[Libreoffice-bugs] [Bug 138544] FORMATTING: FILESAVE: Writer compatibility setting doesn't save properly and keeps resetting unwanted option to be used

[bugzilla-daemon at bugs.documentfoundation.org]

https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=138544

--- Comment #14 from Ernest Bywater <ernest at bywater.net.au> ---
(In reply to Justin L from comment #13)
> I'm trying to wrap my head around what the purpose of disabling "Load
> user-specific settings with the document" is. There are lots of settings
> that are saved in the document. Disabling "Load user-specific settings with
> the document" tells LO to ignore the subset of settings that can be
> specified by the user - i.e. those found in Writer - Compatibility. So
> instead of using the document's version of what compatibility options should
> be used, we use the program defaults (which can be adjusted by the user).
> 
> So why would anyone change that setting?  One possibility could be mass
> conversions - where you want to change the document settings to match some
> user-specified settings. But other than that, I am coming up blank.
> 
> The key problem exposed in this bug report is that when the document
> settings are read, it needs to apply a default value in case the document
> doesn't contain that setting. That is a natural part of supporting older
> documents. They will be missing settings that didn't exist when they were
> created. So if a setting is missing, that indicates that an OLD behaviour
> needs to be applied.
> 
> Well, in this case, we are specifically telling the program to IGNORE the
> user-controllable settings in the document. And since we are ignoring them,
> obviously they are not set. And so that means they are getting the old
> behaviour settings. But instead of giving them old behaviours, they should
> just use the user-specified behaviours.
> 
> The Writer - Compatibility settings therefore have two roles - and perhaps
> that hasn't been entirely clear to programmers over the years.
> 1.) The primary purpose is probably to allow the user to assign new defaults
> to documents they are creating - new documents. My guess is that this would
> be beneficial to create new documents that work with older versions of
> LibreOffice, or MS Word - aiding in a long corporate rollout for example.
> 2.) The second purpose is to force certain compat settings when loading old
> documents (via turning off Load User settings from document).
> 3.) A third role could be seen as giving a UI way to adjust the
> compatibility settings of a single document (but that is where we would run
> into these kinds of problems, because it can mean more than just that).
> 
> I still might not have a correct understanding of any of this, but that is
> what I am getting from reading the code.
> 
> I have some proposed patches at
> https://gerrit.libreoffice.org/q/LoadUserSettings

Justin,

I write stories which are for publication in electronic formats. With the e-pub
version they'll have settings set by the e-pub reader software while with the
html version they'll have settings by the browser  well, that's what's hoped
for. There is absolutely no need for me to have page margins and similar
settings for those finished products. However, past experience has shown that
sometimes the loaded default settings within LO has caused problems with the
reader's software. Years ago I found out, by trial and error, that by disabling
that setting the conflicts didn't occur. Thus I got into the habit of doing
that as a default personalised setting.

In the last few weeks, due to playing around working on this issue as reported
I've found that is no longer a problem due to the changes in the software in
the last few years.

However, it still raises a question for me - If I have no printer attached and
I have no intention of every printing the document via a standard printer
process, why the heck do I need to have printer settings in the document as a
compulsory or default aspect? Surely I should be able to just set what I want
for margins and and that's it.

BTW: I do find the system is extremely annoying when I ask it so save a file
and it wants confirmation I want to have the margins set outside of the printer
capable margins. If I've not got a printer attached which is LO asking me about
printer margins? It has to be pulling something from a default setting
somewhere to have that conflict arise within it.

Anyway, I've functional work around that only gives the the occasional annoying
Printer Margins error report, so I'm happy to get on with my work. But I do
keep an eye on this in case I can help with any questions about what's going
on.

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