Re: [Libreoffice-ux-advise] Should formatting apply to word at cursor position or only characters typed after formatting was invoked

2012-12-09 Thread Daniel Mania
Great to see that this will change in the future! Many biologists and 
chemists will be happy about this :-)
I also wouldn't mind having it as an option, although that might clutter 
up the options dialog. But there is still the possibility to have an 
Advanced options tab for experienced users ...


On 8.12.2012 21:06, Jean-Francois Nifenecker wrote:

Le 08/12/2012 20:28, Mirek M. a écrit :


We've discused this on today's design IRC meeting, and we agreed that,
when within a word, subscript and superscript should not apply to the
whole word, but other formatting commands should, as it's usual for a
user to want to italicize or underline a whole word, but uncommon for a
whole word to be a subscript or a superscript.



Would this subscript/superscript behaviour be optional?
I've seen technical docs using superscript for whole words.


___
Libreoffice-ux-advise mailing list
Libreoffice-ux-advise@lists.freedesktop.org
http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/libreoffice-ux-advise


[Libreoffice-ux-advise] Should formatting apply to word at cursor position or only characters typed after formatting was invoked

2012-12-07 Thread Daniel Mania

Hei everyone!

A while ago I filed a bug report and I had to realize that I am looking 
at a design choice here.

https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=46517

Basically, when the cursor resides in a word (after first or in front of 
the last character of the word), all formats apply to the whole word. I 
never realized this, until I started using subscript and superscript a 
lot in my writing (for chemical names like CO2).


Is it feasible to change this behavior to formats only being applied to 
newly typed characters?
It seems strange to me, that the whole word is affected, since it is 
something from the past, in contrast to typing new characters in the 
future after invoking formatting (like super-/subscript).
If a whole word has to be formatted, it can easily be marked by double 
clicking it. This also makes more sense to me, since I thereby actively 
tell LibreOffice, that I want the whole word to be affected.
For clarification, I am arguing for the logic behind the formatting 
behavior, not for a reduction in mouse clicks to perform a certain task.


This also seems to be the default behavior in MS Office 2010. Only newly 
typed characters are affected by formatting in Word and Excel.
(And yes, I deserve a beating for using MS Office in my favor, even 
though I shout out my animosity against it whenever I can ;-)


Greetings,
Daniel M
___
Libreoffice-ux-advise mailing list
Libreoffice-ux-advise@lists.freedesktop.org
http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/libreoffice-ux-advise


Re: [Libreoffice-ux-advise] simplifying the border width settings

2012-11-20 Thread Daniel Mania

 Michael
are you seriously trying to say that you think that the current border
UI ... is clean or intuitive for the user and we shouldn't think
about improving that ?


No sorry, that should be changed. And I agree that it is a good idea to 
make things look similar to MSO, _if_ it has to be re-worked anyways 
_and_ the MSO version looks alright.
Personally, I never figured out these double line styles anyways. I 
always assumed that double line styles should be proportional. E.g. 60 
% black, 20 % white, 20 % black, instead of 2 pt black, X pt white, 1 
pt black, with X being width - 3 pt.
But I don't like to be restricted as in MSO and not being able to set 
the line width myself. If the double line styles were proportional and 
the line width could be given in the unit, that was set in options (e.g. 
cm or mm instead of pt), I would be happier than with what MSO has to 
offer. I'd even like to have customizable line styles, where I can set 
the percentages (double lines, dotted lines) myself, but that's 
daydreaming ...




Cedric
Mostly because users wants their documents to render the same way in
all office suites. It's hard and when we already have things to get
some bits working, it wouldn't make sense to destroy it completely.


Well, right now, more complicated documents don't render at all. 
Couldn't we have the simple line styles from MSO and make them 
selectable as easily as in MSO, but still let people the freedom to 
customize them?


Daniel
___
Libreoffice-ux-advise mailing list
Libreoffice-ux-advise@lists.freedesktop.org
http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/libreoffice-ux-advise


Re: [Libreoffice-ux-advise] simplifying the border width settings

2012-11-19 Thread Daniel Mania

Hei hei!

