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[Dropped] LibreOffice full justification is broken

Posted: Thu Feb 22, 2024 3:18 am
by gremlinkurst
These guys evidently don't know what the entire purpose of full justification is. I opened an OpenOffice ODT document and cringed when I saw that the closed parentheses of one sentence was occupying a line all by itself at the end of a paragraph, like this:

...and then the man said, "Sorry, buddy—all sales are final.
"


What the frick? I tried to figure out how to fix it, but consarn me if I can't. LibreOffice works great with spreadsheets, but they don't know anything about formatting enriched text documents. I couldn't even figure out how to change the justification parameters; it doesn't seem very intuitive, and I've been using programs like this for nearly forty years.

Re: LibreOffice's Full Justification is Broken

Posted: Thu Feb 22, 2024 3:26 am
by robleyd
Perhaps you could upload a sample file that demonstrates the issue so someone can try and offer a solution.

Also, can you tell the version of LibreOffice that you are using?

Re: LibreOffice's Full Justification is Broken

Posted: Thu Feb 22, 2024 8:27 am
by Hagar Delest
gremlinkurst wrote: Thu Feb 22, 2024 3:18 am I couldn't even figure out how to change the justification parameters; it doesn't seem very intuitive, and I've been using programs like this for nearly forty years.
Can you give more details about that? Between MS Word (top) and Writer (bottom), there is hardly a difference:
Alignemnt.png
Alignemnt.png (4.45 KiB) Viewed 5098 times

Re: LibreOffice's Full Justification is Broken

Posted: Thu Feb 22, 2024 11:25 am
by RoryOF
Frequently a rogue linewrap such as illustrated is caused by a space inserted between the full stop and the final quote character. Without an exact sample we cannot judge for definite.

The OP says "formatting enriched text documents": better to work in an editor's native file formats. It is frequently necessary to make fine formatting adjustments on a case by case basis when changing across file formats.

Re: LibreOffice's Full Justification is Broken

Posted: Thu Feb 22, 2024 12:34 pm
by keme
Ummm ...
  • Denigrating message (twice insisting that "These guys/they [...] don't know [...]")
  • Abundance of expletives (of sorts) and other loaded language ("what the frick", "cringed", "consarn me")
  • Emphasizing own skills/experience ( "[...] I've been using programs like this for nearly forty years.")
  • Minimal supply of actual info.
I don't know about appearance or gait, but today our gremlinkurst certainly quacks like a duck troll.

FWIW, I can easily reproduce the issue. Insert a space between period and quote characters, as RoryOF mentioned. Without this space, I am unable to make the quote character "orphaned" as indicated by OP.

The way I learned formal writing, the quote should be "compact" (not including leading/trailing whitespace). If the space is - for some reason - required within the quote, you should use a non-breaking space to defeat the quote-wrap. (I recognize that there are situations where it makes sense to quote with leading/trailing whitespace.)

Re: LibreOffice's Full Justification is Broken

Posted: Thu Feb 22, 2024 3:23 pm
by Hagar Delest
Agreed. It nonetheless deserves answers at least to show those who could find this topic later that there is a lot of nonsense and facts just demonstrate that plainly.

Re: LibreOffice's Full Justification is Broken

Posted: Thu Feb 22, 2024 5:13 pm
by RoryOF
Also, if the wrapped quotation is a "leading quotation mark", then that might possibly be wrongly wrapped by OO/LO (not tried - mentioned as a possibility).

Re: LibreOffice's Full Justification is Broken

Posted: Wed Feb 28, 2024 12:44 am
by gremlinkurst
Hagar Delest wrote: Thu Feb 22, 2024 8:27 am
gremlinkurst wrote: Thu Feb 22, 2024 3:18 am I couldn't even figure out how to change the justification parameters; it doesn't seem very intuitive, and I've been using programs like this for nearly forty years.
Can you give more details about that? Between MS Word (top) and Writer (bottom), there is hardly a difference:
Alignemnt.png
I believe I've already given enough information. The close quote of a sentence should not be on a trailing line all by itself. It's clearly broken. The close quote should be either on the end of the sentence with full justification, or if it needs to wrap the last word to a final line, at the end of that final word, not standing as a single punctuation character all on its lonesome.

Re: LibreOffice's Full Justification is Broken

Posted: Wed Feb 28, 2024 3:22 am
by Bill
gremlinkurst wrote: Wed Feb 28, 2024 12:44 am I believe I've already given enough information.
The information given is only a description of the problem. That is not adequate to analyze the problem and determine if it is a bug or something in the document itself.

Re: LibreOffice's Full Justification is Broken

Posted: Wed Feb 28, 2024 9:03 am
by Hagar Delest
gremlinkurst wrote: Wed Feb 28, 2024 12:44 am I believe I've already given enough information.
I was not referring to your close quote issue (please mind the quote I used). I was referring to your broad comment about you not figuring out how to change the justification parameters. I provided a screenshot showing that it is exactly the same UI between MS Word and Writer.
So I wonder what kind of programs you have been using during those forty years. Note that there was no such control 40 years ago when WYSIWYG applications were not yet available...

Re: LibreOffice's Full Justification is Broken

Posted: Wed Feb 28, 2024 5:36 pm
by keme
gremlinkurst wrote: Wed Feb 28, 2024 12:44 am I believe I've already given enough information.
I believe you haven't, as did robleyd, it seems:
robleyd wrote: Thu Feb 22, 2024 3:26 am Perhaps you could upload a sample file that demonstrates the issue so someone can try and offer a solution.

Also, can you tell the version of LibreOffice that you are using?
After one week of not supplying the information as suggested, you proceed to tell us again how it should work. I am sad to say, but your quack is unchanged. I'm done here.