Apache OpenOffice (AOO) Bugzilla – Issue 66068
Sections with columns: Spacing above paragraph improperly stacked
Last modified: 2017-05-20 11:17:47 UTC
In a two-column section layout, above-paragraph spacing applied to the paragraph style in the first column is improperly also applied to the second column. Open a new document, Insert -> Section, two columns. Type one word in first section, modify paragraph style, Indents & Spacing, Spacing, Above Paragraph 0.10". Insert a column break. Create copy of the first paragraph style (I have Default and Default2). Modify that new paragraph style to also have spacing above paragraph of 0.10". Type a word in the second column, apply Default2 style to it. In the second column, instead of having spacing above paragraph of 0.10" for the first line, the spacing above the paragraph is 0.20". Expected behavior is that these spacing values will not stack.
Created attachment 36891 [details] Test document for this issue
MRU->OD: easy to reproduce. Insert a two-column section into a new document, set the "above spacing" of the paragraph to e.g. 1cm, insert a section break -> above spacing is displayed as it would be 2cm
OD->MRU, bnuttall: The described behaviour is intended behaviour and can be controlled by compatibility option "Add paragraph and table spacing at top of pages (in current document)" - please verify and close this issue as INVALID
This behavior is extremely counterintuitive to be the default. When applying a paragraph style to paragraphs in columns, it is natural to assume that these styles will be applied in a consistent manner across columns. Furthermore, the option you need to check to change this behavior is both 1) Absolutely BURIED in the options dialog, and 2) Not clearly defined (the option talks about pages, but it applies to sections). To make matters worse, clicking the Help button in the Compatibility dialog does not take you to the correct help page. Even worse, once you finally find the correct page, there is nothing written in the description of that Compatibility option that would lead a user having a similar problem to even think of that particular option as something to try.
P.S. Things work as I initially expected when you uncheck that box.
MRU->OD: I also think that it is highly non-intuitive behaviour. The fact, that the problem existed before but wasn't discovered because of different default settings in the compatibility options does not change its classification from a bug to a "desired behaviour". Why should a different spacing than entered be shown in this case? We must fix this for the future.
*** Issue 65272 has been marked as a duplicate of this issue. ***
Thanks for the information on how to avoid this behavior. I'm still confused as to why the top-of-column behavior seems to be inconsistant between pages with columns and frames with columns. On a page with columns, no extra space at the top of the page seems to be added in the second column when the paragraph continues from the bottom of the first column to the beginning of the second column. However, in a frame, the extra mid-paragraph space _is_ added at the top of the second column when the paragraph extends from the bottom of the first to the top of the second column. (See attachment to Issue 65272) Now that I understand how to avoid this behavior, I don't know whether this inconsistancy is a bug, but I thought it worth mentioning that some of what I found to be strange behavior in Issue 65272 isn't quite addressed in this issue. Again, thanks for making a great product.
adjust target milestone to 2.x
*** Issue 70742 has been marked as a duplicate of this issue. ***
according to release status meeting -> 3.x
*** Issue 117581 has been marked as a duplicate of this issue. ***
Reset assigne to the default "issues@openoffice.apache.org".