Printer Independent Layout

applies to StarOffice 6.1
status: draft, last modified: 11. Mar. 2003

Version History

Thu, Mar 6, 03	FT	Falko Tesch	first draft
03/11/03	FT	Falko Tesch	Added technical issues section

Abstract

Many users complain about changing layouts of their document once these documents are printed to different printers or even on different driver versions of one and the same printer.

Even if this behaviour is technically correct (due to different printer and font metrics) it is confusing for the user. This is especially true if the number of pages increases or decreases.

To avoid such re-formatting a printer independent layout mode will be introduced.

As a side-effect we will buy in better MS Office compatibility ;o)

Contents

1 What this feature does	2

1.1 Feature Details	3

1.2 Special Cases (OLE)	4

1.3 Where to find (UI)	4

1.4 Special Testing Issue	5

2 Technical Issues	5

2.1 Printing Range	5

2.2 Paper Size	5

3 Screen Shots MockUp	6

4 String List	7

What this feature does

Switching this feature on will leave page formatting to Writer, Draw and Impress.

Calc is not affected by this spec since

Calc already has this feature and

Calc will use a different default than all other applications

Apart from Calc also Chart and Math are not affected either.

For Chart it is obvious since from 6.1 on it exists as OLE object only and therefore must inherit its layout settings form the parent document in which it is embedded.

For Math it is slightly different since Math as a standalone file format still exists. Nevertheless it is most unlikely that Math will be used this way and effort and gain would not go along.

Still Math will, once embedded as an OLE object like Chart inherit its setting from the parent document it is embedded in.

Normally Writer/Draw/Impress do “ask” the printer on how the printer measures fonts and objects Writer/Draw/Impress will than use these printer settings to position and display the fonts and objects on-screen.

Therefore the on-screen layout of the document heavily depends on the printer driver.

With this new feature Writer/Draw/Impress will not depend on any (default) printer setting to calculate font metrics, page borders and the like anymore and will display any document on-screen with a unified layout, no matter what printer (driver) is used.

Printing area:

Writer/Draw/Impress will determine the metrics that are provided with the used font(s) and will use a standard printable area (which of course can still be change via “Format - Page -Setup”).

Advantage

There will be no visible nor technical difference when printed or opened on any printer.

Disadvantage

Since Writer/Draw/Impress will format the document itself w/o using any external metrics (such as from printers) it might happen that placing of characters might look a bit odd.

This is due to the fact that instead of placing the characters according to what the printer (driver) tells Writer/Draw/Impress they now basically tell the printer where to place every single character.

Feature Details

Default Action

This feature will be an additional flag within the Writer/Draw/Impress document format. It will not replace the information about the used printer but will override this setting if active.

If this flag is active printer metrics will NOT be used (OFF)

If this flag is in-active printer metrics will be used (ON).

Default is ON for all documents based on 6.x file format, thus all new 6.x Writer/Draw/Impress documents will use this new setting set to active.

Default is ON for all documents prior to 6.1 that do not contain the new flag “Use printer metrics” stated otherwise (Note: This applies only to 6.0 documents that have been saved with printer metrics off in 6.1 before).

For the default behaviour please see Table 1 (given no user action is taken).

Default behaviour in StarOffice/StarSuite 6.1 or higher
Source file format	Default status of “use printer metrics” flag when opened	Save status of “use printer metrics” flag	View status in versions prior to 6.1 (Printer metrics are:)
New Writer/Draw/Impress 6.1(or above) document	OFF	OFF	ON (but flag's status stays untouched!)
Open a Writer/Draw/Impress 6.0 only document	No flag set (=ON)	ON	ON (but flag's status stays untouched!)
Open a Writer/Draw/Impress 6.0 only document	ON	ON	ON (but flag's status stays untouched!)
Open a Writer/Draw/Impress 6.0 only document	OFF	OFF	ON (but flag's status stays untouched!)
Open a Writer/Draw/Impress 5.2 (or prior) document	No flag set (=ON)	No flag set (=ON)	No flag set (=ON)

Table 1 Matrix #1

User Action

The above describes how the default behaviour of StarOffice/StarSuite 6.1 works but still the user has the possibility to manually change the setting of a single document.

Special Cases (OLE)

While Chart and Math do not contain any settings and therefore behave weak (see also What this feature does) any Calc, Writer, Impress and Draw has to maintain its own settings.

