Bug 56456 - Change Insert Hyperlink dialog buttons to [OK][Apply][Cancel][Help][Reset] (from Apply Close Help Back)
Summary: Change Insert Hyperlink dialog buttons to [OK][Apply][Cancel][Help][Reset] (f...
Status: RESOLVED FIXED
Alias: None
Product: LibreOffice
Classification: Unclassified
Component: UI (show other bugs)
Version:
(earliest affected)
3.6.5.2 release
Hardware: All All
: medium enhancement
Assignee: Thomas Arnhold
URL:
Whiteboard: target:4.4.0
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2012-10-27 10:43 UTC by Felix Stadler
Modified: 2023-12-19 09:35 UTC (History)
3 users (show)

See Also:
Crash report or crash signature:


Attachments

Note You need to log in before you can comment on or make changes to this bug.
Description Felix Stadler 2012-10-27 10:43:05 UTC
To insert a hyperlink the user opens the insert hyperlink dialog, then fills in the hyperlink details. He then needs to click 2 buttons in succession: First the 'Apply' button, then the 'Close' button. The last step is unnecessary and unexpected: When the user confirms his entries in the dialog fields by clicking 'Apply', the dialog should get out of the way and close. 


Steps to reproduce: 
Goal: Add a hyperlink 

1. Open text document in WRITER
2. Click Insert..Hyperlink on the standard menu
   -> Hyperlink dialog opens
3. Type a url into Target field: www.libreoffice.org
4. Click 'Apply' button
   -> Hyperlink is added to document but dialog remains open
5. Click 'Close' button
   -> Dialog closes

I can see no reason why the dialog should remain open after the user clicks the 'Apply' button. 

When this change is made, it might be appropriate to change the caption of the 'Close' button to 'Cancel'.
Comment 1 Rainer Bielefeld Retired 2012-10-27 11:33:52 UTC
"Apply" buttons never close a Dialog. So this is a request for an additional <ok> button.

Already OOo 2.0.2 was without <ok> button there, so inherited from OOo

I believe we should rethink this for all dialogs, I will post a hint on UX mailing list.

This one is related to "Bug 37336 - Feature request: Apply buttons"
Comment 2 Felix Stadler 2012-10-27 15:34:29 UTC
How about changing the title of this Bug to: 
Insert hyperlink: change Apply button to OK button

Why add a fifth button? The 'Apply' button could be renamed into an 'OK' button. The insert hyperlink feature is not graphical in the sense that the user first would want to preview the hyperlink. What would the user conceivably change after looking at the preview?

The insert hyperlink dialog already has 4 buttons. The Apply/OK and Close/Cancel buttons are fine. The 'Help' provides very little help if you click on it. I have not been able to find out what the 'Back' button is intended for.
Comment 3 John McGrath 2012-11-10 16:06:21 UTC
It should have the following buttons:

OK - Apply the changes and close the dialog.
CANCEL - Close the dialog without applying changes.
HELP - Open the help system.
RESET - Reset fields to their initial values.

There is no reason for this dialog to be different than other dialogs.  Look, foir example, at the following dialogs:  File→Properties, Format→Cells, and Format→Page.  All have the above four buttons.
Comment 4 Kumāra 2013-02-23 04:04:16 UTC
Fully agree with John McGrath's proposal. It makes better sense and is more user-friendly.

I lost count of the number of times I forgot to click Apply and have to do it again! While it's technically and enhancement, from the usability point of view, it's a bug.

Felix, please go ahead and improve on the title.

Strangely, LibO has this Apply button in a dialog box where it is not appreciated, while not having it in dialog boxes where it would! :-)
Comment 5 Lukas Jelinek 2014-01-04 19:34:27 UTC
The "Apply" button behavior has been recently changed (4.2.0 RC1?). It works as to be the "OK" button now and it is very confusing. Please rename the buton to "OK".
Comment 6 Petr Valach 2014-01-05 19:26:03 UTC
I would be happy if this button would have the same function with the same label, so "Apply". But if its sense is different then rename its label, please.
Comment 7 Felix Stadler 2014-08-11 08:55:15 UTC
There was a change made in LO 4.2 which closed dialog when Apply button was clicked (good behavior but wrong label - should have been "OK" instead of "Apply"). 

But in Libreoffice 4.3, this change has been reverted. See bugs https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=63271 and https://www.libreoffice.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=75578.

The argument apparently is that some power users who use shortcut keys want to keep their hyperlink dialog open open all the time and not close them when applying.

Which means that now 99.99 percent of all users have to click "Apply" and "Close" to insert a hyperlink (and scratch their head about this).
Comment 8 Kumāra 2014-08-11 11:09:22 UTC
(In reply to comment #7)
> The argument apparently is that some power users who use shortcut keys want
> to keep their hyperlink dialog open open all the time and not close them
> when applying.

