[Libreoffice-bugs] [Bug 141453] New: Outline Numbering must be better/fully integrated with paragraph and numbering styles

[bugzilla-daemon at bugs.documentfoundation.org]

https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=141453

            Bug ID: 141453
           Summary: Outline Numbering must be better/fully integrated with
                    paragraph and numbering styles
           Product: LibreOffice
           Version: 7.1.2.2 release
          Hardware: All
                OS: All
            Status: UNCONFIRMED
          Severity: normal
          Priority: medium
         Component: Writer
          Assignee: libreoffice-bugs at lists.freedesktop.org
          Reporter: eyalroz1 at gmx.com

It is relatively common for users to want to associate multi-level numbering
with heading levels.

A lay user of LibreOffice wishing to do this would try to go through either the
paragraph style of the headings, or through a (multilevel) numbering style. But
this will not quite work out. The feature _does_ exist in LO - but it is hidden
away as "Tools | Chapter Numbering". And a user, novice or advanced, has very
little or no chance to :

1. Decide there should be some extra numbering functionality which surely must
exist, and go look for it outside the Style dialogs.
2. Look for it in the Tools menu.
(3. Decide that "Chapter Numbering" is what they are after.)

As for (3), that's the subject of bug 141452, so let's forget about the naming
for now. (1) + (2) are bad enough.

One could argue "Ok, but we have this configured properly by default! Heading N
is set to outline (numbering) level N" - but this goes away once a user decides
to apply a different numbering scheme: They would either create one using the
List styles pane, or using Format | Bullets and Numbering, then update the
heading style with it applied, and the outline level will be/may be lost.

---

Not only is the UI for this functionality hidden away, but there is also a
weird dis-integration or "dis-associated" of the functionality and the UI for:

* Working with multi-level numbering styles/schemes
* Controlling paragraph style <-> outline level association
* Controlling paragraph style <-> multi-level numbering association + a single
multi-level numbering scheme which supports this association, and only has part
of the settings of other numbering schemes

This seems broken and confusing.

* Why can't we have multiple paragraph-style-linked numbering schemes?
* Why shouldn't the numbering styles/schemes be viewable and configurable via
the (List) Styles pane?
* Why should the dialog for configuring Numbering styles not simply allow for
levels to be associated with paragraph styles and/or outline levels?

Note: Bug 104151 suggested the minor change of moving "Outline Numbering" to
the Style menu. While that would have been somewhat of an improvement in terms
of discoverability, it would not have helped the more fundamental problem.

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