Why do we need to keep being compatible with Microsoft Office at all? 
1) Users who switch from Microsoft Office do that for a reason and they 
should expect some differences!
2) Document compatibility is a great idea, but until Microsoft Office 
import works well enough, there is no point in cluttering up LibreOffice 
with legacy options. Anything more complicated than Hello world gets 
messed up after importing it from MSO into LibreOffice.
As far as I know, there is a project working on Microsoft Office import 
for OpenOffice, but I am pretty sure that will take a while. Until then, 
most people are probably happy to get to see the textual content of an 
MSO document. For everything else there is PDF (or even a parallel MSO 
installation, if you are working in a bigger company).


How about cleaning up the LibreOffice interface, before introducing 
additional elements? There are still smaller inconsistencies like the 
table border button, which is only a pull down menu without a separate 
pull down menu arrow and an apply current setting button next to each 
other. Or the two different types of rectangle and circle shapes in Calc 
and Writer ... Even though many of the other irregularities have been 
cleaned up already.


Sorry for these blunt words, but I don't think that tiptoeing around MS 
is such a good idea. Neither to attract new users or please companies 
that are under Microsoft's spell, nor to satisfy old 
LibreOffice/OpenOffice users.



Greetings,
Daniel M



On 19.11.2012 9:23, Cedric Bosdonnat wrote: On Sun, 2012-11-18 at 17:44 
+0100, Michael Stahl wrote:

 I propose to simplify this and limit the values to HAIRLINE, THIN,
 MEDIUM and THICK with sensible values and map the old values to them.
 This should not be such a big problem because until 3.6 at least the
 UI behaved in a similar way due to a bug.

 i don't think that is enough - users may want to import existing
 documents from OOo or MS Office and create new borders in them that
 match the existing ones in the document; so it would probably be a good
 idea to offer those widths which these applications can easily set in
 the UI, which is a bit more than 3 of each style.

 Restricting sounds good, but pay attention with Word and Excel: they
 have different sets of possible borders  width (Word had quite a lot
 more) and as Michael wrote it, we need to keep being compatible with
 both of them (and legacy borders) which is quite a mess.

 --
 Cedric

 ___
 Libreoffice-ux-advise mailing list
 Libreoffice-ux-advise@lists.freedesktop.org
 http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/libreoffice-ux-advise

___
Libreoffice-ux-advise mailing list
Libreoffice-ux-advise@lists.freedesktop.org
http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/libreoffice-ux-advise


Re: [Libreoffice-ux-advise] Advice required on auto text resize (Impress)

2012-10-08 Thread Daniel Mania

Hei hei!

I agree with Mirek and think Autofit should be removed or optional 
(with the default being off).
And I don't think we have to take exporting presentations to PPTX into 
consideration. The export to Microsoft Office is so bad (yes I know, 
it's Microsoft's fault!) that text size is the least problem here.


Autofit is nice for beginners, but I wouldn't want to end up with a 
presentation with different text size on each slide! That just looks 
horribly unprofessional.
And fiddling around with content to fit on a slide is _not_ a massive 
pain in the backside, it's a part of the job of making a presentation. 
The presenter has to think about what to present actively! It's the user 
who has to do the work, not some LibreOffice magic ...


From own experience, LibreOffice documents have to be opened in 
LibreOffice. The export to Microsoft Office does not work for any kind 
of document and whenever I had to deliver something in Microsoft format, 
I had to re-format everything or even re-create the document (Calc - 
Excel anyone? ;-). When I had to give smaller presentations, I exported 
my work to PDF. For bigger presentations I had to work with Powerpoint 
from the very beginning. This is the real world and there is nothing 
LibreOffice can change about it.


And again, why does LibreOffice have to behave like Microsoft Office? If 
people don't have the money for Microsoft Office, they should be happy 
to get a well functioning free Office package! If they have Microsoft 
Office, but are not satisfied, they obviously want to have something 
different!


