[Libreoffice-ux-advise] new range name dialog proposal

[Christoph Noack]

Hi Markus, all!

@ Jean, David: I've CCed you, since I'd like to ask for your help /
forwarding of this request. For the "Calc Named Ranges" we'll need a
string review and some documentation soon. It would be awesome if you
could have a look at:
http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Design/Whiteboard/Calc_Range_Names


Am Sonntag, den 20.11.2011, 08:03 +0100 schrieb Markus Mohrhard:
> Hello Christoph,
> 
> 2011/11/17 Christoph Noack <christoph at dogmatux.com>:
[...]
> Sure, it was just around 6 a.m. after a long night of coding and I was
> that tired that I did not feel comfortable writing a mail in English
> ;)

Wow! You know, choose whats feels most comfortable for you.

> > Am Montag, den 07.11.2011, 19:46 +0100 schrieb Markus Mohrhard:
> >> Hello Christoph, Astron,
> >>
> >> ok, I had an initial look at you design.
> > [...]
> >
> > Concerning the error behavior, I've described the basic behavior I had
> > in mind. Since you've mentioned that checking expressions might be not
> > that easy, I've added two solution proposals (and like usual, my
> > preferred one is most presumably harder to implement *g*).
> 
> Well, you'll get your error checking. I thought long about it and even
> if it might create some problems I don't see another technical
> solution at the moment.

You are the boss here ... let's choose what can be done for 3.5 without
causing too much (future) headaches.

But, I don't know if all (reasonable) errors cases are covered ... are
there some left?

> > I also added the basic behavior for the Add and Cancel buttons.
> >
> > So here is the wiki change - I hope it is sufficiently described:
> > https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/index.php?title=Design%2FWhiteboard%
> > 2FCalc_Range_Names&action=historysubmit&diff=40292&oldid=39809
> >
> > Finally, I noticed that I've used quite some strings ... and since I'm
> > not a native speaker, may I forward the whiteboard content for string
> > review to the documentation list?
> >
> Yes. I implemented for now your suggestions but it makes nearly no
> work to change the strings as long as it is only a string change.

As already mentioned, Jean and David are on CC.

> Now to my problems:
> 
> After implementing parts of the "Select Range" button I think it is
> redundant. If you want to see the range then you can either go to the
> range line directly or click the button after the range line and the
> range is highlighted in the document. I think that for nearly all use
> cases this should be enough.

Ah, so changing the range expression also jumps towards the target. Yes,
then it is less needed.

But let's have a look at the "default functionality" in the dialog
(pressing ENTER, or double clicking on an entry). Having no "Select
Range" leads to the alternatives ...
      * Going to the Text Field "Name" makes sense visually - it is the
        very next field. But I assume that name changes are less likely
        than checking / modifying the range. Thus, undesired.
      * Going to the Text Field "Range" might make sense from the
        use-case point-of-view. But, we don't have a "default
        functionality" visualization like for buttons. Thus, people
        won't know that easily. Furthermore, using the keyboard and
        jumping to the ranges (the visual check) doesn't work anymore,
        since the focus is moved from the table to the edit field.
      * Avoid to go to any input field / button, but executing "select
        range" (without having such a button). But, user don't see this
        functionality and I don't know whether omitting this button will
        cause problems for accessibility.

To be honest, I don't have a good solution for that (in my opinion)
rather important use case. Do you have an additional idea?

> I hope that beginning of next week the first big part of my work hits
> master. It is only a rough plan and I'll drop you a second note as
> soon as I pushed all my changes and think it is ready for some first
> tests by you.

Cool, thanks!

> Regards,
> Markus
> 
> P.S. Sorry for my bad english but it is again 8 a.m. after a long night coding.

Well, its almost midnight and it sounds perfectly fine for another
German ;-)))

Cheers,
Christoph