OpenOffice::OODoc::Text.3pm

Langue: en

Version: 2010-04-02 (ubuntu - 24/10/10)

Section: 3 (Bibliothèques de fonctions)

NAME

OpenOffice::OODoc::Text - The text processing submodule of OpenOffice::OODoc

DESCRIPTION

This manual chapter describes the text-oriented methods of OpenOffice::OODoc, implemented by the OpenOffice::OODoc::Text class, and inherited by the OpenOffice::OODoc::Document class.

These methods are not essentially dedicated to string processing; they are more precisely focused on text containers. A text container is a document element which can (and must) be used in order to support a text and integrate it at the right place and according to the right presentation rules. The OpenDocument specification defines a lot of such containers, and the present API supports many of them, such as paragraphs, headings, tables (or spreadsheets), lists, sections, and draw pages. Some of these containers can host other containers: for example, a table contains rows, a row contains cells, a section can contain almost everything including other sections, etc.

These features are text-oriented, but can be used on documents of any class, such as spreadsheets or presentations as well as text documents. So, the 'Text' word doesn't mean that the features described in the present manual chapter are dedicated to OpenDocument Text (ODT) documents only. In the other hand, a few methods can't apply to any document class (ex: creating or retrieving draw pages makes sense with presentation and drawing documents only).

OODoc::Text should not be explicitly used in an ordinary application, because all its features are available through the OpenOffice::OODoc::Document class, in combination with other features. Practically, the present manual is provided to describe the text-oriented features of OpenOffice::OODoc::Document (knowing that these features are technically supported by the OpenOffice::OODoc::Text component of the API).

The OpenOffice::OODoc::Text class is a specialist derivative of OpenOffice::OODoc::XPath for XML elements which describe the text content of OOo/ODF documents. Here, ``text content'' means containers that can host text containers (i.e. tables, lists...) as well as flat text.

Knowing that the ``styles.xml'' member of an OpenDocument file can contain text (because some style definitions, such as page headers or footers, can contain text), the presently described features can be used against this member as well as the ``content.xml'' member.

This module should be used in combination with OpenOffice::OODoc::Styles, via the OpenOffice::OODoc::Document class, if the application has to handle detailed presentation parameters of text elements. This is because such parameters are held in styles elements and not in the text elements themselves, according to the principle of separation of content and presentation which is one of the foundations of the OpenDocument format.

Methods

Constructor : OpenOffice::OODoc::Text->new(<parameters>)
         Short Form: odfText(<parameters>)
 
         This constructor should not be explicitly used in ordinary applications
         knowing that all the features of the returned object are inherited by
         any Document object.
 
         See OpenOffice::OODoc::XPath->new for common arguments.
 
         Returns an OODoc::XPath OpenDocument connector with additional
         features mainly focused on text containers.
 
         This constructor is generally not explicitly called, knowing that
         it's automatically triggered each time a Document object is created.
 
         The XML member loaded by default is 'content.xml'. The most common
         creation method is like this:
 
             my $doc = odfText(file => 'my_file.odt');
 
         This constructor should generally not be called directly, because it's
         inherited by odfDocument().
 
         Other parameters can be supplied as options (see the properties list
         at the end of the chapter).
 
         Example:
 
             my %delim =
                 (
                 'text:h'                =>
                         {
                         begin   => '\sect{',
                         end     => '}'
                         },
                 'text:list-item'        =>
                         {
                         begin   => '\item'
                         }
                 'text:footnote-body' =>
                         {
                         begin   => '\footnote{',
                         end     => '}'
                         }
                 );
             my $doc = odfText
                         (
                         file            => 'filename.odt',
                         paragraph_style => 'My Paragraphs',
                         heading_style   => 'My Headings',
                         delimiters      => { %delim }
                         );
 
         This technique gives the default styles to be used when creating new
         text elements. It also gives the particular delimiters (in this case
         LaTeX style markers) to be used at the beginning or end of some
         elements (in this case headings, list elements, footers) where the
         text is to be exported "as is". See the getText method of
         OODoc::Text for information about exporting text.
 
 

appendDrawPage([options])

         In a presentation or drawing document, appends a new page at the en
         of the document.
 
         Possible options are:
 
                 name            => page name (unique)
                 id              => page numeric ID (unique)
                 style           => page style name
                 master          => master page name
 
         Returns the new draw page element if successful, undef if not.
 
 

appendHeading([options])

         Creates a new heading of any level and appends it to the end of the
         document.
 
         Options are given as a hash [key => value]:
 
             'text'              => <heading text>
             'level'             => heading level, default is 1
             'style'             => heading style, default is 'Heading 1'
 
         Examples:
 
             $doc->appendHeading(text => 'Next section');
 
         adds the text 'Next section' as a level 1 heading.
 
             $doc->appendHeading
                 (
                 text    => 'Chapter Conclusion',
                 level   => '2',
                 style   => 'Heading_20_2'
                 );
 
         adds a level 2 heading to the end of the text body. 'Heading_20_n'
         styles, where 'n' is the level number, are presently available by
         default in OpenOffice.org.
 
         You can give any XML attribute to the new heading except for style or
         heading level. In this case, the program must construct a hash
         containing pairs of key-values for the attributes you want to create
         and pass it using the 'attribute' option. Example:
 
             my %attr    = ( 'att1' => 'value1', 'att2' => 'value2' );
             $doc->appendHeading
                 (
                 text    => 'Attributes are important',
                 level   => '1',
                 style   => 'Chapter heading',
                 attributes => {%attr}
                 );
 
         If the 'text' option is empty, the heading is created with an empty
         content.
 
         Caution, creating headings with level attributes is not always
         sufficient to produce the needed result. For example, in order to
         generate headings with appropriate levels of numbering, each one
         must be attached to the right position in a hierarchy of lists,
         in combination with appendItemList(), insertItemList(), and
         appendListItem().
 
         Note: this method can only be used with a new header i.e. it adds
         while it creates. To add an already available element using
         getHeading() from the same document or from another document, use
         the appendElement() method instead which is inherited from
         OODoc::XPath.
 
 

appendItem(list [, text => text ,style => style ,[other_options]])

         See appendListItem().
 
 

appendItemList([type => list_type, [style => style [, options]]])

         Creates a new (empty) list and appends it to the end of the
         document.
 
         In OpenOffice.org 1 documents, an unordered list is the default,
         and if the 'type' option is given with the value 'ordered', then an
         ordered list is created. In Open Documents, the 'type' option is
         ignored because there are generic lists only (a list is ordered or
         "bulleted" according to a style, and not natively).
 
         The 'style' options controls the list's style (as opposed to each
         item's style). If absent, the list takes the default paragraph style
         (see appendParagraph).
 
         Like appendParagraph, this method actually creates a new list
         element. To copy an existing list in the same document or in
         another, use appendElement or replicateElement instead.
 
 

appendListItem(list [, text => text ,style => style ,[other_options]])

         Adds a new item to a list (ordered or unordered).
 
         The first argument is the existing list element (created using
         getOrderedList or getUnorderedList, for example). Options are the
         same as for appendParagraph.
 
         If the 'style' option is absent, the element is inserted according
         to the following rule:
 
         - if the new item is not the first one of the list, it takes the
         same style as the first item;
 
         - otherwise, it takes the default paragraph style of the document.
 
         The new item is created as a paragraph container by default. A
         'type' option may be provided in order to require another type.
         Possible values are 'header', 'paragraph' or the XML name of any
         OpenDocument-compliant text container.
 
         If the type is provided and set to undef, the new item is created
         as an empty element, so it could/should receive a content later.
         An empty item could be used as the attachment point of another
         list, in order to create a hierarchy of lists.
 
 

appendParagraph(<options>)

         Creates a new paragraph and appends it to the document.
 
         Options:
 
             'text'              => <paragraph text>
             'style'             => <paragraph style>
 
         An 'attribute' option is also available under the same conditions as
         for the appendHeading method (see above).
 
         If the 'text' option is empty, calling this method is the equivalent
         of adding a line feed.
 
         If the 'style' option is empty, the style from the 'paragraph_style'
         property of the OODoc::Text instance is used.
 
         By default, the new paragraph takes place at the end of the document.
         But it's possible to attach it as the last child of an existing
         text container (ex: a table cell). To do so, the container must be
         provided through an 'attachment' option. For example, to append a new
         paragraph in a table cell, one can write
 
                 my $cell = $doc->getTableCell("Table1", "B12");
                 $doc->appendParagraph
                         (
                         text            => "The cell, reloaded",
                         attachment      => $cell
                         );
 
         Note: this method can only be used with a new paragraph i.e. it adds
         while it creates. To add an already existing paragraph using
         getParagraph from the same document or from another document, use
         the appendElement, insertElement or replicateElement methods instead
         which are inherited from OODoc::XPath.
 
         Note: The repeated spaces are not properly processed, so any sequence
         of spaces (whatever its length) in the 'text' string is replaced by a
         single space in the target document. See setText() and extendText().
 
 

appendRow(table [, options])

         Appends a row to the end of the given table either by reference, by
         logical name or by sequential number. By default, the new row is
         simply an exact copy of the preceding row (in terms of content and
         presentation). You can pass an options hash which will give certain
         attributes to the created row, under the same conditions as for the
         appendElement method of OODoc::XPath. The returned value is the
         created row element.
 
         Example:
 
             open SRC, '<', 'data.txt';
             my $table = $doc->getTable("Table1");
             my ($h, $l) = $doc->getTableSize($table);
             for (my $i = 0 ; my $record = <SRC> ; $i++)
                 {
                 last unless $record;
                 chomp $record;
                 my @data = split ';', $record;
                 my $row = $i < $h ?
                         $doc->getRow($table, $i) :
                         $doc->appendRow($table);
                 for (my $j = 0 ; $j < $l ; $j++)
                         {
                         $doc->cellValue($row, $j, $data[$j]);
                         }
                 }
 
         The above program reads a CSV format data file sequentially (one
         record per line, comma-separated fields). Each record is split and
         put into a row in table Table1. On reading each new record, the
         reference for the following row is loaded by getRow, until the total
         number of rows is reached (total obtained previously using
         getTableSize). If the table is already full, it is lengthened by a
         row using appendRow. The internal loop loads the read data into the
         row's cells (pre-existing or newly created). See the sections on
         getTable, getRow, getTableSize and cellValue for a better
         understanding of this example.
 
         However, if good performance is what you are after, massive
         repetition of this method is not recommended (e.g. for lengthening a
         table dynamically, row by row, whilst loading external data into
         it). Rather than running dozens or hundreds of successive
         appendRows, it would be better for the application to read the total
         number of records to be loaded (using, for example, select count if
         from a relational database or otherwise preloading the data into an
         ordinary Perl table) and create a table of appropriate size in
         advance using insertTable() or appendTable().
 
 

appendSection(name [, options])

         Creates a new section with the given name, and appends it by default
         to the end of the document body. If the "attachment" option is
         provided, with an existing element as its value, the new section is
         appended in the context of this element. For example, if the value
         of "attachment" is an existing section, the new section is appended
         as the last sub-section of the existing one.
 
         A section may be used either to hold a local content or to insert
         a subdocument which can be reached through an external link.
 
         In order to insert a subdocument link instead of an ordinary section,
         the application must provide a "link" option whose value is either a
         local file path or an URL.
         Example:
 
             $doc->appendSection
                 (
                 "Article",
                 link => "http://mycompany.com/doc/article.odt"
                 );
 
         Other possible options:
 
             'style'     allows the application to explicitly select a style
                         for the new section
             'protected' write-protects the section when the document is
                         edited; "true" or "false", default "false"
             'key'       in combination with "protected" => "true", write-
                         protects the section by password (the value of
                         "key" is not the real password, but an encrypted
                         password, so the end-user will never remove the
                         protection by simply typing the key as it is
                         written in the program); see lockSection(),
                         unlockSection() and sectionProtectionKey()
 
 

appendTable(name, rows, columns [, options])

         Creates a new table with the given name, number of rows and number
         of columns, and appends it by default to the end of the document
         body. The name must be unique within the document (the call is
         rejected if the name already exists). Returns the created table
         element if successful.
 
         Beware: Creating simple tables from scratch is very easy; however,
         for a realistic application, it's strongly recommended to replicate
         XML table templates previously created with an ODF-compatible editing
         software. A reasonably sophisticated table implies dozens of style
         definitions and would require a lot of perl code and a deep knowledge
         of the ODF specification, while it could be created in a few minutes
         through a WYSIWYG tool.
 
         'rows' and/or 'columns', if omitted, are replaced by the 'max_rows'
         and 'max_cols' properties of the document (see the properties below).
 
         By default, the table is set to fit the entire width between the
         left and right margins with equal sized columns, cells of type
         string and without borders or background colour.
 
         Possible options:
 
             'table-style'       => table style
             'cell-type'         => default cell type
             'cell-style'        => default cell style
             'text-style'        => default cell text style
 
         The first option is the name of a table style which defines
         certain global properties for the table (width, background colour,
         etc.). See the OpenOffice::OODoc::Styles manual for information about
         styles.
 
         The second option is the cells' default data type. The main types
         available are string, float, currency, date, percentage. Caution: to
         be properly treated as having a numeric format in OOo/ODF, a
         cell needs more than to be just marked 'numeric'. If the cell really
         needs to be treated properly as a number, you must also give it a
         cell style which itself refers to a number style. The cell-style
         parameter can do this. However, even though the OODoc::Styles module
         is there to otherwise help you create and add styles from a program,
         this type of exercise can become very labour-intensive. We therefore
         recommend using basic tables created in advance from document
         templates or style libraries created from an office application,
         rather than creating complex number tables from code.
 
         The text-style option selects the paragraph style applicable to the
         text displayed in each cell.
 
         Once the table is created, you can obviously modify each cell's type
         and style individually.
 
         Example:
 
             my $table = $doc->appendTable
                                 (
                                 "Rate", 22, 5,
                                 'table-style' => 'Table1',
                                 'text-style' => 'Text body'
                                 );
 
 

appendTableRow(table)

         See appendRow.
 
 

autoSheetNormalizationOff()

         Deactivates the automatic sheet normalization.
 
         See autoSheetNormalizationOn().
 
 

autoSheetNormalizationOn('full')

autoSheetNormalizationOn(height, width)

         Activates the automatic normalization of any used table.
         This method instructs the API to automatically normalize anything
         table or sheet as soon as it's reached through getTable() or another
         table-related access method. The automatic normalization is not
         activated by default. It can be deactivated at any time using
         autoSheetNormalizationOff().
 
         See normalizeSheet() for details about the arguments and the
         effects.
 
 

bibliographyEntryContent(id [, key1 => value1, key2 => value2, ...])

         Gets, and optionally sets, the properties of a given (existing)
         bibliographic entry. The optionally updated properties are provides
         as a hash. The returned description is a hash.
 
         The first argument can be either the logical identifier of the entry
         (as it appears for the end-user) or a previously found bibliography
         entry element (see getBibliographyElements()).
 
