[Libreoffice-ux-advise] Template manager issues pending

[Mirek M.]

Hi Michel, everyone,

On Sat, May 11, 2013 at 12:59 AM, Michel Renon <michel.renon at free.fr> wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> Le 10/05/2013 17:06, Cor Nouws a écrit :
>
>  Hi all,
>>
>> Worked myself through the list with template related issues and - apart
>> from all great progress - found a few that are still open. And with 4.1
>> approaching rapidly...
>> 60589 - [Template manager]: Can not copy styles between different files
>> and templates
>>
>>
> I would say that the only one being able to work on that is Mirek : as he
> strongly designed the new Template Manager, he must know how to do that.
> *why is Mirek silent for such a long time on this subject ?*
>
> As I really don't understand how the new Template Manager was designed, I
> absolutely have no idea how to correct that bug in the new Template Manager.
>

So, a few things to clear up:
* I've been silent because I have been missing my own computer. (For the
past month or so, I've been borrowing computers and it was quite hard to be
productive.) That's been solved yesterday.
* The way the template manager is now is miles away from the proposed
design. The proposed design was a simple iCloud/Gnome Documents-like
template launcher with a two level hierarchy. [1][2] The current
implementation is a more conventional complex Explorer-like file manager
with unlimited hierarchy. Given that I wasn't in favor of the shift in
focus to organizing templates rather than creating new documents from
templates, I'm not the best person to design for the dialog.

>
> My only proposal is based on something existing :
> (I just saw it has already been proposed by Raphael on 09/04/2013)
> in the "Styles & Formatting" window, there are buttons on top. In Writer,
> there is even a popup with an action "Load Styles..." :
> It opens a dialog that has nearly what you need :
> - the list of categories of templates, then the list of templates
> - it can copy some styles from the selected template to the current
> document.
>
> My idea is to simply extend it by integrating code from old template
> manager (v3.6). As those dialogs seems similar, I suppose it should not
> require a complete rewrite.
>
> Then, maybe add this action ("Load Styles...") in "Styles & Formatting"
> for Calc, Impress and Draw.
>
>
> If you think it might be a solution, then I can make a more precise
> proposal.


The dialog seems to support only a two level hierarchy, so it's not
compatible with the current template manager folder structure.
I would propose just having separate "Load Styles from Template" and "Load
Styles from File" entries in the Styles and Formatting menu, with the
former launching the Template manager, but without a toolbar and with
"Cancel" and "Load" buttons at the bottom right, and the latter launching
the Open dialog.


>  61396 - FILEOPEN: [Template Manager]Possibility to edit a template that
>> is not in the repository, is lacking
>>
>>
> I saw a comment with the proposal :
> "when a user does "Open" from the "File" menu and selects a template, then
> LO should open the template" ; instead of creating a new file from the
> template".
> It seems to be a coherent behavior : the user selects the command "open"
> so LO must open. When the user selects "new from template", then LO must
> create a new file from a template.
>

Sounds good.


>
> If you really want to prevent modification of bad file, maybe add an
> dialog asking confirmation : "Do you really want to open the template
> 'test.ott' ? or create a new file from this template ?"
>

Perhaps an infobar might be better?

>
>  and related
>> 59427 -  [Template Manager] low discoverability of new template manager
>> - we could use "File → Organize templates" menu
>>
>
> I agree
>

[1] http://ia.net/blog/mountain-lions-new-file-system/
[2] https://live.gnome.org/Design/Apps/Documents
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