Re: [Libreoffice] Calc usability improvements

Hi Patrick,

On Thu, 2010-11-11 at 23:30 -0800, Patrick Bakker wrote:
> > > SEMI-COLON INSTEAD OF COMMA AS FUNCTION ARGUMENT SEPARATOR

        Kohei (or was it Jody) fixed this many moons ago; I believe the default
is set to improve usability here in LibreOffice; I too fell over this as
my first step using calc (as an en_US user). Of course - our patch
'fixes' this only for locales where it makes sense : eg. English. for
(eg.) German & French - it remains ';' for separator since ',' is a
decimal separator there. 3,5 (de) == 3.5 (en)

> > > DELETE CELL "HELPER"
> > >
> > > The delete cell "helper" dialog box pops up anytime I try to delete
> > > a cell or cell selection. It gives me options to delete some

        And this is deadly annoying too - it is already disabled by default in
LibreOffice master, delete now just deletes: If you want the old
behaviour (since you've learned it at length) - you can select the
'Compatibility' options for Calc, and the 'legacy' keybindings.

        So - hopefully this makes you happy too ;-)

> > - Shift+Del permanently removes the file right then.

        Which makes me wonder; should shift-del give you this 'delete contents'
option in that mode (or is the menu sufficient).

> I didn't know about the Shift + Delete keystroke which helps. Having
> two work around the easiest keystroke still feels wrong

        Agreed; cf. above.

> > > COPY&  PASTE TO A CELL WITH AN EXISTING VALUE
> > >
> > > The first time I copy and pasted a cell formula into another cell
> > > which already had something in it a dialog came up asking something
> > > like "This cell already has a value. Are you sure you want to do copy
> > > a new value in?" EXTREMELY annoying.

        Well, this winner is still in the code :-) and yes, it is pretty
annoying.

> > Heh.  With the power of Ctrl+Z at my fingertips, I agree that that dialog
> > box could be seen as an annoyance.  However, I have witnessed many times, a
> > less than power-user bless that dialog so they didn't overwrite their data.
> >  In this light, I wouldn't be opposed to it's removal, provided LO informs
> > the user when they have copied over data, and reminds them that they can
> > undo the action.

        Might be a good easy-hack; how we tell the user in an unobtrusive way
that this has happened, I don't know - some good UI ideas there
appreciated; the 'status bar' is not such a great plan I suspect for
this. "alpha transparent, hovering notifications" are a nice idea too
but ... ;-)

> Yeah, I don't see the value in this warning at all but if it is useful
> at all to anybody I would think a less obtrusive, after the fact quiet
> notification that existing date was overwritten would make more sense
> to me.

        I wonder if switching the polarity of the check-box - so it is checked
might help people 'see' it, and thus un-check it to get rid of it (some
Mozilla dialogs do that I guess ?).

        HTH,

                Michael.

-- 
 michael.meeks@novell.com  <><, Pseudo Engineer, itinerant idiot