         Example:
 
                 my %desc = $doc->bibliographyEntryContent
                                         (
                                         "GEN99",
                                         author  => 'Genicorp',
                                         pages   => 62
                                         );
 
         This sequence updates the "Author" and "Pages" values of the "GEN99"
         entry, then returns all the content of the entry in %desc.
 
         Caution: Several bibliography entries can have the same identifier.
         This method processes one element at a time. In the example above,
         only the first occurrence of the "GEN99" entries is updated. So, if
         the user needs to ensure that all the entries with the same identifier
         have the same content, the appropriate code should be something like:
 
                 my @entries = $doc->getBibliographyElements("^GEN99$");
                 foreach my $entry (@entries)
                         {
                         $doc->bibliographyEntryContent
                                 (
                                 $entry,
                                 author  => 'Genicorp',
                                 pages   => 62
                                 )
                         }
 
         Caution: This method allows the user to create any new property and
         to put any value in any property, without control. For information
         about the legal and/or recommended properties, see the OpenDocument
         specification and the OpenOffice.org bibliographic project
         (http://bibliographic.openoffice.org).
 
 

bookmarkElement(element, name [, offset])

         See setBookmark().
 
 

cellCurrency(table, row, column [, currency])

cellCurrency(cell [, currency])

         Get/set the currency unit of a cell.
         If a currency is provided, the cell value type is automatically
         switched to 'currency'.
 
 

cellFormula(table, row, column [, formula])

cellFormula(cell [, formula])

         Accessor which returns the formula (or function) contained in the
         given table cell. Returns undef if no formula is found in the cell.
 
         The cell address is the same as for getCellValue().
 
         If a formula is given as the last argument, it is put into the cell,
         overwriting any existing formula. No check of the syntax is carried
         out on the inserted formula. It is up to the application to insert a
         formula which conforms to OOo/ODF syntax. Example:
 
             $doc->cellFormula(1,3,2, "sum <C2:C5>");
 
         Note 1: inserting or replacing a formula does not directly modify
         the value or text of the cell. Proper interpretation of a formula
         does not happen until the fields are updated when the document is
         reloaded into the office software.
 
         Note 2: syntax and functionality of cell formulae differ greatly
         between office applications.
 
 

cellSpan(table, row, column [, hspan [, vspan]])

cellSpan(cell [, hspan [, vspan]])

         In a spreadsheet document, get/set the span of a table cell,
         knowing that this span can be one or more columns. The cell addressing
         is the same as with getTableCell().
         Example:
 
                 $doc->cellSpan($table, "B4", 3);
 
         creates a 3-cell span from B4 in a spreadsheet.
 
         With only one span argument, this method works for horizontal, left to
         right expansion. With an additional argument, the expansion is bi-
         directional, covering one or more rows below the given cell. The
         horizontal span should be set to 1 in order to get a vertical span
         only.
 
         The text of the covered cells (if any) is concatenated to the original
         content of the expanded cell (as in OOo Writer or Calc).
 
         The user should make sure that the cell expansion will not invade the
         span of another, previously expanded cell. Assuming A is a the target
         of cellSpan(), B is an existing expanded cell, and C is a covered cell
         in the span of B, the following rules apply:
 
         If B is to be covered by the span of A, the span of B is automatically
         reset to 1, so C becomes visible, then B is covered by A. But if C is
         in the target range of cellSpan() while B is not, the method produces
         an inconsistency in the table (this inconsistency doesn't prevent
         OpenOffice.org and KSpread from loading the file but the span of A is
         just ignored).
 
         In list context, the method returns the horizontal span, then the
         vertical span. In scalar context, it returns the horizontal span only.
 
         Caution: when related to table cells, "span" has not the same
         meaning as when related to flat text (see getSpan() and setTextSpan()).
 
 

cellStyle(table, row, column [, stylename])

cellStyle(cell [, stylename])

         Get or set the style of a table cell.
 
 

cellValue(table, row, column [, value [, text]])

cellValue(cell [, value [, text]])

         Without the "value" argument: see getCellValue().
 
         With "value" (and, optionally, "text"): see updateCell().
 
 

cellValueType(table, row, column [, type])

cellValueType(cell [, type])

         Get/set the data type of a table cell.
 
         Possible value types are 'string', 'float', 'percentage', 'currency',
         'date', 'time', 'boolean'.
 
         Note: If an application must convert a 'string' cell to a numeric
         one and fill it with a numeric value, cellValueType() must be called
         *before* cellValue(). Ex:
 
                 my $cell = $doc->getTableCell('Sheet1', 4, 8);
                 $doc->cellValueType($cell, 'float');
                 $doc->cellValue($cell, 12.34);
 
 

checkIndexMark(name, type [, context])

         Checks the existence and validity of an index mark (see setIndexMark()
         for details about range index marks). The mandatory argument are the
         index entry identifier and the index entry type (namely 'toc' or
         'alphabetical index'. A context element may provided in order to
         restrict the search context.
         
         This method may return 1, 0 or undef.
         
         '1' means that the index mark is present and consistent;
         
         '0' means that the index mark is present in the context but not valid;
         
         undef means that the index mark doesn't exist in the context.
         
         If the result is 0, the are 2 possible reasons: the start point or the
         end point of the index mark has been found, but not both, or both have
         been found but there relative positions are wrong (the end is located
         before the start). Whatever the explanation, this result means that some
         cleaning should be done (see deleteIndexMark()).
 
 

checkRangeBookmark(name [, context])

         Checks the existence and validity of a range bookmark (see setBookmark()
         for details about range bookmarks). The mandatory argument is the
         bookmark name. A context element may provided in order to restrict the
         search context.
         
         This method may return 1, 0 or undef.
         
         '1' means that the range bookmark is present and in the right order;
         
         '0' means that the bookmark is present in the context but not valid;
         
         undef means that the bookmark doesn't exist in the context.
         
         If the result is 0, the are 2 possible reasons: the start point or the
         end point of the range has been found, but not both, or both have been
         found but there relative positions are wrong (the end is located before
         the start). Whatever the explanation, this result means that some
         cleaning should be done (see deleteBookmark()).
 
 

columnStyle(column_element [, style])

columnStyle(table, column [, style])

         Returns the style name of the given column or replaces it with a new
         one. A column can be indicated either directly by reference or by
         the pair [table, column number]. The table itself can be indicated
         either by a table element, its number or its logical name. If the
         'style' argument is given, it replaces the old column style.
 
         Giving a column a style is actually the only way to control the
         width of a column in a table.
 
         Example:
 
             $doc->columnStyle('Table1', 2, 'NewStyle');
 
         Caution: columns are numbered beginning at 0.
 
 

copyRowToHeader(table, rownum)

copyRowToHeader(row)

         This method appends a copy of a given table row to the header of the
         table. It may be called repeatedly, allowing multi-row header
         creation.
 
         A table header is a row, or a sequence of rows, that is displayed at
         the top of a table and repeated at the top of every page if the table
         is spanned across more than one page.
 
         The given row remains in place unchanged; it's used as a template for
         the new header row.
 
 

createParagraph([text [, style]])

         Creates a free paragraph for later use. Unlike appendParagraph() or
         insertParagraph(), this method doesn't attach the new paragraph to
         the document.
         
         Without arguments, the paragraph is created empty. The first argument,
         if any, provides the text content of the paragraph. The second one,
         if any, is regarded as the style name; the default style is
         "Standard".
 
 

createTextBox(options)

         Creates a new text box. Can apply to any document class, but mostly
         used in presentations or drawings (where text boxes are required to
         host text content).
         
         Text boxes are implemented through frame element, so you should see
         createFrame() in the OpenOffice::OODoc::XPath manual chapter in order
         to understand the meaning of every option.
         
         The following options are allowed (and generally required in order
         to make a text box really visible and properly rendered):
         
         page: the page where the box must be attached; in presentations or
         drawings, this option should be set with the page name;
         
         name: the (unique) name of the text box;
         
         size: the size of the box;
         
         position: the page-relative position;
         
         style: the graphic style of the box; like an image box, a text box
         often requires a style to be properly displayed;
         
         content: the content to be displayed in the box; if this option is
         set to a literal, the given content is inserted as a paragraph in
         the box; if the given value is the reference of an element, this
         element is attached as is in the box (so it's possible to insert
         any complex object, such as a table, an item list, etc).
         
         The method returns the reference of the new text box element.
         
         The example below creates an graphic style ("TB"), then a text box
         ("The Box") which uses the new style. See O::O::Styles for comments
         about createStyle(). The text box is attached in a presentation page
         identified by its name ("AnyPageName"). The size (width then height)
         and position (x, y) options are provided in centimeters (other units
         are allowed), each one in a single string.
 
                 $doc->createStyle
                         (
                         "TB",
                         family          => "graphic",
                         parent          => "objectwithshadow",
                         properties      =>
                                 {
                                 'style:vertical-pos'    => 'from-top',
                                 'style:horizontal-pos'  => 'from-left',
                                 'style:vertical-rel'    => 'page',
                                 'style:horizontal-rel'  => 'page'
                                 }
                         );
                 $doc->createTextBox
                         (
                         page            => "AnyPageName",
                         name            => "The Box",
                         size            => '12cm, 4cm',
                         position        => '8cm, 14cm',
                         style           => 'TB',
                         content         => "The text in the box"
                         );
                         
         In this example, the content option is set to a flat text, so
         it will be inserted as a standard paragraph. If we want to insert
         a paragraph with a non-default style, this option must be set to
         the reference of an existing paragraph (which may have been created
         using createParagraph() or copied from another place).
 
 

defaultOutputTerminator([chars])

         Get or set the default terminator character for text export.
         Example:
 
                 $doc->defaultOutputTerminator("\n");
 
         After this instruction, a line-break will be appended at the end of
         every paragraph or header exported by getText(), selectTextContent()
         or other text extracting methods.
 
         To reverse this behaviour, the user can call this method with an
         empty string.
 
         Without argument, returns the currently selected terminator, if any.
 
 

deleteBookmark(name [, context])

         Deletes the bookmark owning the given name (if defined).
         A context optional argument is provided; if so, the bookmark is deleted
         only if it's located in the given context.
 
         If several bookmarks wrongly own the same name, they are removed.
         
         The method returns the number of physical deleted elements, i.e. 1 for
         a regular position bookmark, 2 for a range bookmark, 0 for nothing. Any
         other return value means that deleteBookmark() has cleaned up a strange
         situation (ex: more than one bookmark for a single name, a position
         bookmark with one start and many ends, and so on).
         
         Warning: if the context argument is set (or if the default current
         context is not the whole document), and if the bookmark to be deleted
         is not entirely included in the context, the result may be a partially
         deleted bookmark (wrong).
         
         See also deleteBookmarks().
 
 

deleteBookmarks([context])

         Delete all the bookmarks in the current context (by default the whole
         document) or in a given optional context, and returns the number of
         physical deleted elements (that may be greater than the number of
         deleted bookmarks, knowing that a bookmark may be stored a one or two
         XML elements).
        
         Warning: some inconsistencies may result if the context is not the whole
         document, knowing that a range bookmark could run across the border of
         the restricted context.
         
         See also deleteBookmark().
 
 

deleteColumn(table, col_num)

deleteColumn(col_elt)

         Deletes a given column in a given table.
 
         Caution: Before using this method, the application should ensure that
         the whole area from the beginning of the table to the last cell of the
         column to be deleted is "normalized". See normalizeSheet() for details
         about table normalization.
 
 

deleteHeading()

         See removeHeading().
 
 

deleteRow(table, row_num)

deleteRow(row_elt)

         Deletes a given row in a table.
 
 

deleteIndexMark(id [, type [, context]])

         Deletes the index mark owning the given identifier (if defined).
         The first argument (mandatory) is the index mark identifier. The second
         argument is the index type ('alphabetical index' or 'toc', the first one
         is the default).
 
         A context optional argument is provided; if so, the index entry is
         deleted only if it's located in the given context.
 
         If several index marks wrongly own the same identifier, they are
         removed.
         
         The method returns the number of physical deleted elements, that should
         be 0 (if the index mark did not exist) or 2 (the start and the end
         points). Any other return value means that deleteIndexMark() has cleaned
         up a strange situation (less or more than two range delimiters).
         
         See also deleteIndexMarks().
 
 

deleteIndexMarks([type [, context])

         Without argument, deletes all the TOC marks and alphabetical index marks
         in the document (or the default context).
         
         The first argument, if set, non-blank and non-empty, restricts the
         deletion to one type of index marks; it should be either 'toc' or
         'alphabetical index' (unless the user need to remove non standard index
         marks).
         
         A particular context may set through the third argument in order to
         restrict the index mark removal to the content of a particular element.
         
         See also deleteIndexMark().
 
 

drawPageId(page [, new_id])

         Returns the internal identifier of a presentation page, and changes
         it if a second argument is provided. The page id is a positive
         integer.
 
         The first argument must comply to the same rules as with getDrawPage.
 
 

drawPageName(page [, newname])

         Returns the visible name of a presentation or drawing page.
         The first argument can be a page order number, a page element or the
         present page name (see getDrawPage). The page is renamed if a
         second argument is provided. Example:
 
                 $doc->drawPageName("oldname", "newname");
 
 

deleteTableColumn(table, col_num)

         See deleteColumn().
 
 

deleteTableRow(table, row_num)

         See deleteRow().
 
 

expandSheet()

         Synonym of expandTable().
 
 

expandTable(table, height, width)

         Increases the size of the given table or spreadsheet.
 
         This method silently executes a full normalization of the table before
         resizing it. See normalizeSheet() for details about this operation.
 
         This method is specially useful in order to ensure the availability of
         an appropriate workspace in a spreadsheet whose apparent size is
         almost unlimited through the GUI of a typical desktop software but
         but whose real size is unknown and/or doesn't include all the target
         area of the application.
 
         The vertical expansion is implemented by repetitive replication of the
         last row, while the horizontal expansion is implemented by repetitive
         replication of the last cell of the last row. So the new cells in the
         right side are copies of the old bottom-right cell, while the new rows
         are copies of the old last row.
 
         Any size argument which is not larger than the previous height or width
         is silently ignored, so method produces the same effect as
         normalizeSheet() with the "full" parameter.
 
         The return value is the table element itself in scalar context, or
         the table size in array context.
 
         Note that there is no direct method to shrink a table. However, it's
         possible to do the job by deleting selected rows and or columns
         through deleteTableColumn() and/or deleteTableRow().
 
 

extendText(element, text [, style [, offset]])

         Inserts the text provided as the second argument into the element
         specified by the first argument. The second argument may be either a
         flat string or another existing text element.
         
         If the 'text' argument is a paragraph or heading element, the text
         content (and not the element itself) is inserted. But if 'text' is
         any other element (for example: a variable text field or a sequence
         of spaces), its inserted as is.
 
         This method is an improvement of the general extendText() method
         which is documented in the OpenOffice::OODoc::XPath manual page.
 
         If a third argument is provided and is neither 0 nor an empty string,
         it's regarded as the desired style of the new text, which is inserted
         as a "styled span" (see setTextSpan() for details about text "spans").
         By default, the text is inserted without any special style (i.e. with
         the same style as the containing element).
 
