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http://www.openoffice.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=7760





------- Additional comments from [EMAIL PROTECTED] Mon Feb 12 18:01:39 +0000 
2007 -------
I asked for a version of this feature in the OOo [users] mailing list, calling 
it a "Discipline" feature... and was pointed here. I definitely want this 
OPTION. I would prefer that it not necessarily lock the template, but that it 
require any changes/additions be done by use of styles.

So, I write a document and make it public within my company. I set this "Styles-
only" feature to "ON".
A reviewer or contributor gets hold of the document and begins modifying.

When that person attempts to bold a piece of text or change its font, or any 
other format change, they can do so only by using an existing style, or adding 
a new style.

The person gets annoyed at this requirement (in MY document...) and looks to 
switch it off. They are presented with a pop-up confirmation dialog - showing 
text that I was able to input when I invoked the option (something like: 
"This document is built on a style-based template for purposes of consistent 
appearance and of maintainability. If you wish to impose formatting not 
supported by existing styles, please create new styles - if you don't know how, 
ask the author. If you switch off this style-enforcing feature, your changes 
may be rejected by other collaborators in this project, or might delay the 
project completion. Do you still wish to defeat the feature Yes? No?")

So, the person could elect to go ahead and start ruining the document, thereby 
placing a nasty burden on those who must maintain the document (or its 
descendents), but they would have had to make a conscious, knowing choice to do 
so.

FURTHERMORE:
I would like the additional option to have the feature RE-SET itself each time 
the document is closed. So the offender would need to re-assert their vandal 
intentions each time they re-opened the doc... (make the undoing of _that_ 
option harder to find, please  :-)
Thus, if the document was handed from one person to another, the willful 
vandalism of one person in the chain would not open the flood-gates to all who 
came after.

FURTHER-FURTHERMORE:
I'd like a way to record (in the document) the identity of anybody who switched 
off my template, so they can be given a good talking-to later, when I'm 
repairing the damage, half an hour from a release deadline.  OK, maybe that's 
getting a little much. 

As mentioned by those who favor the feature (and possibly ignored by those who 
have expressed objections), this would be an OPTION that could be switched on 
or not, and would not be the default setting in OOo. In other words, you would 
not be forced to use icky styles if you wanted to install OOo and start using 
it as a glorified typewriter... UNLESS you opened an existing document or 
template, created by somebody who chose to switch on that OPTION for the 
particular document.

The very fact that a seeming majority of commenters (so far) have said they 
have no use for such a feature tells me that corporate users of OOo (like me) 
are still very much in the minority. That's a big market.  Just keep in mind 
that the feature being discussed would be OPTIONAL as a setting for any given 
document or template - available for those who have reason to use it, ignorable 
by those who don't.

Somebody said: "... simple office procedures..."  If that stuff worked 
consistently over time and across departments, there'd be no requests for a 
feature like this.

Somebody else objected that publishers could impose unreasonable constraints on 
authors/contributors. In my version of the feature, you could add your strange, 
unanticipated formatting by creating your own styles... you'd merely be 
prevented from perpetrating simple spot-formatting that didn't use styles.

All objections covered?  Good.  Let's get on with it.  Thanks.

Kevin (tech-writer in Ottawa, Canada, using OOo where I can)


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