In the pages style dialog, there are radio buttons for the page orientation - I keep wanting to click on the image! Suggest allow changing the page orientation, by clicking on page image in the page style dialog. Possibly the image could have two small curved arrows to suggest it could be turned (suggested by buovjaga on IRC). Probably best to keep the 2 existing radio buttons, to avoid discombobulating experienced users.
Gavin also threw in the idea that the visual clues might only appear upon hover.
We prefer "boring" controls because of accessibility. Screen readers do not know about an image and the mnemonics are also suboptimal. Having two ways of user input is acceptable from the a11y POV but where else do we have this type of interaction? IMHO this is a WF. Other opinions? (component UI -> Writer)
Hmm, the thumbnail preview widget already responds to setting any of the values--Format, Width, Height, Orientation, Text direction, Margins and Layout. Guess it would be possible to make the preview thumbnail active--but I would not remove any of the existing controls--they are sequenced for keyboar only use and a11y. But does it make sense to do so just for the page orientation? Might margins be dragable. Note that the same Page Style dialog, in the Borders dialog, we already have the Line Arrangement User-defined preview. That thumbnail widget s active--its sequence of "check-box" events are graphically shown in its preview frame with rendering responding to setting the Line: Style, Width, and Color values on the same dialog tab.
We talked about this idea in the design meeting. Real previews are never interactive in LibreOffice. So the decision was to not recommend this enhancement (or change). Anyway, thanks for sharing the ideas.
I don't consider the image of the page orientation a real preview, but as an indication of how the page is orientated. A tomato is technically a berry, but most people don't call them berries! So while in you design lexicon you call it a preview, it does not have to be treated as one! In programming, meaningful names a Good Thing (TM) - however, sometimes systematic naming is far more appropriate (I first had this insight when I was a COBOL programmer) - so insisting on using meaningful names everywhere is bad! Please consider how to make LibreOffice more user friendly, rather stick to design rules that are not always appropriate! So I think it would be advantageous to reverse your decision on this! Thanks...
(In reply to Heiko Tietze from comment #4) > We talked about this idea in the design meeting. Real previews are never > interactive in LibreOffice. So the decision was to not recommend this > enhancement (or change). Anyway, thanks for sharing the ideas. Like Gavin, I'm having a hard time understanding this. What is the definition of a "real preview"? A real preview sounds like something in a graphics application, where you see a live preview of the effect you are about to apply. As Stuart points out, you can already change stuff by clicking on the preview in the Borders tab.
(In reply to Buovjaga from comment #6) > Like Gavin, I'm having a hard time understanding this. Exactly because of what Stuart said I used the misleading term "real preview". Despite the border dialog (and maybe other dialogs too) we do not use icons or images as interactive controls. Mainly because of accessibility. (Made a design proposal myself in the current GSoC project about favorites activated per star icon which was changed into an ordinary button. And actually that worksforme too.)
Note that the I'm happy for the existing means of changing orientation with Radio Buttons to remain - so adding the ability to click the page icon does not remove functionality needed by the visually impaired.