         The new text is, by default, appended to the existing content of the
         element. However, if a valid numeric value is provided as the fourth
         argument, the new text is inserted within the existing content, at the
         given offset. If the offset is negative, it's counted backwards from
         the end of the string. If it's set to 0, the insertion takes place at
         the beginning.
 
                 $doc->createStyle
                         (
                         "BlueYellow",
                         family          => "text",
                         properties      =>
                             {
                             "fo:color"                  => odfColor("blue"),
                             "fo:background-color"       => odfColor("yellow")
                             }
                         );
                 my $p = $doc->getParagraph(4);
                 $doc->extendText($p, "New text", "BlueYellow", 5);
 
         In the example above, "New text" is inserted at the offset 5 within
         the 5th paragraph, in blue letters on a yellow background.
 
         Of course, the offset argument can't be passed unless the style one is
         present. However, in order to pass an offset without setting a style,
         the application has just to provide a 0 or an empty string as the
         third argument. Example:
 
                 $doc->extendText($p, "New text", "", 5);
         
         Caution: the use of extendText() with the style and offset optional
         arguments is allowed for some simple situations; however, there are
         more powerful methods to insert additional text, with or without a
         particular style, within en existing element. See updatetext() and
         setTextSpan().
 
 

getBibliographyElements([id])

         Returns the list of the bibliographic entry elements contained in the
         document.
 
         If an argument is provided, the returned list is restricted to the
         bibliographic entries matching it (this argument can be a regexp).
 
         Example:
 
                 my @biblio = $doc->getBibliographyElements("^W3C");
 
         returns the bibliographic entries where the identifier begins with
         "W3C".
 
 

getBookmark(name)

         Returns the bookmark element (if defined) corresponding to the given
         bookmark name.
 
         If the bookmark covers a range of text (i.e. if it's not a position),
         the returned element is the "bookmark start" one.
 
 

getCell()

         Synonym of getTableCell().
 
 

getCellParagraph(table, row, column)

getCellParagraph(cell)

         Returns the paragraph element contained in a given table cell, if
         the cell contains a paragraph. If the cell contains more than one
         paragraph, returns the first one.
 
 

getCellParagraphs(table, row, column)

getCellParagraphs(cell)

         Returns the list of the paragraph elements contained in a given
         table cell (knowing that a single cell can contain one or more
         paragraphs).
 
 

getCellPosition(cell)

         Returns an array corresponding to the zero-based, numeric coordinates
         of a table cell in a document, which can be used later to retrieve
         a cell at the same location through getCell(). The return values
         represent, in this order, the table, the row and the column. The header
         rows of the table, if any, are not counted.
 
         Example:
 
                 my @coord = $doc->getCellPosition($cell);
 
         A triplet such as (2, 4, 9) tells that the cell is located at the
         10th position in the 5th row of the 3rd table of the document.
 
         In scalar context, this method returns nothing more than the first
         element of the triplet, i.e. the zero-based position of the table
         in the order of the document. However, if the real need is to retrieve
         the table element itself, $cell->parent->parent is more efficient.
 
         This method produces a warning and returns undef if the argument is
         not a table cell.
 
         Caution: getCellPostion(), like any other accessor using object
         coordinates related, works only with normalized tables.
 
 

getCellValue(table, row, column)

getCellValue(cell)

         Returns the value of a table cell, if the cell is defined and
         uncovered. Caution, in order to get the cell element itself for
         further processing, use getCell() instead.
 
         The first form indicates a cell by its 3D coordinates, as with
         getCell().
 
         The second form (quicker) takes a cell element as its only argument
         (e.g. as returned by a previous getCell call).
 
         This method behaves in two different ways depending on the cell
         type. The displayable text of the cell is regarded as the cell value
         if the cell type is 'string'. If the cell type is one of the possible
         numeric types ('float', 'currency', 'date'), the returned value is the
         internal, numeric value.
 
         This difference in handling is designed to allow programs to use
         returned numeric values directly in calculations.
 
         See also cellValueType().
 
         Note: To get information about a cell other than its value or value
         type (numeric, etc.), the best way is first to get its element
         reference with getCell() and then use it with getAttribute.
 
 

getChapterContent(heading [, options])

         This method returns the list of the elements depending (from the
         end-user's point of view) on a given heading element, not including
         the heading element itself. The argument and the options are the
         same as with getHeading().
 
         Examples:
 
                 my @list = $doc->getChapterContent(2, level => 3);
                 foreach my $element (@list)
                         {
                         my $text = $doc->getText($element);
                         print "$text\n";
                         }
 
         The code above selects and prints all the text elements below the
         third level 3 heading of the document (not including the content of
         the header itself. The following example creates a new section whose
         content is made of a heading and the content of the depending chapter
         (the heading text is used as the section name):
         
                 my $heading = $doc->getHeading(2, level => 3);
                 my $heading_text = $doc->getFlatText($heading);
                 my $section = $doc->appendSection($heading_text);
                 my @content = $doc->getChapterBodyElements($heading);
                 $doc->moveElementsToSection($section, $heading, @content);
 
         (See appendSection(), getHeading(), moveElementsToSection() in the
         present manual chapter, and getFlatText() in OpenOffice::OODoc::XPath)
                 
         Caution, this method returns a list of elements and not an element.
         Chapters, unlike sections, are not defined in OpenDocument. So,
         getChapterContent() should be used as a possible workaround in order
         to isolate a logical set of content elements which is not packaged in
         a section.
 
 

getColumn(table, column)

         Returns the element reference of the given column in the given
         table. The first argument is either the table's sequential number in
         the document, logical name or element reference. The second argument
         is the column's number in the table. Synonym: getTableColumn.
 
         Caution: The application should ensure that the area including the
         needed column is "normalized". See normalizeSheet() for details about
         table normalization.
 
 

getDrawPage(pos/name)

         For presentation and drawing documents.
 
         Returns the element reference of the given page name or position.
 
         If the argument contains an integer, the page is selected according to
         its zero-based position. If the value is negative, the position is
         counted backwards from the end.
 
         If the argument is alphanumeric, it's regarded as a page name, and the
         page is selected accordingly.
 
         Caution: This method can't retrieve a page by name if the name
         contains numeric characters only; selectDrawPageByName() should be
         preferred to do so.
 
 

getEndnoteCitationList()

         Returns the list of all the endnote citations (i.e. references to
         footnotes included in the text) contained in the document.
 
 

getEndnoteList()

         Returns the list of all the endnote body elements contained in the
         document. Should be replaced by getNoteList() with the "class" option
         set to "endnote".
 
 

getFootnoteCitationList()

         Returns the list of all the footnote citations (i.e. references to
         footnotes included in the text) contained in the document.
 
 

getFootnoteList()

         Returns the list of all the footnote body elements contained in the
         document. Should be replaced by getNoteList() with the "class" option
         set to "footnote".
 
 

getHeading(n [, options])

         Returns the nth+1 heading element.
 
         If n is negative, headings are counted backwards from the last.
         getHeader(-1) returns the last heading element of the document.
 
         The only one possible option is "level". It allows the application
         to select the nth+1 heading element for a given level.
 
         Example:
 
                 my $heading = $doc->getHeading(2, level => 3);
 
         selects the third level 3 heading in the whole document.
 
         See also getChapterContent().
 
         Caution: without the "level" option, this method counts sequentially
         through all headings along a single plane, irrespective of their
         level. E.g. if you have a level 1 heading then two level 2 headings
         then a level 1 heading, the call getHeading(3) returns the last
         level 1 heading.
 
 

getHeadingList([level => value])

         Returns a list of heading elements (i.e. elements called 'text:h' in
         the document body).
 
         If the "level" option is provided, the list is restricted to the
         headings having the given level.
 
 

getHeaderRow(table [, row_number])

         See getTableHeaderRow().
 
 

getHeadingText(n)

         Returns the text of the nth+1 heading element. Elements are counted
         in the same way as for getHeading().
 
 

getHeadingTextList()

         Returns a list of document heading texts.
 
         In a list context, the result is returned in the form of a list of
         character strings. In a scalar context, the result is a single
         string in which the headings are separated by a line-break character
         ("\n").
 
         Note: This list is "flat". It contains no information about the
         headings' hierarchy. To get a hierarchical contents list, you must
         start with the list of headings obtained using getHeadingList and
         check each element's level attribute ('text:level').
 
 

getItemElementList(list)

         Returns a list of elements which represent items of an ordered or
         unordered list. The argument is a "list" element (obtained
         previously e.g. using getItemList, getOrderedList or
         getUnorderedList). Each element in this list can be used with item
         handling methods.
 
 

getItemList(n)

         Returns the element which represents the nth+1 list in a document
         if found.
 
         WARNING: In the OpenOffice.org 1 documents, only "ordered lists" and
         "unordered lists" can be present. In the Open Document format, there
         are generic list objects only, and each one is made "ordered" or
         "unordered" by its style. So, this method will never return anything
         from an OOo 1 document.
 
 

getLevel(element)

         See getOutlineLevel().
 
 

getList(n)

         See getItemList().
 
 

getListItem(list, n)

         Returns the nth+1 item in a given list if found.
 
         The list (1st argument) may be given either by its order number in
         the document, or directly as an element reference.
 
 

getNoteCitationList()

         For OpenDocument only (doesn't work on old OpenOffice.org documents).
 
         Returns the list of all the note citation elements (whatever their
         note class, i.e. "endnote" or "footnote").
 
 

getNoteClass(note_element)

         Returns the class of the given note element. Possible values are
         presently "endnote" and "footnote". Returns undef unless the given
         element is a note.
 
 

getNoteElement(class => $note_class, citation => $note_citation)

         Returns the first note element matching the given class and citation,
         if any. Returns undef if the target note element doesn't exist.
 
         The "class" parameter is either "endnote" or "footnote".
 
         The "citation" parameter is the numeric or literal which refers to
         the note, as it's visible for the end user.
 
         Caution: The uniqueness of a note citation in a given note class is
         not a general rule. The citation is an identifier when it belongs to
         an ordered sequence (such as 1, 2, 3... or "i", "ii", "iii"...). But
         the author is allowed to use the same citation (ex: an asterisk) for
         more than one footnote or endnote. In such a situation, the method
         returns the first note matching the given citation and the given
         class. As a consequence, the note identifier, if known, is a better
         option (see the second form of getNoteElement()).
 
 

getNoteElement(id => $note_identifier)

         Returns the note element matching the given internal note identifier
         (which is a "text:id" attribute according to the ODF specification).
 
         This internal identifier is unique, whatever the note class, so the
         "class" parameter is not needed. However, "class" may be provided as
         an additional filter; if so, the method will return undef if the
         element matching the identifier doesn't match the class.
 
 

getNoteElementList()

         Returns the list of the endnote and footnote main elements.
 
 

getNoteList()

         Returns the list of the endnote and footnote body elements.
 
 

getOrderedList(n)

         Returns the element which represents the nth+1 ordered list in a
         document if found.
 
         WARNING: Ordered lists are possible in the OpenOffice.org 1 format
         only. Don't use it against OpenDocument.
 
 

getOutlineLevel(element)

         Returns the level number of a text element, or undef if the given
         element don't have a level number. Every heading element should have
         a level, while ordinary text body elements should not. Example:
 
                 my $level = $doc->getOutlineLevel($element);
                 if ($level)
                         {
                         print "There is a level $level heading\n";
                         }
                 else
                         {
                         print "Non-heading element\n";
                         }
 
 

getParagraph(n)

         Returns the nth+1 paragraph in the document body, or undef if the
         given number is greater than or equal to the total number of
         paragraphs in the document.
 
         You can also pass a negative argument, in which case paragraphs are
         counted backwards from the end (-1 being the last paragraph).
 
         By paragraphs we mean 'text:p' elements, which excludes headers but
         includes non-empty table cells, contents of list items and
         footnotes.
 
         Returned value is an element and not the text of the paragraph. All
         read/write operations involving attributes and content can use this
         element.
 
 

getParagraphList()

         Returns a list of paragraph elements (i.e. 'text:p' elements in the
         document body).
 
 

getParagraphText(n)

         Returns the text of the nth+1 paragraph, counted using the same
         rules as for getParagraph.
 
 

getParagraphTextList([filter])

         Returns a list of texts contained in the paragraphs of a document
         ('text:p' elements).
 
         A filter can be passed as an optional argument (literal or regular
         expression). In this case, only paragraph texts whose content match
         the filter are returned.
 
         In a list context, the result is returned in the form of a list of
         character strings. In a scalar context, the result is a single
         string in which the paragraphs are separated by a line-feed
         character ("\n").
 
 

getRow(table, row_num)

         Returns the element reference which corresponds to a row in a table.
         The first argument is either the table's sequential number in the
         document, logical name or element reference. The second argument is
         the row number in the table. Synonym: getTableRow.
 
         This methods ignores the table header (if any). It can retrieve a
         row in the table body only. See getTableHeaderRow().
 
 

getRowCells(table, row)

getRowCells(row)

         Returns the list of the uncovered cell elements corresponding to a
         given table row. The row can be provided either by table ID and row
         number or by direct row object.
 
 

getSection(name/number)

         If the first argument is a number, returns the nth+1 section in a
         document (section numbers are zero-based; if the argument is negative,
         the sections are counted from the end).
 
         The second form allows you to select a section by its logical name (as
         it would appear to the end user when editing the section's
         properties). This name is obviously easier to use than a number.
         Moreover, this type of selection means the application will still
         work even if a section changes position within a document.
 
         The returned object is a "handle" that can be used for subsequent
         element creations or retrievals in the selected section.
 
 

getSpanList([context])

         Returns a list of elements, in the given context, which correspond
         to texts which "stand out" from the regular flat text, i.e. which have
         been given a style which makes them stand out from the rest of the
         paragraph containing them. The context may be a paragraph, a section,
         or any other text container. The context argument is optional; the
         default context is the whole document.
 
         For example, a word in italics or in font size 12 in a paragraph of
         mostly standard characters in font size 10 is a 'span' element and
         would therefore appear in a list returned by getSpanList().
 
 

getSpanTextList([filter])

         Gets a list of texts which "stand out" in the same way as
         getSpanList() and returns it under the same conditions as
         getParagraphTextList() or getHeadingTextList(), with optional filter.
 
 

getStyle(path, position)

getStyle(element)

         Obsolete. See textStyle().
 
 

getTable(number_or_name [, 'normalize'])

getTable(number_or_name [, length, width])

         Returns the reference of a table, selected by name or number, in a
         scalar context. In an array context, returns the table size, like
         getTableSize().
 
         This method works with spreadsheets as well as with tables included
         in other documents.
 
