User:Camillem/BetterDefaults
From Apache OpenOffice Wiki
List of Better Default Setting Suggestions
Statuses:
- Proposed: initial state
- Discussing: being discussed on the mailing list
- Rejected: refused after discussion
- Accepted: validated by UX team
- Developing: someone is actually creating the patch to change the behaviour
Draw/Impress
| Idea |
Application |
Issue num |
Description |
Name |
Status |
Details |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| provide hidden toolbars like 'circles and ovals | Draw | Include toolboxes circles, rectangles, text instead of single symbol in drawing toolbar. Reasoning: (1) The 'circles and ovals' and the 'text' toolbox is not accessible via View - Toolbars in Draw. So currently the only way to access arcs and legends is to customize the drawing toolbar. (2) Draw is used for technical constructions and there those objects are often used, in contrast to Writer or Impress, where drawing objects are used for illustrations in most cases. (3) Using the toolboxes needs no more space than single objects and give you a quick access too, because the last used object remains above for single click. | Regina | |||
| Use parallel perspective for 3D-scene | Draw | Issue 67847 | 3D-scenes in Draw are to illustrate constructions. Often several 3D-objects are combined in one scene. Working with several objects is faulty if perspective is on. So the first step when working with 3D-objects is to switch to parallel projection. It is "faulty" because it is unhandy to arrange or rotate objects inside a scene when in central perspective and because of Issue 67847 . | Regina | ||
| Change Handle Size | Draw/Impress | The current handle size was defined years ago - with displays offering less density than today. I propose to change the default handle size to "large". This option can be found in the toolbar "Options" (more info: Grid Handling). | ChristophNoack | |||
| Changing default font | Draw/Impress | Issue 70585 | It should be possible to change the overall default font for text (not the GUI) in Impress permanently, using one centralized setting, for example Options -> Openoffice.org -> fonts -> Change default font or somewhere similar. This is especially a problem when working with asian languages. I know you can work around the problem using templates, but it is neither quick, nor is it likely to appear obvious to the average user. | Clu | ||
| default colour of drawing objects | Draw/Impress | Issue 93507 | The default color of drawing object is ugly and has not changed since the 1990s. | Gerald | Developing | Bullets, colors & shortcuts |
| Enable Vertical Text Button for all | Draw/Impress | Issue 54423 | It was disabled apparently on purpose but it makes the interface inconsistent. Also, in many presentations people try to use vertical text and can't find it (I have been asked by my users about this on many occasions). Alternative solution (which seems odd to get this functionality) is to enable "enhanced support for asian languages" by default. | gquigs | ||
| Disable "Allow quick editing" mode as default | Draw/Impress | The so called quick editing mode at /tools/options/draw/general or /tools/options/impress/general should be disabled by default because people will be able to detect and to move text objects more easily | ja | |||
| Paste pictures from web | Draw/Impress | Drag and drop any picture from net to Writer - you see pasted image. Drag and drop picture to Draw/Impress - you see frame with HTML code. Besides, user can't paste picture from URL (Insert > Picture > From file> URL). Impress/Draw shows "Unknow graphics format" error. Writer work well. | Quest | |||
| Keyboard shortcut to make fine position adjustments | Draw/Impress | Issue 107125 | I often use the alt+arrow keys to make fine adjustments to the position of drawing objects in Draw and Impress. In Mac OS X, that shortcut is assigned to switch 'Spaces' (the multiple desktops in Mac OS X). | vkkodali | ||
| bullet point lists | Impress | Bad standard defaults of bullet point lists. If one creates a text frame in Impress and clicks on the button "numbering and bullet points" (Nummerierung und Aufzählungszeichen), the newly created bullet point list has terrible standard defaults: (1) Almost no space between the bullet point and the text. (2) No ident for the second line of text under a bullet point. The second line appears left-justified directly under the bullet point. Instead, there should be a ident of the second line. It should begin exactly there where the first letter in the first line starts. | Gerald | Developing | Bullets, colors & shortcuts | |
| Options for line width of the pen (in slideshow mode) | Impress | The pen in the slideshow mode has a very small line width. Therefor it is not visible for all partipants of a presentation. If something should be market the pen had to be much wider.The pen is available after you set in menue: slide show / slide show settings & check 'mouse pointer as pen' & starting a presentation. There is already a patch for the pen integrated into the go-oo-build, that gives the posibility to change the configuration of the pen (color, line width etc.).Please integrate this patch into vanilla-ooo. | andreasma | Out of scope ? | ||
