Description: This request is primarily about allowing better integration of Writer with search tools like Recoll, ripgrep-all, etc. I admit this is likely a niche use case. Right now, there are the following issues with the command line interface (to the best of my knowledge): - Text extraction via --text (or the equivalent --convert-to) does not contain separators between pages, so there is no way for an indexer to collect page number during indexing. - This is possible for PDFs as pdftotext from poppler-utils insert separators between pages, and also have a page range arguments, allowing page-by-page text dump. - I find the second option (explicit page number command line arguments) to be clearer in what behaviour to expect. For instance, I don't know what happens if the separator sequence appears in PDF content - does pdftotext escape the sequence? - No way to ask Writer to jump to a specific page when opening document file. - This is possible for PDFs as most PDF viewers accept a page argument to open to. - Passing page number when launching a PDF viewer is the primary way for search tools to make user experience as smooth as possible. - No way to ask Writer to begin a search. - This is possible for PDFs as most PDF viewers accept a search argument at launch. - This is a step further from above, but some search tools (namely Recoll) try to jump to the search result (or as close as possible) by also picking a word to search for on top of picking a page to go to. Suggested additions: - Page number arguments for start and end page range for text extraction (or conversion in general). - Page number argument to open to at launch. - Argument to specify string to search for at launch. This argument is processed after the above page number argument. Steps to Reproduce: N/A Actual Results: N/A Expected Results: N/A Reproducible: Always User Profile Reset: No Additional Info: N/A
Darren, thank you for your ideas (sorry, but I don't understand it, because - as you've written - it's a niche use case). Please make sure, that problem still existes in actual version LO 24.2. Not sure, if it should be the aim of LO to fully interact with a lot of other programs like the search tools you've mentioned. What about the extension AltSearch. Does it fit your needs?
> Please make sure, that problem still existes in actual version LO 24.2. As far as I know, there is no way to specify page numbers via command line in LO 24.2 either. > Not sure, if it should be the aim of LO to fully interact with a lot of other programs like the search tools you've mentioned. Yep very fair, that's understandable. > What about the extension AltSearch. Does it fit your needs? Unfortunately no - but writing an extension is an idea I have not thought about, so I might explore that path actually. Thanks!