I am the "devil incarnate" who wrote the "RevealCodes" macro as a proof of concept - it is certainly not a fully functional macro. However, it could be if people actually showed sufficient interest to get involved.
Styles versus reveal codes -------------------------- In my opinion WordPerfect was a good word processor - better than Microsoft Word. It had both styles and reveal codes. Thus it is not an either or situation. It is true that OpenOffice.org and Microsoft Word internally work with objects rather then a string of codes and text as WordPerfect did (does?). It is true that the reveal codes functionality is not necessary to be able to use Writer, but it is also true that one way of seeing what is stored in the internal object model is some form of "reveal codes", and that this information can be useful in working out what is happening. In my opinion using something like the reveal codes macro would encourage people to use styles rather than direct formatting. My opinion is based upon personal experience of having taught students to use WordPerfect and Microsoft Word. When students "saw" the mess that direct formatting made of their document they wanted to use styles. I have been criticised for not releasing a hack that I did for revealing the codes in Calc - but it was even buggier than what I have written for Writer. I have had compliments and derision for what I have done so far in the reveal codes macro. But, from memory, only one person has ever sent me any code. The most common suggestion is "make it work like WordPerfect" without thinking that there are conceptual differences that make this extremely difficult. Yes a number of people say they would like this feature but how many are actually willing to put time into coding or even testing and providing feedback? Alternatives to reveal codes ---------------------------- Status quo: see effective format of current selection by opening format paragraph and format font dialogs. Check against format of paragraph style and character styles. Low level XML editor: this is my preferred choice. To me it would be great to be able to go View > XML and see the current document in a low level XML editor. Conclusion ---------- For those that want it reveal codes functionality can be useful, and it should encourage people to use styles. However, a potentially better solution would be to have a low level XMl editor. This thread belongs in the discussion forum rather than users so I have posted this message there as well. Thanks, Ian --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
