Bug 108546

Summary:	Sections in Footnotes cannot be formatted into multiple columns
Product:	LibreOffice	Reporter:	Michael von Preußen <mvonpreussen>
Component:	Writer	Assignee:	Not Assigned <libreoffice-bugs>
Status:	NEW ---
Severity:	enhancement	CC:	gellert.gyuris, ilmari.lauhakangas, jalojo, mvonpreussen, philipz85, rb.henschel, vmiklos, whsieh, xiscofauli
Priority:	medium
Version:	unspecified
Hardware:	All
OS:	All
See Also:	https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=76007 https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=151474
Whiteboard:
Crash report or crash signature:		Regression By:
Bug Depends on:
Bug Blocks:	103164
Attachments:	An illustration of the bug, showing a single-column section layout alongside the window claiming it is formatted into two columns. footnotes on three columns document Graphical mockup depicting desired result. The actual document used to create attachment 134070, showing the buggy behavior. Multi-column specification ignore in footnote section; ugly workaround with frame

Description Michael von Preußen 2017-06-15 03:00:06 UTC

Description:
When attempting to format a section within footnotes to display in multiple columns, nothing happens.

The section says (in both [Format > Columns] and [Format > Sections > Options > Columns]) that it is formatted into multiple columns; however, it is not actually formatted as such.

This occurs whether one attempts to format the entire footnotes section into columns, or only a portion thereof. It also occurs whether one attempts to apply the column formatting via [Format > Columns] or via [Insert > Section > Columns] (I've chosen to describe the latter process only in the Steps to Reproduce for simplicity).

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Insert a footnote via [Insert > Footnote and Endnote > Footnote].
2. Type some text in the footnote. Optionally, create a new line with some text, if you only want to format a portion of the footnotes into columns. For best illustration, make it a long string of text.
3. Select this line.
4. Go to [Insert > Section > Columns] and change the number of columns to be greater than 1. Press [Insert].

Actual Results:  
A section is inserted at the desired location (after the program sort of freaks out for a moment like it doesn't know where to put it), but it is not formatted into multiple columns.

Expected Results:
As above, but formatted into multiple columns.


Reproducible: Always

User Profile Reset: No

Additional Info:
The four-year-old bug 58381 is potentially related to this, but I have not specifically tested whether this affects endnotes.


User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.3; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/58.0.3029.110 Safari/537.36

Comment 1 Michael von Preußen 2017-06-15 03:02:52 UTC

Created attachment 134041 [details]
An illustration of the bug, showing a single-column section layout alongside the window claiming it is formatted into two columns.

I have attached a screenshot illustrating the bug, showing a single-column section layout alongside the window claiming it is formatted into two columns.

Comment 2 Xisco Faulí 2017-06-15 10:27:29 UTC Comment hidden (obsolete)

Thank you for reporting the bug.
it seems you're using an old version of LibreOffice.
Could you please try to reproduce it with the latest version of LibreOffice from https://www.libreoffice.org/download/libreoffice-fresh/ ?
I have set the bug's status to 'NEEDINFO'. Please change it back to 'UNCONFIRMED' if the bug is still present in the latest version.

Comment 3 Michael von Preußen 2017-06-15 16:26:22 UTC Comment hidden (obsolete)

My apologies, Xisco. I forgot to mention in my post that I did indeed confirm the bug in the latest version—I set the version in the bug report to 5.2.3.3 as it was the first version I noticed it in.

Returning to UNCONFIRMED per instruction.

Comment 4 Jacques Guilleron 2017-06-16 12:43:44 UTC

Created attachment 134065 [details]
footnotes on three columns document

Hi,

You have to format your page with multiple columns before to do that.
See attachment.

Jacques

Comment 5 Jacques Guilleron 2017-06-16 12:52:02 UTC

Hi Michael,

Does it solve this issue for you?

Comment 6 Michael von Preußen 2017-06-16 19:01:20 UTC

Created attachment 134070 [details]
Graphical mockup depicting desired result.

Hi Jacques,

Unfortunately, this does not solve my problem. I do not want the entire document in multiple columns, I want a specific section of the footnotes in multiple columns.

To better illustrate my desired outcome, I have attached a graphical mockup of the effect I wish to achieve. Again, it is not currently possible to achieve this effect, because of the bug in question: the portion of the mockup in red text is the portion which cannot currently be achieved. I will in a subsequent attachment include this document as it actually exists, to illustrate the difference between the desired outcome and the actual outcome.

Using sections to format a portion of the document in multiple columns works elsewhere in the document, as I have illustrated in my attachment, just not in the footnotes.

Furthermore, even if allowing a section within the footnotes to be in multiple columns is not meant to be a supported feature (in which case I would certainly argue it should be, but setting that aside), a bug still exists, as the program *says* the section is in multiple columns, when it is not actually formatted as such.

Comment 7 Michael von Preußen 2017-06-16 19:02:42 UTC

Created attachment 134071 [details]
The actual document used to create attachment 134070 [details], showing the buggy behavior.

Comment 8 Buovjaga 2017-06-18 17:55:15 UTC

*** Bug 89222 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 9 Buovjaga 2017-06-18 17:56:22 UTC

Duped the older report as this newer one is perhaps more eloquent.

Comment 10 Yousuf Philips (jay) (retired) 2017-06-20 21:21:48 UTC

Buovjaga: Not sure why you changed this to an enhancement when it seems like a bug to me, as when you go into the section properties, it still claims that it has more than 1 column.

Regina, Miklos: Any thoughts about this regarding the ODF spec or a particular limitation that sections in footnotes shouldnt have columns, as from what i can see MS Word doesnt have this option as well.

https://word.tips.net/T000322_Footnotes_in_Two_Columns.html

Comment 11 Buovjaga 2017-06-21 04:17:05 UTC

(In reply to Yousuf Philips (jay) from comment #10)
> Buovjaga: Not sure why you changed this to an enhancement when it seems like
> a bug to me, as when you go into the section properties, it still claims
> that it has more than 1 column.

Well, I kinda inherited that from bug 89222, which was changed to enh. by Julien..

Comment 12 ajlittoz 2023-10-15 13:44:45 UTC

Created attachment 190225 [details]
Multi-column specification ignore in footnote section; ugly workaround with frame

Attachment created with Writer 7.5.7.1 still shows that number of columns in footnote section is ignored.

I attempted a find a workaround based on frames. But the workaround required the frame to be anchored "As character" which results in many user-unfriendly issues:

- frame does not extend automatically from margin to margin (inherent to "As character"); absolute width cannot be recorded in frame style
- column and spacing width are expressed in %-unit; these percent units cannot have decimal parts (only an integer number is allowed)

All tuning must be made with direct formatting. No frame style can be created/customised to guarantee homogeneous look across the document.