Bug 156538 - Insert Special Character TB splitbutton should indicate glyph names
Summary: Insert Special Character TB splitbutton should indicate glyph names
Status: VERIFIED FIXED
Alias: None
Product: LibreOffice
Classification: Unclassified
Component: LibreOffice (show other bugs)
Version:
(earliest affected)
6.0.0.3 release
Hardware: All All
: medium enhancement
Assignee: Jim Raykowski
URL:
Whiteboard: target:24.2.0 inReleaseNotes:24.2
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks: Split-Group-Buttons Special-Character
  Show dependency treegraph
 
Reported: 2023-07-30 18:51 UTC by Eyal Rozenberg
Modified: 2023-08-31 22:37 UTC (History)
5 users (show)

See Also:
Crash report or crash signature:


Attachments
Tooltip demo (123.84 KB, video/x-matroska)
2023-08-05 05:06 UTC, Jim Raykowski
Details
show character infomation in a label demo (172.15 KB, video/x-matroska)
2023-08-06 01:18 UTC, Jim Raykowski
Details
screenshot of wrapping special character label (76.25 KB, image/png)
2023-08-10 08:26 UTC, Jim Raykowski
Details

Note You need to log in before you can comment on or make changes to this bug.
Description Eyal Rozenberg 2023-07-30 18:51:35 UTC
The Insert Symbol dialog lets one see the name of the selected character (under the enlarged view rectangle). This is often important, especially for:

* Distinguishing glpyhs which look similar (e.g. en-dash vs em-dash vs horizontal bar),
* Inserting characters in languages foreign to yours, where you identify glyphs only by name
* Non-printing characters

However - using the Insert Symbol _menubutton_ on the toolbars, there is no indication of the character names.

We should add such indication in one, or both, of the following ways:

1. Add a framed label which shows the name of the hovered-over character.
2. Have tooltips for the characters with their names


Bikeshedding: Perhaps show the Unicode hex value as well has the name
Comment 1 V Stuart Foote 2023-07-31 00:52:49 UTC
Not clear "on-mouseover" triggers are feasible given the way the split button entries for the "Favorites" and "Recent characters" are overloaded, but sure worth a look.
Comment 2 Eyal Rozenberg 2023-07-31 07:53:27 UTC
(In reply to V Stuart Foote from comment #1)
> Not clear "on-mouseover" triggers are feasible given the way the split
> button entries for the "Favorites" and "Recent characters" are overloaded,
> but sure worth a look.

I'm guessing it should be doable _somehow_, even if less easily than usual.

Also, even an on-mousedown would help, i.e. pressing without releasing to get the name, then moving the mouse away before depressing; although, granted, that's kind of baroque and unintuitive.
Comment 3 Jim Raykowski 2023-08-05 05:06:24 UTC
Created attachment 188787 [details]
Tooltip demo

Would what is shown in the attached demo be good enough?
Comment 4 V Stuart Foote 2023-08-05 11:08:14 UTC
(In reply to Jim Raykowski from comment #3)
> Created attachment 188787 [details]
> Tooltip demo
> 
> Would what is shown in the attached demo be good enough?

Mouseover trigger LGTM; Eyal?
Comment 5 Eyal Rozenberg 2023-08-05 15:53:07 UTC
(In reply to Jim Raykowski from comment #3)
> Would what is shown in the attached demo be good enough?

As tooltips - yes, that's great :-)

If this is implemented, I still feel it would be nice to have the character info show in a label on the mini-dialog itself, without the user having to guess they need to hover over the character. But that would be a "cherry on top" type enhancement.
Comment 6 Jim Raykowski 2023-08-06 01:18:17 UTC
Created attachment 188798 [details]
show character infomation in a label demo

Here is a demo that shows character information of the highlighted character in a label at the bottom of the insert special characters control. When there is more information than the label can show gtk3 truncates the text, x11 truncates with ellipses. I haven't been able to find a way to make text wrapping work for the label here.
Comment 7 Stéphane Guillou (stragu) 2023-08-09 13:29:13 UTC
Both look great, thank you Jim!
Do you have those patches in gerrit?
Setting as new.
Comment 8 Jim Raykowski 2023-08-10 08:26:34 UTC
Created attachment 188895 [details]
screenshot of wrapping special character label

I figured out how to make the special character information label wrap! I also changed the placement of the label to be above the More Characters... button.

Here is a link to the patch:
https://gerrit.libreoffice.org/c/core/+/155547
Comment 9 Commit Notification 2023-08-16 05:51:17 UTC
Jim Raykowski committed a patch related to this issue.
It has been pushed to "master":

https://git.libreoffice.org/core/commit/717fa28e88f382ad86b2be2fdbc24f4f60bc524d

tdf#156538 Enhancement to show character information in the insert

It will be available in 24.2.0.

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.
Comment 10 Stéphane Guillou (stragu) 2023-08-31 13:40:52 UTC
Thank you Jim! Fix verified in:

Version: 24.2.0.0.alpha0+ (X86_64) / LibreOffice Community
Build ID: 695ae365dcab7c7dd59b39411299c5c200081885
CPU threads: 8; OS: Linux 5.15; UI render: default; VCL: gtk3
Locale: en-AU (en_AU.UTF-8); UI: en-US
Calc: threaded

Added to release notes:

https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/index.php?title=ReleaseNotes%2F24.2&type=revision&diff=683826&oldid=682540

Jim, I noticed an issue with it with the gtk3 VCL plugin, not sure if you had noticed: I only get a tooltip while hovering the upper half or third of the character square. gen works well.
Comment 11 Jim Raykowski 2023-08-31 15:30:14 UTC
(In reply to Stéphane Guillou (stragu) from comment #10)
> Jim, I noticed an issue with it with the gtk3 VCL plugin, not sure if you
> had noticed: I only get a tooltip while hovering the upper half or third of
> the character square. gen works well.
Hi Stéphane, Thanks for reminding me of this. Fix is on the way...
Comment 12 Eyal Rozenberg 2023-08-31 18:59:03 UTC
Thank you, Jim, for taking the initiative on this and making life easier for those who need to tell apart capital-Alpha's from A's and play "guess that dash name"...
Comment 13 Commit Notification 2023-08-31 22:37:40 UTC
Jim Raykowski committed a patch related to this issue.
It has been pushed to "master":

https://git.libreoffice.org/core/commit/d88779fc86385dde1215fd28b78a69eacc6b4f97

tdf#156538 follow up: Use better tooltip activation rectangle

It will be available in 24.2.0.

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.