Apache OpenOffice (AOO) Bugzilla – Issue 69459
lists don't get assigned a default style
Last modified: 2017-05-20 10:44:50 UTC
When I use the ordered- or unordered list toolbar button to make a list in a standard paragraph, this list does not get assigned a different style: Neither paragraph style is changed nor is it assigned a numbering style. This makes it impossible to change the layout afterwards in a big document! What are these lists in terms of style, anyway? At least the list should get assigned a numbering style, so indentation and bullet type etc. can be changed later.
MRU->FL (OD on cc): it is a good thing to think about. Other WordProcessors do it in a similar way. A kind of default list style will be applied to the paragraphs, so that when changing this, all bulleted or numbered paragraphs will be changed to new format.
Changed to Enhancement.
Keyword added
*** Issue 72244 has been marked as a duplicate of this issue. ***
This is an interesting matter. We can change our handling of lists in this way: switching on numbering/bullets assigns one of two selected styles. The problem starts if one of the list is edited directly by using "Format-Numbering and bullets". As list attributes are assigned to a paragraph as a unit we can't use these list styles as e.g. a paragraph style where changing a single attribute directly still lets the paragraph inherit all other attributes from the style. In a list style changing a single attribute will completely cut the connection to the list style. So if we implemented the RFE the following will happen for the case where the same list style is applied to two different lists: (1) Changing the style will change both lists (2) Directly changing the attributes of one list will leave the other one untouched (3) Changing the style after changing one attribute of one list will influence only the list that still is not changed but will not influence the list that has the changed attribute (even if this one is not the same as the one we changed in the style). So here the styles approach can't deliver what it promises. In case (3) is considered to be bearable we could go for this RFE. If not we have to reconsider this issue when the current changes for ODF 1.2 will be implemented. They BTW are a necessary precondition for this RFE because they bring a separation between lists and list (auto) styles that currently more or less are the same, simply spoken.
In the current implementation each time the numbering toolbar is used to start a new ordered/unordered list a new list style is created. But, this list style is hidden - it's not shown in the navigator. This list style is also not shown in the status bar, where typically the list level and the list style of a paragraph is shown - only the level is shown. Such a hidden list style can be changed by setting the cursor into a paragraph, which applies this hidden list style and then choose Menu Format - Bullets and Numbering. But this is not very intuitive. My proposed change for OOo 3.0/3.x would be to *not* to hide these automatically created list styles and given them names such as "UntitledListStyle_1", "UntitledListStyle_2" and so on. We should also think of the possibility to reuse a previously created list style the next time a list is started using the numbering toolbar. Any comments?
I do not think, that it is a good idea to show all these automatically generated list styles. I think, that list styles appearing without any action by the user will be not intuitive for the user. My opinion is still: a default style should be used and only when this default style is changed on a certain list, a hidden list style should be generated. This will look like a "hard" formatting of the list to the user.
I can also support MRU's proposal. But, I would propose that the created hidden list style, which is created, when the list style attributes are changed for a certain list, becomes visible in the Stylist.
target 3.1
Seems to be a duplicate of Issue 9437 (already 35 votes). it's for bullets but the same should apply.
Frank, can we come to a decision about this issue and issue 9437?
move target to 3.2.
*** Issue 104770 has been marked as a duplicate of this issue. ***
Branche date (feature- and code-freeze) for OOo 3.2 is nearly done. Therefore I change the target of this issue to OOo 3.x. If you think it is a stopper for OOo 3.2 please change the target back.
setting keyword "numbering"
Seems to be a duplicate of Issue 9437.
This is still issue on current fresh Openoffice version too :( Any changes that this problem will be fixed?
(In reply to Alexey Korepov from comment #18) > This is still issue on current fresh Openoffice version too :( > Any changes that this problem will be fixed? Currently, I see no activity regarding this issue which is also related to bug 9437 as a possible solution could solved both. From my point of view this issue is more a usability issue than a defect. Using the toolbar function Numbering On resp. Bullet On are like using the toolbar function Align Right. The user gets a 'hard' formatting at the paragraph which is hard to change for the whole document. List Styles being 'hard' formatted are part of the ODF standard. Thus, they should be supported by OpenOffice. For Numbering On/Bullet On changes to the 'hard' formatted List Style can be made as I have stated in comment #6. This is not a good user experience - it is just a workaround. It is more or less consistent with the other 'hard' formatted attributes. If the user wants to have an easy editable List Style applied to the lists then the user should use the Stylist, pane List Styles and create lists via applying the one or the other List Style. One List Style can be used for several lists. Thus, the user is able to change the list attributes for all lists easily. I volunteer to work on this issue (after our AOO 4.1.0 release). But I need support on finding the solution which should be implemented. Some discussion already took place - e.g. see comments #5, #6 and #7. Also bug 9437 should be taken into account.
Oliver-Rainer Wittmann, thanks for the detailed info! I try to describe my point of view this issue: As I see, each paragraph style have "Outline & Numbering" tab http://wstaw.org/m/2014/03/10/plasma-desktopZ24912.png in which we can select default style for Numbering in this paragraph style. So, pressing toolbar buttons must look at the current paragraph style and set list style to selected in it. But there are two buttons in toolbar - Numbering and Bullets. So we must to split numbering style to Numbering style and Bullets style in Paragraph style edit dialog. This way will solve this issue for improved users - they will can change default numbering and bullet styles for any paragraph style, and for whole document (when changing "Default Style" settings. What do you think about this?
Reset the assignee to the default "issues@openoffice.apache.org".