Bug 163100 - Need more FIND details
Summary: Need more FIND details
Status: RESOLVED FIXED
Alias: None
Product: LibreOffice
Classification: Unclassified
Component: Writer (show other bugs)
Version:
(earliest affected)
24.8.1.2 release
Hardware: All All
: medium enhancement
Assignee: Jim Raykowski
URL:
Whiteboard: target:25.2.0
Keywords:
: 84583 (view as bug list)
Depends on:
Blocks: Find-Search
  Show dependency treegraph
 
Reported: 2024-09-23 00:39 UTC by clyfton_hayes
Modified: 2024-09-26 20:39 UTC (History)
5 users (show)

See Also:
Crash report or crash signature:


Attachments
demo of match of n matches label (899.16 KB, video/x-matroska)
2024-09-23 23:22 UTC, Jim Raykowski
Details

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Description clyfton_hayes 2024-09-23 00:39:30 UTC
I really need to get away from Microsoft Word but I work with very large documents and do a LOT of searching and I really must know where I am in a search (like result 12 of 52). I end up moving back and forth so I need it to update real time.
It doesn’t look like Libre Writer has this ability. Is it in the works any time soon?

Example:
I put a word in the search box, like “thing.”
It searches the entire document for “thing.”
It finds 52 occurrences of “thing.”
I click NEXT.
It goes to occurrence 1 of 52.
It says “1 of 52” just below the search box.
I click NEXT.
It goes to occurrence 2 of 52.
It says “2 of 52” just below the search box.
And on and on.
Or, if I happen to be in the middle of the document when I do the search, it might say I am at 25 of 52.
Comment 1 Buovjaga 2024-09-23 14:53:55 UTC

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 84583 ***
Comment 2 V Stuart Foote 2024-09-23 16:21:46 UTC
There is also (at the 24.8 release ) a Sidebar resident Find deck (<Alt>+9 shortcut) that does a nice GUI showing the find results. Give that a test as alternative to the <Ctrl>+F or <Ctrl>+H dialog that only highlights find results on the document page with no enumeration.
Comment 3 clyfton_hayes 2024-09-23 20:14:03 UTC
I tried the SIDEBER FIND DECK and could not find any enumeration.
I don't see the value of it for my use case.
Comment 4 V Stuart Foote 2024-09-23 20:35:03 UTC
(In reply to clyfton_hayes from comment #3)
> I tried the SIDEBER FIND DECK and could not find any enumeration.
> I don't see the value of it for my use case.

It shows both the document page and the context in which found. With hyperlink to position edit focus into text.

Seems sufficient as implemented thus far, the SB deck directs you far more efficiently than scrolling for "result 12 of 52".

@Jim, what do you think? Would enumerating matches (by tooltip I guess), with some provision to "jump to" in the match list be appealing?
Comment 5 Jim Raykowski 2024-09-23 23:22:35 UTC
Created attachment 196639 [details]
demo of match of n matches label

Maybe showing this in the matches found label would be enough? Maybe a tool tip would be better?
Comment 6 V Stuart Foote 2024-09-23 23:58:09 UTC
(In reply to Jim Raykowski from comment #5)
> Created attachment 196639 [details]
> demo of match of n matches label
> 
> Maybe showing this in the matches found label would be enough? Maybe a tool
> tip would be better?

Cool thanks Jim!

Just what I was thinking and in the label does seems sufficient, which would also resolve the dupe of bug 84583

I'd just call it done with that...

Unless you actually want to poke at some sort of context menu navigation (prev, next, start, end, go back x steps, jump to x, etc.) amongst the matches. Clearly feature creep...
Comment 7 Jim Raykowski 2024-09-24 03:16:41 UTC
Link to a patch that does what is shown in the demo:
https://gerrit.libreoffice.org/c/core/+/173835

Tip for searches that result in a large number of matches:
Clearing the highlighted matches in the document by clicking in the document after a search is made dramatically improves moving to a match selected in the finds list. At least it does when using a debug build on a 4 core i3 computer :-)
Comment 8 clyfton_hayes 2024-09-24 04:54:43 UTC
(In reply to V Stuart Foote from comment #4)
> (In reply to clyfton_hayes from comment #3)
> > I tried the SIDEBER FIND DECK and could not find any enumeration.
> > I don't see the value of it for my use case.
> 
> It shows both the document page and the context in which found. With
> hyperlink to position edit focus into text.
> 
> Seems sufficient as implemented thus far, the SB deck directs you far more
> efficiently than scrolling for "result 12 of 52".
> 
> @Jim, what do you think? Would enumerating matches (by tooltip I guess),
> with some provision to "jump to" in the match list be appealing?

