This arises from bug #98560 , which appears to be a misunderstanding of page styles and sections - the UI should make this easier for the newbie to comprehend. Scenario: Newbie user wants a document with multiple page styles as follows: - FirstPage for the first page - NextPages for pages 2, 3 and 4 - OtherPages for pages 5 onwards. Newbie procedure: User creates three page styles, FirstPage, NextPages and OtherPages. - FirstPage has "NextPages" set as its "Next style" - NextPages has "NextPages" set as its "Next style" - OtherPages has "OtherPages" set as its "Next style" - User creates document with pages 1 to 5, by pressing adding some text and pressing Ctrl+Enter on each page. - User navigates to page 1 and double clicks FirstPage page style - this causes pages 2 to 5 to all have page style "NextPages" - User now navigates to page 5, and double clicks OtherPages page style, expecting page 5 onwards to have page style "OtherPages" and also expects the page styles for pages 1 to 4 to not change. Newbie problem: - User discovers that ALL pages in the document have now had their respective page style CHANGED to OtherPages, and not just page 5 (and onwards). Possible UI feature enhancement: - when double clicking (or otherwise "applying") a new page style to the current page, and if the current page does not begin a new document "section", display a dialog to the user asking the user: " NOTE: The current page does not begin a new section break in the document. Do you wants a new section break<HELP_LINK> to be inserted at the start of the current page? Or would you like all pages in this section of the document, from pages $SECTION_BEGIN_PG_NUM to $SECTION_END_PG_NUM, to be updated to have the new page style $PAGE_STYLE_NAME ? " This would help newbies. The dialog could have buttons/ checkboxes/ options such as: - Insert page break and apply page style to this section - Apply page style to all pages in this section - Cancel
Hi Zenaan, thanks for filing. I like the most of your proposal. I would suggest to not use 'section' but 'hard page break' and 'part of the document' or something. Sections in Writer have a really different meaning and function. It becomes tricky when the current page doesn't start with a new paragraph but with text that flows from the page before. Then are we going to split the paragraph, push it to the next page.. Anyhow, setting a hard page break will stop text flow, which may still be desired and can be achieved by the 'Next page style' setting ;) Anyhow, for now my +1 Let's see how this evolves - adding NeedsUXEval as keyword.
I agree - when the first paragraph starts on the previous page, then perhaps not bring up the proposed dialog box. In that case, an alternative dialog box should still be displayed, but telling the user that the double-clicked page style will apply to pages above the current page (and of course ideally state the page range to which the page style, if applied, will apply).
So as an intermediate improvement, I was thinking of the following: On applying a style by selecting status bar or double clicking in Styles dialog in case that document has more pages and the current page doesn't start with a hard page break... A pop-up appears asking applying the style will change all pages from top/heard page break continue Yes/No <link to Help with more info> [ ] do not show any more similar to warning in Calc when pasting data over non empty cells (Tools > Options > Calc > General .. Overwrite warning That's easier then also handling a cross page paragraph. And I would say that (maybe without check for hard page break, just multiple pages?) it might well apply as easy hack.. How does that sound?
We discussed the topic in the design meeting. To make it clear for the beginners that page style is applied to the part of the document between hard breaks that define a page style, we recommend to show a confirmation box (with an option to "[ ] Don't show again") with the text "Apply Page Style <name> to <Full Document> <Start from here> <<Replace current style>>" and have these options also in a context menu in the side bar.
-1: I'm generally not in favour of dialogs popping up all over the place. Everything works as designed - it is just up to the new user to experiment and figure out how things work. Generally a user that can't figure it out by experimentation is also not going to be able to understand the meaning of the pop-up dialog's explanation. So IMNO "helpful" dialogs are just a waste of time, and an annoyance that needs to be dealt with on each computer that I touch or re-install LO on. I comment here because this bug report strikes a cord. I too found page styles confusing the first few times I tried to use them. Then I had to learn how they work, and now I can use them properly, and fix bug reports related to them.
Alternatively, add some DF command to flip the current page, see bug 161078 comment 7.
(In reply to Heiko Tietze from comment #6) > Alternatively, add some DF command to flip the current page, see bug 161078 > comment 7. That only really works if the current page STARTS with a paragraph, not if a paragraph spans the two pages.
Such function would have to add a PB at the end of the previous page, of course. And another one at the current page. Clearly the tricky part.