Numbering And Bullet Enhancements 1

OpenOffice 2.0 and StarOffice 8
Writer

Task ID(s)

111362, 105775, 110789, 65055

Category	Specification Affects

File Format

Abstract

Interoperability between other text processors and OpenOffice.org (OO.org) Writer has to be further improved for OO.org 2.0. The document conversion ability for documents containing bullet lists or numberings into Writer documents is improved by extending the software core functionality of bullet/numbering functionality

Feature Team

Specification Owner	Andreas Martens Michael Brauer	Andreas.Martens@sun.com Michael.Brauer@sun.com
Marketing Contact	-	-
User Experience Contact	Frank Loehmann	Frank.loehmann@sun.com
Development Contact	Henning Brinkmann	Henning.brinkmann@sun.com
Quality Assurance Contact	Michael Ruess	Michael.ruess@sun.com
Documentation Contact	Uwe Fischer	Uwe.fischer@sun.com

Document History

Version	Author	Comment
Draft 12/09/03	Henning Brinkmann	Initial collection of issues
12/16/03	Henning Brinkmann	Cleaning up
12/17/03	Frank Loehmann	Add outline numbering feature
13.01.04	Frank Loehmann	Final Draft
Specification Review 12.03.04	Bettina Haberer	Review
...		
UI String Review -	none	none
Final 15.03.04	Frank Loehmann	Final
26.03.04	Frank Loehmann	Small content changes and reorganization of document outline
01/12/05	Frank Loehmann	Added some issues from numbering 2 specification
09/16/05	Frank Loehmann	Add detailed definition for i54707

Contents

Glossary	1

References	1

1	Motivation	1

2	Scenarios	1

2.1	Office – Novice User used to work with MS Office	1

3	Goals	2

4	Requirements and Dependencies	2

4.1	Requirements	2

4.2	Technical Dependencies	2

5	Competitive analysis	2

5.1	Microsoft Word	2

5.1.1	Numbering	2

5.1.2	Bullet List	4

6	Dependancies	4

6.1	Technical Dependancies/Requirements	4

7	Detailed Specification	4

7.1	Changed Demoting, Promoting and Numbering Indent Behavior	4

7.2	Default Indent of a Numbering or Bullet List	5

7.3	Place Cursor in Front of a Numbering/Bullet or Document Outline Label	5

7.4	Deleting an Indent and Promoting the Level with Backspace	5

Turn off Numberings and Bullet List Automatically	6

7.5	Negative Indent for Number/Bullet	6

7.6	Regard first line indent of a paragraph	7

7.7	Outline/Chapter Numbering	7

Counting Paragraphs For Chapter Numberings	7

(Issue: i54707)Turn of Numbering when Outline Paragraph Style Gets Assigned to a Paragraph	7

Activate Outline Numbering via Button in Object Bar	8

Numbering Tool Bar in Outline Context	8

Changed Merging Behavior for Outline Paragraph's	8

7.8	Pasting List Items via Clipboard	8

7.9	Continue a Numbering List	9

7.9.1	Automatically Continue a List Within a Numbering/Bullets List	9

7.9.2	Continue a List Directly After a Numbering	9

7.9.3	Label Shading	9

7.9.4	Numbering/Bullets Buttons in Object Bar	9

7.9.5	Tabs in Indexes and Tables (TOX)	9

7.10	Numbering Behavior in Old Documents	10

7.11	Error Conditions	10

8	Future Tasks	10

9	Legal Issues	10

10	Notes	10

Glossary

Term	Description
Label text	A number or bullet including its prefix and suffix.
Label distance	The distance between the start of a number/bullet and the paragraph's text as specified in the numbering/bullet specification.
Tab character	The tabulator character in the paragraph.
Tab stop	The tabulator position in the ruler.
TOX	A table of x where x is one of the following: table of contents alphabetical index illustration index index of tables user-defined index table of objects bibliography

References

”Q” MS-Interoperability PRD

“Q” Ease-of-use PRD

Part 2 of Specification: http://specs.openoffice.org/writer/numbering/NumberingBullet2.sxw

Motivation

Competing text processors have a different model of numberings/bullets than OpenOffice.org 1.1 (OO.org). This results in an inability to import documents containing numberings/bullets correctly. Especially the first line indent is handled differently in OO.org 1.1, which does not obey the first line indent for numberings, while competitors do. Furthermore the competitor implements the distance between the label and the text of a numbered paragraph by a tabulator, which is not allowed as part of a label in OO.org 1.1.

Scenarios

Office – Novice User used to work with MS Office

Problem A:

User want's to import Microsoft Word documents in OO.org using the Microsoft Word import function. Some Microsoft Word specific numbering settings are missing after the import has been finished.

Preferred Solution:

Add missing functionality handling to the writer bullets and numbering software core.

