Description: When using Text boxes in Calc spreadsheet the cursor does not work and there is unexpected behavior. Clicking the box you'd expect cursor to appear somewhere (preferably to the point where you clicked how it works in Excel) but it appears nowhere. When you start writing text it usually does it to the end of the textbox regardless if you clicked to beginning or middle. The issue could be at least partially caused by that the original XLSX and textbox was created in Excel (2010). But even a fresh textbox in Libreoffice document has serious usability issues regarding to cursor and selecting point where to write Steps to Reproduce: 1. Insert textbox of some size 2. Write a lot of text to it (10-30 lines e.g.) 3. Go back to the spreadsheet to do something else 4. Now click to the textbox to the point where you would like to add more text Actual Results: no cursor and writes at the end Expected Results: should be cursor and writing to where you point in the text box Reproducible: Always User Profile Reset: No Additional Info: Version: 7.4.5.1 (x64) / LibreOffice Community Build ID: 9c0871452b3918c1019dde9bfac75448afc4b57f CPU threads: 4; OS: Windows 10.0 Build 19044; UI render: Skia/Raster; VCL: win Locale: fi-FI (fi_FI); UI: en-GB Calc: threaded
Additional data. The bug seemed to be partially caused by the fact that textbox was quite high and only part of it was visible on screen (rest below screen). I noticed then that double clicking a point in textbox seems to cause desired behavior. This should be changed to single click as it is more intuitive. Also as default textbox is transparent. Nobody uses a transparent textbox so default settings for Area should be changed to "Light Grey 5" or "White" (I would prefer light grey).
Just tested with 7.5.0.3. To me, the current behaviour does make sense: - A single click selects the object, and allow drag-and-dropping from anywhere on the from, and moving it with the arrows. If once decides to starts adding text in selection mode, it is naturally added at the end of existing text, a good default. An extra click can place the cursor wherever we want in the text. - Double-clicking it will place the cursor where the pointer is, and text can be entered there. We need the two modes, selection and editing, otherwise moving the text box with keyboard arrows would not work (important from an accessibility point of view). Not sure about default text box background. If one wants to have a text box with a solid fill, inserting a shape (e.g. rectangle) is easy enough, although the default format is centered. Do you think that is sufficient and could be closed as "not a bug" ?
>To me, the current behaviour does make sense: >- A single click selects the object, and allow drag-and-dropping from anywhere on >the from, and moving it with the arrows. If once decides to starts adding text in >selection mode, it is naturally added at the end of existing text, a good >default. An extra click can place the cursor wherever we want in the text. >- Double-clicking it will place the cursor where the pointer is, and text can be >entered there. First of all lets acknowledge that this issue is not only with Calc vs. Excel but also extends to Impress vs. Powerpoint text boxes. In Excel/Powerpoint a single click puts cursor directly where clicked. If you want to move textbox with arrow keys you have to click handle in the edge or corner. IMO the more common need should be behind single click which at least for me (and I'd imagine majority of users) is to edit the text inside the box instead of moving the box. Also majority of users probably come from MS Office and are already more used to that sort of behavior. How to implement this then? IMO there could be (at least for the next 3-5 years) a "single click textbox editing" setting somewhere under Options... menu in LibreOffice. Its default value would be "disabled" in beginning but changed to "enabled" after 2 years or so. This setting would change behavior of textboxes in Calc and Impress as described above so that single click starts to directly edit from where cursor was pressed. >We need the two modes, selection and editing, otherwise moving the text box >with keyboard arrows would not work (important from an accessibility point of >view). As selection is probably lesser used mode it could be enabled by clicking edges/corners or clicking inside the textbox and pressing ESC to get from editing to selection mode. >Not sure about default text box background. If one wants to have a text box >with a solid fill, inserting a shape (e.g. rectangle) is easy enough, although >the default format is centered. I tried it and it is not really a solution. I am using textbox as a notepad so centering text in the middle is not an option. Although when using Impress centering probably makes more sense. As you know internals of Libreoffice better could you maybe make the above suggestions "Single Click Textbox Editing" and "solid white or graywhite background as default Area... values/fills for Calc textbox" to the right discussion thread where they would get more attention? >Do you think that is sufficient and could be closed as "not a bug" ? I could sware that in addition to everything discussed until now I also witnessed a bug where there is no blinking cursor at all while I am writing text inside the text box. That would definitely be a bug as there should always be a blinking cursor (except for first letter in some exceptions) when you are writing text to an app. But I am unable to reproduce it anymore. I am 95% sure that I experienced this behavior in textbox in Libreoffice 7.3.7.
