[libreoffice-design] Minutes from the UX/design meeting 2025-Apr-23

Present: Eyal, Heiko
Comments: Miklos, Stuart, Mike


Tickets/Topics

 * EPUB output requires metadata to be entered each time
   + https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=166016
   + epub identifier is meant to be a UUID (Miklos)
     + not always, sometimes also DOI, see tdf#138792 (Stuart)
   + unclear why data should be entered at all - if we can pull it from
     available meta-data sources (Eyal)
   + Users needing persistence should pre-populate via their
     template work flows; populate and expose values during
     export for author review (Stuart)
   + The 'Author' name pulled in right now is a valud we are missing
     the UI for changing; and the UI we do have for changing the
     author does not get pulled to the EPUB export dialog; this is
     a problem from the user's perspective (Eyal)
   + "Cover image" (and other info) should be stored in the parent
     document; so we need a UI or some way to enter these info (Eyal)
   + we should not store alien attributes in ODT and either remember
     the last entered data or keep it empty (Heiko)
   + "Language" should be handled like other extra data with some
     field at the document properties - since, at this point, we
     do not actually set the language of any content in documents (Eyal)
   + In some cases, we now show a date value of all-zeros - probably when
     the document has never been saved; should have a better fallback
     for this case, e.g. the current date-and-time (Eyal)
   + the field should rather be kept empty (Heiko)
   + "Date" should be visualized via date picker; maybe with an extra
     button to refresh from the time of document creation (Eyal, Heiko)
 => comment

 * Filename is corrupted when saved as and change filter
   + https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=166052
   + different behavior on Windows and it works as expected;
     saving a Writer and Calc document with the name "2025.04.06 testdata"
     adds odt/ods or docx/xlsx, etc. after the testdata and changes only
     this part (Heiko)
   + check against known formats (Mike) at least if it contains
     a space (Stuart)
   + Whatever the behavior - it has to be fully consistent (Eyal)
 => back to QA, recommendation to follow Mike's suggestion

 * Feature request - preference setting to disable or turn off
   opening screen that defaults to Recent Documents
   + https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=166026
   * suggest to either hide recent documents in the SC or to start
     with the templates; and have this as an expert option (Heiko)
   + could also be under Tools -> Options -> General or View (Stuart)
   + templates could be more interesting to more people, eg. to quickly
     create a new document from a template; therefore rather as
     regular option (Eyal)
 => do so

 * Need ability to anchor a callout endpoint to a piece of text
   or other content
   + https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=165971
   + sounds like gluepoint (Heiko) but isn't (Eyal)
   + anchor of the call-out should be either 'as character' or
     to an established anchor point on shape object (Stuart)
   + still not true: The desired behavior on movement of text for
     a callout and for an anchored-as-character object is often
     different.
   + Will try to create a screencast to better illustrate the
     use case (Eyal)
   + callouts are not easy to connect to other objects, true; but
     these objects are custom shapes anyway and thereby just special
     shapes with no option to connect
   + Callouts are actually a different feature than custom shapes,
     which we don't quite have; and we currently use smart-art callout-ish
     shapes as an emulation for actual callouts; perhaps the bug should
     be focus on that rather on trying to force the custom shapes
     to be more flexible (Eyal)
 => AI: Eyal reconsider to keep the ticket

 * Apply style:script-type when users manually set a language
   for a run containing weak characters
   + https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=166012
   + should happen under the hood, agree with the request (Stuart)
   + mockup attached; thinking about auto vs manual resp. reverting
     changes - it might be not necessary
   + option is only relevant and meant for weak characters (Eyal)
     More far-reaching/fundamental changes regarding setting of
     language, font<->language associations, the boundaries of
     language groups etc. are covered by other bugs, while this is
     an opportunity for a limited incremental change which would
     improve behavior in the imperfect "paradigm" we live in right
     now (Eyal)
     + propose to apply the style:script-type for all characters
       and accept the odds such as non-available characters in
       the font (Heiko)
     + the semantics of the tag mean that even if you set it for all
       characters, it will only apply to the "weak" characters (Eyal)
   + This is likely to improve MSO/OOXML compatibility issues,
     like bug 132000 (Eyal)
   + Initially at least, we should avoid significant changes to the UI
     for this, and control and indicate it via the status bar language
     area, and Tools > Language on the menus (Eyal)
   + Clear DF should work on this attribute - with our current
     "language is formatting" paradigm. When we drop that paradigm,
     clearing DF should _not_ affect the language choice of any
     text; but that is for the future. (Eyal)
 => appreciate any progress

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