Bug 109083 - Changes to table style do not propagate to tables using the style at selection
Summary: Changes to table style do not propagate to tables using the style at selection
Status: VERIFIED FIXED
Alias: None
Product: LibreOffice
Classification: Unclassified
Component: Writer (show other bugs)
Version:
(earliest affected)
5.3.3.2 release
Hardware: All All
: medium enhancement
Assignee: Not Assigned
URL:
Whiteboard: target:7.3.0 target:7.2.0.0.beta2
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks: Writer-Tables-Style
  Show dependency treegraph
 
Reported: 2017-07-12 14:11 UTC by Kenneth Hanson
Modified: 2021-07-11 10:38 UTC (History)
5 users (show)

See Also:
Crash report or crash signature:


Attachments
Screencast about the problem and the workaround (removing selection) (1.30 MB, video/webm)
2021-06-11 08:20 UTC, László Németh
Details

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Description Kenneth Hanson 2017-07-12 14:11:16 UTC
Description:
Even though the style menu is not available, it appears to be possible to modify table styles by changing the formatting of an existing table and clicking the "Update Style" button on the sidebar. However, the changes do not affect other existing tables -- the style must be reapplied to every single one.

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Create two or more tables with the same style
2. Modify one table's background or borders
3. Click "Update Style" in the Table Style tab

Actual Results:  
Other tables with same style unaffected

Expected Results:
All tables with said style change


Reproducible: Always

User Profile Reset: No

Additional Info:


User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Ubuntu; Linux x86_64; rv:54.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/54.0
Comment 1 Dieter 2017-07-12 19:24:49 UTC
I can reproduce the behaviour you describe. But I don't think, that this is a bug. If you change a certain paragraph style, you have to enable "AutoUpdate", in order to change all paragraphs using that style. But "AutoUpdate" is disabled by default. So I think that is the same with table styles.

So my suggestion is NOTABUG. If you don't agree please change it back to UNCONFIRMED.
Comment 2 Regina Henschel 2017-07-12 21:36:51 UTC
The new UI is misleading. Actually it is not a table-"style" but a table-"template". That means, that the information is used when a table is created or the template is explicitly assigned. The table contains a copy of the settings given by the template as direct formatting.

There is an ongoing discussion, about these table-"styles". Especially as there exist different concepts in Writer, Draw/Impress and Calc, which need to be consolidated.
Comment 3 Kenneth Hanson 2017-07-13 01:15:15 UTC
@Dieter Praas

I don't think that's what AutoUpdate means, both based on the tooltip and actual experience. Rather, that check box is affects whether the style should be updated from direct formatting /without even pressing the update button or using the style dialog/.
Comment 4 Kenneth Hanson 2017-07-13 03:28:00 UTC
@Regina Henschel 
Where is this discussion? I found some references to these table "templates" but nothing about why they are not styles, etc.

If this issue is indeed unsolved, then should this bug stay new?
Comment 5 Xisco Faulí 2017-07-14 09:05:12 UTC
Putting it back to UNCONFIRMED until someone else confirms it
Comment 6 Dieter 2017-07-16 18:37:38 UTC
(In reply to Regina Henschel from comment #2)
> The new UI is misleading. Actually it is not a table-"style" but a
> table-"template". That means, that the information is used when a table is
> created or the template is explicitly assigned. The table contains a copy of
> the settings given by the template as direct formatting.
> 
> There is an ongoing discussion, about these table-"styles". Especially as
> there exist different concepts in Writer, Draw/Impress and Calc, which need
> to be consolidated.

@ Regina: So do you think we should change this bug to NEW (perhaps as an enhancement), because I could reproduce it (see comment 1), but with a more adequate summary? What is your suggestion?
Comment 7 Regina Henschel 2017-07-16 20:17:13 UTC
(In reply to Kenneth Hanson from comment #4)
> @Regina Henschel 
> Where is this discussion? I found some references to these table "templates"
> but nothing about why they are not styles, etc.

The current solution was introduced by a student in a "Google Summer of Code" project. Please look at the meta issue bug 107553 or bug 103100 for some links. Look at the long lists of "depend on" issues too. Some discussions have been personal without formal minutes.


(In reply to Dieter Praas from comment #6)
> @ Regina: So do you think we should change this bug to NEW (perhaps as an
> enhancement), because I could reproduce it (see comment 1), but with a more
> adequate summary? What is your suggestion?

"Enhancement" is OK. The bug describes a user wish. The real problem is, that currently no consistent schema about a "table style" exists. But Bugzilla is not the right place for discussing a concept.
Comment 8 Heiko Tietze 2017-07-17 17:54:55 UTC
(In reply to Kenneth Hanson from comment #4)
> Where is this discussion?

You may read about the foundation to the GSoC project at https://design.blog.documentfoundation.org/2015/12/13/style-your-tables/ though it talks about table _styles_.
Comment 9 László Németh 2021-06-11 08:17:52 UTC
This is true only at selection, so there is a simple workaround:

Press Esc to remove the table selection before using Update Style in the Table Style tab.
Comment 10 László Németh 2021-06-11 08:20:01 UTC
Created attachment 172795 [details]
Screencast about the problem and the workaround (removing selection)
Comment 11 László Németh 2021-06-18 17:24:34 UTC
tdf#109083 sw table styles: fix missing format update of tables

at table (cell) selection.

Table styles (implemented as table templates yet) allows
to format all tables (with the same table style) at once.
Unfortunately, this worked only without table selection,
putting the text cursor in a table cell. But if a table
cell/row/column or the whole table was selected (e.g. after
changing its format), Manage Styles(F11)->Table Styles->
Style actions menu (see top-right corner of the pane)->
Update Selected Style updated only the style, but it
doesn't propagate the changes to the other tables with
the same table style. This patch removes the selection to
fix the problem in the same way, as the proposed workaround.

Note: this fixes the usage of the user-defined table styles,
too (created by Style actions->New Style from Selection).
Comment 12 Commit Notification 2021-06-18 17:24:58 UTC
Balazs Santha committed a patch related to this issue.
It has been pushed to "master":

https://git.libreoffice.org/core/commit/840095f417af6619977f688f421e449273c26cae

tdf#109083 sw table styles: fix missing format update of tables

It will be available in 7.3.0.

The patch should be included in the daily builds available at
https://dev-builds.libreoffice.org/daily/ in the next 24-48 hours. More
information about daily builds can be found at:
https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Testing_Daily_Builds

Affected users are encouraged to test the fix and report feedback.
Comment 13 Commit Notification 2021-06-21 11:13:14 UTC
Balazs Santha committed a patch related to this issue.
It has been pushed to "libreoffice-7-2":

https://git.libreoffice.org/core/commit/67512141b2cce3d74985544ca58a1d8016676d75

tdf#109083 sw table styles: fix missing format update of tables

It will be available in 7.2.0.0.beta2.

The patch should be included in the daily builds available at
https://dev-builds.libreoffice.org/daily/ in the next 24-48 hours. More
information about daily builds can be found at:
https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Testing_Daily_Builds

Affected users are encouraged to test the fix and report feedback.
Comment 14 Dieter 2021-07-11 10:38:55 UTC
VERIFIED fixed with

Version: 7.3.0.0.alpha0+ (x64) / LibreOffice Community
Build ID: 4450137924eb8626a57283e1ab4f4ad62dd2d595
CPU threads: 4; OS: Windows 10.0 Build 19043; UI render: Skia/Raster; VCL: win
Locale: de-DE (de_DE); UI: en-GB
Calc: CL

Balazs Santha, thanks for fixing it!