Apache OpenOffice (AOO) Bugzilla – Issue 125383
Doing an undo on a paste in a bullet list causes the whole bullet item to be highlighted
Last modified: 2016-04-18 15:17:38 UTC
Use the following steps to reproduce: 1. Open a new Writer doc 2. Start a new bullet list with either the button on the formatting bar or by pressing Shift-F12. 3. Type several words of text. It doesn't matter what the words are. 4. Highlight a word (any word) from any portion of the text you typed in step #3 and press Ctrl-c to copy it to the clipboard. 5. Move the cursor to somewhere in the middle of two words in the text from step #3 (it really doesn't matter where the cursor is, but having it between two words in the bullet item really illustrates why the resulting behavior is wrong) 6. Press Ctrl-v to paste the copied text from the clipboard 7. Now press Ctrl-Z to undo the paste operation 8. The paste operation is undone, but instead of having the cursor right back where it was prior to the paste operation in step #6, the entire bullet item is now highlighted. This is the problem. The undo operation should leave the cursor, highlighting state, and text just as it was prior to the paste operation. Instead, the entire bullet item is highlighted and the user must move the cursor around to get it back to where it was prior to the paste.
I was able to replicate this bug in OpenOffice V4.1.1 on Windows 7 64bit home edition. Steps I did were: 1: Start Writer. 2: Create new doc. 3: Pressed shift+f12 to create new bullet list. 4: I typed "first line" then I hit Enter, "second line" then I hit Enter, "Third line". 5: I highlighted second line and pressed CTRL+c. 6: I put cursor on the end of third line. 7: pressed CTRL+V to paste. 8: I pressed CTRL+Z to Undo paste. Result was that the whole third line was selected. Although I was able to reproduce this bug,I don't think this bug will damage user experience. Most of the users wouldn't even notice that this is bug.
I was also able to reproduce the original issue following the steps and Writer version outlined for copy of a word in between other words in a bullet list. Trying a few more tests I discovered the following: 1. Used menu bar and right click for copy/paste/undo = same result as using CTRL 2. Copied word to the end/beginning of the bullet = issue 3. Selected all bullets to copy and create a new bullet list = no issue 4. Copied entire bullet list to a new bullet list = no issue 5. Copied a word from a bullet list to a sentence without a bullet = no issue 6. Copied non bullet text to non-bullet text = no issue Conclusion: This issue only occurs while copying a word to another bullet where the cursor is placed at the beginning/end/in middle of a bullet line. Although this is a bug, most users copy text (without bullets) or copy an entire bullet to another area with new bullets. The bug does not occur in this scenarios. Therefore it should be a low impact to user experience.
A comment about impact of this bug on users. First off, this bug also occurs in numbered lists, not just in bulleted lists, which leads right into the second point: in law firms, the vast majority of the use of OOW is to write pleadings and other documents that are filed with courts. The courts (both state and federal) all require the paragraphs to be numbered. Thus when preparing documents in OOW for submission to a court, all of the paragraphs in the document become a part of a numbered list. Thus this bug shows up on a *daily basis* among lawyers, paralegals, and secretaries using OOW, who encounter it on every single document they prepare or edit for a court. And when the bug occurs, it throws off the users because (1) the numbered items in their numbered lists are often times large paragraphs consisting of numerous sentences and thus this bug causes them to have to hunt down their previous position in a multi-line multi-sentence paragraph causing a material disruption in their work flow, and (2) these users have been trained on other word processing programs and complain that this isn't the behavior of other word processing programs and is counterintuitive.
I was able to reproduce this bug on Mac 10.9.5 with Apache OpenOffice 4.1.1. I was able to reproduce the same thing with an extra step as well. Steps I took took were: 1. Open a new writer doc. 2. Click the bullet list function on the toolbar. 3. Write a sentence long enough so that it runs on to another line. 4. Highlight a word in the sentence. 5. Press command-C. 6. Press delete (while the word is still highlighted). 7. Press command-V. 8. Press command-Z. Result: The entire bullet item on two lines is highlighted. Expected Result: The text that is pasted be removed. The cursor should be moved back to where it was before the paste action took place. And nothing should be highlighted.
I was able to reproduce this bug on my system in OO 4.2.0 on Windows 10 64-bit by using the following steps: 1. Open OO Writer & create a new document 2. Press F12 to create a new numbered/bullet list 3. Write a few words 4. Highlight one or more words from the text, and copy them by pressing Ctrl+C 5. Paste the copied text between any two words, press Ctrl+V to paste. 6. Do the undo operation by pressing Ctrl+Z 7. Instead of cursor pointing to the position before the paste operation took place, it now highlights the whole point This bug occurs irrespective or whether I have a new Bullet/Numbered list, multiple or single words copied and pasted, and also irrespective of the location of the paste operation being done. Moreover, I was also able to replicate this bug after saving the document and repeating the same steps for Point List item #2 . This bug can prove to be a major annoyance to users who are bound to utilize the copy-paste-delete operations, as the highlighting (and then de-highlighting respectively) of one list item can potentially be a major extra step when it comes to using OO Writer.
