[libreoffice-users] Frames vs text frames vs text boxes [Was: Writer: rotating a text frame ...]

On 2024-07-30 14:40, John Kaufmann wrote:
> ...
> ... the Drawing toolbar can insert a Text Box, not a Text Frame. Unfortunately, the Writer Guide 
> and online Help are silent on this topic, so some testing is needed to work out the differences, 
> which are subtle:
>
> - A Text Frame is conceptually a block of text, very much aware of the paradigm of putting text on 
> paper. It understands page sizes and positions and mutual interference with other text (inside or 
> outside of frames) on the page. But it /can't/ be rotated.
>
> - A Text Box is a drawing object and, like any other drawing object, not really aware of page size 
> or other text on the page, though it does have Wrap properties to force other text or drawing 
> objects to respect its boundaries. Importantly for my current purpose, a Text Box /can/ be rotated.
>
>  From a design standpoint, it would probably be beneficial to understand the motivations that 
> prompted development of each of these tools ...

All of that was and is true, but ... In the course of drafting a guidebook that required "rotating a 
text frame", I have learned at least one important reason why people confuse these two entities: 
LO-world is ambiguous about terminology:

 - A "Frame" or "Text Frame" (Writer Guides 6.0/7.2/7.3 use those terms interchangeably in Chapters 
6 and 9) is designed to control page layout -- if you will, controlling the superordinate text flow.
 
 - Drawing objects like a "Text Box" (a drawing object containing text) know nothing about page size and can be manipulated without affecting the superordinate text flow.

They simply are designed for different purposes. But when we come to the Navigator tool, we find that it calls a "Frame" (="Text 
Frame") a "Frame" object, while it classifies the drawing object "Text Box" as a "Text Frame" object! It's no 
wonder that users confuse the terms, because the implementations confuse the terms. It's possible that some of that ambiguity slips into different 
translations where the translators are unclear about the functional significance of terms, but then I would need to ask, What is the language of 
origin? Isn't it English?

-John

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