[Libreoffice-ux-advise] [Bug 126608] Writer: Can't switch to Portrait

[bugzilla-daemon at bugs.documentfoundation.org]

https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=126608

Mike Kaganski <mikekaganski at hotmail.com> changed:

           What    |Removed                     |Added
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
         Resolution|---                         |NOTABUG
             Status|UNCONFIRMED                 |RESOLVED

--- Comment #22 from Mike Kaganski <mikekaganski at hotmail.com> ---
Hi!

(In reply to Todd from comment #4)
> 1. new document
> 
> 2. format --> page (brings up page style) --> format tab
> 
> 3. select "Landscape"
> 
> 4. write something on the landscape page
> 
> 5.  → Insert
>        → More Breaks
>           → Manual Break
>             → Page Break
>               Default Style
> 
> No sign of Portrait in the styles (but everything else).  And Default style
> stays in Landscape.
> 
> Are you finally able to reproduce this?

Please follow the logic with page styles here.

In a document, there might exist several page styles (= definitions of what a
page might look like). Each page style is a recipe how to arrange a page if a
need arises to use it.

When you create a new document by default, the very first paragraph doesn't
have any explicit statement which page style it requires, and so, the "Default"
page style is used. The "Default" page style is just another page style, and it
is customizable, just as any other style! *By default*, it is in portrait
orientation.

For your convenience, there are some other pre-defined page styles already
available in a newly created document, "Landscape" among them. The latter
differs from the *default* configuration of "Default" style by orientation.

Note that the different page styles are there for situations when user needs
different page arrangements throughout the document (like in your case), since
in LibreOffice, the page styles provide this functionality. But not everyone in
the world needs differently styled pages in every document; for some, one and
only one page arrangement is used across all the pages in the document. And in
that case, it's very easy to just modify the "Default" style to fit their need
(e.g., just make it landscape, effectively making it a copy of "Landscape"
style). Doing that, user makes it impossible to use "Default" style for
portrait pages (until the user changes the style back) - but in that case, it's
not an issue. Additionally, it's always possible to create new page styles with
required settings (e.g., named "Portrait") and use those instead...

In your case, what you did is you initially had normal portrait-oriented
Default page style, and added a page with Landscape style using a page break.
But then, when you decided to remove the first page, you actually removed the
page break with the Landscape page style assignment, and so all your pages
became formatted using the Default style (portrait). Without understanding, you
opened the page style settings (and remember, at this time, the active page
style was Default!), and modified the page style (Default!) to be landscape -
again: making it a copy of Landscape style (just with a different name). Boom!
At this moment, your document has two landscape page styles, Default and
Landscape. And now, trying to use either gives you the landscape paper -
expected and correct behaviour, caused by user actions (made without
understanding how things work).

One should understand *what* one edits when one edits page settings. The dialog
opened for that has a title describing that it modifies page style "X"; it is
also clear on the Organizer tab of the dialog.

If one wants to use the portrait and landscape pages throughout the document,
one needs not to modify page settings (breaking the page style one still would
need in a few moments); instead, one needs to open Page Styles sidebar (on your
attachment 153052, it's the small button with a page icon right below "nd"
characters of the "Styles and Formatting" caption), and apply the same
Landscape page style one used before when one added page break.

All in all, what you need in your "bug" doc (lo.pages.odt from attachment
153048), is:

1. Fix the Default style to be portrait (which is the current page style for
your document);
2. Apply Landscape style to the document (it will set the first paragraph
setting to require that page style);
3. Use the fixed Default when you decide that you need to insert a break to use
portrait.

The problem here is NOTABUG (but a user error because of not reading the
documentation pointed to you in comment 18; available in help [1], and in
published manuals [2] (see ch. 5 of current Writer guide v.6), and in multiple
pages on AskLibO [3]).

[1]
https://help.libreoffice.org/6.2/en-US/text/swriter/guide/pageorientation.html
[2] https://documentation.libreoffice.org/en/english-documentation/writer/
[3] https://ask.libreoffice.org/en/questions/

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