The other day I wanted to compare two documents in Writer. I was sure we have this function, and since I'm a person who thinks he knows what's what and where to find things, and with a slightly excessive sense of self-confidence, I immediately decided to go ahead and reach for its location on the menus! Naturally, this is an action on files, so I opened the File menu looking for something like "Compare..." or "Compare documents...". Hmm, nothing like that. Perhaps in some sub-menu? Nope, no relevant submenu. Maybe "Versions..." has something to do with it? Nope, and it was a long shot anyway. Weird thing, Versions, I've never seen anybody using or mentioning that feature. I wonder how that interacts with Track Changes. But - I digress. Ok, so, not on the File menu. Maybe if I open a file, I could indicate I want to also open another file for a comparison? Or even, that I want to compare it to the currently-open document? Again, no such luck. At this point I decided to give up on the File menu. But where would I put a "Compare Documents" function? Not under Edit, that's for the current document only. Insert is not the right kind of action, Format, Style, Table, Form, all irrelevant. Ok, there's Tools! It must be in Tools, right? I mean, I doubt it's going to be under Window (compare documents in two open windows? Nah, I don't see that happening), and certainly not Help. And anything can fit in Tools if you really want it to, so that must be it. ... except it's not. There _is_ a mail merge function, and that's about an interaction between documents, supposedly (you merge pieces of mail); but no document comparison. WHERE IS IT??!?!?! --------------------------------------------- Now, I know what you're going to say: "You can always search for commands under Help > Search Commands..." - and that's true, you can find it by the command search. But that's a poor fallback. The placement should be much more intuitive, and hiding document comparison in a submenu of Edit is just not the way to go. I don't mind if we _also_ have it in there, but I say it should be more discoverable. If anything, Versions belong under Edit much more than "Compare Document..."
Some users search for Compare Document... under Edit > Track Changes if we move it to File. What bothers me more is the position at root level. An alternative could also be the Tools menu, which is overly crowded and too long right now.
(In reply to Heiko Tietze from comment #1) > Some users search for Compare Document... under Edit > Track Changes if we > move it to File. Well, yes, but mostly because they're used to its current location. I suggest also considering the possibility of having in two place, although I realize that's... not a very elegant solution to the problem. > What bothers me more is the position at root level. An > alternative could also be the Tools menu, which is overly crowded and too > long right now. Not sure I got that. What is the "root level", and what position is bothering you? Sorry for making you spell this out, I'm thinking of multiple interpretations.
(In reply to Eyal Rozenberg from comment #2) > Not sure I got that. What is the "root level"... Directly under the top menu item. We sort commands by relevance and "hide" less frequently used under some category name like (View >) Track Changes > Compare Documents. The root level needs to be kept concise as many items take a lot of space - too much for small screens - and should be easy to skim through.
(In reply to Heiko Tietze from comment #1) > Some users search for Compare Document... under Edit > Track Changes if we > move it to File. What bothers me more is the position at root level. An > alternative could also be the Tools menu, which is overly crowded and too > long right now. I think it’s a good idea Heiko to find this feature under the Tools menu because it’s coherent/consistent, but if it's already too long/overly crowded...
We discussed the topic in the design meeting. Compare and Merge Documents are indeed not easy to find under Edit > Track Changes. The Tools menu takes a lot of space right now, so the proposal is to move the two commands under the File menu.
The file menu is the best choice for locating a "Compare documents" function. Mail merge - could go either under Tools or File, I'm ok with that choice.
This is easyhackable. Code pointer: In */uiconfig/*/menubar/menubar.xml (I count 6 files), move <menu:menuitem menu:id=".uno:CompareDocuments"/> <menu:menuitem menu:id=".uno:MergeDocuments"/> to somewhere under <menu:menu menu:id=".uno:PickList">. Adding more sections aka separators feels wrong to me, perhaps it fits under Wizard, Templates...? The doer decides!
Hey, so I submitted a patch the other day, give it a review when you get a chance. Though it should be mentioned that I only changed 5/6 of the files mentioned, /sw/uiconfig/sweb/menubar/menubar.xml didn't contain either 'compare' or 'merge' documents as a menu:id https://gerrit.libreoffice.org/c/core/+/193219
Sampath-1984 committed a patch related to this issue. It has been pushed to "master": https://git.libreoffice.org/core/commit/fff6f314c72056275f6cc3662bada3e45712aad1 tdf#167404 Move 'Compare Documents' from Edit menu to File menu It will be available in 26.2.0. The patch should be included in the daily builds available at https://dev-builds.libreoffice.org/daily/ in the next 24-48 hours. More information about daily builds can be found at: https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Testing_Daily_Builds Affected users are encouraged to test the fix and report feedback.
Olivier, please don't forget to update the Help and Guides with this changes
(In reply to Roman Kuznetsov from comment #10) > Olivier, please don't forget to update the Help and Guides with this changes Help patch in review: https://gerrit.libreoffice.org/c/help/+/201363
In the help patch review, it turned out that the menu location in Calc stayed the same. Was this intentional?
Ilmari Lauhakangas committed a patch related to this issue. It has been pushed to "master": https://git.libreoffice.org/help/commit/2436b267789fa4a7498428f5c5bccd5a2a3954b2 tdf#167404 Update Help after move of Compare and Merge Document
(In reply to Commit Notification from comment #13) > Ilmari Lauhakangas committed a patch related to this issue. > It has been pushed to "master": > > https://git.libreoffice.org/help/commit/ > 2436b267789fa4a7498428f5c5bccd5a2a3954b2 > > tdf#167404 Update Help after move of Compare and Merge Document My intention was to not merge this yet, but I overlooked to add a -2.
(In reply to Buovjaga from comment #12) > In the help patch review, it turned out that the menu location in Calc > stayed the same. Was this intentional? Eyal mentioned Writer only. But it was not done intentionally and you are right to mention consistency. @sampath: Can you add another patch for Calc please?
(In reply to Heiko Tietze from comment #15) > Eyal mentioned Writer only. But it was not done intentionally I had not actually considered Calc, since I've not had the opportunity to collaborate with someone on a Calc document in Track Changes mode. Sorry about that. Heiko, since you've reopened - I'll change the component to UI, to be module inspecfici.
Submitted a patch for Calc as well, please review when you get a chance. https://gerrit.libreoffice.org/c/core/+/202060
Sampath-1984 committed a patch related to this issue. It has been pushed to "master": https://git.libreoffice.org/core/commit/556f89207a1ea5e46dae74b05637dc4b75809ee1 tdf#167404 Move 'Compare Documents' from Edit menu to File menu It will be available in 26.8.0. The patch should be included in the daily builds available at https://dev-builds.libreoffice.org/daily/ in the next 24-48 hours. More information about daily builds can be found at: https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Testing_Daily_Builds Affected users are encouraged to test the fix and report feedback.
Ilmari Lauhakangas committed a patch related to this issue. It has been pushed to "master": https://git.libreoffice.org/help/commit/c8f8ecdd2a12e371f745ba5eeb4ecedbba019fd5 tdf#167404 Update Calc Help after move of Compare and Merge Document
Writer and Calc, all done: Compare Documents is in File menu. Version: 26.8.0.0.alpha0+ (X86_64) Build ID: 2c8e2b71d7c6630c14229f194682a7a1b198d3e1 CPU threads: 16; OS: Linux 6.17; UI render: default; VCL: gtk3 Locale: en-US (en_US.UTF-8); UI: en-US Calc: threaded