Bug 143482 - Make it easier to open Master Document subdocuments
Summary: Make it easier to open Master Document subdocuments
Status: RESOLVED MOVED
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: Writer-Master-Doc
  Show dependency treegraph
 
Reported: 2021-07-21 16:39 UTC by L Duperval
Modified: 2021-09-22 10:09 UTC (History)
2 users (show)

See Also:
Crash report or crash signature:


Attachments
ODM sample in Zip file (281.43 KB, application/x-zip-compressed)
2021-08-27 13:40 UTC, L Duperval
Details

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Description L Duperval 2021-07-21 16:39:09 UTC
The Master Document function is great. One of my... frustrations... with it is the cumbersome methods needed to open a subdocument for editing.

For example, I will do a search for something. When I find it, if I want to edit the subdocument, I have to:

* Right-click in the document
* Choose "Edit section" and identify the section name
* Open the navigator
* Double-click on the document

If I forget to do that and I try to write directly from the Master DOcument, I get a popup saying I'm not allowed. To open the document I have to do the same steps as above.

My proposals:

* Put an "Open Document" entry on the right-click menu. I would also change the current wording from "Edit section" to "Modify section information" or something. The goal is to mark a difference between modifying content and metadata.

* In the "You can't edit" dialog, add a button that says "Open document." It might even be interesting to go to the current position in the subdocument, but I don't know how feasible that is.
Comment 1 Roman Kuznetsov 2021-08-05 13:45:57 UTC
Let's ask design team
Comment 2 Heiko Tietze 2021-08-23 14:05:53 UTC
In the master document's Navigator you can right click and use Insert for a new sub-document. It's opened in a separate window, perhaps in the background. Edit, save, go back and update. 
To open one of the sub-documents just double click the entry in the Navigator.

What piece is missing in this workflow?
Comment 3 L Duperval 2021-08-23 15:48:19 UTC
THe ability to open a document without being forced to use the navigator.

This is the current workflow, for example:

* I am looking for a term, say "global research"
* Do a search
* When the term is located, I want to open that subdocument and edit it
* I right-click on the master document
* Then I select "Edit section"
* It sends me to the Navigator and then I have to double click to open the subdocument
* Repeat the search
* Now, I can finally edit.

What I want it to look like.

Option 1
========

* I am looking for a term, say "global research"
* Do a search
* When the term is located, I right-click on the master document
* Then I select "Open section" (this does not exist)
* Open the subdocument at the current location

Option 2
========

* I am looking for a term, say "global research"
* Do a search
* When the term is located, I start typing
* I get a popup that says: "This document cannot be modified."
* The popup has an "edit subdocument" option that I can click and be sent to the current location in the subdoc.

So, just to be clear: everything is there. I just want it to be more streamlined. I want an improvement to the user experience.
Comment 4 QA Administrators 2021-08-24 03:48:42 UTC Comment hidden (obsolete)
Comment 5 Heiko Tietze 2021-08-24 07:06:30 UTC
(In reply to L Duperval from comment #3)
> THe ability to open a document without being forced to use the navigator.
> ...
> * I am looking for a term, say "global research"

But this search would have to return a list similar to the Navigator. What's wrong with the Navigator? Missing keyboard access?
Comment 6 L Duperval 2021-08-24 12:23:51 UTC
I will try to record a video to show what I mean. There is nothing missing. The problem is that it is cumbersome and unintuitive.
Comment 7 L Duperval 2021-08-26 21:54:11 UTC
Here it is:

https://www.loom.com/share/018151f1df4d4f368a733ac7f0174f23
Comment 8 Heiko Tietze 2021-08-27 08:37:46 UTC
(In reply to L Duperval from comment #7)
> https://www.loom.com/share/018151f1df4d4f368a733ac7f0174f23

Thanks a lot for this video, makes it very clear. Would be good if you attach the sample document too. I wonder what happens when you "open" the section in the dialog that comes up with edit section (very clear to me what documents belong to which section but I agree that going back to the Navigator is annoying). And I wonder why you not edit in the master view.

Possible solution that come in mind:
* UNO command "Open Section" (guess the section context menu and commands are the same what you get in normal documents, checking whether it is a master document might be tricky)
* highlight the correct entry in the Navigator (should be done anyway for proper feedback; we made huge steps forward recently and hopefully Jim is interested)
Comment 9 L Duperval 2021-08-27 13:38:18 UTC
Here is another video showing another potential improvement route:

https://www.loom.com/share/e0f88834d0004fac93f3884f19908b34
Comment 10 L Duperval 2021-08-27 13:40:52 UTC
Created attachment 174580 [details]
ODM sample in Zip file

These are all the files that I used in the videos.
Comment 11 Heiko Tietze 2021-08-30 09:24:08 UTC
So we have actually three requests:
#1: select/highlight the current section/subdocument in the Navigator
#2: provide an Edit button on the read-only warning box
(could imagine that this dialog is used in other cases too where Edit would be wrong; needs to be checked)
#3: have means to open/edit a subdocument from the section dialog
(the dialog is also used for ordinary embedded sections; the Open/Edit function would jump to the right place then)

Anything missing?
Comment 12 L Duperval 2021-08-30 14:25:06 UTC
🤔 didn't realize I was asking for so much...

No, I think those would make it easier to navigate within Master Documents.
Comment 13 Heiko Tietze 2021-09-07 08:06:52 UTC
(In reply to Heiko Tietze from comment #11)
> So we have actually three requests:
> #1: select/highlight the current section/subdocument in the Navigator
bug 144349

> #2: provide an Edit button on the read-only warning box
> (could imagine that this dialog is used in other cases too where Edit would
> be wrong; needs to be checked)
bug 144350

> #3: have means to open/edit a subdocument from the section dialog
> (the dialog is also used for ordinary embedded sections; the Open/Edit
> function would jump to the right place then)
bug 144351
Comment 14 Mike Kaganski 2021-09-22 10:09:37 UTC
(In reply to Heiko Tietze from comment #11)
> #3: have means to open/edit a subdocument from the section dialog
> (the dialog is also used for ordinary embedded sections; the Open/Edit
> function would jump to the right place then)

I don't see this proposal in the comment 0. I feel this interpretation totally invented. The original request's wording was very clear, and it was reasonable:

(In reply to L Duperval from comment #0)
> * Put an "Open Document" entry on the right-click menu. I would also change the
> current wording from "Edit section" to "Modify section information" or something.

It was talking about existing context menu available in Writer, when you right-click inside a section. It was specifically mentioning the other existing entry in the same menu, to help disambiguate the two entries in it.

Having a context menu to open anything referenced, right inside the document, it intuitive. Having the menu (or, what's worse, double-click) in a dialog to close the dialog, and open another document, is a bad idea IMO.