Hey guys! When formatting a table, unfortunately, it is not possible to choose a dotted line. One can only choose a dashed line. I--and, I think, many other users--would appreciate if there was the possibility to insert borders which consist out of really round dots. MS Word offers the possibility to use 'dots' that are in reality squares, but you don't see it when the line is very thin, and it thus looks like the line is dotted. I think it would be even better when the line was really made out of 'filled circles'. I didn't think that a graphical example is necessary here. I you are of a different opinion, let me know. Greetings, Tobias
Created attachment 123578 [details] dotted line Hello, I can select dotted line: Version: 5.2.0.0.alpha0+ Build ID: 98a8eafa915b8d57b8bdccab9981e537d77f6f4a CPU Threads: 1; OS Version: Windows 6.1; UI Render: default; TinderBox: Win-x86@39, Branch:master, Time: 2016-02-25_00:49:33
(In reply to raal from comment #1) > Created attachment 123578 [details] > dotted line > > Hello, > I can select dotted line: Version: 5.2.0.0.alpha0+ > Build ID: 98a8eafa915b8d57b8bdccab9981e537d77f6f4a > CPU Threads: 1; OS Version: Windows 6.1; UI Render: default; > TinderBox: Win-x86@39, Branch:master, Time: 2016-02-25_00:49:33 Hi raal, I use version 5.0.5 or 5.1 respectively. I don't have version 5.2 like you. Because of that and because of the missing content/too distant zoom level of your picture, I cannot assess whether this is what I meant. Can you please zoom a little closer to your table so that one can see better how the line looks? And can you please also open the drop-down menu for the different line styles, so that one can see which one you selected? Kind regards, Tobias
(In reply to Tobias Hemm from comment #2) > (In reply to raal from comment #1) > I use version 5.0.5 or 5.1 respectively. I don't have version 5.2 like you. > Because of that and because of the missing content/too distant zoom level of > your picture, I cannot assess whether this is what I meant. > Hello Tobias, easiest is download and install dev version. You can download it here: http://dev-builds.libreoffice.org/daily/master/ Dev version is installed alongside standard version, so no worry..
Well, it is true that if you zoom close enough, even "dotted" presets appear as lines. Preset names can be seen with the Line tool, for example (I don't see the names in the Table border properties).
Setting to NEW. It would appear to be a somewhat simple change to render square dots, but more complicated if actual round dots were desired. Comments from Armin Le Grand on IRC: There are different table implementations in all apps. The ones in Draw/Impress get rendered using primitives, the others probably in VCL. For VCL: The line defs there allow dashed/dotted lines, but also dots have a length. Thus rendering could therorethically be changed to paint a 'real' dot when width == height. The primitives involved have a line style definition, also containing dot and dash values (lineWidth, dash/dot/space length). If rendered using direct system commands (not used currently AFAIK) it may be translated to real dots in setting up the system-specific output. When decomposing currently basegfx is used to create squares, so could also be changed there. So, quite some changes to paint 'real' dots everywhere, but all possible. I think the reason this was never done is that real dots are much more expensive when handling self - a circle as Polygon with beziers, compared to a rectangle. OpenGl would not help - it also can not directly draw dashed/dotted fat lines (also needs LineCap, LineStartend, not only DashDot support)
For lines you can define a dash with 0,01cm length and use cap style "Round". But for table borders is no line style available.
Created attachment 140801 [details] paragraph with dotted border The problem does not only exists for tables, but for other borders too. Attached is a file, where the paragraph "2 paragraph dotted" should have a 'dotted' border. It is rendered in something more like a hatching than 'dots'. The underlying specification of CSS2 has only the text "The border is a series of dots." without saying what a "dot" is. The upcoming specification of CSS3 is more accurate. It says "A series of round dots." [https://www.w3.org/TR/css-backgrounds-3/#the-border-style] Open the attached file and export it to EPUB and open the result e.g. in Microsoft Edge. You will see little circles. Because all browsers and EPUB show round dots, I think it is time to make true round dots in LibreOffice too. The current way is at least for wide borders far away from "dot". Tested in version Version: 6.1.0.0.alpha0+ (x64) Build ID: 4523a21c6bcf8d57ce90cf074e5b088b6e829e68 CPU threads: 8; OS: Windows 10.0; UI render: default; Locale: de-DE (de_DE); Calc: CL
Change summary, so that it is clear, that this report is about borders and not about strokes.