Issue 93054

Being able to select from all the possible filters is very helpful, but many
users will find a subset of filters to be almost always sufficient, and many
find numbers of clicks to be oppressive (I think some people should get a life,
but maybe they'd retort the same thing and demand fewer clicks.) When I open a
Text Encoded file, it takes about half a dozen clicks to scroll down to that
item and then select it in the file type list.

It would be efficient for users if a user could specify for a short list which
filters they commonly use. The shortlist could ship with the most likely as
defaults, such as OOo native format, and users could then add or subtract from
the shortlist. The full list would remain available. For example, I might
configure a list to have only one file type, my favorite. I could then go to the
full list for the unusual need.

If the shortlist built itself by OOo reading a configuration file written in
plain text, sysadmins configuring many installations of OOo for institutional or
departmental use could give everyone the same shortlist that fits their
practices; users could then add and subtract to customize individually.

To prevent the institutionally-written configuration file from having a
nonexistent file type by error, such as when misspelled, the shortlist seen by
the user should consist of only what's in the config list and is also in the
master file type list (Boolean AND). For extra points, if OOo has any
self-diagnostic capabilities, the diagnosis could highlight any inconsistency
between the shortlist config file and the master list.

But the important part of the enhancement is the availability of a shortlist to
reduce the amount of clicking.

This might help also for other dialogs. I rarely use OOo other than Writer, but
I imagine this could be useful for the other applications, too.

Thanks.

-- 
Nick