LO 4.0.3.3: 'Insert: Horizontal rule' is missing

users
#21

Hi :slight_smile:
+1
Yes, to actually join in with the triaging it would help to learn how to do it properly!  There are a few basic things in the instructions that almost anyone could handle quite easily.  Getting some of those things out of the way might help the more experienced triagers get on with the heavier tasks.  
https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/QA/BugTriage

When i said it might help if a few of us knew what is in the drop-downs that is mostly because we often have requests for new features and it would be good to know which drop-down to use for feature-requests.  Also some of the titles look a bit unpleasant and it might help for us to be able to explain some of the meanings of those on-list here to avoid unnecessary chatter getting repeated in many different bug-report threads.

Regards from
Tom :slight_smile:

#22

I was desperately look for this yesterday morning. I finally resorted to drawing a line using the draw menu.

Now I am trying to do it the new way, described below, and that doesn't work either.

On this page (https://help.libreoffice.org/Common/Drawing_Lines_in_Text) the instructions say:

"1. Create a horizontal line by applying the preset Paragraph Style Horizontal Line. Click into an empty paragraph, and double-click the Horizontal Line Style in the Styles and Formatting window. If the entry for horizontal lines is not visible in the list of Paragraph Styles, select "All Styles" in the lower listbox."

Well, there is no Horizontal Line Style listed even after selecting All Styles.

So, what is the official, documented replacement for Insert > Horizontal Line?

-Bill

#23

Hi :slight_smile:
2 things

1.  Documentation is always playing "catch up"

2.  I think a bug report has been filed to try to get the feature put back into the next release (or a subsequent one if it doesn't make it back in so quickly)

Stuart was saying that if you type 3 - or ~ or (errr i can't remember the other character) then it creates the whole rest of the line for you.  Much the same happens in emails i think although you might have to use more than 3.  So on an empty line in Writer try

#24

From: William Drago [wdrago@suffolk.lib.ny.us]
Sent: Friday, June 28, 2013 6:32 AM
... Horizontal Line Style in the Styles and Formatting window. If the entry for horizontal
lines is not visible in the list of Paragraph Styles, select "All Styles" in the lower listbox."
Well, there is no Horizontal Line Style listed even after selecting All Styles.

No, it is there. open the Styles and Formatting window, first button on the Formatting toolbar (or just enter <F11>).

When panel opens, if still set to install defaults, you'll be on the Paragraph tab with Default Style selected and the "filter" dropdown list set to Automatic. With that filter in place Horizontal Line is not a listed paragraph style. Change the drop down filter to ALL, or to HTML and you'll see the Horizontal Line.

Unfortunately, the line weights for the paragraph border (just the bottom edge) set by the Horizontal Line style default settings are too thin. And the associated text handling for the paragraph style don't seem correct--but that could just be misuse on my part.

Paragraph bottom border assigned as horizontal line with auto-replace of character triplets seem to have more reasonable default line weights--but since those are a "direct styling" of each paragraph, it is more efficient in the long run to figure out use of the style and formatting panel to handle whole document.

Stuart

#25

Workarounds:

o Type three or more asterisks, underscores, equals signs, negative signs, hash marks, or swung dashes as a new paragraph (immediately followed by Enter, that is). Instead of seeing a new paragraph, you will see one of a variety of borders attached to the preceding paragraph. This line is a property of that paragraph, not an entity by itself - but the relevant paragraph can be otherwise empty, of course.

o You can instead apply such borders directly to a paragraph or paragraph style. Right-click in the paragraph and select Paragraph... or Edit Paragraph Style... as preferred. Go to the Borders tab and select a style and position for a border - above or below the paragraph. Again, the paragraph itself could be empty.

I trust this helps.

Brian Barker

#26

My problem with those is they seem impossible to delete!

#27

Not impossible, you just have to reassert the paragraph style back to default (or to the paragraph style you are using for non HR separated text blocks).

#28

That's for precisely the reason I gave: that the line doesn't exist by itself but is instead part of the paragraph to which it is a border - normally the preceding one. To remove such a line, right-click in the relevant (probably preceding) paragraph and select Paragraph... or Edit Paragraph Style... as appropriate. On the Borders tab, you can either click the left-hand symbol under "Line arrangement" or click "- None -" for Style under Line to turn off the border and remove the line.

If you want to make life easier, it may be useful to leave an empty paragraph before using the three-symbol technique to create a border. Then the border is attached to a further empty paragraph and will be very much easier to delete if desired.

I trust this helps.

Brian Barker

#29

The style 'horizontal line' does exist. It format a paragraph with a double line of 0.3 pt height (or depth). You can modify the width to 3.05 pt to have a nice double horizontal line, coloured grey.

If we use '---' or '___' or '~~~" will get wider lines, of grey color.

Of course, this is different from an image of a line. You might search for such an image and insert in your document.

#30

Thanks, Brian!

What is the minimum-size empty paragraph?
How many consecutive blank lines?!

#31

There is no such thing as an blank line in a word processing document (unless you create them with line breaks, using Shift+Enter); consecutive presses of Enter create empty paragraphs. When you use the three-symbol technique to create a border, you need to start in an empty paragraph, so you will have pressed Enter at the end of the preceding paragraph. But when you press Enter after the three characters, you don't keep that separate paragraph; instead, the border is attached to the previous paragraph. You've pressed Enter twice, but you've ended up creating only one paragraph end.

If you want the border to be detached from the previous paragraph, you need to press Enter twice before you enter the three characters - creating a separate empty paragraph (your "blank line") before you do. When you press Enter for a third time, you will have your original paragraph with no border and a separate paragraph (that separate empty one) containing just the border but otherwise empty. Three presses of Enter has created two paragraph ends.

I trust this helps.

Brian Barker