Hi Jacqueline,
thanks for your input.
Sorry again for my late response.
Jacqueline Rahemipour wrote:
Hi Oliver, *,
Oliver-Rainer Wittmann - Sun Germany - Software Engineer schrieb:
Title : Direct cross references for headings and numbered
paragraphs
Location:
http://specs.openoffice.org/writer/numbering/Direct_Cross_References_to_Headings_and_Numberings.odt
Status : preliminary
Abstract: A cross-reference to a heading or a numbered paragraph
will be inserted directly into the current text document by
choosing the heading respectively numbered paragraph. A list of
all headings respectively all numbered paragraphs will be
provided to the user to perform such a selection.
Comments:
Issues: i25072
thanks a lot for this specification, I'm really happy to see this
feature implemented in Writer.
First: I think, that this feature is much more than a "short-cut"
for the user. The biggest problems I see with manually defined
cross-references is to keep track on the references, because you
have to define a unique name for each reference. Atm the references
are shown in alphabetical order, not in order of their appearance
in the document. So many users started to name the references with
beginning numbers - corresponding to the outline numbering. When
they reorganize the chapters, the numbering changes, but certainly
not the names of the references. I speak from my own experience,
that it often ends in a chaos and many users prefer to set
references "manually".
Thx for this use case. It shows the need of such a feature.
Some late (hopefully not too late) comments / questions:
- page 4, line 30: I agree, that in the fields dialog the entries
Headings and Numbered paragraphs should be visible, even if the
current text document doesn't contain any of them. This is
important, that users see, that there is such a function. Is there
a reason, why this is not done in the same way with tables and
graphics?
I don't know the reason.
But, I figured out, that the visible items "Set Reference", "Insert
Reference" and "Bookmarks" are visible, because
- with "Set Reference" a new reference is inserted into the text
document - field "name" has to be edited -,
- with "Insert Reference" a cross-reference to a not existing
reference can be inserted - also field "name" has to be edited - and
- with "Bookmarks" a new bookmark can be inserted into the text
document, also by editing field "name".
Such a functionality isn't possible with the other unvisible items.
- page 4, line 34: Scrollbars become visible in the fields dialog,
if needed. I suppose, that the dialog is not big enough to show the
headings in proper way, even if tooltips are implemented. I tried
to visualize how it looks like if we have 4 or more levels (see
screenshot http://projects.ooodev.org/qa/crossreferences.jpg). The
feature will be used in large documents with many headings and
levels. Is it possible to implement the dialog resizable?
We also notice this usability issue.
As far as I know resizable dialogs aren't possible in OOo. We also
thought about the width of the selection list box. But, because the
other panes of this dialog uses the same respectively a similar
layout, we didn't want to confuse the user.
A colleague has made the following suggestion:
type: format:
+----------+ +----------+ name
| | | | +----------+
| | | | +----------+
| | | |
| | | | value
| | | | +----------+
| | | | +----------+
+----------+ +----------+
selection:
+--------------------------------------+
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
+--------------------------------------+
Then, we keep the three columns from the other panes and we got a big
list box for the selections.
- page 7, lines 85: Every bookmark will get a name with a unique
number: Is the number unique only in each single document or could
two documents have accidentally the same bookmark name? Avoiding
this would be important, if cross references are used in
subdocuments of master documents.
The unique number will be something, that is calculated from the
current date and time plus a random number. It will be assured that it
is unique in each single document.
I figured out, that there are already problems with normal bookmarks
in subdocuments of a master document:
- create sub document one with a bookmark named "Book" and a reference
to it.
- create sub document two with a bookmark named "Book" and a reference
to it.
- create a new master document and insert the two create subdocuments.
--> the bookmark of the second inserted sub document is renamed to
"Book1". But the reference in this subdocument still references bookmark
"Book". This is a defect. This defect can also be reproduced with a
text document by including the sub documents as linked sections.
I think, we should submit an according issue and solve it separately,
because it affects already existing functionality and will not be
introduced by the direct cross-references to headings and numbered
paragraphs.
- page 7, line 88: Again master documents: Bookmarks are only
internally used and bookmark names aren't shown in the user
interface: Will there be a chance to find out the bookmark name?
This would be helpful, if cross references are used in master
documents between two subdocuments.
Currently, it isn't planned to make these bookmarks visible in the
user interface of the Writer. But, you can find these bookmarks in the
OpenDocument file format.
Why do you need access to these bookmark names?
If you have a masterdocument containing sub documents with headings
and numbered paragraphs, these headings/numbered paragraphs can be
referenced by the new functionality.
ATM we only have a workaround for using cross references between
two subdocuments. In the first spec there was a section "future
tasks" where cross references between master and subdocuments are
mentioned. Is it possible to add the section future tasks to the
new spec, too?
As far as I know the current specification template doesn't contain
such a section/chapter. But, we can reference in the specification to
an external document containing such future tasks.
Regards, Oliver.
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