[Libreoffice-ux-advise] [Bug 91030] Writer: Find and Find-&-Replace need character auto-replacement to support string searches and replacements

https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=91030

--- Comment #3 from Nick Levinson <Nick_Levinson@yahoo.com> ---
Highlighting helps with the Search field but not for the Replace-With field,
although we can select from elsewhere and copy into that field and edit it
before clicking a button to find or replace, a complicasted method for nongeeks
to remember, especially whern the cause is not always obvious (in the small
size of the dialog's font it's hard to see that quotation marks are not
curved).

I use Writer partly to write website content in HTML, so the string "-->" is
very useful as is, since it's a comment closer. But the commenter's point is
well-taken for some other strings. Quotation marks and apostrophes are usually
auto-replaced except in the search-and-replace dialog.

Color alone should not be a differentiator, because that prevents accessibility
for people with a color-perception problem. Color combined with a noncolor cue
would be okay.

I replaced "A" by "1" etc. and got either "Search key not found" or "Search key
replaced 2 times". The latter is useful. The former is, too, except when it
comes after having done the replacement using the Replace button, when it
should instead say how many replacements have been done (one), as it does when
the Replace All button is used. So the problem is with the Replace button. The
Replace button causes the stroing to be selected but not replaced yet. Clicking
the button again causes replacement but also gets an offer to start from the
beginning of the document and clicking yes to that gets the not-found result.
Clicking the Close button is okay but clicking the Replace button makes sense,
getting the odd result. So the Replace button's result should be fixed. Calc is
similar but not identical. It may be that the Replace button remains selected
so that pressing the Enter keyboard key causes the confusing result. This
generally seems like a usability-friendliness issue rather than a technical
internals one. This may need a separate bug report.

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