Field Display-Height Varies Between Pages (same content)

[AlexKemp]

show-problem.odt
C:\fakepath\show-problem.pdf.jpg (rename to PDF)

Above is a screenshot of both pages of the PDF, itself exported from the Writer file (ODT) at top.

Both sidebars contain a Title-Field. The vertical height of that field will never match the height of the text-frame that contains it. However, that statement is true only on the 1st page of the document. The identical sidebar placed on subsequent pages will show (almost) at full height.

I cannot work out why this is happening. The only extra intelligence I can offer is that recently I tried the duplication as shown above in the screenshot. Then, deleted the 1st-page sidebar & moved the 2nd-page sidebar to the 1st page. The field text immediately re-formatted itself after re-location to be the same as currently shown so, for some reason, the context of the 1st-page setup is affecting the field-length display. But why?

The existence of fields within the header & footer is the only difference between the pages.

This is driving me nuts! Can anyone offer an explanation?

Version: 6.1.5.2
Build ID: 1:6.1.5-3+deb10u6
Devuan GNU/Linux 3 (beowulf)

[ajlittoz]

This may not be the definitive answer but only a clue.

Your Title property is quite long, made of several “words”. Apparently the full title cannot be set in the available frame length and some line wrap occurs. This can be demonstrated by modifying style Frame Contents to reduce font size. The smaller the size, the more words fit in the frame.

What is strange is that the “dimension” of the field does not automatically extend to accommodate its content. And this is not a matter of frame width: I have enlarged it and field content is still truncated (without change though I allocated 5 cm).

It looks like it is related to the Rotation/Scaling in Position. If I reset to 0 degree, everything is fine. The field dimensions adjust to content and it display multi-lines. Any other choice causes truncation with no auto-dimensioning.

My configuration is LO 7.0.4.2 VCL:kf5.

I think this is a bug where rotation seems to lock field dimensions.

[AlexKemp]

Thanks for your investigation, @ajlittoz. Do you have any idea why the Frame display-length varies between the 2 pages? I was hoping that that would give a clue to the reason(s). Also, can you set out your methodology in discovering the field dimensions / properties (I’ve lost how to do it!).

I also suspect a bug, but cannot pin it down.

[ajlittoz]

I can but only guess it may be related to a bug I filed as tdf#125594 where a rotation caused a malfunction.

A field has no intrinsic dimension by itself. It is just a placeholder which will be replaced by its value (text). The text will use as much space as it needs. I suppose that rotation interferes badly with the space allocation algorithm. Only a highly knowledgeable developer could tell.

[AlexKemp]

A field has no intrinsic dimension by itself

Aha! That explains why I could not discover height/width for the Field.

Thanks again for your response.