Bug 156896 - ENHANCEMENT: allow "numbering followed by new line" for all list styles
Summary: ENHANCEMENT: allow "numbering followed by new line" for all list styles
Status: UNCONFIRMED
Alias: None
Product: LibreOffice
Classification: Unclassified
Component: Writer (show other bugs)
Version:
(earliest affected)
6.1.0.3 release
Hardware: All All
: low enhancement
Assignee: Not Assigned
URL:
Whiteboard:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks: Bullet-Number-Outline-Lists
  Show dependency treegraph
 
Reported: 2023-08-24 15:53 UTC by ajlittoz
Modified: 2023-10-30 13:30 UTC (History)
6 users (show)

See Also:
Crash report or crash signature:


Attachments
Failure to center number appendices on separate lines (34.89 KB, application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.text)
2023-10-29 08:52 UTC, ajlittoz
Details

Note You need to log in before you can comment on or make changes to this bug.
Description ajlittoz 2023-08-24 15:53:40 UTC
A recent (!) update extended the Position settings in Tools>Chapter Numbering with the possibility to insert a new line after the numbering.

The same setting option should be extended to all list styles.

- Chapter numbering is nothing else than a list style after all (even if it has additional properties, like association of a specific paragraph style to each level)
- ordinary list styles are needed for chapter numbering in order to change the kind of numbering

The typical use case is chapters with numeric numbering and appendices with alphabetical numbering. This is achieved by duplicating the *Heading n* family of paragraph styles and associating them with a dedicated list style.

Unfortunately, when the new line feature has been used in chapters, it is presently impossible to have the same unified presentation in appendices.

IMHO, there is no reason not to offer this possibility in "ordinary" list styles.
Comment 1 Dieter 2023-09-06 17:07:07 UTC
I disagree. I know there is a lot of chaoter numbering with a format like

Chapter 1
This is just a dummy text

But I'm not sure, that I've ever seen a list in this way. But I think it's up to design team to decide
Comment 2 Heiko Tietze 2023-09-07 08:11:46 UTC
Not much for UX, rather a question whether ODF allows it. The feature was implemented by Nithin for bug 112384.

(In reply to ajlittoz from comment #0)
> Unfortunately, when the new line feature has been used in chapters, it is
> presently impossible to have the same unified presentation in appendices.
Or in the ToC. But like Dieter I also don't see a real use case.
Comment 3 ajlittoz 2023-09-07 08:30:33 UTC
I agree with Dieter that I never saw a list formatted like this.

The point is to be able to have a common formatting between chapters with numeric numbers and appendices with alphabetical "numbers", such as:

       1
  First Chapter
…
       7
 Seventh Chapter

       A
 First Appendix

Due to the change in numbering between chapters and appendices, this can't be done with unmodified Heading_n which reference the internal Chapter_Numbering list style. A second family of paragraph styles Appendix_n must be created and this family is attached to an Appendix_Numbering list style so that level 1 can be numbered A, B, C, … which is different from the number sequence in Chapter_Numbering.

Presently, due to the limitation in list style "Number followed by" in Position tab, this uniformity can't be achieved.

This is the main use case. I deem it sufficiently important and frequent to deserve consideration.
Comment 4 Stéphane Guillou (stragu) 2023-10-28 09:07:26 UTC
(In reply to ajlittoz from comment #3)
> The point is to be able to have a common formatting between chapters with
> numeric numbers and appendices with alphabetical "numbers"

Makes sense to me, thanks for clarifying.
Any chance you could provide an example file to illustrate the use case?

(In reply to Heiko Tietze from comment #2)
> Not much for UX, rather a question whether ODF allows it.

Regina, what do you think?
Comment 5 ajlittoz 2023-10-29 08:52:23 UTC
Created attachment 190490 [details]
Failure to center number appendices on separate lines

(In reply to Stéphane Guillou (stragu) from comment #4)
> (In reply to ajlittoz from comment #3)
> 
> Makes sense to me, thanks for clarifying.
> Any chance you could provide an example file to illustrate the use case?
> 
Since it is presently impossible to achieve the desired layout, my example file shows a centered chapter heading with its number on the preceding line.

Two workarounds are explored, both fail.

The simplest solution, avoiding workarounds which are sensitive to Writer evolution, is to allow "followed by new line" in any list style.

The fact that it does not make sense in ordinary lists (and I am not sure of it) should not be an obstacle. By default, the setting is initialised at "followed by tab stop" which is correct for most users.