Bug 47746 (Collapse-expand) - "Code folding" for Writer / Collapse or expand parts of a document
Summary: "Code folding" for Writer / Collapse or expand parts of a document
Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 38093
Alias: Collapse-expand
Product: LibreOffice
Classification: Unclassified
Component: Writer (show other bugs)
Version:
(earliest affected)
Inherited From OOo
Hardware: Other All
: high enhancement
Assignee: Not Assigned
URL: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/o...
Whiteboard:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks: Writer-Enhancements
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Reported: 2012-03-23 00:39 UTC by gleppert
Modified: 2023-12-07 05:01 UTC (History)
24 users (show)

See Also:
Crash report or crash signature:


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Description gleppert 2012-03-23 00:39:15 UTC
Microsoft will introduce a very neat feature in Word 15, which basically takes the idea of code folding from text editors to word processors. In long texts this can be extraordinarily helpful.

Please see here under section "Section expand and collapse": http://www.winsupersite.com/article/office/whats-coming-microsoft-word-15-142595
Comment 1 sasha.libreoffice 2012-06-18 03:43:10 UTC
Thanks for new idea.
Sorry, not found where to see on link. It is something like this Bug 38093 ?
Or completely different?
Comment 2 leighman 2012-10-03 10:13:44 UTC
Libreoffice should allow collapsing of sections .g. by toggling on the header.
Seems like this would fit well with improvements to the styling system.
Comment 3 Jared 2013-05-08 21:44:17 UTC
I have MS Office 2013 and have seen this feature.  I'll be happy to help if needed.
It "can" be a nice feature, if we're looking for parity between the two suites.
Comment 4 Owen Genat (retired) 2013-05-30 01:01:03 UTC
The link in the description is not as clear as it might be, which is understandable given it was looking toward a future product. Here is a clearer description of this feature:

http://office.microsoft.com/en-001/word-help/collapse-or-expand-parts-of-a-document-HA102840146.aspx

A small triangular graphic indicator is set adjacent to headings to indicate collapse / expand functionality. That is all this feature does. This should make it clear that this is not same feature as indicated in bug #38093, which is more of an outline view / navigator facility i.e., that bug additionally deals with promotion / demotion and moving of headings and their related content.

In response to comment #3 please do not use the term "section" in relation to this type of feature. It has nothing to do with the Insert > Section... feature. What is being collapsed / expanded is a heading and all content that falls under this heading.

I am including this detail purely for information and clarity.
Comment 5 Owen Genat (retired) 2013-12-22 12:38:56 UTC
Added related Apache OO issue to See Also list. Version set to Inherited From OOo.
Comment 6 Owen Genat (retired) 2014-01-06 10:47:11 UTC
Setting version back from "Inherited From OOo" to what it was prior (for bugs marked enhancement), for QA tracking purposes. My mistake. Apologies.
Comment 7 Joel 2015-02-24 22:48:23 UTC
This would indeed be a very helpful feature for writing long documents! Is there any way to vote for this feature to be implemented other than subscribing to the CC list?
Comment 8 Owen Genat (retired) 2015-03-07 05:02:35 UTC
*** Bug 63352 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 9 Jean-Baptiste Faure 2016-01-10 15:47:27 UTC
*** Bug 96229 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 10 Murz 2016-04-14 07:08:07 UTC
Seems that we can do hide-show paragraphs at current Libreoffice version via macros: https://help.libreoffice.org/Writer/Hiding_Text 
Maybe we can write extension, that automate this process - creating checkbox and variable for current paragraph?
Comment 11 Paul 2018-02-22 21:50:31 UTC
This would be a tremendous feature for working on long documents, and for getting tangential material out of the way in any document. It doesn't seem it would be very hard to do, and I hope it can be done soon.
Comment 12 Franz 2018-02-25 04:31:19 UTC
This would be a very interesting feature for meeting minutes or invitations to trade fairs or conferences. Especially useful in a corporate environment.
I hope this gets worked on soon.
Comment 13 C 2018-09-11 08:42:54 UTC
Any reasonably advanced document is extraordinarily enhanced when an author has an easily collapsible and expandable outline view such as that provided by Microsoft Word.

This feature has probably been the most requested feature in OpenOffice / LibreOffice over the many years it has been asked for.

