Re: [tdf-discuss] UI proposal

> But Page Setup is partly outside Styles and should work like other styles.
+1, that's what I'm suggesting. Styles like "materials" in a 3d
application, for everything.

> I see a difference between both. For example, one might want to apply the
> character style "Accented text" on the character style "Hypertext link" (to
> get the hyperlink in italics) on the character style "SansSerif" (to use the
> font Helvetica)... all that in a paragraph styled "Bibliography" which would
> have Times as its default font.
So you're suggesting a kind of "environment trigger"? Then every
object should have a paragraph as parent and every style class (Font,
Structuring, Text Effects) a separate parent. Maybe that's not even
bad. I don't get your first sentence part, though (sorry).

> One suggestion might be to keep all characteristics such as "paragraph
> level" "numbering type" and "numbering level" as available options for
> styles, yet not define default styles (or most default styles anyway). It
> would be similar to the approach used by InDesign, a commercial desktop
> publishing software (its approach to styles has other flaws, but that's
> another subject). So, for instance, one could define a style called
> "TheTitleNumber6" (or whatever name suits one's fancy), with hierarchical
> level 6, a given font and paragraph spacing. For the sake of simplicity,
> there could be 5 or 6 basic styles such as Body Text, Headings 1 to 4
> defined as default, or they might even simply be defined in the "default
> document" and therefore entirely customizable. In my case, I would keep all
> heading levels, but only one style for numbering and one for bullets (after
> all, there are levels within it).
You're only suggesting less default styles, are you? I would suggest
having these in two templates, one with many default styles and
another one which is "minimal" to some extend. You can then very
quickly save your own "stylesheet" template (as I suggested).

> ANOTHER SUGGESTION
>
> Would it help the use of styles if the base style information were to be
> present in the Character, Paragraph and numbering dialogue boxes ? For
> example, when I select "Format –> Paragraph", I would get displayed near the
> top that it is based upon the "Body Text" paragraph format and there would
> even be a button to reapply the base style.
I would get rid of every other dialog box exept for the styler. It
doesn't make sense to give the user two alternative ways of doing
things. I know this would be a breach with the old approach. Microsoft
does it the wrong way. It has invented a cool new interface but also
kept the old stuff for compatibility. If we want to be different from
Office, then we do have to take drastic measures. Just my 2ct.

Joey

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