Description: In bug 156274, it was agreed that "Table Properties | Table | Text Direction" is misnamed, since this sets the direction of the *table*, not the *text* in the table. There is another confusing, potentially broken thing about the options for this setting. In the dropbox, the options are: "Left-to-right (LTR)", "Right-to-left (RTL)", and "Use superordinate object settings." As far as I can tell, though, "use superordinate object settings" does nothing, and it's not even clear what it would mean in this case. All the help says about this setting (https://help.libreoffice.org/7.5/en-US/text/swriter/01/05090100.html?System=WIN&DbPAR=WRITER&HID=modules/swriter/ui/formattablepage/FormatTablePage#bm_id3149052) is: "Text direction Specify the text direction for a paragraph that uses complex text layout (CTL). This feature is only available if complex text layout support is enabled." A table isn't a paragraph, so it's not clear what the "superordinate object" would be. In practice, I tried this setting with the paragraph prior to the table being set to LTR and RTL, both using direct formatting and an RTL paragraph style, and nothing about the table direction (or direction of text in the table's cells) changed. This option should either be dropped or fixed. Steps to Reproduce: 1. Note the text direction of the current style (LTR or RTL). Press return. 2. Create a table. 3. Click on the table and go to Table | Table Properties. Note that "text direction" is set to whatever the text direction was when you created the table. 4. Set "text direction" to "use superordinate object settings." 5. Click on the previous paragraph. Change the text direction, either from LTR to RTL or RTL to LTR. 6. Go back to the table. Note that nothing about the table has changed -- neither the direction of the cells (i.e., whether pressing tab takes you to the right cell or left cell in LTR and RTL mode, respectively), nor the direction of the text in the cells. Actual Results: Nothing changes about the directionality of the table. Expected Results: The table should change direction to match the changed direction of the previous paragraph. (Or, better in my view, this option should not exist.) Reproducible: Always User Profile Reset: No Additional Info: Version: 7.5.3.2 (X86_64) / LibreOffice Community Build ID: 9f56dff12ba03b9acd7730a5a481eea045e468f3 CPU threads: 4; OS: Windows 6.1 Service Pack 1 Build 7601; UI render: Skia/Raster; VCL: win Locale: en-US (en_US); UI: en-US Calc: CL threaded
The "superordinate object" is the page (whose direction can be changed via Format > Page Style), or a frame - in case the table is placed inside it (and whose direction can be changed via Format > Frame and Object > Properties...).
Ah, thank you, that does indeed work. This is therefore a problem with the documentation, which does not specify (here or on the help for "Text Flow," where the option "use superordinate object settings" appears under Text orientation") what the superordinate object of a table is. Does this bug report suffice to report that documentation issue, or should I open a new one specific to the documentation problem?
Let's repurpose this one for documentation.
Change is in gerrit, waiting for review. https://gerrit.libreoffice.org/c/help/+/178059
Bogdan Buzea committed a patch related to this issue. It has been pushed to "master": https://git.libreoffice.org/help/commit/d1e72401e01866e317fa763f914d15ea9a277372 tdf#156317 Explain: Use superordinate object settings
Bogdan Buzea committed a patch related to this issue. It has been pushed to "libreoffice-25-2": https://git.libreoffice.org/help/commit/c67242bffd9fba199e6dd280b6605e5607fb5008 tdf#156317 Explain: Use superordinate object settings