Description:
Switching between portrait and landscape format is not reliable in LO Writer (main bug) and unable to create a Table Style in the stylesheet (side finding)

Probably the problem also exists in earlier versions of LO Writer.

These four bugs appeared when I tried to format an annual report. There one usually has parts, which fit well only on a sheet in landscape format, such as the balance sheet, the income statement and the statement of changes in assets.

But most of the attachments of the annual report can be displayed very well in portrait format, because then you can read the text much better than if you print it single-column or even double column in landscape format. However, they often extend beyond the right margin of the defined paper format.

Appendices to the financial statements also often contain tables (e.g. in the case of provisions for pensions and similar obligations, in the remaining terms of liabilities and in the list of holdings). Most of these tables can also be displayed well in portrait format. However, if the original report is broader than what fits on a page in portrait orientation, parts of those table extend past the right end of the page and they can not be seen completely (which I consider to be a bug).

I tried to define a table format with 17 cm width, not allowing rows to split across page breaks (the second of the two checkboxes unset) and Vertical alignment “top”. However, I could not create a new table style in the Styles menu under Table Styles. No Table style exists and if I right-click on the styles-list for Table Styles, all five offered choices are greyed out. This is another bug.

After formatting the appearance of a table to these specifications, I could create such a style by using New style from selection. I named it 17cm. However, when I apply this style to other tables extending past the right margin of the page, the table still does not shrink to 17 cm. This is just another bug.

Now the main bug which to be reported:

If the page format for the whole document is set to portrait, you can switch to landscape format this way:

Insert>Manual Breaks>Manual break... >Page Break, select Page Style as Landscape.

After such a landscape section you switch back to portrait format like this

Insert>Manual Breaks>Manual break... >Page Break, select Page Style as Default Page Style.

But this does not work reliably. It might be that it only happens after a file is stored and read back, but it might also happen during application of portrait/landscape to different sections of a text. I might have experienced that but I was unable to reproduce it. In the attachment you find an example which had been successfully formatted with several switches of orientation and I noted every single step to create it.

Steps to Reproduce:
1.Go to a source for financial statements e.g. https://www.unternehmensregister.de/ureg/ to locate the annual report of the Öttinger Brauerei GmbH registered at Amtsgericht Augsburg HRB 759. Select “Jahresabschluss zum Geschäftsjahr vom 01.01.2018 bis zum 31.12.2018“ (or take any other reasonablx large annual report of an at least middle sized enterprise – unfortunately I can’t provide you with the link to my example since the web server of Unternehmensregister creates another one in each session).
Mark the whole report and copy it to the clipboard.
2.paste it special from the clipboard to a new LO Writer document as HTML
3.go to page 5 to the begin of line "Gewinn- und Verlustrechnung für das Geschäftsjahr 2018" and enter a manual pagebreak switching to landscape orientation. The headline and the table will be on page 6 then.
4. go to page number 7 an insert a manual page break switching back to the default at the beginning of the headline "Bestätigungsvermerk des unabhängigen Abschlussprüfers".
5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 for the balance sheet and for the balance sheet ca page 11 and after it, ca page 14.
6. Unfortunately the three tables on pp 7-10 are broader than the paper. So one has to change the table properties to width 17 cm such that they fit. Unfortunately they extend beyond the right margin of the set page such that they are clipped (which I consider to be a bug).
7. Also set the vertical alignment to “top” and unset the checkbox allowing to split rows.
8. Since it is impossible to add a new style by Manage Styles>TableStyles>Right click / New to create such a table style from scratch, it is still possible to make one through the tool above the styles list named “New Style from Selection”. I called it “17cm”
9. Apply the made 17cm table style to any of the other tables below which are cropped at the page margin: they are not reduced to 17 cm width!
10. Stored the file.
11. re open it.

Actual Results:
3. The page format for page 5f becomes landscape
4. The page format for page 7ff becomes portrait again
5. Below the inserted manual page break the page becomes landscape, but I had to do that twice in order to work such that the table appears in landscape. A superfluous empty page appeared through the doble manualpage break. I could remove the fris one of them wthout affecting the appearance of the landscape formatted part after it. The page break below the balance sheet reverted the rest of the document to portrait format.
6. the three other tables extended past the right margin of the paper. After reducing their width, they look good, however they use different typefaces than the rest of the text (paragraph style is Table content rather than Default text).
8. new table style is created.
9. but it does not work when applied. I had to do it manually for each of those tables.
10. file is stored.
11. file is re-opened. But the landscape oriented pages are gone!

Expected Results:
I expected to be able to create a table style 17 cm wide with proper text flow properties and apply it to tables which usually tit on a page.

I expected the formatting that was stored in step 10 be present after re-loading the file in step 11.


Reproducible: Always


User Profile Reset: No



Additional Info:
Version: 7.1.0.0.alpha0+
Build ID: 31bc29b99c3987949794fa3a17c77928427bff4a
CPU threads: 4; OS: Linux 5.3; UI render: default; VCL: gtk3
Locale: de-DE (de_DE.UTF-8); UI: en-GB
TinderBox: Linux-rpm_deb-x86_64@86-TDF, Branch:master, Time: 2020-07-05_10:11:14
Calc: threaded