[Libreoffice-ux-advise] LO's styles are more confusing then MSO's (Was Re: some thoughts on the Sidebar)

[Pedro]

Hi Jean-Francois


Jean-Francois Nifenecker wrote
> Yes, for sure. But changing a style is extensive: the changes apply
> throughout the document, whereas a local format is, well, local.
> IOW, changing a style is worth the few extra clicks, if any and setting
> direct formatting is actually requiring many more clicks 

You don't need to explain to me the advantages of styles vs direct
formatting. But your argument fails in one small detail: it is only valid if
the user wants to CHANGE the formatting at a later stage. Otherwise it is
MUCH faster to use direct formatting.


Jean-Francois Nifenecker wrote
> (you forgot to multiply the local formatting clicks by the number of local
> settings).

No, I didn't. 
Example: if you want to change a word to Bold you just press the B button.
If you create a Bold word style you still need to select the word, switch to
the Styles and Formatting sidebar, click on the "Character Styles", locate
the "Strong Emphasis" style in the list (which is very unlikely to be found
for two reasons: it doesn't contain the word Bold, which is probably what a
new user is looking for AND it isn't sorted alphabetically, which makes it
even harder to find...)
And you have to do this for every word regardless of using direct formatting
or styles.

So from an UX perspective, LO still has a long way to go if it wants to sell
the Styles approach...

To be honest the Microsoft approach is much more efficient: when you press
the Bold button, the Style is automatically changed to Normal+Bold which
allows you to modify the Style for all Bold word at a later stage...

Maybe LO should make the buttons have the same effect? From a user
perspective it is applying a direct formatting but in the background it is
creating and applying Styles...

Just my 2 cents ;)



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