Problem B:

User has problems to activate document outline in OO.org. They do not find the entry point to activate this feature in OO.org 1.1.

Preferred Solution:

In OO.org this feature is separated from the normal numbering feature and users look for it in the numbering dialog, because they are used to due to competitors behavior.

Goals

Prepare the OO.org Writer software core to fulfill requirements defined in this and in part 2 of the numbering specification: http://specs.openoffice.org/writer/numbering/NumberingBullet2.sxw. User interface related changes are defined in that second specification.

Requirements and Dependencies

Requirements

Please see product requirements in scenario section above.

Technical Dependencies

MS import and export filter.

Competitive analysis

Microsoft Word

The following screenshots give a short impression of the numbering behavior of Microsoft Word 2002.

Illustration 1 Object bar - buttons to create a numbering or bullet list (marked blue). Furthermore buttons to demote and promote paragraphs (marked red) will also work to demote and promote numbering or bullet lists

Numbering

Illustration 2 Word numbering (cursor in text)

Illustration 3 Word numbering - cursor inside a numbering label

Illustration 4 Indent added for whole numbering by pressing the tab key for the first item/paragraph

Illustration 5 Negative indent for a numbering

Bullet List

The following screenshot gives a short impression of the bullet list behavior of Microsoft Word 2002.

Illustration 6 Bullet list

Dependancies

Technical Dependancies/Requirements

OO.org Impress also uses bullet lists and numberings, but does use a different engine than OO.org Writer. Interoperability of OO.org Impress with competition has to be checked as well, but is not part of this specification.

Detailed Specification

Changed Demoting, Promoting and Numbering Indent Behavior

A bullet or numbering consists of a maximum of 10 levels. The general behavior known from OO.org 1.1 keeps untouched, with the following exceptions:

Indent of a complete numbering / bullet list could be increased by pressing the Tab key if the cursor is placed directly after the first bullet or numbering label of a list. The level of this first level item could not be changed anymore.

The indent of a complete numbering / bullet list could be decreased by pressing the Shift + Tab key if the cursor is placed directly after or before the first bullet or numbering label of the the current list.

The user can use Drag & Drop (D&D) to increase the indent of all numbering/bullet list items of the same level of the current numbering/bullet list at the same time by selecting and dragging the label.
Please note that if the first label of a list is dropped, the complete list's indent will be changed.
A dotted vertical line is shown as a preview were the left (outer) edge of the label will be placed (vice versa in a right to left environment).

Furthermore already existing tabulators or spaces at the beginning of a paragraph are converted to an “alignment at” (indent) for a newly created numbering or bullet list.

Ctrl + Tab always inserts a tab character (not only on the first position like in OO.org 1.1).

Default Indent of a Numbering or Bullet List

The default indent for a numbering and bullet lists will be a 1/4 Inch (0,635 cm). All other indents etc. will be calculated as a multiple of a ¼ inch.

Place Cursor in Front of a Numbering/Bullet or Document Outline Label

If a user wants to increase the level of a numbering/bullet list, it is expected to place the cursor in front of a label to “push” it by pressing the TAB key. The current possibility to “pull” a label by placing the cursor directly behind a label and press the TAB key will be kept as is.

Cursor could be placed in front of a numbering/bullet list or document outline label by

a click in the red marked area (a) shown in illustration 7 below.

pressing the Pos1 key if the cursor is already placed on Pos1 of the text area of the paragraph.

pressing the Cursor left key on the regular Pos1 in a paragraph (vice versa in right to left writing)

first Cursor left places the cursor in front of the label, next Cursor left moves the cursor to position End of the paragraph above (if present).

If the cursor is placed in front of the label and

a cursor up or down is entered, then the cursor travels to the absolute Pos1 of text area (directly behind the label) above/below.

a shortcut (i.e. Ctrl + B for bold) is pressed, then the formatting of the numbering/bullet label itself is changed for all labels of the same level and numbering/bullet list.

a text is entered or the Del key is pressed then the numbering/bullet will be turned off for the current paragraph only.

all labels of the same level in the current numbering will be highlighted like a field (Part 2 of this specification will add an option to Tools-Option to suppress this highlighting behavior).

a Tab key

in front of the first paragraph of a numbering changes the indent of the complete numbering

a Tab key pressed in front of a label behaves the same as described in chapter 7.1 Changed Demoting, Promoting and Numbering Indent Behavior on page 4.

Illustration 7 This mockup illustrates the new possibility to place the cursor in front of a numbering/bullet list or document outline numbering.

Deleting an Indent and Promoting the Level with Backspace

Pressing the backspace key, directly after a paragraph of a numbering or bullet list has been demoted by pressing the TAB key, promotes it's level by one. If it is not hit directly after demoting a paragraph or is used in an document outline numbering context, backspace only deletes the bullet/numbering label itself. In this case the next backspace turns off the bullet/numbering, so that the cursor is aligned with the numbering / bullet label of the paragraph before.

