Bug 101714 - Option to display comments as pop-ups
Summary: Option to display comments as pop-ups
Status: NEW
Alias: None
Product: LibreOffice
Classification: Unclassified
Component: Writer (show other bugs)
Version:
(earliest affected)
unspecified
Hardware: All All
: medium enhancement
Assignee: Not Assigned
URL:
Whiteboard:
Keywords:
: 117030 153901 (view as bug list)
Depends on:
Blocks: Writer-Comments
  Show dependency treegraph
 
Reported: 2016-08-25 00:05 UTC by Patrick
Modified: 2024-09-02 11:22 UTC (History)
13 users (show)

See Also:
Crash report or crash signature:


Attachments
Screencast of comments in Kingsoft Writer (1.62 MB, video/x-ms-wmv)
2016-10-19 16:36 UTC, Regina Henschel
Details
screencast of comments in MS Word 2010 (1.67 MB, video/x-ms-wmv)
2016-10-19 16:51 UTC, Regina Henschel
Details
Screencast of comments in TextMaker 2012 (2.07 MB, video/x-ms-wmv)
2016-10-19 17:07 UTC, Regina Henschel
Details

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Description Patrick 2016-08-25 00:05:00 UTC

    
Comment 1 Patrick 2016-08-25 00:06:36 UTC
Suggested upgrade - better utilise screen space by making comments appear as pop-up tool tips similar to  comments in Calc.
Comment 2 Buovjaga 2016-09-21 19:37:18 UTC
You are proposing this as an option or a total replacement of the current display style?

Set to NEEDINFO.
Change back to UNCONFIRMED after you have provided the information.
Comment 3 Patrick 2016-10-18 20:59:18 UTC
I am suggesting this as an option. Thanks.
Comment 4 Buovjaga 2016-10-19 08:26:59 UTC
Ok, let's throw this to the UX-Factor judges.
Comment 5 Heiko Tietze 2016-10-19 08:53:09 UTC
Sounds like a lot of work for only a small benefit. Dealing with comments is usually the primary workflow meaning you either write comments and want to see what you do, or your read and change the document accordingly. The suggestion to make it appear on mouse over adds a step to this workflow. It may be relevant when comments are not interesting at the moment. But in this case, when the comments are in the way, it's easy to hide them completely. 

More opinions?
Comment 6 Regina Henschel 2016-10-19 10:48:30 UTC
I think, it would be a good new feature. It would be especially useful, when reading documents on small devices or in webview. Those, who develop for Android or Browser, should have a look at this request too.

I see this feature in Word. But there it is badly implemented, because the remark, which indicates, that there is a comment, affects the layout.

I see this feature in TextMarker too. Its implementation idea to highlight the area, on which the comment is set, is better than the solution of Word. Besides that it uses thin brackets to indicate that a comment exists. But the implementation has some problems, when the comment is not set to a range but at a single spot. TextMarker has the ability to easily switch between showing the comment at the right edge of the document or showing the comment as popup.

I see this feature in KingSoft too. There you can decide between showing only the popup or show both popup and comment text in margin. The range on which the comment is set is enclosed in thin brackets and works too, if the comment is set at a single spot. Switching the modi is inconvenient in KingSoft.

So to sum it up, I support this request. But it needs a careful design.
Comment 7 V Stuart Foote 2016-10-19 12:38:59 UTC
Design for toggling mode between existing margin comments and this "pop-up" must be well implemented. In this mode this can not be simply "mouse-over" driven, as
key would remain ease of navigation between track changes and commenting and being able to toggle either active, supporting all navigation with keyboard actions.
Comment 8 Daveo 2016-10-19 13:42:25 UTC
(In reply to Regina Henschel from comment #6)
> I think, it would be a good new feature. It would be especially useful, when
> reading documents on small devices or in webview. Those, who develop for
> Android or Browser, should have a look at this request too.
> 
> I see this feature in Word. But there it is badly implemented, because the
> remark, which indicates, that there is a comment, affects the layout.
> 
> So to sum it up, I support this request. But it needs a careful design.

This is not a new feature. It was removed and replaced with the "me too, copycat, MS Word look alike" comment side panel several versions ago.

