When considering documents abstractly (i.e. not in the ODF spec) reference-able entities are often ranges, with a start and end point. It could be a range of pages, a range of numbered paragraphs, or the range between two marked points in the document. In ODF itself, we have bookmarks, which are actually a range rather than a point. Yet - references are only allowed to consider one point (the starting or single point) of the referenced range; see Regina's comment #3 in bug 156536, and the link she points to [1]. I argue it should be possible to refer to either a point or a range, with a range reference involving information about both endpoints (and being a single reference). For example, "43--51" could be the text of a reference to numbered paragraphs beginning with 43 and ending with 51. [1] : https://docs.oasis-open.org/office/OpenDocument/v1.3/os/part3-schema/OpenDocument-v1.3-os-part3-schema.html#attribute-text_reference-format
Regina, what is you opinion on this?
I have no strong opinion on it in regard to ODF. The steps would be: 1. Find a developer. 2. The developer discusses the feature with the ODF TC. 3. The developer implements it with "loext" prefix in private namespace. 4. The developer writes a formal request to the ODF TC. 5. The ODF TC puts it in the draft standard. 6. At least three applications have it implemented. 7. The ODF TC includes it in the next version of the standard. A total different way would be to provide an assistance to the user to create a from-to text with actually using two bookmarks, so that the user need not set them himself. Such would be possible as extension. So for bugtracker, I'm not against accepting the enhancement request. But I doubt, that someone will work on it.
(In reply to Regina Henschel from comment #2) > A total different way would be to provide an assistance to the user to > create a from-to text with actually using two bookmarks, so that the user > need not set them himself. Such would be possible as extension. That would not solve the problem of referring to the end of the range. The only way to achieve this would be to double all bookmarks, creating a second, artificial bookmark after each actual bookmark. > So for bugtracker, I'm not against accepting the enhancement request. But I > doubt, that someone will work on it. Then - I will take the liberty of marking as NEW... There are lots of valid enhancements and even bug reports with nobody working on them for years. Hopefully this will find a caretaker sooner rather than later.