Description: It would be useful to be able to use a keyboard shortcut and possibly a context menu option to apply the default highlight to selected text with a single click/keypress. That would work like Ctrl+B for Bold, Ctrl+I for italics etc. At the moment, selecting 'highlight' on the toolbars or associating a key to 'highlight' brings up the menu for the user to select a color. In most cases you want a quick way (eg single click with minimal movement of the mouse pointer or a key press) to apply the highlight color already selected. Microsoft Word with its floating context toolbar is much more efficient in doing this, and it makes an enormous difference if you highlight a lot. Steps to Reproduce: 1. Select text 2. Press key combination or click on context menu. 3. Get selected text highlighted with the pre-selected color Actual Results: Currently, there is no way to highlight text in one move. Expected Results: As above. Reproducible: Always User Profile Reset: No Additional Info: NA
But you can already do this by creating a Character style with the desired background/highlighting and then assigning it a keyboard shortcut from the Tools -> Customize -> Styles panel. Then make it repeatable/portable by saving to template ODF. But yes, providing a keyboard centric means (likely new UNO) to apply DF character background/highlighting color from the Character Highlighting color picker to a (multi)selection would probably be a useful DF enhancement for our "Benjamin" users. Note: that MSO has both 'Shading' (unlimited) and 'Highlighting' (fixed pallet of 15) so be sure to keep that in mind, as since LO 5.0 release (see also bug 64490) we save to OOXML as 'Shading'--but if you need to exchange with users working with MSO--who may be using Words Highlighting tool--you might need to set the 'Highlighting' radio button in Tools -> Options -> Load Save -> Microsoft Office 'Character Highlighting'
Great tip, thanks! But it's a bit of a hack that is beyond the vast majority of ordinary users' abilities. Also, you would need to create one highlighter style for each colour. With the conventional way I was recommending a keypress would apply whichever highlighter colour happens to be selected at the time. It's equivalent to using the mouse pointer to click on the highlighter button (not the down arrow) on the toolbar. Thanks also for the MSO compatibility tip. I was wondering about the correspondence between LO's RGB and MSO's 15 colours. As a sidenote, while setting the highlighter style in dark mode the style name in the Navigator was displayed as white fonts on yellow background, which is unreadable. I am sure this must be a known issue in various areas in dark themed LO.
The command Character Highlight Color / uno:CharBackColor on the toolbar is available for customization and I would expect it to apply the currently active color. And while I can assign a shortcut it does not apply to the selection. Simply a bug?
(In reply to Heiko Tietze from comment #3) > The command Character Highlight Color / uno:CharBackColor on the toolbar is > available for customization and I would expect it to apply the currently > active color. And while I can assign a shortcut it does not apply to the > selection. Simply a bug? No, I checked that command. It toggles the text cursor into the background fill--using the active color in the picker, but it requires a mouse pointer swipe through the words character at a time. It does not affect a premade (multi)selection of words--which is the ask here.
(In reply to V Stuart Foote from comment #4) > t toggles the text cursor into the background fill Not for me (Linux vs Window?) > It does not affect a premade (multi)selection of words Agreed
(In reply to Heiko Tietze from comment #5) > (In reply to V Stuart Foote from comment #4) > > t toggles the text cursor into the background fill > Not for me (Linux vs Window?) > > > It does not affect a premade (multi)selection of words > Agreed Maybe, but then the fill cursor doesn't actually apply the background color with mouse pointer drag. And when Customize assigned as Keyboard shortcuts, neither UNO works with cursor selection, or if (multi)selection is pre made. .uno:BackColor .uno:CharBackColor Currently just the click on the TB splitbutton on the 'Character Highlighting', with a pre-selection or mouse drag fully activates the DF. So guess that would be a bug. Have no means in UI to perform the background color DF with keyboard only. Of course defining and applying a Character style works fine.
I support users being able to apply the current/last-used highlighting using a keyboard shortcut. (In reply to V Stuart Foote from comment #1) > But you can already do this by creating a Character style with the desired > background/highlighting and then assigning it a keyboard shortcut from the > Tools -> Customize -> Styles panel. But character styles aren't composable yet (bug 149271), so we would have to duplicate each style which may potentially be highlighted. > But yes, providing a keyboard centric means (likely new UNO) to apply DF > character background/highlighting color from the Character Highlighting > color picker to a (multi)selection would probably be a useful DF enhancement > for our "Benjamin" users. Not just them. DF for highlighting is reasonable use IMHO for experienced users also: A temporary formatting which is inteded to go away. Of course, provided highlighting is distinguished from background color shading ... which apparently we don't do. But we describe what we offer right now as "Highlighting", not "Shading", in the UI.