[DOCX] Looking for rules how to reposition in case of allowOverlap="false"

Tom Jebo 151 Reputation points
2020-12-11T22:24:35.643+00:00

This is a continuation of the now locked MSDN Open Specifications forum thread:
docx-looking-for-rules-how-to-reposition-in-case-of-allowoverlapquotfalsequot

The original post from that thread:
Hi all,

ISO/IEC 29500-1:2016, section 20.4.2.3, specifies for the allowOverlap attribute,
"Specifies whether a DrawingML object which intersects another DrawingML object at
display time is allowed to overlap the contents of the other DrawingML object. If a
DrawingML object cannot overlap other DrawingML object, it shall be repositioned when
displayed to prevent this overlap as needed."

But it does not specify how reposition should be done.

Do there exist some general rules in Word? Especially:
(A) Which of two overlapping objects is moved?
(B) In which direction is an object moved?
(C) Does the movement depend on writing direction?

You can use for example https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/attachment.cgi?id=162173
Why is it rendered this way?

Kind regards

Regina

Office Open Specifications
Office Open Specifications
Office: A suite of Microsoft productivity software that supports common business tasks, including word processing, email, presentations, and data management and analysis.Open Specifications: Technical documents for protocols, computer languages, standards support, and data portability. The goal with Open Specifications is to help developers open new opportunities to interoperate with Windows, SQL, Office, and SharePoint.
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  1. Tom Jebo 1,906 Reputation points Microsoft Employee
    2020-12-17T01:31:15.613+00:00

    Hi Regina,

    Some of this will be discussed by our standards representatives via defect report to the Office Open XML (ISO 29500) committee with an eye to improving the text in this area, including consideration of how this can help other standards interoperate (like ODF). You can refer to this DR here:

    https://onedrive.live.com/view.aspx?cid=c8ba0861dc5e4adc&page=view&resid=C8BA0861DC5E4ADC!1107&parId=C8BA0861DC5E4ADC!1079&app=Word

    As for a complete set of rules for this particular feature, we believe how Word chooses to layout a document given the provided inputs is an implementation detail of the client application that Word open specifications won’t be formally/publicly documenting.

    Tom

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  2. Regina Henschel 151 Reputation points
    2020-12-19T17:04:13.907+00:00

    Hi Tom,

    thank you for forwarding the problem to the Office Open XML committee. I think, Alfred Hellstern will keep me informed via ODF TC.

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