Re: Perplexing problems

From: John Selby (a.selby@paradise.net.nz)
Date: Tue Mar 12 2002 - 07:35:54 GMT

  • Next message: F J Franklin: "Re: Perplexing problems"

    At 12:38 PM 12-3-2002 +1100, you wrote:
    >I've just got Abiword 0.99 going but it has some distressing problems:
    >
    Snip ..
    >3. It won't let me >change my default margins-- when I try to do this it
    says "margins too
    >big for page" (or similar)
    >
    >--
    >God bless you,

    >Keith Bates
    >4 Mooloobar St
    >Narrabri NSW 2390

    Keith,

    Re your point 3. - "margins too big" error message.
    I filed a bug report about this (see bug 2797), then learned from feedback
    that it's not strictly a bug.
    I had inadvertently set a combination of margins and header/footer
    dimensions that were "illegal" so I had committed a user error.

    I have since modified my comments in the bug report because I feel the way
    Abiword deals with this is unfriendly. I have suggested that when a user
    tries to set margins that go outside the permissible boundaries, Abiword
    should simply move the dimensions to the boundaries and go no further,
    rather than produce an unfriendly error message and refuse to make any
    change. (eg if you try to reduce top margin from 2.5 cm to 1.5 cm, and the
    premissible boundary in the circumstances is 1.8 cm, then Abiword could just
    reduce the top margin as far as it can go - to 1.8 cm in this case).

    The error message "margins too big" can be misleading. In my case the way
    to fix my problem was to actually *increase* the top margin

    Anyway, to fix your problem, try setting margins that will obviously work
    (eg 2.5 cm all round, [or 1 inch if you like], with header and footer of say
    1 cm), then progressively adjust the margins closer to what you want until
    you get an error message. You have then run up against the boundary set by
    the programmers for that particular set of circumstances.

    As a point of interest you can use the on-screen handles at the side and top
    of the page to adjust the top and bottom margins, and the header margin etc
    without running into the error message even if you go outside the
    permissible boundaries. This is how I initially found myself with a
    page-setup margin dialogue box that would do nothing but produce error messages.

    You might like to read the bug report (2797) at bugzilla, add your own
    comments and vote on it if you think it is important.

    Cheers, John Selby.
    __________________

    John Selby

    selby@paradise.net.nz
    __________________



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