Bug 32484 - Allow anchor settings in frame styles
Summary: Allow anchor settings in frame styles
Status: NEW
Alias: None
Product: LibreOffice
Classification: Unclassified
Component: UI (show other bugs)
Version:
(earliest affected)
Inherited From OOo
Hardware: All All
: high normal
Assignee: Not Assigned
URL:
Whiteboard:
Keywords:
: 44180 49325 58890 113376 116054 132675 133293 133989 (view as bug list)
Depends on:
Blocks: Writer-UX Writer-Styles-Frame
  Show dependency treegraph
 
Reported: 2010-12-17 16:28 UTC by RGB
Modified: 2023-12-30 17:16 UTC (History)
27 users (show)

See Also:
Crash report or crash signature:


Attachments
Saved as HTML to open latter (1.15 MB, image/png)
2020-02-13 13:12 UTC, Eduardo
Details

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Description RGB 2010-12-17 16:28:35 UTC
This is half way between a feature request and a bug report (there is a missing part on frame styles UI).
Basically, when you edit a frame style you cannot set the anchoring properties... but the style CAN save the anchoring, because if you manually edit the frame and then "update" the style from that frame manually edited frame, the anchor settings is stored on the corresponding style.
See a complete description here:
http://www.openoffice.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=14008
Comment 1 Björn Michaelsen 2011-12-23 11:34:33 UTC Comment hidden (obsolete)
Comment 2 Roland Baudin 2012-06-08 07:14:50 UTC
The bug is still there in LibreOffice 3.5.4.2 (on Linux). There is still no way to change the anchor style of graphic styles using the UI.

However, as was said on the Openoffice bugzilla, it can be done by setting the anchor type of an already inserted graphic object and then using the upper right button "Update styles".

This works for user created styles but NOT for default styles. As a consequence, it is NOT possible to change the default anchor style used when inserting a graphic.
RB
Comment 3 john 2012-09-26 23:52:42 UTC
This bug has been around since 2003. I consider it to be a major annoyance since all my images, figures, etc are normally 'as character', and I need to always manually set that for each new figure.
Comment 4 Owen Genat (retired) 2013-05-24 00:24:56 UTC
*** Bug 44180 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 5 Owen Genat (retired) 2013-05-30 03:11:51 UTC
*** Bug 49325 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 6 Owen Genat (retired) 2013-05-30 03:27:53 UTC
Comment #3 is an important distinction and likely points to related bug #36535. Most other attributes do take when the style is updated but altering the anchoring from "To paragraph" to some other value does not. It is also worth noting that the Formula frame style does not update as per the suggested workaround.
Comment 7 Maxime de Roucy 2013-09-20 15:01:06 UTC Comment hidden (obsolete)
Comment 8 thanasis57 2014-02-12 15:03:53 UTC
I confirm this bug is still present in LibO 4.1.4.2 (Linux).
Comment 9 QA Administrators 2014-10-23 17:32:25 UTC Comment hidden (obsolete)
Comment 10 2014-11-03 16:04:58 UTC
I confirm this bug is still present in LibO 4.3.3.1 (Linux).
Comment 11 olav 2015-04-28 22:46:26 UTC
Bug still present in Version 4.4.2.2 Build ID: 40m0(Build:2) on Xubuntu 15.04.

I consider this to be a proper bug, not just an "enhancement".
Comment 12 Luke 2015-09-29 22:25:26 UTC
I'm changing this to a bug, as a feature that requires a work-around to be used is a broken feature. A broken feature is a bug.
Comment 13 Stanislav Horacek 2015-12-11 11:54:44 UTC
*** Bug 58890 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 14 john 2016-07-27 03:53:47 UTC
Confirm that this bug is present in LO 5.1.4.2 on Ubuntu 16.04.

The workaround is especially painful as the default text editor on Ubuntu really struggles to search/edit with the large XML files 'styles.xml' on my (fairly powerful Lenovo X1, 8GB RAM) laptop. It works better with 'vim', but that's not a 'typical user' tool.

My typical usage is to anchor images 'as-char' and frames to 'page'. Available options in the XML syntax are listed here: http://books.evc-cit.info/odbook/ch04.html (does LO have an official version of that reference??)

Related problem: when using "Insert -> Frame -> Frame...", the Styles for 'Frame' are not adopted. Instead a weird little 2 cm wide floating frame is inserted. There is no easy way to insert the default-styled frame, which I find weird. Did I miss it?
Comment 15 Thomas Krumbein 2017-04-15 14:03:28 UTC
Bug is still present in Version LO 5.3.x (Windows) - 64 bit.
Comment 16 Yousuf Philips (jay) (retired) 2017-10-23 15:35:37 UTC
*** Bug 113376 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 17 Regina Henschel 2018-02-27 23:34:00 UTC
*** Bug 116054 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 18 Severo Raz 2018-03-17 16:27:02 UTC
Confirmed in version 6.0.2.1.0
Comment 19 Nicolas Göddel 2018-06-26 12:56:42 UTC
Confirmed in 6.0.4.2 (Windows) and 6.0.5.2 (Linux).
Please solve this! It's annoying.
Comment 20 john 2018-07-03 02:24:51 UTC Comment hidden (obsolete)
Comment 21 john 2018-07-03 02:25:13 UTC
This bug has become worse... the workaround of updating styles using the Styles and Formatting panel is not available in LO 5.4. The only option seems to be to manually edit styles files.
Comment 22 Regina Henschel 2018-07-03 07:09:08 UTC
One reason of the problem is, that ODF allows the setting "anchor-type" as direct attribute of an object and as part of a style. If both are present, the object attribute "wins". Currently LibreOffice writes it as direct attribute and do not include it in custom defined style. Only the predefined styles have set the anchor-type as part of the style.

