On Fri, 2006-03-24 at 12:22 +1100, Jonathon Coombes wrote: > On 24/03/2006, at 9:46 AM, Ross Johnson wrote: > > > On Fri, 2006-03-24 at 09:23 +1100, Jonathon Coombes wrote: > >> SNIP! > >> There seems to be two main improvements that have been suggested that > >> does make sense with this thread: > >> > >> 1. Ability to see a structured layout of applied styles and hard > >> formatting, preferably as different types. > >> 2. Ability to move the cursor while the layout it displayed to see > >> how it changes under the cursor. > > > > Add: > > > > 3. Efficient and accurate selection based on styles. > > > > Once you have located what you're looking for, make it easier to > > select > > it so that it can be modified. Previously I suggested using crtl > > +multiple clicks to select style and formatting extents similar to how > > text (words, sentences and paragraphs) is currently selected. > > > Hi Ross, > > I am not sure what you mean here? You can select a style very easily > straight out of the Styles and Formatting Window? If you click on > some text that interests you, it will show the styles that are > applied. The only part that would be a problem is if you are using > hard formatting of some sort rather than styles. Is this was you mean > here?
I can apply style (e.g. character style) straight form the stylist, but I must select text first. Selection is a weak link here. It would be useful (because I've often wanted to do it myself) to be able to select a block of text that is homogeneously formatted. E.g. where I have a block of text like this paragraph *with some formatted text*, like the text between the '*'. It may be just bold, or it may use a defined character style like Emphasis. The only way to select it is to use the text selection functions such as click+drag for characters, or double-click+drag for whole words etc. That's easy if the style extents match the word, sentence, or paragraph extents and the formatting is obvious, but suppose I set a style that isn't obvious, and/or doesn't coincide with word, sentence, or paragraph extents? I would like to be able to (for example) crtl+double-click anywhere in the block of text above to select all of/only that text between the '*'. Another example that I hope illustrates the general problem: suppose I have a sentence that contains some words from a second language, that is, where it is not obvious where it starts or ends. It may be some EN- US words in an EN-AU sentence like "show me the color of your money honey". How do I select just the EN-US formatted text? If I could ctrl+double-click on the word "color" and have OOo select the entire extent of EN-US text for me, I might get just the one word, or a phrase, or the whole sentence, or several paragraphs. Then I would be able to change the character format to perhaps a different colour or something. I can't do that at present AFAIK except by using some arduous manual search to find the start and end, and then remember where they were. Another character example might be kerning only part of a word. Yet another might be an entire section of paragraphs whose style I want to modify. All this can be done now, but this whole discussion is about efficiency I think. There are other practical problems too. If I place the cursor at a point or select a homogeneously formatted block of text then I can see from the stylist, and/or toolbar what styles and formatting is set. If I select a block of text that covers multiple styles or settings for an attribute, then it is ambiguous and OOo either doesn't show it or shows some arbitrary choice, such as shows only the first paragraph style of the mixed set. --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
