[Libreoffice-bugs] [Bug 135104] Feedback on Styles Inspector

Sat Aug 15 14:38:21 UTC 2020

https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=135104

--- Comment #10 from Luke Kendall <luke.kendall at gmail.com> ---
I finally built an AppImage and I'm now trying it.

Version: 7.1.0.0.alpha0+
Build ID: <buildversion>
CPU threads: 4; OS: Linux 5.4; UI render: default; VCL: gtk3
Locale: en-AU (en_AU.UTF-8); UI: en-US
TinderBox: Linux-rpm_deb-x86_64 at 86-TDF, Branch:master, Time:
2020-08-11_15:13:29
Calc: threaded

SI = Styles Inspector.
Numbers like 1/ refer to my original comment.

1/
Great: SI is now resizeable.

2/ & 5/
Paragraph Styles are now intuitive to me, appearing in order of
inheritance/derivation.

3/
Is still true, and seems very obvious now, and good.

4/
Fixed, great!

5/
The SI still displays the set of paragraph styles unfolded by default.
I still think this is a UX error because it hides the actual paragraph style
down at the bottom, so the user must scroll (or fold up the parent paragraph
styles above it) to discover it.

I still think my suggestions would be better:
* That seems a mild usability problem: having the visible style showing a
parent style rather than the actual style is misleading.
** Suggestion: Show the styles "folded up", not "unfolded" by default:
   in that case you'd very likely see the actual style.
** Suggestion alternative: scroll the SI view to focus on the actual (leaf)
   style, not a parent style

6/
Still applies, still a problem. That the SI always unfolds each paragraph
style, instead of either remembering which were folded last time, or presenting
them folded by default, is annoying and I would confidently say is the wrong
choice for most use cases.

7/
The Direct Formatting section's information is more understandable.
That there is any DF information visible still mystifies me.

Under Direct Formatting, 8 properties are listed, but as there's no direct
formatting in the paragraph that I'm aware of, I don't understand what it's
telling me.
Char Font Char Set 76
Char Font Family 0 (O?)
Char Font Name Georgia
Char Font Pitch 2
Char Font Style Name Regular
Char Height 10.5
Char Posture normal
Char Weight normal
I have no idea why any of these are listed, especially the Georgia/Regular/10.5
as those are all properties set by my paragraph style.

9/
Fixed. (Page Style Name no longer appears under DF).

10/
Still no clue what Character Styles does.
Suggestion: If there are no character styles applied, have a line under it that
says "no styles applied" or something.
Mike K said:
"The latter. Please apply a character style, and check."
I set the character style of a word to use a different font: the Character
Styles did not change.
I set another word's colour: the Character Styles did not change.
(I failed to find a way to make the Accept Change icon appear in the UI, but
used the menu to apply it so I could see the colour rather than the Track
Changes colour.)
It occurred to me to apply a Character Style (Internet Link).
I did so, and the Character Styles displayed that, and its properties.
Direct Formatting also changed, now displaying "Char Weight". That made no
sense to me, as I had not changed the character weight with direct formatting.
Selecting the text I had changed to red showed a different set of DF
properties. The Char Color made sense (0xff0000), but only that one.
I think the confusion in this user's mind is that when I apply DF by hitting OK
on the Character Format inspector, in my mind only the properties or values
which I have changed from those determined from the style have been changed.
Writer seems instead to bypass any such comparison, and decide that (every?_
Property is now provided by DF. If true, that seems a massive usability error
being caused by Writer itself, and is perhaps a major contributor to the whole
"DF is bad" feeling.

New things I noticed:

12/
Clicking on Styles icon after clicking on Styles Inspector crashed Writer.

13/
When Writer restarted, the Styles Inspector showed a somewhat more graphics
inspector. I think maybe it represented a paragraph style but I wasn't sure.
Hitting F11 (I wanted to open the styles dialogue and examine a paragraph style
in detail with that), changed the Styles panel to a less graphical mode.

I opened the Paragraph Style inspector, and wanted to compare some of those
properties to what I had seen in the view of the SI I'd seen upon restart. But
I discovered that none of the SI icons arranged vertically on the right side
function while the Paragraph Styles dialogue is open. I don't understand why.
It makes it hard to compare. I suspect I'd need to take a screenshot image and
view that screenshot separately.

14/
Closing the Paragraph Styles dialogue let me click on icons on the right of the
SI. I clicked on Styles (I think) and the SI panel closed.

15/
With the SI panel open, clicking on the 4th icon on the stack of SI icons
closes the SI panel. That makes no sense to me. A bug? F11 reopens the SI.

16/
Clicking on the Gallery icon on the SI crashed Writer.

17/
Upon restart, the SI panel is once more displaying the more graphical UI, and I
see it's titled Properties. Examining the SI more closely I see now it's the
2nd icon (Properties) that's for some reason now selected.

16/
Clicking on the bottom-most icon, Design, crashed Writer too.

17/
Upon each crash restart, the document has lost the page I was on (first
chapter, cursor at start of first paragraph) and instead displays the first
page, with cursor positioned at the very start of the document.

18/
Back in the SI, I observe the immediate parent of the actual paragraph style
includes properties displayed in black (like Char Difference Height and Char
Property Height), as well as many displayed in grey (like Char Font Char Set
and Char Font Name).

19/
I can't guess why some are in black and some are in grey.

20/
Some of the properties listed are totally unfamiliar (Para Adjust (2) and Para
Bottom Margin Relative (100)).

21/
Many of the properties have values whose meaning I can't guess.
Some I know - like the Char Height of 10.5 because that's the font size, so I
know it's in pt. Para First Line Indent = 508, and I can't guess its units.
Some I suspect are percentages.
Suggestion: for numbers which are units, print the units alongside the value.

22/
The actual paragraph style for the (selected) paragraph lists just 8
properties, all in black (not grey).
Some are known to me (Follow Style, Para First Line Indent, Para Left Margin
and right), others are unfamiliar (Para First Line Indent Relative, Para is
Auto First Line Indent, Para Left Margin Relative and right).

23/
The properties in the SI appear to be able to be selectable. I can't see why,
as you can't do anything with the item (not even copy it). 
I was trying to determine if the Char Font Family value was a zero or the
letter capital-O.

24/
4th and 9th icons are identical (A with paintbrush). 4th is Styles, 9th is
Design.

HTH

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