Apache OpenOffice (AOO) Bugzilla – Issue 25488
consistent numbering features terminology
Last modified: 2013-08-07 14:41:21 UTC
I see three numbering features: 1. Line Numbering 2. Numbered Lists as opposed to Bulleted Lists 3. Chapter Numbering If you, at once, know what I am talking about here lets choose these three. The present terminology in the OOo GUI refers to these three as 1. "Line Numbering" - which is fine. 2.1 Icon toolbar: "Numbering On/Off" 2.2 Stylist: Among styles categories there are "Numbering Syles", which comprises both numbered lists being refered to as "Numbering" and bulleted lists being referred to as "Lists". Note that each styles dialog contains a tab "Outline". 2.3 Stylist > Paragraph styles > View "List Styles" which are obv. paragraph styles used for both numbered or bulleted lists. 2.4 Format > "Numbering/Bullets" Note that here the GUI contains a tab "Outline" too. 3 > Tools > Outline numbering - which is obviously wrong: Outline means multilevel numbering. Which would therefore apply to both Numbered Lists and Chapter Numbering. So all which needs to be done is to a: clean up the slight inconsistencies in the numbered/bulleted lists terminology b: Replace Outline Numbering in the Tools menue by "Chapter Numbering" The "Outline" tab in the styles settings then can be left to being named "Outline".
Please do. The current terminology is highly confusing, doesn't do what it claims to do (that is, "Outline Numbering" does not change outline numbering, but does other things -- same for the other categories). I see five numbering schemes: Outline numbering -- to refer to outlines (multi-line outlines) Chapter numbering -- which should be made as a separate mode Line numbering -- which should simply affect line numbers Paragraph numbers -- which should refer to paragraphs with some text (and not to blank lines terminated by a paragraph marker) List numbering -- which should apply to simple outlines (single-line outlines and lists). I find that sometimes I want one feature in numbering only to find that when I change to what I want, something else in the document is screwed up because it refers to that same feature. Constant complaints about outline numbering keep appearing on the user's lists because the terminology and implementation of numbering is so confused.
Certainly the planned changes are a step in the right direction. But a more formal, and user-controllable, hierarchy of numbering systems is desirable: - the ability to have independant counters inside other counters (eg. heading, figure and table being independant inside section/chapter. - Similarly, allowing other user-defined counters that may exist with no parent counter, or may restart in sections etc etc. - The abaility to cross-reference to any paragraph style and have available the relevant number for the heading/line etc. The last is not really relevant to the numbering scheme except in so far as the scheme must be able to provide and update such links.
I've had a look at the spec now, and it seems a little sketchy. It also seems very tightly bound to UI rather than function, which I assume is deliberate. In terms of the UI I like the grey b/g for numbers and would like to see an option to preserve it. When importing a badly written document it will be immediately apparent whether it has properly numbered paragraphs (or, if a Word user, they have just typed the numbers). I can appreciate the need for a 'numbering styles' dialog for compatibility to Word, but I see no clear reason to have one if you are tring to design a clean interface. In my view numbering is part of a paragraph style, nothing more. Suppose you want to define 'Heading Level 2; numbering, then in the paragraph stylist, it should be simply a matter of: - pick the 'counter' to use (eg. 'Main' or 'Chapter' or any other predefined or user-defined counter) - Specify the numbering 'level' of *this* style (eg. if using the 'Chapter' counter, the I assume we have Chapter.Heading1.Heading2, so the levelm would be 2 or 3 depending on whether counting starts at 0 or 1). - Specify the numbering format. This is the hardest part; one option is to use plain text, and define a simple system such as n.n.n would result in 1.2.3, n.na would result in 1.2c, and __(a) would result in (c) (ie. no prefix numbers) etc. A better solution might be to allow a full styling dialog allowing for character format chages (eg. bold) and other features such as spacing to paragraph body. Numbering (eg. line numbering) may even want to be offset outside the paragraph borders.
set target not determined reassigned to bh
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".