Illustration 8 New empty paragraph in a numbering

Illustration 9 1: Backspace turns off number

Illustration 10 2. Backspace remove this indent like described below

Furthermore any paragraph indent (regardless if it is a numbering or bullet list, after the label has been deleted) will be removed by pressing the backspace key. This happens in different steps:

Remove the first line indent if present. Else the paragraph indent is removed (set to page border)

If the first line indent was negative, the paragraph indent will be decreased by the amount of the previously removed negative first line indent.

If this attribute was set by a paragraph style, the new value will be set directly (via hard formatting), even if automatically paragraph style update is activated for the assigned style. This is important for basic users to be able to delete an indent without knowledge of styes and advanced formatting. A second backspace deletes the current paragraph as already handled in OO.org 1.1.

Ctrl + Backspace deletes an empty paragraph in front of a numbering.

Turn off Numberings and Bullet List Automatically

If return is pressed in an empty paragraph of a numbering or bullet list, the numbering itself is turned off (already implemented in OO.org <= 1.1) and the assigned indent will be kept and reset to the paragraph style (this removes hard/direct assigned indent formatting).

Negative Indent for Number/Bullet

The indent of numberings and bullets, that is the space between the page border and the number or bullet, might become negative, zero or positive (in OO.org 1.1 only zero or positive values are allowed). A negative indent in fact means that the number or bullet in fact is displayed partially or full within the page border. If the distance between the number/bullet and the text is lower than the absolute value of the indent, then even the paragraph text is displayed within the page border.

This change applies to numberings, bullets and chapter numberings.

Regard first line indent of a paragraph

The left and right margin of the paragraph are regarded for numbered sections. Thus the numbering label starts at the left indent of the paragraph and the text of the numbered paragraph ends at the right margin Illustration 11: First line indent and numberings

of the paragraph. In OO.org 1.1 the first line indent is not taken into account for a numbered paragraph. For Q the handling of indents is enhanced like shown in illustration 11.

The paragraph numbered with “1.” has a first line indent of -1 cm. The paragraph labeled “2.” has a first line indent of 0 cm. The label of the first line of a numbered paragraph is aligned at the indent of the paragraph plus the first line indent of the paragraph plus the indent of the numbering. All subsequent lines of the paragraph start at the paragraph's indent plus the numbering indent. The size and alignment of the label are identical to the layout in OO.org 1.1, modulo changes due to .

This is an additional kind of layout and is enabled by a global flag. Thus documents of older versions can be read without altering their appearance.

Outline/Chapter Numbering

Counting Paragraphs For Chapter Numberings

A paragraph will be contained in the chapter numbering if it's paragraph style is assigned to one of the chapter numbering level. The following exceptions exist (but did not exist in OO.org 1.1):

If a paragraph has a numbering/bullet assigned, it will not be counted in the chapter numbering

A paragraph that is contained in the chapter numbering can be removed from it by pressing the backspace key at the first paragraph position. Same happens, when the outline label has been deleted (as described on page 5; Deleting an Indent and Promoting the Level with Backspace)

An unnumbered outline paragraph (i.e. removed by backspace) will not be counted

This feature is enabled by a flag to prevent altering the numbering of existing documents. This flag is defaulted for new documents and document imported from Microsoft Word.

(Issue: i54707)Turn of Numbering when Outline Paragraph Style Gets Assigned to a Paragraph

If a document outline style gets assigned to a paragraph of an already existing numbering, the hard numbering attribute gets removed from that paragraph. If the user presses the Numbering on/off button, the outline numbering gets activated for this or all levels depending on the numbering status for this outline level. Please find details about this in the following section.

Activate Outline Numbering via Button in Object Bar

The numbering On/Off button in the object bar activates the outline numbering for the current paragraph's outline level, if the paragraph style of the current paragraph is defined as a (primary) document outline style (i.e. Heading 1) and is currently turned off in the document.

[Issue 48101] If the outline numbering for current paragraph's outline level is turned on in general, but is turned off for the current paragraph, the numbering for the current paragraph is turned on only, when the numbering button in the object bar is pressed.

If the outline numbering is activated for the current paragraph, this outline numbering is turned off in general for the document, if the Numbering On/Off button is pressed.

If the Numbering Off (not On/Off) button is pressed in the Bullets and Numbering tool bar, the numbering for the current paragraph is turned off only.

Numbering Tool Bar in Outline Context

The normal Numbering Tool bar is also shown in context of a document outline numbering in the current paragraph.

Illustration 12Bullets and Numbering Toolbar

The red marked buttons move the current outline paragraph with all it's sub points/paragraphs after the next outline paragraph on the same outline level in up or down direction. The functionality is exactly the same like already used in the Navigator when moving hierarchical outline structures.

