Bug 34804 - EDITING: Keyboard shortcut for Format-Highlighting does not work
Summary: EDITING: Keyboard shortcut for Format-Highlighting does not work
Status: RESOLVED FIXED
Alias: None
Product: LibreOffice
Classification: Unclassified
Component: Writer (show other bugs)
Version:
(earliest affected)
unspecified
Hardware: All All
: medium enhancement
Assignee: Justin L
URL:
Whiteboard: target:25.2.0
Keywords: accessibility
: 90639 116287 128052 129473 163447 (view as bug list)
Depends on: 82438
Blocks: Shortcuts-Accelerators Highlight-Color-Button
  Show dependency treegraph
 
Reported: 2011-02-27 12:03 UTC by Nisse Nordin
Modified: 2024-11-04 13:29 UTC (History)
19 users (show)

See Also:
Crash report or crash signature:


Attachments
confusing_similarity (80.48 KB, image/png)
2021-02-15 04:30 UTC, Safeer Pasha
Details
different command names for highlight color (31.08 KB, image/png)
2021-02-15 07:31 UTC, sdc.blanco
Details

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Description Nisse Nordin 2011-02-27 12:03:54 UTC
With the new "drop down" color palette for Highlighting (LibreColors) and a keyboard shortcut applied, the keyboard shortcut for highlighting doesn't apply any color. The shortcut reverts the color of the selected text to "No Fill" if the text is highlighted, though. (This works in OpenOffice 3.3.0 with the old floating color palette.)

Steps to reproduce:
1. Create a new Writer document
2. Go to Tools > Customize... > Keyboard
3. Select Format from the Category list and Highlighting from the Function list
4. Apply it to the keyboard combination of your choice (I chose Cmd+Y)
5. Click OK
6. Type anything in the Writer document
7. Select some text
8. Press the keyboard combination from 4 above

Actual results:
The text remains unhighlighted.

Expected results: 
The text should be highlighted like if the toolbar button was clicked.

Steps to reproduce, continued:
9. Click the Highlighting button in the toolbar and make sure the text is highlighted
10. Press the keyboard combination from 4 above

Actual results: 
The text becomes highlighted

Expected results:
The text becomes highlighted

---

As illustrated above, the keyboard shortcut works as expected for unhighligting, but not for highlighting.
Comment 1 Rainer Bielefeld Retired 2011-08-23 00:01:45 UTC
Reproducible (?) with "LibreOffice 3.4.3 RC1 - WIN7 Home Premium (64bit) German UI [OOO340m1 (Build:301)]". I associated <ctrl+f5> to 'Format - Highlight' (or in German: 'Format - Zeichenhintergrund').
I can confirm reporter's observation that higlighted text will become text without highlighting when I press <ctrl+f5> after having selected that text. That's unexpected, I also would have expected that a click on the "Highlighting" icon would have been simulated.

But that also works in the same way with LibO 3.3.3 Portable, OOo 3.1.1. OOo 3.4 seems to do nothing with 'Format -Highlighting' via shortcut.

Nevertheless, IMHO this is a bug.

And BTW: A shortcut for 'Format - Font Color Fill' will work as expected and simulate a click on the 'Font Color' icon. 
BTW: shortcut for 'Format - Font Color' (first item from list) will do nothing, shortcut for 'Format - Font Color' (seconditem from list) will bring up the 'Character  Format' dialog; what ever tht might mean.

Althoug consistence with other LibO applications has to be kept in mind, I see this one as a WRITER bug.

