[Libreoffice-ux-advise] [Bug 153534] Most bundled page styles are nonsensical and/or redundant

[bugzilla-daemon at bugs.documentfoundation.org]

https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=153534

--- Comment #7 from jonathon <toki.kantoor at gmail.com> ---
(In reply to Eyal Rozenberg from comment #0)

> (8.) : What do you mean, landscape? Landscape what? This suggests that it's
> a landscape version of the default page style. But - it isn't! 

This is a quick and dirty way to switch from portrait to landscape, reminding
the writer that the page is in landscape.

For some types of writing, this is a useful thing. 

>It doesn't inherit the default style. If it had inherited the default style, 

In an ideal world, page styles would be inheritable. 

> (2.) and (7.) : It's not clear what "Index" or "Endnote" here mean. Is this
> supposed to be a special page style for pages dedicated to

Index pages have a very specific page layout and markup criteria.The blatantly
obvious example being that lower case Roman numerals are used for page numbers.
Less obvious is that they have either two or three columns.

Endnote pages and Footnote have also have very specific page layout and markup
criteria. No page numbers being the most obvious example.  The first printed
page that follow End note pages and Footnote pages is a Right Hand Side page,
being a less obvious layout criteria. Point size of text is smaller than on
regular pages, being an equally unobvious differentiator.

> (5.) : Footnotes are never on their own page, so I don't see how this can
> make sense in any way!

I'll grant that Footnote pages are a specialist thing. They do exist, albeit
not nearly as common in contemporary (2023 publications) as in days of yore ---
C18 publications. I have seen a single footnote ramble on for almost 100 pages.

A trend that began in the early/mid-sixties in British & US publishing, was to
throw anything longer than a single line, from footnotes into end notes. Hence,
today (2023) the majority of time one comes across footnote pages, is in
reprints of material that was originally published more than fifty years ago.

> Indices/Footnotes? Why Index and not Table-of-Contents? Or even "Table" for
> pages dedicated to tables? Plus, why/how should the page style change for an
> Index? Vague name and unclear raison-d'etre.

The page layout for Table of Contents, and for Indices is different. The
blatantly obvious difference being that Table of Contents is a single column,
whilst Index Pages are two or three columns. Less obvious is that Table of
Contents pages lack page numbers, whilst Index pages include them.

> (9.) and (10.) : The source of most confusion on this list. This can mean
> any number of things! A page with an RTL default for paragraph styles? 

A right hand page is, by definition, an odd numbered page.
A left hand page is, by definition, an even numbered page.

> Are these two - Left Page and Right Page - supposed to alternate?

Going by the definition, yes.

> * Get rid of some and perhaps most of these. (1.), (3.), (8.) I guess you
> can keep, the rest should probably just go away.

There is a tension between providing the fifty odd page styles that the
in-house Style Manuals for the Seven Sisters requires, and catering for
somebody who has no idea that page styles exist, much less how to correctly use
them.

In theory, an extension that contains the styles that the in-house specialist
uses, could be created and distributed. In practice, that probably won't
happen, but not due to a lack of need.

> * If you keep any of the vaguely-named styles, make their rasion d'etre
> clearer  (and please don't tell me to go read the help...)

That page styles are perceived as being vaguely-named does not mean that they
are either vaguely-named or lack a rasion d'etre.

###

Should the documentation explain how and why each style (Bullet, Page, List,
Character, Table, Line) exists, and how to use the specific style?

My working assumption is that people who want to know that, either studied, or
will study the Style Manuals from the Seven Sisters and Chicago, or the British
or European equivalents.

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