Created attachment 178187 [details] Gallery and AutoText With the gallery sidebar the user can move pictures, drawings, ... from the content area to the sidebar so it's possible to reuse it for later. AutoText is the same for Text where you have a shortcut to show an text snap. Would it be possible to show the AutoText at the Gallery Sidebar with thumbnails, ... so the user can pick and add an AutoText not only with a shortcut, but also with the mouse. Sure an search would be usefull, but a search can be usefull also for the gallery.
Autotext is neither image nor audio clips (as stated in the help [1]) and I wouldn't search for this feature in the Gallery. And since you have to type the shortcut plus F3 to convert, there is no need for another interaction - meaning scroll through a list and click some button or double-click is way slower than typing the full text. Maybe if you forgot what shortcuts you have defined... but then you still want to learn the shortcut. My take: WF [1] https://help.libreoffice.org/7.3/en-US/text/shared/01/gallery.html?&DbPAR=WRITER&System=UNIX
We discussed the topic in the design meeting. The idea is probably to have a list with autotext items in the sidebar and to drag them into the document. In general, we should aim for simplicity and keep the sidebar clean and easy to access. Wouldn't be much of a problem when adding an item to the categories list. But another argument against the idea is speed. It's very easy and fast to type a few characters and press F3. Scrolling through a list, picking an item, and dragging it onto the document is slow. On the pro, the list would improve discoverability - but not that much since the item is just among many other in the Gallery categories list. Last but not least many users will not understand autotext as kind of object like pictures and sounds. => WF