Bug 162967 - Want access from borders toolbar menubutton to Format > Cells... Borders pane
Summary: Want access from borders toolbar menubutton to Format > Cells... Borders pane
Status: ASSIGNED
Alias: None
Product: LibreOffice
Classification: Unclassified
Component: Calc (show other bugs)
Version:
(earliest affected)
Inherited From OOo
Hardware: All All
: medium enhancement
Assignee: Kira Tubo
URL:
Whiteboard:
Keywords: difficultyMedium, easyHack, skillCpp, topicUI
Depends on:
Blocks: Cell-Border
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Reported: 2024-09-14 20:01 UTC by Eyal Rozenberg
Modified: 2024-10-04 07:07 UTC (History)
5 users (show)

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Description Eyal Rozenberg 2024-09-14 20:01:18 UTC
Sometimes, while trying to use the Borders menubutton, you realize you want to do something more complex with the borders - which means going to Format > Cells... > Borders. But you're already messing with borders :-( 

It would be nice if we could somehow access the Borders pane from the opened menubutton. Ideas:

1. A kind of a "..." or "more"-type button at the bottom of the borders menu
2. Some kind of clickable entity on the menu header (where it says "Borders")
3. Similar to (2.), but when the menu is detached and has an [X] already; it could have a gear-wheel, or "..." etc.
Comment 1 Heiko Tietze 2024-09-16 09:16:38 UTC
We have the presets with the border configuration as well as style and color in the formatting toolbar. Adding more options to any of these would be inconsistent and clumsy. 

But there is also a deck in the sidebar- and here with a button to open the cell formatting dialog. No need to change that. => WF
Comment 2 Eyal Rozenberg 2024-09-16 09:30:27 UTC
(In reply to Heiko Tietze from comment #1)
> We have the presets with the border configuration as well as style and color
> in the formatting toolbar. Adding more options to any of these would be
> inconsistent and clumsy. 
> 
> But there is also a deck in the sidebar- and here with a button to open the
> cell formatting dialog. No need to change that. => WF

I'm not suggesting we add more options, just the ability to go someplace with more options.

The strongest motivation IMHO is that the menu has items for adding a border line, but no button for removing it. So you try something with it, than regret it and switch to something else.
Comment 3 Regina Henschel 2024-09-16 09:55:08 UTC
I think, it is a valid request.

We have similar design already:
Calc: Button "Conditional" -> Manage...
Calc: Button "Insert Special Character" -> More Characters...
Writer: Button "Toggle Unordered List" -> Customize
Writer/Draw/Impress: Button "Insert Table" -> More Options...
Writer: Button "Insert Fields" -> More Fields...
Comment 4 V Stuart Foote 2024-09-17 14:31:08 UTC
Adding a 'More...' to the Borders TB split button to launch 'Format Cells...' dialog focused to the 'Borders' tab is reasonable enhancment.

+1
Comment 5 Heiko Tietze 2024-09-26 07:42:43 UTC
We discussed the topic in the design meeting and there was a broad consensus about this additional button in favor of convenience over simplicity. The implementation could follow the Underline widget. 

Code pointer:
svx/uiconfig/ui/textunderlinecontrol.ui
svx/source/sidebar/text/TextUnderlineControl.cxx

svx/uiconfig/ui/floatingframeborder.ui
svx/source/tbxctrls/tbcontrl.cxx

Something for you, Kira?
Comment 6 Eyal Rozenberg 2024-09-26 20:01:23 UTC
(In reply to Heiko Tietze from comment #5)
> We discussed the topic in the design meeting and there was a broad consensus
> about this additional button in favor of convenience over simplicity. 

Another point which was made during the discussion is that of enabling this more uniformly: There are several menubuttons which offer a part of the functionality accessible from a fuller dialog: Borders is one, but we also have:

* Line Width
* Line Style
* Border Style (in Calc at least)
* Line spacing
* Line Ends (Drawing toolbar)
* Underlyine style
* Numbering / Ordered List
* Bulleting / Unordered List

some of these offer _no_ facility for opening the full-featured dialog; others offer differing facilities, e.g. bottom bar-button with or without an icon. It would possibly be useful to unify the way one access the full set of properties. A uniform "UI idiom" would make the visibility of such a UI element feel less crowding.

This exists in MSO, where each region within one of the ribbons (or at least the regions of some of the ribbons) has a tiny square gadget at the bottom-left corner, which, when clicked, opens the relevant dialog.

IMNSHO, it seems the obvious candidates for such a uniform mechanism for us are:

1. Bottom bar/button
2. Small gadget on the "title bar" of the menubutton's menu/pane.