In a message dated 2009.10.02 13:20 -0500, Joe Smith wrote:
In WordPerfect, even with such a structured list (what WordPerfect
calls an "Outline"), one can "Indent" after any list member to a
common point on the line, as shown [earlier in thread]. I have been
wasting a lot of time trying to see how to do this kind of
annotation with Writer; can anyone offer a suggestion?
My first thought was along the line already suggested by Barbara: Use a
table. It makes setting up and adjusting the layout much more
straightforward, and you can make the left column a list, if you want.
However, it is possible--though somewhat fiddly---to use plain numbered
paragraphs, since numbering layout works by formatting its paragraph
with a hanging indent, with the list label in the indent. In your case,
the list label is empty, and you type the tag and the tab following.
... Here's a sample showing both approaches:
http://martnet.com/~jes/temp/Annotated_list_sample.odt
Joe, on further reflection and study of your sample, a number of things
popped out that make it hard for me to fix on a model that handles
'outline'-style hierarchy in OO - and they work differently depending on
which of your two approaches is chosen.
First, regardless which of those approaches is taken - or even if there
is no annotation at all - OO's handling of a hierarchical list changes
depending on whether the list has some level-indicating character
(numbers, letters, bullets, ...) or whether 'None' is selected in the
style "Options" > "Numbering". In the latter case, which is used in
your "_Annotated_list" style (which otherwise does what I wanted), an
essential aspect of hierarchy is lost: the relationships of nodes and
branches, or level with sub-points. Unless there is some such
character, the "Bullets and Numbering" toolbar does not automatically
appear in the list context - and even if that toolbar is manually
invoked, the options to promote/demote/move_up/move_down /with
subpoints/ (which IMHO should always be the default behavior) are missing.
But say we add numbering or bullets of some sort to the list style. Now
there is a difference between those two approaches: The hierarchical
structure (promote/demote/move_with_subpoints) is lost if we use the
table approach for annotation, but not if we use the 'plain numbered
paragraphs' (with numbers or bullets). IOW, the underlying hierarchical
structure is lost if we impose a list style on a table, or a table on a
list.
Does this sound like a bug, or is there a rational design explanation
for this behavior?
John
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