Bug 56677 was marked as fixed. But - it wasn't fixed AFAIAC. The comment indicator is much too small and easy to miss - when the cell is not empty. See the attached document. Without paying close attention, one is quite likely to miss the indicator - especially in the upper cell with the comment.
Bug 91415 asks that the comment indicator block less of the cell's contents. That _may_ be contradictory to the request in this bug, but - perhaps not really. Part of the problem with noticing the comment indicator is the overlap with the cell contents - making the indicator "camouflaged" by the cell contents. Also, please note that zooming in / zooming out and their effect on the comment indicator are not relevant to this bug: I want to notice the comment indicators _without_ having to play with the zoom. If I already know the indicator is there, the problem is kind of solved to begin with.
Created attachment 185850 [details] Calc sheet with comments
Created attachment 185851 [details] Calc sheet with comments and surrounding text
Created attachment 185852 [details] Screenshot of calc window with attachment 185851 [details] Note how the triangles for text exceeding cell boundaries are also a bit similar to comment indicators, helping camouflage it even further.
I'll clarify the ask here: It's not about the size per se, but the visibility. If the indicator is visible enough, I don't mind that it's small. Enlargment is just one possible way of increasing its visibility. I'll also repeat a comment I made on bug 153106: The patch for 91415 improved the situation by switching to a triangle for, which I find more visible (but it also introduced scaling at different zoom levels, which may be problematic.)
As of 7.5.x, there are the following statuses: * comment indicator and comments both hidden * comment indicator and comments both displayed * comment indicator displayed, comments hidden * comment indicator hidden, comments displayed Additionally, the comments' background color can be changed. The comments are set to be displayed/hidden in menu View. The comment indicator is set to be displayed/hidden within Options. I could think of some "simple" (from the POV of users) additional settings / options / alternatives to add towards the goal of this RFE: 1. Having the possibility to customize the color of the comment indicator. Different contrasting colors means different visibility. 2. Having the possibility to display or to hide the comment indicator, not just within the Options, but in the menu and/or the toolbar (as comments themselves currently are). To be clear, this would be independent to whether to display or to hide the comments themselves. Being able to toggle "on/off" in sequence helps to notice the presence of a comment indicator. SIDE NOTE: This possibility also helps when the content of a cell is not readable because it clashes with the comment indicator: the user turns it off for a second, reads the content and brings the comment indicator on again. 3. Having the possibility to _toggle_ the color, and/or shape (bigger/smaller) of the comment indicator, also directly in the View menu and View toolbar. Some users might even want to customize a shortcut key combination for this. 4. Having the possibility of automatically "blink" (for several seconds, or permanently until set to off). Generally speaking, just as with signs on the road, you shouldn't have a comment indicator "permanently on your face". You only want it to be noticed for a split of a second. A permanent high-contrast color (for instance) would be as having a flashlight pointing at you. Once you noticed that the comment indicator is there, that's enough attention; more would be a negative consequence, a distraction. A similar idea applies to toggling the size and/or the shape of the comment indicator. Press an icon (or a customized shortcut key combination) and the comment indicator is displayed more prominently than it normally is. Press again and it returns to its normal color and/or smaller shape, so it won't keep bothering during normal work (after the user already noticed it is present). These are similar possibilities comparable to the current possibility of displaying the comments themselves for a split moment, on/off. Except that the comment themselves could potentially bother one another if you have many and closed to each other. Having the comment indicator on/off, or with different color and/or shape being manually changed in rapid succession allows the user to see the contrast between the two statuses, helping in identifying that a comment indicator is present. For that to be effective, it is not enough to have it within the Options; it would need to be (also) in the View menu and View toolbar(s). I guess that the possibility of a customized shortcut is independent of having the comment indicator setting (on/off) available in the menu/toolbar. I haven't checked whether assigning a custom shortcut is already available for this action ATM without changing anything else. As always, the possibility of noticing a certain detail (such as comment indicators) varies according to zoom factor. I am not getting into the matter; I am mentioning it just for the record, so when a user might claim the indicator is not notable enough, a valid possible question or request would be to temporarily change the zoom factor in order to test whether the situation improved. I am not able to read cell's content or see comment indicators when the zoom factor is "too low" (no matter how big the font would be or how prominent the comment indicator would turn out to be), so I assume similar experiences are valid for other users. The forth alternative I suggested, to "blink" (perhaps for a certain limited time), is aimed at a more "automatic" approach, without user intervention. The specific trigger would need discussion. Is it 5 seconds after showing the worksheet the first time after it was opened? Is it a permanent blink until the users shuts it off/down for the session? Would it be "on" the next time a document is opened? Is its status saved within the document?... Having a comment indicator permanently being displayed more prominently is not a good idea, just as having a flashlight pointing at our face while trying to focus on real work. But, if some user has the perception that the comment indicator should be more prominent than it is now, it should be up to that user to be able to set it to some comfortable color / shape / toggling, according to how much prominence it should have for his own context/circumstances. My (educated) guess is that after noticing it once or twice, users would not want it to be as prominent for the rest of the work. For some users, the way it is now is adequate. I hope this points can help in finding out possible improvements for those affected, while not negatively affecting those that are OK with the way they are currently as of LO 7.5. My vote, FWIW, would be to add the possibility to display/hide the comment indicator as part of the menu and toolbars, as the comment themselves are. By toggling on/off in succession, users would notice the presence of the comment indicator more than a static sign can.
