Bug 73446 - EDITING: empty comment is deleted when you move cursor back to document (can be recreated by undo)
Summary: EDITING: empty comment is deleted when you move cursor back to document (can ...
Status: NEW
Alias: None
Product: LibreOffice
Classification: Unclassified
Component: Writer (show other bugs)
Version:
(earliest affected)
4.2.0.1 rc
Hardware: All All
: medium enhancement
Assignee: Not Assigned
URL:
Whiteboard:
Keywords:
: 134825 (view as bug list)
Depends on:
Blocks: Writer-Comments
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Reported: 2014-01-09 19:43 UTC by Lukas Jelinek
Modified: 2021-01-12 10:30 UTC (History)
5 users (show)

See Also:
Crash report or crash signature:


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Description Lukas Jelinek 2014-01-09 19:43:03 UTC
Steps to reproduce:
1) Write some text.
2) Add a comment but don't write text into it.
3) Click to another position in the document.

Expected behavior:
- The created comment persists.

Current behavior:
- The created comment is deleted. This operation can be reverted by "undo".

It is possible that this is intended behavior but:
1) It is not documented and thus unexpected by users.
2) The possibility to revert it is inconsistent with it.
Comment 1 tommy27 2014-01-12 16:19:59 UTC
sorry I don't understand...
what's the purpose of an empty comment without any text inside?
why an empty comment should persist?
Comment 2 Lukas Jelinek 2014-01-12 16:41:39 UTC
I don't say that empty comment should persist. But if they don't persist then:
- It should be probably noted in the user help.
- Empty comments should not be re-createable using "undo".

The current state is inconsistent because empty comment don't persists but they can be re-created later using "undo".
Comment 3 tommy27 2014-01-13 09:57:51 UTC
undo just reopens the comment window
it's a step back in the last action which indeed was "open new comment"
so I don't find that inconsistent
Comment 4 Lukas Jelinek 2014-01-13 10:32:41 UTC
It doesn't just reopen the comment window. The text cursor is in the page text after this operation (and not in the comment). It allows to leave the comment empty. This is clear inconsistency.
Comment 5 Jean-Baptiste Faure 2014-01-25 12:53:50 UTC
(In reply to comment #4)
> It doesn't just reopen the comment window. The text cursor is in the page
> text after this operation (and not in the comment). It allows to leave the
> comment empty. This is clear inconsistency.

Good point! And this empty comment persists on saving and reopening the document.
Set to NEW.

Expected behavior:  when undoing the cursor should be set in the comment window and leaving again without typing text in comment should make it removed.

Best regards. JBF
Comment 6 tommy27 2014-07-20 10:12:48 UTC
this is a very "corner case" bug.
it's still reproducible with LibO 4.2.5.2 and 4.4.0.0.alpha0+
Build ID: b9dca968c6fd0ab5ca140c65b0e54d153cd34986
TinderBox: Win-x86@42, Branch:master, Time: 2014-07-18_22:51:20
Comment 7 tommy27 2014-07-20 10:21:04 UTC
edited summary notes.
I don't know which would be the more consistent behaviour...

1- leave empty comment on the page after moving cursor back to document, allowing user to edit in a second time

2- don't allow "undo" recreation of empty comments

probably I see a scenario for "1" ...
let's sat a user wants to insert a comment but before writing inside it, he decides to copy something in the document and paste it in the comment yellow tab.

the automatic deletion of the empty comments will force him or to insert a new comment or to undo and move cursor inside the yellow tab
Comment 8 QA Administrators 2015-09-04 02:47:58 UTC Comment hidden (obsolete)
Comment 9 Jean-Baptiste Faure 2015-09-05 17:16:51 UTC
As it is described in comment #5 the bug is still reproducible with version 5.0.3.0+.

Best regards. JBF
Comment 10 Lukas Jelinek 2016-09-13 00:42:59 UTC
It still persists in 5.2.1.
Comment 11 QA Administrators 2018-05-31 02:53:11 UTC Comment hidden (obsolete)
Comment 12 QA Administrators 2020-05-31 03:44:47 UTC Comment hidden (obsolete)
Comment 13 Jean-Baptiste Faure 2020-06-06 16:51:33 UTC
Still reproducible in Version : 6.4.5.0.0+
Build ID : b52d304969a15e00d82745f4d2f96c04f188eb97
Threads CPU : 4; OS : Linux 4.15; UI Render : par défaut; VCL: gtk3; 
Ubuntu_18.04_x86-64
Locale : fr-FR (fr_FR.UTF-8); Langue IHM : fr-FR
Calc: threaded

Best regards. JBF
Comment 14 Timur 2020-07-16 14:04:20 UTC
*** Bug 134825 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 15 Timur 2020-07-16 15:30:23 UTC Comment hidden (obsolete)
Comment 16 csongor 2020-07-22 11:55:02 UTC
The fact that with Undo, you can reach a state which you normally can't, this is obviously a bug. 


The other part of the topic is how empty comment boxes should be handled. I admit it is surprising the first time and slightly annoying even after that but there is an easy work-around for this. 

I put an easy-to-recognise text into the newly created comment box. For example, two asterisks (**). 

After this, I go to the other place/application, put the content to the clipboard and when I come back, Ctrl-Z and Ctrl-V does the job (to delete the entered asterisks and paste the clipboard content).

I personally don't mind if the current behaviour gets changed and instead of auto-deleting empty comments, a manual deletion will be required but I can work with the current workaround quite well.
Comment 17 Heiko Tietze 2020-07-23 15:06:20 UTC
To summarize bug 134825:

 + consistency is prime, user should always be in charge (Telesto)
 + keep the object when created newly but remove when 
   content has been deleted (Heiko)