OpenOffice Writer 4.1.2 AOO412m3(Build:9782) - Rev. 1709696 Dell XPS13 16gb RAM Windows 8 Scope of bug The above bug was reproduced. Other ways in which this may impact upon the experience of some users have been identified. The bug affects lists of length one or more and occurs when text is copied, pasted and ctrl+z'd (or the same actions are carried out using the user interface) from the same bullet point or between more than one bullet point. The tests listed below specify the use of keyboard shortcuts but the UI or a combination of the two may be used for identical results. The bug occurs in numbered lists and in a mix of numbered and bullet pointed lists and lists that have been indented. It also occurs in all of the previously mentioned scenarios where instead of using an .odt file a .docx file created in Microsoft Word is opened in Writer. It would appear that this issue affects any file type that Writer can open but this has not been fully tested. Potential issues One issue that results from the bug is that once the text associated with the bullet point or numbered list entry has been highlighted any other action then using the mouse to place the cursor or arrow key results in the block of highlighted text being deleted. For a user familiar with Writer or a similar word processing software this may not be too big an issue but for a novice user this deletion of text could be quite distressing and may lead the user to believe that the test has been permanently lost. Given that the potential number of users who this may apply to and the fact that the deleted text is so easily recovered I would not recommend that the bugs severity be changed. This replacement or deletion of highlighted text is existing functionality that works as it should. This is not the bug. The bug is the highlighting of all text in a bullet or numbered list when a paste action is followed by an undo action. Follow-up tests It would appear that this issue affects any file type that Writer can open but this has not been fully tested. Further tests may investigate the possibility that some file types are unaffected. Tests which include files and file types from Libre and Mac packages could be tested. Earlier versions of Writer could be tested to see how long this issue has been present in Writer. The initial report states that all hardware configurations have been tested. It may be possible that some of the more unusual configurations may not have been fully tested making them possible avenues for further investigation. Scenarios one to six the following scenarios seek to broaden the scope of the issue. All given tests result in the bug. Scenario 1. Bullet pointed list. 1. Open OpenOffice Writer. 2. Create a bullet pointed list of length one. 3. Type some text. Must be over two characters long. 4. Copy a section of the text. 5. Paste the copied section of text in to the existing text associated with the bullet point. It makes no difference to the outcome if keyboard shortcuts or mouse commands are used. 6. Once the text has been pasted type ctrl+z. 7. The bug is shown. The text just pasted is removed but the entire section of text associated with the bullet point is highlighted. 8. Using any other keys than the arrow keys or a mouse click to place the cursor results in the loss of all text (may be reinstated by pressing ctrl+z). The following test cases illustrate that the bug also applies to .docx documents opened in Writer and bulleted pointed lists, numeric lists and lists containing bullet points and numbers. Scenario 2. Bullet pointed list from .docx document created in Microsoft Word (Microsoft Office 365 ProPlus). 1. Create a .docx document in Microsoft Word using step 2 from scenario 1. 2. Open .docx document in OpenOffice Writer. 3. Copy a section of the text. 4. Paste the copied section of text in to the existing text associated with the bullet point. It makes no difference to the outcome if keyboard shortcuts or mouse commands are used. 5. Once the text has been pasted type ctrl+z. 6. The bug is shown. The text just pasted is removed but the entire section of text associated with the bullet point is highlighted. Scenario 3. Numbered list from .docx document created in Microsoft Word (Microsoft Office 365 ProPlus) or created in Writer. 1. Create a .docx document using step 2, scenario 1 using numbered list instead of bullet points. 2. Open .docx document in OpenOffice Writer. 3. Copy a section of the text. 4. Paste the copied section of text in to the existing text associated with the bullet point. It makes no difference to the outcome if keyboard shortcuts, UI or mouse commands are used. 5. Once the text has been pasted type ctrl+z. 6. The bug is shown. The text just pasted is removed but the entire section of text associated with the bullet point is highlighted. Scenario 4. Numbered and bullet pointed list from .docx document created in Microsoft Word (Microsoft Office 365 ProPlus) or created in Writer. 1. Create a .docx document using step 2, scenario 1 using a numbered and bullet pointed list instead of bullet points. 2. Open .docx document in OpenOffice Writer. 3. Copy a section of the text. 4. Paste the copied section of text in to the existing text associated with the bullet point. It makes no difference to the outcome if keyboard shortcuts or mouse commands are used. 5. Once the text has been pasted type ctrl+z. 6. The bug is shown. The text just pasted is removed but the entire section of text associated with the bullet point is highlighted. Scenario 5. Numbered and bullet pointed list with indentation from .docx document created in Microsoft Word (Microsoft Office 365 ProPlus). 1. Create a .docx document using step 2, scenario 1 using a numbered and bullet pointed list. Indent a number of the numbered and bullet pointed list entries. 2. Open .docx document in OpenOffice Writer. 3. Copy a section of the text. 4. Paste the copied section of text in to the existing text associated with the bullet point. It makes no difference to the outcome if keyboard shortcuts or mouse commands are used. 5. Once the text has been pasted type ctrl+z. 6. The bug is shown. The text just pasted is removed but the entire section of text associated with the bullet point is highlighted. Scenario 6. Numbered and bullet pointed list with multiple levels of indentation from .docx document created in Microsoft Word (Microsoft Office 365 ProPlus). 1. Create a .docx document using step 2, scenario 1 using a numbered and bullet pointed list. Indent a number of the numbered and bullet pointed list entries at 3 levels of indentation (test at multiple levels of indentation if you like). 2. Open .docx document in OpenOffice Writer. 3. Copy a section of the text. 4. Paste the copied section of text in to the existing text associated with the bullet point. It makes no difference to the outcome if keyboard shortcuts, UI or mouse commands are used. 5. Once the text has been pasted type ctrl+z. 6. The bug is shown. The text just pasted is removed but the entire section of text associated with the bullet point is highlighted.
Marking this as confirmed, with the latest in 4.1.2. Thanks for the meticulous case analysis from the commenters. It seems to be isolated to a defective Undo so that is some help. There is no prediction for a fix at this time.