Bug 158289 - The term "Track changes" is being used ungrammatically
Summary: The term "Track changes" is being used ungrammatically
Status: RESOLVED NOTABUG
Alias: None
Product: LibreOffice
Classification: Unclassified
Component: UI (show other bugs)
Version:
(earliest affected)
unspecified
Hardware: All All
: medium minor
Assignee: Not Assigned
URL:
Whiteboard:
Keywords: needsUXEval
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2023-11-20 19:33 UTC by Tuomas Hietala
Modified: 2023-12-01 15:45 UTC (History)
8 users (show)

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Description Tuomas Hietala 2023-11-20 19:33:55 UTC
Description:
In LO UI, there are strings such as "Record Track Changes", "Show Track Changes" and "Manage Track Changes". I think using "Track Changes" as a noun this way is ungrammatical, unless it refers to the change-tracking functionality itself. But even in that case "Change tracking" would be more easily understood.

If a string refers to the tracked changes in a document, it should be something like "Manage Tracked Changes". ("Tracked changes" is correctly used in some of the UI strings.)

If a string refers to the change-tracking functionality in LO, it should be (preferrably) something like "Manage Change Tracking".

If "Track Changes" is being used as a command (in the sense of "computer, track these changes" or "activate change-tracking"), it is being used correctly.


Steps to Reproduce:
1. See https://translations.documentfoundation.org/search/libo_ui-master/-/en/?q=track+changes&sort_by=-priority%2Cposition&checksum=


Actual Results:
"Track Changes" is used incorrectly.

Expected Results:
Correct grammar is observed and strings are easily understandable.


Reproducible: Always


User Profile Reset: No

Additional Info:
n/a
Comment 1 Heiko Tietze 2023-11-21 06:11:59 UTC
Something for the native speakers. "Record Track Changes" vs "Record Tracked Changes" or "Record Change Tracking" or something else. My sprachgefuehl accepts the noun as a moniker.
Comment 2 Charles Williams 2023-11-21 13:03:17 UTC
As a native speaker, it would seem more logical to me to move the 'Track Changes >' sub menu from the 'Edit >' menu to the 'Tools >' menu and rename it 'Change Tracking >'
Comment 3 John Mills 2023-11-21 14:52:51 UTC
I agree with both point above. I see this functionality being better under the tools section. And change tracking is perfectly acceptable English.
Comment 4 V Stuart Foote 2023-11-21 15:41:21 UTC
This is an example of allowing MS common practice to steer OOo and now LO UI.

MS Word uses "Track Changes", so does LibreOffice as it is normative in practice--here is the projects "legacy" handling:

https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/showdependencytree.cgi?id=83946&hide_resolved=0

OASIS ODF TC did consistently use "change tracking" with and without hyphenation. And I guess would continue to do so for work of the Advanced Document Collaboration SC if that were to gain traction. LO could revisit then.

Moving to Tools, and re-titling "Change Tracking..." would simply be a lot of churn in the UI/documentation for negligible gain.  Leave it alone.

IMHO => WF
Comment 5 John Mills 2023-11-21 16:16:09 UTC
I have to disagree Stuart, the option is more logical under "tools" as it is not a standard item that would be expected under "edit". "Change tracking" or "track changes" is completely semantics. You just stated you don't like as it is used in MSO and I'd "common practice" or another way of looking at this "expected behaviour".

IMHO --> Fix (and be happy knowing you have made the correct choice by making this feature easier to discover)
Comment 6 Miklos Vajna 2023-11-22 07:56:44 UTC
Just looking at what others do:

- MS Word: uses Track changes on its UI (and we currently match that, so it's familiar to users, renaming would regress here)

- google docs: "review suggested edits", so they already use some other wording.
Comment 7 Heiko Tietze 2023-12-01 15:15:39 UTC
We discussed the topic in the design meeting.

There are different opinions about "Track Changes" and "Change Tracking", some concerns about familiarity, and changing it is some effort. But more important is the relation to secondary commands such as "Previous Track Changes", which would become "Previous Change Tracking" (the commands get short labels in the main menu but the full label is visible in the toolbar and the tooltip). So we came to the conclusion to not change the term.
Comment 8 Adolfo Jayme Barrientos 2023-12-01 15:45:21 UTC
I’ll just add my two cents as a translator: in several languages, when unusual wordings happen in original strings, we already “soft-fix” them in our versions, so if you use LO or MSO in Spanish, for instance, it’s translated as if it were written “change tracking”. If we had a way to automate the fixing of the original string without invalidating its translations, I’d support the move. @Cloph?