[Issue]Promote/demote buttons not working for new textboxes?

[Phil]

Hi all,

I am a bit puzzled - maybe I'm doing something wrong.

When I create a new text box by clicking on the Text icon on the Drawing toolbar, I cannot use the Promote/Demote buttons in the Text Formatting
toolbar (they are grayed out) to change the outline level of the text. However, using the Tab key and Shift+Tab keys to promote and demote the outline level works fine!
If I instead use text boxes created from the Layout pane, also the buttons work perfectly.

OK, I admit it's not a serious thing. But it may be confusing for users not knowing the keyboard shortcuts.

KR, phil

[acknak]

Yes it is rather odd but, as you have seen, the text layout boxes that come from the slide layout are fundamentally different from the "graphics" text boxes that come from the drawing toolbar. They share a lot of functionality, but they are different animals.

There are way too many such pieces of OOo, in my opinion, but that's how it is.

[Phil]

I was not aware that the boxes are that different. It seems I can apply the same formatting actions to both. Where are the main differences?
So you think it is probably not really worth filing an issue for that, right?

[acknak]

Right, they're not that different. But my point is "Why are they different at all?" They do exactly the same job, so why should they have different features? It's more of a design issue than anything--I didn't mean to imply it is a big deal.

I didn't even realize that the drawing text box supported lists, because they don't in the other OOo apps! If you paste such a list from Impress to Writer, the list formatting disappears! That's the kind of strange difference that makes me scratch my head.

It never hurts to file an issue, although I'm not sure if it should be filed as a bug or as an enhancement request. It's not a flaw in the code: it works the way it was designed to work. I guess it would make sense to file it as a "defect" and let the developers decide if they agree or not.

[Phil]

But my point is "Why are they different at all?" They do exactly the same job, so why should they have different features?

Full ACK!

I didn't even realize that the drawing text box supported lists, because they don't in the other OOo apps! If you paste such a list from Impress to Writer, the list formatting disappears! That's the kind of strange difference that makes me scratch my head.

Yes, you are absolutely right. This is sometimes really confusing.

I have found an issue describing the problem: http://qa.openoffice.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=41402, so no need to file it.
However, it is unfortunately targeted to OOo Later.

I notice that a lot of smaller defects are targeted to OOo Later, which means that we have to wait at least for another year.
Maybe I am expecting a bit much, but it would be nice to see these rather small annoyances fixed sooner.

BR, phil