Subject: Re: The New Styles
From: Randy Kramer (rhkramer@fast.net)
Date: Wed Mar 14 2001 - 14:47:54 CST
After partially writing this, I realized that what Jamie proposed does
not prevent a new template from being applied -- -- my guess is that,
when a new template is applied, the internally stored styles are
replaced by styles (with the same names) from the newly applied
template.
Now that I realize that, there is probably no reason to send this to the
list, except that I'd like to make it sort of a "memo to file"
reminder. So, should I send it to the list (so it is archived) or try
to save it in my completely uncluttered local workspace(s)? ;-)
I think I'll send it to the list, and see how many people complain.
Randy
James Montgomerie wrote:
> Yes. Good point. Why doesn't AbiWord save the styles in the document?
>
> I propose [yet another] way to solve the problem:
>
> Use the 'new' styles [without the line space] by default.
>
> Save styles in the document.
>
> Use the 'old' styles if there are no styles saved in a document
> being loaded, to suppport legacy documents with no formatting changes.
>
> How hard would this be to implement?
>
> Jamie.
<rant>
I hated it when Word made this change (between Word 95 and Word 97). In
versions prior to Word 97, a separate stylesheet contained the styles.
If multiple documents all referred to the same stylesheet, they all used
the same styles. Similarly, at the same time, Word started storing
images in the files by default. Letters with a simple graphic
letterhead (about 2k) exploded from reasonable sizes (5k per page?? -- I
don't really remember anymore) to outrageous sizes (80k per page was
typical, 250k per page was not unusual). (The above two factors were
not the only reason for the increase, and sometimes the ballooning just
kept compounding for some reason I did not recognize at the time --
looking back, that was before I realized that fast saves existed -- they
were probably a significant cause of the continued ballooning.)
</rant>
<nope, ignore this, although it might be something I reconsider
someday> Anyway, I'd like to request that an option be maintained to
refer to an external stylesheet (or template) instead of storing the
styles within the document.
There is a second reason that is less ranty. If you have multiple
documents (including master/sub documents) it is easier to maintain the
same style in each (if that's what you want to do) if they are all based
on an external stylesheet or template. By making changes to the styles
in the external template, all documents based on that template change
their appearance. Word 97 still allows that, so I don't know how to
describe the interaction between that external template and styles
stored internally -- my guess is that, when a new template is applied,
the internally stored styles are replaced by the styles (with the same
names) from the new template.
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