Sorry for being so emotional, I don't want to offend anyone! It's just 
that I am having a really bad time at work, with my bosses getting angry 
at me every time they see me using LibreOffice. And whenever one comes 
to a conference, there is only Microsoft Office ... and if you try to 
install a portable version of LibreOffice, you are the devil himself!
Again, LibreOffice should go its own way and be proud of it! There are 
so many things that were copied from Microsoft, and they are actually 
what makes Microsoft Office so annoying! Get rid of automatic 
annoyances and give a damn about interoperability, at least as long as 
the export to Microsoft formats does not work 110 % well!


Greetings,
Daniel M




On 8.10.2012 11:10, Michael Meeks wrote:


On Sun, 2012-10-07 at 11:07 +0200, Mirek M. wrote:

 I think this autofit feature is very disturbing if you are not
 aware of it. From my point of view it should be removed
 because if what you are writing does not fit in the available
 room, you should write less words or add room (split the text
 on another


So - this is a nice idea. However - manually doing that is a massive
pain in the backside for the (non expert) slide creator. Of course,
ideally people should not be trying to cram their text onto slides - but
reality suggests they do.

People tend to manually fiddle / re-word their slides to cram text in -
leaving not a pixel left for another character ;-)

Then - they save that as .pptx import it on a different machine, with
different fonts and if the lines are re-wrapped - that inevitably pushes
their later bullets off the bottom of the slide, and then they get angry
[ seeing it often only as they present ].

That IMHO is a -massive- UX drop-off; far worse than some transient
confusion about what font size to show in the toolbar while editing.
Having said that, I'd personally prefer to have some relative font
sizing shown there generally based on the style - but ... I'm mad like
that ;-)


Also, if we have to keep autofit, it should be disabled for an object
if the user overwrites the autofit size using the font size picker.


Autofit is an interop feature; IMHO we have to keep it - if only to
interoperate with those who turned it on in MS Office.

IMHO it should also be the default ~everywhere so we improve
interoperability generally - but ... ;- if it behaves strangely, we
should fix that.

ATB,

Michael.


___
Libreoffice-ux-advise mailing list
Libreoffice-ux-advise@lists.freedesktop.org
http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/libreoffice-ux-advise


Re: [Libreoffice-ux-advise] page borders (bug 52327)

2012-09-05 Thread Daniel Mania

Hei hei!

For the first time since I work with LibreOffice, I tried to make Calc 
print what I want, instead of what Calc wants ... and the result is not 
very encouraging.
I have a document with 4 columns and 20 rows, that are smaller than my 
paper format A4. I'd like Calc to scale those cells to paper width, 
without me having to care about their actual size.
Playing with Print Ranges and Scaling mode could not get me there. 
The only thing that seemed to work was Reduce/enlarge printout and 
figuring out the right Scaling factor manually.

But there are two problems with this:
1) Scaling affects _everything_ and can lead to cell boarders 
disappearing (not on the screen but on the printout)
2) Manual adjustments are time consuming, especially for multiple 
documents with multiple sheets


So far, I only see page borders as the solution. The user has to 
format the content accordingly. And that is only possible when the page 
borders are _always_ visible.


Btw., in the page preview, the page format can be reached by clicking on 
a Format Page button, or right click Page Layout  Is there a 
reason why the same thing has two different names?


Greetings
nag-niel M
___
Libreoffice-ux-advise mailing list
Libreoffice-ux-advise@lists.freedesktop.org
http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/libreoffice-ux-advise


Re: [Libreoffice-ux-advise] Any thoughts on fdo#44941?

2012-09-04 Thread Daniel Mania

Hei Cedric!

Good to hear about the pop-up having disappeared (I am using 3.5.6 due 
to a memory bug).


A temporary header/footer after a double click should not change the 
layout at all. If the user really decides to enter text, the temporary 
header/footer could remain a foreground layer, overlapping and covering 
the rest of the document. Changing of the layout would be triggered only 
after the user clicks somewhere outside the header/footer, signalling 
that a header/footer should be inserted. Without text having been 
entered, the header/footer layer would just disappear, as if nothing had 
happened.


