Bug 153992 - Sidebar character deck doesn't indicate the current language/language group
Summary: Sidebar character deck doesn't indicate the current language/language group
Status: NEW
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:
Depends on:
Blocks: Sidebar-Properties-Character RTL-UI Language-Grouping
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Reported: 2023-03-05 21:58 UTC by Eyal Rozenberg
Modified: 2024-09-20 11:22 UTC (History)
3 users (show)

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Description Eyal Rozenberg 2023-03-05 21:58:45 UTC
The character tab/deck of the sidebar shows all sorts of information about your font: Family, size, bold Y/N, Italic Y/N and others.

Many of these - specifically, the ones I mentioned - are actually defined separately for each language group: Western, RTL-CTL and CJK. But the tab/deck does not tell us _which_ language group it's currently showing controls for.

This can be quite confusing when working on text with mixed language groups - and when the same font family may be used for multiple language groups.

Of course, if LO only has one language group enabled (i.e. Asian/CJK scripts and RTL/CTL scripts are disabled via options) - then indicating the language group is not necessary.

Now, as for _how_ to indicate the language group... that's not entirely obvious. Some possibilities:

* If a control for the language is added, that might be a sufficient surrogate
* If a control for switching language groups is added (see bug 153991), then hovering over it could tell us what it would do, in a tooltip, e.g. the tooltip could say "Western -> RTL", then when you click it, "RTL -> CJK", then again "CJK -> Western" - and you would know that the group on the starting side is the active one.
* If a control for switching language groups is added (see bug 153991), and its big enough, it could say "CJK", "RTL" or "Wes". Or something more graphic instead.
Comment 1 Heiko Tietze 2024-09-06 07:18:30 UTC
-1 to bloat the sidebar. While showing Western/CJK/CTL for example in front of the font dropdown (if those are enabled in tools > options) might be cheap I struggle with the need to do so. You change the respective entry anyway - and in the long run we want to get rid of this unholy trinity anyway.
Comment 2 Eyal Rozenberg 2024-09-07 19:27:25 UTC
(In reply to Heiko Tietze from comment #1)
> While showing Western/CJK/CTL for example in front
> of the font dropdown (if those are enabled in tools > options) might be
> cheap I struggle with the need to do so.

We need to know. Remember the typeface doesn't tell you which LG you're in, since many of them support multiple LGs. Even Liberation Serif.

> -1 to bloat the sidebar.

See above...

Also, if you want a minimal-bloat solution (and are not fixing 153991): Replace the section title "Character" with "Character (NameOfLangGroupHere)".


> You change the respective entry anyway

???

> and in the long run we want to get rid of this unholy trinity anyway.

This is a short-run bug, which could be fixed with very limited effort and no back-end change... also, when LGs are eliminated, you'll have the same issue for individual languages, which would their own settings, at least potentially.
Comment 3 Heiko Tietze 2024-09-20 07:49:10 UTC
We discussed the topic in the design meeting and the proposal was accepted. Some comments:

 + most controls are in the toolbar as well, we probably need to
   implement it as a customizable UNO command
 + the control should be visible only if CTL/CJK are checked
 + it could be realized per dropdown before the font listbox although
   that takes some precious space
Comment 4 Eyal Rozenberg 2024-09-20 08:48:40 UTC
(In reply to Heiko Tietze from comment #3)
> We discussed the topic in the design meeting and the proposal was accepted.

... but it was not determined that this would be an enhancement. Still, I won't nitpick the designation, since there is at least indication in the bottom status bar of the language 

> Some comments:
> 
>  + most controls are in the toolbar as well, we probably need to
>    implement it as a customizable UNO command

That's possible, but that precludes the ultra-compact options mentioned in some of the comments (like showing the language/language group on a section label or control label). I'm fine with it either way - in principle.

>  + the control should be visible only if CTL/CJK are checked

That sounds reasonable, but - what if RTL-CTL/CJK is not checked, but the document has such content?

>  + it could be realized per dropdown before the font listbox although
>    that takes some precious space

Do you mean "by a dropdown listbox"? I'm not quite sure what option you're suggesting.
Comment 5 V Stuart Foote 2024-09-20 11:22:35 UTC
(In reply to Eyal Rozenberg from comment #4)
 
> >  + it could be realized per dropdown before the font listbox although
> >    that takes some precious space
> 
> Do you mean "by a dropdown listbox"? I'm not quite sure what option you're
> suggesting.

Suspect by listbox dropdown would be the same set of locale/languages as listed in Status Bar with current as selected showing; while radio button (3 button icons) would toggle to show one of the "trifecta" (Western/CJK/CTL). Not sure which would consume more space in the Deck.