Bug 153634 - Page styles: create new "duplicate" copy style
Summary: Page styles: create new "duplicate" copy style
Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX
Alias: None
Product: LibreOffice
Classification: Unclassified
Component: Writer (show other bugs)
Version:
(earliest affected)
7.6.0.0 alpha0+
Hardware: All All
: medium enhancement
Assignee: Not Assigned
URL:
Whiteboard:
Keywords: needsUXEval
Depends on:
Blocks: Writer-Styles-Page
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Reported: 2023-02-15 12:59 UTC by peter josvai
Modified: 2023-05-16 09:52 UTC (History)
2 users (show)

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Description peter josvai 2023-02-15 12:59:28 UTC
hi,

it would be great if we could create a copy of a style...

like: "duplicate".. which would create a style with the same name with the added suffix: "(copy)"...
and for tidiness' sake, only one such copy could exist at a time :)


Yesterday I wrote this post but I realized that someone had already suggested this... and turned out, it had been me... see "bug 152189"
(it was an enhancement suggestion)

and I read the responses, and although I didn't like the fact that 
a "work around" is suggested as the way of doing something, 
I said to myself, okay, I can live with this...

BUT today I wanted to do exactly this, to crate a style which is a copy 
of a style...

it was a page style, format: A5,
then "new" (create new), and the new style was A4 format...
also, the margins are different, too

this wouldn't happen if "duplicate" (create of a copy of this style) was an available menu option... 

my argument: look at firefox, right click on a tab, and see there is "Duplicate", even though it could be possible to just open a new tab and copy paste the URL of the original tab...


this doesn't seem to be a difficult thing to do...
and lacking it really forces the writers to use a "work around"...

now, to really elucidate what's needed, 
the real thing would be "copy attributes" (copy a style's attributes), and paste  them over another style... but this would be destructive, causing annoyances 
big time.. hence the mild version: "duplicate", cause then an identical style will be right there... which anybody could perceive clearly:

"this style (copy)"

and there would be no need to go check whether the new style is the same...

and wouldn't have to edit the "inherit from" field..

I mean, 
when you edit something, copy and paste are the BASIC actions...
right now, we can edit the styles, as single items, but not the styles as a collection... cause you cannot copy and paste a style...

____________
and here is my explanation why I've written this post again today, despite I'm aware that this feature had already been suggested, and turned down:

imagine a business user from India, calling in, how do I duplicate this style?
and imagine someone explaining "you can't do it directly, but there's a work around... create new style from this one... give it a name... and go find it.. in the newly created "directory" under that style's name.. or, if the original style is the default style, you'll find it on the same directory level...
anyway, find it... and now open it for editing...
and change it's "inherit from" field's current value...
change it to the same.. as the original style has .. in this field...
and voila! you have just created a copy of your style!
thanks for using Libreoffice Writer...


and then imagine the same guy calling back after an hour saying...
I did what you suggested...
but the new style's page format is A4 whereas the original had A5...

and then the help desk guy would say, oh, I see, but this is not how it's intended to work, this is just a bug... which you can file...
but normally this should work like a charm!

I hope you sense that I'm joking, no offense

I really-really appreciate Libreoffice Writer!
thank you for developing it!!
Comment 1 Dieter 2023-03-02 07:11:30 UTC
Since LO doesn't know inherited page styles (feature request in bug 41316), the method described in bug 152189 doesn't work. So we should rethink previous decision - at least for page styles

cc: Design-Team
Comment 2 Heiko Tietze 2023-03-02 08:20:06 UTC
If you create a new style it takes all attributes from the parent making it effectively a copy. I still think such a duplicate function is misleading. => WF/DUP (keeping open for a while to gather more input)
Comment 3 Dieter 2023-03-02 08:33:09 UTC
But you don't have a parent page style.
Comment 4 Heiko Tietze 2023-03-02 09:30:09 UTC
In this case you create it from resp. as a duplicate of the default PgS. Don't see much benefit in duplicating the Left Page, for example.
Comment 5 Dieter 2023-03-05 12:02:01 UTC
Peter, any additional remarks or should we close it as WONTFIX?
=> NEEDINFO
Comment 6 Heiko Tietze 2023-05-16 09:52:07 UTC
No further input, resolving WF.