export to ODT

export to ODT

[Henri-Paul Indiogine]

Dear orgmoders,

I am an intermediate emacs + org-mode user.  I would like to ask you for
instructions on how to install the org -> ODT converter.  I googled for
instructions but they are above my level of understanding.

I run the git development versions and update it daily.  I run GNU
Emacs 24 on Ubuntu Maverick (10.10).

Thanks and best regards,

Henri-Paul


-- 
Henri-Paul Indiogine
Email: hindiogine@gmail.com
Running: Ubuntu Linux 10.10, Emacs 24.0.50.1, org-mode 7.5

Re: export to ODT

[Nick Dokos]

Henri-Paul Indiogine <hindiogine@gmail.com> wrote:

> Dear orgmoders,
> 
> I am an intermediate emacs + org-mode user.  I would like to ask you for
> instructions on how to install the org -> ODT converter.  I googled for
> instructions but they are above my level of understanding.
> 
> I run the git development versions and update it daily.  I run GNU
> Emacs 24 on Ubuntu Maverick (10.10).
> 

It's been pulled into contrib/ so all you have to do is make sure that
the contrib/lisp directory is in your load-path and then C-c C-e o (or
C-c C-e O) - at least, it did for me on a simple org file.

Nick

Re: export to ODT

[Henri-Paul Indiogine]

Hi Nick!

Nick Dokos <nicholas.dokos@hp.com> writes:
> It's been pulled into contrib/ so all you have to do is make sure that
> the contrib/lisp directory is in your load-path and then C-c C-e o (or
> C-c C-e O) - at least, it did for me on a simple org file.

Thanks!  That is easier than I thought.  I have now the following
lines in my .emacs :

(add-to-list 'load-path "~/elisp/org-mode/lisp")
(add-to-list 'load-path "~/elisp/org-mode/contrib/lisp")
(require 'org-install)
(require 'org-exp)
(require 'org-latex)

I got the following line in my *Messages* buffer:

Use of MathJax is incompatible with ODT exporter. Using dvipng instead.


I do know about this MathJax.  When the odt file is loading I get a
message window from LibreOffice with a general error.  Then it goes away
and the file continues loading.  There are a few issues with merging
lines and no space in between them, but overall it looks great.

Thanks to the developer(s) or org-odt!!!

Best,
Henri-Paul




-- 
Henri-Paul Indiogine
Email: hindiogine@gmail.com
Running: Ubuntu Linux 10.10, Emacs 24.0.50.1, org-mode 7.5

Re: export to ODT

[Jambunathan K]

Henri 

Info manual has some useful info on odt exporter. See

http://orgmode.org/manual/OpenDocumentText-export.html#OpenDocumentText-export

It's relatively a reliable way to explore the capabilities of the
exporter.


> I got the following line in my *Messages* buffer:
>
> Use of MathJax is incompatible with ODT exporter. Using dvipng instead.
>
>
> I do know about this MathJax.  

(Very roughly) what this message tries to convey is this: 

If you have LaTeX fragments in your Org file you are better off using
dvipng instead of MathJax.  This message concerns with the following
config line (implicit or explicit)

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
#+OPTIONS: LaTeX:t
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

It is also a cue to the developer that ODT and HTML exporter still needs
LaTeX->MathML functionality.

If it doesn't trouble you don't bother about it much.

> When the odt file is loading I get a message window from LibreOffice
> with a general error.  Then it goes away and the file continues
> loading.  

In my experience this typically happens when the XML is *not*
well-formed. If OpenOffice thinks that it can get around to recover from
the non-well-formedness, then it continues loading the file by repairing
it. In othercases, OpenOffice may not be able to recover from the
malformed XML and in that it case it simply says the file is corrupt and
resigns from the task at hand.

