Bug 90702 - Allow variables to have predefined styles
Summary: Allow variables to have predefined styles
Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX
Alias: None
Product: LibreOffice
Classification: Unclassified
Component: LibreOffice (show other bugs)
Version:
(earliest affected)
4.4.2.2 release
Hardware: x86 (IA32) Windows (All)
: medium enhancement
Assignee: Not Assigned
URL:
Whiteboard:
Keywords: needsUXEval
: 90701 (view as bug list)
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2015-04-19 01:01 UTC by Wayne B'Rells
Modified: 2017-01-17 15:35 UTC (History)
4 users (show)

See Also:
Crash report or crash signature:


Attachments
Document: Reproduce Problem w/"Invisible" Variable Assignment (36.91 KB, application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.text)
2015-04-19 14:51 UTC, Wayne B'Rells
Details

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Description Wayne B'Rells 2015-04-19 01:01:20 UTC
If I just use Set variable to assign a text value to a named variable and select the "invisible" option, all is well. HOWEVER, if I assign a paragraph Style (for example, Header 1) to the text value I get an extra line in my document terminating with a paragraph mark in the Style that I used for the text value.

In other words, the assignment of a text value to a variable is no longer invisible, thus messing up the format of my document! (I want to set the Style of the that text to Header 1 so it can be used as a TOC entry. I have verified that this approach works, but I really need the assignment to be truly invisible as I believe it should be.)
Comment 1 Joel Madero 2015-04-19 03:58:16 UTC
Hi Wayne,

Please provide explicit steps on how to reproduce as well as a test document. Although we use the product a lot, we don't know every nook and cranny so it's always best when a user reports to provide explicit reproducible steps. When you write the steps, think about it from the perspective of someone who has never used the product :)

Marking as NEEDINFO - once you provide steps and a test document, please set to UNCONFIRMED. Thanks
Comment 2 Joel Madero 2015-04-19 04:00:34 UTC
*** Bug 90701 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 3 Wayne B'Rells 2015-04-19 14:51:40 UTC
Created attachment 114909 [details]
Document: Reproduce Problem w/"Invisible" Variable Assignment

The attached Writer document describes, in detail, how to reproduce the problem with "Invisible" variable assignments not really being "invisible" when a Style is assigned to the value of a variable.

I'm hoping Writer can be "fixed" so that "Invisible" variable assignments are ALWAYS invisible...

Many thanks,

Wayne
Comment 4 Joel Madero 2015-04-19 17:26:14 UTC
Thanks for that - in the future please put the directions directly on the bug report so that it doesn't require downloading a document to see. But moving to UNCONFIRMED. Thanks!
Comment 5 Buovjaga 2015-04-25 10:42:16 UTC
I don't understand, how we can assign a style to "aValue" *before* inserting it into the document.

Are you sure you were not at the start of the first paragraph, when double-clicking Heading 1? That changes the style of the paragraph.
I know your steps have the style change before the cursor positioning, but I don't really understand, how this could happen otherwise.

Set to NEEDINFO.
Change back to UNCONFIRMED when replying.
Comment 6 Wayne B'Rells 2015-04-25 12:18:14 UTC
Beluga,

You are correct! Even though I select 'aValue' and double-click on the desired style (Heading 1, for example) I notice now that the style is actually applied to the first paragraph of my document BEFORE I click on 'Insert'. However, when I do click on 'Insert' the value ('aValue') is insert with the specified style. I would really like to insert an invisible variable with a designated style without changing the style of the first "real" paragraph in my document. (I want to use that variable for a couple of purposes, one of which is as a TOC entry which is easiest to do if that variable has one of the "Heading" styles....) Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Wayne
Comment 7 Buovjaga 2015-04-25 15:30:46 UTC
I'll set this to an enhancement request and send to ux-advise. It might require some big changes and is unlikely to happen. If UX team decides it is out of scope, they will close the report.
Comment 8 Robinson Tryon (qubit) 2016-08-25 05:26:46 UTC Comment hidden (obsolete)
Comment 9 Heiko Tietze 2016-09-27 14:35:26 UTC
What I understand from your description is that you expect a style being associated to fields, in particular to a variable. In other words a date field should have a special character style, for instance. Or rather paragraph style since you want to change the first heading from H2 to H1 when the variable field is inserted. Right?

First of all I don't see any reason for a style at all, and your step #7 makes no sense to me (actually the dialog has to be modal so that style selection isn't possible at all). The style is not applied to the field (in this case the variable) but the active paragraph. So independently from the visibility it doesn't work.

And even when there would be such an option how should a user understand why a paragraph has a formatting when the source (your field) is invisible? Bad usability, at least.

I'm pretty sure you find alternative ways to solve your use case (would be interesting though). It's better to keep the program straight forward and easy to use. So WONTFIX from my side. But NEEDINFO first, in case I got it wrong.
Comment 10 Heiko Tietze 2017-01-17 15:35:54 UTC
WF as announced in comment 9.