Bug 62926 - Add option to show 'Apply Style' menu in plain text
Summary: Add option to show 'Apply Style' menu in plain text
Status: NEW
Alias: None
Product: LibreOffice
Classification: Unclassified
Component: Writer (show other bugs)
Version:
(earliest affected)
unspecified
Hardware: Other All
: medium enhancement
Assignee: Not Assigned
URL:
Whiteboard:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks: Writer-Styles-Paragraph-Combobox
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Reported: 2013-03-30 06:45 UTC by Charles
Modified: 2019-09-04 06:09 UTC (History)
7 users (show)

See Also:
Crash report or crash signature:


Attachments
Screen shot of maximised Writer window on 1280x1024 screen (124.86 KB, image/png)
2013-03-30 06:45 UTC, Charles
Details
Screenshot under Crunchbang 11 running TDF/LO v4.1.0.4 (130.21 KB, image/png)
2013-07-29 11:58 UTC, Owen Genat (retired)
Details

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Description Charles 2013-03-30 06:45:44 UTC Comment hidden (obsolete)
Comment 1 Charles 2013-03-30 06:50:36 UTC
Sorry for the typos in the original submission.  It should have read:

Thank you for adding previews to the 'Apply Style' drop down menu.  It looks more sophisticated than the old menu.

Please consider adding a configuration option to show the list in plain text.

The reasons for this request are for ease and speed of use:

1. A plain text list fits more items in the same vertical space.  This is faster to use because it requires less pointer movement and fewer pointer button actions from the user.  On average, a plain text list requires less vertical pointer movement.  On average a plain text list is less frequently too tall to fit the widow so less frequently requires user action to scroll a list.
 
2. A plain text list presents all the items in the same font size so is more easily legible than a list which represents items in a variety of font sizes.  For example, the Horizontal Line in the current list is not easy to read (screen shot of maximised Writer window on 1280x1024 screen in attachment).

3. Some users find a clean, simple UI easier to navigate and find "eye candy" distracting.  For these users, a plain text list is easier to use.
Comment 2 Mirosław Zalewski 2013-07-19 15:43:42 UTC
And reason 4: consistency.
User can opt-out of font preview on fonts drop-down list, so there is no reason why user can't opt-out of style preview on styles drop-down list.

Since this is valid enhancement request, I am changing status to NEW.
Comment 3 Owen Genat (retired) 2013-07-29 11:58:58 UTC
Created attachment 83197 [details]
Screenshot under Crunchbang 11 running TDF/LO v4.1.0.4

I completely agree with and support this request. An option to revert to plain text entries would be much appreciated. I would also like to add that under v4.1.0.4 the situation is now even worse as the entries are no longer in alphabetical order (refer attached). This is especially bad UI/UX design. If a separate bug is required for what seems a highly-related aspect, please advise and I will open one. Adding myself to the CC list.
Comment 4 Thomas Lendo 2018-11-17 10:25:38 UTC
Adding needsUXEval to discuss if it's worth and desired to change the list presentation and if there are inconsistencies in the different preview of fonts and styles.
Comment 5 Heiko Tietze 2019-08-04 09:58:23 UTC
(In reply to Mirosław Zalewski from comment #2)
> User can opt-out of font preview on fonts drop-down list...

How?

If we introduce such an option we shouldn't do per control but in a general way like Tools > Options > Writer > View > Display > [x] WYSIWYG in user interface (with an explanatory tooltip).
Comment 6 Regina Henschel 2019-08-04 10:48:36 UTC
(In reply to Heiko Tietze from comment #5)
> (In reply to Mirosław Zalewski from comment #2)
> > User can opt-out of font preview on fonts drop-down list...
> 
> How?


Tools > Options > LibreOffice > View. Section 'Font Lists' (bottom right), option 'Show preview of fonts'
Comment 7 Heiko Tietze 2019-08-08 13:24:23 UTC
(In reply to Heiko Tietze from comment #5)
> Tools > Options > Writer > View > Display > [x] WYSIWYG in user
> interface (with an explanatory tooltip).

