Apache OpenOffice (AOO) Bugzilla – Issue 24778
Outline numbering dialog deficiencies 3
Last modified: 2013-09-14 06:37:42 UTC
The outline numbering dialog [Format->Styles->Catalog->Numbering Styles->Modify] is a poorly-implemented GUI. In the Position tab, the meaning of 'Minimum spacing numbering <-> text', is reasonably clear, but its effect is inconsistent. The term 'Minimum spacing', suggests that the text will begin at the next tab stop, unless the spacing from the numbering to the first tab stop is less than the 'Minimum spacing' specified, whereupon the text will begin after the first tab stop, after inserting that 'Minimum spacing' between the numbering and the text. And that's the observed behaviour for outline numbering at levels two and greater, but for level one, the 'Minimum spacing' is applied regardless. There seems to be no way of making level one text begin at the first tab stop after the numbering. This results in text in level one paragraphs being badly aligned with the text of other levels and makes alignment with these other outline levels impossible. The behaviour of spacing after numbering in level one paragraphs should be changed to make it consistent with the behaviour of levels two and above. For tidy formatting, my organisation requires that the start of text in numbered paragraphs lines up with the numbering of paragraphs in the next level, so this is a showstopper for me. (Supercedes Issue 24375)
Created attachment 12703 [details] Example of outline numbering showing problem in level one paragraph alignment with other levels
Reassigned to BH
I've investigated this issue a bit further, and have found that Levels 2 and higher do not, by design, avoid this problem. My example attachment only made them appear to do so because it had a 'Spacing to text' setting of 1.00cm, which coincided with the next tab stop. The behaviour seems to be that the spacing of the text after the number will be the greater of the 'Spacing to text' (measured from the left side of the numbering) or 'Minimum spacing number <-> text' (measured from the right side of the numbering) settings in the Numbering Style's Position tab. This denies the opportunity for any paragraph that wraps around to the left margin (ie, uses a 0.00cm setting for 'Spacing to text') to have its text begin at the next tab stop after the numbering. This causes the errors seen in the attachment, where the Numbering1 Numbering Style has 0.00cm for the 'Spacing to text' setting. The behaviour should be that the text is placed at the next tab stop following the 'Minimum spacing number <-> text' setting. Alternatively, this could be fixed in a number of ways by (in preference order): displaying an 'Append tab character' checkbox alongside the 'Spacing to text' box in the Position tab; displaying an 'Append tab character' checkbox below the 'After' box in the Options tab; or allowing a tab character to be put in the 'After' box (^t, for example). Users could then decide the exact effect they want.
OpenOffice.org Issue Tracker - Feedback Request. The Issue you raised has the status 'New' pending further action, but has not been updated within the last 4 years. Please consider re-testing with one of the latest versions of OOo, as the problem(s) may have already been addressed. Either use the recent stable version: http://download.openoffice.org/index.html or consider trying the new OOo 3 BETA (still in testing): http://download.openoffice.org/3.0beta/ Please report back the outcome so this Issue may be Closed or Progressed as necessary - otherwise it may be Resolved as Invalid in the future. You may also wish to search for (and note) any duplicates of this Issue that may have advanced further by checking the Issue Tracker: http://www.openoffice.org/issues/query.cgi Many thanks, Andrew Cleaning-up and Closing old Issues as part of: ~ The Grand Bug Squash, pre v3 ~ http://marketing.openoffice.org/3.0/announcementbeta.html
To grep the issues easier via "requirements" I put the issues currently lying on my owner to the owner "requirements".