         If the first argument is a number, returns the nth+1 table in a
         document (table numbers are zero-based; if the argument is negative,
         the tables are counted from the end). If it's a string, the table is
         selected by its its logical name (as it would appear to the end user
         when editing the table's properties). This name is obviously easier
         to use than a number. Moreover, this type of selection means the
         application will still work even if a table changes position within
         a document. But the retrieval by name works with two restrictions:
 
         - if a table name is made of digits only, or if if represents a
         numeric expression, it's automatically regarded as a table number and
         the table is selected according to its sequential (zero-based)
         position in the document; if (and only if) the given number is greater
         than the position of the last table, the given argument is regarded as
         a name (for example, if the document contains 3 tables, getTable(365)
         will attempt to retrieve a table whose name is "365"); in order to
         avoid any retrieval by number, use getTableByName();
 
         - getTable() can't retrieve a table by name if the name contains
         one or more "$", "{" or "}" characters; these characters are allowed
         in the table names in text documents (ODT), but not allowed
         in spreadsheets (ODS).
 
         The returned object is a "handle" that can be used for subsequent
         accesses to its components (rows, cells).
 
         The additional arguments, if any, instruct OODoc to normalize they
         target table in order to allow subsequent addressing of its content.
         If the "normalize" keyword is provided, the table will be fully
         normalized. If length and width arguments are provided instead,
         only an accordingly limited area, beginning at the "A1" position.
         Practically, getTable() uses normalizeSheet() in order to perform
         this job, so you should have a look at the normalizeSheet()
         documentation (in the same chapter) for explanations.
 
         Examples:
 
                 my $sheet = $doc->getTable('Checklist');
 
         returns the reference of the sheet (or table) corresponding to the
         given name, without processing
 
                 my $first_sheet = $doc->getTable(0);
                 my $last_sheet = $doc->getTable(-1);
 
         returns the references of the first and the last tables according to
         the physical order of the document
 
                 ($lines, $columns) = $doc->getTable('Friends', 'normalize');
 
         fully normalizes the table whose title is "Friends" and returns itself  
         size.
 
 

getTableByName(name [, 'normalize'])

getTableByName(name [, length, width])

         Retrieves a table according to its name (if it exists). This methods
         allows the retrieval of a table whose name is made of digits without
         possible confusion between names and numeric positions.
 
         The optional arguments and the limits are the same as for getTable().
 
 

getTableCell(table, row, column)

getTableCell(table, coord)

getTableCell(row, column)

         Returns the element which represents the given cell. Possible
         arguments are respectively: the table number or its reference in the
         document, row number and column number. Each table cell contained in
         the body of an OOo/ODF document can be referenced in this
         manner, as if it belonged to a single 3D table irrespective of the
         rest of the document.
 
         If the cell is defined in the spreadsheet but covered (because of a
         cell merge), the return value is undef. In other words, this method
         doesn't provide access to a covered cell.
 
         The first argument can be either the sequential number of the table
         (starting at 0), the logical name of the table, or a 'table' object
         (which can be retrieved in advance using getTable). If it's a number
         or a name, getTable() is automatically called by getTableCell() in
         order to convert it in a 'table' object. However, if the first
         argument is a row object (previously obtained via getRow() or
         getHeaderRow()), the second one is processed as the column number.
         Before using several cells in the same row, it's a good idea to get
         the row object and then to use it in every cell selection, in order
         to minimize the coordinates calculation.
 
         In tables including one or more header rows, the best way to get a
         header cell is to use a header row (previously obtained using
         getHeaderRow()) as the first argument. If the first argument is a
         table, getCell() looks in the table body only.
 
         Alternatively, the user can provide the cell coordinates in a single
         alphanumeric argument, beginning with one or two letters and ending
         with one or more decimal digits, according to the same logic as in a
         spreadsheet. So, for example
 
                 $doc->getTableCell($table, 'B12');
 
         is equivalent to
 
                 $doc->getTableCell($table, 11, 1);
 
         (Remember that, with the numeric coordinates, the row number is the
         first argument, while with the alphanumeric, spreadsheet-like ones,
         the column letter(s) come first.)
 
         Numbers can also be negative, where position -1 is the last. For
         example:
 
             $cell = $doc->getCell(-1, -1, -1);
 
         returns the very bottom right cell of the very last table in the
         document $doc.
 
         Returns a null value if the given cell does not exist or if it's
         covered by the span of another cell.
 
         Any cellXXX() method in this module uses the same cell addressing
         logic as getTableCell().
 
         CAUTION: Remember that OODoc works with the XML representation of
         the tables, and not with the tables themselves. The [x,y] direct
         addressing feature works as long as there is a continuous, one-to-one
         mapping between the logical view and the physical XML storage of the
         table. But, according to the OpenDocument specification, several
         contiguous objects (cells or rows) are allowed to be mapped to a
         single XML object when they have the same content and the same
         style, in order to save some storage space. This optimization is
         systematically used, for example, by OpenOffice.org Calc. In addition,
         OODoc can't address a cell that could be displayed through the GUI
         of a typical interactive spreadsheet software but that isn't stored
         because it's not initialized yet. As a consequence, the direct
         addressing logic of getTableCell() may require some preprocessing.
         See normalizeSheet() and/or expandTable() about such preprocessing.
 
         Remember that the table addressing is zero-based and
         the row comes before the column in OpenOffice::OODoc, so, for
         example:
 
                 $cell1 = $doc->getTableCell($table, 0, 0);
                 $cell2 = $doc->getTableCell($table, 31, 25);
 
         returns respectively the A1 and Z32 cells.
 
         Note: in a spreadsheet, (0,0) are the coordinates of the "A1" cell,
         and, for example, (16, 25) are the coordinates of the "Z17" cell.
 
 

getTableColumn(table, column)

         See getColumn.
 
 

getTableHeaderRow(table [, row_num])

         Returns the element reference which corresponds to a row in a table
         header, or undef if the given table has no header row.
 
         The arguments are processes in the same way as with getRow(), but
         the second argument is optional; it's required only if the table
         has more than one header row (the 1st header row is returned by
         default).
 
         The returned elements can be used with subsequent cell access methods
         in order to process header cells (see getTableCell()).
 
 

getTableList()

         Returns a list of table elements in a document.
 
 

getTableRow(table, row)

         See getRow.
 
 

getTableRows(table)

         Returns the list of the rows contained in the given table.
 
         When the user needs to process every row in large tables, this method
         allows some performance improvements, because it's less costly than
         a lot of successive getRow() calls.
 
 

getTableSize(table)

         Returns the size of a table as a pair of values which represent the
         number of rows and columns. The table can be specified either by
         number, logical name or reference.
 
         Example:
 
             my ($rows, $columns) = $doc->getTableSize("Table1");
 
 

getTableText(n)

         Returns the content of a table, if found, whose number or reference
         is given as an argument. If not found, returns undef.
 
         The content of each cell is extracted according to the rules of
         getCellValue.
 
         In a list context, the returned value is a 2D table with each
         element containing the corresponding cell in the document.
 
         In a scalar context, the content is returned as a single string in
         CSV format. In this case, the rows are separated by a delimiter set
         by the instance variable 'line_separator' and the fields by the
         variable 'field_separator' in the OODoc::Text object. (These
         delimiters are by default "\n" and ";" respectively.)
 
 

getText(path, position)

getText(element)

         Exports the text contained in the given element according to the
         means appropriate to that type of element.
 
         If the 'use_delimiters' flag is set to 'on' (default), the content
         of each element (others than ordinary paragraphs, table cell,
         headers) is preceded and/or followed by a character string depending
         on the type of the element. This also depends on the settings given
         to the delimiter values 'begin' and 'end' by the 'delimiters' hash.
         In a default configuration where the application has not provided
         any specific delimiters, the following delimiters are used:
 
             - '<<' before and '>>' after sections of text highlighted within
             an element (e.g. words in bold or underlined within a paragraph
             of 'standard' font characters).
 
         footnote citations (in text body) are placed between square
         brackets.
 
         '{NOTE:' and '}' for the content of footnotes.
 
         (Footnotes are physically inserted into the text at the place
         where they are called, just after the link element indicating the
         footnote's number. Its display at the foot of the page or elsewhere
         is a trick of the graphical interface.)
 
         An application can change these delimiters, add more for other types
         of elements (e.g. paragraphs, headers, tables cells, etc.), or
         deactivate them using outputDelimitersOff. This depends on where the
         text is exported to e.g. display in editable "flat" format,
         conversion to non-OpenDocument XML or a markup language other than
         XML, generating code from text, etc..
 
         A default export (ex: "\n") terminator can be set for any element that
         is not listed in the 'delimiters' hash (see defaultOutputTerminator()
         above).
 
         If the element is an ordered or unordered list, the text produced is
         a concatenation of all the lines in the list, each separated by a
         line-break in addition to any delimiters. The default line break
         character is "\n", but it can be set to any other string (including
         an empty string) through the 'line_separator' property of the document
         object.
 
         If the element is a string table cell, getText behaves like
         getCellValue. If the cell contains more than one paragraph, the text
         produced is a concatenation of all the paragraph contents, each
         separated in the same way as list items.
 
         If the element is a table, getText behaves like getTableText.
 
 

getTextBoxElement(name/number)

         Retrieves a text box element by its unique name or by its order
         number in the document (or in the current context).
 
 

getTextContent()

         Returns the text of a document, as "flat" editable text.
 
         In a list context, the content is returned as a table with one text
         element (header or paragraph) per element.
 
         In a scalar context, the content is returned as a single character
         string with each text unit (header or paragraph) separated by a
         line-feed ("\n").
 
         The returned text contains no style or level information, so there
         is nothing to distinguish a header from a paragraph.
 
         Same as selectTextContent('.*').
 
 

getTextElementList([context])

         Returns the list of all the text elements, including headers,
         paragraphs and item lists, that directly belong to an optional given
         context. Without context argument, the default context is the document
         body.
 
 

getTopParagraph(n)

         Same as getParagraph but only considers top level paragraphs. The
         contents of lists, tables and footnotes are excluded.
 
 

getUnorderedList(n)

         Returns the element which represents the nth+1 unordered list in a
         document, if found.
 
         WARNING: Ordered lists are possible in the OpenOffice.org 1 format
         only. Don't use it against OpenDocument.
 
 

hyperlinkURL(hyperlink [, url])

         Get/set the URL of an hyperlink element. The first argument may be
         a previously retrieved hyperlink element (see selectHyperlinkElement
         below), or the URL of an existing hyperlink. If a second argument is
         provided, it replaces the URL of the hyperlink element.
 
         With only one argument, just returns the existing URL of the link,
         or undef if the first argument doesn't match an existing hyperlink
         element.
 
 

inputTextConversion(text)

         Returns the UTF8 conversion of the given text, supposed to be in
         the local character set of the document (see the 'local_encoding'
         property).
 
 

insertColumn(table, col_num [, options])

         Inserts a new column in an existing table at a given position.
 
         The second argument must be the number of an existing column.
         Caution: this argument must be a column number, and not a column
         element.
 
         The new column is created as a copy of the column a the given
         position. It's inserted before or after the existing one, according
         to an optional "position" parameter (default 'before').
 
         Caution: before using insertColumn() against a spreadsheet, the
         application should ensure that the whole rectangular area from the top
         left cell ("A1") to the last used cell of the column at the target
         position is "normalized" (see normalizeSheet() for details about the
         table normalization).
 
 

insertDrawPage(page/pos [, options])

         In a presentation or drawing document, inserts a new page before
         or after an existing page.
 
         Possible options are the same as for appendDrawPage(), with an
         additional one:
 
                 position        => 'before' or 'after' (default 'before')
 
         The new page is inserted before or after the reference page, according
         to the 'position' option.
 
         The first argument can be a draw page element reference (recommended)
         previously returned, for example, by a previous page retrieval or
         creation method call. Alternatively, it can be a page position or
         visible name, so it's regarded in the same way as in getDrawPage().
 
         Returns the new page element, or undef in case of failure.
 
 

insertHeading(path, position, options)

insertHeading(element, options)

         Same as appendHeading, but inserts the new heading before or after
         another element.
 
         Position is that of an existing element which can be another heading
         or a paragraph. Can be given by [path, position] or by element
         reference.
 
         Possible options are the same as for appendHeading, with the
         additional option 'position' which determines if the heading is
         inserted before or after the element at the given position. Possible
         values for this option are 'before' and 'after'. By default, the new
         element is inserted before the given element.
 
 

insertItemList(path, position [, options])

insertItemList(element [, options])

         Same as appendItemList, but a new list is inserted at the given
         position. The point of insertion can be given either by the pair
         [path, position] or by element reference. Options are the same as
         for insertParagraph.
 
 

insertParagraph(path, position [, options])

insertParagraph(element [, options])

         Same as appendParagraph, but a new paragraph is inserted at the
         given position.
 
         Position is that of an existing element which can be another
         paragraph or a header. Can be given by [path, position] or by
         element reference.
 
         Options are the same as for appendParagraph, with the additional
         option 'position' which determines whether the paragraph is inserted
         before or after the element at the given position. Possible values
         for this options are 'before' and 'after'. By default, the element
         is inserted before the given element.
 
 

insertRow(table, row [, options])

insertRow(row_element [, options])

         Inserts a new row into a table. In its first form, pass the table
         (reference, logical name or number) and the position number in the
         table. In its second form, pass the element reference of the
         existing row which is directly before or after the position where
         you want to make the insertion.
 
         By default, the new row is inserted at the position of the
         referenced row, which displaces it and the rest of the table down by
         one row position. However, you can insert it after by using the
         'position => after' option. By default, the new row is an exact copy
         of the referenced row, but you can assign particular attributes to
         it in the same manner as the insertElement method of OODoc::XPath.
 
 

insertSection(path, position, name [, options])

insertSection(element, name [, options])

         Creates a new section and inserts it immediately before or after
         an existing element (paragraph, header, table). The referenced element
         can be indicated as in insertParagraph.
 
         There is a "position" option which works in the same way as with
         insertParagraph() or insertRow().
 
         For other options, see appendSection(). For example, insertSection()
         may be used in order to insert a subdocument in a master document.
 
 

insertString(path, position, text, offset)

insertString(element, text, offset)

         Inserts a flat character string in a given element (whatever the type
         of element) at the given offset. If the offset is not defined, the
         text is appended to the end of the element (however, if the offset is
         provided and set to zero, the string is inserted at the beginning).
 
 

insertTable(path, position, name, rows, columns [, options])

insertTable(element, name, rows, columns [, options])

         Creates a new table and inserts it immediately before or after
         another element (paragraph, header, table). The referenced element
         can be indicated as in insertParagraph. The other arguments and
         options are the same as for appendTable with the additional option
         'position' as in insertParagraph.
 
 

insertTableColumn(table, col_num [, options])

         See insertColumn().
 
 

insertTableRow(table, row [, options])

insertTableRow(row_element [, options])

         See insertRow().
 
 

lockSection(section [, key])

         Installs a write protection on the given section.
 
         If a second argument is provided, it's stored as an encrypted key
         which is associated to the write protection. Caution, it's not the
         key as it should be typed by the OOo end-user.
 
         Such a write protection works only when the document is edited through
         an OpenOffice.org-compatible desktop software. It doesn't prevent the
         programs using OpenOffice::OODoc from deleting or updating the
         protected sections.
 
 

makeHeading([options])

         Creates a new heading element, or marks as a heading an existing
         element.
 
         Options:
 
                 element         => an arbitrary existing element
 
         If this option is provided, the given element is converted in place
         to a heading, whatever its original type and position. No element
         is created.
 
