Bug 166814 - Track Changes Reinstate feature should open the comment dialog as incentive to add comment
Summary: Track Changes Reinstate feature should open the comment dialog as incentive t...
Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX
Alias: None
Product: LibreOffice
Classification: Unclassified
Component: Writer (show other bugs)
Version:
(earliest affected)
Inherited From OOo
Hardware: All All
: medium enhancement
Assignee: Not Assigned
URL:
Whiteboard:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks: Track-Changes
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Reported: 2025-06-01 10:57 UTC by Telesto
Modified: 2025-06-02 18:51 UTC (History)
2 users (show)

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Crash report or crash signature:


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Description Telesto 2025-06-01 10:57:18 UTC
Description:
The rationale of the reinstate feature: "Reinstate is meant to improve this interaction: if an insert is reinstated, then an explicit delete is created on top of the insert, so Alice can see that Bob was not happy with the proposal" See: https://vmiklos.hu/blog/sw-redline-reinstate.html

Reinstating something without any clue how or why is not very productive, IMHO. I would except the comment dialog from -> Edit -> Track Changes -> Comment to appear to comment on the reinstatement. It's might be useful for author; why did I reinstate this; or for other participants 

I also would expect the comment to appear as mouse over in document. The comment isn't included in the mouse-over. It's only shown in Edit -> Track Changes -> Manage dialog as far I'm aware

Steps to Reproduce:
1. New document in Writer
2. Entered "Hello world"
3. Start tracking changes
5. Delete 'Hello'
6. Right-clicked the "Hello"
7. Chose "Reinstate Change"
8. Hover over the Change: tooltip appears with deleted 'by' and date.

Actual Results:
The change is reinstated, but doesn't explain why

Expected Results:
There should be incentive to add a comment to the re-instatement


Reproducible: Always


User Profile Reset: No

Additional Info:
Version: 25.8.0.0.alpha1+ (X86_64) / LibreOffice Community
Build ID: 17e8dbead42e2d4b55815b1b7b2846b03d62a15d
CPU threads: 4; OS: Windows 10 X86_64 (build 19045); UI render: Skia/Raster; VCL: win
Locale: nl-NL (nl_NL); UI: en-US
Calc: CL threaded
Comment 1 Telesto 2025-06-01 10:58:07 UTC
The reinstate feature feels bit incomplete to me.. Or I'm I wrong here?
Comment 2 Heiko Tietze 2025-06-02 07:55:13 UTC
Why it it different from rejecting a TC? And wouldn't it be annoying to get a popup any time you run the action?
Comment 3 Eyal Rozenberg 2025-06-02 08:22:53 UTC
(In reply to Telesto from comment #1)
> The reinstate feature feels bit incomplete to me.. Or I'm I wrong here?

What do you mean?

(In reply to Heiko Tietze from comment #2)
> Why it it different from rejecting a TC? And wouldn't it be annoying to get
> a popup any time you run the action?

I'm not sure I support this, but - the "reinstate" or "approve than revert" feature is different: It is a complex action which indicates indecision, ambivalence, and conflicting rationales for action.
Comment 4 Telesto 2025-06-02 09:30:24 UTC
(In reply to Eyal Rozenberg from comment #3)
> (In reply to Telesto from comment #1)
> > The reinstate feature feels bit incomplete to me.. Or I'm I wrong here?

The feature being incomplete in the sense of not propagating some comment; or at least making it easy to do so. So the ability to explain the rationale. It's more or less my first reflex. No, I reject the amendment, reinstate the old because..

However adding a comment is rather disrupting the flow. It's cumbersome to archive.

(In reply to Heiko Tietze from comment #2)
> And wouldn't it be annoying to get a popup any time you run the action?

Not big fan of a dialog; to disrupting. I have no clear vision how it should work. A bit more like Insert -> Comment in Calc/Draw, I guess. So a balloon. If you leave the ballon empty, and click somewhere in the document, the comment box disappears.

The currently implementation is dedicated dialog :-(.
Comment 5 Eyal Rozenberg 2025-06-02 11:25:52 UTC Comment hidden (obsolete)
Comment 6 Telesto 2025-06-02 11:50:45 UTC
(In reply to Eyal Rozenberg from comment #5)

Part A
To prevent misunderstanding, I'm not talking about 'regular' comment. Triggering a comment bubble in the margin. Which being accessible from Track and changes Toolbar & in the Right Click context menu (.uno:InsertAnnotation)

I'm talking about the 'Comment' feature in Menu Edit -> Track Changes -> Comment ( .uno:CommentChangeTracking). So specific to Track Changes.

The comments will be shown in Sidebar -> Manage Changes -> Comment column & in the Edit -> Track Changes dialog or in the Track Changes Manage dialog.

This is also called 'Comment' but specific to track changes. 

----
Part B
The Sidebar alternative might be good enough, especially with Edit Comment being more accessible (bug 166826)

--
Part C
It would be nice though having the 'Comment' to appear when hoovering over the tracked change in question with info-tooltip; but that's different matter
Comment 7 Eyal Rozenberg 2025-06-02 16:15:47 UTC
(In reply to Telesto from comment #6)
> (In reply to Eyal Rozenberg from comment #5)
> 
> Part A
> To prevent misunderstanding, I'm not talking about 'regular' comment.
> Triggering a comment bubble in the margin. Which being accessible from Track
> and changes Toolbar & in the Right Click context menu (.uno:InsertAnnotation)

Ah yes, I see, sorry, so, I take what I said back. Marked my last comment obsolete

Well, I now remember one can comment on tracked changes; but TBH - I'd kind of forgotten about it. Because these comments are not immediately visible, And one is not encouraged to use them, and one can use regular comments to communite with other collaborators - it is not difficult to forget about them.

> ----
> Part B
> The Sidebar alternative might be good enough, especially with Edit Comment
> being more accessible (bug 166826)

So, your current suggestion is to:

1. Ensure the sidebar is open
2. Select the sidebar deck for tracked changes
3. Ensure the sidebar width is sufficient for a lot of the comments is seen
4. Focus, in the sidebar, the change that's been "reinstate"'d

?
Comment 8 Telesto 2025-06-02 18:51:26 UTC
My initial idea was more or less to use 'CommentChangeTracking' for commenting on reinstated Tracked changes. However; uno.CommentChangeTracking appears to be incompatible with DOCX. So likely not to pan out as expected