Feature:Requests

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Revision as of 19:38, 13 January 2009 by MattBass (Talk | contribs)

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Below is a list of features that are requested by users. There is also, currently, a separate list for cool new FeatureSuggestions.

Improve Notes

I've noticed that Notes in Writer are much nicer now (OO 3.0) with bubble graphics like MS Word. It would be really nice to extend a note to cover a RANGE of text not just one character location. For example, I'd like to use a Note to mark an entire paragraph as needing modification.

Improve update interface

Allow the removal of specific items from the Updates for extensions dialog.

As it currently stands if one unchecks an item the "Install" button becomes grayed out, leaving the users with only the "Cancel" option. This means that the next time OOo is launched, that the user is again prompted with "Updates to extensions are available" notice which is very annoying. Apple's OS X allows specific updates to be removed from consideration (i.e. not installed, but taken off the list), with users having the option to restore to the list of available updates those items they have previously removed.

Add a multiple clipboard

A multiple clipboard is very convenient while write a long article. (I mean add a multiple copy and paste buffer, like MS Office word).

Changing the (display-)order of columns

It is far too complicated (possible at all?) to alter the ordering (I mean display-order eg. A,B,C -> C,A,B) of the columns in calc. This should be an easy to do task! Swapping the data of two columns does work sometimes, but requires creating a new column, cutting, pasting, and deleting of the old column - too complicated and creates problems with macros I assume (?)...

Keep a row or a column visible

Sometimes you need to scan a spreadsheet but need to know what are the values of one row or column, for example because it identifies the information on the columns or rows. Or because you want to check, lets say, the data on rows 5 and 30 with the in the corresponding columns of the other rows.

Of course, you can hide the lines or columns that don't interest to you. But every time you move to another part of the spreadsheet you may need to re-hide the lines or columns.

It would be useful if when we right-click on a row number we had an option to "Keep it visible". A copy of the lines so selected would be kept above all other lines, may be with a different color to stress that they are a copy. These lines would be kept there, regardless were we go in the spreadsheet, making it much easier to compare them with other lines in the spreadsheet. A similar feature could be implemented for the columns.

AUTOSAVE

Search 'Autosave' on your favorite search engine and you will see real writers want it.

It should save every word. Time based systems may lose a few paragraphs.

It may be a resource hog but it should be an option. Just warn the user.

It would definitely give OO and advantage over MS Word. they do not have this feature.


Competitive Parity

  1. Increase/Decrease Font Size proportionally for whole text block.
    • There are two aspects of this. The basic aspect is to have commands that scale fonts for indented lists proportionally. Everything gets bigger or smaller. The other is to use this automatically to decrease all text size proportionally when adding another list item makes the list exceed the text box dimensions.
  2. Insert… Table in Impress
    • This would pop up a dialog to specify rows, columns, width (pixels/percent/auto) and then lay the table as an element of the page. Writer already supports tables like this.
    • This is being addressed as part of the accessibility work in ODF/ODP - Details to be published shortly.

Button to enable/disable all "smart" features

This could be a button, much like and next to the AutoSpellcheck button, which in one click enables/disables all smart features.

I can't say how often I struggle with OpenOffice (or MS Word for that matter) being too smart - doing lists, numbering, applying formatting, creating hyperlinks when all I want is for it to do what I ask it to do - create lists when I select so, create hyperlinks when I tell it to. Sometimes, however it is good to utilize the automatic stuff as you can work with them when you know how they work.

What I propose is a button, much like the spell-check underlining button (which is by default visible in the toolbar) and which enables and disables all these "smart" features - all in one click. It could be called "WritingAids" (as where you can control this settings). It could also be automatically recommended to the user when OpenOffice automatically applies some formatting and the user undoes this, say the user writes a web-address presses space and the hyperlink is created and then the user undoes this thing.

Creative Commons

Nathan Yergler describes here http://wiki.creativecommons.org/OpenOfficeOrg_Addin, requirements and ideas for embedding Creative Commons license information in ODF documents. Malte Timmermann and Laurent Godard have described on the mailing list how this can be done as a component, perhaps using PyUNO.

