Bug 57158 - Impossible to use the 'Styles and Formatting' window to set the same page style for more than 1 page unless they are the last pages of the document
Summary: Impossible to use the 'Styles and Formatting' window to set the same page sty...
Status: RESOLVED NOTABUG
Alias: None
Product: LibreOffice
Classification: Unclassified
Component: Writer (show other bugs)
Version:
(earliest affected)
Inherited From OOo
Hardware: All All
: medium minor
Assignee: Not Assigned
URL:
Whiteboard:
Keywords: needsUXEval
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2012-11-15 15:17 UTC by Olivier Diotte
Modified: 2019-08-01 21:17 UTC (History)
7 users (show)

See Also:
Crash report or crash signature:


Attachments
Not possible to change page style of a single page (7.98 KB, application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.text)
2016-05-09 20:42 UTC, Robert Heel
Details
All pages are affected by a page style change (108.54 KB, image/png)
2016-05-09 20:45 UTC, Robert Heel
Details

Note You need to log in before you can comment on or make changes to this bug.
Description Olivier Diotte 2012-11-15 15:17:09 UTC
How to reproduce:
1- Create a 3 pages or more Writer document (e.g. let's insert 5 page breaks in an empty document)
2- Now, open the Page Styles window, all pages should be 'Default'
3- Try to set the first two pages to 'First Page' (or any other page style) while keeping the last 3 to 'Default'.

Here is what happens: by default, First Page's 'Next Style' is 'Default'. That means applying it to the first page works.

The problem is, if you now try to apply the page style to the second page, the Page Styles window highlights 'First Page' as if that was the page style of the second page, but after clicking and the third page and back, it is clear the page style is still Default.

Visually, one can modify the two page styles to each have a different background color to see the page style of page 2 is never changed.

This is a bug that, AFAIK, is present since I switched from OOo.
It is also quite problematic because, for example, when I author a 10 pages document (First Page (x1), Index (x1), Default (all other pages)) it works, until I have to flip a page (page 8 for example) to the Landscape page style (because I have a wide image to insert there). I can't do that since I either can't apply the Landscape style or it is applied to all subsequent pages.

The only "workaround" I can think of would be to create a page style for each page and specify the page style of the next page in 'Next Style'. Which is obviously a terrible idea and negates the whole purpose of styles.

I have also tried just changing page 8's orientation to landscape through right-click->page->Page tab, but it changes the Style's orientation...
Comment 1 Olivier Diotte 2012-11-15 16:55:49 UTC
After many tests with vilpan on the IRC channel, we found the following:
1- The bug is also present in 3.5.4 on Debian amd64
2- The bug is also present in 3.6 (vanilla, from the website) as well as the binary 3.5.5.3 from Gentoo.

vilpan found a work-around to use in the mean time:
To insert a page with a different style, put the cursor at the end of the preceding page and insert a page break and set the page style in the page break pop-up.
Comment 2 Robert Heel 2014-09-03 21:42:15 UTC
Hm, bug still exists in libreOffice 4.3.x

It's not possible to change the style of a page, e.g. to remove page number on other page than the first one or to change the paper orientation...

Another workaround is to specify the page style in the page break dialog.
Comment 3 QA Administrators 2015-09-04 02:49:00 UTC Comment hidden (obsolete)
Comment 4 Buovjaga 2015-11-30 12:40:42 UTC
Still repro.

Minor, as workaround exists.

Win 7 Pro 64-bit Version: 5.2.0.0.alpha0+
Build ID: a7c3a2a9be83686657c06f37d521f9f6d2004ddd
Threads 4; Ver: Windows 6.1; Render: default; 
TinderBox: Win-x86@39, Branch:master, Time: 2015-11-28_04:39:18
Locale: fi-FI (fi_FI)
Comment 5 Cor Nouws 2015-12-02 15:32:38 UTC
Hi Olivier,

Thanks for the bug and description
I fully agree that it is impossible with the work flow as given. Indeed that is not easy.
But when one works with page styles and makes proper use of e.g. setting in Format > Paragraph > Text flow (affected by Insert .. Manual Break) all can be handled. It is a different work flow. Yes.
For now I close this as WorksForMe. 
can you spot omissions in the Help / documentation /UI that would need improvement to help the user with the proper work flow?

Cheers - Cor
Comment 6 Robert Heel 2015-12-02 19:16:20 UTC
I agree, that's a minor bug as a workaround exists.
But you can't close a bug due to the existence of a workaround.
Many users ask me why they can't change the page style.
If you can't fix it, please remove the page style option from the page styles window. So the users wouldn't be confused and they will use the workaround automatically.
Comment 7 Cor Nouws 2015-12-02 20:40:03 UTC
"can you spot omissions in the Help / documentation /UI that would need improvement to help the user with the proper work flow?"
Comment 8 Cor Nouws 2015-12-02 20:41:19 UTC
(In reply to Robert Heel from comment #6)

> If you can't fix it, please remove the page style option from the page
> styles window. So the users wouldn't be confused and they will use the
> workaround automatically.