| change configuration of the pen during slideshow mode | Impress | It should be posible to change the configuration of the cursor (from arrow to pen) during the presentation mode (via context menu). There is already a patch for the pen available, that is integrated into the go-oo-build. It gives the posibility to change the configuration of the pen. I don't know yet, if it makes the options dialog also available during the presentation mode. Please integrate this patch into vanilla-ooo. | andreasma | Out of scope ? | ||
| Default shadow should be transparent and smaller | Impress | A better shadow effect can be achieved with Distance : 0,1 cm (instead of 0,3) ; Color : Black (instead of Grey) ; Transparency : 60 % (instead of 0%) | CamilleM | Accepted/Rejected | Transparency creates printing problems | |
| Rotation Mode, Guides when Moving on | Impress | 'Rotation Mode after Clicking Object' & 'Guides When Moving' are two feature options which are switched off by default => they should be switched on by default (more info: Grid Handling). | Clu | |||
| Change default pen color from neon green | Impress | Issue 47990 | As described in BUG 10922 the neon green color of the pen used to draw on a presentation is very difficult to see for students in a classroom, and the color is hard coded into OOo. I would like to see the default changed to perhaps black or red, as they are much easier colors to see. BUG 10922 is still a very good idea, but I filed this report to request a simple change of the default color, which should be much easier than what BUG 10922 is requesting. A slightly more ambitious, but still not difficult, would be to read the color value from a file or some such, instead of hard coding it in the OOo source. p.s. available after .. menue: slide show / slide show settings & check 'mouse pointer as pen' & starting a presentation | Clu | Accepted | Bullets, colors & shortcuts |
| Default user annimation | Impress | Issue 62838 | I want to create a user animation with default behaviour: The object just pops up with no tricky animation. Therefore I have to search for this "animation" type (called in german: "erscheinen") every time within the large list of possible animations. This costs me a lot of time. It would be better, when this were the default, and only if I really want fancy animation, then I have to choose from the list.clu: idea .. usage tracking can show if one setting is significantly more often shown than other .. and this one can became the new default | Clu | ||
| Duration of pause to 0 | Impress | Issue 49762 | In Slide Show settings (Slide Show - Slide Show Settings), Impress features a setting for the "duration of pause before the slide show is repeated". It defaults to 10 seconds. I would suggest to have the default set to 0 seconds in order to improve compatibility with MS Powerpoint users, and secondly to leave the decision to insert a pause to the user. | Clu | Graphics, fonts & settings | |
| Slide Titles editable in navigator | Impress | Issue 21888 | The Navigator is a very handy tool to move through a presentation and it also can act as a mini outline of the presentation. However, now the only way to change the slide title shown is to display the Modify Layout dialog from the Format menu. It would be a very nice addition to allow the user to directly edit the title of the slide shown in the Navigator directly in the Navigator. | Clu | ||
| Real Slide Titles in Navigator | Impress | Issue 21888 | It would also be very useful to display the title actually shown on the slide itself as the title unless the user deliberately changed it. The current "Slide 1", "Slide 2", etc. defaults are not very useful for identifying the slide. | Clu | ||
| Change default table color | Impress | Issue 102922 | After inserting a table I change the color of my table. I added the data. Now if I want to add a new row, then despite the color of my whole table it inserts the row with default color (blue combination). So I need to select that row again & then change the color. Steps to reproduce the bug: | Clu | ||
| Shortcut for adding a new slide | Impress | Issue 100650 | '=> alt+i+e fix that problem .. a better solution like ctrl+i or ctrl+s etc. (for insert slide) or ctrl+m are already in use; and to add an unintuitive shortcut to replace an other unintuitive shortcut by limitating shortcut possibilities for future needs make less sense | Clu | Rejected | Shortcut conflict |
| Open pps files in show mode | Impress | Issue 52755 | If, during installation, a user choses to associate Microsoft PowerPoint documents with Open Office, the default behavior for a .pps (PowerPoint Show) file is changed to this: "C:\Program Files\OpenOffice.org 1.9.109\program\soffice.exe" -o "%1" This causes the presentation to be opened in edit mode when double clicked. However, when using Microsoft PowerPoint as the default handler, double clicking a .pps file causes it to immediately start the show. To achieve the same behavior, and hence ease the migration from MSO to OOo, I believe the default behavior for .pps files should be as follow durring installation: "C:\Program Files\OpenOffice.org 1.9.109\program\soffice.exe" -show "%1" | Clu | Out of scope ? | |
