https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=35694

Eyal Rozenberg <[email protected]> changed:

           What    |Removed                     |Added
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
                 CC|                            |[email protected]
         Resolution|NOTABUG                     |---
     Ever confirmed|1                           |0
             Status|CLOSED                      |UNCONFIRMED

--- Comment #60 from Eyal Rozenberg <[email protected]> ---
I just encountered this behavior, and was about to file a bug but found this
one.

I claim this is a bug, despite these other comments made here. Let me explain:

When a user inserts page numbers and wants them to start at a value higher than
one, it is reasonable, and I would argue necessary, that the user be able to do
this via the "Edit Field(s)..." dialog.

Now, given that:

* The dialog has a text box for "Offset"
* The natural interpretation of the meaning of that field is "apply the
specified offset to the Page Number field value"
* The app-prescribed meaning of that field is "offset value that you want to
apply to the page number field" (quoting the help pop-up bubble)

The field _must_ show the original value with the added offset, rather than
become empty.

Whatever other behavior developers thought about originally, or is specified in
the ODF - is irrelevant. Such different behavior must have a different UI, not
this UI; and this UI _must_ adhere to users' expectation, which also a required
feature we are currently missing.

(In reply to sasha.libreoffice from comment #15)
> IMHO usually users apply negative numbers for remove page number from title
> page.

That's not true. Users are told almost explicitly that applying a negative
offset must result in a negative number. If something else happens - they would
 discover this only accidentally, and it would be a hack which needs different
UI (e.g. a checkbox for "hide zero-or-lower page numbers"; or perhaps a text
box for the minimum or maximum page number to show).

(In reply to Matthew Francis from comment #29)
> There is an interesting point about the behaviour required by the
> OpenDocument specification in bug 67083 comment 12 (even though it still
> seems wrong)
>
> <quote>
> 19.845.2 <text:page-number>
> The text:page-adjust attribute specifies an adjustment of the value of a
> page number field, in order to display of page numbers of following or
> preceding pages. The specified value is added to the current page number. If
> a page with the resulting page number does not exist, no number is displayed.
> </quote>

This is an interesting ODF feature. However, it cannot be implemented in LO
using the Offset field in the Page Number field dialog, especially not with the
specified meaning in the offset field:

1. The label "Offset" does not correspond to the semantics of the
text:page-number ODF attribute.
2. The pop-up help button clarifies that the text box has nothing to do with
the semantics of the text:page-number ODF attribute.
3. There is a single text box in the dialog, and it must correspond to the
obvious and commonly desired feature, of applying a simple numeric offset to
the page number.
4. text:page number regards the desire to refer to following or preceding
pages. The "Page Number" field refers to the number of the current page, hence
its name. Users are not very likely to want to refer to specific other pages,
as pages in Writer aren't "first-class citizens" - a derivative result of
pagination of sequences of non-page content. If we wanted to allow for
references to pages, that should probably be made possible via the
cross-reference dialog.

(In reply to Regina Henschel from comment #37)
> There is nothing to fix. The current behavior of "offset" is correct.

The behavior is incorrect, as is the presumption to associate the
text:page-number attribute with the offset text box of the Page Number field
editing dialog.


> If you
> want to start your document with a different number than 1, the correct way
> is to set the desired number in the paragraph, which contains the page break.

This bug is not about starting documents with a number different than 1; it is
about applying an offset to a page number. We're not talking about the case of
users wanting to insert page breaks.

The possibility of "really" starting documents on a page different than 1 is
interesting and merits discussion; but there's no UI for it that I know of.

(In reply to Regina Henschel from comment #39)
> The specification is very clear:

It's actually not super-clear, but that's irrelevant, since the spec cannot
apply to this text box.

> The value of a page number field can be adjusted by a specified number,
> allowing the display of page numbers of following or preceding pages.

Again, that's not what the "Offset" feature is about and not what users are
trying to achieve.

> If we wanted another behavior than specified, it would need an own loext-
> attribute.


There is no "if". That's the behavior users want. Either it is achieved by a
field-inspecific offset attribute (i.e. one which can apply to any numeric
field), or a field-specific offset attribute.

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