Bug 164586 - Remove context-menu option for deleting all comments
Summary: Remove context-menu option for deleting all comments
Status: NEEDINFO
Alias: None
Product: LibreOffice
Classification: Unclassified
Component: Writer (show other bugs)
Version:
(earliest affected)
unspecified
Hardware: All All
: medium normal
Assignee: Not Assigned
URL:
Whiteboard:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks: Writer-Comments
  Show dependency treegraph
 
Reported: 2025-01-05 09:44 UTC by tiborschneider
Modified: 2025-01-16 09:10 UTC (History)
4 users (show)

See Also:
Crash report or crash signature:


Attachments
Screenshot (82.84 KB, image/png)
2025-01-06 07:28 UTC, Heiko Tietze
Details
Difference of deleting a single vs. all comments (913.88 KB, image/jpeg)
2025-01-16 08:59 UTC, tiborschneider
Details

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Description tiborschneider 2025-01-05 09:44:34 UTC
Description:
The option for deleting all comments is located directly below the option to delete one comment. Accidentally selecting the other option removes all comments without a prompt / warning.

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Create two comments
2. Press the small arrow next to one comment
3. Select "Delete all comments"

Actual Results:
All comments are deleted without confirmation

Expected Results:
Two options:
1. Add a pop-up menu asking whether to really delete ALL comments.
2. Remove this option from that context menu (including delete all comments from this author), and move them somewhere else (e.g., the menu bar)


Reproducible: Always


User Profile Reset: Yes

Additional Info:
It can be difficult to notice that you have just deleted all comments, especially if working with a large document where only one comment is currently visible.
Comment 1 BogdanB 2025-01-05 15:55:35 UTC
UX Team -- please take a look at this enhancement. Thanks!

In my opinion, the same thing could happen with all the content of a document. If I press Ctrl+A and Delete, all the content of the document is gone, and I don't have a warning for that. The same when deleting a table that is on 10 pages, if I am in the table and I right-click and press Delete - Table, the table is gone, all my work, but it is my mistake, I don't have a confirmation for everything I delete, all thing I do, I need to take care of any change.

So, -1 for me.
Comment 2 Heiko Tietze 2025-01-06 07:28:44 UTC
Created attachment 198387 [details]
Screenshot

It's not exactly the very next item. But I sympathize with the idea of a confirmation in case of applying a function to all items, in general. On the other hand, Undo is just a click away and the argument to not disrupt the workflow is valid too.
Comment 3 Heiko Tietze 2025-01-16 07:44:45 UTC
We discussed the topic in the design meeting.

A couple of solutions might be feasible: generic confirmation that is available for user-customization, move delete* commands into a submenu, show a confirmation dialog but with a checkbox "[x] Do show again".

However, we cannot follow the claim of Delete All being dangerous. Undo is always a click away, and the action very obvious so intermediate input unlikely. Question to the OP (Tibor): Do you have evidence for the issue?
Comment 4 tiborschneider 2025-01-16 08:59:20 UTC
Created attachment 198573 [details]
Difference of deleting a single vs. all comments

Difference of deleting a single comment vs. deleting all comments if the comment to delete is the only one currently visible.
Comment 5 tiborschneider 2025-01-16 09:10:26 UTC
(Sorry for misusing Bugzilla. Didn't expect uploading an attachment already adds a comment)

Thanks for considering my concern.

I entirely agree that you can always undo. The issue, however, is that there might not be enough visual feedback that all comments have been deleted. If multiple comments are visible, then it is obvious to most users that all comments were deleted. If, however, only a single comment is visible, then the difference between deleting that comment versus all comments is that the gray "comment bar" on the right of the page disappears (see the attachment), and the central alignment makes the document "jump" to the right.

I feel this visual feedback is sufficient for most users. However, it now occurred multiple times to my dad working on long documents. He does not notice the missing "comment bar" (possibly due to the page jumping to the right) and continues working on the document. Eventually, merging the version before and after deleting all comments is impossible (even with a backup).