5/31/2010

Fixing Open Office Writer auto-"corrected" date

Open Office Writer is the the word processor in the free, open-source OpenOffice.org Productivity Suite. OOo Writer shares some "features" with Microsoft Office Word, including, unfortunately, automatic "corrections" that are a bit tricky to disable. Open Office developers should really fix this! By default, all auto corrections should be off (disabled). Users who want  auto corrections could enable them selectively.

Currently, you can disable most automatic corrections according to How to Set Up Open Office Writer for Easy Use. However, even after you think you have turned off all automatic corrections, there are still a few active mines waiting for you to step on them. For example, today, while creating a table in Open Office Writer, I came upon a NASTY glich, bug, problem, and royal pain. To sort by dates across multiple years, I needed to enter dates as yyyy-mm-dd, such as "2009-09-23." Each time I tried this, OOo Writer automatically "corrected" it to "09/23/09," which I did NOT want.

If you have the same problem, do the following:
  1. Select the table column that contains your date fields.
  2. Right-click your date column to display its menu, and then click Number Format to display its window.
  3. In the Category frame, scroll to and select Text, and then click OK to close the Number Format window.
Note: I found the above solution in the Ubuntu forum. (See #8.)

I am a huge fan of Open Office, and I really want to break my M$ addiction, but sometimes I am almost ready to give up. 
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    9 comments :

    1. Ian22:46

      Word. Damnit, I swear, one thousand years from now, programmers (although I'm learning myself) will have evolved to a different breed. Gah.

      ReplyDelete
    2. Victor13:37

      This was very useful for me, who was perfectly accustomed to prior versions of Word (before the unbearable ribboned new ones). I am also trying to convert myself to open office, but sometimes am reduced to a state of utter confusion. Thank you very much, dear sir !

      ReplyDelete
    3. Sinaga09:28

      Thank's. This article is very useful..

      ReplyDelete
    4. thedove23:45

      Thanks. Very helpful. Unlike the feature, which is extremely annoying!

      ReplyDelete
    5. Anonymous11:14

      Another way is Tools, Options, OpenOffice Writer - Tables. Under Input in tables uncheck Number recognition.

      ReplyDelete
      Replies
      1. Anonymous21:02

        Thank you anonymous! That's the solution I was looking for.

        Delete
      2. Unknown17:00

        Thank you !!!! that was exactly what I was looking for

        Delete
    6. Anonymous10:14

      Fantastic. One wonders what went through the heads of the people who wrote these codes.

      ReplyDelete
    7. Grandma's Pride & Joy18:45

      Your instructions worked and I am so thankful as I was having a hissy fit up until now. Thanks for taking the time!!

      ReplyDelete

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