Bug 93276 - EDITING: Improve snap line functionality
Summary: EDITING: Improve snap line functionality
Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME
Alias: None
Product: LibreOffice
Classification: Unclassified
Component: Draw (show other bugs)
Version:
(earliest affected)
unspecified
Hardware: Other All
: medium enhancement
Assignee: Not Assigned
URL:
Whiteboard:
Keywords: needsUXEval
Depends on:
Blocks: Object-Selection-Alignment
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Reported: 2015-08-08 14:57 UTC by Andreas B.
Modified: 2016-07-09 08:00 UTC (History)
2 users (show)

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Crash report or crash signature:


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Description Andreas B. 2015-08-08 14:57:00 UTC
Inserting snap lines in LibreOffice is very basic.
I think with less effort there could be big improvements for the user experience.

A few points, which are missing, if I look at the documentation of other Layouting tools:

1. Inserting a line opens a Dialog, to insert the coordinates, they can only be inserted in cm unit, I would expect there should be an option to enter:
- Percent, e.g. "50%" and the line is in the middle of the Page
- Something like "3 Columns" and it creates 3 Columns, of which each has a third of the document width

2. Inserting double lines, with a little space between
- To create a document, with 3 Columns there should may be some an option to insert two lines with a space between
- Makes it easier to create e.g. image rasters etc.

3. Snapping to snap lines not working by default
- Default snap range (Options / LibreOffice Draw / Grid) is set to 5 pixels, should be at least 15 to be really recognized, especially at high DPI Monitors
- "To object frame" is not checked, should be checked
- "To object points" is not checked, should be checked

For a user which simple would use the snap lines this means "snap lines are not working".
This options should do nothing as long as there are no snapping lines, right?
Why not enable it by default?


This Bug report should be an improvement idea, not the final solution.
Comment 1 Buovjaga 2015-09-03 17:46:08 UTC
You should open separate issues for each one and rename this to be one of those 3.
Setting to NEW as all the points are good.

If you want to discuss more deeply, get in contact with the design team: https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Design
#libreoffice-design on IRC (Freenode) is a good point of contact.
Comment 2 Heiko Tietze 2016-06-20 13:31:03 UTC
It's much easier to reply on a use case like "I want to create three lines at once in order to simulate three columns" (or whatever the reason is). This leads to the following:

#1: I don't understand the use case.
#2: Lines can have a shadow. You can also copy/paste and adjust the position by the cursor keys. A raster is achieved much easier, read https://help.libreoffice.org/Common/Grid for more info.
#3: You can easily change the snap range in the options. Keep in mind that a huge number of users should work efficiently with the tool. Our default might not fit everyone but most.

What remains is the suggestion
>- "To object frame" is not checked, should be checked
>- "To object points" is not checked, should be checked

Having block diagrams in mind as the major purpose for Draw nothing speaks against this change. But on the other hand we have connectors that does the snap job pretty good. So I vote for keeping the options as it is. Opinions?
Comment 3 Andreas B. 2016-07-05 19:39:50 UTC
http://digitally-free.blogspot.ch/2014/06/using-guides-rulers-in-scribus.html
(In reply to Heiko Tietze from comment #2)
> #1: I don't understand the use case.

If you would like LibreOffice Draw as design tool, this is a common case.

e.g. here a blog entry, how it works with scribus:
http://digitally-free.blogspot.ch/2014/06/using-guides-rulers-in-scribus.html

here an example for Adobe Illustrator
http://www.adobepress.com/articles/article.asp?p=1929168&seqNum=4

I think this a common case, e.g. for creating a photo page with labels (flyer).

> #2: Lines can have a shadow. You can also copy/paste and adjust the position
> by the cursor keys. A raster is achieved much easier, read
> https://help.libreoffice.org/Common/Grid for more info.

Here is no option to split a page into 3 columns with a space.

And the last point:
If a snap line is inserted, by default nothing snaps to the line.
=> In my opinion, this is useless for a standard user

And the default 5px snap range is on a high DPI monitor, like a MacBook with more than 200ppi, a lot to small!
May be this should be scaled on high DPI monitors?

Example: 1px is 1/200 in = 0.005 in = 0.127mm.

5px are 0.635mm, nearly nothing...
Comment 4 Heiko Tietze 2016-07-06 10:02:20 UTC
(In reply to Andreas B. from comment #3)
> http://digitally-free.blogspot.ch/2014/06/using-guides-rulers-in-scribus.html

LibreOffice calls this feature snaplines. There are plenty of how-to's and guides, e.g. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRx0GBF7OyU

(In reply to Andreas B. from comment #3)
> > https://help.libreoffice.org/Common/Grid for more info.
> 
> Here is no option to split a page into 3 columns with a space.

Okay, so lets talk about this enhancement in bug 100780 

> And the default 5px snap range is on a high DPI monitor, like a MacBook with
> more than 200ppi, a lot to small!
> May be this should be scaled on high DPI monitors?

And this one goes to bug 100781

Question to UX: Should we change the default for Tools > Options > LibreOffice Draw > Grid "To object frame" and "To object points" and check both by default?
Comment 5 Heiko Tietze 2016-07-09 08:00:31 UTC
It was decided in the UX meeting 2016-Jul-08 to keep the current behavior in order to avoid complications when snapping is also active for gridlines, which is the default.
Since the other issues are separated I close this ticket as WFM.