In my opinion, we could just leave header/footer creation the good old 
LibreOffice way. I am not overly fond of the idea of copying MS Office 
to attract new users and I don't think that actually works out anyways. 
But that's another story ...


Greetings,
Daniel M



On 3.9.2012 17:43, Cedric Bosdonnat wrote:

Hi Daniel,

On Mon, 2012-09-03 at 10:55 +0200, Daniel Mania wrote:

A double click sounds like an OK idea to me, if the header/footer is
only created after text has been written to the header/footer (similar
to newly created textboxes that disappear when no text was entered and
cursor focus is put somewhere outside the textbox). At least it is
better than the mouse over popup thing that got introduced.


BTW the mouse over popup thing is dead in master and probably about to
be dead in 3.6 too (see my previous mail on that topic here and on the
qa list).

Creating a temporary header/footer isn't a good thing to do as it
implies relayouting the whole document, and checking all possible
shortcuts to eventually drop it (e.g. we should probably drop it if the
mouse clicks somewhere else or if the cursor is moved to outside the
header/footer)

--
Cedric

___
Libreoffice-ux-advise mailing list
Libreoffice-ux-advise@lists.freedesktop.org
http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/libreoffice-ux-advise


___
Libreoffice-ux-advise mailing list
Libreoffice-ux-advise@lists.freedesktop.org
http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/libreoffice-ux-advise


Re: [Libreoffice-ux-advise] Any thoughts on fdo#44941?

2012-09-03 Thread Daniel Mania

Hei hei!

A double click sounds like an OK idea to me, if the header/footer is 
only created after text has been written to the header/footer (similar 
to newly created textboxes that disappear when no text was entered and 
cursor focus is put somewhere outside the textbox). At least it is 
better than the mouse over popup thing that got introduced.


By the way, are there any opinions on my last UI request (panel toggle 
enhancement)? I don't want to open a bug report for that ... or should I?



Greetings,
Daniel M


PS: Why do so many people (users _and_ developers) bring up Microsoft as 
their reasoning for how things should be handled/done? Good things 
should be considered independently from their source, but LibreOffice is 
_not_ a copy of Microsoft Office! A lot of people around me are working 
with MS Office daily and they still ask me how to do stuff. For those 
people, LibreOffice is no different than MS office! And power users 
should be able to figure out LibreOffice themselves ...






On 3.9.2012 10:09, Cedric Bosdonnat wrote:

Hi people,

That bug (fdo#44941) is purely is new UI idea. What do you think about
this idea to add a new header/footer by double-clicking on it?

I could implement that pretty quickly, but I'ld prefer to have your
thoughts on it as we already have UI for this.

--
Cedric

___
Libreoffice-ux-advise mailing list
Libreoffice-ux-advise@lists.freedesktop.org
http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/libreoffice-ux-advise


___
Libreoffice-ux-advise mailing list
Libreoffice-ux-advise@lists.freedesktop.org
http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/libreoffice-ux-advise


Re: [Libreoffice-ux-advise] Change LibreOffice's behavior of how formatting is applied

2012-08-07 Thread Daniel Mania
Your reasoning makes sense and I realize that I might have to live with 
that :-)


In normal writing, you will not encounter any problems with the current 
formatting behavior. But in scientific writing (biology, chemistry, ...) 
there are a lot of sub- and superscripts and that can be troublesome. I 
find myself undoing a formatting, marking a single character and 
re-applying the formatting on only that character quite often.
Also, marking a whole word can be quickly done by double clicking it. So 
the current behavior is not really a time saver.


As I said, your reasoning is sound. And if I am the only one who does 
not like the current formatting behavior ...


Greetings,
Daniel M


On 7.8.2012 9:58, Mirek M. wrote:
 The reasoning behind this behavior is that the user isn't likely to
 start typing in the middle of a word, and therefore it makes more sense
 to format the word the cursor is in instead of formatting only the
 letters typed inside the word. Honestly, I can't think of a use case
 where the user would want to type inside a word he typed before, but
 using different formatting from the rest of the word.
 The current behavior makes it easier to format words -- instead of
 painstakingly selecting a word, the user can simply click anywhere
 inside that word to apply some formatting.
 This may not sound like a huge time-saver, but if one does all his
 formatting in one go, perhaps to highlight some keywords, it makes
 things much more efficient.



