Apache OpenOffice (AOO) Bugzilla – Issue 50050
Add user option to turn off backspace removal of paragraph indentation
Last modified: 2013-02-07 22:43:33 UTC
Hitting backspace at the start of a paragraph with indentation removes the indent. Issue 46727 reports this as a bug, and has been closed with the comment that this is a feature desired by users. However, some users consider this feature counter-intuitive and confusing. I think that users who are familiar with paragraph formatting and the use of stylesheets know to set indents in the paragraph options, and would expect backspace at the start of a paragraph to simply remove the paragraph break above and merge the current paragraph with the previous one. It would be nice to have a user-set option to switch this behaviour off, perhaps in the Tools -> AutoCorrect -> Options tab. There is also a bug in the feature as it stands, whereby formatting is removed from both the current paragraph and the one above: see the Wed Apr 6 2005 comment on Issue 46727.
Reassigned to requirements.
A nice bonus feature would be for the help lighbulb to appear the first time the user removes an indent with backspace, to give them the opportunity to change the behaviour.
If there's any way to switch this off, I would love that. I had assumed that this must be a bug, but was informed it was a feature. Hitting backspace should only delete characters, not reformat the paragraph above. It can get very frustrating in day to day usage to constantly have to go back to the Format: Paragraph: First Line settings, and reset it every time you hit backspace to merge your paragraph with the one above. If it is a feature and not a bug: I can't imagine so many people would need this "shortcut" that it would be mapped to something as simple as the backspace key. Deleting characters is simply that: deleting characters. If anything, the below paragraph should inherit the above paragraph's settings, because what you're really doing, when you do that, is making the thing below a part of the thing above.
Anyone frustrated by this issue should use Control Backspace to remove the paragraph break. Then the formatting of the previous paragraph is retained. Although many users may find the current behaviour counter-intuitive, it is actually useful to many users, and it is not difficult to adjust to unless you use Word most of the time and OpenOffice only occasionally. Regular or exclusive users of OpenOffice would not regard this as a significant problem at all. This option should probably be added to Options, OpenOffice.org Writer, Compatibility.
PLEASE, PLEASE add an option to disable backspace-removes-indent. This is REALLY important. This was a bad feature when Microsoft introduced it, and is still a bad feature. It may be useful to amateurs, but any serious writer who understands the proper use of style sheets knew to disable it in MS Word. The fact that it can't be disabled in OO is a HUGE productivity problem. This is the single biggest problem that I have with OO.
I agree with the others. Please fix this. This "feature" is infuriating for people who understand how the ruler works. If I've set a block of text to have a particular indentation, why on Earth would I want the backspace key to change the indentation. Microsoft Word has an option to disable this feature, and OOo ought to as well.
Created attachment 72569