Configure tex4ht/oolatex output

Question

I use the command mk4ht oolatex to convert a simple latex document to odt. So far, it works quite well with a basic document. However, tex4ht inserts a section break before and after some environments, e.g. \begin{quote} and \end{quote} will produce section breaks. A <text:section ...> tag in the converted odt-file, or the contents.xml more precisely, seems to be responsible for this.

Minimal Example:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\begin{document}
This is a normal paragraph.

\begin{quote}
This is an blockquote.
\end{quote}

Another paragraph.
\end{document}

If we compile this with mk4ht oolatex we end up with this (in content.xml):

<text:p text:style-name="Text-body">This is a normal paragraph.&#xD;
   </text:p> 
<text:section
 text:style-name="begin-end-env" text:name="begin-end-env-1"><text:p text:style-name="begin-env-p"/>
     <!--l. 10
--><text:p text:style-name="quote">This is an blockquote.</text:p>
<text:p text:style-name="end-env-p"/></text:section>
<!--l. 13
--><text:p text:style-name="First-line-indent">   Another paragraph.&#xD;
   </text:p> 

In contrast, these passages in a similar document written with Libreoffice looks like this (in content.xml):

<text:p text:style-name="P1">This is a normal paragraph.</text:p>
<text:p text:style-name="Quotations">This is an blockquote. </text:p>
<text:p text:style-name="P1">Another normal paragraph.</text:p>

In ooffice.4ht we find the following definition that seems responsible for this behaviour:

\ConfigureEnv{quote}
   {\ifvmode \IgnorePar\fi \EndP
\ifnum \BegEnd:D=0
   \gHAdvance\BegEnd:N by 1
\HCode{<text:section
        text:style-name="begin-end-env"
        text:name="begin-end-env-\BegEnd:N"
       >%
       <text:p text:style-name="begin-env-p" ></text:p>}%
%
\else
   \gHAdvance\BegEnd:N by 1
\hbox{\HCode{<text:p><draw:frame
                draw:name="begin-end-env-\BegEnd:N"
                 draw:style-name="env-frame"
                 text:anchor-type="as-char"
%                 fo:min-width="0.14in"
                 svg:width="90\%"
                 draw:z-index="0"
       >
       <draw:text-box
%           fo:min-height="0.14in"
       >}}%
%
\fi
\gHAdvance\BegEnd:D by 1
}
   {\gHAdvance\BegEnd:D by -1
\ifvmode \IgnorePar\fi\EndP
\ifnum \BegEnd:D=0
   \HCode{<text:p text:style-name="end-env-p" ></text:p></text:section>}%
%
\else
   \hbox{\HCode{</draw:text-box>
</draw:frame></text:p> }}%
%
\fi
\par\ShowPar}
   {\EndP \ifvmode \IgnorePar\fi
    \bgroup \Configure{HtmlPar}
   {\EndP \HCode{<!--l. \the\inputlineno-->%
%
                 <text:p text:style-name="quote\if@rl-rtl\fi
"
                         >}}
   {\EndP \HCode{<!--l. \the\inputlineno-->%
%
                 <text:p text:style-name="quote\if@rl-rtl\fi
"
                          >}}
   {\HCode{</text:p>}}
   {\HCode{</text:p>}}%
%
   }
   {\IgnorePar\EndP \egroup \ShowPar \ShowIndent}

So, I guess we should change that definition, but how? How can we suppress those unwanted section breaks?

Answer 1

The \ConfigureEnv{quote} configuration does two main things. It inserts section around the the contents of the whole environment and configures HtmlPar to insert <text:p text:style-name="quote"> for each paragraph. So solution to your problem is simple: just remove the code which insert section and leave the paragraph configuration.

Save the following code as myconfig.cfg:

\Preamble{xhtml}

  \makeatletter
\ConfigureEnv{quote}
   {\ifvmode \IgnorePar\fi \EndP}
   {\ifvmode \IgnorePar\fi\EndP\par\ShowPar}
   {\EndP \ifvmode \IgnorePar\fi
    \bgroup \Configure{HtmlPar}
   {\EndP \HCode{<!--l. \the\inputlineno-->%
   <text:p text:style-name="quote\if@rl-rtl\fi">}}
   {\EndP \HCode{<!--l. \the\inputlineno-->%
   <text:p text:style-name="quote\if@rl-rtl\fi">}}
   {\HCode{</text:p>}}
   {\HCode{</text:p>}}%
   }
   {\IgnorePar\EndP \egroup \ShowPar \ShowIndent}
\makeatother
\begin{document}

\EndPreamble

And compile the document using

mk4ht oolates filename myconfig

It will produce the following result:

<!--l. 5--><text:p text:style-name="Text-body">This is a normal paragraph.
  </text:p>
 <!--l. 8--><text:p text:style-name="quote">This is an blockquote.</text:p>
<!--l. 11--><text:p text:style-name="First-line-indent">   Another paragraph. </text:p>

To configure the appearance of your quote, you can modify \ConfigureOO{quote} which can be found in ooffice.4ht. You can make this modification in the config file as well:

\Preamble{xhtml}

  \makeatletter
\ConfigureEnv{quote}
   {\ifvmode \IgnorePar\fi \EndP}
   {\ifvmode \IgnorePar\fi\EndP\par\ShowPar}
   {\EndP \ifvmode \IgnorePar\fi
    \bgroup \Configure{HtmlPar}
   {\EndP \HCode{<!--l. \the\inputlineno-->%
   <text:p text:style-name="quote\if@rl-rtl\fi">}}
   {\EndP \HCode{<!--l. \the\inputlineno-->%
   <text:p text:style-name="quote\if@rl-rtl\fi">}}
   {\HCode{</text:p>}}
   {\HCode{</text:p>}}%
   }
   {\IgnorePar\EndP \egroup \ShowPar \ShowIndent}
\ConfigureOO{quote}{\Hnewline
<style:style style:name="quote"
             style:family="paragraph"
             style:parent-style-name="Text-body"
             style:next-style-name="Text-body">\Hnewline
<style:paragraph-properties  fo:margin-left="2cm"
             fo:margin-right="1cm"
             fo:margin-top="0.199cm"
             fo:margin-bottom="0.199cm"
             fo:text-indent="0cm"
             style:auto-text-indent="false"/>\Hnewline
</style:style>
\Hnewline <style:style style:name="quote-trl"
             style:family="paragraph"
             style:parent-style-name="Text-body-trl"
             style:next-style-name="Text-body-trl">\Hnewline
<style:paragraph-properties  fo:margin-left="1cm"
             fo:margin-right="1cm"
             fo:margin-top="0.199cm"
             fo:margin-bottom="0.199cm"
             fo:text-indent="0cm"
             style:auto-text-indent="false"
             fo:text-align="end"
             style:writing-mode="rl-tb"  />\Hnewline
</style:style>
\Hnewline
}
\makeatother
\begin{document}

\EndPreamble

I've set the left margin to 2cm in this example: