Re: [libreoffice-design] questions about the status bar

Hi Andrew,

(Lots of IMHO's ahead, so beware.)

> I use it sometimes, it's useful when you are translating or creating a
> > document in multiple languages (like instruction manuals) it sets the
> > auto-correct to the language you are currently using, which is useful.
> > It might not be used by most users who just have it in the language
> > they always use, i guess you could also hide it, but i think the status
> > bar would look a bit empty without it.

Language switching is useful indeed, mostly for spell-checking. It
helps an alot when you wonder why your entire German text has red
underlines and then you notice: correction is still set to English.


> I think that its too cluttered with things that are do not need to be
> there. not sure what the document signature is. document notification
> should be shown in the title of the document with an " * ".

My opinion as well.


> I just played with the insertion mode and selection mode. I now understand
> what insertion its referring to. you know the mode that replaces the text
> in front of the insertion point (the blinking line behind the text). If you
> click on this it will change. does anyone even use this mode any more.

I would argue that today, nobody consciously/voluntarily uses
Overwrite mode any more. However, we need to nix the mode completely
before doing away with this indicator as it is actually quite common
that people accidentally trigger Overwrite mode by pressing the "Ins"
key on the keyboard.


> if you click on the selection mode it changes... well the selection mode.
> STD is standard mode. EXT seems to make it so that you can not select text,
> which I do not know why anyone would want to not be able to select text.

Using EXT, you can select the text that is located between the text
cursor position and the position of the mouse pointer. (EXTend the
selection from text cursor to mouse pointer or something like that.)

> ADD will allow you to select another section of text, just like holding
> control and selecting more text. and then BLK selects a block of text...
> how is that useful. fill your screen with text, change the selection mode
> (the one that is set to STD) and click drag something in the middle of the
> screen. can anyone tell me where this would be useful.

I have no idea, I personally never needed it. I believe it's probably
useful for a minority of users. The upside is that it doesn't seem
easy to trigger these modes by accidentally pressing something. So
removing the indicator should not be a problem.


> and finally page view should be under the view menu.

Should be, yes. Instead, we currently have the View > Zoom box which
you can alternatively use. The View > Zoom box definitely needs to go
away sooner rather than later and be replaced by a menu.


Astron.

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