Bug 135460 - BORDERS TAB IN PARAGRAPH DIALOG: Make selection of borders in User-defined preview more visible (see comment 7)
Summary: BORDERS TAB IN PARAGRAPH DIALOG: Make selection of borders in User-defined pr...
Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 143249
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: needsUXEval
Depends on:
Blocks: Paragraph-Dialog Paragraph-Borders
  Show dependency treegraph
 
Reported: 2020-08-05 10:47 UTC by R. Green
Modified: 2022-08-22 09:47 UTC (History)
3 users (show)

See Also:
Crash report or crash signature:


Attachments
Writer file showing a problem with setting borders (12.33 KB, application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.text)
2020-08-05 10:47 UTC, R. Green
Details

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Description R. Green 2020-08-05 10:47:51 UTC
Created attachment 163964 [details]
Writer file showing a problem with setting borders

Version: 6.4.4.2 (x64)
Build ID: 3d775be2011f3886db32dfd395a6a6d1ca2630ff
CPU threads: 4; OS: Windows 10.0 Build 19041; UI render: default; VCL: win; 
Locale: en-GB (en_GB); UI-Language: en-GB
Calc: threaded

1. Open the attached file. Open the "Heading 1" paragraph style and select the "Borders" tab.
2. In the "User defined" diagram, click on the top line to remove it.
3. Now adjust either Line Style, or Line Colour or Line Width.
4. Press APPLY or OK.

EXPECTED RESULT: The lower border ONLY should have the properties selected by the user.

ACTUAL RESULT: After step 3, the top border also becomes visible in the "User defined" diagram. And this carries through to the document window, after step 4. Also, any changes in Line Style or Line Width are applied to the unwanted top border and not to the bottom one.

This problem also applies, to some degree, with frames (and possibly other dialogues?).
Comment 1 Dieter 2020-08-05 17:24:49 UTC
(In reply to R. Green from comment #0)
> 1. Open the attached file. Open the "Heading 1" paragraph style and select
> the "Borders" tab.
> 2. In the "User defined" diagram, click on the top line to remove it.

After step to, the top line is removed, but the line area is still selected.
Help says: "Click the border style that you want to apply. The style is applied to the borders selected in the preview." [1]

So I think the actual behaviour is in line with help and it's NOTABUG. Do you agree?

=> NEEDINFO

[1] https://help.libreoffice.org/7.0/en-GB/text/shared/01/05030500.html?System=WIN&DbPAR=WRITER&HID=cui/ui/borderpage/BorderPage#bm_id3150756
Comment 2 R. Green 2020-08-06 10:02:23 UTC
(In reply to Dieter from comment #1)

> … Help says: "Click the border style that you want to apply. The style is
> applied to the borders selected in the preview." [1]
> So I think the actual behaviour is in line with help and it's NOTABUG. Do
> you agree?
The underlying problem here is that the dotted line-selection rectangle disappears as soon as the cursor enters another property field. This means that the user is not getting correct visual feedback about the current state of the dialogue, and it is not EXPLICITLY clear what the edit is being applied to. 

SUGGESTION: An obvious one. The dotted selection should be retained until the user makes another selection.

Another little bug: After step 2, click, say, in one of the Padding fields, to clear the dotted outline, then click back on the visible lower line. The upper line reappears.

Another minor issue is that the colour palette opens upwards, obscuring the preview. Could this be made to open downwards?

P.S. The helpfiles should also mention that Ctrl clicking can be used to select more than one line.
Comment 3 Dieter 2020-08-06 11:50:53 UTC
(In reply to R. Green from comment #2)
> Another little bug: After step 2, click, say, in one of the Padding fields,
> to clear the dotted outline, then click back on the visible lower line. The
> upper line reappears.
> 
> Another minor issue is that the colour palette opens upwards, obscuring the
> preview. Could this be made to open downwards?
> 
> P.S. The helpfiles should also mention that Ctrl clicking can be used to
> select more than one line.

Please don't mix different problems in one bug report.
Comment 4 Dieter 2020-08-06 12:01:31 UTC
(In reply to R. Green from comment #2)

> The underlying problem here is that the dotted line-selection rectangle
> disappears as soon as the cursor enters another property field.

