During correpondence with Henrik Just about his export filters Writer2latex and Writer2HTML (ePub variant), we discussed the importance of attaching a style to every element of a document and verifying that that has been done. This matters also for the eLAIX eBook exporter and more broadly for any usage where a template must be followed. Henrik showed that a developer like him can make style-specific background colours that can be switched on and off as required. I propose that this function be provided as standard. Ideally, the colours should be quite faint, one base colour for each style family, perhaps with variations of pattern or colour for the individual styles. Patterns of thin vertical or horizontal lines would enable, for example, character and paragraph styles to be indicated without mutual interference. Usually, not many styles are used in a given document so the range of colours should not be an issue, and their (automatic?) assignments could easily be identified from the Styles panel. Users would soon get used to checking a page just by glancing at it. The only slight difficulty I forsee is with list styles in paragraph styles. These can't be removed or changed without going elsewhere than the Styles panel to turn off Bullets & Numbering, so there may be scope for the pretty colour scheme to get confused.
Hi Christopher, Sounds interesting :) Thanks. Is there an image available of some example? Would really help my imagination, esp. for combined use (para/character styles e.g). Did Hendrik offer to do it himself too? Cheers, Cor
Created attachment 115310 [details] Screenshot showing an example of style highlighting Text I added to attached screenshot: In French novels, items of dialog are preceeded by a long dash. The author will using LO will export to ePub (Writer2HTML) and/or LaTeX (Writer2latex). It’s difficult to export the dashes. One option proposed here by Henrik Just was to omit them in LO, and indicate the relevant styles by background colours. This idea should be of wider interest.
Created attachment 115311 [details] Screenshot showing an example of style highlighting Legend I added to screenshot In French novels, items of dialog are preceeded by a long dash. The author will using LO will export to ePub (Writer2HTML) and/or LaTeX (Writer2latex). It’s difficult to export the dashes. One option proposed here by Henrik Just was to omit them in LO, and indicate the relevant styles by background colours. This idea should be of wider interest.
Hi Cor, I'm not used to this bug handling system.... I added above a screeshot of the only example I have, which Henrik made when we were discussing a particular question*. He set a background colour for each style; there doesn't seem to be an option for patterns with that. It occurred to me later that the idea should be of wider interest. I'll send Henrik the link to this "bug", and try and make an example more relevant to other users. *OT here, but the question we were dealing with highlights a couple of things that could be developed with LO
(In reply to Christopher R Lee from comment #4) > I'm not used to this bug handling system.... ;) > I added above a screeshot of the only example I have, which Henrik made when > we were discussing a particular question*. He set a background colour for > each style; there doesn't seem to be an option for patterns with that. Thanks. Now in Writer, a style is visible in the document most of the time due to the fact that it has _formatting_. And in Latex that visual representation lacks. So I expect it to be more usefull there? > It occurred to me later that the idea should be of wider interest. I'll send > Henrik the link to this "bug", and try and make an example more relevant to > other users. > > *OT here, but the question we were dealing with highlights a couple of > things that could be developed with LO Interesting...
Created attachment 115393 [details] Screenshot of TeXstudio - code on left, pdf on right Shows how with LaTeX, markup is the only way of applying styles. (No markup means the equivalent of text body.) You type the code with help from the editor (left) and then compile the pdf (right). It's easy to switch between the displays. LaTeX is used for high quality typesetting and some other things. You can generate the code from LO using the writer2latex extension, but for that to work you need to be sure that everything in LO has the correct style and nothing uses default style. Checking for that is also very important for other exports, like html and the eBook variants.
(In reply to Cor Nouws from comment #5) > (In reply to Christopher R Lee from comment #4) > > I'm not used to this bug handling system.... > > ;) > > > I added above a screeshot of the only example I have, which Henrik made when > > we were discussing a particular question*. He set a background colour for > > each style; there doesn't seem to be an option for patterns with that. > > Thanks. > Now in Writer, a style is visible in the document most of the time due to > the fact that it has _formatting_. > And in Latex that visual representation lacks. So I expect it to be more > usefull there? To make it clear to people who don't know LaTeX, I've added a screenshot of the editor showing the code alongside the pdf; you switch between them with the right mouse button because markup code can't be wysiwyg. In LaTeX, everything except plain text body has to be marked up in one way or another. In LO, italic can be a character style or direct formatting; and if it isn't you who typed the document you can't know how it was done, without clicking on each instance. Also, the styles for un-numbered headers are not obvious in LO if you don't recognise the character size. Different paragraph styles (including default) may look the same. > > > It occurred to me later that the idea should be of wider interest. I'll send > > Henrik the link to this "bug", and try and make an example more relevant to > > other users. > > > > *OT here, but the question we were dealing with highlights a couple of > > things that could be developed with LO > > Interesting...
(In reply to Christopher R Lee from comment #7) > Also, the styles for un-numbered headers are not obvious in LO if you don't > recognise the character size. Different paragraph styles (including default) > may look the same. Of course there are those cases :) Thanks for your further explanation Christopher. Set to New