How do you handle Appendices

English
#1

LO v. 25.2.3.2 (x86_64)
I am trying to do all of the following with Appendices and am having some difficulty.

  • Add Appendices to the TOC
  • Inline references to Appendices
  • Change Appendix page numbering to A#, B# etc.
  • Add figures/tables/etc. from Appendices into the TOC and allow inline references.

I have searched and read answers. I have read chp. 15 of the Writers Guide. I have followed directions given in the sources. I have pulled what’s left of my hair out.Not much hair left, hopefully more answers.

Apparently Appendix questions are oft asked and oft answered. Given a comprehensive (and doable) answer, if LO would like, I can do a writeup to be inserted into the Writer’s Guide. However, past attempts at help LO have never been acknowledged so I am reluctant to do this, again.

#2

Please could you clarify your goal?

Generally, the “appendix problem” sums up to switching from numeric numbering for chapters to alphabetical numbering to appendices. Is this your case?

If so, you have to create a dedicated list style and to associated it to a set of paragraph styles duplicating Heading n (because a list style defines a single numbering schema and a paragraph style can be associated to only one list style). There are other subtleties to be described after your clarification.

Very important: the solution is valid only for .odt documents because other formats have no list style.

#3

An example:

135263 HB How do you handle Appendices.odt (176,6 KB)

#4

Heloo @Hrbrgr
Your example does not handle automatic numbering which is generally the key point in appendix questions. It is fully manual while there are built-in features to automate the process.

@ostbits
I realise I didn’t address:

Insert → Caption on your figures, tables, etc. using the ad hoc counter. Alternatively, build your caption manually (in Writer, a “caption” is simply a paragraph containing a number range field.


Writer provides counters (number range) for drawings, figures, illustrations, tables and text. You can add others.


When your objects are so “captioned”, their numbers are known and can be inserted as cross-references (number, page or caption text). You can also build with the TOC engine a “Table of Figures”, “Table of Drawings”, … automatically.

#5

That is correct.

#6

Get Involved

Documentation:
The LibreOffice Documentation Team is responsible for the development of the English language user documentation. This page serves as a portal both for the various forms of user documentation and the development thereof.

#7

Goal: To Use Appendices in the same manner as object not in an appendix. That is, to have Appendices appear in the TOC as well as figures and tables, to cause renumbering of appedices (a#, b#, …).

I have to say that strange things are happening. Initially appendices did not appear in the TOC. Now they do. I don’t know what I did, or didn’t, do.

As a note, the LO version I have has an Appendix style, inherited from Header, which I use. It, now, seems to work as expected.

To all. Why aren’t Appendix operations better documented. It may save questions, like mine, which waste your time, like mine.

#8

Well, LibreOffice is a collaborative project.
Perhaps there aren’t enough people, or maybe someone overlooked something—or something else entirely?
You can help ensure that the documentation gets improved:

https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Documentation

I don’t know what I did, or didn’t, do.

I just ran a quick test.
If you specify a list within the “Appendix” paragraph style, it works.

135263 HB How do you handle Appendices
135263 HB How do you handle Appendices1190×700 74.8 KB

#9

I look at built-in Appendix as it is configured from the factory:

  • formatting is different from Heading n
    Alignment is Center while all others are Left.
  • it is not an “outline” style
    It is attached to no outline level.
  • anyway it cannot by handled by Tools->`Heading Numbering* (unless you replace one level there by Appendix)
  • it has no variant depending on outline level

If you want both Heading n and Appendix in the TOC and you don’t assign an outline level to Appendix, you must tick Additional styles to include it in the TOC configuration dialog.

I’d rather consider that Appendix is some kind of “ancestor” for a to-be-defined family of Appendix n styles, the same as Heading is the ancestor of all Heading n. But even in this case, I question the usefulness of built-in Appendix because Heading can also be used as the ancestor of all Appendix n.

Perhaps the designers/developers thought that a document has a single appendix without subdivisions (like chapter, sub-chapter, sub-sub-chapter).

As soon as I have time, I’ll give my solution to initial question.

#10

Ah Ha. I finally got to answer you “Get Involved” question. So, let me say that I did try to get involved. Years ago I had some issues with the reference facility in LO. The documentation was pretty near wholly incorrect. Well, I did finally finish doing the reference stuff, and then with some discussion with one of your colleagues, spent a week or two or three rewriting the whole section. And I sent in the copyright transfer, and I sent the document. I am still waiting for acknowledgement of receipt, not to speak of any dialog on changes needed and changes negotiated. That is, I spent a week or two for no good purpose.

My question is: Why waste my time? If you do not acknowledge receipt then my effort is done.

So, why waste my time? Lest you feel that I am somehow singling LO out for bad behavior let it be known that the Bison/Flex group (on documentation) preceded you, and another group who produced GNU code (for YAML) had source code which didn’t match the stated requirements. Same effort. Same response.

So at this juncture I say that whatever I do is something not wanted. I have tried, you (the generic not the specific) ignore. So why bother?

#11

There are (at least some) new people working there (in Documentation). I submitted a few bug reports that were implemented in few weeks/days.

#12

Bug reports are different. A bug is a failure. Failures are fixed. When I submitted my document it wasn’t to report or fix a bug. It was to improve a document. Given that an initial release of an update goes through a revision and change cycle, with the writer, in this case me, as a participant, I had expected both an acknowledgement and a dialog. I was disappointed that a week or two of work was ignored. To me, there is no sense wasted time on a product if there is no interest in the product. So there was no unwillingness on my part to participate. It was LO which showed itself unwilling.

#13

How to Report Bugs in LibreOffice

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