Difference between revisions of "Notes2"

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(QA entries related to notes in writer)
(QA entries related to notes in writer)
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==QA entries related to notes in writer==
 
==QA entries related to notes in writer==
Work will address issues  
+
Work will address issues:
  
 
[http://www.openoffice.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=767 767], [http://www.openoffice.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=1981 1981], [http://www.openoffice.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=4964 4964], [http://www.openoffice.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=5487 5487], [http://www.openoffice.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=6193 6193], [http://www.openoffice.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=9776 9776], [http://www.openoffice.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=23465 23465], [http://www.openoffice.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=32232 32232], [http://www.openoffice.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=45788 45788], [http://www.openoffice.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=48150 48150], [http://www.openoffice.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=62625 62625], [http://www.openoffice.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=63759 63759], and [http://www.openoffice.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=74157 74157].
 
[http://www.openoffice.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=767 767], [http://www.openoffice.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=1981 1981], [http://www.openoffice.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=4964 4964], [http://www.openoffice.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=5487 5487], [http://www.openoffice.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=6193 6193], [http://www.openoffice.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=9776 9776], [http://www.openoffice.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=23465 23465], [http://www.openoffice.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=32232 32232], [http://www.openoffice.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=45788 45788], [http://www.openoffice.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=48150 48150], [http://www.openoffice.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=62625 62625], [http://www.openoffice.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=63759 63759], and [http://www.openoffice.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=74157 74157].

Revision as of 16:02, 26 July 2007

Introduction

Notes2 is a new project to improve the general notes functionality in the Writer module of OpenOffice. This has started as one accepted project in Google's Summer of Code 2007, but will be also worked on after the GSOC is over. The general idea is to improve


  • visualisation of notes
    • show notes on right margin permantly with full text instead of tiny little yellow box
    • direct editing inside the note window including richtext formatting, spell checking and auto correction
    • show/hide notes by author and date


  • usability of notes
    • direct/easier editing
    • delete notes as well as all notes in popup menu
    • menu changes, details need to be discussed


  • navigator related to notes
    • possibility to sort notes by author, date, position


  • Accessibility
    • access of text should be possible only with keyboard
      • Attention: switching through windowses with F6:several windowses in Notes, we only want the textwindow
    • use of special APIs to give other applications access to the text, e.g. screenreaders
    • no information only visible with colors



Implementation

The implementation has to be able to handle at least the following items:

  • scrollable
  • able to handle richtext to include text with attributes
  • spell checking
  • different position, sizes and background colors
  • able to be drawable inside the right margin
  • round corners


After discussion with several people, there seem to be two different possibilities:

implementation advantages disadvantages
OverlayTextObject using the drawing layer possible use of GUI gimmicks such as transparency, animations etc. large implementation effort

tight interaction with drawing layer neccessary no scrollbars


own window code nicely seperable from other OO code

no extra implementation effort for scrollbars


maybe alien look in rare cases

Both implementation will use the EditEngine as well as an OverlayObject for a connection line from anchor point to the note itself

Update: Decision was made to go with a seperate window first


Usability

Several questions related to the appearance and usability have to be decided:

  • main color of notes
    • Suggestion: natural color of physical postit notes)
  • when to show vertical scrollbars if all notes need it due to a full page: if we show them,it could be confusing to the user and could look alien, if we don't, user might not be aware of the full length and miss text
  • what about meta information such as date and author
    • permantly inside the note
    • in the tooltip
    • inside the navigator
    • titlebar
  • different colors or intensity when editing a certain note
  • appearance of connection line from anchor point to note
    • could be a dotted line turning into a full line while editing or always a full line
    • flashing object


QA entries related to notes in writer

Work will address issues:

767, 1981, 4964, 5487, 6193, 9776, 23465, 32232, 45788, 48150, 62625, 63759, and 74157.

Release Dates

Expected release of specification draft: end of July 2007

Expected release of the new implementation: OpenOffice.org 2.4 (around February 2008)


Further Thoughts

There are several items which are nice to have, but will eventually not make it into the first release:

  • different colored boxes for different authors, adjustable by user
  • attaching comments not only to a text position, but also a selection of text. As the ODF format for notes does not allow this currently, there are two possibilities:
    • use ODF metadata, if version 1.2 is approved
    • in collaboration with other ODF implementations, change the format of notes inside the ODF format
  • printing of notes
  • nicer appearance, e.g. round corners for notes


Screenshots of other notes implementations

File:Note oo.JPG
OpenOffice with Patch

note in right margin, yellow postit color



TextMaker 2006

note in right margin with extending of white paper background, red color



MS Word 2003

note in right margin with extending of white paper background, red color



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