Sorry, I don't understand this. But for me a little improvement would be that there is no active preset of line arrangement. actually it seems, that preset is always "Set No Borders"
Comment 5 Dieter 2020-08-06 12:04:41 UTC
(In reply to Dieter from comment #4)
> Sorry, I don't understand this. But for me a little improvement would be
> that there is no active preset of line arrangement. actually it seems, that
> preset is always "Set No Borders"

But that would be a duplicate of bug 135460.
Comment 6 R. Green 2020-08-06 12:52:32 UTC
Perhaps this will help:

1. Open the attached file again. Open the "Heading 1" paragraph style and select the "Borders" tab.
2. In the "User defined" diagram, click on the top line to remove it. Although it has disappeared, there is still a dotted rectangle around it (meaning that it is still selected).
3. Now adjust either Line Style, or Line Colour or Line Width.

EXPECTED RESULT: After step 3, the dotted rectangle should still be visible.

ACTUAL RESULT: The dotted rectangle disappears as soon as you put a cursor in the Style/Colour/Width field. The result is that, now, the user has no visible indication as to what line has been or is being adjusted.

SUGGESTION: The dotted selection rectangle(s) should be retained until the user makes another selection in the "User-defined" preview. That way the user will always know what lines are being edited.
Comment 7 Dieter 2020-08-14 06:37:48 UTC
Now I've got it. Selected line are indicated by black arrow, but they are hardly visible. And I agree, it is inconsistent, that sometimes there is a dotted rectangel to show selected border and sometimes not. So I think there should be two things:
1. Make arrwows more visible (for example change colour to white)
2. Make use of dotted rectangle more consistent (show them always, if a border is selected or show them never (if arrows are more visible)
Comment 8 QA Administrators 2022-08-15 03:44:24 UTC Comment hidden (obsolete)
Comment 9 Dieter 2022-08-15 06:58:53 UTC
Still present in

Version: 7.5.0.0.alpha0+ (x64) / LibreOffice Community
Build ID: df3b7599f5ad92337a495224f53a1299cc82e97e
CPU threads: 4; OS: Windows 10.0 Build 19044; UI render: Skia/Raster; VCL: win
Locale: de-DE (de_DE); UI: de-DE
Calc: CL

Steps:
1. Open attachment 163964 [details]
2. Modify paragraph style "Heading 1" and go to tab "Borders"
3. Top and bottom line are preselected (indicated by rey arrows left and right)
4. Click on top line (line disappears and only top line is selected; arrows left and roght from bottom line becomes dashes)
5. Change color

Actual (and perhaps expected result):
Color of top line changes 

Problems
a) Perhaps it's at least not clear, that, changes in line area affects all selected border areas, also areas with no border (no idea, how to make it moreclearly
b) If you click into a border area, border area gets a dashed rectangle as indication of selection, but if you assign for example a color to that area, rectangle disappears, although area is still selected (indicated by grey arrows)
c) Arrows should be more visible

So again I think, situation described in original bug report is not a but, but we should improve the situation
=> Enhancement

cc: Design-Team: Please double check and change status, if you don't agree.
Comment 10 Heiko Tietze 2022-08-22 09:47:38 UTC
(In reply to Dieter from comment #9)
> Problems
> a) Perhaps it's at least not clear, that, changes in line area affects all
> selected border areas, also areas with no border (no idea, how to make it
> more clearly
Well, the preview is showing clearly what you do.

> b) If you click into a border area, border area gets a dashed rectangle as
> indication of selection, but if you assign for example a color to that area,
> rectangle disappears, although area is still selected (indicated by grey
> arrows)
True, this is misleading. But you also loose the selection frame when the dialog is not in focus anymore (switching to another application while keeping the UI visible). That might depend on the OS but is caused by some default UI interaction.

> c) Arrows should be more visible
The arrows are just an additional indicator for the selection.


All the trouble results from the fact that we overload the preview with functions. You can enable/disable lines by clicking it and you can multi-select border to apply, for example, a line style to left and bottom at once. If the OP expects here a change for only one line, let's say the bottom, there are many scenarios where changing all at once is preferred for convenience.
Ultimately the concept works not so well and we have many tickets around this UI (Telesto put his finger on this wound a lot). A proposal for solution is in bug 143249. So let's continue there.

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 143249 ***