Issue 87349

Summary:	keyboard friendliness: stop at, move from objects
Product:	Writer	Reporter:	macias <bluedzins>
Component:	editing	Assignee:	AOO issues mailing list <issues>
Status:	CONFIRMED ---	QA Contact:
Severity:	Trivial
Priority:	P3	CC:	don.troodon, issues
Version:	OOo 2.3.1
Target Milestone:	---
Hardware:	All
OS:	All
Issue Type:	ENHANCEMENT	Latest Confirmation in:	---
Developer Difficulty:	---

Description macias 2008-03-23 10:25:24 UTC

The issue in general is this, then when user uses keyboard let him/her do 
it -- do not make user to skip back and forth from keyboard to mouse.

And the problem, let's say you wrote something like this:
Here is the eq. x^2| you asked for.
where x^2 is math object, | denotes cursor so the user is in text mode.

Press left-arrow key.
Here is the eq. |x^2 you asked for.
Press right-arrow key.
Here is the eq. x^2| you asked for.
so you are back, OOW jumps over the object. If you want to modify it you have 
to use mouse. This a bad UI!

And in reverse, if you click at the object you cannot move left,right, up, but 
you have to "quit" it by pressing escape. One keypress lost.

Now think of all people who are handicapped or have even mild disabilities 
(RSI) and you realize that every keystroke counts. Another reason is working 
with one device constantly is more fluent and current behaviour actually slows 
down the user with the work. Please, fix this problem -- thank you in advance.

Comment 1 michael.ruess 2008-03-26 08:49:37 UTC

Reassigned to ES.

Comment 2 eric.savary 2008-03-26 14:22:18 UTC

1) Accessing a formula from the text flow
- Shift+F4
- Return

2) Pressing Esc to quit the focus on the object
Yes, a formula is not part of the text. It's a object which needs to be edited,
entered and leaved, just like a frame or a drawing.

Speaking about accessibility, all those elements are accessible.

Comment 3 eric.savary 2008-03-26 14:22:41 UTC

closed

Comment 4 macias 2008-03-26 16:01:34 UTC

Es, I didn't those functions are not accessible at all.

The UI is not user-friendly, you are probably healthy person, so you think the 
issue is solved -- "one million keystrokes less or more, who cares". I care, 
and handicapped people care -- UI can be much more improved and I don't get 
it, why it is closed.

> 1) Accessing a formula from the text flow
> - Shift+F4

It selects the first formula in document, so it is not an answer of this 
report (reopening).

And why not use simply navigation keys, i.e. stop at formula. The formula you 
stopped at. You know, that in formula editing OOo has strong competitor -- 
latex, and the more complex editing is the better latex&tools look.

It would be easy, intuitive, and requires minimum keystrokes.

> 2) Pressing Esc to quit the focus on the object
> Yes, a formula is not part of the text. It's a object which needs to be
> edited, entered and leaved, just like a frame or a drawing.

Ok, then make the focus leave immediately. Again -- why not? What harm is 
done? Because I can see benefits -- fluent editing (of course I assume we 
would like to have great OOo, not great theory of editing).

Comment 5 eric.savary 2008-03-26 16:58:20 UTC

Ok, you say it's not user friendly but you don't describe how it would be user
friendly.
WHat should do the cursor after pressin Right? Select the formula (the object)?
Edit it directly? In last case, how to select the formula then? If the formula
is edited directly by travelling, the constant opening/closing of the formula
command window would also not be user friendly...

Please detail...

 
Reassigned to Requirements

Comment 6 macias 2008-03-26 18:01:08 UTC

Es, thank you for the answer, if anything is unclear, please let me know, 
maybe I should attach a screenshot.

> WHat should do the cursor after pressin Right? 

Ok, a little Ascii notation
| cursor
F formula
*F* formula selected (today, when you LMB on the formula, the green marks 
appear)

let's say you have
my grea|t F formula

you press right
my great| F formula

you press right again
my great |F formula

and again!
my great *F* formula
(here is the difference)

...and again
my great F| formula

So -- the navigation is fluent, and there is no penalty comparing to current 
behaviour, let's take a look at the situation:

my great *F* formula

you press [enter] and voila you go to the formula editor to edit formula. 
<formula>

You press escape and you are back
my great *F* formula

you press, ah, enough of right, -- left
my great |F formula

I hope you see the benefits:
a) intuitive UI, no learning curve at all -- enter, right, left, esc, basic 
keys
b) less keystrokes
b.1) handicapped people friendly (comparing to current UI)
c) closer to latex productivity (in math area)

Comment 7 eric.savary 2010-06-10 16:41:35 UTC

*** Issue 112282 has been marked as a duplicate of this issue. ***

Comment 8 eastern_man 2010-06-10 17:57:16 UTC

Yeah, that's a good point. I'll add that after pressing Shift+Right

 my great |F formula

has to become

 my great [F] formula

where [F] is a formula selected like text (not like an object).

Another thought is that an ability to jump from formula to formula is also 
desirable (like Shift+F4 but working in a proper way - one press - one jump, to 
the next formula).

Anyway, I look forward for the progress in this issue too. Speeding up this 
things is important for creating big texts with formulas.