| remove 'Display Grid' icon from 'Standard' toolbar | Impress | delete 'Display Grid' icon from 'Standard' toolbar -> it is only 0.02% clicked (one of the fewest) and also available over menue | Clu | |||
| Properties on context | Impress | I make changes to the drawings/text box objects that I make in impress almost all the time. Currently, apart from the easily accessible options that appear as buttons on the toolbar, the way to do this is to right-click on the object, go to the 'Properties' dialog box and change them. In MS Office this 'Properties' window can be accessed by double-clicking on the object. OOo default for double-clicking, say, a filled rectangle is to bring up a cursor to enter text. It would be nice to have the 'Properties' window appear like in MS Office unless there is a compelling reason for the current behavior. (from a blog comment of vamsi) | Clu | |||
| empty bullets should not be shown in presentation | Impress | like it is at ms office (from fl) | Clu | Developing | Bullets, colors & shortcuts | |
| serial effect for set of bullet points | Impress | if you have a set of bullet points and you want the single points to f.e. 'fly in' you should have the possibility to take the whole box and give it the effect that they serial fly in .. (from fl) | Clu | Bullets, colors & shortcuts | ||
| Change rotate button in mode on/off | Impress | if you push the rotate button the rotate mode is on .. if you push again i awaint to switch the mode off but that does not happen .. you must click anywhere and on the shape again to switch back to the 'normal' selecting mode | Clu | |||
| space key to shift slide | Impress | in zoom toolbar you have an icon called shift for this job, but a keyboard shortcut is missing .. photoshop and other graphical apps use the space key for that which seems to be a good solution (fl) | Clu | |||
| switch task pane off | Impress | at the moment the task pane is on by default .. with the new changes in design it makes rather no sense to keep this default (fl) | Clu | |||
| dragging and dropping a graphic should embed the graphic | Impress | Issue 107641 | .. not create a link .. by exporting or replacing the document the link gets 'corrupted' and the graphic seems to be lost (letter from stella) | Clu | ||
| allow slide scrolling | Impress | by scrolling a slide and reaching the slide border you should have the possibility to scroll further to the next slide like MS ppt provides it (fl) | Clu | |||
| Copy when moving by default | Impress | under 'tools/options/general/copy when moving' you can switch on a default to copy an object by moving, when you have simultaneous the ctrl key pressed .. this is a nice behavior and does not disturb anyone (fl) | Clu | |||
| delete Navigator icon | Impress | the navigator icon in the standard toolbar is clicked under 0.1% and is one of the most unused icons there; therefore it only waste place and steel attention without being useful => delete this icon from standard toolbar (it is still available over the menue and the shortcut) | Clu | |||
| Please include presenter screen in default install set of OOo. | Impress | Issue 90415 | Only this integration in the default install set would make the presenter console usable for many use cases. Remark: Please consider the integration of the presenter screen extension in the standard download set of OOo, because following situation is standard for presenters on workshops or conferences: (1) The presenter brings the file and must use the computer of the organisor/venue. (2) It is already difficult to ensure that OOo is installed on that computer. (3) It is almost impossible to ensure that OOo AND the presenter console extension is installed (4) The presenter usually has not the time or possibility to install the extension him/herself (5) The result is that the presenter console is unusable for professional use. Please consider this! | Gerald | ||
| Default Impress formula font should be much larger | Impress | Issue 21118 | The default font size for formula in Impress (after Insert->Objects->Formula) is 12pt which is too small to read on the screen. It should be 16pt or 18pt. | Gerald | Bullets, colors & shortcuts | |
| Add default keyboard short-cut for inserting new slide | Impress | Issue 100650 . | Gerald | Rejected | See duplicate. Shortcut conflict | |
| Some default settings in toolbar drawing/zeichnen are confusing | Impress | Some default settings in toolbar drawing/Zeichnen are not chosen well: (1) The default for standard forms/Standardformen is a rectangle, which already has another default entry in the drawing toolbar with the name "rectangle"/Rechteck. It would make more sense to choose in "standard forms" another default setting such as "rounded rectangle" or something else. (2) The tool tip for insert image/Bild einfügen is "Aus Datei", which is much worse than "Bild einfügen", so why? (3) Why is the icon/selection "lines and arrows/Linien und Pfeile" hidden by default in the drawing toolbar? It would make sense to add it to the toolbar by default or to replace the icon "Linie mit Pfeilende/line with arrowhead" with the selection "Linien und Pfeile" (which also includes the "Linie mit Pfeilende"). (4) Why is there an entire independent toolbar called "Kreise und Ovale/Circles and ovals"? These elements should be by default in the drawing toolbar and not separated. | Gerald | |||
