Bug 170479 - 'All' button on Writer's Table of Contents' Entries' page
Summary: 'All' button on Writer's Table of Contents' Entries' page
Status: ASSIGNED
Alias: None
Product: LibreOffice
Classification: Unclassified
Component: Writer (show other bugs)
Version:
(earliest affected)
unspecified
Hardware: All All
: medium minor
Assignee: dolezvo1
URL:
Whiteboard: target:26.8.0
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks: TableofContents-Indexes
  Show dependency treegraph
 
Reported: 2026-01-26 10:02 UTC by dolezvo1
Modified: 2026-03-08 09:43 UTC (History)
3 users (show)

See Also:
Crash report or crash signature:


Attachments
Screenshot (112.87 KB, image/png)
2026-01-26 10:25 UTC, Heiko Tietze
Details

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Description dolezvo1 2026-01-26 10:02:42 UTC
Description:
The 'All' button on Writer's Table of Contents' Entries' page is currently poorly labeled and poorly placed.

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Open Writer's Table of Contents' Entries' page

Actual Results:
'All' button is poorly labeled and poorly placed

Expected Results:
The label should first of all indicate more clearly what the button does. That would make it more obvious that it is also located in a strange place compared to what it does


Reproducible: Always


User Profile Reset: No

Additional Info:
I already submitted a possible solution: https://gerrit.libreoffice.org/c/core/+/197399
Comment 1 Heiko Tietze 2026-01-26 10:22:14 UTC
"All" is "Apply this structure to all levels" or shorter "Apply to All". It refers to the structure modifications rather than the level so I hesitate with placing it underneath the Level list, which has a benefit on the layout though.
Comment 2 Heiko Tietze 2026-01-26 10:25:10 UTC
Created attachment 205174 [details]
Screenshot

Current ToC entries dialog (in the background) vs. proposed change in https://gerrit.libreoffice.org/c/core/+/197399
Comment 3 dolezvo1 2026-01-26 11:21:56 UTC
Personally I thought for the longest time that was something with selecting all items of the structure - I think a verb is a definite must there. I think it is more clear what is meant when the button is located near the elements that are being applied to, rather than the elements that are being applied, if that makes sense. I also think 'Apply to all' is not specific enough in terms of what the 'all' actually is - I could very well imagine a button labelled 'Apply to all' to apply the levels to all Tables of contents in the document instead.
Comment 4 Heiko Tietze 2026-02-03 12:05:26 UTC
No further comment, the doer decides.

My take: better label makes sense, placing below the levels does not thrills me (but not opposing either).
Comment 5 dolezvo1 2026-02-03 12:15:24 UTC
I recognize the proposed location is not perfect and it's up for debate as far as I'm concerned. I could see it being located above the Ok and Cancel buttons, for example.

Also thought to mention that the numbering window does something similar with its levels in a completely different way: it allows the user to select multiple levels at once, changes affecting all of the selected levels.
Comment 6 Heiko Tietze 2026-02-06 07:22:19 UTC
We discussed the topic in the design meeting.

The changed label is welcome. As for the positioning you may place the button either at the end of the attributes frame; to not dislodge from the content maybe below Character Style since the Format frame is not dependent to levels.

As an alternative idea the button could be changed into a checkbox and placed underneath the levels, ie. "[ ] Apply to All Level". If checked, the changes are automatically applied to all levels. As well as on the first click to check.
Comment 7 dolezvo1 2026-02-08 08:32:12 UTC
I wasn't aware of this until you mentioned it, but the fact that the Format has nothing to do with the Level seems wrong. Would it make sense to move the Format/Sort By section onto a separate new page of the Table of Contents window?
Comment 8 Heiko Tietze 2026-02-09 08:02:04 UTC
OO help: Tab position relative to Paragraph Style indent
When this option is selected, entries are indented according to the
settings of their individual formats. Where a paragraph style with an
indent on the left is in use, tab stops will be relative to this indent. If
this option is not selected, tab stops will be relative to the left margin
position.

Sounds as if this options belongs to Styles. However, bug 134743 claims 'Table of Contents - "Tab position relative to paragraph style format" stops working'. 

My take: Manage this option in an extra patch. Solution could be to hide (or to fix the issue) and/or to move to Styles or Columns (and maybe rename this tab to Formatting).
Comment 9 Commit Notification 2026-02-19 08:48:23 UTC
Vojtěch Doležal committed a patch related to this issue.
It has been pushed to "master":

https://git.libreoffice.org/core/commit/ed7460c6d73d40026a1e16f4a4424b67d260cdea

tdf#170479 - Move and rename Writer's Entries' page 'All' button

It will be available in 26.8.0.

The patch should be included in the daily builds available at
https://dev-builds.libreoffice.org/daily/ in the next 24-48 hours. More
information about daily builds can be found at:
https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Testing_Daily_Builds

Affected users are encouraged to test the fix and report feedback.
Comment 10 Buovjaga 2026-03-08 09:43:10 UTC
Vojtěch: can you check, if the button is referenced in Help and if so, update the references?