Apache OpenOffice (AOO) Bugzilla – Issue 26448
undesirable line break when object is followed by a punctuation mark
Last modified: 2013-08-07 14:41:21 UTC
When a punctuation mark immediately follows a formula and a line break is necessary, then it breaks just before the punctuation mark, so that it stands alone on the new line. I would expect, that a formula will act as a letter and will be taken to the new line together with the punctuation mark. Because it is anchored _as_ character, I expect that it is really handled as character. The workaround to put a non-breaking space between formula and punctuation mark - which helps sometimes with other undesirable line breaks - does not work here.
Created attachment 13777 [details] shows line break between formula and punctuation mark
MRU->FME: I also think, that the puctuation mark should stick to the frame/object it follows to. In the attached sample, you can see our behaviour inside the frame. I was also able to create such a situation in a normal text line when a formula object is followed by a full stop.
FME->MRU: I see the problem. Objects anchored as characters are allowed to break the line. This can be easily changed, but you should consider, that many many old documents will change their layout, if we change our behaviour here. This could be solved by a compatibility flag (any ideas for a good name?). Please discuss with user experience, if we really want to change this.
my 2 ct.: As a user I have put the puctuation mark into the formula to circumvent that problem. So I bet that changing this won't hurt anybody. Even if it may break the layout in rare cases. IMHO the new option "use printer metrics for document formatting" has more impact than this one.
FME->cloph: "use printer metrics for document formatting" is an option, which is saved with the document and the default for old documents is "true". Therefore it does not change the layout of old documents.
This is also a problem with text, where brackets are sometimes used within words. See attached file 'example-break.sxw', where the word quoted as 'kn[ew]' (around the middle of the paragraph) is broken up but shouldn't be.
Created attachment 15663 [details] Example with quoted word 'kn[ew]' broken up undesirably
MRU->BH: FME is right, this could only be solved by something like a compatibility flag. Old documents will look differently if we do a change of behaviour as a "fix".
Yes, agreed. My fault. regarding comments from edsuom: Your problem is different from that handled in this issue. Please see issue 19716 (already fixed for OOo 2.0)
I think this issue is a DEFECT, not an enhancement, and deserves much higher priority. Because of it, OOo all too often decides to put a line break between a number and a left parenthesis. In my legal-type writing, there are a lot of such cases: 35 U.S.C. 102(b), Fig. 1(b), etc. When it does, there is absolutely no way for me to prevent the line break except forcing a line break before the number, and that prevents the right edge of the paragraph from lining up properly with the justified formatting that I use. See attached example file.
Created attachment 18325 [details] Should not be a line break in "102(e)"
This is not only a problem with formulas. The polytonic (accented) Greek font that I use makes accents, etc. from punctuation (it's called BetaCode and is a system for entering accented Greek in regular ascii characters). This means that a lowercase alpha with an acute accent is typed like this: a/, and the font is designed in such a way as to put the accent over the previous character. Thus the word profron (='kindly minded') is typed as pro/frwn. The problem is that OpenOffice will break the word at the accent because it is punctuation. It seems that the best solution for this problem would be to have OO only make line breaks at actual spaces rather than at punctuation (except when followed by a space).
Please see also issue 2548 and decide which one should be closed.
Now that this "feature" has been implemented, using parenthetical citations in a document often makes the programme think that I'm entering a formula because I have one word that end in a quotation mark, and the next starts with a bracket, like so: "This is a quotation" (Bicklesworth 75). What I end up with, then, is a big, ugly gap at the end of a line for no apparent reason. There really needs to be a way to turn this "feature" off.
cc
To grep the issues easier via "requirements" I put the issues currently lying on my owner to the owner "requirements".