Bug 163097 - FILEOPEN: footnote positioning options unavailable after DOC/DOCX import
Summary: FILEOPEN: footnote positioning options unavailable after DOC/DOCX import
Status: UNCONFIRMED
Alias: None
Product: LibreOffice
Classification: Unclassified
Component: Writer (show other bugs)
Version:
(earliest affected)
24.8.1.2 release
Hardware: All All
: medium minor
Assignee: Not Assigned
URL:
Whiteboard:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2024-09-22 20:17 UTC by Andrew Bower
Modified: 2024-09-23 08:15 UTC (History)
1 user (show)

See Also:
Crash report or crash signature:


Attachments
Page Style 'Footnotes' tab missing options (29.47 KB, image/png)
2024-09-22 20:22 UTC, Andrew Bower
Details
Page Style 'Footnotes' tab as it should be (37.76 KB, image/png)
2024-09-22 20:22 UTC, Andrew Bower
Details

Note You need to log in before you can comment on or make changes to this bug.
Description Andrew Bower 2024-09-22 20:17:58 UTC
Description:
If a Writer document has at any point been imported from DOC or DOCX then the following options (all related to size and positioning) are no longer available to control from the Footnote Page Style options UI.

Further, these options are not honoured in the rendering of documents on affected versions if their settings have been restored and re-saved by an unaffected version.

* Space to text
* Position
* Length
* Spacing to footnote contents

The missing options are not restored if the document is re-saved and reloaded as ODF and are not available for new Page Styles either.

This appears to be a regression since 7.0.4 as all the affected options are available in 7.0.4 when an affected document is opened and the features are rendered correctly. Documents saved by later versions retain the setting for these options and continue to render correctly in 7.0.4.

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Save a new, empty document in both ODF and DOCX formats.
2. Close the document.
3. Open the ODF document and DOCX documents.

Actual Results:
The relevant options will be available in the opened ODF documents.
The relevant options will not be available in the opened DOCX documents.

Expected Results:
The relevant options will be available in the opened DOCX document.
The relevant options will be available in the opened ODF document.



Reproducible: Always


User Profile Reset: No

Additional Info:
FAILING VERSION

Version: 24.8.1.2 (X86_64) / LibreOffice Community
Build ID: 480(Build:2)a
CPU threads: 24; OS: Linux 6.8; UI render: default; VCL: gtk3
Locale: en-GB (en_GB.UTF-8); UI: en-US
Ubuntu package version: 4:24.8.1-0ubuntu0.22.04.1~lo1
Calc: threaded

UNAFFECTED VERSION

Version: 7.0.4.2
Build ID: 00(Build:2)
CPU threads: 1; OS: Linux 5.10; UI render: default; VCL: x11
Locale: en-GB (en_GB.UTF-8); UI: en-US
Debian package version: 1:7.0.4-4+deb11u10
Calc: threaded
Comment 1 Andrew Bower 2024-09-22 20:22:06 UTC
Created attachment 196618 [details]
Page Style 'Footnotes' tab missing options
Comment 2 Andrew Bower 2024-09-22 20:22:43 UTC
Created attachment 196619 [details]
Page Style 'Footnotes' tab as it should be
Comment 3 m_a_riosv 2024-09-22 21:46:01 UTC
Once the file was a DOCX the options for Footnote are not recovered in ODT, even after restarting LO.

Version: 25.2.0.0.alpha0+ (X86_64) / LibreOffice Community
Build ID: 5b54f68599d9a9b6f4d21fd8c0cdac746ea71ecb
CPU threads: 16; OS: Windows 11 X86_64 (10.0 build 22631); UI render: Skia/Raster; VCL: win
Locale: es-ES (es_ES); UI: en-US
Calc: CL threaded
Comment 4 Andrew Bower 2024-09-22 21:54:47 UTC
Changing the 'ContinuousEndnotes' config option from true to false in FODT fixes the issue for affected documents. It is not obvious how this option can be cleared from the UI.

<config:config-item config:name="ContinuousEndnotes" config:type="boolean">false</config:config-item>

I have also confirmed that this bug is not an issue in 24.2.5, so presumably it is a regression from the fix to bug 58521!

LATEST UNAFFECTED RELEASE

Version: 24.2.5.2 (X86_64) / LibreOffice Community
Build ID: 420(Build:2)
CPU threads: 4; OS: Linux 6.10; UI render: default; VCL: gtk3
Locale: en-GB (en_GB.UTF-8); UI: en-GB
Debian package version: 4:24.2.5-4
Calc: threaded
Comment 5 Miklos Vajna 2024-09-23 07:17:21 UTC
If you edit a document imported from Word, the default UI will hide the options that would have no effect, anyway. You can change this default behavior by going to:

Tools -> Options -> Writer -> Compatibility -> "Render endnotes at the end of the document"

and unticking the checkbox. Does that help?

If we would show these options by default, then the other group of people will complain, arguing that they just opened their Word file, they set something on the UI and it has no effect, which would be buggy.
Comment 6 Andrew Bower 2024-09-23 08:05:39 UTC
Thanks! Yes, I found the UI for the option after I posted. This works fine for a workaround, so I would agree that the bug could be downgraded to minor on this basis.

I am sure it is correct that switching the default back would just be a game of whack-a-mole.

However, it is unclear why endnote and footnote users should have their fate linked in this way. Does the implementation of ContinuousEndnotes necessarily prevent footnote positioning from being controlled by the user?