In other words:

If embedding an existing Chart or Math object it will use the setting of the document is is embedded in.

If embedding a Chart or Math object by creating it it will use the setting of the document it will be embedded in.

If embedding an exisiting Calc, Writer, Impress or Draw object it will use the setting in that it is saved and will ignore the setting of the document it is embedded in.

If embedding a Calc, Writer, Impress or Draw by creating it it will use the setting of the document it will be embedded in.

Where to find (UI)

Since this feature is set independently for every document and application the appropriate places are:

“Tools - Options - Text Document – General”, “Compatibility” (see Figure 1).

“Tools - Options - Drawing – General”, “Compatibility” (see Figure 2).

“Tools - Options - Presentation – General”, “Compatibility” (see Figure 3).

Since these settings as well as all other within their sections are (opposed to others) document-specific and their status will toggle with the current active document window the string “(document specific settings)” has been added to “Compatibility”.

UI Behavior

Like the existing three other settings “Use printer metrics to layout document” is toggled by the current open document (window).

Open document type...	(Default) Status
Writer/Draw/Impress 1.0 – 5.2	ON
Writer/Draw/Impress 6.0 -6.x	OFF / ON (depends on setting)
MS Word for Windows 2.0	ON
MS Word 6.0/95 (Asian versions)	ON
MS Word 97 and above (incl. Asian versions and Macintosh)	OFF / ON (depends on setting)
MS Word for Mac 5.x	OFF

Table 2 Matrix #2

Special Testing Issue

Note: This issue addresses QA!

Since there is the possibility of losing printout quality with this new default QA should do a thorough test of various (see below) document types on at least 2 or 3 different Laser printers (incl. PostScript ones) and 2 or 3 different Inkjet printers.

The following document types should be covered by this test:

A Western style document with 20+ pages and a lot of different objects as contents

Like above but for CJK

Like above but for CTL

A mixed script document (CJK, CTL)

This test is very important because we cannot project possible quality printing losses in advance and it is not desirable to exchange a better document portability with a bad printout!

Technical Issues

The virtual printing device needs default parameters to format new pages.

The needed parameters are:

Printing range

Paper size

This chapter will describe how these defaults are determined.

Printing Range

If a printer is connected to the system StarOffice/StarSuite runs on we will collect the printable area data from this default printer and will also use these settings for the virtual printing device.

In case of no printer connected (example notebooks) we will use a “common sense” area already used before when having no printer to read out:

Top/bottom: 1 inch or 2 cm; left/right: 1.25 inch or 2 cm

Paper Size

If a printer is connected to the system StarOffice/StarSuite runs on we will collect the paper size (Letter, A4 etc.) data from this default printer and will also use these settings for the virtual printing device.

In case of no printer connected (example notebooks) we will use a “common sense” paper size already used before when having no printer to read out:

for all countries with a metric system we will use A4 as default, for all Imperial systems we will use Letter.

This behaviour is compliant to what we've done so far in earlier version but will supply a lot of countries like Korea, China (16 kai), Japan (B4 JIS) with the wrong standard.

Since this is not favourable especially in East-Asian countries but is not do-able within 6.1 time-frame (source: Frank Meies) I proose to do the following for 6.y instead:

THIS IS A 6.y TASK!

Establish a table with all supported locales and their standard document formats. If no printer is found then use the appropriate paper size for the set locale in StarOffice/StarSuite.

Screen Shots MockUp

Figure 1 Options - Text Document - General

Figure 2 Options -Drawing -General

Figure 3 Options - Impress - General

String List

String	German translation	comment
Compatibility (document specific settings)	Kompatibilität (dokument-spezifische Einstellungen)	Options - Text Document -General
Us~e printer metrics for document settings	Druckermaße für Dokumentformatierung verwenden	Options - Text Document -General
Compatibility (document specific settings)	Kompatibilität (dokument-spezifische Einstellungen)	Options - Presentation -General
Us~e printer metrics for document settings	Druckermaße für Dokumentformatierung verwenden	Options – Presentation -General
Compatibility (document specific settings)	Kompatibilität (dokument-spezifische Einstellungen)	Options - Drawing -General
Us~e printer metrics for document settings	Druckermaße für Dokumentformatierung verwenden	Options - Drawing -General

Printer Independent Layout	8

8	Printer Independent Layout

Sun Proprietary/Confidential: Internal Use Only

Printer Independent Layout

Falko Tesch

2003-03-06T09:47:48