Apologies for attachment deletion...

[Bryce L Nordgren <bnordgren@fs.fed.us>]

Ok, attachments don't work.  I'll copy/paste it straight into email, then.
Hopefully the conversion to text is "kind". :)



                 Issues surrounding OpenDocument Sections



Current State

This section describes the notion of a text section which is current as of
OpenDocument v1.1



Stated Purpose of Sections

A  text section is a named region of paragraph-level text content. Sections
start  and  end  on  paragraph  boundaries  and  can  contain any number of
paragraphs.

Sections  have  two  uses  in  the OpenDocument format: They can be used to
assign  certain formatting properties to a region of text. They can also be
used  to  group text that is automatically acquired from some external data
source.

In addition to Sections can contain regular text content or the text can be
contained  in  another file and linked to the section. Sections can also be
write-protected or hidden.

      --OpenDocument Format Specification v1.1, Section 4.4



Current Section Schema Definition

From the OpenDocument Format Specification, v1.1, Section 4.4

<define name="text-section">
    <element name="text:section">
       <ref name="text-section-attr"/>
       <choice>
           <ref name="text-section-source"/>
           <ref name="text-section-source-dde"/>
           <empty/>
       </choice>
       <zeroOrMore>
           <ref name="text-content"/>
       </zeroOrMore>
    </element>
</define>


Concerns/Ambiguities

●  The plain-language stated purpose(es) of the text section is paragraph
   centric: the implication being that sections may not be nested.  Yet a
   section may contain zero or more “text-content” elements (other
   sections, paragraphs, tables, images, etc.), according to the relaxNG
   schema.

●  The RelaxNG schema permits a heirarchy of named sections in a document.
   Each section may contain numbered heading levels.  Yet all numbered
   heading levels are treated as if they were specified relative to the top
   level.

●  Linked sections must be contained within complete, stand-alone office
   documents, where both the linked and linking documents contain a
   complete set of style definitions.

   ○  No conflict resolution behavior is specified if the style definitions
      differ from “master” to “component”.

   ○  No conflict resolution behavior is specified for the case where one
      “master” links sections from multiple source documents with
      conflicting style definitions.



Desired New Features

●  Define conflict resolution rules for styles shared between one or more
   linked documents and a master document.

●  OpenDocument format does not currently facilitate separation of styles.
   One primary use case for the Global Text Document is to re-use text in
   multiple documents.  The “Master” document should be able to override
   style definitions in the “component”.  This would allow two master
   documents to share the same section, yet format it completely
   differently.  This could be accomplished by including a style  “lookup
   table” as part of the linked section definition.  It could also be
   accomplished by specifying that styles in the master document override
   styles in the component document.

●  Create a new sub-document format: the “Stand-Alone-Section”.  This
   format:

   ○  Would have a root XML element containing only one or more
      <text:section> elements.

      ■  ...and therefore would not contain style definitions

      ■  ...and would therefore require that the “master” document contain
         definitions for any style it references...

   ○  Would be a legal target for linked sections.

   ○  When linked to a master document, could be included as-is into the
      “packaged Jar file”.

   ○  Would facilitate topic-oriented authoring (e.g., much finer-grained
      files.)

   ○  Would facilitate introducing document content into any standard
      version control system which handles text files (CVS, Subversion,
      etc.), enhancing opportunities for collaborative/distributed
      authoring.

●  Define new behavior for text:outline-level such that it is relative to
   the base level of the containing section.  This allows the outline level
   to automatically adjust to its linked position in any master document.
   This requires:

   ○  A new, optional attribute for sections, which defines the base level
      (i.e., text:base-outline-level)

   ○  This new attribute is itself relative to the text:base-outline-level
      of the immediate parent section in a section heirarchy.

   ○  If unspecified, the text:base-outline-level shall add one level to
      the base level value of the immediate parent section in a section
      heirarchy.  If the section is not contained within another section
      and text:base-outline-level is not specified, it shall be taken to be
      1.

   ○  text:outline-level shall behave as follows:

      ■  If the element is not contained within a section, no adjustment
         shall be made to the value.

      ■  If the element is contained within a section, the value shall be
         “adjusted” such that:

         ●  all outline levels within the section are “promoted” by the
            same number of levels.

         ●  outline level “1” is promoted to the value of the containing
            section's text:base-outline-level.