         Without the 'element' option, a new heading element is created and
         returned for later use. This element is free; it's not automatically
         attached somewhere in the document. For direct heading creation and
         attachment, you should prefer appendHeading() or insertHeading().
 
                 level           => a numeric, positive integer value
 
         Sets the hierarchical level of the heading (remember 1 is the top
         heading level). Caution: no default value.
 
                 style           => the name of a convenient heading style
 
         While it's not mandatory, the 'style' option and a properly defined
         heading style are generally required in order to allow the office
         software to really process and display the element as a heading with
         the right hierarchical level. Of course, any previously existing
         hierarchical style is reusable here.
 
         The main purpose of this method is to allow quick heading hierarchy
         creation in a "flat" document. For exemple, an application can select
         a set of flat paragraphs matching a given condition and convert each
         one in place to a heading with a given level.
 
 

moveElementsToSection(section, list)

         Moves a list of elements from any place to a section.
         
         The section may be passed by name or by element reference; it must be
         an existing one (no new section is created).
         
         The list is a set of arbitrary elements (including sections). Each one
         is cut from its previous place and appended to the section in the
         order of the list, without document consistency check.
 
 

normalizeSheet(sheet, rows, columns)

normalizeSheet(sheet, 'full')

         This method preprocesses a given sheet so its components (rows,
         cells) become available for all the table-oriented methods described
         in this chapter. In some situations, this method must be used before
         any attempt to address any individual table component (column, row or
         cell). The return value is the target table object in a scalar context
         and the size (height, width) in an array context.
 
         This method works with any kind of ODF tables, whatever the containing
         document, and not only with spreadsheets.
 
         In the first form, the 2nd and 3rd arguments define the size of a
         rectangular area, beginning at the first cell ([0, 0] or "A1"), to
         be processed, in order to save time and CPU resources when the
         application needs to address objects only in the first corner of a huge
         table.
 
         The second form allows the OODoc to normalize the whole table,
         whatever the size. It's certainly the preferred form, as long as
         the target sheets are reasonably sized or the hardware is powerful
         enough.
 
         The processed area becomes a workspace which is safely
         addressable by any cell/row/column processing method. This
         preprocessing is sometimes required, sometimes not. For example,
         it's required on present OpenOffice.org Calc spreadsheets, and
         useless on present OpenOffice.org Text tables.
 
         It's automatically executed when getTable() is called with size
         arguments (or with the "normalize" option); therefore it's not always
         explicitly invoked by the applications. However, it's useful to know
         its purpose.
 
         The object addressing logic (which, for example, allows a program to
         directly reach a cell using its coordinates) relies on a continuous,
         regular mapping between the user's view and the physical XML storage
         of the tables. However, the OpenDocument specification allows any
         conforming application to map more than one table element to a
         single XML element. When two or more contiguous objects contain
         the same value and have the same style and the same data type, they
         *may* be mapped to a single XML element with a repetition attribute.
         As a consequence, the position of the appropriate XML element can't be
         directly calculated from the logical coordinates of the object, and
         OODoc needs to scan the table in order to get all the repetition
         attributes and calculate the real mapping. In addition, updating an
         object whose the XML corresponding element has a repetition attribute
         would automatically update all the objects mapped to the same element,
         producing unpredictable and generally wrong results.
 
         OpenOffice.org Calc systematically uses this storage optimization in
         spreadsheets, while OpenOffice.org Writer doesn't use it for tables in
         text documents. In Calc (sxc/ods) documents, the XML mapping of the
         whole content is "denormalized" in order to save memory: several table
         components can be mapped to a single XML element, so the XML address
         of each one can't be simply calculated from its logical coordinates.
 
         In order to allow the spreadsheet components to be addressed with the
         same methods as the Writer table components, normalizeSheet()
         reorganizes the XML mapping of the given sheet.
 
         Caution: The OpenDocument specification doesn't make any difference
         about this point between tables included in text documents and tables
         in spreadsheet-only documents. So any ODF-compliant application
         *could* denormalize the XML storage of any table and use the
         repetition attributes. As a consequence, normalizeSheet() *could* be
         required in the future for other documents than OOo Calc ones.
 
         This method is not (presently) always needed for tables included
         in OpenOffice.org Writer (odt/sxw) documents, because their storage is
         "normalized" (i.e. each component is mapped to an exclusive XML
         element), with the exception of the column objects. So,
         normalizeSheet() is required with these tables when the application
         needs to use a column-focused method such as getColumn(),
         insertColumn() or deleteColumn().
 
         In the other hand, normalizeSheet() is not required to address a sheet
         which has been created through the OODoc methods (provided that the
         document has not been edited with another application software in the
         meantime). These methods, i.e. appendTable() and insertTable(), create
         normalized tables, whatever the document class.
 
         Because this method is time and memory consuming, it should never
         be used to reorganize the largest possible area of a sheet (meaning
         thousands of rows and hundreds of columns that will probably never be
         used). So it's action is limited to a given area, controlled by the
         rows, columns arguments. When these arguments are not provided, the
         method uses the 'max_rows' and 'max_cols' properties instead (see the
         Properties section for other explanations). The processed area should
         be sized in order to cover all the cells to be reached by the program,
         and nothing more.
 
         The first argument can be either the logical name of the sheet (as
         it's shown in the bottom tab by OOo Calc), the sheet number, or a
         table object reference, previously returned by getTable(). The return
         value is the table object (or undef in case of failure).
 
         Example:
 
                 $doc = odfDocument(file => 'report.ods');
                 my $sheet = $doc->normalizeSheet('Sheet1', 7, 9);
                 my $result = $doc->cellValue($sheet, 5, 6);
 
         In the sequence above, a top left area of 7 rows by 8 columns is
         pre-processed, so the cells from A1 to H6 of this sheet can be
         reached according to the same addressing scheme as in Writer tables.
         The last instruction gets the content of G6. Note that the second line
         of this example could be replaced by
 
                 my sheet = $doc->getTable('Sheet1', 7, 9);
 
         knowing that, when called with size arguments, getTable() automatically
         executes normalizeSheet().
 
         The following code normalizes the whole table, whatever its size (but
         I don't recommend this option for tables containing thousands of rows
         by hundred of columns):
 
                 $doc->normalizeSheet('Sheet1', 'full');
 
         This last instruction could be automatically and silently executed
         through the following one:
 
                 $doc->getTable('Sheet1', 'normalize');
 
         The transformed sheets, of course, are readable by OOo Calc.
         They simply take some more disk space when the processed spreadsheet
         is saved. If the document is later read then written by OOo Calc,
         the storage is optimized again, so the effects of normalizeSheet()
         disappear.
 
         normalizeSheet() is neutral against already normalized tables.
 
         An explicit call to this method can be replaced by getTable() with the
         additional length and width parameters. In addition, normalizeSheet()
         is automatically executed before resizing each time a table is
         processed by expandTable().
 
 

normalizeTable(table [, rows [, columns]])

         See normalizeSheet().
 
 

outputDelimitersOn()

outputDelimitersOff()

         Turns delimiters on or off. Used to mark up text exported by certain
         methods like getText or selectTextContent.
 
         The delimiters actually used depends on the table loaded into the
         OODoc::Text instance via the 'delimiters' property.
 
 

outputTextConversion(text)

         Returns the conversion in local character set of the given text,
         supposed to be in UTF8. The local character set of the document
         is used (see the 'local_encoding' property).
 
 

removeBookmark(id)

         See deleteBookmark().
 
 

removeHeading(position [, level => level_no])

removeHeading(element)

         Removes the given heading element.
 
         Example:
 
             $doc->removeHeading(4);
 
         removes the 5th heading (whatever its level) counted from the
         beginning of the document.
 
         See getHeading() for the argument and option.
 
         If the argument is an element reference (second form), the type is
         not checked and this method becomes the equivalent of removeElement()
         (which is documented with OpenOffice::OODoc::XPath generic methods).
 
 

removeHyperlink(path, position)

removeHyperlink(element)

         Removes any hyperlink contained in the given element, leaving
         in place the previously hyperlinked text.
 
 

removeParagraph(position)

removeParagraph(element)

         Removes the paragraph at the given position (first form).
 
         The paragraph to be removed can be indicated by element reference
         (second form). In this case, the type of element is not checked and
         this method becomes the equivalent of removeElement.
 
 

removeCellSpan($cell)

         Removes the multi-column, multi-row span of a table cell. The width
         and height of the cell are reduced to one column and one row.The
         uncovered cells take the same style and data type as the reduced cell.
         
         Caution: This method works with cells that heve been expanded using
         the "number-rows-spanned" and "number-columns-spanned" OpenDocument
         attributes. The cell expansion is done this way by the cellSpan()
         method, as well as with the present version of OpenOffice.org Calc.
         But other applications (including the present version of
         OpenOffice.org Writer) can implement the cell merge using subtables
         instead of span attributes.
 
 

removeSpan()

         See removeTextStyleChanges().
 
 

removeTextStyleChanges(path, position)

removeTextStyleChanges(element)

         Removes all the text style that apply to particular text spans in the
         paragraph or a heading provided as argument, so all the content will be
         displayed according to the text style that is defined at the paragraph
         level (font, colors, etc).
         
         Works with paragraphs or headings only.
 
         For a more drastic result, see flatten() in OpenOffice::OODoc::XPath.
 
         See also setTextSpan(). Caution: there is no symmetry between
         setTextSpan() and removeTextStyleChanges(). The first one creates one
         styled text span at a time in a given context that may be larger than
         a single paragraph. The second one removes all the styled text spans
         in the given context, but the context is a paragraph or a heading only.
 
 

renameSection(section, newname)

         Renames an existing section using the second argument.
 
 

renameTable(table, newname)

         Renames an existing table using the second argument.
 
 

replaceText(path, position, filter, replacement)

replaceText(element, filter, replacement)

         Replaces all sub-strings which match "filter" with "replacement" in
         the text of an element (and its descendants) indicated by
         [path, position] or by reference and returns the modified text. The
         "filter" string can be an "exact" literal or a regular expression.
 
         Example:
 
             $doc->replaceText($p, "C(LIENT|USTOMER)", $contact);
 
         replaces each occurrence of "CLIENT" and "CUSTOMER" with the content
         of the $contact variable in the paragraph $p of document $doc.
 
         The "replacement" argument can be a function reference. In which
         case, the function is called each time the string is matched, and
         the value returned by the function is used as the replacement value.
 
                 sub action      {
                         my $arg = shift;
                         my $text = shift;
                         print "$arg : $text\n";
                         return "OK";
                         }
                 $doc->replaceText($p, $expression, \&action, "Found");
 
         displays "Found: <text>" (where <text> is the text retrieved) each
         time a string matches $expression and replaces this string with
         "OK". If $expression contains an "exact" string (not a regexp), then
         clearly the text displayed will always be the same string. However,
         if it happens to be a regular expression, it is in effect the text
         retrieved which will be displayed.
         
         Generally speaking, if the replacement value is a function
         reference, the called function receives the remainder of the
         arguments which follow it, in this order:
         
         1) all the arguments following the function reference in the
         replaceText() call, in the same order;
         
         2) the string that matches the filter argument.
         
         See also substituteText(), which should be preferred in most
         situations.
 
 

rowStyle(row_element [, style])

rowStyle(table, row [, style])

         Reads or modifies a table row's style, in the same way as
         columnStyle does for columns.
 
 

sectionProtectionKey(section)

         Returns the encrypted key which is associated to the given section,
         if the section is write-protected by key.
 
         This method can't provide the real key (as it should be typed by
         the end-user to unlock the section), but the returned value may be
         reused in order to protect more than one section with the same
         password.
 
         See also unlockSection().
 
 

sectionStyle(section, [newstylename])

         Without argument, returns the current style of a given section.
 
         If an argument is provided, it becomes the new style of the section.
 
 

selectDrawPageByName(name)

         In a presentation or drawing document, returns the page element
         identified by the given name, or undef if the name is unknown.
 
         The names to be used correspond to the displayed page names in
         OpenOffice.org Impress.
 
 

selectElementByBookmark(name)

         Returns the element containing the given bookmark.
 
         Caution: this method works with position bookmarks only, not with
         range bookmarks (a range bookmark can be spread over several text
         elements).
 
 

selectElementByContent([context,] filter [...])

         Returns the first text element whose content matches the 'filter'
         (which can be an exact string or a regular expression), or undef
         if no matching content is found.
 
         With additional arguments after the filter, this method can be used for
         replacement operations, or user-defined function triggering, in the same
         conditions as selectElementsByContent().
 
         The retrieval functionality of selectElementByContent() is the same
         as selectElementsByContent(). See selectElementsByContent() for
         limits.
 
 

selectElementsByContent([context,] filter)

selectElementsByContent([context,] filter, replacement)

selectElementsByContent([context,] filter, action [, other_arguments])

         This method returns the text elements whose content matches the search
         criteria contained in 'filter' (a string that may be a regexp).
         Note that this method can be used with a "non-filtering" regular
         expression (".*") for unconditional movement through all text elements.
         
         The default scope is the current context (practically it's the whole
         document unless it has been changed using the currentContext() method).
         However a context element may provided before the filter argument in
         order to restrict the search space.
 
         Be careful: if the search is successful, the returned elements may be
         of various kinds; they are not always paragraphs or headings. They
         may be, for example lower level text elements contained in paragraphs,
         such as text spans or text hyperlinks.
 
         The first form simply returns the given list without modifying the
         text.
 
         The second form returns the same list, but replaces all strings
         which match the search criteria with the 'replacement' string as it
         goes.
 
         The third form, where the 'action' argument is a program function
         reference, launches the given function each time the filter string
         is matched. If defined, the value returned by the function is used
         as the replacement value. If the function returns a null value
         (undef) then no replacement is made. If it returns an empty string,
         the retrieved text is deleted. The called function receives the rest
         of the arguments, in this order:
 
         1) all remaining arguments after 'action' ('other_arguments'), if any.
 
         2) the element containing the retrieved text.
 
         3) the string actually selected. If the filter is an exact string,
         it is equal to the filter. If the filter is a regular expression,
         it matches the "real" text retrieved.
 
         The returned text (if any) must be encoded in UTF8.
 
         The returned list is the same one returned by the first two forms.
 
         Example:
 
             sub action
                 {
                 my ($d, $element, $value) = @_;
                 if ($value < 100)
                         {
                         $d->removeElement($element);
                         return undef;
                         }
                 else
                         {
                         return $value * 2;
                         }
                 }
                         @list =
              $doc->selectElementsByContent("[0-9]+", \&action, $doc);
 
         In the above code, the subroutine "action" is called each time an
         integer (one or more digits) is found. The subroutine receives the
         document reference itself as its first argument (an OODoc::Text
         object given by the application). Next, it automatically receives
         the reference of the element in which the search string was found
         (i.e. an integer) and, finally, it receives the exact number found
         as its second-last and last arguments respectively. If this number
         is less than 100, the element is removed. This is why the subroutine
         needed the $doc object, used to invoke the removeElement method. If
         more than 100, the number is multiplied by two and the result
         replaces the original value in the element. The list returned by
         selectElementsByContent contains all elements which contain the
         search string, including any which might have been removed by the
         called function while it was running.
 
