Choosing Options for Loading and Saving Documents

You can set the Load/Save options to suit the way you work.

If the Options' dialog is not already open, click Tools → Options. Click the expansion symbol (+ or triangle) to the left of Load/Save.

Figure 270: Load/Save options

General Load/Save Options

Most of the choices on the Load/Save – General page are familiar to users of other office suites. Some items of interest are described below.

Figure 271: Choosing Load and Save options

Load user-specific settings with the document

When you save a document, certain settings are saved with it. Some settings (printer name, data source linked to the document) are always loaded with a document, whether this option is selected. If you select this option, these document settings are overruled by the user-specific settings of the person who opens it. If you deselect this option, the user's personal settings do not overrule the settings in the document. For example, your choice (in the options for Writer) of how to update links is affected by the Load user-specific settings option.

Load printer settings with the document

If this option is not selected, the printer settings that are stored with the document are ignored when you print it using the Print File Directly icon. The default printer in your system will be used instead.

Edit document properties before saving

If you select this option, the Document Properties dialog pops up to prompt you to enter relevant information the first time you save a new document (or whenever you use Save As).

Save AutoRecovery information every

Choose whether to enable AutoRecovery and how often to save the information used by the AutoRecovery process.

AutoRecovery writes a temporary file that can be used to recover unsaved work if OpenOffice should crash. This does not overwrite the original file, and it is not a substitute for saving your work periodically.

Save URLs relative to file system / internet

Relative addressing to a file system is only possible if the source document and the referenced document are both on the same drive. A relative address always starts from the directory in which the current document is located. It is recommended to save relatively if you want to create a directory structure on an Internet server.

Default file format and ODF settings

ODF format version

AOO by default saves documents in OpenDocument Format (ODF) version 1.2 Extended. While this allows for improved functionality, there may be backwards compatibility issues. When a file saved in ODF 1.2 Extended is opened in an earlier version of OpenOffice (using ODF 1.0/1.1), some advanced features may be lost. Two notable examples are cross-references to headings and the formatting of numbered lists. If you plan to share documents with people who are still using very old versions of OpenOffice, save the document using ODF version 1.0/1.1.

Size optimization for ODF format

OpenOffice's documents are XML files. When you select this option, AOO writes the XML data without indents and line breaks. If you want to be able to read the XML files in a text editor in a structured form, deselect this option.

Document type

If you routinely share documents with users of Microsoft Office, you might want to change the Always save as attribute for documents to one of the Microsoft Office formats. The more complicated the documents are, the more likely that the formatting of the non-native file type will be imperfect.

Although AOO can open files in the .docx, .xlsx, and .pptx formats produced by Microsoft Office 2007 and later versions, it cannot save in those formats.

VBA Properties Load/Save Options

On the Load/Save – VBA Properties page, you can choose whether to keep any macros in Microsoft Office documents that are opened in OpenOffice.

Figure 272: Choosing Load/Save VBA Properties

If you choose Save original Basic code, the macros will not work in AOO but are retained if you save the file into Microsoft Office format.
If you choose Load Basic code, the changed code is saved in an AOO document but is not retained if you save into a Microsoft Office format.
If you are importing a Microsoft Excel file containing VBA code, you can select the option Executable code. Whereas normally the code is preserved but rendered inactive (if you inspect it with the StarBasic IDE you will notice that it is all commented), with this option the code is ready to be executed.

Microsoft Office Load/Save Options

On the Load/Save – Microsoft Office page, you can choose what to do when importing and exporting Microsoft Office OLE objects (linked or embedded objects or documents such as spreadsheets or equations).

Select the [L] options to convert Microsoft OLE objects into the corresponding OpenOffice OLE objects when a Microsoft document is loaded into AOO (mnemonic: “L” for “load”).

Select the [S] options to convert OpenOffice OLE objects into the corresponding Microsoft OLE objects when a document is saved in a Microsoft format (mnemonic: ”S” for “save”).

Figure 273: Choosing Load/Save Microsoft Office options

HTML Compatibility Load/Save Options

Choices made on the Load/Save – HTML Compatibility page affect HTML pages imported into OpenOffice and those exported from AOO. See HTML documents; importing/exporting in the Help for more information.

Figure 274: Choosing HTML compatibility options

Font sizes

Use these fields to define the respective font sizes for the HTML <font size=1> to <font size=7> tags, if they are used in the HTML pages. (Many pages no longer use these tags.)

Import – Use 'English (USA)' locale for numbers

When importing numbers from an HTML page, the decimal and thousands separator characters differ according to the locale of the HTML page. The clipboard, however, contains no information about the locale. If this option is not selected, numbers will be interpreted according to the Language of Locale setting in Tools → Options → Language Settings → Languages. If this option is selected, numbers will be interpreted as for the English (USA) locale.

Import – Import unknown HTML tags as fields

Select this option if you want tags that are not recognized by AOO to be imported as fields. For an opening tag, an HTML_ON field will be created with the value of the tag name. For a closing tag, an HTML_OFF will be created. These fields will be converted to tags in the HTML export.

Import – Ignore font settings

Select this option to have AOO ignore all font settings when importing. The fonts that were defined in the HTML Page Style will be used.

Export

To optimize the HTML export, select a browser or HTML standard from the Export box. If OpenOffice Writer is selected, specific OpenOffice Writer instructions are exported.

Export—OpenOffice Basic

Select this option to include AOO Basic macros (scripts) when exporting to HTML format. You must activate this option before you create the OpenOffice Basic macro; otherwise the script will not be inserted. OpenOffice Basic macros must be located in the header of the HTML document. Once you have created the macro in the OpenOffice Basic IDE, it appears in the source text of the HTML document in the header.

If you want the macro to run automatically when the HTML document is opened, choose Tools → Customize → Events.

Export—Display warning

When the OpenOffice Basic option (see above) is not selected, the Display warning option becomes available. If the Display warning option is selected, then, when exporting to HTML, a warning is shown that OpenOffice Basic macros will be lost.

Export—Print layout

Select this option to export the print layout of the current document as well. The HTML filter supports CSS2 (Cascading Style Sheets Level 2) for printing documents. These capabilities are only effective if print layout export is activated.

Export—Copy local graphics to Internet

Select this option to automatically upload the embedded pictures to the Internet server when uploading using FTP.

Export—Character set

Select the appropriate character set for the export.

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Choosing Options for Loading and Saving Documents