Looking for a volunteer!'. Malte & Laurent will help and mentor.

Charts

Integrate JFree?

Text & Formatting Control

1) When one links to another document, such as through a section, it's fine if another openoffice file; it also works with HTML...but if there is CSS or .js files then these aren't applied or displayed. The advantage, then, of linking is lost; and X/HTML + CSS/.js is incredibly useful for doing things that word-processors and other file formats just don't want to. It's also useful to be able to do markup for one body of text, as well as uniformly controlling the text and its styles, fonts, etc. across many different documents, for online work, as well as then being able to import that through linking and finish formatting for printing and/or book work. Though openoffice has its own styles features, it would be advantageous and very useful to support css and .js so that if those documents change, then the appearance when opened in a linked doc changes.

2) In word processors one can subscript a word, then superscript the next, but cannot place these words below and above one another; I've been trying to figure-out how to do this, and I bet it would be possible with a formatting hack in the XML. It would be extremely welcome to have this ability through a feature in the program, especially for those who work on interlinear texts and such, (and people who do so actually post different questions to the mailing list at times). For now, that's all.

Footnotes 3) I (and others) have the complain that the footnotes generated are inflexible; for instance, one cannot reposition the box to be a column, or at the sides of text (references, annotations, and etc.) at all. This should be possible with the XML underlying the docs, so why not in the program? (forum examples: http://www.oooforum.org/forum/viewtopic.phtml?t=51986, http://www.openoffice.org/servlets/ReadMsg?list=discuss&msgNo=55452)

4) Unfortunately widely-known, probably easily-fixed, bugs in OOo seem never to get fixed for being "low" priority; many of which, however, are not. Here's a feature request in just such a position. When footnotes are created OpenOffice doesn't seem to have the capability of putting them on one line, but always starts a new line. But in academia some style manuals DEMAND single lines vs. using half the page for something so stupid. This "little" thing, whether bug, feature, or "request", can stop adoption in its tracks: and universities with a deal on software from Microsoft (and which offer students those deals) aren't opt for OpenOffice when those situations of styles arise; though I might be quite wrong since Word might not even be considered, but instead someone might opt for LaTex, but I'm guessing average Joe doesn't want to do that (for example, I study bio, and don't wish to spend tons of time in XML hacking). (forum examples: http://www.oooforum.org/forum/viewtopic.phtml?t=53603, http://www.oooforum.org/forum/viewtopic.phtml?t=46374&highlight=footnotes, etc.)

5) Another footnotes issue is that it appears impossible to insert a footnote inside a frame with text. ?

6) A good suggestion concerning multiple notes by a person is found here: http://www.oooforum.org/forum/viewtopic.phtml?t=17479 from which I excerpt a quote:

"I have a long document with over 200 footnotes (endnotes). Now, I have references in the text body like this: ... by Jorgenson et al. [1,2,3,4,5,6,7] ....

What I would like to have is: ... by Jorgenson et al. [1-7] ... " Infinitelink 11:41, 9 January 2008 (CET)

Formula Entry in Writer

Entering formulas in Writer may well have been ahead of its time and easy compared to alternatives a few years back, as many have claimed, but it is not well behind MS Office. MS Office 2007 has a simple, straightforward GUI for formula entry. Admittedly, the inherent complexities of formula entry still require a modicum of technical attention, but MS Office makes it simple enough that a completely inexperienced user could enter a moderately involved formula within a few minutes without any reference to help files. On the other hand, entering a formula in Writer, as it is currently implemented, requires familiarity with a rather technical entry syntax that is esoteric by comparison.

For myself, this is literally a "deal killer"; I would likely use OpenOffice dominantly or exclusively but for this one missing feature. Being a science major, I have to enter many formulas on a daily basis, often while listening to other important details of a lecture. It is simply not feasible to use OpenOffice in this context.

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