Bug 169741 - Too difficult for user to distinguish the 3 (or 4?) kinds of UNO alignment commands
Summary: Too difficult for user to distinguish the 3 (or 4?) kinds of UNO alignment co...
Status: UNCONFIRMED
Alias: None
Product: LibreOffice
Classification: Unclassified
Component: UI (show other bugs)
Version:
(earliest affected)
26.2.0.0 alpha0+ master
Hardware: All All
: medium minor
Assignee: Not Assigned
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Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks: Customise-Dialog UNO-Command-Label RTL-UI
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Reported: 2025-11-29 08:56 UTC by Eyal Rozenberg
Modified: 2025-12-03 14:21 UTC (History)
2 users (show)

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Description Eyal Rozenberg 2025-11-29 08:56:51 UTC
For ever kind of alignment (start, end, right, left, center, justify), we seem to have multiple alignment commands. For example:

1. .uno:AlignLeft
2. .uno:LeftPara 
3. .uno:ObjectAlignLeft
4. .uno:CommonAlignLeft

Jonathan says (bug 165507 comment 28) that the third kind is the command that does both (2.) and (3.) for use in static menus. (And I had only asked him about (2.) and (4.) )

I am still confused about these commands: Aren't these three things just all the same function? If not, how do they differ? Why does the formatting toolbar have .uno:LeftPara, rather than any of the others (e.g. "common align")?

... now, the thing is, I don't just want to get the answer to these questions _here_. This bug is about making it easier for users who customize their toolbars or menus to understand the difference, and which command they would want to choose.

Specifically, if you search for 'Left' in all commands, you find only the first and third items (LeftPara and CommonAlignLeft). They have the same icon, same label in the Customize dialog and almost the same tooltip when used ("Align Left" vs "Left"). The user will not know which of them to choose and why.

I suppose the most straightforward solution would be changing the commands' labels to be more informative and distinguishing. It is also possible to consider the choice of icons, but I'm not suggesting that for now.
Comment 1 Heiko Tietze 2025-12-03 06:09:37 UTC
Users don't deal with the UNO commands. Developers sometimes get more information at the definition, for example https://opengrok.libreoffice.org/xref/core/officecfg/registry/data/org/openoffice/Office/UI/GenericCommands.xcu?r=1fe134353a7146a0288ec486f1f9a2c8eb249560#2986

Users need to understand Start, Left, Right, etc. and I see no issue here.
Comment 2 Eyal Rozenberg 2025-12-03 14:21:07 UTC
(In reply to Heiko Tietze from comment #1)
> Users don't deal with the UNO commands.

Yes, users do deal with them - when they customize their menus or toolbars.

> Users need to understand Start, Left, Right, etc. and I see no issue here.

This is not about the distinction between Start, Left, right etc. Just pick one of them - say, Left. The user sees four different "Left" commands, some with the same icon; and it is difficult to tell them apart (and to remember what they each mean, once you have).