One thing you could do for identifying the root cause of this error is:

1. Switch to *.odt buffer (C-x n whatever.odt)
2. Open the content.xml  (Hit RET on content.xml)
3. Do a C-u C-c C-n (M-x rng-first-error)

You will be able to identify the error and surrounding the context which
is problematic.

This will help you with constructing a minimal sample that reproduces
the error.

> There are a few issues with merging lines and no space in between
> them, but overall it looks great.

Please add few more lines of description. Send me a minimal sample that
reconstructs these issues.

>
> Thanks to the developer(s) or org-odt!!!

Thanks for trying out org-odt and feeding back your experiences.

> Best,
> Henri-Paul

-- 

export to odt

[Manfred Lotz]

Hi there,
I have an org file which I export to LaTeX. This works great. I even
could add scrbook as a valid class to use for export. So this is really
wow.

However, one day I have to give the documentation to others which means
I will export to odt. Export to odt works ok. For people who don't
know TeX it might even look good. :-)


A line in the org file like:

* My chapter title 

will be a Heading 1 line in the odt file.

My question: Is there an easy way to configure the odt export to do a
page break before switching to a Heading 1 line? In the end I would
like to view a Heading 1 like a chapter in a LaTeX book class.



-- 
Thanks,
Manfred

Re: export to odt

[Christian Moe]

Hi,

Manfred Lotz writes:
> My question: Is there an easy way to configure the odt export to do a
> page break before switching to a Heading 1 line? In the end I would
> like to view a Heading 1 like a chapter in a LaTeX book class.

It's easier to use LibreOffice to modify the Heading 1 paragraph style
to always have a page break before. It's an option on the Text Flow
tab on the Edit Paragraph Style dialogue. You can save the style and
reuse it, cf. 12.9.4 "Applying custom styles" in the manual.

Yours,
Christian

Re: export to odt

[Manfred Lotz]

Hi Christian,

Thanks for your reply. You pointed me in the right direction.

On Fri, 07 Jun 2013 22:35:03 +0200
Christian Moe <mail@christianmoe.com> wrote:

> 
> Hi,
> 
> Manfred Lotz writes:
> > My question: Is there an easy way to configure the odt export to do
> > a page break before switching to a Heading 1 line? In the end I
> > would like to view a Heading 1 like a chapter in a LaTeX book class.
> 
> It's easier to use LibreOffice to modify the Heading 1 paragraph style
> to always have a page break before. It's an option on the Text Flow
> tab on the Edit Paragraph Style dialogue. You can save the style and
> reuse it, cf. 12.9.4 "Applying custom styles" in the manual.
> 

The following worked fine: I loaded the exported odt document, changed
the Heading 1 style to do a page break before the heading and saved the
template as my.ott (I copied it into the ~/org directory).

Then I added 
#+ODT_STYLES_FILE: ("/home/manfred/org/my.ott" ("styles.xml"))

First I though that specifyng styles.xml is required but I'm not quite
sure about it as the resulting odt files looks the same without
styles.xml in the statement above.


-- 
Thanks again,
Manfred

Re: export to odt

[Eric S Fraga]

Manfred Lotz <manfred.lotz@arcor.de> writes:

[...]

> The following worked fine: I loaded the exported odt document, changed
> the Heading 1 style to do a page break before the heading and saved the
> template as my.ott (I copied it into the ~/org directory).

Thanks.  Very helpful.

I have two different questions about exporting to ODT, one related to
style and other not:

1. Description lists are indented somehow, both the item and the
     description.  I would like to change the indentation but the
     LibreOffice sytle dialogue doesn't show any indentation.  I cannot
     find where the indentation is specified.

2. The title and author fields in the exported document are protected in
     some way and I cannot figure out how to enable editing on them.  I
     can change the style for these just fine but I cannot change the
     text.

Can you please point me in the right direction for either or both of
these?  I am a n00b when it comes LibreOffice etc. unfortunately.