On 7.8.2012 9:58, Mirek M. wrote:

On Mon, Aug 6, 2012 at 1:14 PM, Daniel Mania daniel.ma...@umb.no
mailto:daniel.ma...@umb.no wrote:

Hei hei!

Some time ago I filed a bug report (ID 46517) about LibreOffice's
subscript/superscript behavior. This report got closed and I would
like to discuss it here instead and also expand it to formatting in
general.

Currently, if the user activates any formatting (e.g. Text bold),
the outcome depends on the cursor position:

a)
If the cursor is inside a word (behind first character and in
front of last character), the whole word will be formatted (even
though it is unmarked).

b)
If the cursor is anywhere else, only newly typed characters will be
formatted.


This is another example of how LibreOffice forces the user to think
about the outcome of an action depending on the current situation.
And you might know by now that I kind of dislike this. ;-)

Now I would like to know if I am a special case, or if we should
change the formatting behavior to:

After a formatting was invoked, only affect newly typed characters
at the cursor position.
Of course this only applies if no characters were marked before.


bfoman stated that the current behavior is the default in MS Word
2010, but in MS Word 2007, formatting works like I would expect (and
proposed) it. An old version of LibreOffice (3.3.4) already shows
that behavior and I do not know since when it exists. This might be
a big change if it is an ancient way to handle formatting. On the
other side it might be something that would not matter to 99.9 % of
the users, but changing it would please the remaining 0.1 %.


The reasoning behind this behavior is that the user isn't likely to
start typing in the middle of a word, and therefore it makes more sense
to format the word the cursor is in instead of formatting only the
letters typed inside the word. Honestly, I can't think of a use case
where the user would want to type inside a word he typed before, but
using different formatting from the rest of the word.
The current behavior makes it easier to format words -- instead of
painstakingly selecting a word, the user can simply click anywhere
inside that word to apply some formatting.
This may not sound like a huge time-saver, but if one does all his
formatting in one go, perhaps to highlight some keywords, it makes
things much more efficient.


___
Libreoffice-ux-advise mailing list
Libreoffice-ux-advise@lists.freedesktop.org
http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/libreoffice-ux-advise


___
Libreoffice-ux-advise mailing list
Libreoffice-ux-advise@lists.freedesktop.org
http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/libreoffice-ux-advise


[Libreoffice-ux-advise] Change LibreOffice's behavior of how formatting is applied

2012-08-06 Thread Daniel Mania

Hei hei!

Some time ago I filed a bug report (ID 46517) about LibreOffice's 
subscript/superscript behavior. This report got closed and I would like 
to discuss it here instead and also expand it to formatting in general.


Currently, if the user activates any formatting (e.g. Text bold), the 
outcome depends on the cursor position:


a)
If the cursor is inside a word (behind first character and in front of 
last character), the whole word will be formatted (even though it is 
unmarked).


b)
If the cursor is anywhere else, only newly typed characters will be 
formatted.



This is another example of how LibreOffice forces the user to think 
about the outcome of an action depending on the current situation. And 
you might know by now that I kind of dislike this. ;-)


Now I would like to know if I am a special case, or if we should 
change the formatting behavior to:


After a formatting was invoked, only affect newly typed characters at 
the cursor position.

Of course this only applies if no characters were marked before.


bfoman stated that the current behavior is the default in MS Word 
2010, but in MS Word 2007, formatting works like I would expect (and 
proposed) it. An old version of LibreOffice (3.3.4) already shows that 
behavior and I do not know since when it exists. This might be a big 
change if it is an ancient way to handle formatting. On the other side 
it might be something that would not matter to 99.9 % of the users, but 
changing it would please the remaining 0.1 %.



