Summary: | Page naming "right" and "left" is wrong for right-to-to left documents should be "odd" and "even" | ||
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Product: | LibreOffice | Reporter: | Regina Henschel <rb.henschel> |
Component: | Writer | Assignee: | Not Assigned <libreoffice-bugs> |
Status: | NEW --- | ||
Severity: | normal | CC: | buzea.bogdan, cno, eyalroz1, heiko.tietze, sdc.blanco, vmiklos, vsfoote, xiscofauli |
Priority: | medium | ||
Version: | Inherited From OOo | ||
Hardware: | All | ||
OS: | All | ||
See Also: |
https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=94847 https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=140568 https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=153534 https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=160686 |
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Whiteboard: | |||
Crash report or crash signature: | Regression By: | ||
Bug Depends on: | |||
Bug Blocks: | 43808, 103304 | ||
Attachments: | Right-to-left document with alternating page styles for odd and even pages |
Description
Regina Henschel
2021-02-24 23:22:04 UTC
But the left page is still left, it's just the number that is odd. I'm a bit afraid of renaming Left Page to Odd Page since many users are familiar with the term. But OTOH, bug 94847 has a point. Or name it "front page" and "back page". On the other hand, we have "Odd pages" and "Even pages" already in the print dialog. (In reply to Heiko Tietze from comment #1) > But the left page is still left, it's just the number that is odd. If you use page style "Left page", you get the page layout setting "Only left". If you now set the writing mode to "right-to-left", right pages with even numbers are generated. The style "Left page" does not generate left pages in RTL but right pages, and that is confusing. > I'm a bit > afraid of renaming Left Page to Odd Page since many users are familiar with > the term. If you hesitate to change the name of the page style and of the items in the drop-down field of the page layout in general, then there should be a hint to translators, that in a "right-to-left" environment the term "Left page" should be translated to "Even page" or "Back page", because that page style is actually generating even pages in "right-to-left" environment. And same for the drop-down, "Only left" should be translated to "Only odd pages" or "Only back pages" in "right-to-left" environment The "Left page" generates "even pages" in LTR too, but in LTR the term "Left page" is not confusing, because it is actually a left page. But I have to admit, I don't know whether, and if so where, you can include such hints. We discussed this topic in the design meeting. And while left/right in some case are wrong and in most/all other at least inappropriate (there is no left-of thing, it's always the even/odd page number), renaming has a string of consequences. The mentioned page styles, page layout settings, same content on ... at header/footer etc. Just renaming the page style seems too narrowly considered. First, Left page or Right page is just wrong terminology; you probably mean front-facing / back-facing (i.e. recto vs verso). Now, It's true that if recto/verso switches with every page, then you can treat "Odd" vs "Even" page; and that in RTL, by default, the gutter is at the right edge of a recto page and left of a verso, and in LTR it's vice-versa. But I'm not sure I want to use Odd and Even as surrogate terms here. See also my comment in 140568. (In reply to Eyal Rozenberg from comment #5) > First, Left page or Right page is just wrong terminology; you probably mean > front-facing / back-facing (i.e. recto vs verso). Actually, some might argue it should be "left of gutter" (or "left of spine") and "right of gutter", which is also pretty clear binary categorization of pages that would not confuse RTL users. But that's more words than "left" and "right". I disagree. That is, now only is "Left Page" and "Right Page" wrong because of RTL - there is no guarantee that Right Page's are odd and Left Page's are even. For example: I could define a Page Style named Foo, for which the next style is "Right Page". When using it (and with a single section page), the first Right Page will be even, not odd. Personally, I suggest removing these two from the default list - they do more harm than good; and some of their functionality is available via a single page style's alternating footer and spacing settings. Given my earlier comment, I believe this bug should probably be switched from NEW to UNCONFIRMED. What say you? (In reply to Eyal Rozenberg from comment #7) >For example: I could define a Page Style named Foo, for which the next > style is "Right Page". When using it (and with a single section page), the > first Right Page will be even, not odd. Please attach a document that demonstrates the problem. *** Bug 160686 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. *** I now believe this bug should be marked INVALID, and have opened bug 160686 to promote the removal of these styles. (In reply to Eyal Rozenberg from comment #11) > I now believe this bug should be marked INVALID, and have opened bug 160686 > to promote the removal of these styles. ... but that bug is only about the named page styles. That doesn't resolve the issue of the choices in the Page tab of the Page Style dialog, nor the terms used in the header and footer designators (e.g. "Right page header" etc.). These definitely need addressing. The thing is, it's not just the naming, there are (at least) two other issues: * The relations of the alternating pages. Currently, in if we set out first page to be a "left page" (as per the page layout setting), we get a blank page before it, and which, in book view, is to the right of our "left page". Suppose we rename "left page" into "even page"; why should the auto-inserted-first-page, before the even page, be on its right rather than its left? And note that this happens even if we set "left page"'s to have top-gutters, i.e. the placement of the page is not even along the correct axis. Note that the side (left or right) on the horizontal axis does not seem to be influenced by the "gutter is to the right" setting. * The styling of auto-inserted pages. As illustrated in the examples for bug 160686, the inserted pages are not styled with neither the odd page style or the even page style (but with some elements of them, inconsistently). |