1. It is currently impossible to change page’s “page style” by double
clicking in side menu for example.
Intuitively (for a newish user) it seems like it should change page’s “page style”. Is there a philosophical (works for intended usecases) issue with it or just a technical one (not implemented)? Currently, only reliable way I found to apply the desired “page style” is to insert manual break and select desired “page style” for the next page there (which is a convoluted way and does need lots of mind numbing fiddling to get just right).
There is the principal “philosophical” idea that must be understood when working with text document: a document consists of only two things: its body text, and this text’s formatting. Whatever formatting you apply, it’s something that applies to (a portion of) body text.
In case of pages and their appearance, this is the greatest problem for users to realize that pages are also just a kind of formatting of part of text, not something independent. So it’s very important to realize how page styles relate to text.
As with any styles, page styles are designed to minimize manual intervention. As such, page styles are not meant to require manual application to each created page, but rather to allow application to some big ranges of text, so that inside that range, the pages are created the controlled and predictable way. These ranges of text are delimited by paragraphs that include a specific property “page break with page style” in them. A text like
1 >>> a paragraph with page break with page style
2 another paragraph
3 third paragraph
4 fourth paragraph
...
24 twenty-fourth paragraph
25 >>> another paragraph with page break with page style
26 twenty-sixth paragraph
...
defines two ranges of page style application: one starting at first paragraph, and another starting at twenty-fifth one. Whenever your cursor is anywhere inside paragraphs 1 to 24, when you double-click a page style on the styles sidebar, you are working with that range, and apply the style to the first paragraph of that range (not to “current page”, because “page” is not text, and as we learned, we only apply formatting to text!). A paragraph with a page break with a page style means that when this paragraph starts, a new page will be automatically created, and it will be as this page style defines it; part of that definition is “next style”, which means that when following text will not fit to the page anymore, and another page must be automatically created, this “next style” will be used to define what that new page will look like. The second page’s style will also have its own “next style”, defining third page’s look (when third page becomes necessary), and so on. (Consider different possible automatic sequences, like “cover page - title page - general pages…” or “first page - right page - left page - right page - …”, that don’t require manual intervention, and do the magic by themselves.) Note that this might appear as if your double-clicking a page style did nothing, when you are on a third page, and wanted to apply e.g. “cover” page style, which in fact applied it to the very first paragraph, making your first page be “cover”, and the following pages to be what “cover” defined as next, which happened to be the same as third page’s style was.
Another possible way would be to apply the page style to current paragraph instead of the first paragraph of the current range. Why isn’t that a good workflow? Because in this case, each page style application would introduce a manual page break on the current paragraph, fragmenting the text and making it consist of multiple independently-formatted parts which prevent proper text flow, instead of emphasizing the workflow when user uses as big chunks of text as possible formatted using one style, and focuses on properly defining page styles, including their following styles (i.e., defining proper style sequences), and proper relations of page styles to relevant paragraph styles (defining proper document structure).
2. Every “page style” has a “next style” (as in modify->organization tab)
Why does it have to have it? It seems like it’s interfering with how a user might want to structure the file. If it doesn’t limit flexibility, than it at least as makes the process very complicated. (ex.: to create chains of differently styled pages). Yes there is a manual break workaround, but it is a workaround. So, could “next style” for pages be optional?
First, what would “optional” next style mean? e.g., what do you imagine would happen when you apply such a page style to some text range, and the text doesn’t fit to a single page?
When in LO you define a page style which has “next style” set to itself, it means that applying such a page style to some part of text, all that part will have the same style. So possibly that is what you mean by “optional next style”? It is implemented this way here.
Note that the styles are designed exactly to follow and help structure the document, not “interfering with how a user might want to structure the file”. Because it’s important to focus on document’s structure, where each logical part has consistent formatting, e.g. each chapter having a dedicated “first page of chapter” style, and following styles; then creating chapter heading paragraph style that has page break with page style mentioning that “first page of chapter” page style, and using the paragraph style to mark each chapter, will properly structurize the document. So you need to review your workflow and your structure, to get the most out of the automation that LibreOffice and its style machinery has to offer you.
