Add an option to show, and not show, metadata in Calc's comment system. NOTES: https://ask.libreoffice.org/t/comments-in-calc-added-dates-after-updating-from-7-5-to-7-6/94934/3
Balázs, I understand we don't have a way to turn that off currently, is that right? In Tools > Options > LibreOffice Calc > View > Display, we already have "Comment indicator". I could imagine having "Comment authorship" in there as well.
(In reply to Stéphane Guillou (stragu) from comment #1) > Balázs, I understand we don't have a way to turn that off currently, is that > right? > > In Tools > Options > LibreOffice Calc > View > Display, we already have > "Comment indicator". I could imagine having "Comment authorship" in there as > well. Yes, there is no config key to turn on/off this feature. Can be add ofc, but should be the default value true/turned on, I think.
Why should we make metadata optional in Calc but not other modules? What is the deal to hide the authorship from comments anyway?
(In reply to Heiko Tietze from comment #3) > Why should we make metadata optional in Calc but not other modules? What is > the deal to hide the authorship from comments anyway? Because comments are used very differently in Calc, with their position and size relative to the rest of the content possibly being something important to the user (i.e. sized to not hide spreadsheet contents), and with the authorship possibly being completely irrelevant. (i.e. comments used as instruction popups. Users would be annoyed seeing author names and dates polluting the content.) I previously thought they should be made more consistent with Writer's comment but Maxim's comments in bug 73537 comment 7 (and the discussion on gerrit) made me reconsider.
All good points but it still feels wrong to have an expert option. The sidebar idea sounds good, and I could imagine a function to clear metadata from (own) comments.
(In reply to Heiko Tietze from comment #5) > All good points but it still feels wrong to have an expert option. The > sidebar idea sounds good, and I could imagine a function to clear metadata > from (own) comments. FWIW, only recently Calc added the additional info to the comments. Additionally, normal comments (or "notes") in Calc are not the same as "tracking changes" comments, in which the author and date+time data probably have greater importance. There are cases in which automatically adding this info in each comment might be useful, but there are (many) cases in which users want a _minimal_ comment (such as instructions, or a reminder), especially when the spreadsheet is aimed at themselves (not to be shared or edited by others). In those later cases, repeating unnecessary text within each comment is not useful (or even distracting, or even bothering). Some Calc users might even claim that this (recently) added data should be OFF by default, imitating what was the "normal" situation until recently in LO Calc. The (recently) added data might be useful for some users, but might be counterproductive too, so it needs some kind of toggle option or method to set it ON/OFF.
(In reply to Heiko Tietze from comment #5) > All good points but it still feels wrong to have an expert option. The > sidebar idea sounds good, and I could imagine a function to clear metadata > from (own) comments. What is the sidebar idea?
(In reply to Stéphane Guillou (stragu) from comment #7) > What is the sidebar idea? Ah, from Maxim's comment, got it.
(In reply to Heiko Tietze from comment #3) > Why should we make metadata optional in Calc but not other modules? What is > the deal to hide the authorship from comments anyway? It threw me off because it wasn't there before the update, and I have alot of comments. I have use comments as a '3d spreadsheet' then use find to 'countif' the comments (or tags) of repeating patterns in the data set.
[Automated Action] NeedInfo-To-Unconfirmed
My opinion: * Showing or hiding authorship metadata should indeed be toggle-able. * It should be off by default * The toggle should not be difficult to locate. Perhaps such a (global) toggle could appear even in the in-comment context menu. * We could very well consider such a toggle for other modules; the fact that they don't have a toggle is not a reason to avoid adding one in Calc (especially since it seems to matter more here) * It would be even better if the timestamp and the author could be toggled separately from each other. I might care about the date but know all comments are from just one person, for example.
The topic was on the agenda of the design meeting. The majority agrees with the request and welcome an option. Rather than disabling a functionality I think we add a function to clear the meta data. And showing comments in a sidebar would be very beneficial for Calc.
I completely agree with comments #4 and #11 Comments in calc are not used for tracking changes and this extra info now being displayed in every comment is distracting and generally of no interest to most users I imagine. The new giant magenta triangle that has replaced the previous small red one to indicate a hidden comment is also distracting!
I too would like the option to remove this info from comments. It's an annoying nuisance cluttering up my calc comments with extra lines I don't need or want. It can be a useful feature for shared documents that have multiple editors but it's irrelevant to a person who only uses Liber Office apps for personal, private documents and projects.
(In reply to Heiko Tietze from comment #12) > The majority agrees with the request and welcome an option. Rather than > disabling a functionality I think we add a function to clear the meta data. The fix for bug 156336, available in 24.2, allows removing metadata via Tools > Options > LO > Security > Options > Remove personal information on saving (like Writer allows). However, this is buried deep into the options dialog, and more importantly: the anonymised information "AuthorX, day/month/year" is still visible in comments. Comments sidebar deck is tracked in bug 106316.
