Bug 171345 - Bullets and Numbering dialog: Add Apply button
Summary: Bullets and Numbering dialog: Add Apply button
Status: NEW
Alias: None
Product: LibreOffice
Classification: Unclassified
Component: Writer (show other bugs)
Version:
(earliest affected)
25.8.4.2 release
Hardware: All All
: medium enhancement
Assignee: Not Assigned
URL:
Whiteboard:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks: Apply-in-Dialogs Bullets-Numbering-Dialog
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Reported: 2026-03-16 12:17 UTC by Bernd Wechner
Modified: 2026-04-07 08:00 UTC (History)
2 users (show)

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Crash report or crash signature:


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Description Bernd Wechner 2026-03-16 12:17:44 UTC
Description:
The lack of this makes it very difficult to format custom lists. The position properties are all numbers with guesswork on visual impact and it would hep enormously to have an Apply button which applied the dialog settings and we could see their impact then tweak and apply, tweak and apply, rather than losing the dialog by clicking OK.

This strikes me as a fundamental UX shortfall. Apply buttons rock!

Steps to Reproduce:
1.On the toolbar click the drop down beside one of the list buttons (unordered or ordered, bullet or numbered)
2.Click Customize
3.The Bullets and Numbering dialog box is dispalyed


Actual Results:
It lacks an Apply button!

Expected Results:
I expect an Apply button.


Reproducible: Always


User Profile Reset: No

Additional Info:
Seriously good enhancement. Working with lists is hard as it is, let's make it a little easier.
Comment 1 Dieter 2026-03-31 18:29:11 UTC
I agree with the idea
=> NEW

but let's ask design-team for double-check
Comment 2 Heiko Tietze 2026-04-01 06:22:58 UTC
Similar request in bug 166390 "Conditional formatting dialog does not have an Apply button" probably going to be rejected since Apply is used on styles only. If, at all, this is a duplicate of bug 37336 "Add an "Apply" button to various dialog boxes (Writer, Draw etc.)".
Comment 3 Bernd Wechner 2026-04-01 08:23:40 UTC
Indeed I find Apply missing from too many dialogs. It makes changing settings and testing them a painful cycle of opening and closing a dialog.
Comment 4 Jean-Francois Nifenecker 2026-04-01 08:40:37 UTC
(In reply to Bernd Wechner from comment #3)
> Indeed I find Apply missing from too many dialogs. It makes changing
> settings and testing them a painful cycle of opening and closing a dialog.

Add my vote to this!
Comment 5 Bernd Wechner 2026-04-07 07:51:16 UTC
I'd even suggest it's likely trivial to implement. it's not much more than "OK" without closing the dialog!Which saves endless round tripping opening t again when changing settings to tune formatting. I might be wrong of course, it's easy to guess, without seeing the code base ;-)
Comment 6 Heiko Tietze 2026-04-07 08:00:21 UTC
(In reply to Heiko Tietze from bug 37336 comment #27)
> The idea of Apply is usually to revert changes in all tabs via Cancel
> (otherwise the function would be just work like Okay while keeping the
> dialog open). This is, however, not a feasible idea as it means to store
> each and every setting at the moment a dialog opens (and there are
> hundreds). 
> 
> The alternative is using inline previews (bug 37048) or to have individual
> controls that apply the modification on hover. Something like the font name
> picker or the paragraph style selector where these settings only are applied
> on hover but not become effective unless clicked.

The right way to implement this is to inline-apply changes when hovering over the items in the floating widget (bug 37048) but not via Apply in the full dialog.