Created attachment 150088 [details] Writer text box form control border examples For a text box form control, in Form>Control Properties...>Border, please add "bottom" or "underline" as an option. Please see "examples" attachment. Example #3 is a klugey workaround that would be much better with a "bottom" or "underline" border option.
For me "3D look" is a good solution to mark a placeholder for a text entry. Underline as an option would'nt look so good in the end I think, but let's ask design team
Regina, do we have such a property in ODF? If not I wonder if applying a character style which contains a border would solve the problem - but that seems also not possible for form controls.
Created attachment 150104 [details] Writer text box form control border examples V2
My issue is how the form looks when printed out, as well as on-screen. A printed 3D-look text box form control looks the same as flat-border, still visually distracting and confusing. Please see my updated examples attachment. Underlined text in a no-frame box can leave big white spaces, also distracting and confusing. For me, a full-width underline looks best (Example 3). Thanks for checking into this.
(In reply to Heiko Tietze from comment #2) > Regina, do we have such a property in ODF? Polite ping
(In reply to Heiko Tietze from comment #2) > Regina, do we have such a property in ODF? Yes. Currently the graphic attribute fo:border is used. It would be possible to use fo:border-bottom instead. A different problem is, whether it is possible to render such, if the form is active and not in edit mode. If not I wonder if applying a > character style which contains a border would solve the problem - but that > seems also not possible for form controls. The font for the form control content is independent from the font of the paragraph. You can set a underline in the font options in the form control properties. BTW, in case you want a fill-in-the-blank text, then I would expect an input-field or a place-holder field. Form controls are elements to connect to a data base or submit data to a server.
I had not discovered input-fields. (Thanks, Regina.) They would be perfect for what I want, except... It looks like they cannot be fixed-width. Or can they? I need fixed-width so the paragraphs in my form don't re-wrap, which would cause chaos.
@Heiko Tietze, what should we do with this issue ? it's in NEEDINFO status now...
Providing Regina's comment 6 we should introduce a button next to border (like we do for other options) that allows to tweak the border of form controls.