I know that the Base Report Designer is based on Writer, but adding more drawing toolbars (like the ones present in LO Draw) would push the Report Designer a good notch above the competition…
I personally need the option to draw lines at all angles, would be very nice to be able to use connector tools, glue points and to be able to group graphic objects. If this existed it would be very easy to create up to date graphical wiring diagrams (electrical engineering) that would change based on the database content.
Databases are very useful to store cable lists and other similar signal interconnection tables that can all be nicely integrated together while the Report Designer would provide a much needed automatic creation of wiring drawings, instead of current situation of a gazilion different documents in excel and autocad format (or similar) for all of which it is necessary to track their own revisions etc… It can be a proper nightmare to take care of all the necessary documentation and validate the as built documentation on more complex projects.
Having all the project data in one database (where certain data validation can be done automatically) while in the same time having a more advanced graphical Report Designer would make it possible to automate the tedious task of creating and maintaining of various wiring diagrams throughout a project.
Such a tool is dearly missing in the Linux world, and the beauty of using LibreOffice Base for such tasks is that it can be easily adjusted for any new project with any new/significantly different requirements…