Re: [libreoffice-design] Fields UI rework - first impressions

Hi Chris, Björn (and others),

On Wed, 2010-12-22 at 22:56 +0100, Christoph Noack wrote:
> > I am still fighting some problems with actually installing LibreOffice to my 
> > OpenSuse (just recently switched because I was pissed with Kubuntu - but world 
> > is not much greener here - even though the Logo suggests so). No! Don't laugh! 
> > Stop! I am psychologist :)

Well, are you installing it from here? 

http://software.opensuse.org/search?q=LibreOffice&baseproject=openSUSE%
3A11.3&lang=en&exclude_filter=home%3A&exclude_debug=true

It went very well for me (at least on OpenSuse 11.2)

> Hehe, there is ... and although some people won't believe that, some
> parts are still superior to what the competition provides.

Well there are some important differences with what Word does. Some of
the most important ones:
  * Word allows nested fields, LibreOffice doesn't. This is very useful
to introduce conditional content for Mail Merges for example.
  * Word has form fields, LibreOffice can handle them, but has no UI to
insert them.
  * There are Word fields that LibreOffice can't handle and
vice-versa... but at least LibreOffice keeps them to be able to save
them again to doc files.

If you want to have a look at some doc test files to see those form
fields, there are some samples attached to these bugs:
  * https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=30711
  * https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=636119
  * https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=636127
  * https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=636128

> But there are also other places that deal with field / variable
> information (to give you an overview):
>       * the application menu "Insert -- Fields" provides shortcuts to
>         often used field types (static list)
>       * the Navigator lists some of the field information (e.g. provides
>         a list of headings in the document)
>       * the Data Sources dialog ("View -- Data Sources") provides direct
>         linking of fields of connected databases

The following are also related:
        * Insert -- Bookmark
        * Insert -- Cross-reference

> > I guess from the UX perspective there could conceptually be an overlap with 
> > the formular editor in calc? Are there any concepts around that could inspire 
> > our work in this direction? Christoph?
>
> Well, very good point (Calc)! Although there is also some (limited)
> formula stuff in Writer as well. For other concepts, mmh, I have to
> think about that ... I'm currently unsure. Stefan, anyone else?

FYI, the Writer formulas are handled by some Writer specific code.
Sharing the same code than Calc (and have the same syntax) for them is
one of my goals. I already have some pending patch in that area using
ixion (the new formula engine that will be used in calc in the future)

Regards,

-- 
Cédric Bosdonnat
LibreOffice hacker
http://documentfoundation.org
OOo Eclipse Integration developer
http://cedric.bosdonnat.free.fr


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