Revision as of 20:02, 17 October 2007

Introduction

This page shows the planning and progress of the Multi Page Layout feature,see i1598.

Background/Short Description

• With the availability of wider screens, users expect to use the extra space to view additional pages.
• Professional designers need often to adjust elements on facing pages and fine tune these various elements depending on a different element on the opposite page.

Competitive Product Analysis

• MS Word XP: implemented inside the 'Print Layout'
  • upon zooming out, as many pages are displayed within the same row as will fit on the row
  • does NOT pair facing pages
  • only active page displays a horizontal ruler
• NeoOffice: implemented, see example image
  • upon zooming out, as many pages are displayed within the same row as will fit on the row
  • does NOT pair facing pages
  • all pages have distinct horizontal rulers
• Adobe Acrobat 7.0: implemented as 'Page Layout' -> 'Facing' and 'Continous Facing'
  • the 2 facing pages will be displayed adjacent
  • first page is displayed single: TRUE facing
  • there is a space between the adjacent pages
  • ZOOM: 'fit width' will adapt the zoom level so that the 2 adjacent pages will span the whole width of the window

Specification: Conceptual Problems

These still need to be solved and agreed on before starting the implementation.

LTR vs RTL Text

• Arabic and other RTL languages
• Japanese: both LTR/Top-to-Bottom and Top-To-Bottom/RTL within the same document

Multiple Page Sizes

• is there any use case for multiple page sizes within the same document?

Horizontal Ruler

• one global horizontal ruler vs multiple rulers

Notes

• where do we position notes:
  • always right vs 'left & right' depending on even/odd page
• always right
  • disadvantage: notes for left pages will overlap right pages
  • need to plan for additional space between pages
• right & left side:
  • there will be some empty space both on the right and the left of the screen
  • need possibly more extensive changes to 'Notes'-code
  • for variable-pages-per-row: IF one changes the zoom-level, the number of pages that are displayed will change resulting also in a change in the position of the notes (can be distracting)

Million of other questions

Implementation: Progress/ToDo

• Evaluate OD's hack and start a first prototype (est. 1 week) DONE
• Find and resolve problems: (est. 3 weeks)
  • Root frame changes (paste page, cut page, change page format) (est. 1d) DONE
  • Resolve repaint issues of page frame (est. 1d) DONE
  • Cursor Traveling (est. 2d) DONE
  • EmptyPages (est. 1d) DONE
  • Printing (est. 1d) DONE
  • PDF export (est. 1d) DONE
  • Browse View (est. 2d) IN PROGRESS
  • examine DOCUMENTBORDER stuff in sw/source/ui (est. 3d)
  • Why is DOCUMENTBORDER in SwTabColItem? (est. 1d)
  • Object positioning (est. 3d)
  • Ruler? (est. 1d)
  • Accessibility?
  • Screen position depending fields (est. 1d)
  • Consider Max' new notes feature
  • Writer OLE objects (browse view and normal view)
  • 1.000.000 more yet unknown problems (est. 1.000.000d)
• Define new algorithm to layout pages (SPEC)
• Implement algorithm (est. 3d)