Bug 160447 - styles: allow us to copy, clone styles, plz
Summary: styles: allow us to copy, clone styles, plz
Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX
Alias: None
Product: LibreOffice
Classification: Unclassified
Component: Writer (show other bugs)
Version:
(earliest affected)
24.8.0.0 alpha0+
Hardware: All All
: medium enhancement
Assignee: Not Assigned
URL:
Whiteboard:
Keywords: needsUXEval
Depends on:
Blocks: Writer-Styles
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Reported: 2024-03-31 16:53 UTC by peter josvai
Modified: 2024-04-02 10:46 UTC (History)
4 users (show)

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Description peter josvai 2024-03-31 16:53:08 UTC
hi, 

it'd be great to be able to "clone" a style...
just imagine.....
"right click.... clone... and voila!! there's "that_style(copy1)"

I remember I have suggested this once already, sorry for the dup..
but if people keep suggesting something (as opposed to suggesting only once) might mean more :) :)


Why would this be so great?

Cause otherwise you have to manually (!!!!) clone styles...
unless you're okay with having dropdown directories under styles...

for example:

"that style".... it has some font 9pt, indents: 0.5, 0.5. 0.75, line height 125%

you want a new style... with only 1 parameter changed...
why would you want that?
Cause your text already has that style... without that change in one parameter..
So, if you change it now, the first 3 chapters, which already have their final form, will reshape. Break page boundaries, look ugly, everything gross.

So, you just create a variant. Cause you're cool.
But that variant  must be based on a style...
even if it is based on "none"... it will inherit parameters...
which is simple UNCONTROLLABLE / UNREVIEWABLE / UNMANAGEABLE 
cause there are so many params...(attributes)


So, the normal way would be to copy / clone that style and give it a name...
that_style(copy1) --> which you would straight on rename...

But this is not possible.

Instead you have to downgrade to quirks mode...
New style from "that style".. make your desired change....
then reposition it in the styles hierarchy... by giving it a different "parent"..

THEN... you have to check what it inherited during that repositioning process..

it only takes 5 mins... sure... instead of 5 secs... (60x as much)


- - - thank you for developing writer and libreoffice - - -
Comment 1 V Stuart Foote 2024-03-31 17:18:48 UTC
Umm, we already have this. Not by copy/clone, rather the New... dialog from the F11 Stylist.

--Select the Text run or Paragraph to be styled
--F11 (or Alt+2 accelerator) to shift to SB Stylist deck
--Dbl-Click to apply existing style to selection
--Context menu, New... dialog
--'Organizer' tab, apply a new style Name and Next style (or come back to it)
--Adjust values for the new style from any of the other tabs as desired
--OK to apply (you'll see the new style immediately in the list)
--apply as style where needed to document (or template)
Comment 2 Rafael Lima 2024-04-01 01:45:03 UTC
This is something that I have also felt the need for in the past. I would love to right-click a style and "Clone" it.

+1 for having a convenient way to do it.
Comment 3 Stéphane Guillou (stragu) 2024-04-01 06:22:41 UTC
(In reply to V Stuart Foote from comment #1)
> Umm, we already have this. Not by copy/clone, rather the New... dialog from
> the F11 Stylist.
I think the OP's issue with this workflow is that it creates a "child" of the selected style as a default, rather than an independent, exact copy that differs only by name.
So we'd end up with two options to create a new style based on an existing one:
- New inheriting style
- Clone this style

Or:
- New "child"
- New "sibling"
Comment 4 V Stuart Foote 2024-04-01 10:34:59 UTC
(In reply to Stéphane Guillou (stragu) from comment #3)
> (In reply to V Stuart Foote from comment #1)
> > Umm, we already have this. Not by copy/clone, rather the New... dialog from
> > the F11 Stylist.
> I think the OP's issue with this workflow is that it creates a "child" of
> the selected style as a default, rather than an independent, exact copy that
> differs only by name.
> So we'd end up with two options to create a new style based on an existing
> one:
> - New inheriting style
> - Clone this style
> 
> Or:
> - New "child"
> - New "sibling"

Sure but in *either* case, a 1-button creation/clone still requires a dialog of some sort to immediately give it a name--and any likely use case would also need to adjust its inheritance/next. Even if no other attribute were changed.  

Why I say the current F11 Stylist -> New... is sufficient -- its Organize tab provides for minimum naming inheritance input.  Can apply immediately to a selection, or just populate the Custom and Applied styles list for application.
Comment 5 Heiko Tietze 2024-04-02 10:46:56 UTC
Clone Formatting works on the paragraph level when ctrl/cmd is being pressed. 

We resolved similar tickets like bug 143419 in the past as WF.

Besides "it'd be great to be able to..." misses a use case. The Stylist is a powerful tool and the inheritance of styles should also be quite handy for you.