Writer/TOC

Overall Description

TOC(Table of Contents) is a significant feature in Aoo Writer..Although,it has provided powerful capabilities to benefit end users for productivity, the followed areas,especially the fidelity with MS Word, still need improvements..I propose them and put them as the candidates of the next release.

Descriptions of Main Problems

Loading of MS Word TOC

Binary Format - Ongoing

• The TOC data of a MS Word document is not parsed completely. And the actual TOC data is from silently updating once a MS Word Document loaded. Thus,the fidelity can not be ensured especially when the document contents that impact TOC have been changed after creating TOC in MS Word.
• After TOC has been created in MS Word,and then the paragraphs applied with Heading styles are deleted or applied Heading styles un-applied to the paragraphs that have been collected into TOC. Once such MS Word binary document launched into Apache OpenOffice.org Writer, the TOC will disappear.
• After TOC has been created in MS Word,and then new paragraphs are applied with Heading styles..Once such MS Word binary document launched into Apache OpenOffice.org Writer,new entries will be added to TOC.
• The tab between chapter number and TOC entry lost when loading a MS Word document,which leads to different gap between chapter number and TOC entry. That looks different from MS Word.

OOXML Format

Same with binary file format.

Customized Formats of TOC Entry

Binary Format

The customized character attributes will be lost when loading MS Word TOC created by un-checking "Use hyperlinks instead of page numbers". To this kind of TOC,the customized character attributes of the target paragraphs can be collected into TOC in MS Word.

OOXML Format

Same with binary file format.

Export TOC to MS Word

Binary Format

• Saving MS Word Binary Format Back

The width of tab between chapter numbering and TOC entry will be changed.

• Saving ODT to MS Word Binary

The jumping hyperlink info will be lost when exporting odt TOC to MS Word binary TOC.

OOXML Format

TOC Jumping with Page Numbers Only

Jump info will be lost when loading MS Word TOC created by un-checking "Use hyperlinks instead of page numbers". To this kind of TOC,end users can only press ctrl+mouse to click the page number of the TOC entry for jumping in MS Word.

Accessibility

The current TOC dialog can not meet the accessibility requirements.

Usability

The current TOC dialog is difficult for end users to understand and use..Most end users can just only create a TOC by default, confusing to customize the attributes and styles.