Heading numbering outline format

[eighty2]

Hi,

Writer 24.2.7.2 and .ott (later on the .odt) files in use here.
Heading numbering have Writer stock configuration - it means no modifications were performed, however some are intended.
Up to 3 (in worst case 4) levels of outlining/lists will be used. As of time being I can’t ensure that numbers at each outline (list) level will be one-digit long.
The example heading line will look in document like this:
“1.1.1 This is heading line with paragraph style Heading 3 applied”
All paragraphs formatted using Heading 1 to Heading 3 paragraph styles will act in TOC and lists of objects (tables, diagrams, formulas, etc).

In some cases heading paragraph may have 2 lines, maybe in quite rare cases 3 lines.
How to achieve paragraph dynamic indentation paragraph left side, paragraph first line and all further lines? I mean
1.1.1 Will need less indentation (text left edge) than
12.20.14
For document under editorial works here all what matters is only the distance most right digit to paragraph first character - it should have everywhere same width. When talking “the paragraph” I only mean the stream of text without list numbering component. Logically all these are chapters and sub-chapters.

So far myself tried to achieve the goal by Heading Numbering… means but I was not successful on it. Assigning Heading X paragraph styles to my heading paragraphs activates Ordered List however it selects no List Style. I wonder if I should choose Outline Format instead.

Picture below presents the intention (text block left edge might not be perfect this sample). Sample presents only headings of chapters and sub-chapters (chapters bodies are out of focus). Also the numbering is not continuous as for picture presented - I use shortest possible piece of text to present my concern.

If my understanding is correct the list can’t be used as usually list items are not interleaved with no-list items. On another side chapter and sub-chapter headings don’t have numbering without selection of list style, which isn’t satisfying too.

Edit
I see it may be a bad practice/approach to mix chapter/sub-chapter headings with lists control. It is higher degree of complexity to interleave list items with paragraphs not using list and I should do it
only if really necessary. If logically in this case these are headings of chapters/sub-chapters myself seems to have to navigate only to Heading Numbering… Heading Numbering… dialog has the first setting field Number which I possibly should set to 1, 2, 3 …
I only hope this way it will be possible to get the visual effect as described. Eventually the further component of fix is external to Writer - ensure that chapter / sub-chapter headings always are one-liner. Is this the proper understanding?

[ajlittoz]

NEVER, NEVER, NEVER mix list style(s) with chapter numbering. Chapter numbering is a full-fledged protected internal list style. If you apply manually a list style over it, you create an unmanageable mess. Writer reaction is unpredictable, though it improved in “recent” releases.

Multi-line heading indentation is done with Tools>Chapter Numbering which means you must alter it from factory configuration.

Numbering

Enable numbering on each used level in Numbering tab. Apparently in your case levels 1 to 3.

Indentation

This is no way to dynamically adapt left indent to the effective “size” of the number. Your indent must be manually set to a fixed distance. This indent is “global”, i.e. it will be used for all headings on the level.

Consequently, you must guess the size of the widest number. This determines the indent distance.

Configuration is done in Position tab.

• Aligned at is the position of your number; keep it at 0 cm
• Indent at is the distance for lines 2+; it must be larger than the widest number + some space
• Tab stop at is set at the same distance as Indent at

PS: I don’t understand your request for list of objects in TOC. This is where the lists will go if you style the captions Heading n . Logically captions and headings are separate entities and their style is therefore different. If you use the “Caption” feature, this is handled automatically for you and you generate tables of objects separately from the TOC (using the same Insert>TOC & Index>TOC, Index or Bibliography.

[eighty2]

Thanks for your input.
I expect the width of whitespace between most right digit in heading number and the very first paragraph character to be always the same regardless of how long the number string is.

Behaviour pattern you point out is bad news as I believe the template will for sure change multiple time till the writing completes. Considering the rules of how master document works a style not updated will be in master document in the initial version yet it will overwrite style definition (if style name is the same) made in template than propagated to sub-document but modified past the master document creation. For me this means one need to trouble TemplateChanger in context of master document manually as frequently as the template receives a modification.

I also wish that Writer 24 Guide be warning user concerning this Writer behavior (linking template to master to be not existing).

[eighty2]

@ajlittoz

PS: I don’t understand your request for list of objects in TOC. This is where the lists will go if you style the captions Heading n . Logically captions and headings are separate entities and their style is therefore different. If you use the “Caption” feature, this is handled automatically for you and you generate tables of objects separately from the TOC (using the same Insert>TOC & Index>TOC, Index or Bibliography.

I mean rather the document to have TOC then a number of of object lists. Means first TOC followed by a series of lists.

[eighty2]

There is however one problem.
I modified Heading Numbering setting and did it while template ott was open. Than saved it to open template. Subsequently closed the template and opened document created at earlier point of time from this template. Neither document opening results in the prompt “Do you like to take over modifications made in template?” nor the settings Heading Numbering… reflects my modifications of Heading Numbering… Modifications however are preserved if to open template once again. I manage and use templates only using LO GUI functions.

On another hand the settings Heading Numbering… seem to be document-specific. I dare to make this statement because yet another document created from standard template doesn’t reflect my modifications of Heading Numbering…

Well… I see that Heading Numbering… has own handling in Writer. When customized by user the settings seem to be stored in document data in some way, however separately from paragraph styles. Template-document linking and Heading Numbering… seem to be two independent things.