         It is the "main" elements containing strings which matched the
         filter which are returned and not any of their sub-elements. For
         example, if the returned string is found in one of the items in an
         unordered list, the list element is selected and not the item.
         Similarly, the table is selected when one of its cells matches the
         filter, and the paragraph which is selected when the search string
         is found in an attached footnote.
 
         Important limit: This method can't retrieve elements whose display
         content apparently matches the given filter but whose internal
         storage doesn't. For example, a paragraph containing "foo bar" will
         never be selected through selectElementByContent() if "foo" and "bar"
         have different text styles. In the same way, a substring containing
         multiple successive whitespaces will never match, because, according
         to the ODF standard, multiple spaces (like tabs or line breaks) are
         stored as special XML element instead of flat text. A character string
         cannot be considered to match the filter unless it is entirely within
         the same sub-element and all its characters have the same style. More
         generally, a substring can match the filter if and only if it's
         represented with only one style and if it doesn't contain multiple
         spaces, tab stops or line breaks.
 
 

selectHyperlinkElement(url_filter)

         Retrieves the first hyperlink element (if any) whose the URL matches
         the argument. Example:
 
                 my $e = $doc->selectHyperlinkElement("cpan");
 
         could return an hyperlink element containing "www.cpan.org" as
         well as "search.cpan.org", etc. The URL filter is processed as
         a regexp.
 
         Note: In order to get the text container (ex: paragraph) where the
         hyperlink is located, the application can use the parent() element
         method. Example:
 
                  my $e = $doc->selectHyperlinkElement("www.cpan.org");
                  my $p = $e->parent if $e;
 
 

selectHyperlinkElements(url_filter)

         Returns the list of the hyperlink elements whose the URL matches
         the argument (and not only the first one).
 
 

selectParagraphByStyle(stylename)

         Returns the first paragraph (if any) using the given style.
 
 

selectParagraphsByStyle(stylename)

         Returns the list of the paragraphs using the given style.
 
 

selectTextContent(filter)

selectTextContent(filter, replacement)

selectTextContent(filter, action [, other_arguments])

         Returns a list of header texts and/or paragraphs (in the document's
         own order) which match the given search criteria.
 
         The filter can be an exact string or a regular expression. A filter
         set to ".*" (no selection) will result in an export of the entire
         text.
 
         In all three forms, this method behaves like
         selectElementsByContent, except that it returns text instead of a
         list of elements.
 
         Depending on the context (list or scalar), the result is returned in
         the form of a list of rows or in the form of a single character
         string where the elements are separated by a line-feed ("\n").
 
         Note: called with a "non-filtering" regular expression, this method
         will result in a "flat" export of the document:
 
             print $doc->selectTextContent('.*');
 
 

setAnnotation(element [, options])

         Creates and inserts an annotation in a given element.
 
         The possible options are:
 
         'date' => the date/time of the annotation (ISO-8601 format); the default
         is the current system date/time
 
         'author' => the name of the author of the annotation; unless this
         option is provided; the default is the current system user name
         
         'text' => the text content of the annotation (no default)
 
         'style' => a paragraph style for the annotation (no default)
 
         'offset' => an integer value that specifies the position of the
         insertion point of the annotation (default=0); a negative value means
         that the position is counted backward from the end
         
         'before' => a regular expression; specifies that the insertion point
         should be before the first match
         
         'after' => same as 'before' but the insertion point should be after the
         first match
         
         'replace' => same as 'before', but the matching substring is deleted
         and replaced by the annotation
         
         If 'before', 'after' or 'replace' (which are mutually exclusive) is set,
         the 'offset' option, if provided too, specifies a search space
         restriction and a search way. If 'offset' is positive, the search space
         runs from 'offset' to the end; if 'offset' is negative, the search space
         runs from the end and its size is the absolute value of 'offset'.
         
         If 'offset' is 0, then it's possible to force the search backward from
         the end to the beginning using an additional 'way' parameter whose
         possible values are 'backward' and 'forward' (if 'way' is 'backward',
         then 'offset' is regarded as negative whatever its sign).
         
         Note that the 'capture' option doesn't work with annotations.
         
         Returns the reference of the annotation element. Note that this
         reference could be used later as a context for additional insertions
         (for example in order to append several paragraphs to the content of
         the annotation).
 
 

setBibliographyMark(element, [, position_options][attributes])

         Creates a new bibliography mark within a given text element.
         
         The content of the new bibliography entry may be initialized through
         a 'attributes' parameter whose value is a hash.
         
         All the possible attributes of an ODF-compliant bibliography entry, 
         such as author, editor, isbn, title, year, and many others, are
         allowed. A 'identifier' parameter is mandatory in order to get a
         visible mark; note that this identifier is bibliography-specific and
         is not the same as the generic identifier that could be get or set
         using getIdentifier() and setIdentifier(). Other attributes are optional
         (but, of course, an entry with nothing more than an identifier would not
         be very useful in a final document).
         
         By default, the object is inserted at the beginning of the target text
         element. But, thanks to the optional position parameters, it can be put
         anywhere within the text of the bookmarked element. The position
         parameters are 'offset', 'before', 'after', 'replace', and 'way' and
         they work like with setAnnotation().        
 
                 $para = $doc->selectElementByContent("ODF-related book");
                 $doc->setBibliographyMark (
                         $para,
                         offset     => -20,
                         replace    => "reference needed",
                         attributes => { 
                             identifier  => "JDE",
                             title       => "OASIS OpenDocument Essentials",
                             author      => "J. David Eisenberg",
                             year        => 2005,
                             isbn        => "1-4116-6832-4"
                             }
                         );
 
         This sequence replaces a "reference needed" substring in a given
         paragraph by a bibliography mark that will be displayed by default as
         "[JDE" and that contains various attributes. The 'replace' option means
         that the given substring will be deleted and replaced by the mark. The
         given (negative) offset means that the substring must be searched
         backward and that the last 20 characters of the paragraph must be
         excluded from the search space.
 
 

setBookmark(element, name [, position_options])

         According to the structure of the optional parameters, this method may
         be used either to set a position bookmark (i.e. a named place holder
         at some point of the text content in a pararaph) or to set a range
         bookmark (i.e. a range of text that may spread across paragraph
         boundaries and that is delimited by a bookmark start and a bookmark end
         elements).
         
         The first form is illustrated by the following example:
 
                 $doc->setBookmark(
                         $paragraph, "BM001",
                         offset  => -20
                         before  => "xyz"
                         );
 
         This sequence puts a bookmark identified by "BM001" in a given
         paragraph, immediately before the first "xyz" substring found in a
         backward search among the last 20 characters.
         
         The mandatory arguments are the target text element and the name of the
         new bookmark (that should be unique).
 
         By default, the object is inserted at the beginning of the text. But,
         thanks to the optional position parameters, it can be put anywhere
         within the text of the bookmarked element. The position parameters
         are 'offset', 'before', 'after', 'replace', and 'way', and they work
         like with setAnnotation(). See also setChildElement() in OODoc::XPath.
         However, the 'text' option is ignored, knowing that a bookmark has no
         text content. If the 'replace' option is used, the matching substring
         is deleted and replaced by the bookmark, but the deleted text is not
         reused.
 
         The second form requires a bookmark name as the 1st argument, then
         a 'start' and a 'end' parameters are required; each one is a hash of
         parameters that specifies the position of one mark according to the same
         options as for a position bookmark (namely with 'offset', 'before',
         'after', 'replace', and 'way'). In addition, each of the 'start' and
         'end hashes may contain an additional 'context' parameter that specifies
         the elements that will contain the start and end marks, respectively.
         
         The following example creates a range bookmark that starts after the
         15th character of $p1 and ends before the "xyz" substring in $p2,
         assuming that $p1 and $p2 are previously selected paragraphs in the
         right order:
         
                 $doc->setBookmark(
                         "BM002",
                         start   => {
                                 context => $p1,
                                 offset  => 15
                                 },
                         end     => {
                                 context => $p2,
                                 before  => "xyz"
                                 }
                         );
                         
         The user is not prevented by default from creating a range bookmark
         whose start point is after the end point of a range bookmark. However,
         it's possible to force an order check using a boolean 'check' option.
         If 'check' is 'true' while the order is wrong, the bookmark is not
         created.
         
         Note that the second form of setBookmark() is the same as
         setRangeBookmark().
 
 

setHyperlink(path, position, [context,] expression, url)

setHyperlink(element, expression, url [, options])

         Puts an hyperlink on a text area in a given text element.
         The first substring matching the given "expression" argument in the
         text element (if any) will become the hyperlinked text. The "url"
         argument is, of course, the URL of the hyperlink. If successful, the
         method returns the new hyperlink element, or undef otherwise.
 
         This short example illustrates the simplest use:
 
             $doc->setHyperlink($para, "CPAN", "http://www.cpan.org");
 
         This method works in the same way as setTextSpan(), described below,
         but the text span is hyperlinked, and not only presented according to
         a particular style. So, the third argument must be an URL instead
         of a style. 
         
         A set of hyperlink attributes may be optionally provided as a hash
         through an optional 'attributes' parameter. For example, the application
         can provide a 'style-name' and a 'visited-style-name' as shown below:
         
             $doc->setHyperlink (
                         $para, "CPAN", "http://www.cpan.org",
                         attributes      => {
                                 'style-name' => "ToBeVisited",
                                 'visited-style-name' => "Visited"
                                 }
                         );
                         
         'style-name' selects the style which applies to the text of the
         hyperlink, as long as the URL is not visited, while
         'visited-style-name' indicates, of course, the style in use if the
         link location was already visited. These styles must belong to the
         'text' family. 
         
         Other allowed hyperlink attributes are listed in the X5.1.4 of the
         OASIS OpenDocument specification. They may be set through the
         'attributes' options or later through the common setAttributes() method
         (that may apply to the object returned by setHyperlink).
 
         Note: The hyperlink is not always a remote URL, such as in the
         example above. Internal references ere allowed as well. An
         internal reference is prefixed by "#". If an internal reference
         is a heading, it's prefixed by "#" and suffixed by "|outline".
         An hyperlink may be aimed at a location inside another document;
         such a link is the concatenation of a file path, a "#", and a local
         name that makes sense in the target document (bookmark, heading...).
 
 

setIndexMark(element, id [, options][, start =>{}, end =>{}])

         Creates an alphabetical index entry in a given element. The first
         arguments are the target element (generally a paragraph) and a
         mandatory identifier (that should be unique).
         
         A 'type' parameter allows to select the type of index; possible
         values are 'alphabetical-index' or 'toc' (the last one stands for
         "table of contents index mark"). The default is 'alphabetical-index'
         (it may be wrote 'alphabetical index', knowing that every space is
         automatically interpreted as a '-').
         
         A 'content' parameter allows to specify an expression; the first
         substring in the element that matches this expression will become the
         indexed substring. It's possible to restrict the search area using a
         'offset' option, a positive or negative integer; a positive value means
         that the search space runs from the beginning to the given offset; a
         negative value means that it runs backward from the end to the given
         offset. In addition, a 'way' option whose legal values are 'forward' or
         'backward' may control the search way: if 'way' is 'backward' then the
         search is done backward even if 'offset' is not provided, and 'offset'
         is regarded as negative even if it's provided without the minus sign.
         Unless 'offset' is defined and negative, the default way is 'forward'.
         
         The code below puts an index entry, identified by "idx001" and related
         to the first match of a "xyz" expression:
         
                 setIndexMark(
                         $paragraph, "idx001",
                         type    => 'alphabetical index',
                         content => "xyz"
                         );
         
         Note that the 'type' option is provided for clarity only, knowing that
         'alphabetical-index' is the default.
 
         The following variant puts a TOC mark, searched backward from the end
         of a given paragraph, within a 20-character-long area:
         
                 setIndexMark(
                         $paragraph, "idx001",
                         type    => 'toc',
                         content => "xyz",
                         offset  => 20,
                         way     => 'backward'
                         );
         
         The same result in this second example could be obtained without the
         'way' option, with -20 instead of 20 as the 'offset' value.
         
         A more sophisticated set or parameters may be provided in order to
         specify the beginning and the end of the index mark separately. To do
         so, 'content' must be omitted and replaced by the 'start' and 'end'
         parameters, each one being a hash, just like with the second form of
         setBookmark() that created a range bookmark, with a restriction: 
 
         The 'start' and 'end' optional parameters allows to specify the start
         and the end positions of the index mark. Each one is a hash that may
         contain the same options as with setBookmark() described below, namely
         'offset', 'before', 'after', 'replace', and 'way', with the exception
         of 'context', because (unlike a bookmark) an index mark is entirely
         included in a single paragraph; its start and its end belong to the same
         context, that is specified by the first argument.
         
         The following example creates an alphabetical index mark that is
         associated to a text range running from the "xyz" substring to the end
         of the given paragraph:
         
                 $doc->setIndexMark(
                         $paragraph, "idx002",
                         type    => 'alphabetical index',
                         start   => {
                                 before  => "xyz"
                                 },
                         end     => {
                                 offset  => 'end'
                                 }
                         );
 
 

setNote(path, position, text [, options])

setNote(element [, options])

         Creates and inserts a footnote or an endnote in the given element with
         the given text as the note content. Returns the new note element in
         case of success, or undef if the target element doesn't exist.
         
         Supported options are:
         
         'text' => the text content of the note
         
         'class' => specifies the display class of the now note; may be 'footnote'
         or 'endnote', default is 'footnote';
         
         'id' => a note identifier, must be provided by the application and must
         be unique for the class (be careful, the uniqueness is not automatically
         checked and no default is provided);
         
         'citation' => specifies the character string to display as note citation
         (at the place in the host element where the note is anchored);
         
         'label' => this option, if provided, means that the note should not be
         processed as automatically numbered by the printing/editing applications
         and that it should be represented by the given (arbitrary) string; if
         'label' is defined, it becomes the default value of 'citation';
         
         'style' => specifies the style of the note content (should be a regular
         paragraph style).
         
         By default, the object is inserted at the beginning of the text. But,
         thanks to the optional position parameters, it can be put anywhere
         within the text of the bookmarked element. The position parameters
         are 'offset', 'before', 'after', 'replace', and 'way' and they work
         like with setAnnotation().
 
 

setRangeBookmark(name, start => {options}, end => {options}, ...)

         Like the second form of setBookmark(): creates a range bookmark
         according to a mandatory name (1st argument) and position options
         provided through 'start' and 'end' parameters, each one being a hash
         of options. See setBookmark() above for details.
 
 

setSpan()

         Deprecated.
         
         See textStyle(), setTextSpan() and setTextSpans(), more powerful but
         using different options.
 
 

setStyle(path, position, style_name)

setStyle(element, style_name)

         Obsolete. See textStyle().
 
 

setText(element, text ,[text, ...])

         Alters the setText method of OODoc::XPath, so that it can handle
         complex text elements. Please read the setText() entry in
         OpenOffice::OODoc::XPath before the present entry.
 
