Apache OpenOffice (AOO) Bugzilla – Issue 60868
During object moving, show acceptability of target location
Last modified: 2013-02-07 22:33:42 UTC
When an object (image/frame etc) is dragged-n-dropped, some target locations are not accepted by Writer. In such cases, the user is not provided with any clues before he drops the object: He wil come to know only when he drops it and the object does not remain there. The situation is far worse when he drags the object across several pages: In such cases, often the object simply vanishes from the current page. It either goes back to its original page, or even lands on a third page that has no relation with the source or target pages. The poor user has to go hunting for the object all over again. To avoid such possibilities, provide an advance indication that the object will land here. Sample methods (there could be several other ways to do this): * In the DOTTED rectangle that is being dragged around, the outline becomes a SOLID line. * A green tick appears over the dotted rectangle if the target area is acceptable to Writer; otherwise it is a red cross. * The target area (especially when it is table/frame) gets highlighted (but probably this indication won't work if the target is a page--It has no boundary to highlight!) Similar visual indications are used when ends of a connector snaps to objects in PowerPoint.
Again, this is not about Drag&Drop, this is about MOVING objects. Currently, the move-process in OO does not support any evaluation of the validaty of a target location; only the Drag&Drop process does.
I have realized that I have not really understood the finer difference: I though D&D was the mechanism through images were moved (or copied if one pressed CTRL); and so they were one and the same! Could you clarify the difference? Thanks in advance!