Suppose I'm writing a document. This document is to be used either in a PDF, where individual pages are viewed sequentially, not facing each other or away from each other; or it is to be printed, the pages will be stacked one before the next, and read one page at a time, without the pages facing each other, nor laid out in some horizontal direction. Let's assume for the sake of this example that, when printed, only one side of each sheet will be used.

This is not a rare use case - it is quite a common one.

So, in the page style(s) I use in this document, what kind of page layout do I want?

Let's consider our options (as of 26.2 nightlies these days):

* "Right and Left" - Nope, my pages are neither "Right" nor "Left". And WTF is "Right and Left" anyway? Is the same page supposed to be both "Right" and "Left" at the same time? Do they altertnate? ... with both readings - don't want this. Now, the preview shows just a single page, as opposed to other options, which show pairs of pages, so this is fishy. Let's get back to this option later on.
* "Mirrored" - I don't want to mirror anything. Also, the preview shows me two pages, and my document won't be used with pairs of pages being side-by-side. So, no.
* "Only Right" - I said I want neither "Right" nor "Left", as my pages don't have a "Right" nor a "Left" orientation. Plus, the preview shows me two pages, on two sheets, and my document won't be used with pairs of sheets being side-by-side. 
* "Only Left" - Same point as for "Only Right"

... and that's it! No other options :-(


Now, one might say: "Well, just think of Right and Left as neither-right-nor-left". I could live with that, in which case this would be a UI labeling issue. But - that's not actually the case. Here are some indications:

* Follow the instruction in Bug 117231 comment 58, but Octavio Alvarez. You'll see that when forcing a page number on a new page, Writer might force a blank page between them - as it assumes that alternating pages must have odd and even numbers respectively, i.e. pages are always paired up somehow. 
* I still see a "Gutter" setting, which is only relevant when you have a spine, and thus your page is either left-of-spine or right-of-spine (or top or bottom, but let's not get into that).
* If you navigate to the Header or Footer tab for your page style, you'll see a toggle for "same content for left and right pages"; this should be either grayed out or removed, if there _are_ no "Left" pages or "Right" pages (whatever that means).

Finally, the wording in the ODF spec also suggests that there are still "Left" and "Right" pages in your document when you choose "Left-and-Right" (a.k.a. style:page-usage="all"). So this is also a problem at the ODF level