!
14. Hit Enter to get out of the Edit Fields: Functions dialogue and 
apply the change to the document.

doc1 should now just say: Salutations!

15. Save and close doc1.
16. Open doc2. Presented with a dialogue that says: "This document 
contains one or more links to external data. Would you like to change 
the document, and update all linsk to get the most recent data? [ Yes ] 
[ No ]". Choose Yes.

doc2 now says: Salutations!

So, that's all I have to go on. I'd be happy to look at some minimal 
non-working examples if you want to send them off-list.

> (Even if it worked, it would be a little kludgy, because a user would 
> have to first go to the source document to copy.  If the target is a 
> template, that wouldn't be too difficult, but it's not the same as 
> browsing and clicking.)

I am in complete agreement with you there.

All the best,

-r



> Joe
>
>
> On 1:59 PM, Ryan Jendoubi wrote:
> > Hi Joe,
> >
> > On 28/03/11 19:39, Joe Nierenberg wrote:
> > > I would like to include text from a closed file into the open file.
> > > However, rather than have all of the text there, reproduced in the
> > > open file, I want only the field name. (The reason is that it is
> > > conditional text, that might not always be included.) According to my
> > > searches, there is no LO Writer equivalent to MS Word's INCLUDETEXT
> > > field; there is only the menu command to insert a file, which gives
> > > the entire text. Ideas?
> >
> > I /might/ have found an answer for this. The answer came from finding
> > out what DDE actually stands for. From the Writer help:
> >
> >
> > "DDE
> >
> > DDE stands for "Dynamic Data Exchange," which is a predecessor of OLE,
> > "Object Linking and Embedding". With DDE, objects are linked through
> > file reference, but not embedded.
> >
> > You can create a DDE link using the following procedure: Select cells
> > from a Calc spreadsheet, copy them into the clipboard and switch to
> > another spreadsheet and select the *Edit - Paste Special* dialogue box.
> > Select *the Link* option to insert the contents as a DDE link. When
> > activating a link, the inserted cell area will be read from its original
> > file."
> >
> >
> > I did this, copying a footnote field from one document and
> > paste-special-ing it into another (Ctrl-Shift-v). While editing, the
> > pasted field seems to contain only the text "DDE field" but a print
> > preview shows that it contains the proper value.
> >
> > In order to get the fields to update you have to go Tools > Update >
> > Links rather than Tools > Update > Fields, so F9 doesn't do it (under
> > the default config). Also, links sometimes appear to become disconnected
> > (right-click > Fields...: 'Status' column for link no longer says
> > 'Automatic'). I haven't been able to work out when / why exactly this
> > happens.
> >
> > I haven't tried this with conditional fields. I would be very interested
> > to know if this solves your problem.
> >
> > Cheers,
> >
> > -r


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