[Libreoffice-ux-advise] [Bug 90646] Remove "Style & Formatting" from sidebar

[bugzilla-daemon at bugs.documentfoundation.org]

https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=90646

--- Comment #8 from Jay Philips <philipz85 at hotmail.com> ---
(In reply to Tomaz Vajngerl from comment #2)
> (In reply to Jay Philips from comment #1)
> > Totally agree with you that it to complex for the average user and is geared
> > towards the power/advanced user. 
> 
> Which is already a problem - as we should encourage average users to use
> styles.

We definitely should encourage them to use styles, but doubt the styles &
formatting tab would be the place to do it, though simplifying the initial view
of the tab would be useful. I personally like MS Word's initial view of showing
a recommended list of both paragraph and character styles and the easy ability
to enable and disable style previews.

http://img-aws.ehowcdn.com/default/cme/photography.prod.demandstudios.com/9d4dd6bd-c8cf-4fc4-a385-ccd1b671ae6a.png

> > It is somewhat context aware, as the list switches from paragraph styles to
> > frame styles when you click on an image. But then writer doesnt have shape
> > styles which impress does.
> 
> OK, it is not context aware enough. :)

Definitely not enough, as if you have set the paragraph style to default and
the character style to emphasis, it wont think to switch to character styles.

> It doesn't have shape styles but does have shapes. I think there is a bug
> about this already.

There has never been shape styles, just like there has never been table styles,
so i dont think its a bug but likely just a limitation of text documents. But
we should still have an easy means of users selecting from an inbuild set of
styles.

> > Dont think that adding the functionality into a dialog will reduce the
> > complexity of styles.
> 
> I think all the managing of the styles should go into a modal dialog, where
> you can rearrange and modify the styles however you like, and can't screw up
> the style hierarchy so easily.

Presently we already have a dialog to add/edit styles, so would this new styles
management dialog encompass the current dialog, as i'd assume people would hate
to have to jump from management dialog to style dialog to work with styles.

> As for the sidebar we need to come up with an
> alternative, where only a relevant list of styles is shown (and stuff like
> drag and drop is not possible). Either that or we move them to the right
> places in the properties section.

I think the MS Word way would be the best. It default to show a list of
'Recommended' styles, which is the same list which appears in the ribbon UI,
though you can change which styles are shown.

https://wordknowhow.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/untitled.jpg

The style list is sorted 'As Recommended' but is be changed.

http://www.java2s.com/Tutorial/Microsoft-Office-Word-2007Images/Change_Styles_Pane_Options___Then_Select_Styles_You_Want_To_Show.PNG

When you mouse over the entry in the list, it shows the style info in a
tooltip.

http://addbalance.com/usersguide/images/stylesFPane2010.gif

> > This would only be applicable to writer, as calc has cell styles and
> > impress/draw have graphic styles. There is a bug report for it (bug 73071).
> 
> Sure, I just looked at writer - but in general the same applies for calc,
> impress and draw. 

Not completely as writer has 2 types of styles and calc/impress/draw only have
a single type of style which isnt character or paragraph, so it couldnt be put
into the character or paragraph sections of the properties tab.

> > I assume if we bundle more image styles that people can choose from, then it
> > maybe useful to have it in the image properties section.
> 
> Which would only make sense... our bundled defaults are really poor. 

I see this as one of the reasons why people dont use styles in LO.

> > We dont have a dedicated numbering properties section and we do have easy
> > numbering options, so i'm not sure how often numbering styles are used.
> 
> If there is no numbering properties section, we can add it in the sidebar at
> the place where other options are available (additional pop-up).

The paragraph section has numbering properties, but its just limited to split
buttons for bullets and numbering. With a dedicated numbering section, we could
integrate the level management buttons from the 'Bullets and Numbering' toolbar
into the section.

(In reply to Tomaz Vajngerl from comment #4)
> I like how iWork Pages does Paragraph Styles so with that inspiration I
> created a new Styles section where the current style is shown, but the idea
> is that you could change the style there to (pop-up). I can work on this, if
> you think this is a good idea.

Yes i also do like iWork's sidebar and have used it as inspiration to the many
sidebar mockups i've done (attachment 109496, attachment 106594). I think a
styles section would be a useful step forward in writer's sidebar and it should
contain drop downs for both paragraph and character styles. Hopefully this
section can be used as in the future as a means of setting style sets as well.
I dont think the paragraph style drop down needs to be as huge as in iWorks and
when i did the this mockup (attachment 109496), i took into consideration alot
of factors to end up at that height, though it could be slightly longer. The
character style drop down should be similar to the height of other drop downs
in the sidebar (e.g. font name).

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