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Subject: Re: [office-comment] ODF-Next -- Text Case Attributes, Please
Paul, unless I have misunderstood your description, ODF's already existing fo:text-transform attribute seems to be what you are looking for. Michael On 07/02/09 14:33, marbux wrote: > Use Case 1 > > A user creates a lengthy document in outline format, marking section > headings to be included in the table of contents. The user creates a > style that marks headings with text attributes to appear in all caps > case in the body of the document. The user creates a table of contents > entry style that applies initial caps case to the same heading titles > when they are copied to the table of contents. > > Use Case 2 > > Law office staff create a document to be filed with the court. The > document title appears in three places. The document title is embedded > in a style. In the case caption of the document, staff wrap the title > style in All Caps attributes. In the footer, staff wrap the title > style in Initial Caps and Small Caps attributes. In the Certificate of > Service, staff wraps the style in Initial Caps and Boldface > attributes. > > Use Case 3 > > Same as Use Case 1 and Use Case 2 except that the headings and > document title contain acronyms which must remain in all caps case and > proper nouns whose first characters must remain capitalized despite > case attributes otherwise applied to the entirety of the strings. The > user applies a "Keep Caps" attribute to the acronyms and proper noun > initial characters that prevent them from being rendered in other than > All Caps case. > > Discussion > > The absence of text case attributes in word processing formats has > been a pain in users' backsides for a very long time. Major word > processors provide tools for converting case but do not provide the > means of converting case in real time through the use of case > attributes. > > The result is that users are routinely required: [i] to enter the same > text repeatedly using different cases rather than parking repetitive > text in styles that would reduce the potential for inconsistent > occurrences of what should be the same string; [ii] to manually review > and convert case in tables of contents with every successive draft > that must undergo review, correcting case errors created by the case > conversion routines; [iii] to forego the potential advantage of styles > that could be wrapped in case attributes; [iv] to forego using text > case sensibly, e.g., by producing tables of contents in butt-ugly All > Caps case; and most seriously [iv] to waste valuable time with > repetitive tasks that could be eliminated through automation using > case attributes. > > For example, a skilled word processor user could easily build a > vocabulary of commonly-used acronyms and proper nouns marked up with > the Keep Caps attribute and stored in the word processor's automatic > abbreviation expansion system. Likewise, proper nouns that appear in a > spellchecker's word list could have the Keep Caps attribute > automatically applied to their first character. Software routines that > automatically extract from documents copies of strings marked with > Keep Caps attributes could be developed that automatically store such > strings in the abbreviation expansion tool's data store. > > As a retired member of the legal profession, I cannot tell you how > many hours of my career were spent coping with such text case issues. > But it was surely in the high hundreds if not thousands of hours. And > of course the legal profession is not the only profession that must > routinely produce documents with tables of contents. Multiply that > productivity hit times the number of users with similar experience and > it's an area where a more automated approach is long overdue. > > Best regards, > > Paul E. Merrell, J.D. (Marbux) > -- Michael Brauer, Technical Architect Software Engineering StarOffice/OpenOffice.org Sun Microsystems GmbH Nagelsweg 55 D-20097 Hamburg, Germany michael.brauer@sun.com http://sun.com/staroffice +49 40 23646 500 http://blogs.sun.com/GullFOSS Sitz der Gesellschaft: Sun Microsystems GmbH, Sonnenallee 1, D-85551 Kirchheim-Heimstetten Amtsgericht Muenchen: HRB 161028 Geschaeftsfuehrer: Thomas Schroeder, Wolfgang Engels, Wolf Frenkel Vorsitzender des Aufsichtsrates: Martin Haering
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