*** Bug 159344 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
I completely agree with comments #4, #11, #13 and #14 There should be a configuration setting to disable the display of "AuthorX, day/month/year". And I would propose to disable this by defualt for Unknown authors, to avoid the display of "Unkown Author, day/month/year" at all.
(In reply to Heiko Tietze from comment #12) > The topic was on the agenda of the design meeting. I know that this has already been discussed in a previous design meeting, but I would like to propose the following solution: We can create a new Uno command to toggle the visibility of the comment's authorship... it could be placed in the View menu ("View - Comment Authorship"). If the toggle is unchecked, hovering over a cell with a comment would not display author and date.
An alternative would be to leave the comment always untouched, and the author+date_time could be only added to a second/separate optional balloon, possibly with its own comment-like features (show, hide, size, edit or whatever). IDK whether such item could be supported by ODF. The forced addition of the author+date_time info within current/existing comments has broken too many properties of the normal comments already (e.g. inserted pictures being distorted; position or size of comments; unwanted info in many cases,...)
(In reply to Rafael Lima from comment #18) > View - Comment > Authorship Smalls like feature-creep to me. Keep it simple, stupid ;-)
*** Bug 159739 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Calc comments have been fine. A large portion users likely don't colaborate, so the additional information breaks a perfectly good system that has worked for years. There are too many open bugs that impact everyday functionality that should be fixed before next to useless changes are added.
*** Bug 160134 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
I agree with the aforementioned authors, this must be toggleable.
. . !!! THE INDICATOR MUST GO BACK TO USEFUL AND NOT OBSCURE DATA!!!! . .
*** Bug 160656 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
It's nine months since this unwanted 'feature' was added. When is it going to be fixed? If adding a toggle is so hard, perhaps the patch that added this 'feature' could be reverted or backed out?
(In reply to Ian Hodge from comment #27) > It's nine months since this unwanted 'feature' was added. When is it going > to be fixed? If adding a toggle is so hard, perhaps the patch that added > this 'feature' could be reverted or backed out? I agree 100% with your comment, Ian, it was a very unwanted 'feature' for the way I use Calc. I won't upgrade into the mess created by this 'improvement' because it will break some huge spreadsheets I work with daily and require a lot of rework. That is, all upgrades to Calc are on hold until a way to easily "kill" this unwanted feature is provided. Importance should not be "enhancement" but "major" or "critical."
Since you ask so kindly... https://gerrit.libreoffice.org/c/core/+/167260
Added the option "Comment authorship" under tools > options > calc > view, which controls whether the additional information is shown on hover.
Heiko Tietze committed a patch related to this issue. It has been pushed to "master": https://git.libreoffice.org/core/commit/a5d0114bbb40f5bffcb19d6e6b3a5bf43aab1446 Resolves tdf#156885 - Make comment authorship optional It will be available in 24.8.0. 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.
?!?!?!?!? Does the patch fix the ridiculously oversized comment indicator in Calc? ?!?!?!?!? I can't easily read the data in half the cells with comments as the last digit is partially obscured.
(In reply to Ian Eales from comment #32) > ?!?!?!?!? Please read the comments again.
I did read them. NOWHERE do I see where it says Calc comment indicator restored to prior small red box. I see where we can turn off the comment indicator.
(In reply to Ian Eales from comment #34) > NOWHERE do I see where it says Calc comment indicator restored to prior > small red box. While the size of the comment indicator has been shrunk already in the most recent development versions, this report is not about the comment indicator, so please let's not mix independent issues. Please test with tomorrow's daily or newer (if you find a new one built with date 2024-05-08 or later).
It may not be the same issue to developers, but it is to users: One perfectly satisfactory function became useless regardless of how many cooks stirred the pot. Primum non nocere
(In reply to Ian Eales from comment #34) > NOWHERE... You know that upper case indicates strong feeling, which I receive as shouting? (In reply to Heiko Tietze from bug 158958 comment #23) > The indicator is much smaller now. Please test carefully. > > The expert Option NoteIndicator was added. Changing the value to something > above 0 will draw the indicator in this absolute size (pixel per > vertical/horizontal side) regardless the zoom and DPI factor. Please test > this solution too (waiting to add this change to the release notes for a > while). Tools > Options > LibreOffice > Advanced > Open Expert Configuration: search for NoteIndicator and change the value to 5 or less in order to make the indicator tiny. The shape modification is generally seen as an improvement (admittedly not unanimously). I haven't read a good argument why the rectangle would be better; if you insist to revert you need to find a volunteer. But please have the discussion in an extra ticket.
(In reply to Heiko Tietze from comment #37) > Tools > Options > LibreOffice > Advanced > Open Expert Configuration: search > for NoteIndicator and change the value to 5 or less in order to make the > indicator tiny. Or just test it first with the default value of 0. OTOH, this tdf#156885 is about being able to hide the "meta" info within Calc comments, so please let's focus on that here.
*** Bug 162236 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***