Minutes from the UX/design meeting 2025-Apr-23

[Heiko Tietze]

Present: Eyal, Heiko
Comments: Miklos, Stuart, Mike


Tickets/Topics

  * EPUB output requires metadata to be entered each time
    + https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=166016
    + epub identifier is meant to be a UUID (Miklos)
      + not always, sometimes also DOI, see tdf#138792 (Stuart)
    + unclear why data should be entered at all - if we can pull it from
      available meta-data sources (Eyal)
    + Users needing persistence should pre-populate via their
      template work flows; populate and expose values during
      export for author review (Stuart)
    + The 'Author' name pulled in right now is a valud we are missing
      the UI for changing; and the UI we do have for changing the
      author does not get pulled to the EPUB export dialog; this is
      a problem from the user's perspective (Eyal)
    + "Cover image" (and other info) should be stored in the parent
      document; so we need a UI or some way to enter these info (Eyal)
    + we should not store alien attributes in ODT and either remember
      the last entered data or keep it empty (Heiko)
    + "Language" should be handled like other extra data with some
      field at the document properties - since, at this point, we
      do not actually set the language of any content in documents (Eyal)
    + In some cases, we now show a date value of all-zeros - probably when
      the document has never been saved; should have a better fallback
      for this case, e.g. the current date-and-time (Eyal)
    + the field should rather be kept empty (Heiko)
    + "Date" should be visualized via date picker; maybe with an extra
      button to refresh from the time of document creation (Eyal, Heiko)
  => comment

  * Filename is corrupted when saved as and change filter
    + https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=166052
    + different behavior on Windows and it works as expected;
      saving a Writer and Calc document with the name "2025.04.06 testdata"
      adds odt/ods or docx/xlsx, etc. after the testdata and changes only
      this part (Heiko)
    + check against known formats (Mike) at least if it contains
      a space (Stuart)
    + Whatever the behavior - it has to be fully consistent (Eyal)
  => back to QA, recommendation to follow Mike's suggestion

  * Feature request - preference setting to disable or turn off
    opening screen that defaults to Recent Documents
    + https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=166026
    * suggest to either hide recent documents in the SC or to start
      with the templates; and have this as an expert option (Heiko)
    + could also be under Tools -> Options -> General or View (Stuart)
    + templates could be more interesting to more people, eg. to quickly
      create a new document from a template; therefore rather as
      regular option (Eyal)
  => do so

  * Need ability to anchor a callout endpoint to a piece of text
    or other content
    + https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=165971
    + sounds like gluepoint (Heiko) but isn't (Eyal)
    + anchor of the call-out should be either 'as character' or
      to an established anchor point on shape object (Stuart)
    + still not true: The desired behavior on movement of text for
      a callout and for an anchored-as-character object is often
      different.
    + Will try to create a screencast to better illustrate the
      use case (Eyal)
    + callouts are not easy to connect to other objects, true; but
      these objects are custom shapes anyway and thereby just special
      shapes with no option to connect
    + Callouts are actually a different feature than custom shapes,
      which we don't quite have; and we currently use smart-art callout-ish
      shapes as an emulation for actual callouts; perhaps the bug should
      be focus on that rather on trying to force the custom shapes
      to be more flexible (Eyal)
  => AI: Eyal reconsider to keep the ticket

  * Apply style:script-type when users manually set a language
    for a run containing weak characters
    + https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=166012
    + should happen under the hood, agree with the request (Stuart)
    + mockup attached; thinking about auto vs manual resp. reverting
      changes - it might be not necessary
    + option is only relevant and meant for weak characters (Eyal)
      More far-reaching/fundamental changes regarding setting of
      language, font<->language associations, the boundaries of
      language groups etc. are covered by other bugs, while this is
      an opportunity for a limited incremental change which would
      improve behavior in the imperfect "paradigm" we live in right
      now (Eyal)
      + propose to apply the style:script-type for all characters
        and accept the odds such as non-available characters in
        the font (Heiko)
      + the semantics of the tag mean that even if you set it for all
        characters, it will only apply to the "weak" characters (Eyal)
    + This is likely to improve MSO/OOXML compatibility issues,
      like bug 132000 (Eyal)
    + Initially at least, we should avoid significant changes to the UI
      for this, and control and indicate it via the status bar language
      area, and Tools > Language on the menus (Eyal)
    + Clear DF should work on this attribute - with our current
      "language is formatting" paradigm. When we drop that paradigm,
      clearing DF should _not_ affect the language choice of any
      text; but that is for the future. (Eyal)
  => appreciate any progress
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