[Automated Action] NeedInfo-To-Unconfirmed
(In reply to golemus from comment #3) > How to implement this then? IMO there could be (at least for the next 3-5 > years) a "single click textbox editing" setting somewhere under Options... > menu in LibreOffice. Its default value would be "disabled" in beginning but > changed to "enabled" after 2 years or so. This setting would change behavior > of textboxes in Calc and Impress as described above so that single click > starts to directly edit from where cursor was pressed. > As selection is probably lesser used mode it could be enabled by clicking > edges/corners or clicking inside the textbox and pressing ESC to get from > editing to selection mode. I'll let the UX team decide if this is desirable enough or not, copying them in. > [...] I am using textbox as a notepad > so centering text in the middle is not an option. Although when using > Impress centering probably makes more sense. Have you considered using comments, then? You can insert them easily with Ctrl + Alt + C, and make them always visible with View > Comments. > As you know internals of Libreoffice better could you maybe make the above > suggestions "Single Click Textbox Editing" and "solid white or graywhite > background as default Area... values/fills for Calc textbox" to the right > discussion thread where they would get more attention? Reports that focus on a specific issue are a lot more likely to be actioned and resolved. I am refocusing this one on "single-click to edit", and you can open a new report about default colours if you'd like that to change. Thank you!
The point of single click to activate the text box object vs. double click to enter the edit mode makes sense. However, Impress/Draw has the option General > Allow quick editing which detects whether the cursor is over text and goes directly into edit mode if checked (see also bug 106330). Now I wonder if we can add this behavior to Writer/Calc. Eike, what do you think? The question is frequently asked, see bug 107688 "Accessing the textbox of a selected shape is a bit counter-intuitive and inconsistent", but also somewhat controversial, see bug 154409 for "A single click on a shape/image with frame should select the frame, instead of the image".
I think it's a bad idea for Calc as with Charts you'd end up unwillingly entering text into the chart's drawing object frame. There are already cases on the Ask site where people managed to enter text (apparently after a double click) without remembering how and then didn't know how to get rid of it (simply editing the draw object again isn't obvious). But then again, maybe with a single click it would be more obvious.. though selecting the object (single click) is more done to move it and having to use the borders for that would be cumbersome. Maybe differentiating between Chart drawing objects and shape drawing objects would be a possibility, but how many times are shapes with text used and edited in a spreadsheet..
(In reply to Eike Rathke from comment #7) > I think it's a bad idea for Calc as with Charts you'd end up unwillingly > entering text into the chart's drawing object frame. There are already cases > on the Ask site where people managed to enter text... Don't see a reason why you want to enter text in a chart. See bug 141841 for my suggestion to suppress it.
Ah sorry, I was wrong on this, we already go into text edit mode on charts after a single click *when typing* or hitting F2.
My 2 cents: I oppose changing the global default; oppose extending quick-edit-mode to charts based on comments above; but perhaps extending it to other textboxes in Calc and Write makes sense at least for better consistency.
We discussed the topic in the design meeting. Ideally we consistently implement single click to activate the (text box) object vs. double click to enter the edit mode. Impress/Draw has the option General > Allow quick editing, which makes it work like Excel (and as requested) going into edit mode per single click. So we suggest to add this option for Writer and Calc too. (The potential issue with charts should be solved by making it harder to enter the text mode.)