In the context of the lengthy discussions in https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=125268 I went to the documentation at https://help.libreoffice.org/7.0/en-US/text/shared/optionen/01130200.html and found that a little, um, dense: "Microsoft Office has two character attributes similar to LibreOfficeDev character background. Select the appropriate attribute (highlighting or shading) which you would like to use during export to Microsoft Office file formats." It would be great to enhance this and guide which choice to make in what case. I am not an expert, but definitely volunteer to help assess any changes on whether they would have helped clarify the situation for me as a user. Perhaps the following suggested addition can be a start? "Shading tries to maintain color fidelity between LibreOffice and Microsoft Office to the extent possible. Choose this if interoperability is your primary concern. Highlighting uses a brighter color palette when exporting to Microsoft Office formats, which makes text stand out more strongly while creating more of a visual difference. Choose this if your priority is the highlighting effect over visual fidelity."
Code is in https://opengrok.libreoffice.org/xref/help/source/text/shared/optionen/01130200.xhp?r=e1867b2c&mo=4879&fi=63#63
"Highlighting only supports a limited number of colours, but it matches the normal tool that Word uses to add or remove character backgrounds, so in most cases this is the better, interoperable choice." "Shading maintains colour fidelity at all costs. Only use shading if MS Word users will not be editing the document."
@Gerald -- good suggestion -- and thanks for proposing some text...which seems to contradict what Justin has written. (In reply to Justin L from comment #2) Thanks for suggestions. A few questions of clarification... > "Highlighting ... matches the normal tool that Word uses to add or remove > character backgrounds, This means that Word users can edit character highlighting (made with LO "Highight Color") with no surprises? > Only use shading if MS Word users will not be editing the document." Should this be interpreted to mean "not editing at all" or "not editing the places where character highlighting was applied"?
According to https://help.libreoffice.org/7.2/en-US/text/shared/optionen/01130200.html "Microsoft Office has two character attributes similar to LibreOffice character background." @Mike -- is this accurate? Shouldn't it be "LibreOffice character highlighting"? or maybe "paragraph background"?
(In reply to sdc.blanco from comment #4) > "Microsoft Office has two character attributes similar to LibreOffice > character background." > > Is this accurate? Shouldn't it be "LibreOffice character highlighting"? > or maybe "paragraph background"? Don't mix "paragraph" into this. Paragraph highlighting is a completely different setting in both Word and LibreOffice. (It is the "area" tab in the paragraph style. The highlighting tab in the paragraph style is the character property that we are discussing here.) So yes, character highlighting is the better term to use since it matches the tab and toolbar names.
Two user-visible issues here: 1. Word's two attributes that define character background have different color repertoire. Shading can represent any RGB color, while highlighting only allows using 16 colors. The issue here is the fidelity of the color; user needs to consider if keeping applied color unchanged is more important (one aspect of interoperability, mentioned by comment 0: is the document interoperable in the sense that its character background looks identically in both suites, with shading being more "interoperable" in this aspect). 2. Word's two attributes have different usability, making highlighting very prominent, while keeping shading well-hidden. This makes a Word user confused when shading is present in the document, and user tries to use the familiar highlighting tool to remove the color without success, without realizing that their tool (Word) has more controls (another aspect of interoperability, mentioned in comment 2: can the users of the other suite *easily handle* this visual effect, with highlighting being more "interoperable" in this aspect). These two aspects do not "contradict" with each other, they complement each other to create a whole picture to consider.
Proposed text --------------------- Character Highlighting Microsoft Office has two character attributes similar to LibreOffice character highlighting. Use this control to select the attribute, highlighting or shading, that LibreOffice should use when exporting LibreOffice character highlighting to Microsoft Office file formats. Highlighting exports only 15 colors, using the Office character attribute that makes it easy for Office users to edit with the highlighting tool in Office applications. This is the default setting in LibreOffice 5.0 to 6.4. Shading exports all RGB colors to the other Office character attribute. This preserves color fidelity between LibreOffice and Microsoft Office documents, but Office users must edit this character attribute with a tool that is not commonly used or easy to find in Office applications. This is the default setting since LibreOffice 7.0. ------------ Comments: As implied from comment 6, what is "best" or "preferred" depends on what you are trying to do. Therefore, rather than trying to tell LO users what to use, it seems better to simply provide sufficient relevant information for LO users to make an informed choice, according to their situation. @Gerald, and others -- what do you think?
