Styles Tree (Hierarchy) instead of List

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AMDphreak
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Styles Tree (Hierarchy) instead of List

Post by AMDphreak »

Styles and Formatting should be presented in a tree (hierarchical) format to make it easy to know which styles are based on which.
All that is needed is to precede the list line with a single space more than its parent. Does not need any buttons or controls. Just group them by parent.

Example:

Code: Select all

Paragraph styles:
Default
  Heading
    Heading 1
    Heading 2
  Paragraph
Ryan \ OpenOffice 3.6.1 on MacOS 10.14.2 \ OpenOffice 4.1.5 on Windows 10 \ OpenOffice 3.6 on Elementary OS (GNU Linux)
FJCC
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Re: Styles Tree (Hierarchy) instead of List

Post by FJCC »

The Styles and Formatting dialog has a Hierarchical option in the drop down list at the bottom.
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AMDphreak
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Re: Styles Tree (Hierarchy) instead of List

Post by AMDphreak »

FJCC wrote:The Styles and Formatting dialog has a Hierarchical option in the drop down list at the bottom.
I see. This may work for some cases but hierarchy is not a "category" to be viewed. It is a thing to be applied within any of the other views. The current implementation is neither complete nor intuitive. It's more of an afterthought, and is not default. I mean this implementation really screws the pooch.
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Re: Styles Tree (Hierarchy) instead of List

Post by robleyd »

This is a user forum and isn't visited by developers; if you have a suggestion for enhancement of Apache OpenOffice you may wish to read [Tutorial] Reporting bugs or suggestions for information on how to submit your suggestion.
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AMDphreak
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Re: Styles Tree (Hierarchy) instead of List

Post by AMDphreak »

robleyd wrote:This is a user forum and isn't visited by developers; if you have a suggestion for enhancement of Apache OpenOffice you may wish to read [Tutorial] Reporting bugs or suggestions for information on how to submit your suggestion.
Thanks. They need to make that more obvious and accessible on the website. User forums are a drag.
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Bill
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Re: Styles Tree (Hierarchy) instead of List

Post by Bill »

What changes do you want to make? The only thing I see missing is a tool tip that should pop up when hovering the mouse pointer over the drop-down list at the bottom of the Styles and Formatting window. The "categories" in the Styles and Formatting window are the five types of styles used in Writer. Those categories are represented by icons at the top of the window. Selecting one of the icons displays a list of styles that have been defined for the category. That list can be modified by selecting a filter from the drop-down list below the list of styles. "Hierarchical" is one of those filters.
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AMDphreak
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Re: Styles Tree (Hierarchy) instead of List

Post by AMDphreak »

Bill wrote:What changes do you want to make? The only thing I see missing is a tool tip that should pop up when hovering the mouse pointer over the drop-down list at the bottom of the Styles and Formatting window. The "categories" in the Styles and Formatting window are the five types of styles used in Writer. Those categories are represented by icons at the top of the window. Selecting one of the icons displays a list of styles that have been defined for the category. That list can be modified by selecting a filter from the drop-down list below the list of styles. "Hierarchical" is one of those filters.
Again: it should not be a 'filter'. It is a natural structure in the data and should be organized this way in all of the views. In other words, "f(g(x))" , not "either f(x) or g(x)" . More literally, "view(hierarchy(list x))". Or we could state this with pointers to functions, since the "view" function would not be a single function but a class of function, whereas hierarchy is a single function, so more like

Code: Select all

*view(hierarchy(list x))
and we pass in a different function as *view depending on which view we want.

If one is concerned about the sheer number of styles in the list, and wishes to use the + / - collapsing control button, that should be the default, but it should be uniform across platforms. In Windows it uses [+] and [-] boxes, but on Mac it uses > triangles, which are incongruous with the rest of the GUI.
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Re: Styles Tree (Hierarchy) instead of List

Post by Bill »

Only the Paragraph, Character and Frame styles are hierarchical. Page and List styles are not. Personally, I almost never use a hierarchical view. It's quicker to find a style by name on a flat view.

The number of styles in the list is not a concern. The filters aren't used to simply reduce the number of styles in the list. They are used to find styles that meet a certain criterion. I often use the filters to find applied or custom styles. The +/- control won't help in that situation.
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floris v
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Re: Styles Tree (Hierarchy) instead of List

Post by floris v »

AMDphreak wrote:
robleyd wrote:This is a user forum and isn't visited by developers; if you have a suggestion for enhancement of Apache OpenOffice you may wish to read [Tutorial] Reporting bugs or suggestions for information on how to submit your suggestion.
Thanks. They need to make that more obvious and accessible on the website. User forums are a drag.
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