A feature, or ...?

users
#21

Oh yes and that hits the nail on the head. Now that the problem has
been defined, the solution becomes easy. Provide a way to SEE exactly
how the formatting has been applied - and a quick link shortcut to
removing it! Formatting/styles are - in my mind - similar to field
codes. They're hidden formulas and such that could be turned on and off
for viewing at will.

That would be very useful.

Peter West

...he saw a poor widow put in two copper coins.

#22

I suspect that at least part of the problem here is that it is sometimes difficult to see - especially with an inherited document - exactly how formatting has been applied and consequently how it might be removed.

The problem is that _some_ formatting seems to get "stuck." This is either an implementation bug or, for some obscure reason, a design decision; which makes it a design bug.

Named styles are exclusive. Even though a style is _based_ on another style, recursively, applying a named style overrides the previous named style, whether the old style is an ancestor of the new style, or a completely different beast. That should be that as far as applying named styles goes. All that should be left is any "style fragments" that one has applied from the toolbar: bold, italic, etc; left, centered, etc; a particular font and so on. That may include bits of format applied through a format>paragraph or format>character menu, _provided_ that all of this formatting is removed by the 'Clear direct formatting' operation. _Everything_ else must be reset to the values defined (or defaulted) in the applied style.

This should not be a problem. If you like the look of some styling, create a new named style from the selection. Then extend and modify as required. That's what styles are all about.

The other thing is to clearly display the interaction of paragraph and list styles. The style name display should have the capacity to display ALL the named styles that are in play, and there should be a display option, similar to the 'Display special characters' button, to toggle 'Show direct formatting.'

It all boils down to being able to determine the source of any formatting, and being able, easily, to reset all formatting to a named style or set of complementary style types; paragraph, character, list.

And yes, your discussion does help.

Peter West

...he saw a poor widow put in two copper coins.

#23

Hi :slight_smile:
It's amazing that people have to learn how to drive and pass a test.
There are so few controls. Usually a wheel or handle-bar or joystick
to make the vehicle turn. Something to make it faster or slower.
Maybe something to make it go up or down.

So at most it's about 3 controls right?

Surely that should be even more intuitive or at least easier to spot
which control does what. So why all the lessons? It's crazy right?
Regards from
Tom :slight_smile:

#24

I suspect that at least part of the problem here is that it is sometimes difficult to see - especially with an inherited document - exactly how formatting has been applied and consequently how it might be removed.

The problem is that _some_ formatting seems to get "stuck." This is either an implementation bug or, for some obscure reason, a design decision; which makes it a design bug.

Named styles are exclusive. Even though a style is _based_ on another style, recursively, applying a named style overrides the previous named style, whether the old style is an ancestor of the new style, or a completely different beast. That should be that as far as applying named styles goes. All that should be left is any "style fragments" that one has applied from the toolbar: bold, italic, etc; left, centered, etc; a particular font and so on. That may include bits of format applied through a format>paragraph or format>character menu, _provided_ that all of this formatting is removed by the 'Clear direct formatting' operation. _Everything_ else must be reset to the values defined (or defaulted) in the applied style.

This should not be a problem. If you like the look of some styling, create a new named style from the selection. Then extend and modify as required. That's what styles are all about.

The other thing is to clearly display the interaction of paragraph and list styles. The style name display should have the capacity to display ALL the named styles that are in play, and there should be a display option, similar to the 'Display special characters' button, to toggle 'Show direct formatting.'

It all boils down to being able to determine the source of any formatting, and being able, easily, to reset all formatting to a named style or set of complementary style types; paragraph, character, list.

And yes, your discussion does help.

Peter West

Yes, this discussion makes sense to me also, I would also like to be able to see the style outline and be able to see and swap styles from the outline view rather than click in every paragraph to see what style is applied. Although I can't think of one, there must be some inherent reason LO works like this, possibly so it can accommodate the jumble of non-styled documents from competing product imports.
Steve