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Non-breaking white spaces: is it possible?

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Lophus Posted messages 4 Status Member -  
shunesburg69 Posted messages 1061 Registration date   Status Member Last intervention   -
Hello!
Everything is in the title!

I'm using LibreOffice and (depending on the fonts) non-breaking spaces are automatically inserted for punctuation or quotation marks, for example. This suits me perfectly, but having gray spaces throughout the text is annoying.

However, I don't want to completely disable the function: I would like to continue to have non-breaking spaces automatically inserted, but in white.

I have searched forums and tried different things on my software, but nothing works.

Otherwise, I found the following trick to disable non-breaking spaces:
menu Tools --> Options
OpenOffice.org Writer --> Uncheck the Non-Breaking Space option.
(in my case LibreOffice Writer) but this method only allows that: pure and simple deactivation. It's either checked or unchecked. No additional options.

Any idea on how to make the spaces white?

1 answer

  1.
    shunesburg69 Posted messages 1061 Registration date   Status Member Last intervention   221
     
    I wanted to do the same thing some time ago, but I realized that ultimately it would have been a very bad thing if I had succeeded because then how could we differentiate a normal space from a non-breaking space? Especially since it doesn't matter that it's gray since it stays white when printed.

    --
    Like LibreOffice, Apache OpenOffice is a fork of OpenOffice.org
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    1. Lophus Posted messages 4 Status Member 2
       
      Thank you for your response :)
      In truth, the text I am writing is not intended for printing. I write stories with several dozen chapters, which range from fifteen to forty pages per chapter depending on the story. Once online, non-breaking spaces will no longer be a problem, but I often reread my stories, both to pass the time and to check them, or to get back into the groove when I need to write the sequel. And those gray spaces obsess me!

      I am absolutely not worried about no longer being able to differentiate between spaces; on the contrary, I know where they are placed, and if I have any doubts, if I think I have replaced my non-breaking space with a normal space during a correction, it will be very easy for me to replace it, without even questioning it.
      I truly need non-breaking spaces to ensure that once online, the text maintains a good format, but I spend an enormous amount of time rereading and that is part of the joy of writing. Without those gray boxes, it would be perfect!
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    2. shunesburg69 Posted messages 1061 Registration date   Status Member Last intervention   221 > Lophus Posted messages 4 Status Member
       
      Look at the interface color options in LibreOffice, but I haven't tried it myself, so I don't know if it will work.
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    3. Lophus Posted messages 4 Status Member 2
       
      I went to tools/options/colors and there's no mention of non-breaking spaces, I have a range of colors offered (presumably for choosing the font colors later) and a selected blue.

      In my opinion, we would probably have to dig into the software's code to change that; they probably didn't consider that there would be a pesky person wanting to change that gray... too bad.
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    4. Lophus Posted messages 4 Status Member 2
       
      I don't have "interface colors"
      However, I should have to deal with XP
      I just did a real technical check.

      The trick:
      Tools menu --> Options
      OpenOffice.org Writer --> Uncheck the Non-breaking Space option
      does indeed prevent DISPLAY but not the function itself. I just tested directly: my quotation marks do have invisible non-breaking spaces. But they are functional.

      I am really, really sorry for all the lost time, I will modify my statement so that others can see the solution directly.

      Thank you for your help!
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    5. shunesburg69 Posted messages 1061 Registration date   Status Member Last intervention   221 > Lophus Posted messages 4 Status Member
       
      I just found for LibreOffice:
      Open LibreOffice Writer, go to Tools / Options
      LibreOffice Writer -> "Formatting Aids"
      Uncheck "Non-breaking spaces"

      When a non-breaking space is created, it appears in white instead of grey.
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