Purpose of Cont, End, and Start List Paragraph Styles

[TXDon]

In researching, I’ve learned that the List paragraph styles are designed to be used when making list. However, I can’t seem to find any information on the purpose of the styles such List 1 Cont, List 1 End, and List 1 Start.

Can anyone educate me about their purpose and how they would be used?

[ajlittoz]

There is continuous debate about the purpose of these styles.

A list family of styles has four members, taking the example of List 1 but you can extend to List n and Numbering n): List 1, List 1 Cont., List 1 End and List 1 Start.

There is general agreement about – Start and – End. List 1 Start is the style for the first item in the list and List 1 End for the last one. Usually, you customise them to allow for a larger space above the list and below the list, detaching the list from surrounding text.

What List 1 and List 1 Cont. are for is rather a matter of personal choice, considering the various opinions of users on this site (use the search feature to find questions about it).

Initially, I used List 1 for the running item in the list and List 1 Cont. when an item needed several paragraphs, thus making this style unnumbered or unbulleted. But it is quite tricky to align the left edge of an unnumbered paragraph with a numbered one, keeping them always in sync when indents are changed.

I then discovered a neat trick to get unnumbered items from a “numbered style”, thus eliminating the need for a specific unnumbered style. All you have to do is press Bksp at head of a list item to get an unnumbered one still aligned with numbered items.

So, what is the difference between List 1 and List 1 Cont. now?

List 1 is the ancestor of – Start, – Cont. and – End. Apparently, we could consider that List 1 is some kind of “master” which would be the holder of common attributes inherited by the others. And List 1 would not routinely be used.

Unfortunately due to a bug (tdf#68263) when a list style (the numbering or bullet properties) is attached to a paragraph style, inheritance is broken. Therefore, all styles must be configured individually.

In the end, I decided that I’d use List 1 for single-item, single-paragraph lists (this sounds strange but may happen quite often with bullet lists) with increased space above and below, and List 1 Cont. for intermediate (not first nor last) items in a list with smaller space above and below.

Conclusion: you make your own philosophy about List 1 and List 1 Cont. as the others seem to me quite “obvious”. You implement this philosophy in your own template and you follow a consistent discipline when you use the styles.

Postface

There are two ways to create lists.

• You press a toolbar button on any paragraph style.
  This allows you to “number” absolutely any paragraph in your document without bothering to configure specific styles for lists. You can then mix various styles in the same list (though I consider this questionable; a list should be visually homogeneous)
  The con is these lists are controlled by generic list style Format>Bullet & Numbering and you may have hard time to correctly delimit independent lists. Also, format tuning is difficult because some tweaks were necessary to provide a single indistinct, non-specific list style over all lists.
• You attach a specific list style in Outline & List tab of a paragraph style (e.g. the List 1 family)
  This is more difficult to configure but allows you to build really independent logical lists. A list “identity” is characterised by the list style. Consequently, n list styles => n semantically different list styles.
  Caution! This does not mean you can’t have several lists from the same list style. All these lists will belong in the same semantic family and you just need to restart numbering from one when you create a new list. Playing with several semantically different lists allows for very sophisticated schemas.
  When a list style is attached to a paragraph style, you don’t need to press the toolbar button. The paragraph is automatically numbered as soon as you assign the paragraph style.
  One big advantage, IMHO, is that the bullet/number is not “sticky”. When you change the paragraph style, the number is no longer there, contrary to direct formatting method in the preceding point.

Once again, it is up to you to choose one method or the other. Weigh the pros and cons. Confront them to the type of documents you’re writing and, most important, to the depth of introspection you’ve exercised when you designed your styles for your template. But, in any document, don’t use both methods. Select one and stick with it.

My personal choice is for the second method (list style attached to paragraph style) after years of practice and trials-and-errors with my template until I found something satisfying.

EDIT

There may be another answer to your question.

If you don’t care to format differently first, running and last items in a list, i.e. you only want uniform layout, make do with List 1.
When you want a more subtle layout, use List 1 Start, List 1 Cont. and List 1 End with customised attributes, mainly spacing above and below.

Also, remember that in a list, indents are no longer controlled by the paragraph style (don’t try to set them or you’ll have “surprises” that you won’t understand nor fix) but by the Position tab of the list style, be it a specific style or the generic Format>Bullets & Numbering.

[TXDon]

Thank you for the long thoughtful reply ajlittoz.

My basic question was answered by:
“There is general agreement about – Start and – End. List 1 Start is the style for the first item in the list and List 1 End for the last one. Usually, you customise them to allow for a larger space above the list and below the list, detaching the list from surrounding text.”

But I appreciate the other information as well.