Help - User help - LibreOffice issues, and other suggestions

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05/10/2016 05:46
by DonEdwards

DonEdwards



oStorybook 4.10.4 on Linux Mint 18

1. When I tell oStorybook to open LibreOffice on a scene that doesn't already have a LibreOffice document associated with it, it creates a brand new (empty) document in the directory that contains the oStorybook project file, and then opens a second brand new (empty, unsaved) document in LibreOffice. The desired behavior would be to create the empty document in the proper directory (as it does) and then open *that* document.

It's possible that the above is a problem with LibreOffice rather than oStorybook...

2. After saving the new document, oStorybook does not reliably receive and store its name - and when it does store the name, it does not include the path. On reopening the document file with no path, the default location is the directory containing the oStorybook program. Desired behavior is: i) reliably receive the filename with path, ii) if the path is the same as the path to the project file then strip it and store just the filename, otherwise store the whole thing, and iii) if there's a filename without path, use the location of the project file as the default path.

3. Upon observing #2, if I click the button to link to an existing ODT file, the default location to look for that file is my home directory. Desired behavior, again, is that the default is the directory containing the project file.

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Other suggestions:

a. A copy-scene function. It should give an opportunity to change at least one of: thread, chapter, scene#, and then copy everything about the scene with the specified changes. If I'm going to rewrite a big piece of a scene, I like to copy the current version to a different thread named "killed scenes". More than once I've salvaged several paragraphs from a scene I killed some days earlier.

b. In chronological view, could the minimum size of the block for displaying the text of the scene be reduced to near zero? When using LibreOffice, quite a lot of scenes have no text for that block; otherwise, there are a number of uses for a "scene" that is just a historical marker, with a date and title and (usually) either no text or very little text.

It would also be nice to be able to shrink that block even on scenes that do have large amounts of text, but that would probably be rather more work.

c. It would be nice if the character, location, and item lists had notations for which of their various entries have relationship, tag, and item assignments, possibly with buttons to bring up those assignments. Because of the lack of this information at the points where it's most needed, I'm basically not using those assignments (or items), instead using character attributes.

d. Sort things better for dropdowns. When creating or editing an assignment, the character dropdown is apparently in ID order, which is not very helpful with nearly 50 characters (so far). It would be nice if the dropdown list were either (preferred) grouped and then alphabetical like the character tab on the scene-editing window, or (acceptable) alphabetical by abbreviation or last+first name.

e. This one is more work: The ability to have several books in one file, each consisting of designated threads, and have various operations specify which book (or have an overall setting for which book to apply those operations to). Sometimes a project is a series of related books with a lot of background information in common and with some books containing background information for other books. (I favor using threads for this because that way books can cover overlapping date ranges, have duplicate chapter names, etc. However something else might work better.)
Web site DonEdwards
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Answer n° 1
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05/10/2016 08:55
by favdb

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Thank you for your report and your suggestions. Y will work on them and respond in detail for each.

The LibreOffice bug is the most important, but your suggestions are also very interesting.
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Answer n° 2
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05/10/2016 17:12
by favdb

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Bug about LibreOffice is fixed.
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Answer n° 3
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07/10/2016 00:07
by favdb

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Bug about LibreOffice is fixed.

And the function may be call from the scene table
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Answer n° 4
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07/10/2016 01:21
by favdb

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Suggestion d is now implemented, all combox, list of combobox, are sorted:
- combobox are sorted by name only
- list of combox are sorted first by category and then by name (lastname+firstname for characters)

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Answer n° 5
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07/10/2016 01:25
by favdb

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Suggestion a

Copy Scene allready exists, only the title of the scene is changed. You have to make other changes by your own.
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Answer n° 6
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07/10/2016 01:36
by favdb

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Suggestion b

I would like to create a new view "Storyboard" with only little stamps like you wish. I hope I will do it for the next version.

The stamps would have only these information:
- background color : the starnd color
- scene title
- scene date time
- characters : max 5 and "..." if more
- items : max 5 and "..." if more

The general presentation would be like a film with chapters marking.
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Answer n° 7
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08/10/2016 01:38
by DonEdwards

DonEdwards

visitor

On that Storyboard view, add scene number and location. Location can be handled the same way as characters and items, perhaps with a lower maximum number shown.

Provide edit and insert-after buttons, of course.
Web site DonEdwards
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Answer n° 8
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08/10/2016 10:12
by favdb

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Take a look to the Chronological view. Then check the options to zoom out to the minimum and unselect the "horizontal/vertical". Imagine the scene informations limited to:
- scene number, status
- title
- characters
- the first location
- the objets
- the date and time
Also without the strand tag (identified by the background color). The three buttons, new, edit, suppress, would be maintained.

And a special look and feel.
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Answer n° 9
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10/10/2016 09:54
by favdb

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A screen shot of the next version with the new Storyboard function.

Version5.00.01.png

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Answer n° 10
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10/10/2016 10:08
by favdb

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Suggestion e

Did you try the Part function?
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