https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=44941
Roman Eisele b...@eikota.de changed:
What|Removed |Added
Priority|high|medium
CC||b...@eikota.de
Blocks||48741
--- Comment #2 from Roman Eisele b...@eikota.de 2012-05-03 03:36:27 UTC ---
At the first glance, this seems a good idea. But if I think over it for a
while, I have my doubts if this would be a good enhancement. I see two
problems.
1) At the moment, adding or removing a page header or footer is equally easy
(or difficult) with Writer; therefore, someone who can add a page header/footer
will also be able to remove it again if he/she wants. But the present
enhancement request would change that situation. From years of helping Word or
Writer users with their applications, I know that many people often click and
double-click somewhere on the screen, esp. in the white areas (the margins
etc.), without any special intention. If just double-clicking in the top or
bottom margin of a page would add a page header or footer, these people will be
surprised first and then they will often want to remove the unwanted
header/footer again. But removing the header or footer again will be somewhat
more difficult than adding it (nothing can be as simple as double-clicking).
So, well, I can already here my or my or [removed names of
relatives and friends :;-)] cry: 'Roman, my document is looking so strange now,
how can I repair it?'
But you may say: 'In MS Word, this feature works, so why should it not work in
Writer?' OK, there is another reaseon why this feature may be OK in Word but
not in Writer:
2) As explained in bug 33304 (in reality, another enhancement request), there
is an important difference between page headers/footers in MS Word and
LibreOffice Writer respectively: in MS Word, page headers and footers are
placed in the page margin and therefore don't interfere with the main text area
(what typography calls 'print space', German 'Satzspiegel'); in Writer, page
headers and footers are considered as parts of the main text area or 'print
space'. This difference becomes visible if you add a header or footer to a
document already filled with text: in Writer, the complete text will get
re-wrapped again and the page count will increase in most times, because there
is now less space for the main text on each page; in MS Word, this should not
happen.
Which one of these two approaches to page layout is the better one, does not
matter here (see the discussion in bug 33304). Important for this enhancement
request is the simple difference: In MS Word, adding a page header and/or
footer should not interfere with the layout and the division of the main text
into pages, so it does not matter if someone adds a header/footer without
really wanting so. But in Writer, adding a page header and/or footer by
accident will make some people cry because the page header and/or footer will
interfere with the layout and the division of the main text into pages. If
someone has carefully distributed his texts and images and tables on several
pages, and now just double-clicks into the top or bottom margin without
thinking anything special, he/she will be really surprised and even angry about
that everything now looks brocken and confused. And therefore he/she may even
forget just to press Control/Command+Z ...
3) On the other hand: are there any real benefits from adding this feature?
Well, experienced Word users will certainly be happy in the beginning. But if
they get more familiar to Writer, there is no real advantage anymore. You don't
add headers/footers 1000 times a day, most times just once per document,
therefore you do not win much time by double-clicking instead of using the menu
('Insert Header/Footer') or the new blending-in button.
So, in summary: I'm sorry but I can't see any important benefits this new
feature would have for Writer (the little speedup for experienced Word users is
just too minor, see 3. above), but I see important disadvantages this feature
would have for Writer (see 1. and 2. above). Even if this feature works
perfectly well for Word users (I am in doubt even about this point, see 1.
above), it will bring headaches to Writer users (see 2. above).
We don't need to add everything just because it is in MS Office; 1
Thessalonians 5:21 is true here, too: Prove all things; hold fast that which
is good. ;-)
--
Configure bugmail: https://bugs.freedesktop.org/userprefs.cgi?tab=email
--- You are receiving this mail because: ---
You are the assignee for the bug.
___
Libreoffice-bugs mailing list
Libreoffice-bugs@lists.freedesktop.org
http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/libreoffice-bugs
