Double bullet points when inserting between paragraph/sections

[NleDuck]

I have an issue with bullet points, appearing double as soon as you enter them before a specific section.

Steps to reproduce, also see test doc:

• Open new doc
• Put in some random lorem ipsem text
• Go in the middle of the text, hit 4x enter to create white space between (not shift enter which in other editors still keeps it part as a paragraph), but a regular enter as a new paragraph
• Type * space right in the middle of the 2 paragraphs
• Behaviour: 2 bullet points appear

This annoys me because the expected behaviour is (like with any other editor) to create a new line with a bullet point, just for that line and not mess with upcoming lines/paragraphs. So evertime this happens, I have to correct it back to the way I want to. It doesn’t just do this with Body Text, also Header text gets a bullet point.

I’ve read a lot of topics, but am unable to find my particular case.
Before I worked with Templates and the whole Style shebang and thought I messed something up there and haven’t been able to fix it with that. But after doing a clean install I noticed that it comes like that out of the box.

The only setting I’ve done after the install is in AutoCorrect settings to enable the 2 Bulleted and numbered list options onder T, that’s it.

My questions:

• Is this a known issue?
• Does anyone know how to fix it?

Version: LibreOffice_24.8.5 on Windows 10
I’ve enclosed a document with various testcases.
double_bulletpoints_next_section.odt (42.9 KB)
If more detail is required, please let me know.

[ajlittoz]

I am not sure to understand “double bullet points”. I’ll try to clarify implemented behaviour.

You have two list-related settings in Tools>AutoCorrect>AutoCorrect Options, Options tab.

• Bulleted and numbered lists. Bullet symbol ⋅
  This is the “generic” activation setting.
• Bulleted and numbered lists immediate after pressing space
  When this setting is enabled, turning a paragraph into a list item is done as soon as the space after the “bullet” (hyphen, period, asterisk, …) has been typed, i.e. the transformation is not deferred until end of paragraph.

When I activate the first setting only, the paragraph becomes a list item when I hit Enter. This also opens a new paragraph which inherits all properties of the previous one. Therefore, it is also a list item.

With the second setting (which is ineffective unless the first one is also enabled), hitting Space also turns the next paragraph into a list item. I suspect (I am no developer) that the same code is used by simulating an Enter press with immediate suppression of the extra paragraph break. Unfortunately, the subsequent paragraph has been modified and the change is not reverted.

Personally I don’t like all these “automatic” reformatting because they fit implementor’s tastes (which are not necessarily the same as mine) and they create direct formatting which disturbs and messes up neatly styled documents. And direct formatting is a real nuisance because it has higher precedence than styling, thus damaging your smart formatting with styles.

I rather recommend you explicitly use list styles. If you abstract correctly the structure of your document, the list style can be attached to a paragraph style, so that you only deal with paragraph styles.

[NleDuck]

Thanks for your elaborate and helpful answer. Unchecking the 2nd option does seem to make it work more as expected. Still a bit flaky at times when adding bullets when editing existing text, but at least less annoying and intrusive as before. At least good to know I wasn’t messing it up via list styles.

(Sorry if double was confusing, maybe extra would’ve been a better word but you still got the gist. Not a native speaker so maybe I translated it too literally . )