Date: prev next · Thread: first prev next last
2014 Archives by date, by thread · List index


On Mon, 08 Sep 2014 01:52:59 +0100
Brian Barker <b.m.barker@btinternet.com> wrote:

At 15:53 07/09/2014 -0700, Jerry Noname wrote:
Is there a way to get Writer to preserve the tab indenting from
the previous line on which I was typing?

I hope not. If you indent the first line of a paragraph using a tab 
character and you want this behaviour repeated, you would have tab 
characters at the beginning of every line. So far so (apparently) 
good.

What he wants is known in the Unix text editor as "auto-indent."  It
is *exceedingly* convenient.  With AI on: Once you indent:
All subsequent lines are automatically equally indented.  You "undent"
by either (repeatedly) keying the undent key or returning to command
mode (vi is a modal editor) on a fresh line.

It may sound confusing to the uninitiated, but, to somebody
experienced with the editor, it is very fast.  As with nearly
everything in vi: Ones fingers need never leave the keyboard. (Even
with GUI re-implementations of the editor.)  Some of us, and some
time-and-motion experts, think the mouse was the worst thing ever
invented ;)

But then what happens when you edit the text and material
flows naturally between lines? The tabs flow into positions other
than at the beginning of the lines and you get a mess!
[snip]

The vi editor, being a text editor primarily designed for writing
code, doesn't re-flow.  (Tho it does have crude word wrap.)  But
the simple editor in my email client does.  It (usually) re-flows the
text, maintaining the indent w/in the paragraph.

TBH: LOW not being a programming editor, I don't know as auto-indent
would be all that handy, even if there was a dedicated toolbar button
or hotkey to enable/disable it, but there have been times *I* wished
it had it, and certainly the behaviour is doable.  Then again: I
"grew up" with vi, so its behaviour is second nature to me :).

Regards,
Jim
-- 
Note: My mail server employs *very* aggressive anti-spam
filtering.  If you reply to this email and your email is
rejected, please accept my apologies and let me know via my
web form at <http://jimsun.LinxNet.com/contact/scform.php>.

-- 
To unsubscribe e-mail to: users+unsubscribe@global.libreoffice.org
Problems? http://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/mailing-lists/how-to-unsubscribe/
Posting guidelines + more: http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Netiquette
List archive: http://listarchives.libreoffice.org/global/users/
All messages sent to this list will be publicly archived and cannot be deleted

Context


Privacy Policy | Impressum (Legal Info) | Copyright information: Unless otherwise specified, all text and images on this website are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License. This does not include the source code of LibreOffice, which is licensed under the Mozilla Public License (MPLv2). "LibreOffice" and "The Document Foundation" are registered trademarks of their corresponding registered owners or are in actual use as trademarks in one or more countries. Their respective logos and icons are also subject to international copyright laws. Use thereof is explained in our trademark policy.