@Cédric:
Please feel free to reassign (or reset Assignee to default) if it’s not your area or if provided information is not sufficient. Please set Status to ASSIGNED if you accept this Bug.
Comment 2 Björn Michaelsen 2011-12-23 13:26:46 UTC
Since all new unconfirmed bugs start in state UNCONFIRMED now and old unconfirmed bugs were moved to NEEDINFO with a explanatory comment, all bugs promoted above those bug states to NEW and later are automatically confirmed making the CONFIRMED whiteboard status redundant. Thus it will be removed.
Comment 3 A (Andy) 2013-05-06 20:39:16 UTC
reproducible with LO 4.0.2.2 (Win7 Home, 64bit)
Comment 4 Amedeo Trotta 2014-07-01 13:52:20 UTC
Reproducible with LO 4.1.5.3 on OpenSUSE 13.1 64bit
Comment 5 Firas Hanife 2015-04-16 09:25:17 UTC
*** Bug 90639 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 6 Firas Hanife 2015-04-16 09:28:04 UTC
Confirmed with LO 4.4.2.2 on openSUSE 13.2
Comment 7 Buovjaga 2015-04-16 09:29:32 UTC
Set to NEW per comment 6.
Comment 8 Yousuf Philips (jay) (retired) 2015-09-20 11:11:05 UTC
If you wish to assign a shortcut for highlighting, select 'Highlight Fill' from the function list and it will work.
Comment 9 Ziggy 2016-08-19 12:34:26 UTC
To be honest, I’m not entirely satisfied with the solution as proposed by Jay in his “Comment 8” as of “2015-09-20 11:11:05 UTC”. In my opinion it would be really useful if text highlighting using the color as suggested by the “Highlight Color” button on Writer’s “Format” toolbar could be toggled using a keyboard shortcut. However, I haven’t found a way to implement this (being just a ‘casual’ user) yet.
Comment 10 Ziggy 2016-08-19 12:37:28 UTC Comment hidden (obsolete, spam)
Comment 11 Ziggy 2016-08-19 12:40:03 UTC Comment hidden (obsolete, spam)
Comment 12 Yousuf Philips (jay) (retired) 2016-08-19 19:13:32 UTC
Hi Ziggy,

You can go into Tools > Customize > Keyboard and select the keyboard shortcut and then select the Format category and select Highlight Fill and you'll be able to assign the shortcut there. You can find full information here - https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/images/b/bd/GS5014-CustomizingLibreOffice.pdf

There seems to be a bug in the assignment of the shortcut as it requires a user to first use the Highlight Color (.uno:BackColor) toolbar button to color with yellow before highlight fill (.uno:CharBackgroundExt) can be activated to work with a color.
Comment 13 Johan Brink 2016-10-14 14:18:58 UTC
as of 5.1.5.2 this is still a thing.
This has been a problem for a long time, as I have also had the same issue in earlier versions. I am disappointed to see that it is still not working properly.
As a teacher I have to be able to highlight texts A LOT, when evaluating student works. Having a working keyboard shortcut for this is essential and should be an elementary feature.

As per the original report, the highlight color function works to UNhighligt an already highlighted text, but fails to actually highlight it in the first place.
Now I know there is a highlight fill function that is supposed to be a workaround for this. But no. That's not working properly either. Highlight fill, out of the box does nothing when assigned a shortcut.

As I'm writing this and tinkering with the program (going by earlier comments), I seem to be able to get it to sometimes work. If I first use the toolbar option. Then subsequently I can use the shortcut for highlight fill. But it stops working at random if I do something else in-between. Especially the highlight function, which there are two of, for some reason (one of which doesn't work at all) and the highlight fill seem to actively interfere with one another.

This is clearly not a working solution. It's an un-intuitive mess that has a life of it's own.

Please prioritize this issue to at least normal level. This is such a basic function that it is quite literately a deal-breaker for me and I am sure others as well.
Comment 14 QA Administrators 2017-10-23 14:04:08 UTC Comment hidden (obsolete)
Comment 15 Maxim Monastirsky 2017-10-24 08:47:45 UTC
Changing the behavior of the current highlight command is a bad idea, as it appears to be used in existing macros to remove highlighting (e.g. Bug 81231). However adding a new command that will apply highlighting is a valid request, but it can't be done before implementing a global way to store that last highlight color (Bug 72991) and syncing it between color buttons (Bug 82438).
Comment 16 Dotan Cohen 2017-12-06 10:25:53 UTC
Libre Office 5.4.3.2 installed from the official RPMS on CentOS 7.3.

I confirm Johan Brink's observation on 2016-10-14 that there are now _two_ Highlight Color options, neither of which work, and neither does Highlight Fill work.

