Since I cannot VOTE for 

Issue 14961 Implement Snap lines for Writer
Issue 24070 Tab stops on ruler should snap
Issue 26135 make ruler-items snap to configurable grid

(cookies are enabled, for this site), I'm writing a new issue report here - and
also adding another issue, that's linked to this one peripherically (though have
not much hope it will help anything):

I'm generally a great fan of OS and would like to see a real alternative to some
well-known apps out there for everyone. Also, I'd like to help making them
better - that's why I'm taking the effort of registering in forums and filing
reports like these, where I should actually do some work. OpenOffice is a great
candidate I think, but it has some troublesome behaviours and lacks of features
that reduce it's practical usability (especially for new users).

Well, yepp, it's obviously a 5 years old request from numerous users, regarded
as nuisance, so it seems (24070)...  even 'abiword' can do it!
for me, as a user, it surely is quite an annoyance, which reduces
all-day-usability of 'writer' to a good deal and I know people by myself, for
whom it's too.

The second issue: along with the free-floating ruler-tabstops (while moving
them), there's also a vertical line moving across the screen - leaving permanent
vertical 'punched' lines on the sheet. Those can be 'erased' by scrolling the
sheet up/downwards one page. 
I have an ATI x1950gt card and are using Xubuntu 8.04 with Xorg 7.3 right now,
but  can remember, having the same problem with a completely different system
and Nvidia gc (using Xubuntu Feisty) - not sure about the Windows version.

I see that some of the developers are of different opinions e.g. are suggesting
to create styles instead. Well, that's more of an advanced feature for experts,
not the quick-and-easy thing most people need at hand for daily work and it
would require too much time to do it for each different small layout.

Really, I really can't see why the dev's are so reluctant to implement a feature
so small, yet bringing that huge benefits to the users - for years. Is it
blindness, technically too difficult to implement, is it some patent issue or is
it plain ignorance? (sorry, but that's how some of the answers here read like.) 

There are other issues, which I'm gonna file in different reports, but it's
really sad to see how an otherwise very promising app is afflicted with such
unnecessary drawbacks.

Best regards,

typist