Thanks,
eric
-- 
: Eric S Fraga (0xFFFCF67D), Emacs 24.3.50.1, Org release_8.0.3-193-g334581

Re: export to odt

[Manfred Lotz]

On Tue, 11 Jun 2013 11:33:56 +0100
Eric S Fraga <e.fraga@ucl.ac.uk> wrote:

> Manfred Lotz <manfred.lotz@arcor.de> writes:
> 
> [...]
> 
> > The following worked fine: I loaded the exported odt document,
> > changed the Heading 1 style to do a page break before the heading
> > and saved the template as my.ott (I copied it into the ~/org
> > directory).
> 
> Thanks.  Very helpful.
> 
> I have two different questions about exporting to ODT, one related to
> style and other not:
> 
> 1. Description lists are indented somehow, both the item and the
>      description.  I would like to change the indentation but the
>      LibreOffice sytle dialogue doesn't show any indentation.  I
> cannot find where the indentation is specified.
> 

Hm, not quite sure about this as I am no expert regarding Libreoffice.
I will have a look if I find anything about this.

> 2. The title and author fields in the exported document are protected
> in some way and I cannot figure out how to enable editing on them.  I
>      can change the style for these just fine but I cannot change the
>      text.
> 

You easily can setup both title and author in your org document like
this:

#+TITLE: My Important Documentation
#+AUTHOR: Manfred Lotz

Is this what you mean?


-- 
Manfred

Re: export to odt

[Eric S Fraga]

Manfred Lotz <manfred.lotz@arcor.de> writes:

> On Tue, 11 Jun 2013 11:33:56 +0100
> Eric S Fraga <e.fraga@ucl.ac.uk> wrote:

[...]

>> 2. The title and author fields in the exported document are protected
>> in some way and I cannot figure out how to enable editing on them.  I
>>      can change the style for these just fine but I cannot change the
>>      text.
>> 
>
> You easily can setup both title and author in your org document like
> this:
>
> #+TITLE: My Important Documentation
> #+AUTHOR: Manfred Lotz
>
> Is this what you mean?

No.  I know I can set the title and author in org.  However, sometimes,
I need to tweak the title or author information *only* in the exported
document.

-- 
: Eric S Fraga (0xFFFCF67D), Emacs 24.3.50.1, Org release_8.0.3-193-g334581

Re: export to odt

[Manfred Lotz]

On Wed, 12 Jun 2013 08:33:55 +0100
Eric S Fraga <e.fraga@ucl.ac.uk> wrote:

> Manfred Lotz <manfred.lotz@arcor.de> writes:
> 
> > On Tue, 11 Jun 2013 11:33:56 +0100
> > Eric S Fraga <e.fraga@ucl.ac.uk> wrote:
> 
> [...]
> 
> >> 2. The title and author fields in the exported document are
> >> protected in some way and I cannot figure out how to enable
> >> editing on them.  I can change the style for these just fine but I
> >> cannot change the text.
> >> 
> >
> > You easily can setup both title and author in your org document like
> > this:
> >
> > #+TITLE: My Important Documentation
> > #+AUTHOR: Manfred Lotz
> >
> > Is this what you mean?
> 
> No.  I know I can set the title and author in org.  However,
> sometimes, I need to tweak the title or author information *only* in
> the exported document.
> 

Aah, ok. Now I see what your are after.

GO to menu entry File/Properties and then you click tab Description.
There you can edit Title.


It seems that you can edit author via menu Tools/Options. Then
choose LibreOffice/User Data and edit First/Last Name. Finally, you
have to go to File/Properties and click on Reset (Please note, that
there 'Apply user data' must be clicked on). 

This is really weird or it is because just my knowledge about
Libreoffice is limited. At least, I'm happy to be able to use LaTeX in
most cases instead of an office product.




-- 
Manfred

Re: export to odt

[Eric S Fraga]

Manfred Lotz <manfred.lotz@arcor.de> writes:

[...]