Greetings,
Daniel M
___
Libreoffice-ux-advise mailing list
Libreoffice-ux-advise@lists.freedesktop.org
http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/libreoffice-ux-advise


Re: [Libreoffice-ux-advise] paste special in LibO calc

2012-07-27 Thread Daniel Mania
Hei!


Kees 538 wrote (01-03-12 11:14)
 When you use paste special in calc all options (accept value) are enabled.
 You have to disable all options you don't need and enable the value option 
 (if you need this one)
 ...

In version 3.6 we got a very nice Paste Only. It can paste Text, Number 
and Formula, but it is missing Value (= Text + Number). The addition of 
this would render Paste Special obsolete for many use-cases. 

Greetings,
Daniel M


From: libreoffice-ux-advise-bounces+daniel.mania=umb...@lists.freedesktop.org 
[libreoffice-ux-advise-bounces+daniel.mania=umb...@lists.freedesktop.org] on 
behalf of Cor Nouws [oo...@nouenoff.nl]
Sent: 26 July 2012 17:33
To: Kees 538; libreoffice-ux-advise@lists.freedesktop.org
Subject: Re: [Libreoffice-ux-advise] paste special in LibO calc

Hi Kees,

Kees 538 wrote (01-03-12 11:14)
 I have remark about paste special in calc.
 When you use paste special in calc all options (accept value) are enabled.
 You have to disable all options you don't need and enable the value
 option (if you need this one)
 Won't it be easier if all options where disabled so you just enable the
 options you need?

Could you pls be a bit more specific in the behaviour you would like to see?
Currently, when I hit Ctrl-Shft-V, the checkbox All has the focus, so
hitting the space bar is enough to deselect that.
Still for me some 6 others remain checked, where probably Text and
Numbers are chosen most. So it could be an idea to have those checke by
default?
Ideas?

Cheers,
Cor


--
  - Cor
  - http://nl.libreoffice.org
  - www.librelex.org

___
Libreoffice-ux-advise mailing list
Libreoffice-ux-advise@lists.freedesktop.org
http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/libreoffice-ux-advise
___
Libreoffice-ux-advise mailing list
Libreoffice-ux-advise@lists.freedesktop.org
http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/libreoffice-ux-advise


Re: [Libreoffice-ux-advise] A sheet by default

2012-05-21 Thread Daniel Mania
I don't see a big problem with three initial sheets, but I agree that 
starting with only one is the better option here. It is especially 
confusing when users don't rename the default sheets so that there is no 
indication at all that they contain data. Or could we have an indicator 
(colored bar or something) in the sheet tab to visualize empty sheets 
and ones that contain data?


Greetings,
DM


On 21.5.2012 11:55, Mirek M. wrote:

2012/5/21 Jean-Francois Nifenecker jean-francois.nifenec...@laposte.net
mailto:jean-francois.nifenec...@laposte.net

Le 21/05/2012 11:33, Mirek M. a écrit :

Hi everyone,
I'm wondering -- is there a good reason for creating a
spreadsheet with
three sheets by default instead of with one sheet?
I feel that creating three sheets by default unnecessarily
increases the
document size and confuses readers of the document, as they have
to look
through all three sheets to see if there is additional content
-- and
they often don't anymore, as they're used to those two sheets being
empty. That means they're potentially missing out on data should the
creator have chosen to actually use those two additional sheets.
Could we make the default one sheet?



As for the file size, here's a test I've just done (Lib0 3.3.4):
Open LibO Calc. Enter A in Sheet1.A1,
then
Save as-is (3 default sheets), the file size is 7,413 B
Delete the 2 unused sheets, then save. Now the file size is 7,398 B

- is a 15 B difference such a big deal?


No, not really. But it is unnecessary.


As for the users' confusion: yes, it might be.


I personally have experience with this -- someone sent me a spreadsheet
which did use the second sheet and I was not aware of it, which of
course lead to some confusion and frustration.

OTOH, I think it might also help users understand a spreadsheet can
hold more than one sheet.