         If the element is a paragraph, a header or a list item (ordered or
         unordered), its content is replaced by the 'text' argument. Caution:
         setText() deletes and replaces the previous content of the paragraph.
 
         If the element is a table cell, this method is the same as
         updateCell.
 
         If the element is a list (ordered or unordered), the content of each
         'text' argument (however many) forces the creation of a new item
         which is appended to the list (existing items remain unchanged).
         Example:
 
             $doc->setText($element, "Peter", "Paul", "John")
 
         adds three items to the list if $element is a list. If $element is,
         for example, a paragraph, then the second argument ("Peter") becomes
         the content of the paragraph and the other arguments are ignored.
 
         If the element is a note element or a note body, the given text
         becomes the content of the note body.
 
         If the element is a section, the whole content of the section is
         deleted and replaced by a single paragraph containing the given text.
 
         For all other types of $element, setText() behaves normally as defined
         in OODoc::XPath.
 
         Note: setText(), as any other text input method, doesn't properly
         process repeated spaces by default. So, a sequence of spaces, whatever
         its length, is replaced by a single space. See setText() and
         extendText() in OpenOffice::OODoc::XPath.
 
 

setTextBoxContent(text_box, content)

         Fills the given text box according to the given content.
         
         The first argument may be the unique name, the order number or the
         reference of a text box. The content is processed in the same way
         as the content option in createTextBox().
 
 

setTextField(element, field-type [, options])

         Puts a variable text field in a given text element.
         
         The 2nd argument specifies the type of field. The offical types are
         described in X6.2 and X6.4 in the OpenDocument 1.1 specification,
         corresponding to the so-called "document fields" and "metadata fields".
         
         Examples of possible field type arguments are 'page number', 'chapter',
         'paragraph count', 'time', 'file name', 'creator', 'creation date', etc.
         The full syntax of the ODF field tags is not mandatory; the right
         namespace prefix is automatically added if the given type indicator
         doesn't contain a semicolon, and every space is replaced by a '-'. So,
         a field type like, say "text:word-count" may be specified as
         "word count".
         
         This method may be used in order to display a declared user field. To
         do so, the field type must be 'variable' instead of a regular ODF
         text field, and a 'name' parameter must be provided with the name of an
         existing (ot to be created) user field declaration.
         
         While the content of a text field is often computed and displayed
         dynamically by ODF-compliant viewers, it's possible to provide an
         alternative text that will be persistently stored in the field and
         available for applications which are note able to compute the content
         and/or for users who need to know the last displayed value. Such an
         alternative content is provided through a 'text' option.
         
         It's possible to provide the new text field with one or more attributes
         as a hash through a 'attributes' parameter. The most common attributes
         are 'fixed' and 'style'; the first one is a boolean, the
         second one is the name of a display format. The 'fixed' attribute, if
         'true', prevents the ODF-compliant editors and viewers from refreshing
         the content of the field (for example a fixed date field displays the
         same date forever instead of the current date). The 'style' attribute
         is the name of a display format (it's recommended to associate every
         date, time or numeric field to a display format, while the default
         display format of some ODF editors may be convenient for some needs).
         Here the 'style' attribute is a shorcut for 'style:data-style-name';
         see the ODF 1.1 specification X6.7.7 for a full description of this
         kind of styles.
         
         Other attributes depend on the kind of content. The following example
         creates a fixed time field; the time value is stored as standard
         (ISO 8601) date format and the alternative text is an arbitrary local
         representation of the same; the presentation style (for applications
         that can deal with ODF number styles) is "MyTimeStyle" (that is supposed
         to be the name of a time style defined as an automatic style in the
         document):
         
                 $doc->setTextField (
                         $paragraph, 'time',
                         text            => "17:03:25",
                         attributes      => {
                                 fixed           => 'true',
                                 'time value'    => "2010-02-25T17:03:25",
                                 style           => "MyTimeStyle"
                         );
          
          Note that in this example, if 'fixed' was 'false' or undef, a fully
          functional ODF editor could dynamically update the 'time value'
          according to the current date and the text content according to the
          current time and the given style. Here the internal value is a
          'time value'; it would be the same for any field type containing a
          time value (such as, say, a 'print time' or a 'creation time' field).
          For other field types, the corresponding attribute would be
          'date value', 'string value', 'boolean value', or just 'value'. For
          any detailed information about the possible attribute combinations
          according to the field types, have a look at the chapter 6 of ODF 1.1.
          
         By default, the field is inserted at the beginning of the given text
         element. But, thanks to the optional position parameters, it can be put
         anywhere within the text of the element. The position parameters
         are 'offset', 'before', 'after', 'replace', and 'way', and they work
         like with setBookmark() and other methods. See also setChildElement()
         in OODoc::XPath. If the 'replace' option is used, the matching substring
         is deleted and replaced by the text field. The next example inserts
         the name of the author of the last change (i.e. the 'creator', according
         to the ODF vocabulary) as a replacement of a "AUTHOR HERE" substring
         searched backward somewhere in a 50-character-long area at the end of
         the target element:
         
                 $doc->setTextField (
                         $paragraph, 'creator',
                         replace         => "AUTHOR HERE",
                         offset          => 50,
                         way             => 'backward'
                         );
                         
         and the code below appends after the last character of the paragraph a
         'file name' field that will display the full path of the file:
         
                 $doc->setTextField (
                         $paragraph, 'file name',
                         offset          => 'end',
                         attributes      => {
                                 display         => 'full'
                                 }
                         );
 
         The last example creates a display area in a given paragraph after a
         given substring for a declared variable whose name is "Amount" (see
         setUserFieldDeclaration() in OpenOffice::OODoc::XPath to see how such
         a variable may be declared):
         
                 $doc->setTextField (
                         $paragraph, 'variable',
                         name            => "Amount",
                         replace         => "AMOUNT HERE"
                         );
 
 

setTextFields(element, expression, field-type [, options])

         Replaces every substring that matches the given expression in the given
         text element by a variable text field. See textField() in the present
         manual chapter for some information about text fields.
         
         This method works the same way as setTextSpans() to retrieve the strings
         to be replaced. However, each matching string becomes invisible and
         is replaced by the variable field.
         
         Optional field attributes are allowed after the field type in the same
         conditions as for textField().
         
         The following example replaces every occurrence of "TIMESTAMP" in a
         given section by a variable field displaying a time which is 2 hours
         later than the current time:
         
                 $section = $doc->getSection("Variables");
                 $doc->setTextFields
                         (
                         $section, "TIMESTAMP", 'time',
                         'time-adjust' => 'PT02H'
                         );
         
         This method returns the text field elements as a list.
         
         See also setTextField().
 
 

setTextSpan(path, position, style [, options])

setTextSpan(element, style [, options])

         Inserts a substring with a special text style in a selected position
         within the content of an existing text element (namely a paragraph or
         a heading). Unlike setTextSpans() and the 3-argument use of textStyle(),
         inserts only one span (or nothing if the conditions are not met).
         
         A "text span" is a substring whose presentation style differs from the
         style of the text element to which it belongs. For example, a given
         "span" could be in italics while the rest of the paragraph is in normal
         characters. A text span is a special element that contains text but that
         must be included in a paragraph or a heading. Caution: the same word has
         a different meaning when it's used about table cells (see cellSpan()).
         The properties of a text span can be related to any kind of character
         string presentation, such as font, font size, font weight, font
         style, and colors (background and foreground). Whatever these
         properties, they apply through a style.
 
         setTextSpan() works on any kind of text container, whatever its
         hierarchical level. For example, if the given element is a table,
         the span style attribution applies to every cell of the table. And
         the same change can be done in all the displayable content not
         including page headers, page footers, and page backgrounds through
         a single setTextSpans() call, if the given element is the document body
         itself (see getBody() in OpenOffice::OODoc::XPath).
 
         The first argument is the target element, the second one is the name of
         a text style (existing of to be defined). The optional parameters that
         follow specify how and where the text span should be inserted.
         
         The method returns the new text span object, or undef in case of
         failure.
         
         The location of the text span may be specified using the same options as
         the setChildElement() which is described in the OODoc::XPath manual.
         
         A 'capture' parameter, whose value is a string, means that the first
         substring that matches it should become the content of the new text
         span. The following instruction replaces the first appearance of the
         "ODF" substring in a given paragraph by a text span whose content will
         be "ODF" and whose style will be "Standout"; in other words, it tells
         that the style "Standout" will apply to the first "ODF" substring:
         
             $doc->setTextSpan($paragraph, 'Standout', capture => "ODF");
 
         It's possible to apply a text style and to change the text content in
         a single operation using both the 'replace' and the 'text' options.
         If 'text' is set, its value is used as the text of the new span element.
         In the next example, the "ODF" substring will be removed and replaced
         by a text span whose style will be "Standout" and content will be
         "OpenDocument" instead of "ODF":
         
             $doc->setTextSpan(
                 $paragraph, "Standout",
                 replace => "ODF",
                 text    => "OpenDocument"
                 );
         
         Note that there is no default text, so if 'replace' is set while 'text'
         is not set, the matching substring is deleted and replaced by a text
         span with a style but without content, resulting in useless markup
         (there are more convenient ways to just delete a substring).
         
         Practically, if both 'text' and 'capture' are set, the result is the
         same as with 'replace'; however, as soon as the aim is to replace a
         substring by a text span and not to capture the content of the substring
         in the text span, I encourage the use of 'replace' in order to get a
         more self-documented code.  
         
         It's possible to provide a search string with a 'after' or 'before'
         option instead of 'replace'. If so, the new text span is inserted
         after of before the first match, and no text is removed or moved into
         the text span element, that may receive the value of 'text' (if set).
         The example below creates a text span with the "Standout" style and
         whose content is "OpenDocument" immediately after a the substring "the
         best document format is ":
         
             $doc->setTextSpan(
                 $paragraph, "Standout",
                 after   => "the best document format is ",
                 text    => "OpenDocument"
                 );
 
         While the 'replace', 'after' or 'before' parameter automatically selects
         the first match, it's possible to reverse the search, thanks to the
         'way' option, whose possible values are 'forward' and 'backward'
         (default='forward').
         
         Caution: A substring located partly in a "span" and partly outside it
         will never match. In addition, while a text span is allowed inside
         another text span, a text span can not be spread across element
         boundaries.
         
         The 'offset' parameter is a positive or negative integer that specifies
         the start position of the span in the text. So, this parameter allows
         to insert a text span at an arbitrary position (counted forward from the
         start or backward from the end).
         
         If 'before', 'after' or 'replace' (which are mutually exclusive) is set,
         the 'offset' option, if provided too, specifies a search space
         restriction and a search way. If 'offset' is positive, the search space
         runs from 'offset' to the end; if 'offset' is negative, the start
         position is counted from the end and the search space runs backward
         from the given position and the beginning of the context.
         
         More generally, this method uses the logic and the search options of
         setChildElement() to compute the insert point, like setAnnotation() and
         other special intra-paragraph markup insertion methods;
         setChildElement() is described in the OODoc::XPath manual page.
 
         Remember that setTextSpan() creates only one text span with various
         options; if the aim is to automatically create a text span for every
         match of a given substring, see setTextSpans() or textStyle().
 
 

setTextSpans(element, style [, options])

         Applies a special text style to all the substrings of a given text
         element that match a given expression. See setTextSpan() for
         explanations about the meaning of "text span". The main difference
         with setTextSpan() is that setTextSpans() operates repeatedly so it
         may apply the given style to every substring that matches the given
         conditions.
 
         The context element and the style to apply are provided as mandatory
         arguments. They are followed by the named search parameters. These
         parameters are the same as for setTextSpan(). Warning: the user must
         ensure that the provided search parameters make sense and can't result
         in an infinite loop. For example, the following instruction will
         attempt to create an infinite sequence of continuous bookmarks before
         the first occurrence of "xyz" substring, if this substring exists:
         
                 $doc->setTextSpans(     # Wrong !
                         $paragraph, "SomeStyle",
                         before  => "xyz"
                         );
 
         Taking the following paragraph as an example:
 
         "OpenOffice.org includes Writer, Calc, Draw and Impress"
 
         Assuming this text is contained in a $p element, the following
         instruction gives the "Highlight" style to the "OpenOffice.org",
         "Writer", "Calc", "Draw", and "Impress" substrings:
 
                 $doc->setTextSpans(
                     $p, "HighLight",
                     capture => 'OpenOffice\.org|Writer|Draw|Calc|Impress'
                     );
 
         Note that the instruction above produces the same result as:
         
                 $doc->textStyle(
                         $p, "HighLight",
                         'OpenOffice\.org|Writer|Draw|Calc|Impress'
                         );
 
         While the 3-argument use of textStyle() is appropriate as long as the
         aim is to unconditionally apply the given style to every matching string
         in the context, setTextSpans() allows much more selective operations.
 
         The given context may be any element, including the whole document,
         and not only a paragraph. This last example produces the same effect
         as the previous one, but it operates between two given arbitrary text
         bookmarks that may be in different paragraphs in the document, while
         the context is the document body:
         
                 $doc->setTextSpans(
                     $doc->getBody(), "HighLight",
                     capture => 'OpenOffice\.org|Writer|Draw|Calc|Impress',
                     start_mark => $doc->getBookmark("BM1"),
                     end_mark   => $doc->getBookmark("BM2")
                     ); 
 
         See also setTextSpan(), removeStyleChanges(), textStyle() and
         setHyperlink().
 
 

setUserFieldDeclaration(name [, options])

         Creates a user field declaration for the document. Allowed options
         are:
         
                 'type'  => the data type (default=string)
                 'value' => the initial value (default="")
         
         Returns the new variable element if successful. Does nothing and
         returns undef if the variable already exists. The example below creates
         a declaration for a variable whose name="Amount", type=float and
         value=1234.56
         
                 $doc->setUserFieldDeclaration(
                         "Amount",
                         type    => 'float',
                         value   => 1234.56
                         ); 
         
         See also getUserField(), userFieldValue(), setTextField().
 
 

substituteText(element, filter, replacement)

         Replaces any substring in a given element and its descendants,
         matching a given filter (regexp) by a given replacement string.
         
         It "replacement" is a string, this method produces the same result as
         replaceText(), and it should be preferred.
         
         If "replacement" is a function reference, the replacement value is the
         return value of the function. But, unlike replaceText(), any argument
         after "replacement" is ignored.
         
         This method is a wrapper for the subs_text() method provided by the
         XML::Twig::Elt class. See the XML::Twig documentation for advanced
         details.
 
 

tableName(table [, newname])

         Returns the current name of a given table, or replaces it with a new
         name given as the second argument. The table can be indicated
         by number, logical name or reference.
 
         Returns undef unless the given table is defined.
 
         If the new name is the name of an existing table, the table is not
         renamed and an error message is produced.
 
 

tableStyle(table [, style])

         Returns the current style of a given table, or replaces it with a
         new style given as the second argument. The table can be indicated
         by number, logical name or reference.
 
 

textBoxCoordinates(text_box [, new_coord])

         Gets or sets the position of a text box. The new coordinates, if
         any, must be provided using the same syntax and units as with
         the "position" option in createTextBox().
 
