Apache OpenOffice (AOO) Bugzilla – Issue 124899
ENHANCEMENT: User definable defaults for outline numbering position.
Last modified: 2014-09-24 00:36:46 UTC
Issues 124897 and 124898 relate. At present there is no way to change the default position settings for outline numbering. This is egrigious for three reasons: 1. The default setting values are irrational unless you happen to be working in imperial units. See issue 124897 for details. 2. If you do not wish to use the default settings you are faced with having to manually change them for every new document opened. 3. Once set, the settings are not retained through the rest of the document, but lost on closing and outlines. See issue 124898. Correcting this is labourious because it requires 3 or more manual entries for each outline level – 30 or more for the full outline – 150 key stokes or more. The enhancement could be expedited by adding a 'save as default' button to the Outline/Position dialogue, and renaming the existing 'default' button 'restore default'. It might also help to be able to access these settings from Preferences. (And all other default settings – though that would presumably require a separate enhancement request?). When considering the severity of this bug, please note that most of the world is now metric, and that outlines are routinely used for very long and serious documents such as books, and legal briefs which may run to boxes of paper – literally thousands of pages. It is presumed this bug applies to all forms of numbering.
I replicated both of the bugs this report pertains too following the steps in the issues provided; they were straightforward enough for me to easily do so. My mother is a Documentation Engineer who works with word processors every day at her job and encounters these exact situations daily. A work-around she suggests is using the Format Paintbrush tool. To use this tool, you highlight the text which contains the format you would wish to copy, click the Format Paintbrush tool, and then highlight the text which you would like to copy the format to. This is a relatively easy task, but it can become quite cumbersome if the text is very large and contains lots of outline numbering. This bug will come up a lot for someone trying to edit technical documents or business documents.