Bug 169726 - Writer — add default ctrl+ +/- shortcuts for zoom in / zoom out
Summary: Writer — add default ctrl+ +/- shortcuts for zoom in / zoom out
Status: UNCONFIRMED
Alias: None
Product: LibreOffice
Classification: Unclassified
Component: UI (show other bugs)
Version:
(earliest affected)
25.8.3.2 release
Hardware: All All
: medium normal
Assignee: Not Assigned
URL:
Whiteboard:
Keywords: needsUXEval
Depends on:
Blocks: Shortcuts-Accelerators Zoom
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Reported: 2025-11-28 12:16 UTC by Kuba Orlik
Modified: 2025-12-08 12:57 UTC (History)
3 users (show)

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Crash report or crash signature:


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Description Kuba Orlik 2025-11-28 12:16:55 UTC
Description:
It's second nature to press ctrl and plus/minus key combo on the keyboard and expect the view to zoom in / zoom out. LO doesn't meet this expectation.

I think it would be great to add this key binding as a default.

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Open a freshly installed Writer
2. Press and hold the Control key
3. While holding Control, press the + key

Actual Results:
Nothing happens

Expected Results:
Users generally expect the view to zoom in when pressing control and plus/minus


Reproducible: Always


User Profile Reset: No

Additional Info:
Version: 25.8.3.2 (X86_64) / LibreOffice Community
Build ID: 580(Build:2)
CPU threads: 16; OS: Linux 6.12; UI render: default; VCL: gtk3
Locale: en-US (en_US.UTF-8); UI: en-US
25.8.3-2
Calc: threaded
Comment 1 jcline 2025-12-03 02:45:07 UTC
confirmed in Version: 26.2.0.0.alpha1+ (X86_64) / LibreOffice Community
Build ID: 620(Build:0)
CPU threads: 32; OS: Windows 11 X86_64 (build 26100); UI render: Skia/Vulkan; VCL: win
Locale: en-US (en_US); UI: en-US
Calc: CL threaded

I also think this is a little weird not to have. Especially since in draw when you press the - key by itself the page zooms out, but if you press + or ctrl + nothing happens.
Comment 2 Buovjaga 2025-12-03 05:57:48 UTC
In Writer, Ctrl++ is Calculate and Ctrl+- Insert Soft Hyphen (btw. to see soft hyphens, you need to explicitly select their display in Tools > Options > Writer > Formatting Aids).

See the long discussion in bug 45705 and https://gerrit.libreoffice.org/c/core/+/150212

"Too long; didn't read" summary is that it was not possible to settle on Ctrl++ and Ctrl+- across all operating systems, so now the global shortcuts are Ctrl+Shift+PageDown/PageUp
Comment 3 Kuba Orlik 2025-12-03 07:55:23 UTC
This is very disappointing. I really want people to like LibreOfiice but there's just so many things I see new users complaining about and then ditching LO. This is one of them. Please reconsider. Maybe there could be presets that the user chooses at the first run of LO? I'm sure most new users care more about zoom than soft hyphens. I myself have been using LO for 10+ years, wrote my thesis in it, and always thought ctrl+/- are just not bound to anything.
Comment 4 Buovjaga 2025-12-03 09:01:10 UTC
(In reply to Kuba Orlik from comment #3)
> This is very disappointing. I really want people to like LibreOfiice but
> there's just so many things I see new users complaining about and then
> ditching LO. This is one of them. Please reconsider. Maybe there could be
> presets that the user chooses at the first run of LO? I'm sure most new
> users care more about zoom than soft hyphens. I myself have been using LO
> for 10+ years, wrote my thesis in it, and always thought ctrl+/- are just
> not bound to anything.

You are greatly simplifying things. In the discussions I linked, there is this, for example:
"MSO uses ctrl+minus for soft hyphen (and ctrl+plus for super script); changing this shortcut would be a major difference to Word."

Then, it was pointed out that Microsoft had shuffled the shortcuts *at the same time* as the topic was being discussed in bug 45705 https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/blog/microsoft365insiderblog/new-zoom-shortcuts-in-word/4219049

If you read the MS blog article, you will notice a very important note added later:
"(2/20/24) UPDATE: Since publishing this post, we heard from many of you that the Optional Hyphen and Nonbreaking Hyphen shortcuts were important to your workflows. Rather than having you insert them via the Symbols dialog box, we’ve added new shortcuts to give you quicker access."

So Kuba, I have to ask you, what is your proposal for selling this change to all the users who have Ctrl+- soft hyphen in their muscle memory?
Comment 5 Kuba Orlik 2025-12-07 20:29:29 UTC
When someone opens LibreOffice for the first time, it displays a welcome screen that lets the user customize certain aspects of the UI. You can choose between Standard/Tabbed interface and customize the theme. I think this would be a great place to ask the users what type of ctr++/- behavior they'd expect. The popup appears only during the first run of the app, so the update won't mess with anyone's current bindings
Comment 6 QA Administrators 2025-12-08 03:13:42 UTC Comment hidden (obsolete)
Comment 7 Heiko Tietze 2025-12-08 11:25:59 UTC
The proposal of having this particular shortcut in the welcome dialog opens the door (as the dialog itself) for more random configurations. Browsers reload the page per F5/Ctrl*R; shall we offer to reassign Navigator/Align Right as well? I don't think so. 

(In reply to Kuba Orlik from comment #3)
> I really want people to like LibreOfiice...
The association of a text processor with a web browser is just wrong. And I bet users learn this quickly. If you are an admin you may customize the shortcuts and share a new default template with this setup.

In any case this is a duplicate of bug 45705. But I'll put it on the agenda of the design meeting first.
Comment 8 V Stuart Foote 2025-12-08 12:57:14 UTC
Clearly dupe of bug 45705 and => WF

Fully covered in discussion of bug 45705 when the UNO behaviors were normalized cross module for keyboard zoom to match zoom available with mouse wheel. 

Initially without assignment of keyboard shortcut--dev choice and left to users choice to customize.

And as finalized, attempts to identify suitable shortcuts faltered cross-platform and module.

The *global* assignments "PAGEDOWN_SHIFT_MOD1" and "PAGEUP_SHIFT_MOD1" were made after that exhaustive process [1]. With understanding that users could/should make a different customization assignment, but that our keyboard assignment met needs.

=-ref-=
[1] https://gerrit.libreoffice.org/c/core/+/15021