Unwanted change to cross-referencing numbering convention

[atconley]

I have been using LibreOffice for years. Wonderful software. I use outline numbering extensively.

Until recently, if, using outline numbering, I typed out the following paragraphs:

3. [blah]
    (a) [blah]
        (i) [blah]

— and then added a cross-reference to paragraph (i) using ‘Number (full context)’, Writer would insert:

3(a)(i)

Note: there is no dot after the ‘3’.

Recently I upgraded to Ubuntu 22.04. It seems LibreOffice received an upgrade from 6.[x] to 7.[x]. Presently, I am using 7.3.7.2. This is the ‘version information’ available from the ‘About LibreOffice’ dialogue box:

Version: 7.3.7.2 / LibreOffice Community
Build ID: 30(Build:2)
CPU threads: 8; OS: Linux 5.15; UI render: default; VCL: x11
Locale: en-AU (en_AU.UTF-8); UI: en-US
Ubuntu package version: 1:7.3.7-0ubuntu0.22.04.1
Calc: threaded

Now, when I open up a document I made using 6.[x], the cross-reference example I gave above comes out as:

3.(a)(i)

Note: the new dot after the ‘3’.

I do not want this change! It is going to break all of the cross-referencing in my documents.

Is this a bug or is this a considered change?

If it is a considered change, is there any way to ‘opt-out’ of it or get around it?

Otherwise, I will have to go through all similar cross-references and insert three separate references:

• one for ‘3’,
• one for ‘(a)’, and
• one for ‘(i)’

— which of course I definitely do not want to do.

Please help.

UPDATE:

And, I note that, if I just insert a ‘Number (full context)’ cross-reference for ‘3’, it does not insert a dot after the ‘3’! I.e. it gives, simply:

3

[ajlittoz]

I think this is part of an implicit handling of the period separator. It is internally implemented and not under user control (sigh!).

There is however a workaround based on the suppression of the Separator After period since this separator is treated special.

• in Tools>Chapter Numbering

  • in Numbering tab: at Level 1, delete the period in Separator After: (void field after erasure).
  • in Position tab: set Numbering followed by to Nothing so that you can add whatever you like after the number
    This is necessary to manually insert the period (and a Tab character if your numbers re followed by a tab) after the number. Insert also what initially followed the number, space or tab.

• patch paragraph style Heading 1 if you used a tab after the number
  Tools>Chapter Numbering has a setting for this tab. When you suppress “followed by a tab”, this setting is also suppressed. You need then to define an equivalent tab stop in Heading 1 otherwise the tab position is defined by the default evenly spaced stops which are rarely fit for numbering.

• in your text
  Review all Heading 1 paragraphs to add the period and tab/space after the number

Note that there is a “glitch” in the TOC for level 1. You now have a space between the number and the dot. I tried to eliminate this extra space by playing with the structure line but I failed. All my attempts ended up in widening the distance between the number and the dot.

[mikekaganski]

This is the result of https://gerrit.libreoffice.org/c/core/+/117156.

And please file this as a bug (about broken backward compatibility).
It is related to tdf#144563.

[atconley]

I have filed a bug report: https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=153680