[Libreoffice-bugs] [Bug 103064] Introduce a comment style

[bugzilla-daemon at bugs.documentfoundation.org]

https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=103064

--- Comment #20 from Luke Kendall <luke at zeta.org.au> ---
(In reply to Yousuf Philips (jay) from comment #18)
> (In reply to Thomas Lendo from comment #15)
> > I agree that only a small set of features should be available for comments.
> > As working much with comments, I really only need font, strong
> > emphasis/emphasis and simple list features in comments. (Font because the
> > default comment font changed somewhere in the past and I don't want comments
> > with different fonts in a document. -- I simulate lists with "* Blabla" now.)
> 
> We should likely decide what the optimal font size is for comment and not
> allow users to change it. We default to 10pt, MS Word uses 8pt, and Google
> Docs uses Arial 10pt.

I don't understand the usability thinking behind this. Just as there is no
single "optimal font size" for a document, there is the need from users to be
able to change the size and font within a comment.

I assume you are suggesting this because it would make the code simpler.  I
can't think of any other reason for suggesting it.  I would prefer it if you
could put the user's needs first, rather than the programmers' convenience.

> > I think there should be a paragraph style for all comments in a document
> > with a small set of paragraph features available and very limited direct
> > formatting if any. Use cases like in comment 5 need more than one paragraph
> > style for different notations with various paragraph features.
> 
> The only thing i'd put into a comment paragraph style would be the font name
> and allow users to change it, so its not repeated in each character style.
> In comment 5's use case, I would suggest that a user can apply an existing
> document-level character style to a comment, but it would be a limited set
> of formatting options, and it wouldnt overwrite whatever default font size
> that are assigned to comments.

I assume you're not suggesting a single "comment paragraph style"? Or if you
are, that it can be overridden on a case-by-case basis as the user needs.

> > Before implementing a style there should be a consent of what features we
> > want to be available in Writer comments and subsequently in other LibO
> > components too.
> 
> Yep we should do this. If we have a look at the formatting all comments
> character dialog, i'd say we should keep, font name, font style,
> underlining, strikethrough, overlining.

I agree with that, yes. It makes it easier to have editorial discussions via
comments.  I think change tracking, for instance, is probably unnecessary and
would be overkill.

> (In reply to Luke Kendall from comment #16)
> > Please note that it's extremely helpful to have font sizes supported, as
> > comments can get very long, and reducing the font size is a good way to make
> > more of them visible without having to click into them and scroll about,
> > only able to see a small window onto it.
> 
> That would be the wrong way to fix the issue of long comments. See bug 89232
> for the discussion on how to improve that issue.

I just read that.  Since a comment can grow very long indeed, all those changes
would address the problem for about another 10% of comment length.  After that,
allowing the reduction of font size addresses maybe another 20%.  (These
numbers are, of course, my gut-feeling estimates: they're not backed by data.) 
Beyond that, the scrollbars of course become essential - unless you were to
propose a separate document window could be popped up just to view the comment.

Comments can grow arbitrarily large.  There is finite screen space available no
matter how you improves the comment box layout.  Therefore, reducing the font
size will remain a useful option.

Please also consider that some people are viision-impaired: so for them, being
able to increase the font size would be more than just helpful.

> > You might also consider whether you could reuse the existing code for
> > editing and display of text, from the full writer, rather than having to
> > implement a separate text editor and text display algorithm.
> 
> The current implementation gives similar text editing features that are
> available in textboxes, as doing comments like text in full writer would be
> overkill.

My suggestion was to reduce the code size and reduce the chance of new sections
of code that could then have there own bugs.  It was not because the features
are needed: e.g. footnotes and such.  You might consider just limiting the UI
for the comment editing so that the extra functionality wasn't available.

As things stand, comments already have several other bugs in the operation of
their existing text editor, such as wrong sized or placed scrollbars, wrong
text selected or insertion point chosen when you click into them, etc. I think
the bug in which font size changes to comments weren't being stored has been
fixed, though.  I'm only pointing this out to indicate that the existing
comment display and editing code does not work anywhere near as well as the
general, more powerful text editing and display functionality of Writer proper.

Please consider getting some opinions from the UX people before you remove
functionality which I find very important in my everyday use of LO. I am
depending on these existing features.  I think many other users would be, too.

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