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Subject: Office requirements -- Text case attributes
I suggest that ODF Next include text case attributes and a preserve-text-case attribute. Text case is currently handled exclusively at the application level in ODF implementations by keyboard editing and case conversion routines. Automated conversion of multiple text strings to date has required manual labor or scripts, a sub-optimal solution in a variety of situations involving use of styles. The approach would also require a preserve-case attribute for text whose case shall be preserved when case attributes are applied to surrounding text strings, e.g., for acronyms that must remain in All Caps and for strings that need a combination of different cases, e.g., "eMAIL" or "DoJ" (Dept. of Justice). I suggest the following case attributes for the English language: -- lower case; -- upper case (all caps); -- initial caps (first letters of words capitalized other than prepositions, conjunctions, etc.); and -- sentence case (capitalization as required for a nomal sentence). USE CASE -- TABLE OF CONTENTS GENERATION A user creates a complex word processing document with multiple headings in styles that set the case attribute to All Caps. When the user generates a table of contents, the headings' case is converted as configured by TOC styles containing case attributes to either Initial Caps or Sentence case. USE CASE -- DOCUMENT TITLE A law firm uses document templates to generate motions and briefs for court filings. The templates contain table cells in the case caption, the document footer, and in the certificate of service that echo the document title using a table formula. In the caption, the document title appears in upper case. In the footer, the document title is set in Caps and Small Caps using Initial Caps case. In the certificate of service, the document title appears in Initial Caps without the small caps attribute. DISCUSSION Automated re-purposing of word processor document content has been hampered by the lack of case attributes for use in styles, resulting in a need for manual processing of relevant document portions using case conversion routines, either alone or via custom scripts applied to style content. Cascading properties could be added to the preserve-case attribute adding case context sensitivity, e.g., do not convert DoJ to all lower case when the lower case attribute is applied to the style; convert DoJ to all upper case when the All Caps attribute is applied. At the implementation level, the preserve-case attribute might be integrated with the spell-checker's word list acronym entries (defined as consecutive capitalized characters either standing alone or separated only by periods). Likewise, spell-checker dialogs might be modified to provide actions for setting preserve-case properties and wrapping terms in the preserve-case attribute using a word list/text case attribute record maintained separately from the spell-checker word list. Similarly, with a separately-maintained word list/preserve text attribute records, the preserve-case attribute and its properties could be applied automatically to text as it is created using algorithms similar to those such as Spell As You Go word processing features, automatically applying text case attributes and properties without user intervention. Using text case attributes and properties, with or without styles, also allows a document author to preserve machine-processable instructions for text case when content is recycled by others or by automated processes, allowing the author most familiar with the the document and its content subject matter to pass on garnered wisdom as to proper case processing of text. This suggestion if implemented would not eliminate the need for user case conversion actions. E.g., many users want nothing to do with styles. But it would definitely boost productivity for many who have embraced structured documents. Best regards, Paul E. (Marbux) Merrell, J.D -- Universal Interoperability Council <http:www.universal-interop-council.org>
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