Re: [libreoffice-users] A (sane) way of doing bullets and numbering

On 02/08/2013 08:02 AM, sun shine wrote:
> Hi list
>
> One of the biggest (personal) bugbears I have with LibO (and OOo 
> before this) is the issue of numbering and bulleting. It just seems 
> counter-intuitive to me and is one of the very few areas where I think 
> that MS has a better approach.
>
> I have a numbered list in a table and now I want sub-numbers, such as:
>
> 1. text text text text text
>     1.1. text text text text
>     1.2. text text text text
> 2. text text text text text
>
> However two things happen:
> (1) I have to manually play around with the sub-number positions so 
> that there isn't (a) a large tab space between the number and the 
> start of the text and (b) the sub-number is aligned reasonably close 
> to the main number; and
> (2) the text of the sub-number (e.g. 1.1.) does not align itself to 
> where the text for that sub-number starts. Instead, it goes all the 
> way to align with the main number (e.g. 1.).
>
> This is difficult to reproduce using the email but basically it looks 
> really sloppy, and I don't know how to set it up so that the numbers 
> and sub-numbers and the associated text align in blocks.
>
> I think that there is something I might be able to do with a style 
> page - but that seems like a lot of work just to get some numbers 
> aligned.
>
> Any ideas/ suggestions?
>
> Thanks
     You are using a numbering style in the Styles and Formatting 
window (List styles)? It appears so, because I don't know how to use 
sub-numbers without using this style.
     There are three values that determine where numbering and text 
appears on a given line of the list:  the distance from the beginning of 
numbering to the beginning of text,where the numbering begins, and where 
additional lines for a given sub-number begin.
     These are controlled in the Position page (tab) of the numbering 
style you are using. It should be easier to enter values in the 
following order: "Aligned at", Numbering followed by", and "Indent at". 
In fact in my experience, "Numbering followed by" and "Indent at" are 
usually the same value. This way the text in succeeding lines line up 
with the text of the top line for a given number or sub-number.
     "Aligned at": This is where the numbering begins. For the top 
level of the list, use this to determine how much of an indent the 
entire list will have. For the each of the succeeding levels, use the 
same value as you used in "Numbering followed by" in the level above it.
     "Numbering followed by" and "Indent at" are very similar. Both are 
the positions for text. "Numbering followed by" is where text begins on 
the first line for a given number or sub-number. "Indent at" is where 
the text begins on the succeeding lines. (You are having problems with 
both of these.)
     Of these two, "Numbering followed by" is the more important. That 
is because you need to be concerned with the difference between 
"Numbering followed by" and "Aligned at". This difference is the length 
available for the number or sub-number. If either is longer than the 
allowed length, Writer begins the text at the next tab stop producing 
the wide tab space you notice. The default value in Numbering 1 list 
style for "Numbering followed by" is 0.5" and the "Aligned at" 0.25". 
The difference is 0.25". For the LibreOffice documents "Numbering 
followed by" is 0.51" and the "Aligned at" 0.39". the difference is 
0.12". The reason for the slight difference is documentation tends to 
have longer numbers and sub-numbers (especially the latter).
     Here are some suggested steps that might help:
1.) For level 1, set "Aligned at" with what you want the left side of 
the list to be. Set the "Numbering followed followed by" next. Just make 
sure the difference between these two is greater than the longest level 
one number. Now set "Indent at" to be the same as "Numbering followed by".

2.) For level 2 and beyond: Set "Aligned at" to be the same as 
"Numbering followed by" of the level above it. Set "Numbering followed 
by" to be greater than the longest sub-number for this level. Set 
"Aligned at" to equal "Numbering followed by".

     One additional point. You probably want the difference between 
"Numbering followed by" and "Aligned by" to be the same for all levels. 
If this is the case, you need to determine what will be the largest of 
these values. Then use this to determine what each of the "Numbering 
followed by" should be.

--Dan





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