Apache OpenOffice (AOO) Bugzilla – Issue 51215
"Space Before" not zeroized after explicit page break
Last modified: 2013-02-07 22:37:59 UTC
When a paragraph style declares a non-zero "space before" value, as for instance the built-in Heading 2 style does, that space is supposed to be suppressed when a paragraph with that style occurs as the first paragraph on a new page. This is very useful behaviour, full of Goodness: LaTeX-like, enoucrages separation of content from presentation, preserves smooth flow, ... This happens correctly when the pagebreak is 'automatic', i.e. 'internally' generated by Writer as it notes that there wouldn't be enough room for the Heading and enough Kept-Together lines of the subsequent para. However, it does *not* happen after an explicit pagebreak, inserted from the 'Insert... Manual Break' menu. This issue may be related to issues 43450, 44520, 45835, and 36916; but I don't think it's a strict duplicate. I've entered it as a PC-Windows XP issue since that's the platform I've come across it on; I'm running the most up-to-date beta, 1.9.109. I will (Issue interface permitting) attach a minimal example document illustrating the Issue.
Created attachment 27477 [details] Sample OWriter doc illustrating "space before" issue after explicit page break
This behaviour is "industry standard". All big Word processors behave like that so this must be kept for compatibility. But to have an option to turn it on/off could be a good idea...
Let's see - automatic break, no gap. Manual break - gap. If this is "industry standard" then I'd like OO.o to be "industry special" the only one that works. Here's another example. Define a Heading style with space before paragraph. Define a section with two columns. Type two headings, put a manual column break between them - the headings don't line up. This is a bug in my book. Please fix in OOo 3.0 if it isn't already. P.S. I haven't used MS Word for around 3-4 years,but if that behaves like this then it has a bug too.