Hi Alan,

The key combination for removing direct formatting is Ctrl-Shft-Space.
Can you try that?
Furthermore: Format|Default formatting from the menu or Default formatting from
the context menu (right mouse click) does the same.

I do not understand exactly what you want to achieve with "Remove Direct
Paragraph Formats".
If you apply another paragraph style, the direct formating made to fonts in the
paragraph is preserved. It is only with Ctrl-Shft-Space that you remove this
direct formatting.

Hi cornouws
Thanks for your quick reply. Unfortunately you did not understand either part of
my message - neither the bug report nor the request.

> The key combination for removing direct formatting is Ctrl-Shft-Space.
> Can you try that?

Yes I know that key combo works. That is not the problem I reported. 
I wrote that Ctrl+Shift+X does not work.

Please see Writer's main menu, Tools, Customise, Keyboard
where the entry for Ctrl+Shift+X says "Remove Direct Character Formats".
That is the key combo which I reported as not working. 

> Furthermore: Format|Default formatting from the menu or Default 
> formatting from the context menu (right mouse click) does the same.

Yes I know. As I wrote in my bug report, the "Default Formatting" command works
just fine.
The command I reported as not working is "Remove Direct Character Formats".
It doesn't work when attached to a key combo and it doesn't work when attached
to a custom item on a toolbar.

I guess it is meant to remove direct character formatting without removing
direct paragraph formatting - unlike "Default Formatting" which removes both.

When tested here, "Default Formatting" always works, but "Remove Direct
Character Formats" never works, no matter whether it is executed as a key combo
or as a toolbar button.


Regarding the other issue, you wrote: 

> I do not understand exactly what you want to achieve with "Remove Direct
Paragraph Formats".

I want to remove direct paragraph formatting only, without removing direct
character formatting.

We already have a command to remove both (which I reported as working OK)
and a command to remove character formatting only (which I reported as not working).
For symmetry, I suggested adding a command to remove paragraph formatting only.

> If you apply another paragraph style, the direct formating 
> made to fonts in the paragraph is preserved. It is only 
> with Ctrl-Shft-Space that you remove this direct formatting.

I don't want to apply another paragraph style. I want the text to comply with
its current paragraph style by removing any direct paragraph formatting - while
preserving any direct character formatting.

With best regards,
Alan

PS
In Microsoft Word,
Ctrl-Space or Ctrl-Shift-Z removes character formatting only, called “Reset Charâ€.
Ctrl-Q removes paragraph formatting only, called “Reset Paraâ€.
Clicking “Clear Formatting†in the Style and Formatting panel removes both char
and para direct formatting.

All three of those commands are also available to be applied to a custom toolbar
button or custom hotkeys.

Alan Martin

Hi Alan,

Thanks for your further/repeated explanation. Apologies I missed some the first
time.
I can confirm that Ctrl-Shft-X doesn't work both on 2.1 on XP and 2.0.2 on Debian.

Can you try the following:
Have a paragraph with both direct para.formatting and char.formatting.
1 - place cursor without selection in paragraph - press CSS (Ctrl-Shft-Space)
( Ctrl-Z )
2 - select word/part with direct char.formatting - press CSS
( Ctrl-Z )
3 - select whole paragraph - press CSS

So there's some magic in how Ctrl-Shft-Space works.
Does most you want, I think.
However not what you ask in #76168: when you have *more paragraphs* selected and
use Ctrl-Shft-Space, indeed any direct char.formatting is removed.

Kindest regards,
Cor 

confirmed on Windows

but this function is not used by default (ctrl-shift-x is not assigned in a
default installation) - set Prio to 4 therefor

Hi Cor
Thanks for acknowledging that "Remove Direct Character Formats" does not work.

I have tried what you suggested and have learned two new tricks, thank you.
To clear only para formatting:
Click in the paragraphs one at a time (without any chars selected) and do
Ctrl-Shift-Space.
To clear only char formatting:
Select most (not all) of one paragraph and do Ctrl-Shift-Space.

Yes they do what I want - but they have to be done one paragraph at a time
which is frustrating in a long document.

---------------------------------------

To both Cor and Andre

Please let me explain why I think it should be at least P3 priority (not P4)
to implement all 3 of these commands, so they will work when many paragraphs
in a long document are selected:

- Reset both para and char (exists as “Default Formatting†and works).
- Reset char only (exists as "Remove Direct Character Formats", not working).
- Reset para only (my feature request for "Remove Direct Paragraph Formats").

I shall describe my own situation as an example but I imagine there will be
others who are affected in a similar way.

My situation:
I am a graphic designer. I work with professional software such as QuarkXpress
and Photoshop. I am gradually converting to Open Source software where possible.

Sometimes I have to produce word processor based documents. Clients send me .doc
files. I design and reformat them and return them as .doc files.

I am trying to persuade them to use OOo instead of MS Word – for many good
reasons such as not having to pay for MS Office upgrades and for ethical
anti-monopoly reasons.
For clients who switch to OOo, we will switch to exchanging files as .odt
instead of .doc.

My clients are small or medium businesses, or solo professionals such as
academic authors. I also do some free work for charities and NGOs.

My problem:
They send formatted text so they can add Bold or Italics where they require it,
which I must keep. They also use paragraph styles to set hierarchical headings
(chapter, section, sub-section, etc) which I must keep.

I would prefer they use styles for ALL paragraph formatting (including
indentation, etc) but they always send an amateurish mixture of styles and
direct formatting. My first task is to clean that up and make all paragraph
formatting use styles.

Sometimes they are very large documents. In Word I could simply select the
entire document and do Ctrl-Q which removes direct paragraph formatting only,
while keeping their directly formatted bold and italics - and their heading styles.

I think it must be a common experience, when professional word processor users
have to fix documents made by undisciplined word processor users.

In summary:

MS Word provides these 3 commands: Reset Para, Reset Char, Reset Both
which can be attached to three different key combos.
When I switched from Word to OOo, those quick tools are the thing I missed most.
In OOo I have to clean each paragraph one at a time, using the workaround
suggested by Cor.

For me, those 3 commands are basic wordprocessing necessities for professional
high volume work.

So please reconsider - make this P3, not P4.
I won't pester you with any more arguments if you disagree. :)

Best regards, Alan

PS: I think this issue should be changed from "unconfirmed" as Cor has now
confirmed that "Remove Direct Character Formats" (Ctrl-Shft-X) does not work in
XP and Debian.

set to new (forgot this last time)

Setting prio back to P3; the keyboard assignment is default on my Windows builds.

MRU->OS: the function "Remove direct character format" (currently only
accessible via key assignment) does not work at all. 

following release status meeting -> target 3.x

Alan writes:

"I have tried what you suggested and have learned two new tricks, thank you.
To clear only para formatting:
Click in the paragraphs one at a time (without any chars selected) and do
Ctrl-Shift-Space.
To clear only char formatting:
Select most (not all) of one paragraph and do Ctrl-Shift-Space"

The first of these "new tricks" would be very useful, but does not work for me in OOo 3.2.0 on Ubuntu Linux 10.10 nor with the same version of OOo on Windows 7. Too bad! It would save me hours and hours!!!  This request is really important to people in a position, like Alan, to promote the use of OpenOffice.

Reset assigne to the default "issues@openoffice.apache.org".