Issue 8347 - Please include smart undo functionality
Summary: Please include smart undo functionality
Status: UNCONFIRMED
Alias: None
Product: Writer
Classification: Application
Component: ui (show other issues)
Version: OOo 2.3.1
Hardware: All Other OS
: P3 Trivial with 2 votes (vote)
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: AOO issues mailing list
QA Contact:
URL:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2002-10-15 03:15 UTC by gobnat
Modified: 2017-02-25 04:42 UTC (History)
6 users (show)

See Also:
Issue Type: ENHANCEMENT
Latest Confirmation in: ---
Developer Difficulty: ---


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Description gobnat 2002-10-15 03:15:12 UTC
I am lodging issues identified in our internal report on moving from word ->
Open Office writer.

From the report:

(k)    Smart undo: Words implementation of control-z is more intuitive than
Open Offices (ie groups of words typed at one time are undone as opposed to one
word at a time) and therefore easier to use.

Brendan
Comment 1 stefan.baltzer 2003-06-04 14:20:56 UTC
Reassigned to Bettina.
Comment 2 tgape 2003-07-14 03:35:52 UTC
If you really want the undo functionality to be 'Smart', you need to increase or remove 
the limit on the number of undo steps one can set.
Comment 3 gobnat 2003-07-14 13:34:45 UTC
I don't follow. The issue is that it undoes one word at a time rather
than one continuous sequence. That is, it should be keeping a record
of when the user last paused and removing that block. It is probably
more complex than this, but that's the idea.  
Comment 4 ace_dent 2008-05-16 02:12:54 UTC
OpenOffice.org Issue Tracker - Feedback Request.

The Issue you raised is currently 'Unconfirmed' pending review, but has not been
updated within the last 3 years. Please consider re-testing with one of the
latest versions of OOo, as the problem(s) may have already been addressed.
Either use the recent stable version: http://download.openoffice.org/index.html
or consider trying the new OOo 3 BETA (still in testing):
http://download.openoffice.org/3.0beta/
 
Please report back the outcome so this Issue may be Closed or Progressed as
necessary - otherwise it may be Resolved as Invalid in the future. You may also
wish to search for (and note) any duplicates of this Issue that may have
advanced further by checking the Issue Tracker:
http://www.openoffice.org/issues/query.cgi
 
Many thanks,
Andrew
 
Cleaning-up and Closing old Issues as part of:
~ The Grand Bug Squash, pre v3 ~
http://marketing.openoffice.org/3.0/announcementbeta.html
Comment 5 gobnat 2008-06-04 00:38:01 UTC
This issue remains current. 
Comment 6 bettina.haberer 2010-05-21 14:53:18 UTC
To grep the issues easier via "requirements" I put the issues currently lying on
my owner to the owner "requirements". 
Comment 7 annette_ciancibello 2014-02-15 18:55:00 UTC
I'm reviewing your report to make sure I understand the issue.
Here are the steps I took:

1. I went into a blank Word document and typed a sentence. Then I clicked the ctrl/z key combination to remove what I had typed. All the verbiage I typed was removed.
2. I then went into a blank OOo document and typed the exact same sentence. Then I clicked the ctrl/z key combination key to remove what I had typed. Only the last word was removed.
3.I also varied my 'pauses' between typing words.  This changed what was removed in Word but not in OOo. 

I see tgape indicates there is a functionality in which you can increase or remove the limit on the number of undo steps that are set. That should allow you to remove more typed words in OOo than just the last one.  Were you able to make that change, and if so did your results change?

I agree, the smart undo functionality is very intuitive and valuable in Word. If we can verify that it is not working as expected in OOo when the functions are set to our preferences we can then better determine where the bug may be and if the program is performing as expected.
Comment 8 Cem Kaner 2014-02-18 23:19:26 UTC
I'm talking with Annette about her replication on 2/15/2014
She replicated on version 3.3m20 Build 9567 on Windows 7. I am working with AOO401m5(Build:9714)  -  Rev. 1523756 also on Windows 7.

Both of us replicate one-word-at-a-time undo.

Regarding tgape's note, Annette tells me that she went to tools|Options|memory and doubled the number of Undo steps to 200. This had no effect. (Nor did changing the cache size for inserted objects.) Apparently the scope from undo is not user-adjustable.
Comment 9 gobnat 2014-02-27 06:16:39 UTC
Hi
I filed this bug over 10 years ago, so I don't quite remember what was happening.  I think it is that it would be better if OOO were to keep track of pauses in typing and undo based on them rather than per word.  Setting undo at x words won't be any better btw. But setting undo at a proportion of the number of words to the previous pause might be. 
That said, I don't use OOo any longer.  
Cheers
Comment 10 narmur 2014-10-12 00:11:08 UTC
I replicated the same bug in Apache Open Office version 4.1.1 on Windows 8.1. This continues to exist as in previous versions of the open office. The words get undone one by one and not in blocks as in Word. Although, this is not a bug as stated in the previous comments, smart undo makes the oo more user friendly.

--
nar mur
Comment 11 aliu26 2016-09-28 20:06:40 UTC
I replicated this bug in Apache Open Office version 4.1.2 on OS X 10.10.5, where I try to type same sample sentence in both OOO document and Word document. 

I found that in Open Office writer, Undo operation is done by each word, since when we do Undo, Open Office Editor is checking each 'pauses' and each previous operation we have done, even revising one single character in a word will be recorded and reversed later. This is totally right since AOO is treating each word and each action as history states and when we want to do an undo, the editor just inverse every action and words we typed.

However, in Microsoft Word, words get undone by blocks, which may also include 'pauses'. It seems like Word editor has its own manner to store history states and when we need to undo, the editor will do a computation to fetch the most important history state and swap in that state, which make the Undo smarter and more efficient.

Also, I have tried to increase or remove the limit on the number of undo steps in AOO, but it seems like there is no effect on undo functionality. 
   
Aijia Liu
Comment 12 sai 2017-02-25 04:42:42 UTC
I replicated the issue on  Mac OSX version 10.11.6 on OpenOffice version 4.3.1.
Here are the steps:
- Typed a page in OpenOffice Writer, with 3 different paragraphs.
- Made few changes to the document once finished typing the whole paragraph.
- Changes made were like: Adding Space, adding commas (,), changing font and size.
- When i undo (command+z) on macbook, as reported by everyone it does take each operation sent to process while typing as a separate command and deletes each command with each (command+z) undo command.
= Interesting thing though is it takes even the change of position of cursor as a command. Clicking anywhere on the page and typing undo command, simply positions the cursor back to its previous position.
-BUT every alternate [undo command] deletes the last word typed as well; irrespective of the fact that repositioning of the cursor was done before that .

In MS-word, it doesn't take re-positioning of cursor into account while undo command. So, simply clicking anywhere on screen triggers an "undo action". which generally can be accidental as well, so in general it can cause confusion on 'Undo functionality' NOT working.

BR//
Sai Lingamneni