Hello, I am requesting an enhancement, or for someone to tell me how to make this work. Currently, to insert a block of repeatedly used text, I need to go to the Autotext Dialog box. This is cumbersome for those of us who regularly build documents from repeatedly used parts (i.e. lawyers, paralegals). In Word, there is a drop down menu for "Quick Parts" but that is also cumbersome. My request is for either a floating palette or, preferably, a Sidebar pane, with the Autotext 'library' listed. That way, my organized blocks would be immediately accessible. That would speed up my drafting exponentially (and help me to convince other lawyers to use the software). Presently, there is a gallery function, but it does not allow me to add text parts (or even text files). Thank you.
+1, could see the utility of managing and inserting AutoText and AutoCorrect Replacements from a set of Content panels on a new Sidebar Deck. Current handling of the mytexts.bau via the AutoText... dialog is a bit convoluted to establish new Name:Shortcut pairs for users needs. While importing a communal shared set of texts requires some effort to validate the XML and get per-user paths sorted. While the more concise AutoCorrect replacement pairings of string or :emoji: brackets with "correction text" is recorded per-user to profile in the DocumentList.xml of their copy of the default autocorrect dat file, e.g. acor_en-US.dat Both mytexts.bau and the acor_en-US.dat copy are simple Zip archives.
Created attachment 200670 [details] Mockup I wonder if this workflow is required by many users. We added quite a lot tabs recently, too many for my taste. But there is always the opportunity to hide tabs, even by default. So +1 from my side too. Essentially we speak about a deck that lists AT from extensions, user categories, and what we ship as Standard together with the shortcut and a hint about the content. Since the list can be large we might want to have collapsible items. If needed, I could imagine a hamburger button on top right, similar to the Stylist, that provides interactions to add new AT, plain and from selection. The focus of this sidebar tab should be on quick scrolling through AT because users don't remember all the shortcuts. A search field could be useful therefore.
(In reply to Heiko Tietze from comment #2) > Created attachment 200670 [details] > Mockup Nice, but don't forget the AutoCorrect (AC) paths in the design, not just the AT. Some folks *heavily* populate AC with correction mnemonics and strings as well... (e.g. @tommy27).
Some ideas from the AC meta bug 103341 that could be worked into a SB deck as content panel GUI, probably others... filtering & organizing AC replacement list bug 106494, bug 106434 if we were to include AC WordCompletion the collected list, per-user bug 143348
Given where the discussion is going, I'll point out that I'm BAD at the mnemonic thing, and so are the other lawyers I know. The proposal is to obviate the need to memorize anything. Drafting is a component of what I do, but I'm not glued to the screen. The need, granted specific to my profession, is for the ability to drag boilerplate blocks into the document. Lawyers used to have paralegals and secretaries who would handle this drafting for them, but that model is less and less affordable. The proposed sidebar can be accomplished by having a second document window in an outline next to the document. My hope was to have this functionality integrated into the application. The implementations in non-Libreoffice suites leaves a lot to be desired. WordPerfect does it via a separate application (Clipbook). Word has "QuickParts" which is accessible only by a drop down menu, or by building a new ribbon with links to the boilerplate text. Lotus Word Pro had Quick Entries, but again, dialog box.
(In reply to jonathanlbecker@outlook.com from comment #5) > Given where the discussion is going... Would think that we already have exactly that with ability to open two documents (individual Windows but single soffice.bin instance), one a template source document with your boiler plate fully exposed for visual review, the other your target document. LibreOffice does a nice job of selection, copy and pasting (formatting intact, or unformatted to pick new format of target). You'd curate, share as needed (and protect) your source document of boiler plate to your needs. Don't see how that could be improved, or made more efficient, via the Sidebar Deck and Content panel framework--they don't offer enough space (look at the new SB 'Find' (Alt+9) deck for an idea of maximum screen space available to push into a SB content panel. While LibreOffice's current integrated use of mnemonics, both AT and AC instrumentation, could be improved via a SB GUI.
