[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 #3 from Jay Philips <philipz85 at hotmail.com> ---
Created attachment 103420
  --> https://bugs.freedesktop.org/attachment.cgi?id=103420&action=edit
Step 3 - Addition of buttons of highly used features

--------------------------------------------
Step 3 - Addition of buttons of highly used features
--------------------------------------------

The criteria for the inclusion of new buttons, most of which will be button
groups, is governed by the overall usage of the function by users. The first
group of new buttons will be of buttons hidden by default in the toolbars, the
second will contain buttons found in other toolbars, and the third will contain
buttons only accessible by customizing a toolbar.

--------------------------------------------

* Step 3a - Unhiding items found in the toolbars

--------------------------------------------

'Find & Replace' (.uno:SearchDialog) button - The 'Find & Replace' dialog is a
popular dialog window and its button is not hidden by default in OOo. OOo only
has a single dialog window for both Find and Find & Replace, while LibO has a
Find toolbar and Find & Replace dialog. The benefits of having it visible by
default is that it can act as both a Find and a Find & Replace dialog, and i
believe that 25% to 40% of LibO users are accessing its functionality through
the menu bar or from the Find & Replace button in the Find toolbar.

'Script' group button - A group button should be created with the main button
being 'Superscript' (.uno:SuperScript) and 'Subscript' (.uno:SubScript)
underneath it. The two buttons have a toolbar total usage of ~2% though they
are hidden by default and their functionality is still ~54% activated through
the toolbar. With this in the toolbar, it also helps eliminates the need for it
to be in the right-click context menu.

'Line Spacing' group button - A group button should be created with all the
line spacing buttons (.uno:SpacePara1, .uno:SpacePara15, .uno:SpacePara2), as
they have a toolbar total usage of ~1.5%, though they are hidden by default,
and their functionality is 15% to 30% activated through the toolbar. Most users
set this functionality in the 'indents & spacing' tab of paragraph dialog box,
while the next most used means is in the right-click context menu. The main
button should be for single spacing, but in addition to the 1.5 and 2.0, 1.15
should also be added, as it is available in the sidebar, and a more button
should also be its final entry (opening the Paragraph dialog in the 'Indents &
Spacing' tab, and possibly selecting the line spacing drop down). Additional
entries like 2.5 and 3.0 can also be added, as they are available in both
Kingsoft Writer and MS Word. With this in the toolbar, it also helps eliminates
the need for the line spacing submenu in the right-click context menu.

'Text Size Change' button - With ~0.75% of the toolbar total usage for the
hidden Increase Font (.uno:Grow) and Reduce Font (.uno:Shrink) buttons, i'd
recommend the inclusion of a single button with the ability to both increase
and decrease the selected text's font size by one notch, without the need to
open up the font size list. This would also help eliminate the need for the
right-click context menu option to scroll through the font sizes. I can only
guess that a suitable control widget exists that can fulfill this suggestion.

--------------------------------------------

* Step 3b - Adding entries found in other toolbars

--------------------------------------------

'Insert Media' group button - A group button for the insertion of media files
including images, sounds and videos. The main button would of course be the
insertion of an image from a file (.uno:InsertGraphic), as it is the 2nd
highest added element to a document. Underneath entries will include the
addition of an image from the gallery (.uno:Gallery), image from fontwork
gallery (.uno:FontworkGalleryFloater), image from a scanner
(.uno:TwainTransfer), and an audio/video from a file (.uno:InsertAVMedia). The
gallery button from the toolbar would be removed, a gallery item would be added
to the View and/or Insert menus [bug 80545], and ideally a close button could
be added to the gallery popdown. (buttons taken from the insert toolbar)

'Insert Internal Link' group button - A group button for the insertion of links
within a document. The main button will be for insert footnote
(.uno:InsertFootnote), as it has the highest usage amongst these various link
options. Underneath entries will include insert endnote (.uno:InsertEndnote),
insert bookmark (.uno:InsertBookmark), insert cross-reference
(.uno:InsertReferenceField), insert index entry (.uno:InsertIndexesEntry),
insert bibliography entry (.uno:InsertAuthoritiesEntry) and insert index/TOC
(.uno:InsertMultiIndex). (buttons taken from the insert toolbar)

'Insert Object' group button - A group button for the insertion of objects into
a document. I think the main button should be insert chart
(.uno:InsertObjectChart) which is in second place in this category of buttons,
but the numbers show that more users use insert formula
(.uno:InsertObjectStarMath). Underneath entries will include insert file
(.uno:InsertDoc), insert OLE (.uno:InsertObject), and insert plugin
(.uno:InsertPlugin). (buttons taken from the insert toolbar)

'Special Character' (.uno:InsertSymbol) button - The button is the most popular
button in the insert toolbar and overall is more popular than the Non-printing
Characters button. As such, it deserves a dedicated button in the menu or
alternatively a group button with a set of popular special characters (e.g.
currency symbols, intellectual property symbols, greek letters, fractions, math
symbols, emoticons, arrows, etc) and a more button to open up its regular
dialog box.

