Compare applications in regard to tab, margin, border and padding

[Regina Henschel <regina.henschel@libreoffice.org>]

Hi all,

attached is the original file and a file, which contains screenshots 
from LibreOffice, TextMaker, Word, and Calligra (from top to bottom).

The test file has a page layout with two columns. The paragraphs, which 
I have tested, have border 6pt and padding 31pt (the largest values Word 
is able to use) and a tab-stop at 3.51cm. The paragraph margin of the 
upper paragraph is 0.5cm, from the lower paragraph is -0.5cm. The 
paragraphs between have standard style, which means no margin, border, 
or padding.

The screenshots are aligned to the left edge of the column content area, 
indicated by the blue line. The standard paragraphs start at this line. 
I have enabled a 5mm grid in all applications, which hopefully makes 
comparison easier.

You will notice:
Word has tab-stops absolute. But I have no clue, why it is at this 
position. All others have relative tab-stops.

LibreOffice relates the tab-stop to the right edge of the area build 
from the fo:margin-left attribute.
Calligra and TextMaker relate the tab-stop to the left edge of the 
paragraph content area (= area where the text begins).

Does there exist a definition in XSL-FO or CSS, how to calculate tab-stops?


In addition you will notice, that application differ in the way they use 
margin, border and padding. All use the left edge of the column content 
area as reference. But Word and TextMaker take the margin as distance to 
the paragraph content area. Calligra and LibreOffice uses it as distance 
to the border.

In my illustrations from the last mail, I have used LibreOffice's way, 
because I think it is correct. It corresponds to the box-model of CSS.

Kind regards
Regina

Attachment: by_LibreOffice.odt
Description: application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.text

Attachment: Screenshot_of_by_libreOffice.odg
Description: application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.graphics