Bug 49176

Summary:	Writer: Custom Document Information, Conditions and Variables
Product:	LibreOffice	Reporter:	Jesse Bright <jab.mail.business>
Component:	Documentation	Assignee:	Not Assigned <libreoffice-bugs>
Status:	RESOLVED FIXED
Severity:	normal	CC:	jeanweber, jmadero.dev
Priority:	medium
Version:	3.5.2 release
Hardware:	Other
OS:	All
Whiteboard:	BSA
Crash report or crash signature:		Regression By:

Description Jesse Bright 2012-04-26 08:49:08 UTC

Problem description: 

The Writer Guide (v3.3) page 377 appears to incorrectly indicate that custom document information provided in the document properties can be used as a variable to trigger conditional events.

The online help section "conditions;in fields and sections" gives no indication that this is possible and writer does not appear to recognize the document information fields regardless of formatting.

For additional information please see this unresolved Ask LibreOffice question:

http://ask.libreoffice.org/question/970/how-can-i-access-a-custom-document-property-in-a


Current behavior: The Writer Guide describes behavior that is not available in writer.

Expected behavior: Ideally this feature would actually be available in writer but if it is not the Writer Guide should be corrected.

Platform (if different from the browser): X11; Linux i686

Browser: Chrome/18.0.1025.151

Comment 1 Joel Madero 2012-12-11 19:32:09 UTC

I'm adding Jean to this one as she is one of the leads for documentation.

Jean: Any opinions? Thanks in advance

Comment 2 John Smith 2012-12-18 19:16:25 UTC

The variables for document properties can be used in 'conditional text' statements. Only these variables can be used, no others.
These are listed in the Help under the page returned from the search term 'Variables - document properties'.
Also in Help on the page returned from the search term 'formatting conditions' is the statement 'You cannot use internal variables, such as page and chapter numbers, in condition expression'.
The next User Guide release will reflect this.
[John Smith, Documentation team]

Comment 3 Joel Madero 2012-12-18 19:20:03 UTC

John: Can we closed this as FIXED? or NEW and assign it to you, you can mark as FIXED once the manual is released?

Comment 4 Owen Genat (retired) 2013-11-24 00:13:44 UTC

(In reply to comment #2)
> These are listed in the Help under the page returned from the search term
> 'Variables - document properties'.

John is correct. Going to http://help.libreoffice.org and entering the indicated text returns a list of pages with these two at the top:

- https://help.libreoffice.org/Writer/Formula
- https://help.libreoffice.org/Writer/Defining_Conditions

As I commented in the AskLO thread linked in comment #0, the first page contains a list of document property variables:

https://help.libreoffice.org/Writer/Formula#Variables_for_document_properties

> Also in Help on the page returned from the search term 'formatting
> conditions' is the statement 'You cannot use internal variables, such as
> page and chapter numbers, in condition expression'.

The second page returned from the search contains the phrase indicated.

> The next User Guide release will reflect this.

Indeed. The Writer Guide v3.6 and v4.0 contains the indicated phrase at the top of p.396 and p.400 respectively.

(In reply to comment #2)
> John: Can we closed this as FIXED?

Given the above I am setting the status to RESOLVED as FIXED.