Like him, I review documents and must highlight often.
Comment 17 Heiko Tietze 2018-03-19 15:03:58 UTC
*** Bug 116287 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 18 Kaue 2018-06-12 15:25:17 UTC
Still happening on:

Versão: 6.0.4.2 (x64)
ID de compilação: 9b0d9b32d5dcda91d2f1a96dc04c645c450872bf
Threads da CPU:4; SO:Windows 10.0; Realizador da interface: padrão; 
Local: pt-BR (pt_BR); Calc: CL
Comment 19 John Anderson 2018-06-12 20:46:15 UTC Comment hidden (spam)
Comment 20 Daniel T. 2018-08-10 07:57:24 UTC
Can still reproduce it in Version: 6.0.5.2
Build ID: 1:6.0.5~rc2-0ubuntu0.17.10.1~lo1
Comment 21 jaydenrobin 2018-11-28 19:21:20 UTC Comment hidden (spam)
Comment 22 jaydenrobin 2018-11-28 19:23:02 UTC Comment hidden (spam)
Comment 23 Dek Fin 2018-12-08 21:31:55 UTC Comment hidden (spam)
Comment 24 cappellorosso 2019-02-19 16:47:01 UTC
Still happening on Fedora 29.

Version: 6.1.5.2
Build ID: 6.1.5.2-1.fc29
Comment 25 boshrkelarjy 2019-03-29 12:57:38 UTC
reproducible with LO 6.1.5.2 (Win10 Pro, 64bit)
Comment 26 ray 2019-05-15 12:49:12 UTC Comment hidden (spam)
Comment 27 ray 2019-05-15 12:50:22 UTC Comment hidden (spam)
Comment 28 ray 2019-05-15 12:51:11 UTC Comment hidden (spam)
Comment 29 Maxim Monastirsky 2019-10-10 12:20:39 UTC
*** Bug 128052 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 30 Brett P. Gardner 2019-10-15 05:40:29 UTC Comment hidden (spam)
Comment 31 edwardpitt 2019-10-18 11:40:39 UTC Comment hidden (spam)
Comment 32 Steven L. Henson 2019-11-20 12:14:29 UTC Comment hidden (spam)
Comment 33 Arloprosetup 2019-12-18 06:37:09 UTC Comment hidden (spam)
Comment 34 Techsteq Solution 2019-12-19 07:52:22 UTC Comment hidden (spam)
Comment 35 Michael D. Dahle 2019-12-19 11:29:31 UTC Comment hidden (spam)
Comment 36 Michael D. Dahle 2019-12-19 11:30:29 UTC Comment hidden (spam)
Comment 37 sdc.blanco 2019-12-19 23:58:57 UTC
*** Bug 129473 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 38 The Rapid Help 2019-12-23 06:52:41 UTC Comment hidden (spam)
Comment 39 Aaron M. Maurer 2019-12-23 11:49:19 UTC Comment hidden (spam)
Comment 40 John David 2020-01-04 06:24:59 UTC Comment hidden (spam)
Comment 41 Jason Mathew 2020-01-10 08:46:12 UTC Comment hidden (spam)
Comment 42 Brainsjames 2020-01-10 12:10:40 UTC Comment hidden (spam)
Comment 43 The Rapid Help 2020-01-29 06:52:10 UTC Comment hidden (spam)
Comment 44 edwardkortiz 2020-02-10 11:26:51 UTC Comment hidden (spam)
Comment 45 Chris Woris 2020-04-14 12:24:08 UTC Comment hidden (spam)
Comment 46 Chris Woris 2020-04-14 12:24:39 UTC Comment hidden (spam)
Comment 47 Chris Woris 2020-04-16 12:45:25 UTC Comment hidden (spam)
Comment 48 Chris Woris 2020-04-22 12:15:57 UTC Comment hidden (spam)
Comment 49 Chris Woris 2020-04-27 08:09:49 UTC Comment hidden (spam)
Comment 50 Safeer Pasha 2021-02-15 04:30:35 UTC
Created attachment 169746 [details]
confusing_similarity
Comment 51 Safeer Pasha 2021-02-15 04:32:38 UTC
the bug is still present, Keyboard shortcut does not work.

also, I have attached a file "confusing_similarity" where two entries bear the same name which can be confusing. I hope the entries get different names.

