Bug 117349 - Better text box selection border in Impress
Summary: Better text box selection border in Impress
Status: NEW
Alias: None
Product: LibreOffice
Classification: Unclassified
Component: UI (show other bugs)
Version:
(earliest affected)
Inherited From OOo
Hardware: All All
: medium enhancement
Assignee: Not Assigned
URL:
Whiteboard:
Keywords: accessibility, needsDevEval, topicUI
Depends on:
Blocks: Textbox Impress-UX
  Show dependency treegraph
 
Reported: 2018-04-30 13:25 UTC by Pedro
Modified: 2018-11-15 09:28 UTC (History)
6 users (show)

See Also:
Crash report or crash signature:


Attachments
Impress Text Box Selected (112.82 KB, image/jpeg)
2018-04-30 13:35 UTC, Pedro
Details
Powerpoint 2016 Text box selected (131.10 KB, image/jpeg)
2018-04-30 13:36 UTC, Pedro
Details
Softmaker Presentations Text box selected (109.77 KB, image/jpeg)
2018-04-30 13:36 UTC, Pedro
Details
WPS Presentations Text box selected (90.83 KB, image/jpeg)
2018-04-30 13:37 UTC, Pedro
Details
Dashed lines are gone inside thick blue line. (100.12 KB, image/png)
2018-11-14 21:07 UTC, Pedro
Details
Helplines not that helpful when I can't make them overlap the above text box. (102.48 KB, image/png)
2018-11-14 21:08 UTC, Pedro
Details

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Description Pedro 2018-04-30 13:25:15 UTC

    
Comment 1 Pedro 2018-04-30 13:35:39 UTC
Created attachment 141781 [details]
Impress Text Box Selected

The current outline in Impress when a Text Box is selected presents a thick blue highlight surrounding the text box border. 
This blue highlight is extremely thick and complicates the job of positioning two text boxes precisely side-by-side.

would it possible to shift this to a different method of showing the text box is selected?
In Powerpoint, Softmaker Presentations and WPD Presentations the selected text box changes from a dashed line to a continuous line. 
In Softmaker Presentations and WPS Presentations, the text box also changes color.

It would be preferable to have Impress adopt a similar system so that it's easier to perceive where the selected text box is positioned in relation to other objects in the slide.
Comment 2 Pedro 2018-04-30 13:36:34 UTC
Created attachment 141782 [details]
Powerpoint 2016 Text box selected
Comment 3 Pedro 2018-04-30 13:36:59 UTC
Created attachment 141783 [details]
Softmaker Presentations Text box selected
Comment 4 Pedro 2018-04-30 13:37:41 UTC
Created attachment 141784 [details]
WPS Presentations Text box selected
Comment 5 Samuel Mehrbrodt (allotropia) 2018-04-30 13:53:19 UTC
Thanks for the good analysis.
Agree we should go with a thinner line, but make the hit area bigger than the line, so we can still target the frame with the mouse easily.
Comment 6 Pedro 2018-04-30 14:07:25 UTC
That's for sure. I'm not certain what the hit area is but I definitely agree with that.
Comment 7 Samuel Mehrbrodt (allotropia) 2018-04-30 14:09:09 UTC
(In reply to Pedro from comment #6)
>  I'm not certain what the hit area is but I definitely agree with that.

That's the area where the mouse cursor turns into a drag mode so that you can drag the text box around. It should be more than 1px wide even if the line is only 1px.
Comment 8 Heiko Tietze 2018-05-01 11:41:48 UTC
Don't see the issue with thickness, though don't have a strong opinion on it. If we make the line thinner it may affect accessibility.
Comment 9 Pedro 2018-05-01 11:54:28 UTC
Well, it doesn't affect accessibility in any other office suite, as I've shown with the screenshots of MSO, WPS and Softmaker... Just make the visual demarcation a continous line in a darker color.

Otherwise it is harder to properly position two text boxes side by side since the thick blue line makes it a lot harder to determine when they're precisely side by side...
Comment 10 Xisco Faulí 2018-05-02 16:35:21 UTC
Adapting version as it comes from OOo
Comment 11 Heiko Tietze 2018-11-09 11:38:14 UTC Comment hidden (off-topic)
Comment 12 Regina Henschel 2018-11-14 20:00:28 UTC
I have no problem resizing or moving these text boxes. When you resize or move the text box, an additional 1px dashed line is shown for the exact edge. The blinking frame is semi-transparent so that you can see the content under it and use the dashed line for positioning. Besides from that, for really exact positioning use the numerical settings. And to align to other objects use the snap features (plural!), the alignment toolbox, and help lines.
Comment 13 Pedro 2018-11-14 21:05:49 UTC
(In reply to Regina Henschel from comment #12)
> I have no problem resizing or moving these text boxes. When you resize or
> move the text box, an additional 1px dashed line is shown for the exact
> edge. The blinking frame is semi-transparent so that you can see the content
> under it and use the dashed line for positioning. 
> Besides from that, for really exact positioning use the numerical settings. And > to align to other objects use the snap features (plural!), the alignment toolbox, and help lines.

Well, where to start? 
1 - The snap features don't work for me (not sure what I'm doing wrong). So if I want to resize a text box to 
2 - The ruler is completely not an obvious feature.
3 - The alignment toolbox - I assume you mean the snap guide? So I have to go dig through menus to do something that could easily be done by eye if the line was less thick? My purpose is precisely to have to use these tools.
4 - For really precise positioning I would use more appropriate software than Impress even (like Photoshop or Inkscape).
5 - The help lines sometimes are not that helpful because they do not precisely overlap the boxes that you are trying to align the object to.

Also, sometimes the dashed line disappears and only the blinking blue box remains.
Comment 14 Pedro 2018-11-14 21:07:03 UTC
Created attachment 146635 [details]
Dashed lines are gone inside thick blue line.
Comment 15 Pedro 2018-11-14 21:08:25 UTC
Created attachment 146636 [details]
Helplines not that helpful when I can't make them overlap the above text box.
Comment 16 Heiko Tietze 2018-11-15 09:28:57 UTC
(In reply to Regina Henschel from comment #12)
> I have no problem resizing or moving these text boxes...

But OTOH you likely do not disagree on a smaller frame, do you? The blinking frame is indeed somewhat bulky.

And the topic about help lines or snap tools exists should be discussed in an extra ticket, if needed.