(In reply to V Stuart Foote from comment #3) > Nice, but don't forget the AutoCorrect (AC) paths in the design... > Some folks *heavily* populate AC with correction mnemonics and strings as > well... Don't see need for a sidebar here. The idea of AC is to be fully automatic and you don't even need to remember the rules.
(In reply to Heiko Tietze from comment #7) > (In reply to V Stuart Foote from comment #3) > > Nice, but don't forget the AutoCorrect (AC) paths in the design... > > Some folks *heavily* populate AC with correction mnemonics and strings as > > well... > Don't see need for a sidebar here. The idea of AC is to be fully automatic > and you don't even need to remember the rules. Except, users do need methods to curate their listing of AC "Replacements". The existing panel of tuples in the AutoCorrect Options... dialog panel provides no means to search, filter, or sort--currently just a wall of text sorted on the "trigger/target" term--no means to work against the "replace with" term. Since the 5.0.0 release, the addition of localized :emoji: tuples ballooned the listing of corrections a user must deal with in the AC 'Replacement' tab. Adjusting or removing a specific correction requires visual review of listing of thousands of corrections. So as users add dozens--hundreds of their own correction pairs into the list they loose track of the terms they've set as mnemonics or of the specific replacements they represent. All avoidable if they could search & filter the list. So including ability to search & filter AC replacement from a SB content panel would provide tools missing from the AC dialog. Really no different than needs for handling of the AutoText pairs (though they are different structures, existing UI, and paths in source). Expect the AT and AC data tools would each need their own SB Content Panels. Though with major refactoring, merging the two data structures onto a common backend might offer a means simplify things (e.g. internal SQLite tables). Good for perf and for l10n/i18n translation efforts.
(In reply to V Stuart Foote from comment #8) > All avoidable if they could search & filter the list. Sure, but no need to do so from the sidebar. It's a primary interface and we need to keep it clean. Only frequently used functions should be there.
(In reply to Heiko Tietze from comment #9) > (In reply to V Stuart Foote from comment #8) > > All avoidable if they could search & filter the list. > Sure, but no need to do so from the sidebar. It's a primary interface and we > need to keep it clean. Only frequently used functions should be there. OK, then this becomes a => WF as the AC is no different than the AT, neither is a frequently used function [1]. But both dialogs really could benefit from rework to improve user interactions. And once in dialog they should be available from SB deck. For OP, comment 6 describes what project expects to be normal usage. Absent mnemonics of AC or AT a SB deck is not going to get you what you ask. =-ref-= [1] https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Design/Guidelines/Sidebar
(In reply to V Stuart Foote from comment #10) > OK, then this becomes a => WF... ...would become. Me understands the OPs workflow as a different thing, others might agree with your view.
So I want to try and keep the request focused. I agree that the Autotext dialog box is difficult to use. For example, it does not clearly distinguish which snips are coming from which autotext file. Frankly, I find it so cumbersome I don't bother with it, and use an external app (Beeftext) to get around how difficult it is to use. But that is not my request. My request is for LibreOffice to have a functionality similar, if not superior, to the Quick Parts Gallery in Microsoft Word. I disagree that the sidebar is used exclusively for things that are needed regularly. The properties sidebar, while valuable, does not include a litany of settings. The gallery, on the other hand, is something I never use. Same with the Style Inspector and the Accessibility Check. However, the sidebar is a large space, adjacent to the document itself, where routinely used snippets could be sourced from. Not snippets used so often that it needs it's own coded mnemonic. And, to my knowledge, the snippets in Autotext keep their style information. For example, I regularly draft up custody orders, which are numbered paragraphs with certain terms. Sometimes the parents get joint custody and some times one gets sole custody. A heading "standard custody conditions" which then expands to reveal the different clauses would save me lots of time. A heading for "medical treatment related conditions" would keep things organized. I also do criminal defense. And having stock paragraphs related to different legal arguments would make drafting easier (and faster). There are third-party options to add all this to Word. Or I can do it myself building separate quickpart galleries and creating a custom ribbon. My hope was that this was not too cumbersome a request, and would allow me to continue my transition to LibreOffice (and give me something to show to other lawyers to convince them to convert as well). My 2c.