Bug 129434 (Authors) - [META] Writer (EDITING) Suggested bug fixes, enhancements and features for authors.
Summary: [META] Writer (EDITING) Suggested bug fixes, enhancements and features for au...
Status: NEW
Alias: Authors
Product: LibreOffice
Classification: Unclassified
Component: Writer (show other bugs)
Version:
(earliest affected)
unspecified
Hardware: All All
: medium normal
Assignee: Not Assigned
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Depends on: 41652 56085 58573 67669 81897 83771 92821 Bibliography 102835 106513 118455 129302 129749 131278 131315 150207 155712 Technical 158127 54409 58178 58434 80054 106164 106733 115817 131211 137160 145925 146455 149248 150280 157533 160836 160842 161261 161332 161360 161426 161563 161565 161637
Blocks: Writer-Enhancements
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Reported: 2019-12-16 20:26 UTC by Lynne Connolly
Modified: 2024-09-13 02:13 UTC (History)
7 users (show)

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Description Lynne Connolly 2019-12-16 20:26:58 UTC
I'm an author, and there are reasons I don't use LO for novel writing, much though I love the program. Someone suggested I reported why I use a different word processor for writing, so here it is:

1. All the autocorrect problems I've reported before. Especially the way Writer doesn't capitalise at the start of a sentence if the last sentence ends in double quotes, or the word starting the sentence has an apostrophe in it. Incredibly annoying, best to just switch the feature off in LO and capitalise using the shift, which is slower than the auto-correct.

2. I can check a box on AWP and it will start on the document I was last working on, the cursor at the place where I last left it. Such a useful feature to have!

3. A browser-style tagged interface, so that I can have all the documents I'm working on easily visible, and just click on them to switch between them.

4. A wonderful little tool that lists long sentences (over x number of words), word repetitions and word frequencies. But I doubt you'll be able to do that.
Comment 1 Dieter 2019-12-20 07:52:35 UTC
(In reply to Lynne Connolly from comment #0)
> I'm an author, and there are reasons I don't use LO for novel writing, much
> though I love the program. Someone suggested I reported why I use a
> different word processor for writing, so here it is:
> 
> 1. All the autocorrect problems I've reported before.

Please give informations about bug numbers. Pleae don't report bug again, if the're already reported.


> 2. I can check a box on AWP and it will start on the document I was last
> working on, the cursor at the place where I last left it. Such a useful
> feature to have!
> 
> 3. A browser-style tagged interface, so that I can have all the documents
> I'm working on easily visible, and just click on them to switch between them.
> 
> 4. A wonderful little tool that lists long sentences (over x number of
> words), word repetitions and word frequencies. But I doubt you'll be able to
> do that.

Please don't mix different proposals in one bug report, because we can't manage that in bugzilla. Would be nice, if you create one bug report for each idea.
Comment 2 László Németh 2019-12-20 08:06:48 UTC
Lynne, many thanks for the very valuable summary! 


I’m working on a  I plan to
Comment 3 László Németh 2019-12-20 08:17:04 UTC
I have made a meta bug from this issue, so you can add all your (and other relevant) issues using the "Depends on" input field here (also separating the new items on your list, as new bug reports, as Dieter mentioned).

Note: ... I’m working on a  big Writer UX project, and my work is fixing similar annoying things, for example, handling tables in Writer better (https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/ReleaseNotes/6.4#Tables) or change tracking. So I plan to fix some bugs from your list, too, in the near future, because I really would like to create a better word processors for professional authors, too. Thanks again.
Comment 4 Dieter 2019-12-20 08:27:16 UTC
Great to h(In reply to László Németh from comment #3)
> So I plan to fix some bugs from your list, too, in the near
> future, because I really would like to create a better word processors for
> professional authors, too. Thanks again.

Great to hear, László! Since I also wrote a book with LO, I can say from my own experience: It is possible but you should expect frustration an limitations.