I disagree. A user should realize that just by looking at the bar with
sheets and seeing the plus button next to Sheet 1.
Browsers open with one tab by default -- users don't have a problem
understanding that you can have several tabs. And I definitely think
browsers should NOT open with three tabs by default.
Or take a look at Impress -- it opens with one slide by default, and
people have no problem understanding that they can create another slide,
despite the fact that the + button is quite far from the slide pane.


As a result, I'd stay with the current 3 default sheets scheme.



___
Libreoffice-ux-advise mailing list
Libreoffice-ux-advise@lists.freedesktop.org
http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/libreoffice-ux-advise

___
Libreoffice-ux-advise mailing list
Libreoffice-ux-advise@lists.freedesktop.org
http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/libreoffice-ux-advise


[Libreoffice-ux-advise] Full customization of LibreOffice

2012-05-06 Thread Daniel Mania
Here is another suggestion ... this time less difficult to implement.

One thing that has been bothering me for some time now is that LibreOffice is 
not giving me enough freedom to customize everything I want to.

Users can create their own document templates, but we cannot create templates 
for charts or other objects. Defaults can be customized in LibreOffice, but the 
possibilities are very limited. The only thing I could find was options for 
charts and here only the colour table can be modified. But what about all the 
other options? Why not set the line width to 0.05 cm by default, instead of 
0.08 cm? Why not set XY-plots with points and lines as default? Why not set a 
certain colour for rectangles or ellipses as default?

Another thing is a general lack of options for several features. A current 
issue of mine in Calc is paste copied cells by pressing enter which is 
probably helpful for some people, but incredibly annoying for people that use 
enter to edit cells. Shouldn't there be an option to turn this 
paste-behaviour on and off?

I only mentioned things that concern me personally, but the list of options 
could be expanded to make everyone happy. The current list of options should be 
more extensive but a lot of options could be hidden in an advanced dialog to 
not scare away users who don't need all customizations.


Greetings,
DM


PS: If anyone knows how to change some of the mentioned things without 
programming knowledge, please tell me! Editing XML or similar files to change 
LibreOffice's default behaviour is not the best solution but I'd prefer it over 
nothing ... and I'd even dive into slightly more difficult things if pointed 
into the right direction ...
___
Libreoffice-ux-advise mailing list
Libreoffice-ux-advise@lists.freedesktop.org
http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/libreoffice-ux-advise


Re: [Libreoffice-ux-advise] Full customization of LibreOffice

2012-05-06 Thread Daniel Mania
OK, once again I underestimated the effort needed ...
I would be happy to start a whiteboard together with someone who actually has 
some programming skills, if the list agrees.

DM



From: libreoffice-ux-advise-bounces+daniel.mania=umb...@lists.freedesktop.org 
[libreoffice-ux-advise-bounces+daniel.mania=umb...@lists.freedesktop.org] on 
behalf of Stefan Knorr (Astron) [heinzless...@googlemail.com]
Sent: 06 May 2012 18:08
To: Jean-Francois Nifenecker
Cc: libreoffice-ux-advise@lists.freedesktop.org
Subject: Re: [Libreoffice-ux-advise] Full customization of LibreOffice

Hello Jean-Francois, Daniel,

 IMO, this is all about a styles expansion. Could be very useful, yes, but
 would require much coding I guess, contrary to what you're thinking.

Yes, it would be a lot of coding, and it would  also require a lot of
new UI. If you are interested in this, I would recommend to come to
our design list [1] and perhaps start a Whiteboard on how to realise
your vision.

Astron.


[1] des...@global.libreoffice.org , see also:
https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Design
___
Libreoffice-ux-advise mailing list
Libreoffice-ux-advise@lists.freedesktop.org
http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/libreoffice-ux-advise
___
Libreoffice-ux-advise mailing list
Libreoffice-ux-advise@lists.freedesktop.org
http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/libreoffice-ux-advise


Re: [Libreoffice-ux-advise] Unified behaviour of all LibreOffice applications

2012-05-02 Thread Daniel Mania
 This is really a complex problem needing a lot of code refactoring: it's
 not only a design problem.