No further input so let's go with this general solution and remove this:

(In reply to Regina Henschel from comment #6)
> Tools > Options > LibreOffice > View. Section 'Font Lists' (bottom right),
> option 'Show preview of fonts'
Comment 8 V Stuart Foote 2019-08-08 14:05:49 UTC Comment hidden (obsolete)
Comment 9 V Stuart Foote 2019-08-08 14:09:56 UTC
Hmm, and what other WYSIWYG rendered listboxes are there besides Font (Font Name lb) and Style (Paragraph Style lb)?

Also, would note that the Sidebar Styles deck has its own 'Show previews' check box that toggles WYSIWYG in the Content panels.  It just does not link back to the listbox previews--suspect that could be tweaked.  

Ability to supress the Font preview as now, comment 6, should just be supplemented with a similar check box toggle for Style previews. They could then be applied independently as preferred, and of course held in profile.

I'd think doing that, and adding an additional checkbox to the Tools -> Options -> View panel is all that is needed here.  Not to make it a all or nothing with a single checkbox toggle on a new sub panel.

Sorry, back to UX...
Comment 10 Heiko Tietze 2019-08-12 08:32:21 UTC
(In reply to V Stuart Foote from comment #9)
> Hmm, and what other WYSIWYG rendered listboxes are there besides Font (Font
> Name lb) and Style (Paragraph Style lb)?

None comes in my mind but if there are controls we have to be consistent.

> Also, would note that the Sidebar Styles deck has its own 'Show previews'
> check box that toggles WYSIWYG in the Content panels.  It just does not link
> back to the listbox previews--suspect that could be tweaked.  

Was thinking about this checkbox too but would keep it there. It's some special kind of UI and you may switch more frequently while the dropdowns being WYSIWYG or not are more generic.
 
> Ability to supress the Font preview as now, comment 6, should just be
> supplemented with a similar check box toggle for Style previews. They could
> then be applied independently as preferred, and of course held in profile.
> 
> I'd think doing that, and adding an additional checkbox to the Tools ->
> Options -> View panel is all that is needed here.  Not to make it a all or
> nothing with a single checkbox toggle on a new sub panel.

Also possible but bloats the options dialog further. Hard to imagine that a user want only one of the dropdown to not be WYSIWYG.
Comment 11 Heiko Tietze 2019-08-15 08:30:00 UTC
We discussed the topic in the design meeting and decided to involve the community. So here is a poll including the abstract of our discussion https://design.blog.documentfoundation.org/2019/08/15/poll-about-design-preview-for-dropdown-controls/
Comment 12 Thomas Lendo 2019-08-15 11:13:24 UTC
After taking the survey I clearly support the suggestion of a new option in Options > LibreOffice > View > "Show preview of styles" in addition of an own setting for font lists. I would change the title of this section: "List Previews" or only "Previews" instead of "Font Lists".

This new setting should change all style previews, not only of Writer paragraph styles (besides the fact that the setting is only changing THIS behavior today, but maybe other styles and comboboxes will have style preview too in the future, then this setting should also change their behavior).

This also includes the style preview of the Styles sidebar in all applications! Regina mentioned this also in the mailing list.

With this we will get rid of the ugly "Show previews" checkbox in the Styles sidebar which is a real waste of space.
Comment 13 Heiko Tietze 2019-08-22 12:32:09 UTC
Results from the poll:

       * Add the new option under Options > View, next to "Show Font Preview"  40%  (44 votes)
       * Combine the two (and prehaps more) controls under the same option  29.09%  (32 votes)
       * Don't add another option  14.55%  (16 votes)
       * Add the new option under Options > Writer > View  11.82%  (13 votes)
       * Don't add another option and also remove the exiting "Show Font Preview"  4.54%  (5 votes)


Taking the 2nd and 3rd option together (combine and no new) the majority is against an additional checkbox. So let's combine the styles dropdown WYSIWYG preview with View > Font. I would keep the sidebar preview option extra as this is a different workflow and affecting a list instead dropdowns.
Comment 14 Thomas Lendo 2019-08-22 14:52:02 UTC Comment hidden (obsolete)
Comment 15 Thomas Lendo 2019-09-04 06:09:48 UTC
If you combine answer 1 and 4 (new option in general and Writer options) then you have an absolute majority of over 50% for a new option. So, everybody can read out from a statistic/survey what he wants.

My proposal in comment 12 would not change the sum of options, so this wouldn't clutter the UI (new options setting instead of style sidebar checkbox).