[Libreoffice-ux-advise] F4 in spreadsheet

[Astron]

Hi,


I'd love if Olivier would answer... there were so many (wildly
different) proposals here.

Now,I don't really like the idea of shipping with several different
key binding tables (we already ship with two, as far as I know -- if
that hasn't changed in the meantime as Christoph indicated). I also
don't think we should ape Microsoft Office in all respects (yes, it's
the big competitor and people will measure LibO by its standards [1]),
but the thing is we already use that key binding for something else.
And if we alienate users at all, we shouldn't alienate existing users
(they have little to gain here, I think).
Also, even though some may wish Base be gone [2], it's still alive
today (maybe not exactly kicking, though).
What we should take away from Olivier's message is that it
> Seems that when formatting many cells with the same format, "Repeat" on a single key is a must...

And Ctrl-Shift-Y is both complicated and unintuitive. My point is the
one from the beginning: why not F3?
I don't want to bore anyone but here are three advantages:
* it's close enough that Excel users might discover it by accident and
might even get it into muscle memory quickly
* no global key binding has to be reassigned
* it's quick easy, and though maybe not the most intuitive, it is at
least fairly memorisable.


> Kohei (as far as I know) added another "compatibility" pane to the
> options dialog. This dialog "Excel-fies" some keybindings in a rush. In
> a company (controlled rollout, stable user settings) this should work
> very good.

Is that what is called the "LibreOffice" key bindings table or is
there a new key bindings table in 3.5? If there already is a new, the
damage (yes, that depends on point of view) is probably done and
Repeat/F4 should be added.


>      * optional: move the compatibility functionality to "Tools -
>        Customize" (basically, I assume it is a "Load..." keyboard
>        settings) so that other modules benefit as well

I hadn't thought of this, even though when I started with my Options
revamp ideas project (in hibernation, not dead!) I thought of maybe
Tools > Options/General as a good place for a (global) key bindings
option. Your idea is probably better.


> Personally, I think this would keep LibreOffice clean on the one side,
> but would allow others to quickly tweak the setting if a migration is
> needed. But we should have in mind that doing something like that causes
> pain for those who change between LibreOffice installations with
> different configuration (and sadly, keybindings are something you don't
> see if you execute it blindly ... surprise, surprise).

Configurability comes with a price. We should restart the "good
defaults" project and then we should try to work to make LibreOffice
less flexible (striking a balance, obviously, so that it still remains
powerful).


Regards,

Astron.



[1] That is, unless we do something crazy, useful and differentiating
which is probably the point where LibO as a product would become
relevant even on its own.
[2] http://blog.documentfoundation.org/2011/07/21/developer-interview-tor-lillqvist/