Version: 7.1.0.3 / LibreOffice Community
Build ID: 10(Build:3)
CPU threads: 4; OS: Linux 5.10; UI render: default; VCL: kf5
Locale: en-US (en_US.UTF-8); UI: en-US
Calc: threaded
Comment 52 sdc.blanco 2021-02-15 07:31:22 UTC
Created attachment 169752 [details]
different command names for highlight color

(In reply to Safeer Pasha from comment #51)
> I hope the entries get different names.
Should be in 7.2. See bug 134432
Comment 53 Paul 2022-01-06 09:10:56 UTC Comment hidden (spam)
Comment 54 Avon Containners Private Limited 2024-04-12 06:45:50 UTC Comment hidden (spam)
Comment 55 Smathles 2024-04-20 13:53:09 UTC
Are there any plans to rectify this bug in an upcoming release? I note that this bug was reported over 13 years ago now and it's marked as "new" and as yet hasn't been assigned to anyone. 

Some forum posts online have alluded to the fact that one can use macros or other "hacks" to get around this issue, but if at all possible it would be nice to have it built in by default! I use the toggleable ctrl+alt+H highlight command a lot in MS Word and would love to have the same thing in Libreoffice!
Comment 56 Pablo San Martín 2024-04-20 16:08:31 UTC
I’m using LibreOffice 24.2.2.2 and this still seems to be an issues.

There are two entries for “Character Highlighting Color” in Tools > Customize menu but neither of them applies the current highlighting color to the selected text.

Is this too difficult to fix or just not considered important?
Comment 57 martín 2024-06-24 16:17:34 UTC
(In reply to Pablo San Martín from comment #56)
> I’m using LibreOffice 24.2.2.2 and this still seems to be an issues.
> 
> There are two entries for “Character Highlighting Color” in Tools >
> Customize menu but neither of them applies the current highlighting color to
> the selected text.
> 
> Is this too difficult to fix or just not considered important?

Same here with LibreOffice 6.4.7.2

:(
Comment 58 Dotan Cohen 2024-07-01 14:14:18 UTC
I can confirm that this issue is still present in 7.3.7.2.

There exist two Character Highlighting Color option, neither of which actually add a highlight to selected text.
Comment 59 Justin L 2024-10-10 17:44:16 UTC
repro 25.2+

It could be conceivable to resolve this now that the blockers in comment 15 are solved for 24.8.
Comment 60 Justin L 2024-10-11 09:35:18 UTC
Fix proposed:
-main patch: https://gerrit.libreoffice.org/c/core/+/174804?usp=dashboard
-Writer annotation and textbox (draw objects) patch: https://gerrit.libreoffice.org/c/core/+/174805?usp=dashboard

I also intend to look at Calc and Draw/Impress...
Comment 61 Commit Notification 2024-10-17 15:34:09 UTC
Justin Luth committed a patch related to this issue.
It has been pushed to "master":

https://git.libreoffice.org/core/commit/bc21a85029a6b31cab07a4e3d481e059120ff510

tdf#34804 sw: enable keyboard shortcut for CharColor and CharBackColor

It will be available in 25.2.0.

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.
Comment 62 Commit Notification 2024-10-17 17:26:24 UTC
Justin Luth committed a patch related to this issue.
It has been pushed to "master":

https://git.libreoffice.org/core/commit/1c7740f33b885eb20f913bff1283e509f86fba9d

tdf#34804 swdr: enable keyboard shortcut for CharColor and CharBackColor

It will be available in 25.2.0.

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.
Comment 63 Commit Notification 2024-10-17 17:28:28 UTC
Justin Luth committed a patch related to this issue.
It has been pushed to "master":

https://git.libreoffice.org/core/commit/cdd00486a73ab94eeda2e403eba5df813f472e60

tdf#34804 sc: enable keyboard shortcut for CharColor and CharBackColor

It will be available in 25.2.0.

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.
Comment 64 Commit Notification 2024-10-17 18:08:34 UTC
Justin Luth committed a patch related to this issue.
It has been pushed to "master":

https://git.libreoffice.org/core/commit/4b675143b4d7f9b9d1bcc76c34d413de35ee56a1

tdf#34804 sd: enable keyboard shortcut for CharColor and CharBackColor

It will be available in 25.2.0.

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.
Comment 65 Justin L 2024-10-17 18:16:03 UTC
For those who want to use this, I suggest assigning "Font Color" (.uno:Color) to the entire LibreOffice context. Then override the Writer-only context to use "Font Color" (.uno:FontColor) - to avoid triggering the dialog in Writer.

For the background color, use "Character Highlighting Color" (.uno:CharBackColor),
Comment 66 Heiko Tietze 2024-11-04 13:29:40 UTC
*** Bug 163447 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***