I've spent a few days to find out how to import a PDF into LibreOffice impress. Every time I opened Impress and pressed File > Open and have chosen a PDF, the PDF was opened with Draw instead of Impress. This is not a good user experience. I was expecting it to open in Impress, too. Nevertheless, I found out with the help of the people in the IRC, that I need to specify the file type correctly "PDF ... (Impress)". The file types are ordered in the wrong way. I just found "PDF ... (Writer)", but there was no "PDF ... (Impress)" around it (I thought it was sorted by name, but it wasn't!). A separation of the file types from the actual application would be really worth it, since the list of file types is really long. Other applications customize therefore the native dialog by adding a second combobox or similar. I found out that you already have a full customization ("Use libreoffice dialogs"), but there it still isn't separated.
Yes, the drop list of File Type with separators (both in the OS , and in the native LibreOffice dialogs) can be a little unclear. Once you *know* it is there is it trivial to make the correct selection for the intended filter. Unfortunately because we handle so many file formats and alternative import filters, the question is if there is a need for benefit of our Benjamin user to have a more descriptive GUI? I am not sure it is worth it. We defer by default to the OS/DE to handle the "File Type" choice for opening/filter import. While our "native" LibreOffice dialog GUI is kept pretty generic. Is it worth putting effort into the dialog when we only keep that as a fall back for specialized use (e.g. CMIS).
(In reply to V Stuart Foote from comment #1) > Yes, the drop list of File Type with separators (both in the OS , and in the > native LibreOffice dialogs) can be a little unclear. Once you *know* it is > there is it trivial to make the correct selection for the intended filter. > > Unfortunately because we handle so many file formats and alternative import > filters, the question is if there is a need for benefit of our Benjamin user > to have a more descriptive GUI? It probably is, when I heared about the solution I already thought "I already did this a few years ago.". The problem is that PDF import is not a thing you do every day. You do it once a year or maybe twice usually. This lets the user forget the solution again. I'm also not used to even select a file type in such dialogs. It would therefore be probably even better, if a following dialog appears (after selecting the file) which lets you choose which application should open it. > I am not sure it is worth it. More usability is always worth it. Really. > We defer by default to the OS/DE to handle the > "File Type" choice for opening/filter import. While our "native" LibreOffice > dialog GUI is kept pretty generic. Is it worth putting effort into the > dialog when we only keep that as a fall back for specialized use (e.g. CMIS). I don't know, but many users will think it is not possible to import PDFs into impress or writer because of that. Searching the web does not lead to a solution. Only direct contact does. Importing foreign file formats is a good feature that should be promoted better to the outside.
(In reply to Daniel B. from comment #2) >... > I'm also not used to even select a file type in such dialogs. It would > therefore be probably even better, if a following dialog appears (after > selecting the file) which lets you choose which application should open it. > No, this would just be visual noise for the majority of users, any selection would need to be on the same Open dialog--and of course that does nothing for the OS/DE provided GUI.
(In reply to V Stuart Foote from comment #3) > (In reply to Daniel B. from comment #2) > >... > > I'm also not used to even select a file type in such dialogs. It would > > therefore be probably even better, if a following dialog appears (after > > selecting the file) which lets you choose which application should open it. > > > > No, this would just be visual noise for the majority of users, any selection > would need to be on the same Open dialog--and of course that does nothing > for the OS/DE provided GUI. I agree with that. But then again, why do Impress, Writer, Draw, ... open each other at all? I mean when I want to open a file with Impress, I press File > Open in Impress. I do not expect to get Draw then. I searched for a while in Draw for the presentation mode to finally notice that I'm not in Impress anymore. The applications are just too similar.
(In reply to Daniel B. from comment #4) > I agree with that. But then again, why do Impress, Writer, Draw, ... open > each other at all? I mean when I want to open a file with Impress, I press > File > Open in Impress. I do not expect to get Draw then. I searched for a > while in Draw for the presentation mode to finally notice that I'm not in > Impress anymore. The applications are just too similar. Back in time there was a all-in-once mindset in software development with the idea that users must not care about software but files. That changed with mobile devices where apps are paramount now. Personally I'm with you and would never think about Impress, for instance, when opening a file in Writer. But keep also in mind that we have a start center offering access to data via recent files, templates, and file open dialog disregarding what type of file is being opened. And there it makes sense to show all file types. Nobody is happy with the current situation, so what can we do (except to break the workflow with extra dialogs)? 1. Ignore the particular file types that are shown anyway in the overall option (e.g. text documents vs. odt,ott,sxw,doc... etc.) 2. Separate file types in the current module from the foreign types by HR (e.g. text,...,-, other) 3. Separate access to module specific files and other types by two different dialogs (e.g. Open..., Open other...) 4. Provide a system option to enhance the dialog with foreign file types ([x] Show foreign file types in open dialogs); this option could also be included into the file dialog 5. Introduce a tree like selection But actually you shouldn't need to care. The original issue is to _import_ PDF in Impress. So we should rather make this workflow clear, for example with the additional menu item "Import...". So my choice would be #3.
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