Description:
hello, sorry for being so persistent :) or rather, thank you for your patience and openness so far :) 

in short: I think it is a mistake to identify an EM-ed text as "italic"-ed..
that is, to indicate "A as italic" ON, when "EM" is applied...
the good practice (I think) would be to indicate "Em" ON only..

it is, sure, logical if you approach it from the text's appearance :) 
that is, when it looks italic, to identify it as "italic"-ed ...
but this seems to be a mistake on the longer run...

not to mention that introducing styles at the character level demands the understanding of the difference between DF and S...

okay, just look at the 3 steps... PLZ
2 A and 2 B are "forks", alternate steps :)

thank you! (and sorry if I again misunderstood something)



Steps to Reproduce:
STEP #1.: select a few words and apply "Em"

____
2/A. now, click on "clear direct formatting" (nothing happens)

____
2/B. now click "italic" (A) in DF toolbar...


3(B). then click "clear DF"... 

Actual Results:
@ STEP #1.:

"Em" button goes ON, "A as italic" (in DF toolbar) is ON, too...


@ step 2/A:

nothing happens -- illogical, in my HO, cause DF is indicated to have been applied... so we should be able to clear it using "clear DF"...
BUT, at the same time, it is absolutely logical, cause NO DF has been applied 

@ step 2/B:
users are used to "undo" DF by clicking its icon again...
so, chances are that someone will click "A as Italic".. to make the italic disappear... AND it will !!!!!! :) 

now we have "Em" ON, "A as italic" OFF, and the text looks NON-italic... (illogical, cause "Em" is ON)

@ step 3 (B):
once "clear DF" is applied, the text gets italic again, 
"A as italic" is ON, "Em" is ON, and the text looks "italic" (it is emphasized) ... WE are back at step #1 

(which is actually LOGICAL if you have STYLES toolbar ON... and you see that EM is ON... but not logical in terms of indicating DF ON when there is no DF)


Expected Results:
@ 2/A:
since DF is indicated (to have been applied), clicking "clear DF" should clear it -- no, not the text... but the indication :) "A as italic" should be OFF

@ 2/B:
the same thing should happen as when clicking the "clear DF", it should clear DF.. including the indication (this is what happens) ...
BUT, at the same time, since EM is ON, the text should look like "italic" (=emphasized)


@ 3 (B):
when "clear DF" is issued, DF buttons should be set to OFF... (in any circumstances)
including that the opposite should never happen :)
here, at step 3(B), since no DF was indicated previously, NOTHING should happen..

- - - -
the point:  STEP #1:
when EM is clicked or have been applied otherwise,  "Em" should be ON...
but "A as italic" in DF toolbar should NOT be ON... (unless it is clicked, but that's a jammed usage, so let's stick to a clean case: when Em is applied, "A as italic" in DF toolbar should NOT be ON, it should remain as it was...

if the behavior @ STEP #1 was modified, no illogical situations would come about at the further steps...

(
-- clicking the "clear DF" woulds do nothing, but no DF would be indicated either;

-- then clicking "A as italic" would result in the active state of "A as italic" (ON)... both EM and "A as italic" would be ON...

--  clicking "clear DF" (step 3(B) would clear "A as italic", but not Em, that is, "EM" would be ON, and the text would look still "italic" = emphasized ..


Reproducible: Always


User Profile Reset: No



Additional Info:
[Information automatically included from LibreOffice]
Locale: en-US
Module: TextDocument
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OS: Linux (All)
OS is 64bit: yes