The Navigator feature is no replacement for a in-document collapsible outline feature as in Microsoft Office and other packages.

Using a hidden text expression defined through a complex and laborious process for each specified paragraph or section in Write, is certainly no answer. Point and collapse/expand hierarchies with a click of the mouse is the only way to do it.

What is interesting is OpenOffice/LibreOffice Impress, impressively does have a collapsible outline feature, however, it does not hide regular text. Calc has foldable rows, to hide rows.

Can the code from Impress or Calc be modified to provide collapsible hierarchies in Write in the form of foldable text?

Clearly the OpenOffice / LibreOffice developers are hugely retarded in this most basic understanding of writing complex documents, or the Write team do not have the technical skills to implement it. Perhaps the Impress and Calc teams have the skills?

One certainly can not complain in regard to opensource software, since the programmers have donated their time and effort for the good of all. However, those of us in the opensource field, are often vastly superior to paid programmers. Let’s try keep it that way.

Much thanks to the OpenOffice / LibreOffice teams!!!

C
Comment 14 Harbinger 2018-10-01 16:59:52 UTC
+1 on this feature (bug?)

The ONLY reason i still use MS Word is the only feature. As a technical writer, the ability to quickly set up an outline and flesh it out is paramount to my work and hobbies.
If LibreOffice could provide this feature, i could abandon WORD forever and focus on one application for everything text-related.

Let me encourage our volunteer devs to pursue this concept.

;)
Comment 15 Harbinger 2018-10-01 17:01:59 UTC Comment hidden (me-too, obsolete)
Comment 16 Kaue 2018-11-10 10:47:16 UTC
+1
This feature would make LO a wonderful One-pane outliner.
Comment 17 bbd.ids@gmail.com 2019-05-03 15:59:00 UTC
I really, desperately need this feature of text folding in LO. Please add i! Please!
Comment 18 Duns 2019-06-10 07:43:07 UTC
+1 for this very helpful feature
Comment 19 Francewhoa 2019-07-07 00:07:43 UTC
+1 for this new feature

I would be happy to contributed testing and documentation
Comment 20 aslmx 2019-07-09 20:28:23 UTC
I've been told this is possible in Word. Searched if this feature exists in LO and after some minutes I find this feature request.

+1 

 Folding text for the sake of having a better overview or because a piece of text is not needed right now is a feature i want to see in LO.
Comment 21 Jason White 2019-08-14 12:28:12 UTC
+1, As an engineer who writes out requirement trees as numbered lists this would be very, very helpful.

Realistically, what would it take to make this happen? Perhaps a small donation to one of the core developers of LibreOffice?
Comment 22 Duncan 2019-10-27 03:40:50 UTC
+1 Went searching and was disappointed to see this isn't yet implemented despite years of it being requested. Text folding is an indispensable tool, and I'm forced to continue using other software instead of switching to LibreOffice because of it.
Comment 23 kocjs 2019-11-17 03:33:29 UTC
me-too I am also waiting for this future
Comment 24 Francewhoa 2020-01-16 00:11:27 UTC
+1 for this new feature. I'm happy to contribute testing and documentation if needed.

MB Squared contributed a proposal, mockups, and examples at https://ask.libreoffice.org/en/question/2596/text-folding-pretty-please/
Comment 25 Mike Kaganski 2020-01-16 06:08:25 UTC
This definitely looks like a dupe of tdf#38093 - outline mode for Writer.
Comment 26 Dieter 2020-04-07 06:58:38 UTC
*** Bug 131878 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 27 Duns 2020-04-07 13:41:08 UTC
+1
Comment 28 bbd.ids@gmail.com 2020-04-25 11:36:12 UTC
+1 (million). I really, desperately! need this feature... PLEASE!
Comment 29 Dieter 2020-04-26 10:44:54 UTC
I've changed priority to high, because there are more than 20 peaople in cc
Comment 30 Dieter 2020-04-26 10:46:31 UTC
(In reply to Mike Kaganski from comment #25)
> This definitely looks like a dupe of tdf#38093 - outline mode for Writer.

I agree. Adding Design-Team for decision about it
cc: Design-Team
Comment 31 Francewhoa 2020-04-27 17:15:35 UTC
This below might be of interest to the LibreOffice Design Team. For inspiration from other similar products with this collapse & expand feature.

