Description: The Conditional formatting dialog (where you edit the formulas) does not have an Apply button, so you cannot preview the changes until you click OK twice (there are two dialog boxes open). If you want to make changes you need to open again two sets of dialogs to reach conditional formatting. This is annoying and wastes a lot of user's time. Steps to Reproduce: 1. Open Format->Conditional->Manage 2. Add a new conditional formatting for a cell range 3. Click OK twice. 4. If you want to change, repeat all steps. Actual Results: To edit again, you need to open the dialogs again. Expected Results: You may want to preview the changes after each modification with an Apply button. Reproducible: Always User Profile Reset: No Additional Info: Version: 25.2.2.2 (X86_64) / LibreOffice Community Build ID: 7370d4be9e3cf6031a51beef54ff3bda878e3fac CPU threads: 8; OS: Windows 11 X86_64 (10.0 build 26100); UI render: Skia/Raster; VCL: win Locale: ro-RO (ro_RO); UI: en-US Calc: CL threaded
Created attachment 200604 [details] Missing Apply button
Let's ask UX-team
This might be desirable but do we really provide Apply everywhere? In fact we have Apply in Calc only at the random number generator dialog. (In Writer, Apply is available at the style properties, the Design tab at the sidebar, on the conditional paragraphs dialog, and on the options dialog and the asian phonetic guide.) It reminds me at bug 118834.
To clarify: "Apply" is talked about here as "Preview" but a preview usually indicates that there are no changes made. Am I correct in assuming that "Apply" and "OK" do the same changes to the document, but "OK" closes the dialog and "Apply" keeps it open?
> This might be desirable but do we really provide Apply everywhere? That is a good point – we should do this consistently: Is this useful enough to introduce this as a consistent pattern? If yes, we probably should have "Apply" and "Close" on dialog boxes that make changes to the document, since "Cancel" does not make much sense if we can do changes that are uncanceled when canceling. (A similar problem was tackled in the past with "pinning" a dialog, i.e. even after "OK"-ing it remained open)
(In reply to jan d from comment #5) > we probably should have > "Apply" and "Close" on dialog boxes that make changes to the document, since > "Cancel" does not make much sense if we can do changes that are uncanceled > when canceling. So in this case we should have an OK - Cancel - Apply triptlet, but only if the Apply was clicked the Cancel button should become Close, as it is done this way in other softwares, and the Close button should become Cancel again if more changes are made without being Applied. (In reply to jan d from comment #4) > To clarify: "Apply" is talked about here as "Preview" but a preview usually > indicates that there are no changes made. Am I correct in assuming that > "Apply" and "OK" do the same changes to the document, but "OK" closes the > dialog and "Apply" keeps it open? Yes and no, in this case I just want a way to preview or apply the changes without closing two dialog boxes and then reopen them if I am not satisfied with the result. Either preview or apply would work here, but I would go for an Apply button, as if I am satisfied with the result, I can exit and keep the changes as well. Would be more intuitive than a simple Preview button that I have to remember to save (press OK) im my opinion.
(In reply to Mihai Vasiliu from comment #6) > Either preview or apply would work here, but I would go for > an Apply button, as if I am satisfied with the result, I can exit and keep > the changes as well. Would be more intuitive than a simple Preview button > that I have to remember to save (press OK) im my opinion. But, what happens if you are not satisfied with the result then? You already applied the changes, and you have to change them (back) again? If you have a "Preview" button (instead of Apply), then you can either Apply/Ok the results later, or keep changing, or Cancel, allowing the flexibility that you want in either case (satisfy or not with the preview). What I do not completely understand is what exactly is that we lack in the relevant dialog. We already have the mini preview, in the same line as the selected Style, to its right.
(In reply to ady from comment #7) > But, what happens if you are not satisfied with the result then? You already > applied the changes, and you have to change them (back) again? If you have a > "Preview" button (instead of Apply), then you can either Apply/Ok the > results later, or keep changing, or Cancel, allowing the flexibility that > you want in either case (satisfy or not with the preview). As I said, either way would be good for me, Preview or Apply, I could work with any of the options. I am not picky at this detail. > What I do not completely understand is what exactly is that we lack in the > relevant dialog. We already have the mini preview, in the same line as the > selected Style, to its right. Yes, the mini preview is good, but I want to preview it on my document with real data at large scale. Sometimes when you see only one line/sample, it looks good, but when you have a large section it can look different.
Given that applying conditional formatting is undo-able, I believe Apply is fine, and would probably be easier than previewing. Also, the question of "should we have Apply buttons elsewhere/everywhere/as a consistent pattern" - is interesting, but is not a reason to delay accepting this request. So, my bottom line is: Let's have an Apply here.
> the question of "should we have Apply buttons elsewhere/everywhere/as a consistent pattern" ... but is not a reason to delay accepting this request. My point was not to discuss adding apply elsewhere but pointing out that having apply in some dialogs introduces an inconsistency. As I just found out, one of the three basic principles of our design is "Consistency over Efficiency".
Bug 171447 requests a shorter workflow with CF with the idea to have user-defined CF configurations, ideally with a preview.
We discussed the topic in the design meeting. We have bug 37336 "Add an "Apply" button to various dialog boxes (Writer, Draw etc.)" and many other such as bug 124278, bug 135267, bug 153187, bug 166390, bug 171345, bug 171447... On the other hand also bug 165679 "Data Provider: Remove the "Apply" button" The idea of Apply is usually to revert the changes via Cancel. Otherwise the function would be just to Okay but keep the dialog open. This is, however, not a feasible idea as it means to store each and every setting at the moment a dialog opens (and there are hundreds). The alternative is using inline previews or to have individual controls that apply the modification on hover. Something like the font name picker or the paragraph style selector where these settings only are applied on hover but not become effective unless clicked. Participants in the meeting were still in favor of having such apply-in-dialog function so the decision is to keep the request.