(In reply to ady from comment #6) > 1. Having the possibility to customize the color of the comment indicator. That's work in progress by Maxim. > 2. Having the possibility to display or to hide the comment indicator... Discussed in bug 153106 > 3. Having the possibility to _toggle_ the color, and/or shape... Sounds like #2 > 4. Having the possibility of automatically "blink" (for several seconds, or > permanently until set to off). Requires some trigger My take: we discussed whether the indicators are too big and agreed now to keep it and introduce an on/off switch. I suggest to resolve this ticket as WF/NAB.
(In reply to Heiko Tietze from comment #7) > My take: we discussed whether the indicators are too big and agreed now to > keep it and introduce an on/off switch. I suggest to resolve this ticket as > WF/NAB. This bug is about the state of affairs in 7.4 - to clarify how the visibility of the indicator was deficient. It should have been filed right after 56677 - imagine it's from 2015. Now, iuf our compromise scaling suggestion from 153106 is implemented, let's have a look at how the calc sheet at the attachment behaves, and assuming things have improved enough - we can mark this fixed. It will probably not need any work of its own.
(In reply to Heiko Tietze from comment #7) > (In reply to ady from comment #6) > > 1. Having the possibility to customize the color of the comment indicator. > That's work in progress by Maxim. > > > 2. Having the possibility to display or to hide the comment indicator... > Discussed in bug 153106 > > > 3. Having the possibility to _toggle_ the color, and/or shape... > Sounds like #2 Not exactly. #2 is a setting (for users that might not want the current color for whichever reason, such as giving it more contrast in some way); OTOH this is an independent toggle. ON: the color of the indicator changes. Or the shape. Or the size. Or another attribute of the cell changes, such as the border's color, or the cell... OFF: go back to normal. In any case, please keep in mind that history shows us that at least a minimal surrounding of the indicator must have a different contrasting color (now is something more-or-less whitish with the indicator being "reddish", or so). > > > 4. Having the possibility of automatically "blink" (for several seconds, or > > permanently until set to off). > Requires some trigger Yes, a trigger, or, again, a toggle. ON: start blinking. OFF: back to normal (which could be displayed or hidden, according to its own setting).
Created attachment 186294 [details] Screenshot of calc window with attachment 185851 [details], with 7.6 nightly Situation is somewhat better with a recent 7.6 nightly.
We discussed the topic in the design meeting. The indicator is easy to spot at 100% but might be a challenge in other zoom levels if the text overflow indicator is spread across the sheet together with comment indicators, both being red. The proposal is to move these two options out of tools > options > calc > view into application colors to allow the specification of other colors than red. MSO uses purple color for comments but has no overflow indicator (content is replaced by #####).
Heiko Tietze committed a patch related to this issue. It has been pushed to "master": https://git.libreoffice.org/core/commit/11bb9c14da13507adeeea8dce863fb4b96a92870 [API CHANGE] Related tdf#154080 - Allow customization of comment indicator color It will be available in 7.6.0. The patch should be included in the daily builds available at https://dev-builds.libreoffice.org/daily/ in the next 24-48 hours. More information about daily builds can be found at: https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Testing_Daily_Builds Affected users are encouraged to test the fix and report feedback.
Heiko Tietze committed a patch related to this issue. It has been pushed to "master": https://git.libreoffice.org/core/commit/07f87f20c8af71faeda500b6b1d7775743bbf646 Resolves tdf#154080 - Allow customization of comment indicator color It will be available in 7.6.0. The patch should be included in the daily builds available at https://dev-builds.libreoffice.org/daily/ in the next 24-48 hours. More information about daily builds can be found at: https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Testing_Daily_Builds Affected users are encouraged to test the fix and report feedback.
(In reply to Commit Notification from comment #13) Heiko, the patch says "Comments color" - shouldn't that be "Comment indicator color"?
Yes, comment indicator and text overflow indicator. Messed up twice.
*** Bug 115887 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
This introduced a functionality, and changed the UI. Now there's no "Text overflow" in Calc's View, but it is in the Application colors. 1. No mention in release notes. 2. Needs reflection in help (https://help.libreoffice.org/latest/en-US/text/shared/optionen/01060100.html?DbPAR=SHARED#hd_id3146898)
(In reply to Mike Kaganski from comment #17) > This introduced a functionality, and changed the UI. Now there's no "Text > overflow" in Calc's View, but it is in the Application colors. Text overflow indicator is the triangle at the right side (for LTR), by default red. You can change this color as well as "Notes background" now. Tiny change, not really worth to mention in the release notes. But anyway, let's do it.
(In reply to Heiko Tietze from comment #18) > Tiny change, not really worth to mention in the release notes. :-) No change is tiny enough to not worth mention: https://ask.libreoffice.org/t/missing-check-box-for-a-text-overflow-chybejici-check-box-pro-preteceni-textu/95808/2