If you derive your custom style from an predefined style, it will inherit the setting. Currently there is Watermark with anchored to page, and Frame, Graphics, Marginalia and OLE anchored to paragraph, and Formula and Labels anchored as-char.
Comment 23 Luke 2018-07-07 18:07:00 UTC
Regina, 
Thanks for you analysis. Do you have any suggestions to improve the end user's experience so they are less likely to be confused by this?
Comment 24 Regina Henschel 2018-07-07 18:52:57 UTC
(In reply to Luke from comment #23)
> Regina, 
> Thanks for you analysis. Do you have any suggestions to improve the end
> user's experience so they are less likely to be confused by this?

Not really. You could add a style for each anchor type, so that the user can derive their own styles from that. But there are a lot of other problems, so that a changed implementation would be better.
Comment 25 QA Administrators 2019-10-26 02:10:54 UTC Comment hidden (obsolete)
Comment 26 RGB 2019-10-26 11:00:13 UTC
Problem still present in 6.3.3
Comment 27 Eduardo 2020-02-13 13:12:47 UTC
Created attachment 157838 [details]
Saved as HTML to open latter
Comment 28 Eduardo 2020-02-13 13:13:53 UTC
Here's my workaround:
Save a html with img tags, and then open the html file with Writer.
Comment 29 Dieter 2020-05-07 14:08:46 UTC
*** Bug 132675 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 30 Telesto 2020-05-24 10:19:21 UTC
*** Bug 133293 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 31 Telesto 2020-05-25 11:21:06 UTC Comment hidden (off-topic)
Comment 32 Heiko Tietze 2020-05-25 11:22:57 UTC Comment hidden (off-topic)
Comment 33 Telesto 2020-05-25 11:38:14 UTC
*** Bug 133291 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 34 Dieter 2020-06-16 12:22:12 UTC
*** Bug 133989 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 35 Dieter 2020-06-16 12:25:17 UTC
(In reply to Regina Henschel from comment #22)
> Currently LibreOffice writes it as direct
> attribute and do not include it in custom defined style. Only the predefined
> styles have set the anchor-type as part of the style.

Regina, are there any improvements in ODF 1.3?
Comment 36 Regina Henschel 2020-06-16 14:16:13 UTC
(In reply to Dieter from comment #35)
> (In reply to Regina Henschel from comment #22)
> > Currently LibreOffice writes it as direct
> > attribute and do not include it in custom defined style. Only the predefined
> > styles have set the anchor-type as part of the style.
> 
> Regina, are there any improvements in ODF 1.3?

It is not an ODF problem, but a problem in LibreOffice. ODF has the ability to store the needed information in a style.
Comment 37 John Kaufmann 2020-10-22 04:56:52 UTC
(In reply to Roland Baudin from comment #2)
> The bug is still there in LibreOffice 3.5.4.2 (on Linux). There is still no
> way to change the anchor style of graphic styles using the UI.
> 
> However, as was said on the Openoffice bugzilla, it can be done by setting
> the anchor type of an already inserted graphic object and then using the
> upper right button "Update styles".
> 
> This works for user created styles but NOT for default styles.

After spending some time using this work-around to fudge styles, I find that it works initially, but objects with such style are (for want of a better way to put it) unstable: 

The anchor type (in my case, "To paragraph") remains stable, but the attributes attached to that anchor type may change. In particular, Vertical Position, if specified "From top" by some distance to "Paragraph text area", will change its reference to "Page text area". [It may not be coincidental that "Page text area" is the reference for the default anchor type, which is "To page".] 

Note that, while the distance with respect to the reference can be changed by updating the style, the reference /type/ (the style attribute which is unstable) cannot be changed in that way. So the work-around can be tedious as well as unreliable.
Comment 39 Olivier Hallot 2022-06-04 14:46:53 UTC
(In reply to Regina Henschel from comment #22)
> One reason of the problem is, that ODF allows the setting "anchor-type" as
> direct attribute of an object and as part of a style. If both are present,
> the object attribute "wins". Currently LibreOffice writes it as direct
> attribute and do not include it in custom defined style. Only the predefined
> styles have set the anchor-type as part of the style.
> 
> If you derive your custom style from an predefined style, it will inherit
> the setting. Currently there is Watermark with anchored to page, and Frame,
> Graphics, Marginalia and OLE anchored to paragraph, and Formula and Labels
> anchored as-char.

As (advanced) user, I'll create another anchoring option to "Inherit from applied frame style" on the frame properties dialog. Does that make sense?
Comment 40 John Kaufmann 2022-06-05 02:51:36 UTC
(In reply to Olivier Hallot from comment #39)
> ...
> As (advanced) user, I'll create another anchoring option to "Inherit from
> applied frame style" on the frame properties dialog. Does that make sense?
I don't know. Aren't 'all' properties inherited from the applied style, except as modified by direct formatting? [Am I understanding your point correctly?]