[Libreoffice-bugs] [Bug 140684] New: drop-down list "gutter position" is unsuitable UI

[bugzilla-daemon at bugs.documentfoundation.org]

https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=140684

            Bug ID: 140684
           Summary: drop-down list "gutter position" is unsuitable UI
           Product: LibreOffice
           Version: 7.2.0.0.alpha0+ Master
          Hardware: x86-64 (AMD64)
                OS: Windows (All)
            Status: UNCONFIRMED
          Keywords: needsUXEval
          Severity: normal
          Priority: medium
         Component: Writer
          Assignee: libreoffice-bugs at lists.freedesktop.org
          Reporter: rb.henschel at t-online.de
                CC: libreoffice-ux-advise at lists.freedesktop.org

Created attachment 170088
  --> https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/attachment.cgi?id=170088&action=edit
document for testing gutter position

Open attached document. It is a document in portrait orientation with a single
page in landscape. It has set gutter width of 15mm.

Go to page style "Landscape" and change the gutter position to "Top".  Notice
that the page in landscape orientation correctly has the additional space from
gutter at top. But the other pages have lost their gutter space.
Save and reload. Now all pages have the gutter area applied to the top edge.
Go to page style "Default Page Style" and set the gutter position back to
"Left". All looks fine now. But save and reload. Now the page in landscape
orientation has the additional gutter space at the left edge.

The behavior of the item "Top" is unpredictable for users and bug reports about
it are inevitable.

Technical reason is, that "top" is in fact not a property of a page style but a
document setting. It is not stored in a page style in styles.xml but in
settings.xml.

My proposal is, to remove the drop-down list at all:
a) There are currently not plans to implement "Top" as page style property
(request bug 140570).
b) Instead of introducing a separate item "Right" that users can use in RTL
context (request 140568) and would require a drop-down list, it would be
possible to automatically detect the "binding edge" from writing mode and page
layout.
c) It would automatically solve bug 140561.

Instead of the drop-down list add a checkbox with label: "Apply gutter space to
top of pages throughout the document." The part "throughout the document" makes
it clear to the user, that this is not a setting for an individual page style
but for the entire document.

The fact, that the change to "Top" is not immediately visible in the document,
but needs a reload is a different issue, which needs a new bug report. This
report is only about the UI of the dialog.

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