Apache OpenOffice (AOO) Bugzilla – Issue 24782
Close Document widget disappears after opening more than one document
Last modified: 2013-02-07 22:43:05 UTC
Close Document Widget. A small 'x' (Close Document widget) is placed in the menu bar under the main window Close widget so that clicking on the small 'x' closes the document (equivalent to File->Close). This works for the first document opened, but after opening the second and subsequent documents, the small 'x' widget is missing from all documents, forcing use of the menu File->Close. The small 'x' widget re-appears when only one document remains open. For consistency in the UI, it would be nice to enable the small 'x' for all opened documents. Clicking on the small 'x' widget is easier than selecting File->Close. I class this as a defect because it appears to depart from intended behaviour.
It _is_ the intended behavior. You can use the top right closer to close the document. But if you use this closer when only one document is open the StarOffice closes, too. To prevent this the additional closer is added when only one document is opened.
So the document Close widget (as different to the application Close widget) is there to stop the user getting surprised by having the whole application close when only one document is open? It seems to me that the intended behaviour is illogical and counter-productive. If a user has 2 documents open, clicking the App Close widget twice in succession results in Doc1 closing, then Doc2 *and* the application closing - without warning. So if we get users used to using the App Close widget to close documents (illogical), then they're bound to get a surprise. If instead we provided a Doc Close widget for all open documents and reinforced the idea that to close a document they need to click on the Doc Close widget, they would get no surprises. The App Close widget behaviour could then be reserved for closing the whole application, with a suitable caution dialog: 'Are you sure you want to close [Writer][Calc][etc]? You still have n documents open'. This would seem to be more logical and more productive; ie, guaranteed no surprises.
Reassigned to Component owner.
TM->BH: Not a defect, only our normal behaviour and a "so wanted feature" ;o) ! Don´t know if there will be corresponding changes in the future. So please have a look.
I was about to report this as a bog as well. Expected behavior is that the 'x' can be used to close the current document, however many are open. WHen no documents are open, the 'x' is not there, and then you need to close the application with the Window Manager 'X' or File->Exit. When opening a lot of files to look through them it is EXTREMELY annoying to have to File->Close every one- this is where that 'x' is very useful. I would consider this an important feature, as it really improves useability- otherwise the 'x' is pretty useless! Using the main WM closer to close just one doc is not 100% intuituve- it usually closes all docs and the application in many applications.
To grep the issues easier via "requirements" I put the issues currently lying on my owner to the owner "requirements".