Currently, one can only apply text formatting commands to the contents of an object (specifically, a drawing object) if one enters 'Edit Mode' by double-clicking or pressing F2. This is problematic for multiple reasons: 1. Denies clear expression of user intent: A user wants to apply some change to the whole object, so they select it, and try (or would like to try) pressing the button or choosing the menu item for effecting the change they are interested in, to the entire object/content of the object. The intent is clear, the semantics would be clear - why should the user be required to take some intermediate action? 2. Counter-intuitive w.r.t. applying text formatting changes to the entire object: When entering Edit mode, none of the object text contents is selected. One then needs to "Select All", then apply the text formatting command. How does it make more sense to: Select the object, double-click it, select all text, apply command - rather than just select the object, apply command? 3. and perhaps most importantly: Prevents applying a text formatting command to numerous objects at once; one has to do so independently for each object.
(In reply to Eyal Rozenberg from comment #0) > Currently, one can only apply text formatting commands to the contents of an > object (specifically, a drawing object) if one enters 'Edit Mode' by > double-clicking or pressing F2. It depends on the module. In Draw/Impress, when you have selected drawing shapes or textboxes, then you can use the tools from the "Text formatting" toolbar to apply a direct formatting of the text to all selected shapes at once.
(In reply to Regina Henschel from comment #1) Yes, you're right. Although the UI does hide the text formatting toolbar even there (which is a different issue). So, to rephrase: These commands should be enabled for other modules, and specifically Writer and Calc.
The difficulty is to examine whether the selection contains only objects on the drawing page and no normal text or cell content. Nevertheless, it is a valid request.