Bug 115645

"deleting comments, even with track changes enabled, should fully delete the comment" is WontFix because it's contrary to Track Changes. Similar option doesn't exist AFAIK, so I wouldn't go that way. 

But what you ask could be achieved otherwise. 
Comment knows when it's deleted, there's no "Delete" on it's menu. 
So we could instead (just on tracked deleted comments) add menu item "Remove All Deleted Comments". 
Since this command just replaces 3 clicks with turning on/off Track Changes, I'll set to Low Enhancement.

So the question is rather if comments should be taken into TC at all. Do competitors track comments?

Btw, placing with TC enabled and deleted comments crashes the application quickly. Cannot say what steps exactly are needed but probably is clicking at the TC sidebar involved, which should then also be relevant for the Manage Changes dialog.

> Do competitors track comments?

Yes, Word does it. If you want to delete a tracked comment for real, why don't you accept the comment deletion change?

(In reply to Timur from comment #1)
> ... fully delete the comment" is WontFix because it's contrary to Track Changes.

(In reply to Miklos Vajna from comment #3)
> > Do competitors track comments?
> 
> Yes, Word does it. ...why don't you accept the comment deletion change?

So let's keep the current behavior.

I don't see how one can accept comment deletion only. 
Imagine 25 TC deleted comments you want to remove, what do you do exactly? I think that WontFix (meaning Should Never be Fixed, even if there's a dev) is wrong.

Hi,
Apologies, I missed the other comments on this post.
I agree with another commenter that 'wontfix' is wrong.
Firstly, in my view this doesn't conflict with track changes behaviour - track changes is used (certainly for me) to track changes to document content - not to track changes to comments (which it currently doesn't do - it won't show you how one has changed, other than refusing to delete it).

Secondly, if the aim here was to ensure consistency with how changes are tracked in content, then LibreOffice should do that for comments too, rather than arbitrarily decreeing that they can't be deleted.
That would mean including an option to 'accept changes' to changed comments, including deletions. Which currently doesn't exist.

Of course if there are technical reasons why this isn't possible please let us know!
Thanks

Created attachment 182559 [details]
Non-straightforward sample

1. It's possible to accept a tracked comment deletion by right-clicking around where the comment is placed in the text, and choosing Accept Change.

2. This isn't always straightforward. In the attached sample, the comment and the surrounding text is deleted in one go (eg. by selecting the whole paragraph, and hitting Del/backspace). In this case there'd be no way to finalize only the comment removal, as the whole deletion is a single change.

With TC enabled deletions are marked only. We could
a) have a different behavior for comments
b) introduce an option
c) accept the situation and reject the request

Clear disadvantage for a) is inconsistency. Not just between text and comments but also in comparison with other applications. I could imagine some users run TC without showing the changes (Edit > Track Changes > [x] Record and Edit > Track Changes > [ ] Show) and would be disappointed if we change the tracking.

Which brings us to b). Don't think an option like "[ ] Delete comments without tracking changes" makes sense. It's bulky and very specific. But what could work is to switch off TC per content type and disabled Comments, Tables, Images, Frames etc. completely. Not exactly what is requested here but has the advantage of a band-aid for TC related bugs on tables, see bug 143002.

And last but not least c). The supposed workflow is to _resolve_ commands rather than deleting it. You can decide whether resolved comments are shown, and deleting it is possible anyway. Besides, after deleting a comment it's just a click away to accept this change. Do we need to put that much effort in it?

(In reply to Aron Budea from comment #9)
> Created attachment 182559 [details]
> Non-straightforward sample
> 
> 1. It's possible to accept a tracked comment deletion by right-clicking
> around where the comment is placed in the text, and choosing Accept Change.
> 
> 2. This isn't always straightforward. In the attached sample, the comment
> and the surrounding text is deleted in one go (eg. by selecting the whole
> paragraph, and hitting Del/backspace). In this case there'd be no way to
> finalize only the comment removal, as the whole deletion is a single change.

Related, IMHO: bug 151084

In comment 1 I proposed to add comment menu item "Remove All Deleted Comments" on tracked deleted comments.

(In reply to Heiko Tietze from comment #4)
> So let's keep the current behavior.

yep.

(In reply to Timur from comment #13)
> In comment 1 I proposed to add comment menu item "Remove All Deleted
> Comments" on tracked deleted comments.

Would be a good addition IMO.

We discussed the topic in the design meeting. The suggested command with the label "Remove All Deleted Comments" sounds like a convenient way to get rid of the deleted comments by accepting all. It should be visible only in TC mode and be available at the context menu and the TC toolbar.

The supposed (and similarly easy) workflow is to "Resolve" a comment and hide those (View > [ ] Resolved Comments). Making this a very low priority.

(In reply to Timur from comment #13)
> In comment 1 I proposed to add comment menu item "Remove All Deleted
> Comments" on tracked deleted comments.

1. Shouldn't that be named "Accept all comment deletion changes"?
2. Maybe what you want is to _hide_ the comments marked deleted, independently of whether other tracked changes are shown or not?

Please update this bug's title to say what the current ask is. It _is_ possible to permanently delete comments with TC enabled.

*** Bug 151848 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Thanks, would love to see some movement on this!
Cheers,
Nick