(In reply to sdc.blanco from comment #7) > Highlighting exports only 15 colors A nitpick: there are 16 possible values mandated by MS documentation, plus "none": black blue cyan green magenta red yellow white darkBlue darkCyan darkGreen darkMagenta darkRed darkYellow darkGray lightGray none So 16, not 15.
(In reply to sdc.blanco from comment #7) > Highlighting exports only 15 colors, using the Office character attribute > that makes it easy for Office users to edit with the highlighting tool in > Office applications. This is the default setting in LibreOffice 5.0 to 6.4. We need to add here that when this option is selected, actual color used in LO will be changed into the closest match from the available highlighting colors.
(In reply to Mike Kaganski from comment #8) > So 16, not 15. Right you are. I always just trusted Tamás Zolnai when he corrected himself and say "15 colours actually) in bug 125268 comment 10. So actually his MS compatible palette in LO should add white as a colour too.
(In reply to Justin L from comment #10) > I always just trusted Tamás Zolnai when he corrected himself > and say "15 colours actually) in bug 125268 comment 10. > > So actually his MS compatible palette in LO should add white as a colour too. There might be opinions; white is not offered by MS Word's Highlight control palette, so in a sense, Word actually only offers 15 colors (in GUI) ... no idea how to handle this additional Word quirk, maybe sticking to what its GUI has is OK.
Revised "highlighting" paragraph proposal (and thanks for confirming my speculation about how conversion was working.) ------ Highlighting exports the closest match between a LibreOffice highlighting color and one of the 16 Microsoft highlighting colors, using the Office character attribute that makes it easy for Office users to edit with the highlighting tool in Office applications. This is the default setting in LibreOffice 5.0 to 6.4. -------- Microsoft highlighting colors? or Office highlighting colors?
Maybe a <tip> at the end? The compatibility filter in the Character Highlighting Color dialog provides the Microsoft Office highlighting colors. Is that statement correct? (with correct terminology?) Rationale: Assumes that the observant help reader will be able to figure out: "use the compatibility filter to get color fidelity and ease of MS editing"
(In reply to sdc.blanco from comment #13) > Rationale: Assumes that... Do not assume anything about audience. Just state directly: "... use it to get the same colors when editing in LO as will be exported into MS formats ...". A small sentence will not hurt. Even if you think something makes text too long, do not omit it, but just make it expandable.
Revised tip proposal: ------------ The compatibility filter in the Character Highlighting Color dialog provides the Microsoft Office highlighting colors. Use those colors if you want both color fidelity and ease of editing for Office users. ---------------
Meanwhile -- the compatibility filter does not include "white" as noted in comment 10 -- and the tooltip labels for the colors do not correspond fully to the list in comment 8. Is that because the labels are wrong? (and not the colors)? I could not see any bug report filed about this. Should there be?
Sorry -- slightly more explicit, less ambiguous tip: ----------------- The compatibility filter in the Character Highlighting Color dialog provides the Microsoft Office highlighting colors. Use those colors and choose "Export as Highlighting" if you want both color fidelity and ease of editing for Office users.
(In reply to Mike Kaganski from comment #11) > Word actually only offers 15 colors (in GUI), maybe sticking to what its > GUI has is OK. Probably this is the best, especially since they have a different documented standard for DOC and DOCX - and use the wrong words to describe the RGB codes they use in some cases. For documentation purposes, I'll post here that I started http://gerrit.libreoffice.org/c/core/+/109666 tdf#125268: Add white to compatibility palette but I'm going to abandon it since it seems impossible to have a "right" answer.
(In reply to sdc.blanco from comment #7) > @Gerald, and others -- what do you think? This (= the original text with updates in later comments) really makes a difference and nicely explains the situation. It would have helped me quite a bit back then and hopefully will help new users in the future. Thank you!
Seth Chaiklin committed a patch related to this issue. It has been pushed to "master": https://git.libreoffice.org/help/commit/e9b5c5c090e4874daf878dd555329bfed6c07229 tdf#132695 export of character highlighting to MS Word - improve help
(In reply to Gerald Pfeifer from comment #19) Thanks very much for the feedback Gerald, and thanks to Justin and Mike for help with safe navigation through this colourful minefield.