Remove the page style option, and give the users the difficulty they have in Word.. No thanks :)
Comment 9 Olivier Diotte 2015-12-02 22:15:38 UTC
(In reply to Cor Nouws from comment #8)
> 
> Remove the page style option, and give the users the difficulty they have in
> Word.. No thanks :)

Instead, I would say make it so you can't double-click on a page style to apply it to a page. That is the feature which is broken.

Ideally, I'd say make it so when the page style is double-clicked it behaves like the 'insert page break' with the page style selected, but your opinion seems to be that this is not possible. Since that is not possible, I'd say remove the feature altogether.
Comment 10 Cor Nouws 2015-12-03 09:02:57 UTC
(In reply to Olivier Diotte from comment #9)

> Instead, I would say make it so you can't double-click on a page style to
> apply it to a page. That is the feature which is broken.

Thus you mean an specific improvement for the UI? Looks as a good idea.

Want to change this bug to reflect that (seems a bit odd) or create a new one (and please check existing issues first) ?
Comment 11 QA Administrators 2016-05-09 20:07:20 UTC Comment hidden (obsolete)
Comment 12 Robert Heel 2016-05-09 20:42:26 UTC
Created attachment 124939 [details]
Not possible to change page style of a single page
Comment 13 Robert Heel 2016-05-09 20:45:30 UTC
Created attachment 124940 [details]
All pages are affected by a page style change
Comment 14 Robert Heel 2016-05-09 20:45:39 UTC
As you wish:

a)
LibreOffice: 5.1.2.2 (but you can take any version since 3.5 or perhaps earlier)
OS: 4.4.0-21-generic #37-Ubuntu SMP (but it's OS independent)
Locale: de_DE.UTF-8 (I've not checked different languages...)

b)
1: Create a 3 pages Writer document:
  a: Open LibreOffice Writer
  b: Press CTRL+RETURN two times

2: Now, open the Page Styles window:
  a: Press F11
  b: Click on page style icon

3: Try to put the second page into landscape format
  a: Scroll to second page
  b: Double-Click "Landscape" in the page style window

All pages will change the format.

c)
Attached is a document with 3 empty pages, all in landscape format.

d)
Attached screen shot of the issue.

Expected behavior is that only the current page change it's style, like in earlier versions of OOo.
Comment 15 Cor Nouws 2016-05-10 08:17:11 UTC
After a long exchange of ideas, in comment #10 the question was to do somthing with the scope / intention of this bug.
I would expect that a clean new issue, describing possible actions from Styles and Formatting when applying page styles, would be helpful.
Anyone willing to make a start?
Comment 16 Robert Heel 2016-05-11 22:06:50 UTC
I've done some tests and I will give it a try. I'm not sure if I get your idea.

I know this was working in an old version, but perhaps this was at staroffice time ... I've checked out OOo 1.0.2, the bug is still there.



*General*

You can apply a page style only with the "Styles and Formatting" (F11) window in the "Page Style" by placing the cursor on a page and double click the desired style, or using the "Fill Format Mode", which applies the selected style on the page you click.

Note: "Menu -> Format -> Page..." changes only the current style of the page, and is applied on all pages with that page style.

There are three different ways to generate a "New Pages" in writer.

A) Continuous text reaches the end of the page

B) Insert a standard "Page Break" (either CTRL+RETURN, or "Menu -> Insert -> Page Break" or "Menu -> Insert -> Manual Break... -> Page break with Style: [none]"

C) Insert a page break with a style change ("Menu -> Insert -> Manual Break... -> Page break with Style: xxx"


*Actual behavior*

Applying a page style affects multiple pages until a type "C" page break divides the pages.

This confuses novice users.


*Expected behavior*

As the "Character Style" is only applied to the selected character(s), and the "Paragraph Style" is only applied to the selected paragarph(s), a user expect that the "Page Style" is only applied to the selected page(s).

This is not possible, because the number of pages of continuous text (type "A") depends on the page style.

But with a simple page break (type "B") your text is divided into two parts, so it's possible to apply the new page style between two page breaks.


*Change*

There should be no difference between type "B" and "C", a page style change should stop at every page break of type "B" and "C", not only on type "C".



Comments? Should I create a new bug report with this information?
Comment 17 mahfiaz 2016-08-04 16:47:04 UTC
This is NOT a bug. Everything works as intended.

What I agree with is that this is confusing for uninitiated users.
The last suggestion to make LibO automatically change simple page breaks to style-changing ones when the style is applied, I don't think it reduces the confusion much at all.
For whoever is about to come up with a good solution, please take into consideration that paragraph styles can demand page breaks with page style changes as well.
Comment 18 tommy27 2016-12-21 17:15:08 UTC
let's see what the UX-team thinks about it.

a bug or not a bug?
Comment 19 Cor Nouws 2016-12-21 19:46:22 UTC
(In reply to tommy27 from comment #18)
> a bug or not a bug?

Not a bug!

The OP Olivier Diotte and Robert Heel apparently are not able to respond in a clear way to my ideas/suggestions in comment #10 and comment #15.
What can one do?
Comment 20 tommy27 2016-12-21 20:24:03 UTC
Ok, Cor.
let's mark it this way.
Comment 21 Cor Nouws 2016-12-21 20:47:59 UTC
and by all means: Olivier, Robert: feel free to make an issue with a clear proposal (as suggested) describing a UI/action that would help.
Thanks! Cor