Developing custom field/variable for LibreOffice

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I'm interesting in developing a custom object/field/variable thingy for LibreOffice writer and need pointing in the right direction.

Goal: Insert a mark within the document to display information about that mark's position within the document. When creating a novel/play/script the positions of events within the story are important.

Question: Is the best way to accomplish this a "field", a "variable", "extension", or something else? The terminology is still unclear to me. Searching for something you can't name is difficult ;)

Requirements:

  • Optionally unprintable when the document is printed/exported.
  • A tool tip or visible text shows position with the file
  • Optional user input to name the mark
  • Optionally use it as a bookmark or hyperlink for navigation

I'm comfortable developing in C++, java, python, or whatever but have no LibreOffice development experience. Where do I start?

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Steven Shelton On

This sounds like a good use for a "comment". I use this feature quite a bit when working on manuscripts (for where characters are, what date/day of the week it now is, and so on). Comments can be printed, or you can choose not to print them.

As someone involved in theatre, from a writing, directing, and acting standpoint, I can see how this could be extremely useful. In fact, I have an idea for a piece of software dedicated to creating/adjusting blocking in this exact manner, but--alas!--I have only rudimentary programming skills and insufficient time to learn what I would need to know and actually code it.