Cannot install a separator line above footnotes.

users
#1

I know that the first step is to select Format -> Page style ... ->
Footnote, which opens a window with several options for the footnote
properties. One of the options is 'Style'. Selection of 'None' for
'style' means no separator line. If a separator line is wanted some
other selection must be made. Unfortunately for 'style' no other
options besides 'None' are available; so it is impossible to install a
separator line above footnotes. What do I need to do to have other
options for 'style'?

I am using LO 7.2.3.2 with Debian 11 'Bullseye' and the Trinity desktop
environment.

Ken Heard

#2

Hi Ken,

I know that the first step is to select Format -> Page style ... ->
Footnote, which opens a window with several options for the footnote
properties. One of the options is 'Style'. Selection of 'None' for
'style' means no separator line. If a separator line is wanted some
other selection must be made. Unfortunately for 'style' no other
options besides 'None' are available; so it is impossible to install a
separator line above footnotes. What do I need to do to have other
options for 'style'?

Could be I understand it wrong way, but when I open Writer → Format → PageStyle → Footnote I will see a listbox for styles. The default style is a line. I could also choose a dashed line and "none".

I am using LO 7.2.3.2 with Debian 11 'Bullseye' and the Trinity desktop
environment.

Here with LO 7.2.5.1 and also LO 7.3.0.1 on OpenSUSE 15.3, KDE desktop.

Regards

Robert

#3

I can confirm.  Using LO 7.2.1.2   on ubuntu  budgie  writing the text,  I select   Insert -> foot and closing note ->  foot note    the horizontal line appears automatically.   Then I can change it in the Format → PageStyle → Footnote   menu.

Try to insert the note first and then change the line style in Format → PageStyle → Footnote.

Paolo

Hi Ken,

I know that the first step is to select Format -> Page style ... ->
Footnote, which opens a window with several options for the footnote
properties.  One of the options is 'Style'. Selection of 'None' for
'style' means no separator line.  If a separator line is wanted some
other selection must be made.  Unfortunately for 'style' no other
options besides 'None' are available; so it is impossible to install a
separator line above footnotes. What do I need to do to have other
options for 'style'?

Could be I understand it wrong way, but when I open Writer → Format →
PageStyle → Footnote I will see a listbox for styles. The default style
is a line. I could also choose a dashed line and "none".

I am using LO 7.2.3.2 with Debian 11 'Bullseye' and the Trinity desktop
environment.

Here with LO 7.2.5.1 and also LO 7.3.0.1 on OpenSUSE 15.3, KDE desktop.

Regards

Robert

#4

I can confirm.  Using LO 7.2.1.2   on ubuntu  budgie  writing the text,  I select   Insert -> foot and closing note ->  foot note    the horizontal line appears automatically.   Then I can change it in the Format → PageStyle → Footnote   menu.

Try to insert the note first and then change the line style in Format → PageStyle → Footnote.

Paolo

#5

I looked at the 'fresh" appimage, and it shows multiple line styles for
footnotes. But the latest "fresh" app image I see is 7.2.0.4.

Does your system display the styles when running The LO provides appimage?

https://www.libreoffice.org/download/appimage/

If it does... the issue is likely upstream for the debian package you used
to get LO.

If it doesn't, then maybe the issue is in the desktop.

#6

Hi Ken,

I know that the first step is to select Format -> Page style ... ->
Footnote, which opens a window with several options for the footnote
properties. One of the options is 'Style'. Selection of 'None' for
'style' means no separator line. If a separator line is wanted some
other selection must be made. Unfortunately for 'style' no other
options besides 'None' are available; so it is impossible to install a
separator line above footnotes. What do I need to do to have other
options for 'style'?

I am using LO 7.2.3.2 with Debian 11 'Bullseye' and the Trinity desktop
environment.

Although on my Ubuntu box using LO 6.4.7.2 I couldn't reproduce your problem, today I had occasion to use my Windows 10 machine which has LO 7.1.2.2 installed directly from the Document Foundation site. On that version, there are three methods to access the format footnote info and one of these produces an empty dropdown list for the footnote style.

Accessing the footnote tab from Format > Page Style > footnote tab shows line options in the dropdown for the footnote style. The same happens when I access the page style tab via the styles panel (which appears on the rhs of the screen when I use F11.

However, the page styles list includes a specific style entry for 'footnote' which I certainly did not create. When I right clicked on this footnote style and selected 'modify', it tool me to what looks like the normal page style dialogue with a footnote tab. Selecting this tab produced a line style dropdown set to 'none' with just a blank space beneath the 'none'. It looked just like you described, ie no other options. But hovering the cursor over the blank space within the dropdown shows that the three options - solid, dotted, dashed, are in fact present but not displayed.

The reason they're not displayed seems to be that the defaults in this approach to footnote modification have the line thickness set at 0 pt. As soon as this was changed to another value, the 3 options became visible.

If I set the thickness to 0pt in my linux box, the same blank options dropdown is displayed.  Is that the answer to your problem?

Philip

#7

yes,  I confirm  (it can be a bug).  If I  select   insert -> foot note    the line appears.    If I then  do:   f11 ->  page style -> foot note    then the line goes ti thickness 0  and disappears.  Then I can  right-click  and select change.

Paolo

Happy  GNU  year   everybody  !!!!

Hi Ken,

I know that the first step is to select Format -> Page style ... ->
Footnote, which opens a window with several options for the footnote
properties.  One of the options is 'Style'. Selection of 'None' for
'style' means no separator line.  If a separator line is wanted some
other selection must be made.  Unfortunately for 'style' no other
options besides 'None' are available; so it is impossible to install a
separator line above footnotes. What do I need to do to have other
options for 'style'?

I am using LO 7.2.3.2 with Debian 11 'Bullseye' and the Trinity desktop
environment.

Although on my Ubuntu box using LO 6.4.7.2 I couldn't reproduce your problem, today I had occasion to use my Windows 10 machine which has LO 7.1.2.2 installed directly from the Document Foundation site. On that version, there are three methods to access the format footnote info and one of these produces an empty dropdown list for the footnote style.

Accessing the footnote tab from Format > Page Style > footnote tab shows line options in the dropdown for the footnote style. The same happens when I access the page style tab via the styles panel (which appears on the rhs of the screen when I use F11.

However, the page styles list includes a specific style entry for 'footnote' which I certainly did not create. When I right clicked on this footnote style and selected 'modify', it tool me to what looks like the normal page style dialogue with a footnote tab. Selecting this tab produced a line style dropdown set to 'none' with just a blank space beneath the 'none'. It looked just like you described, ie no other options. But hovering the cursor over the blank space within the dropdown shows that the three options - solid, dotted, dashed, are in fact present but not displayed.

The reason they're not displayed seems to be that the defaults in this approach to footnote modification have the line thickness set at 0 pt. As soon as this was changed to another value, the 3 options became visible.

If I set the thickness to 0pt in my linux box, the same blank options dropdown is displayed.  Is that the answer to your problem?

Philip

#8

Thanks everybody for your responses. I now know how to install the footnote separator line.

Regards, Ken