[Libreoffice-ux-advise] [Libreoffice] [REVIEW 3.4] FindBar silently reuses options from the Search & Replace dialog

[Christoph Noack]

Hi all!

Kendy, thanks for this initiative :-)

Am Mittwoch, den 27.07.2011, 19:35 +0200 schrieb Cor Nouws:
> Hi Kendy,
> 
> Jan Holesovsky wrote (27-07-11 00:51)
> 
> > With the patch I am proposing for cherry-picking to 3.4 (I have pushed
> > that to master), the options are unset when you use the FindBar, ie. it
> 
> Fine for me as temporary solution!
> The annoyance of not understanding what happens with the Find bar is 
> larger then the problem of having to set options again ..

True.

> Plus, what IMO is more important ...
> 
> > resets whatever flags the user has set in the Search&  Replace dialog
> > too.  This is not easy to fix, so I wonder if you consider this stop-gap
> > solution bearable for the users?

Kendy, you mention "is not easy to fix" - what do you mean here? Setting
back the options in general, or (maybe) making find bar and find&replace
dialog work independently?


> ... is the older discussion from ux at ooo (1) and an/more issue (2), about 
> the unexpected, invisible reuse of options previous set in the F&R 
> dialog and some inconsistencies/debatable choices made in the 
> implementation.
> 
> Would be useful I guess to at least consider those too, before touching 
> the code for a real solution.

Okay, before offering some ideas, here are my assumptions:
      * the find bar will be used for straightforward search only (thus:
        it should not adapt / implement the search&replace dialog
        exclusive items)
      * both dialog bar and find&replace dialog won't be visible at the
        same time (currently the daily build doesn't work for me ... so
        I can't check how it works at the moment)
      * If the find&replace dialog is opened for the first time (in this
        session, for the given module), then defaults are used that
        don't enable anything in the "More Options" panel
      * The find&replace dialog is rather complex and people might also
        have issues to "default" all the setting easily

If some statements appear weird - please feel free to correct me!

So my proposals: 
      * The find&replace dialog should:
              * ... either: show the "More Options" panel state when
                re-openend and "more options" have been changed --> as
                suggested by Cor
              * ... or: restore the "More Options" panel state when
                re-openend (e.g. show it, if it was shown before)
              * ... and (optional): visualize if "more options" are
                changed even if that panel is closed (e.g. needs some
                thoughts)
      * The shared find bar options and the find&replace dialog options
        should be synced (the last used element sets the options /
        find / replace strings etc. of the other element). All
        non-shared elements (here: only relevant for the search&replace
        dialog) are reset to defaults.
      * The find&replace dialog should get a "Defaults" button to reset
        all the control elements in the dialog [optional,
        recommendation] 

Mmh, it seems that should be added to the whiteboard page - agreed? Did
I miss anything?
http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Design/Whiteboards/Find_Bar


Side-note: There are still some unanswered questions, e.g. the
complexity of the search&replace dialog and the relationship with the
navigator buttons ... this requires to think about the features on a
more generic level.

> Regards,
> Cor
> 
> 1) http://openoffice.org/projects/ux/lists/discuss/archive/2009-10/message/8
> 2) http://openoffice.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=88714

Thanks for bringing that up!

Cheers,
Christoph