fo::margin-left

[Patrick Durusau <patrick@durusau.net>]

Greetings!

In a recent post Oliver pointed out:

> - fo:margin-left
> Usage of fo:margin-left in element <style:list-level-label-alignment> is
> a formatting property - namely a formatting property for list elements.
> Thus, 18.244 should be integrated into 19.199.
> Note for Patrick: Please keep in mind my proposed change for
> fo:margin-left, which I have posted to the TC's mailing list -
> http://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/office/200812/msg00018.html 
In his earlier message, Oliver had proposed (in part):

I have spent more than an hour trying to puzzle this one out and I may 
just be missing something simple.

First, Oliver suggests moving the following paragraphs from 
fo:margin-left to <style:list-level-label-alignment>:
>
> This attribute is ignored if a paragraph inside a list item already 
> has this attribute.
>
> The |fo:text-indent| and |fo:margin-left| attributes specify the 
> indent and margin for the text lines of the list item, but also the 
> alignment position for the list label. The value |fo:margin-left| + 
> |fo:text-indent| specifies the indent of the first text line of the 
> list item. This position is also the alignment position for the list 
> label, because the value of |text:min-label-width| is treated as 0.
>
First problem: The 2nd paragraph, starting with: "This attribute is 
ignored...." makes no sense as written. A paragraph cannot ever have the 
attribute fo:margin-left. The fo:margin-left attribute appears only on 
<style:*-properties> elements.

It may mean when a paragraph inside a list item has a list style applied 
to it but it doesn't say that. Should it?

Second, I am not sure why I would single out these attributes for 
discussion under <style:list-level-label-alignment>?

For example, some of the new text suggested by Oliver:

> If property text:list-level-position-and-space-mode equals 
> "label-width-and-position", property fo:text-align specifies the 
> horizontal alignment of the list label within the width specified by 
> the text:min-label-width attribute.
>
> If property text:list-level-position-and-space-mode equals 
> "label-alignment", value of property text:min-label-width is treated 
> as 0 and thus fo:text-align specifies the horizontal alignment of the 
> list label at the alignment position. The alignment position in with 
> case is given by properties fo:margin-left and fo:text-indent of sub 
> element <style:list-level-label-alignment> - see [reference to
> <style:list-level-label-alignment]. The alignment of the list label 
> according to the fo:text-align value are:
> - center: The center of the list label is positioned at the alignment 
> position.
> - left: The list label starts at the alignment position.
> - right: The list label ends at the alignment position.
>

Already appears at: fo:text-align:

> For paragraphs in a list, the values of the |fo:text-align| attribute 
> are interpreted as positioning their labels as follows:
>
>    *
>
>       |center||: |The center of the list label is positioned at the
>       alignment position.
>
>    *
>
>       |left|: The list label starts at the alignment position.
>
>    *
>
>       |right|: The list label ends at the alignment position.
>
> Within the |<style:list-level-properties>| element, this attribute 
> specifies the horizontal alignment of a label (number) within the 
> width specified by the |text:min-label-width| attribute.
>
and,

at 19.419 text:list-level-position-and-space-mode:

> The |text:list-level-position-and-space-mode| attribute specifies how 
> the position and spacing of the list labels (numbers or bullets) is 
> defined. The attribute may have the following values:
>
>    *
>
>       |label-alignment|: The |<style:list-level-label-alignment>|
>       element and the |fo:text-align| attribute are used to define the
>       position and spacing of the list label and the list item. The
>       values of the attributes for |text:space-before|,
>       |text:min-label-width| and |text:min-label-distance| are assumed
>       to be |0|.
>
>    *
>
>       |label-width-and-position|: The |text:space-before|,
>       |text:min-label-width|, |text:minimum-label-distance| and
>       |fo:text-align| attributes are used to define the position and
>       spacing of the list label and the list item.
>
> If |text:list-level-position-and-space-mode| attribute is missing, 
> which holds for documents conforming to previous OpenDocument 
> versions, its value is assumed to be |label-width-and-position|.
>
(If you check the latest draft against the text I quote above, you will 
find they are different. I copied these passages from the latest 
editorial draft. For this particular part of the text, the changes were 
purely editorial. Just to same anyone the time reporting that they are 
different.)

It maybe that I am simply too tired for it all to "click" but it seems 
to me inconsistent to discuss the behavior of some attributes when 
defining the attributes and others when we are talking about the 
elements on which they appear. Perhaps that is what I am finding 
confusing. I expect to go from the element to its attributes and should 
the attribute have some special behavior due to the presence or absence 
of another attribute (or some specific value of another attribute) that 
will be recorded at the attribute in question.

Apologies if this one is confusing. I have been trying to match up what 
was said in the prior comments with the text of the draft for a couple 
of hours. I am going to leave it for now and see if it seems clearer 
tomorrow. ;-)

Hope everyone is having a great day!

Patrick

-- 
Patrick Durusau
patrick@durusau.net
Chair, V1 - US TAG to JTC 1/SC 34
Convener, JTC 1/SC 34/WG 3 (Topic Maps)
Editor, OpenDocument Format TC (OASIS), Project Editor ISO/IEC 26300
Co-Editor, ISO/IEC 13250-1, 13250-5 (Topic Maps)