Changed Merging Behavior for Outline Paragraph's

If a paragraph gets merged with an outline paragraph by pressing backspace, the merged outline paragraph will keep it's attributes. This is the same behavior as already used when merging those two paragraphs by pressing the DEL key.

Pasting List Items via Clipboard

The clipboard can be used to copy & paste list items. The default pasting behavior depends from the target paragraph, where we have to decide between active bullet/numberings list or a simple paragraph. It also depends from the amount of data in the clipboard (part of a paragraph and one or more paragraphs of a list) and of the target itself (i.e. new document).

Note: We do not offer a visual indicator were the user could choose a new default behavior.

Clipboard Content	Empty Paragraph (E.P.)/ or a New Document	E.P. but Successor of a Numbering/Bullet List	Within a Numbering/Bullet list
One complete or more paragraphs of a numbering/bullet list	Past as new Numbering/Bullet list	Append to Numbering/Bullet list	Extend target numbering (Formatted text only)
Part of a numbering (i.e. a single word)	Formatted text only	Formatted text only	Formatted text only
Part/complete numbering and other paragraphs	Past as new Numbering/Bullet list	Past as new Numbering/Bullet list	Extend target numbering (Formatted text only)

Continue a Numbering List

If a numbering or bullet list has already been pasted, the user can choose Continue Numbering or Restart Numbering from the context menu to append the current list to the previous one. The context menu itself is defined in part 2 of this specification.

Automatically Continue a List Within a Numbering/Bullets List

If the user turns a numbering/bullet list off within a list, the list continues automatically if turned on again, if it is from the same list type (bullet/numbering).

Continue a List Directly After a Numbering

If the user presses the button for numbering/bullet list directly after (this includes empty paragraphs between both lists) an already existing list, the list will be continued.

Label Shading

The label shading for numberings is turned off by default. The field shading is automatically turned on for all labels of the same level in the same list, if the user clicks on a numbering/bullet label or moves the text cursor on a numbering/bullet label. Then the blinking cursor is placed in front of the label.

Numbering/Bullets Buttons in Object Bar

Bullet lists and numberings could be started using different entry points in OO.org: Buttons in object bar, the main menu, the context menu and via the AutoFormat function.

The object bar offers two buttons to choose a bullet or numbering by a single click. In OO.org 1.1 these buttons do not allow to change a numbering into a bullet list and vice versa without deactivating it first. In OO.org 2.0 this action is possible with a single click and the current level and indent is kept.

If the current selection is already a numbering(/bullet) list and numbering (bullet) button is pressed, the numbering (bullet) list is turned off.

Note: Turning on and off items within a numbering/bullet list or in a paragraph appending directly after a list will continue the numbering/bullet list.

Tabs in Indexes and Tables (TOX)

Tab stops in a TOX are defined by the TOX, not the style. In OO.org 2.0 / StarOffice 8 the tab stops for one level of a TOX will be defined independently from the tabs in the entry template. The template will define where tab characters are to be inserted. A list of tab stops will be defined separately. Thus it will be possible to have different numbers of tab characters and tab stops. All kinds of tab stops will be possible (left, right, center, decimal). If the TOX is not read only altering a tab stop of a paragraph results in an according change in the TOX.

Illustration 13: Multiple tab stops in TOX, but only one tab stop in template.

Numbering Behavior in Old Documents

The defaults for numbering and bullet lists in already present OOo 1.1 documents are left unchanged. So the old, small bullets are used by default when a bullet list is turned on via object bar. This is important to keep old documents consistent. Furthermore the documents outline numbering is also handled like in OOo 1.1, if a OOo 1.1 document is loaded. This is achieved by the same flag set on importing an OOo 1.1 document to handle numberings the same way like in OOo 1.1. If a paragraph has an outline level and no numbering rule assigned (via hard attributes or paragraph style) the numbering rule active for the paragraph is the designated outline numbering rule of the document. This is the same behavior like in OOo 1.1.

Error Conditions

None

Future Tasks

none

Legal Issues

none

Notes

High effort

Show status (numbering/bullet on/off) via numbering/bullet button in object bar.

Empty Paragraph

Paragraph is direct successor of a list or there are only empty paragraph between the two list

Complete text of a numbering is selected. Numbering label could not be included.

If the user wants to continue the numbering, she can choose continue from the context menu of Numbering dialog.

If the user wants to continue the numbering, she can choose continue from the context menu of Numbering dialog.

If the user wants to continue the numbering, she can choose continue from the context menu of Numbering dialog.

Numbering And Bullet Enhancements 1

Page 10

http://specs.openoffice.org/writer/numbering/NumberingBullet1.sxw

Numbering And Bullet Enhancements 1

Michael Brauer

2003-04-09T20:08:48

Frank Loehmann

Frank Loehmann