Viewing topic Need Office Expert to Edit Document in Word

Title: Need Office Expert to Edit Document in Word

Cyba.Cowboy 8 May 2022

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When I got out of the military, this employment place did up a pretty résumé for me that has my name written sideways in the margin of each page, with the original résumé being in a 'Microsoft' format... I have since converted this to OpenDocument Text (".odt") format, and this is what it looks like when I open said résumé in LibreOffice (only partially shown due to privacy concerns):

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The part I am trying to edit is circled in yellow and whilst I have never been able to edit this in LibreOffice, it is shown in LibreOffice.

I tried opening this document in Microsoft Word (my daughter gets a free copy for her 'Apple iMac' from school), but that section appears to be blank (i.e. the part circled in yellow above seemingly shows just white space when the document is opened in Word).

I'm trying to change the name to my daughter's name.

I know it can be done, because I got somebody to replace the name with my son's a few years back... I was never told how they did it, just that they used some "advanced Microsoft magic" to get the name in the margin like that.

Are there any Microsoft Office / Word experts out there than can make this change for me, or tell me how to do this in LibreOffice (if possible)? I can e-mail you a copy of the document to have a look at, or I can upload it somewhere if you prefer...

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damarrin 8 May 2022

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Depends on how it’s done, text box, page background? Providing the file would get quickest results I’m sure.

Last edited by damarrin on 8 May 2022 at 8:26 am UTC

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Cyba.Cowboy 8 May 2022

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Quoting: damarrinProviding the file would get quickest results I’m sure.

Did you want me to e-mail you a copy of the file, or temporarily upload it somewhere, for you to have a look at?

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tuubi 8 May 2022

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I don't know how this works in Word, but something like this is pretty easy to replicate in LibreOffice Writer:

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- First, set the left margin large enough to leave room for the name.
- Add a frame to the page and open frame properties:

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- Set width to Autosize. You'll also want to set the anchoring and vertical positioning like I did, but feel free to experiment or manually drag the frame where you want it.
- On the bottom of the Options tab, set Text direction to "Bottom-to-top, left-to-right".
- Add a thick black right border if you wish (on the Borders tab), and set the font and text colour as you'd do for any other text.

Hope this helps.

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Cyba.Cowboy 8 May 2022

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Quoting: tuubiI don't know how this works in Word, but something like this is pretty easy to replicate in LibreOffice Writer:

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I'll keep that in mind for the future (thanks!), but I'm not really too keen on starting with a whole new document afresh... Using the above document, I did have a look in the 'Frame and Object' menu (Format-->Frame and Object), but everything is greyed-out / can't be selected.

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whizse 8 May 2022

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The .odt file is a zip compressed collection of (mostly) XML files. You might have some luck with extracting the file, finding the specific text string and editing it, and the re-compressing the file back to .odt.

Something like:

unzip -d test1 test1.odt 

nano test1/content.xml

cd test1 && zip -r ../test2.odt * && cd ..

I'm not sure how the container that holds the text will react if you change the length of the string, but I guess it's worth a try. Do work on a copy of the document!

Last edited by whizse on 8 May 2022 at 11:46 am UTC

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damarrin 8 May 2022

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Yeah, this is my first thought as well.

Uploading is best, probably, just remove any extra info you don’t want in there.

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Cyba.Cowboy 8 May 2022

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Quoting: whizseThe .odt file is a zip compressed collection of (mostly) XML files. You might have some luck with extracting the file, finding the specific text string and editing it, and the re-compressing the file back to .odt.

Something like:

unzip -d test1 test1.odt nano test1/content.xml cd test1 && zip -r ../test2.odt * && cd ..

I'm not sure how the container that holds the text will react if you change the length of the string, but I guess it's worth a try. Do work on a copy of the document!

I was aware that OpenDocument Formats were basically compressed XML files, but I never thought to try this!

It's late and I've got an early start, but I'm definitely going to look further into this in the morning, because in theory, I would have thought that this would work...

Quoting: damarrinYeah, this is my first thought as well.

Uploading is best, probably, just remove any extra info you don’t want in there.
You can download a copy stripped of personal information over here:
https://www.opera.id.au/Sanitized_Resume.odt

File removed, as it is no longer required for the solution demonstrated in this thread...

Last edited by Cyba.Cowboy on 8 May 2022 at 8:30 pm UTC

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tuubi 8 May 2022

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Quoting: Cyba.CowboyYou can download a copy stripped of personal information over here:
https://www.opera.id.au/Sanitized_Resume.odt

You can actually edit the frame content in this original file using LibreOffice Writer. You just have to find a way to select the frame. Despite the position, the frame is actually located in the footer of the document. I managed to find it by clicking (blindly) below the top left edge of the footer area.

Here's an image where you can see the edge of the selected frame (in grey). The blue dashed line is the top of the footer.

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Try clicking on the bottom edge to first make it visible, then double-click to edit the text. The text will rotate to horizontal for editing, but it'll switch back to the original orientation afterwards.

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damarrin 8 May 2022

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It's actually in the header as far as I can tell (the anchor icon is there), but clicking is only possible from the footer.

Interestingly, unpacking the document, that line is contained in styles.xml, but every letter is in a different span and as such it's not searchable (take a look at the very end of the file). Modifying the content in writer and saving creates a single tag with the whole text. A remnant of converting from MSO I'm sure.

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Cyba.Cowboy 8 May 2022

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Quoting: tuubiYou can actually edit the frame content in this original file using LibreOffice Writer.

So much for being "advanced Microsoft magic"... 🙄

Quoting: tuubiYou can actually edit the frame content in this original file using LibreOffice Writer. You just have to find a way to select the frame. Despite the position, the frame is actually located in the footer of the document. I managed to find it by clicking (blindly) below the top left edge of the footer area.

Here's an image where you can see the edge of the selected frame (in grey). The blue dashed line is the top of the footer.

External Media: You need to be logged in to view this.

Try clicking on the bottom edge to first make it visible, then double-click to edit the text. The text will rotate to horizontal for editing, but it'll switch back to the original orientation afterwards.

Quoting: damarrinIt's actually in the header as far as I can tell (the anchor icon is there), but clicking is only possible from the footer.

It worked like a charm... Thank you very much @tuubi and @damarrin !

Of course, the rest of you have - albeit unsurprisingly - been exceptionally helpful as well, so thank you to everyone else that participated in this thread, too. 🤜🏼

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