hi, 

there is perhaps nothing as annoying as the CTRL+i problem.
it is even more annoying as one can forget how she/he has solved it before, and stand there again, in front of the same outrageously annoying problem:

sometimes de-italic-ing a selection seems impossible, 
and once it is achieved, clearing all direct formatting will bring it back..


of course, we know what causes this situation, and also know that only if we have both the formatting and formatting (styles) toolbar active, can we solve this..

but the question remains how long do we keep to direct formatting in terms of bold and italic...?

:::::::: suggestions:

 #1:
CTRL+b should mean:   strong
CTRL+i shoud mean emphasis

 #2:
strong + emphasis together should be available, too

 #3:
an internal " '"old' document format" should be established
in which "old bold" and "old italic" should be handled the old way
without the request to "upgrade" to the new standard...

internal = the same ODT thing but wit a "flag" within the file

 #4:
the "old" document format would be indicated at the document name, top bad of the window:  "doc_title.odt - Libreoffice Writer (o) 

 #5
 when customizing the toolbars, in the styles formatting toolbar the old bold and italic should net be present, strikethrough either

 #6
the TWO formatting toolbars would have a radio-button style indicator, clickable, at the beginning of the row... "I." AND "II." in a circle,
and the person using the application could choose to have styles formatting tool bar, as well as styles based formatting as default, which would mean that the "primary" toolbar would be the styles toolbar...

and once this mode is engaged, CTRL+b would mean strong, CTRL+i italic (emphasis)
 
 #7
 when a document is being opened in such an instance of Writer, switched to "advanced mode", NO popup would be necessary, of course, but an indication at the window title could show up: instead of (o), (A) -- not "old", but "Advanced", using styles not direct formatting

 #8
when the "Advanced mode" is active, "bold" and "italic" silently would turned into "strong" and "emphasis", bold+italic to strong + emphasis..

 #9
in #8 we just have come to a "conversion", an internal conversion, which can be used for tons of other things as well... in the future... 




PLEASE don't take these suggestions as concrete and direct ideas... but instead, view them as suggestions along which a "problem" could be identified and thought about...

                   & thank you for developing Writer!