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IDProjectCategoryView StatusLast Update
0003708ScribusGeneralpublic2016-12-12 18:29
Reportermkoren Assigned To 
PrioritynormalSeverityfeatureReproducibilityN/A
Status feedbackResolutionopen 
PlatformanyOSanyOS Versionany
Product Version1.3 
Summary0003708: group-level inheritance of defaults and style definitions
DescriptionI'd like it if defaults and styles could be defined at the group level to override higher-level (document-wide or parent group) settings for objects in a group. This would include simple things like setting the default text style or properties as well as defining (or redefining) specific named styles to be used within the group (e.g., "heading 1" could have a different definition in different parts of a document that require different formatting).

A settings hierarchy could be created for nested elements (document -> page/layer -> group -> nested subgroups if supported) and overlapping groups in which each level could inherit default settings from the previous level and optionally modify or extend them. This would use the same mechanism as for normal style inheritance, only with inheritance allowed based on object context.

Uses and examples:

1) Context-based styling of semantic content: Generic styles like "heading" and "body" in a text block could be styled differently depending on where in a layout it is placed--as a main article or in a sidebar, for instance.* This would be especially useful if the same text in an external document could be incorporated into more than one document (see 0002107) using different styling conventions.

2) A paragraph is likewise a group of characters, and a character style which says "increase the font size 10% from what it was previously" is an instance of this concept.

3) All the text, lines, frames, etc. on a layer could be given the same attributes (see 0003555).

4) Adjustment layers could be inserted in the settings hierarchy as groups overlapping individual objects or groups to tweak the properties of imported or read-only elements.

5) Organizing many styles: having lots of styles defined for an entire document could get confusing. Only defining a style for a subsection/group/layer in which it is used could be clearer and reduce naming conflicts. This might even be a necessity if it is desired to dynamically incorporate text from an external document, _retaining_ that document's styles, without polluting the current doc's style set, or if the external document can be changed independently.

6) Nested sequences (see 0003672) could have properties and indices defined by both the current sequence level and its parent levels.

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*Footnote: There's no fundamental difference here whether the "group" in question is a single text frame into which text with multiple styles is copied or whether the specific style definitions are applied to a group of related frames--a text frame is a group of text elements for this purpose.
Additional InformationRelated to:
0002107
0003555
0003554
0003578
0003672
TagsNo tags attached.
Patch

Relationships

related to 0002107 acknowledged Master documents 
related to 0003554 acknowledged support all properties settings in application and document defaults 
related to 0003578 feedback compound object styles 
related to 0003672 feedback object sequences with relative properties 
has duplicate 0003555 closed set default properties/styles by layer 
related to 0003838 acknowledged Metabug: Scribus layers 
child of 0003812 acknowledged Metabug: Grouped objects 

Activities

christoph_s

2006-04-29 19:56

developer   ~0010630

mkoren, I have to repeat myself (see: 3578): don't you think that this would become too complicated? Can we get this "cheaper" with less efforts on the user side (not to mention the developers)?

More specifically: the cost (in terms of time) of such a feature on the user side is probably high compared to a simpler approach. I can see no time savings here, just a lot of complexity added for developers and users alike.

mkoren

2006-05-02 02:53

reporter   ~0010762

Last edited: 2007-03-25 21:26

This is much simpler to describe in light of avox's Nov 19 blog entry at rants.scribus.net on how the planned style inheritance will work:

>>> There’s not only a logical hierarchy but also a physical hierarchy of styles. The physical hierarchy depends on the nesting of elements, so a physical style will pick its attributes from character run, then paragraph, then story, then document.

Actually all I'm asking for is to add groups to the physical style heirarchy between the story and document levels. :)

A few more points I mentioned, like redefining named styles and allowing overlapping groups, can be considered extra features.

christoph_s

2006-05-02 22:43

developer   ~0010820

mkoren, you have been asked to be a bit more concise several times. Remember, people are reading this on screen, and they are following other bugs, forums, irc and who knows what as well. It's just a matter of economics, and given the length of your reports, chances are good the important pieces are lost on the reader.

Thanks.

Issue History

Date Modified Username Field Change
2006-04-27 04:35 mkoren New Issue
2006-04-29 19:42 mhanski Status new => feedback
2006-04-29 19:56 christoph_s Note Added: 0010630
2006-05-02 02:53 mkoren Note Added: 0010762
2006-05-02 22:43 christoph_s Note Added: 0010820
2006-05-08 10:44 mhanski Relationship added has duplicate 0003555
2006-05-13 16:55 christoph_s Relationship added child of 0003812
2006-05-18 22:45 christoph_s Relationship added related to 0003838
2007-03-25 21:26 mkoren Note Edited: 0010762
2016-12-12 18:29 Kunda Relationship added related to 0002107
2016-12-12 18:29 Kunda Relationship added related to 0003554
2016-12-12 18:29 Kunda Relationship added related to 0003578
2016-12-12 18:29 Kunda Relationship added related to 0003672