Setting style attributes to inherit

[Tobl]

After some research I have learned that one should not set indents in paragraph styles that use a linked list style, which caused the bullets on my lists to never be indented, independent of the level of bulleting. (Which, btw., seems like far from an ideal solution. If anyone knows of a way for these to co-exist, I would very much appreciate any info)

Given that I had already set the indent in my list style and that I now want it gone, how can I “unset” that field? Setting it to 3, or deleting the content, obviously just replaces the hardcoded 0,8cm with a hardcoded 0cm, so that doesn’t help, but I don’t see any way to return it to inheriting.

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EDIT: Seems I wasn’t as clear as I thought I was / used the wrong terminology. The part of my question asking about inheritance has been answered (the “Standard” button; only an entire tab of options can be reset at once, not individually), but I’ll clarify in case someone has thoughts on the underlying problem.

There exist two styles:

Paragraph style “Bullets”:

Organizer: Inherit from = "List"
Indents & Spacing: Before Text = 0.5 cm
Outline & Numbering: Numbering style = "List 1"

List style “List 1”:

Position[1-10]: Numbering alignment = "Left"; Numbering followed by "Tab stop"
Position[1]: Aligned at = 1cm; Tab stop at = 1.5cm; Indent at = 1.5cm;
Position[2]: Aligned at = 2cm; Tab stop at = 2.5cm; Indent at = 2.5cm;

Expected behavior (Let 1 character width be equal to 0.25cm for all examples):

The indention of the paragraph style should be ignored in favor of the list style (or possibly added, but let’s focus on ignored):

(ajlittoz’s edit: changed “character style” to paragraph style" in the sentence above because no character style is involved)

    • Item
        • Subitem 1
        • Subitem 2

Actual behavior

The indention, apparently at random, sometimes works as expected, but sometimes uses the paragraph style’s indention for all bullets as follows:

  •   Item
  •       Subitem 1
  •       Subitem 2

Thanks and bw,
Tobl

[ajlittoz]

I tried but couldn’t reproduce the unwanted behaviour. I suspect some direct formatting not fully cleared but not 100% sure because direct formatting in lists may spring up from many UI actions and Ctrl+M is ineffective (e.g. the toggle list button).

[ajlittoz]

Lists are formatted with two styles: a paragraph style to set all attributes except indents as you found out and (badly named) list style. The association between both is created in Outline & Numering tab of the paragraph style, dropdown menu Numbering style.

The “list style” defines the numbering counter (sequence type – numeric or alphabetic --, multi-level behaviour, decoration insertion AND the indent). This list style completely takes over the setting of the left indent of the paragraphs making the list (Position tab in the list style).

If, in your question, you use words “linked style” with LO Writer meaning, note that, contrary to paragraph styles, list styles cannot be linked and inherit from the ancestor. This is likely due to the fact that a list style defines a sequence counter and inheritance would probably create a real mess when the child style is incremented (how would that be shared in the parent style? Inheritance works parent-to-child without feedback the other way). Therefore there is no Standard button to restore to the parent state (what you call “inheriting”). The Reset button only reverts attributes to the value they had when the dialog was opened.

On the paragraph style side, if it is associated with a list style, playing with indents at best has no effect, at worst creates an inextricable mess. As mentioned above, indents (more accurately left indent, right indent being ignored – why? I don’t know and I’d like sometimes to have a different one) are managed in the list style. Pressing Standard to reset inheritance has no effect in this case. If you want your paragraph style to inherit again from its parent (for indents), you must remove the association with the list style, i.e. formatting back as an ordinary paragraph instead of an auto-numbered list.

If you want more specific info, edit your question to clearly explain how your lists are formatted (which styles, how you customised them, list toolbar button or ruler eventual usage – not recommended at all). Better, attach an example file for analysis.

To show the community your question has been answered, click the ✓ next to the correct answer, and “upvote” by clicking on the ^ arrow of any helpful answers. These are the mechanisms for communicating the quality of the Q&A on this site. Thanks!

[Tobl]

Thanks. I was looking for the ‘Standard’ button, but didn’t find it because I was looking for an option on individual attributes, not entire tabs worth of options.
I also clarified the underlying problem in the original question. As you said, the ‘Standard’ button shouldn’t have an effect, however, it does by generating the expected behavior defined above.
Is “linked style” used to refer to which style a style is based on in LO? I expected the terminology to be “inherit from” or “parent style”, given the terminology in the Organizer tab. What I meant by “linked style” was the list style associated with the paragraph style via the Outlines&Numbering tab.
(Would love to upvote you btw, but apparently I’m not allowed to yet)

[ajlittoz]

If you accept my answer, you’ll get 3 karma points. Another accepter answer and you’ll be over 5 karma points and be able to upvote.