Bug 144696 - Protected table cells may be formatted in *some* workflows
Summary: Protected table cells may be formatted in *some* workflows
Status: NEW
Alias: None
Product: LibreOffice
Classification: Unclassified
Component: Writer (show other bugs)
Version:
(earliest affected)
unspecified
Hardware: All All
: medium normal
Assignee: Not Assigned
URL:
Whiteboard:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks: Writer-Tables
  Show dependency treegraph
 
Reported: 2021-09-24 07:02 UTC by Mike Kaganski
Modified: 2023-10-10 13:30 UTC (History)
2 users (show)

See Also:
Crash report or crash signature:


Attachments
A table with protected cells (8.84 KB, application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.text)
2021-09-24 07:02 UTC, Mike Kaganski
Details

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Description Mike Kaganski 2021-09-24 07:02:46 UTC
Created attachment 175230 [details]
A table with protected cells

In the attached document with the table which cells are protected (Table->Protect Cells):

1. Put cursor into the table's A1, and see that toolbar's Bold icon is disabled (and corresponding menu item, too); pressing Ctrl+B does nothing.
2. Select several cells in the table, and see the same.
3. Put cursor in the first document's paragraph *before* the table, and select from that paragraph to the last paragraph of the document (so that the table gets selected as part of the selection)
=> Bold tool is globally available and working, affecting also the protected table cells.

Tested using Version: 7.2.2.1 (x64) / LibreOffice Community
Build ID: 0e408af0b27894d652a87aa5f21fe17bf058124c
CPU threads: 12; OS: Windows 10.0 Build 19043; UI render: Skia/Raster; VCL: win
Locale: ru-RU (ru_RU); UI: en-US
Calc: CL
Comment 1 Dieter 2021-10-10 05:24:14 UTC
I confirm it with

Version: 7.2.1.2 (x64) / LibreOffice Community
Build ID: 87b77fad49947c1441b67c559c339af8f3517e22
CPU threads: 4; OS: Windows 10.0 Build 19043; UI render: Skia/Raster; VCL: win
Locale: de-DE (de_DE); UI: en-GB
Calc: CL

But what should be the expected result? Some ideas:
a) Formatting toolbar is disabled
b) Formatting toolbar is enabled, but if you select an icon you get a message like "Your selection contains protected content. Are you sure, you want to change it?"
c) Formatting only affects unprotected cells.
d) Only content of cells is protected, but not formatting
...

cc: Design Team
Comment 2 Heiko Tietze 2021-10-12 06:30:05 UTC
Me cannot put the focus into the table, clicks are not accepted.

Version: 7.2.1.2 / LibreOffice Community
Build ID: 20(Build:2)
CPU threads: 8; OS: Linux 5.14; UI render: default; VCL: kf5 (cairo+xcb)
Locale: de-DE (en_US.UTF-8); UI: en-US
7.2.1-3
Calc: threaded

But it works as described for

Version: 7.3.0.0.alpha0+ / LibreOffice Community
Build ID: 7e201916169aca254c0824fb71ed83ca69f4adce
CPU threads: 8; OS: Linux 5.14; UI render: default; VCL: kf5 (cairo+xcb)
Locale: de-DE (en_US.UTF-8); UI: en-US
Calc: threaded

Regarding the formatting: Protected sections disable the formatting controls also when text outside is selected. Alternatively, and perhaps a bit more user-friendly, would be to apply the action to everything but the protected object.
Comment 3 Mike Kaganski 2021-10-12 06:36:58 UTC
(In reply to Dieter from comment #1)
> But what should be the expected result? Some ideas:

In any case, the behavior should be consistent with other cases where selection contains protected areas. E.g.: protected fields (ToC), sections, etc.
Comment 4 Mike Kaganski 2021-10-12 06:40:45 UTC
(In reply to Heiko Tietze from comment #2)
> Alternatively, and perhaps a bit more
> user-friendly, would be to apply the action to everything but the protected
> object.

I don't think it's "user-friendly". When you select something large, you might not see it all, and might not know that your *permitted* actions would unexpectedly *not* affect some unknown parts of your selection. And you may even overlook it after the fact, saving and sending, etc.

Of course, you may introduce an intrusive popups telling you that "something will not be modified - are you sure?" or "was not modified" ... but I doubt that intrusive UI is a good thing.

Generally I suppose that disabling actions when there's *any* read-only content in selection is the best option.
Comment 5 Heiko Tietze 2021-10-12 08:01:02 UTC
(In reply to Mike Kaganski from comment #4)
> When you select something large, you might not see it all...

But you have to be more precise with omitting the selection. But safety first, yes.

> Generally I suppose that disabling actions when there's *any* read-only
> content in selection is the best option.

Agreed
Comment 6 Sophie Sipasseuth 2023-10-10 13:30:47 UTC
Repro with this version of LibreOffice:

Version: 24.2.0.0.alpha0+ (X86_64) / LibreOffice Community
Build ID: 9a02f4ed071f15908624fb1cafcf6dbb72b00a1b
CPU threads: 8; OS: Windows 10.0 Build 22621; UI render: Skia/Raster; VCL: win
Locale: fr-FR (fr_FR); UI: fr-FR
Calc: threaded