- - - - - - - - - - - - 



Video 3 minutes watch at https://youtu.be/aft_4mcaxHU

- - - - - - - - - - - - 



Article from Microsoft Word titled "Collapse or expand parts of a document"
• https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Collapse-or-expand-parts-of-a-document-701786E0-95E2-40BF-BFE5-F0233CD3520Chttps://archive.md/5R8UO

- - - - - - - - - - - - 



Tutorial from How-to Geek titled "How to Collapse and Expand Parts of Your Document in Word"

• https://www.howtogeek.com/216755/how-to-collapse-and-expand-parts-of-your-document-in-word/https://archive.md/wx8kR

- - - - - - - - - - - - 


The Ubertus team would be happy to contribute testing or documentation if needed
Comment 32 Cougar Brenneman 2020-04-27 18:35:56 UTC
I'm glad that someone has made that video. It explains 1/2 of the reasons for using outline views. Frankly, I've never made a video of my screen, and I don't have time to figure that out, now. One of the earlier bug reports that originated this discussion may have been mine. Frankly, I had given up trying to explain this. That means that I default to using MS Word, rather than LO or OO, though a passable outliner is also available in WPS Office.

In the videos demonstrating the collapsible sections in Word, there's a button at the beginning of each line that is used to collapse or expand the section as demonstrated in the videos. In the following, I symbolize that button with a right-pointing bracket. (>)

> Heading 3: No title X
> Heading 3: No title Y
> Heading 3: No title Z

> Paragraph or Heading 4: Text underneath is collapsed A
> Paragraph or Heading 4: Text underneath is collapsed B
> Paragraph or Heading 4: Text underneath is collapsed C
> Paragraph or Heading 4: Text underneath is collapsed D
> Paragraph or Heading 4: Text underneath is collapsed E
> Paragraph or Heading 4: Text underneath is collapsed F
> Paragraph or Heading 4: Text underneath is collapsed G
> Paragraph or Heading 4: Text underneath is collapsed H

In Word, those buttons are draggable and droppable. In addition, paragraphs can be collapsed to only display the first line.

Suppose I have brainstormed eight ideas or I have written a document of eight paragraphs or eight sections in length. I've collapsed everything so that only the above 11 lines are visible on my screen. (Most documents are more complicated than this.)

None of the Heading 3's have any text in them. They are simply buttons with no text.

Step 1: Click the button in front of A. Drag it and drop it under X.
Step 2: Click the button in front of B. Drag it and drop it under Y.
Step 3: Click the button in front of C. Drag it and drop it under X.
Step 4: Click the button in front of D. Drag it and drop it under Z.
Step 5: Click the button in front of E. Drag it and drop it under Y.
Step 6: Click the button in front of F. Drag it and drop it under Z.
Step 7: Click the button in front of G. Drag it and drop it under X.
Step 8: Click the button in front of H. Drag it and drop it under Z.

This produces the following pattern. Note that I have used the buttons to rearrange the order of the subheadings or titles within the Heading 3's.
X contains: C, G, A
Y contains: B, E
Z contains: H, D, F

Step 9: Write a temporary descriptive title for each of the Heading 3's. 

Step 10: Collapse all of the Heading 3's. The only thing visible on screen will be:
> X--with title
> Y--with title
> Z--with title

Step 11: Drag the button in front of Z above X and promote it to Heading 2.

Step 12: Drag the button in front of X below Y.

Step 13: Uncollapse everything. Now, the new order of the completely reorganized document will be:

Z with temp title
   H
   D
   F
Y with temp title
   B
   E
X with temp title
   C
   G
   A

Step 14: Rewrite the headers and paragraphs to repair the flow of the document.

The benefits of this approach become far more visible the longer the document. 

A document containing several dozen headings and 150 paragraphs is equally easy to organize at a vast savings of time and a final product that is superior to anything that can be produced in any other way.
Comment 33 Cougar Brenneman 2020-04-27 18:46:34 UTC Comment hidden (no-value)
Comment 34 Cougar Brenneman 2020-04-27 19:43:54 UTC Comment hidden (no-value)
Comment 35 Cougar Brenneman 2020-04-28 03:01:10 UTC
I also tried to describe this issue in the following bug in 2016:
https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=38093#c40

In this other bug, I referred in 2016 to other bugs that I had written previously. So my first attempt to describe this bug was probably in 2014 or earlier.