Not sufficient!
I am having the hardest time explaining why "result x of y" is necessary.
Google chrome has it. Microsoft Edge has it. Firefox has it.
Whatever reasoning went into adding that feature (that apparently I can't elucidate properly) also applies to word processors.
I've been in the computer business for 45 years and my experience as a programmer and user tells me that there are two fundamentals in software: lists should be alphabetized and find results should be enumerated.
Users need to know that there are X results, Y above and Z below.
We need to know the size of the problem and where we stand.
This is so basic it should be included on day one, not 20 years later as a courtesy add-on.
No matter how hard I try, I cannot see how the sidebar find deck satisfies any of the above. I deal with documents that are hundreds of pages long. Seeing a find result in context with focus doesn't help me know how many results there are, how many are above, and how many are there left below.
If only small documents are searched for terms that only occur once, the value of enumeration will never be apparent or deemed necessary.
Comment 9 Buovjaga 2024-09-24 05:04:55 UTC
(In reply to clyfton_hayes from comment #8)
> (In reply to V Stuart Foote from comment #4)
> > (In reply to clyfton_hayes from comment #3)
> > > I tried the SIDEBER FIND DECK and could not find any enumeration.
> > > I don't see the value of it for my use case.
> > 
> > It shows both the document page and the context in which found. With
> > hyperlink to position edit focus into text.
> > 
> > Seems sufficient as implemented thus far, the SB deck directs you far more
> > efficiently than scrolling for "result 12 of 52".
> > 
> > @Jim, what do you think? Would enumerating matches (by tooltip I guess),
> > with some provision to "jump to" in the match list be appealing?
> 
> Not sufficient!
> I am having the hardest time explaining why "result x of y" is necessary.
> Google chrome has it. Microsoft Edge has it. Firefox has it.
> Whatever reasoning went into adding that feature (that apparently I can't
> elucidate properly) also applies to word processors.
> I've been in the computer business for 45 years and my experience as a
> programmer and user tells me that there are two fundamentals in software:
> lists should be alphabetized and find results should be enumerated.
> Users need to know that there are X results, Y above and Z below.
> We need to know the size of the problem and where we stand.
> This is so basic it should be included on day one, not 20 years later as a
> courtesy add-on.
> No matter how hard I try, I cannot see how the sidebar find deck satisfies
> any of the above. I deal with documents that are hundreds of pages long.
> Seeing a find result in context with focus doesn't help me know how many
> results there are, how many are above, and how many are there left below.
> If only small documents are searched for terms that only occur once, the
> value of enumeration will never be apparent or deemed necessary.

Jim is way ahead of you. I built with the unmerged patch and it does what you ask and is of course superior to Find dialog in that it has visual context, all the result snippets laid out.
Comment 10 V Stuart Foote 2024-09-24 12:49:16 UTC
*** Bug 84583 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 11 clyfton_hayes 2024-09-24 16:48:00 UTC
(In reply to V Stuart Foote from comment #10)
> *** Bug 84583 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Thanks.
I keep getting prompted that LibreOffice 24.8.1 is available.
I have version 24.8.1.2 of Writer, so I'm not sure why I'm getting prompted.
To get the patch, do I just download anyway even though it seems I have a newer version?
Comment 12 Commit Notification 2024-09-24 16:56:56 UTC
Jim Raykowski committed a patch related to this issue.
It has been pushed to "master":

https://git.libreoffice.org/core/commit/d5b76e32f99738301c253840ff089cfc830874dc

tdf#163100 Need more FIND details

It will be available in 25.2.0.

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 13 V Stuart Foote 2024-09-24 18:07:52 UTC
(In reply to clyfton_hayes from comment #11)
> (In reply to V Stuart Foote from comment #10)
> > *** Bug 84583 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
> 
> Thanks.
> I keep getting prompted that LibreOffice 24.8.1 is available.
> I have version 24.8.1.2 of Writer, so I'm not sure why I'm getting prompted.
> To get the patch, do I just download anyway even though it seems I have a
> newer version?

It was just pushed into the nightly builds of master against a 25.2 release in February.

Meanwhile, you can install a nightly build to test with.

If no issues develop in testing on master, it is possible it will be back-ported to the 24.8.3+ release builds.

Current release build is 24.8.2.1 aka 24.8.2 rc1. Available from the LibreOffice download page as a "pre-release" version.

https://www.libreoffice.org/download/download-libreoffice/

and archive of all release builds are here:
https://downloadarchive.documentfoundation.org/libreoffice/old/

The nightly builds are available for QA and testing here:
https://dev-builds.libreoffice.org/daily/master/
with instructions for an "install in parallel" here:
https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Installing_in_parallel but be sure to adjust the user configuration (bootstrap.ini edit to set "UserInstallation=$ORIGIN/../Data/settings" ) so the instance will not clobber your full install.
Comment 14 Buovjaga 2024-09-24 18:16:36 UTC
(In reply to clyfton_hayes from comment #11)
> (In reply to V Stuart Foote from comment #10)
> > *** Bug 84583 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
> 
> Thanks.
> I keep getting prompted that LibreOffice 24.8.1 is available.
> I have version 24.8.1.2 of Writer, so I'm not sure why I'm getting prompted.
> To get the patch, do I just download anyway even though it seems I have a
> newer version?

That was an issue that was supposed to be fixed on the server side last week: bug 163063.