Form with Numbers and Text

August 29, 2013 6:33 PM

I want to create a form with Open Office that lets me enter numbers in the right column of a page that corresponds to the text in the left. I want to be able to past the entire text document into the right column and have the left column remain blank for my entries. A spreadsheet won't work because the text won't word wrap. I've also tried a table and inserting a column into a text document. I've also tried to write in the margin, but I'll be moving a lot of documents, so I don't want to do a lot of specific typing, which would likely be spread across thousands of pages of documents. I'd like to automate and past as much of this as possible. Think of how books of poetry or philosophy number each line of corresponding text, making it easy to find a specific verse. That's the form I want to create. Or if it has already been created and exists somewhere, I'd gladly download it. Help.
posted by CollectiveMind to Technology (4 answers total)

Best answer: Can you explain why "the text won't word wrap" in a spreadsheet? Because that seems like the simplest path to success.
posted by misterbrandt at 6:57 PM on August 29, 2013

What you want to accomplish is not clear. You can certainly turn on line numbering -- Tools | Line Numbering | Show line numbering.
posted by yclipse at 7:39 PM on August 29, 2013

Response by poster: What I want to show to the left of the text is time, as in, if I was reading the lines on the page, I want to show the cumulative time in mm:ss of each line. And I want the times to continue to be cumulative from the start to the finish of the document, not restart at the top of the next page. I've tried to use word wrap in the spreadsheet and the right column takes and wraps the document fine, but the left column can't for some reason, be shortened without shortening the right column also.
posted by CollectiveMind at 9:01 PM on August 29, 2013

Response by poster: misterbrandt, I found the column adjustment. How to make the form keep the same formatting whenever I close it and reopen it no matter if I am using Open Office or MS Word. Maybe save the completed doc. as a pdf. Either way, thanks.
posted by CollectiveMind at 9:18 PM on August 29, 2013