I and at least 2 of my clients, would definitely support making this a user selectable/switchable option.
Comment 9 Regina Henschel 2016-10-19 14:00:04 UTC
It seems, I was not precise enough. I do not speak of the way to edit a comment, but of the fact, that a comment is shown like a tooltip on mouse-over. How to edit a comment, can be solved separate.
Comment 10 Yousuf Philips (jay) (retired) 2016-10-19 14:14:11 UTC
What we call comments in Calc arent equivalent to what we call comments in Writer, as you cant reply to comments in Calc. Calc comments are more like notes, which is why Google sheets allows the inserting of notes and comments into a cell. The bad things i see about a popup comment would be

1) it would cover text in the document (this is why they are hidden by default in calc)

2) it would be quite annoying to appear with mouse over

so like regina and stuart are saying, the implementation would need to planned out and function well in order to be useful.

@Regina: If you could do a screencast of word, textmarker and kingsoft showing there implementations, that would be helpful. :D
Comment 11 Heiko Tietze 2016-10-19 15:28:21 UTC
If the feature is appreciated that much we could think about a sidebar solution like we did for track changes at http://user-prompt.com/de/tracking-changes-with-libreoffice/. The user decide whether he or she wants to see and edit comments by opening the sidebar.
Comment 12 Daveo 2016-10-19 16:20:14 UTC
(In reply to Heiko Tietze from comment #11)
We don't need a sidebar solution. For those who need it, the current margin solution works fine.
Comment 13 Regina Henschel 2016-10-19 16:36:32 UTC
Created attachment 128075 [details]
Screencast of comments in Kingsoft Writer

This is a screen cast of the way Kingsoft (8.1.0.3198) handles comments.
Comment 14 Daveo 2016-10-19 16:40:16 UTC
(In reply to Yousuf Philips (jay) from comment #10)

It is possible to reply to comments in Calc, but the method is slightly different (ie. right click and select "edit comment").

In answer to 1) & 2) There is no reason why mouse over comments in Writer could not be hidden in the same way as they are in Calc now. Obviously, all changes need to be properly planned to function correctly.

Please let's stop copycatting other software and get on with our own solutions. the only time this becomes relevent is for the development of foreign file import/export filters.
Comment 15 Regina Henschel 2016-10-19 16:51:09 UTC
Created attachment 128076 [details]
screencast of comments in MS Word 2010

Notice, that after the comment is inserted, the layout is changed, because the word "Hafenviertel" goes to the next line.
Comment 16 Regina Henschel 2016-10-19 17:07:44 UTC
Created attachment 128077 [details]
Screencast of comments in TextMaker 2012

The toolbar for handling comments is nice. The comment-tooltip is a little bit flickering.
Comment 17 Yousuf Philips (jay) (retired) 2016-10-19 17:58:40 UTC
Thanks for the screencasts Regina. These tooltip comments look exactly like the track change comments we currently have.

(In reply to Dave Barton from comment #14)
> It is possible to reply to comments in Calc, but the method is slightly
> different (ie. right click and select "edit comment").

I had tried that before my last comment but it didnt work for me.
Comment 18 Dieter 2018-04-29 10:45:54 UTC
A similar suggestion was made in bug 117030, that was closed with WORKSFORME. So what about this bug here?
Comment 19 Heiko Tietze 2018-04-30 13:21:24 UTC
(In reply to Dieter Praas from comment #18)
> A similar suggestion was made in bug 117030, that was closed with
> WORKSFORME. So what about this bug here?

My comment 5 is more or less the same as in 117030. I don't see the need for a state between shown and hidden. But will change the reason in the other ticket to duplicate.
Comment 20 Heiko Tietze 2018-04-30 13:21:35 UTC
*** Bug 117030 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 21 Heiko Tietze 2020-10-20 09:37:32 UTC
*** Bug 137497 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 22 Heiko Tietze 2022-02-01 09:35:38 UTC
Widely positive response to the idea, so let's do it. Interesting GSoC project.
Comment 23 Heiko Tietze 2023-03-02 08:28:31 UTC
*** Bug 153901 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 24 Oliver 2024-09-02 11:22:05 UTC
Showing comments as pop-ups when hovering over the commented section had been suggested here in 2016, Microsoft Word is doing this not and the benefit is at once visible when you work on a heavily commented document : the right side panel is then not useful any more, nearly nothing is visible, but hovering over a commented section will show the whole (or at least a large part) of the comment. 
I would be very much in favour for this enhancement.