Bug 58105 - EDITING: Increase of functionality in Navigator Window – Heading
Summary: EDITING: Increase of functionality in Navigator Window – Heading
Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 38093
Alias: None
Product: LibreOffice
Classification: Unclassified
Component: Writer (show other bugs)
Version:
(earliest affected)
3.5.7.2 release
Hardware: All All
: medium enhancement
Assignee: Not Assigned
URL:
Whiteboard: BSA
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks: Navigator
  Show dependency treegraph
 
Reported: 2012-12-11 01:10 UTC by bugquestcontri
Modified: 2019-09-11 13:57 UTC (History)
4 users (show)

See Also:
Crash report or crash signature:


Attachments
screenshot showing a cross-reference and the missing information in the navigator (7.22 KB, image/gif)
2013-03-12 10:36 UTC, bugquestcontri
Details

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Description bugquestcontri 2012-12-11 01:10:23 UTC
Description: 

The Navigator window as such is an excellent tool - although I haven' t used it in all possibilities. 
The Heading part with promote/demote chapters and levels is good. However, I see there are 3 points for enhancements.


1 - When promoting the level of a heading in the navigator window, the heading collapses and shows only a "+" in front of the promoted heading. For judging the new structure, the "+" needs to be clicked again. This is a bit cumbersome but reduces the direct visibility of the chance in the heading structure

Request 1: Stop the collapsing of the heading structure that the change is to be seen immediately without clicking the "+"


2 - When looking at the heading structure in the navigator window, an author recognizes need to add  and/or delete headings. However, it is necessary to go back into the normal text window and do these operations there which is cumbersome and reduces productivity.

Request 2: Add the functionality of adding or deleting headings in the navigator window. Deleting headings should include the entire text below this heading. A warning what will happen might be a good safety measure


3 - When working the Navigator window promoting and demoting a chapter can only be done by clicking on related arrows in the menu part of the Navigator window. This is sometimes nice but it reduces productivity. 
(As I thought I saw this drag&drop functionality during my first touching LibO writer but could not find it anymore, I placed a question in AskLibO however I never got an answer. Therefore I think that this functionality is not given and place this request.)

Request 3: Add a drag&drop functionality for promoting/demoting chapters


As always, I can be contacted.
Operating System: Windows XP
Last worked in: 3.5.7.2 release
Comment 1 Michael Stahl (allotropia) 2012-12-12 14:46:39 UTC
this looks like an enhancement request, why does it have "regression" set?

AFAIK (please correct me if i'm wrong) these features were not
present in older versions of LibreOffice or OpenOffice.org so
it's not a regression.
Comment 2 bugquestcontri 2012-12-13 01:06:24 UTC
Yes it is an enhancement request. I indicate this always in the "subject" of the bug report. However, it seems that this line disappears in the transfere from:
https://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/bug/
to bugzilla. I will now add the word "enhancement" also in the main text.
Comment 3 bugquestcontri 2013-03-12 10:35:39 UTC
I am working in the meantime with 3.6.5.2 and found that the cross references are not visible in the navigator. This I regards as a bug. See attached screenshot.

Additionally I also have an enhancement request: Navigation trough foot- and endnotes would become easier they would be visible in the navigator with the number and the text as long as the navigator box is wide. Dynamic adjustment would be required. This would again increase productivity.
Comment 4 bugquestcontri 2013-03-12 10:36:46 UTC
Created attachment 76380 [details]
screenshot showing a cross-reference and the missing information in the navigator
Comment 5 bugquestcontri 2013-04-22 13:53:40 UTC
I also found a bug report which is a part of this enhancement request:

https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=58187

and there is a discussion in AskLibO of today:

http://ask.libreoffice.org/en/question/16453/how-to-not-auto-collapse-navigation-headings-list/
Comment 6 bugquestcontri 2013-08-02 02:05:49 UTC
Update:
I am working now with LibO 4.0.4.2 and the situation I am observing is still the same.
Working on a longer, stuctured document the enhancement requested would be a great improvement of productivity. 
I can be addressed for any discussion  and tests.
Comment 7 Jorendc 2013-12-06 19:21:44 UTC
(In reply to comment #0)
> Request 1: Stop the collapsing of the heading structure that the change is
> to be seen immediately without clicking the "+"

Makes sense to me :-)

> Request 2: Add the functionality of adding or deleting headings in the
> navigator window. Deleting headings should include the entire text below
> this heading. A warning what will happen might be a good safety measure

Not sure that feature will be used that much. And what about images/frames/... that are anchored to the page, but belongs to a chapter?

> 3 - When working the Navigator window promoting and demoting a chapter can
> only be done by clicking on related arrows in the menu part of the Navigator
> window. This is sometimes nice but it reduces productivity. 
> (As I thought I saw this drag&drop functionality during my first touching
> LibO writer but could not find it anymore, I placed a question in AskLibO
> however I never got an answer. Therefore I think that this functionality is
> not given and place this request.)
> 
> Request 3: Add a drag&drop functionality for promoting/demoting chapters

Makes sense :)

I think we have to split this in 3 different enhancement requests, and use this one as a kind of "meta bug" for this 3 enhancement requests. Or you can create it now, or a developer who's interested can split it up.

Kind regards,
Joren
Comment 8 Bob 2014-04-15 16:38:21 UTC
I would like to add my very strong support to this RFE (yes, sorry, I realise it's quite old, but I didn't find it till now). I teach a course on technical writing. As far as possible, the course is based on free software. 

Just as in software, any complex document needs a design/implementation cycle. That implies a need for good tools to support the design process (the analogue of UML and other design tools for programming). Well-designed word-processing documents - at least technical ones - are tree-structured, so the design process requires a good tree-structuring tool: one that supports the editing of the document structure at the 'ideas' level prior to and during writing, and does so in an intuitive, easy-to-use way. MS Word outline mode is excellent for this. For all that I love all the other aspects of LibreOffice, Navigator just doesn't cut it. So at the moment, I have to lamely tell my students 'beg or borrow a copy of MS Word, or use jreepad, to do the document structuring, then switch to LibreOffice'. Of course, you can guess how far my free software evangelism gets with that...

I don't think splitting this RFE is a good idea. Navigator doesn't need incremental improvements. It needs a full re-design to properly support editing document tree structures - bugquestcontri's suggestions are a bare minimum; it needs to be simple and natural to use, as MS Word outline mode is. Without such a redesign, Writer cannot be a proper tool for designing and building large documents: it will remain an editor rather than a document IDE (think vi versus eclipse). To my mind this missing functionality is by far the biggest issue with Writer, or indeed the whole of LibreOffice.
Comment 9 Bob 2014-04-15 17:07:40 UTC
Apologies, I realise now that my comments are probably better included at bug 68167. Moving there now.
Comment 10 bugquestcontri 2014-06-20 13:43:47 UTC
This request can indeed be regarded as duplicate of 68167. I cannot judge what is easier to be released. Either an enhanced navigator or an outline view is  needed.
Comment 11 V Stuart Foote 2019-09-11 13:57:16 UTC
Mike K. missed this dupe of bug 38093

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 38093 ***