But wouldn't it be better to have meta bug not only for new features but for bugs and enhancements?
Comment 5 László Németh 2019-12-20 09:12:13 UTC
(In reply to Dieter Praas from comment #4)
> Great to h(In reply to László Németh from comment #3)
> > So I plan to fix some bugs from your list, too, in the near
> > future, because I really would like to create a better word processors for
> > professional authors, too. Thanks again.
> 
> Great to hear, László! Since I also wrote a book with LO, I can say from my
> own experience: It is possible but you should expect frustration an
> limitations.

I hope, the things will be better step by step... That is why it's important to collect all frustrating issues...

> 
> But wouldn't it be better to have meta bug not only for new features but for
> bugs and enhancements?


Absolutely, now I removed the special settings. Thanks for your suggestion!
Comment 6 Lynne Connolly 2019-12-20 14:59:25 UTC
That all sounds fantastic! Very promising!

On point 2, the document opening at the place I left it, I know that LO can do it with Shift F5, but only when the document is saved in the open source format, and it doesn't do it automatically, nor does it open the last document used automatically (it's an option in AWP, so it can be switched off if preferred).
The industry standard for novels with publishers, Amazon and the rest is in .docx so that's an extra step and sometimes it introduces a few quirks like extra spaces. Best to stick to the same format.

The bugs I reported before are the ones with capitalisation. They discovered why it was happening, but didn't offer any solutions to the problem. Only some very odd ones which I tried but weren't acceptable. Eventually I got tired of fighting uphill, and just thanked them and left, finding a word processor that would do it instead of using LO. 
Scientifically the explanations made sense, but weren't practical to use. It was a long time ago, and I can't find it anywhere. It was marked "solved," but it really wasn't. 
If the quotes used are curly (single and double), then the first word of the next sentence isn't capitalised. It's really not a solution to use straight quotes and then change them after. You can get all kinds of problems if you do that, including the quotes not pointing the right way, and going through a 100,000 words manually isn't an option. 
I did report it before, but although it was marked solved, it really wasn't. Nothing changed. It might be "correct," but it's not practicable. Since all other word processors get around the problem (Word, AWP, Softmaker, etc) there must be a solution. I'm not the only person to report this one, either.
Doing them all separately doesn't sound like the best idea. This is a project, not a set of bugs, and they aren't really bugs, apart from the capitalisation one, they're suggested improvements.
At the moment I use one word processor for writing in (AWP) and LO for editing and track changes, since AWP doesn't offer that.I do a lecture on word processors and their uses for authors (doesn't include specialised setups like Scrivener, except in passing). LO and AWP are my end choices.
Comment 7 V Stuart Foote 2019-12-20 17:19:04 UTC
Get navigation working smoothly, navigation 'modes' from the F5 'Navigator' Sidebar deck(s) and the 'Navigation' toolbar (bug 115817), as well as keyboard support, i.e. a <Shift>+<F5> cylcling (bug 92821).

Cleanup things for consistent use of transient 'Reminder' (current edit session), and persistent 'Bookmark' (persist in user profile between edit sessions) having these "edit views" fully functional for navigating inside a document would be quite helpful.
Comment 8 László Németh 2019-12-20 18:49:50 UTC
(In reply to Lynne Connolly from comment #6)
> That all sounds fantastic! Very promising!
> 

Thanks for your kind words!

I've made the first fix of the new meta bug: https://gerrit.libreoffice.org/#/c/85630/ (it is under testing).

=====================
tdf#106164 AutoCorrect: capitalize words with apostrophe

at sentence starting position, for example

we’re -> We’re

This worked only with ASCII apostrophe ('), and changing to default
usage of typographical apostrophe (U+2019) broke this kind of
capitalization from commit e6fade1ce133039d28369751b77ac8faff6e40cb
(tdf#38395 enable smart apostrophe replacement by default).
=====================

I am going to check the problem with the quote marks, too...
Comment 9 V Stuart Foote 2020-01-23 16:11:19 UTC
Would include expansion of the NPC and movement of hidden marks from field marks to expose as NPC, with ability change the color of the NPC on canvas -- as detailed in bug 58434 and bug 80054