Notes2 Design NotesSidePane
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Summary
The Notes information will be presented next to the document text. Therefore every page will get expanded by a Note Side Pane, an area which contains the Note Windows.
Rationale
One goal of the redesign of the Notes functionality is to provide a more direct access to the Notes Data.
Assumptions
- The paper sizes “A4 portrait” or “Letter portrait” will generally be used.
- The amount of Notes Data used on one page will usually fit into the height of the current document page.
- The user does not want to be bothered too much, therefore the position and size of the Side Pane is determined automatically without any influence by the user.
Proposed Designs
Proposal "Side Pane"
Position
The following items describe the position of the Side Pane:
- From the user's point of view, the Note Side Pane is an integral part of the document output because it is shown in the direct neighborhood of the writer page.
- (Print Layout) If the side pane is shown, the complete width of the writer page and side pane have to be considered when centering the screen output inside the writer background. (For OOo 2.3 it is assumed that the document pages of the document are centered inside the Writer background.)
- OpenPoint: How does the Writer behave if the document page width is smaller than the remaining screen space inside the Writer document window? Example: When changing the zoom level, does the Writer prioritize the visibility of the left page area (assuming left-to-right writing), or is it dependent of the current cursor position? Here, the document page itself should get prioritized when considering document page and notes side pane.
- If the side pane is shown, the complete width of the writer page and side pane have to be considered when calculating the document width represented by the horizontal scroll bars.
- If the side pane is shown, both writer page and side pane have to be considered when switching the zoom level to “optimal”. Some of the other zoom levels “page width” and “complete page”.
- Location of the side pane:
- For left-to-right text (GUI language), the side pane is located at the right side of the writer document.
- For right-to-left text (GUI language), the side pane is located at the left side of the writer document.
- In special cases (not considered at the moment), the side pane may be located both left and right of the document window.
Size
The calculation of the size of the Note Side Pane is mainly based on the size of the paper page which it is assigned to. For the view mode, the size of the Note Side Pane is dependent on the current zoom level of the document.
The width of the Note Side Pane is based on the amount of text that fits into one text line (amount of text: this is a bit simplified because we consider the width of the corresponding page and not the text line width):
- Assumptions:
- If using the same paper format, the side pane width does not change across documents or pages (At the moment, this should prevent using some super smart automatic functions which e.g. analyzes the amount of notes data inside the document).
- If the user uses both portrait and landscape for the same paper size in one document (e.g. ISO A4), the user wants the same side pane width to have a similar look and feel for the notes.
- Using larger paper format does not increase the side pane width linearly dependent to the page width. (This is because the user may use larger paper formats (e.g. ISO A2) for creating posters. Therefore the user may increase the font size too, which accordingly limits the amount of text on the document page. So we need not so much space for the notes information.)
As a result, the width of the side pane is calculated in two steps (exemplary for the physical value [cm]):
- Step 1: Determine the side pane width at 100% zoom level in [cm]. These [cm] are similar to the shown document width in [cm]. The side pane does have a width of at least 4 cm. The calculation is done by (formula in OOo Calc syntax):
-
sidepaneWidth_normalView = MIN ( (1.1 * SQRT(0,9 * MAX(currentDocumentPage_Width, currentDocumentPage_Height) ) ); 4)
- Step 2: Determine the side pane width for the current zoom level [%].
-
sidepaneWidth_final = currentZoomLevel * sidePaneWidth_normalView
The height of the Note Side Pane is based on the height of the Current Document page:
- If no Note is inserted on the current page or if the inserted height of all Notes Windows fit into the height of the document page, then the height of the Note Side Pane is identical to the height of the current page.
- If the sum height of the notes windows is larger than the height of the current document page, then the user requires access to all Note Windows on that page. Please refer to the other proposals on this page.
Please note: The height of several Note Windows does also include the necessary distance between Notes Windows. Please refer to the specification of the Notes Windows Notes2_Design_NoteWindow.
Example
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The graphic shows different paper sizes (scaled) and the corresponding side pane width. It contains:
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Proposal "Distribute Note Windows Across Side Panes"
This proposal extends the proposal "Side Pane".
Instead of limiting the distribution of Notes Windows along the page the Note Anchor is placed at, the Note Windows could easily be placed at the Note Side Panes of subsequent pages. The main problem is, that a Note Side Pane belongs to a certain Document page and represents that graphically (e.g. borders). The result is, that the Note Window will exceed those borders and be located at another page which has nothing to do with the Note at all ("belongs-not-to-here" problem).
Advantages:
- Easy to implement
- The other interaction elements work well with this solution (e.g. the scrolling of the Current Document)
Disadvantages:
- The "belongs-not-to-here" problem (please see above)
- Does not work for the "Web Layout" because there is "one" page only
- Does not work for for different page layouts or view modes in "Print Layouts" (e.g. if there are pages of different page format or orientation)
Proposal "Expanded Side Pane"
This proposal extends the proposal "Side Pane".
If the Notes Windows does not fit to the height of the current page, the height of the Note Side Pane itself could be changed (without changing the actual size of the document page). Details:
- The additional area which is caused by expanding the note pane height is evenly distributed above and below the document page.
- The additional area above and below the document page will not contain any notes windows.
- The expanded side pane requires more space for displaying the current page. To avoid any overlapping with other document pages, the the dimensions of the current page including the expanded notes side pane is used to calculate the position of the current page in a set of pages.
Advantages:
- It will "feel natural" to the user and does not introduce any 'new' interaction for the user
- The other interaction elements work well with this solution (e.g. the scrolling of the Current Document)
Disadvantages:
- High implementation effort (has influence on the very comples page layout algorithm)
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The graphic shows the normal Note Side Pane next to right side of the document page (Print Layout). It contains:
Please note: Graphic is not true to scale. |
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The graphic shows the expanded Note Side Pane next to right side of the document page (Print Layout). It contains:
Please note: Graphic is not true to scale. |
Proposal "Scrollable Side Pane"
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Selected Design
- The proposal "Side Pane" has been selected for implementation.
- The proposal "Scrollable Side Pane" will be used if there is not enough space inside the Note Side Pane to show all necessary information. The proposal "Expanded Side Pane" is preferred by the User Experience team, but unfortunately the implementation effort would be very high and - hopefully - the need for such a solution very rare in the user's life.
Implementation
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Code Changes
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Outstanding Issues
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