[Libreoffice-ux-advise] LO's styles are more confusing then MSO's (Was Re: some thoughts on the Sidebar)

[Cor Nouws]

Hi David,

dollyp wrote (18-09-13 18:38)
> Cor Nouws wrote

> I'm being very subjective here. I considered I was a master of using styles
> in MSO Word but I found it confusing moving to LO Writer. I acknowledge that
> as a concept styles should be used for everything and so it's perhaps not
> surprising that absolutely everything has to have a named style. However the
> list of styles is just too large for normal use - four screens worth if
> showing all styles.
> Styles are divided into sections - paragraph, character, etc. - but for

It 's huge indeed.

> example there are far more numbering and list styles in the paragraph
> section than in the list styles section: that doesn't make sense. I know
> many of these are both paragraph AND list styles, but why does "List 1
> start" appear as a paragraph style but not as a list style. When I came to
> my first LO document with numbers I couldn't get styles to work as I
> expected them to do and still can't (I'll amplify if you wish); the answer

Indeed that is confusing, but senseful too. If you want to combine 
properties of a list style in paragraphs with different properties, 
that's why.
Tipically when I apply a list, I prefer to have distance of the 
paragraphs with that list to be less then the distance from the list to 
the parr above/below ..

> was to reach for the numbering button on the toolbar - big mistake.

Hard lessons ;)

> I think that it is too simplistic to just think that styles are the answer
> to everything. Most users aren't purists and in practical terms for simple

Now you break my dreams ;)

> short documents we won't get people to stop using direct formatting. The
> dilemma is to make styles more useable without alienating those for whom
> styles are essential. We are all converts here; those who move from MSO2003
> and earlier will probably do just fine with LO's treatment of styles, but we
> must also remember those whose only experience of styles is with MSO2007 and
> later, where the emphasis appears more on direct formatting.

I think I agree that it's not ideal. So thanks for the ideas, and let's 
try to work further on drafting what could be improved.

Cheers,
Cor


-- 
  - Cor Nouws
  - http://nl.libreoffice.org
  - The Document Foundation Membership Committee Member