In that other bug, Mike Kaganski ridiculed my concerns so completely that I completely gave on ever using LO for my writing work. 

Mike tried to tell me that as a professional writer, I don't know what I know. 

But I do know. That's why I keep the program on my computer, but never use it. From my point of view, functionality of LO is so bad -- in this one area alone -- that I never open it up. I would use LO ONLY as a last resort. It is that flawed by this one, single lack.

For me, there's no value to it until you fix the outliner view that Navigator displays so inadequately.
Comment 36 Heiko Tietze 2020-04-28 07:08:42 UTC

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 38093 ***
Comment 37 Cougar Brenneman 2020-04-28 16:07:24 UTC Comment hidden (no-value)
Comment 38 Dieter 2020-04-28 16:10:57 UTC
(In reply to Cougar Brenneman from comment #37)
Cougar, you've reopened the bug report. Why do you think, it is different from bug 38093?
Comment 39 Heiko Tietze 2020-04-28 16:12:29 UTC
(In reply to Cougar Brenneman from comment #37)
> Someone is marking my comments as no value...

Which does not mean to reopen the duplicate ticket. Of course, your input is of high value to the development and will be taken into account - even on the ticket resolved as duplicate.

(In reply to Heiko Tietze from comment #36)
> *** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 38093 ***

Still my take.
Comment 40 Cougar Brenneman 2020-04-28 16:49:00 UTC
I've been trying to describe what has been needed for probably m0re than a decade, and other users who understand me agree. However, apparently there are very few actual writers in the development process and those that are writers haven't figured out how a properly functioning outliner is like having superpowers. 

Why would Superman want to eat Kryptonite for breakfast if he knows that day, he will need to be able to fly?

That's why I can't EVER use LibreOffice for any of my writing, and that's why I've been promoting this for at least a decade, counting both OO and LO, though I can only find records on LO any earlier than 2014.

I need my superpowers.
Comment 41 Dieter 2020-04-28 16:55:03 UTC
(In reply to Cougar Brenneman from comment #40)
> I've been trying to describe what has been needed for probably m0re than a
> decade, and other users who understand me agree. However, apparently there
> are very few actual writers in the development process and those that are
> writers haven't figured out how a properly functioning outliner is like
> having superpowers. 


Cougar, you don't push the solution, if you always reopen that bug report. In the past, ther were two bug reports with the same topic. So please let's put power together at bug 38093. Please add your comments there and let's bring things forward. I'm also waiting for that feature for years. So hopefully it will become a project for GSOC next year (see bug 38093 comment 42)

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 38093 ***
Comment 42 Safeer Pasha 2021-01-29 15:44:46 UTC Comment hidden (me-too)
Comment 43 Safeer Pasha 2021-01-29 15:45:18 UTC Comment hidden (obsolete)
Comment 44 Leonardo 2021-03-11 16:02:25 UTC Comment hidden (me-too)
Comment 45 Elmar 2022-05-02 05:59:44 UTC
I was looking for a way to manipulate the order of lists, and came across the feature options / writer / view

When I tick the outline folding buttons, and apply, they are immediately unpicked again.

Is this intentional?

The features in the toolbar to move a line and its children is wonderful, but what happened to the ability to expand and collapse children in a list?
https://libreoffice-dev.blogspot.com/2020/08/a-new-writer-outline-folding-mode-in.html
Comment 46 Heiko Tietze 2022-05-02 07:00:12 UTC
(In reply to Elmar from comment #45)
> I was looking for a way to manipulate the order of lists, and came across
> the feature options / writer / view
> 
> When I tick the outline folding buttons, and apply, they are immediately
> unpicked again.

If you think an implemented feature behaves not correctly or in case you have enhancement suggestions please file a new ticket rather than to reopen resolved.

If you do so, provide a step by step description and/or a clear use case with your workflow and expectation. 

Thank you in advance for contributing to the project with ideas and bug reports.

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 38093 ***
Comment 47 Philippe Cloutier 2023-12-07 03:14:31 UTC
When was this resolved?
Comment 48 Dieter 2023-12-07 05:01:16 UTC
(In reply to Philippe Cloutier from comment #47)
> When was this resolved?

See bug 38093 => Feature of LO since version 7.2