Formatting Issues in Master Document: Footnotes and Page Backgrounds Lost

[Kapis]

When creating a Master Document in LibreOffice Writer and inserting two .odt files into it, formatting inconsistencies occur:

1. The first inserted document loses the option to place footnotes at the end of the document, reverting them to appear at the bottom of each page.
2. The second inserted document loses its page background image set in the page style.

Steps to Reproduce:

1. Create a Master Document in LibreOffice Writer.
2. Insert two existing .odt files into the Master Document.

• The first .odt file should have footnotes set to appear at the end of the document.
• The second .odt file should use a page style with a background image (in the Area tab)

3. Save and view the Master Document.

Expected Behavior:

• The footnotes in the first .odt file should remain configured to appear at the end of the document.
• The page background image in the second .odt file should be retained.

Actual Behavior:

• The first .odt file’s footnotes revert to being placed at the bottom of each page, instead of at the end of the document as it was saved.
• The second .odt file loses the page background image defined in its page style.

Environment:

• LibreOffice version: 6.4
• Operating System: Linux Mint 20

Additional Notes: These issues disrupt formatting consistency and make it challenging to use Master Documents for complex projects. Workarounds are either unavailable or impractical for larger documents.

[mikekaganski]

1. Regarding the “The page background image in the second .odt file should be retained” - yes, but only if you use the page style not defined (differently) in the master itself. The main idea of the master document is being able to centrally control the styles of children, i.e. (re)define them in master, and have the children formatting obey.

2. What is your question on this Ask site (where bug reports are off-topic, by the way)?

[ajlittoz]

This is a misunderstanding of the concept of master document.
The “final” product is the master document. Sub-docs are only “bricks” contributing “data” to the master.

Master and sub-docs can be independent formatting-wise. The styles in the sub-docs are only imported in the master if the master does not provide a definition for the style name. And even in this case, you can get “surprises” when the same style name has different configuration in all sub-docs.

Using master documents requires a stricter methodic workflow than ordinary documents. The safest way is to base all documents on the same template (which provides definition of styles for all) and to prohibit direct formatting so that formatting comes only from styles (and thus ensures a consistent reliable predictable effect across the whole master).