Apache OpenOffice (AOO) Bugzilla – Issue 15235
Bad font drop-down usability + it's inconsistent
Last modified: 2014-10-09 18:26:35 UTC
As demonstrated on the linked page http://dolphy.pangea.at/~ralph/oomenus.html there is an inconsistency in the menus on the toolbar: The font menu stops at 8 entries, while the styles menu does not. I think that the font menu should be a normal, real menu and not a box with scrollbar, as this UI is quite awkward for something not "fixed" on the screen (like a Dialog box) and it makes selecting from a large range of fonts particularily hard (on today's screens all fonts would fit on the screen for "normal" users having installed maybe 30 different families. If there has to be some limitation, the default of 8 is not a good one IMHO, as even the smallest screen OO is usable on have more space. Same applies to font size dropdown. /ralph -- who hopes he does not come across unfriedly when reporting UI bugs. I don't say I am 100% right, but I do think these things should be looked at and maybe even tested in an usability lab. OOo still leaves much to be desired usability-wise.
Ralph, thanks for your suggestion.
Reassigned to Betina.
Hi Matthias, this is an usability issue. Please take this one to your ownership and do some comment about. Thank you.
thanks for taking over.
I agree with Ralph. Inflexible font dropdown is really annoying, particularly if you have many fonts. Here is my suggestion: http://www.medialounge.com/UI-1.jpg When first opening the menu 8 names could be visible. Depending the needs of user the dropdown could be augmented at will.
ralphie, graaf -> Can you check the development versions like 1.9.79 or later to see if the usability is any better for you? When I check it now, the font menu has 12 items in it, and the drop down stays down, so it is easy enough to scroll through the remaining items as if it were in a regular scroll-barred window. Please comment on the current state. If no new information is added by March 8, 2005, I recommend this issue be closed. It can of course be reopened afterwards if more info comes through.
OpenOffice.org Issue Tracker - Feedback Request. The Issue you raised is currently 'Unconfirmed' pending review, but has not been updated within the last 3 years. Please consider re-testing with one of the latest versions of OOo, as the problem(s) may have already been addressed. Either use the recent stable version: http://download.openoffice.org/index.html or consider trying the new OOo 3 BETA (still in testing): http://download.openoffice.org/3.0beta/ Please report back the outcome so this Issue may be Closed or Progressed as necessary - otherwise it may be Resolved as Invalid in the future. You may also wish to search for (and note) any duplicates of this Issue that may have advanced further by checking the Issue Tracker: http://www.openoffice.org/issues/query.cgi Many thanks, Andrew Cleaning-up and Closing old Issues as part of: ~ The Grand Bug Squash, pre v3 ~ http://marketing.openoffice.org/3.0/announcementbeta.html
To grep the issues easier via "requirements" I put the issues currently lying on my owner to the owner "requirements".
I was not able to replicate this on my machine however, I don't believe this is a defect but the way it was designed. I agree the limited number of fonts may be frustrating to some users, but not all users will want to see unlimited font styles. I would suggest a change request asking for the new features. Do some homework prior to meeting about this change. This report can be closed. Thank you.
Created attachment 84049 [details] Open Office example What Font & Styles look like in Open Office 4.0.1
Created attachment 84050 [details] Microsoft Word 2010 Fonts and Styles menu from Word 2010
I added attachments of Open Office 4.0.1 as well as Microsoft Word 2010. I don't have access to a Linux, but since this issue was reported so long ago it (Linux) may have updated to a more recent version than Ralph reported originally. If anyone has access to a Linux, please try.