| Last accessed element in sidebar/Aufgabenbereich should be default for sidebar of next slide | Impress | The active element in the sidebar/Aufgabenbereich always jumps back to the default element "Layout" and not to the last accessed element, e.g. "Slide transitions/Folienübergang". This can be extremely annoying. For example: If I want to edit the "custom transitions" on several slides, always after switching to another slide, the sidebar "forgets" that I was working on "custom transitions" and goes back to the default "Layout". Always the last accessed element should stay the active element, if one switches to another slide. | Gerald | |||
| Add a button "Save Template" | Impress | automatically recognize a new template not on file, perhaps, or just notice that a template is open and offer the button (from a chat I had with a sales guy) | Liz | |||
| provide presentation manager in separate window in one computer/monitor | Impress | Provide this as a possibility without the need for a second monitor, so that presenters can practice a presentation as if they were in the real situation, but only need one computer/laptop to practice on (from a chat I had with a sales guy) | Liz | |||
| when inserting in Impress, automatically open a text box | Impress | the default would be a text box just appears when Paste is chosen---is it possible to identify what is on the clipboard to be pasted? i.e., if text, then text box opens (from a chat I had with a sales guy) | Liz | |||
| show links with the “short text” instead of the path | Impress | (from a chat I had with a sales guy) | Liz | |||
| Text in slide show should automatically adjust to the vertical middle of slide | Impress | to make it look professional without the user having to fiddle with it (from a chat I had with Rosana) | Liz | |||
| Add more page layouts | Impress | I have drawings of 3 example layouts (from a chat I had with Rosana) | Liz | |||
| Show Color Panel | Impress | View -> Toolbars -> Color Bar | mr_smyle | |||
| pdf-export with comments should only export commented slides | Impress | In the pdf-export options in Impress it is possible to export comments but the problem is that this options leads to an exports which contains all slides without comments followed by all slides with comments. This is not what the normal user expects. Please change this option so that only the commented slides are exported. | parity | |||
| switch off impress wizard | Impress | looks old fashioned, is redundant and annoying | WG | Rejected | « Regarding the wizard the user feedback data (aka usage tracking) tellsUs that many users do use this wizard today. » | |
| Default Impress formula should be scalable | Impress | Formula are too small to read on screen, make them scalable by default on impress so it could be adapted to user's taste. (don't protect size by default on impress) | xihh | |||
Writer
| Idea |
Application |
Issue num |
Description |
Name |
Status |
Details |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| "Number recognition" (in tables) should be turned of by default, | Writer | It's usefull for advanced user, but disorientating / annoying for new users. Advanced user can easily switch it on. | CamilleM | |||
| Initialize the writer | Writer | I always set the following in Writer, if they are not set already: set the measurement units to metric set tab stops to 1.5cm set the firstline indent for indented paragraphs to 0.75cm set for headings 1-4 the before text indent to 0.75cm and the firstline text indent to -0.75cm set for all styles I use the above paragraph and below paragraph spacing to be rounded to then nearest mm. e.g. 0.2, 0.3 instead of 0.21 turn off (this most annoying) autocorrect for two initial capitals capitalize first letter URL recognition custom quotes set autocomplete accept to TAB, not return! everything else in the world uses tab for autocomplete. (from a letter of st) | Clu | |||
| misc autocorrects | Writer | turn off (this most annoying) autocorrect for - two initial capitals - capitalize first letter - URL recognition - custom quotes - set autocomplete accept to TAB, not return! (from blog comment of Marcello Romani) | Clu | |||
| Attach Numeric Styles to same Paragraph Styles | Writer | At now default paragraph styles 'Numeric paragraph N' 'Marked paragraph N' have not same numeric styles. So, activation of NUMERIC style did not activate numeration of paragraph! It`s very unexpected for trivial user. | dvc | |||
| Make ToC hyperlinked | Writer | A ToC is more useful when it is with hyperlinks to the pages the heading is on. | Fopper | |||