 

textBoxDescription(text_box, [, new_desc])

         Gets or sets the optional description (long label) of the given
         text box.
 
 

textBoxName(text_box [, new_name])

         Allows the applications to get the name of the given text box
         (which makes sense if the name is unknown, i.e. if the first
         argument is the element reference or the order number and not
         the name itself, of course). If a literal is passed as a second
         argument, the text box is renamed accordingly.
 
 

textId(element [, text_id])

         This accessor gets or sets the "text identifier", an optional
         attribute of any text container. This attribute is presently used
         for a few elements by OpenOffice.org (ex: the notes).
 
         With one argument only, returns the existing identifier of the given
         element, or undef if the element doesn't own a text identifier.
         If a second argument is provided, its value replaces any previous
         value of the identifier, and the text identifier is created if needed.
         The new value is not checked, so the application should take care of
         its uniqueness.
 
         The text identifier can be used as a bookmark, knowing that, unlike a
         bookmark, this attribute is not visible for the end user.
 
         See also selectElementByTextId().
 
         Caution: The text identifiers created or changed by other applications
         are presently *not* preserved when the document is edited through
         OpenOffice.org.
 
 

textField(type [, options])

         Creates and returns a variable field to be inserted within a text
         element.
         
         Such a field doesn't contain any static text by itself. When
         included in a text container, it tells the editing/printing software
         to display dynamic context data, such as date, time, file name,
         page number, page count, author, etc. Variable text fields are mainly
         used in page headers or footers, but they are allowed in the page
         bodies as well. Remember that a text field must be attached as a child
         element of a text container (paragraph or heading) in order to be
         displayed. However, the text container itself may be attached to
         anything anywhere (ex: a page header, a table cell, a list item, etc).
         
         The first argument (mandatory) is the field type. Many field types
         are allowed, so they are not all listed here. For some of them,
         options are allowed or required.
         
         To get the full list of field types, and their possible options,
         look at the chapter 6 "Text fields" in the OpenDocument 1.0
         specification. However, a few ones are presented below as examples.
 
         The field type, as well as each field option, must be provided as it
         appears in the OpenDocument specification, without the "text:" prefix
         (this prefix is automatically added). However, the application can
         force any arbitrary field name and/or field option such as 'xxx:yyy'
         (any name or option including a ':' is accepted as is).
         
         Caution: textField() allows the user to create any kind of field,
         without OpenDocument compliance check. So it can be used to insert
         application-specific markup in any place. This feature could prove
         useful in some situations, but remember that a typo in a field type
         or option will not be automatically detected. In the other hand, every
         non-OpenDocument field is silently removed if the document is later
         edited and saved through OpenOffice.org.
         
         Knowing that the created element is not attached to a text container,
         it must be inserted or appended through another method. For example,
         the following sequence creates a paragraph displaying "This document
         contains <page-count> pages and we are in the page <page-number>":
         
                 $para = $doc->appendParagraph
                         (
                         text => "This document contains ",
                         style => "Standard"
                         );
                 $pg = $doc->textField('page-count');
                 $doc->appendElement($para, $pg);
                 $doc->extendText($para, " pages and we are in the page ");
                 $pg = $doc->textField('page-number');
                 $doc->appendElement($para, $pg);        
                 
         The 'page-number' field type, introduced above, could be adjusted in
         order to display the page number of any following or preceding page.
         To do so, a 'page-adjust' option, set with a positive or negative
         integer value, should be provided to createField():
         
                 $pg = $doc->textField
                         ('page-number', 'page-adjust' => -2);
                         
         Note that, if the arithmetic sum of the real page number and the
         'page-adjust' value doesn't match an existing page, the editing
         application should display nothing.
                         
         As another example, a 'chapter' field displays the current chapter
         number or title. It requires 2 options: 'outline-level', an integer
         which selects the hierarchical heading level to be regarded as the
         chapter level, and 'display' which controls the value to display
         (chapter number, chapter name or both). The following instruction
         creates a field displaying the number and the name of the current
         level 1 heading:
         
                 $chapter_field = $doc->textField
                         (
                         'chapter',
                         'outline-level' => 1,
                         'display'       => 'number-and-name'
                         );
                         
         Other possible fields display the current date or time (see the
         setTextField() example about a time field with an optional ajustment),
         the author's name, the file path or name, and many other variable or
         fixed values, according to many options.
 
 

textStyle(path, position [, style [, expression]])

textStyle(element [, style [, expression]])

         Reads the name of a text element's style or, if a 'style' argument is
         given, changes it. The text element may be a section, paragraph, a
         heading, or a text span included in a paragraph or a heading.
 
         The element can be indicated by the pair [path, position] or by
         reference.
 
         If a style is provided as the second argument, it's applied to the text
         element (and it replaces the previously set style, if any).
         
         If a text string is provided as the third argument, the given style
         applies to every matching substring in the element, and not to the
         element itself. In this case, the given style must be a text style,
         while it must be a paragraph style otherwise.
 
         The returned value is a literal style identifier, i.e. the value
         of the element's 'text:style-name' attribute. This identifier could
         be used to retrieve the style element itself, through another method
         such as getStyleElement() (see OpenOffice::OODoc::Styles).
         
         In the following example, the 1st instruction just returns the current
         style of a given paragraph, the 2nd one sets the style of the given
         paragraph to "New Paragraph Style", and the 3rd applies the "New Text
         Style" to every substring matching "foo" in the given paragraph:
         
                 $current_style = $doc->textStyle($paragraph);
                 $doc->textStyle($paragraph, "New Paragraph Style");
                 $doc->textStyle($paragraph, "New Text Style", "foo");
         
         For more selective ways to apply a text style to a portion of paragraph,
         see setTextSpan().
 
 

unlockSection(section)

         Removes the write protection (if any) of the given section. If the
         section was key-protected, the key is removed and provides the return
         value of the method.
 
         Example:
 
                 my $key = $doc->unlockSection("Section1");
                 $doc->lockSection("Section2", $key);
 
         The two lines above remove the protection of "Section1" and protect
         "Section2" with the password which previously protected "Section1".
 
 

unlockSections()

         Removes the write protection of every section in the document.
 
 

updateCell(table, row, column, value [, text])

updateCell(element, value [, text])

         Modifies the content of a table cell.
 
         In its first form, indicates a cell by its 3D coordinates, as with
         getTableCell(). In its second form, indicates a cell by its element
         reference.
 
         If the cell is set to literal, its content is limited to its text.
         In this case, the optional argument "text" is of no use (the text
         equals the value).
 
         If the cell is set to numeric (float, currency, date, etc.), you
         should generally pass a literal argument as well as the value.
 
         This method can be replaced by cellValue() which allows reads and
         writes.
 
 

updateText(element [, options])

         Changes some text content in the given element or its descendants,
         according to the given options:
         
         'text': a text string that will be inserted somewhere within the
         element, at a position which depends on other options, by default at
         the beginning.
         
         Alternatively, the 'text' option may be a reference to a user-provided
         function whose return value will be used as the text to be inserted;
         this function will be called with the document object as its first
         argument (so it can use document-based methods), the current text node
         as its second argument and optionally with a text string (that depends
         on other options, see below) as its third argument. (Be careful, a
         "text run", or "text node", is not always an element; it may be a local
         text segment within an element.) The user-provided function is not
         supposed to update the text node by itself. If the return value is
         undef, or an empty string, nothing is inserted.
         
         'replace': a search string (regex) whose first match will be deleted
         (and, of course, replaced by the value of the 'text' option , if any).
         
         'after': a search string (regex) whose first match will be followed by
         the new inserted text.
         
         'before': a search string (regex) whose first march will be preceded by
         the new inserted text.
         
         Note that 'replace', 'before' and 'after' are mutually exclusive. If
         'text' is set with a function reference, the corresponding function
         will be called with the matching substring as its second argument; if
         none of the allowed search string options is set, this function will be
         called with the document argument only.
 
         'way': an indicator, whose allowed values are 'forward' and 'backward'
         (default 'forward'), that specifies the search way. If 'way' is
         'backward', the provided search string (if any) is searched backward
         from the end (i.e. the first match is the last match in the order of the
         document), and the 'offset' is counted back from the end (note that a
         negative offset automatically switches the 'way' to 'backward'). If the
         result doesn't depend on the search way, the 'way' option should be
         omitted or set to 'forward'.
         
         'offset': a numeric position that specifies the point where the content
         of the 'text' option will be inserted; if 'offset' and one of the
         allowed search strings (after, before or replace) are provided, then
         'offset' specifies the limit of the search area instead of a insertion
         point; if 'offset' is positive and 'way' is 'forward' (or not set), the
         search is done from 'offset' to the end; if 'offset' is negative or
         'way' is 'backward', the search is done backward from the given offset
         to the beginning; a negative 'offset' means a backward 'way' (but if
         'way' is 'backward', the sign of 'offset' is ignored, in order to avoid
         useless complications).
 
         'repeat': if set to 'true', specifies that the action must be done
         repeatedly in a way that depends on the other options. If 'repeat' is
         set to 'true' while none of the search string options (after, before or
         replace) is set, the result depends on the 'offset'. If 'offset' is 0
         or undef, then the 'repeat' option is ignored (avoiding an infinite
         loop!). If only 'offset' and 'text' are provided, the new text is
         repeatedly inserted with 'offset' as the interval.
         
         Note: for repetitive and unconditional text replacements in a given
         context (i.e. when no parameter other than the context, the search
         filter and the replacement string is required), substituteText() should
         be preferred (see substituteText() in OODoc::XPath).
         
         The following example replaces the last match of "old" by "new" in a
         given paragraph:
         
                 $doc->updateText(
                         $paragraph,
                         replace         => "old",
                         text            => "new",
                         way             => 'backward'
                         );
         
         The same, but the replacement is done for the whole paragraph (note that
         the 'way' option is omitted, knowing that in such situation the result
         will be the same whatever the search way, so 'forward' is OK):
         
                 $doc->updateText(
                         $paragraph,
                         replace         => "old",
                         text            => "new",
                         repeat          => 'true'
                         );
         
         The next instruction makes sure that "Smith" becomes "Mr. Smith"
         everywhere between the bookmarks "BM1" and "BM2" (because such a space
         may spread over various and multiple elements, the whole document body
         is specified as the search context instead of a paragraph):
         
                 $doc->updateText(
                         $doc->getBody,
                         before          => "Smith",
                         text            => "Mr. ",
                         start_mark      => $doc->getBookmark("BM1"),
                         end_mark        => $doc->getBookmark("BM2"),
                         repeat          => 'true' 
                         );
 
 

updateUserFieldReferences(user_field [, context])

         Forces an immediate update of the display representation(s) of
         a given user field, according to the actual value of the field.
         
         It's possible to restrict the scope to a particular context, that
         may be provided as an optional argument.
 
 

OpenOffice::OODoc::Element methods

         While all the methods above belong to the document object, some
         additional methods are defined for individual text containers. These
         methods belong to the OpenOffice::OODoc::Element class. The most
         general of them are described in the OpenOffice::OODoc::XPath manual.
         Some of them (listed below) are simple read-only accessors allowing
         the user to check the type of any element.
 
 

isXXX() methods

         A set of "isXXX" methods, returning true or false, allow to check
         the type of a given element. Caution, this methods belong to the
         elements, not to the document.
 
         Example:
 
             print "This is a list" if $element->isItemList;
 
         Here is the list of element type indicators:
 
             isBibliographyMark          bibliography mark (in the doc. body)
 
             isCovered                   covered (invisible) table cell
 
             isDrawPage                  presentation or drawing page
 
             isEndnote                   endnote main element
 
             isEndnoteBody               endnote body element
 
             isEndnoteCitation           endnote citation element
 
             isFootnote                  footnote main element
 
             isFootnoteBody              footnote body element
 
             isFootnoteCitation          footnote citation element
 
             isHeading                   heading
 
             isItemList                  list (ordered or unordered)
 
             isListItem                  list item
 
             isNote                      main note element (end- or footnote)
 
             isNoteBody                  note body (in end- or footnote)
 
             isOrderedList               ordered list (OOo only)
 
             isParagraph                 paragraph
 
             isSection                   section
 
             isSequenceDeclarations      set of sequence declarations
 
             isSpan                      span element (see setTextSpan)
 
             isTable                     table
 
             isTableCell                 table cell
 
             isTableRow                  table row
 
             isUnorderedList             unordered list (OOo only)
 
 

Other element methods

         For a neater and more direct access to element types, see the
         getName method of XML::Twig::Elt. A call to $element->getName
         returns the element's XML name including its namespace prefix
         e.g. 'text:p' for a paragraph or 'table:table-row' for a table
         row. Remember that all the features of XML::Twig::Elt are
         available for any text container.
 
 

Properties

         No class variables are exported.
 
         Instance properties are the same as for OODoc::XPath, plus:
 
             'delimiters'        => delimiter table
 
         hash giving the relation between element types and the delimiters to
         use when exporting text (see getText).
 
             'use_delimiters'    => delimiter usage (see getText)
 
         indicates whether delimiters are to be used by getText or not when
         exporting text. Set to 'on' by default. Can be set to 'off' or
         another value to stop or limit use of delimiters.
 
             'heading_style'     => default header style
 
         indicates the default header style to be used by element creation
         methods when no style is specified. Set to 'Heading 1' by default.
 
             'paragraph_style'   => default paragraph style
 
         indicates the default paragraph style to be used by element creation
         methods when no style is specified. Set to 'Standard' by default.
 
             'field_separator'   => field separator
 
         contains the character string to be used as the field separator when
         exporting tables. By default it is ";".
 
             'line_separator'    => line separator
 
         contains the string to be used to separate lines when exporting
         "flat" text. By default, it is a line-feed ("\n").
 
             'max_rows'          => max table length (default 32)
             'max_cols'          => max table width (default 26)
 
         these 2 properties control the size of the "managed area" in a
         spreadsheet; the default "managed area" is the A1:Z31 rectangle,
         corresponding to the (0,0)-(31,25) coordinates; see getTable() and
         getTableCell() and normalizeSheet() for more explanations.
 
             'expand_tables'     => table transformation usage
 
         indicates whether the XML representation of the spreadsheets are to
         be expanded in order to allow the same cell/row addressing scheme
         as with the tables belonging to text documents; by default, this
         property is not set. If this property is set to 'on', the first
         access to any sheet will automatically trigger this transformation,
         so the explicit normalizeSheet() method will not be needed.
         However, this automatic (but costly) transformation has a drawback:
         it uses the same 'max_rows' and 'max_cols' values for every targeted
         sheet, whatever the really needed managed area for each one.
 
 

AUTHOR/COPYRIGHT

Developer/Maintainer: Jean-Marie Gouarne <http://jean.marie.gouarne.online.fr>

Contact: jmgdoc@cpan.org

Copyright 2004-2008 by Genicorp, S.A. <http://www.genicorp.com>

Initial English version of the reference manual by Graeme A. Hunter (graeme.hunter@zen.co.uk).

License: GNU Lesser General Public License v2.1