I have LibreOffice Writer version 24.2 on Linux installed and there is a problem that once I uncheck the option on footer “Same content on left and right pages” any changes to footer spacing is applied only to the right page, while left page stays on the settings before the checkmark was unchecked. I tried opening the footer options from the left page, but the settings were the same as for right page and any change is only visible on the right page. If I check the option back, the spacing is applied to both pages, but as soon as I uncheck it again the left page returns to the old ways.
I am sharing the example of the new document with this problem.
Footer Spacing Not Syncing.odt (9.8 KB)
Have you understood the intent?
When you uncheck Same contents on left and right pages, you create two separate footers attached to your page styles.
If you change the footer in the first page (which is a right page), the change is forwarded on all right pages.
To modify footer for left pages, you must do so in a left page. This will in turn affect all left pages.
When you check again the box, you revert to single footer. Writer takes then into account the first footer. Apparently, the footers are listed in order first, right, left. First met is used in single footer mode.
The same is true for headers.
There is no problem, only unfamiliarity with the feature.
Yes, this is how it should work when you have unticked “same content left/right”. It does for content. However, in this situation, changes in footer spacing (distance from text body region to footer region on the page) only applies to right pages, regardless of whether your cursor is in left or right page, or the respective footers, or you select editing from the footer tab dropdown.
Checked with version 24.8, which displays the same behavior as reported by OP.
Version: 24.8.3.2 (X86_64) / LibreOffice Community
Build ID: 48a6bac9e7e268aeb4c3483fcf825c94556d9f92
CPU threads: 8; OS: Windows 10 X86_64 (10.0 build 19045); UI render: Skia/Raster; VCL: win
Locale: nb-NO (nb_NO); UI: nb-NO
Calc: threaded
Workaround
Use separate custom page styles for left and right pages, and select next page style for each of them accordingly. This gives you alternating page styles, which may be an extra challenge to get right if your chapters start on a new page which may be either left or right (a bit of manual work), and you use a separate “chapterstart” page style. Other than that, it should be fairly smooth.
Oops, didn’t read carefully question. Apologies!
This is even worse than you describe because you must also take “first” into account. I then wonder if the internal order is rather right, left, first. And when you modify the attributes, they are applied only on first met footer, i.e. “right page” footer.
I kind of remember a bug report about it. I did not submit it (I checked) but I probably commented it (can’t retrieve it instantly).
@keme1’s “workaround” is not a work around at all. It is the regular way to do it. The Same content … check boxes were introduced to avoid the skilled fuss with page styles for casual users who don’t need the sophisticated power of really independent page styles only for the sake of different header.
This simplified feature works fine only for header/footer text. Everything else, i.e. page geometry, must remain the same across variants otherwise we bump into the problem.
Yes, I used to do it that way, but I wanted to simplify for others that might use my formatting. I think @ajlittoz is wrong in saying that this feature should be that way and that the proper way of doing things is to have First Page followed by Left and then Right Page and so on. I think the Mirrored option in Page options is there for a reason and therefore it should work as expected. I don’t expect for the right and left page to have different settings, but both should respect the settings set out in Footer options.
Also, having to adjust three page styles every time you want to change the margin or footer spacing or anything else for that matter is a pain.
You can store this and hundreds of other attributes in a document template.
File>Template>Save…
If every (or most) text documents should have this:
File>Template>Manage…[Ctrl+Shift+N], right-click and make it your default template for Writer.
The main reason is the extra margin space for binding. When you select this mode, Left/Right margins become Inner/Outer such that Inner is always on the binding side (therefore alternate on right and left pages) and Outer is the “exterior” side (the “flipping edge”). When you configure unequal margins (a wider one on binding side), the geometry alternates. This is the only case I know of where geometry is modified within a single page style.
That said, there is “logical” bug in the implementation of Same content …. There should be a user-accessible way to define separate spacing for First/Left/Right. I encourage you to submit a bug report.
I fully agree with you. This could be improved by having hierarchical page styles, like you have hierarchical paragraph and character styles. According to Regina, one of the top brass people in TDF, it is not forbidden by ODF. It simply is not implemented. With such a feature, you’d create the Left variant of the page style. Then you derive from it First and Right (they inherit all the properties of their ancestors) and you only overwrite specific settings (spacing, margins, header/footer presence, …).
When smartly configured, you only change key settings in Left and First/Left are automatically updated.
Let’s hope it is implemented some day.
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