| Ugly style sheets for headings in Writer | Writer | I used Writer for several articles, publications, flyers and in all of them the standard headings look ugly and outdated. Any designer would not choose these style sheets for Heading 1-10. Furthermore, in this regard the competition has made large steps forward during the last release cycles. Basic typography principles regarding headings: Use the same font for headings as for text, avoid the use of bold (see below) and never use italics in headings, headings are only larger than text (with ten headings bold can be used as alternating emphasis), usually 2 pt per heading level. Finally: There is no such thing as "underline" in typography at all. Vince42 | Gerald | |||
| Autotext default preview window too small | Writer | The default preview window of the Autotext dialogue is too small. It is almost impossible to read the available autotexts in that window. | Gerald | |||
| Remove old word versions from Save As dialog | Writer | Issue 21118 | Word 95 and 6.0 formats aren't being used much anymore, I have had several users accidentally click on them and lose data from the format change. Since they are at least 15 years old and the number of people using Word 95 and 6.0 are likely a very small number I suggest we disable it by default. (It might be possible to move it over to Export?) | gquigs | ||
| Space Markers Off | Writer | Turn off markers for spaces (small dots between words). | mr_smyle | |||
| Enable Add Comment Button | Writer | I always enable toolbar button for adding comment in writer | mr_smyle | |||
| Ctrl+B & Crl+I to styles | Writer | Now these key combinations make text hard-styled Bold or Italic. Will be useful to Assign them to soft default styles with bold and italic highlighting. | mr_smyle | |||
| Right page' should be next style to 'Left page' | Writer | Issue 15498 | Name | |||
| Make manual page break in Writer better visiable | Writer | Issue 33518 and duplicates Issue 65150 , Issue 82353 , Issue 96963 , Issue 22646 | for example use 'light blue' and a thicker line. | Name | ||
| Picture Inserting Writer Lacks Rotation | Writer | If you insert image into draw then copy and paste to writer rotation is there. A option to covert picture to a drawing option to enable rotation in writer would improve usability. Ie open up picture option turn on rotation picture becomes wrapped in a drawing object. The mirror option is also required. | oiaohm | |||
| Make the "record changes" feature more attractive | Writer | The "record changes" feature is not easy to find. Two suggestions: 1. Rename the toolbar from "Changes" to "Record changes". 2. Add icons to the toolbar buttons to make them more visually appealing. | paperjam | |||
| Simpler way for page orientation | Writer | People complains for too complicate way to made many and mixed vertical and horizontal page. I think, user should have 2 basic styles, which won't change all document. User may want to change one for three page, and he should can apply style for only e.g. second page. | Quest | |||
| Distance in numbering styles larger | Writer | Make the distance from number to text in numbering styles larger, so that 10. text is still in line. | Regina | |||
| Add a gap in table of contents | Writer | Add a gap (tab or space) between number and text in table of contents in Writer. The picture shows the ugly default settings. Notice the missing space between number and heading text. | Regina | |||
| Set margins in style of Math formula objects to 0cm | Writer | Issue 22136 | Set margins in style of Math formula objects in Writer to 0cm. | Regina | ||
| Add a spacing below for tables | Writer | Add a spacing below for tables in Writer. In normal text flow the style text body is used, which gives good distance between two paragraphs. It has a spacing above of 0cm and a spacing below of 0.21cm. But after a table the text nearly touches the border of the table, because the table has spacing 0cm. And if you do not use borders the spacing is to small too, because the style Table contents has below spacing 0cm too. | Regina | |||
| Change "Show as tip" for word completion | Writer | The word completion is a useful feature, but the way it is shown by default is quite "disturbing": if a long suggestion pops when you are near the page edge the word you are writing will jump to next line. "Show as tooltip is a better alternative, IMO. The option is on Tools -> AutoCorrect Options -> Word Completion tab | RGB | |||
| Styles and formatting panel docked right | Writer | Styles and formatting panel is floating and that's annoying, partialy because it obstructs sight from file in edition.It should be in right side (or left) docked so it's always in the same place, and doesn't obstruct the documents. | xihh | |||
| Enhancement print preview | Writer, (Calc ?) | Print preview in Writer shows 65% page. Next 75%, 100%, 150%. All time, zoom is focusing on the same place, so user see only half page (in case of 100% and more) and second half is cut from the left. Additionally user must move scrollbar. Besides, if we have two and more pages in Writer, zoom is focusing on grey background between pages. MS Office needs only 1 click to zoom page to readability size. If we have two and more pages, Word is focusing on one page, ignoring other. It fix problem with grey background. | Quest | |||
| Text Paragraph Indents | Writer(RU) | For style 'Text Body' in RU Locale. Off top margin. Add first line indent 1cm. On justify. | mr_smyle |