> Aah, ok. Now I see what your are after.
>
> GO to menu entry File/Properties and then you click tab Description.
> There you can edit Title.

Indeed!  Thanks.  

> It seems that you can edit author via menu Tools/Options. Then
> choose LibreOffice/User Data and edit First/Last Name. Finally, you
> have to go to File/Properties and click on Reset (Please note, that
> there 'Apply user data' must be clicked on). 

Yikes.  Now this is definitely not straightforward.  Although it sort of
makes sense...  I may actually find it easier to edit the .odt file
directly although, even there, the information (both title and author)
is found in two places: meta.xml and content.xml.  

I am not sure why the information needs to be repeated.  It leads me to
wonder whether the meta information could remain as it is and the
exporter could generate the actual content as editable text?

> This is really weird or it is because just my knowledge about
> Libreoffice is limited. At least, I'm happy to be able to use LaTeX in
> most cases instead of an office product.

I'm with you on this!  I use LaTeX almost exclusively.  Every now and
again, unfortunately, I have to share an editable document with others
and LibreOffice/MSWord is the only easy way.  For simple dissemination,
LaTeX -> PDF is better.

Thanks again for your help on this!

-- 
: Eric S Fraga (0xFFFCF67D), Emacs 24.3.50.1, Org release_8.0.3-193-g334581

Re: export to odt

[Manfred Lotz]

On Thu, 13 Jun 2013 08:37:55 +0100
Eric S Fraga <e.fraga@ucl.ac.uk> wrote:

> Manfred Lotz <manfred.lotz@arcor.de> writes:
> 
> [...]
> 
> 
> > This is really weird or it is because just my knowledge about
> > Libreoffice is limited. At least, I'm happy to be able to use LaTeX
> > in most cases instead of an office product.
> 
> I'm with you on this!  I use LaTeX almost exclusively.  Every now and
> again, unfortunately, I have to share an editable document with others
> and LibreOffice/MSWord is the only easy way.  For simple
> dissemination, LaTeX -> PDF is better.
> 


Yep, exactly. I'm grateful that the export to odt was implemented in
org-mode so that we have an option to give a finalized document away if
needed.


-- 
Manfred

Re: export to odt

[Christian Moe]

Manfred Lotz writes:

> On Thu, 13 Jun 2013 08:37:55 +0100
> Eric S Fraga <e.fraga@ucl.ac.uk> wrote:
>
>> Manfred Lotz <manfred.lotz@arcor.de> writes:
>> 
>> [...]
>> 
>> 
>> > This is really weird or it is because just my knowledge about
>> > Libreoffice is limited. At least, I'm happy to be able to use LaTeX
>> > in most cases instead of an office product.
>> 
>> I'm with you on this!  I use LaTeX almost exclusively.  Every now and
>> again, unfortunately, I have to share an editable document with others
>> and LibreOffice/MSWord is the only easy way.  For simple
>> dissemination, LaTeX -> PDF is better.
>> 
>
>
> Yep, exactly. I'm grateful that the export to odt was implemented in
> org-mode so that we have an option to give a finalized document away if
> needed.

Note, however, that what you've been discussing is a feature, not a
requirement. LibreOffice allows you to put the title of the document in
a field code that mirrors the document metadata; it doesn't force you
to, and I imagine > 95% of users aren't even aware of the option.

As I recall, this was a solution Jambunathan opted for at some late
point in the development of the org-odt exporter. Before that, the
exporter just wrote the title in as ordinary, editable text. I sort of
preferred the old approach, but not enough to bother to ask to have it
back.

But if many users are baffled why they can't just edit a document title
on the page itself after exporting to ODT -- and that seems likely --
maybe this feature is ripe for a change.

