Supposing Bibliography's 'Entries->Sort by' is set to 'Content'. Then 'Entries->Sort keys' combos are enabled, and might be set to some list values. This set of settings IS retained when saved. Suppose one wanted to switch 'Entries->Sort by' to 'Document position'. Then 'Entries->Sort keys' combos are DISabled but retain the values yet. However, after saving, closing and opening, the values in 'Entries->Sort keys' are lost (set to None). Reproduce: as above.
I'm not sure, if this is needed or in line with the general UI.
Current functionality of this just doesn't do anything useful or clever. On the contrary, if I want to test the alternative sort styles, I loose my changes done to sort order each time I click the radio button. Minor but tedious to redo it every time (and sometimes you just need to check and compare both variants). That's why I've marked this as an enhancement. Or maybe it's the ODF format that doesn't allow the sort order options be retained if the 'use order' is selected, and the UI just propagates (relays) this incapability?
(In reply to Beluga from comment #1) > I'm not sure, if this is needed or in line with the general UI. UX: Uno mas!
The bibliography dialog wins the price for the most ugly and least user-centered dialog. While I still struggle to find the ominous sort function, the advice is clearly to sort on click at the column header. But we should consider to revamp the dialog completely.
Steps to reproduce: 1. Open Writer 2. Insert > Table of Contents and Index > Table of Contents, Index or Bibliography 3. Change "Type" to Bibliography, click OK 4. Right-click in Bibliography area > Edit index 5. Entries tab > Sort by: Content 6. Set a sort key, for example Sort key 1 to "Title" 7. Click OK 8. Go back to same dialogue and change the "Sort by" back to "Document position" 9. See how the sort key is greyed out but the value is retained 10. Click OK 11. Save the document 12. Open dialogue once more: Sort key value is back to <None> Reproduced with: Version: 7.2.0.0.alpha1+ / LibreOffice Community Build ID: bb54d6d8241a06a6772052b77b67d6a4f686426c CPU threads: 8; OS: Linux 4.15; UI render: default; VCL: gtk3 Locale: en-AU (en_AU.UTF-8); UI: en-US TinderBox: Linux-rpm_deb-x86_64@86-TDF, Branch:master, Time: 2021-06-11_20:14:38 Calc: threaded ... but I didn't even need to close and reopen. I only needed to save the document.