Apache OpenOffice (AOO) Bugzilla – Issue 77320
header or footer NOT in margins as in MS Word
Last modified: 2013-02-07 22:34:17 UTC
The header or footer is _not_ in the margins as is discussed in the OO help. I believe that this used to work properly a while back but I'll have to fire up 5.2 to verify. Anyhow, the help is incorrect and I'd prefer to have it rectified as opposed to changing the help information. It's preferable to be able to install the header or footer _within_ the margins as opposed to have a footer and then have to calculate what the required margin needs to be to work with other pages that don't have a header or footer. This is how MS Word works and IMHO is the way that it should function. Imagine a document that wants 1" top margins for all pages so that the text begins at 1" and then the author wants to put a header on some of the pages. This requires the author to create separate page styles for pages that have or don't have the headers. - if there is a header then the margin would be about 0.6" and then the header would take up the remaining 0.4" requiring the author to figure this stuff out. The text would then follow the header. If the author wants the header higher up on the page then the margin needs to be less and the space taken up by the header needs to increase - this requires too much time to fuss around with details. - if there is no header then the margins are set to 1" and the text follows. Preferably, the implementation would be as follows, 1)the author chooses the margin 2)the author chooses a (-)dimension to move the header _within_ the margin or an offset from the page edge. I've spent about 2 hrs researching this problem and it isn't in the various documentation manuals, the forums, the help (which is incorrect), and it isn't even in the differences between MSO and OO information. I'm a little shocked that this package has been out for so long and this hasn't been more thoroughly documented.
Reassigned to requirements.
@enmane: we take this issue as a request to change the current behavior. You mentioned some wrong descriptions in the help. Could you please file another issue for the documentation project? Please mark it as "DEFECT" and describe exactly where the wrong text can be found. Thank you.
I'm not sure it's so much that I want to change the current behavior as much as I believe that the current behavior isn't as it was originally intended. I can't see why the current implementation would be used considering how most of us writing think of margins and headers/footers. They are to be contained _within_ the margin. The current implementation doesn't work that way at all and is confusing. I'm also reluctant to post this as a documentation issue as I'm not sure that this is a documentation issue as opposed to an implementation issue. Sun needs to decide which is the preferred way to do things first - I'm optimistic that they'll agree with the way that most other word processors do things - and _then_ decide whether or not to call this a bug or enhancement and _then_ decide how to re/write the documentation.
Triggerd by this issue, I posted a question to the Dutch discuss-list. Interesting discussion, that you can read here ;-) http://nl.openoffice.org/servlets/BrowseList?list=discussie&by=thread&from=1761782 I'll come back later with the ideas/suggestions/results
yes, that would be useful if I understood the language ;-) Why couldn't it be in english, spanish, or italian ;-) care to give me a synopsis of what they're talking about?
A month ago, we had a little discussion on discussie@nl.openoffice.org See: http://nl.openoffice.org/servlets/BrowseList?list=discussie&by=thread&from=1761782 6 people involved, small group, but all experienced. Only one of them, somehow supported the way Word does this. IMO it is a matter of choise, mainly, not right or false. In OOo the white space around text and headers/footers is the same (unless you change of course). In Word, the text area is the same by default. However, if header is longer in one section as in another, the text area is different after all. So the argument that it's easier in Word to have the text areas all the same size, is not fully valid. Someone suggested a work around for if you want it look as the Word way: make an emty header/footer of the same size in that page style.