Yours,
Christian

Re: export to odt

[Manfred Lotz]

On Fri, 14 Jun 2013 09:07:26 +0200
Christian Moe <mail@christianmoe.com> wrote:

> 
> Manfred Lotz writes:
> 
> > On Thu, 13 Jun 2013 08:37:55 +0100
> > Eric S Fraga <e.fraga@ucl.ac.uk> wrote:
> >
> >> Manfred Lotz <manfred.lotz@arcor.de> writes:
> >> 
> >> [...]
> >> 
> >> 
> >> > This is really weird or it is because just my knowledge about
> >> > Libreoffice is limited. At least, I'm happy to be able to use
> >> > LaTeX in most cases instead of an office product.
> >> 
> >> I'm with you on this!  I use LaTeX almost exclusively.  Every now
> >> and again, unfortunately, I have to share an editable document
> >> with others and LibreOffice/MSWord is the only easy way.  For
> >> simple dissemination, LaTeX -> PDF is better.
> >> 
> >
> >
> > Yep, exactly. I'm grateful that the export to odt was implemented in
> > org-mode so that we have an option to give a finalized document
> > away if needed.
> 
> Note, however, that what you've been discussing is a feature, not a
> requirement. LibreOffice allows you to put the title of the document
> in a field code that mirrors the document metadata; it doesn't force
> you to, and I imagine > 95% of users aren't even aware of the option.
> 
> As I recall, this was a solution Jambunathan opted for at some late
> point in the development of the org-odt exporter. Before that, the
> exporter just wrote the title in as ordinary, editable text. I sort of
> preferred the old approach, but not enough to bother to ask to have it
> back.
> 


Yes I'm aware that this is due to the way how org-mode export to odt is
coded. 

> But if many users are baffled why they can't just edit a document
> title on the page itself after exporting to ODT -- and that seems
> likely -- maybe this feature is ripe for a change.
> 

Hm, I do not have any requirements to later change title and author
in the odt document as I would change it in the org file directly. Thus
I don't care how the title and author is set in the odt document.


-- 
Manfred

Re: export to odt

[Eric S Fraga]

Manfred Lotz <manfred.lotz@arcor.de> writes:

> On Fri, 14 Jun 2013 09:07:26 +0200
> Christian Moe <mail@christianmoe.com> wrote:
>
>> But if many users are baffled why they can't just edit a document
>> title on the page itself after exporting to ODT -- and that seems
>> likely -- maybe this feature is ripe for a change.
>> 
>
> Hm, I do not have any requirements to later change title and author
> in the odt document as I would change it in the org file directly. Thus
> I don't care how the title and author is set in the odt document.

And this only comes up for me very infrequently (less than once a month,
probably much les).  Now that I know how to change the title, I'm not
bothered very much.

-- 
: Eric S Fraga (0xFFFCF67D), Emacs 24.3.50.1, Org release_8.0.3-193-g334581

Re: export to odt

[Manfred Lotz]

Hi Eric,

On Tue, 11 Jun 2013 11:33:56 +0100
Eric S Fraga <e.fraga@ucl.ac.uk> wrote:

> Manfred Lotz <manfred.lotz@arcor.de> writes:
> 
> [...]
> 
> > The following worked fine: I loaded the exported odt document,
> > changed the Heading 1 style to do a page break before the heading
> > and saved the template as my.ott (I copied it into the ~/org
> > directory).
> 
> Thanks.  Very helpful.
> 
> I have two different questions about exporting to ODT, one related to
> style and other not:
> 
> 1. Description lists are indented somehow, both the item and the
>      description.  I would like to change the indentation but the
>      LibreOffice sytle dialogue doesn't show any indentation.  I
> cannot find where the indentation is specified.
> 

I found the following. You open the Modify Dialog for style
OrgDescriptionList. Here you choose tab Position. Then you can modify
indentation for level 1 and 2.

Example:
org mode:

  - dog :: is an animal 

In odt document

   dog 
      is an animal

Then dog is level 1 and 'is an animal' is level 2.


Then as previously described the style could be saved in an .ott file
and be specified in the org file itself.


Hope this helps.


-- 
Manfred