Bug 138395 - Separator/Divider lines in menus should have an optional text label (see included mockup image)
Summary: Separator/Divider lines in menus should have an optional text label (see incl...
Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX
Alias: None
Product: LibreOffice
Classification: Unclassified
Component: UI (show other bugs)
Version:
(earliest affected)
unspecified
Hardware: All All
: medium enhancement
Assignee: Not Assigned
URL:
Whiteboard:
Keywords: needsUXEval
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2020-11-21 20:02 UTC by Jones
Modified: 2020-11-23 14:46 UTC (History)
2 users (show)

See Also:
Crash report or crash signature:


Attachments
Separator labels (106.45 KB, image/jpeg)
2020-11-21 20:06 UTC, Jones
Details

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Description Jones 2020-11-21 20:02:50 UTC
Description:
LibreOffice menus (as well as other parts of the interface) are highly customizable. They can be customized to include as many or as few items as the user wishes.

Separators help to structure customized menus, but they are just lines. It would be great if those separator lines could be customized to have a text heading/header.

Screenshot with mockup: https://imgur.com/a/jsuyq9K

In the attached screenshot in the upper part of the menu I have made a up a mockup scenario for illustration purposes; the lower part shows the current situation.

I think custom naming of separators would help a lot in making the menu more structured.

Steps to Reproduce:
see description

Actual Results:
see description

Expected Results:
see description


Reproducible: Always


User Profile Reset: No



Additional Info:
see description
Comment 1 Jones 2020-11-21 20:06:23 UTC
Created attachment 167456 [details]
Separator labels
Comment 2 Mike Kaganski 2020-11-21 20:39:20 UTC
I really doubt that we can do that in a uniform manner across all platforms, with all their widget specifics and HIGs...
Comment 3 Jones 2020-11-21 21:47:03 UTC
What I have in mind is an additional entry in the customization options for the menus: something like "Labelled Separator" in addition to the now existing normal "Separator" line. At least in supported operating systems.

Correct me if I am wrong, but the Windows version of LO has some features that other platform don't have, right? For example Jump List support for the Windows Task Bar. So maybe this labelled separator could become such a feature, too, where supported by the platform and missing where it is not supported.

On a more general note (not only regarding LO): It's kind of a pity to see that sometimes features/enhancements aren't developed because of the so-called "lowest common denominator" between different/multiple/all platforms.

Maybe this feature idea could be evaluated how possible it's implementation would be and where?
Comment 4 Mike Kaganski 2020-11-21 21:59:08 UTC
(In reply to Riban from comment #3)
> Correct me if I am wrong, but the Windows version of LO has some features
> that other platform don't have, right? For example Jump List support for the
> Windows Task Bar.

LibreOffice does not use Jump List feature of Windows (unfortunately). Windows uses whatever it does by default.

However, I didn't close it right away, and added the needsUXEval keyword, so that the team could evaluate it. My comment was just a personal thought.
Comment 5 Jones 2020-11-21 22:27:12 UTC
Cool, thanks! Good to hear there's hope.
Comment 6 V Stuart Foote 2020-11-21 23:50:53 UTC
I think Mike's point was that there is no way to do this consistently cross platform without imposing a lot of native code overhead if even possible.

My take is that it is not justified as existing separators would not be improved by addition of labeling.

IMHO -1, and a clear WF
Comment 7 Heiko Tietze 2020-11-23 14:46:27 UTC
Would be nice but is not common. Actually I don't know any platform where separators with text are applied on standard programs. Likely because separators shouldn't take the full size of an entry. The customization comes on top.

Second point is the limited benefit. While it makes sense for the styles I'd struggle to find a good label on other menus. Sure, could be applied only where it makes sense and beside the main menu we have context menus too.

Let's take Mike's professional view as reason to resolve the idea as WF.