Apache OpenOffice (AOO) Bugzilla – Issue 62879
Adding RTL/LTR buttons to toolbar should enable enhanced language (CTL) support or alert the user
Last modified: 2013-02-07 22:34:50 UTC
When i try to enable the buttons Right To Left and Left TO Right they appear for like one millisecond and disappear. also, shouldn't there be some sort of menu entry for Right To Left and Left To Right? this might be a very secondary frature for most, but here in the middle east it's essential.
JA: a valid request
Have you already enabled the "Enhanced language support" in Tools - Options - Language Settings - Language? Without that RTL writing or vertical writing is not possible.
no, indeed that was the problem. I'm not a great supporter of the "We need to build a program even my grandma can use", but shouldn't this option be activated automaticly as soon as the user presses the right to left button and/or writes in an asian or CTL language? is there a way to edit this issue?
I have changed the summary. But I don't know whether developers will change there mind. The similar issue 37835 was closed with "wontfix". Is this phrase correct for you? If a user tries to use a button or a language or something else, which needs "Enhanced language support", this should be enabled automatically.
The issue is 37825 (instead 37835). I'll just copy the proposal from es: Proposal: 1) When clicking one of the icons LTR/RTL, activate "Tools - Options - Language Settings - Languages - Enhanced language support - Enabled for complex text layout (CTL)" to allow this icons to show in the toolbar. 2) when "Tools - Options - Language Settings - Languages - Enhanced language support - Enabled for complex text layout (CTL)" is not check but one of the icons LTR/RTL is choosen, display a warning telling the user he should activate this feature in the Options first. 3) don't display (or display disabled) those icons in the Visible Buttons menu when "Tools - Options - Language Settings - Languages - Enhanced language support - Enabled for complex text layout (CTL)" is off.
Sorry, i that issue didn't come up in my queries(I'm new to this whole thing) regina: Yes, either automaticly, or a a Yes No question wether it should be enabled or not. cloph: About the same thing i would have said. Why are the developers against it? not like it's going to hurt OOo, and it would be a big + in usability for people with secondary RTL languages like me.
*** Issue 67810 has been marked as a duplicate of this issue. ***
*** Issue 68183 has been marked as a duplicate of this issue. ***
This indeed is the most common user problem for bidi users. From the decription of bug 68183 (which was a dup of this): The single most common FAQ from bidi (Hebrew / Arabic ) users are issues they have when trying to use bidi while the "enable CTL" in the settings option is off. Many times users attempt to add the directionality buttons to the toolbar, and fail since that settings is off. See for example a post to the users mailing list made yesterday: http://www.openoffice.org/servlets/ReadMsg?list=users&msgNo=125156 Many of these user problems would be solved if adding the directionality buttons to the toolbar would automaticly enable that option in the setting, since the user obviously wants to work with CTL if they add those buttons. Ideally OOo will detect the need for CTL support (from the locale settings & avilabele keyboard layouts), but that would be another issue.
For anyone who needs to use an RTL language, this is a major bug. In practice, it makes OOo completely unusable for new users without outside user support. Even for experienced users it often causes hours of wasted time. Among the three options quoted above from issue 37825: option (3) would make things even worse, please don't do that. Option (2) would be a slight improvement at best. We really need Option (1).
Adding hli as CC, since he dealt with this issue in the past.
es- The proposals from issue 37825 are yours. What ever happened to them?
The issue is still there in OOo 2.0.2. I asked 5 people to try to use Open Office, 3 of those five tried to write arabic/hebrew when they first started OOo, and that the RTL/LTR buttons were hidden was no big problem since they could easily activate them. the problem was when they clicked those buttons and nothing happened! I don't know if it is some weird design that makes the OOo devels shun automating this function, but they certainly are keeping using OOo harder for people want it "just to work" We really need at the very least option (2) that were refered to earlier and preferably option (1) since the ONLY way i see to activate the RTL option is to activate CTL, so if one option essentially leads to the other, can't we just automate them with one click instead of hiding one in the preferences and the making the other behave like a bug?