'Comment' (.uno:InsertAnnotation) button - It is the 5th most popular button in
the insert toolbar and will normally represents the reviewing of a document.
This button could be converted into a group button and have underneath entries
focused on the document review process like Edit > Changes menu entries
('Record Changes' .uno:TrackChanges, 'Show Changes' .uno:ShowTrackedChanges,
'Accept or Reject' .uno:AcceptTrackedChanges, 'Merge Documents'
.uno:MergeDocuments, 'Prevent' .uno:ProtectTraceChangeMode) and the Edit >
Compare Document (.uno:CompareDocuments) entry.

'Insert Fields' (.uno:InsertFieldCtrl) button - With this group button being
the 6th most popular button in the insert toolbar and having a toolbar total
usage of 23% and inserting a field being more used than drawing a line or
merging cells in a table, i believe this button deserves a spot on the default
toolbar, as 96% of users go to the menu to access this functionality. The order
of popularity of the buttons underneath entries are Page Number, Date, Page
Count, Time, Title, Author, Topic, and i think it can be sorted this way. Some
other entries that i thought can be added to this list are Subject, Chapter
(Name, Number), and File Name.

Note: It was my intention to include buttons from the drawing toolbar in this
section, but toolbar space wasnt sufficient, so the 'Show Draw Functions'
(.uno:InsertDraw) button has been re-added to the toolbar.

--------------------------------------------

* Step 3c - Adding entries found by customizing toolbars

--------------------------------------------

'Save' group button - The sixth most used function in Writer is 'Save As'
(.uno:SaveAs) and ~97% of users go into the File menu in order to activate this
option, so the 'Save' (.uno:Save) button, which is the third most used
function, should be converted into a group button. The underneath entries
should be popular formats like odt, fdot, docx, doc, and rtf. If pdf was also
added to this list, it would be possible to remove the 'Export Directly to PDF'
(.uno:ExportDirectToPDF) button from the toolbar.

'Character Line' group button - The underline (.uno:Underline) button is the
2nd most frequently used button in the formatting toolbar (42% toolbar total
usage) and it should be converted into a group button with alternative means of
placing lines on characters. Entries underneath should include Strike Through
(.uno:Strikeout), Double Underline (.uno:UnderlineDouble) and Overline
(.uno:Overline). With each of these three underneath entries, over 50% of users
apply these lines using the Font Effects tab of the Character dialog
(.uno:FontDialog), while the next group of users apply it with the context menu
or keyboard shortcut, and the remainder of users apply it by adding the button
to the toolbar. The last entry of the drop down should a 'more options' button,
which jumps into the Character dialog's Font Effects tab.

'Font Effects' group button - The Character dialog (.uno:FontDialog) is the 7th
most popular dialog window and its second most popular tab is the Font Effects
tab. The second most popular reason users visit this tab, is to enable direct
formatting font effects like shadow (.uno:Shadowed), outline
(.uno:OutlineFont), relief (embossed and engraved) and case effects (small
capitals). Half of users enable shadow and outline through the right-click
context menu and the other half enable it from the Fonts Effects tab, while
~1.35% enable the buttons in the toolbar. The default button should be shadow
as it has the most usage amongst these various effects. I believe this group
button will be expanded in the future to include more font effects, including
those from ms office 2010 and above. I think that the drop case
(.uno:FormatDropcap) paragraph feature might also be a good candidate for
inclusion in this group button. Having this button would help eliminate the
need for the right-click context menu style submenu.

--------------------------------------------

With the removal of many buttons and the inclusion of new ones, it is important
to finalize the toolbars by re-arranging the buttons into useful groups. So
i've arranged the standard toolbar into sections for file open & save, print,
copy & paste, undo & redo, functions, and insert. With the formattting toolbar
i've arranged it into sections for font styles/face/size, font effects, colors,
bullets & indentation, and paragraph features.

-- 
You are receiving this mail because:
You are on the CC list for the bug.