[Libreoffice-ux-advise] [Bug 81475] Meta: enhancing Writer's standard and formatting toolbars

[bugzilla-daemon at freedesktop.org]

https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=81475

--- Comment #7 from Mirek2 <mazelm at gmail.com> ---
Hi Jay,
That's quite a mouthful. I'll try to comment on all of it.

For starters, though, I'd like to point out that the current contextual
("formatting") toolbars are supplemented by the Properties pane in the sidebar.
Thus, a reorganization of any of these toolbars should take this pane into
account as well.

In general, the purpose of each of the UI elements is as follows:
* The Standard toolbar should serve as the starting point for everything not
pertaining to the current selection. It has a long way to get there, but that
is the goal. (Note that this should be solved not by cramming everything into
the toolbar, but by clever design. Modern browsers, Gnome 3, elementary OS,
iOS, and Android apps prove that this can be done.)
* Contextual ("formatting") toolbars provide quick access to commonly-used
commands related to the selection.
* The Properties pane should provide access to all commands pertaining to the
current selection, replacing formatting dialogs in the long run.

It's also notable that split buttons should be used when a) one button in a
group is much more commonly used than the others, or b) the button is a
shortcut to a command and the menu allows the user to tweak the command's
function. For groups of buttons that are all used with the same relative
frequency, a drop-down menu should be used instead, as it provides a larger
target area and is therefore easier to click. Groups should hold at least 3
buttons -- 2 buttons are not worth grouping.

I'm not sure if by "group buttons", you mean split buttons or drop-down menus,
so I'll suggest the ones that I think are fitting below.

Now I'll comment on the specifics:

Step 1
======
* +1 for removing everything you listed (provided all the changes required for
getting rid of "Edit File" happen)
* Additionally, I would propose to either get rid of the "Font Name" dropdown
or at least condense it into a drop-down menu with an icon. It's bad practice
both to use more than 3 fonts per document and to hard-format fonts instead of
using styles.

Step 2
======
a)
* +1 to having a "Word functions" split button
* I disagree with having a Spelling menu item -- the current approach that lets
you work with the selection, the paragraph, or all text makes much more sense
to me.
* Not keen on building Google or Bing into LibO. Wouldn't mind extensions for
this, though.
* Error navigation is better suited for the "Navigate by" feature.

b)
* Given that several of the alignment options are commonly used, I would not
make them into a group button. Because we have the Properties pane now, we
should just have individual buttons for the more important features in the
toolbar.
* The same with "Bullets and Numbering".

Step 3
======
a)
* I'm torn about whether to add "Find" or "Find and Replace". Though "Ctrl+F"
is relatively well-known, 15% of users used the toolbar button (more than
"Undo", "Cut", "Copy", or "Paste"). The toolbar is also more comfortable to
use, already links to "Find and Replace" if it's needed, and has navigation
features not found in the dialog. I'm also hoping some basic replace
functionality will be added to the toolbar.
* Subscript/superscript should be individual buttons. (There's space freed by
the "Font name" removal suggested above.)
* A "Line Spacing" drop-down menu sounds good.
* A single "Size Change" button would be hard to implement, it would feel alien
as it's not a native widget, and the small version would be hard to target.
It'd be preferable to replace the font size combo box (which shouldn't be used
anyway -- styles should be used for sizing text) with "Increase font size" and
"Decrease font size" buttons. Clicking one of these buttons should show the new
font size in a tooltip below the button.

b)
* An "Insert Media" group doesn't seem necessary to me. It's extremely unlikely
for sounds or videos to be inserted into documents, spreadsheets, or drawings,
and, from my own experience, it's pretty rare for presentations. The Gallery is
in the sidebar and shouldn't have a toolbar button (see [Bug 73151]). Fontwork
should basically never be used. The only buttons remaining are Insert Image
("From File...") and "Scan Image" -- the former should be in the toolbar, the
latter is, IMHO, not used frequently enough to warrant its own button.

I'll comment on the rest later.

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