It might be useful, as part of UX review, to look into the overall situation 
with regard to information that is not being shown and for which there is no 
indication where it is present.

Here are some considerations that come to mind:

Part of the issue about invisible comments has to do with determining what is 
appropriate when documents are signed.  Currently, digital signatures apply to 
all of the content, whether visible or not.  It is impractical to make it 
otherwise.  Warnings are appropriate when a signature is specified and there is 
any hidden content.  (In addition to comments, this applies to tracked changes 
and change history and alternative graphic renditions that might not be visible 
as well.  There may also be discrepancies in document properties and other 
metadata.)

Some unobtrusive indicator that there is a comment and revealing when the 
comment is included in a selection is also valuable (whether leading to a 
deletion, copying via the clip-board, or something else).  It should also be 
possible to strip comments and there might need to be finer-grain control.  
E.g., it can be useful to have a way to review comments that steps through them 
with the option of removing and/or editing them in the manner that is used for 
accepting/rejecting tracked changes.  

Finally, I am certain there are accessibility issues around this too, and some 
marker might be helpful.  Advice is needed from accessibility experts.

 - Dennis

-----Original Message-----
From: Andrea Pescetti [mailto:[email protected]] 
Sent: Saturday, December 15, 2012 08:32
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [UX]Comments visibility

On 08/12/2012 RGB ES wrote:
> Some users, mostly when reading an existing document, tend do disable the
> view of comments with View → Comments. The problem with this option is that
> comments disappear *completely*, which increase the risk of deleting a note
> by accident.

I agree this can be a usability problem.

> So I think there are two point that can be considered:
> 1- Set by default the option of viewing note anchors even when "view
> comments" is disabled.

This makes sense, but then we would have to add an option at least in 
Tools - Options - Writer - View to hide comment anchors too (and it 
would have to be active only if "Comments" in unset... not very friendly).

> 2- Make note anchor show a tooltip with the note content, the same way
> footnote anchors show footnote content when hover over it, but of course
> only when "view comment" is disable.

This would work, but the user wouldn't get rid of comments completely. 
He would still see the anchor and I don't know how annoying this would be.

Definitely a good question for UX!

Regards,
   Andrea.

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