I thought so and unfortunately I cannot help in any way :-(
My programming skills end with LibreOffice macros and AutoIt scripts.

 Writer tables are different from Calc ones, from a user POV I'm not sure
 it would be good to unify this... and once again, this would require
 important and complex code refactoring.

Well, if real Calc table could be integrated in Writer, one could still use 
them to just show data. But one could also use all of Calc's possibilities and 
I think they would be easier to format. I am always struggling with formatting 
the size of Writer tables. But Calc tables as objects in a Writer ducument 
are even worse.

And yes, I knew that LibreOffice does not consist of separate applications. 
Still, the different documents behave like that and that is what counts for 
the user.
Even though a unification would involve a huge effort, it would also be a 
possibility to wipe out a lot of bugs and inconsistencies without additional 
work.

Greetings,
DM


From: libreoffice-ux-advise-bounces+daniel.mania=umb...@lists.freedesktop.org 
[libreoffice-ux-advise-bounces+daniel.mania=umb...@lists.freedesktop.org] on 
behalf of Cedric Bosdonnat [cbosdon...@suse.com]
Sent: 02 May 2012 10:19
To: Daniel Mania
Cc: LibreOffice-UX
Subject: Re: [Libreoffice-ux-advise] Unified behaviour of all LibreOffice 
applications

On Mon, 2012-04-30 at 13:37 +0200, Daniel Mania wrote:
 Here are some examples of what I mean with unified behaviour:

 - Rotation of images is possible in in Draw but not in Writer

This is really a complex problem needing a lot of code refactoring: it's
not only a design problem.

 - Some objects can only be grouped in Draw but not in Writer.

 - Tables in Writer are clumsy and should be replaced with embedded Calc
 tables (this can be done manually but then Writer changes the size of
 embedded table every now and then and thereby renders them ugly, which
 is probably a bug)

Writer tables are different from Calc ones, from a user POV I'm not sure
it would be good to unify this... and once again, this would require
important and complex code refactoring.

Of course, feel free to give us a friendly helping hand to change that
code ;)

--
Cedric

___
Libreoffice-ux-advise mailing list
Libreoffice-ux-advise@lists.freedesktop.org
http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/libreoffice-ux-advise
___
Libreoffice-ux-advise mailing list
Libreoffice-ux-advise@lists.freedesktop.org
http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/libreoffice-ux-advise


[Libreoffice-ux-advise] Unified behaviour of all LibreOffice applications

2012-04-30 Thread Daniel Mania

Hello everyone!

I have been reading some discussions on this mailing list and I would 
like to make a proposal that is probably extremely difficult to set into 
action:


The behaviour of all LibreOffice applications should be similar.

This actually was a bug report some time ago, but bugs.freedesktop.org 
is certainly the wrong place for it ...

Here are some examples of what I mean with unified behaviour:

- Rotation of images is possible in in Draw but not in Writer

- Editing grouped objects in Draw is done (elegantly!) by double 
clicking the group and exiting the group by double clicking anywhere 
outside of the group. In writer one has to enter a group via the context 
menu and exits the group via a single click which often happens by accident.


- Impress has its own special way to apply styles and breaks with Writer 
and Calc in that respect. This is very difficult to comprehend and leads 
to frustration for beginners.


- Some objects can only be grouped in Draw but not in Writer.

- Tables in Writer are clumsy and should be replaced with embedded Calc 
tables (this can be done manually but then Writer changes the size of 
embedded table every now and then and thereby renders them ugly, which 
is probably a bug)



In general, all LibreOffice applications should have the same set of 
functions (image rotation, grouping, ...) and should be usable in the 
same or similar way (application of styles, ...). This could be 
accomplished by using a shared LibreOffice core for these functions 
and interaction of the different applications with each other 
(embedded Calc spread sheet in Writer, ...).
Right now it looks like the different applications are being developed 
in different directions and thereby breaking the Office concept.


DM

___
Libreoffice-ux-advise mailing list
Libreoffice-ux-advise@lists.freedesktop.org
http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/libreoffice-ux-advise