https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=147326
Bug ID: 147326
Summary: UI: "augmented reality" hovering mode
Product: LibreOffice
Version: unspecified
Hardware: All
OS: All
Status: UNCONFIRMED
Severity: enhancement
Priority: medium
Component: Calc
Assignee: [email protected]
Reporter: [email protected]
Some imagination required.
Augmented reality tools overlay images of the real world with information,
without modifying or touching the real world. The analogy in the spreadsheet
world is ability to see things in your spreadsheet without touching it.
The mechanism of seeing without touching is pointer hovering. I suggest that
this is a browsing/authoring activity but I will not dictate how users decide
to use this mode, if at all, once they get their hands on it. It's a UI
experiment, one which is feasible if it can be hacked together with a modest
coding effort. As an experiment, this specification can be changed to suite the
implementer's preference. I present it as 4 modifications to be done in order,
but modification 3 could be done anytime before modification 4.
Modification 1: Implement hovering mode. For the purpose of UI evaluation this
need not be a user-selectable UI option. This change set is sufficient for
illustrating basic operation of hovering mode.
Let the selected cell range before hovering mode be called the primary
selection, and the single cell under the pointer in hovering mode be called the
secondary selection.
Entering hovering mode. A toolbar item or menu item activates hovering mode.
Hovering mode is not available while in cell edit mode.
Effects:
- store the current worksheet "savability" state to a temporary variable.
- disable saving the worksheet; hovering mode is not a persistent worksheet
state.
- store the current worksheet protection state to a temporary variable.
- turn on worksheet protection without password if not already active,
bypassing the protection dialog. This prevents inadvertent changes while in
hovering mode.
- store the primary selection to a temporary variable.
Leaving hovering mode. Any mouse click or keypress leaves hovering mode.
Effects: undo the operations of entering hovering mode.
- restore the primary selection from the temporary variable.
- restore worksheet protection state from the temporary variable.
- restore the "savability" state of the worksheet from the temporary variable.
During hovering mode.
The secondary becomes the current cell selection. Only one cell is selected,
not a larger range. The cell selection tracks the pointer movement. The formula
of whichever cell is under the pointer shows up in the input line. Do not
display the formula in the cell itself.
Modification 2: Left-clicking a cell stores the secondary selection into the
temporary variable, replacing the stored primary selection, before processing
the leaving code of modification 1. The net effect of modification 1 and
modification 2 is the same as clicking on another cell while not in cell edit
mode and not in hover mode, but letting you see cell formulas as the pointer
passes over cells. Leaving by another method results in the effects of
modification 1 (no net change). Alternatively, right-click could be processed
as a left-click followed immediately by adding the right click event to the
head of the event queue. This allows the right click to immediately raise a
context menu on the cell under the pointer while leaving hover mode.
Modification 3: Colour formulas in the input line the same as you see in a cell
while in F2 cell formula editing mode (whether or not you are in cell editing
mode). This change alone is worthy of an independent enhancement request, which
this request then depends upon for modification 4.
Modification 4: In hovering mode, display all the ranges comprising the formula
in the input line, the same way as you see ranges outlined in colours when you
are in F2 cell editing mode. But do not not display the formula in the cell
under the pointer. The effect adding modification 4 to hovering mode is a rapid
way scan to around a spreadsheet and see the layout of the formulas.
And it would just look awesome as you move the mouse around in hovering mode on
a worksheet with complicated formulas, like computer blinkenlights.
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