Well those power users can *still* have what they want by just adding another button: OK Apply Cancel Help Reset 

Then everybody's happy. Agree, everyone?
Comment 9 Daveo 2014-08-11 14:36:03 UTC
(In reply to comment #7)
> There was a change made in LO 4.2 which closed dialog when Apply button was
> clicked (good behavior but wrong label - should have been "OK" instead of
> "Apply"). 
> 
> But in Libreoffice 4.3, this change has been reverted. See bugs
> https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=63271 and
> https://www.libreoffice.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=75578.
> 
> The argument apparently is that some power users who use shortcut keys want
> to keep their hyperlink dialog open open all the time and not close them
> when applying.
> 
> Which means that now 99.99 percent of all users have to click "Apply" and
> "Close" to insert a hyperlink (and scratch their head about this).

Please provide links to sources of your claim of "99.9% of all users".

It was always a "feature" of OpenOffice.org in the past and nobody ever submitted a RFR (Request For Regression). I can find no requests for a similar change in the Apache OpenOffice Bugzilla and in total only small handful people have supported this proposed change here and in Bug 63271 + Bug 75578

Italo Vignoli and others (myself included) have put a lot of time and effort into promoting LibreOffice to government and business. These are for the most part the "Power Users" you derisively refer to. Let's not start removing long established features, just to satisfy a small number of individuals who are too lazy to second mouse click, when inserting a link into the occasional note to grandma.

I have said as much as I want to say about this suggestion. If you are interested, see my comments on Bug 63271
Comment 10 Daveo 2014-08-11 14:44:16 UTC
(In reply to comment #8)
> (In reply to comment #7)
> > The argument apparently is that some power users who use shortcut keys want
> > to keep their hyperlink dialog open open all the time and not close them
> > when applying.

Sorry, I can't find any reference to (so-called) "Power Users" using shortcut keys for this dialog. Can you provide a link please.

> Well those power users can *still* have what they want by just adding
> another button: OK Apply Cancel Help Reset 
> 
> Then everybody's happy. Agree, everyone?

By all means add another button, but don't fix what isn't broken.
Comment 11 Kumāra 2014-08-12 01:39:36 UTC
(In reply to comment #9)
> Italo Vignoli and others (myself included) have put a lot of time and effort
> into promoting LibreOffice to government and business. These are for the
> most part the "Power Users" you derisively refer to. Let's not start
> removing long established features, just to satisfy a small number of
> individuals who are too lazy to second mouse click, when inserting a link
> into the occasional note to grandma.

Dear Dave,

Thank you for your great efforts. I'm sure many have benefited from what you enjoy doing.

To everyone,

I'm thinking: Instead spending energy in arguing, deriding and retaliating with more derisions, wouldn't it be better to come to a resolution to a relatively small matter?
Comment 12 Thomas Arnhold 2014-08-17 11:44:27 UTC
Proposed fix: https://gerrit.libreoffice.org/10946
Comment 13 Daveo 2014-08-17 22:17:32 UTC
(In reply to comment #12)
> Proposed fix: https://gerrit.libreoffice.org/10946

+1 Thanks for your fix Thomas. Can we all now agree to close this & bug 75578?
Comment 14 Kumāra 2014-08-18 02:11:02 UTC
(In reply to comment #12)
> Proposed fix: https://gerrit.libreoffice.org/10946

Agree with one minor addition: Change "Close" to "Cancel" for consistency with other dialogs.
Comment 15 Kumāra 2014-08-18 07:32:09 UTC
(In reply to comment #14)
> (In reply to comment #12)
> > Proposed fix: https://gerrit.libreoffice.org/10946
> 
> Agree with one minor addition: Change "Close" to "Cancel" for consistency
> with other dialogs.

I just realise that this wouldn't make sense to people who keep the dialog open for multiple pasting of links. Please disregard this request.

Agree with the proposed fix and closing this bug.
Comment 16 Commit Notification 2014-08-23 02:33:53 UTC
Thomas Arnhold committed a patch related to this issue.
It has been pushed to "master":

http://cgit.freedesktop.org/libreoffice/core/commit/?id=f4246fab77113147b36706a1f3d93e8724ff826b

fdo#56456 fdo#75578 fdo#63271 fdo#75805 Improve hyperlink dialog



The patch should be included in the daily builds available at
http://dev-builds.libreoffice.org/daily/ in the next 24-48 hours. More
information about daily builds can be found at:
http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Testing_Daily_Builds
Affected users are encouraged to test the fix and report feedback.