[Libreoffice-bugs] [Bug 48800] New: FORMATTING: Impossibility of snapping to increments devalues the usefulness of the ruler

[bugzilla-daemon at freedesktop.org]

https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=48800

             Bug #: 48800
           Summary: FORMATTING: Impossibility of snapping to increments
                    devalues the usefulness of the ruler
    Classification: Unclassified
           Product: LibreOffice
           Version: LibO 3.5.2 Release
          Platform: Other
        OS/Version: All
            Status: UNCONFIRMED
 Status Whiteboard: BSA
          Severity: normal
          Priority: medium
         Component: Writer
        AssignedTo: libreoffice-bugs at lists.freedesktop.org
        ReportedBy: stavdev at gmail.com


Problem description: 
The ruler as it's currently implemented in LibO is only useful for looking up
the current formatting, not for formatting as such. Moving the markers on the
ruler with the mouse is highly imprecise and does not allow to set precise
formatting (such as, e.g., 2cm exactly). While Styles may be used to work
around this problem (and that is encouraged, as far as I can tell), the ruler
is still much less useful than it might be and than it is in many other similar
office applications (e.g. AbiWord), which steepens the learning curve for
people migrating from other applications and complicates quick formatting of
individual sentences and paragraphs.

Steps to reproduce:
1. Type some sentences.
2. Try to format them by moving the ruler markers with your mouse. Try to get
the ruler to align exactly to 1.50 cm or 2.00 cm, not to 1.51 or 1.49 or 2.02. 
3. Give up.

Current behavior:
The ruler markers are only useful for telling the current formatting. Using
them for some quick formatting, as in other applications, is nearly impossible.

Expected behavior:
Currently LibreOffice functions as it was originally designed, so it's not a
bug but a feature extension request. In many other office applications,
including AbiWord and Microsoft Office, it's possible to snap to ruler
increments and that makes the ruler useful for formatting. In LibreOffice, the
typical usage scenario is to use styles-oriented formatting and potentially to
hide the ruler altogether because it can't be used precisely anyway.

Platform (if different from the browser): 
Windows Vista

Browser: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.0; rv:11.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/11.0

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