https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=162043
Bug ID: 162043
Summary: [ENHANCEMENT] Make spacing at tops of pages a property
of paragraph styles
Product: LibreOffice
Version: 24.2.5.2 release
Hardware: All
OS: All
Status: UNCONFIRMED
Severity: normal
Priority: medium
Component: Writer
Assignee: [email protected]
Reporter: [email protected]
Created attachment 195310
--> https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/attachment.cgi?id=195310&action=edit
Unselective spacing above suppression
Setting "Add paragraph and table spacing at tops of pages" allows to keep
_spacing above_ from paragraph style after an "explicit" page break.
This is usually used to offset downwards chapter headings (Heading 1).
Other headings (1-10) do not require a page break. Therefore when page overflow
occurs, text or heading is set at the very top of the page (spacing above
ignored).
There are however circumstances where a page break is inserted before a heading
and spacing above should nevertheless be ignored. Here a use case:
Chapter heading starts a new page (_çpage break before_). It is followed by a
legend for a picture (frame anchored to the legend paragraph). Since the size
of the frontispiece picture is not constant, legend paragraph style requests a
page break _AFTER_.
Next paragraph is a Heading 2 which starts the second page of the chapter. Here
_spacing above_ is kept because the paragraph is preceded by a hard page break.
When document is laid out for facing pages, it may happen that page 3 also
starts with a Heading 2. But the position of this latter Heading 2 results from
normal text flow (eventually after taking into account widow/orphan and keep
with next controls) and _spacing above_ is suppressed as expected.
This results is a bad visual effect where headings don't align vertically, the
one on left page being offset downwards for no obvious reason (to a casual
non-technical reader).
This can be solved by transferring the "spacing at tops" into the `Indents &
Spacing` tab of paragraph styles.
To preserve compatibility with existing documents, the value of the check box
should be the same as that of Tools>Options, LibreOffice Writer>Compatibility.
===
"Bibliography"
This issue is the subject of bug 146881.
I disagree with the suggested workaround in bug 146881 comment 3 because it is
not always possible. Also it would break the "smoothness" of the outline,
requiring that some *Heading n* to be duplicated for no semantic reason (and
this would be akin to some tricky direct formatting if subchapters need to be
reordered). Note also that the use case above relies on _page break AFTER_
where you can't specify a new page style.
(By the way, why are page breaks before and after handled differently?)
===
Other consideration(s)
The setting also mentions tables. Tables also have spacing setting in their
Table tab. Providing the same fix (new "spacing at tops" checkbox) makes the
enhancement consistent.
===
Sample document
I tried to reproduce the behaviour but it is highly dependent on font metrics.
If Heading 2 "Spacing above suppressed" is not at top of page 3, vary the
amount of text in page 2.
Sample file is made with Liberation Sans and Serif.
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