[Libreoffice-ux-advise] [Bug 92219] Formula bar function wizard button should open the functions pane of sidebar

https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=92219

--- Comment #9 from Yousuf (Jay) Philips <philipz85@hotmail.com> ---
Created attachment 116815
  --> https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/attachment.cgi?id=116815&action=edit
excel's insert function dialog

(In reply to Regina Henschel from comment #5)
> The function wizard icon has been in the formula bar from the beginning,
> that is for 18 years now.

Just because something has been there for a long time doesnt mean that it cant
be removed or replaced. We used to have a help button in the toolbar for a
similar amount of years, but now we dont.

> Can you point to complaints about it?

I have stated the complaints i see with it in the description and in comment 4.
Can you please let me know the advantage of opening the wizard over the list if
i forgot the name or syntax of the basic/beginner function, e.g. ROUND().

(In reply to Eike Rathke from comment #6)
> I also strongly disagree with this change. The function list is rarely used
> and not much helpful unless you want to single-click insert one of the
> recently used functions.

The function list is used within the function wizard, so why would the function
list in the sidebar be any less useful. According to the OOo stats for the menu
bar, the function wizard is only selected 3 times as much as the function list.

> The function wizard button provides guidance for
> the inexperienced user to help along with function categories, names and
> parameters. Hiding that elsewhere is not good user experience.

I am an inexperienced excel/calc user, only function i use is SUM() :D, so i
dug up the most commonly used functions in excel from various sources listed
below and didnt find a benefit from using the dialog over the sidebar. I dont
even find the dialog much of a wizard as pressing the Next button simply
inserts the selected function into the formula textbox, which could easily be
achieved by double clicking the function name in the list or even better yet
having an Insert button. The dialog has some benefits when making nested
functions, but i dont expect inexperienced users to be doing this.

http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/commonly-used-excel-functions.html
http://www.answers.com/Q/Most_commonly_used_functions_and_formulas_in_Excel

I believe that the function sidebar needs improvement to make it more useful
and the design team has already begun looking into it like providing better
search functionality, syntax highlighting of the structure, argument
descriptions, etc.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1FXeKpcP3x-WdvnzI7xtxHujDQClaKb7fCoJC6xSn0jA/edit

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