Re: [tdf-discuss] LO Feature...

On Mon Nov 29 2010 13:14:25 GMT-0800 (PST)  BRM wrote:
> I never joined the OOo mailing lists so it never got proposed there, and if 
> there's a better TDF mailing list to post this to then please let me know so I 
> may do so. I did, however, try to submit something to the ODF folks; but that 
> never got any where.
>
> I've worked on proposals and similar kinds of documents in the past - where you 
> split a single document up among a number of people, each writing a section, and 
> have one person in charge of re-integrating everything again. Frankly, I'm quite 
> surprised that Word doesn't have better support there - but that just means 
> opportunities for OOo/LO and other F/OSS software. Please point me at how to do 
> this in LO/OOo if this already exists, but essentially I'd like to do the 
> following:
>
> 1. Create a master document (A.odt)
> 2. Create a master outline in the master document (A.odt - outline)
> 3. Create a sub-document (A.sub1.odt) from the master document with permission 
> to only edit a certain section of the master outline.
> 4. Repeat #3 for each section of the outline as desired.
> 5. Join all sub-documents as the single master document - e.g. the many 
> documents are viewable as a single document.
> 6. Apply a master set of formatting styles from the master document, overriding 
> any formatting styles in the sub-documents.
>
> I kind of see this playing out in the files as follows:
>
> A. Each sub-document is its own file (ODT, etc.)
> B. LO/OOo Writer would generate the sub-documents from the master document
> C. When re-integrating the sub-documents, they would simply become part of the 
> master document - the ODT/etc would be embedded into the ODT of the master 
> document and a file reference would be provided to reference it; perhaps a 
> master index.xml file would be used for linking everything.
>
> The ultimate goal is to have discreet modules of the document that can be handed 
> out for others to write; they don't necessarily need to even have the outline 
> from the master document - though they might. Each discreet module would then be 
> seamlessly integrated back into the master document by simple linking - with the 
> outline of the master document taking precedence. For example, the master 
> document has 3 sections; each section (I, II, and III) are pushed out as 
> discreet modules for others to write. Each writer sees an outline starting at 
> one (I, 1, A, etc.) and writes their piece. When the document it relinked back 
> into the master document, its internal outline then becomes the outline under 
> the specified section. This should be possible to do recursively - e.g. the 
> writer of a section II generates an outline II.A, II.B, II.C and does the same 
> there.
>
> I'm pretty sure that the ODF format can support this.
>
> If OOo/LO cannot do this now, then that would be a great enhancement that could 
> really help many in their work flows for developing proposals and any other kind 
> of documents that are farmed out among a team in an organization like that.
>
> Ben

Hi Ben,

Have you tried working with master documents?  The User Guide is 
available on the OOo wiki at 
http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/Documentation/OOo3_User_Guides/Writer_Guide 
 on the right hand side is a list of documents for Writer.  That may 
not cover your points 100% but I think you will find it close.

Andy


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