Description: It should be possible to select diacritics in LibreOffice Writer. This is not yet possible. There are two approaches to implement this: 1. Do something similar to MS Word, highlight part of the text. Using the Alt+arrow keys, one may go step by step, and see the position of the diacritics. These positions can be used for the implementation. 2. Highlight only the diacritic itself. This is more interesting, and should be possible by knowing the rendering area of the diacritics. (Thanks Jonathan for this hint) Having both would be great. :-) Steps to Reproduce: 1. Write some text with diacritics in Writer, like ٱللُّغَةُ ٱلْعَرَبِيَّة 2. Try to select diacritics 3. Do the same in Word Actual Results: It is not possible to select diacritics in Writer Expected Results: It should be possible to select diacritics using keyboard, and also mouse. Please note that selection is only intended for separate characters. For example in this piece of text: ٱللُّغَةُ ٱلْعَرَبِيَّة It is not intended to select diacritics on the top of alef ٱ, but you should be able to select separate diacritics Reproducible: Always User Profile Reset: No Additional Info: Version: 25.8.0.0.alpha0+ (X86_64) / LibreOffice Community Build ID: 8fdef548702ef240980b52e4076af36122534fed CPU threads: 12; OS: Linux 6.2; UI render: default; VCL: gtk3 Locale: en-US (en_US.UTF-8); UI: en-US Calc: threaded
Wait, if you position edit cursor within the word and toggle to Unicode (<Alt>+X) you get the base and the diacritic. Can make selection/edit then, and (<Alt>+X) to convert back to text span. Same for bug 164253
Word and LibreOffice have different concepts. LibreOffice treats the combining code-point and the code-point to which it is combined as one object. So a shift+arrow key selects both. Word treats them as different objects and only renders them together, so you need two times shift+arrow key to select the combination. I have doubts as to whether it is possible to enable both concepts at the same time because shortcuts are limited. Maybe it is necessary to have a global setting for the concept of Word, similar to the setting whether the cursor movement should be visual or logical. A total different way might be to provide an outplaced separate control for editing of combining code-points instead of inline editing? Something to discuss with UX?
(In reply to V Stuart Foote from comment #1) > Wait, if you position edit cursor within the word and toggle to Unicode > (<Alt>+X) you get the base and the diacritic. Can make selection/edit then, > and (<Alt>+X) to convert back to text span. > > Same for bug 164253 As I've written in the other bug page, this method can be helpful for debugging. But, it does not help much here, as you may want to colorize or otherwise edit that diacritic, and it is not possible here, or would be too hard to do. This is in itself an issue for the people who type a lot with diacritics, like Arabic (and in some cases Persian). Also, I should note this is part of the bigger task, described in tdf#71956: Bug 71956 - Other: The ability to set a different color for diacritics is missing for Arabic https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=71956
(In reply to Regina Henschel from comment #2) > Word and LibreOffice have different concepts. LibreOffice treats the > combining code-point and the code-point to which it is combined as one > object. So a shift+arrow key selects both. Word treats them as different > objects and only renders them together, so you need two times shift+arrow > key to select the combination. Actually, I think changing the behavior of arrow keys to what alt+arrow keys do in LibreOffice Writer would be sufficient for cursor movements, and also adopting the same positions for highlighting characters and diacritics can be enough. This is the solution #1 described in comment 0. > I have doubts as to whether it is possible to enable both concepts at the > same time because shortcuts are limited. Maybe it is necessary to have a > global setting for the concept of Word, similar to the setting whether the > cursor movement should be visual or logical. > > A total different way might be to provide an outplaced separate control for > editing of combining code-points instead of inline editing? > > Something to discuss with UX? Some applications specific to calligraphy actually provide some sort of outplaced editing functionality, but it would be again hard to edit.